5/24/2013

I called my dad and said, "Doctor Grandpa, I have an eye question for you about Noah."
He said, "Today is my day off, so I can't answer your question today."
"But are you still a grandpa?" I asked.
"Oh, yeah," he said. "What's your question?"

I had a good laugh. I love my dad.

GERD

In March Kyle woke up at four a.m. one night with such severe stomach pain that I rushed him to the emergency room. While there the doctor started talking with us about different things that could be causing the pain and he started throwing out scary phrases like gal bladder disease, ulcer, kidney stones, etc. When we left the ER five hours later, they thought it maybe was a kidney stone because of the amount of blood in his urine, but the results were inconclusive since no stone showed up on the CT scan. We were, of course, totally freaked out by the whole experience not knowing what was going on. It definitely gave me a reality check on how much I love my husband and how lucky I am to have him provide for me and our boys. I was grateful for the collective power of prayer as many people were praying for us at that time.

In the weeks following the ER visit Kyle saw a Urologist, who confirmed it was not a kidney stone (which was what we believed), and ruled out other scary things, like prostate cancer. Then Kyle got to have a bladder scope (ouch!!) and an upper stomach scope. I was Kyle's ride to get his stomach scoped since he was given anesthesia for the procedure. I am glad I was there when Kyle was coming out of the anesthesia because he unintentionally confirmed how much he loves me. He was very forgetful and kept saying the same things over and over. Four times in a row he smiled at me as if I had just entered the room, then motioned for me to come kiss him, and then told me that he loved me. It was very sweet.

The stomach scope showed that Kyle had developed Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD), and so far it seems to be the correct diagnosis. Now, after managing it with prescription anti-acids and minor lifestyle changes, his stomach feels back to normal.

Big Boy Bed

We finally moved Jason to a big boy bed three months before his fourth birthday. Up until this April, Jason stayed in his crib once we put him in for the night, so we figured, "Why change a good thing?" Jason finally started climbing out of his crib four or five times a night for various bedtime curtain calls: "I need water," "What was that noise?," "I need more light," etc. Since the crib was no longer keeping him contained, we made the switch to the big boy bed. Luckily we already had the bed in our storage room, thanks to Kyle's parents handing down furniture.

When I asked Jason what kinds of sheets he wanted, he said "Angry Bird sheets." His latest obsession is playing any form of Angry Birds. He plays it on Kyle's iPod touch, he plays it with a real hands-on Angry Birds game we got him for Easter, and he plays human Angry Birds (he is the pig and we get to knock him over).

Because Jason was in the crib, Noah has slept in the pack-n-play since his birth. We moved Noah to the crib at the same time we were moving Jason to the bed, but Noah stopped taking two naps when we did that. I decided we weren't quite ready to be doing one nap 100% of the time, so we moved Noah back to the pack-n-play for now and the the two naps have reestablished themselves.

Easter 2013

Jason's favorite thing about Easter is doing as many egg hunts as we will let him, which included three in our own back yard, and several inside the house. We just keep putting the same candy back in the eggs and he hides them for himself to find. He was super excited to get Spiderman flip flops and an Angry Birds game for Easter.

Noah loved eating the candy and crawling through the grass. 

I tried to be a good parent and teach Jason the real meaning of Easter. That talk went about as well as you would expect it to go for a three-year-old: total confusion. He still asks me if I died and am alive again. 

Jason came up with this theory a while ago that as soon as you are done "being all the numbers" you turn into the opposite gender. That means, as soon as Jason turns 100, he will turn into a girl. 

Our playhouse is just perfect for Noah. He can hold onto the ledges and walk all around it and play in the sand. He loves anything that has to do with sand, dirt, rocks, or grass. It is hard to take him shopping because he does not want to sit in the cart. He wants to explore. 

Noah 13 Months

Noah is finally starting to smile for pictures, and I love it. I continue to be amazed at how he imitates everything we do. He wants to sweep the floor, wash the walls, wear belts, but most of all, he wants to be a big boy like Jason! He is quite the challenge for me now at the park.

Noah is also pulling himself up on everything and cruising around furniture. He is already pulling out all my pots and pans. Our garbage cans live on top of the counters now to avoid being tipped over. We are entering the awkward transition phase of going from two naps to one nap. But even with these challenges, we are so glad to have Noah around. He brightens the day for all of us.

Noah just got his second hair cut (done by Grandma Linda). His hair has always grown at an impressive rate.

Kyle Regains Jason's Love

Busy season is hard on all of us, including Jason. Lately he has not been so keen on the stranger in our house called Dad. Jason has only been wanting mom to help him or play with him. I told Kyle he had to step up his game during his rare down-time to try to win Jason's affections back. This morning Kyle did just that. We woke up to four inches of new snow-- enough to play in, which is exactly what Jason wanted to do. So Kyle built another igloo with him, a different design from the last igloo. They spent all morning together, and now Jason adores his Dad again :).

Moonlight Easter Egg Hunt

We held our first Moonlight Easter Egg Hunt. Hopefully it will become an annual tradition. I read about it on a friends' blog and I knew I wanted to try it out.

We invited Heather, Mitch, Kelli, and Tom to come over for the hunt. I even let Jason stay up late to participate because I knew he would be wild with excitement. We hid the eggs in our backyard. Each person had a certain color of egg they got to find with the help of a flashlight. We also hid Cascarones, which are hollowed out eggs with confetti inside. If you found a cascarone, you got to smash it on someone's head and steal one of their eggs. We also had four golden eggs that anyone could find. The golden egg prizes were gag gifts. We all had a great time.