Happy Birthday, Daddy!

My husband has turned 39 years old today & we all decided to brave the crowds & celebrate this occasion at the Ruby's Diner at the Redmond Town Center. Ruby's Diner is a 1940's style restaurant with a traditional American menu. Bright red vinyl booths, white Formica tables, soda fountains, replicas of 1940s cars & bicycles - you get the picture. Although the cholesterol-laden buttered fried sandwiches & thick milkshakes left me cold, the real reason we went there was to show kids the train that goes round & round overhead. Sophia was thoroughly fascinated & even let us finish dinner. Every time she tried to climb out of her high chair, we just pointed to the train. A bowl of fruit & an occasional french fry also helped to keep her occupied.



Once home, Gerritt helped Daddy to open his surprise birthday present - a Keurig coffee maker. I got so tired of reading my Facebook buddies' comments about how great it was, I bought one to try for our family. Gerritt was also there to assist Daddy with blowing out the birthday candles & to sing the happy birthday song. Exhausted by the end of the evening (it was a Monday after all), we've gifted ourselves with going to bed early. The big 4-0 next year!

The KidsQuest Children's Museum

Our little princess getting ready for bed


Gerritt with his entourage of stuffed animals to sleep with (it's pretty crowded even though our bed is king size)

Last night Sophia slept for 8 hours straight (went to bed at 8 pm, woke up to eat at 1 am, then didn't wake up again until 9 am(!)). Yesterday afternoon she took the longest nap ever (1 pm - 4:30 pm)! I am not sure what to make of this. Could it be the work of the amber teething necklace? Or maybe almost 2 years of sleepless nights finally earned us some rest? We are keeping our fingers crossed & hoping this is a beginning of the trend. My husband feels like a medical resident, I am sure, subsisting on 5-6 hours of sleep on most days of the week for the past 21 months.


"Fish, Mommy, fish!"


A moment of pure happiness!


Light it up!


Playing with more water


Gerritt was thoroughly fascinated with the Scarf Shooter


Riding Clifford the Big Red Dog outside the museum

Mondays are my days off & luckily for us the KidsQuest Children's Museum was open for everyone this morning (not just for the members). It turns out, many Moms & Dads had the same idea, as I kept losing one of my kids in a relatively small space just packed with other parents & kids. Gerritt even managed to run outside the museum to ride in one of the automated toy cars in the mall without me noticing. Needless to say, I wasn't happy looking for him frantically, with Sophia in my arms, inside the tree house, the truck, on top of the climbing rocks & multiple other potential hiding places. I kept running into someone & tripping over small bodies everywhere, so many "excuse me's." He finally returned & heard me lecturing him about a "boogeyman" who could take him away.
I am very protective of my kids & have to have them in my field of view at all times. I wish I could just sit & read a book, talk on a cell phone, text the whole time or just chat like some other Moms, but I just can't. So watching the kids constantly is the most tiring part when we go out. This is more difficult when we are in a really crowded place. I think I am just going to get bright neon orange t-shirts for Gerritt & Sophia this summer, so all I have to do is throw a quick glance to know their location vs. scan the crowd slowly over & over again.
The kids had a blast & enjoyed playing with the water stream & multiple water sprinklers. Sophia kept hitting the water with both of her hands, creating big splashes & laughing, so most of her top became wet quickly. I didn't even think to pack a change of clothes. Gerritt climbed inside the tree house & checked out the inside of a real truck. There were at least 5 kids vying for the driver's seat, but somehow Gerritt ended up in it. :-)


Gerritt's new favorite toy - the glow-in-the-dark insects

Last night Gerritt & I went to Target. I am officially addicted to the Target's $1 item section! The items change every month, & I always look forward to discovering something new. Yesterday we bought a few playdough sets, adorable refrigerator magnets, pink stockings for Sophia, several sets of colorful plastic Easter eggs, 2 sets of soft Easter bunny ears (I am already planning the Easter egg hunt :-)), a dozen of plastic glow-in-the-dark insects, a bug net (!), a plastic ruler, a pair of waterproof gardening gloves & a set of pink, white & red foam hearts (for the next year's Valentine's Day). Another productive day for us!

The Way It Was, or Growing Up In Russia

I recently ran across this Russian YouTube video dedicated to people who grew up in Russia the 60s, 70s & 80s. I remember many of the things described clearly even though it seems like another lifetime now. So I've decided to translate it for you for its historic value or amusement factor - you decide.

"This is dedicated to the children of the 60s, 70s & 80s. If you were a child during that time, this is your chance to look back. It's difficult to believe we've survived our childhood...

When we were little, our cribs were painted using lead paint. The medications didn't have childproof caps, front doors were usually left open, & kitchen cabinets & closets were unlocked. We drank water from a spring nearby instead of bottled water. No one thought twice about riding a bike without a helmet.

We left our houses early in the morning, played outside all day & returned home only when the street lights came on. No one knew where we were all day - we didn't own cell phones! It is difficult to imagine this now... We suffered cuts, broken bones, & lost teeth, yet no one ever thought of suing. We went through a lot, but we had friends! We would find them everywhere. We rode bikes, floated matches in creeks, walked on fences, climbed roofs & walked in swamps. How did we survive?

We played with sticks & metal cans. We stole apples from apple orchards & ate cherries with pits (somehow, they didn't sprout in our stomachs :-)). In schools, during recess, we sprayed each other using makeshift water guns made out of used medical syringes. We were made responsible for the consequences of our own actions.

In reality, the world holds more than 7 wonders, we just don't notice them. Would you agree that the first ever USSR-made aftershave was a wonder? Does anyone remember pieces of newspaper? How about another wonder of customary storage of ground meat in a sack outside one's kitchen window? Do you remember trying to reach for your pelmeni & having them all fall out? Or your mother saying, "I am buying this for you now, but it's for your birthday?" Or your grandmother's magic words, "Don't forget to return the empty jars!" (There was shortage of glass canning jars for a few years.)

Do you remember the milk in triangular packages? Toothpowder not only cleaned your teeth, but also silver... How about the automated carbonated mineral water dispensers? There was one glass for everyone to share! No one would even think to share one glass today... (Today it would be stolen after 5 seconds, & another 3 seconds later, the water dispenser itself would be gone). We shared one glass & were never concerned about catching germs (By the way, local drunkards also used the same glass for their business. It's impossible to believe, but they always returned the glass to its proper place afterwords!).

Many people put a white sheet on the wall & turned off the lights in order to watch slideshows. Many also spent hours under the special red light while developing photo film in the bathroom. Almost everyone who owned a camera developed their own film to make black-and-white photos. Girls, do you remember the game of rezinochki (a 3-person game using a long elastic string & various forms of jumping)? Surprisingly, not a single boy knows the rules of this game...How about collecting old newspaper & books for recycling in schools? I still have a question - WHY? The way we were..."

It IS surprising nothing happened to me. I remember having to stay home all by myself when sick with a flu at the age of 6 or 7. After taking a long nap, I was so bored, I inserted a hair pin into an electical outlet on the wall above my headboard, just to see what would happen... The skin on my right hand was charred black & took weeks to heal.
My friends & I regularly played inside abandoned trains(!) & construction sites & loved to sing in the underground water drainage pipes. We would walk all over town & take buses to unfamiliar places for exploration purposes. I remember being lost & somehow finding my way home more than once. Starting at the age of 7 I walked home from school alone. I was not tall enough to reach the key whole to open the front door, so our apartment was left unlocked all day so I could get inside.
Starting in the 3rd grade, I took a 7-day train journey from my home town of Tynda to Moscow ALONE in order to spend summers with my Dad & grandparents. My Mom was unable to take the whole 3 months off work, so she would just put me on the train & ask the train attendant & my train car neighbors to look after me. Once, during a really hot summer, most of my food supply spoiled after the first 2 days, so I had to rely on the kindness of strangers for meals during the next 5 days.
As a single parent, my Mom often took out-of-town trips for work, so when I was a teenager, once every few months, I spent several weeks at a time living completely on my own. I did a relatively good job cooking, cleaning & going to school, although sometimes I would spend most of the food allowance on my beloved books & then subsist on macaroni for several days in a row.
When we rode in a car, neither the driver, nor the passengers ever wore seat belts (It was still the same when my husband & I visited Russia in 2005. Those wild taxi drives without any protection were simply terrifying!). My grandfather would often give me a ride on the back seat of a bike (no helmets, of course). Once a goat crossed our path, & we both fell off the bike while trying to avoid hitting the animal. When I was 5 or 6, I also rode a motorcycle with my teenage aunt & her boyfriend without any regard to safety whatsoever.
I am sure glad the times are different now & I am raising my children in the US where child safety is important & they are cared for properly! I am certainly grateful to have the resources & education to help them grow up to be the best they can be.

Happy Valentine's Day!

It's amazing what you can do with old gift bags (Gerritt & I cut out multiple pink hearts to make our home more festive)


Gerritt took this photo of us - not bad for a 3-year-old boy!


Gerritt caught red handed


Gerritt having fun with Valentine's Day stickers from grandma Chris

This Valentine's Day we didn't go out for a romantic date at a fancy restaurant. It happened to be Monday - my husband's work day & my day off. We wanted to be together as a family instead. So we had a fun evening of house decorating & cooking one of our favorite meals - angel hair pasta with seafood & pesto sauce. My husband bought a beautiful bouquet of pink tulips for me the night before Valentine's & I did most of the preparation for the evening during the day. Gerritt helped me to blow up pink & white balloons left over from Sophia's 1st birthday. Then we used saved pink gift paper bags to create a pretty display of Valentines above our kitchen table. Gerritt got a hold of our old camera & was more than happy to run around & take pictures of everything in the house including us. Sophia gave us a gift of her own by going to bed at 6:30 pm, so my hubby, Gerritt & I enjoyed our meal in peace. Love is in the air! Happy Valentine's Day!

Stand Up for Nurses

Today I worked at the hospital again even though it was supposed to be my day off. I got a call from the staffing office at 6 am, but didn't pick up the message until I woke up at 7 am. The hospital was short staffed again, & I didn't have the strength to turn down the overtime pay. I ended up working on the Oncology floor taking care of 5 patients: a 34-year-old woman with a new diagnosis of ovarian cancer; a 41-year-old father of young children with recurrent glioblastoma (brain tumor); a 65-year-old woman with a new diagnosis of lung cancer; a 60-year-old woman with breast cancer (she refused chemotherapy a year ago & now had metastases to her spine, liver & lungs); & a 70-year-old man with severe anemia due to recent chemotherapy & radiation. This assignment was complex & also very typical. It was a busy & tiring, but as usual, rewarding shift. I was in charge of reviewing doctors' orders, performing patient assessments, administering medications, helping with turns & toileting, communicating with families, & constant patient care prioritizing while receiving & processing multiple phone calls from various people & departments.
As often the norm, I didn't go for a break until almost 6 hours into my shift - starving, shaky, dizzy & with a bladder ready to explode by then. Almost every nurse I know does the same. One of my worst memories includes working while 8 months pregnant with Gerritt (By the way, did you know that pregnant nurses get the same patient assignment as everyone else?). I was very hungry & dizzy, but could not leave my patient since he was in the middle of an unexpected transfer to the ICU. Usually calm & collected, I lost it & started sobbing uncontrollably. After a quick snack of milk & crackers, thanks to my coworkers, I was able to finish my assignment. Another memory I have is overdosing a patient by incorrectly programming a patient controlled analgesia (PCA) device so it administered 10x the ordered drug amount. I was a recent nursing school grad & clearly remember suffering from hypoglycemia (low blood sugar), being in a hurry & feeling overwhelmed from my patient load being too heavy. After the error was discovered by another nurse & I was disciplined by the unit manager, I was told that "being tired would not fly well in court," should the hospital be sued. To this day I never know when & whether I'll be able to get my breaks & lunch, so I usually carry some dark chocolate & string cheese in my pocket to keep myself from passing out.
It's an unwritten rule - patients always come first. There is too much to do in a short amount of time. Nursing is an art, & caring is a big part of our job description. Unfortunately, there is no one to care for the nurse. With the hospital's recent change in nurse-to-patient ratio from 1:4 to 1:6, it's more difficult than ever to get the needed rest. It's well documented that nurse's fatigue & resulting decreased alertness jeopardizes patient safety. Even though now I spend most of my work hours helping patients in my role as a Nurse Practitioner, nursing issues are close to my heart. I perform a lot of medical tasks such as ordering diagnostic tests, formulating medical diagnoses & prescribing pharmaceuticals, but I am a nurse first.
That's why I was so happy to get the Washington State Nurses Association's (WSNA) email newsletter about the WSNA & Evergreen hospital settlement over nurse rest breaks this week. A few months ago, the WSNA filed a lawsuit over consistently missed rest breaks for nurses at the Evergreen. "The proposed settlement not only includes payment for rest breaks missed in the past, but also sets forth sweeping changes to the way rest breaks are handled at Evergreen. There will be extensive changes in timekeeping, payroll, & policy designed to ensure that taking rest breaks is the norm, that we are appropriately staffed to allow for breaks & that nurses are properly compensated when rest breaks are missed." I've been a nurse for almost 10 years & this is a truly groundbreaking & landmark settlement! Did you know that when I do take my 30-minute lunch break, I still have my work cell phone with me, so I can never get away from work completely? Thanks to the WSNA, their definition of a break now includes that it must be UNINTERRUPTED & that brief trips to the bathroom & getting a drink of water do not count as breaks. Isn't it sad that we have to be that specific?
Most of the public is largely unaware of the nursing shortage while it's projected to get worse. It only makes sense to take care of the nurses we have now to keep them from suffering "compassion fatigue" & burnout & leaving the profession all together. I will finish the post by advising to have someone by your side at all times if you are ever hospitalized. With the nursing shortage & nurses being as overworked & tired as they are, it is wise to have an advocate who would double check things for you. Take it from me, it just may save your life!

Resolutions

We've spent most of January tackling one of our resolutions for this year - buying a term life insurance. Despite a seemingly nice, but pesky, insurance agent trying to sell us a universal life insurance for 5 hours straight (that's right, FIVE!), most people only need term life insurance. First, don't ever let an insurance agent into your house (you can do the same thing on internet or over the phone). Second, trust the advice of the financial experts looking out for the consumer, like my favorite Suze Orman & Clark Howard. Here are the basics:

- If you have dependents & your family would be unable to maintain their standard of living (e.g., make the mortgage payments, pay for kids' college, etc.) without your income, you need life insurance.

- Term life insurance is meant to replace your income in case of your untimely death. The rule of thumb is to buy an amount equal to 10 times your annual salary.

- Buy insurance for 20 or 30 years; the premium will stay the same during the life of the policy (We've decided to buy a 20-year policy because in 20 years Gerritt & Sophia would be done with college & able to get jobs to support themselves).

- When shopping for term life insurance, it is best to buy from a financially strong company that offers low premiums. AMBest.com offers free insurer ratings. Buy from companies that have an A+ or A++ rating.

- It's easy to comparison shop for insurance quotes using the internet at websites like Insure.com, QuickQuote.com & AccuQuote.com.

Although it's less expensive & easy to obtain term life insurance through your employer, it's wise to buy one on your own in case your place of employment changes or ends. As part of my application, I met with a medical examiner who, in addition to conducting a thorough review of my medical history, also weighed me, collected urine, drew a fasting blood sample, & did an EKG. I am relatively healthy so now is the best time to buy a life insurance rather than in 10 or 15 years when new health issues may come up. I thought the monthly premium of $60+ was too high for $750K policy, so I applied for a policy with a different company (good thing the health exams are provided by the insurance company at no cost to you). So I will have to meet with a medical examiner again. What a process!
Not to outdo myself, but during the same week I also opened a 529 plan to save for Sophia's college expenses (My husband is in charge of saving for Gerritt). Savingforcollege.com is a good place to get started. I didn't have much time to read through various & confusing 529 plan details, so I just read the short & easy-to-understand Clark Howard's 529 Guide & chose "the nation's finest" Utah Educational Savings Plan Trust. I highly recommend both! Now, Sophia will go to college for sure, right?