Pancakes with grandma...

It has been several months since Rachel spent the night with Grandma Sue and Grandpa Nelson. She always looks forward to going to their house, but I think she especially likes it because they spoil her. Plus, she gets to play all by herself and does not have to share toys, or a grandparent, with her brother. Score.

Last weekend she got to spend the night and was overjoyed to learn that they would be making pancakes in the morning.

Making pancakes with grandma!

She was able to convince Grandma that she needed chocolate syrup
on her pancakes. I suspect that it really didn't take very
much convincing on her part.

Siblings...

My mom took these pictures of Rachel and Ryan.

Both are about 15-months old in the photo.
Both are in the same rocking chair.
Both are adorable little children.

Yep, they are obviously related.

Halloween (a bit late)...

This was the first year that Jake's schedule allowed him to take the kids trick-or-treating and after three stops we were pretty much done. It was fun but trick-or-treating takes on a whole different level of "interesting" when you live in the country and have two options:

1. Hit up your 2 or 3 neighbors for candy and call it good because you can only load and unload a costumed child so many times before you kind of give up and promise to buy them each a bag of M&Ms to make up for their tragic lack of candy.

-or-

2. Drive to a nearby town and visit the homes of mostly those whom you have never met, will probably never see again, and quite honestly feel a bit awkward talking to because they really don't know or care who you are. And watch other parents herd around their kids, wonder who they are but not really feel inclined to risk utter embarrassment by stopping to ask them.

So, three country stops worked just perfectly for us.

Rachel announced that she wanted to dress up as a super hero so I ordered this outfit for her online.


Sibling Picture Attempt #1

Ryan got whatever costume I could find that was cheap and fit him.
He was my little tiger. And the poor little guy got laughed at by all who saw him. Because he was just so stinkin' cute.

Sibling Picture Attempt #10

Sibling Picture Attempt #1,000
(so close...except that you can't see
what Rachel is wearing)

Sibling Picture Attempt #1,746,201

Sibling Picture Attempt #Last Try

Sibling Picture Attempt #OK, let's just try this ONE MORE TIME.
And, we're done.

The waterpark...

When I became a mother I very quickly learned that there are words to be said that I never imagined would ever requiring someone to say.

Things like....

"The speaker isn't broken. It just sounds funny because there is a hot dog in it."

"These diapers are amazing! Look how much poop they held!"

"He's throwing a fit because I wouldn't let him play in the kitty litter."

"Child, hold still. I can't tell if I'm actually clipping a nail or just cutting off dirt."

"Sunday night trash smells the worst- like dirty diapers and popcorn."

But today is a special day. Today I celebrate being able to say something that I have often felt that I would never get to say.

And after almost 18 long months here it is...

Over the weekend we took the kids to the waterpark to celebrate a giant accomplishment.
Rachel finally completed her potty training chart.

Rachel is potty trained.

Here she is...the star of the show.

 

At the waterpark!
It sounds a bit ironic to celebrate potty training
by going to a waterpark, right?
It was our last resort and it worked.

Something must have struck him as way awesome.

 

And to ensure that we started our weekend properly, the kids played in the leaves before we left for the hotel and waterpark. I may have had an ulterior motive (sleep in the car). But hey, they had fun.

Interesting side note, this weekend we discovered the magical phenomenon known as the "hotel suite"- one room for parents (with TV) and one for the children (with TV and kitchenette). Our lives are forever changed.

Ryan's first leaf-playing experience.
He was super excited.

I'm not even sure where Rachel got the idea to use her rake.
She's never seen us rake leaves
(or use an ironing board, for that matter)

Rachel raked the leaves and Ryan watched/threw them.

They figured out that it was also fun to throw the leaves
and let the wind catch them.
Which, interestingly enough, is also how we usually
"rake" our leaves. Yea for wind.

mid roll-in-the-pile, I believe

One more toss into the wind and then inside to finish packing

The post-weekend family time.

I went to Las Vegas, but not really...

I noticed the other day that our milk had an expiration date of November 18th and was like, "Geez....times certainly have changed. Milk didn't used to have an expiration date of over a month out."

And then I realized that the current date was, in fact, November 7th.

Holy cow, where did October go? Where did fall go? Where did summer go? Where did 2013 go?!

October was quite a month for us. Ryan had his surgery and for two weeks we were all miserable. At the end of the second week I packed my bags and hit the road for Las Vegas. Okay, so maybe it wasn't quite like that. Although I did go to Las Vegas it wasn't quite as exciting as most visits to that "lovely" city might be, and the entire time that I was gone I felt a huge load of guilt for leaving my husband at home to take care of the kids and fend for himself for five days.

However, to make up for it I spent all of my time listening to presentations and attending workshops that focused on employment law, the Affordable Care Act, and performance management (super exciting, by the way)...



While I did this...
(photo from the CUPA-HR Conference website)

While my good friend (and awesome travel companion) went out to see the world and posted pictures like this...

She saw this...
(Melissa's photo)

Thankfully, and to everyone's dismay, Ryan ended up sleeping like a champ while I was gone.

And eating. Holy cow that kid can eat. He must have discovered that he was missing out on lots of good food because now he's like a teeny tiny little tank, a tank with an empty pit for a stomach.

Praise God!

But, we aren't getting too excited just yet. We've seen this happen before. Once in awhile he slept really well for about two weeks and then fell apart again. We are, however, trying to be cautiously optimistic that we have finally turned a corner.

And Ryan has smiled through it all. What a little trooper that kid is.

I just love my little family.

Thanks Grandma Marcia for this picture.

Post-surgery update on Ryan

It has been 10 days since Ryan's tonsillectomy and I'm quite thankful that we were warned, several times, by the doctor that we will probably not notice any differences for at least two weeks. His warning kept our expectations low.

But, maybe, not low enough.

Here he is... all ready for surgery.

The last ten days have been downright difficult. The surgery itself went well but Ryan needed oxygen afterwards and it took longer than expected for him to wake up. After almost an hour in the recovery room the nurses finally asked me to come hold him. When I got back there my poor little boy was crying in the arms of a stranger and obviously in pain. I held him on my lap and sang as much as I could of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star before I burst into tears myself and tried my best to calm him down.

By 8:00 that night Ryan had successfully ripped out his IV and when we left in the morning he had only drank about 5 ounces of fluid. I'm still surprised that they let us leave the hospital, but it was Saturday and they must have had beds to clean or something because they kept assuring us that he would be fine.
And.... we were back in the ER on Sunday for an IV and fluids due to dehydration.

Maybe this is why they let him go. He was a little bit crazy.

And just because the universe cannot ever seem to give the poor little guy a break, he was also teething this past week.

Between the pain from the surgery, the pain from teething and the refusal to eat anything but formula he really hasn't slept well all week. And when I say hasn't slept well I mean...we're back to waking up about once every hour or at least 4-6 times per night.

I cried at work today when someone asked me how Ryan is doing. Because I'm so tired.

And, I'm so tired of being so tired. For almost 15 months we have been sleep deprived and continue to average about 3-5 hours of sleep. Excuse me, 3-5 hours of mostly interrupted sleep.

Which is why I declare myself to be productive each time the house gets cleaned or a load of laundry gets done or a meal is made. Because there are a lot of days that we are still in survival mode.

But...

All hope is not lost.

We are still holding onto that bit of hope that maybe, just maybe, by this time next week our dear little boy will finally be feeling better and sleeping better.

And if not?

I'll be in Las Vegas for a conference...and sleeping.

Perhaps prayers for my husband will be needed.

The fall update...

It makes me sad when I don't have time to write on my blog or post pictures of, well, anything. If I remember correctly I still haven't even had a chance to do anything with the pictures from Ryan's birthday party.

Maybe I can at least take a few minutes to do a quick run-down of the happenings in our lives lately.

1. Jake studied for almost 8 years, spent countless hours completing his classroom trainings and prayed for a teaching job. I, on the other hand, fell into a faculty position and I'm now an instructor for a course that all incoming first-year and transfer students are required to take.... so over 6,000 students. Aside from the fact that it is an online class, I don't get paid a single dime for being the "instructor", and never step foot into a classroom it is pretty much the same as all other teaching positions. Maybe? I don't really know that for sure since I haven't actually taught anything before. hmmm...oh well. Next.

2. I have been invited to be a guest speaker in a class next week. I'm so excited and nervous and honored. What if the students don't think I'm cool? What if I forget my notes and have nothing to say? What if my zipper is open? What if...um...you know what? That pretty much covers all of my fears. So, here's to me. May I add value to the class and keep everyone awake.

3. We found out yesterday that Ryan will need to have his tonsils removed because they are causing sleep apnea and making it difficult for him to eat. Normally that isn't a huge deal but since he is so young he will have to stay overnight in the hospital. I'm a wreck just thinking about it. I feel just awful that we can't explain what is going to happen or how crappy he is going to feel afterwards. The surgery is scheduled for October 11th so prayers for us that day will be appreciated.

4. Rachel has chosen to be, "Just a little bit potty trained," as she puts it. We are going CRAZY trying to explain to her that she needs to be all the way potty trained. We have pretty much tried everything we can think of...except Dora stickers and a trip to the water park. And so, we bought a Dora potty chart and each star sticker brings her closer to a big sticker and once she gets all of her big stickers we have promised to take her to the water park. Yesterday we actually had some success. Jake seems to think we're on the right track but I still have my doubts. I'll believe it when the water hits my ankles.

5. It is officially Fall! Hooray! I just love this time of year. The weather has been perfect and a few weeks ago I got all of my fall flowers planted. The trees are just starting to turn colors, combines are in the fields (the sight almost always makes me cry...I'm so proud of my dad), pumpkin everything is available for consumption, and football is well underway. What a perfect time of year. Don't you think?

6. Last week I had a fabulous girls night out with two old friends.  And, I do mean FAB-u-LOUS. We laughed. We cried. We talked business. We drank wine and enjoyed a wonderful meal under the setting sun. Why don't we do that more often? I do not have a good answer for that. Except time...time just gets away from us.


So, that's the update as of today.
We'll see how tomorrow looks, tomorrow...