First Day of School 2014

Carter, you are adorable, but you have never been a fan of getting your picture taken in the morning. 

Ethan, you are starting 1st grade and you are so excited! You love school, all of your friends, and you have been telling us that your teachers name is Ms. Tortoise and we've been explaining to you that she is not a turtle...her name is really Ms. Torres. I hope you call her by her real name at school. ;-)

Clara, welcome to America! We hope that you love living with our family as much as we love having you here! We hope you meet lots of friends at the high school and share all of your experiences with your friends and family back home in Germany. 

Mariah, this was your last first day of high school! You were pretty emotional the night before your last first day. You laughed so hard that you cried and cried so hard that you laughed which scared your boyfriend, Ryan, but made me laugh and cry with you. We love you very much and wish you the best last year of high school. Make it a great one peanut. ;-)

Carter's Reaction to Omnicef

On April 12, 2013, Carter woke up with hives.  He was on day seven of omnicef for an ear infection.  At first I didn't think the two were related, because he had been taking the medicine for seven days.  I thought if he was going to have a reaction it would have happened right away, but boy was I wrong. 

 

I took him to the walk-in that originally gave him the omnicef for his ear infection.  They said that he was reacting to the meds and these types of reactions can happen at any time.  He said we should stop the omnicef, give him some benadryl, start him on a steroid, and begin giving him a z-pack because his ears were still infected.  

We went home that evening and did as we were told.  We thought he was getting better by late Friday night.  Saturday morning was a whole different story though, he woke up with a swollen face.  His hives were worse then they were the day before.  I got nervous, but knew that we had directions from the doctor to continue the benadrly and steriods and things should get better. 

 

Cory and Ethan left the house Saturday morning to go to a fishing seminar.  We figured that Carter and I would be okay at home because we had the meds that we needed and I planned to watch his every move to make sure he was getting better.  When Cory left the house with Ethan, Carter had a complete meltdown.  I quickly put Carter in the bathtub to try and cheer him up.  He loves bath time.  I'm glad I did this because as soon as I stripped him down and put him in the tub, I noticed bruising spots along his spine and under his armpits.  Fortunately, the bath time had him in good spirits, by once I saw the bruising I started to panic. 

 

 

I dried him off while trying to remain calm.  I called the walk-in and told them I was coming back with him and that he had bruising from the hives.  I called Cory and told him the plan and Carter and I rushed out of the house.  The walk-in doctor saw us right away and said we needed to go to the ER.  I asked if I needed to drive to Children's or if the local ER would do?  I was trying to remain calm, but wanted to know how serious this was.   The doc said Children's would be best, but I had to promise not to speed.  Ah... yeah...okay... have you seen my baby?!

I called Cory and we agreed that our local ER was closer and we should start there.  Cory and Ethan were packing up at the fishing seminar and planned to meet Carter and I and the ER.  By the time I got to the ER I was shacking and tears were running down my face.  I ran in to the ER holding my almost two year old baby tightly in my arms.  The ER nurses saw me and waved me in through the doors.  They quickly walked us back to an ER room while asking our names and what was going on.  Within two minutes we had a doctor and multiple nurses in the room hooking Carter up to an IV.  They gave him a histamine blocker which helped to reduce his hives and bruising.  

 

Can you see the bruising along his spine in the picture above?  It was scary.  We stayed at the hospital for a couple hours.  Cory and Ethan got there shortly after they inserted Carter's IV.  Carter was scared and in pain.  They drew blood to check for organ damage from the severe reaction.  Carter screamed like they were attacking him.  He had no idea what was going on and I was doing all that I could to comfort him.  He started to dose off after a while, but while he was sleeping the nurses came in and said they need more blood.  They had to wake him to poke his little body once again.  This time he panicked.  They got done taking his blood, which took Cory and I holding him down with all of our might.  When the nurses were done and we let go of him, he climbed off the table and crawled across the floor and hid under a chair.  We tried to get him out from under the chair, but he was traumatized.  He screamed.  He screamed like I've never heard any of my kids scream before, as if someone were attacking him.  Cory tried to get him out from under the chair, but even he failed.  We decided to leave him on the floor and I sat down next to him.  Any time I tried to touch him he started to scream even louder.  My heart broke.  I had no way to console him at that moment so I sat on the floor next to him and cried with him.  

 

Time passed and he started to calm.  I picked him up and held him tight for as long as he would let me.  He asked to sit back on the bed.  He was getting better.  The meds were helping.  We were on the right track.  The test results came back normal.  None of his organs were compromised.   We were blessed.  We were able to go home and continue on with the z-pack, benadryl, and steroids.

We thought the hospital trip made things better, but Sunday morning he woke up with a bright red face, swollen and bruised legs and feet, and swollen hands.  I called the doctor and they said this is normal.  Fortunately, things got better within the next couple of hours and that nasty swollen, bruised reaction never came back.   This event was one of the scariest times of my life.  I pray for all of you with allergies or with children that have severe allergies.  They can come on in an instant. 

Carter is TWO!

And just like that... our baby turns two. 

 It's moments like these that take my breath away. 

Makes me sit back as a parent and say "wow, where did the time go?". 

These milestones make me forget all of the sleepless nights, struggles of juggling baby gear, heavy carseats, chasing older siblings while feeding the youngest one.  All of those hard moments that happen within the first year or even two years.. they all seem so precious when they are over.  So missed.  Feels like a life time ago that we were anxiously awaiting his arrival. 

Carter, you complete us. You are amazing. Watching you learn from your brother and sister and teach them about love... well it's just incredible.

 There is a magical bond between brothers.  It's an unspoken language. 

 A connection that is beautiful to watch. 

We are blessed.  Grateful.  Thankful.  

  Happy Birthday Carter Oliver.  We love you more than words could ever express. 

 

Love, Daddy, Mommy, Mariah, and Ethan

xoxo

Family Day in Chicago

We love living so close to a big city. Actually, two big cities, but we tend to favor Chicago. On Saturday we surprised the kids with a trip down to Chicago. We took the train out of Waukegan. It was the first train ride to Chicago for all three of our kids. They seemed to enjoy it on the way there, but on the way back we were all exhausted and just ready to be at home.

Chicago was a lot of fun.  The weather was perfect.  The city was packed!  But everyone was in great holiday spirits.  Ethan wasn't so sure of the big crowds at first.  He became pretty upset and made it very well known that he wanted to go home.  Thankfully, some delicious food from Rock Bottom Brewery seemed to calm him down and prepare him to head back out on to the congested streets. 

We did some touring around, took lots of pictures, and watched the parade.  Radio Disney was at the parade so we heard some live performances and got to see a couple Disney celebrities.  The kids thought that was pretty cool! 

After the parade there was an amazing display of fireworks. They were LOUD. The noise bounced from building to building. Ethan and Carter watched with pure amazement.  Ethan didn't even care that his hat was falling off of his head...

On the way back to the train station, Mariah and I ran in to one of the many Starbucks and grabbed some warm drinks and a couple snacks for Cory and the boys. I love Starbucks.... What a great way to end a perfect family day.

Ethan slept on the train ride home.  We were hoping that Carter would do the same, but he decided to sing loudly in a horrible crying type of way... I bounced him, rocked him, and did everything I could to keep him quiet so the other passengers wouldn't get upset.  I even resorted to feeding him cookies at 10:30 at night... I was going for anything that would work. 

We got home a little before midnight and put the kids to bed.  We thought for sure they would sleep in, but by 7am the next morning they were all wide awake.  So much for catching up on sleep, but it was worth it! 

I love family adventures! 

And... it's October

Mariah has a job!  Her very first official job!  She is working at a local Farmer's Market and Gift Shop.  She was hired on as seasonal help, but is really enjoying it and hopes to get hired on year-round!  I have some great pictures of her first day, but haven't taken them off of my camera yet...

Carter moved up to the toddler room at daycare.  He is still adjusting.  We miss the infant room teachers a lot.  :-( 

Ethan is adjusting to the new school/daycare/preschool year.  His friends that were older than him have all gone off to kindergarten and now he is one of the oldest in his class.  He is adjusting and making new friends.

Daycare's play area is all sand.  ALL SAND. Which means every day when I pick up the boys they are covered in sand.  It's in their shoes, coated on their socks, in their hair, on their skin, in Carter's diaper.  Seriously it is everywhere and it makes me CRAZY!  The daycare is having a fundraiser for more playground equipment and sand... how do I tell them that I am not helping them with their fundraiser... because the sand is HORRIBLE! 

My brother and his wife are due to have their baby boy any day now!  So excited for them.  Baby Oliver Christian is going to be a very loved little man.  I can't wait to snuggle him! 

Well, that's all for now.  Not much for my first post in over three weeks.  Sorry about the lack of pictures... Just how I role lately. 

Happy October!

28 Hours

I have made it 28 hours without nursing Carter.  I have been ready to quit for a while, but Carter has not been ready.  He is so attached to me.  I love his snuggles and that he always wants to be right next to me, but I also know that the longer I nurse him, the more attached he will get and the harder it will be to quit.  My goal was to nurse him until he was 12 months.  I made it to that goal back in June.  I've been going back and forth about weaning him ever since.  Well, it's finally time.  I'm ready.  He'll adjust.  Actually, so far he is doing okay.  He had a 30 minute melt down before dinner last night.  He followed me around the house and clung to my leg while screaming.  He threw himself on the floor a couple times while yelling mamamamama... It was heartbreaking, but we made it through it.  I offered him a sippy cup with strawberry milk, a bottle with ice cubes and water, and finally he chose the milk in the straw cup that Ethan was drinking.  Whatever makes our little man happy, except for nursing.  These next couple days are going to be rough, but we can do it. 

Last night I gave him a bottle before bed.  He drank about 2-3 ounces after fussing for a while.  I know that giving him a bottle is a bit backwards since he's been using a sippy cup for about 5 months, but I wanted to give him something that resembled nursing to try to make the transition smoother.  It worked for bed time.  Then he woke up at 1:40am.  I sat in his room and tried to keep him happy and offered him a bottle until 2:00am.  Then Cory came in and I left the room.  Cory gave Carter a sippy cup instead of the bottle.  After a couple minutes of refusing the cup, Carter finally gave in.  He drank a little bit, handed Cory the cup, then laid back down and went to sleep.  He fussed a little around 2:45am, but quickly put himself back to sleep.  We had to wake him up at 6:00am this morning.  The night went a lot better than I was anticipating! 

This is such a hard decision to make.  I knelt next to his crib when I put him to bed last night.  I watched him drink from his bottle and I cried.  I cried because my little baby is growing up.  He won't need me the way he has for the past 14 1/2 months.  I know I can't keep him small forever, but he is my baby. 

We can do this... hour by hour. 

I Love My Blog

Some days, like today, I have nothing interesting to talk about, but I still ramble out thoughts of nothingness on my blog.  I love my blog.  I love looking back through my blog and wondering why I didn't start it sooner.  I've never been good at scrap books, I'm horrible at recording the kids milestones on paper or in any type of journal or baby book, and I'll be the first to admit that my memory sucks.  With that said, thank goodness for my blog!  I record it all here.  For all to read, some to comment, and mainly for my own documentation.  Thank you blogger.com for giving me this space on the world wide web to record life's happenings.  Without this blog my life's most amazing moments would happen, but the details would be forgotten. 

And a little more randomness for today:

I bought a rug for the family room.  Yes, carpet over carpet.  Some day I dream of a wood floor under the rug, but until then... double carpet.  Not my favorite look, but I wanted a rug. 

 I spray painted!  What did I learn?  ...that I like painting with a brush better, but it was still fun. 

The basement walls are finally getting decorated!  I am loving these pieces that I picked up at Pier 1.

Here's my latest little pinterest project.  I painted the clothes pins, hot glued them to a 4 foot ruler, and hung it on the wall.  I used the back side of the ruler because it lists fun measurement facts.  I love reading those facts to the kids.

My walls look really yellow in these pictures.  Yuck.  Here is a glimpse of the kids hallway.  Next up, new pictures frames and more of them.  That is Mariah's door at the end of the hall.  Can you tell?

My boys ;-)  Ethan drives pretty crazy so we put a bike helmet on Carter just in case he were to tumble out of the gator.  Carter holds on really tight though so I don't think we have much to worry about.  

Look at this little man go!  He is definitely walking!  He's a bit wobbly still, but is finally choosing walking over crawling.  Way to go Carter!

That's all for now! 

Carter's 1st Birthday

Our sweet "baby" boy turned one year old on Monday, June 25th. It is hard to believe that he is no longer a baby. He is approaching the toddler stage. Getting in to and on top of everything. Not afraid to explore the world. This has been a very bitter sweet for me. I wanted to keep him a baby. Keep him tiny and cuddly and loving and dependent on me. I'm not ready for him to grow up. I'm not ready for him to tell me that daddy is his favorite because he's a boy. I want to keep him a mama's boy. Knowing that is not possible, I am doing my best to embrace all of the new firsts that Carter explores. Watching him learn is heart warming. Watching his first steps sends shivers of excitement through me time and time again. Hearing his new noises and attempts at phrases like "uh-oh" and "ah-da" (all done maybe?) are amazing. A friend of mine posted on facebook: "Super Happy Birthday to a gorgeous blue-eyed boy! That is one, very loved little man in your family.". She couldn't have said it any better. He is loved. Very loved. Carter you are loved more than you will ever know. Being a parent is an amazing honor. Being a parent to three silly, loving, strong willed kids, well that is a blessing.

We had perfect weather and fabulous company for Carter's 1st Birthday party.  We couldn't have asked for a better day!  Unfortunately my camera broke the morning of his party so we had to capture all of the special moments with iphones.  Here is a slideshow that I put together from those pictures:

http://secure.smilebox.com/ecom/openTheBox?sendevent=4d7a497a4d7a637a4f4452384e7a4d7a4f5451314d6a4d3d0d0a&sb=1

In case you can't open the smilebox show, here are a couple of my favorites pictures.  

Happy Birthday Carter Oliver.

xoxoxo