My Kids Ate Cookies for Dinner Tonight...

Yep. My kids ate cookies for dinner tonight. Oh, it wasn't on purpose - no, I actually forgot to feed them dinner. This, seriously, is 100% shocking to me as I've never even come close to forgetting to feed any of my children one of the three major meals. Forgotten a snack? Maybe. But not dinner. Especially not dinner.

It was only 2 months ago that I was talking to my mother on the phone, overwhelmed in the last stretch of pregnancy, when she joked, "Well, there's nothing wrong with serving cold cereal for dinner." I had never thought of such a thing before! And the freedom it gave me! Sure enough, not a week later, I convinced my kids that having cold cereal for dinner was about the coolest thing they could eat.

Yes - dinner is an important part of my life.

So I had to laugh at myself tonight after I'd coined the reason why my stomach was being a little disagreeable. A good friend called and, after laughing along, said "You know, I always say that sometimes, instead of eating something that's good for your body, you need to eat something that's good for your soul."

So, today we fed our souls sugar cookies with green frosting ... and ... well, it was good.

Leaving you in the dark...

Sorry all - I do realize I have abandoned you all to wonder about my sick little guy for far too long (it's okay to admit that you've thought of little else for over a week now...) He's doing great! Totally back to normal and he seems to have forgiven all involved - even after being jabbed EIGHT times before they were finally able to draw blood, and stabbed FIVE times in his back before they were finally able to get spinal fluid...in the charts it went down as a 'traumatic tap'. I should say it was traumatic! For him, of course...but also for his mother! The meningitis ended up being only a virus, and he got through it in a couple of days.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for all of the concerned comments, e-mails, phone calls, prayers, visits, the perfectly melted milkshake, and the fantastic homemade bread - I have the best friends and family in the world. Thanks for your support.

Now, a question for mothers of three or more children: HOW IN THE DEVIL DO YOU FIND TIME TO BLOG?!?!? We are absolutely exhausted - this sweet little baby is killing us softly as we're going on over a week of 3-4 hours of sleep a night. See, it's the combination of him with the other kids that makes it so difficult. Miles likes to have some 'awake time' up until about 12 or 1 in the morning, then wakes up twice for food in the night, and then the other kids wake up at around 6:30 or 7:00. Problem: I have to be awake for ALL of it! No chance for naps during the day, either - when my other kids are down, Miles is awake. When Miles is awake, the other kids need to be attended to. Please, tell me this gets better! I am actually sitting here, bouncing Miles on the yoga ball and typing with one hand. My eyes are stinging from lack of sleep, and I have beautiful, dark circles under my eyes. So many things to blog about - and I can't find the time to do it!

Ah, well. At least we seem to have a lot of love in this house (usually). I often find myself smiling for no real reason, and I'm sure things will calm down relatively soon. For now, I'll just keep treading water. :)

Fearing Fevers

Do these pictures break anyone else's heart? My poor little Miles was admitted into the hospital yesterday with a fever. Tonight is our second night here, and we're hopeful they'll let us go tomorrow afternoon. They've found the source of his fever - enterovirus meningitis. Yes, meningitis is a scary word (inflammation of the protective membranes covering the brain and spinal cord)...thankfully it's viral instead of bacterial. He'll hopefully be back to normal with a few days rest, but he sure gave us a scare yesterday. I'll fill you in on the details later, but now I need some sleep.

I will, however submit a humble, unashamed request for prayers... we hope he returns to normal quickly - with no setbacks along the way...

Our sweet little boy

A Beautiful Week

Here are a few of my favorite pictures of Miles in the first week of his life. Exciting news: I think he has curly hair! There are a couple of pictures of it in the slideshow - it's so short and so fine at this point that I can't be sure...but, what do you think?!? It would be kind of fun to have a little Carson with curly hair. :)

(PS Mom and Dad - if you want to see the pictures bigger, you can click on 'View All Images' at the bottom of the slideshow, and then it will take you to a new page where you can click on a 'Full Screen' option on the right hand side of your screen.)