All About Alex

Most of the blogs have been about Ethan so I thought we'd focus on Alex this time.  I've discussed before how Alex is completely rotten and Alex thinks everything is funny.  But let's get a little more background.

Most of you know that when Alex was 3 months old, he was diagnosed with Acid Reflux after spitting up blood all over me - he immediately laughed and smiled at me even then.  Throughout our hospital observation stay (overnight) to make sure there wasn't something more serious going on, he was happy as can be (except when they tried unsuccessfully to get an IV going).  He laughed and smiled for everyone about everything.  He was just happy - it's his nature.

He has been to the doctor many times in his 19 month life.  If not for the acid reflux and follow-ups or for standard check-ups, it was for numerous ear infections.  We often know he has an ear infection before he has a fever or a runny nose or anything.  How?  Because his normal sunny disposition is replaced with a clingy little boy.  He's still happy & smiling but he is much less independent and just wants to cuddle.  Don't get me wrong, I love to cuddle with this little guy - he's so cuddly I could eat him up; I just wish he didn't have to be sick to get in the mood.  He takes his medicine well and after a day or two of meds, he's generally a happy boy, ready to take on the world again.  Until the last time that is.  The last time he had an ear infection and took Augmentin (the wonder drug for ear infections), he got horrible, horrible diaper rash.  His poor hiney was severely red and hot constantly and there was no ointment good enough to help it.  I felt like the worst mother in the world that I couldn't do anything to make it stop hurting and make it go away.  Poor guy has never cried like that consistently before and it was heart breaking.  That was 2 months ago and he's been in fairly good health ever since.  However, we know that if he gets another ear infection he'll get another round of Augmentin which will suck again due to diaper rash but he'll also be going to the specialist to get tubes which I've heard aren't that bad but still, it's surgery for my baby - not something I'm looking forward to.

That brings us to today and the best news I've ever heard at the doctor's office.  Today was Alex's 18 month check up (yes, at 19 months - but we're a little behind).  He is in the 97th percentile for his height at 36.25" and in the 90th for weight at 30lbs 9.4ozs.  He's definitely a sturdy little boy.  But the best part was when she checked his ears.  We actually think he had a slight ear infection about a month ago but it cleared up on it's own.  Had it lasted longer, we'd have taken him to the doctor but he never got a fever and we've been told sometimes they do go away on their own so waited it out and after a few days, he seemed happy as a lark again.  The doctor looked first in his left ear and said, "oh, that's pretty" and then checked the right ear (which is typically the one Alex doesn't like touched which makes me always wonder if it's bothering him) and said, "oh, wow! that's beautiful."  I heaved a major sigh of relief and Steve & I both cheered for Alex.  Yeah - that's the first check up in a long time where he's been completely healthy.  What was his prize?  Shots....poor guy, can't catch a break.

Steve took Ethan out to the lobby to watch TV - we always have him leave so he doesn't even realize that Alex gets the shots; we don't want him to be afraid of going to the doctor after all.  Alex and I played peek-a-boo in the mirror and then turned the lights off and on while we waited.  Finally the nurse came in and I braced myself and Alex.  The thing is, while Ethan doesn't realize Alex is getting shots, Alex definitely does.  He's had more than his share - one of the ear infections was stubborn and required two separate sets of two shots of antibiots to cure.  When he sees a new person enter the doctor's office that isn't the doctor after he's already seen the doctor - he knows.  He immediately looked at her with a look that was definitely not a dimpled-smile and started squirming on the table.  I gave him his paci & blanket and leaned over him blocking his view of the nurse and told him it would be ok.  Then the first shot came and the scream with it.  I talked sweetly to him telling him how sorry I was as she gave him the second shot.  He started screaming with the first shot but only the initial sound came out as he built up the rest.  About 30 seconds after the second shot concluded and the bandaids were applied, and as I started to pick him up, telling him to breathe, the rest of it came out.  I consoled him for a minute or two as I carried him out to the lobby.  By the time we got to the lobby, he'd almost stopped crying completely though the tears were still streaming down his face.  I gave him to his daddy who helped me put his shoes & shorts back on (he had a onesie already on but had to leave shorts off till after shots).  By the time shorts & shoes were on, he had pulled himself together.  He even held my hand and walked out with me rather that being carried.  Such a trooper.  Steve says he was basically his normal self the rest of the day.

Flash to this evening after work - my little munchkin was all smiles when he saw me.  He & his brother went outside to play as Steve fixed dinner.  I took their big wagon out back and Alex immediately started asking for help getting in it.  When the wagon was inside, he could hold the wall and get in - he didn't have anything to hold on to so needed the extra help.  I held his hand and he climbed in and big brother Ethan pulled him around the yard as he smiled and laughed and babbled cutely.  When that got boring, he wanted to swing.  I'm trying hard to make him say swing and some other things that he chooses to just grunt about.  I was again, unsuccessful.  I helped him into the swing while Ethan climbed on the tire swing and both boys were in their element enjoying the evening.  Then Alex's swing stopped and Mama was mean and made him do more than grunt to get another push.  I won out and he finally said, "weeeee" which is a step above "uh uh" so he got more pushes.  When that was no longer enough excitement (it wasn't as much fun I guess when he had to remember to say "weee" to get a push), he put his arms up signaling "I'm done" and I let him out and he and Ethan took turns trying to hit balls with the bats they have.  With me as the pitcher, the fact that they weren't successful can most assuredly not be blamed on them. 

Finally, it was time for dinner.  Ethan ran immediately inside.  Alex, however, was focused on the ball and the bat.  As soon as I got his attention and mentioned that it was time to eat when he could actually hear me over the focus of ball & bat, he looked at me like "oh yeah, food, that sounds good." Food is really the only thing better than balls in the eyes of Alex.  Unfortunately, dinner wasn't quite on the table when the boys had their hands washed and Alex wasn't keen on sitting there with nothing.  He was quite vocal in his grunts and "num-num"s requesting food until finally he got his plate.  Tonight was something new - a taco like dinner on a tostada so it's a big flat taco basically.  Alex checked out Mama & Daddy & then put down his fork and picked up the tostada and started chowing down.  It was really cute but the poor kid could only get a little bit in his tiny mouth at once.  Mama broke it into a few pieces for him and he was all over it. 

He's gotten much better at eating these days but we're thrilled to realize there are few things he won't eat.  Steve had salsa on his dinner and Alex thought he wanted some of that, too.  Steve gave him a little bit which he did NOT like but that didn't stop him from going back to his original food and eating it now that he was content in the knowledge that Daddy didn't have something better to eat after all.  It's funny to watch him.  He will completely focus on his own food until he gets a few bites in then he looks around to see what else there might be.  After he tries that out, he'll either demand your food (if it was, in fact, better than what he had) or go back to his own.  One thing is certain though, he will eat his dinner.  Unless, of course, he starts throwing his food and then Mama declares he is done.  If he's eaten enough that he thinks it's playtime, he's done eating.  That, to Alex, is punishment - removing his food.  Oh well, I'll guess he'll learn soon enough not to play and/or throw food at the table.

So that's the update on Alex.  A very happy boy almost all of the time and a very healthy 19 month old boy with a very healthy appetite for food as well as play.

Transformers Rise Again

When we take long rides in the car (to a 3 year old, even 30 minutes is long), Ethan gets to watch movies in the car.  As you can imagine, we've watched many, many cartoon movies over the past year.  So when we went to Illinois a few weeks ago, I made sure we had a couple of "real" movies as well and when we couldn't stand the sound of cartoon characters anymore (and Ethan went to sleep), I put Tranformers in.  We've had it for a while but I'd only seen it once until that weekend.

Ethan woke up when the "action" was in full swing and was instantly hooked.  The cars talked and moved and turned into people.  This was awesome.  E:  "Who's that one, Mama?"  M: "Bumblebee."  E: "It's Bumblebee?  He's cool.  Oh, who's that one?" M: "Optimus Prime."  E: "Optimus Pwime? He's a cool twuck.  I wike him.".....and so it went until the movie ended at which time he instantly said, "can we watch Twansfoahmahs again?"  Oddly, I'm not yet sick of the movie but then it's longer than the cartoon movies so he can't watch it as many times in one sitting.

Since then, every yellow car we've seen has been "Bumblebee" to the point that even Alex is now pointing them out and saying "OH! Buh buh!"  Yellow trucks are sometimes referred to as "Rachet" (the medical officer who was a yellow/red emergency vehicle) if Ethan can remember Rachet exists; otherwise, they are all Bumblebee.  After two weeks of this, last week when Ethan and I were shopping for Steve's father's day present (a weedeater), Ethan got a present, too.  He finally got his own Bumblebee Transformer.  He took it to bed the first night and then everywhere he went for the next 4 days - including to Aunt Megan's house for Father's Day.  Unfortunately, he left Bumblebee there and we didn't realize this until we were almost home so no chance to go back for it.

Ethan's been a little mopey this week and then it came out last night.  He was flipping through the brochure of Transformers that came with his car last night and then he looked at me with tears gleaming in his eyes and said, "Mama, I miss Bumblebee."  He wasn't even playing me for the toy - he had been talking to Bumblebee like an imaginary friend last week and then he was just gone and he really, really missed his buddy.  Yes, it broke my heart. 

So, today after work, I went to Walmart and got a new Bumblebee - not the same one we had before because the Walmart by my work didn't have that one.  This one was a little different (read: more difficult to transform) and came with another Transformer - a Decepticon - that was impossible to transform.  I finally got Bumblebee from robot to car form and then we ate dinner.  Following dinner, Steve tried for 20 minutes to transform the Decepticon into a vehicle while I tried to make Bumblebee back into the Robot as Ethan now wanted.  Then, both of us unsuccessful, we traded and 5 minutes later, we'd both managed to find the pieces that weren't quite attached correctly (yeah, we totally broke them).  If 2 adults can't work them, no way the boys could.  So we started putting them back in the box to take them back to Walmart.

Ethan wigged out - he did NOT want to take them back.  He didn't care that Bumblebee was broken - he wanted THAT Bumblebee - NOT another one - NOT the one he had last week that looked just the same but had a shooter (plastic missile) that he missed on this one - he didn't CARE that it didn't have the shooter anymore - no no no.....I told him he could go with me and pick out his own Bumblebee but we were not keeping the broken one.  Steve told him these were too hard to do, they wouldn't transform like they were supposed to and they kept breaking apart.  He totally didn't care - he just wanted that one.  But then I distracted him with ice cream and he calmed down enough to get a shirt on and shoes and head to Walmart with me.  Excellent idea because our Walmart did still have the Bumblebee we had originally purchased and we bought that one and another Transformer ("Mudflap" for Alex of course) and a bag of ice all for less than the cost of the first two I'd bought after work.  The best part is, we can actually transform these ourselves.

Ethan was so excited - Bumblebee went upstairs with him to bed tonight as did Mudflap for Alex.  The cars went in there room and they both took a bath.  Neither of them were thrilled with the idea of leaving the cars on the shelf until morning.  Alex asked repeatedly for his but finally relented and laid down to sleep.  Ethan agreed to stay in bed and go to sleep and he could play with it in the morning....or so he said.  For the next hour, we kept hearing Ethan talking quietly to himself.  I called upstairs several times for him to go to sleep (Alex was clearly asleep as we didn't hear him at all) and Ethan replied each time "ok." 

Finally, I called upstairs and told Ethan to come down and bring the transformers with him.  He said "ok" and came downstairs saying "what?"  (like "what did I do - I didn't do anything") with a huge grin.  Steve was basically laughing quietly at the expression so this was totally up to me.  I had him bring me the cars and told him to back to bed and stop playing.  He agreed and up the stairs he went.

Was that the end?  Oh, no.  We still heard him talking.  I called him back to the steps and asked him what he was doing.  He said nothing.  I asked who he was talking to.  He said no one.  I asked what he was talking about - he said, "I'm dust talking about myselth."  Me: "you're talking about yourself?" E: "Uh-huh. ..." the ... here refers to something he said which was completely indecipherable.  I asked Steve what language that was - Steve was now laughing hysterically but quietly so Ethan wouldn't notice and he responded with a shrug.  I asked Ethan what he'd said and he said the same indecipherable thing...3 more times.  Steve was just as clueless as I was and Ethan was now on to his laughter.  I asked Ethan to come downstairs so I could read his lips as he said it.  He chose not to and just said it again so I told him to look right at me and he said it again and I guessed at what he said and asked "I'm just too logical?"  He said yes, that's what he'd said.  The little smartie was telling me I was just being too logical in asking him who he was talking to etc - apparently it was no one and I should just butt out.  Talk about a rotten child.  I explained again (while trying not to laugh) that he was supposed to be going to sleep and he couldn't do that if he was playing or talking to or about himself.  He agreed with me and went upstairs.  He has now talked his daddy into letting him sleep in my bed which means I'm sleeping downstairs tonight.

I have no idea how I bought 3 separate Bumblebee toys in the course of a week and yet I get to sleep downstairs on the couch but at least it's cooler downstairs than it is upstairs.  How's that for being "too logical"?

Prayers....

I've mentioned before that we say prayers (or "God Bless" as Ethan calls it) before bed and before meals.  Alex is even into this now.  When we sit down to eat, we all hold hands and he really likes that part.  Ethan or Alex will typically even reach for hands to say "God Bless" if we're eating out.  It's really pretty sweet.

Steve & I apparently said different forms of Grace growing up as depending on which of us started grace at our house, we'd use a different blessing.  This, as you can imagine, was difficult for Ethan to grasp.  He wanted to say "God Bless" but which version - what is he supposed to say exactly.  Nana sent a book of children's prayers several months ago and the perfect solution was in that book.  A version of Grace made specially for children that Ethan really likes and is easy to remember:

Thank You for the world so sweet.
Thank You for the food we eat.
Thank You for the birds that sing.
Thank You, Lord, for everything!
Amen.

Ethan can do this entirely by himself now and having seen how his daddy & I pray (typically with our heads bowed and sometimes with eyes closed), he is now mimicking this behavior as well.  Last night he was very proud of himself for putting his head down and closing his eyes AND saying Grace and getting it all right.  He even added "and for Baby Pete [his pet bunny]".  He really likes saying Grace and this one is really cute.

He likes bedtime prayers even more I think and constantly adds to it.  Alex now usually watches Ethan & me as we say prayers and THEN lays down to go to sleep (or gets a kiss first and then lays down, but he won't ask for the kiss before the prayer which is cute, too).  Bedtime prayers go something like this:

Now I lay me down to sleep.
I pray the Lord my soul to keep.
Angels watch me through the night.
Till I wake with morning light.
God bless Ethan & Owix; Mama & Daddy; Amma, Paga & Nana; all my aunts & uncles; all my cousins; everybody I love; & my fish & baby Pete. 
Amen.

The cutest part is when he throws in a little additional prayer like "and let us go to Paga's house" or "and thank you for the snow" [in winter of course] or "and for Bumblebee" [toy Transformer he is currently infatuated with]. 

Last night though I think he summed up what all of us are thinking right about now: 

... God bwess Efan & Owix, Mama & Daddy, Amma, Paga & Nana, all my aunts & uncles, all my cousins, everybody I love & Baby Pete & my fish and let us go to the BEACH, too!

Couldn't have said it better myself.

The Spitting Image

Everyone knows that Ethan is the spitting image of Steve.  Strangers have stopped us (most recently at a local fair we went to) to tell Steve he'd never be able to deny Ethan is his (not that he would anyway) cause there is no doubt - he looks just like his daddy.  However, he has several of my mannerisms - not all of them good.  He's the worrier - the thinker - the one who wants to make sure everyone is ok with what he's doing.  He'll ask his daddy if he can do something and when Steve answers him, he'll then ask me.  Poor kid this tends to bite him in the butt; half the time I say no to what Steve thought was ok to do so by asking twice, he doesn't get to do it - but he continues to ask anyway to make sure everyone is ok with what he's going to do.  If he's in trouble, he is more worried about apologizing and you not being mad at him anymore than about what his punishment is and how long he'll have to sit there.  He'll sit there as long as necessary as soon as he confirms you won't be mad at him anymore. Yeah, I have several of those traits and they aren't really "bad" - but the one that I hate that he got from me is the stubborn attitude and lack of patience.  I always used to say, "I don't need patients, I'm not going to be a doctor"....yeah, that's biting me in the butt today as apparently Ethan has no plans to be a doctor either. 

Now let's discuss Alex.  I've been told Alex looks like me and Steve says it frequently and I've even seen it sometimes sort of.  This past Sunday on the way home from Eastern KY, Alex's ears started hurting going through the mountains so I ended up getting in the back of the van with him.  In trying to distract him from crying, I started to play keep-away with his ball keeping it just out of his reach.  He then stopped crying and just looked at me - almost a "you're so not funny Mama" look.  I stopped in my tracks - for the first time ever I got it - he looked exactly like me.  See, Alex is almost always smiling - he has huge dimples and I don't so I don't see it.  He was deadpan and I could immediately picture some of the photos of me when I was little and he looked JUST like me.  I was amazed and in being so shocked and telling Steve about it, I managed to get Alex tickled and the dimples came out and blew the image, but having seen it once, I could still see it.  I now understand why people say he looks like me.  But just as Ethan looks like Steve & acts like me; Alex acts just like his daddy.  Alex thinks EVERYTHING is funny.  Nothing in life is serious (ok, except severe diaper rash brought on by Augmentin but who can blame him).  Steve even admits it himself - we are going to be called to the school often for Alex cause he's going to be totally rotten stirring stuff up just to make his classmates laugh.  Steve follows this by saying that I am going to be going to the office, he can't cause he'd just laugh and make it worse.

So there's no denying either of these boys belong to either of us.  Ethan acts like me, Alex looks like me; Ethan looks like Steve; Alex acts like Steve.  Life is definitely interesting in the Waters house. 

I'll close with a glimpse of tonight's dinner.  I finished eating and rather than sit at the table and get extremely irritated with both boys not eating, I let Steve stay with them and I went to clean up the chaos that was the living room.  I heard from the kitchen Steve telling Ethan not to do something.  This was immediately followed by Alex saying "No No" and pointing at Ethan repeatedly.  Steve is laughing telling Alex to eat, too.  Alex (because Steve is laughing) continues the "no no" - obviously, this is getting nowhere.  I took some glasses from the front room into the kitchen and when I did, I hear Alex saying again "NO NO" and turn to see him pointing at Ethan who at this moment was actually taking a bite.  Since Steve had told Alex to stop 3 times now, I said in my very firm "do what I say" voice "Alexander David" - that is quite frequently the only way to get his attention.  He whipped his head around to look at me saying "huh?"  I said "stop it right now and eat."  He looked back Ethan and started to do it again (the boys are sitting across from each other and Steve is sitting at the end of the table and I'm now standing at the corner sort of between Alex & Steve).  I said sternly, "don't you do it." And he said again, "huh?"  I said, "you heard me.  Eat your dinner and leave Ethan alone. ... Ethan [who was now just staring] you eat, too."  Alex looked at his brother again and raised his finger half way up.  I said "ALEX" ... he just stopped.  At this point Steve was sitting there trying not to laugh and starting to shake because he could see Alex looking at Ethan and then turning just his eyes to look at me to see if I was looking and then back to his brother thinking about doing it again and raising that finger little by little and then backing down each time I said "don't do it" or said his name.  Alex was totally testing me here and was looking from me to Ethan without moving his head just his eyes and Steve was so not helping.  I then lightly flicked the back of his head when he pushed a little bit further towards the "no" statement to his brother and said "eat" and he looked at Steve saying "huh?" - Steve busted out laughing.  He was looking at Steve like "do I really have to eat, Daddy" and Steve's response was to laugh.  You guessed it, that had Alex cackling and totally negated my stern directions.  Ethan started to laugh too but when I looked at him he stopped and said "I'm full Mom."  I gave up - everyone was done with dinner.  For those keeping score, that's 1 for the boys and 0 for the parents or possibly a -1 since it wasn't really a united front given the sheer laughter from Steve which created my downfall.  Oh well, we'll try again next time.

So far behind...let's catch up a little

I’ve been very neglectful in my blogging obviously.

You didn’t get to hear about Easter when I asked Ethan what he thought the Easter bunny would bring him and reminded him last year, he got “Baby Pete” his pet bunny rabbit as a gift. His response was that he thought the Easter Bunny would bring him a gorilla. Thinking he meant a REAL gorilla (since we were in fact talking about a REAL bunny from last year), I told him I thought a gorilla may be too big to bring. Ethan replied in a “well duh” tone – “not a REAL gorilla, dust a toy one.” Oh ok – that the Easter Bunny could probably do and a race car, too, Ethan thought. But what about Alex? “He’s going to bwing Owix a race car, too.” Smart bunny – bringing them the same thing. The Easter Bunny did in fact bring Ethan a gorilla & a race car and a race car for Alex as well and a stuffed animal for Alex as well though I can’t quite remember which one. The Easter Bunny also came INSIDE our house and took the eggs that Ethan & I had colored (and sadly, Ethan’s were all way better than mine) and hid them in the YARD where Ethan & Alex were surprised to find a new tire swing from the Easter Bunny as well.

You also missed hearing about our visit with Nana in Cincinnati. Nana came on the train – super cool. She came in at like 1 in the morning or later and Ethan & I went to pick her up. That was super exciting for Ethan – especially the part where Mama missed the exit and so we went to the next exit, ran into a very sketchy looking gas station so Ethan could pee and then made it back to the train station in plenty of time to wait for Nana – the train whistle had him giddy. He pretended to be shy at first with Nana at the train station but soon perked right up to start talking her ear off. Alex wasn't shy at all - went right to Nana when we got back to the "ho-ta-el" (3 syllables as spoken by Ethan) and woke him up.  Nana was then shocked when we put him back in the pack & play and told him "lay down and go to sleep" and he did it.  She continued to be shocked when we did this for naps, etc and he really did it.  I agree, that's not normal behavior for a child but what can I say, he likes sleep and as long as you don't make him sleep WITH someone, he'll go down when you tell him, too.  We had a great time with Nana & the cousins, going to the “Quah-wee-um” (you know, where they have fish and stuff), bowling & to the park. Nana read stories in our room and we went swimming with the cousins. The one downside was Alex's nightterror as that had to be what it was.  I thought he'd wake everyone in the hotel - couldn't get him to calm down and go back to sleep which freaked Nana a little just because I said I didn't know what to do.  But honestly, anyone who has had a child with a nighttterror will tell you, there's nothing you CAN do.  I ended up walking with him and singing softly to him and took him in the hall where it was well lit and did this for about 30 minutes or so and he finally calmed down enough that I could lay him down without starting it back up again.  Other than that, a good time was had by all the kiddos, that’s for sure - especially swinging & kite flying at the park and drawing with sidewalk chalk.  Fun times but not long enough with Nana.

You missed hearing about Mother’s Day and how we spent a good 30 minutes recording 10 seconds of “Happy Mother’s Day, Nana! I wuv you and Owix does, too” and then “Happy Mother’s Day, Amma! We wuv you”…..in cards with sound to send for the grand occasion. You’ve never REALLY tried your patience until you’ve attempted this process. Mama got more wonder charms for my Pandora bracelet from the munchkins and we went to Red Lobster for dinner. THAT was a really yummy present right there.  You also missed how Mother's Day weekend started with Ethan & Mama going on another date to see the Musical "Beauty & the Beast" Friday night - we had a GREAT time there as well.  To make sure we didn't forget, we got up Saturday morning and watched the Disney movie of Beauty & the Beast as well.  I swear I love that kid - especially when he says "sing it wiff me, Mom" or "kill da beast, right Mom?" ... good times.

You’ve missed hearing about how much Alex is progressing on talking. Most words are just 1 syllabel or the first letter or 2 of a word – Horse comes out more like “ha” and bat as in baseball bat is “ball”….if he has a ball already and is still asking for “ball”, he’s really asking for the bat. If he wants something and you don’t know what it is from the grunt or syllable he murmurs, just give him a second, he’ll either bring it to you or gesture to you to come to it.

You’ve missed hearing about the new pet(s) Ethan & Alex have. A fish tank with originally 6 fish, 3 died, we bought 1 more and now still have the 4. The tank is on Ethan’s dresser and they both love to talk to and feed the fish. Alex doesn’t feel right going to bed at night if he doesn’t say goodnight to the fish. One night I put him to bed shortly after we got the tank and was unaware of this requirement. Alex immediately screamed his head off – not something he usually does – and Daddy yelled from downstairs “he wants to see the fish first.” He was totally right. I got Alex out of the crib, took him over to the tank, he dropped 1 flake of food in, took his paci out and said “ni-ni” (night night) and then happily got back in his bed. Seriously, if that’s all it takes, we can totally do that. Ethan wants to feed them all the time but the rule we’ve quickly established is twice a day and Mama & Daddy say how much food. Ethan pinches some out, shows us and we tell him if it’s ok or too much – he’s good to put some back if it’s too much – and then after getting approval will drop it in. I usually pinch out 1 or 2 flakes for Alex and he’ll take them from me to drop them in as I’d hate to see how many fish flakes “one small pinch” would be from Alex.

You’ve also missed hearing how accident prone Alex is – just like his Mama. The night before we left to see Nana in Cinci, Alex tripped in the backyard and landed face first on the concrete patio so Nana got to see him all bloodied with a big scratched up forehead and nose. Then the same night we got the fish tank, Ethan had the “tall stool” by his dresser so they could both check out the fish. Alex had on jeans in which he can’t really bend his knees anyway. I was moving a toy away from the crib so I could turn around to get Alex and put him in the crib. As I turned around, I saw Alex fall – not sure if he was getting on the stool and missed or if he was getting off the stool but either way, he hit his forehead on the bottom corner of Ethan’s dresser. I immediately yelled for Steve to get ice not yet knowing the extend of the damage as I picked up Alex to run to our room with him where we have better lighting. Mid-run, I realized Alex was bleeding profusely and yelled for Steve just to “come now” as I couldn’t leave Alex but couldn’t see where he was bleeding yet either and he was SCREAMING bloody murder. Steve finally got there and got me a wet cloth and a dry one so I could staunch the flow and clean him up at the same time. Turns out he gashed his forehead pretty good and covered both of us in blood. Steve got the first aid kit and I put a guaze pressure bandage on his head. The proceeded to check on him every couple of hours through the night. The next morning it appeared to have clotted off as the bandage wasn’t soaked through at all so we replaced it with a bandaid and went to church – bad idea. We stayed in the cry room so I could watch Alex – the first time he & Ethan accidentally bumped heads while playing, the gusher started gushing again. Immediately replaced the bandaid and staunched the flow again and texted Katie for instructions which included not going to the ER (by then it was too late for that anyway) but getting liquid band aid and keep a pressure bandage on for a few days. That did work and the gash that I thought was right between his eyes is actually a little higher up so may 1 day be more in his hair line than in the middle of his forehead. No sooner did that one heal than he bashed his head on the AC intake in the living room and scraped up the side of his head. That one has healed now so I’m sure he’s plotting his next “accident” as I type.

You’ve missed hearing about our new “big car” – the minivan. We had 2 cars – a Camry that was finally paid for 2 years ago and a Corolla that my dad had graciously given us when we needed another car. The camry when packed with stroller was pretty limited on other luggage space when traveling and the Corolla had no space inside for anything other than the 4 of us so putting the stroller in that trunk meant not having anything else (even groceries) in the car unless it was on someone’s lap. So the Corolla was great for driving me or Steve to work or for taking the family around town if the Camry was being worked on but not good for travel and with the limit on luggage in the Camry we always rented cars for long trips. We decided it was time to have a reliable vehicle of our own (both Toyota’s have 200K+ miles) and went in search of a “Soccer Mom” vehicle. We test drove a few vans and then someone loaned us 1 for the weekend to see if we liked it because it was too late on a Saturday to try for financing. The van was a total lemon – several warning lights came on each time you turned it on; the “automatically” sliding door was malfunctioning and would close 3 times before it stayed shut; the built in DVD player starting clicking and making noise after 90 minutes of use; the smoke smell was REALLY bad from a previous owner; the passenger side mirror was broken in half – it was awful. Then the guy KEPT trying to sell it to me – they’d drop the price and fix the problems, etc. Sorry not interested…end of story. We then went to Car Town Kia and test drove a Sedona – we loved it. I knew what we could pay, what the vehicle was worth and what my trade in (Steve’s Harley) was worth before we went in. Steve left all financial discussions to me. The sales guy, Robert Harris (who really was pretty good), came with a number and I told him no deal – this is all I can do. He went back and forth with the finance guys and never pressured me really but definitely worked with me and we walked out that day with the keys & signed papers in hand. It was awesome. Anyone in this area looking for a car – after 1 month, Steve and I really like our Sedona so I’d recommend a Kia for that reason. Car Town Kia does have several non-Kia used cars as well and Robert really was great so give him a call if you are in the market – make sure you tell him I sent you of course. Funny Ethan story related to the Van: We had the “test” van for roughly 24 hours and then took it back Sunday evening. Monday evening we bought the Sedona. Tuesday morning, I took the Sedona to work. Ethan came down stairs and quickly asked Steve, almost in a panic “Daddy, where’s our big car?” S: “The van.” E: “Yeah, the van.” S: “Mommy took it to work today.” E: “Well she wasn’t posed to. That’s our car.” …. 2 days later I was again planning to take the van to work but this time Ethan & Alex woke up so I was taking them downstairs with me and Ethan looks up the stairs at me (having seen the van behind the Camry in the driveway – yes, he’s that bright) and said, “don’t take the big car today, Mama.” I told him I was going to take the van. He said “No. Don’t. I don’t want you to. I dust need it.” I told him we could take a ride when I got home from work. He was still worried about it when Steve got downstairs so Steve laid his worries to rest telling him this van was ours and no one was going to take it from us. We were going to keep it and some days they’d have it and some days I’d have it but it would still be ours. Turns out he likes being in the van so much cause he can see out better and he was afraid we’d take it back like we had with the “test” van. He’s been fine ever since the reassurance from Daddy.

You missed stories about our visit to Illinois and Amma’s return to Kentucky with us. A couple bits that are prevalent in my mind are when we arrived around midnight our time, 11:00pm Illinois time at Amma’s house and Ethan’s first question when seeing her was “where’s Richard & Jewel.” Sorry kid, they don’t live WITH Amma, we’ll have to see them tomorrow. At the Bethel family picnic on Memorial Day there was a swing in a sandy area and the boys were covered in sand which was unacceptable for our van so Steve did what any normal parent would do (ok, maybe not normal but it’s what I would have done as well)….he took the boys over to the water pump and proceeded to strip and rinse them off thoroughly.

Not realizing how much fun they’d have in the water, he got their discarded clothes soaked as well so I had to dig out clean stuff from the packed van while I dug out the camera to get a couple of good pictures. Then when Amma came to the house Ethan was going to sleep on his air mattress downstairs with her but somehow decided it would be better to sleep in his room on the air mattress and have Amma sleep in his bed…sorry Amma, it’s hotter upstairs but that’s what he wants and she caved (honestly, it doesn’t take much prodding from him for her to say yes to something). The first night she went downstairs in the morning before Ethan woke up and he came down and asked why she didn’t sleep with him. She had to explain that she did, she’d just come down. The last morning, she got up after I took a shower and so that the boys could have additional time with her, I got them up….oops, she was planning to go back to sleep. I kind of messed that up but hey, they got more quality time that way . The best was when Amma finally got it – she told Steve she now understands why we constantly say how rotten Alex is…because he IS. He is SUCH an imp – if you tell him not to do something and then turn away from him, he’ll wait till you turn back towards him so you can see him and THEN he’ll do it and then grin at you like – see, did you see? I did it anyway. Rotten I tell you, just rotten.

I’ve fallen WAY behind on blogging as you can see and this is only a smidgen of what you’ve missed as I can’t possibly remember it all (that’s the point of the blog and then I got behind, an endless cycle). Anyway, I promise I will try to get back to reporting at least every couple of days. I definitely have plenty of material from the constant antics of our house. I hope you’ve enjoyed this flash of a catch up and I’ll see you again soon.