my baum shelter

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I do better with structure. And, I’ve decided if this blog is going to survive, it needs more structure, too. So, you’ll probably notice some changes and a lot more posts. If you want to subscribe to all posts, just enter your email to get notified at the top right of the page.

And now, for those of you needing a babyBaum fix ~

We went to the butterfly exhibit at the Botanical Gardens yesterday. The exhibit was in the huge greenhouse and it was HUMID. We spent most of our time trying to keep babyBaum from crushing the butterflies and ripping large elephant ear leaves off of the trees. We saw lots of great butterflies and surprisingly, there were no butterfly casualties, though plenty of near misses and sadly, one elephant ear leaf might not make it. And, our bonus: babyBaum’s hair when we left. His wavy hair turns into a bounty of curls whenever it’s humid.

After spending half the day yesterday at the ENT’s office, we learned some things ~ 1) babyBaum was suffering from hearing loss in both ears as a result of his chronic ear infections and 2) this last infection was still ablaze in both ears despite the latest injections of antibiotics. So, it took me and the doctor about .003 seconds to agree to have tubes put in babyBaum’s ears.

Now, ordinarily I would admit this next part with some modicum of shame, but not this time – I’m not ashamed to admit that I asked the ENT (who works regularly with Fred) if he would do us a favor and squeeze us onto his surgery schedule for the next day. I couldn’t help myself. I’ve been watching my son in pain with raging fever for over two weeks now. I’m sleep deprived. Fred’s on call this week and I couldn’t bear the thought of waiting another week or two to get those suckers put in. Luckily, everyone who has ever worked with Fred loves him and the wonderful ENT was more than happy to add us onto today’s schedule.

So, I’m happy to report that as I write this post:

my baby has two tiny tubes in each of his ears,

he is asleep in his crib (hopefully, for the night),

I’m in my pj’s in bed ready to watch television and crash for the night,

I’ve already called Fred and asked him nicely (after telling him how much I love him and will surely miss him) to sleep in the guest room tonight so he doesn’t wake me when he returns from the hospital in the wee hours,

and I see a bright, happy future for us ~ one that involves sleeping and sleeping and sleeping.

Hello, sleep, my long lost friend – I’ve missed you.

Grandparents really are a wonderful commodity.

We’ve had a rough few days. Friday night brought a mild fever for babyBaum, which we initially attributed to teething. After all, he was taking antibiotics for his ear infection, so it couldn’t be that, right? Riiiight.

So, we lost a little sleep Friday night, but nothing we couldn’t handle. We even managed to host a pancake breakfast/cheer party for our neighbors and friends as we watched the Cowtown Marathoners (our house is directly on the marathon route, near the halfway point). It was a really fun time cheering the runners on.

Then, immediately after the Marathon, babyBaum’s temperature skyrocketed to around 104°, where it has hovered ever since. Saturday night, I got exactly two hours of sleep. Fred had to go into work on Sunday, so first thing, I called my mom.

“Would it be possible for you to cancel any plans you guys have for today and let me bring babyBaum over so you can watch him while I sleep in the guest room?”

And without any hesitation, my wonderful mother says, “Sure!” Because that’s what grandparents do. They drop everything to love on their child and grandchild. In my case, the grandchild gets a little more loving than the child, but I’m okay with that.

So, off we went to Nana and Grandpa’s house. They rocked, comforted, and played with my feverish baby while I slept. Grandparents really are a treasure. When your baby is sick, you can just hand him over and trust that they are going to love him and watch over him with as much love and concern as you do. Which means you can sleep. And sleep means you don’t pull all your hairs out one by one at 3am. Getting that time in to nap and have someone else take over for the day was just what both me and babyBaum needed. Especially, since last night was another one filled with feverish wakings.

This morning the pediatrician found that the one ear infection from last week had morphed into two: the original one had developed into “the worst ear infection I’ve ever seen in all my career,” and the second one was just, you know, your run of the mill ear infection. Oh, both of which were apparently immune to the very strong anitbiotic babyBaum was taking. So, we’re now on a stronger antibiotic – we may have a ruptured ear drum in our future – babyBaum may have to get a shot on Wednesday if this one doesn’t work – and I’m thinking, that whole “we may have to get ear tubes” issue has moved solidly into the Certainly Will Happen category. The appointment with the ENT to discuss ear tubes isn’t for another week.

I will confess that I have a sink full of dirty dishes and about six (yes, SIX!) loads of dirty clothes that need washing. There’s dried up oatmeal on my kitchen floor from when babyBaum tried to tell me he was “All Done!” this morning at breakfast and it will probably stay there for several more hours at least. And, I’ve worn the same pullover and jeans going on three days now. We probably shouldn’t even discuss when I last washed my hair. So, if you run into me later today at the store, a believable, “Hi, Dionna, you look so great!” would very much be appreciated.

At some point during each night, babyBaum kicks his feet in his sleep. Sometimes, he looks like he’s doing bicycle exercises in the air. Other times, he’s at the side of the crib and kicks the slats of the crib while somehow not managing to wake himself.

Tonight, about 30 minutes after going to bed, babyBaum screamed out in pain. I ran into his room and found him with one leg stuck very firmly between two of the slats. Now, just to give you an idea of the acrobats needed to achieve such a feat in one’s sleep, it took me several minutes of twisting and turning at exactly the right angles to get the leg free. Luckily, a few minutes with Mama in the rocking chair was all it took for him to slip back into slumberland.

Not much time to post today but I wanted to share a friend’s new blog. My friend Sarah, of the Homestead Farms I’ve talked about before, has started a blog that I think is well worth your time to read. I’ve heard a lot of her stories in person and we have fallen in love with Farmer Michael and his wife at our house – and not just because they provide us with such good food. She’s a suburban girl who fell in love with a farmer and now finds herself with plenty of entertaining material about life on a farm.

Just a few days ago, she walked into the food pantry at our church where we volunteer together and says, “It’s been one of those mornings – stuck in traffic for 2 hours and now, I find poop on my jeans.” I then informed the man standing behind her with a horrified look on his face, “Don’t worry – she lives on a farm. It’s goat poop.”

On a completely unrelated, random note . . . I just finished an amazing conversation with one of my dearest friends. Her husband recently passed at far too young of an age and she, far too young to be a widow, is left to single-handedly raise their five children and take over the family business. How’s that for gaining some perspective on your life? Saying my piddly complaints pale in comparison seems too generous. Anyway, at some points in our talk, we laughed so hard it hurt and I was struck by how great it is to have people in your life who really know you and know your heart inside and out. The people you can laugh with even in the midst of tragedy. The people you need in your life especially when tragedy strikes because you need to laugh so hard it hurts. I love you, HB.

I’m too exhausted to post much right now. babyBaum was diagnosed with an ear infection today – this makes four infections in the last six months. And, that means we must go see an ear specialist and discuss the possibility of getting tubes put into his ears. I would rather my little baby boy not have to undergo surgery, but we will just have to see what the ENT recommends.

In the meantime, here is my precious baby. I swear he is cuter when he is sick.

For awhile, he played along with me as I took pictures of him. I’m still trying to figure everything out on my new camera.

Did I mention that babyBaum is also cutting some new teeth (hence the inordinate amount of drool)? Poor baby, he just can’t catch a break.

I love the fact that a 103° fever doesn’t keep my baby from dancing his little heart out.

I then turned the Auto setting off and played around – I really like how these turned out. Not that I understand exactly what I did, mind you.

These last pictures remind me of a line from a song I sing to babyBaum ~ little sack of sugar, gonna eat you up

So, now that our dear babyBaum is ONE YEAR OLD, he has gained some attitude. It seems someone wants us to know that he is not a baby anymore.

In the days leading up to his birthday, he developed a penchant for greeting people with a scrunched up nose and a scowl  — that usually is quickly followed by a grin and a laugh. But, it’s like he wants to show he has a tough side, too, and isn’t just another pretty baby face. I’ve yet to successfully catch this face on camera, but I continue trying.

Today, though, he started doing something completely new and baffling to us and we caught it on video. I present for your viewing pleasure our little Incredible Hulk ~

Fast Tube by Casper

He will grab a piece of food or toy and try to squeeze the life out of it while shaking his entire body furiously. It’s hysterical. Everytime he does it, Fred and I crack up laughing which only causes him to do it over and over again.

I’m not sure whether this is an omen of things to come, but it sure is entertaining!

For babyBaum’s birthday, we decided to have a family-only birthday celebration. With just family, we had 14 adults and 6 children and our house is not that large so it would have been difficult to include any more than we already had.

One of my favorite parts of the birthday bash was our photo booth. I bought a couple of yards of red and white striped fabric and hung it on the wall with thumbtacks as our backdrop. I then purchased a couple dozen foam clown noses here.  We tried to get a picture of babyBaum with all our guests – tried being the operative word. He was cooperative for the first two photos; however, he decided he’d had enough of the clown nose after that. Somehow, we managed to not get a photo with me and Fred, so we’ll have to try and get one with the three of us the next time we have someone here. All the photos from our “photo booth” are at the end of the post.

The clown noses ended up being quite entertaining for the young ones. I was very impressed with their creativity . . . 

 babyBaum’s cousins even made him a headband made of clown noses!

 Since I had no idea we could get by with a few foam clown noses as entertainment, we also had a genuine Bozo the Clown Bucket Bonanza game (that I got on clearance for $9.99) and we gave all the kids circus tattoos.

 This niece requested and received the most tats of all – on her hands, arms, legs, and feet. Maybe she’ll grow up to be a biker girl? I’m pretty sure her parents are hoping not.

All in all, it was a very fun get-together and worth all the effort that went into its planning. It was even worth the jokes from my brother Chad who constantly tells me that I have too much free time on my hands and need to go back to working full time. I then gloated and told him the cost of this birthday bash was 1/5 of the amount of money he forked over at the bouncy ball place for my nephew’s last birthday party. Sometimes, being crafty pays off!

Below are all our photos from the “photo booth” -

I will admit it – I went all out for babyBaum’s first birthday party. I was a crafting machine and, as is usually the case when I attempt anything creative, some of the crafts far surpassed my expectations and some were just plain failures. But, I had a lot of fun planning and creating and then celebrating amidst my crafts. Fred and I had made it ONE YEAR.

So, first the scene. I decided on a circus theme and from there decided on red and turquoise as my main colors. Because, you know, color scheme matters. For the decorations, I decided on making tissue paper chandeliers, a paper flag bunting banner, and labels for the popcorn, water bottles and cotton candy with a fun circus font.

 The tissue paper flowers were ridiculously easy to make. Really – it’s become one of my new favorite crafts because it takes all of 25¢ and 20 minutes to make one of these really pretty chandeliers that look like they took way more than a quarter and 20 minutes to make. I followed these directions from the Queen of Crafts herself, Ms. Martha Stewart. I also used her directions to make the flag bunting, which would’ve turned out a little better if I had paid any attention to measurements. As it turned out, the banner took up one whole length of my living room wall.

For the labels, I downloaded a free circus font from dafont.com. I used round Avery labels for the popcorn and cotton candy and just plain paper and double sided tape for the water bottles. This was so very easy to do – the only time consuming part was figuring out dimensions but I have a Word template now; so, if anyone is interested, let me know and I’ll send it to you. I used the standard size 16.9 oz water bottles (these were from Costco). For the popcorn buckets, I used these from Wilton.

For the food, we had standard party fare ~ sandwiches, veggie tray, fruit and cheese tray, spinach dip. And, then we had our circus birthday party fare – popcorn, cotton candy, cupcakes, cake balls, cake pops, and, of course, animal crackers.

Most of the work for this party went into the baking. My friend Barbara first introduced me to the world of cake balls. Delicious bite-sized balls of cake dipped in chocolate. I love them very much. Then, the Pioneer Woman introduced me to Bakerella and my eyes were opened up to a whole new world of baking possibilities that included not only cake balls, but cake pops. A bite-sized ball of cake on a lollipop stick? Count me in!  So, with that inspiration, I decided to embark and make some cake balls and cake pops and even make some cake pops in the shape of circus tents. The circus tent ones did not turn out so well – you can see them there in the picture. But, they all tasted great, which in the end, is all that matters when it comes to dessert, right? I also made some cupcakes and an individual cake for the birthday boy.

We had too many people to fit in our tiny kitchen, so we laid down a sheet, dressed babyBaum in his pj’s, and let him go to town. It took him awhile to realize what was before him, but once he did, he was more than happy to dig in.

Stay tuned for part 2 of the Birthday Bash – circus games, clown noses, circus tattoos, and our photo booth. I’ll post those later. There’s only so many photos I can upload while babyBaum naps!