I'm really bad at this...

Man, for someone who was REALLY looking forward to starting this blog, and PLANNED on updating it on a fairly regular basis, I sure am not doing a very good job at it.  Here goes again, looks like we are doing an update again.  Obviously since the last post, Dominic started 1st grade.  We got off to a rough start- I think it was a bigger transition for him than I planned for it to be, but he has a fantastic 1st grade teacher who is great at communicating with parents and we together have gotten Dominic in the right direction in school.  We just had his Fall conference and learned that he is reading past the mid 1st grade level right now (at the beginning of the year assessment) and she is continuously challenging him and pushing him to keep moving in the right direction. We got all good news at his conference which makes this Mama very happy. Look at the Difference that just 1 year makes!!

1st day of 1st grade

1st day of Kindergarten

Easton is growing up faster than fast as well! We had a bit of a health scare with him- all by accident not that long ago.  It all started when I noticed that Easton's feet had begun to peel badly around his toenails on both his feet and on the soles on the bottoms of his feet.  I was wondering if it possibly had to do with Hand, Foot & Mouth disease as it had been in daycare a couple weeks earlier.  I thought maybe Easton may have had a really minor case of it and didn't know it, so I did what they ALWAYS say NOT to do..I googled it.  Sure enough I found out that it is possible that for kiddos to get peeling feet a few weeks after having HFMD. I also noticed that something called Kawasaki Disease was coming up a lot as well.  Being curious, I started reading more about it and nearly lost my breath... many of the symptoms of Kawasaki disease Easton had exhibited back when he got sick in Kansas and since than.  One of the most red flag symptoms of Kawasaki disease is a high fever (102-104+) lasting at least 5 days and not being able to break it with the use of tylenol/ibuprofin. Other symptoms are red mucus membranes in the mouth (which he had with the fever), swollen lymph nodes in the neck (check), a rash on the middle of the body (check...i.e. the rash we thought was a possible allergic reaction to the antibiotics), and peeling of the hands and feet around the nails, soles & palms (check again).   At this point in time, I started to freak out about it because Kawasaki disease can cause inflammation of the blood vessels, causing aneurysms and possible heart attacks in young kids. It made me even more nervous knowing that Easton already has a heart condition. 

Easton getting his ECHO

Of course this was a Sunday morning and since I couldn't call his pediatrician, but needing some sort of medical feedback, I called my husbands Aunt Arla who is a nurse at Children's Hospital in Minneapolis.  I told her about what I had read, the symptoms that Easton has displayed and asked her if I was crazy for freaking out about the possibility that he had this crazy rare disease. She told me I had reason to worry about it and to get in contact with his pediatric cardiologist and let her know what was happening and see what she thought should be the next steps.  THANK GOD we have the world's GREATEST cardiologist because she had given me her email address at our very 1st cardiology appt. when Easton was only 2 weeks old and told me to email her if I ever had any questions in between visits. I emailed her with all the info and she got back to me within 20 minutes of sending the email. She continued to email back and forth with me and said She was concerned about Easton and even though she was on rotation in the hospital that week, she would call the Heart Clinic and get Easton on her schedule to see him personally herself. She said there may be a chance that Easton may have to go on aspirin therapy short term to protect his heart.

Eastie watching his heart beat during the ECHO

Long story short, we ended up down at Children's for Easton to have an ECHO and after this Mama being full of panic and prepared to hear bad news, we actually found out that there was NO sign of any heart damage to his coronary arteries and no signs of aneurysms either! They also followed up on his Pulmonary Valve Stenosis (we weren't due for another ECHO until January 2013 near his 2nd Birthday) since we were there, and we were told that his PVS is holding steady and actually slightly improved from the last ECHO. The cardiologist was thrilled to see there was no damage to his heart and she said because of all of the symptoms that Easton had, she cannot say that he does not have Kawasaki Disease (there are no actual tests for this disease, it is diagnosed based on presenting symptoms) and that from now on, when he comes in for his ECHOS for his PVS, they will also be looking at his coronary arteries, making sure that he has not developed any inflammation of his arteries.  She also said that we will have to take serious any claims of chest pain or shortness of breath that he may have in the future, esp. as a young adult and have it checked out right away.  We also need to make sure that Easton eats really healthy, exercises regularly as he gets older and that he maintains a healthy, lean weight to keep his heart as healthy as possible.

 Other than the craziness of Dominic going back to school and keeping up with Easton, it makes for a busy life.  Give it a few more weeks and Dominic will be starting up hockey again and than it will really be a crazy fun chaos. This weekend we will be celebrating Dominic's 7th birthday with his birthday party on Saturday.  My baby won't officially be 7 until October 24th... how is it I have a 7 year old already?? It doesn't seem possible. Time needs to slow down, that's all I know! 

Best Bros

 As crazy as life can be with these 2 boys, I don't think I would trade anything in the world for being their Mama.  I can't imagine my life without them and I thank God every single day for choosing me as their Mama. 

Summer Highlights

Nana and Eastie

Oh my goodness, I didn't mean for it to be this long since my last blog post, but the summer has been SOOOOOOOO busy! Here are some of our highlights: My mom aka "Nana" came home to Minnesota from Kansas and she got to meet Easton for the very first time.  It was heartwarming to see them together for the 1st time, it just makes me sad that it took so long. My mom missed holding Easton as a newborn, seeing him learn to sit up, crawl or stand or even start babbling.  She missed all the fun stuff that happens in the 1st year- but I am also SO glad that she got to see him as my Dad has yet to meet him. We got to spend time up in Hinckley with my mom and my Grams and Aunt Missy from Texas while my mom was home as well.  We even managed a night at the Cabin way up North!

All of us hanging out in the pool!

Easton petting one of the chickens

A few weeks later, my sister and I DARED to take a road trip from Minnesota to Kansas for 10 day vaca to visit Nana and Hunter down there.  Note to self- don't put a baby, an 8 and 6 year old in the back seat of the car for hours upon hours.  We ended up breaking the drive up into sections and made a pit stop after about 6 hours in Bethany, Missouri.  After another 5+ hours the next day, we FINALLY made it to Anthony Kansas THANK GOODNESS!  The "big" boys spent a lot of time at the skate park and the community pool a block away from Nana's house.  Eastie spent a lot of time enjoying the air conditioning and checking out the chickens in the backyard. Easton LOVED to go out to the chicken coop and feed them in the mornings. The weather was HOT, HOT, HOT! It was over 100 degrees F every single day that we were there.  The pool was a nice place to hang out and Dominic even went off the diving board for the 1st time. He became quite the fishy! We managed to venture into Wichita twice- 1 with the kids and 1 time without- with the exception of Easton as he had a fever and I didn't want to leave him with the babysitter not feeling well.  In fact, he ended up going to the doctor on that Wednesday and still wasn't feeling better on Friday.

Dominic jumping off the diving board

The boys hanging out on Main St.

My sister, My Mama and ME playing at the park in Anthony, Kansas

  

Easton feeling a bit better after rehydrating!

Easton & Mama in the hospital

The poor guy had a fever for 5 days that we were there and ended up in the hospital the Friday before we returned. He had a throat infection and had a throat covered in pus and a fever of 104.6.  It took the nurses 6 tries (including calling an off duty nurse with peds experience to come to the hospital to put in the IV) before they were able to get his IV in.  Let me tell you, it was incredibly hard to listen to his horrific, pained screams as they made the attempts to get it in. They finally got it in his ankle.  A couple hours after his IV fluids, the poor guy perked up and finally started to look like himself again.  It was SO scary seeing how lethargic he was and that he was not eating or drinking anything.  A big THANK YOU to all the nurses at the Harper Hospital in Harper, Kansas for taking such good care of my Eastie.  While Easton and I were in the hospital, Nana and my sister took the big boys to the Harper Demolition Derby.  The boys had a blast!  On the loooooooong drive back home, we made a pit stop and spent the night in Ames, Iowa.  I SURE was glad to be home!!!

One other highlight of the summer for ME was going back to school to finish my Special Education teaching license.  I got accepted into the St. Cloud State University Grad program for the grad certificate in teaching.  I took 2 classes- Assistive Technology and Transition/Collaboration.  Holy smokes was it  ALOT of work. I drove every Tuesday morning for 8 weeks to St. Cloud. I had to get up at the crack of dawn because my 1st class started ON campus at 7:30 am. I have to admit I LOVED being on campus and I met some really awesome people.  My classes pushed me to my limits with the amount of work that had to be accomplished in those short 8 weeks, but I pulled it off and EARNED 2 A's in my classes.  I can't tell you of how proud I was of myself and all time/energy it took going to class and sitting through 2- 4 hour classes plus all the homework AND still managing to be a mommy, but I sure did it! I can't wait now to do my student teaching next summer and FINALLY finishing my teaching license!!!

mmmm.. CORN!

Big Fat Bacon

Dom and Eastie on the tractors

To end this fabulous summer, we spent 13 1/2 hours at my favorite time of summer- The Minnesota State Fair!!! OH YEA!! It was a tad bit on the warm side, but we walked over 6 miles. While we walked we ate all kinds of fabulous fair foods-cheese curds, big fat bacon,deep fried candy bars, mini donuts, nitro ice cream, gyros, corn from the corn roast, beef jerky, Sweet Martha's cookies and pronto pups to name a few. We even tried bacon ice cream too.  It was interesting to say the least.  We took Easton down the giant slide and as soon as we got to the bottom he kept saying "gen, gen" (Again, Again). He had so much fun on it and started to cry when we walked away.  Dominic rode some rides in the kidway and than moved on up to the regular midway and went on some rides with Uncle Ben and Auntie Heidi.  Dominic did his annual Home Depot building project and both the boys had fun in the Little Farm Hands farming activity. One of the members of our church band was performing the talent show finals in the Grandstand so I went and watched him perform.  He was fabulous as per usual! We even managed to catch the fireworks as we walked to the truck.  It was another successful day at the fair and I can't wait to do it all over again next summer at the fair!

Well, I think that pretty much catches you up on the summer.  We had a blast and overall, it was a GREAT summer!!

Potty and Baseball

So I am really excited about this.. and YES I know that Eastie is only 17 months old and I shouldn't get TOO excited about it..but I SO AM!  Yesterday Eastie was just in a diaper and he came over to me pulling on the diaper.  I asked him he wanted me to take it off, and he signaled yes- the kid loves to be nakie! After I took it off, he ran right into the bathroom and lifted the lid.  I was like what is going on?? I sat him on the potty and he almost fell in since his tiny little bum is so small.  I said to Eastie "Dont pee on me!!!" and ran downstairs with him to get Dominic's old potty seat.  I put that on the potty, sat Easton on it and BAM! Easton peed in the potty! He sat for about 15 seconds, the whole time watching "down there" and you could tell by him sucking his tummy in and out that he was trying to make something happen.. and he did!!!! I cheered for him and he clapped his hands and I gave him a fruit snack to reinforce him going in the potty.  Guess we will be trying that again and see what happens.  Actually tonight, I sat him on the potty before his bath, and again he looked down there and was trying to make it happen..but no go.  I still gave him a big cheer for trying and than moved on to bath time.  There is no pressure for him to start this, he is enjoying it and I figure why not let him start to get familiar with it since he is interested. 

Easton sitting on the potty for the 1st time! (Mama's hand had to "censor" this pic!!!

 As for baseball, Dominic has become quite the baseball fanatic this summer.  He is playing in his 1st year of "A" ball and loving every minute of it.  I wish that I would have taken a picture of him the other day- he had his hockey helmet on (for his catchers mask) and his hockey shoulder pads on for his "catching gear." It was pretty hilarious watching him play baseball decked out in his hockey gear.  When "his" team was up to bat, he lost the hockey gear & dawned his batting glove and his rollerblade knee pad strapped to his left shin to "protect his leg like Joe Mauer."  It was pretty entertaining.. this kid is eat, sleep and breathing baseball right now and has greatly improved since the beginning of the season. Dominic had his 1st playoff game tonight, and MAN was it nerve wracking. It's amazing how the feel of the game can change when the stakes get high. Unfortunately they lost tonight, but Dom had fun and at this age, that's all I can ask!!!

Dominic decked out in catcher's gear- His favorite position!!!

Well, that's all I got tonight.. Ta Ta for now!

The boy in the mirror

I am trying to figure out how to post videos onto my blog...let's see if this works. This video makes me laugh. I was in the bathroom and Eastie was very interested in the boy in the mirror.  He spent about 2 minutes talking to that boy, and I just couldn't resist getting him on camera talking to himself! :) I just can't help but smile when I watch this!!!  Tell me what you think...

So far I have only figured out how to add them through YouTube...I guess that works for now right?!

The Beginning- Take 2

So it's been like 4 years since I started this blog...in fact I totally forgot that I even started it.  I have been thinking for awhile that I wanted to throw my hand into the blogging world- mostly just to blog about my life and what my crazy kiddos have been up to, the awesome things I find on Pinterest (which is my newest obsession), the music that has me thinking these days etc. etc. I guess whatever happens to come to mind. -and decided to sign up tonight.  Lo and behold- here's a blog that I had already started.  I did change the backgrounds, fonts, colors and layout etc tonight to update it.  :) Here goes nothing. I can't promise anything, but I am going to give it a whirl and see what happens.  I think first things first- an updated picture of my family as the last time I blogged, there was only 1 sweet boy in my life.  Now there are 2 sweet boys in my life and I am thankful for them EVERYDAY! I love them to pieces and they are for sure the loves of my life!

 

Dom & Eastie soaking up the sun!

I am still learning how to figure out how to do everything, so I apologize if something doesn't work or look right. Well I guess this is it for now.. Looking forward to keeping this up and seeing what happens.. Ta Ta for Now! :)