Thumps and Bruises

So the Scrappy man has been keeping us both on our toes.  Craziness going on!!  We think he's going through a growth spurt - he has been sleeping quite a bit - WHEN he sleeps!!  Naps, I believe, are something he is trying to make a thing of the past!!  That is, unless he has his teddy bear!!  He got this one from his sister and auntie during one of his pneumonia stays in the hopital.   This first picture is a little funny cuz it's taken through the side of his packNplay, which is where he naps.  The netting makes it a little difficult to see.  But this IS how he sleeps with his teddy bear!!  He LOVES this bear - and it's almost as big as he is!!

It even goes into his high chair with him when it's time to eat!!

So cute.  They don't say little for long....  We're trying to enjoy the kids as much as we can...  We have to enjoy the time they are healthy to overcome the times they're not...  Which is why I'm also going to start a blog for my little Raine.... But I'm going to let her help me set it up tomorrow....

Now, Saxon has been going through CPT for 22 months now.  Well, he has his own version of CPT....

Mr Monkey Man... all the while yelling "Ahhhhh!!"

At least he's ENJOYING these Thumpies!!!! Not so much when we're doing it.

He's also getting into the habit of taking the thumper from Daddy and trying to thump Daddy with it.... which is really quite the sight!!  Each one with a thumper in hand!!

Today Saxon went to a birthday party with his sister.  He started getting crabby and tired since he hadn't had a nap all day, so I decided it was time to go home.  Raine stayed at the party for a while still.  Sax still wasn't ready (willing) to go down for his nap, so we played on the playset for a while... Well.... When he gets really tired, he has trouble walking.... He loses his balance easily....  He went down the slide a few times, then went running to go up the ladder again, tripped over his own feet, and fell..... and hit his head... on the ladder.....  He had a bruise already on his forehead, and I thought that was where the owie was.... I took him in the house right away and put a cold rag on his face.... On his forehead....  But after he settled down and the redness in the rest of his face faded, I realized he had a bruise developing just above the bridge of his nose between his eyebrows.  I asked him where his owie was, since I didn't actually see him fall... he just rubbed his whole head....  He seems to be ok... hopefully the cold rag kept the bruise from getting too bad.  We will see what the morning brings.

Well, I'm going to sign off now... My goal is to have Raine's site up and running sometime tomorrow.... and to update Saxon's more often!!  And I'll show a pic of his owie tomorrow!!!  Oh, I have another meeting to schedule!!

Flash Me Friday Bloghop!!!

We're joining on a blog hop started by Jen at Groettum Family blog. We missed out on the first week - well, I was preoccupied. But now here we go!!

Here are Jen's guidelines for the hop!!

"What is a blog hop, you ask?

You’ll notice at the bottom of each Friday post there will be a bunch of links listed on a tool called, “MckLinky.” Here, other bloggers can link up and share their own Flash Me! Friday post. Therefore, you can hop from blog to blog to see what ideas fellow blog hoppers have on the same exact topic.
So, what is Flash Me! Friday, you ask? In the past, I’ve realized that
many of us “clean” up quickly so that the background of posted pictures makes it appear that we live in perfectly clean/organized homes.
the styles of homes across the country are awesomely different
everyone wonders if how they live is the norm…am I messier? cleaner? average?
we all love to be nosy…ie digging around in other people’s medicine cabinets!
So, how to politely be nosy take a quick glimpse into someone else’s life? Each week, I’ll randomly draw out “something” we’ll all be taking a picture of. Whether it’s your laundry room, inside your fridge, your bed (made…unmade?) etc. Each blog hop participant will take an unedited picture of that week’s topic. There will be NO cleaning/preparing the area for the picture, you have to take it as is. No one’s will be perfect!

The rules?

NO CLEANING/PREPARING/CHEATING! for the picture
Must link back to my blog in your post
Must use the exact blog posts URL in the linky tool, not just the URL for your general blog
Feel free to join in, invite others, and get creative! Here’s to some fun hopping around!

Want to take a peek into someone else's life? Get nosy without being impolite?
Ever wonder...
What does their laundry room/family room/garage look like?
Do they make their bed every morning?
What kind of food do they have inside their fridge?
Is my house cleaner or messier than theirs?
Then please join in! Just add your blog post's URL at the end of the post so we can hop around and check out different aspects of your life and how you live!
This first Friday's flash of life is starting off simple and painless. But next week, we move inside...it will then be time to get personal!
Let's see where you live! "

Well, here goes!!

Here's our house

Apparently it was an AWFUL green color with a huge tree in the middle of the front yard when Scot bought the house!!  I didn't get a very good shot of the gardens... but we'll do that later!

And this week's peek - EEK!! - is into the bathroom... Remember, NO cleaning!!!  I LOVE our house, but I HATE the bathroom - Sorry, Pink ISN'T my color!!  And our bathroom is super small....

So I had to take pics from each side... and NO SHOWER... It's on our list of renovations 'todo!'  We love renovating and remodeling, so there are always projects going on in our house!!!

AWESOME

That was how Dr. Cofer, our ENT, described Saxon at his appointment on Friday - AWESOME! No nasal polyps. Tubes are perfectly in place. Breathing sounds great. Hearing test came back with SIGNIFICANT improvements - he can almost hear normal!! Now we just have to deal with the 'normal' male selective hearing. Too bad there aren't any medical remedies for that, I think we'd all be signing up!! I was really surprised at how well Saxon sat for his appointments. He didn't fight too much when it was time to leave the play area. He lead the way to the hearing room. We were all having a little trouble hearing the sounds when Raine decided she couldn't sit still any longer. Otherwise it went pretty well in there. After the hearing test when we went into Dr Cofer's office, Saxon turned his head and let her look in his ears and his nose. The mouth was the hard part. Every time she put the stick in his mouth, he clenched his teeth down on the stick. After about 6 or 8 times, he finally opened his mouth enough to let her see down his throat. Now we have to go back to see her every 6 months for followups. Hopefully we won't be dealing with any more polyps for quite a while!! After 2 years of appointments, we were VERY happy to FINALLY have some good news... and not another setback.

We had a Strides for Sax team meeting tonight. We discussed the float for the 3rd of July parade. Our theme is going to be Unsung Heroes. We are still brainstorming for how exactly to set up the float. We will be needing to set up at least one or two more meetings before the parade to finalize how to decorate the float. We also decided we are going to do the Poker Run. We are considering pre-selling tickets, we have a list of where we would like to use for our stops, and places to ask for donations for prizes. There's a lot of leg-work to do. If this is successful, there is a possibility of it becoming an annual event. We are going to need to find some more people to help with the run..... but we still have the basics to cover first. We're always looking for more people to join up with us!!

Little STINKer

Our little Scrappyman is full of tricks and is keeping us on our toes.

Today we made the trek to St. Peter to pick up Grandma Betty and we had lunch with her, my mom, Aunt Susan and Grandma Nancy. Saxon didn't eat much of his food but loved his M&Ms that auntie gave him. That, and being extremely LOUD while we were eating. But that's ok. He's been so cooped up all week since it's been raining. Plus riding in the car for 2 hours each way didn't help things. He fought me like crazy when he decided he had enough. Then he filled his pants so I had to change him in the car. Daddy had picked Raine up from school because I knew I wouldn't be back in time to get her. Daddy picked subs up for supper, but I was still full from lunch....

Anyway, Saxon is working on potty training. No success yet, but we're at least getting him to sit on the potty... But he took another step towards potty training today. Daddy had changed his diaper and didn't put his pants back on. Well, Sax had a poopy diaper.... so he decided to take it off.... and to sit his bare butt on the living room carpet!! What a little rascal!! What's he going to come up with next?!?!

Strides will be having our next team meeting on Monday, March 17, 7pm at my house!

All The Little Animals

Sunday was Mother's Day... my kiddos definitely made it special!! Saxon and Raine and Daddy treated Mommy to a day at the Minnesota Zoo. Saxon LOVED the aquariums the most!! The sharks, stingrays, fish, and dolphins kept him quite in awe - he was not happy when we left it.. or when we left the zoo. By the time we left, I wondered if we hadn't inadvertently brought home a couple of monkeys instead of our children!! They were about as restless as monkeys!! I'd say his other favorite thing to see was the farm. Not that those animals are that unusual in our area... we can see cows and pig almost anywhere!! But the kids both enjoyed feeding the goats and sheep!! Raine was determined to feed a baby lamb, and Saxon was just squealing like crazy when the sheep and goats licked his fingers to take the food from him!! After petting them, he thought he should be able to pet ALL of the animals - SORRY babe, ain't gonna happen!! But he enjoyed petting and playing with the goats and sheep....



Cystically, Saxon has been doing well still. I see it has made a world of difference having him out of daycare!! He really hasn't had any colds or sniffles or much for coughs since we've been home. I think his health benefits of me staying home are definitely outweighing the financial benefits of when I was working. His health is making the other sacrifices very much worthwhile!! I admit, there are times I feel very stir crazy, but when Scot comes home, I generally get a nice break - he takes some of the responsibility of the children off me. I really appreciate his help!!



Strides is planning when our next team meeting is going to be. I will post the details here once it has been decided. The goal for our next meeting is to approve and start to work out the logistics of having a kiddie carnival and the poker run, and start planning our 3rd of July parade float. We are still looking for other people who want to help out with carnival and to walk/ride with us in the parade. We got a trailer and our entry fee donated, so the rest is up to us....

~Crazy Days~

It's been crazy busy so I haven't had time to update Saxon's page!! Let's backtrack. The new playset Scot ordered came for the kids on Friday. Saxon has absolutely NO FEAR, which kinda scares me!!! Scot started on the playset on Saturday after we got home from Great Strides, and by the end of the day on Sunday, we had it pretty much done, except for a brace by the tire swing. On assembly, that is. We still have a LOT of sand to put down. We've put over 700 pounds of play sand so far, and have a lot more to do!! Under the tire swing we're going to make a sandbox since the turtle is getting too small for both kids to play in. I dug out the end of the slide yesterday after Saxon went down the slide in his jogging shorts - and FLEW!! He landed kinda hard, so I decided we needed some sand padding - I put down about 150 lbs for cushioning. That seems to work pretty good. Eventually the entire swing set will have sand under it, but one step at time!!

Saxon has been LOVING this weather!! He has slept so well the last few days since he has been getting so much fresh air and he has been playing so hard! We also have Raine to thank for that. She has been getting him to play ball, swing, go down the slide, climbing the ladder, chasing more bubbles, tormenting Abbycat, and just overall having a lot of fun. Abbycat has had to find a place to hide from the kids to stay safe!! We have a pile of branches from the weeping willow that we've been gathering to haul out to the waste station. Abby has decided that's a safe place to hide because even she has difficulty finding her way out of it!!!!

Saturday we had our annual Great Strides walk in Rochester around Silver Lake, to Soldier's Field Park and back. Sax rode in the stroller most of the time. For the second year in a row, Raine walked the whole 10k (pretty much!!)

We had a few returning walkers this year. Me, Scot, Raine, Kristy, Abbey, and Steph.

We also had some new walkers this year!! Brian, Brandon, Erin, Lori, and Emma. And this year, the whole team walked together, whereas last year about half the team walked together and everyone else went off on their own. By the time we got to the end of the walk, Saxon and Emma were both exhausted and sleeping!! I felt bad waking him up when I loaded him into his car seat. He didn't get back to sleep until we were on our way home after lunch. We ate at Olive Garden, which was fab!! Except for the part where Saxon was freaking out. There was a birthday party near us, and he was OBSESSED with the balloons!! Finally Lori took him over and got one for him. That mellowed him out, although he still didn't eat much. He like the whipped cream I gave him that was on top of my beverage since I had to use that to give him his enzymes in that. He wasn't too interested in his broccoli, chicken, and noodles. Sax was hungry when we got home, though, once he finally woke up!!!

*****Note - Our team wore red on our walk with our t-shirts in honor of Connor, another little boy who is battling CF and also Prune Belly Syndrome. We send our thoughts and prayers to Connor and his family.*****

As of the walk, our team has raised around $1,000. That puts us 1/3 of the way to our goal. We have until December 31 to meet our goal. I'm anxious to hear what the total for the Rochester walk came to!! There didn't seem to be as many people there this year as last year. It didn't seem like a lot of the people who were there for the assembly walked, either. We are definitely working hard to try to recruit new members to walk and to increase awareness of CF. My Opa has donated the use of a trailer and the entry fee for us to enter a float in the Albert Lea 3rd of July parade. The theme for the parade is "Hometown Heroes" so we need to come up with an idea that incorporates that or a theme involving red, white, and blue. We will be having another meeting before long to plan this. The team has been brainstorming on some different fundraisers too. We're always looking for new ideas!!!

Saxon and Mommy both got spoiled yesterday too!! We had to take Mommy's car to the shop cuz my tail light was out. We took Grandma Betty's car to take Grandma to Mankato. She's staying with Aunt Susan for about a week. Aunt Susan said if I brought Grandma up she would buy us lunch. We went to Red Lobster (her idea!!) and I got a big surprise.... Saxon LOVES crab legs!! He had his chicken fingers and fries, but kept pointing at my food saying 'nummy, nummy' so I gave him a taste (no butter!), and he DEVOURED it!! Sax kept pointing and asking for 'mo! mo!' so I shared with him. I was surprised cuz I'm the only one in our house that eats seafood or fish, other than tuna. I guess some of Mommy did rub off on Sax!! The rest of the crab that I fed to him I made sure to douse completely in melted butter - Hey, the calories are good for him!!

Saxon gave me another - nice - surprise today. He has decided that for now, he likes his nebby again. For a while he was fighting it and throwing it and doing everything he could to get out of being nebbied. But for the last couple days, he has been good and even fallen asleep during his nebby and not fought his thumping.

Well, it's raining out, and my children are sleeping. It's time for Mommy to follow suit. I can't wait to see what tomorrow brings with my bundles of joy!!