Pretty Kitty

This blog is pretty Froggy-heavy, so I thought I'd highlight one of our cats, Peanut. No nom de plume for her. Although she sometimes goes as P'nut, lil P, or Walnut (when she puts on weight.)

We used to have a love affair until Froggy was born. She would sleep on my chest and sometimes I'd wake up with her kitty face in mine, lovingly watching me sleep. A stalker, yes. But she has excellent kitty breath - a fine mixture of tuna and kitty kibble, so I didn't mind.

Peanut hasn't quite returned Froggy's love yet. Someday, they'll be friends. But for now, the cats spend most of their time hiding and coming out at night when that "crazy toddler" goes to bed. Meow.

Froggy and I leave for Iowa tomorrow! FD is staying here to finish school. Only a couple more weeks and he'll be a Respiratory Therapist!

Happy Birthday Froggydadda!

We love you.

The Hungry Frog

Froggy is eating bacon dipped in ranch dressing! A heart attack for you and me, but a FABULOUS lunch for a kiddo with CF! And before you report me, she's also munching on carrots, broccoli, strawberries (also dipped in dressing...gross), olives, and a peanut butter and honey on whole wheat.

I hate to jinx it, but this little Frog has been eating tons lately! Woo Hoo. Nothing makes me happier. I actually had to pull over on PCH the other day to feed her enzymes for a snack in the car. She couldn't wait til we got home.

Imperfect Moms

One imperfect mom, one imperfect kid.

Asserting her magical powers for good and sometimes evil.

Sticking a maxi pad to herself.

I'd like to dedicate this Mother's Day to all the imperfect moms...

Here's to you, because you make me feel okay...

Here's to the mom whose kid is sporting a rat's nest bedhead to the park. I like you.

Here's to the mom who lets her child dress in tutu's with overalls, in highheels and purses, in outfits so mismatched --it looks like you brought your three-foot baglady to the park.

Here's to the mom who is too busy to send out 'thank you' letters, too numb at the end of the day to switch from day clothes to pajamas. Here's to the moms who have forgotten to brush teeth. Here's to the mom who looked at their dirty kid and said, "When was your last bath? What's today... Wednesday?"

Here's to the mom who makes Easy Mac, who doesn't cut the crusts off, who has a dirty bathroom. Here's to the moms who sometimes yell, who spanked once and immediately cried afterwards. Here's to the moms who have dropped the f-bomb in front of their linguistically spongy kid. Here's to the moms who bicker with your spouse and who drink a glass of wine when their toddler has a melt down.

Here's to the mom who wonders what it's all about, and goes to bed at night knowing that in twenty years her child will be discussing her in therapy. Here's to the moms who turn on cartoons so they can take a shower, or go to the bathroom uninterrupted.

Here's to the moms who bake from the box, rather than scratch. Here's to the moms who have ever had a screaming toddler stand in the shopping cart at Target with their lip out and arms crossed. Here's to the mom who has felt the judgement from parents with perfect little angels. Here's to the moms who have crayon drawings, like toddler hieroglyphics on their walls, and stained furniture, who have nothing new and therefore nothing to ruin.

Here's to the moms who read all the discipline books and still have 'unruly' children, here's to the moms who have kids that just "take off," that pee in the backyard, that say things in public like, "Why is that man so fat?," and "I can see his butt crack."

Here's to the moms who don't have a dishwasher, or maid, or laundry room, and here's to the moms who do. Here's to the moms who work, who stay home, who give and give and give until they are empty vessels watching reruns of Law and Order at night.

Here's to the moms who go to bed with dirty dishes in the sink. Here's to the moms who have messy closets and dusty shelves. Here's to the moms who haven't shaved their legs since 1972.

Here's to the moms who read, who read to their children, who teach love, who hug as much as scold, who understand that a tantrum is a necessary part of growing up - and so is that glass of wine.

Here's to the moms who have pow wow's and marching bands in their living room, who make tents and do puzzles, who build skyscrapers out of stuffed animals, who will do anything dorky or insane to get a laugh out of their sourpuss toddler. Here's to the moms who would rather their child have messy hair, than ruin the mood. Here's to the moms who sing and dance with their children, who stop the dishes and laundry for a good snuggle. Here's to the moms who can't wrap packages in pretty paper and bows, but can give their child their time. Here's to the moms whose patience has run out, who cries because she feels she is messing everything up, here's to that mom... because you aren't.

Here's to the mom who isn't perfect. And here's to the mom whose child isn't perfect either. There are a lot more of you than you think. Happy Mother's Day to you. Because motherhood isn't a Gap commercial or Hallmark card. And children, just like life are messy. Here's to the mom who fails at perfection, but finds perfection in the messiness of life and motherhood.

Mother's Day

Overheard conversation:

Froggydadda: Froggy, tomorrow is Mother's Day. It's a special day for Mommy. What should we do?

Froggy: Drink lemonade and wrestle.

Perfect!

Three Gross Froggyisms

Froggy is completely potty trained, even for bed/naptime. Woo Hoo... however....

The other day Froggy peed on the top of her closed potty chair. She stood on it and peed, just to be a twirp. I grabbed the paper towels and cleaner and said, "Froggy, do you think Mommy likes cleaning up your pee?" And because I haven't learned anything these last three years, Froggy turned to me and said, "You do... you ENJOY it Mommy."

Tonight while rocking Froggy to sleep, she tooted rather loudly and in half sleep said, "Whew, that was raunchy!"

And yesterday, because the potty incident was not enough, she peed in the cat box. I came in the bathroom and saw an incredibly HUGE dark spot in the cat box and called her on it.

FM: Froggy did you pee in the cat box?
Froggy: Yep. (proudly of course)
FM: How, how did you pee in the catbox?
Froggy: I just lifted my leg, like Buddy, held onto the sink like this (demonstrating) and peed.

Lovely.

A Venice Kind of Day

Good Clinic Appointment

Last Wednesday, Froggy had her CF clinic appointment. Good news all around!

Weight: 30lbs (about 18th percentile). We're working on increasing it, but she's just genetically a stringbean!

Height: 38 1/3 inches

Pulse oximeter- 99 percent

Her lungs sound clear, she doesn't have a cough, her lungs are POIFECT!!!

And we just got her sputum culture back and drum roll please...NO Pseudomonas, NO Staph, just the normal flora. Woo Hoo!!!

We finished her two months of the inhaled antibiotic, and even though she cultured negative for Pseudomonas, we're going to continue every other month of inhaled antibiotic - to fight it aggressively. We are sooooo enjoying our shorter treatments. Good, good news!!!

Happy Birthday Bee Man!

Froggy's best bud The Bee Man turned three last weekend. His lovely family had a cozy gathering in their backyard. And yes, my kid is sitting on the birthday boy's table. What else is new?

And today....

After a really tough morning of Froggy smearing peanut butter all over the house, throwing the dog food, pouring out her breakfast onto the sofa, pouring water on the coffee table, and locking the bathroom door (FD had to remove the doorknobs), I was about ready to lose my mind. I said, "Froggy, we're going to take a nap, and when you wake up, you're going to be a nice girl who listens to Mommy." And she replied, "No... I'm going to wake up and do naughty things." Did you ever see that old black and white movie "The Bad Seed." Yep, that was our day.

It was quite possibly one of the most difficult 'mommy days' of my life. She was beyond thunderdome crazy. I think this kid is ready for preschool, whether we like it or not, she's ready. I've been weighing the virus factor with kindergarten readiness and I think we may not have a choice. She is bored out of her mind with me. And I'm starting to feel like that woman in the "yellow wallpaper" short story.

Great Strides

Lots of running before and after the walk.

Froggy and Hummingbird tired from a long 10K (yeah right, we walked about 4 K with three toddlers!)

The Three Muskateers! Froggy, Hummingbird and Bee Man.

(Our good friends "Franks and Beans" and Big D.)


I didn't take many pictures because I wanted to concentrate on catching up with friends, and of course we were chasing 3 three-year-olds. Talk about ENERGY!!!

It was a very laid back walk, and it was wonderful seeing my CF mom and dad friends. So far we've raised about $5000. But we're still taking donations, so if you didn't give before the walk, there's still time. Just click HERE.

Thank you everyone who donated, sent us emails and were there in spirit!

Fundraising Funk

It's been a tough year for fundraising. I hate to say the "e" word because I'm sure you're also sick of hearing about how bad the "e" is, but maybe that's a contributing factor.

Our walk is this Saturday and we've raised about $3500 - which is great... but last year we raised over $20,000 and the year before we raised $28,000.

Mieke and I were talking about the fundraising funk and I think the heart of it is that people are sick of hearing about money, talking about money, and even giving money. There are so many non-profits, so many email requests and causes, that after a while it all blends into one universal open hand that says, "gimme, gimme, gimme." Maybe after three years, our plea for research funds have stopped being influential and have just become annoying.

Can you tell I'm a little down?

There's something that has really been bothering me that I have to get on paper.

I sent out my fundraising email about a week ago and accidentally sent it to two people I didn't personally know. One woman has the same last name as a friend of mine, and the other woman I had mistakenly added to my address book for having donated in the past. Boy was I wrong. These ladies were from my yahoo parenting group and they sent me emails saying they didn't know me and didn't want my spam and wanted me not to solicit them. One woman actually reported me to the yahoo group moderator saying I spammed her. AOL automatically saves any email address I receive, so we must have emailed one another in the past - probably trading parenting info.

I've been obsessing over this for a week now. I immediately apologized to these women, because it was my mistake for emailing strangers. But after a little while, I thought, who would be angry about a mom asking for money for their child's disease research? Did they read my letter? Did they watch Froggy's video. Mistake or not, would you accuse a mom of "spamming" you, if she was asking for her daughter's life? Would you be angry? I was insulted that someone would call my fundraising letter 'spam'. It's not a freaking pyramid scheme, it's research so my baby can live a long life. And someone is angry about that?

I know I shouldn't obsess, but I went from feeling like an idiot for mistakenly emailing someone to feeling like these women were heartless.

I hope that if the same happened to me I would make a small donation, email them back and say, "Even though I don't know you, I hope this little bit helps." Because we're all moms after all. I hope I would be able to relate, to empathize with a mom who felt helpless, who wanted to raise money for their child's research.

It's bothersome because it's difficult understanding how people can compartmentalize. Maybe we are so bombarded with spam emails, calls, texts, that after a while any form of communication becomes cheap and unwanted. Maybe people are just fed up with being asked for something. Maybe it's a survival mechanism for people not to partake, to close up and shut off. Maybe it's easier to say, "not my problem, I don't know you" than it is to think about what it would be like if your child needed help. Maybe they're angry for having to think about that. Maybe they're angry for being reminded that they are lucky. It's like when you're trying to have a nice picnic in the park and that annoying homeless guy is staggering around and cursing, and he ruins your day because sometimes you just want to close off, to believe that you don't deserve to be reminded of these things. Why is he trying to ruin my nice afternoon with his mental illness and body odor? How dare he. Doesn't he know I work all week and deserve a day off?

Is this where we are as human beings? Where we're angry at others for reminding us that we're human, that we're mortal? I know, I'm taking this too far. Like I said, I'm obsessing.

I should be concentrating on ALL of those wonderful donations, the many who have posted our pictures on their website and blogs, facebook pages, sent emails to friends and family. I should concentrate on the prayer chains, and hundreds of people who everyday send us love and think of Froggy, who email and call, keep tabs on her health. I should concentrate on the fact that our friends send us grocery gift certificates, and money for Froggy's healthcare. I should concentrate on the fact that my little cousin who just graduated from college gave $50, that someone I don't even know gave $500! As I write this I realize how incredibly ridiculous I am, for spending a single moment on people who don't get it, when there are so many who do.

This world is full of giving, wonderful people and I'm going to concentrate my thoughts on them. There are many. And it is a waste of time to obsess over people who don't. Once again I'm reminded of your love. Thank you for supporting our little family and all the kiddos and adults with CF. And if you haven't given please click HERE.