Las Vegas

Dave and I just got back from a weekend in Vegas. He took a sedation course and me and Spencer just went along for the booze and gambling...

We enjoyed this view from our room at Caesar's Palace.



If you look at the top and squint your eyes, you can see the beginnings of Donny and Marie plastered over the entire side of the Flamingo.

And looking over to the right, the view gets even better:



Lots of pipes, ladders, and garbage. Coming to Vegas, the garbage was a given but the pipes and ladders, so much more than I bargained for! I guess we should have paid for an upgrade. I can only imagine what Vegas would have had to offer us then.

Dave was in class a lot of the time so me and Spencer just kicked it in the hotel. He was living the good life, meaning that he had my undivided attention at all times. Considering that he is a 4th child, any attention is rather glamorous (unless, of course, the attention is Livvy dragging him across the room by one leg- then the attention is unwanted). He was happy. I was happy. Life with one child. Can you imagine? I had forgotten.



Spencer was able to take long luxurious baths each day while I watched TV and got ready- never once having to leave the bathroom. I get the TV in the bathroom thing. It was entertaining. The thing I don't get is the telephone next to the toilet. I mean, I get it, but hello! I would call a hazmat team in to secure the room and decontaminate before I would ever use that phone. Or I guess I could just pack a can of Lysol with me. I prefer the drama of the hazmat team. Plus, who has room for a can of Lysol in their suitcase? Moral of the story, I don't have "fecal contamination" on my list of souvenirs to bring home so I avoided the phone.

If you aren't already aware, Dave and I are brilliant. If you are skeptical (and shame on you if you are), we worked out a rather effective method of avoiding being handed adult material/garbage/smut. We strapped Spencer into the baby bjorn and put him front and center on Dave's chest. It worked wonders as we made our way through the cesspool of filth and debauchery that is known as Las Vegas Blvd. And for those of you worried that we may have exposed Spencer to corruption, he made it rather clear he wasn't interested in the sights by falling asleep. I tell ya, he's an angel.



Having Spencer along with us on this trip was fun. He was such an enigma in the Vegas scene. People stared. Pointed. Staggered up to me in a drunken stupor just to touch "the baby". Seriously. He's a baby. Not a circus act. It was craziness.

One night we were eating at a restaurant and the waiter (super nice guy) just didn't get it. Seriously. Worlds were colliding. He first offered us either a high chair or a booster seat. Highchair please. Next he asked what he would like to drink. Um, no drink for the baby. So he brought him a kid cup with a lid and straw, filled with water, you know, just in case he gets thirsty. Then he asked what we would like to order "the little guy". Ahhh... maybe that is where we aren't connecting here- let me be specific- he's more of a BABY than a GUY. Just to be sure he wasn't leaving "the little guy" hanging, he made sure to bring him a plate, a ceramic plate, no less.

This all brought me back to living in Mississippi and being pregnant with Taylor. It was amazing how fascinated, friendly and interested people were in me and this little incubating baby. In Utah- not so much. You're pregnant? Get in line.

We really did have a great time! The best part was spending time with Dave. The worse part- all the smokers! It was good times! Thanks for bringing me along babe!

8 is second rate

Spenny has arrived at 8 months. Bless his little baby heart, he's been sick practically the whole month. First was RSV, then some diarrhea/puke thing, and to top it all off, his ears are infected and not getting better.

He is such a good little guy and has really rolled quite well with all this sickness. He is happy and cute and snugly and only a little grumpy, snot-nosed, and sleepless.

He picked up crawling this month, his first couple scoots being on Valentine's Day.

Despite being sick he managed to fit in a trip to Las Vegas where he had himself a scandalously good time...

Bathroom usage *high*

Last night I was tired. Really really tired. And then I started getting nauseous. You know I'm up to my eyeballs in kids when my first thought is, - "I better be sick." The alternative option for those symptoms is not in my game plan right now.

Spencer woke up sad in the middle of the night. I fed him. He was still sad so I carried him downstairs and rocked him. That was when he erupted on me. Puke everywhere. So I thought to myself, "Oh good. I must be sick." But then "oh, not so good- I'm covered in puke and my baby is sick with something else."

Apparently being healthy isn't an option for the Jackson family right now.

I woke Taylor up for school. His first words, "Mom, my tummy hurts." Five seconds later he was mad-dashing to the toilet where he emptied out his stomach.

No one has thrown up since then.

Oh how I love days like today.

The good news is that Livvy has been wearing underwear all day and has yet to pee on my carpet. She has been using the toilet like a champ. She is most definetly a tree killer, using half a roll of toilet paper each time she goes pee. I walk in to find a mound of toilet paper on the floor, a square stuck to her foot, another pile in the toilet, and a sweet 2-year-old saying "Mommy, me go pee". Just covering all her bases, I guess.

Sara's Winter Revue

Yesterday was Sara's Winter Revue dance performance. All the girls in her dance were in the 3-4 age range so it was pandemonium on stage but cute none the less. They danced to a rendition of the Tikki Room. My heart was going to burst with pride just watching her little body prance around the stage. She did a fantastic job. Go Sara!

Here she is with her little friend and nemesis, Mary. They try to be friends but it seems all the planets have to be aligned for them to actually get along for more than 5 minutes. It has happened. To be 4 again...

All day she was begging to get dressed in her costume. She hated hated hated getting her hair curled. She had a couple melt downs claiming that I burned her. Nothing happened. She's just super paranoid and scared of the iron because she can feel the heat.

She was all about the make up, making sure I knew that she had to have mascara on.

I think the red lipstick is hilarious. I currently don't own any lipstick. The kids got into my lipstick a while back and colored all over my cupboards, carpet, tile, and their clothes. That pretty much sent all lipstick on a hiatus to the junk yard, never to return. I have yet to purchase any new lipstick. One day I will revisit lipstick, just not until I'm sure Livvy won't destroy my house with it. Anyway, my friend Krysti had some red lipstick and we put it on the girls- her husband had it stashed in the glove box of his car from when he dressed up as his mom for Halloween. Lovely.

Smarty pants

We were sitting around the table. The girls were coloring and Dave was helping Taylor finish up his homework. I overheard Taylor explaining rather seriously to Dave,

"Dad, I know who is the smartest. First is God. Then Jesus. Then Santa."

Winter winter go away!

Spencer has RSV and two infected ears. NOT. FUN. May I reiterate- NOT. FUN. Exhausting, really. I got a really pathetic looking picture of him at the doctor's office while he was getting his first breathing treatment. I took it with my phone. Somehow when I was loading pictures onto my computer I lost it. I don't know how I did it. But I did. And I'm ticked. He looks great in this picture with his nebulizer. He likes to hold onto it.

The Rundown (mostly just so that I can feel sorry for us)

• No sleep- we've had a couple nights with no sleep but last night he actually slept for hours instead of just minutes. Beauty.
• Feeding issues- He hasn't been able to suck and breathe at the same time. He hasn't been nursing at all. He wouldn't even eat baby food- he would cry and food would drip down his face. I was freaked out at first because of course I was worried about dehydration but also because he has to take a steriod that must be taken with food or it won't stay down. Dave is brilliant and recommended feeding milk to him the same way he takes medicine- in a syringe. So, I've been pumping and we've been feeding him milk through a syringe.
• Breathing treatments. Not so bad really. They actually lull the little guy to sleep most of the time. The biggest issue I have with the breathing treatments is that the medication (levalbuterol) cost me $182.12 and that is with insurance! Seriously. The nebulizer itself was pocket change in comparison to the medicine. Crimany. I think I should take the medicine to the doctor and make him pay for it because Spencer hasn't even used a quarter of the amount he prescribed and I'm just going to be stuck with 3 and a half boxes of unused Levalbuterol. I would say "someone else better get sick and use this up" but that would be counter-productive.
• Antibiotic for his ear infections.
• Not so fun saline drops for his nose. Sucking his brains out with the blue bulb ( the same blue bulb that Livvy has been putting in her mouth all week. That child. She doesn't listen.) has been rather traumatic. For him, not me. It hasn't been gross- it's all clear.

Like I was saying, he actually slept last night. Yay! Just this morning he started nursing again so things are looking good! His breathing is better and he is much happier.

Because my life is madness, Livvy appropriately woke up yesterday with an ouchy ear. So off to the doctor's office we went. Liv doesn't like the doctor at all. The only thing she does like is getting a sticker on her way out the door. She pretty much screamed, yelled, and writhed about like a crazed lunatic the entire time we were there. I had to hold her down on the table just so he could look in her ears and mouth. She is such a stinker!

I didn't even get the benefit of the lethargic sleepy sick child. Oh no, Liv was all over the place. Running in circles, jumping all over, changing her clothes 50 times, and peeing where ever she darn well pleased (that's another potty training story for a different time).

Sara also woke up with a cough. I told the doctor that with my luck I would be calling again!

Taylor also had a doctor appt this week with an Ear/Nose/Throat doctor. In December he got strep and his lymph nodes went out of control. The left side of his neck developed a lump that was HUGE. The first time I noticed it I freaked out! It was the size of a small bar of soap. After three rounds of antibiotics it is mostly gone but we had to go to a specialist to get a baseline and see what to do next if it comes back. I think he told me it was an overactive thyroid or something like that. These doctors and their fancy talk- I don't know what they are saying half the time. Well, I do but don't ask me to repeat it in their terminology ( a lot of good that medical terminology class I took in college has done me).

I pretty much feel like my little family is single handedly keeping the doctor in business. I am ready for everyone to be healthy!

Just here for the food...

I was making dinner in the kitchen. Dave was feeding Spencer some baby food. At some point the spoon traded hands and Livvy became the one feeding Spencer. A minute later I turned around and found this:

One bite for Spencer:



One bite for Livvy:



After I sat there watching her for a while, she finally realized- OOPS! I'm caught!



But don't worry, this didn't deter her in the least bit, she just asked for more baby food.