My sick children

I took Mikey to the doctor yesterday because I suspected he might have another ear infection.  He gave little indication that his ear was bothering him but given his history and a slight fever on Tuesday, I decided to take him.  And his left ear is infected and ruptured because of it.  You would think that if your ear was so full of gunk that it ruptured, you would be in quite a lot of pain.  We really didn't know anything was wrong with him.  He's going to be seeing the ear, nose, and throat guy pretty soon to have his hearing checked and he might end up having to get tubes in his ears.  He's had several ear infections since the beginning of December.

In other news, Jackson started running a fever about 5:00 yesterday evening.  It quickly went up to about 104 so we took him out to the Emergency Room.  They tried Motrin and that brought it down so we came back home.  And he seems fine this morning.  Since I seem to catch everything, I'll probably catch whatever virus he has.  Last night in the ER Jackson pointed out (not very quietly) that "that man over there is naked."  He wasn't actually naked, he just didn't have a shirt on.....and he should have.....it was gross.

Date Night

Every Tuesday evening is "date night" for Phillip and me.  When we first heard about couples having a designated night a week to get away we didn't really think that was something we would ever do.  I guess it's probably been a couple of years now since we've been doing Tuesday date night.  It is pretty high on our priority list.  We are lucky enough to live close to our parents so we don't have to break the bank on sitters.  And it gives our kids and their grandparents time to build important bonds.  

So, why do we do it?  We do it so that just for a few hours we can exist together without worrying about anybody else.  We can eat in relative peace and say the words "stupid" and "crap" if we feel like it.  We can talk about stuff besides Ninja Turtles, Wii games, or letter sounds.  Just for a little while we can hang out the way we did before we had kids.  It keeps us connected.  I think it helps us remember why we chose each other in the first place.  

Today is Tuesday and so this evening after Phillip gets home we'll pack up the kids and their stuff and take them to Nana & Granddad's house.  We'll go eat at one of our limited number of decent restaurant in town.  We may go to Target or Hastings and just wander around together. We'll probably discreetly make fun of a few people by just giving each other "the look."  And we'll most likely end up talking about the kids even though we're trying to get away from them.  It's pretty simple, really.  We never do anything fancy or expensive.  But it's one of the most meaningful things for our whole family.      

Jedi Master

Here is a collection of Jackson pics.  I don't think he's ever going to outgrow his lightsaber obsession.  It's cute now but it's going to be pretty geeky if he's still playing with them when he's like 18.  

I really don't know why I make so many collage type things of my kids.  I usually don't ever do anything with them.  I just like making them and seeing the finished product.  If I actually displayed all of these in my house, it would look totally nuts.  I put the wrong date on this one, but I can't change it now without redoing the whole thing...and that's just not going to happen. Usually I save these things as PSDs but not if they're just for me.  

So anyway, here is our little Jedi.

Because it's been a while

I haven't posted any Jackson pictures in a while. I used to take a lot more pictures of him. For one thing, he doesn't like for me to take pictures of him anymore. And also, he used to be home a lot more before he started Kindergarten. Anyway, here are some silly Jackson pictures. And yes, he is wearing Spiderman gloves in the first picture. We went to the park and he wanted to wear them. But after I accidentally threw him in the mud, they got muddy and he didn't want to wear them anymore. Go figure.

My ridges are worn

I just got home from having my fingerprinting done. And the lady told me that I might have to come back and do it again because my ridges are worn. Why are my ridges worn? I'm only 30 years old. By the time I'm 60 I guess I won't have any ridges left. I think this is just devastating news.

Fingerprints and other stuff

Today Phillip and I are getting fingerprinted....again. This time it's not just for the state of Texas, but federal. And this time it's electronic so no yucky, sticky ink all over the fingers. We have to go to two separate locations because Phillip has to go to a place closer to his school so he doesn't have to take off work. So, I'll be driving out to Pearland later....what fun. I might have to visit Starbucks while I'm out there.

Phillip and I were talking about this whole fingerprinting thing a few days ago. We decided that if we're ever stupid enough to commit a really bad crime, we better remember to wear gloves.

Adoption plans are still moving along. I need to call our attorney today and see if we can work on nailing down a date. I'm not sure if we can even set the date until the 90 days is up. We'll see.

Mikey's rash is much better now. He's still a little splotchy, but nothing like it was. He got much worse after those pictures I posted. His entire body was one red mess.

Once the adoption is final, I'll be posting like a thousand pictures of that beautiful child on this blog. And I can hardly wait.

I started working on his adoption announcement last night. It's going to be kind of hard to fit in all the info I want to fit without looking really stupid. I bought some really cute baby announcements that are in PSD format so they can be edited and stuff in Photoshop. I thought I would try my hand at designing announcements, but it takes a lot of time and at this point I think I'd rather just pay someone else to do it. Mine are kind of lame anyway. I need to buy some graduation announcements and Christmas card templates before too long.

Phillip has done some more work on my photography page. He changed the index slide show and just cleaned stuff up a bit. I really like the way it looks. I'm considering putting some music of some kind on it, but I'm not sure if that's totally lame or not. I've got a few shoots coming up in the next few weeks. Things are moving kind of slow, but I think this kind of thing can just take a while to get going. I'm planning on having a thing made for the rear window of my truck soon with my name and web address and stuff. But I'm pretty sure that if anyone happened to see it they would forget how to spell "Hintze" by the time they got home. I've done a couple of shoots in peoples' homes and I'll be doing some more of that soon. I really like doing that....a lot! I hope that can be something I can do a lot more of. I was initially thinking I would try to have a home studio, but I would really rather just do stuff in homes and outside. Studio stuff is kind of stuffy.

Anyway, I better get ready for my fingerprint trip. I hope they don't manhandle my poor, injured finger.

Happy Valentine's Day....NOT

What do you think of this valentine? Pretty classy, huh? I thought so.

Allergic to Penicillin

Well, it seems that Mikey is allergic to Penicillin and that's what is causing his breakout.  He looks really bad and probably will for a few days but it's not contagious.  

Mikey has spots

Mikey went to bed with a slight rash and woke up with a mojor rash.  So, we'll be going to the doctor later this morning.  It's probably an allergic reaction to the antibiotic he's on for his ears.  

This morning Jackson said, "Do NOT walk me in (to school) today.  I do NOT want anybody to see Mikey like that."  

Moms like me

Today I was watching one of the many shows that come on t.v. about pregnancy and having a baby. These shows are all basically the same with a few different "twists." Anyway, today this show was about a couple who struggled for years with infertility and were finally expecting their long-awaited child. The beautiful expectant mother said (with tears in her eyes) "You'll never hear me complain about waking up in the middle of the night. I've had many sleepless nights crying because I didn't have a baby. You'll never hear me complain." And I truly think at that moment she meant every word. And I just thought, "Oh sweetie, you have to allow yourself to be human or you are going to feel so much guilt down the road."

Being a mom is a hard job, everybody knows that. But I think there's an added element of responsibility if your child is the long-awaited-prayed for-glorious gift from God that you've always wanted. I've talked to lots of moms in the last few years who have had problems having children. And several of them feel such enormous guilt at how frustrated they get with these kids they have so longed for.

It's like they put this child in your arms and at that moment he is just the most perfect thing ever created and you hear trumpets and sunbeams from heaven come down and envelope you and all this stuff....and.....then.....he.....just.....becomes.....your........kid. And the things that you day dreamed about become your everyday reality and it's just not so pretty or cute anymore. And you find all the things about him endearing, just not all the time.

Sometimes moms like myself, who have had a hard time having kids, feel like we have to put forth this aura of jubilee all the time. Like we have to love our kids a little more than "other" moms. Like we have to consider every whine and thrown toy and dirty diaper a blessed event to be treasured. But the truth is that we can't. And we don't. We're just moms and they're just our kids. And sometimes when we let our guard down around someone who knows our "situation" and complain or show our frustration people like to remind us how much we wanted that blessed child in the first place.

Both of our boys are miracles and the greatest gifts we have ever or will ever receive. But they are devious little creatures, and I am just their mom and I reserve the right to want to throw in the towel sometimes. I reserve the right to give a long sigh of relief when they're finally asleep or when we have dropped them off with the grandparents for some peace and quiet. I reserve the right to complain sometimes about how crazy they make me feel.

Because I know how treasured they are. And more importantly, they know how treasured they are.

Hanes

Burn, baby, burn

Check out this lovely little injury.


I burned my first and middle fingers on some grease while I was cooking onion rings. It hurt REALLY bad! The middle one got the worst of it. I got Phillip to take a picture of it so I could share my pain and agony with all you nice people. The onion rings were really good.

changes to jhintze.com

Phillip has been working hard to make some much needed changes to my photography web site. Check it out. I think it looks pretty cool!