Sunday, November 25, 2012

Rocket Blast!

Our baby Seth is 4! He loves anything that goes fast: rockets, jets, motorcycles, race cars, etc. He is especially into rockets right now. In his words they are 'awesome' because they have a point at the top. What better way to celebrate his birthday than with a rocket ship party. His grandma (Omi) pulled through with a fun and creative little party.

She set up six stations for the kids to fly their rockets too. At the first station, grandpa (Pa-ki) told the kids a little story about flying in a rocket ship to have a party on the moon! At the second station the kids each had a turn to set off a little alka seltzer in a film case rocket http://www.coolscience.org/CoolScience/KidScientists/alkaseltzer.htm. They had to guess where they would land. At the third station the kids sang a little song and pretended to fly around the moon. At the fourth station the kids each had a turn to play 'Don't Eat Pete.' The fifth station was for presents and the sixth station was cake. They all had such a great time and I am so grateful for Omi and her great ideas!

We love this little ball of energy. Seth has added a whole new dimension to our family and we couldn't imagine life without him. He has such a fun sense of humor and is very clever. He is the sweetest little boy and loves to cuddle and give hugs and kisses. But, he can also be the most difficult little stink and knows how to throw a very impressive tantrum. He is very passionate and feels every thing to the core. I have no doubt he will do great things in his life!






He loves this rocket with Mater (from Cars) from Nana


He is also very into Batman lately!

This little dog may have been his favorite gift. He carries it around everywhere and hugs on it all day. It is of course named, "Puppy Dog." My kids are very creative with names!


Ever Thankful

This next month will usher in the end of an 18 month trial and arduous journey. It will introduce new terrain and unknown territory. David will begin a career in law enforcement. He will begin as a corrections officer for the sheriff's department. Which in essence means he'll be working in county jails with prisoners. The position is not what he had his heart set on, but it is an opportunity to start somewhere and move ahead toward his real goals. We will no longer be stagnant, dormant, dependent. I don't think the reality of it has has set in quite yet. There are still a lot of unknowns . . . where exactly he will work, what kind of shift he will have, how to handle the stress. But, if there is one thing I know for sure, it's that this past year and half has taught us how to get through hard things together. 

We have so much to be thankful for, so much. And through this all, we have always had so much to be thankful for. Above all else we have our little family. We have each other, our sweet little boys. I am thankful that our life is moving forward, and that we've learned a lot on the way. I hope we never take it all for granted!

Really, what else could anyone need?

Sunday, November 11, 2012

Halloween

The boys were so excited about Halloween this year. They've been planning for months to dress as Captain American and Batman. They got very into their roles and were very serious and fierce super heroes.




He was showing us the face he wanted for his pumpkin.


And this was the face Luke wanted for his.

I love that all these little boys in Luke's class are so into it. They're a fun little group.

His school had a costume parade which Luke thought was so fun.




I feel pretty lucky to have these guys in my life.

Getting ready for the sugar overload! 






They are already planning their costumes for next year. Luke wants to be a ghost and Seth wants to be a dog. I am grateful to move on to Thanksgiving and Christmas. I love this time of year and I absolutely love that it brings cooler weather. We finally broke 80 degrees and it has been heavenly!

Allergy Attack

For the past month or so we have been thinking about getting a dog. David really really wants a dog (some kind of lab or retriever) and I'm ok with it as long as he does most of the work, haha. We started looking around and going to pet shops and adoption events. A couple of weeks ago we went to an adoption event and let the boys pet a couple of dogs. About half an hour after we left I noticed that Seth's eyes looked a little irritated and gradually they became very swollen to the point that he almost couldn't open them. He seemed to be able to breathe ok, but he had been congested anyway so we couldn't tell for sure.

We immediately gave him some Benadryl and eye drops and decided that if he didn't get better soon we'd head to the ER. Luckily, the swelling started to go down and by the next morning he was better. The swelling kind of freaked Seth out and he kept saying he didn't look like himself. As it started getting better he would say, "I'm looking more like Seth."

He had an appointment with and ENT/allergist later that week and she said that often people don't have a reaction to a given allergen until after several exposures. She also said that people are usually allergic to dog saliva, not fur, so the allergy test he had a few months ago wouldn't have indicated that kind of allergy. We're hoping it was some kind of fluke like the dog rolled in something he was allergic too, but we may not ever be able to get a dog now. Just in case though, we are now the owners of two epi-pens because apparently you never know when some kind of attack might occur. We're grateful it wasn't more serious than it was!