Lava Tubes & Frog Hunting

The last couple of weeks have been pretty uneventful.  Just working on house projects and entertaining the kids.  Quinny is successfully crawling EVERYWHERE now.  Not on his hands and knees, but dragging his legs behind him-- he rocks back and forth when he's on his hands and knees like he knows he can do it but just can't muster the courage to try...  He's way more interested in standing and holding onto things right now too.  I am betting he'll be walking before he's a year old.

This last weekend we decided to get out of the house and look for a pet frog for Ronin.  We headed up north to see what we could find.  Our old hiking road seemed to be washed out because we wound up by the Ape caves instead.  Without a flashlight. So we just wondered around the lava tubes above ground.  They are pretty cool!

On our way to the lava tubes ready to catch a frog!

Mommy exploring a lava tube - Ronin took this picture!

Ronin in the same lava tube

A family photo in the woods :)

Ronin going down the ladder to a lava tube

The bottom of the ladder... looking into the tube you have to crawl thru to get to the other side

I'm not claustrophobic- but crawling through this scares the crap out of me!  Apparently there's one spot you can stand up in the middle of the tube, but the whole "trip" is about half the length of a football field.

This is the "exit" for that lava tube.

Next time we'll have to remember our flashlights and actually go through the ape cave though!  But it was a fun little adventure for the day.  We didn't see any frogs for Ronin to catch. We did see a pretty blue moth in the outhouse though...  and Kiera chased a squirrel.

My friend Jody and her family from belgium came up for a visit this weekend too- it was nice seeing her and the boys played with Ronin and made a huge mess of the house but they had fun.  Jody's boys understand english, but are shy about speaking it back so at least they understood Ronin when they were playing.   I had warned Ronin before they came over that they don't speak the same words as he does, and he said "But everyone speaks my language!" haha

Our friend from High School, Alexis, even came over to visit with everyone, I haven't seen her since High School, it was nice to get to chat with everyone again :)

Me, Jody (and her son Beno), Alexis, and Tracy

Quinns MRI is this Thursday... Keep him in your prayers and thoughts and keep your fingers crossed that the whole day isn't too stressful for him. Poor guy. I feel the worst about not getting to feed him for several hours before the MRI... he loves to eat!

Well, eventually we'll catch that frog, and eventually Quinn's MRI will be done...  so until then take care and lots of love!

C

5 years and MRI scheduled

Rory and I just celebrated our 5 year anniversary this week!  I had some very lovely flowers delivered to my office on Tuesday- they are beautiful!

Quinny is still all smiles and very happy- no new teeth to report.  He's very interested in standing and has been working on crawling as well- he's just about got the hang of it, he goes faster when he rolls from place to place, but he's up on all 4's like a dog and sometimes he'll jump his backfeet forward and laugh, but then forget to move his hands and fall on his face the next time he jumps his legs forward...  I think he'll have it down in the next couple of weeks... then look out world!

Quinn is laughing at mommy while we wait for daddy and brother to get out of the gym.

Ronin singing about jellyfish while playing the guitar.

Quinn looks like he's comforting his big brother or something... haha

Daddy let him play with his big guitar.

Part of the Jellyfish song, and Quinn trying to help.

Quinn's MRI is finally scheduled for 2pm on June 28th.  It's going to be a tough day.  We have to be at OHSU by 12:30, but his MRI isn't until 2pm... He has to stop nursing by 9:30 and can have only clear liquids until 11:30, and then nothing until after the MRI... they have to sedate him so he holds still.  This breaks my heart, I don't want to see him get jabbed with an IV or be sedated... but I know he won't remember any of it and it's just to make sure there's nothing going on in his brain.  He's been diagnosed with Spasmus Nutans, and should outgrow it by about 3 years at the latest, but the MRI will clear up any other underlying condition.  I pray they find nothing else going on and that it's a wasted MRI...  My poor little cuddle-bug, I'm not looking forward to the 28th at all...  So needless to say, I put off weaning him until after the MRI is over since having breast milk allows him to stop eating 2 hours later than he would have had to with formula.... I don't think he'll be too happy not eating for that long...  :(

Other than that little stresser in our lives, things are going good.  The boys are growing.  Ronin is a smarty pants and always cracking me up.  Quinn is the happiest baby I've ever seen and makes us warm and fuzzy inside.  :)   We are celebrating our anniversary tomorrow (thursday) since we asked for that day off, along with Friday.  But Friday we are taking the boys to the Enchanted Forest for a little family fun time.  :)   I love our little family!  And hopefully sometime soon the sun will warm things up and we can actually USE our new pool!!

Lots of love,

C

New pool

We finally got a swimming pool!  It's not a huge one since we weren't really sure it would get used enough to justify buying and maintaining a large one, so we got one just big enough to have a little summer fun in :)  Ronin could NOT wait to fill it, so he sat in it while the garden hose was filling it with water.  It had to be freezing cold! 

He has been telling us all kinds of nuggets of information, like: "did you know if you are really sick you should eat cat food?"  "did you know noodles are just sand?"  he also wanted to know why he can't have his zebra fish (live fish) in the swimming pool with him when he swims.  haha!  We are going to plan a "pool" party for him and a couple of his friends, it should be entertaining to watch!

New swim fins

Quinn is enjoying all kinds of baby food lately.  I don't think there is one he hasn't liked yet!  His pediatrician called me last week to schedule an MRI for Quinn... I didn't expect a call from anybody, but she explained that it has bothered her for a couple of weeks now that the eye doctor didn't actually see the movement in his eye and that an MRI just gets a better look at the connection to the brain and the brain itself to rule out any other problems.   The eye doctor diagnosed him with "Spasmus Nutans".  Which most of the time says they grow out of it - but it also explains the head bobbing he does, since it seems linked to the eye movements.   I'm still waiting to hear from them to schedule the MRI... she said they will "gas" him to make him lay still.  :(   poor guy...  I know he won't remember and it will be good to rule out tumors or other things... 

Here he is giving himself some high-fives in the mirror- the cuteness is almost too much! haha

Other than that not a whole lot going on at home!  We've been trying to swim at the gym as much as possible, Ronin is a FISH!  and Quinn seems to like it enough not to cry :)  Oh and Quinn says "mo-mo" and "mum-mum"... so he's getting closer to saying MA MA!! 

Quinn LOVES his big brother so much!

I love how much the boys adore each other :)  I know Ronin can't wait for Quinn to play with him and Quinn can't wait to play with Ronin - I hope they become the best of friends for a while before they start fighting. haha

Aren't they cute?!

Lots of love,
C