Vegan, I think not.

Ok, apparently Bill and I have thoroughly confused our children. Me being mostly vegitarian and him almost exclusively a carnivore. Today Samantha was walking around with a chicken "leg" (small end of chicken wing) in one hand and a veggie burger in the other alternating bites. The best of both worlds baby.

Blog Header.

Okay, now how do I get rid of my blog header, or as an alternate, drop my flickr photos down a bit so they are not covered up. I've tried a couple of things that haven't worked and not being HTML savvy, I'm not sure I'm looking in the right place to start with.

Wheeeeeee!

I have Flickr!! Now I just need pics.

Help?

Ok, I have Flickr set up, and I have a blog set up. How do I merge the two to satisfy you photo crazed people? And how do I stop this big hideous space that has suddenly decided to show up on my blog this last weekend?

Sleep, sweet sleep

Ok, the girls slept till 9:30 this morning (after a brief awakening to nurse at 6:00), and while I should be thankful, it was the one morning we needed to be up early. You see, we had a playdate scheduled for the girls at 9:00. Bummer, I guess we'll have to catch up with the playgroup next week. Until then, I'll just have to appreciate the little extra sleep we all got. Hmmmm, not so much of a bummer.

The reason for their late sleep I think, is that we took them to their first Earthquakes game since they've been mobile. They did pretty well. We had End Zone seats, but our good buddies who we have through years of season tickets (which we couldn't get this year) let us sit in the Gold Section. For those of you who are not in the know, the gold section has seats with actual backs and a scoach more room for the seat and thighs (for those of you who are old enough to remember the old Levi commercials for their grown up jeans.) It was a good game (not great) and the Quakes acquired another shutout, 1-0. For those of you who know me, you'll know how much this next part pains me - Pat Onstadt actually did a decent job in net last night. There, it's said, don't expect to hear it again.

Long, mind weary weekend

Long, long weekend. That's really about all I can say about it, other than to throw out a few random thoughts of my own.

This weekend I spent much of my time in an ambulance picking up sick, sick babies. I often do this for work, but it's not always so difficult as it was this weekend. Sometimes the babies we get are considered "sick" just because they came into this world a little earlier than planned, but you have to believe when you're picking them up at that other hospital that they will grow, and eat, cry and poop, and someday they will sing their ABC's, develop a great slap shot, drive a car, and meet the love of their lives. Those are the "good" transports. Then there are the ones like I had this weekend. 3 for 3 bad, bad, bad ones. 2 of the outcomes are unknown, but sadly 1 has been determined. When this happens, I always become a bit reflective (and selfishly thankful that my children are happy and healthy.)

Why are some beautiful little souls chosen to be with us for only a short time? What's the purpose of their time on earth that comes and goes in the blink of an eye. I suppose we'll never know until we too pass from this existence. All I can do is offer hugs, stupid words, and my own tears which I can't stop even when trying to be the "professional".

What's behind door number two otherwise known as "OMG, I'm in heaven"

For those of you who don't already know, my wonderful hubby is kind enough to pack me a dinner when I go to work on the weekends (I work nights.)

Tonight I had an option of having BBQ ribs for dinner, or what's behind door number two. I picked door number two because I always like the happy little surprise I get when I open my lunchbox. Tonight the surprise was that I got ribs (apparently door number one was the same as door number two.) No matter, more importantly I have to say, THE RIBS WERE F'ING AWESOME - I would venture to say the best I've ever had. They were tender, juicy, and falling off the bone, but not so much that they would be considered mush. I can't say enough about how good these ribs were except, "DO IT AGAIN!!! MORE RIBS PLEASE!!

EEG News

Sammi had her EEG this past week, and while we have no official report on the results, the tech very strongly hinted that it was normal. I'll take that for now. We meet with the neurologist on Tuesday to get the official diagnosis, results, etc. I have to say I'm a bit nervous about it. On the one hand I'm hoping everything is normal (duh), but if it is then we still have no explanation for the seizures. If we get an explanation for the seizures then it means they found something and we'll have to do further testing, treatment of some sort, etc. So, no answer is good (sort of), some answer is also good (we'd have a diagnosis and a plan), but I don't really want a diagnosis in this area. So confusing.

Lessons learned (common sense really)

First off I have to say, "If you want your children to learn appropriate lessons, you should not openly laugh when they openly disobey your wishes."

Having said that, let me relate my latest adventure with the girls. Since I've had a craving for Jamba Juice lately and since I was in the neighborhood of one, I thought I'd take the girls in for their very own juices. We ordered and the girls amused all in the store with their antics including Riley who found it fascinating to stand 1 1/2 feet away from a teenage couple and watch them make out. In any case, we got our juices and both girls immediately took the straws out of their drinks. I carefully explained that the straws had to stay in the drinks if they wanted to keep them at which point they again tried to take them out. I put them back in, and yes Liz, I told them it was inappropriate to take the straws out. Since it was time to pick up Bill at the train station, I loaded the girls in the Tahoe with their drinks. Again the straws came out, so I took the drinks away from the girls which proceeded to set off a twin chorus of screaming as if they were being tortured (which to them, I guess they were.) We again had the talk about the straws and after cinching them in their carseats, gave them back their drinks. They happily sat back and began sipping their drinks. Foolishly thinking I had triumphed, I hopped in the drivers seat with my very own Jamba Juice, and proceeded to the train station. No sooner had I pulled out of the parking lot than I saw Riley's straw go flying over her head. As I observed in the rear view mirror, she tried to drink through the little hole the straw should have been in, then just began biting the lid. Within minutes I see half a lid being waved victoriously over her head followed by Sammi's hand waving the other half of the lid. Knowing this could not be good, but also knowing the damage was already done, we picked up Bill and headed to the grocery store. Once at the store, I got out, opened the back door to get the girls out and had to return to the front of the car I was laughing so hard (didn't want to reinforce the behaviour afterall.) Riley was covered with strawberry banana Jamba Juice from head to toe, it was all over her carseat, the leather carseats, and the window, and of course she was very proud of her newest conquest and just sat there smiling at me with half a lid in one hand and the empty cup upside down in the other hand.

I guess I could say I had a 50% win however as Sammi's straw was still in her cup and she was happily drinking it. Yeah!

Babies: 2976, Me: 1

Unofficial Good News

The MRI is negativo! (At least unofficially) Now we just have the EEG to get through on Wednesday. Keep your fingers crossed.

MRI

Still no news. Arrrggghhh! I guess I have to assume that's good. I'm guessing that if there was something really bad on it I would have received an urgent phone call.

Wimp Mom and the MRI

Today our little Sammi had the MRI of her head to rule out any abnormalities that might be causing the seizures. We had to be at the hospital at the unGodly hour of 6:00 A.M. for pre-procedure physical, sedation, IV placement, etc. Sam was very confused by all of this.

First of all, Mom wakes her up at 5:20 in the morning, throws her in the bathtub, refuses to feed her (couldn't because of the sedation), Grandma and Grandpa arrive to watch Riley, and then she is put in her carseat for a ride with Mom and Dad, no Riley. She seemed a little puzzled by this as she kept looking over at Riley's seat both on the way to the hospital and home.

I won't bore you with the details except to say that we were told by no less than 5 people that we would not be allowed to stay with Sammi during the MRI because our presence was NOT needed. (We hadn't even asked if we could stay when this onslaught started.) Some day I hope to get one of their kids or relatives in my NICU where their presence won't be needed while I do scarey things to their children, except I'm not that kind of a person. Oh that I were.

By the time they finally took her for the MRI, she was desperately trying to get into my shirt, sticking her hands down it, pulling at it, screaming at it, and I think she was even trying to stick her head in it. I know - you're thinking why wasn't Bill holding her? Well, it was even worse with him holding her - she howled like there was no tomorrow. I guess if you can't have the boob, you ought to at least be close to it.

As for me, once again I was fine the whole time until they kicked me out of the room while my poor baby was lying there sedated. I stood out in the hall and cried like the wimp I am because I couldn't stay with her and protect her like a good mom should. I also managed to scare Bill as he's worried about what's going to happen when we have to send the girls to school and I have to leave both of them on the same day. He claims he's going to be in Bavaria on that day, in the mountains. I calmly reminded him that this is why I want to home school them. ;)

In any case, Sam seems to have my constitution when it comes to medicine. In other words, she's a light weight. Riley was waking up out of the anaestesia almost immediately upon reaching recovery. With Sam, it took her about the full hour they said it would. Then the foolish people tried to get her to drink water when all she wanted was the boob. They finally saw it her way and let her nurse. Shortly after that they removed the IV, EKG leads and oxygen monitor and allowed us to dress her and take her home. She's still a little groggy, had a good nap, and seems to be fine at this time.

We'll post anything as soon as we know.

And the sibling rivalry continues.

Very cute today. Both girls were a little tired and decided they needed some "cuddle" time. I was working on the computer (trying to catch up on the obsene 579 emails from the weekend), so they approached, one on either side. Both laid their heads on my lap, so I stopped and rubbed their backs as they stood there, then patted. Apparently this was not working for Sammi. She grabbed my arm by the watch and pulled it off her back, looked at it for a moment and then put it back, so I rubbed again, then patted. Apparently it's the patting that was offensive. She again took my arm off her back, paused, then put it back. We did this a few times until it was clear that she wanted her back rubbed and not patted. Then she leaned as far around me and the chair as she could to see if Riley was paying attention to the attention she was getting. She wasn't. Riley was very content to lean against me and have me rub AND pat her back.

They are also have races across the floor pushing their push toys, giggling all the while.

We should have gone back to the water park today, but hey, Mom is just too tired. Need nap.