The "Someday" of a 4 Year Old

Many days as we are out driving, Colin likes to tell me things for his "inner most thoughts." I guess he's all strapped in without much else to do!

Lately he likes to tell us about, "Someday when I am big" types of things. Today he was "pontificating" on his future as a Daddy. Makes me smile thinking about it:

"Mommy, someday I will be a Daddy."

"Probably so. What kind of Daddy will you be like?"

"I'll teach my kids things, we'll decorate (like for holidays), I'll help them make things, and I'll teach them about Jesus."

"Oh, yes, that's an important job to teach them about Jesus."

"Yes."

"So how many kids will you have?"

"Hmm. Two."

Later he told me they would be three years apart.

You can see how important holidays and special occasions are to our lil' guy. He still talks about our 4th of July as our "America Party" since it was America's birthday we celebrated with streamers and balloons.

December 2009

Catching up a bit from my 9 month blogging break....

Here's our "Santa Baby" at a smiley 3 months old.

I love December -- the holiday parties and festivities are such a fun time to gather with friends and family! We had our annual "crazy first week of December" where we attend the Providence O'Trees Gala, then I have my women's Christmas Friendship Dinner at Crossroads Bible Church, and then we cap off the weekend with Matt's company holiday party. Two of these events require formal attire, which I usually love, but wearing an evening gown while acting as the dinner source for your 3 month old can be a bit challenging!

Hanging with Santa at Providence O'Trees

After the week of parties, December was a month of getting appointments lined up for Luke. He had appointments with a manual physical therapist, a doctor who conducted a frenotomy (a strange, strange experience), and other regular doctor visits. If I wasn't at Pediatric Associates at least once a week I was very amazed.

Because of all of the appointments and "running around," we (I especially) felt a bit isolated from life as we knew it before. We were really looking forward to our Christmas party with our Bible study group, but Luke got an ear infection that day and he and Matt stayed home while Colin and I joined our friends.

Luke starting taking Zantac (I pressed really hard on the doctor, explaining the symptoms that I had known all along for the past 2 months) and we began to see the signs of having a much happier eater. Bliss in a bottle of medicine, I tell ya! It's just so miserable to have a baby who is hungry but can't eat because of the pain of acid reflux. If I had been blogging back in December I would now lamented that my 3 1/2 year old got a hold of this bottle of bliss and poured it down the sink. I forgot to put the cap on and he decided it needed to go down the bathroom drain. I called the pharmacy, and about $80 later I had another bottle of bliss. I was madder than a hen with a rooster in the henhouse (is that how the saying goes?) But, time has lessened this, so it can now just be one of those stories I pass along to his wife someday when her children do similar, maddening things.

We took 2 nights and headed to Suncadia right before Christmas, and it was so nice to just get away and have nothing but a few small Colin activities planned. He STILL talks about Suncadia and building a gingerbread house. We will definitely make that a tradition in future years! Hopefully we won't continue the tradition of me being sick on vacation. I was sick on this trip and was also sick on a recent trip to Cama Beach. Sickness on vacation begone!

On Christmas, we enjoyed a visit from Sarah's mom. No deep snow like last year (fortunately.) This Christmas was special because it was Luke's first. And Matt had a good Christmas because he got an elk 2 days before Christmas. He was a happy man! Finding a meat processor on Christmas Eve was a bit of a challenge, but he finally found one about an hour away.

The annual tradition of balloons on Christmas morning. Makes it very festive!

The holiday was a bit somber, however, as Matt's Grandma from Cleveland passed away on Christmas. Matt's parents headed back east over New Years rather than heading our direction.

Cama Beach 2010

We joined 10 other families for a few nights this past week for our first family cabin camping experience. Cama Beach state park, on Camano Island, is a short 1 1/2 drive from home and we got to enjoy the great outdoors while still having electricity, running water, a microwave, and heat (yes, nights on the island get pretty cool and heat in July at 2 a.m. is a MUST!)

Most of the families stayed for 4 nights, but with Luke just crawling around and kind of hard to contain on a rocky, shell-filled beach, 2 nights was our limit. Good prediction, since we had to book way back when I was still pregnant. This place is pretty popular!

Isn't this a great view? We especially enjoyed watching the occasional eagle overhead.

Colin had lots of fun playing with his other friends and it was great having other families to visit with. Matt fished some each night and they caught all kinds of different "stuff," including crabs, sharks (Matt catches sharks whether we are in South Texas, Washington, or Alaska....his pole always seems to attract sharks and NOT the fish we are actually fishing for), and various other fish.

This is an "I'm not a sleepy camper" Luke who would rather play than go to bed. Colin was zonked out in the next room from a day of non-stop play in the sun.

More Pictures - November 2009

Colin met Santa as soon as the Santa Train arrived and then we drank hot cocoa and had cookies.
Nothing better than a grilled turkey on Thanksgiving. Yuuuummmyyyy!

In honor of the Santa Train, our Gingerbread kit was shaped like a train.

Luke, 2 months old

November 2009

I have been hesitant about recapping November of last year. It was just a flat out difficult month. November is why I quit blogging. I couldn't think of anything nice to say, and my Great Grandma Peggy would have reminded me to just say nothing at all. It's raw. It's not pretty. It just is. And I am so happy I can look back on God's mercy to love me during such a rough patch. With that in mind, here goes.

When you have a new baby you think of all of those special baby moments but you don't ever stop to consider what happens when your journey as a parent takes an unexpected twist. I was thrown for quite a few loops in November.

At Luke's 2 month visit it was apparent that he, like his brother had had when he was a baby, had torticollis. When treated early, outcomes are generally good, and so I was prepared to take Luke to a physical therapist. I also had a list of things the pediatrician and I began working through....sort of a "baby punch list." Things like cradle cap, feeding issues, unexplained fussiness at feedings, the torticollis, etc.

I took Luke to a physical therapist who showed us a few exercises via some handouts. I was unimpressed to say the least. I cancelled my next appointment.

A few weeks later as we were driving to Kohls, I decided that something was just wrong with Luke and I called the office for a sick visit. I thought he must have silent reflux, but I was just told the screaming at feedings was just a nursing problem that required an Occupational Therapist's assistance.

The Big Visit

Did you know there is an occupational therapist here that specializes in breastfeeding issues? No? Me either?! This visit was to be the beginning of a long road of visiting many specialists. Our 2 hour visit began with her concern over his torticollis, first and foremost, and her concern caused me some concern. Then we determined that I had only a few choices to get Luke to nurse if that was what we wanted to do. And with family coming to town in the coming days for Thanksgiving, neither was an option. My days of holding a child screaming bloody murder at my body to forcefeed were absolutely over. It alienated the other 2 members of my family when the screams began, and it made me want to cry. The torticollis made it too hard for Luke to turn his head to nurse. And he was tongue tied. His poor little tongue was forked like a snake because his frenulum was too tight.

When I met once again with the Occupational Therapist, she watched him try to eat his bottle. He gulped 2 oz. and then cried. It looked like a text book case of reflux and she urged me to see a doctor immediately. I knew my gut instinct was right when he was just a month old!

So November revealed a myriad of health issues that I would spend the following months unravelling. I navigated issues with insurance, as well, proving that I have had to learn WAY more about insurance for neurodevelopmental therapy for children in the state of WA than I would have ever imagined possible. My oldest son's pediatric neurologist once sat us down and explained all of his lobbying efforts to secure this basic level of insurance coverage in our state, and little did I know I would have to follow in his efforts with our own insurance, which is self-funded and doesn't have to follow state mandates. I think people have to take more charge with their insurance companies, and that is exactly what I did. I realize the discussion of insurance is kind of a "yawner" but I worried now that I had a child who needed help and I might have to pay hundreds to seek care each visit.

I felt like a failure in November. I couldn't believe the same feeding issues I had with Colin had resurfaced in some similar, and some not-so-similar, ways with Luke. Living in this part of the country and not nursing a little one can carry its own stigma that is hard to explain. And now I had to delve into the world of therapists and figure out what all to do to get our little boy the help he needed.

During this same month our oldest's tantrums peaked and we faced huge discipline issues. I even called his preschool teacher one morning almost in tears seeking her insights and seeing if she had this same problem in class. There were many mornings I was pleased to put him on the school bus so that I would have a break from the constant battle. Friends promised me that my nice child would return but it might not happen until he was four. I kept praying for four to hurry up and get here!

On a more pleasant note, we enjoyed a lovely visit from Matt's parents for Thanksgiving. We made an excursion to the Santa Train and also enjoyed the parade. Our Thanksgiving Day tradition is for Colin to work on a Gingerbread House as the food cooks all day (this kicks off Christmas season). He keeps asking me now (in July) when we can make a Gingerbread House again as he just loves it!

Teething Times Two!

I have been fully prepared for teething for the baby -- as much as one can prepare. I have lots of Motrin and Oragel tooth swabs to accompany lots of cuddles for a little one in pain.

But my mommy friends all failed to tell me it is WORSE with the 4 year old. Yikes! What teeth are these? Six year old molars? (I repeat, he's not six!) For the past three nights Colin has howled at night with such fierce pain that even the Motrin and swabs are just barely taking the edge off it. And the more worked up he gets, the more upset he gets.

Last night he told me between sobs, "Take me somewhere!"

"Where would you like to go?"

"Anywhere so that I can be healthy. Can I go downstairs with you? Can I go see Grandma? Anywhere!" And thus Grandmas can always help the pain!

He was so worked up that his ears began to hurt (displaced pain from the molars coming in on both bottom sides) and then he thought his tummy had a cold because he was so worked up his tummy hurt.

After many snuggles last night I had a few minutes of quiet, And then the howling began again. I let it go for 5 minutes and then went back to Colin's room and he was sound asleep. Wrong room! Next door Luke was so worked up that it took a while to get him unwound.

Fortunately after that all was quiet in the house for the remainder of the night. Whose teeth will break through first? Tune in later to find out!

October 2009 - More Pictures

Luke is one month old!

Colin frolicks in the Leaves

Luke's first Blackberry picking; just a few remained in early October from the great summer

Sticker Chart Success!

A happy (not "crabby") Colin, holding Twitch

What do you get when you combine one full sticker chart with a cool new digital clock and a quirky Toy Story Toy named Twitch? A little boy who has successfully not woken up the entire family before 7 a.m. for three weeks!

....When Colin was younger I would hear of parents putting a clock in their child's room so the child would know that he couldn't leave his room before a certain time (generally 7 a.m.) I finally decided he was old enough to be taught how to read a clock, and I invested in a cordless one with a light-up screen so he could learn to stay in his room until it was time to roust the family. We even set the clock to military time so that there was no confusion what 7:00 meant, and we even taped 7:00 on the bottom of the clock for reference.

For almost 4 weeks Colin has been working on not waking the entire family (including Luke) before 7 a.m. One morning he called for me through the monitor at 6:49 a.m. Nope, no sticker that day; it was 11 minutes early and the thought was that he didn't look at his clock before calling for me - whether it was 11 minutes or 51 minutes early.

Colin has been working hard each morning so that he can earn a character from Toy Story 3 named Twitch, the "big bad bug" from Sunnyside Daycare. Whey he took a liking to this odd character from the show I'm not sure, but he's a very buff action figure. And when you squeeze his legs together, he beats his wings.

Colin has been telling all of his friends that he has been working on getting, "the big bad bug." And guess who he played with non-stop all day long? Yep, Twitch even somehow made it to the dinner table this evening.

Sweet success! Now if I can only get younger brother to understand that 5:30 a.m. is unacceptable, that will be great. In 4 years (or less!) he will be getting his OWN clock!

October 2009

Heading into October, Luke was almost 3 weeks old. By this time I had already had a few nights alone with both boys while Matt attended a conference, and I was now settling into that zombie state that occurs with several night wakings, night after night.

As I look back. October is a blur. At his one month visit I told the doctor he seemed overly fussy related to feedings, but he was gaining weight and she just asked if my diet was impacting him or if I was drinking enough water (my fault, right?!) It only I had known then.

We managed to make a few small outings, including the annual pilgrimage to the pumpkin patch. Luke howled much of the time because it was windy. Fortunately it wasn't rainy and Colin quickly found a pumpkin and we did the necessary photo op and checked that off of our list. Next year will be a little more fun when we don't have to move quite so quickly.

For Halloween, Colin dressed up as Superman. He wore his costume to preschool and Luke and I joined him as he trick-or-treated in the halls at school. Luke wore Colin's black cat hat. Then we headed to the annual ECG Halloween party and Luke wore his caterpillar costume. According to Colin, Luke was, "The Very Hungry Caterpillar."

Speaking of outfits, the boys wore matching polar bear jammies and I got some of the cutest pictures of them together -- we weren't sure what Colin would think of matching, but he was so excited to have something just like Luke!

First Haircut

With pictures coming up this week, I decided Luke was looking a bit shaggy. His soft, blond locks need a trimmin'.

We went to one of those kid places, as I figured they would be most understanding if he was particularly fussy. However, he seemed overly relaxed as the clippers trimmed the back of his hair. He wasn't too sure about the scissors part for the top of his head, but overall it went really well.

What a Difference a Few Days Makes

Luke watches it rain outside on the 4th - note the long sleeves.

It's hard to believe that just 6 days ago we were cold, drowned rats! I am so thrilled that summer is FINALLY here and that we can all dress in shorts and go to the pool.

We hosted a 4th of July party for our home fellowship group -- 6 couples with a total of 16 kiddos and 2 on the way. We had planned a big backyard BBQ, complete with yummy food from the smoker and grill, as well as outdoor crafts and our bouncy house.

We had watched the weather all week and it looked like the 4th might have showers in the morning but be partly sunny by the afternoon. They (the "royal" they) were SO wrong! Our party started at 4 pm, and just like clockwork the downpour started at 4 pm.

I had no plans to have everyone in the house -- what now? It was a soaker, not just a little bit of drizzle.

We pulled the cars out of the garage, moved the tables to the garage, and served the food there, as well. It felt like a party in Houston where people use their open garages just to escape the heat of summer. Only we were escaping the wet and cold.

It all worked out, and the outdoor activities will just have to happen another time. We were so happy to host our friends and feel so blessed to celebrate the 4th with them, rain OR shine!

Little Mr. "Cleany"

A few nights ago I was putting Luke to bed when I heard Colin downstairs wailing. When I went downstairs to check on the commotion, he was sobbing because his toy room was a mess.

Colin: "Mom, will you help me clean up my toys? It's such a mess!" (sob, sob!)

Me: "Sure! (thinking, "Really? Of course!")

15 minutes later the room was clean and all of the toys were in their proper container/cubby. Colin signed and looked at me saying, "Now I'm all better."

As I told Matt the story he said, "That's my boy!" He's a "cleany" just like his Dad and hates disorganization.