I have an overabundance of things that I'm thankful for; on top of that list is my family. Thanks guys.
STEWART FAMILY FUN: true-ish tales inspired by real life
Thursday, December 8, 2011
So many pictures, not so many words
We spent Thanksgiving week, plus some, in Virginia and the outer banks of North Carolina with all of the Wilcoxes. The top two reasons why it was amazing include that we got to spend time with Josh, Jess, and Ellie, and that this trip has served as a marker for the end of my mom's cancer treatment as we've gone through the past year.
I have an overabundance of things that I'm thankful for; on top of that list is my family. Thanks guys.
I have an overabundance of things that I'm thankful for; on top of that list is my family. Thanks guys.
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Angry sushi
Our recent trip to California over Halloween marked a new stage for us: We have a toddler. A toddler. I tried to write off her extreme moodiness as teething, but as soon as I had strangers staring at me and my flailing child in the middle of a family dining establishment, I realized it was all over. Of course, Nic and I are plotting to drag Norah to various vacation destinations throughout her life and force her to enjoy herself. So maybe I'm just upset because she caught on to us so quickly.
Case in point: the beach. Don't let the forced smiles fool you. She would not be convinced that this was anything but torment.
Once we gave up on trying to get her to have fun, Nic starting pushing her buttons solely for our amusement.
She also did not appreciate her homemade Halloween costume. It could be because I keep dressing her up as types of food. Last year she was a lobster; this year she was sushi with a side of ginger and wasabi. I can't help it if I think she's delicious!
Again, we did our best to compel her to have fun, but mostly she just did this:
Norah's adorable crayon (Alice) and paper (Russell) friends got their trick-or-treat on and were a huge hit at the kindergarten Halloween parade.
Want to know what Norah didn't get to scream during? So You Think You Can Dance tour! We left the kiddos at home and got to do some screaming of our own. You guys, this is the third time we've been and it's totally the highlight of my year.
If I had to pick a favorite from this season it would be this:
Nic didn't complain about going with us because she was there:
Monday, November 7, 2011
Heartbreaker
A few weeks ago Nic and I were watching Modern Family. It was the episode where Phil takes his daughter Hailey to some activity at the college she'll be attending in the fall. If you've seen the show you know that Phil makes some lovingly dopey mistakes that embarrass Hailey and cause a fight. They made up after Phil explained to Hailey that her going to college was going to be really hard on him; he said that it seemed like it was just yesterday when he pinched her chubby little thigh trying to get her in the car seat to take her home from the hospital.
You guys. It was just yesterday when Nic was loading our squirmy, perfect, 8-pound 10-ounce baby girl into her car seat to take her home.
Nic looked over to catch me crying as we finished watching the show. Now don't judge him because he really is the nicest guy I know, but when he saw what was going down he immediately asked me, "What is wrong with you?"
You know what was wrong with me? Norah is going to be going to college, like, tomorrow. She's almost a year and a half and already for heaven's sake! Now, you all will have to remind me of this conversation when she's a teenager, but at that moment I could not stand the fact that she's going to leave us someday. It makes my heart ache in this glorious, what-would-I-ever-do-without-you, how-did-we-get-so-lucky-to-have-you sort of way.
. . .
Wednesday night I could hear her frantic in her crib. Thinking she had just lost her binkie, I opened the door to her room and hit a wall of stench. You know the smell. That warm, sticky, sour aroma of a baby who has just thrown up a day's worth of food. The. Worst. That led to her getting into our bed, dad moving to the loveseat, and a night full of pajama and sheet changes.
But it didn't stop. She couldn't keep anything down. We went to the doctor. The Zofran they gave us wasn't helping the nausea. She was dehydrated. We ended up at Timpanogos hospital to get her IV fluids.
I always make Nic come to Norah's doctor appointments so he is the one who holds her down for her shots. While we were at the hospital on Friday, he had to hold her down as nurse after nurse tried to get an IV in one of her tiny little veins that kept collapsing. It took 9 tries. Every time a needle went into a vein, it would blow out so the nurses couldn't start the IV. Finally, they got an IV started in her foot; Nic wanted to hug that nurse.
Norah was beside herself. She was sick, exhausted, dehydrated, and scared. Talk about heartbreaking.
We got a bag of fluid in my baby and they wanted to test her blood to make sure her whatever levels were back to normal. They stuck her heel but couldn't get enough blood. They poked another vein and still couldn't get enough blood to run the test. They wanted to give her a break and try again.
I understand that we had to get an IV started for the fluids and that we had to keep trying even after vein after vein collapsed. But the thought of sticking her with another needle to get some blood for a test was just too much. I told Nic that she was done. We told the nurse and she talked to the doctor. The doctor respected my motherly intuition and discharged us without another poke. Exhausted, we took little Norah home so she could sleep in her own crib without someone waking her up every hour.
This was the first time as parents that we've had to deal with a truly sick baby. It nearly broke my heart.
. . .
No one ever warned me about this--but apparently I'm in for a life full of heartbreak. That girl can make my heart ache by being such an awesome weirdo; and then she can break it because something isn't right in her tummy. That range of emotion is like nothing I've ever been a part of, and in the end it's kind of magical. Am I right?
Thankfully, Norah is back to her usual, adorable self. I never got sick (knock on wood), but Nic wasn't so lucky. I think it may have been karma getting back at him on my behalf. Because do you want to know what genius thing he said when I was falling apart over Modern Family? He reminded me that I'm also going to be 30 soon.
You guys. It was just yesterday when Nic was loading our squirmy, perfect, 8-pound 10-ounce baby girl into her car seat to take her home.
Nic looked over to catch me crying as we finished watching the show. Now don't judge him because he really is the nicest guy I know, but when he saw what was going down he immediately asked me, "What is wrong with you?"
You know what was wrong with me? Norah is going to be going to college, like, tomorrow. She's almost a year and a half and already for heaven's sake! Now, you all will have to remind me of this conversation when she's a teenager, but at that moment I could not stand the fact that she's going to leave us someday. It makes my heart ache in this glorious, what-would-I-ever-do-without-you, how-did-we-get-so-lucky-to-have-you sort of way.
. . .
Wednesday night I could hear her frantic in her crib. Thinking she had just lost her binkie, I opened the door to her room and hit a wall of stench. You know the smell. That warm, sticky, sour aroma of a baby who has just thrown up a day's worth of food. The. Worst. That led to her getting into our bed, dad moving to the loveseat, and a night full of pajama and sheet changes.
But it didn't stop. She couldn't keep anything down. We went to the doctor. The Zofran they gave us wasn't helping the nausea. She was dehydrated. We ended up at Timpanogos hospital to get her IV fluids.
I always make Nic come to Norah's doctor appointments so he is the one who holds her down for her shots. While we were at the hospital on Friday, he had to hold her down as nurse after nurse tried to get an IV in one of her tiny little veins that kept collapsing. It took 9 tries. Every time a needle went into a vein, it would blow out so the nurses couldn't start the IV. Finally, they got an IV started in her foot; Nic wanted to hug that nurse.
Norah was beside herself. She was sick, exhausted, dehydrated, and scared. Talk about heartbreaking.
We got a bag of fluid in my baby and they wanted to test her blood to make sure her whatever levels were back to normal. They stuck her heel but couldn't get enough blood. They poked another vein and still couldn't get enough blood to run the test. They wanted to give her a break and try again.
I understand that we had to get an IV started for the fluids and that we had to keep trying even after vein after vein collapsed. But the thought of sticking her with another needle to get some blood for a test was just too much. I told Nic that she was done. We told the nurse and she talked to the doctor. The doctor respected my motherly intuition and discharged us without another poke. Exhausted, we took little Norah home so she could sleep in her own crib without someone waking her up every hour.
This was the first time as parents that we've had to deal with a truly sick baby. It nearly broke my heart.
. . .
No one ever warned me about this--but apparently I'm in for a life full of heartbreak. That girl can make my heart ache by being such an awesome weirdo; and then she can break it because something isn't right in her tummy. That range of emotion is like nothing I've ever been a part of, and in the end it's kind of magical. Am I right?
Thankfully, Norah is back to her usual, adorable self. I never got sick (knock on wood), but Nic wasn't so lucky. I think it may have been karma getting back at him on my behalf. Because do you want to know what genius thing he said when I was falling apart over Modern Family? He reminded me that I'm also going to be 30 soon.
Thursday, October 27, 2011
It's been a while
Get ready for a lot of catch-up because I've been slacking in the blog department. And now summer is over. How is that even possible?
I can't tell you why I haven't been around here very often. Not because it's some secret, just because I'm not sure. We'll blame it on having a one year old.
So here is an photo-illustrated guide to the past few months:
It's obvious that we've been super busy. Not just anyone is going to feed the dogs ALL of their food. I'm looking at you, Norah.
And those books aren't going to read themselves.
Nic is determined to turn Norah into a fish. So far he is succeeding. She loved swimming at the lake.
She also loves strutting around mostly nakey--another trait she picked up from her father.
Aww. Look at us having so much fun.
If you have a small child and haven't hit up any garage sales, I'm telling you, you are missing out. Got this bike for Norah for $5. Five dollars, people! This is a major benefit of living where people have so many kids...eventually they're not gonna need their kid stuff anymore and then I'm there to buy all their books for a quarter. Don't judge me; it's a special sort of thrill.
And BTW: Norah is a fabulous weirdo. She always trying to look at me in a strange different way.
Also, Nic and I celebrated our sixth anniversary in September. We took the weekend to ourselves in Park City and Norah had her first sleepover with Grandma Wendy. Totally weird to be sans baby. Totally awesome to eat sushi, go to a movie, and sleep until 9:30. I only got one picture. We're riding the tram at Park City resort to go down the zip line.
Other adventures included a Jeep outing. We stayed close to home and discovered that Norah is still an awesome Jeeping baby.
Her dad's hobbies are very exhausting though.
We took Norah to Thanksgiving Point and I managed to get some pictures of her looking like she's enjoying herself. The reality was that most of our time was spent carrying her around trying to convince her that we were having fun.
Notice how Nic is on crutches? That's because he had surgery to repair a torn ligament and remove two bone spurs from his ankle in the middle of September. I agree with him in saying it was the worst surgery ever! He's still hobbling around and I may or may not still be a little bitter about being the only person in our home who can be trusted to climb stairs.
He did have a hard cast for a few weeks; it came off when he was alone at the shop after work at 4 a.m. and got water on it in the shower. I say it came off, but what I mean is he removed it himself with who knows what kind of tool was lying around. He's also been working a lot and can't be held totally responsible for his actions.
Remember how Norah is a fantastic weirdo? She totally is. And I can't get enough of it.
Kudos to you if you're not my mom and you managed to make it this far. I can't promise this won't happen again, but I can promise that Norah has an excellent Halloween costume, which will definitely be worthy of an update.
I can't tell you why I haven't been around here very often. Not because it's some secret, just because I'm not sure. We'll blame it on having a one year old.
So here is an photo-illustrated guide to the past few months:
It's obvious that we've been super busy. Not just anyone is going to feed the dogs ALL of their food. I'm looking at you, Norah.
And those books aren't going to read themselves.
Nic is determined to turn Norah into a fish. So far he is succeeding. She loved swimming at the lake.
She also loves strutting around mostly nakey--another trait she picked up from her father.
Aww. Look at us having so much fun.
If you have a small child and haven't hit up any garage sales, I'm telling you, you are missing out. Got this bike for Norah for $5. Five dollars, people! This is a major benefit of living where people have so many kids...eventually they're not gonna need their kid stuff anymore and then I'm there to buy all their books for a quarter. Don't judge me; it's a special sort of thrill.
And BTW: Norah is a fabulous weirdo. She always trying to look at me in a strange different way.
Also, Nic and I celebrated our sixth anniversary in September. We took the weekend to ourselves in Park City and Norah had her first sleepover with Grandma Wendy. Totally weird to be sans baby. Totally awesome to eat sushi, go to a movie, and sleep until 9:30. I only got one picture. We're riding the tram at Park City resort to go down the zip line.
Other adventures included a Jeep outing. We stayed close to home and discovered that Norah is still an awesome Jeeping baby.
Her dad's hobbies are very exhausting though.
We took Norah to Thanksgiving Point and I managed to get some pictures of her looking like she's enjoying herself. The reality was that most of our time was spent carrying her around trying to convince her that we were having fun.
Notice how Nic is on crutches? That's because he had surgery to repair a torn ligament and remove two bone spurs from his ankle in the middle of September. I agree with him in saying it was the worst surgery ever! He's still hobbling around and I may or may not still be a little bitter about being the only person in our home who can be trusted to climb stairs.
He did have a hard cast for a few weeks; it came off when he was alone at the shop after work at 4 a.m. and got water on it in the shower. I say it came off, but what I mean is he removed it himself with who knows what kind of tool was lying around. He's also been working a lot and can't be held totally responsible for his actions.
Remember how Norah is a fantastic weirdo? She totally is. And I can't get enough of it.
Kudos to you if you're not my mom and you managed to make it this far. I can't promise this won't happen again, but I can promise that Norah has an excellent Halloween costume, which will definitely be worthy of an update.
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
An end
I wish I could call this post "the end," and top if off with a "screw you cancer" just for kicks. But unfortunately I'm learning that cancer doesn't really end. It's like some sort of clever metaphor that I can't come up with right now because I'm too mad at cancer.
But you know what, cancer? My mom made it through 12 rounds of chemotherapy, so you can suck it.
I could never begin to describe what this year has been like for my mom--I'm sure I don't know the half of it myself. But what I can say is how proud I am of her and how thankful I am for the doctors, nurses, family, and friends who have made cancer treatable and this time bearable.
At the treatment center, each patient rings a bell when his or her treatment is complete. Norah and I got to help my mom ring it on Wednesday. It was a good day.
Get well soon, Mom. We love you.
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Can you say adorable?
Norah can't. But she can say:
Dog
Bye bye
J.J. (Alexi's dog)
Sup (her dog)
Uh-oh
Ball
Night night
Mom, mom, mom
Dog
Bye bye
J.J. (Alexi's dog)
Sup (her dog)
Uh-oh
Ball
Night night
Mom, mom, mom
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