Amstershiresauce

Trying to focus on the good

of which there is plenty. But poor Ted has to have surgery on his upper spine next week. There's no way around it. He has pretty extreme compression of the spinal cord and it could lead to bad things. He's already lost feeling in a finger and it may not come back. Argh! This is so scary. The surgery sounds pretty safe and has a very good prognosis. He'll probably feel good as new after, as opposed to the pain he's been living with for quite a while now. And our doctor seems really great and cutting edge, as it were. But jeez. It's his freakin' spine, for god's sake. It's still scary. And I don't want him to have to go through it. And I can't even imagine if anything ever happened to him. Who else would I ever find to make me homemade yogurt and side our house and be our kids' daddy and make me laugh with his twisted humor? Nobody. Well, we're just going to stop thinking like that right now. Because it's going to be fine, right?

Guess who's 6 months old?

Our sweet little Frankie Bean! I can't believe she's half a year old! I had the girls' photos taken the other day by a sweet photographer who just happens to have been Phi's old teacher's aide. I haven't gotten to see the whole slideshow of all the pics, but here's one she put up on her blog.
It's always such a hassle getting pictures taken, making sure everyone's happy and that their outfit stays clean, etc. But I'm always so glad when I get the pictures that I made the effort.
I really want to get the boys' photos done too, but I'm afraid they might feel the whole thing was dorky. They are going to have to submit to a holiday card family photo, but I'd love to get some freestyle outdoor shots of them like the ones I just got for the girls. Teenage boys...hmmph. I just found out my older stepson isn't even ordering any of his school pics this year. When I told him I wanted to buy one, he tried very valiantly to convince me they weren't good and that I could take a better picture myself. So I'm going to have to think of a bribe to get them in front of a camera lens.

Postpartum Hair Loss

… it was cool for summer, but now it's time to grow it back! I'm posting this here, on what is rapidly becoming the Blog O' TMI to give all you new mamas hope that your hair WILL come back after it has fallen out. I knew about this phenomenon from my first baby, so I cut my hair into a shorter bob after Frankie Bean was born. Such an epic volume fell out this time that I was forced to cut bangs and get it even shorter so it wouldn't hang there so drably. Yikes! Every time I would show someone my hairline I would get the same exact response: OH MY GOD! It didn't look too good, to say the least. I must say that it was sort of a pleasant feeling having the wind on my scalp when it was really hot, though.
So my little chubbie is six months old tomorrow and it's finally starting to grow back. Woo hoo! And the Phi'f will randomly now say every so often, "Mommy, I think your hair's growing in." Don't ask me how she even knows to say that. But THAT is why I had kids. I love having my own little Ed McMahon!