Last night we made our very first ER Visit with Liam.

We had a wonderful Friday Evening planned. I had been marinating steaks all day and had a killer new recipe for Loaded Mashed Potatoes I found on Pinterest. Liam and I had already visited the park, worked on a few house chores and had an all around good day.

It was getting close to bed time and Liam was starting to get crabby. I put him in his Bumbo and put him on the countertop like I do nearly every evening while I cook dinner. I was working hard on my Loaded Mashed Potatoes and Will started grilling the steaks. Liam is an outdoor enthusiast already, so I sent him outside to sit in his Bumbo with Will.

Will propped him on a stable, elevated surface about counter height under our carport where he was grilling. I came out several times to check them. Liam was playing and laughing. Will was standing directly next to him playing with him and checking steaks.

About the time the oven went off for the potatoes I heard Will yell. I knew from the sound of his voice something wasn't right. I then heard Liam begin screaming like I've never heard before. I raced to the other side of the house and met will coming through the door. I already knew what had happened but I asked anyways. Will was hysterical already. He was playing with Liam and turned around to check the steaks. When he turned Liam lunged forward to continue playing and flipped the Bumbo over. He fell and hit the concrete carport.

I immediately gave Liam a dose on Tylenol and held him. He cried and cried. Who could blame him? All the while I'm trying to calm my panicked husband.

I'm a waiter. I always try and wait things out. In any "emergency" situation I delay making the call to rush to the doctor if there is no obvious, blatant trauma (blood, bones sticking out...). I wanted to see how bad Liam was hurt before we ran off to the ER "for no reason". Will is the opposite. When things happen he wants to get in the car immediately.

Nothing was bleeding, but Liam was obviously hurting and scared.

When Liam stopped crying, I didn't feel right. He's always been very strong with holding his head up right, even since 2 weeks old. He wouldn't hold his head up. He acted extremely disoriented and wouldn't focus his attention.

After what seemed like hours (and was actually about 4 minutes) calming my husband and delaying him cranking the car. I knew we needed to go have him looked at.

I grabbed the diaper bag and started a bottle. I had Will pull the steaks off the grill and the potatoes out of the oven. I don't know where it came from, but as scared as I was, I was oddly calm about it all. It was a good balance to Will's panicked and upset state.

Liam was still extremely disoriented and was turning pale.

We got in the car and headed for the hospital. Will had no idea where to go. I directed him to the only hospital I knew of (which apparently was not the closest one!).

It had been raining for several hours. The roads were wet and Will was so rushed. I just knew that any injury Liam had wouldn't matter because we were about to hydroplane and die anyways. We passed a Sheriff clocking people. Will said he would have to pull him over in the hospital parking lot because he was not stopping. I agreed, but still thought he should slow down some. Luckily he didn't come after us.

I began to get even more worried in the car. Liam was white and was trying to doze off. I instantly went worst case thinking he had some kind of brain trauma. I wouldn't let him fall asleep!

My brain didn't feel like it was functioning properly. My calm demeanor at the house was losing out to fear and panic. I couldn't find my phone and couldn't remember what I had grabbed at the house, if the oven was turned off, or if we had shut the door. I didn't really care.

I got Will's phone and texted our friends at Revolve Church. I told them it was Leah, Liam had fallen far onto concrete, we needed prayers, we were on our way to the ER. I typed in names of anyone I could think of that Will might have in his phone. I know I left so many people out, but news traveled quickly.

Looking back, that message was so vague! People assumed he was bleeding to death! My poor parents had their anniversary dinner interrupted by my panicked words and rushed 45 minutes to check on us.

We made it to the hospital, got checked in, and saw the nurse. About 15 minutes had passed since Liam fell. By the time the nurse saw him, he was smiling some and began to focus more.

She got us back into the ER anyways.

The doctor saw us immediately. He checked Liam out and got him to smile several times and focus his attention. We saw another doctor as well. She recommended that Liam be kept for observation for a bit but she didn't want to do a CT because it was too much radiation and he seemed fine. Of course, by this point he is talking and laughing and you can't tell anything ever happened. That's how it happens I suppose.

So many of our friends showed up to check on him! Others sent encouraging messages. I'm so thankful for all of them! I had a moment then when I felt really silly for rushing to the ER and worrying everyone... but I'm certain it's better to be safe than sorry. God forbid he had actually had some type of real trauma and I would have waited. I would never forgive myself.

Aside from a nice goose egg and a scratch and a scrape, you would never know he got hurt. I've always heard people say "babies bounce", and I am so grateful they do. God knew what he was doing when he made them!

I woke him up a few times during the night. He was perfect! He seemed a bit sore this morning, but has been a happy boy!

As for the Bumbo. I KNOW the box says not to use it on elevated surfaces. But everyone does it. I really have never met anyone that hasn't put their child in a bumbo on the table or counter. I had only heard of ONE child flipping one and it was on the ground. To be perfectly honest, I brushed it off because he is WILD! I won't stop using the Bumbo all together... but I've learned my lesson about using it on elevated surfaces. I won't do it again.

Will and I are both still struggling with guilt. It's our fault it happened. We put him up where he shouldn't have been. Will turned his back for a split second. It happened SO FAST! I don't blame him though, because It could have happened on my watch too.

I'm so thankful for everyone who supported us emotionally. I felt so much better when everyone shared stories of their child's accidents and what they did! It was also nice to be surrounded by people that love us so much. It's been hard being in a new city and not knowing a lot of people. The reassuring part is knowing that the people we do know are some of the greatest people on earth. They didn't think twice about interrupting their Friday evening to come make sure Liam was ok. Even the people who couldn't stop what they were doing and leave, stopped what they were doing and PRAYED and that means just as much. I'm so thankful for my Revolve Church family!

I know this isn't our last crazy emergency situation... but hopefully it will be a LONG TIME before we have another!

For those of you that haven't figured it out yet, I'll let you in on a little secret. My family doesn't follow the "norm"...

In our house, we don't do the "Easter Bunny" (or Santa Claus for that matter...). There is something uncomfortable to me about celebrating the death (and birth) of the greatest man in history by totally detracting focus from him onto fictitious characters that are allowed to break into your house because they come bearing gifts. It's so important to me that my kids look at these holidays as more than time off school or occasions to receive gifts, but as a time to stop and reflect on their faith and the savior that makes their daily life possible.

I also don't judge people... so carry on your traditions!

We DO; however, exchange gifts for such occasions.
Why? BECAUSE...
Christmas: It's a BIRTHDAY celebration and the Wise Men brought gifts to Jesus.
Easter: Jesus' death is the world's GREATEST gift.
More Selfishly: It's less socially awkward and I don't want my children feeling left out.

I tell you all of that to say...

SO, sweet baby Liam celebrated his first Easter today! He enjoyed it immensely even though his gifts were not brought by a rabbit.

Photo evidence:

and YES I did make the only dog of mine that would sit still participate in the festivities! Poor, poor Dylan!


We are fortunate to attend a church that offers Easter services throughout the entire weekend, so we attended Saturday night and enjoyed a relaxing Sunday brunch!

I hope your Easter celebrations were JOYOUS!

...in my life.

I never did like that song. I do; however, LOVE sunshine! In honor of the first day of Spring (not that it hasn't already been 80+ here for WEEKS) we caught some rays.

My parents used to say this over and over and over and over while I was growing up. It's engrained into my brain. "If it's not yours, don't touch it!" 


Funny how the repetition of such a simple phrase to a child brings about a life lesson carried on into adulthood. As an adult that phrase really seems like common sense but APPARENTLY it is a product of nurture and not nature. Maybe not everyone's parents were as awesome as mine... because some of you need some serious home training.

What am I getting at?

A series of frustrating and unfortunate circumstances in which pictures from my blog and posted only to my blog have been found... in other locations (cough, cough Facebook).

Now, I KNOW my kid is a cutie-patootie. I get that. However, please realize that he is MY CHILD and his pictures are MINE! Also, as "public" as my blog is, it can not be found through search engines and isn't listed with blogger. It can only be found when it is shared. Therefore, for the most part, only people that I WANT to see these pictures get to see them.

Another important factor is that I'm friends with more people than I should be on Facebook. I'm friends with hundreds of people and a large chunk are friends of friends, random people I met once at an event, people from high school I didn't talk to then and still don't talk to now, "Internet Friends" that I've never met in person but we have something in common (blogs, dogs, etc.)... you get the idea. The BEAUTY of Facebook (and google+ for that matter) is the PRIVACY SETTINGS. I can share things with certain groups of people and not others and block people that aren't my friends from seeing anything but my name!

The point is that when I post my child's pictures in a blog post (or in a private album on Facebook), I EXPECT them to stay there.

Let me just say that when I posted a blog with pictures of my precious little boy that have only been shown on my blog and then I log into Facebook to find them in a public album on someone else's Facebook page with no privacy settings I get just a little (read VERY VERY VERY EXTREMELY) angry.

Am I blowing something simple out of proportion... part of me says well maybe a little... but then the mommy in me comes out and says "Oh, Heck No!" It's a sad reality that there are some freaks and psychos out there... especially on the internet. I do not want my child's picture subject to the vast public that is all of the internet. I have my privacy settings in place for a reason and that reason is to protect my child.

With all of that mumbo jumbo venting madness out of the way, you will now notice that my pictures from here on out (and past blogs as I have time) are no longer clickable. You can't click to get a bigger view and you can't right click and download and save them. Sorry Charlie. If it's not yours, DON'T TOUCH IT!

I know, I know, now you are scared people are going to steal your little kiddos too and you want to make your pics unclickable as well. No worries, I'll share my secret!

How did I do it? Some ridic HTML magic.

So, obviously the pic above is totally clickable. In order to make it unclickable, go into the HTML version of your blog post (in blogger: up at the top on the left next to compose). Every picture has an HTML code that looks something like this:


<  a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoVY5dgLeOEC04zzQVXP2mhvEPtIdhdbOGdGzaB2cm36XshFSEybNckrK62JiCcGrNzuAWCLZbHasiope2d3d0mdN_vFGh_VBCrxa_lvDOsHV5ucxfJwOaR3abJRKZa1OYRqwzjuYzKR4/s1600/IMG_1383.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><  img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoVY5dgLeOEC04zzQVXP2mhvEPtIdhdbOGdGzaB2cm36XshFSEybNckrK62JiCcGrNzuAWCLZbHasiope2d3d0mdN_vFGh_VBCrxa_lvDOsHV5ucxfJwOaR3abJRKZa1OYRqwzjuYzKR4/s320/IMG_1383.jpg" width="320" /><  /a><  /div>


(minus a few spaces I had to add in order to make the code appear as a code and not a picture!)


When you find that code, delete the following highlighted pieces of it:

<  a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoVY5dgLeOEC04zzQVXP2mhvEPtIdhdbOGdGzaB2cm36XshFSEybNckrK62JiCcGrNzuAWCLZbHasiope2d3d0mdN_vFGh_VBCrxa_lvDOsHV5ucxfJwOaR3abJRKZa1OYRqwzjuYzKR4/s1600/IMG_1383.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><  img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoVY5dgLeOEC04zzQVXP2mhvEPtIdhdbOGdGzaB2cm36XshFSEybNckrK62JiCcGrNzuAWCLZbHasiope2d3d0mdN_vFGh_VBCrxa_lvDOsHV5ucxfJwOaR3abJRKZa1OYRqwzjuYzKR4/s320/IMG_1383.jpg" width="320" /><  /a><  /div>


once that piece is deleted, your picture is unclickable! YES!


Let's review:

If it's not yours, don't touch it! (especially if it's a pic of my baby!)

"Liam, if I put you in this now will you keep it clean until everyone gets here for the party?"

...what was I thinking?!

No baby outfit would be complete without a good dose of spit up! Especially spit up that has been played in!

We celebrate like good Irish with great food and great company!
On tonight's menu is:
Corned Beef and Cabbage
Shepherd's Pie
Rosemary Potatoes
Cheddar Ale Soup
Seared Lamb Shanks and Green Beans
and for dessert:
Queen of Puddings
Key Lime Pie (hey, it's green!!)

Happy St. Patrick's Day to you and yours!

There are only two kinds of people in the world, The Irish and those who wish they were.

I'm baaaaaaaaaaaack!

For real though. I feel like I've missed half of my life. It's been over 3 months since my last blog and it's been killing me! Life has happened with a vengeance and for the first time in... well, 3 months... I have been able to sit down and type out this madness that is my life.

Plus, many of my faithful readers have been guilting me about not posting (you know who you are!)... so here I am!

So what exactly has happened in my life since November 18, 2011?

I think the best way to explain it... is via iPhone...

Get Ready for overload...