Dr. Awesome

Dr. Davis

THIS guy...is the best doctor my children have ever seen. This doctor is pretty close to the best doctor I've ever met.

When we moved to CA and had access to the UCLA health system, I was stoked! There's no better care anywhere in the world! (So I thought) We'll have access to the best doctors! Clay's tummy troubles will be cured!

I was less than thrilled with the care and attention we got anywhere in the Los Angeles area (Including UCLA). The wait to see any kind of specialist was 3 months, the doctors were so busy and rushed, you had to physically block the door with your body to get them to stay and answer your questions.
No one had any answers or explanations and just treated symptoms that I didn't fully understand.

After Los Angeles being a huge FAILURE. I was scared to move to the panhandle of Florida. If we got sub-par care in CA, it'll just be worse down here.
Boy was I WRONG.
Clay's being seen at the Nemours Children's Clinic at Sacred Heart in Pensacola. And this guy was an answered prayer.

He took an HOUR and listened to Clay's whole story. He drew pictures, and showed me things, and diagrams and explained things in detail.
Vivian was having some issues and saw this doctor too, and he was JUST AS GREAT with her. He listened to me AGAIN for almost 45 minutes. Talked to me until I was done. I can call their office and they'll be OPEN when I call! And if I have any questions, I can talk to HIM! THE DOCTOR!

To keep the long story and the ALL CAPS to a minimum, here's what this guy did for Clay

He turned this:

Into this:

And explained to me WHY we could.

Nice Deck!

Cory's parents drove out here mid February to help us build a deck. Well, for his dad to build the deck I guess. Cory had to work all week, and my FIL woke up, ate a doughnut, drank a cup of coffee and then I didn't see him until dinner time again everyday. He put in about 60-70 hours...and built a masterpiece! The red deck was what was here when we moved here. Everything that's natural color was built by Cory and my FIL.
We had a BBQ with our TPS friends that are here in FL last weekend to break it in. Everyone loved it!
Not to metion, having a handy FIL cut the price of building this thing in half!

This is the view from our back door.

Down the stairs...

A bench seat!

Patio furniture that the previous owners left here! Sweet, we'll take it!

Down into the yard. Don't worry, we placed the rake there on purpose for our own amusement.

While we're at it, here's my garden. I actually have 3 sprouts of spinach (I think)!

PS. I love this backyard.

Big, Fat, Idiots.

I finally remembered to look these darn things up. They're carpenter bees and they're all over our back yard. Luckily, they can't sting and after reading about them and then spending the afternoon watching them, I've decided they are kind of entertaining.
They're super clumsy and fly into things all the time.
They come down and hover at eye level to 'check you out'. They are seriously looking at you to make sure you're not a mate.
They will chase a rock, bird or any other thing that flies past them. Throw a rock, and they'll chase it. For Real!

Best part: Clay yells, "Stop looking at me, Bee!"

Gardening

Since we've moved into the house, I've had grandiose ideas about how domestic I'm going to become. But little did I know that just because we bought a house, doesn't mean that I would automatically know how to decorate, clean, do laundry, iron, cook meals and grow my own garden.
I really did want to try my hand at a garden though. I knew the boys would really love it, and it would give me a good reason to get everyone outside to enjoy the nice weather.

We all packed up and went to Lowes today for the supplies. I don't know WHAT IT IS about that store, but my children just LOSE IT. They can be in there for 5 minutes and then they can't keep their body parts to themselves, someone gets hurt and there's an all out brother-to-brother brawl on the floor and I have to drag them both out kicking and screaming while Cory finishes buying what he needs.
While the kids were all napping, Cory built the box, we filled in with soil and I planned out the garden.

**Enter Children waking up from nap**

They were both so eager to help that they began ripping open the seed packages and pouring them everywhere. In the garden. not in the garden, wherever their free little spirits took them, I guess.
In haste, I just poured a bunch of seeds in some holes and am hoping for the best....

You can see how our garden is laid out in the following illustration (click to enlarge):

I really hope my basil turns out...

The Many Faces of Vivian - 7 Months

Dear Vivian,

Today you're 7 months old! I have to say that with every month, your little life goes faster. You are getting so long that you don't fit into my lap while you nurse (your little legs dangle off the chair) and you are finally putting on weight again!

Speaking of growing, we figured out why you WEREN'T growing this month.
After several days of crying and episodes of what I could only imagine was pain, we took you into the doctor. When they read your belly Xray it all made sense! You were so constipated! I won't go into too much detail, but there was a reason you hadn't had a normal poop, or gained weight in 4 months.

.

After about a week and a half of suppositories, laxatives and poop being the bane of my existence, you FINALLY had the biggest blowout of not only YOUR life, but of ANY BABY'S life.
Since then, as long as we keep you on laxatives you eat and poop like a champ.

During the whole 'mess' (ha-see what I did there? Poop and mess? Get it?)
we introduced solid foods in order to get the laxatives down. You REFUSE WITH YOUR WHOLE BEING to take a bottle, so we couldn't put the medicine in there. We started mixing it with breast milk mixed baby food and you gobbled it up. You're now eating 12-14 oz of baby food a day and I can't feed it to you fast enough.

You like the little puffs and baby mum mums as well. Although, you haven't quite mastered the puffs yet. You can pick them up in your hand, but then can't open your hand to get them into your mouth. So, you settle with grabbing them, and then sucking your thumb. Like, "Maybe if I suck my thumb hard enough, I can suck the puff out of my fist!"
You are a much, MUCH happier baby since we've figured out your pooping problem. Thank you. I appreciate your new outlook on life!

You are starting to sit up and can do it for about 10 seconds without assistance. Your biggest obstacle is that you can't stop kicking your legs long enough to stay balanced.

Nana and Pop came and visited you this month and you warmed up to Nana right away. She even says that you took a bottle from her (the last day they were here) although, you've yet to confess. You started out the week, screaming your eyes out when Pop would look at you and don't DARE let that man hold you! But by the end of the week, you let him hold you for a minute or two. Progress!

You're doing wonderful, and are still just lovely. Your hair is FINALLY starting to come in as soft blonde fuzz. I can't wait to see what you look like with a whole head of it! (But don't take that as a hint to grow any faster)

I love you,

Mama

Channeling Grandma

About 3 years ago, we bought a lovely dining set. We knew it was time to replace our dining set when we had to preface dinner with a speech about how to distribute your weight evenly or you will fall through the hole. And trying to sneakily grab the faultiest chair so any male dinner guests wouldn't smash it to bits, without seeming rude was getting a bit ridiculous.
Of course, this would all come to a head while we were in Korea AND I was 7 months pregnant. But nonetheless, we found a great set at the Yongsan BX and were super-duper excited about it.

Dark wood, cream colored cushions.....
Oh what's that? Cream colored cushions? With toddlers? Oh, no. I can just put a towel over them and they'll be FINE!
Turns out, toddlers can ruin cream colored cushions in .003 seconds.


After dirty feet/shoe stains, RED birthday cake stains and crumbs that were smushed into the chemical makeup of said cushions, what's a desperate mother to do?

I could either look at the disgusting stains every time we eat at the table (2 times a day) or suck it up, and reupholster them and then cover them with...vinyl.
ewwww, I know, my hair stands up on my arms thinking about it too.....



So here I present to you, my latest and greatest:

Happy Valentine's Day!

...from the cutest baby you know.