Memorial Day...

Growing up I remember Memorial Day as a marker to mean the start of summer!  And I should also put in the disclaimer that the start of summer is an exciting time when you live in the midwest (for those that live in AZ you can equate the feeling to that of "the start of winter").

I keep trying to embrace the weather in Tucson, however the truth is it's ingrained in me to love the 4 seasons that I grew up with best.  Ryan and I were discussing how it's hard to just flip a switch and all of a sudden be okay with the fact that summer means eating indoors, spending less time outside, and rarely anytime at parks simply because playground equipment is way too hot!  Especially when I hear friends in the midwest and on the eastcoast share what their days are like.  I just plain miss it.  (I'm not saying I miss the winters...I think I do...but that might just be nostalgia taking things a bit too far...

Anyway, I have memories of going to Lake Michigan on Memorial Day and it being unseasonably warm (probably in the 80s) and wonderful...and totally overcrowded with people eager to kick off summer!

So, what better way to spend Memorial Day in the desert than to find a lake and spend the day at it? 

My friend Joyce and I piled the kids into her minivan and took off for a day at Patagonia Lake. It was definitely hot, but not overcrowded...and served my trip down memory lane quite well...and filled me with lots of new and fun memories.

Ryan David Green...woot woot!

So far Ryan has had 2 solo shows.  Fantastic, smashing hit solo shows I tell you.  Here is a recent write-up from one...and some videos to go along!

chickens and goats, oh my!

On Friday Ezra and I joined Jessica and Eleanor at the Civano Nursery to play at the playground, and feed the goats! 

Who knew there was a little petting farm at the nursery?  It's awesome!  Ezra was super into giving the goats carrots...

The chickens were just for looking at...

And here are the two cuties eating a post-swim snack with their hair wind blown...

Seriously, let's form a commune!!

Last Thursday I was babysitting for a friend's daughter when another friend texted to invite Ezra and I to the indoor playground at the mall.  I said we couldn't go, and so she instead came over with her 2 kids...and another friend then came over with her son.  By 9am, it was a total party at our house.  I LOVED it! 

I kept thinking, "if we lived on a commune...life could be like this every day!"

My friend Samantha was able to leave to run an errand while her son stayed to play.

Then Jen made a quick run to Target.

The Infectious Disease Specialist called while everyone was over to schedule my appointment for that afternoon, so Jen graciously offered to put her kids down for a nap at our house so she could babysit Ezra while I went to my appointment. 

It was just like I imagine commune living to be.  Lots of companionship for the mamas, and the kiddos loving all the playmates around. 

Tribond

So, what do the last 3 posts (actually 5 posts) have in common??  If you said "Nocardia", you win!!

It turns out that I don't have a staph infection or MRSA.  Instead, I'm one of the annual 500-1,000 people in the United States that has Nocardia.  What is Nocardia you ask?  It's a bacterial infection that you get from soil.  It is most often found in people who have severely compromised immune systems due to HIV, chemotherapy, etc.  However, pregnancy (and flukey-ness) seemed to be what did it for me. 

The photos of my lovely garden?  Yup, that did the trick.  I don't regret planting my garden one bit though. In fact, even today I was telling Ryan how excited I am by how much things are growing! 

I met with a Infectious Disease Specialist last week and asked her approximately 1,000 questions.  In case you are wondering, here are some of the answers...

• It is NOT contagious
• Though our soil must have some contaminants in it, it is still safe to play in.  The fact that I got it is pretty flukey.  
• Anyone without a severely compromised immune system can play in our dirt
• While pregnant, I need to where long sleeves when gardening (but I can still garden)
• It is totally safe to eat all goods that come from our garden
• My form of Nocardia (skin infection) is very treatable...and the "best" type of Nocardia to have
• I will need to be on antibiotics for the next 4-6 months
• Baby is safe
• I can still deliver at the Birth Center
• I will most likely still be able to breast feed

Hmmmm...that's all I can think of for now...feel free to ask any questions you may have in the comments.

More than anything, I have learned that this is a pretty rare condition.  My primary care doctor has only ever had 1 patient before with it.  And, the midwives at the birth center have never had a patient with it.  

My "medical team" is great.  And, they are all super happy with how well my arm has been healing already.  They had planned on putting me on IV antibiotics, but since the antibiotics I was on for the (not) Staph Infection seem to be helping this, I can stay on them (which is the safest route for baby). 

At this point my wound is pretty much closed and I don't need to cover it up.  However, I find that it's a little sensitive to the open air...so I'm wearing a band-aid on it for my own comfort.

Unfortunately since starting the antibiotics I am getting headaches practically every day (not a common symptom, but as I've been told...anything is possible when on antibiotics) so I'm drinking coffee and taking tylenol on a daily basis to counteract them...the "medical team" said that this is the best thing to do since my only other option is switch to other antibiotics, which is not the favorable route to go at this point of pregnancy.   Having to be on antibiotics for such a long time feels a bit daunting right now.  Especially since the other side-effects are nausea and diarrhea.  My prayer is that I'm totally off of them by the time baby gets here (would love your prayers for that too!). 

summer garden

According to the "rules", I planted my garden approximately 6 weeks late.  I was hesitant to plant at all considering I didn't want to be disappointed with nothing growing due to the scorching heat.  However, at the last minute I thought to myself, "I loved gardening over the winter, Ezra loved picking the spinach leaves, digging up carrots, and playing in the dirt...we have to do this!"

So, on Mother's Day I sowed the seeds...and after just one week, our garden beds now look like this!!

Butternut Squash

Pie Pumpkins

Watermelon (these were actually not from seed, however I'm wishing I had just used seeds)

Closest in the photo is garlic, and then behind that is corn.

Green beans up close, and more corn in the back.

Back in action

I'm almost there.  At the rate my arm is healing, I'm thinking I should be staph-free by Monday!  Now that I'm on antibiotics that seem to be doing the trick, I feel like a new woman already.

My mom flew into town for a long weekend to take care of us.  I took a long afternoon nap everyday and felt like I didn't have to worry about a thing.  It was awesome.

Here are some random photos from the past week:

Ezra and Ryan having a morning jam session in their pj's...

Ezra and I took a field trip to our church (which is about a 1 minute walk from our house) to watch Paul record piano for Ryan's new solo album!

Ezra very proudly showing off his "band aid" from getting his blood drawn.

Having an indoor picnic at 4pm because I just couldn't bear the heat, yet we needed something exciting (this was before I switched antibiotics)...and yes, Ezra is still in his pj's at 4pm.

Life is starting to feel normal around here again...and it feels very very nice.

Good News!

Hello folks!

Great news...I don't have MRSA!!  I am so so soooo relieved!  And, the new antibiotics I'm on seem to be really working.  The wound on my arm is no longer growing in size, and my pain has significantly decreased. 

Thanks for all of your messages, well-wishes, and prayers!  I'd love continued prayer that the wound fully heals and the staph infection goes away quickly.

(I did consider posting a photo of my staph infection here for you guys to see, but I'm pretty sure I'd lose followers and it would also go against blogger's code of conduct of what is an appropriate photo to post :)

24 hours...

(Warning: You might find this post to be very boring...and there are no photos to skip ahead to :)

We have had a very full 24 hours.  Not the kind of full where we have taken so many photos that we hardly know what to do with them, but the kind of full where we are all just ready to sleep now for 24 hours straight. 

Yesterday morning I went to the Birth Center to have my blood drawn to make sure that everything looked normal despite the recent news of a staph infection.  (Good news there, all looks fine!!)

Then I brought Ezra to have a routine blood draw to have his lead level checked.  (This could have been a whole post in itself, but I think only fellow Child Life Specialists would find it to be of interest.)

Next stop was Ezra's pediatrician.  He has been acting normal and happy, but we wanted to be certain that he didn't have strep again given that we never completed the first round of antibiotics due to his outbreak of hives (and his recent fever). Turns out he has hand, foot, mouth disease.  It's sounds bad, but it's actually totally harmless...just quite contagious among the 4 and under crowd.  In fact the take-home sheet we received said that he could even go back to daycare that day (if he was in daycare) as long as no fever was present. For some reason though, I  don't feel 100% comfortable bringing him around other kids while I know he stills has this... 

All day yesterday I did everything I could to try to get rid of my staph infection.  Epsom salt compresses, baking soda/cider vinegar compresses, drawing salve, drinking apple cider vinegar/honey/warm water concoctions...in addition to the antibiotics, acidopholus, and echinacea. 

This morning Ezra woke up at 5:15am.  I am quite certain that he hasn't woken up that early since he was approximately 5 months old.  Ahhhhh! He wanted to eat.  So he ate.  And played. 

At 7:30am, Ryan took over so that I could get an hour nap in before he had to leave for work. 

I think Ezra knew I wasn't feeling well.  He was super sweet, played by himself for super long stretches of time, and in general quite mellow.  He had to go potty while I was on the phone with the birth center, so without even telling me he went on his own, and even dumped the potty's contents into the toilet and flushed it...and then proceeded to clean the potty with hydrogen peroxide. Good intentions.  Since I didn't see him cleaning the potty (just saw the open bottle -which was now practically empty- with wet kleenex all around the potty), I decided to be safe I should call poison control in case he also drank some.  Luckily, poison control said that it was fine.  BUT, while on the phone with poison control, Ezra used a crate as a stool to open the medicine cabinet and figured out how to open a child-safe bottle of kids motrin.  Ack!  I determined though that I don't think he drank any.  His breath didn't smell like grapes...and the bottle is the type with a small opening for a syringe to draw out the medicine.  Somehow I was able to see the humor in all of this.  It probably helped that he has been in such a good and loveable mood today.

My arm is no better today, despite all of my efforts yesterday.  I went to my primary care and though the results aren't in yet (another story that could be a post in and of itself), they highly suspect it's MRSA based on the way it looks and is progressing (regressing?).  (What started out the size of a pinhead is now the size of a quarter and not looking cute.)

Redeeming part of the day:  Ezra took a 4.5 hour nap!! ...and went to bed without a problem.  



 

Celebrating Mama-hood Today

In continuing with my desire to celebrate being a mama on Mother's Day, Ezra and I had a full day together. We woke up early (he insisted we not waste a minute of Mother's Day by sleeping in) and we made gluten free coffee cake to bring to brunch at GG's (Lori's) house.

 I was surprised to find this blog post from Ryan and Ezra...I think I've listened to it a gagillion times, and laugh harder every time. I love it!!

We went to church where Ezra played with his friends in the nursery.

Then we quickly stopped at home to pick up the coffee cake and head out for brunch. Which, is when we realized that Ezra felt quite warm. We took his temp, and sure enough he had a fever of 103.2. Eeeks! So sorry to all the kids in the nursery...we promise he was fine when we dropped him off!!

At this point we decided to cancel going to brunch.

All the while, my left arm had been really sore for the last couple of days, to the point where I was feeling like I needed to see a doctor.

So, rather than feasting at GG's house, we took a family trip to the Urgent Care.

Ezra slept in Ryan's arms during the wait, the doctor examining him, and my exam...which is a true sign of him being sick because otherwise the boy hardly holds still. Nothing conclusive about Ezra's fever. It's too soon to him stopping the antibiotics for strep for them to run a strep test with accurate results, and he doesn't have any flu-like symptoms, so we are just holding tight and hoping it was just a flukey thing.

As for my arm pain, turns out I have a staph infection. I'm on antibiotics and hopefully that will take care of it.

When we returned home we gave Ezra some motrin, and he laid in my arms for a while.

Ryan headed out to the studio for his first day of recording his new solo EP...YAY!!

I was in desperate need of a nap, which seemed like it was going to be quite easy to take with how groggy Ezra was.  But, sure enough just then the motrin must have kicked in and he was ready to go!  I tried pulling out the, "Let's lay in bed and watch a movie card", which was fun while it lasted, but it only lasted for approximately 12 minutes.  (Normally I would think of something lasting 12 minutes as a total success, but not when I was hoping for a nap to last several hours.) 
Here is my nap time attempt:

At first I thought I'd just try to sleep anyway and let him explore the house on this own.  But of course that didn't work out so well.  He kept turning on the radio on my alarm clock...and then making sure it was at it's highest volume, handing me books, asking questions, taking everything out of my nightstand, ...  so I decided to just embrace what was and get up.

He suggested we make bread, so we did.

He insists on tasting every ingredient as he dumps it in. I'm quite impressed by this actually. From raw eggs to cider vinegar, olive oil and corn starch he insists that they are all "yummy!". The only ingredient he has disliked is powdered ginger, which I can agree with when eaten on its own is quite "spicey".

We then played outside, watered the flowers (and the laundry that was hanging to dry), ate dinner, made cookies (Ezra loves the kitchen), took a bath and finally crashed for the night. Originally I had planned on taking him to the Pops In the Park Mother's Day Celebration because I think he'd be enamored with seeing the instruments on stage (he is especially into violins and cellos), but given our day I think we made the right choice by staying home.

Right now our kitchen looks like this (the picture actually makes it look better than what it looks like in person)...

I considered cleaning it, but then thought I'd take advantage of the cool evening weather and planted our garden instead. Corn, Green Beans, Butternut Squash, Pie Pumpkins, Garlic, and Watermelon are all in the ground...we'll see what actually comes up! :)

 Perhaps I'll clean the kitchen before bed...but then again I am feeling quite tired...

It was truly a day of embracing motherhood and all that comes with it...and I loved it!

Happy Mother's Day Momma!

Hi Momma I wrote a song for you for Mother's Day. I love you so much! -Ezra

Paci is still on vacation...

On our flight home from Disney World, a very tired someone kept throwing paci (short for pacifier) instead of taking a nap.  And, by "throwing paci", I don't just mean a little toss in the air...we are talking chucking it across the plane.  So, we said that if he threw paci again it was going to go in dada's pocket and he wouldn't get it back. When we said this we didn't mean that he would never ever get it back.  We just meant he wouldn't get it back for the rest of the flight.  But then we (Ryan and I) talked and realized that paci had to go at some point, and that moment was just as good as any. 

That night Ezra was so tired he fell asleep on the car ride home and the "paci issue" was nonexistent.  Then he came down with strep throat and I felt like a horrible mom that I wasn't giving him the comfort of paci, but truthfully in hindsight this totally helped get rid of paci because he was so tired he'd just fall asleep whenever and wherever (in the past paci was only used for bedtime).

By the time he was back to himself and asked for paci, we just said, "remember you were throwing him on the plane".  And then he filled in the blanks with, "Paci at Disney World?"  "With a-Mick-a-Mouse?"  And we just said "yup" and left it at that.  It was wayyy easier of a transition than I ever expected it to be.  Now whenever anyone asks him where paci is, he seems proud to tell them that paci is with Mickey Mouse. 

I wanted to get on video his pronunciation of "Mickey Mouse" because it was more like "A-Mick-A-Mouse" and made me smile every time I heard it.  But of course I waited too long (as in maybe 1 day too long?!) and he now says it like the rest of the world...but I thought I'd share the video anyway...

The Meaning In Me

Ezra has totally blossomed as a singer this past week.  He has been singing constantly.  Usually while playing an instrument, but also while in the backseat of the car, cooking, or spinning in circles. 

My favorite is his rendition of Ryan's song, "The Meaning In Me". 

Facts of Life

::I am 30 weeks, 1 day pregnant (7 months on Saturday). 

::I have hit the point in pregnancy where I can no longer sleep past 5am. (Though I am praying that this is not really a fact.)

 ::I have already gone to the bathroom 10 times since 5am today, and it's only 3:45pm right now.

::I can no longer be polite and let Ezra pee first when we both have to go, because quite frankly he has the better bladder control these days.

::I ran 5.8 miles this morning (and stopped once to go to the bathroom mid-route).

 ::I made salsa yesterday and regret the fact that I did not heed the recipe's caution and wear gloves while seeding the jalepeno peppers!

::I made ketchup today and accidentally put in an entire red chili pepper instead of half of one. Oops! The ketchup label now reads, "ketchup with kick".

::We recently purchased a Haan Mop from Woot and I am convinced it's the best mop in the world.

 ::I took Ezra to McDonald's today simply to play on the indoor playground and he had a blast! (If you live in Tucson, the McD's at Broadway/Camino Seco has a brand-new play area and it's super nice!) Don't worry, I bought a drink so that I wouldn't look like a total mooch just wanting to use the playground...

::Ryan is playing a solo show at Club Congress in Tucson this Saturday and you should definitely come!

::I should be waking Ezra up from his nap right now in order for him to be tired by 7ish tonight, but I am enjoying the calm of the house way too much to do so...

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

The other day when Ezra woke up from his nap (and I was still napping) he and Ryan did a little recording session. Enjoy!

sewing for babies...

We don't know if we are having a boy or girl. And truthfully we have no preference. However, just in case it's a girl I decided she needed to have some clothes (because of course she otherwise would have nothing to wear at all, poor baby girl). :) Ryan is not so sure that it's a good idea to be making girl clothes, but I have insisted that they will all make great baby shower gifts should we have a boy. This is the first dress I made. And, just to show Ryan I was serious about gift-giving...this one ended up being a baby shower gift for a friend who is due just a few weeks before me.

It's reversible...

And then since I had the pattern down to a science (it's a super easy pattern, from start to finish it took less than 2 hours to make), I made one more... :)

Brush and Bulky

Twice a year our garbage service has "brush and bulky" days where we can put out as much as we want (on other pick up days during the year, everything needs to be contained within your one bin). So this is the time of year when all the neighbors are out trimming their yard, even if it's 100 degrees outside. Ryan was (conveniently) out of town for the entire week leading up to brush and bulky pick-up. So that meant I was in charge of doing all the trimmings around here. I am pretty sure that neighbors who did not know that Ryan as out of town may have been thinking he was a schmuck (but he's not) for having his 6.5 month pregnant wife out there in the heat cutting down a tree by herself with a handsaw. Yes, that is right, I cut down a tree with a handsaw!! It may have taken me 3 different mornings of waking up early to do so, but I did it! And, of course I forgot to take a "before" picture, but based on all of the branches you'll see on our curb, you can get the idea that this was a pretty big undertaking (remember: 100 degrees + 6.5 months pregnant :). I'm not normally a fan of cutting down trees, but this tree was infested with those caterpillar worms that eat away at the tree. I cut it down to being about 3' high with hopes that it will grow back again someday.

This is just outside our "front" door (for whatever reason the front door is actually on the side of our house, so it feels weird to call it the front door)...there were a lot of dead vines that I trimmed back...again, no "before" shot.

And perhaps the best part about brush and bulky is that a skid steer drives down the street and picks everything up and dumps it into the back of the garbage truck. For those of you with little ones, you know that this is big time in the world of entertaining toddlers. And, even more exciting, we were doing FaceTime (a.k.a. skype / ichat) with Owen and Stephanie at the time, so Owen also got to watch via the computer being pointed out the window! :)

Baby

A couple of months ago we were at the park and there was a kid with a soccer ball, and another with a baby doll. Ezra, who loves playing with balls at any chance he can get, choose to play (actually nurse) the baby doll for the entire time we were at the park. Ding ding...such perfect timing for him to start having an interest in babies...yay! So, I decided it was time to get him a baby doll of his own to play with. It has been so fun to see how gentle he is with "baby". Baby gets her diaper changed, uses the potty, gets tucked into bed, and is greeted with, "Hi Baby" all the time. Baby and Ezra on their own potty chairs...

Baby getting tucked into bed for a nap...

This is totally random, but currently happening, so I feel like writing it... Ezra does this thing sometimes where after we put him to bed, he comes and lays next to the door. He is currently laying next to door saying, "Mama", "Hey Babe", "Abigail"... It's hilarious (and it gives me hope that one day I might truly go by "Abigail"!)

The Uke Man...

Ezra has been playing his uke non-stop for the past week or so. I absolutely love it. When he is sitting down and playing, he is quite the headbanger. And, if he's standing he stomps his foot enthusiastically (I think he may have gotten that from watching Cameron :).

Ez and El go to the zoo...

Ezra had been jammin' out on his uke when Eleanor arrived, and well he of course had to serenade us on the drive, so in the car it went. And when you have two tots, two ukes are a must. Eleanor played Ezra's while I oh-so-carefully let Ezra bring Ryan's. (Shhh...please don't tell Ryan. :)

Ezra was super duper excited to see that the splash pad was open again!

Cousins, two of a kind (in outfits and in climbing skills)...

Back at our house...yet still in matching outfits. :)