First loose tooth!

Last week Ronin attended his Kindergarten Open House.  We missed the bus ride, but he made it in time for the playground, snack, reading, and craft they had him do.  Meanwhile, I had Quinn in the school library trying to listen to the Principal give her schpeel (Rory wasn't home in time for me to leave Quinn at home).  Quinn typed on the computers, pulled books off the shelf, and then ran away from me giggling "sneaky baby!" while he did.   Finally I grabbed him and headed to the hall to wait for the orientation to end.   We went into the classrooms to pick up our kindergartener, and Quinn decided he wanted to go out the door, I told him no, so he sat against the door and pounded his head against it!  I walked away and spoke to one of the teachers about something, I explained that he's having a tantrum and I have to ignore him, but it was so embarrasing when everyone was watching him and then looking at me!  Bad Baby!  haha

But Ronin had a blast and every morning he asks if it's the end of summer yet so he can go to his "new" school.   Poor guy- trying to speed summer up just so he can begin his 13 year school adventure. 

They spelled his name wrong... not sure what that says for the school system... haha

 

We finally got our vegetables planted in the ground, they are very happy and doing great!  I can't wait to start harvesting and eating them! yay!

 

Our Garden

 

Ronin got to go to "Dizzy Castle" jungle gym with Sean on Saturday, Shelley was nice enough to take them.  They had a blast and got to play a little while afterward. 

 

This picture slightly reminds me of a pregnant couple where the dad stands behind the mom with his hand on her belly... hahaha

 

And Quinny is healing nicely!  After our post-op appointment where we were told to blur his left eye on the weekends- I emailed her again because his right eye seemed to straighten itself out and he looks fine.  She wants to see him in a couple of weeks but we don't have to blur his left eye at this time.  I hope his right eye caught on and we won't need to do anything further...  The redness is almost entirely gone too- he looks more like himself!

 

This is him reading to himself :)

 

Him in Shelley's lap- he's squeezing the balloon while saying "squeeze!"

 

Ronin discovered last night that one of his teeth is loose!  He's been talking non stop about it ever since and trying to wiggle it with his tongue and finger.  He's so excited!  His dentist warned me it would be soon but I didn't believe him!  I can't wait to see the hole in his mouth.  haha

 

Other than that we didn't do much. Ronin and Rory saw the new Star Trek movie with Grandma and Grandpa.  We took a bike ride with the boys on Sunday- Ronin's doing well peddling his bike but I think he needs a bigger bike already, his legs are too long!  And Quinn is Mr. Independent and started walking off the playground saying "bye guys" after he was done playing.  I have a feeling he's going to be my challenge baby...  clever guy...

 

Nothing much going on this week!  just waiting for that tooth!

 

Take care,

C

Sturgeon, Surgery & Road Trip!

A couple weeks went by and lots to share!  Fishing, road trip to Redmond, and Quinny's surgery...

 

I thought this was a funny picture - I wish he had a "No Girls Allowed" sign by him, it kind of looks like he's denying my admittance.

 

The upload video option isn't working, but here's a link to Quinny saying and playing the piano:

http://youtu.be/rT1lzdx1R5E

 

Saturday before we left on our road trip Ronin and Daddy went fishing with Uncle Scott. Ronin caught the first fish and the most fish that day.  He was very proud of himself and was such a good sport about getting up super early and not complaining while they were on the boat all morning.  :)

 

Fishing!

 Cheese!

For our road trip we went to Redmond, Oregon where we stayed at a hotel one of our friends manages, so we got a good deal and got free breakfast and a swimming pool to play in :)  We went to Bend a couple of times to walk around and eat.  The boys really liked the pizza place that had a huge jungle gym inside of it.  Quinny has discovered independence!  Instead of being strollered or carried he wants to walk everywhere, and he even likes holding hands.  For a while he asked his brother for his hand so he could walk with him, it was so cute :)

Us on a bridge in Bend

Getting ready for the pool!

Goggles!

Ready to swim!

 

This one is pretty funny- Quinny was trying to get away!

 

The day we got back, Cheyla came to spend the night.

Cheyla's "Cat" ears that wiggle - Ronin looks scared.

 

The morning of May 8th we got up early and had to be at South Interstate Kaiser hospital at 6:30 a.m. for Quinn's eye surgery.  Cheyla stayed at home with Ronin so he wouldn't have to come with us that day.  Quinny did amazing for not having eaten since 7pm the night before, he was getting a little agitated that we weren't leaving the hospital room after a while though and kept trying to leave.  They gave him a sedative mixed with Tylenol about 30 minutes before his surgery so it would make him relaxed and groggy.  Apparently it tasted disgusting because he kind of made a gagging noise and then tried to lick me to get the taste off his tongue.  Once he was laying down and feeling kind of silly they wheeled him away- I heard him say "momma?" just once as they wheeled him off...



 

In the waiting room before surgery.

His pretty hospital pajamas.

 

After about 90 minutes they called for us to come into the recover room with Quinn.    They told us that he had vomitted as they were putting him to sleep and he got some fluid in his lungs, they think he got it out but it put him at a high-risk for pnemonia. 

 

When we got to him he was crying and arching his back in the nurses arms. They warned us he might be really angry/inconsulable as he came out of the anesthesia - and he was, but he calmed down a bit when I held and rocked him.  He really didn't want the I.V. taped to his arm so I had to hold his other arm away so he didn't rip it out.  Poor guy.  He said "ouchie" a couple of times so we were able to get some more pain meds in his I.V. before we left.  They kept us in recovery for 90 minutes to make sure everything was okay.  When we got home he slept for a couple of hours and woke up with a fever, so I had to take him into the clinic to get a chest X-ray to make sure he didn't have pnemonia.  It came out clear so it was just a fluke.

Sleepy guy on the way home from his surgery.

 

The next day he was a little sleepier than usual, but mostly in a good mood.  He woke up a lot during the night crying for "momma" so I was up and down all night trying to make him feel better.  He's become super-clingy (I had no idea he could be MORE clingy than he already was!) since the surgery and if I go around the corner in the house he'll notice and come running after me.  :(  Poor guy!

This is the day after his surgery- beleive it or not his eyes are way less red than the were the previous day.

 

After surgery came mothers day!  At school Ronin made me lip balm, a cranberry/orange muffin, and a book with pictures and a paper replica of himself with a paper bed and blanket so I could tuck him in at night.  haha!  It's so cute!  When he got home he decided to make me a garden gnome, which ended up being Yoda.  It was all his idea and he even glued it to cardboard to keep it from folding and taped a pencil to it so I could stick it in a flower pot.  He's so creative!

 

My garden gnome - turned Yoda plant decoration :)

 

So Saturday we went to Bi-Mart to get vegetables for our garden since our seeds half died in the greenhouse while we were on vacation.  We got speghetti squash, blue berries, strawberries, zucchini, cucumber, lettuce, cauliflower, chocolate mint (mmm! it smells so good!), basil, and two tomato plants.  I can't wait to get them all in the ground!  That was all part of my mothers day gift.  The next day I really wanted to go to IKEA so we went and I found a bunch of cool organizing things for the kitchen and kids rooms.  After that we went to Sweet Tomatoes for my mothers day lunch.  It was a fun mothers day.  :)

The kids got this from IKEA- Quinn doesn't like Ronin playing with it though. haha

 

Video of Quinny saying "Precious":

http://youtu.be/C-zJVEQb53o

Ronin got a new chair from Grandma & Grandpa since Quinn always takes the red rocker...  well now Quinn wants to sit in the new chair with big brother.  funny boy!

 

Quinn likes to say "sad" while smiling when I ask him if he's "Happy or sad?".  What a goof.  Ronin likes to tell me what is "caveman approved" when I'm eating because we are trying to eat more "paleo" lately -- cutting breads/pasta/sugar/dairy and he had caught on to what it means and sometimes he'll comment and say "this is TOTALLY caveman approved!" or "hey, I don't think ketchup is caveman approved!"  haha  My own little coach!

 

Quinn's post-op appointment is tomorrow at 11:45, so hopefully everything is healing well and he'll be fully healed in a few weeks. Poor guy! At least he won't remember any of this. :)

 

Lot's of love,

C

 

House full of sickies!

 Whew!  3 weeks worth of blogging to do!  This site wasn't allowing me to upload photo's for a while, and now it looks like they fixed it!  So here it goes!

Our house has been in a constant state of infection lately!  I had a sinus infection so bad that I went to urgent care to get antibiotics and asked for a pain reliever for the headaches and pressure.  They gave me Tylenol 3, which has codeine in it... and apparently I'm allergic to codeine!  I kept taking it every 4 hours because my headaches were getting worse so I thought it wasn't working-- dummy me, I was only making it worse until I ended up vomiting every 15 minutes for over 12 hours...  Rory took me into urgent care and they hooked me up to an I.V. to get me rehydrated and gave me anti-nausea medication along with different pain medication...  So glad I went in- they could have put the I.V. in my eyeballs for all I cared at that point.  When I left I was tired but pain-free!

Isn't it pretty??

 

I wanted to take Quinn in to the doctor that week but it seems my sinus infection took precedent over his this time... but I did get him in a few days later and, surprise! he had a sinus infection too!  Poor guy, I felt so bad for not getting him in sooner...  but now he's on the mend and his runny nose and cough has stopped and he's happy boy 90% of the time again :)

 

Of course we worked on some projects over these last few weekends.  Rory put the porch and slide on the boys' fort - it's pretty awesome and Quinn hates coming back in the house when it gets dark/cold/rainy outside now.  He could spend all day in the fort or swinging :)

Helping daddy measure

 

The finished thing!

 

Quinny likes to sweep

 

Last Monday I took Ronin to the fairgrounds to help me plant flowers for the Home and Garden Idea fair my work puts on.  I get credit for it, and he got to help and play with a friend.  At one point he was throwing rocks at his "friend" and I asked if he was throwing rocks and he said "no mommy, I was playing rock-tag!"  Smarty pants...

 

Ronin hanging out at my desk before we went to the fairgrounds

 

The boys enjoying the nice weather

We went to the beach a couple of weekends ago just for a little escape and so we could eat clam chowder and play in the sand :)

 

The same weekend we did some crafts, Ronin made a bug cage (go-figure) and Quinn painted his own bird house to hang on the fort opposite his big brothers.

 

I wish I had some more after pictures because he tried eating the paint quite a few times...

 

And this last weekend Ronin has been sick with a "virus" since Thursday evening.  His fever got as high as 104!!  We called the advice nurse a couple of times, and finally took him in on Saturday but they say it's just a virus and to keep giving him ibuproferin every 6 hours...  Today is about day 5 of having the fever... it was 99.7 this morning... it hasn't been getting as high as 104 but this seems pretty ridiculous to have a fever this many days.  He feels fine once we get his temperature down around 100, he plays and eats and drinks fine... so it's not affecting him too terribly yet.  But he'll probably need to see a doctor again if it doesn't go away today.

 

This last weekend Rory built a front porch for our front area!  I helped him shovel up all those stupid rocks that were there and moved them to the backyard.  Here's Quinn and Rory hanging out on the new front porch :)

 

Almost done!

 

So mostly we had a few busy weeks with sicknesses and projects... it looks like summer is nearly here though so we'll replace these things with sunscreen and water fun!

 

Hope everyone else is avoiding the sickies!

 

Lots of love,

C

 

Butterflies & Homeless Dreams

Last week Ronin's butterflies finally hatched and he was in a hurry to let them free so they could live their 2 week lifespan out in the wild.  So we did, and Rory are I joke to each other that a crow probably ate them soon after... but to Ronin they are living free and flying high in the sky. 

Taking them to the backyard to fly

They even got on his hand for a while

Last week Quinny had a bad tummy ache where he had a little fever and runny diapers.  He screamed bloody murder Monday night for about 40 minutes not letting me pick him up or give him anything... I thought maybe it was his teeth or a tummy issue so I gave him tylenol and eventually he wore himself out and went to sleep.  The next morning he did the same thing - throwing himself on the floor, screaming and not letting me hold him to comfort him.  I called Kaiser to make an appointment and they made me talk to an advice nurse.  She could hear Quinn in the background screaming and after asking me a few more questions she told me to take him to the emergency room, preferably Doernbechers Childrens Hospital, or call 911!  Scared as hell we got everyone in the car, dropped Ronin off at school so he didn't have to go too.  Well after a little doctor visit we found out it was nothing, probably just a tummy ache.  I know the advice nurse was just doing her job and being proactive, but she scared the crap out of me when she suggested we call 911!   Quinn had a great time touring the hospital in a huge wagon and flirting with the nurses; plus he got to play hookie from daycare and be with us - so that was a good day for him!

Quinny enjoying his ride

Not feeling well :(

Ronin had "zoo day" last week and they painted their faces, he's a wolf.

Quinny was being quiet in his room, so I went to check on him and he was sitting in his chair reading a book :)

This last weekend Ronin took over the back room and pretended to be homeless.  So instead of pretending to be a superhero, an astronaught, a cowboy, or a fireman - he decided it would be fun to be a homeless boy.  I even made him a sign.

Homeless boy Ronin

Last week I received a call from Ronin's pre-school telling me there had been an "incident".  I immediately thought that maybe Ronin pushed a kid or back talked a teacher... but instead I found out that he was the victim of a pantsing.  While he was hanging on the monkey bars at school another boy came and pantsed him.  Nobody really saw except the teacher and another student.  The director of the daycare had to notify me after she had a talk with both students and the other students parent.  It was really hard NOT to giggle as she was taking it so seriously... I suppose other children might be mortified but I was more worried that he'd think it was funny and try to do it to other children!

Daddy's birthday was last weekend and after mommy baked a cake, cleaned toilets and mopped floors we found out that his parents and brother are all sick so they weren't coming over to celebrate.  I think Rory was excited that he got to keep the cake all to himself though...  :)

Take Care and Lots of Love,
C

Easter weekend & zombie's

Last week I brought home some of Ronin's school work.  He's been working on writing words and drawing pictures.  I guess they asked everyone to draw a picture of a person -- and our son drew a picture of a zombie - complete with a hole in the mouth so he can eat brains.   ha ha!  I think they asked him to make another drawing of something that wasn't a zombie...   but I kind of adore his zombie:

BRAINS....

Here's a picture of a non-zombie (although there is another zombie on the backside of the picture) and some of his words he wrote all by himself :)

They are learning about bee's in school right now.  He came home telling us there's a bee called a "zombie bee" and it's a mix of an African killer bee and another kind of bee - I'm not sure if this is true or if his fascination with zombie's has gone to another level and he's creating new creatures in his imagination... haha   I hope he's not freaking other kids out talking about zombies - I didn't realize my love of zombie movies would translate into him being fascinated by them too...

Easter weekend was fun.  On Saturday the boys woke up to a big pile of Easter presents, including their own bucket with sand castle toys in each for the boys. 

Ronin colored and glittered some eggs for Easter

Quinn with his sand castle bucket

Still waking up

The weather was so nice this weekend!  On Saturday we also got to go to a free Easter egg hunt at Esther Short Park.  Quinn went first and got maybe 4 or 5 eggs, he mostly wanted to explore the big tree.

Ready to go Mom! 

On our way to the park

Quinny getting eggs

The tree

More playing mom!

Ronin went next and got quite a bit of eggs - but it was a bit like the Hunger Games arena - he had to make a run for it and hope the other kids didn't push him down while he was getting his goodies!

Ronin at the Easter egg hunt

Mommy and the boys

Daddy and the boys

After the hunt - eating his candy

On Sunday we had our own Easter egg hunt in the back yard.  Quinn did a little better at gathering eggs, but he wanted to open them as he got them and eat the candy right away... so I had to hold his bucket until we were done.  When I was telling him he needed to put shoes on to go outside, I grabbed his shoes and he ran over to me with the boots and said "BOOTS!" so apparently he really wanted to wear the frog boots that day...

Finding eggs..

Cheese!

Quinn wasn't sure what to do with a Peep when he opened the eggs that had them in it...  You can see from the pictures he wanted to keep the egg and put the peep back where it came from, and then he changed his mind and decided to eat the peep.  He seemed to like them and it took him about an hour to eat most of it before I threw it away from being so dirty.

He found an egg!

Opening the egg...

Putting the peep back...

Wait, these are kind of yummy!

Ronin's been doing well in school, learning lots and practicing writing and some spanish and lots of fun activities to keep him busy.   Quinn is getting a little better at letting me leave, but my favorite part of all of this is when I come to pick him up and he drops whatever he's doing when he sees me and says "Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!" and runs into my arms :)  I love that feeling!

I've been working on "what sound does a ___ make?" with Quinn and he has the Cow and Mooing down pat.  I'm working on kitty, monkey, and dog but he pretty much says MOO for all of them now.

Quinn saying MOO in the car.

He also knows the "5 little monkeys" song and when we sing "One fell off and bumped his head" he starts hitting his head and sometimes I can get him to shake his finger and say "No more monkeys jumping on the bed" but mostly he says "No momomooooom med" which is close enough.

Ronin starts swim lessons again next week - he's doing great at swimming but we thought he should get some lessons with side breathing and arm strokes.  He can dive to the bottom to get a key with no problems now and can swim from the side of the pool to the side really well, I think swimming might just be his sport!

Everyone seems well and happy!  Daddy's birthday is this weekend.  We are having the Jones grandparents and Brad and Brooke over on Sunday to celebrate.  :)

Lots of love,
C