Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Sam

One afternoon, I went to check on Sam during rest time. He obviously was very quiet, which makes me suspicious. This is what I found! You may not be able to tell, but he was keeping very busy sticking about a box of band-aids all over his body. His bed was covered in the little pieces of trash and I couldn't resist running for my camera. What else was I going to do?

This is very representative of how he spends most of his waking time.

Grace's new do

My baby turned 5! We made a big change, since she is soon going to begin a new chapter in her life (she goes to Kindergarten in the fall). I love how it turned out. Here she is before the cut . . .

And after . . .

Nate's World

Here are a few recent pictures of Nate. As you can see, he is getting to be quite a big boy (all 17 pounds of him)! He continues to grow and develop in an upward direction, which is music to our ears. Of late, we have been battling many ear infections. So many, that, we have now been seeing an ENT. At our first visit, the doctor looked extensively into his left ear, in which he suspected a cyst on his eardrum. Not wanting to talk about ear tubes until we checked further into this cyst thing, we scheduled a CAT scan of his ears. That was yesterday. We assumed that he would have to be sedated in order to have him lay still enough to get through the scan. After much waiting and praying on my part, they were able to get the scan with him being asleep. As we were waiting on the sedation team, I just prayed that they wouldn't have to put him out. My prayers were answered. I know that I am being a little irrational, but with Nate, I have so many fears that he might not wake up from the sedation and so forth! Funny that I don't really have these same thoughts with Grace and Sam so much. Anyway, I got a call from the ENT office today and the report is that everything is normal - for whatever that is worth. I did not speak to the doctor himself, as he is on vacation for 2 weeks! So much for us sleeping through the night in the next three weeks or so! The news is good and bad. Good in that there is no cyst, bad that now we must start at square 1 again and figure out what this abnormality in his ear is exactly. I am pretty sure that they will not schedule surgery for tubes until they figure this out first.
Other than his ears, he is doing very well. You can see in this first picture that he must have gotten a hold of a half eaten pop-tart that was probably lying on the floor! He sure liked it!



He is also quite fond of climbing the stairs oh, about 200 times a day. He thinks it is funny to look down through the spindles at me as I am chasing him.

Eating still wears him out!

He is also starting to climb on whatever is around for him to manuever on. We were at the park one day and he loved climbing on the equipment as well as swinging.



Monday, June 9, 2008

Not your ordinary trip


I haven't been to the cemetary for quite some time now, not because I don't want to go, but because I rarely get a chance to go alone, or with Ed. Don't get me wrong, I love my children dearly, but I have recently been referring to them as fleas, because no matter where I am, they are always on me! Anyway, not able to get there alone, I dediced to visit Noah's grave with three kids (fleas) in tow. Once there, the visit unfolds like a script from a TV sitcom.

Nate was really checking out his brother's marker. It is my hope that somehow, he will always remember his brother and know that he and Noah shared something very special.

It is kind of tradition now, that every time we visit the cemetary, we stop and get helium balloons to take and let them to so that they will float all the way to heaven so Noah can enjoy balloons just like Grace, Sam and Nate do. So we stopped and got a balloon for each of them to let go.



Being that it was a day or two after Memorial Day, the cemetary was full of flowers. Most of them are plastic nonetheless, but where Noah is at (a special Baby Land), people also leave all sorts of stuffed toys, or other toys for the children/babies. Well, Sam decided to pick every flower he could get his hands on and also thought it would be fun to play with any of the toys that he found. He was mad when I told him that it was disrespectful to take the things left at the graves and that he needed to put them back. Anyway, after a bout of tantrums, I sat down and began bawling. Missing Noah yes, but also so wanting him to be here to play a part in our circus of a family. Sam must have thought it hilarious to see me crying on the ground, so he comes and starts cracking up laughing in my face. Well, I think it was about time for us to go!

After we loaded up to leave, Sam tells me he needs to potty. There is not anywhere to go at this point, so I ask if he can wait until we get to Hyvee. After all this, I still needed to go grocery shopping with 3 kids! He says yes. About 5 seconds pass, and he reports that his car seat is getting wet. I pull off the road in the cemetary, snatch him out of the van, yank his soaking pants and underwear off and tell him to pee right there on the side of the road. I am so thankful there was not a burial service in process. Anyway, here he is naked, strapped in his car seat and on our way home for dry pants so we can still go to Hyvee! What a day.


All I could do is laugh and take his picture -- definitely not your ordinary trip to the cemetary!