Monday, October 4, 2010

Boys Will Be Boys

  I was cleaning bathrooms at record speed when the thought came to me, "Will and Jack are playing so nicely together today." Realizing what I was thinking, I stopped cleaning to make sure they were both still breathing. That's when I found this:
Apparently, while I had been cleaning they had been "doing firefighter work" as Will put it. Then in one of my shinning moments as a  mother, I (now regretfully) said, "William, you are not a firefighter." He looked at me as if I'd just broken his heart and simply said,"Mommy?" I felt like dirt. I Immediately apologized for my comment and told him he was a terrific fireman but to stay out of my fireplace!! The harm was already done though. The styrofoam logs that we hadn't planned on using now we definitely couldn't because they were broken. There was also some nice charcoal-y colors smeared into the almost white carpet. Boys...

Friday, September 24, 2010

The Specialist

This kid

has perfected this face:

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Matching Jammies

My favorite clothing item to buy the boys is definitely jammies. I'm not sure why. It could be because we don't leave the house much. Maybe it's because we wear them pretty much anytime we are at home. Or it could be because they have a calming effect on me. For example; clean kids + clean jammies = bedtime/nap time.

Monday, September 13, 2010

Jack's 1!

Jack turned the big one on the 13th. Since we had already had his party we just did a FHE focused on Jack with some whoopie pies for for our treat. I think it went over well. We all enjoyed looking at Jack's baby book and the pictures of him over the past year.

Jack is a sweet, cuddly, stinker baby but with a major temper. He likes doing gross things like playing in the potty, trying to get into the trash can, and he has pooed in the bath tub during his bath more times than I can remember. He loves his Daddy and big brother, and L-O-V-E-S his green blanket. He has chewed a few holes in it. He doesn't say much but can sign the words ball, more, milk, shoes, thank you, and eat. He loves reading books "Moo, Baa, La La La" is his favorite. His favorite song is "If You're Happy and You Know It." He loves playing with the neighbors dog, Dixie. And he has become friends with a cute little boy from church named Ryan who is just a couple months younger than him. They like to walk the halls together and play with each others toys and communicate with each other by growling. It's pretty cute!

We love, love, love having him as a part of our family. Will loves Jack and misses him when he's not around. He is generally happy and undeniably adorable! We love you Jack!

Monday, September 6, 2010

Jack's Party


Enjoying the main course

We had Jack's Party at Rocky River on Labor Day (kind of symbolic, don't cha think?). Nonna and Pa, Gran Gran and Papi, Uncle Bryce's family, Uncle James' family, Uncle Blake, Uncle Brett and Cassie, all helped us celebrate. We ate Prater's BBQ, hot dogs, Keeley's baked beans, oven-fried potatoes, grape salad, monkey munch,  and drank monkey juice. For desert we had Grandma Miller's fabulous chocolate cake and frosting all made by yours truly, Mommy Dearest.

Diggin' in

Puppy Love
We had a really fun time visiting with family and love that they love Jack, and came to celebrate this cute kids birthday with us.

Saturday, September 4, 2010

Most Important Meal of the Day

Notice the maturity difference between an almost 1 year old and an almost 3 year old...remarkable!

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Compassionate Service

What does a 2 1/2 year old do with his finger paints when his Mom turns away for 2 minutes to talk on the phone with a lady from church who is asking the Mom to bake a meal for a family that has a child at Vanderbilt??
Ohh, the injustice of it all...

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Long Graveyard and Rocky River

Long Graveyard

Pretty Kyndal
I love Kyndal's look in the one on the bottom right...Umm, excuse you.

Sunday, June 27, 2010

May and June

I should change the title of this post to "I hate the new way blogger moves pictures in a post!"  Can't figure it out and tired of trying...


Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Friday, May 21, 2010

Vanderbilt Day 3

Will ate a huge breakfast the next morning. I can't remember what all he ate but it was a ton. That morning we met with the doctors and received some answers. The MRI showed no signs of bleeding, tumors, or anything like that, thank goodness! The diagnosis was epilepsy. They answered what questions they could. There is a lot of information they just don't have yet. Still a lot of questions that we and they don't have answers for. We were given prescriptions and instructions for the next time and released. I felt more terrified leaving there then when we left the hospital with him when he was only a few days old.

We were overwhelmed by all the kind deeds, words, thoughts, and prayers during this very stressful time. They so helped us in bearing the burden and we were so grateful.

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Vanderbilt Day 2

Will woke up bright and early. He pronounced his tummy hungry and we sadly told him he couldn't have anything until after his MRI. Poor little lamb. We tried to keep him happy but pretty unsuccessfully. Patrick being the amazing patient Daddy that he is took Will on walk after walk after walk around our area, all the while wearing dress shoes. We still had no clean clothes at this point and looked like a funny pair. He was wearing a button-up dress shirt, slacks, and dress shoes. I was wearing painting clothes. Yes. We looked like a match made in heaven.

Will was to say the least a handful. He was bored, exhausted from the previous day's seizures, hungry, and drugged up on medicine that is known to make kids aggressive and hard to control. It literally took both of us non-stop to keep him from hurting himself, us or just running around crazy. Finally, finally he fell asleep.

Mom, Joe, Brett, and my sweet baby came to see us. They brought clean clothes of others to us because ours were packed up in a moving truck somewhere. We were still very grateful to be able to change. Someone mentioned that Patrick no longer looked like Will's Dad but his brother after he had changed into some clothes of Brett's. Joe and Patrick gave Will a blessing. I held sweet baby Jack. We visited for only a few minutes when they came and told us they were ready to do the MRI. Aunt Marsha and Uncle Mike dropped in to see us which was a pleasant surprise. A few hours later we finally had the MRI done thanks to a huge scheduling screw up.

We were so happy to finally get to eat something and not keep Will happy and under control. We thought he would sleep and be happy after he woke up from the anesthesia. WRONG. BIG TIME. He was mad as a wet hornet when he woke up. He downed some juice, demanded more, and then threw it up. He finally calmed down. He ate some dinner. We gave him a bath in the sink and he was finally happy. He fell asleep around 9. And we weren't far behind him.

I gained a lot more respect and admiration for parents who have to deal with this sort of stuff all the time. It takes so much energy and patience and after only 24 hours I was exhausted mentally and physically.

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

The best laid plans

Mom, Brett, Will, Jack, and I headed up to the new house on the day following the closing of our old house (18th). Mom was going to start painting the Living Room Brett was going to do some sanding on my cabinets, I was going to do some painting in the kitchen, and the kids were going to cooperate :).

We got to the new house around 10ish William needed a major nap and Brett volunteered to help with that. Mom started in the living room and I did odds and ends and finally was able to start in the kitchen. At some point the Atmos gas man came and turned on the gas and showed me how to do some stuff and turn on the fireplace. When he turned it on, Oh my! it smelled horrible. Strong chemical smell we opened up the windows and turned it off quickly. The gas man told me that it smelled that way because they were Styrofoam logs. And if we burned them on high for about an hour with the windows open the smell would go away.

Sometime after he left 30 minutes? Will woke up. He had slept for about an hour. When he woke up he came and asked me for some juice. Brett was in the garage and Will kept going in and out. He smelled like gas out there and he decided to finally stay inside and play with Jack when I told him to choose where he wanted to play. Mom was painting and I was talking with her. I noticed Jack needed his diaper changed and went to change him on the floor. I thought Will was playing by me on the floor while I changed the diaper, but I just can't remember. I got up to throw the diaper away and when I came back to the Living Room I was listening to what Mom was saying but looking at the kids. Will was just laying on the floor and I thought that he must not have slept long enough. I just kept staring at him and then finally noticed his color was not normal. He was staring blankly, and I started calling his name. I hurried over to him to pick him up. He wouldn't respond, and he was completely limp. His jaw was clenched tight, and he had been drooling and there was some blood that came out of his mouth. His breathing was very light. I was terrified. I kept calling his name and begging him to look at me and begging my Heavenly Father to let me keep him.

Mom called 911 while Brett attempted to find a neighbor at home with no luck. The lady on the other end was giving Mom instructions to give to me of things to try and do. I don't remember all the things but I do remember that she told me to rub his sternum HARD with my fists. When I did this he let out the most beautiful sound of protest I think I've ever heard; He cried out. A few seconds later I heard the sound of an ambulance siren. I was saying thank You! thank You! Hurry! Hurry! When they finally arrived with what seemed like forever then but only a short time after the fact, I just felt such a release. I backed away from Will who seemed to be sleeping on the grass, no longer lifeless just sleepy, and gladly let the paramedics do their job. They looked at him and from my description said they thought it was a seizure. He still wouldn't really wake up so they wanted to take him to the hospital.

In the ambulance he finally woke up but still didn't act like he knew who I was or cared if I was there or not. I'd say William look at Mommy. He would slowly look over at the sound of my voice look at me for a few seconds and then look somewhere else. THAT really scared me. It wasn't until after we had been admitted to the ER for about 5 minutes that he finally clicked back to reality. He started crying for me!

While we were there, I recapped the story to doctors, nurses, and police officers several times. They took x rays of chest to make sure he hadn't choked on anything, and a CT scan of his brain. Patrick arrived about that time and made one little terrified boy and momma soo happy! The CT scan and xray both showed nothing thankfully. But while we were waiting, Will gave us another scare so the doctors decided to send us to Vanderbilt's Children's Hospital. I rode with Will in the ambulance and he fell asleep pretty quickly, and thanks to Brett dropping off his favorite blanket stayed that way till we arrived at VC. We met with several neurologists who thought it best if we stayed the night so they could monitor Will and get a MRI and an EEG in the morning. Blake and Dad came to see Will and keep us company. Mom and Brett ran the phone lines and kept Jack, and mom finished the painting in the living room.

They transferred us up to a room for the night. Dad and Blake were fixing to leave when Will had another seizure. I was holding him and he just yelled and lunged away from my body and started to shake. The Nurses came quickly and we sat there and waited 3 minutes for the seizure to end. I felt so helpless just watching and waiting and praying for it to end. When it did, I held Will for a few minutes till he calmed down and wanted to sleep.

Dad and Blake left, and Patrick and I took turns watching William sleep. He had been sleeping for about an hour when he woke up. I asked if he was cold he said yes. I went to get him another blanket when he started having another seizure. After this, the doctors thought it might be good to go ahead and start him on medication to stop the seizures. They hadn't wanted to do this because of the EEG but thought it was in his best interest to go ahead with it. After the medicine he seemed to sleep great.