Guitar Giggles...

Decisions, Decisions...

 The boys played outside tonight as Nick and I tried to make a decision about possibly building a new house...  I think we've decided to do it! 

ER Woes...

Our most recent ER trip, unfortunately, occurred last Friday night.  Ben woke up at about 9:30pm crying uncontrollably saying that his tummy hurt.  He seemed to be pointing to his left side.  The prelude to this is that on Wed. night, our boy took a spill on his trike.  After the fall, Ben was crying and shaking saying that his tummy hurt, so I took him to Urgent Care to make sure that all of his organs were in their proper place.  (Luckily, they were.) So, when he woke up crying on Friday, our first thought was that he was having more pain from falling off the trike.  He was inconsolable, so we knew that we needed to get him checked out right away.  I made the trek to the ER at 10pm with an aching Ben.  By 11:45pm, still waiting in the waiting room, my nerves were shot.  I had just witnessed a baby girl have a seizure right next to me while waiting to be seen for a 105 degree temperature.   All I could think was that Ben would be next since he was so overtired, scared, and stressed.  (Again, luckily, that did not happen.)  So it was after midnight by the time we saw an actual doctor, who after giving Ben an exam said everything felt okay, but that he would order an ultrasound to be safe.  The ultrasound took over an hour to do.  By the end of it, Ben was even more tired, scared, and was now complaining that his right side hurt.  The tech left the room at the end of the exam saying that she needed to find a doctor.  That set off all kinds of alarms in my head... she returned (with no doctor) saying that she had enough pictures... So we were escorted back down to our room in the ER around 2am.  Shortly after, a nurse entered and said "Okay, you guys are outta here!"  I looked at her and said, "Ummm, we haven't even seen the doctor to hear about the ultrasound yet..."  (I may not have said it that nice...) She went to get the doctor and he came in telling me that everything was fine on the ultrasound.  After having a slightly heated discussion with the doctor, he assured me that Ben had no internal bleeding and all of his organs on his left side appeared normal.  So I asked him about Ben's right side and his appendix area where Ben had had some pain during the ultrasound.  He "reminded" me that Ben had been complaining of pain on his left side when we entered the ER.  After another slightly more heated discussion, (where I reminded him that Ben was only 4 with a limited vocabulary and may not have been completely accurate when he pointed to the pain in his tummy)  he told me that everything was okay there too.  He may have pulled a muscle, or he may have gas pain and constipation.  In the end, I think it was a combination of these that had caused Ben so much pain Friday night.  So at 3am, my son and I headed home. 

Luckily, Ben has not had too many more complaints about his tummy.  We got the gas and constipation worked out (after a few failed attempts on my part to give him a suppository... apparently I am not skilled at that at all...) and I am happy to say that he is back to his pain free self. 

I was so happy that Ben was better by Monday because they had a field trip planned to Wickiup in Toddville for preschool.  Unfortunately, it had to be postponed due to rain and the boys were very sad that they didn't get to ride the bus today.  It got rescheduled though, so now Conner is walking around the house saying "Bus, two weeks!!!"  Oh what a wonderful ride that will be!

Apple Pie...

Conner's class made little apple pies today!  Very yummy...  Ben was not so happy about it since he didn't have one, but Conner shared and they both got to enjoy some pie after lunch.  They were both very excited about eating it, but ultimately ate very little of it and Con actually spit some back out on his plate...  I don't know...  I thought it was pretty good!

Leaders of the Pack...

Conner and Ben were pretty excited that they were both leaders in their classrooms today!  Ben kept walking around our house saying "Two boys and two leaders!"

Dinosaur Bingo!

Dinosaur Bingo on a Monday afternoon was pretty good!  The boys surprised me with their patience and careful inspections of their Bingo cards.  Nice little addition to our game supply!

Open House...

We had an open house this afternoon... this very rainy, dreary, and cold afternoon, so we decided to try a movie at the theater... but the movie we wanted to see ended last week so we decided a trip to DQ would be a great time filler!  The boys loved their ice cream cones!!!!

Another Great Party!

We had a great time celebrating Nick's 34th birthday this weekend!  Ben and Conner loved being able to play with their cousin, Marley!  We enjoyed the day outside and watching the Hawkeye game!  It turned out to be a great night for a party and a bonfire in the backyard.  We all had so much fun... thanks to Nana and Gramps, the Longs, the Hastys, and the Harmons for celebrating with us!!!  Another great party!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

We had a great birthday for Daddy today!  The boys kept telling me that it was their birthday so they should open all the presents!  We are such a lucky group of four to have each other and to have a daddy who cares so much about us! 

We had a great day!  Happy Birthday, Nick!!!!  Thank you for a wonderful week!  I love you more everyday...

Daddy's Vacation...

We have had a great few days with Daddy being on vacation.  The boys will be very sad next week when they wake up and Daddy will be at work already!  We had a little scare today when we realized that Ben's sniffles had morphed into an asthma "episode" and his pulse ox started to decrease, but these two parents know how to attack that situation proactively and we were able to keep him out of the hospital (this time..)  On Wednesday, Daddy will be taking a break from his new temp job (stay at home dad) to do some fishing, so he is excited for that!  No new pictures today, but we have been greatly enjoying all of our time together!  We are looking forward to celebrating Nick's birthday on Thursday and then celebrating with family on the weekend!

Oh, Ben...

Ben outdid himself today at preschool.... there was a tricycle accident and the pavement won... by a lot.... (please note the slightly raised portion of his forehead.)  So school was cut short today because Ben needed his mommy.  Conner didn't seem to mind having to leave a little early.  After some grilled cheese and some cuddles, I think our boy will be okay!

SMOs...

Conner got his new SMOs (initials of some pretty technical terms that I don't even remember) today at physical therapy.  His walking and running has greatly improved since we started the therapy, but he needs a little more support on his arch so we are going to try these for a while.  He loves them!  We got shoes to go with the new braces, but we will go shopping for some other shoes that hopefully will look a little less bulky!  He will only wear them for an hour or two everyday in the next few weeks.

Weiners???

I keep forgetting to write this down so I thought I would take a few minutes today and make time because it is a conversation I really want to remember!

The boys and I were in the bathroom (as we frequently are now) and Conner had "accidentally" started peeing before he actually sat down on the potty, so I was the lucky recipient of the stream gone astray.  I washed off my pants, threw them in the dryer, and we waited...

After Conner was all done insisting that it was a "assident," he asked me, "Mommy, you got weiner?"
I said, "Well, no Conner, only boys have weiners."
Ben was quick to pick up on this and said, "Mommy, you a girl!"
"Yep, Mommy is a girl."
So we proceeded to go through a list of people that the boys know and each one asked me "Daddy got weiner?  Nana got weiner?"  You get the idea... So when they were done asking me about everyone, Conner turned to me and said, "Mommy... you got weiner?!"  And then he laughed hysterically.  Not sure if they took much away from our little lesson, so if they happen to ask you in the coming days if you have a weiner, please don't be offended... they're just trying to figure this whole thing out!!!!

Labor Day!

Enjoying the awesome weather on Labor Day!  Our trip to HyVee this morning was uneventful except when Conner stood up in the cart and pointed at some guy who happened to be wearing a Hawkeye sweatshirt and yelled "Hawkeye!!!!"  He sure did surprise the young man! 

Ben woke up this morning with a mystery bump on his head... you can kinda see it in the picture. (top left of his head)  The jury is still out as to whether it is a bug bite or an actual bump from who knows what...

Updates...

Being awakened at 4:30 am by crying children due to a thunderstorm does not bode well for the rest of our day.... but wanted to update everyone on our week...

1.  Potty... Ben is doing pretty awesome.  He has even had a couple of completely dry nights so we have been pretty impressed.  Ben's problem is that he doesn't want to stop what he is doing to have to go potty, but he is getting there!  He is pretty happy about the abundance of hot wheels he has collected over the past couple of weeks.  We are going to have to scale this reward back a bit now...  Conner is staying true to his character and is only going potty exactly when he wants to and doesn't seem to give two hoots that we want him to do it all the time.  He is still struggling with the notion that poop goes into the potty but someday (I am hopeful) he will actually believe us that it does indeed belong in the potty.

2.  House.... Still trying to sell our house... anybody interested????  Hopefully  we will have more showings in Sept. with the start of school being over.  We are still looking for our perfect new house.  We have been looking at a lot of new construction and are leaning that way. 

3.  Work... Nick is working a lot right now, but he will get a week of vacation starting on the 10th so that will make up for all the extra hours this coming week!

4.  School... The guys are still loving school!  They come home happy everyday.  I haven't recieved any bad reports so hopefully that means they are behaving themselves while they are at school! 

5.  Activities... The boys have been all about their cars lately and if I don't hear some sort of engine noise coming from them, I worry about what they are doing!  They have been pretending so much more and it is very fun to watch their imaginations coming to life.  They have also been into movies lately.  The Curious George movies are still their favorites, only now they will actually sit through most of the movie themselves.  I am still in awe of this.  Conner is all about helping Mom right now, so every night after dinner, he gets out his step stool and "helps" me wash the dishes.  I thought he would be over it by now, but he seems to really enjoy it!

6.  Health... We have been incredibly lucky lately and we have no major illnesses or issues!  A small asthma flare up for Ben and that's been it.  They are just doing so good!  Conner will be getting some "braces" for his feet to help them not turn in so much and we got those fitted yesterday.  Just have to wait for some shoes to come in that fit well with the braces.  They are very lightweight and hopefully these will be able to correct his arch (or lack there of...) 

It might just be a movie kind of morning.  I just asked the kids what they wanted to do and Ben told me he wanted to watch George and Conner told me he wanted to clean...  They are very excited to watch the Hawkeyes today and insisted on wearing their Hawk caps to breakfast!