Picture time

I had so much fun getting Jack's 6 month pictures and having lunch with Leigh-Ann. So fun to walk through life with such a dear friend (and enjoy all the little silly things, like baby pictures, together).

(I'm too cheap to buy the cd and our scanner is still broken, so here, a picture of a picture). Jack at 6 months:



Me with my sweet boy:



He tried to get one of Jack on his belly, but Jack wasn't interested in that at all. He immediately sat up and/or tried to crawl away on the 6 or so attempts we gave it. Then, he put a block down and Jack stood up, (leaning on the block) then, he let go. The photographer was like, "seriously? Isn't he just 6 months..." I know.

They grow up too fast I tell ya, too fast.

Lunch dates

I took the boys to visit Papa at the hosptial yesterday. It was really hard to see him so tired and weak. I think it meant a lot to him to see the boys. We stayed and got to talk with my grandparents, mom and aunt Julia for a little over an hour, (which, coincidentally, was during Jack's nap-such a trooper) then we left to meet my sweet friend Allison for lunch. What should have taken about 4 minutes took me 23 minutes because of a wreck on the exit ramp. Ugh!

It was so fun to see Allison and finally meet Noah! He is such a sweetie! Both babies cooperated and slept in their carseats for a good deal of lunch (at Cheesecake Factory--YUM) and Ryan was amazing and sat through our (non-little boy friendly) conversation, ate his lunch and told me when he needed to go potty. (Incidently, he has been telling me when he needs to go and I haven't had to just tell him to go in a few days now! I'm "knocking on wood" as I type this.).

I'm a complete loser and forgot my camera, so I'm waiting on Allison to send those on (hint, hint...you know, in all your free time--ha!).

Heading to get Jack's 6 month pictures with Leigh-Ann and Sadie this morning (Sadie's 3 month) and then we'll chat, shop and have lunch. So exciting!! (And, so weird to go out to lunch twice in one week where a playground is not involved in either). Yippee!

I have to remember this!

I was sitting on the floor letting Jack hold my fingers to stand up. (as he cries if he isn't getting to stand) (I know!) Anyway, Ryan came up behind me, layed up against my back and wrapped his arms around me and said, "I got you Mama." I said, "you sure do buddy." He replied, "I wuv you Mommy" and squeezed me tight.

Precious, precious boy. This conversation is extra sweet because my boy doesn't throw around the "L" word. Almost all of the times I say "I love you" to him he responds with "Thank you"--already a heartbreaker. :) I so appreciate this unsolicited verbal affection.

Update

I have been so encouraged by so many who have emailed, called and told me that they (or their kids) have been praying for us and Ryan. Thank you!

We went to the pediatrician for a follow up appointment and she said Ryan sounded great and was good to go (not contagious etc). She referred us out to a ped ENT and a ped pulmonologist (to rule out asthma--which I'm really praying he doesn't have as croup he could outgrow, but I don't think you outgrow asthma).

***

My Papa is in surgery right now. He is having his knee replaced. I've not been able to get him off my mind today, which is good as I've been prompted to pray multiple times today for him. My kids noticed me praying and asked what I was praying about and I told them (and tried to explain surgery..."well, the doctor is gonna cut his skin to give him a new knee..."why?" in every possible scenario followed.). Anna-Kate immediately stopped what she was doing to pray for Papa. She said, "Dear Jesus, please help Papa's knee get better, thank you for your blessings. Amen." Ryan thought that he would add a prayer too, "Jesus, Ryan better A-men!" I said, "what about Papa buddy?" He said, "oh ya, and Papa, A-men!". Sweet little ones.

A flip of the calendar

Alternate title: I am not going to schedule anything for the first couple of days in a month ever again.

Alternate, alternate title: Not how I envisioned my Saturday going.

I've had a couple of friend comment on loving the feeling of flipping the calendar to a new month. Typically, I love the feeling too--starting afresh, a relatively blank slate (though it's a matter of hours before it fills up, but whatever).

So, I menu plan and make my grocery list on Wednesday nights. I was looking through the Publix circular, making notes and decided to check with the calendar to see if hopefully, fingers crossed, pretty-please there was a night we had plans and I didn't need to cook. Lo and behold, I saw that I had signed up to bring a meal to a new mom on Friday night (Oct 1). What in the world was I thinking? I try and make a habit of never cooking on Friday nights! (Kinda joking, kinda not.) Ok, ok, I can handle it, no biggie. Look at Saturday...I was hosting a baby shower. At my house. I had forgotten (how does that happen? This also meant I needed to make a gift and I had a lot of monogramming roll in last week that needed to be done in time for the shower Saturday!). Saturday afternoon we had soccer pictures and a game. Sunday, I had agree to make (and shop for)the white chili (vegetarian and non) for my church lunch.

I'm not gonna lie, a little panic set in.

I went to Publix on Thursday and the rotisserie chickens weren't done so I put in an order for them to hold them for me until that evening, paid for them and went on my merry way. I returned that evening to get them, and they had been sold. I was not amused. I spoke with the management and they assured me that if I called back Friday morning he would personally hold them for me. It took 3 calls on Friday to get that manager on the phone. After the 3rd attempt at getting them, (anyone with kids knows that 3 trips to the grocery store in 2 days is not a desirable situation) I assumed they would throw in some flowers for free, offer me a discount or something. Ya, no. In fact, he rang up the chickens and tried to make me pay for them again. Ugh.

But anyway, I got the meal made Friday (though I forgot to take the guacamole--oops) and the house picked up. Chris was amazing and helped me clean while I made cake bites Friday night. The shower went off without a hitch and I made it to soccer only 3 minutes late. Feeling high from the days' success, I made plans to go to a local pizza place that we love (near a train) and walk around with friends afterwards. As we were driving there I heard Ryan coughing a bit. I commented to Chris that we should probably turn his humidifier on that night. We got to the pizza place, ordered and the kids began eating their applesauce. After Ryan finished, he crawled into Chris' lap (clue # 1 something wasn't right). I could all of a sudden hear him breathing from across the table so I picked him up to hold him and listen. I could feel his chest shaking on his back when he breathed, so when the girl brought our pizza I told her to bring a box and the check. We left immediately and after a useless conversation with Kaiser (why do I even bother?), we headed straight to the children's hospital. (we debated going home since we have a prescription steroid, but ultimately decided it would be best to head to the hospital in case the steroid wasn't enough and we then would have to drive to the hospital.) It was eerily similar to our last trip.

We pulled in and I jumped out and carried Ryan in. By this point his breathing was extremely labored, shallow and loud. I was in line behind a woman with a little girl who had an ear infection and her amoxicillan wasn't working (insert rolling eyes. Really? ER on a Saturday night? Not letting a kid go in front of you who can't breathe?). Ryan was getting worse by the minute and I finally pulled a "mama bear" and said, "I'm not trying to be that mom, but he isn't getting enough oxygen when he's breathing and needs to be seen right now." They looked at him and immediately took him to triage. While in triage, Ryan grabbed his throat and made a noise that I could tell he wasn't getting any air. I asked him if he could breathe and he tried to say no but couldn't and shook his head no. The nurse called the doctor and was reading out Ryans' vitals and telling him which room to meet us in as we ran down the hall. They immediately gave him epinephrine through a nebulizer and he didn't even fight it. They followed it up with an oral steroid and motrin (to combat the 101.6 fever that had instantly popped up from nowhere). After 2 hours he wasn't better (enough) so they gave him another epinephrine treatment and decided to keep him overnight. When we got up to move to the inpatient rooms (from observation) I noticed the sheets were soaked with sweat. I asked the doctor about it and he said that he didn't think it was a fever in regards to virus (etc) but that Ryan's muscles had been in extreme stress trying to get enough oxygen they were working too hard/tensing up (or something like that??). That really scared me.

Since I'm still nursing Jack, Chris came to the hospital to stay with Ryan. I went to the valet to get my car and a mom with 3 teenagers with her (who got there a solid 5 minutes after me) said she was next in line and gave the guy her ticket in front of me. I was too tired to say anything. When it was finally my turn he brought the wrong car. Instead of Chris' 2000 accord he brought a brand new cadillac suv. Anyway, I felt like a horrible mother driving away from the hospital, leaving my baby behind! I came home, cleaned up the kitchen from the shower, fed Jack and made the soup for lunch (thanks to Jonathan for staying with the kids and Leigh-Ann for making the vegetarian chili for me!!). After a shower and folding the pile of laundry on top of my bed, I finally fell asleep at 2 am. I am so tired and so sore.

The bottom line is that in another child this would only manifest in cold like symptoms, but, they believe, Ryan has extra narrow airway passages and until he grows (thus outgrowing the problem) around age 7, this will continue to be a problem for him. They are again trying to push us to do the exploratory surgery , but I just don't see the point of doing a surgery, that requires general anesthesia, when it will only answer questions and not in any way fix the problem. If he doesn't outgrow it by age 7, we would do it because at that point they would do surgery to laser remove scar tissue (from when he was intubated as a newborn when he was first born).

So, there's that.

I took Anna-Kate and Jack to church this morning to drop off the food and just be around people. I was again reminded of the blessing that our church family is. Word had traveled about Ryan and I had so many people asking for updates and telling me they had been praying for him--we are blessed.

State Fair, 2010 edition

This week we went to the state fair. It is always such a fun time! Anna-Kate had so much fun last year that she has regularly been asking when we could go back again. She was beside herself with anticipation for the rides the whole day we went! We continued the tradition of going with our best friends, Jonathan and Leigh-Ann and their kids (sidenote, love family traditions and am so thankful for "kindred spirit" friends to share these child rearing years and memories with!).

The husbands rode in one car there and Leigh-Ann and I thought we would brilliantly beat the system by cramming all 6 kids, and us, in the van. We must have looked like a clown car as we pulled kid after kid out (hers were all in the back and had to be lifted over the seat to get in). Maybe not the brightest idea as it took us 30 minutes to get everyone in, but whatever. The parking attendant took pity on us and let me park for free and score a close spot!

We sprang for the unlimited ride passes for the 2 big kids and the moms and we let the kids choose what they wanted to ride. We fed the babies while the daddies took the big kids to see the animals and the elephant show, then it was more rides for us! Ryan's favorite was the "pirate ship" and we rode it twice. Anna-Kate loved the knock-off Dumbo elephant ride and the caterpillar roller coaster.

Family picture



Waiting to ride our first ride!



Lydia and Ryan on the fighter planes.



Sweet Jack...he is such a trooper. Poor 3rd kid. I would never have done this to my first two!! :) (Sidenote, see how laid back I'm getting in my old age?)



Ryan and Anna-Kate on the fish.





Family picture with Jack not in the stroller. :)



This is the caterpillar roller coaster that Anna-Kate had such a hard time with at age 2. And, they're off!



I told him if he got a little scared to hold Anna-Kate's hand. So sweet.



Finally loving it!



The husbands took the kids home at 9:15 and Leigh-Ann and I were like footloose and fancy free teenagers...we rode every ride and had a ball! Though, I will say it was weird being amidst so many highschoolers...we were certainly feeling old (and imagining how old and lame we looked to them).

Family Retreat

Last weekend was our churches family fall retreat (it only occurs every other year). We drove up on Friday afternoon and were able to get settled, have dinner and then rejoin our church body for a wonderful weekend of fellowship and worship. Chris took the kids canoeing, we roasted s'mores at a big bonfire, I got to catch up with my friends, we got to eat decent food with friends, sipped coffee and sat around watching the kids in our church playing soccer/frisbee etc on the grassy areas.

Horrible, horrible, horrible that these are the only pictures I took! The bonfire started at 9...so they were all quite tired (ie, not in the mood for a picture!).





So thankful my friend Andria was able to snap this picture of Anna-Kate! During the final service on Sunday the children came in to tell us about what they had learned. They sang some songs, repeated some catechisms and shared some Scriptures they had memorized. My battery has been dead, but I am going to video Anna-Kate reciting her verses! So very sweet to hear little children speak the words of the Lord!



For the sake of truth in documentation, I should add that Friday night was horrible. I mean, in the top 3 worst nights of sleep I've ever had in my life. We were all 5 in one room. (I was reminded of why we don't have kids in our room this weekend!). Jack woke up a few times during the night and would just babble to himself (not cry). Ryan is a pretty light sleeper, so that woke him up and he thought it would be fun to share the party with Anna-Kate, so he woke her up. Splendid. When Jack fell back asleep, however, my big kids were mid-conversation loving the midnight chat-fest. I went to sleep at 11:15 and then saw 12:30, 2, 4, 5 and 5:40. Brutal (as was the lack of coke products. Who in the south serves Pepsi? Seriously?).

Anyway, we loved the time we had, were reminded both of God's faithfulness to us and of how blessed we are to have such a strong and sweet church family and are excited for the retreat in 2012! :)