It’s been FOREVER since I posted…
By Samanthavv | March 9, 2010
Wowza! So, I haven’t updated in quite a bit. I’ve just been SOOOO busy lately. It’s been chaotic. I can’t even begin to describe everything going on…
First, we were all sick. Maddi ended up in the ER with croup, and Danny ended up in the hospital overnight for a respiratory infection in his left lung. Definitely not any fun! Thankfully that’s all over and everyone is starting to feel much better than before! I feel kind of run down, but I think it’s just a byproduct of being sick added to chasing kids around all the time.
I’ve been going to church a lot more lately. I’ve been enjoying it. I’m still investigating it, but I’m enjoying it for the most part. 
School is… well… school. I could be doing better. I think the problem is, I’m not interested in it. They’re all subjects that I really have no genuine interest in. It’s not really something I enjoy at all. I’m getting impatient waiting to do my childbirth education and breastfeeding education certifications. I wish I was rich. Ha ha ha!
I might start vollunteering at the WIC office as a peer breastfeeding counselor. That will at least get me some experience, right? I would definitely enjoy it! After all, who dosen’t love talking about boobs? Just kidding. 
I entered Maddi and Danny in a photo contest. You should vote for them! They’re number 10 and number 11! It ends tomorrow, so hurry up and vote!
-Sammi
Topics: Uncategorized | No Comments »
The lazy, breastfeeding, mommy-machine.
By Samanthavv | February 11, 2010
So, I’m really BAD about updating lately. I guess it’s mostly because I just feel so darn lazy lately. I’m keeping up with school, and that’s about it. I guess we all go through these little funks at one point or another. Just my turn I suppose.
Things are going well. Danny is crawling like crazy. He’s acting kind of weird though, I guess it’s more normal that weird… But still. He FREAKS out like the world is about to end if I put him down. Heck, if I even grab underneath his armpits like I *might* put him down, he freaks out. He just wants held, ALL the time. And it’s just crazy to me! I can’t be holding a baby 24/7! My carriers have come in handy though, because I can pop him in there and just wear him while I do things, and he’s happy as a clam. It just gets annoying when he starts grabbing at my face… He’s got sharp little finger nails and he rips my lips open when he grabs them. I don’t like that.
Maddi is starting to talk more, which is cool, but sometimes annoying. Now that she’s figured out she can say things to get things, she automatically assumes that if she says it, then she’ll get it. Hah! I think not. No, Maddi. You can’t have soda, cookies, candy and ice cream for breakfast.
We also got Maddi’s big girl bed set up. My mom got it at the dump… But it was in great condition and was in the set aside pile… It just needed a couple of the rods bent back into shape. My grandpa did that, and now its great. We didn’t set it up for awhile, and just left it outside, but now its up. We still have the crib set up next to it, just to remind her that if she gets up out of bed and throws a fit, then she gets to sleep in the crib… Sometimes that reminder works, sometimes it dosen’t.
I started up a new website, all about breastfeeding and breast milk donation! If you’re a nursing mom or know a nursing mom, you should check it out. http://www.breastmilkdonation.com we’re having a breast pump giveaway, and there’s even a section on the site for free baby feeding supplies… Things like formula, bottles, nursing pads, etc.
I still have baby fever. Which I’m really bummed about. I don’t want another baby right now. The plan was when Danny was around two years old, but then we did our taxes and we got this home purchase credit, but in order to keep it, we have to stay in our home for three years… And Dan dosen’t want another baby until we’re out of this home and in a bigger one… Meaning, Danny will be around 3 1/2 before I get to have another baby. 
I really didn’t want to wait that long. It feels like forever from now!
Anyways, that’s about all on my end.
Topics: Breastfeeding, Danny, Maddi, money, pregnancy | No Comments »
Photos…Because I’ve Been Holding Out.
By Samanthavv | January 29, 2010
I haven’t treated you guys to any photos in a while. So, here’s some to get your fix.
Chelsea, Maddi & Danny the day she left. We miss her!
I'm mentally challenged like that.
Where yo polar bears at?!?!
I love this photo.
Danny and chelsea, cuddled up!
Danny fell asleep on his Auntie Allie.
Danny Opening a Gift... or rather, just playing with the bow and drooling.
Aunt Tori helping Maddi open a present!
Danny's idea of milk and cookies on christmas eve.
It was tough actually getting her to open any presents after the first!
I made a hoodie for her. It's supposed to have a deer applique...but it looks like a cat.
I made a funky retro skirt for allie. Had anti-drug slogans all over it!
Danny loves the boobs.
Danny with Marlene's Dad at the Christmas Party
My ABSOLUTE favorite photo of Danny.
Danny playing with one of Rex's toys.
My neice, Kayleigh
Taking a bath in the sink when the tub got clogged!
He can take her!!!
Topics: Breastfeeding, Danny, Love, Maddi, photos | No Comments »
Staph, Strep, Weight, Adoption, Conception, Car, Debt, Oh my.
By Samanthavv | January 29, 2010
I’ve been kind of lazy about updating lately. Sorry. My bad.
Things are going better on this end. Danny is feeling MUCH better, which I am super thankful for. I was so worried about him. Turns out he had the staph AND a strep infection at the same time. Definitely not cool. I’m just glad he’s okay.
On a lighter note, my little guy has a tooth! It’s just a teensy weensy tiny little thing, but it’s still a tooth. You can’t really see it, because it’s just the tip, and its barely out of the gum, but its there! It’s exciting but it makes me sad at the same time. He’s almost nine months old. It’s about time he got some teethers going!
Maddi is speaking much better. She still has issues pronouncing things, and trying to use words (she prefers to whine and cry… which she doesn’t get away with anymore). She just has to stop being lazy. She dosen’t like using words, and it’s pretty obvious she’d rather just grunt and get what she wants… But that doesn’t float anymore, not that it did before, but we’ve become much more strict about the no-whining-and-grunting-policy.
I’m struggling with my weight again. Don’t really know what else to say on that subject. Except that I’m struggling and I feel like I’m huge. Regardless of what everyone says and what my husband thinks. I know I’m not fat, in my logical mind. But I also know everyone’s lying when they say I’m not fat. I hate these feelings. But I knew they’d be back eventually, and quite frankly, I’m tired of fighting it. I knew that as soon as danny needed me less for nourishment, that this is what would happen.
On a much happier note, Dan was working our taxes… and I’m freaking excited. We’re going to get enough back to pay off ALL of our debt, AND have some left over. Which is awesome. I’m excited. I can’t wait. We’ll be able to pay off EVERYTHING (except the house). So this means, credit cards, collections, and our car! I’m so flipping excited. This is going to make our lives MUCH easier. Maybe we can even start building up a savings.
On top of that, I’m thinking I might adopt our next child. I’ve been putting a great deal of thought into it. I haven’t decided for sure yet, but I’m thinking I will. I’d really like to. I may, I may not. We may decide to try for our own, or adopt. I know we’ll adopt eventually, but we may or may not adopt our next child. It depends on how much we’ve saved up, and whether we’re in a bigger house, or what not.
Anyways, that’s my blurb.
Topics: Breastfeeding, Danny, Family, Health, Maddi, money, pregnancy | No Comments »
Consumer Reports on Safety: Baby sling carriers raise safety concerns
By Samanthavv | January 25, 2010
Baby sling carriers raise safety concerns
Baby slings may be fashionable among Hollywood stars and other new parents but at a recent meeting I learned about some safety concerns that made me shudder. Over the past 10 years, there have been at least 22 reports of serious injury associated with the use of sling-type carriers. The injuries include skull fractures, head injuries, contusions and abrasions. Most occurred when the child fell out of the sling.
In addition to the injury reports, which were gathered by the Consumer Product Safety Commission, a number of recalls of sling carriers in recent years (including the Infantino pictured) has prompted ASTM-International, a voluntary standards-setting organization, to hold its first organizational meeting to start a standards-development process for sling carriers to address safety problems. Concerns raised by manufacturers, who requested the review, included not only the fractures and bruises but the risk of smothering. The CPSC information documented a risk of death caused from “positional asphyxia” caused by placing the infant in the sling in a head-forward position that can cause the airway to close.
Some of the incidents with sling carriers were likely due to improper assembly, improper wearing, or failure of rings or other hardware. Most of the sling carriers demonstrated at the ASTM meeting seemed complicated to put on and prone to user error. Clear instructions and perhaps video demonstrations might help prevent mistakes. But, as we all know, consumers may not read the instructions, and misinterpretation or misunderstanding can lead to errors that can endanger precious cargo.
It’s uncertain how an ASTM standard can help make these products safer or error proof. We caution parents who do favor the sling carriers to frequently check the hardware and adjustments—and to do so without the baby on board. For now, we think there are better ways of transporting infants including strollers, hand-held infant carrier/car seats and even other types of soft infant carriers. For additional information on our Ratings for these and other products visit the Babies & Kids section of the Web site or read the Babies & Kids blog. – Don Mays
Consumer Reports on Safety: Baby sling carriers raise safety concerns.
Hmm. Interesting. It made sense to me though. I’ve seen those carrier in person, and honestly, I’ve used a similar one on Maddi. I only ever used it once though because I really didn’t like it. Since I’ve started to make baby carriers, my slings have never been padded. I’d done double-layered slings, but I’ve never padded them. It’s just not safe. And the baby dosen’t really NEED padded in a sling. Just my opinion.
Topics: Uncategorized | 3 Comments »
Danny’s really sick and I’m scared…
By Samanthavv | January 21, 2010
I’m really freaked out about this. We took Danny to the doctor on Monday because his poop had turned into really thick, mucousy, forest-green slime. Like… fish-slime thick. And it smelled really foul. He’s still exclusively breastfed, even though he’s eight months old, so any of you who are familiar with breastfed babies, know that’s not normal. It’s not normal for a baby NOT breastfed. My husband thought I was just worrying too much, but I took him in anyways. They wanted to do a stool sample, so they sent me home with a jar (they forgot to give me a popsicle stick, so I had to use a spoon). I had to wait almost twelve hours before he pooped again, and then took it into the hospital when the kids and I went to pick my husband up from work (his truck is having problems).
So, then that night, Danny gets REALLY hot. And we co-sleep so I notice these things pretty quickly. I didn’t really think it was a big deal, but I decided to take him to the ER because when I checked him, his fever was 102.6. We go in and all they do is give him some ibuprofin and then send us home! They didn’t do any blood draws, or stool samples, or urine collection or anything. They just looked at me like I was an overprotective mommy who was getting worried for nothing.
So, we take him home and start him on a regimen of alternating ibuprofin and tylenol. This keeps his fever down, but as soon as it starts to wear off, his fever jumps right back up to 102-103, and has continued to do that for well over 24 hours.
Last night and today, he’s been breathing funny. I think it’s just because he’s so worn out and tired. He’s sick and not feeling well, and his nose is boogered up. But I decided to take him into the doctor again to make sure his lungs are okay. They are, thank goodness, but we get some bad news while we’re in there. They got the culture results from his stool sample and he has staph in his stools, which means he has an internal staph infection.
I don’t really know much about staph, but everything I’m gathering from my doctor and my family and friends and various resources online are telling me it’s pretty serious. They immediately started him on antibiotics four times a day, but told me they may switch the antibiotics when they find out exactly what strain of staph it is.
So, I had to take Danny back into the hospital to get his blood drawn, his throat swabbed and a pee-bag put over his winky. He screamed like crazy, but he calmed down as soon as the needle was in his hand (go figure). I feel so terrible. He’s so miserable. He dosen’t really want to nurse, and even his voice sounds different. And his cry too.
I feel horrible and I keep worrying that something bad is going to happen to my baby. I couldn’t handle it if it did and it scares me to think that it’s even a possibility.
The doctors were supposed to call me with the results of the labs as soon as they got them, but they didn’t call. I called them at 4:30 and they still hadn’t gotten them. I’m going to call again first thing in the morning and see if they got them back or not. I’m thinking about asking to have him admitted for IV antibiotics if it’s a bad-bad strain, because he’d get better sooner with IV antibiotics. I’m not a fan of poking my baby with needles, but this is really scaring the living daylights out of me…
Topics: Danny, Health | 3 Comments »
The Terror of Pregnancy
By Samanthavv | January 10, 2010
When I was in Anchorage with Bre several months back, getting Maddi’s social security number, I picked up a couple pregnancy journals. The first one, I did it for Maddi all about my pregnancy with her. Ironically, I worked on most of hers during my pregnancy with Danny. Today, I started working on Danny’s.
It’s kind of funny how I found out I was pregnant. Bre and I had been living in an apartment together in Kenai. It was this really trippy, bomb-shelter, underground apartment. Tiny, studio apartment.
I had some pregnancy tests leftover from when I lost Jacey. And I don’t even know why we decided to take them, but we did. Probably because they had the droppers to put the pee on the test so it was kind of like a science experiment. I remember Bre saying something like to that effect.
We took the tests and left them in the bathroom. I don’t really remember what we did after that, but we got distracted. We ended up going on a walk down to paradisos and getting chicken wings, and later that evening, Bre went in the bathroom and next thing I know she calls out to the living room, “Umm… Sam? You know you’re pregnant, right?” I went in there and sure enough, my test was positive. I asked her “You sure that ones not yours?” and she just laughed at me and said “I’m sure.”
I don’t remember what went through my head. Shock? Maybe it was because I didn’t really think I was pregnant. I had logical reasons to suspect, but after what happened with Jacey, I was for sure there was something horribly wrong with me and that every little sign and symptom was just my imagination working overtime. After all, you can’t get pregnant so soon after losing a baby… can you?
I was filling out the journal, and the prompt was “When I found out I was pregnant, my first feeling was:” and I just stopped for a moment.
My first thought wasn’t even a thought. It was a swirling cloud of eighty thoughts hitting me all at once. I couldn’t even logically separate the thoughts or isolate them and figure out what I was feeling. All I was feeling was the emotion and feelings behind the thoughts. I couldn’t put words to them. I couldn’t say happy, sad, scared, excited. I was just feeling the intensity of it all instantaneously and simultaneously. It was all very confusing, and very frightening.
I feel guilty for that. Shouldn’t a mother-to-be’s first thoughts be something more special, or hell, even slightly less plural and a great deal less contradicting of each other? I felt guilty knowing that my first thought wasn’t something the typical response from elated new mothers. I felt guilty for not jumping for glee and exclaiming for everyone to hear “Oh my gosh! I’m going to be a mommy!”
I felt guilty because if I had to pick, my first thought was:
“What if this baby dies too?”
I never really thought of it like this. Not until today. Not until I started filling out my pregnancy book for Danny. I never made the connection before. Maybe it was because I didn’t want to, or maybe I just avoid thinking about it and so the obvious didn’t jump out at me like it could have? It’s hard to see something if you spend your life pretending its not there. The allegory of the cave.
When I filled out Maddi’s book, my answers were pretty simplistic. Happy, excited, typical expectant mother dribble. The only thing less than “a baby story” typical in Maddi’s book was that she wasn’t planned. But everything else was.
“We were so happy!” “I couldn’t wait to find out if you were a girl or a boy.” “Daddy and I wondered what you’d look like.” “I gained a lot of weight.” “Everyone was so happy.” “I fell in love with you when I saw you at the first ultrasound.” “I couldn’t wait to meet you face to face.”
As I continued filling out sections of Danny’s book, I kept seeing how vastly different my entries for him were compared to my entries in Maddi’s book. Maddi’s book was full of what I call, “sunshine and rainbow” statements. And with Danny’s… I may not have wrote them, but I realized that every positive feeling I had about the pregnancy, was shrouded in fear.
I wasn’t picking out names. I wasn’t ooh-ing and ahh-ing over all of the cute baby clothes. I wasn’t having planning special ways to share the joyous news. I wasn’t excitedly awaiting my first doctor’s appointment so I could catch my first precious glimpse of my baby on the ultrasound.
I was wondering if my baby would even get a legal name. I was wondering if I’d ever get a chance to put my baby in clothes. I was wondering how long I needed to hide my pregnancy until it was “safe” so I wouldn’t have to endure the heart-wrenching pain of explaining that my child died everytime someone unsuspectingly asked how the pregnancy was going. I was terrified of my first ultrasound because I was afraid they would tell my my baby was dead.
Everything I did terrified me. For even the simplest actions I took, I would rationalize and debate every possible consequence or reprecussion there could be. Making even the simplest decision was enough to throw me into tears because no matter what choice I made with anything, I was, in my mind, convinced that something horrible would happen. And no matter how healthily I lived, somehow, somethng would go wrong, and the end result would be the same.
I would have another dead baby.
It didn’t matter to me that I had Maddi, not for argument’s sake. The fact I had a healthy child and pregnancy in the past meant nothing. It wasn’t credible evidence in my arguments with myself. It was a fluke. Somehow something happened and I got lucky with her, but never again. The mindset I was in, was that I had only a one in a trillion chance of having a healthy baby. I hit it once with Maddi, and there was no way I could beat those odds a second time. I was doomed.
Only now, after filling out some of the sections of that book, do I realize how much I took for granted when I was pregnant with Maddi. I was “depressed” that they couldn’t tell me if she was a girl or boy at only 12 weeks. I was pouting about looking pudgy instead of pregnant. I don’t think that the thought that anythng could possibly go wrong with my baby or pregnancy even crossed my mind. The potential for something terrible happening wasn’t even on my radar. How naive and stupid I must have sounded. How naive and stupid I was. If only I had been aware of the terror pregnancy can truly bring.
Even now, I worry. I’m not pregnant, nor do I intend to become so for a while, but whenever I even entertain the thought of having another baby in the future, or daydream about it, I’m filled with fear. I want more children, more than anything in the world, but even if Dan were to tell me tonight, “Let’s try for another baby.” I don’t think I could. Even with as much as I bug him and whine and pout to him about how I want another baby… I don’t think I could go through with it. I’m so terrified of something going wrong, something happening to my baby, that I don’t know if I could put myself through that again, and if we hadn’t gotten pregnant with Danny immediately after I lost Jacey, I can’t say that I would have tried to have another baby. It’s one thing for me to say I want another baby, and to genuinely want another, which I do, but it’s completely different to jump from talking and wanting, to actually doing. I really want more babies, more than anything in the world… But I’m terrified. Even just thinking about it now. It terrifies me. To the point I just want to cry. I’m so scared of it happening again and I don’t know if I could handle it. I really don’t.
Topics: Contemplative, Danny, Health, Jacey, Love, Maddi | 2 Comments »
Thinking too much…
By Samanthavv | January 2, 2010
First, I updated my “About Me” page.
I don’t know whats up with me lately. I just feel like crap.
I’m trying to keep positive, but it’s really hard. I feel like no matter what I do, I’ll be stuck in this hole forever, and it’s never going to get any better. I feel like everything I’m doing is just a waste of time because none of it makes a difference anyways. So why should I bother?
I was doing so great with my small goals… But they didn’t really make a difference I guess. It’s depressing.
I guess I’ve been thinking too much lately. I wish I could just stop thinking. But you can’t just shut your brain off… Unless you go into a coma, but even then, you can still think sometimes.
I just find myself thinking about my weight a lot. My body. Jacey. How much I miss her and wish I could have met her. And how I would have given my own life if it meant she would have been okay.
That’s all, I guess.
Topics: Contemplative | 2 Comments »
Dietary Revolution
By Samanthavv | January 2, 2010
Danny started being incredibly fussy when he was around four and a half to five months old. I just comforted him the best I could, and kept breastfeeding him. Around month five, I started debating giving him food, because I thought that maybe he just needed more than breastmilk, but I withheld, and dealt with the fussiness, worked on increasing my supply and nursing him more often than I had been.
Right before he turned six months, I noticed he would get more fussy whenever I had milk. It sparked an idea that maybe he has a dairy sensitivity. I talked to my sister-in-law, Tasha about it because my nephew that I babysit, Rex, has a dairy sensitivity. I thought maybe it was a genetic thing. Rex has a dairy sensitivity, and so does my husband, and one of my little sisters did too, so it only made sense that was what could be wrong. So, I cut out my dairy. He seemed to improve a little bit, but he was still fussing an awful lot.
At six months and some odd days old, I started him on rice cereal and baby fruits. He LOVED it! Everyone knows how fun it is to feed babies new foods for the first time ever! He absolutely adored it! We started vegetables, and meats too. And when we ran out of rice cereal, we started using baby oatmeal. (I had 15 boxes of unopened baby oatmeal and rice leftover from when Maddi was a baby! Good thing I saved it.) I made all of my own vegetable and meat baby foods though because frankly, all the baby foods that come in jars except for fruit, taste disgusting. And at first, it was okay, but he started getting fussier, and fussier.
He got fussy to the point he would scream these high pitched SHRIEKING screams. Constantly. He’d scream so loud no noise would come out for a few seconds, and he’d get super red in the face. And it was like this all day and all night. It was terrible, and it still is. We’ve really only had one decent night of sleep in the last six weeks. On top of the sleep deprivation, I was getting really depressed. I felt like I wasn’t a good mom, because he wasn’t just screaming, he was MISERABLE. I hate seeing my baby upset, and I hate seeing him in pain. Sometimes, when he screams like that, and nothing will calm him down, I feel like a failure and I just want to cry. It breaks my heart in a way I can’t even describe, to see him in pain.
I took him to the doctor, but that really didn’t help any. They just shrugged their shoulders and said to put him on a sensitivity formula… And any of you who know me, know I would NEVER do that to my little man. If he’s having trouble with breastmilk, there’s no way adding formula will help! And not to mention I wouldn’t feed that garbage to him anyays. So, I pretty much ignored the doctor. Some people might think that’s dumb, but Danny’s my baby. And a lot of doctors are quick to endorse and encourage formula. So, that was pretty much a wasted appointment.
I posted on a couple parenting message boards about his strange behavior. Everyone recommended stopping solids altogether and going back to exclusively breastfeeding. I was considering doing that already, but hearing so many people recommending the same thing just made me more confident in the decision. So, he’s been back on JUST breastmilk for four or five days, and there has been slight improvement.
Yesterday, one of the moms on the message board suggested a gluten/wheat allergy. And it made sense! Especially when I made the connection that he hadn’t been AS fussy when we were using the rice cereal, but got worse when we introduced oatmeal. There were some babies at the daycare I used to work at when I was pregnant with Maddi who couldn’t have gluten or wheat! And their behavior when they DID have it, was a lot like Danny’s is. I don’t know why I didn’t think of it before.
So, I cut out wheat and gluten starting yesterday. I tell you… It’s tough! It’s so crazy how many things wheat and gluten are in. I had a boyfriend in high school who was allergic to wheat and gluten and it drove me nuts because he couldn’t ever eat anything with me! It was so hard to find things that he COULD have, and going out to eat was even more difficult. I remember thinking, “Man, I’d hate to have to eat like him…” and now, here I am, following the same diet.
So yeah. And on top of that, Dan and I made a bet that I couldn’t go vegan for an entire month. I researched it a lot, and I really feel like going vegan is something I might make a permanent change, you know? I really feel strongly about it, and I don’t want to support a very horrible and inhumane industry. If I raised, or hunted or caught the animal myself, or know it came from a GOOD place and was respected throughout its life, then I’m okay with it. But I can’t bring myself to eat the meat of animals who were tortured, direspected and abused.
So, needless to say, I’ve been learning a lot. I made eggplant parmesan with soy mozzarella, and candied oranges and home made veggie burgers today. I can tel you, it’s definitely been a learning experience.
But yeah… The vegan part isn’t too difficult. It’s the gluten and wheat part that’s horrible.
Ahh, the things I don’t do for my children….
Topics: Breastfeeding, Danny, Family, Health, Maddi | No Comments »
Salvation Army Angel Tree
By Samanthavv | December 23, 2009
Okay. So, Dan and I are pretty freaking broke this year. So, I signed up for the Salvation Army Angel Tree program, and got approved for it, which was awesome. They sent us a letter confirming our appointment time to come in and pick out gifts for our kids, and the letter said it had to be presented in order to be allowed to “shop.” So, I put the letter in the drawer so I wouldn’t lose it.
Anyways, night before the appointment, I decided to set everything out since I’d have to get up early and didn’t want to forget anything. And then I check the drawer for the letter and it’s not anywhere to be found. I ramsacked the house. And our house isn’t that big! I even grabebd some gloves and went through five or six bags of nasty ucky trash! And I still couldn’t find it. I ended up crying. I was pretty upset.
I called them at 1 in the morning, hoping they had a voicemail and I could leave a message explaining my problem, but they didn’t have an answering machine. So, I got up around 6:30-7am (after going to bed at 3:30am) and picked up Chelsea, hung out at my grandparents for a little bit, and then sat outside the Salvation army family services office for half an hour until they opened.
While we waited, there were some Nikiski firemen there picking up boxes, so Chelsea and I helped them carry all their boxes to their truck. Might as well help someone, right? We were just sitting in the car doing nothing…
So they open at 10, and don’t get out there for anyone until around 10:30. I talk to a guy and he goes and talks to the lady in charge, comes back and tells me that if I have my photo ID, then they can do it. I was so relieved. I just about cried.
So Chelsea and I got to go through and pick two toys and a couple outfits out for each kiddo. Maddi got a hat and scarf set, and Danny got a hat. And Maddi got some bracelets, and Danny got a little wooden truck. Maddi got a doll and some foam bath letters that stick to the sides of the tub, and Danny got a wooden cube that you push little wooden shapes into, and a wooden emergency crew set with a wooden ambulance, fire truck and police car. And Maddi got a pair of shoes, and an outfit and Danny got two outfits.
It’s not much, but it’s sooo much more than we would have had! And I really appreciate that the people in our community do this kind of thing. I felt bad accepting it at first, but you know… I can make it up later. When I have money, I can give some to the bellringers at the holidays or something, so they can help some other family who is in the position I am now in the future.
But…
I still can’t believe I dug through six bags of trash! UGH!
Topics: Danny, Family, Maddi, friends, money | 2 Comments »
