Still October

It was such a gorgeous, crisp autumn day, it's hard to imagine anything could go wrong. But it did.

Let's see -- Avery went off to Melba's around lunch time, and was excited to learn they would be having pizza for their red hat tea party today. Nothing wrong with that.

Then I decided I needed a little snack, so I popped into Baja Fresh. I went through the whole event -- got Jordan out of her new car seat and into her new stroller, right after feeding her & putting on new clothes, of course. As soon as I ordered she decided to blow chunks everywhere. And I mean everywhere. It was possibly her biggest barf ever. On her nice clean clothes (only on 5 minutes), in her nice new stroller (only in 4 minutes), and for everyone to see. How does breastmilk turn grey with claylike chunks, anyway (Devon said he's seen that before, too)?!?!? It was an incredible mess, and I was hungry, so I borrowed a towel from the restaurant & and used it as a blanket/cover. Easier to cover than to clean! Then when I finally finished and went out to the car to get her cleaned and changed, yep, you guessed it, no spare pants in the diaper bag. At least she had a clean shirt.

So then I decided that I deserved a Kahlua shake from "Brewed Awakenings," and was chided by the barista because I ordered a Kahlua shake without espresso! Face it, dude, some people don't actually like or drink coffee! Get over it.

Next it was off for a quick stop at a consignment store to see if I could find something appropriate for the girls to wear to the pumpkin patch (and some pants for Jordan -- I wasn't too proud of the shirt & diaper look). Jordan's too heavy to carry for very long, so I had to drag the monster stroller out again, and manuever it through the micro-aisles in that little store (I carried her for as long as I could before my back was about to give out). While there I ran into an acquaintence with a 2-week-old. He was so cute, and alert, and "advanced" it took everything I had not to cry. She was telling me about how she just took him to get his lab tests done (heal stick) and how horrible that was. I was just speechless, because if I had spoken I would have sobbed. Then she asked how Jordan was doing and I could only mumble "not well." She wanted to know about her seizures, and as most people, assumed that was the worst of what we're going through. [Knowing that Jordan is seizing alot is not fun, but it's not our biggest worry. I guess it's just so out of the realm of understanding for people to realize just how bad off Jordan is. I suppose they expect it's a matter of time before she's "fixed" & playing tag with Avery in the back yard.] She finally figured out that I just couldn't talk, and excused herself to continue shopping. I managed to check out & load up before finally bursting into tears in the car.

This seems to happen whenever I see a healthy, younger baby. At two weeks this young man was already more advanced than Jordan, believe it or not. I've said it before and I'll say it again -- it's not that I wish any ill-will on other families, but it always makes me pause and wonder why this happened to us. I mean, hell, there are crack-whores with healthier babies than mine. There are people who shake and beat and burn and molest perfectly healthy, innocent children. So why on earth is there anything wrong with Jordan??? No drugs, no alcohol, no infections while I was pregnant. No beatings or shakings. Why, why, why?

(And don't even get me started about people who "work" the government system to their benefit, while others who really need it, and I mean REALLY need it can't get help! That's a whole different post, but pertinent here, and this pushed a button with me today, too.)

So I loaded her up, with a "new" consignment store outfit (yeah, pants!) and hauled her up to the hospital, again. Pam was there to take her blood pressure (a little high today), and Carol was there for her weekly blood draw. Except, for the first time in Salmon Creek history, no blood. A poke in both arms, and lots and lots of "fishing," but she just couldn't get a vein. We'll have to go back tomorrow to try again. Hell, Jordan's been poked so many times she thinks a heal stick is a party! Seriously, she's had at least 50 in 9 months, and was poked so many times in the hospital one day (with no luck) that they ended up doing an unprecidented heal stick to get her basic metablic panel.

So, then it was home to get the barf cleaned up, and hope that my parenting license wasn't revoked because I should have fed Jordan 45 minutes earlier. At least I remembered to give her her Zantac at the right time today. Perhaps it was her missed dose yesterday that is spurring on the current wretch-fest.

Then, as usual, by the time I got Jordan fed, and the laundry & dishwasher started, I was running late to pick up Avery for our trip to the pumpkin patch. That's a different post, but suffice it to say that photographing anything but the part in Avery's hair is a miracle. I'm going to count up the number of pics with NO EYES, and calculate that percentage, just for fun. THANK GOD FOR DIGITAL!!!! If nothing else, at least I wasn't wasting film (just battery power & disk space).

And, to top it off, on the way home we realized that the treasured "bue banky" was left at Melba's today as we were rushing out the door to get to the pumpkin patch in good sunlight. Luckily we were able to distract Avery until we got home and I could sneak off and go pick it up. I guess Jordan wretching up her late (again) dinner was a big enough distraction for at least part of the ride.

Okay, there were some good things about today. We all went to the pumpkin patch together!! And I LOVE the pumpkin patch. Hopefully we'll get the chance to go at least one more time this October. And, I was able to catch all Jordan's dinner barf in a blanket so it didn't get all over the car & carseat this time. Nice to end the day on a high note.