Growing Too Fast

I had Andrew's Pre K parent teacher conference a few weeks ago. Apparently I'm a little more scatter brained that I thought. I was at a friend's house helping get ready for Trivia night and the two moms that were there were talking about conferences. It totally slipped my mind. I checked my email and my conference was at 11:10. I looked at the clock and it was 11:10! I ran out of there with Molly, my keys, and phone and left everything else behind. My friend called the school to let them know I was on my way. I got there about 15 minutes late but luckily Andrew's teacher was very understanding. I was still a little flustered but had a great conference. Andrew is doing very well in school and right on track for starting Kindergarten next year.

Monday, the 31st, Drew and I went to an open house at the school we are planning on sending Andrew to for Kindergarten. We were really pleased with the school and it seems like it is going to be a good fit for him. I think he is going to transition nicely into the "big" school. Me on the other hand, not so sure about:) They gave us a packet of information to go through and after reading 1 page I became overwhelmed and had to close it. It's a big new chapter in our lives and I know there will be an adjustment period but we'll all survive! As of right now, baby steps.

After the tour Drew headed back to work and I headed over to Matthew's building to peak in on him. I love watching him through the window when he can't see me. He was sitting with all the girls working on a puzzle such a ladies man:) I still had about an hour to kill until I had to pick up the boys so I hung out around school and let Molly take a little cat nap. It was starting to ice and sleet so I was glad I was hanging out close by.

Then we got home just in time to hunker down for SNOWMAGEDON!!! Nothing really hit us until Tuesday morning but boy was the anticipation exciting! The news stations were going crazy; saying they were calling in the national guard, special weather teams from "The Weather Channel", all the stores were out of bread, milk, and eggs, prepare for power outages! The sleet was coming down Tuesday morning and Drew decided that it would be better to work on our side of the bridge rather than risk the bridge being shut down (for the sake of our marriage:)). So he worked at Starbucks for most of the morning and then came home as the streets were starting to get bad and worked the rest of the day from home. The boys got to play outside a little bit right before lunch. Matthew wasn't a big fan of the sleet pelting him so he came in pretty quickly but Andrew was loving the fact that their ramp was super fast now with the ice and he was enjoying sledding all the way to our fence. After naps the boys got out some energy by playing Wii Active (they chose running and boxing) and of course Molly was right there with them!

We were still bracing ourselves for the big blizzard to hit that evening but as we were watching the news the system totally turned and pretty much left us with nothing to write home about. Of course the roads were pretty bad from the sleet all day but we were preparing for 2 feet of snow on top of that…didn't happen. It was a little bit of a disappointment but I'm sure after being snowed in for a few more days I would have been pulling out my hair and Drew would have probably rented a snow plow to get to the office:)

By Wednesday evening I was ready to get out of the house so I headed to bible study when Drew got home from work. The roads were still a little iffy but it was worth it. Friday morning we had a playdate at a friend's house. They have a little boy Andrew's age and a little boy Molly's age. Another friend was invited who has a little girl in Matthew's class so everyone had a friend to play with! Of course Matthew was too shy to talk to his "girl"friend until she was leaving;). I had the special treat of doing mother/daughter Zumba with my mom on Friday night. She loves her Zumba class and is always talking about how much fun it is and how it's a great workout. She is right, it was lots of fun and lots of laughs( I can't quite shake it like you're supposed to but I'm sure it was very entertaining to watch:)) After class we had dinner with my aunt, cousin and another mother/daughter friend. It was a great night out (too bad I didn't get any pictures:))!

Saturday we woke up to some real snow on top of our 9 inches of sleet/snow! We got about 3-4 inches over night and then once it stopped the sun came out. It was the perfect day to play in the snow. We had an early lunch and then got all of our gear on. The snow was finally the right consistency for a snowman so that's what we (Drew) did. Molly was little miss independent running all around on the snow. Luckily she was nice and padded. Her favorite part was the slide we made out of a big pile of snow…no fear. Andrew and Matthew were all over the place having a blast. Molly didn't quite make it to see the finished product of our snowman but she's in the picture. Poor thing was so worn out! She didn't even wake up when I took off all of her layers.

Superbowl Sunday we did lots of football arts and crafts and then headed to Grandma and Poppa's for the big game. Of course my mom and I didn't get to see much of the game but I think everyone had a good time. The kids danced during the half time show and the favorite commercial was Darth Vader on the VW commercial. The kids were up much later than normal (we left after the 3rd quarter) and boy did I pay for that the next day!

Matthew is 3!!!!

January 23, 2011 Matthew turned 3! We started off his day by singing to him as he was waking up. He's like his mom, it takes him a few minutes to get out of bed. Then we came down stairs and had the house decorated with a Mickey banner and balloon and some presents. He opened his new dump truck, excavator, truck sticker book, and John Deere book. Then we got ready for church.

After church we went to Starbucks as usual but since it was a special day we went inside instead of driving through and Matthew picked out a chocolate chip cookie for breakfast. Then we went to Target so Andrew could buy his brother a birthday present. Then the toy store finally opened so Matthew could pick out a special present. In the meantime it started snowing so Matthew was pretty excited to have a "white" birthday. At the toy store it took him a while to decide but he picked out a Playmobil Harbor Crane.

Then we came home for lunch and played with new toys. We even got to take Matthew's new trucks outside to play in the snow. Drew made a ramp down the stairs of our deck by piling up a lot of snow so the boys were able to sled too. Then it was nap time so we could be well rested for Matthew's Mickey party at Grandma and Poppa's.

The party was perfect. All the cousins and aunts and uncles were there. Grandma decorated with all kinds of fun Mickey decorations and even balloons that said "Matthew" on them. Matthew got some great gifts. He got a John Deere Mighty Trike from grandma and poppa, a McDonalds drive through from John, Christina, and Josie, and an M&M slot machine from Pete, Jill, Kiersten, and Kaitlyn. He chose Lion's Choice for his birthday dinner but of course none of the kids ate a thing, they just wanted the Mickey cake! The adults enjoyed his dinner choice though.

Matthew's birthday week continued with treats to school on Monday. He took yellow and green truck cookies in honor of the theme of his next party, John Deere. Unfortunately, the birthday boy woke up at midnight Wednesday/Thursday burning up. He came in bed with us and was tossing and turning all night. We watched four Mickeys:).Molly had been running a low grade fever Wednesday too so I decided to take them both in Thursday morning. I dropped Andrew off at school (it was his half birthday) with Star Wars cupcakes and headed to the doc. Matthew and Molly both ended up having a virus that had to run it's course but it wasn't a total waste of a visit because he gave me a prescription for Molly's excema.

Luckily Matthew recovered and was fever free by Friday. We laid low Friday and enjoyed some fresh air with temperatures in the 40s!!! Saturday we spent preparing for his friend party because we were going out and I wanted to be as prepared as possible on Sunday morning. We had a really fun night out on Saturday. A sitter came and stayed with the kids while Drew and I went to Trivia Night at the boys' school. It was so much fun. The theme of the night was "Super". Our table decided to decorate with a Superbowl theme so we had all kinds of football gear and appetizers around the table. I haven't laughed as hard as I did that night in a long time. The event was really well done and no one could believe that it was the first year the Little School had a trivia night. There was also a silent auction which Drew and I contributed to nicely:) We got home to the birthday boy still awake, not wanting to sleep until mom and dad got home...that makes for a fun party day:)

Sunday morning was a little rough after such a fun night but we rallied. We had to get up super early, which isn't hard in our house, so we could get the birthday cake before 8am mass. After mass we grabbed a few things I forgot and some balloons and headed to Matthew's heaven. Matthew's party was at Erb Equipment in Fenton. It is a John Deere equipment rental facility full of every piece of construction equipment you could imagine. We invited the boys in Matthew's class and two of his four friends could make it. The numbers worked out well for Matthew because having too many people would be overwhelming to him. One of the boys in his class also has a brother in Andrew's class so it was nice for Andrew's buddy Danny to be there too.

After playing on all of the equipment we went inside. There is a simulator for an excavator that the boys were able to play on. The dads were dying to join in! Then we went up for lunch, presents, and cake. I had found John Deere balloons, plates and napkins at the John Deere store we visited in Oklahoma so we were set. Matthew really enjoyed his third birthday party and needless to say he was exhausted by the end...we all were! Thanks David and Louis for making the trip out for Matthew's birthday, he's still talking about it. And a huge thank you to Greg and Kay for opening your business to us on your day off!

January 2011

I found it hard to get back into the swing of things after Christmas and New Years but we made it over the hump and here are some of our January highlights.

My friend Catherine came in town. Unfortunately it was for her grandmother's funeral but luckily the funeral wasn't the only time I got to see her. I took Matthew and Molly over to her parent's house to play with her 2 little ones while Andrew was at school. It was so good to see her and try and catch up while keeping up with the kiddos.

Andrew had a lingering cough that he had been battling since before Christmas. He woke up for school on Monday, the 10th, and told me he was too sick to go. He wasn't running a fever and to me his cough didn't seem much different. I started the internal battle of is he over reacting/ am I under reacting? He really likes school so I didn't think he was trying to get out of it but I didn't know if I could justify keeping him home with a cough that he's had for 2 weeks. Does that mean he needs to stay home every time he has a cough?! That could be all winter!!! Anyway I had a long battle in my head and finally decided I would take Matthew to school and take Andrew to the doctor. I figured since it was better than taking 3 kids to the doctor the next day if he was to get worse.

I got Andrew in for a 9:30 appointment so I dropped Matthew off and headed to the doc. Of course since it was a Monday morning, kids were just pouring in. I just love thinking about all of those germs! They finally got us back to a room and took his vitals. Then the nurse practitioner came in and said she wanted to take his oxygen levels. She said they were low. Not horrible but lower than they should be. She then sent a nurse in to give him a breathing treatment to see if that would help them go up. So we did that, waited, took his levels again. Waited. They did not go up. They listened to him again. And then as he was sitting on the table he started shivering and his cheeks were bright red. The fever finally made it's debut. They didn't do a chest x-ray but the nurse practitioner said she was pretty sure he had viral pneumonia. By this time it was 11:15 and I had to leave right that second if I was going to be on time picking up Matthew. BUT they still had to come in and teach me how to give Andrew his breathing treatments. Luckily Drew wasn't in a meeting and he said he could help me out and get Matthew from school. We finished up at the office, met Drew in Chesterfield to get Matthew, went to Walgreens, McDonalds and home! What a day, and that was all before lunch!

Luckily Andrew didn't miss school Tuesday because it ended up being a snow day. He had enough energy to play in the snow for a little bit so I got the kids bundled and headed outside.

Time it took to get everyone in their gear....30 minutes....

Time we spent outside....20 minutes. :)

By Wednesday, Andrew had been fever free for 24 hours but he said he needed one more day to recover. I figured he knew his body and was still coughing quite a bit. Luckily Matthew didn't seem phased by Andrew staying home from school while he was going. This was shocking to me but VERY exciting!

Andrew made it to school by Thursday, the last day of his school week. At least I had one child in school each day that week.

Friday Drew and I got to get out of the house! We gave the kids a bath, put Molly to bed and had Despicable Me rented for the boys on Direct TV. We had a sitter come over about 7:30 and we were free! (for a few hours). Our friends the Freemans have boys the same ages as our boys and then they have TRIPLETS the same age as Molly! It was the triplets first birthday celebration, at a bar, adults only:) Now that's what I call a great idea for a triplets first birthday party. They treated all the people who helped them out the first year to a few beers. It was a really nice night and so nice to have adult conversation.

Saturday I got to go out again! It was my friend Stacy's 30th birthday party. Her parents and sister organized a girls only party at her house. It was very well done with lots of food, drinks, great friends, and of course an ice luge for shots.

The best part of Sunday was the fact that Monday was MLK day and Drew didn't have to work. We had a great family day and then a great Sunday dinner at my parents. Monday I got my hair cut and Drew got the oil changed in my van. Two big tasks out of the way. I love having a bonus day!

Wednesday we had another snow system move it. I was at bible study and Drew texted me about 8 that it had started and it would be a good idea to head home about 9. I left about 9 and it took me an hour to get home. The roads were in bad shape and the snow was coming down fast and furious. By the time we woke up Thursday morning we had about 9 inches of snow! Drew worked from home that morning while I tried to keep the kids entertained and out of his hair. I took them outside for a little bit but the snow was so high that if I set Molly down she couldn't move! The boys had a great time making snow angels and using their shovels. Unfortunately it wasn't good "snowman making" snow.

Saturday we took Max back in to the vet. He still was not eating from the episode he had on New Year's Eve. When they weighted him at the doctor he was down 20 pounds from the first of the year! They kept him all day and did some blood work and tests. They called us and said that if they couldn't get him to eat anything at the office we were going to have to take him to an Emergency clinic to get him an IV because he was very dehydrated and his electrolytes were low. Luckily they were able to get him to eat something at the vet. The last time we took him in they said that there was a chance he had Addison's disease so the tests they were running would let them know for sure. They went ahead and gave him an injection that is for Addison's disease to see if it would help. Then on Monday they called to let us know that he did have it and they gave him a prescription for a pill that he now has to take every day. We were happy to finally figure out what's going on and he is doing SO much better!

Drew bought a few "sleds" on Saturday since it was finally warm enough to go sledding. We borrowed our neighbor's hill and had a great time sledding as a family.