All his Children

I was having a hard time trying to figure out what to do for my Dad's birthday present this year. I didn't think I could top last year, flying Kevin and I back to Washington. So, I decided to do it again this year. I was able to book a flight on Southwest for pretty cheap and with only telling two people in Washington, was able to pull off a big surprise. Last year when I tried to surprise him he found out, people slipped accidentally which is fine, but this year I caught him completely off guard. My sister picked us up around 10:00 p.m Saturday night and we stopped at my Step-moms work where they were having drinks. I was able to sneak up behind him, put my arms around his eyes and say, "happy birthday Daddy." He turned around and had to take a triple take, he could not believe I was there. It turned out to be awesome. The next day we all celebrated his birthday and my Step-mom took this picture. My dad with ALL of his kids! (From top-left-to-right: Breanna, Tara, Me, Kindra, Dad, Kaleb, Danielle, Ashley, and Amanda.)

Pregnancy #2

Well I officially feel pregnant. I am EXHAUSTED, a little nauseous, not wanting to eat, and my boobs... well, they're not quite what they used to be (or are they?) When I was pregnant with Kevin the only difference in my boobs I noticed was that they were tender, then after he was born and when I stopped breastfeeding they felt completely different. They weren't as full as they once were and now that I'm pregnant again they feel even more full than before. Which I'm not complaining, no one is in fact ha ha. I think I feel more tired this pregnancy but I think it's more in part to having a toddler running around where as I didn't the first time. I'm still working so sometimes I have two toddlers running around. Which speaking of work, last week I posted on face book that I have a new pregnant friend. Well, Miss T (the woman I work for) when I told her we were pregnant told me that she and her husband are planning on a pregnancy before his next deployment possibly in the Spring. Her response was "wouldn't that be neat if we were pregnant at the same time?" I said YES! That was on Friday, the following Monday when she picked up her little guy she said "hey remember how I said it would be neat if we were both pregnant at the same time? Well guess who is pregnant?" I am so excited. I would have to say that we have grown pretty close, I find myself talking to her when I'm having a hard time. I consider her more of a friend than a boss. We are only about 1-2 weeks apart so it's going to be very fun to have someone on this entire journey with me. I'm excited about this pregnancy, but in a way it still hasn't quite hit me. I think Kevin is going to be a great big brother. Which we have already taught him where the baby is (he will point to my belly) although, once after he pointed to my booby and we told him it what that was and so sometimes he gets them confused. I'm interested to see how this pregnancy compares to Kevin's. I look forward to keeping everyone updated.

Where were you?

September 11th, 2001 was just another normal Tuesday school day for me. I was 13 years old and in 8th grade. I remember waking up at 6:30 and getting ready for school. I went upstairs and showered and returned to my basement bedroom to finish getting ready. As I turned on the radio to listen to the popular pop music station, they were talking about something happening in New York City. I lived in Idaho and had only seen NYC on T.V. But I still couldn't believe that something like this was happening to the Country that I live in. I hurried and finished getting ready and ran upstairs to turn the television on. It was then that I saw the second plane hit. I gasped and my Mom, who had fallen asleep on the chair, woke up and I remember her just staring blankly at the news and I could see the horror in her face as she asked "What the hell is going on?". I sat down and explained what I had heard on the radio, how they thought it might have been bombs but that they realized it was planes. We continued to watch the news together and cried each time we heard, and watched footage of the other planes that had hit The Pentagon and a field in Shanksville, Pa. We just watched in silence until I realized my bus was almost there and I needed to leave. I gave my Mom a huge hug and told her I loved her and went out to my bus stop. When I walked on the bus everyone was silent and the bus driver was listening to the radio. I don't remember the ride to school but I do remember the feeling in the hallways and classrooms at school. Everyone was extremely saddened and full of emotion. It was hard to concentrate because every single classroom had the news turned on. It was in my first class we watched the towers collapse. At this point it was pretty obvious it was a terrorist attack. I remember being worried about the possibility of War and, if my Dad would have to go back to the Army. I was extremely scared. I don't remember the ride home from school but I do remember my Mom had freshly baked cookies waiting for us when we got there. I didn't know anyone who lived in New York City, worked at The Pentagon or who were on any of the planes, but I still felt like I had suffered a horrible loss. My Mom, sister and I held a candlelight vigile for 5 minutes that night in complete silence. I still remember where I was every single year on the anniversary of September 11th. I have watched numerous movies and television shows about the devastating events that took place that day and my heart still goes out to all the family and friends who lost loved ones that day. I do remember and I always will.

Our 17th month old.

Kevin is 17 months old today. It's amazing to me how fast the time has flown, and how our baby is turning into a little boy. Here are some pictures of our adorable little boy and some of the things he has learned.

 We have been signing to him since he was about 8 months, and he started signing back at around 12 months. Here he is signing his version of "more".

 Signing "please".

 Showing us what a monkey does. He usually does this with both hands but as you can see the other one was busy. We are thinking about dressing him as a monkey for Halloween.

 Signing "bath". He also usually does this with two hands as well.

 Some of his favorite things to play with are his books, his blocks (he's able to stack up to 5), he Mickey Mouse block book set, he loves to play with cars or anything that resembles a car (like Daddy's computer mouse). He plays really well with the little boy I watch who is 4 1/2 months younger than Kevin. He actually gets really excited when he hears them knocking on the door in the morning to drop the little boy off. He will run to the door and sign please, waiting for me to open it. I think they are best friends.

 He is able to sign about 7 words which include; more, please, done, food, monkey and bath. He can "moo" and say "rough rough" and also "roar" when you ask him what a cow, dog or lion say. If you tell him he needs to be quiet or mention that someone is sleeping, he will put his index finger up to his lips and make a "shh" sound.

  He loves to play with shoes (definitely gets that from me). He doesn't discriminate either, everyone's shoes are up for grabs when it comes to trying them on. Here he is putting on one of his daddy's flip flops.

He also like to take my shoes out of my closet and put them all throughout the house.


He absolutely LOVES bananas. First thing in the morning when he wakes up he runs to the counter where we keep them and points to them. He eats about 2 a day. But he also loves just about any fruit.

He is still eating extremely well although he doesn't like any kind of pasta. Not spaghetti, macaroni and cheese or anything. He will occasionally eat rice but not very often.

 He still enjoys bath time and giggles whenever we mention it. He can nod yes or no and when he nods yes it cracks me up every time because they are these long, slow, over exaggerated nods. Sometimes to get his point across when he means No, he will take his index finger and shake it back and forth.

Daddy has taught him high fives and how to "pound it" with this fists (although Kevin is still learning and just mostly uses his index finger to pound). Daddy also has taught him where his nose, ears, belly, toes, hair and of course his "male part" is located. (A man thing I guess).

Something that still cracks me up every time he does it is when he tickles us. He will only do it on skin, so if we are getting dressed and are changing our shirts he will come up and tickle our bellies. His little fingers furiously moving back and forth trying to make sure it really tickles, just cracks me up. Even little kids aren't safe from being tickled.

Kevin plays really well with other kids, older, younger or the same age. I love getting compliments from the church daycare on how well he does with the other kids. This makes me really happy and excited because on Wednesday we found out that Kevin is going to be taking on a new role of Big Brother.

We found this super cute shirt at Gymboree on clearance and had to get it. We sized it just right so it should fit him when the new baby comes.

I am loving having a toddler around. It seems he is becoming more like a buddy to hang out with than an actual baby. He understands so much and can communicate so well. I'm going to try and finish his scrapbooks and baby books within the next couple of months. I also want to try to blog more (I know I always say this haha). I want to make sure I really capture these memories and special moments.

Beautiful

 I took these while in Idaho last month. I love them. I love the blue sky, white clouds, and just the hint of a summer storm. I love how the sun shines through onto the golden hay fields, highlighting the hills and dry farms.

 I love the two little boys playing together. I love how my nephew Adam absolutely adores Kevin.

I love how sweet they play together. I love how when Kevin picked up a long blade of hay, Adam softly said "You can play with it baby Kevin just don't eat it".

I love this picture. The snake river valley behind us, the field I remember playing in as a little girl, the fence I used to stand on and feed horses in. To me it's Beautiful and I love it. And most of all I love that Beautiful little boy.

Just a little peanut

Kevin is allergic to peanuts. As I write that I'm having a hard time not crying, I've been trying not to cry all day. I never thought about him having the possibility of a food allergy. Ken and I don't have food allergies so I just assumed he wouldn't, it never crossed my mind. At his one year well baby check I asked the Doctor when we could introduce peanut butter and he gave us the go ahead. We did about 2 weeks later, just a small amount on a cracker. He developed a small rash around his lips. We didn't call the Doctor, we just decided maybe it was introduced too soon and we decided to wait a couple of more months and try again. So about a month ago, right after he turned 15 months, I tried again. It was just Kevin and I at home and he was eating lunch; mandarin oranges, a peas and carrots veggie mix and some peanut butter spread very thin on wheat crackers. At first he didn't want to eat the peanut butter crackers so I would give him bites with peas and carrots. Eventually he started coughing, then as he continued eating his coughing became worse. He started gagging and acted like he was having a hard time breathing. Then he stopped coughing and just acted like he couldn't breathe. My heart stopped and I immediately yanked him out of his chair and threw him over my legs and started doing palm thrusts on his back to get whatever was causing his choking to come up. He threw up everything he had just ate, took in a deep breath and starting screaming. The whole thing lasted about a minute but it was the scariest minute of my life. As soon as he started screaming I started crying. I couldn't believe that had just happened. I called his Doctor and set up an appointment for an allergy consult. My mommy instincts almost knew that's what it was that caused his reaction. Kevin is really great at being able to clear his airway if something is stuck, we have never had to intervene and help him. He almost immediately gags and is able to bring whatever is stuck back up. At the appointment his Doctor said it sounded more like a case of choking but because of the earlier lip rash decided it would be best to put in a consult to the allergist at the hospital. We had our appointment with the allergist today and I explained the same things I did with the Doctor, how Kevin has never had problems choking, the earlier rash and the horrible scary incident. He too thought the scary incident sounded like choking but decided it would be better to be safe and do some skin testing. He let me know that even if it was negative we could do blood testing to further make sure (I think he was convinced it would be negative). The skin testing was a little scary but the nurse was so nice. She turned on the t.v to Elmo and had a toy to keep Kevin distracted. I held him in my lap facing the t.v, his back facing the nurse, while she administered the scratch test. Kevin was a champ, even though he was pricked three times, a control, a histamine, and the peanut. I told myself I wasn't going to look until the required 15 minutes had passed, I didn't want to know until it was for sure. The nurse walked by and peeked at his back after about 5 minutes and said "Wow, that's a positive". I looked at Kevin's back and even though it confirmed my suspicions my heart still sank. Kevin's back was red and swollen. I wish my phone hadn't died and I could have snapped a picture. Where she had done the peanut prick there was a bump the size of a dime and the redness was about the radius of a dollar coin. Kevin started getting fussy and squirmy, and kept trying to rub his back against me. You could just tell his back was itching him. After the 15 minutes had passed the allergist came back in and asked how it was going, I turned Kevin's back toward him and he looked very surprised to see how bad the reaction was. He ordered some more testing of actual nuts (a peanut is actually a legume not a nut, guess who didn't know that?...me). The almond, walnut and pecan all came back negative thankfully. However, after the consultant with him we both decided that staying away from all nuts will be in Kevin's best interest. He also said that with Kevin's previous episode and with the way his skin reacted we should start carrying around epipens. He prescribed us two and showed me how to use it. Kevin is going to be that little boy, the one who can't have brownies made with nuts, will never be able to try peanut M & M's (my favorite), and will be the one who's allergy is the cause of the "peanut free room" signs in school and daycare at church. I don't know why it bothers me as much as it does. I guess it's knowing that such a small thing can harm my baby so much. It's knowing that from this point on it's constantly monitoring food wrappers and restaurant menus. Making sure everyone who watches him knows how to use the epipen, and knows not to give him peanuts or anything with them in it. It's knowing that his life is that much more precious and special.

Busch Gardens

Last weekend while my sister Bre was here we took a family trip to Busch Gardens which is about a 45 min drive. It is an amazingly beautiful park and has actually been voted America's most beautiful theme park for almost 20 years. They also have a great program called "Here's to the heroes" that allows military active duty and up to 3 dependents get into one of their parks for free once a year. (For more info check out this link here) I wondered how things would go with Kevin and if they would have age appropriate rides for him and they did, they also have a child measuring center at the beginning of the park where they measure them and issue a wristband that's color coded for specific rides, which they will give you a list of. My sister was amazing while she was here and without her we would not have been able to do as much fun things as we did. At Busch Gardens we all rotated turns spending time with Kevin while two of us would ride rides. Bre is a roller coaster fanatic so while she went off and rode some coasters Kevin, Ken and I went to one of the kid areas and rode some rides with him. It was so much fun!!!

 Going on his first ride with daddy.

 He liked the ride but he doesn't like being sprayed by water so I think he thought the water was going to get him.

 Bre snapped this while we were on a ride.

 Another ride with Daddy.

 Busch Gardens Williamsburg has a Europe them, it's great because they have so many different parts of the park; Italy, Germany; England; Ireland; Switzerland and France. Each part had their own themed rides plus eateries. The picture on the left is of Ken in Switzerland... I love my goofball husband and the things he does to make us laugh. While there we also saw Elmo and Cookie Monster. Kevin isn't a huge Sesame street watcher but that didn't matter he was still in love and intrigued at these huge overstuffed, fluffy things. Over all we had such an amazing time and it's something we will definitely have to do again in the future.