This will be...interesting.

Dave's in bed now so he can get up early for work tomorrow. I have an hour until I put the boys to bed and I'm already losing steam and getting tired. This should be a fun evening. :P Blech. I just want to crash.

Tomorrow should be peachy as well. David is headed to Detriot as soon as he gets out of work. He and a couple of our friends have tickets to the Lions' game. He probably won't be back before I head to bed tomorrow night. He has to work Monday morning as well so I really won't see him again until sometime around noon on Monday. In the meantime, I'll be taking the boys to church, my mom's house for lunch/visiting with family and then a fall party and trick-or-treating. We'll be home right after bedtime. It's going to be a long one.

Tooth #8

I found another tooth hiding in Max's mouth today. It looks like he cut it yesterday. I really had no idea it was that close, but all of a sudden, here it is! I can't believe with everything we had going on yesterday that he wasn't complaining more about it.

The Windy City

Despite what threated to be the storm of the century, we took a drive today to Chicago. I know, I know. Crazy, right? The news this morning - both national and local - hailed this storm as the most severe storm in 70 years. There were high wind advisories and tornado warnings in place for nearly every county between here and Illinois. They were cautioning people to take cover in a sturdy shelter or basement and to stay off the roads. We thought that would be the perfect time to jump in the car and make the trek to Shedd Aquarium. And you know what? I'm glad we did.

We did delay our departure time by a little more than an hour to try to avoid some of the worst weather. From what we encountered this storm just wasn't that rough. We did run into some really heavy rain and a whole lot of wind on the way there. It was a little tough to drive in, but it was fairly short lived. After that passed, it was smooth sailing. We still had strong winds and a few showers, but we didn't let that ruin our day!

Max and David were fabulous today. With a total of 6 hours in the car and a no-nap day for David, I really had braced myself for the worst. Maybe I shouldn't always expect the worst from my little darlings, but it was a big day and could have easily been overwhelming for them. Max ended up taking 3 naps today. Two were in the car and one in the stroller. He was super into watching the fish and stuff, but he just didn't have what it took to keep on truckin' all day long. He snoozed all the way from the beluga whales to the penguins. David on the other hand, didn't miss a beat. He was there every step of the way looking at every fish, turtle, eel, whale, frog and swimmy creature the aquarium had to offer. He was really impressed with the "huge" Beluga whales and the otter. We had such a great time watching him run from tank to tank and peeking in. He had his tired and hungry breakdown moments, but overall we weren't sorry we had brought him along. ;)

Today was one of Shedd's free general admission days, but Andy, Whitney, David and I opted to pay the additional fee (still at a discount) and view all the exhibits. With the exception of the Fantasea aquatic show and the 4D Experience, we saw absolutely everything. They have got a good thing going there. I really loved the sting rays, manta rays, etc., the beluga whales and the playful little otter. Oh! And I liked touching the starfish! They were super cool too. The pink one was a little slimy and pokey at the same time. The puffy purple one was just pokey and hard while the baby orangey one was soft and almost squishy. Little David wanted to splash in their water, but wasn't so much into touching them. Bummer. I think he would have liked it.

Empty the van - check. Put away souvenirs - check. Blog endlessly about how cool today was - check.

He's ALL boy

Just a few new ways David is displaying his ever growing sense of manliness:

1: His new favorite word is armpit. Everything has or is an armpit. His shoulder is now an armpit. His knees are armpits. His forehead is an armpit. He saw an angel figurine that I have (which he calls my Bird Baby because it has a kid-like face and wings) and he pointed out it's armpits. He would be perfectly happy to talk about armpits all the live long day. And he wants to know what sound they make. How does he know, at only 2 years old, that they can make sounds???

2: He fixes things for me. Sometimes he breaks things just so he can fix them. I found him on my endtable in the living room today with a screwdriver in one hand and unscrewing the lightbulb from the lamp with the other. When the bulb was fully out, he turned his sweet little face to me and said "Oh no, lamp broken. I fix it!".

3: He has no idea how to control what happens with his butt. He had been complaining of a stomach ache tonight. A short while later he started letting off some steam (if you know what I mean). After one particularly big fart he jumped a little, grabbed the back of his diaper and said "Oops, pooped a little.". And indeed he had.

A red moon?

Was anyone outside tonight around 8pm? The moon was red and HUGE, you guys. Red. And huge. I've personally never seen a red moon before and I have to say it was pretty cool. You can learn all the nerdy details here of why this happens. For those of you that don't need the geeky facts, just know that it's really cool. Seriously awesome.

Twinkle, Twinkle

This is David's version of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star from the breakfast table this morning. It's the second song he's ever sung by himself and unprompted. The first came earlier this week when I was sick. He sat on the couch by me, rubbed my hair and sang the Snuggle Puppy song from the book by Sandra Boynton. I believe his version goes "Twinkle, twinkle up there star, up high twinkle." I heart him.

P.S. Sorry about the pause from about :29 - :36. He was pushing out a burp. :o)

Rainy days

Some gloomy and rainy days call for coffee, some for a romantic comedy and a cozy blanket. Others still are asking for a bowl of chili and a good pair of sweats. Today is begging for comfy slippers, hot tea and my Chris Tomlin Pandora radio station. Here's to hoping the rain doesn't let up today.

Our miserable week

It's been quite the week at our house. Last Saturday we went to an Autumn party at David's brother's house. There were loads of little friends for David to play with and endless amounts of grass and mud for Max to eat (he was pooping dirt for 2 days). My babe and I fell flat (literally) when it came to the three-legged race and to be honest, we didn't do much better at the egg toss, but we all had a great time and that's all that matters. :)

On Sunday we dedicated Max at church. Just about everyone in the family was able to attend the service and we all went out to lunch afterwards to celebrate. After lunch, we parted ways and went home to get the boys a much needed nap. They fell asleep on the way home then refused to sleep when we got them in bed here at home. Sometimes I really hate cat naps in the car!! I gave up on the hope of them sleeping anymore and packed them up to go visit my mom. We spent the evening with her then packed things up to come home.

Monday was pretty low-key...which was nice considering what was about to happen. I don't really recall doing much of anything until Bible study at church that night. I really love Bible study. Not only is it awesome to be in the Word, but I really enjoy getting myself dressed up and going out by myself. I got my weekly leg-shave, changed out of my snot stained clothes and brushed my hair. I was feeling particularly fancy this week so I even took the "just in case" back-up diapers out of my purse and unloaded all "mom" items. I was just one of the girls. The meeting was fabulous, as always, so I was in a good mood that night....until I got back home that is. Max was up puking when I pulled in. My poor hubby, who is completely and utterly repulsed by bodily fluids, was covering in regurgitated peas and chicken from dinner. Yes, I laughed a little. I'm sure he threw up a little in his mouth when he lifted that slime covered baby out of the crib. Yes, I'm laughing about it again. Hehe. Anywho, I was home for only 10 minutes and hadn't fully cleaned up the first mess when Max threw up again. Now I had a carpet to add the list to be cleaned. :( Yuck. I finally got his stomach settled for a solid half hour and tried to get him to bed. He passed out right away. I had my fingers crossed that a good night's sleep would knock that stomach bug right out of him, but that was not to be....


Tuesday started of fine with a little sleeping in, but that didn't last long. Max puked yet again within 15 minutes of nursing for the first time. I called the doctor and was told it was just a stomach virus making his tummy extra sensitive. He would throw up everything I gave him unless it was in very small doses. Enter the medicine dropper. I was instructed to feed him 1 teaspoon of expressed breast milk every 10 minutes for a half hour then rest his stomach for 1.5 hours. If he kept it down, start over again with the same routine. Once he reached 3 hours from the last puking time he was cleared to nurse a small amount again. He was off solid foods until he'd lasted 8 hours without puking. To add to the pure suckiness of the day, I was nauseous and ill all day myself. I had body aches, head aches and general yuckiness from the time I woke up to the time I went to bed. Blech.

I woke up Wednesday morning feeling much better. Whatever I had seemed to have passed quickly and honestly, wasn't that bad. It could have been much worse. Max was looking much better too and I foolishly thought we were out of the woods with our illnesses. Not true. I gave little David a jelly sandwich, chips and raisins for lunch. I saw every bit of that again when he hurled it up right in the door way of my bedroom. Over the next 8 hours, David became good friends with our puke bucket and I got tight with my friends, Lysol and Clorox. He was so bad that even the medicine dropper was too much to handle. He finally fell into bed, exhausted, at 8:30 and slept all night with out puking again. It was restless sleep, but at least he wasn't up several times getting sick.

Yesterday, Thursday, was a good day for us. We went all day - sun up to sun down - without puke or poop. No new laundry was created!!! Score! I slipped out for a few hours in the evening to go to our life group at church. It was a nice escape. I had been back home for about an hour when David (the husband) told me his stomach had been upset all night and he was starting to feel sick. Not really what I wanted to hear. He was feeling too nauseous to go to bed so he sat up for a few hours by himself. I drifted off sometime much earlier without him. Max was up at 3:30am to nurse when I heard David's alarm going off. He reluctantly got up and started getting ready for work. He looked just miserable. :( After he told me that he wasn't sure if he could even drive all the way to work before he vomited, I talked him into calling in. You really aren't in any shape to work if you are hugging a puke bucket all day. He sat with me while I finished nursing Max. Not 5 minutes later, the diarrhea began. After 30 minutes and his 4th trip to the bathroom, I gave up and went back to bed by myself. I dozed off and on until the boys woke me up at 8:30 this morning. So far David is still sleeping.

The only good thing about this virus is that it has been passing quickly. Very quickly. The boys and I were all over our battles with it in about 12 hours. Since David's problems started last night, I'm hoping he'll be feeling much better when he wakes up. *fingers crossed*

Teeth

Max has SEVEN teeth now. Wow. When did he grow up????

Improvements

I think we are finally starting to see some improvements with Max. After a week of being sick, I took him to the doctor last Friday. He had an ear infection. The doctor prescribed antibiotics for him. By Sunday, we were starting to see our normal, happy Max come back. It was nice to have a break from the non-stop fussing and uncontrollable crying. He was sleeping longer at night and getting up fewer times. It was looking up. ...And then he got a horrible diaper rash. The antibiotics had given him a terrible yeast infection. He screamed to the point of not breathing and trembled when I wiped his bottom. He hasn't had a single rash since he was a month old so I felt awful for his poor booty. He's just not used to dealing with this! I called the pediatrician and spoke with a nurse on the phone who got a prescription cream called into our pharmacy for us. After just 2 days with the new cream we saw huge improvements. I have my fingers crossed that it continues to heal like that!

Pumpkins

With Max being much too young and David much too....David...we've decided that we aren't carving Jack-O-Lanterns this year. Knives aren't a good idea no matter how "kid-friendly" or "safe" they are. I'd really like some toasted pumpkin seeds, but oh well. Maybe next year. Instead of risking life and limbs with knives, we went a more colorful route and let David draw on his pumpkin with markers. Being permanent markers that was still an adventure. David was super into it. He was so serious as he colored it. He kept telling me about all these trucks and footballs and motorcycles that he was drawing.
Max didn't help so much with the coloring, but he did decorate the pumpkins with teeth marks.

I made Max's pumpkin look just like him. Big eyes, a cute button nose and 6 teeth. David added curly girl hair later. :)

That's my knee in the corner. Anyone know how to get permanent marker out of denim?

David's finished pumpkin. He made a red smile on it so it would look like Max's.

Max and his pumpkin.

The finished masterpieces.

P.S. Permanent markers are just as bad of an idea as kid-safe pumpkin carving knives. Trust me. And buy Crayola.

Smile til my cheeks hurt

You know the days that are so fun you laugh and smile until your cheeks hurt? Today was one of those days. David, Max and I hung out with some friends from late morning until nap time. We had a super fun time hanging out at EJ's house and playing in the morning then we ate lunch (which is always a blast with three 2 year old at the table). There's something magical about the way a two year old's body can turn fish sticks and mac-and-cheese into pure energy in 5 minutes flat. By the time we had their grubby fingers washed and their feet hit the floor they just couldn't contain themselves. Hoping to keep our sanity intact, packed the kidlings up and took them (haha. When I first typed that I wrote toot.) to the park. It is simply gorgeous out today so it's almost a must to spend it outdoors.

We went to a park that I'd never been to before and, let me tell you, it ROCKED! They have got some of the best slides my booty has ever slid on. Fan-tas-tic. The three big kids played for almost an hour and a half while the 2 babies (Max and one of his girlfriends) watched. The big kids were so fabulous about sharing turns on the slide and walking nicely to the stairs. They clapped for each other when they had a particularly good trip down the slide and they even did doubles -sometimes triples- and waited at the top so thier friends could climb the stairs and slide with them.

Days like this make me so grateful to the Lord for allowing me to be a stay-at-home-mom.

Firetrucks

The Gobles Fire Department had their annual open house last week. Being the mom of a 2 year old boy, I knew this was not an opportunity to be missed. We made the trek out to Monga's house and hung out for the day, ate dinner with her and then went to the fire station. I didn't tell David ahead of time where we'd be going so that he'd be surprised (and I wouldn't be annoyed all day with "when are we going mom? when?". I broke the news after dinner. His dinner was gone and he had started begging grandma for suckers and cookies. I didn't want him filling up on treats before we got snacks at the fire station so I told him no. I told him we were going to see fire trucks and they would have special treats for him. His reaction was priceless. He shrieked and clapped and bounced in his chair. All of Grandma's desserts were forgotten. He just couldn't wait to get out the door. We changed diapers quickly and piled in the van. I'm glad Grandma only lives a mile from the station because I don't think he could have held his excitement any longer.

When we got there my sweet and shy little boy immediately transformed into an adventurous explorer intent on discovering every fire truck there was to see. They had nearly every bit of their station and equipment open for inspection. We got to see 8 different trucks from 3 fire departments, a fire hose, the equipment room and the firefighters' clothes and hat. All of the trucks were open for the kids to climb into and all the tools were out for the kids to hold and see. So fun! The ladder truck was probably his favorite because it was so tall. He kept looking at it and saying "High up there. Wow.". He even said goodbye to it when we left. :)

About half way through our tour of the station we got to see the firefighters in action. They got a real fire call that was broadcast over the station's speakers. Every stopped to listen to the call information and then about half of the firefighters there (it's a small station :) ) dressed and left. We got to see them put on their pants, boots, coats and hats and load up in the trucks. They turned on the lights and sirens and off they went. It was unfortunate for the owner of that combine that was on fire, but seriously cool for my fire truck obsessed boy. :)

VerHage Cider Mill

A couple of weekends ago we made our yearly trek out to Verhage's Cider Mill to get cider and donuts. Tasty, sure, but overpriced and not really worth it. They didn't even have U-Pick apples. :( I think we may find a new "usual place". David spent the entire time playing with sticks and smacking the dirt. I have a video of him viciously attacking the ground, but Blogger won't let me upload right now. Max spent the entire time being cute:

It ended up being sort of a big day for Max. He went on his first hayride (sitting in Papa's lap) and got a taste of his first caramel apple (thanks to Uncle Steve). He was impressed. He kept trying for more, but Uncle Steve polished it off before he got a chance to slobber it up any more.
David got to pick out his very own donut and have a tiny sample cup of cider. He was one happy boy. :)

A lot of parents say they look for a smile on their kids' faces to know they've enjoyed it and they had fun. I, personally, love this face at the end of the day...

...And this one.

Nothing says "I played hard today" like sleeping boys.

Claritin and boogers and tissues, oh my!

I was blessed with the onset of seasonal allergies when I was a teen. I was on allergy shots for 7 years trying to get rid of them. This year has been a particularly rough allergy year and I've suffered a little for it. Poor lil David has suffered a lot though. The cold that I thought he was getting last week was the onset of some nasty fall allergies. He complained of his eyes hurting and was rubbing them constantly. I noticed they were staying pretty red and watery so I called the doctor. A nurse suggested that I try some allergy medication to see if it would clear up his symptoms before I took him in to be seen. Sure enough, after about 3 days on the meds his runny nose and sneezing stopped and his eyes no longer bothered him. It's bittersweet. It's nice to know that he's not sick. It's nice to know that there is some sort of medication that I can give him that will help. I don't love that he's an allergy sufferer though. I know how horrible that can be.

This also clears up why he was always "sick" last spring. That neverending cold wasn't really a cold.

Drip Drop

It seems that somewhere along the line David has picked up a bit of a cold. It's still in the runny, snotty stage and is quite messy. Every time he sneezes (which is often) he launches projectile snot rockets across my living room. I'm chasing him around with a box of tissues and a bottle of Lysol wipes. :( My poor boy.