Who Knew Turning 5 Was So Expensive?

Our little Buster was an early birthday present for Aiden. We knew the initial price of the dog was not going to include any neutering or vet visits needed later on (he had been checked out already and was started on shots, the first deworming, the first flea treatment, and heartguard treatment). No problem.

A few days ago, we noticed that his umbilical area wasn't looking very good. It was swelling and turning purple. He was due to go in for another round of shots anyway and we wanted to get the assessment on how soon we could get him fixed, so I called the vet on Wednesday and got an appointment for today (Thursday). Since it was our first visit, the exam was free. After going over the kinds of shots and treatments he still needed, they told me about their "puppy package" where if you pay for it all up front, the cost is reduced by almost 50%. Great - I will save money wherever I can. And it's a good thing I try to save money wherever I can. Here's why:

The vet said that the hernia was quite large and needed to be taken care of (if it's small enough and not going to cause problems, they sometimes just leave it). He also has dewclaws on his back feet which aren't attached very strongly. If those were to get caught on anything outside (if he escaped, which he does about once a week), he could very easily rip them off and it would be a $1500 procedure to fix his feet. The good news is that they start reducing the costs of each thing the more you have done at one time. At first, the assistant said that they would do it in 6 weeks when he would be scheduled to be neutered (they usually wait until they reach 5 lbs - he weighed in at 4 lbs, 8 oz - a full 1 lb, 8 oz heavier than when we got him four weeks ago!). But then the vet jumped in and said, "No, I want it taken care of tomorrow". It worried me that the hernia had gotten to the point where he needs emergency surgery, but I suppose I should just focus on the fact that we got him in there and it's scheduled.

So poor Buster-boo has to have emergency hernia surgery tomorrow, where he will also be neutered and have his back dewclaws removed. Because of the extent of the surgery (incisions in both back legs, all round the "doggy parts", and all up his stomach for the hernia), he has to have heavier and longer lasting pain killers during the surgery (extra cost), he will need at-home pain killers and a little bit of laser therapy to reduce the swelling and inflammation (mostly because he's so small and active and needs the additional healing help - also extra cost). At that point they said they would do a microchip for an additional $27, so I agreed.

After all is said and done with the dog, the party, and the few additional presents we got him, his 5th birthday is going to end up costing around $1000. He just might not get anything for Christmas! But while our wallet might be hurting after this birthday, I know the dog will be hurting a whole lot more. Poor Buster. It may sound silly, but if you think of it, please do keep Buster (and Aiden) in your thoughts and prayers tomorrow. Aiden is very concerned about Buster being cut on so much and we are hoping that Buster can handle all of that surgery. Aiden loves that little dog and would be devastated if anything were to go wrong. I am dropping Buster off at the vet between 7:30am-9am tomorrow morning and we'll pick him up around 5pm. Hopefully he'll just be quite drowsy and full of pain meds.

In Full Swing

We're very much into our fall schedule now. I'm in the boys' classrooms once a week and I think they've both adjusted quite well to attending the same school. My first day of leaving both of them was helped along by Nathan requesting that Aiden come see him in his classroom for a few minutes after I left. Aiden had his first field trip of the year yesterday and I do have some pictures from another mom (I left my camera at home again). I'll get them posted soon.

I'm settling into my role as parent rep for Nathan's class. It's not too much extra work, but I have been surprised as to how much I have to take with me if I'm parent helping, in charge of mini meal, and have paperwork to put in everyone's sign-in folders. I attend the once a month school council meeting each month (so just one so far) and it seems to be a really great group of parents and teachers. It reminded me how special this school really is.

Speaking of school, John has officially started classes again. It's hard to have him gone so much every week, but he'll be completely done soon enough. We decided to put off school for me this term once we got his class schedule. The only nights he doesn't have class are Tuesdays and Fridays and it wasn't desirable for me to be gone on those two nights (especially since he is still supposed to be working 50+ hour weeks). I was disappointed, but I'm sure next term will come up faster than I expect. We don't anticipate John having a super heavy class schedule next term (I think he has two more classes left, total, to complete his degree after this term), so hopefully it will actually work out. We knew it was going to be a challenge to try to get us both in school at the same time.

I think we've all adjusted to having a puppy around. There are still some training challenges that I'm experiencing, but I've never had a dog before so it's to be expected, I suppose. Buster has definitely bonded with us and he gets very excited when we come home from being out somewhere. I enjoy having a miniature dog sleep in my lap later in the evenings after the boys go to bed. And as much as John protests about having a "purse dog", he really does like snuggling with Buster too. :^)

I Shouldn't Be Surprised

He is a boy after all. I heard my oldest child calling for me from the backyard and this is what I found.

My days are never boring.

Santa Minthorne

I think someone is ready for Christmas....

Again? Really??

I walked into a door. No use starting this off slow. Might as well just put it right out there. I walked into a door and I broke my nose. Again. How on earth can one human being be so accident prone?

You see, our laundry room door has some cruddy hinges. They do not hold the door open by any means. I know this. I usually put the small trash can in front of the door to hold it open. I didn't this time. I opened the laundry room door, went inside, started the dryer, heard a bang from the boys' room, turned around quite quickly to head towards the boys room and ran myself smack into the edge of the door. I hit so hard that I knocked myself backwards into the washing machine. I heard the CRACK! as soon as I hit and before the pain even registered in my brain, I knew what I had happened. Crunching, crushing, pinching, sharp, throbbing pain throughout the bridge of my nose, across my eyes, into my forehead (I also hit my forehead and had a nice outline of the door for a while). Bloody nose, also ended up with a bit of a swollen top lip and my front teeth feel a little strange.

I am so tired of crushing my face. This is the second broken nose this year. Third of my lifetime. I know the drill now:

Have you stopped the bleeding? Yes.

Is your breathing obstructed? Not any more than last time.

Is it the same spot as the last two times? Yes.

Is your nose visibly deformed? Not really.

Do you want heavier pain killers than ibuprofen? No, they make me sick.

Follow instructions for standard simple fracture. Ice, painkillers, keep your head elevated when you sleep, call if you have any concerns, the bleeding returns, or the swelling gets worse after three days.

If you can't tell, I'm annoyed and frustrated. I don't like taking a shower and being in so much pain I could cry because a drop of water fell on the bridge of my nose. I don't like the horrible pain-filled sleep that gives me no real rest. I don't like feeling as though I have to hold my face perfectly still in order to keep the pain level manageable. But prescription pain killers cause me to vomit, so I can't take them and there's nothing else my doctor can do unless the break is more severe (and even then it would just be mashing my nose back in place). Argh.

But along with my frustration, I am happy that it's not a severe break. And I'm happy that my face tends to not bruise very easily, so I won't look like I've been in a horrible car accident. It really could look much, much worse than it does. I'm just annoyed with myself for slamming my own face into a door. Oh the things I should not have to say....

And of course, John's first question was, "Didn't you used to be a ballerina?". I give you a friend's (who used to be a dancer as well) response, "Dancers are the biggest clutzes around. We are graceful on stage, but as soon as we get into the wings, we're tripping over wires". So there you go.

John's 10 Year Reunion

Just over a week ago, John had his 10 year high school reunion. We were both fairly nervous about it (for him, well, John isn't super social and for me, I didn't know a single person and didn't know if I'd really be able to talk to anyone). But as it turned out, we ended up having a fabulous time and talking to most of the people in the room. Friday night was the adult only mixer at Manhattan Cafe in Portland. It was nice to get a little dressed up and also not have to worry about the boys while we mingled. The festivities were scheduled from 7-11, so at 11pm when they kicked us all out, a group of us decided to continue the party at a local karaoke bar. And while I almost didn't want to touch anything without first slathering it in disinfectant, it was so much fun to laugh, people watch, and hear some of John's classmates sing (very well, I might add!). We didn't get home until 3am.

The following day was the family picnic. It was scheduled to start at 11am and we ended up not getting there until 12:30 for a few reasons. One: we have boys who take forever to get ready. Two: I am too old to stay up until 3am. I ended up with a massive migraine due to lack of sleep and not eating the night before, so I was quite ill for a good portion of the morning. And three, mapquest stinks and sent us in the opposite direction. There's a reason why I haven't used it for directions in almost two years. After calling my wonderful sister in law Carrie for directions, we finally made it (thanks Care!). The picnic was pet friendly as well, so we brought Buster along to show him off. It was fun for John to show off his kids and to see his classmates' kids (there honestly weren't very many).

While the whole weekend made me realize exactly how old we are now (and what our bodies can and cannot handle), we came away with renewed friendships and in my case, brand new ones. I've added some pictures below (photo credits: Maxwell Monty) from the Friday night mixer (click on any photo to enlarge). Enjoy!

Snore

There was a point in college, after staying up for right around 36 hours due to exams and RA responsibilities, where I was convinced I would never be more exhausted in my life than I was right then. And now I'm a mom.

I KNOW I slept last night, so why doesn't it feel like it? I can barely keep my eyes open, it took me 45 minutes to drag myself out of bed (luckily, my wonderful children played nicely in their room after waking up and gave me that time), I'm on my second cup of coffee and I still plan on stopping at our neighborhood coffee place (Insomnia - it's fantastic!) to get something before I help in Aiden's classroom all afternoon. I had no idea a person could feel so exhausted after sleeping. At least in college, I was guaranteed a nap at a certain point. I get no such guarantee with mommyhood.

We've had a very busy past week. School starting (for a few of us), John's 10 year high school reunion, a trip to the Japanese Garden in the rain, class rep responsibilities for me, figuring out future plans that are causing me more frazzled nerves than I wanted, all along with normal daily life. It's mostly been fun and interesting over the past week, but I'm certainly feeling my energy level suffering. My migraines have increased in number over the past week as well, which is no fun, but I have hope that they'll level out again once I feel more at ease with our new fall schedule.

School!

Today was the big day. The day that felt so far away at the beginning of the summer....both my babies are in school. Even though we didn't have to be there until 12:45, I got up early (before John even!) to get dressed and get everything set out to make our first day as smooth as possible. Being the parent rep, I had paperwork to take with me and being the parent helper for the day in Nathan's class, also had the class snack (or mini-meal, as it's called at school). Not to mention a big bag of library DVDs and books to be taken back immediately after school was over. There was a lot to bring with us!

Organized mommy!

Excited and ready to go! How is Nathan old enough already?!

We all had a great day and I felt fairly at ease and organized. Helping in the class is definitely much easier now that I don't have to worry about childcare for Nathan.

Aiden, of course, walked into his class like he owned the place (same class, different teacher - although he is familiar with her, and only one boy from last year is in the class - everyone else moved on to kindergarten!).

Since Nathan has been around the school since he was 9 months old, he is quite comfortable there and settled right in. Despite asking me repeatedly over the course of the morning if I was going to stay with him, I think he would have been just fine if I'd left. He also obviously enjoyed getting attention from his teacher without Aiden being around. :^)

We had a very busy day and they were quite tired by the time we got home...

I think this is going to be a very good year for both of them and I'm definitely liking the little quiet time I'm getting while they're both passed out on the couch!

We Are Not Dog People

And yet....we'd like to introduce you to Buster. The newest member of our family.

Buster is a PomChi. We found him through a local puppy rescue that takes in accidental litters and some that have been seized from puppy mills. Buster was part of an accidental litter. He is 8 weeks old and weighs a grand total of 3 pounds. He will be under 10 pounds when he is full grown. In the few hours that he has been part of this family, he has brought more joy and laughter than I could have ever imagined. I can honestly say that we already love this little dog with all our hearts. He adores the boys and likes the cats (although the cats haven't seemed particularly thrilled, but they haven't seemed upset either - they're more curious than anything). We couldn't be happier and we look forward to having fun doggy adventures with our little guy!

Preschool!

On September 8th, we'll start our third year at Creative Children's Center. I never imagined when Aiden went to preschool that we would find a place that we could really get attached to. This will be Aiden's final year before he goes onto kindergarten, but this is just the beginning for Nathan. I was asked to be the parent representative for Nathan's class (it's the same class and teacher that Aiden had, so there's a familiarity there) and I started that job by working at orientation last night. I'm excited about the school year!

Nathan's class is in the afternoon, Monday and Wednesday, 1:15-3:30. Registration has been a little low this year for the afternoon classes and there are currently only four kids in the class. So I thought I'd put this out there: If anyone in the Beaverton/Hillsboro/Aloha area is looking for a preschool class for their 2-3 year old, please feel free to contact me or pass my info along to someone who might be interested. The cost per month is super affordable, as most work at the school is done by volunteers (the only paid staff are the four teachers). Most parents "parent help" twice per month, but it's not required (you do get a discount by parent helping).

In all honesty, I have never seen a school believe so much in children and their abilities. It's so much more than just finger painting and playdoh. Aiden has developed by leaps and bounds ever since he started. You really end up feeling at home there and I've always felt like I could discuss any development or behavioral issues with the teachers.

We are definitely super excited for school to start again!