just your typical thursday night

It's been too damn long, so here goes:

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, Joe and I take Vincent to swimming lessons.  He isn't even close to swimming yet, but it's mostly just to get him comfortable in the water and to learn basics like kicking, blowing bubbles, etc.  Anyway, I usually pick V up after work and Joe meets us at the pool.

Today was no exception to the rule.

At first.

Vincent has an "ear thing" and tends to freak out a little when he is reclined back in the water so that the back of his head, and ears, are in the water. He hates it. Not quite sure how to get him over that. Today we didn't do too much floating in the water, so he didn't freak out much at all.  It was really fun, actually.  I love doing those lessons with him and Joe.

After our session was over, we walked out to the parking lot where we opened the hatch to our Montero and got him changed into dry clothes, same as always. 

Joe usually gets V situated in the car seat whenever we go anywhere.  I'm actually not 100% sure why he always does that, but he does.  Which is nice.  :-)  But since Joe was going to stop and grab us dinner on the way home, I decided to give him a head start and said that I would take over and get V in the car seat so that he could head out to grab food.

After a "love you" and a "bye" and a "see you later" he was gone.

I was putting Vincent in his car seat and since his new favorite toys are Gumby and Pokey (funny, huh?), I gave him Gumby and Pokey - or "Bungy" and "Picky" as he likes to call them - to play with in the car seat. And as I was fastening him up, he also had my keys because he likes to press the lock and unlock button over and over.

Anyway, he was content while I was getting him locked in and I asked him, "Did you have fun swimming?"

"Yes!" he responded joyfully.

"Do you like swimming in the pool?"

"Yes!" he quickly added again.

He is so cute!  :-)

Anyway, V was all set and ready to go and so I shut the door and went to the back hatch to close the hatch.  When I realized I needed my purse up front with me (which I had left in the way back), I tried to open the hatch and it was locked.

Tried Vincent's door and it was locked.

Tried the driver's door and it was locked.

Every door was locked.  And my keys?

They were on the seat next to Vincent's car seat.  They had fallen there after he hit that "Lock" button one last time.

[Commence semi-freaking out.]

Joe was already gone.  My keys, cell phone, and BABY were all locked in the car.  I was standing there with nothing by my bathing suit, a wet shirt, and a towel wrapped around my waist.

I tried all the doors again thinking they would miraculously decide to open, but they wouldn't.

What should I do? 

I looked at Vincent through the window and he just smiled at me, like I was playing a game with him or something, then he continued to play with his toys.  The keys mocked me as they stared up at me from the seat below.

I yelled at a young man who had just parked next to me and started to walk over to the pool.  I asked him if I could borrow his phone and he obliged.

I tried to call Joe, but he didn't answer.

"I don't know what to do," I said, mostly rhetorically.

Mr. Phone Man replied, "Well, just try to stay calm.  I know there's a police station nearby, so may be they could come?"

Brilliant!

I called 911 and was placed on hold for forever (okay, maybe it was only 20 seconds that just SEEMED like forever).  I felt like the worst parent in the history of parenting as I told the operator what was happening. 

She asked for my phone number and I told her, "My phone...and everything...is in the car with my son.  I don't even know the man who's phone I'm using."

"Okay, ma'am.  That's fine.  I'm going to get a paramedic on the line."

I don't remember much of that conversation other than the fire department answering, asking me a few questions, me telling them my car information and location.  Then the dispatch operator lady got my name and number and said that someone would be there within a few minutes.

While I was waiting, I thanked Mr. Phone Man profusely and he said that he had to go in and pick up his son, but that he would be back out in a bit if I needed his phone again.  I thanked him again and he went on his way.

I tried the doors again as if it was just a bad dream.  Or maybe just to torture myself.  When they didn't open (shocker!), I decided to pass the time playing peek-a-boo with Vincent.  He was just laughing at me, smiling, and not having a care in the world. 

Not even 2 minutes later we heard sirens, which I knew were for us.

Vincent said from inside the car, "Ambince!  Ambince!"  (What he calls "Ambulance"). 

A paramedic fire truck showed up as well as one Police SUV.  They got out and Vincent just stared at them as they tried to jimmy each door open.  Didn't get freaked out at all.  God, I adore that kid.

Not even 5 minutes later the driver's door was opened and all of the doors were unlocked.  And then they were all gone a minute after that.

Once I hugged the crap out of Vincent and made sure that I had the keys IN M HAND, I climbed in, turned the car and A/C on, and looked at my phone.  It was 6:10.  Exactly 1 minute since the car was reopened. 10 minutes since V was first locked in the car.

I called Joe and I think his response was something like "Wow".  I know, I know...I'm pretty awe inspiring, huh?  Anyway, we actually ended up agreeing that calling 911 was the best option.  Especially since he didn't even have a spare key on him.

Vincent's time in the car = approximately 9 minutes.

My time feeling the absolute worst mother on the face of Planet Earth = approximately 9 minutes + every minute thereafter.

That was, hands down, the most nerve-wracking and scariest 9 minutes of my life so far. Hands. Down. As I think about V's sweet little face, oozing happiness, and precious little life, it still makes me feel like I am the worst mother on the face of Planet Earth. 

But Joe's response to that was, "No...Casey Anthony is."

2013...here we come!

We made only 11 blog posts in the past year. Count 'em...

Eleven.

And 6 of them were from Joe.  That's more than half of them.  I only made 5 blog posts in the past year?  What the heck, man!  I know I've had work and a baby to take care of, but seriously.  I shouldn't even HAVE a blog at this point.  If it weren't for Father/Son Adventure Fridays, this blog would have created it's own black hole over the past year.  

So...I guess this means it's officially New Years' Resolution time! 

1. Blog more.  I would like to post at least twice a month on what's going on upstairs and under the stairs.  Okay, that's sounded slightly creepy.  But yeah.  Twice a month.  Next!
2. Teardrop. Had to put it on hold after finding out we were having a baby.  But the kid is like 10 years old now* so it's time.  We don't have to do everything in one month (can we say "expensive?")...but we've got a year.  We can do this.  Next!
3. Play more. Go out on more dates**.  Have fun adventures with Vincent.  Go camping or just get out of town at least every other month.  See movies in the theater BEFORE they get put on Netflix.  Read more books.  Design more.  Next!
4. Write a book.  Yeah, you read that right.  I actually tell Joe probably once a week "I want to write a book!"  But I haven't done shit about it yet.  So I'm starting and that's that.  End of story.  Pun intended***.  Next!
5. Get right financially. Specifically, pay off debt.  The mortgage obviously will take a million years.  But everything else needs to be gone.  Can't stand it.  It makes me feel bad about myself.  So it's time to get rid of the debt. Oh yeah...and start saving again. Next! 
6. Find something positive in everything.  No explanation needed on this one.  Next!
7. Practice patience.  I am a pretty patient person, generally speaking.  But there are times when I lose my cool and get hot headed...specifically with family.  And usually over the most stupid things you could think of.  I need to be overall more consistently patient with those I love.  Especially Joe...and especially V. I mean come on, T.  He's a freakin' baby!  He won't be perfect and won't learn everything on the first try.  I mean, I know he'll still annoy me at times, but I really need to remember that he's just a baby.
8. Love infinitely.  Love fully every day, from the top of my head to the tips of my toes.  In every situation, good or bad, just love unconditionally.

* He's not really 10 yet. But time flies so fast, so he'll be there before we know it, I'm sure. 

** Dates with JOE, of course. Get your mind out of the gutter. ;-)

*** Please don't judge said future book on what is written in my blog, please.  The bad jokes will only be seen here.

From our family to you and yours...Happy New Year!!  

I hope that your 2013 will be filled with nothing less than all of the wonderful things you hope for.

FSAF #??? (#5 maybe?)

I didn't forget about FSAF, and I didn't give up on blogging about it. We've had a few that were way too far in between, and I don't have a point and shoot camera anymore. I could use the DSLR but sometimes it's just too big and bulky to carry. Just taking Vincent requires so much... stuff. We did go to the "aquarium" in Tempe a while back, but it was not really an aquarium in the sense of the word as I know it. I associate the word aquarium with the Boston Aquarium. There was no comparison. It was in a mall. A ghetto mall. We went anyway, and it was mediocre. So mediocre I didn't feel like it was blog-worthy. There were a few more that also were pretty unadventurous. I don't even remember them. Today we went to Usery Mountain Regional Park and tried to hike the Wind Cave Trail. I say tried because we didn't make it to the cave at the top. Vincent is quite large (I'm trying to get as much use out of our Kelty Kid Carrier as possible before he outgrows it). I got about 60% of the way up before V got sick of being strapped to my back. His head is basically touching the sun shade now and I think that was annoying him. I couldn't take it off because I forgot his sunscreen. Also he is large. Did I mention he is large and heavy? Between him and the supplies I had in the backpack it was easily 30lbs. Maybe more. I'm not as in shape as I used to be (I hiked Mount Washington with a 30lb pack back in high school). It wasn't a fail because we had fun. I got a little crazy on the way back and decided to go to Tortilla Flat for lunch. Not exactly on my way back, it was 25 miles out of the way.  I remember the food being really good the first time I went. Today it was just okay. Not bad, not good. Just okay. I'm going to wrap up my random thoughts now. I promise to work harder to:
 A) find fun adventurous stuff to do
and 
B) record it in photographic and blogical form.

Is blogical a word? It is now. Maybe blogographic? whatever.
-Joe

reflections on the miracle of life

I realize that this past (almost) year in V's life has contained nothing less than miraculous milestones - his first smile, first crawl, first step, first sound, first teeth.  I can remember his birth (and every moment thereafter) as if it had just happened in this very instant. 

He is our little angel.

Our little miracle.

I try not to get too personal online.  And perhaps this is a little too much information.  But V really is our little miracle.  We never thought we would be able to have him at all.

I don't know if you remember when we first started our blog, but a big reason for starting it was for us to keep in touch about Joe's kidney shenanigans. And it was kind of a dark time, so I don't want to rehash every last detail...but one thing that I wanted to bring up (probably much to Joe's chagrin), is a conversation that his nephrologist had with us in the hospital.

When Joe went to the hospital that every first time, they ended up finding out that he was in the end stages of kidney failure.  His nephrologist came in the hospital room one day and discussed different treatment options including the possibility of dialysis and possibly (eventually) transplantation.  He also told us that one way to significantly slow down his kidney failure before having him start dialysis was going through chemotherapy.  This was a treatment method that the nephrologist wanted to do before Joe left the hospital.  His opinion was that it was extreme (duh!), but that it might do the trick in stopping Joe's immune system from attacking his kidneys any further.  But during the conversation with him, he told us that it was quite possible that we may never be able to conceive a child. 

Imagine my heart and all the blood in it dropping to the floor.

I had always imagined that I would get married and have a child (or two) one day.  So hearing that I might never be able to conceive a baby with Joe was pretty devastating to hear.  Especially since we weren't even married yet.  But the nephrologist suggested that we consult with a fertility center to see if any of the "stuff" could be saved and used later for conceiving a child.

Enter hope.

So, we went to the much recommended Southwest Fertility Center in Phoenix and [sorry, Joe, but I'm gonna say it] we attempted to have some of Joe's "stuff" saved.  But, unfortunately, it was too late.  We were told it wasn't even worth saving.  The chemo had already done it's work. 

Exit hope.

Love definitely conquered all in the end and Joe and I were married the following year.   He was and is my favorite person.  And whatever life threw at us, we were going through it together.  Even if it meant that all we would have together is a dozen beagles (or wolfhounds) running in our future yard.

I would periodically think about having a baby.  And it would sometimes get me down.  But I would try to talk myself out of wanting a baby...trying to remind myself of all of the other things I could do to lead an equally fulfilling life.  So it would always make me cringe a little whenever we would be asked if we were going to have a baby because there was the distinct possibility that it just wasn't in the cards for us.

Then came the afternoon of December 17, 2010. 

I was working that day and planned on going home for lunch to let Lucy out for a bit.  When I was at home, I realized that I was little late in getting my monthly bill.  I had a pregnancy test in our medicine cabinet from a previous false alarm, so decided that I take the test since I had to pee anyway.  I didn't want it sitting in our medicine cabinet anymore.

But then I saw that it was positive.  At first I thought it was a joke.  I couldn't believe it.  But then 8 months later, our bundle of amazingness was born.  And 357 days, 2,856 diapers, 26 pounds, and 10 teeth later, I reflect on just how precious and miraculous life is.

I can not think of how my life would be without either of them in it.

My two miracles:

My life is so blessed.

the amazing charlie brown

Do you have any childhood "things" that you had held on to for one reason or another? 

I do.  Although...I don't really have a reason for keeping him other than the fact that I love him.

His name is Charlie Brown.

Charlie is a bear that I have had ever since I was maybe 8 or 9 years old.  I picked him out of a prize list for selling a certain amount of magazines during our grade school's yearly magazine sale. I didn't realize this until later, but I think most of those magazines that I sold (if not all?) were purchased by my parents. So thanks, Mom and Dad. Charlie was an amazing gift.

I have no idea why I loved...and love...this bear so much. But he was always there, waiting in my bedroom for me. Whether it was a good day, a bad day, a long day, a day that just went by way too quickly, a crazy day, a boring day...you name it, and he was there.

This is probably really lame, especially because now that we have Vincent we keep accumulating more and more "stuff"...but I just can't bring myself to ever get rid of him.  He's a little matted and not quite as fluffy as he once was, but he's freakin awesome and I love that bear!

And what does Vincent think?

Well...

I'm not so sure he's "sold" on Charlie yet. 

That's okay, though.  There's no rush.  Charlie is really good at sticking around.

ignorance

Just this week, a friend of mine posted on Facebook (don't you just love how technology keeps us in touch?), that while shopping with her baby, a complete stranger came up to her and told her that she should get a good nutritionist for her baby to help with his weight problem.

A baby with a weight problem?  I mean, I know there are unhealthy babies in the world.  There are seriously undernourished babies and seriously overfed babies.  But after a certain age, babies are just naturally chunky little humans.  Babies are supposed to have some "meat" on them.  You know?  So telling someone that their baby has a weight problem is just completely and ridiculously rude. 

It wasn't even my baby and I am so upset by this.

It just really got me thinking about how inflated people's egos are, how people believe that whatever they think is right, and how people feel the need to thrust their opinions on to other people without thinking first.  And what's worse is those people who use their opinions and words as spears and think that whoever disagrees with them is ignorant. 

Have you ever been in a conversation like that? When you give your opinion on something and the other person says you are ignorant merely for the fact that your opinion is different?  Last time I checked, the definition of ignorance is a lack of knowledge, wisdom, and information.  So if you call someone ignorant because their opinion is different than yours, then that, my friend, makes you the ignorant one.

But I digress.

I'm not really angry at all.  I'm mostly just frustrated that people are like this.  When someone disagrees with me I want to try to help them see my views.  Not necessarily with the goal to change their mind, but with the goal to help them understand why I think the way I do.  But the second the word "ignorant" comes into play, I just shut down because there is no use discussing something with someone who really has no idea what the word "ignorant" even means. 

Is there any hope that discussions will ever be free from ridicule?

here

We are not missing.

We are here.

It's just that, since Vincent turned 5 months old, we have pretty much not had many ounces of free time since then. So I have a million (okay...maybe 20) things I have wanted to blog about. But in the end, after the babe is asleep, bottles for the next day are made, and everything is done for the day...blogging has been far from my mind.

Sleep trumps everything lately.

But instead of hitting the sack right now like I normally would, I just wanted to pop in and say a quick hello.

Hi!

Life is really good. We have a roof over our heads, love in our hearts, and the sweetest baby in the universe in our arms.

Until next time, here's a recent photo of our little munchkin. Don't you just want to reach through the photo and squeeze his chins and love all over him?