Zoo fun!

My friend and cousin-in-law-to-be (LOL!), Jessica, and I took our kids to the zoo together Monday. We started out our day at the mall getting pictures of my kids done, finding shoes to go with their wedding attire, and getting lunch to go from the food court. This was baby Grace's first trip to the zoo, and I purposely avoided including pictures of her on my blog so Jess has something to post on her own blog for the viewers we have in common...

It was a gorgeous sunny day, and though the parking lot seemed REALLY full, I never really felt overly crowded within the zoo itself. Connor was on foot for the first time ever (on a harness for his safety and my sanity), and he absolutely had the best time at the zoo I've ever seen him have. Usually, he's rather restrained to the stroller, because it's just more hassle than it's worth buckling him in and out to see each exhibit and generally results in a ticked off Connor and exhausted parent(s). He loved the freedom of being able to walk around, but I didn't have to worry about him darting off and getting lost in the crowd, etc. I was rather against those harnesses prior to having kids, and still hesitant about them with Em and J, but actually tried one out with Connor and he LOVES IT! Begs to have it on...

See how cute he is in it?


And how proud he is?


We were so busy gabbing away and oohing and ahhing over all the animals, neither Jess nor I thought about taking pictures until we were almost done. Here's one of the kids all looking up at the baby bird in a nest in the rafters of one of the viewing stations:




Now they're showing off their elephant sipster cups I got suckered into buying (we've never been to the zoo on such a hot day and I came incredibly unprepared in the way of enough fluids to drink)


We spent some time checking out the newly expanded learning/play area. Here's the kids in a nest!


Here's Connor concentrating long and hard as he navigates the spider web climbing area:


Of course we had to test out the "otter" slides (always a favorite!)




Look at Jared, the hermit crab!


JUST as we got back to the entrance/exit of the zoo to head back to the car, Connor had reached his limit (no nap that day, after being out of the house from 9:45am on), so I tied him into the Mei Tai on my back and he was SOUND ASLEEP by the time we got up to the car:


Normally, he'll tuck his little arms up in there, but it was so hot he just left them flopped out. LOL


(PS I haven't really worn him in that for a long time as he's getting heavy and is truly happier on foot, but it's come in handy more times than I can count, and always draws several comments from people who think it's just the neatest thing. SO, I'll toot my own horn and explain that I made this one, but they sell them all over the place online if you google "Mei Tai". Target even has a $40 version they just came out with, but I can't give any sort of recommendation on how good it is or not, but I was happy with my home-made one, so I'd imagine it can't be worse than that!)

Connor barely flinched when we got him off my back and into his carseat, and the other three kids followed suit SHORTLY thereafter (you can't see Grace because she's rear-facing still, but she was asleep also!)


I woke up Connor when we got home, because it was getting late in the day. I set him down in his little kid recliner and went out to unpack the rest of our stuff, and came back in to find him sound asleep again:

Quote of the Week

"Why don't they pass a constitutional amendment prohibiting anybody from learning anything? If it works as well as prohibition did, in five years Americans would be the smartest race of people on Earth."

~~Will Rogers.

CUTEST darn thing you ever saw!!

Just TRY and prove me wrong...


The tuxes for the boys came in the mail and I can't tell you what it did to my insides seeing my little guys all duded up. Very bittersweet, I have to admit! We ended up purchasing these from Dressmeupcute.com and including shipping, they cost $48.91/each, compared to AT LEAST $65 all the places near here were wanting to rent them to us for. Granted, they didn't come with shoes, but I got those at Payless during their BOGO sale, so I still came out ahead, and we OWN the tuxes and shoes for less than we could rent. So even if the boys never use them again, they're nice keepsakes.

Jared's is a perfect fit, but Connor's needs some hemming of the jacket sleeves and pant legs. Should be pretty easy. I also need to take the waist in of his pants, but that won't be a problem either. I'd exchange for a smaller size, except the white shirt and black vest fit perfectly and I can't imagine the next size down still fitting for those items, so I'd rather just hem the jacket and pants. I'll wait until mid-August before I bother with it, though, just in case he suddenly gets taller!

Ohh and ahh people, I know you want to!! Need another look before you leave? Here you go!

Buddies

I've been babysitting two kids for the past three months, and today is the last day (they've moving soon and are using the lady who lives very close to their new home). It's going to be weird not having them in the house twice a week! Jared and Logan have had their ups and downs, but I believe they've truly enjoyed each other's company. This picture would be totally adorable if not for Jared's face mask!


This one's a little better...

When you're THAT tired...

Connor refuses to nap on a regular basis, and I've given up trying to force the issue. It just ends up with one or the other of us feeling very worked up and upset, and by the time he finally gives in and naps, I generally have to wake him back up again shortly thereafter, or he'll never sleep that night. On a good day, I can time coming home from errands or an outing and he'll fall asleep in the car and get a little catnap in; just enough to revive himself to last until bedtime. On a bad day, like Monday, he DOESN'T fall asleep on the way home from an outing, despite being run ragged ALL DAY LONG, and as I'm fixing dinner later that evening, he's having major meltdowns in the middle of the floor. Not a pretty site (or sound). He was crawling and thrashing around in the diningroom, and I left him to it and got busy with dinner (he wasn't staying in his bed for a nap, refused snacks, drinks, snuggles, books, toys, etc). He suddenly did a big ragged sigh and got quiet so I peeked over at him and found him sleeping under my table. I guess when you're THAT tired, you can sleep anywhere (eventually).

Too close to home

On Emily's last day of school last week, she came home with a letter from a mom at the elementary school she attends, introducing us to her daughter's best friend, a Kindergartener named Molly, who has recently been diagnosed with Monosomy 7, along with Myleodysplastic Syndrome (MDS), and Refractory Anemia. The plan at the time the letter came home was for Molly to enter the hospital the day after school got out, where she would immediately begin with "tests, scans, x-rays and exams every day from 8am-5pm. On July 3 there will be a final consultation with the Dr. and the team nurse. They will go over every aspect of treatment and sign final consent forms. If all goes well with Molly and the donor(s), transplant will take place July 15th. Between July 3 and July 15 Molly will get total body irradiation and chemo. They will also put a central line in her chest." (quote from Molly's grandmother on the website). Molly will be getting a bone marrow transplant, to hopefully stop her from getting full-blown Leukemia (I couldn't find much information on what she has, but none of it sounds very good). The prediction right now is that Molly will spend most of next year in isolation and/or recovery and will be unable to attend school. My heart just hurts for what this family is going through right now, and for this sweet little girl who will have had so much of her innocence and freedom taken from her. What makes it even harder is that this little girl is the same age as my own daughter, and Emily has come home several times talking about how she played with Molly from Mrs. ____'s class today. This hits very close to home, and I wanted to share what I know of Molly's story so you can all keep her in your thoughts. They gave out information to a website where they will post updates for friends and family, but it does give out her last name and location, so I will not be sharing that here (in the interest of protecting her, as well as my own family as we're obviously in the same location!), but it will allow me to get updates from time to time, which I will share with you. They've asked Molly's classmates to log on and leave messages for her, which Emily and I did earlier today and hope to do at least once a week.

Accident Update

I was going through back posts looking for new comments and found this comment posted on the last update I gave, left by an anonymous viewer, so I have no way to reply, except in this post!

"First time I have been to your blog, not sure how I got here, but I did.
I found your accident scenario interesting as I am a claims adjuster. I am bit curious to know what state you live. I live in Ca and it is required by law that the insurance company replace your car seat. Also, what carrier are you dealing with? I would seek for loss of use what a rental car for a vehicle similar to yours would be. I am very curious to know what state you live in and what company you are dealing with."

In answer to your question, anonymous viewer, we are in WA and are dealing with Progressive (the other driver's insurance). They did very recently call and say they WILL be replacing both the carseat and the stroller (huge sigh of relief over here...yahoo!), but the dollar amount they will be giving us has yet to be determined. They're waiting to hear back from the manufacturers about the price of a current, comparable model for both items. As for the loss of vehicle payment, I will be dealing with that at the time they get back to me about the dollar amount for the carseat and stroller.

As for the rest of the udpate, we did get the van back late Friday evening, and we CAN hear glass rattling around. I'm annoyed and frustrated, and although I know that the auto body place did their best (remember, I was warned they could clean it for days and I'd still hear stuff more than likely), I am still very frustrated. My car didn't rattle over bumps and around corners BEFORE the ding dong rear-ended me, and now it does!! GRRRRRR!! Thankfully, it's not an all the time thing, but since Friday night, Dan and I have heard it five times between the two of us. On the plus side of things, the van looks great, and was sorely in need of a good vacuuming prior to the accident, and now it's had one...LOL

My back doesn't ache all day long like it did prior, but the muscles are still tight and I can feel a "soreness" to my side when I move certain ways. Prolonged standing or sitting is still uncomfortable and I constantly feel the need to try and stretch my side, but it never helps. But again, the constant ache has improved in the last 2.5 weeks. I was supposed to have my second PT massage today, but they had to cancel, so it will be another week now before I get the second one.

I don't know if this is a touch of PTSD, or if it was just a natural fight/flight response of adrenalin, but I was at a stop light today, stopped, and heard the squeal of brakes and tires, and my heart started pounding like mad and I was frantically looking around to see where it was coming from, praying it wasn't heading towards ME. It was a truck coming from the side street leading into the four-way intersection, with no one stopped in front of it, and though it definately stopped past the white line, it wasn't really out in traffic, thankfully. I was shaking slightly and breathing rather hard, though! When I first heard that sound, I was sure I was going to get rear-ended again.

The kids are still doing fine and life is back to normal as far as they are concerned.

He Loves Them, He Loves Them Not...

He loves them?

Watch the video and decide for yourself! (don't forget to turn off the music playlist before pressing play! It's down in the sidebar on the right...)

Don't give up on me!!

I do have a new post for today, but the video is taking longer to load to the computer than I expected and I have a PT apppointment this morning I need to get to. So check back later today and I PROMISE, I will have a new post! (I didn't do one yesterday because I was hoping Em's recital post would get more traffic, but it didn't. I guess everyone was out enjoying the day!)

You're Never Fully Dressed Without A Smile

Emily has her big dance recital later this afternoon. She's REALLY excited!! She had her dress rehearsal Thursday evening, and the following pictures and video are from that night (they aren't strict about no flash and standing up and all that fun stuff you can get away with to get decent pictures during the rehearsal! LOL).

Emily's on the far right, with friends Hope (far left) and Chloe (middle)










Here's the video I took (Take note that I was snapping pictures at the same time I was video-taping, so be forgiving in the video when I didn't follow Emily towards the beginning as she does the skipping part and there's a brief portion of basically empty screen in the video...I tried!! Oh, and be forgiving of the two ding-dongs who walked through my video! ha ha!
)


(PS I'm guest blogging for the next few days over at My Crazy Castle)

"Dooo!"

Straight from his own mouth, you heard it folks! Connor is "dooo!" today! (scroll down and pause the playlist first...)


The biggest thing lately, is that Connor has been testing out wearing big-boy underwear over the last few days. As long as I stay on top of getting him to the toilet every hour or so, he does GREAT. We had about a three week time-frame where HE was telling ME when he had to go, but he's apparently lost some interest and we're back to me watching the clock. He's very good about being willing to try and is his own biggest fan when he pees. "yayyyy!!" wich clapping and jumping. Then we have to make sure and "yush" (flush) the toilet, wash our "han" (hands), and we're good to go...

It's hard to believe it's been two years already. Seems like just yesterday he was this teeny little nothing




And somehow a whole year went by and he was one




Then I blinked (or something) and now he's TWO, and is making valient attempts at getting himself dressed


CHECK BACK LATER TODAY FOR HIS TWO-YEAR-OLD PHOTO WITH HIS BEAR TO BE POSTED HERE

The first word that comes to mind when I think of Connor is FEARLESS. He dives into things headfirst without a second thought (and sometimes, I mean that literally!). He knows what he wants and figures out how to get it. Even though he's the littlest in the family, he doesn't get bullied or picked on. Generally, it's the other way around! ha! But he's quick with his hugs and kisses, and flashes these beaming smiles at the drop of a hat. He also tries so hard to be one of the big kids. He doesn't talk many REAL words yet, but my neighbor was just commenting the other day that his words are becoming more and more clear, even to her (Dan and I, as his parents, can understand a LOT of what he says). Connor is ready to take on the world (take OVER the world, maybe? LOL!!) and I'm enjoying the view.

Happy Birthday Connor! How far you've come from the 8lb 3oz baby of two years ago. Funny how you were my littlest newborn, but are my biggest toddler (29lbs or so, and you're SOLID!). I look forward to seeing what comes next! WE LOVE YOU!!!

Burst Shooting

As most of you probably read a few weeks ago, my camera died a rather sudden and unexpected death, and no amount of begging or pleading (or swearing and stomping around) have managed to revive it. The general consensus is that it will cost so much to repair, that we may as well just put our money towards something new and updated. I've thus far been able to make a decision on WHAT I want to buy. My mom went and purchased a Panasonic DMC-TZ4 on Saturday, and the next day I showed up and took off with it! ha! I wanted something to photograph Em's Kinder graduation with, and I figured it would be a good opportunity to "play before I pay". I've since decided this isn't THE camera for ME, but it's a fun, easy, great little camera and I think my mom will be very very happy with it (assuming I ever get around to giving it back... *grin* I've promised it will arrive tomorrow night after Emily's dance rehearsal).

One thing it has that I know I will be looking for in whatever camera I DO end up purchasing, is Burst Shooting. Basically, you turn the mode on, and can hold the button down and it takes pictures in rather rapid succession, so you have a better chance of getting a good action shot. A lot of the pictures didn't turn out (slight blur, or were taken just before or just after the actual action), but you delete out the not-so-great ones, and you can get some really fun shots! I haven't played with it to it's fullest potential yet, but Emily and I were giggling up a storm looking at some of the pictures I took of her dancing around the kitchen and then jumping up and down.

The idea to blog some of the pictures didn't come to me until I'd (unfortunately) already deleted a bunch of stuff (we caught some REALLY hilarious expressions on her face, or funny angles of her body, etc), but I do have a few I kept, which I can share:

This first one was captured during a burst mode session while she was spinning in circles and swinging her arms from side to side, and giggling like crazy. It's not often I get a REAL smile from her these days, so I was thrilled to see this one, nice and clear with a REAL smile!


Then Emily wanted me to take a picture of how high she could jump, but I never could click at just the right time, or the picture would be blurry. Once I used the burst shooting mode, I got her darn near the top of her jump...and no blur!


And then you get some pictures like this (she was too close to me as she was moving around), which are hilarious and scary at the same time!


(ps In case you normally view my blog with the volume off, you might want to turn it on and check out my new playlist I finally got around to adding--because everyone else was doing it...ha ha ha! I don't have many songs added yet, just the three I'm currently obsessed with and was listening to via youtube prior to adding my playlist)

Class of 2008 AND 2020

Emily is part of the Kindergarten graduating class of 2008, and assuming she continues to do well in school, will also be part of the high school graduating class of 2020.

Monday, her school had a little ceremony in the gym for the four Kinder classes to receive their diplomas. It was just the CUTEST thing EVER seeing those kids in their caps with tassels. I'm happy to say the fabulous idea was MINE and I got the ball rolling on that one. *grin*

Here's Em walking into the gym with her class


Here she is sitting down waiting for her class' turn to go up and get their diplomas


It's almost her turn!


The little stinker looked away at the last second, and the teachers were reading the names off soooooooooo fast, there wasn't another opportunity to try for another one


Here's her awesome teacher posing with Emily Grace


And here she is with "Auntie" Monica, looking through the memory book she got (each child in class got one, full of pictures of themselves the teacher took, and placed on a page decorated in theme with the picture; there was also specific artwork from throughout the year. SUPER CUTE! I'll brag on myself and my good friends Jami and Carole--especially on Jami and Carole--because we put those suckers together, spending days and LATE NIGHTS getting them all done...LOL)


Emily with her good friend Rachel


And the cake that was provided!


I expected to get some pictures of Emily posing with her friends, and playing outside at the extra recess they got that day. HOWEVER, partway through the event, Emily bursts into tears and tells me her ear hurts. She hadn't been sick AT ALL (not even a cold) leading up to that day, but we've been doing swimming lessons and Emily is famous for getting ear infections from pool water. SO, we left early and missed the rest of the event/celebration, and it will forever bum me out that I don't have pictures of her posed with her friends on graduation day, but what's done is done. A trip to the Prompt Care confirmed my suspicions times TWO. Yep, BOTH ears were infected.

Some ammox. and some Motrin and she was a whole new kid the next day, thank goodness.

CONGRATULATIONS to all the Kinders who worked so hard this year, most especially my little Emily who can now sit down and read chapter books (slowly, and with some help here and there), write letters and lists and books, add, subtract, count by 2's, 5's, 10's, and is sooooo excited to officially be a first grader now. WAY TO GO EMILY GRACE!!

LAME!

I actually had a great blog post lined up for today, but my internet service had other ideas, and I've spent most of the morning without internet access (seems to be a common thing over the last few weeks and I'm getting ANNOYED!!), so couldn't post until now. And now it's late enough in the day the post wouldn't get much traffic, and, well, it's a post that DESERVES a lot of traffic, so I will save it for tomorrow. And for today, I will update about the rear-end accident I was recently involved in:

It took five days for the other driver's insurance to accept liability for the accident, so it was five days before we could look into getting a rental, and five days before we could take our van in for repairs. I've been told I can get $15/day loss of vehicle inconvenience payment, but I have yet to see any of that money for the 5 days I was without my vehicle and hadn't gotten a rental yet. I'm being told over the phone that I will most likely not be getting any reimbursement for the carseat or the stroller, but I will continue to fight on those issues. The carseat was involved in a car accident and I don't care how severe or not the accident was, I will not compromise my child's safety by using a potentially damaged seat. And the stroller was completely COVERED in glass from the blown out back window, much of which was actually lots and LOTS of little shards of glass, and glass "dust" which you will never be able to convince me has been fully removed from the material of the stroller... I am still experiencing side and hip (muscle-related) discomfort and have started seeing a physical therapist for massages once a week for four weeks. I was told it's likely the PT will call my doctor and ask to extend the prescription by several more weeks, so we'll see what comes of it. I felt pretty great immediately after the appt yesterday morning, but am back to feeling achy and uncomfortable again today. The van is AT LEAST another week out from being ready for pick-up, and I was told that they will do everything possible to clean out all the glass chunks, shards, slivers, and "dust", but that we should absolutely expect to see pieces over the next several months because stuff wiggles into odd-ball little places and then manages to wiggle loose over a period of time. I'm hopeful we don't see that happen, but at least they were honest about it! They plan to blow out all the airvents with forced air, and vacuum and blow out the interior of the van, etc, but the guy said you'd be amazed where glass can end up when it gets broken out like ours did. I also met with an insurance adjuster today in my home (from the other driver's insurance) and agreed to settle the claims opened for the kids. It's been 12 days and none of the kids have shown ANY signs of ANY sort of injury. They each got a $50 check. I refused to settle my claim until my back is completely back to how it was. As it stands now, all medical bills relating to my injuries will be paid, and I will get a $500 "inconvenience" check at the time I agree to settle. If this goes on longer than they evaluated, that amount could go up, but I have no say so in that matter. Finally, I did ask if I was allowed to know what statement the other driver gave about the accident, and the adjuster looked into the computer and said it's been stated that she applied her brakes in a timely manner, but slid on the wet road and hit me and a low speed. That really infuriated me, because I saw her flying up on me in my rear-view mirror, and there was only a split second of squealing brakes/tires before she actually hit us, so she definately did NOT attempt to "apply the brakes" in any sort of "timely manner". She slammed them on at the last second! The adjuster said her statement doesn't in any way affect ME, it just might be that her rates don't go up as much because the accident was supposedly due to road conditions rather that inattentiveness. Yes, the roads were DAMP, but funny, I had no trouble coming to a full and complete stop without sliding on the road!!!!!!!!!!!! ANNOYING! Anyway, that's where things stand for now and if anything big changes, I'll update again!

Fun in the Sun!!

We made it to a whopping 70 degrees today, and though I stand firm that it wasn't nearly warm enough to be running through the COLD water coming out of the sprinkler, the boys were starving for summery activities and went for it. Jared refused to let me take his picture, so I only have pictures of Connor to share. Emily didn't want to run through at all.

(I love how "real" Connor is when I photograph him. He doesn't really know how to do fake smiles, or how to pose; I just really enjoy following him around capturing his little moments in life.)

I think this first one describes his enjoyment of the day rather well, wouldn't you agree?


The sprinkler would rotate around and get him, and he would squeal and laugh and throw his hands in the air, sometimes ruffling up his hair, sometimes not. Then he'd dance his little feet around and laugh and laugh while he waited for the sprinkler to come around again. (notice a bit of rainbow above his head?)


I caught him here, just as he'd do the initial gasp from the cold water, just before he'd do the other stuff (pictured above)

Mr. Muscles

Just don't tell Connor he has a long way to go! He thinks he's pretty well set... I wish I had an audio clip to go along with this; he was growling away showing off those muscles. It was so adorable!

My heart just swells...

There are times when my children teach me things, there are times when my children baffle me completely (or drive me crazy!), there are times when they disappoint me, and there are times when I'm so proud of them, and so in love with them, that my heart just swells.

This was one of those times... Emily Grace got up early on Jared's birthday and made him a birthday book.

(as spelled by her)
The Brthday Book
Happy Brithday Jared braneyac (brainiac)
Brithdays are fun Jared
Brithdays are nise
The End

He was clearly pleased with her work...

Tiny Moments

More thievery on my part from Shan (Tales From the Fairy Blogmother). She posts up some great "tiny moments" and I couldn't come up with a title for this picture to save my life and that phrase really seemed to fit. (thanks Shan!)


I think I might just continue that theme from time to time...

Finally Four

Jared has been wanting to be four, and has been hounding us about it, for a VERY LONG TIME. He's finally four (as of Saturday, June 7th), and is already asking when he can be six, like Emily. Apparently his plan is to just skip right on past age 5. (If only I could just skip 30 on up and stay 29!! ha!)

Sweet baby Jared arrived 12 days early, which was 8 days earlier than his induction date. Of course, my OBGYN was on vacation that week, so she missed the birth of baby#2 as well. He weighed 8lbs 6oz, and was 20.5 inches long, and he seemed SCRAWNY compared to his sister when she was born (even though she wasn't even a full pound heavier).


After a long battle with anemia, colic for the first 6 weeks, and the discovery he has a benign-ish auto-immune disorder (he has some funky shaped white blood cells, and will probably always have issues with anemia, but his first year wasn't riddled with random high fevers like most babies would be, hence the "benign" term), and a year filled with the sweetest, most content and laid back baby you ever met (after we figured out I needed to eliminate dairy from my diet if I wanted to nurse him and the colic symptoms went away), he turned into this messy little man:


And after he turned one, he turned into a tantrum-throwing, screaming, obnoxious little beast. But he was so darn funny, and talked WELL by 18-20 months old, and could always make us laugh with the goofy things he'd say (and still does!). By the time he was two, he talked so well, people thought he must be closer to three, and he could wheel and deal with the best of them.

Bet you can't guess how old he is here:


And this truck is still one of his very favorites:


He went through a dolly-loving, dress-up stage for awhile (curtesy of his big sister's example and his desire to do anything Emily did!), but quickly discovered something called SUPERMAN, and by the time he was three, he was well and truly obsessed with anything superman, spiderman, batman related (and that falls true a full year later!)


Between ages three and four, he discovered PIRATES, and isn't he just about the cutest darn pirate you ever did see? (this was at his birthday party):


By age four, he's also stopped letting me pick out his clothes, and I've given up even buying him anything unless he's picked it out himself, or he'll just flat out refuse to wear it. I have a whole section of shirts in his closet that have maybe been worn 2-3 times each, and each of those times was under extreme duress. This is the style of clothing he prefers (and he'll dig it out of the laundry basket if I haven't done laundry in a timely enough manner to his liking):


Jared is also my most loving child. I lose count in a day how many random hugs and kisses I get from him each day. When he's not feeling threatened or left out, he's the MOST considerate and kind-hearted little fellow around. He's quick to share most anything with his family, and he's quick to offer up his beloved stuffed animals if someone is hurt or sick. He doesn't believe in his ability to do a lot of things (which we're working on), but he catches on to things soooooo very quickly (he knows all his alphabet letters by sight and I've not ONCE picked up a pack of flashcards with him). I know he struggles being the middle child. He's not the baby, but he's not the oldest, so he carves out his importance in other ways. We're so very proud of him and we love him very much! Even though his birthday post is LATE, it's not the "forgotten middle child sydrome" at play, it was that rear-end ordeal and I hope someday Jared will understand if/when he ever realizes I posted this three days late!

Here he is growing with his bear in pictures: