Blog Glob, 10/21/2008

First off, let me apologize for neglecting my blog. It has not been intentional but more a lack of being intentional. Work has been high-pressured and stressful the past couple of months and the last thing I have felt like doing in the evenings, after the kids are in bed, is to exert brain power to compose a blog post. I kept saying, "Not tonight". That has turned into a month of no posts.

Instead, I spent a lot of time on Hulu.com vegging out, too much time. That's why we got rid of the TV. So I'm going to have cut back on that.

My wife, as opposed to me, has been a posting maniac. So in this blog glob (it's a new bloggity phrase I'm trying to coin - meaning to throw together a post composed of many different topics or points), I'm going to link to many of her posts so I don't have to do as much work, the lazy man that I am.

Currently (about 3:00 p.m.), I'm sitting in my wife's hospital room, with her laptop. She and Sam are geting in some snuggle time. The last time we were here over two years ago for Ellie, Internet access was not available. Now they have free WiFi - yeah!

• Last Monday, Columbus Day, we went with our church to go apple picking. This is an annual tradition and is a lot of fun - the whole family looks forward to it. We went to a new orchard this year and were able to go on a free hayride - a first for all our kids. We picked 20 pounds of apples and have already enjoyed one apple pie, with at least one more to come - yum. Click here to read the post Stephanie did on this, with pictures. Even though this post is not about apple picking, it does include a great picture from then with Will making a goofy face.
  
• On Tuesday, October 7th, I arrived home to find everyone in the half bathroom. Stephanie was giving Will a lecture while she had Ben across her knees and was pressing a wet washcloth to the back of his head. Long story made short, Ben was standing on top of a ride in truck we have in the back yard, Will shook it, Ben fell off and the back of his head met the propped open screen door, resulting in about a half inch gash in the back of his head. Stephanie has posted about it here, but since I'm the one who actually took Ben to be taken care of, I'll try to give my own, brief, summary.
  • I called the pediatrician who sent us to an urgent care center.
  • Ben and I went and Stephanie stayed home with the rest of the kids.
  • We checked in at 6:45 p.m. and did not go back into an exam room until around 8:15. Good thing the wound had pretty much stopped bleeding (thanks to Stephanie and the washcloth).
  • To entertain ourselves during that time, Ben and I read one of the two children's books in the waiting room and drawing on the chalk board along one wall.
  • Once we got in, it took another twenty minutes before the doctor came to see us.
  • He put six staples in to close the gash.
  • He had me hold Ben on my lap, facing me with his legs around me and his face in my chest. Ben did great; he was a trooper.
  • Because of how Ben was sitting, the wound was about five inches below my face. As a result, the doctor kept asking, as he cleaned and stapled the wound, "Are you doing all right dad?"
  • Yes, I was fine.
  • We were done right around 9:00 p.m.
  • As a reward for doing so great, I took Ben out to eat and get ice cream. Neither of us had had supper prior to coming.
    
  • Since I like Burger King better than McDonald's we went there first. After looking over the menu and not seeing anything to do with ice cream other than a shake, I walked up to the counter and asked the worker if they had ice cream. He looked at me and said, in a condescending tone, "No, we don't carry ice cream, that would be McDonalds." I told him thank you and we left.
  • At McDonalds, Ben decided he only wanted the ice cream and not a hamburger, so that's what he got.
  • Over the next few days we had to constantly remind Ben, and his siblings, to be careful with his head.
  • On Sunday afternoon, I took Ben back to the urgent care center and had the staples removed. Despite my wife's reservations (see her post), I could have done that myself and gotten an hour and a half of my life back.
    
• A few weeks ago I went by a gas station to fill up my truck as it was on empty. The gas cap was one of those kinds that has a key so that you can lock it to prevent theft of gas. If the locking mechanism (or rather the unlocking mechanism) breaks, it can prevent the owner from filling the tank with gas. That's what happened to me. Not only would it not unlock (which means that the cap just spins instead of coming undone), but, in my attempt to fix this issue, the whole gas cap came apart, leaving the piece in the fill pipe in place. And I could not budge it with my hands. So I had to drive home - it's a good thing it's less than a mile away. I had to use a pair of large channel pliers to remove the remaining piece. See the picture below of the pieces.
  
• Last month we decided to take one last family vacation before Sam was born. So we stayed in a Crown Plaza hotel in Connecticut and went to the Big E on our last day. We had a great time watching TV, ordering room service, swimming in the heated indoor pool and of course, attending the Big E. See Stephanie's posts here, here and here. I loved the swimming and watching the Discovery Channel (How's it made, Myth Busters, etc.) at the hotel. At the Big E I enjoyed the sheep shearing demonstration, the circus and hanging out with Indy (see picture below).
  
• It's taken me about seven hours to do this post, having worked around changing a diaper, getting peed on, go home to eat supper and pick up the family for a visit to the newest member and holding Sam.