Inkheart and the neighbor

We watched the movie Inkheart tonight with our children. It was ok, not great, but good enough. Last winter I read the book in preparation for the movie coming out. At the time I remember thinking, "What a fabulous idea. It is to bad someone else didn't write it." So great idea, so/so story. Halfway through the movie there was a knock on the door. It was our old neighbor, the one who used to watch our coming and goings through the window with a scowl on her face, the neighbor who never smiled or returned a hi, the neighbor who complained to the office about our "excessive" kid noises, the neighbor who actually pounded on our wall one night when she thought Jason and I were talking to loudly in bed. She is part of the reason we moved. Her negativity was stressing me out. She had come by the invite me to a Mary Kay party. I'll admit I was half way tempted to go, just to see here in another element, but the fact that there is absolutely no way I'd buy anything which would probably hamper our relationship even more makes me think it is probably not a good idea.

Family Bed

I have a daughter who does not like to sleep in her own bed. Said daughter is currently attached to my left "nibble" while I type away. She could care less that the laptop is burning my knees and perched precariously close to her head. She doesn't seem to mind that after having her fall asleep five times only to wake up seconds after I carefully snuck her into her bed that I'm feeling a little on edge. She wants to co-sleep. It is who she is. If she can't feel moms flesh on her face she gets distressed. Such is her commitment that she will grab a fist full of my shirt in order to gauge when I'm going to try and lay her down. Any sudden moves and she, even in deep sleep, will grab even tighter, twisting the fabric in between her baby fingers. I feel like a prisoner chained to the warden. Some might ask, "Well Crys, why do you mind having her in your bed. If she sleeps so well there, why not just leave her?" The truth is that mother does not sleep well having her there. Most nights I just can't sleep soundly knowing she is floating around somewhere in the sheets between mother and father. On the chance I do sleep soundly something horrible happens to remind me of why I shouldn't. Last night in exhaustion I passed out with her on my breast. At five I woke up to find her wedged head first between me and her father. In a panic I pulled her from between us by the leg. She started screaming, I started freaking out, neither of us was happy. Of course father didn't rouse for a second. One more reason I worry about having such a small feeble thing in bed with two huge monsters. And so I wonder how will I get her into her crib on the sixth try.

Circumcision or Not?

For a variety of reasons when my son was born we choose not to have him circumcised. At the time we thought we were being fairly progressive putting off the chains of tradition and we had three grandmothers who mainly because of the traumatized feelings they felt watching their sons circumcised were pushing us that direction as well. The first three years were not a problem but the last two we've been battling it out with recurrent foreskin infections. We've taught our son proper hygiene in the bath and when going to the bathroom. My sister often laughs at me because when she comes out to visit she is always hearing me yell, "E pull your foreskin back." Reminders and help are not always enough though. As our son has gotten older he has become more and more resistant to our advice and our meddling with his "personal space". This all came to a head with the recent birth of our third child. While mom was in the hospital and out of commission dad was in charge. Somehow the boy managed to avoid taking a shower for about a week. That is all the bacteria needed. By the time E mentioned that his foreskin was red he was in the mist of a full blown infection. Oral antibiotics had to be procured. Since then we've been particularly vigilant about making sure he bathes everyday but then yesterday he informed me he had another infection. I spoke with the doctor today to try and figure out how such a clean child could possibly be getting another infection. She told me that if by chance he'd not rinsed all the soap from under the foreskin that irritation could have led to another infections. Good grief. So today I left the doctor's with a referral in hand for a urologist. I'm not saying we are going to do anything drastic but we are certainly going to talk it out with someone who knows more than us and weigh all of our options. At this moment I'm kicking myself for not having him circumcised when he was born. Of course circumcision isn't always the peachy path. A friend recently had to take her son in for reconstructive surgery to fix a botched circumcision. Here is something to keep in mind though. Not circumcising your child raises the chances of getting infections 10 times. It makes you wonder what the point of that little piece of skin is.

Just for clarification:
A) My son is one of those lucky kids who has a fully retractable foreskin. We didn't force it back when he was a baby we left it alone, as instructed by the doctor, the same doctor who now tells me he should pull back his foreskin to urinate and when he bathes. We let it do it's own thing, after a while the skin cells just separated out. My guess it the fact that he has a retractable foreskin is the reason for this. The doctor probably doesn't want pee getting in there and staying in between the two separate layers of skin. He is very pro foreskin so I don't think he's trying to sabotage me.
B) While I agree the cleaning regiment is excessive and may have been the cause of the more recent red irritation, the raw meat horribly swollen infection three weeks I'm positive was the result of skipping bathes for a week and a half. Most of his infections have been the direct result of similar situations although never before has he managed to get out of bathing for so long. Keeping under the foreskin clean is something we were told to do by the doctor and is the practice my hubby has been doing for 31 years. He's never had any problems with infections like this. Maybe I'm just the lucky mom to get to deal with it :)

I never knew people felt so passionately about this. Thanks for all the comments and advice on foreskin care.

Accessories

In my house it is all about accessories. Both my older kids love to dress up, although as shown below dressing up does not necessarily involve clothing! My only problem is when the dress ups start to hinder regular life. You will often see little E at the store in a race care driver costume or G bear riding her trike in high heels. Today I had to draw the line. We were going to fireworks and G bear wanted to wear these ridiculous high heels. I knew we'd be walking and tromping over a field with bugs and told her she had to wear socks and regular shoes. She cried for ten minutes, holding her high heels squealing, "My shoes, my pretty shoes!"

Our Other Additions

So I realize I've been a little behind on my posting. Several factors have contributed, none of them interesting at all. But here are three more new additions we've taken on in the last few months.
Our patio garden. I knew this year I wouldn't be able to manage a huge garden so I bought this little baby at Sam's. It was missing one of the poles so I got it for half price. I then called the company and they shipped me out the pole. Brilliant! We have seven tomato plants and one cucumber coming out the bottom. We also have four pepper plants and lettuce growing at the top. We've already harvested three peppers and have tons more coming as well as lots of green tomatoes. The only downside...you have to water often. With so many plants counting on such a small area of soil for water, they get droopy fast.

Our minivan! I drove a minivan my senior year of high school. At the time I found the experience exceptionally embarrassing. Now I'm a mom with three kids and I love it. We actually bought this one used from my father-n-law's dealership and he drove it out to us. I absolutely love this car. It has tons of go, comfy seats, plenty of room for all of our car seats, and a stow-n-go rear seat (my favorite option). The first time my friend Deane saw me flip the seat at a garage sale she declared me the new garage sale driver. We've used this feature to bring home a much larger dining room table and a really nice dresser. It isn't a truck, but it is a more comfortable next best thing! I should point out this is the same car my younger sister bought last year...yes I totally copied her.
Our dishwasher. My friend Jess sold us her portable dishwasher when she moved out of town. It is nice to have, especially when we have guest but oddly enough I still prefer to wash dishes by hand. I guess that is what seven years of dish washing by hand will get you. I do still love it for disinfecting things though...especially baby bottles or binkies that baby peaches siblings will not leave alone!

Baby S is Born

June 7th, two days before her brother's birthday and two weeks before her due date Baby S joined our family. She was 8lbs 2 ounces, 21 inches long, and has dark brown hair (believe it or not the least of our three kids so far). She is super health, and I'm feeling great. Little man E has nicknamed her peach.

Chance at a Free Wii

Bob at Christian Personal Finances is giving away a free Wii to celebrate the fact that his website is now two years old. If you are interested check out his site at http://www.christianpf.com/wii/. Mention it on your blog and enter to win!