Independence Day Weekend

Matt's not a big sports fan or a big fan of holidays, but I really wanted to celebrate the 4th by going to a baseball game. I found one with fireworks and everything, and we went. I had a good time, and Matt and Scott both survived :)

Here are some pictures taken with Matt's phone because I didn't even think to bring the camera because we were already carrying so much other stuff (sorry, Dad!).

We sat on the grass in the outfield because we figured Scott could move around a lot more and not get so restless--and they were the cheapest "seats." This is our awesome view.
This is what Scott wanted to do the whole game--eat my hat.
The AMAZING sky! We actually got to see an awesome thunderstorm on the way home--we could watch the lightning for a full hour before we caught up with the storm.
And a firework :)

Does anyone else...

make sure the volume on the TV is an even number?

look in their closet and sees nothing they like and then realize most of their clothes are in a laundry basket?

try on something that fits and then buy the next size up so it will still look good after it's washed?

decide what they're going to wear while they're in the shower?

eat dessert before 8:30am?

wish they had a shower that would remember their preferred temperature and pressure?

just wondering :)

The Saga of My Root Canal

On the night of June 12th, I could not sleep because my whole head seemed to be throbbing because of pain in my tooth. Unfortunately, it was a Saturday, so no dentist was open. Luckily, I go to church with a dentist, and he fit me into his schedule on Monday. I went in and found out that one of the roots on my tooth was infected and I would need a root canal. He didn't want to do it because he hates doing root canals on big molars. Another dentist in the office said he would take a whack at it and see if he could save me the hassle and added expense of seeing an endodontist. So, I left with a prescription for penicillin and vicoden and an appointment for the following Monday. Then I went to the pharmacy and found out that the FDA has not approved vicoden for nursing mothers, so I set up a schedule to take ibuprofen and tylenol alternating every three hours. I was in exquisite pain.

Monday, the 21st, I went back to the dentist's office. He tried valiantly to do the root canal. He found two of the three canals, but could not numb my tooth and I wanted to cry out in pain everytime he stuck that tiny file into my canal. So, he gave up and sent me to an endodontist. This was at 5pm. I had a friend in town watching Scott (Thanks, Tammy!) and she picked me up from the dentist and brought me to the endodontist, who was awesome. He talked to me for about 20 minutes about what was going on inside my tooth, and even drew me a little picture. The most important thing I learned was that now that I have all of my teeth, the pulp is worthless. So, since my tooth was infected, the next day, he was going to take out all of my pulp and fill it in with something else. I got another babysitter for Tuesday, the 22nd, who is the wife of my second dentist, who also goes to church with me.

I arrived at the endodontist filled with great fear, which was realized later in my appointment. He numbed my jawbone. He started drilling. I was still in pain. He gave me more anesthetic all around my tooth. He continued drilling. He got to my third canal. He poked it with a file. I was still in pain in two of my canals. He gave me anesthetic IN THE PULP OF MY TOOTH!!!! I yelped and cried. It was the worst pain I have ever felt, and I feel confident it is the worst pain I will ever feel. But, after that I didn't feel anything while he was filing away at my canals. Then, he took an x-ray and decided we better give my tooth a week to get clean. He poured in a tiny amount of alkaline solution to "kill the bugs" and sent me on my "merry" way. I was in less pain, but I couldn't open my mouth very wide for several days. :(

Today, the 28th, I went back to the endodontist. He finished it all up. Not too much pain, but my mouth is still sore. This time, I made jell-o before I left for the appointment so it would be ready for me when I got home. I took pictures for posterity.

This is me looking darling in my rubber dam. I had never had one before, but I have decided it is brilliant! I didn't have to feel flecks of my tooth around my mouth and I didn't have to have an assistant smashing my tongue down to keep it away from my tooth. I loved it.I don't know how well you can see this, but there are three things in my tooth--red, yellow, and green--sitting in my three canals.
Here is the tree I stared at while I was writhing in pain.
Here is the awesome endodontist. He may have inflicted a lot of pain, but he was understanding and told lots of funny stories, and even wiped my tears away when I cried. He has been doing nothing but root canals for the past 56 years and let me tell you, he's a pro.

And there's the filling. You might not be able to tell in this picture, but it's BLUE! He said I could have white or silver, but he thought that the blue would match my shoes :) so I went for it.

Army Crawling

So, yesterday I tried to get a video of Scott trying his best to crawl. It turned out to be a 4-minute video of him going 3 feet. I decided not to post that one. Today, Matt "did some laps" with Scott during my nap, and he did the same 3 feet in 30 seconds! That's some kind of record for improvement, right? Check it out:

Turning Pages

We shot this video before we left for Florida, but I finally took the videos off the camera, so I'm sharing it now. He's actually better and faster at turning pages, now, but this is only the second or third time he'd ever done it. Pretty cute :)

AGM 2010 Marco Island, Florida

[note: I added the pictures after I wrote the blogpost, so I'm sorry about the lack of continuity]

AGM is the Annual General Meeting for all of the employees of the company Matt works for. It is the weekend to which the entire company looks forward. They pay for each employee and all of his or her family members to travel to a resort for a conference from Saturday night to Tuesday morning. It's pretty much a free weekend vacation with a couple of meetings for the employees.

SATURDAY

We flew to Florida. We had two flights and a -10 minute layover. They held the second plane for us because there were 21 of us wanting to get on the plane. Unfortunately, that left no time to eat anything so I was STARVING on the second flight. Scott was great. He slept for the first hour of each flight. It was a long day of traveling for all of us, but we did finally arrive at the resort.

Here's a view from our room (looking to the left):

After adjusting to the humidity, here's a view from our room (looking to the right):

And here's Scott on the landing. I took this because he had a bunch of sunscreen in his hair and it stuck up.

We arrived at the resort around dinner time. We got into our room, looked through the welcome packet and then went down for a great meal of shrimp, beef kebabs, various sauces and desserts. I had a special meal for all of the people with dietary restrictions. It was a vegan meal that was dairy-free, egg-free, and gluten-free. It was rice risotto with a great sauce and two skewers of roasted vegetables. It was surprisingly good, though I was disappointed to find out that I might be eating vegan for the next three days.

The best part of Saturday was that Scott slept from 9pm to 5am and then from 5:30am to 9am Sunday morning. Wow! I, of course, woke up momentarily at 1 and 4 wondering why Scott wasn't awake and to make sure he was still breathing, but I still got one of the best night's sleep in a long time. Happy Mother's Day!

SUNDAY

We had an amazing breakfast, where I got to eat meat! Sausage, eggs, ham, cheesy potatoes, pineapple, strawberries, melon, French toast, blintzes and our pick of 7 juices. Also, they had a huge table of necklaces where each mother in attendance could choose one to keep. So, that was a fun surprise.

Matt had to go to a meeting, so Scott and I went to the pool and then we all went to the beach before meeting up with a nanny to watch Scott during the adult cocktail party. The nanny was great. She was a kindergarten teacher, child development professor, and part-time nanny. She texted us several times during the party so we knew when Scott was sleeping and that he was being a perfect angel.

The party was impressive. We had a four-course meal (including filet mignon, yum!) and a bunch of live entertainment. I didn't like most of the entertainment, but the last act was awesome. There were a couple of acrobats that did some amazing balancing poses in slow motion. It basically blew our minds.

So, definitely not my typical Sunday, but it was good food and good company.

MONDAY

Another amazing breakfast. Another mandatory meeting for Matt.

The cameraman for the whole event took a bunch of pictures of Scott both days at breakfast, so I decided to take some at breakfast, too. This is the best picture of the event, in my opinion:

Scott and I took a nap during the meeting and then spent the rest of the day on the beach.

At first, I thought I could make a little hat for Scott:

But we decided to buy him one instead:

We were very careful to be sure Scott didn't get burned, so Matt and I got sunburned for him :(

Here's Scott in the sand. He was so interested in the water and sand, we never got him to look at the camera.

Here's a couple more from the beach:

The last event was a huge family party. Matt and I got to go out on a waverunner to see some dolphins. We found out that there are about 900 dolphins that live around Marco Island year-round, so there was a 99% chance that we would see a few, and we did! We saw probably 10 or 12 dolphins popping in and out of the water. It was cool. We couldn't take any pictures, so I stole this from someone else's blog, but I promise this is exactly what it looked like.

It was also fun to go on a waverunner--I had never done that before. There was a storm coming in while we were out on the water, so it was an absolutely beautiful sky. We also saw forests of red mangrove trees, which were really interesting and only grow in two other places in the world--Japan and Thailand--because they have no competition for such salty environments.

(Again, a stolen photo, but it's what we saw, I promise.) Their leaves soak up the salt and then they drop the salt-filled leaves back into the water. Pretty interesting.

Scott was left with one of Matt's coworkers and her husband and they had a great time with him. He was a perfect angel for them as well--he even fell asleep without warning for a few minutes. So, of course, when we got back, he let us know it was time to go to bed. Matt hurried to take part in the massive clam bake and I had chicken because I didn't see the clam bake. It was dark and raining pretty hard by then and it was all outdoors. Then we got Scott to sleep, and I went down the karaoke party in search of more food. There was a nacho bar, so I didn't go to bed hungry.

TUESDAY

Continental breakfast--kind of a let down after the previous breakfasts, but it was okay. Then we traveled home. Scott was fussy on the shuttle to the airport, but then he slept on both plane rides. When we got our luggage, some drama ensued: Matt's coworker, Lee, was forced to check his carry-on, which had his keys in it. Well, they sent it to airport code ABR instead of ABQ, so his keys ended up in Aberdeen, North Dakota or somewhere. So, we took Lee with us to Target to get babyfood and to our friend's house to pick up and drop off some things, and then to his girlfriend's parents' house, all while I sang "I Am a Child of God" to a screaming baby in the backseat who did finally fall asleep. You can only expect so much good behavior from a child of 7 months.

All in all, we had an awesome time, and can't wait for AGM 2011 at a resort in San Antonio, Texas.

And for your viewing pleasure, Scott's teeth:

It's nice to get up in the morning...

On rare occasions, the best half-hour of the day is from 4:30-5am. I hear Scott making noise in his room. He is not sad, per se, just uncomfortably awake. I walk in and pick him up. He pats me on the shoulder as I pat him on the back. I feed him. He doesn't fall asleep right away. I cuddle with him and he stares at me in the dark. His eyes are wide open, but he is silent. He touches my face. I touch his face. For ten minutes or so we sit together in the quiet dark. He stares at the red numbers on his clock. Minutes pass. He yawns. He blinks more and more often, and then drifts back to sleep. These are wonderful minutes and I would not trade for anything. There are no pictures, no videos, just images in my memory--images I hope to never, ever forget. Am I crazy to love this half-hour so much?