My Favorites

It's been much too long, I know. We're still alive and kicking. Adjusting to a new house, a new work schedule, and my growing, changing boys has been a bit much for me. I'm getting there. Slowly.

Because they make me smile, I thought I'd share a few of my current favorite things.

1. Edwardese. Edward has stopped saying "no." He says "I guess not." On occasions we'll even get an "I guess.......yes." There's also "What chu talk'n 'bout!" And the ever classic "I'm all fine."

2. Ethan's bum. That boy can shake it! He discovered the joy of wiggling his bum a few weeks ago. (I think they did the chicken dance at school.) Ever since, he's become a dancing fiend and can shake that thang with the best of 'em. He'll even make up his own little raps to dance to. Totally cracks me up.

3. A clean kitchen. Now this is not something I have often. But when I do, it's inspiring! I just want to pull out a cutting board or mixing bowls or dust that long counter with flour and start kneading something. The layout of this kitchen makes it hard to keep tidy. But I'm pushing hard to create better habits for all of us. Because I love to be inspired to cook!

4. Edward's PJs. I'm sure I've mentioned Edward's tag obsession before. His taggies are his constant companions. It's evolved to be only clothing tags. His favorites are the ones in his pajamas. Especially the ones in the back of his pajama pants or shorts. BUT, Edward's favorite pajamas to wear are the full length footie ones. No lower-back tag on those. Edward's solution? Layers! He gets his footie pj's with a pair of shorts to provide a tag. All he needs is a cape and he'd make a great superman!

5. Ethan Drawing. Drawing has become an integral part of Ethan's life. He spends a huge portion of every day sitting at the craft table drawing us pictures. A few months ago, his drawings were simple (and unrecognizable) sketches of the things around our house. He's evolved to more intricate and creative works involving our family as books on a shelf, or racetracks with water hazards and short-cuts, or a bird in a cage, in a tree house, supported by several trees reaching over our house. We can barely bring ourselves to even put them in the mail to share. So grandparents, come visit and see Ethan's growing collection of work!

Love your Brother?

Not at my house. As much as my boys talk about loving each other, the obvious truth is that they'd LOVE to be only children.

Ethan can't wait for Edward's nap so that he can get out big boys toys or have mom all to himself. And Edward, when we're dropping Ethan off at preschool, literally drags me back to the car so that he can have the toys all to himself.

Maybe what we need is two toy rooms!

All joking aside, they do love each other and they show it in lots of ways. Playing together is just not one of them.

On my mind

1. Ethan can sound out and write all of his letters now. So instead of "spelling" by yelling out a stream of random letters, he's working hard to hear each of the letters in the correct order. I love that he works so hard! He's even managing to read a few short words by sounding out the letters!

2. Edward backed off on wanting to use the potty for a while. But the interest seems to be back. He saw a potty at Target last week and fell in love. (It's frog shaped.) He's been sitting on it multiple times every day. No success yet, but the dry diapers all day and the overfull ones at night indicate that he's learning some control. We'll get there.

3. Please don't tell me how thin I look. I'm very aware. My pants are hanging off of me and all the baby weight has disappeared. (Wish the extra skin would too!) Even my face is thinner. This was not an intentional weight loss. It was achieved by a combination of stress, too little sleep, frequently eating only one real meal a day, and lots of Dr. Pepper to keep the blood sugar up and the headaches at bay. I am looking forward to gaining some weight back in Dec. Then losing it in a much more healthy manner.

4. So happy for John. He's loving his new job. It's exactly the type of growth opportunity he was looking for, and they need him there so badly. He jumped right in, meeting with people to figure out what he needed to learn, interviewing someone to do their SEO, and scheduling a business trip to get some hands on experience. Nine months was worth the wait!

5. Think I might attempt to fold the many, many loads of laundry and clean a bathroom or two before having to go to work. Better get started...

Pictures while cleaning

Our house was an absolute wreck after a few weeks of a mom who was too busy, kids who were sick, and over-full weekends. We spent all day cleaning and have managed to get our house back into livable shape.

After cleaning the playroom, Ethan reminded me that we needed to make room for his preschool artwork on the walls. The picture is documenting the wall of artwork from last year. We took it all down and saved just a few. Ethan is so excited about filling it up again this year!


At the end of a very long, very busy day, John and I sat down for our "date night". Looks like fun, huh? Folding laundry while we watch a movie is becoming a regular thing.

Laughing Through Life

After returning from our big outing today (a ten minute trip to drop off school paperwork for the dr to sign), it occured to me that life has been a little boring.

So I thought I'd share a few glimpses of my boys that made me laugh or smile this last week.

* Edward dumping water on the living room rug and then dancing as he splashed in it. (This was while swearing under my breath that he'd figured out how to make yet another kind of sippy cup leak.)

* Ethan rolling his eyes at me for singing along to a "Word World" song. ("You can never have too many OO's" is a catchy song! And I know mom. It's payback time.)

* Edward singing along to the same song a few minutes later. Doodly-oo is such a fun word to hear from his little mouth.

* Ethan saying all morning that he was tired and should probably take a nap. (I had a yeah-right kind of laugh at this one. He didn't nap, but he did lay on his bed and read books for over an hour.)

* Edward's run. It's hilarious.

* Ethan's excitement when I showed him how to use a Magic Eraser to clean up Edward's wayward coloring.

* Edward's imitation of his brother when I leave for work. Even if I've already said good-bye to him, if Ethan gets a bigger hug or a real kiss, Edward comes over for the same. Gotta love those little arms giving hugs and the slobbery kisses.

Not very exciting. But these boys are constantly reminding me why I'm pushing through. Give me a few of those moments a day and it's all worth it.

Dental Adventures, Part 2

Somehow, I neglected to mention that in the same week Edward had his big makeover, Ethan's looks underwent a major change. (This post might be long and boring for most of you, so if you just want to see the change, scroll to the video.)

After looking for a new dentist (for a second opinion and in-house anesthesia if necessary) and the interruption of job loss (meaning no dental insurance), we finally had Ethan's teeth evaluated again.

The new dentist spent an hour talking Ethan through the x-rays, but didn't manage a cleaning at his first visit. Looking at the x-rays showed that Ethan did need some of the work recommended by the first dentist. Two crowns in the back instead of multiple fillings (but not the root canals, thank goodness), several small fillings, and a problem with a front tooth that we had two options for. But because he was so resistant, our little Ethan would have to go under general anesthesia.

Because most of the work was on his molars, which he needs for the next ten years or so, we couldn't ignore it. So we scraped together the money and made the appointment.

The day of, before I would sign the final consent, I had two discussions. First with the pediatric anesthesiologist. I asked not only about Ethan's experience (what they'd do while he was still awake, how kids usually come out of this particular type of anesthesia, and how much he would remember) but also some medical questions. I liked this guy and wasn't worried about Ethan at all. It probably helped that his name was Dr. Heaton. (I would still have rather entrusted Spencer with this, but he lives to far away. Next time??)

The second discussion was with the dentist about that front tooth. Ethan had a cavity that ran the length of the tooth. He'd actually had it for several years, but every dentist before would treat it with fluoride and say not to worry about it. We really couldn't ignore this deep channel down his tooth anymore. The problem was that a traditional filling would fall right out. So our options were to cap it with a plastic crown or pull it. Initially we'd planned to go with the crown, but it's also likely to get knocked off multiple times before the tooth falls out on its own. And with Ethan, that would likely mean more anesthesia to replace it. I went with the obvious decision and had them pull it.

Now, even though it made sense (and was cheaper), I still felt bad about it for a few weeks. It was hideous. The tooth next to it stuck way out and there was a gaping hole. I'd go look at him in the middle of the night and cry about what I'd done to him. But now that the hole has healed up and the other tooth has shifted a little, he just looks like an older kid. Good thing too, because his teeth seem to be on a late schedule. He'll have that gap for the next 4 years or so.

Would you like to see it? Not a great video, but be grateful you can't see the hole very well. This was the day he had the work done.

Exciting Week

In the last week we've:

- Visited family in San Antonio
- Played lots with Grandma J
- Started swim lessons for Ethan
- Rearranged the ENTIRE house (The beds and most of the dressers are in the same places. Not much else.)
- Braved a fire-ant attack on Edward's feet that caused a major allergic reaction
- And added our first Epi-pen to the diaper bag for the next time the fire ants are too interesting to stay away from

Plus all the regular stuff. Thanks Grandma J for all the help!

The Things We Teach Our Boys

First, we seem to be encouraging Edward to do gross things. You can't see it very well on the video, but that boy's finger disappears up past his fingernail...



And second, Ethan has finally gotten his first real bike! Thanks Great-Grandpa! With very little coaching from us, he took off and loved every second of it.



More videos to come! (Thanks to John who uploaded them ;)

Talking over Ice Cream

Ethan's directorial debut!



John reciprocated. (Please ignore the mess in the background. And Ethan's horribly long hair. It's been cut. But not Edward's. I'm not ready to give up the curls.)



And because I still can't believe it, this is how John let Edward eat his dinner a few weeks ago.

Checkups

Both boys had their well-checks today. They were champs.

Edward is at 25th percentile for weight, but 50th for height. He's already leaning out some like his brother. But with John's family's genes, so he won't be as tall. The dr was again impressed by his vocabulary. We've switched to only counting words we clearly understand, but that's still 50 or 60. And he's cutting 6 teeth at once, by my last count. Needless to say, he hasn't been very pleasant lately.

Ethan is at the top of the chart for height, but at 50th percentile for weight. (Yay for his weight coming up on the charts!) Long and lean. His checkup was more through. Cognitive and developmental tests, hearing and eyesight exams. He passed all but one with flying colors. The one was his eyesight. He's at 20/30. That left eye had a hard time with two letters on the small row. Not a worry at all right now, but he'll get glasses in a few years, I'm sure. Obnoxious genetics.

Ethan also got a prescription for allergy meds. Hopefully our days of sniffles and nights spent listening to him cough are over.

My favorite part of the boy's checkups is always the response these guys get from the drs and nurses. This dr calls them the smart brothers and praises them for their big brains. And one of the nurses today asked me if I was a school teacher because she was so impressed by how Ethan answered her questions during the eyesight and hearing test. (He was so cute. Whispering that he could hear the beep when it was a quite one.)

Unfortunately, the visit had to finish with shots. LOTS of them. I think that both boys hate being constrained even more than they hate the shots. So they start yelling at me the second I get their hands, and it turns to screams with the added pain of the shots. Unpleasant. Luckily Ethan is done until he's 11. Edward... he'll survive a few more.

My Boys

As much as my boys get in the way of my desire to sit on my butt doing nothing, I can't help but love them.

Ethan has been so sweet lately. He's helpful and kind and says the most wonderful things. I hear that I'm cute several times a day, and he will always jump up to help me out as long as the request isn't ridiculous. I can't figure out why he thinks I'm so great, but he tells me all the time that he loves me. I must be doing something right! (Actually, I'm going to pat my husband on the back for this one. Ethan treats me the way John does. He's a great example to his boy.)

Edward is our clown. He's always figuring out new ways to make us laugh. My current favorite is how he yells"POOOOOOOP!" when he needs a diaper change. Most of the time everyone else gets in on it and we all crack up while yelling "POOOOOOOP!" (And there is the added bonus that he's easier to change when he's giggly!)

Can I mention my husband again? Not many husbands would be willing to be a single dad five evenings a week. Not only will John do it, but he'll be great at it.

I'm a lucky woman to have these boys in my life.

Ethan's Prayers

I mentioned that Ethan added to his prayers to keep the monsters away.

Tonight, I listened more carefully to what he said. And I was wrong before.

Ethan hasn't been praying for Heavenly Father to keep him safe from the monsters. He's praying for Heavenly Father to help him feel safe.

I think that Ethan's logical mind has always known that there weren't any monsters in his room. But his fear of the dark and of being alone made it hard to remember that. So my smart little boy started praying for what he actually needed. Not safety from non-existent monsters. Just comfort.

I need to remember to do that. Simply ask for comfort.

Man. I love that kid.

Second Breakfast

Ethan, picking his cereal this morning:

"No, dad. That's for my second breakfast!"

We love our little hobbit.

He actually meant seconds, which is shocking. My non-eater ate three big servings of breakfast this morning!

Blessed Sleep

I sent out a plea for help six days ago. Thank you so much for all of your suggestions!

Here's what we did.

First, we cut out the nap. I've had a day or two where I really needed the break from him, but he has been much more ready to sleep at bedtime. (Added bonus, he'll occasionally tell me he needs to "rest his legs" and lay down on the guest bed with a book for ten minutes or so.)

Second, we cut down on the books. We've been reading two books ever since he was old enough to pick. Two was easy then because they were short board books. Now, two is kind of ridiculous. We cut it back to one and he hasn't complained at all. And it gives us the opportunity to reward him with an extra book without punishing ourselves.

Third, we put a fan in his room. We'd been frustrated with staying quiet so that we wouldn't get the "You woke me up" excuse. And even when we hadn't made a sound, kids playing football in the park across the street would make noise. (This may have contributed to the monsters fears.) The fan makes enough white noise to block out just about anything.

Fourth, and maybe the biggest, we found a new way to combat the "monsters" in his room. Our assurances of safety and "monster cleansing" techniques hadn't been enough to calm him down. But after several long talks about how God is bigger than the monsters and can keep us safe, Ethan came up with the idea that he should pray about it. So he now asks for Heavenly Father to keep him safe in his personal prayers each night. Now we only hear about silly monsters.

For six nights now, Ethan has gone right to bed. No screaming fits. No fighting. No hours of reappearing. It's wonderful. Thanks again for your help.

I Just Don't Understand

Ethan is still having issues with going to bed. Naptime and bedtime are the absolute worst times of my day. (And yes, he still needs his naps. You should see how much worse it is when he doesn't get them!)

He's had the same routine for most of his life and he makes sure we stick to it. Not a problem. The first issue is that he wants to switch the person doing it after each step. I think we may have allowed it some when he was younger, but not for some time. He knows that the person he chooses to put him to bed stays for the whole process. But everyday, he asks. And several times a week, he gets hysterical about it. We wrestle him into bed, offer him his prayer, songs, or holding hands (whatever comes next) three times, and move on to the next when he keeps screaming at us. (We've tried just doing them, but then he starts hitting. So now he has to tell us he wants them.) Eventually, we kiss him on the top of his head and leave him screaming. If he stays in bed, he eventually will scream himself to sleep.

You can imagine how much worse that whole process is when only one of us is home and he doesn't get to pick who puts him down. Like naptime. When the screaming keeps his brother from going down too. Fun for me.

I said "If he stays in bed..." This is an even bigger problem. Ethan will not stay in his room longer than five minutes. We'll see him every few minutes for HOURS. Sometimes he screams and cries, sometimes he just wimpers. But he always comes out. We've tried everything. We've calmly put him back in bed over and over. We've talked during the day and again at bedtime about how we go to sleep. We've put in extra nightlights to scare away monsters. We've taken away the extra nightlights because he plays with them. We've taken away every toy he takes to "sleep under his bed." We've pleaded. We've yelled. We've threatened. We've even tried spanking. (Gets us a few more minutes in between, but he still comes back out.)

Nothing is working. We love this kid the rest of the day, but we hate him at bedtime. I just don't understand what's going on. So I have no idea how to fix it.

Smiles

After my little breakdown this morning (why is it the little things that you feel the most?), the boys worked hard to keep me smiling.

Edward, who has had a fever for the last day or so, spent all morning giggling away. I love that boy. Watching him talk animatedly with his toys made me smile. His crazy giggles when he caught my attention made me laugh. And his big "mmmmmAA" when I made a kissy face made me kiss him over and over.

Ethan sat down to show me each and every valentine he received today, and told me all about the cupcake he decorated. I love his excitement. He wrote letters for me on his white board and tried over and over to spell Mom. (He did get Mama.) I love his little furrowed brow. And he climbed up next to me while we played a game. I snuck in some snuggling while he happily beat me.

I really do have the greatest kids. (And they have never done this! Although that would make me laugh too.)

Dental Adventures, Part 1

Did you know that you don't have to wait until your kids need braces to spend thousands of dollars on their teeth? Ethan is teaching us new things every day!

Ethan had a cleaning today with his new dentist. He was a champ. The boy went in for the cleaning portion ALL BY HIMSELF! This office prefers it that way if the child is ready. I hadn't told about that part because I figured it would freak him out. (It probably would have.) But as soon as the hygenist saw his Cars T-shirt and told him that she had Lightning McQueen toothbrushes, he was off. Mom or no mom. I did poke my head in a few minutes later, but the boy was chatting away. He was just fine.

The x-rays didn't go quite as well, but they got two. That's two more than last time!

After a LONG wait for the dentist, he came in to check Ethan's teeth. As expected, the boy has cavities. Plural. We were very aware of one (that we couldn't get the previous dentist to treat! ARGH!) and expected one or two more. But the boys mouth needs some serious work.

I had to check the treatment work-up to make sure I had my numbers right. Ethan needs five fillings. Bad, but not horrible. He also needs two pulpotomies. To avoid medical jargon, lets think of them as partial root-canals. Yes, I just said root-canals. My four year old will have two crowns. CROWNS.

And how do you do a root canal on a four year old who won't even let you get an x-ray? That's right, sedation. Full-on general anesthesia. At the hospital. In a surgery suite.

I'm kind of freaking out over here. I can handle just about anything in the medical world, but I have this thing about general anesthesia. I'm afraid of it. And I'm really afraid of how Ethan will do coming out of it.

We've told Ethan that the yucky spot on his front tooth needs to be fixed before it hurts. So the dentist will fix it while he's sleeping and he'll wake up with a new tooth. He's actually excited for a new tooth.

We're aiming for the surgery date in mid-February. (The pedi-dentist only books the suite once a month or so.) We have to pre-pay, so we may not make it, but we're hoping.

Anyone else have to put their young kid through general anesthesia? How did it go?

PS - I think I should probably mention that we take very good care of Ethan's teeth. I discussed with the dr why his teeth have so many issues. First, genetics. I have incredibly soft enamel that decays when you look at it funny. Ethan inherited it. Second, spacing. Ethan also has my teeny tiny mouth. I'm missing two full sets of teeth and still barely have room in there. Ethan's teeth are packed so tightly together that brushing is not as effective as it should be. We need to floss morning and night. And third, the gain weight diet. Remember all that whole milk/cream stuff that Ethan used to drink? He had to drink so much of it that he took a cup to bed with him. We knew it risked damaging his teeth, but didn't expect the other problems to compound the issue. We stopped doing that more than a year ago. Plus we have always been cautious about sticky foods and don't allow juice. We've done just about everything right. But what was started before has only gotten worse. At least we have the option of sedation and don't have to traumatize him.

Some Random Things

- Edward got his first tooth on his first birthday. That could have been bad, but we didn't even know he was teething. Yay for my stoic, sweet guy!

- Ethan is having sleeping issues. Mainly going to sleep issues. It takes hours every night, and napping is non-existent. (It was only four days a week before, but he still needs it.) Our boy is exhausted. He's so tired that he's started having tantrums again. Like he's two. And the nearly constant whining and crying is driving me out of my mind. We have no idea what the problem is and have found nothing that will keep the boy in his room. Really no fun at all.

- Edward is a chatterbox. He almost never stops talking. I love that he looks at me and rattles off whole sentences, like I should understand exactly what he's saying. We've figured out a few. Mama, Dada, and Hi are all obvious. Then there are those that no one else would get. Ethan, All Done, What's That, Ball, and Raaar (as in roar). Also he has a specific grunt that means "Yes, my diaper is stinky." And he has the "no" head shake down pat. Loving that we can communicate more!

- John is shaving off his goatee in three days! Really, two days and a wake up. I'm so excited!! I've decided to call it a Christmas present to me. I've been ready for it to be gone for a while. He's had it for a year, people. A year of a scratchy faced husband is not my favorite. (I love him, just not his unkempt facial hair.)

- My Grandpa's doing great. We couldn't even let ourselves hope for this before, but he should be home for Christmas! Probably even the traditional Danish Christmas Eve at the farm. I wish I could be there. (Also, this means I really need to decide on a layout program and a printer so that I can buckle down and get his book ready for publishing. At least the first volume. Any suggestions? I've used Blurb, but have some issues with their layout program. Solvable ones, but it's easier to avoid them all together.)

- How is it that Christmas is so close and I haven't finished my wrapping???? Usually I'm done shopping before December hits and I'm done wrapping by the middle of the month. I like having the last few weeks to just relax and enjoy the season. Life managed to get in the way this year. At least I'm done shopping. (Unless you're family. We're aiming to have your gifts done by the end of January. Hopefully.)

- I need to clean the boys bathroom. But I think I'm going to go make some chocolate gingerbread cookie bars instead.

And More Pictures for you Voyeurs

Edward stuck at the gate because he still hasn't figured out how to step back down. Ethan in his favorite 'waiting for dad' spot. Edward's punk hair. Ethan's ever present tongue. And my boy reading his first book.

10 things that made me happy today

10 - $2.95 gas. I was practically giddy.

9 - Crockpot dinner. No fighting to get dinner finished while kids are having their afternoon freak out.

8 - Rain. I love rain. And all the green things it brings.

7 - Gummy bears that have been open for awhile. Nice and hard, the way they should be. (Weird, I know. I also love hard marshmallows.)

6 - Edward playing independently for half an hour. Granted, he pulled out every bowl and pot in my kitchen cabinets, but I'm ok with that. A few minutes clean up was worth it.

5 - Snuggling with Ethan while talking about how to be more loving towards his baby brother.

4 - Pumpkin cookies. Yummm.

3 - Ethan banging spoons together to keep rhythm with his singing.

2 - Alone time with each of my boys.

1 - Edward snuggles.