Thursday, October 23, 2008

More Fall Fun!

We have our camera back! Just in time for some sweeping outside. I foolishly thought I'd get a little work done outside while the kids played, but they wanted to help me instead, so I took pictures. Sure, they wanted to sweep the grass and not the porch, but who am I to look down on a little help?

Carter's surgery went very well. I wish I'd had a camera for that as he was too cute pacing the halls in his little hospital pajamas. It was a quick surgery and recovery, and we were leaving the hospital by 9am and got home in time for his morning nap!

This afternoon, we took the kids to Young's Jersey Dairy. Mark and I went there quite a bit when we were students at Cedarville. There's a petting barn, tractors to play on, and, of course, ice cream.Ava enjoyed her first ice cream cone and was surprisingly adept at eating it. She got a good bit on her face, but that was the extent of her mess... she knows not to waste good ice cream!

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Fall is here!

We've been having beautiful fall weather this week - lots of sunshine and cooler temps. Fall has always been my favorite time of year!

The other day, Ava fell outside on the sidewalk and scraped up her knees. We got bandaids and everything seemed okay, especially when our neighbor came outside with his dogs and she got to love on them for a while. Later when we went inside and she noticed the bandaids on her knees, she again turned into an invalid, holding her knees and hobbling around, acting like the simple act of walking was no longer an option for her and crying to be carried. Meanwhile, Mark and I turned away to hide our laughter as we tried to take care of our pathetic hurt girl.

The other day at the grocery store, Ava had her first public meltdown. Ava's favorite parts of grocery shopping are the free cookies at the bakery and helping to put items on the conveyor belt to check out. I never realized just how important these 2 things were until we had a complete meltdown today. She got her cookie, which is the part I always assumed would bring on a meltdown (should they not have any), but when we went to check out, she was too busy playing with some coupons to help put things on the belt. No big deal to me, but I did ask if she wanted to help. She said, "yes," but continued playing with the coupons. When I was finished, I pushed the cart down to the register. She looked up startled and said, "Mommy, I wanted to help!" I told her I was all done and she broke down. Tears. Sobs. The obligatory, "I want my Daddy!" Even the offer of a sticker didn't help! My reaction? Trying not to laugh. Such drama. Thankfully, it wasn't a loud tantrum and most of those witnessing the fit found it as amusing as I did.

Sometimes when she is on the brink of making me crazy and I'm tired and frustrated, she'll say, "Momma, can you smile?" And I always do.

Next Tuesday, Carter will have minor surgery for meatal stenosis. Basically, the skin around his pee hole (this must be the appropriate medical term as this is how the pediatric urologist referred to it multiple times in our consultation!) has grown over, making the hole smaller than it should be. One night when Mark was bathing him, probably 7 or 8 months ago as he was still in the baby bathtub in the sink, he attempted to spray Mark in the face, but instead hit the window over the sink! Mark was quite concerned that it hadn't gone straight, albeit thankful he hadn't gotten it in the face, so we asked our pediatrician about it. His son had the same thing, and it is a fairly routine surgery. It isn't routine for my baby, however, so I'm a little nervous. We will have to be at the hospital at 6:30 a.m., and I think that might be the worst part of the ordeal!