Surgery Followup

We made the drive down south again for Ethan's follow up appointment with his surgeon. We first stopped at the dealership where we got the van to have them replace some bad tires they gave us. Then we wasted time at the big outlet mall before finally getting to the doctor's. Ethan's been coughing the past ten days and when he first started coughing we both thought he might have been getting another infection but it never worsened. I knew that we had this appointment coming up so I relied on God to help me not get anxious or worried that Ethan was getting another sinus infection and He was gracious to do so. The doctor said his nose looked great and there is nothing wrong. Yay!

Are we crazy?

We are leaving Saturday morning to drive up to Atlanta for a few days and then on to Chattanooga. George found someone who can install the laminate flooring for us in the bedrooms but the guy wants to do it while we are out of town. The guy offered a good discount on the cost of installing it next week because he is in between jobs. Sooo...that means not only do I have to pack for the long drive and prepare for being gone for ten days but we also have to pack up the boys rooms so they can be painted and then the flooring put in while we are gone. Why do we do this to ourselves? I remember when we first renovated the house, we were supposed to have the kitchen installed while we were out of the country and we returned from a very long flight to find the guy still in the house, having only just begun hanging the cabinets. All I can say is "Oy!"

Cleaning and Planning

We spent our weekend cleaning out the garage and planning out the boy's bedroom. It took twice as long as it could have since we had to entertain the boys at the same time. We need the garage organized so we can store the things from their rooms while they are being worked on. We have two rooms we are working with and I had been planning on having the boy's share what is now Ethan's room. George measured everything out and decided we should have them share what is now Ian's room. While Ethan's room has more square footage, the other room has more wall space to fit furniture. (earlier this week I had two closet people out to measure the closet in Ethan's room for a closet storage system which turns out to be a waste of their time) I'm hunting for bunkbeds and trying to figure out how to install a fireman sliding pole in the room. I really wanted to do diamond plate along the bottom part of the wall (the metal stuff that is on a fire engine) but have found that is really expensive. I have found a fire engine light that they will have fun with (like what's on top of the fire engine and police cars). In case you are wondering, there will be NO siren in the room:)

18 months

Ian is 18months today and he had his 18 mo. appt. at the pediatrician's this morning. The past two nights he's woken up in the middle of the night crying for quite a while so I had been wondering if he was coming down with something. Usually when he screams in the middle of the night it's either teeth or an ear infection. Well he has all of his teeth except his two yr. molars so that leaves his ears. Anyway, at the appt. we learned that he had grown 2 inches since January and gained a pound. The dr. found that one of his ears had a lot of fluid in it but wasn't infected. I found that to be strange since he hasn't been congested at all in weeks. So we decided to wait and see what happened. Of course a few hours later I find that he has a fever of 101. So I'm sure we'll be back at the dr.s next week for an ear infection. Thankfully this is happening this weekend and not the following weekend when we plan to go to GA for a week.

"Be Sic"

That's what Ian kept saying all the way to music class today. What he means is "Rabe Music." Miss Rabe is his music teacher and she teaches out of her home. He's been going about six months now and it is amazing for me to see his progress from when we first started. Six months ago, he refused to turn back in his instruments and help clean up and he rarely participated in circle time activities. Now he is marching in line with everyone, helping to clean up and even tries to sing the scales. He continues to love her piano and guitar and tries to play them whenever she lets him. He's been learning basic musical concepts, the scales and playing the beat on drums and other instruments. Can't wait to see what he's doing another six months from now!

Story Time

Our church has been supporting a local daycare center located in what would be considered our "inner city" which really doesn't mean much when you consider the wealth of our area and our small size. Our pastor encouraged me to get involved there and said I should go there and read to one of the classes. So the boys and I went this morning to read one of Ethan's favorite books, Firefighter A-Z. I brought along some of George's fire gear to for the kids to look at while Ethan and I read the story. Four year olds have the tendency to say whatever is on their minds and I held my breath hoping that Ethan wouldn't ask why every child there was darker skinned than he but he didn't say a thing and instead told me that the kids were so cute, just like Ian. And they were, they hugged on my legs and gave us all high fives when we left. They both wanted to stay and play but I had to go the the chiropractor this morning because my neck has been bothering me and giving me headaches. Usually I go with just Ian and I can keep him under control and entertained. Why is it when I have two of them it all of a sudden becomes a circus? They ran laps around the waiting room and ate every snack I could find. Ian had to touch everything in the doctor's office and while I was face down on the table, I could feel him trying to climb on top of me. The poor doctor was trying to adjust me and then use the ultrasound machine all the while keeping them from damaging anything. I lost count of how many high fives he gave Ian to distract him. I can't move my neck much and I'm hoping I won't have to return with them both on Friday, but if I do, I'm bringing the DVD player--that's for sure!

Busy Week

I'm behind on updating my posts so I'm going to put them all into one. Ethan started baseball this week. He's been looking forward to it for weeks, checking the calendar each day to see how many more days until we go. He loves playing baseball on the Wii and fancies himself an expert already. The last few preschool sports that we've done had 20 kids at the most so we were very suprised to arrive and see 50 or more kids, plus all the parents and siblings. I think the coach was overwhelmed and didn't have plans for that many. He had fun practicing catching and throwing. On the weekend we had a BBQ and pool party. George had wanted to invite some guys he works with at the FD and their families over. I've not met any of them and they live at least an hour if not more away. Since Ethan didn't know any of the kids that were coming we also asked a couple of other local friends over as well. It turned out to be a great day, the pool was warm and the kids had a blast. There wsa a funny moment when Ian got his diaper off and was riding one of his riding toys around naked (that picture won't make it on here). My Aunt and Uncle came into town Saturday evening from MD and enjoyed the tale end of the party. Ethan had a great time swimming with my Uncle today, they even had a water squirter battle. We drove them down to the lighthouse and for a walk on the beach. Ian did not enjoy the one time George got his feet wet in the ocean and refused to get near it after that however he did seem to enjoy throwing sand around.

Date Night

We went on a date the other night to the same restaurant we've been going to and ordered the same thing we've gotten every other time--we are so old:) This date night revolved around us planning some renovations for this summer. We want to move the boys into the same room so we can have a guest room again. So we went to look at flooring and decided on some laminate to put in all the bedrooms. I'm really excited about it and hope it will help Ian's and my allergies. We also tried to plan out how in the world we will have flooring put in three bedrooms with the kids, where will we put everything? And we have to paint the walls first as well. So we spent our date night strategizing. Sounds unromantic I know but we never really get to sit and plan things so it was really helpful. I enjoyed coffee at B&N while we researched ideas on the laptop. We are also hoping to put in a murphy bed in the the third bedroom sometime this year and get bunk beds for the boys. I'd like to do a fun fire dept. themed room for the boys and want to have one wall be brick. I also have a fire hose I want to figure out how to mount to the wall so they can pull it out to pretend to put out fires. All in all and nice evening and certainly productive though maybe next time we should try a new restaurant or at least a different entree:)

Our Commandments

About a year or more ago we started using a family devotional that teaches godly character and is designed to teach children our family rules. There are 24 of them and they are called our family "ways." The devotional uses God's word to teach what God expects of us and how we interact with each other as a family. Some examples of them are "We love and obey our Lord Jesus Christ with wholehearted devotion," "We encourage one another using words that only build up and bless others," and "We are thankful to God for what we have, whether it is a little or a lot." In the beginning, Ethan wasn't old enough to get much out of the devotions so we just focused on teaching him our "Fox Family Ways." The past couple of months he has been able to get involved with the actual devotional part of the book and recently he asked, "Mommy why do we have 24 commandments and God only has 10?"

Easter

We were invited to my friend Marilyn's parent's house for Easter dinner. The boys enjoyed hunting for eggs in the back yard even Ian knew exactly what to do. We also enjoyed a great dinner with her family. Thanks for having us Marilyn!

Cheap Fun

A couple of years ago, George had given Ethan a bunch of old sprinkler system PVC pipes to play with. They spent hours together putting them together to creat interesting designs and I think I posted some pictures of it a while back. Well today they decided to put the pipes together and attach it to a hose. The boys loved it!

And the Winner Is...

A 2008 Toyota Sienna. George had gotten a ride from a coworker to a dealership after getting off from work yesterday morning but the deal he thought he had arranged with the Kia dealer didn't work out so he ended up renting a car. He had found two other vans he was interested in, one in WPB where we had bought my old Camry and the other in Ft. Lauderdale. He ended up going further south to Toyota in Ft. Lauderdale where he bought the van. It was a very long day as he didn't get home until about 4:30. The boys loved exploring throughout the van, Ian tried his best to drive it and opened and closed the garage door a dozen times:) So we are officially a minivan family. I just need the soccer mom sticker on the back of it and I'm good to go!:)

Car Shopping

We've been talking for quite a while about getting a bigger car, possibly a van (I'd really prefer an SUV but I couldn't talk my husband into it). Having a four door sedan was fine with one child but with two, it's nearly impossible to fit anything. It's also bad for the back to lean in to get kids into the car. If we were to have Christmas at my in-laws, we'd have to take two cars in order to fit all our stuff and gifts. So we've been looking at what's out there, hoping that the cost of a car has lessened somewhat. We've debated used versus new, which brands are better, what we really want it to have (automatic doors in a van would be great during the torential downpours we get here), and whether we should get one from a dealership or private seller. We decided to try and sell our car first. George listed it on Craigs List on Sunday and sold it today. He's a hour away at his job right now and they came to his work to pick it up from him. So that means he has to go and buy a new car after he gets off from work or we have to drive down to pick him up:)

My worst nightmare

Well one of them anyway. I had just taken a shower and was still in my towel. I had Ian with me and walked into the kitchen where I saw a snake. At first I thought maybe it was a toy one so I went to find Ethan and asked if he had gotten a toy snake and he said "huh?" So I went to find George. I had to get past the snake and through the laundrey room to the garage and outside to find him. (still in my towel!) I run out like the crazy woman that I am yelling that there is a snake in the house. George said it was a rat snake and no big deal. Not to me, snakes and the inside of my house do not go together. I appreciate God's wonderful creation and everything but most of it I enjoy when it remains outside where it belongs. New rule: garage door must be closed at all times.

Fun at the Fountains

Well not really. I took the boys to the fountains to play in the water and met up with some friends (and Ian's little girlfriend Genevieve). Ethan has always loved going there and I was suprised when he said he didn't like it and wanted to leave. And Ian never got wet. I thought he would love it too but he mostly stayed attached to my leg. Maybe they woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning?

Chris Tomlin Concert

My husband hates to go to concerts so I was able to talk a friend into going to see Chris Tomlin with me last night. We left early so we could enjoy some shopping and dinner on the way there (of course:). I had heard that his concert's are so worshipful and it was true. It was such an awesome night of worship and praise and was great practice for heaven:) I love going to concerts with a Christian musician because it's such a neat experience to be in a packed arena or concert hall with other Christians who come from all walks of life but are united to worship one God. And worship we did!

Reading

I took the boys to the book store today to browse and read some books. Ethan read a level 1 book to me with almost no assistance. It's been a neat experience to watch his progress from learning to talk, learning his letters, the sounds they make and then to reading words. Last summer he started reading three and four letter words and over the past eight months or so we've been working on sight words, the sounds letters make together, and practicing reading. Lately he's been sounding out and reading signs and really anything he sees as we are out and about. I really hope he grows to love reading as much as I do. Ian's language skills have been growing by leaps and bounds. He talking so much and suprising me in the things he tries to say. He's really enjoying his board books and some of them he's even memorized and reads them to himself. (if my husband reads this he can stop bothering me about my book spending--all those workbooks, games, and learning activities are paying off!:)

Reflections

The past six months or so I've been gradually coming out from under the dark cloud of PPD. As they say "hind sight is 20/20" and looking back on the first year of Ian's life I can see how seriously depressed I was. But God is merciful and gracious and brought me through it. In thinking back to Ethan's surgery last week, I am so grateful to God for his healing because had Ethan had the surgery a year ago, I would not have made it through it. Despite my mommy worries about him going through the surgery I really was able to handle the stress of it. I've also noticed the past couple of months that I have been able to handle lack of sleep as well. Ian got up two hours early the past two mornings and a year ago, I would have been crying all day because I was so tired but this morning I was able to take it in stride. I have learned that it is crucial for me to stay committed to reading the word, praying, as well as reading Godly books in order to me to stay on this path (thus the reason for all the books I have mentioned in previous posts). Lastly, I have found myself being more social and I realized that after Ian was born I tended to want to stay home more and not go anywhere. I've met two neighbors who have kids the boy's age and interestingly they both take their kids to Ian's music class. So the point of this reflection is to share my thankfullness to the Lord for his work in me and my prayer for continued growth away from depression and toward the joy of the Lord.
"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus." Phil 4:6-7.

The Eskimos

Every Spring, George's family who lives in Alaska comes for a visit. (We usually refer to them as the Alaskans or the Eskimos). George's cousins and their kids didn't come with his aunt and uncle and Ethan was a bit bummed that cousin Cooper wasn't here to play with him. Last year we went to Disney with them but with Ethan's surgery we couldn't do it this time. So they came to see us. Ethan learned a lot about baseball from George's uncle and they played in the yard with him. Ethan also had to challenge them to some games on the Wii:) One of George's cousin's is getting married in AK this summer but we won't be able to make it:( As soon as the boys can handle the long trip we plan to head up there. (Hard to imagine when that will be...:)