The Itsy Bitsy Spider

Norah and I are loving having BVZ around so much these days and are taking advantage of being able to go out to dinner (I love going out to dinner on weeknights). Usually we just walk up the street, but tonight it was raining, so we drove to get Chinese food. After stuffing ourselves with fried tofu, we found ourselves in a torrential downpour. We were parked kind of far away, so I ran to the car and Norah and BVZ walked about a block (under an overhang) to a place where I could pull up and throw them both in.

When we met up again they were both kind of shaken up. Apparently, while walking BVZ ran into a spider web, which got on his face. Then he looked down and there was a spider on his shirt. Now, BVZ hates spiders. HATES them. He has been known to cower in his 6'3 glory and make his 5'5 wife climb on a chair to get any that happen to be in the house. This is how the conversations went:

Me: What happened to you guys?
BVZ: Dude, I ran into a freaking spider. A SPIDER! A FREAKING SPIDER!
Me: Are you okay?
BVZ: What do you mean am I okay? Of course I am not okay. I RAN INTO A SPIDER.
Me: Did you scream?
BVZ: Um.
Me: Did you scream?
BVZ: OF COURSE I SCREAMED.
Me: Like a little girl?
BVZ: LIKE A LITTLE GIRL.

Apparently he startled some old lady walking behind them. As I was buckling Norah into her car seat I asked her what Daddy did and she did what is quite possibly the funniest thing she has ever done. I made her do it again as soon as we got home. It wasn't as good. But still freaking funny.

Boo-Boo

Lately, Norah has been really, really into having her boo-boos kissed. To the point where the littlest, most insignificant incidents become a big deal where she yells 'Norah Boo-Boo' and demands a big kiss and lots of attention. This was more apparent then ever when we were on the walk home from the park this morning and she licked a dandelion. Apparently dandelion tastes like burning (I sure hope they aren't poisonous....) and she insisted on getting a kiss on her tongue boo-boo. I have a pretty high tolerance for kid schmutz (I don't freak out when she wipes her nose on my leg, I will share my water even though she is the worst back-washer, and I love her sloppy kisses), but even I draw the line somewhere.

Both BVZ and I agreed that something has to be done before she becomes a cutter, so we told her that anything under a 5 on the 1-10 boo-boo scale will only get a 'shake it off' or 'cowboy up' and kisses were reserved for 6 and above. She seemed to take the news well and proceeded to touch a potato bug.

Funny Faces

This is not a great video because Norah lunges for the camera every time I get it out, but her new rotation of four faces is beyond hilarious.

Update on BVZ

Thanks to everyone for all of your kind thoughts and support over the past couple of days. BVZ had surgery on the herniation of his L5-S1 vertebrae on Monday and it was a success. The surgery took almost an hour longer than anticipated because the herniation was much older than they thought and was embedded in the inflamed tissue of his back. The best way I understand it is that when a disk herniates it leaks out gunk that is the consistency of caulking material. This is what has been pressing on his sciatic nerve and generally making all of our lives miserable. Usually, the surgeon can pull all the gunk out at the same time because it is still in basically one piece. But, in BVZ's case the gunk had kind of splintered out and the surgeon had to 'chip' away at it piece by piece to get it out. The surgeon suspected that the actual herniation happened many months, or even years, ago. Check out this post from back in May of 2008. I suspect this is when the herniation originally happened.

He was in recovery for about an hour and a half and got to have some ice chips. He made the mistake of telling a nurse that he felt a little nauseous because it had been so long since he had eaten* and she promptly took away his ice chips and gave him a shot of Fentanyl, a pretty strong narcotic that made him fall asleep immediately. When he woke up from that they took him to his room and I got to see him for the first time. He was extremely disoriented and VERY agitated and on the verge of a serious panic attack. He was stuck in an uncomfortable position on the bed and had on compression boots (standard for post-op to prevent blood clots) and an oxygen tube in his nose. Those things, plus the IV, made him extremely claustrophobic and he started trying to rip them all out. I tried to soothe and reassure him but all he could say was 'I just want a fucking mocha' over and over again (which in retrospect is quite hilarious. You know that when I use the f word, it's oh, a Monday, but when BVZ does you know he is in a bad, bad place). He snapped and cursed at a nurse, which is so uncharacteristic of him that I knew he was losing it. His blood pressure spiked WAY up, almost certainly a result of his state of mind, and so everyone was on high alert to calm him down quickly.

We got him shifted in position, the boots and nose tube removed and he normalized very quickly. It took about an hour for his blood pressure to become stable again, but eventually it did and so there wasn't any more cause for concern. I got permission to get him a mocha and all was right with the world again. He spent the night in the hospital and with the exception of an unfortunate incident involving a bedpan that I won't share because I don't want to get divorced, there were no further complications.

He got home about 1:00 pm yesterday and we've all been settling into the new routine where he can't do anything for two weeks except watch movies and take short walks. He can't pick up Norah for FOUR weeks, which you can imagine she is thrilled about. She keeps saying 'Up, please' and we keep explaining to her why he can't pick her up and she sighs and says, 'Daddy, owie. Back, back, back' and points to her back. It's pretty cute.

But the good news is that his pain is virtually completely gone and he slept through the night last night for the first time in a really long time. BVZ is already going a little stir crazy though, so it should be an interesting couple of weeks. Keep your fingers crossed.

(*All in all he went without food or water for about 18 hours. Which totally sucked. When I had Norah, I was forced to go without food for about 60 hours (48 hours of labor with pitocin and then 12 hours post surgery). And I had to have a baby. And then nurse her. Without any prompting from me, BVZ finally understood how much that suuuuuucked. I was very compassionate and told him it was all relative, even though I really wanted to say something else....)

It Takes A Village

I have bragged before how lucky we were to meet a fabulous group of moms when our babies were itty bitties. Every day I think I wouldn't survive parenthood without them. I have always joked that the kids are screwed if they grow up not liking each other because we are going to make them hang out anyway. Thankfully, that doesn't look like it will be a problem.

The girls are dressed in matching dresses that Caleb brought them from Hawaii because they were throwing a little party for Caleb in celebration of his soon-to-be baby brother (Caleb wasn't there yet.) The ladies love him--he's so going to have 3 dates to the prom.

The Inevitable

This afternoon I was putting groceries away in the kitchen and BVZ and Norah were doing an alphabet puzzle in the living room. And it happened. I dropped a butternut squash on my foot and said the F word (in the kitchen). Between identifying the letter O as 'O' and the letter T as 'Tiger' followed by a roar, Norah also said the F word (in the living room). We didn't even flinch and she had no idea she had just made Grammy's worst fear come true.

I am trying. I swear (no pun intended).

The Mohawk

I am so happy that Norah finally has enough hair for the bathtub Mohawk.

The Box

A few weeks ago, Norah became enamored by a box from Diapers.com. She played hide and seek in it, trapped the cat in it, read books in it, drank milk in it, and made her friends get in as well. We finally had to recycle it because it literally fell apart. I don't know why I bother to buy her actual toys.

After Dinner Walks

As soon as I get home Monday through Thursday it is a Mom and Norah love-fest. I have to pack in a full day into two and a half short hours and we take advantage of every second. Since spring seems to officially have sprung, we've been taking walks around the block after dinner every night. Walking around the block with Norah takes about a half hour because we stop to smell every flower, touch every tree, say hello to every rock. We see the same people out every evening (the bike rider, our neighbor Ronnie walking her little dog, and the man who lives up the street who has three gigantic Siberian Huskies). They are all thrilled to see her and she's pretty stoked to see them (okay, really, the only thing she cares about is those Siberian Huskies). She loves exploring the neighborhood and I can't get enough of her. It's win-win.

New Hobby

Norah's latest obsession is taking pictures with my phone. I think she is getting really good and has quite the artistic flair.

Catch-Up

It's been awhile. We've been busy. BVZ is having back surgery next week. We've had a handful of amazingly beautiful days, so we've been spending as much time as possible outside. I'm trying my best.

Check out the pig-tails!

Comment Schmomment

So, we are apparently so popular over here at the ole' GVZ blogspot that we are getting lots of spam in the comments. I made some adjustments and you will now have to enter a word verification when you post a comment. I hope that won't dissuade those who comment regularly, or infrequently, or NEVER AT ALL (immediate family I am speaking to you!) because I love hearing what you have to say.

Picture is unrelated, but isn't it cute? We were at the young explorer room at the Academy of Arts and Sciences and Norah was not pleased that the wall animals were not actually pettable (like that new word?).

Swoon

Pam just sent this photo of the girls this morning. It is taking everything I have not to run out of here this instant and go scoop up the cuteness.