If you want to feel like you're the best parent on earth... attend a flu clinic.

Bubba, Magoo and I got our H1N1 shots today. The clinic was from 4-8pm. We got there at 3:45 and by 7 we were vaccinated. Nothing like standing in line for three hours with a bunch of strangers to make you feel REALLY good about your parenting skills. Now, I’m not usually one to judge, but it was just plain crazy. There was one Mom who wasn’t watching her son as he took their friend’s stroller and ran-a-muck with it all through the line and the PARKING LOT, where there were many MANY moving vehicles. Then there was the lovely woman behind us who hit her kid a few times and repeatedly told him she was going to “beat his a$$,” “make his a$$ warm,” oh and let’s not forget the ever charming “I am going to beat your f***ing a$$.” She was quite charming. I gather she’s from Camden. At one point her son accused Ellie of kicking him… Ellie… my scaredy cat, gentle, couldn’t hurt a fly unless it’s her brother, Ellie. All in all, they were pretty ridiculous. My last, but certainly not least, favorite parent was the guy who shook his daughter over in the corner and SCREAMED at her “stop crying, you’re scaring all the other kids.” Really? Because I’m pretty sure he was scarier to them than her crying. Chris and I certainly left there feeling like we deserved awards for Mom and Dad of the year.

I was supposed to go out with my preschool Mom’s tonight. By the time we left we were all tired, cold and cranky from standing outside for three hours. The kids were starving so we took them to Friendly’s. I could have met up with the girls when I got home. After all, they did move it back to 7pm and changed the venue to a restaurant in town…but all I could think about at that point was going to bed. After all, I would rather spend a nice night out with my hubby and kids more than anyone else.

On the kid’s front, they are both doing well. Ellie is gaining weight and her cardiologist was really happy with her progress. Her sats hung out at 98% while we were there last week. Her echo showed that her heart function is great and the fenestration closure is holding up nicely. We go back in 6 months. He even said he thought it was about time we got her g-tube out, since we haven’t used it since February and it’s more of a nuisance anyway. We have a GI appointment on the 30th, so hopefully we can talk about it then and get a plan in place.

Charlie is just a perfect almost 11 month old. I can’t believe he’s going to be a year old in a month. It’s crazy. I feel like he was just born yesterday! His latest bag of tricks include: blowing kisses, waving, giving high fives, doing “so big” (which is his favorite), and saying “Yay.” He really understands so much too. I can ask him to come over to me and he does. I ask him where his binky is and he finds it. It’s just unbelievable the amount of “stuff” that gets processed through that brain of his! He won’t be walking by his first b-day. He will walk with his push toy and cruise around on the furniture, but shows no more interest than that.

#3 is doing well. I’m going in every two weeks now. He’s insanely active just like his big brother was. He is still nameless. We currently are considering: Cooper Scott Luis (Coop), Brycen Christopher (Bryce), Brody Scott Luis, Nathaniel Scott Luis (Nate or Than) and Maxwell Scott Luis (Max). Any thoughts or ideas? The middle name will most likely be Scott Luis, but we really liked the way Brycen sounded with Christopher… so it could go either way. I just have a feeling this kid is going to come home from the hospital without a name.

I had a serious case of nesting this weekend. #3’s clothes are washed and put away. I scrubbed the house down top to bottom and went through all the rooms. We put all the toys downstairs and rearranged Ellie’s room. We also rearranged the boy’s room. It looked a little weird the way we had both cribs set up before, but now it looks perfect. Once we buy some crib bedding and get that up I’ll take pictures and post some. This place has never been so clean!