Kate Stowell

I’ve never paid someone to clean my house nor would I ever have thought I would. However lately life has been so crazy and tiring that Todd and I are going to give it a try. The Cleaning Authority will come twice a month to do the house. It just seems that with how little time we have to spend together it would be nice to not spend it scrubbing toilets if we don’t have to. I’ll let you know how it goes!

Ethan turned two last month, and tonight when I was drying him off and putting on his pajamas he told me “Mama, cover me up, I’m chilly!”. That’s a pretty long sentence for a barely two year old :). He also helped me make gingerbread cookies and plant an amaryllis bulb this morning. And yes he really did help…he stirred the batter without spilling and used a little glass to push the dough balls down into a cookie shape. With the flower we talked about putting it “to bed” and how in a month it will bloom. When his grandmother called tonight he held the phone up to show her his flower.

Today I am pretty convinced Daniel is starting to say “Mama”. I know he’s not talking already and he seems to use it for anything that makes him excited or happy, but still :). It’s pretty cool. I tried to call my parents to listen to him because for 10 minutes he was sitting on my lap smiling and grabbing at my face while repeating whatever babble I said. And to think just 6 months ago he was a newborn!

I haven’t wanted to post much this week because I’ve had some pretty heavy stuff hanging over my head. Last week I had a breast MRI (it was supposed to be baseline) and OF COURSE they found a lump. And OF COURSE it looked suspicious….sooo…it was back to the breast care center on Tuesday.

I had a 2nd look mammogram which wasn’t conclusive because the lump is small and was 7cm down right above my rib cage. Everytime they would compress prior to shooting the films it would “pop” off the screens, so my mammogram came back negative for any masses. Kind of scary when you think about it, because they’re supposed to be so accurate in diagnosing early cancers.

Anyway, the radiologist then recommended an ultrasound and a needle guided biopsy. I got to have my breast speared but they did get the lump. Best of all, I just got a phone call this morning to say that the biopsy was negative and it is a benign tumor known as a fibroadenoma. Yay!

On a happy note here is a cute picture of a baby costume a friend sent me:

I know….it’s been a week since I last left a note. Life has just gotten in the way. However I do have a great link….please check out my cousin Tiffany’s new blog about getting through T-cell lymphoma. She had an appointment today up at Fred Hutchinson so I am hoping they had lots of great things to tell her.

Daniel had his well baby today and he is a MOOSE! Nothing we didn’t know, but he is above the 99th % for height and the 80th for weight. What a big boy. He is doing everything on time and was all smiles today at the pediatrician’s office. He grabbed her stethoscope and “talked” to her when Carrie went to examine him :).

Work is still work. I am getting up early tomorrow to go to the gym so I will wish you all a good night.

We had our first family outing together to a more formal restaurant than McDonald’s. After Ethan and Daniel were both up from their naps we went to Home Depot to buy some bulbs for the garden and a wire brush and paint to sand out and repair the rust on the porch furniture before we went out to eat.

First off I can’t believe that they have completely changed their displays to Christmas in the week since we’ve been there. Seriously! The whole store was filled with outdoor light displays and Christmas trees. However we did buy almost $50 of bulbs so I will be out planting this weekend :).

The Cheesecake Factory was mostly a success although we sped through dinner to avoid an inevitable meltdown from a cantankerous toddler and a tiring baby. Daniel sat in a high chair next to me and had a bottle and tried some more of his baby mush (aka “oatmeal”) while playing with a napkin. Ethan sat in a booster seat next to Todd, and I am still grateful to the hostess for bringing us out a little dish right away with some bread and banana slices. It kept him occupied until dinner came out, although I think he mostly ate bread, bananas, and a ton of milk. And of course it wouldn’t be a Stowell outing unless someone pooped…and no, it was not Todd or I :).  I took the kids out with me to wait by the mall entrance while Todd paid, and when he came out Ethan was grabbing at his pants and telling Daddy he pooped his pants.

I must say I LOVE our van even though I was reluctant to get rid of the Camry. The carseats fit in so much better and it is way easier getting them in and out of the car. On top of that it’s very easy to fold the back seats down to change a poopy toddler. We will be driving out soccer mom car until it wears out!

As a side note the Cheesecake factory always makes me think of the time when I was supposed to meet my work friends there for lunch one afternoon when I was still pregnant with Ethan. I had gone to an OB appointment in the morning, and I was at home waiting to be picked up by my friend Dana. Wouldn’t you know my water broke not 15 minutes before she was supposed to pick me up. Instead of a lunch followed by cheesecake I ended with 12 hours of fasting with an IV followed by a c-section! At least now I can take Ethan with me extrauterinely :).

This week has absolutely done me in…and I’m not even hypothyroid! With Ethan having such a hard time (justifiably so- mommy had 2 surgeries this summer, grandma left with the dog and the truck…) and Todd being gone on a business trip + working 5 days this week all I want to do is go to bed and sleep for about a day or so. As I’m typing this I’m waiting for a load of laundry to finish and my banana bread to finish baking. I know it’s silly to stay up baking when you’re tired, but I had 3 bananas that were about to go bad.

I got a workout mat from Target today. Since I’ve finally started regularly working out again it would be nice to be able to do sit-ups at home. I’ve actually been using the treadmill at home quite a bit this week on the days that I haven’t been able to get over to the gym. Someday I’ll get back to my prepregnant weight.

Tomorrow at 11am Todd and hopefully the boys and I are going to help Beth and Bruce move to their first house.  Congratulations!

So right now Ethan is above me in his room SCREAMING. I think it is just starting to hit him that sometimes people leave and never come back. In the several months his best friend moved to California and his grandmother left. This week Todd and his primary teacher went away for a few days. Add it all up and you get one stressed out toddler. We’re trying our best to help him adjust to all this and it is the absolute worst at night when he goes to bed. Ironically the baby is sleeping through but the toddler isn’t.

…Because my interventions would be, “Stop being a flaky kook!”. Seriously. When you have a 2 month old preemie and are one week away from discharge, it only THEN occurs to you that they will not let you keep your baby in the dorm room at college???

Such a tiring week. Todd is in NYC for today and tomorrow so it is just the kids and I. Today one of their teachers from the daycare came over from 5-7pm to help me out during dinner/bath time. I feel kind of like a wimpy mother for needing the help but because I have been so sick this summer (surgery x2) I’m still not able to really life lots of heavy things, including wrestling two 30+ and 20+ lb boys at the same time.

Tomorrow in the morning I tried to set up absolutely everything to go ahead of time. I need to be at work by 7:45 so I’ll have to be waiting in front of the daycare at 6:55am to let them off.

It’s been awhile since I’ve written but this week has been exhausting and honestly I’ve just been too sad. I’ve talked to Tiffany almost every day and the biopsy came back positive for T-cell lymphoma. She’s starting her first round of chemo as we speak.

Tiffany lost her father (my uncle David) three years ago and has a two year old son Loghan who is just two months younger than Ethan. It just seems cosmically unfair to have this happen now. You really should not have to get cancer when you have little kids at home. The thought of leaving them without a mom is unbearable.

Life at home is going well. I am now (semi) officially going to Beaufort, SC next year. The detailer got back to me and said it is a go, now I just need official orders cut. Pretty soon it will be time to get the ball rolling as far as renting out the house next year and making plans for daycare for the kids.

I just finished a great book, The Little Stranger. It’s a ghost story so just in time for Halloween, but it’s not hokey with sheets and chains. Much more subtle and a great psychological thriller. I heard it is supposedly being nominated for a Booker Prize.

Also in entertainment news: if you love True Blood/Sookie Stackhouse as much as I do check out the interview with Charlaine Harris on Penguin! None of what she writes is what I would call great literature but her southern vampire series are pretty humorous light-hearted mysteries.

Phew! Another crazy day at work. This weekend we got our first total body cooling patient. We just bought two cooling blankets and this was the first chance we’ve had to use it. It’s kind of freaky when you touch the baby to feel how cold they are. The patient we were cooling this weekend was kept at 33.5 C (92F). Research is showing that hypothermia after an ischemic brain injury can minimize the damage. Previously we had to send out all of our babies so doing it in house now is a pretty big step.