It Happened SO Fast!!

Alright. I admit that there are times during the day that I do not have the boys in my sight. They are usually in their rooms playing while I cook dinner or put away laundry. Well, Friday afternoon while I was straightening up the living room before our dinner guests arrived, I had an ear on the kids while they were playing in our bedroom. Literally as I started walking towards our room to take a shower, I heard a loud CRASH! They both started crying immediately and I just had that feelin that it was bad. I ran in to check on them and found them in our bathroom. The vanity stool was on the floor and so were the boys. I picked up Sam first to comfort him, only before I realized that he was fine but Andrew's cry seemed more painful. I set Sam down the same time I glanced at Andrew and saw blood! And a lot of it!!! He was hysterical and frankly I was getting there too as I tried to locate the source of the blood. What I found on his right foot is still engrained in my memory. He had a gash on the top of his foot from his little toe about 3 inches long almost reaching his ankle. It was bad. I knew right away this was emergency room material. I quickly ran to get a towel and swooped him up trying to hold the skin together under the towel. I grabbed the phone and called my mom, who had the day off, and basically told her she needed to drop everything and get over here. Did I mention that it was really bad, yet? Anyway, I knew my wonderful neighbors were home so I rushed out the front door carring a forty pound 4-year-old in my arms and asked God to protect Sam as I left the door open with Sam in the house. I ran next door, rang the doorbell with my shoulder, and as soon as Marie opened the door, I excitedly explained that I needed to take Andrew to the hospital and asked if she could watch Sam till grandma got there. She followed me over to my driveway just as Sam was stepping out the front door. She grabbed him and went to get her hubby (who was in the middle of mowing the lawn) so that he could drive Andrew and I to the hospital. I slipped on some shoes and hopped in the backseat of Mark's car. It took moments to get to the hospital and once there were seen very quickly. Turns out, his laceration went through the fatty layer and needed 3 internal stitches before 15 external!!! He put up quite a fight while the stitches went in, and the male nurse that assisted Demel and I in holding Andrew down commented that he doesn't usually break a sweat restraining a patient until they see the drunks in the middle of the night. Well, it's three days later and if Andrew wasn't wearing a bandage on his foot, you would never know anything was wrong with him as he runs around like normal. Stitches come out Friday in Cedarburg, WI. Then he'll be cleared for swimming and baths. (No, he's not stinky- showers are okay for now.)

We, the jury...

can't seem to be able to come to a unanimous decision. After debating our viewpoints on a battery case for about 2 1/2 hours, we informed the judge of the situation and he had to rule the case to be a mistrial. This was the first jury I had ever sat on, but the third time I had ever been summoned for duty. I was excused from federal court duty when my grandma was failing and in the hospital shortly before I was married and again excused when I was pregnant with Andrew. I actually could have been excused for being a full time mom with a child under the age of 6, but for some reason, I think they might stop calling me if I just go do it. And maybe now I'll be blacklisted for being on a case that was mistried. I really did find the whole process very interesting, but feel a sense of failure that the six of us on the jury couldn't render a verdict, therefore pretty much wasting a lot of time and money! If any good came of it, I would have to say that it reaffirmed that I'm still an intelligent person as I thouroughly enjoyed arguing my points to my fellow jurors in hopes of swaying them. In fact, one of my fellow jurors commented that a sheriff that had mistook me for being a public defender earlier that morning was pretty accurate as he said I was very persuasive. I guess my mom and husband could affirm that too. Ah, so back to persuading two toddlers to be nice to one another, so they don't end up in court one day for resorting to physical force when they get upset at someone. I guess this mommy job is more encompassing than it may appear!

A Pirate's Life For Me!

Sam is Officially a Two-year-old! Somebody help me!!!!

Since we had a larger party for Andrew this year, the original plan was to have a small evening get-together at our house on Sam's birthday. I don't know how it got so "not small", but we ended up with roughly 12 adults and 7 children. So much for an informal evening, but it was really fun!

The dinner consisted of two pans of good ol' Stouffer's lasagne, salad, and breadsticks-I didn't have to do any real cooking!! The most time consuming part of the whole celebration was the preparation of the Lightning McQueen cake that I constructed the night before. (That whole process could almost have a post of it's own!) Let's just say that Sam was lucky to have a cool cake like this one, but chances are slim that it will be an annual tradition. Check it out, though...admire what 3 1/2 hours of decorating a cake till midnight will get you. Please comment that you have seen the most beautiful cake in the world and that you would have a hard time eating such a work of art!!!
The highlight of Sam's big day was a tie between two events at his party. He really enjoyed opening his cool gifts....
...but, the opportunity of getting kissed simultaneously by two girls at the cake table took the grand prize. Thank you Morgan and cousin Isabelle for making this two-year-olds day! A funny note about the kisses is that after round 1, Sammy used sign language, as well as verbalizing that he wanted "More."
So there it is folks, an updated entry from Christa. See you all in another month! No, hopefully before then.

Andrew turns 4!

We can't believe that we are parents of a four-year-old already, but so proud of our Andrew for all that he is and all that he means to our little family. We celebrated #4 at Sylvan Lake park with friends, family and classmates. It was a beautiful and windy afternoon and lots of fun was had by all that came. Spiderman was the theme as Andrew is really into this character for some reason, though he has never seen a movie or show about Spiderman.? We played bean bag toss into hula hoops and a tic tac toe ball game.



Andrew's "girlfriend" Morgan was the event coordinator and assisted Andrew with the gift opening ceremony as well as presenting metals to game participants.

It really was a great afternoon, but I think Sam might have got tired of all the activity and decided to spend some time in the sand volleyball court that was adjacent to our pavillion. Grandma let the boy be a boy in the sand and when all was done, I think there wasn't a square millimeter on his body without a grain of sand on it! Oh well, good thing kids are washable.

Those Lazy Crazy Days of Summer

Well, the days are crazy and I'm just lazy for not keeping up with my blog. But, Sam is sleeping and Andrew is in school. So in the next 40 minutes, I'll add as much and as many pictures possible.

Andrew amazes us every day with something new. Check out what he did with his letter magnets while I was cooking dinner one afternoon! Okay, so it's misspelled, but it's pretty darn close, he's only 4 after all. Sam is my little flirt and we're almost convinced that he's going to be a veterinarian as he has such a special relationship with Olivia and seems so interested and gentle with all animals he sees.

A few more pictures I added were of just another afternoon on the patio, when I heard a rustling in the backyard and looked up to see an entire Sandhill crane family taking a stroll behind our house. Mama and the two babies, who were still sooo little, stayed at the edge of the grass, while papa bird came within about 18 inches of the screen where Andrew and Sam stood to watch in amazement. Maybe Sam coaxed him over to them with his special animal presence. Enjoy the pictures of my two kiddos!

Do you hear what I hear?

With Andrew's speech blossoming like crazy in the past month (thanks to little brother doing the same), I'm actually starting to hear more than just the little voices in my head talk to me during the day. Andrew is starting to express more frequently what he wants as well as getting my attention to share with me things that he observes...BIG steps for our Andrew!!! He's also starting to try and understand emotions; a complicated area for children with autism as emotions are not concrete things such as numbers, colors, letters,etc.. He gives me a status report on Sam every day as we pick him up from school; "Sam is awake. Sam is happy"
Let's not forget Sammy. His favorite things to say usually involve informing me that something just "fell down" or was dropped. "Uh oh, the melon fell down!", he announces a split second before he launches a piece of his lunch on the floor. He also likes to walk around the house and search for brother calling out, "Andrew, where are you?"
We are all pretty much healthy now as I am now on antibiotics for a sinus infection, but I'm feeling better. Demel is looking forward to a "week off" when the boys and I join grandma for a trip to Wisconsin for cousin Ian's first birthday over an extended Easter weekend. We're looking forward to that very much!