15 month update

Nicholas turned 15 months last week on Wednesday. He seems older than that at times, but then again, it's hard to believe he can be that old already!

He's rotten - pure rotten, but so stinkin' cute too! When people comment about how cute he is, I say, it's just a facade - just give him a minute and you'll see!

He had his well check up on Friday. He's growing and developing very well. He's 25 pounds, 1 ounce (75%), 31-3/4 inches (75-90%) and his head measures 19 inches (75%). He had has been to the doctor too often lately to be poked and prodded at, so unfortunately, he does not enjoy these visits. When they called his name to go in, he sort of planted his feet down and froze, not wanting to follow the nurse. He freaked out at every little thing - being weighed, measured and having his ears & chest looked at. Getting his two shots this time was especially fun! He's gone through the previous rounds of shots pretty easily, but since he's a bit soured by the whole doctor experience and wising up on what's in store, I had to restrain him on my lap.

The good news was he's growing well. The bad news was that he still had some fluid in his ears and is wheezing still a little. I do think it's finally starting to go away, but he suggested giving him some Triaminic a few times a day for a week or so to see if we can clear it up once and for all. I think it's working! I'll be so glad to be over this round of sickness finally after 3 months!

My one concern about him is his temper and anger. I can't understand what this 15 month old can be so seemingly angry about sometimes. He's not being raised in a hostile environment and we don't yell, but this kid can throw a fit like I've never seen, and when he does, he's MAD - like seriously p'd off!!!! I know it's an extreme thought, but I told the doctor I was concerned that he could grow up to be the kid that sets the neighbor's house on fire or something!!! He reassured me that boys are a bit more aggressive and that it might just be part of his makeup (thanks for that gene Tony!), but that he will learn to cope and control it as we teach him how. He said the best thing is to ignore his trantrums and remove him from situations when he's having an outburst. For now, I'll trust that we'll still be able to raise him to be a good kid and hope this is a phase!!! He can be silly and sweet too, so it's not like this is his only demeanor, but when it happens, it seems like he's got issues!

He's pretty much finally sleeping all night most nights. Maybe only once or twice a week do we have to go in his room to settle him down, so that's definitely better. He's a great eater (obviously at 25 pounds!) He's super active, running, jumping and playing hard. He's getting more words - mama, dada, hi, bye-bye, cracker, sissy, thank you and this week, he says purple (and does it really cute - purses his lips and say in a deep voice "po-po"! He does a few signs too - please and more. He can throw a ball and his laugh is awesome to listen to! He loves taking a bath, music and dancing and playing outside. I still get the pleasure of rocking him to sleep most nights - I'm treasuring that as long as I can! He's a bit of a mama's boy right now, which is sweet and frustrating too. I love how much he loves me and how I can comfort him, but when he freaks out every time I leave or walk away, it's kind of annoying!

Here are a couple pictures of him from the other day.

yep, he's a stinker!

but very cute too!

I think he's going to need his first haircut soon!

Mother's Day 2011

I'm a little late with this post, but it is an important day so I didn't want it to go without the attention it deserves.

Mother's Day has become my most favorite day of the year. I don't get all hyped up about my birthday or really even about Christmas, but Mother's Day is the one day that I love the celebration to be about me...and all mothers really.

Last year, Tony heard me loud and clear that he should make this the one day he puts some effort into planning a nice day. We don't have to do something over the top or spend a ton of money, I would just appreciate him putting a little thought into making the day special.....and this year, he did!

We got up early for a Sunday and all went to church. It was really nice to all go even if it was the earlier service.

After church, we went to have breakfast. We just had a normal breakfast, which was perfect, but Tony did try to do a special brunch, but it ended up falling through. He called and booked our reservation, but the place called him back later and told him that they overbooked, so they cancelled us. It ended up being fine because it was really probably too expensive for a meal for us. Here's a couple pictures from breakfast.

Nicholas now likes to feed himself with forks and spoons.

And Hannah and I after we ate.

Then we went home and they gave me a couple of gifts....a nice new pair of earrings and a couple of charms for my pandora bracelette. Perfect!

There was another story about the earrings. I sent Tony a link for a pair of earrings I wanted and he ordered them over a month before Mother's Day. He kept waiting for them to arrive and kept checking his order status and the week before Mother's Day, he got a letter stating the item was on back order and they cancelled his order! Poor guy - this is what he gets for trying! So he found another item that seemed like the same thing and it came, just in time and was perfect!

Nicholas laid down for a quick nap and then we headed to my surprise destination. We went to the Botanical Gardens in Cleveland. It was a perfect weather day for sure - sunny and warm, but not hot. This is where the brunch was supposed to be by the way. Anyway, it was really great. We had a really nice time going through the gardens.

Hannah especially liked the glass house and all of the butterflies. She tried to hold one, but was a little nervous about it, so I did it for her....it was cool! There were so many different butterflies and plants - really a neat thing!

Then the outside gardens were full of tulips - giant, beautiful tulips. They're my favorite flower, so it was really nice!

We climbed and explored and it was really quite peaceful and lovely there.

We finished the day with a trip to the grocery store and making something for dinner on the grill.

This was a perfect Mother's Day - I'm so very blessed to have these two beautiful, healthy children to be a mother to and a husband that cares enough to make me feel so special. I'm more thankful for all of them each and every day.

Happy Mother's Day to my mom, Julia and all of my friends as well! You are all wonderful!

Ahhh, spring is finally here

It is I, the absent blogger, here again to try to do a little catching up on the happenings of our life these past few weeks.

We’re all doing great for the most part. We’re so glad the winter weather is gone and now if only it would stop raining long enough to enjoy the warmth of spring. We have tried to enjoy being outside whenever we have the chance. Nicholas has a new bike and basketball hoop courtesy of some great finds from the Children’s resale I did a few weeks ago.

That ended up being a pretty good day for me. I got rid of a lot of the kids stuff including quite a bit of their clothes and made about $300. The only things I bought were the two toys for Nicholas – I’m trying to remember they have plenty of clothes and not go overboard this season again!

Hannah’s enrolled for kindergarten at Royal Redeemer. She has an assessment in June which I’m sure she’ll soar through. She’s doing really well with reading on her own and some basic math too. Her handwriting is getting so much better and she loves to practice it on dry erase boards. She’s signed up for safety town too this summer. I started buying her some uniform clothes as I see some good deals……I’m so very excited and sad at the same time for her to be going off to school in a couple of months. Amazing how fast the time goes and how quickly they become so big!

I missed blogging about Easter, so we’ll use this post to do the catch up on that. We colored eggs the night before. Nicholas didn’t stay interested in the activity for too long and since he put his hand in the entire cup of blue dye, we decided it might not be his thing!

Hannah however, had a blast. She loved to do the coloring and decorating of the eggs. We had quite a variety of colors and decorated eggs.

We woke up Easter morning to Hannah saying, “I saw an egg! The Easter Bunny must have been here!” We went downstairs to see their baskets on the table and then she and Nicholas were off to find all of the hidden eggs. Nicholas was of course, much more interested in the grass from his basket! Hannah took a while to find this last hidden egg!

They opened a couple of gifts after the egg hunt.

We missed going to church unfortunately since we had to get ready to meet everyone for brunch. Hannah was beautiful in her new Easter dress and Nicholas is such a handsome little boy in his outfit.

And a family picture, which are a bit tricky to take these days!

We met Dad, Julia, Susan and Will for brunch. It was good, but Nicholas wasn’t so into eating or sitting and allowing me to eat much, so it seemed a little rushed this year. We had a little mixup with the valet parking too, but it was a nice morning together anyway. We headed home to get a quick nap and then went over to Dawn & Jack’s for a little while. The kids always have a blast over there, especially since Aunt Dawn always has new toys for them!

I decided once and for all that I’m done carrying around the rest of this baby weight and need to get in gear and get back in some sort of shape, so I started to go to zumba classes. It’s amazing how uncoordinated I felt that first time! It’s been a while since I moved like that! It felt good though to start to get a little exercise in. I’m going to go at least once a week and maybe twice if we can figure out how to fit it into our schedules.

Hannah had her first sleepover on the 30th. McKenna and Allie came over Saturday afternoon and they all played so well together. We made pizzas for dinner and then they watched a movie in a tent that Tony made for them and then were pretty good about going to sleep by 10:00. They all slept in their sleeping bags in Hannah’s room. McKenna and Allie seemed to sleep just fine, but Hannah wasn’t used to sleeping on the floor or with other people, so she didn’t sleep as well, but she had a great time!

We made waffles for breakfast and they played some more and then went home around noon on Sunday. That was a fun experience! They were all so good though, so really, it was pretty easy!

Nicholas just isn’t getting better and unfortunately, last week we dealt with more lingering issues with whatever he’s got going on. He was really restless on Sunday night, like whimpering and just really uncomfortable. He started getting a real yucky nose on Monday and then by Tuesday evening, he started getting gross discharge from his eyes too. I kept him home Wednesday and called the doctor again. This time, they just called in an antibiotic for him instead of having me bring him in again (good thing - that would have been the 4th visit). We started the z-pack on Wednesday night and it seemed to start clearing up his nose and eyes by the next morning, except the poor little guy looked like he was punched right in both eyes when he woke up. They were all red and swollen.

This picture from Thursday morning really doesn't do justice to what he really looked like.

By Friday morning, he was looking much better and his eyes weren’t running anymore. He took his last dose of medicine Sunday evening and we’re supposed to give it at least another week to clear things up. I think it cleared up his infection, but then yesterday, he was running a fever. The doctor said if he’s not better this time, we’ll have to go see a specialist. Not sure what kind, maybe a respiratory or an ENT? He goes for his well visit on the 20th, so we’ll probably decide then unless he’s still experiencing fever or if the infection comes back. It’s mostly this cough that has hung on for over 3 months now…..please go away!!!!

Tony got a new lawn mower that he’s really excited about and we finally signed on our refinance, so we’re super excited about the financial plan we’re going to start working. Hopefully, we can get things in order to get into a new house within a couple years. I’m hoping it won’t be too late to build in the new development across the street from us, but if for some reason it is, we’ll find another opportunity I’m sure! Things are really going well for us all around and we’re so very grateful for everything. We just need to get Nicholas feeling better and then we can enjoy this spring and summer to its fullest!