Friendswood family photographer
The boys demolished a bag of frozen blueberries the other night. I think the blueberries won…
But the boys put up a good fight.
On a totally unrelated, non-messy note, sweet Camryn Jane is growing and growing and growing. She’s had two teeth pop through in the past 2 weeks, she’s gained almost a pound in the past 3 weeks, and check it out…fuzzy, blond hair! Pigtails, here we come!
Yesterday, a cockroach crawled on my arm.
My skin is crawling and I got the heebie jeebies just typing out that sentence. I know I’ve mentioned it before, but I hate roaches. I have a completely irrational fear of them. So a roach crawling on any part of my body is pretty much my worst fear.
It rained yesterday, which in Houston means the roaches that live outside decide that the warm, dry inside is a better place to hang out. That is not okay in Megan Land. And it is especially not okay for one to hang out in my laundry hamper on one of Camryn’s cute little skirts. I pulled the skirt out of the dirty clothes to put on Camryn…sidenote…that sentence sounds bad and I feel it needs a bit of an explanation. It sounds like I put dirty, roach infested clothing on my daughter. The truth is the skirt and little diaper cover were new and washed the day before, but the diaper cover part didn’t make it into the washer. And since my hamper is black and the skirt is navy blue, I didn’t realize it was hiding out in the bottom of the hamper. I decided that it was clean enough for her to wear, so I dug it out of the dirty clothes basket. And by dug it out, I mean that it was the only item in the hamper. Except for, unbeknownst to me, a cockroach.
So I pick up the diaper cover, walk gaily into Camryn’s room because, I will just admit it, it is really fun for me to dress her in new, springy clothes. Suddenly I felt a little tickle on my arm. I looked down, and to my horror, I saw a cockroach crawling on my arm. I let out a bloodcurdling scream. And I mean bloodcurdling. The roach was making a beeline for sweet little innocent Camryn. I just knew that sucker wanted to crawl in her ear and lay eggs. So I did what any good mom would do and I stepped on it. But he didn’t smash. He was barely wounded and was still running amuck. I let out another scream and pounded down on him with as much force as I could muster from my trembling frame. That time it did it. And then, since I’m going for mom of the year and all, I even cleaned it up. Normally, in the unfortuante event of a roach in the house without the presence of my big, strong man, I will just cover up the carcass with a cup and let Derek pick it up when he gets home. “Hi, honey. Welcome home. There is a giant cockroach under that bowl in the dining room. Would you be a dear and dispose of him? Thanks.” He’s a good one, I tell you what.
And speaking of what a good man I married, check this out. I loved seeing all my favorite people in the world cuddled up on the couch reading a book the other night.
And speaking of love, look what I made on Valentine’s Day for breakfast. Pink heart shaped pancakes. They were a big hit!
And speaking of bows. Oh, I wasn’t speaking of bows, but I couldn’t think of a good segway. Speaking of big hits? Speaking of things I do? Whatever. The point is I was able to put a bow in Camryn’s actual hair this morning! I think she liked it. She did for the 3 minutes it lasted. Bows that are clipped onto 14 strands of 1 inch long baby fine hair don’t last long.
Blog 2/16-Brinner and Stuff from Megan Thurman on Vimeo.
If you watch Logan from about 2 minutes on, you will see him get all mr. independent with the syrup. He hops down, wanders around the kitchen (off camera) opens the pantry, and in the very corner of the video, you can see him pour and lick up the extra. And Connor sticks his butt out at the camera. Actually, when I went back and watched it a second time, I noticed the kids doing all sorts of weird kid-like things. They crack me up!
Okay, I was hoping to get my video up tonight, but it’s taking forever process, and I’m going to bed. So, I will leave you with a little snippety sneak peek.
I think I got tagged by Laura a few weeks ago to list some random things. I think the magic number was 8 random things. I’m not sure I can come up with 8, but here are a few.
1. Whenever I work out on the elliptical, treadmill, or bike (okay, who am I kidding. I don’t ever ride the bike. And I’ve only been on the treadmill once since I joined the gym in October.) So maybe I should revise this to say whenever I work on on the elliptical machine, I have to end on a quater mile or nice round number. But I don’t go for a certain distance, I go for time. So, for example, I work out for 40 minutes. At the end of 40 minutes, I’m at 3.62 miles. I have to get to 3.75 miles. So first I have to meet the time for that day, and second, I have to be on a nice number.
2. But these number things don’t translate to other areas of my life. I don’t have to end on a round number when I fill the car with gas. I never even look at the numbers. I never put in any extra. As soon as the automatic shut off shuts off, I’m done pumping gas.
3. I like batter better than most finished products. This goes for all batter, except for things made with buttermilk. Cookie dough, cake batter, brownie batter, pancake batter, etc. I love it all. But, I get a stomach ache every.single.time. I think I have a bit of an egg allergy, and I can’t handle the raw eggs in batter. But I eat it anyway. Every. Single. Time. I will never learn my lesson.
4. I get a stomach ache when I eat cooked eggs, too. But that didn’t start until after I had Logan. And it went away when I was pregnant with Camryn, but is back. So annoying becuase I like eggs. And batter.
5. My hair got curlier when I was pregnant with Connor. It was curly enough to fix curly. Now it’s really not curly or straight, which means I have to straighten it every day.
6. Well, not every day because I don’t wash my hair every day. who am I kidding…sometimes I don’t even shower every day. I always say I will do it at night, and then I get too tired and want to go to bed. I hate sleeping with wet hair.
7. When I was younger (like 9-ish), I used to hate to blow dry my hair because of the way it made my hand tingle. But my mom would make me do it so I wouldn’t sleep on wet hair. I am pretty sure that I shed some tears over it. Of course, I shed tears over lots of things…I have always had a flair for the dramatic.
8. I like to make movies, and always have. I have some awesome movies I made with my brothers, including “The Quest for the Golden Spoon” and one about dangers in the home. I made Rescue 911 movies with my friends. Even as an adult, I made a Behind the Music movie with some of Derek’s college friends. That one was complete with make-up and costumes. One of these days I’m going to get them up on the blog. Or at least find some pictures. I think that this flair for the dramatic and love of movie making is why I like to make video blogs.
9. And that leads me to a bonus item, I have a video blog ready to go! I’m just waiting for it to finish processing.
Wow, I sure can talk when I get going. I only had the egg and elliptical thing in mind, and look at that. 9 things!
Oh, wait. It’s actually the opposite of no hands. She’s got a death grip on the table, and the look on her face just dares you to mess with her.
She didn’t do this by herself. No, no. I think she’s a ways from pulling up, unlike Logan who was full on crawling by 6 months, and I’m sure was pulling up around 7 months. But she is getting stronger and likes to stand up, so of course I had to take some pictures of it.
A few things to notice: my coffee table is still a mess! I just cannot get my act together! And despite the fact that Camryn weighs about 18 pounds and usually wears a 9 month size (or at the very least 6 month), those pants are a 0-3 month. And the top is actually a dress (size 6 month). See how short the dress is? And see how the pants still borderline fit? Yeah, she’s got stubby legs.
So while I was setting up these pictures, getting my camera ready, I had Camryn just sitting on the floor. Logan ran up to her, sat down beside her, and grabbed her hand. It was the sweetest thing! He loves her so much. I just love their chubby little feet and the way they are holding hands. It totally melts my heart.
Such sweet little monkeys.
I’ve been married for 9 year. For 9 years, people have asked me “what does your husband do?”. For the first 6 years, I answered “he’s in graduate school”, which was of course met with the “what’s he studying?” question. I would answer “chemistry” and then usually awkwardly say something about polymers or shear or x-ray spectography, and then I would laugh and admit that I really have no idea what he studies all day. Now when people ask me, I say he’s a research chemist, and of course, the next question is always “what does he research?” I pretty much give the same answer as before, minus the spectography part because I’ve come to find out that I sort of made that part up.
The other night at dinner, I had to most classic conversation with Derek ever. I’m not sure if Ryan (Derek’s bff) still reads this, but I really think he’d appreciate this. He knows how maddening it can be just having a simple conversation.
M-“Okay, random, but I just remembered that Juli Beth asked me to ask you if you could please invent a Swiffer that actually works.”
D-“I have nothing to do with the Swiffer. That’s Procter and Gamble.”
M-“Well, I know. But I thought you did research on the stuff that Swiffers are made of.”
D-“No. I don’t do anything with the swiffer.”
M-“No, you’ve told me this. I thought you worked on the very basic particles of the Swiffer. I thought you invented that stuff and then sold it to Procter and Gamble, and then they make the Swiffer.”
D-“No, I make pellets that are used to make better non-woven materials.”
M-“And then what will you do with the better materials?”
D-“Make a better swiffer.”
We both just cracked up. So, JB, don’t worry. He’s on it. But let’s just be perfectly clear that he does not work with the actual Swiffer.
At any given moment, I could take a picture of the pass through, and it would speak volumes about what’s been happening in our family. It’s not just a little window into the kitchen. It’s a window into our family life.
First, a little timeline:
Tuesday, January 27. I’m in California and my mom tells me that Logan falls asleep on the couch after school. I wonder if he’s getting sick because that is very un-Logan like. Camryn starts getting congested and snotty.
Wednesday, January 28. Still in California. By evening, Logan is definitely not feeling well.
Thursday, January 29. Logan is sick, running a fever, and coughing. Derek gets home from work that night and feels like he is coming down with something.
Friday, January 30. I arrive home at lunch time. Logan is better, Derek is home, definitely coming down with the bug.
Saturday, January 31. Derek can barely get out of bed. Connor starts running a fever.
Sunday, February 1. Connor and Derek still not feeling well, especially Derek. Camryn starts running a low grade fever. I start to feel a little sick that night. My chest feels tight.
Monday, February 2. Connor wakes up in a great mood, no fever, and he goes to school. Camryn is really snotty, but no fever. She’s pulling at her ears and I wonder if she has an ear infection. I’m definitely not feeling well, running a bit of a fever, coughing.
Tuesday, February 3. I’m still not feeling great, but I can function with ibuprofen. At Camryn’s 6 month check-up, the doctor finds ear infections in both ears. (Sidenote…she weighs 17 lbs 13 oz, and is 28 inches long. She’s little compared to C and L, who were almost 21 and almost 20 pounds. But all 3 have been 28 inches long at 6 months.) She starts an antibiotic. At noon, the school nurse calls. Connor is in her office complaining of ear pain. We make a 2nd trip to the pediatrician’s office in the same day. He’s got minor ear infections in both ears. We get the prescription, but the Dr. wants us to wait and see if they clear up on their own since they aren’t too bad.
(meanwhile, Logan is still in perfect health, and Derek has fully recovered, too.)
That night, I start to feel worse.
Wednesday, February 4. I wake up feeling awful. Connor was up at 4 a.m. crying with ear pain. He obviously doesn’t feel well that morning so I keep him home from school. I start Connor’s antibiotics. Camryn starts running a fever again. I run a 102 fever all day. And Logan is running around, totally stir crazy because he feels great. Camryn sleeps practically all day. I sleep and do as little as possible. Even Connor sleeps on the couch. Logan does the opposite of sleep.
Today: I’m functioning again. No fever, just a painful, juicy cough. Connor’s ear just feels “funny” but doesn’t hurt. He doesn’t have a fever, so he goes to school. I had lunch with him, and he’s feeling good still, thank goodness. Camryn is running a low grade fever, even though she is on antibiotics, which makes me think that in addition to the ear infections, she’s now got the virus that we’ve all had.
And today, I get to start the clean up. Damage control. Here’s just a sampling of the mess…
Camryn was in the best mood this morning after a good nap and a good bottle. I had to bust out the camera and take some pictures. Prepare to be overloaded with cuteness! (not that I’m biased or anything…)
I like this one because you can see she is still toothless and proud of it!
She’s growing in some fuzzy blond hair. I love it!
(and I know they are kind of big, but for some reason when I insert a medium sized thumbnail, it’s blurry. We can’t have The Princess being all blurry,now can we?)
So I’m thinking about video blogging. This morning I told Derek I was going to, and his first question was “are you going to fix yourself up?” No, dear reader, I am not. I am sick today, but as long as I keep popping in the ibuprofen, I’m functioning. All you moms get that…we can’t not function! So I thought maybe I would video blog anyway, unkempt-ness and all.
I’m just trying to make y’all feel better about those days that you don’t get out of pj’s or shower or even brush your teeth. I know we all have them.
More to come!
My family is sick. Within 12 hours of me being home, three of the four were running a fever and feeling very puny. Welcome home, mom! I missed everyone so much that I haven’t even minded all the extra work of taking care of sick kids (Connor and Camryn) and a sick husband. And I realize that I sound completely selfish there becuase I should never “mind” taking care of sickies, but I’m just going to be honest. While I work very hard to take care of everyone, keep the house in some sort of order, and make sure everyone is getting plenty of fluids, I don’t always do it with a smile on my face and a song in my heart. Or if I do, it’s sort of a fake smile and song because at the end of every day I am exhausted. But I love them and I’m the mama so of course I do what needs to be done.
One of those needs includes a special trip to blockbuster to get Connor a movie he’s been asking about. Since we are Netflix members, we rarely rent movies. Usually I will just add it to the que and make him wait. But of course, being sick changes all the rules, so off to Blockbuster I went, and I walked out with Transformers: Transform and Roll Out.
First, I want to take a moment to personally thank whoever made this movie. It has provided hours and hours of entertainment and been my sanity saver this weekend.
We immediately pop in the movie, and Connor and Logan are both completely captivated. One hour later, it’s over, and Connor asks to watch it again. Sure, buddy. No problem. He comes by it honestly. When my dad flies from Australia to the states, it’s not uncommon for him to watch the same movie over and over again for the duration of the flight. He’s had marathon watching sessions of The American President and Love, Actually. And by marathon, I mean watching each one 4 or 5 times in a row.
So I start his Transformer movie again. And when it ended, Connor requested it for the third time. After three times, he wanted to watch the special features. And when those were over, he asked to watch the movie again.
But this time, he asked to watch in Spanish.
As of bedtime tonight, he’s watched his movie ten times. Nine times in English and once in Spanish. I’m glad he can make us laugh even when he’s all laid up with a fever.