Empathy.

When I was pregnant with Sophia I kind of kept the fact that I was giving myself a shot everyday a secret from Connor. I didn't want him to freak out about the fact that this was going on or be worried about me.

This time around I have not been nearly as discreet. I figure between the constant puking, the falling asleep while sitting upright in a chair, and the refusal to eat just about anything, he has figured out that a lot of rough stuff is happening with me. As such Connor is fully aware of the twice a day shot routine.

Thus far his sympathy has been purely with the baby.

Connor: "Mom, that must really hurt the baby when you give them a shot."
Me: "Nope, the baby doesn't feel anything, it only hurts me."
Connor: "I'll bet the baby does feel it. I hate shots."
Me: "The baby doesn't feel a thing."

A couple of nights ago I finally received a little bit of empathy for my shots. Connor was taking a bath and he heard me heave a giant sigh after giving myself a shot in the other room.

Connor: "Mom, are you okay? What is bothering you?"
Me: "Nothing, I just got done giving myself my shot and I don't really like it."
Connor: "Oh Mom, I am so sorry that you have to give yourself a shot every day."
Me: "Thanks buddy. That actually makes me feel a lot better."

How did he get so sensitive and caring all of the sudden?

What a difference a year makes.

By this time last year Connor already hated school. He would wake up with stomach aches, sore throats, and any manner of ailments. If we let him stay home because he was "sick" we tried to make him as miserable as possible.

What a difference a year makes.

Last night Connor was up coughing half the night, and wasn't much better this morning. After very little deliberation Ben and I decided to keep him home for the day. We let Connor know that we were keeping him home and there was much...crying? Huge sad tears. He begged and pleaded with us to send him to school because he didn't want to miss anything.

Another small victory!

Halloween and Monsters and Knights. Oh My.

Connor's birthday is on October 27th. Those of you who are pretty good at math will notice that this is pretty close to Halloween. As such, I like to get a jump start on Halloween and get our costume ideas settled.

Sophia is going to be a very adorable little monster. We felt like it was the most true to life costume for her at this point.

Connor has decided to be a knight. Which isn't all that true to life for him, but I thought it would be a good idea as opposed to a mummy or skeleton which were his other two suggestions.

Now on to Birthday planning. Ideas for that so far include an upside down party, a road trip party, and a map party.

A rare moment of forethought and inevitable snarkiness.

In a rare moment of forethought I was browsing through the Catholic supply catalog to find an advent wreath for our family. Although I didn't really find any that I liked for the family I did stumble across these for the kids.

Cute Right?

You had to buy four of them, but they were $2.99 each so I went for it. I figure I'll have one for each of the kiddos and then I gave the fourth one to a friend for her daughter. 

Since I found something kind of neat that I wasn't intending to buy, I decided to continue my perusal of the catalog to see what other treasures I may be missing. Then I stumbled upon this gem. 

Now, according to Autom Catholic Supply catalog, the purpose of this Adoring Santa Ornament (yep, that's its name) is to help people remember the true meaning of Christmas. It seems to me like the true purpose of this ornament is to confuse the snot out of kids. I can see the conversations now. 

"Wait Mom, so Santa was there when Jesus was born?" 

"No, he is just adoring baby Jesus." 

"Because he was there, right?" 

"No, not right."

Ah the joys of Christmas. Don't worry - at $0.99 an ornament, several of you will be getting one of these for Christmas...or maybe the Adoring Santa stickers...decisions, decisions.  

Only 392 more times...but who is counting.

I have this thing called Factor V Leiden - it sounds like some sort of mutant power, but it really is just some lame genetic disorder. The doctors think that this lame genetic disorder is what has caused me to have trouble with miscarriages and so their solution has always been for me to give myself shots when I'm pregnant.

When I was pregnant with Sophia I took a shot everyday called Lovenox. This drug is super duper expensive, but I was fortunate enough with Sophia to have a $45 maximum co-pay for a good chunk of my pregnancy. This time around, I have a high deductible health plan where I pay for the drugs and then get reimbursed a few weeks later and that up front cost is $930. Lovenox is this really well packaged individually wrapped package. 

Doesn't that look easy? Well...easy as far as shots go. 

The $930 was really bothering me though, so in a rare moment of bravery I went to my doctor and told him that I didn't want to pay this much for shots and were they really necessary and did I have to do it? In my mind my doctor was going to say "what those shots are expensive? Let's just not even do the shots. You'll be fine without the shots, don't worry about it." Instead he said "Yeah, that's fine. We'll just do Heparin. It is way cheaper and it is just a two a day shot instead of a one a day shot. Oh yeah, you also have to fill the syringe with the heparin, but you can totally do it."

Before I had one needle and that was it - well a needle and an alcohol swab. Now I have a needle, a bottle of heparin, an alcohol swab, and a laundry detergent bottle to put all the needles in. This seems complicated. 

I've done this four times now and I only have 392 more times to go. Give or take a week. Like Rosie the Riveter I can do it. It doesn't mean that I have to like it. 

All he needed was a reminder.

We invested in a new toy storage system for Connor and then had a massive room cleaning. After we were all done, I explained to Connor that his room wouldn't be so messy or hard to pick up if he would remember to put his old toys away before he got out any new toys.

Connor acted like this was a completely new concept. He made it seem like had I only suggested this idea before we could have avoided the whole messy room disaster that has been plaguing us for the past two years. Right.

Connor's brilliant idea to avoid this confusion in the future? I just needed to make him a sign so he could remember what to do. Now we won't have any more messy room problems again ever. Or...as Connor would say No Worries Mom.

 Our new storage system.

Connor's solve every problem ever reminder sign.

Is this forgiveness?

For those of you who haven't heard the story before....It turns out that Ben and I have this son, Connor, and he can kind of be a handful. There have been tears, therapists, prayers, sleepless nights, and lots of ice cream consumption as a result of this kid.

Sometime within the first thirty minutes we met her, Connor's therapist suggested that we consider taking the Wii away from Connor. She said fancy phrases like "over stimulation" and "not good for him." Ben and I heard these phrases and decided we would limit his Wii time to a half an hour on Saturday and Sunday, which almost always turned into an hour.

Around a month ago Ben and I had this amazingly awesome idea. What if the Wii was overstimulating Connor and wasn't really very good for him? Ben decided to put all of our Wii games into storage never to be seen again...or at least not for the foreseeable future.

This amazing transformation has taken place. There has been less crying, therapists sessions where I say "I've got not complaints," prayers of thanksgiving, and about the same amount of ice cream consumption (what can I say, I like ice cream). It isn't that Connor is this perfect, never get into trouble kid, these days, it is just that he has gone from screaming matches that would put a teenager to shame to just five year old kid kind of stuff.

Almost every major tantrum we have had since taking away the Wii has been about...taking away the Wii. We assure him that he didn't loose it because he is a bad kid, he asks when he is getting it back, we tell him somewhere around the time he is twenty-five, he says that we are unreasonable. Even these arguments are kid stuff compared to what Connor is capable of.

Amazing transformation aside, I've worried that Connor may be harboring some deep seated resentment about the loss of his beloved Wii. Then he brought this home from school. There was a little bit of crying...but the happy kind.

Fall for a day.

Sunday was the most beautiful day we have seen in months. The high was 66 degrees. This means that I was very happy in a hooded sweatshirt, Ben was still a little warm, Sophia was happy to be running around with the wind in her face, and Connor was nearly freezing to death.

For about half an hour I felt perfectly well. I wasn't on the verge of being sick, sitting in the bathroom, or sleeping on the couch. It was wonderful.

I was also able to snag some pretty good pictures of the kidlets.