Blog Makeover

Thought I'd revamp the blog a little since the family pic in the header & the pics of the kids on the sidebar were getting outdated. I had fun playing with digital scrapbook stuff in photoshop for both the header and background. I've rearranged some stuff too. The short blurbs on the kids w/pics that used to be on the sidebar are now in something called page tabs that are across the screen under the header. There's one for each kid, as well as some tabs for links & quotes(I'm still working on the pages). Just a more streamlined look I guess. If you scroll all the way to the bottom of the "home" page, you'll find the blog archive list that also used to be on the side, as well as a new feature that Blogger has to get email updates when there are new posts.

Big News--Backyard

Can't believe I forgot to put this in my updates, but we finally got some sprinklers & sod put in our backyard right in time for Collin's birthday in early August. We had a couple spots where nothing would grow after construction last year(like where they had put their main trash pile--we had opted to dump the last of construction trash to off-set the cost of having a heater vent in Brent's room that the architect forgot to put into the plans.)

It's so funny, because for a couple weeks Brent didn't know what to do on the grass barefoot & would run off.

Before:

Rota-tiled & evened out:

After:

Did get that last piece of sod put in, but never took an updated pic

Brent videos

Video descriptions correspond to the video directly below it. Click on the boxes to play the videos.

Learning to crawl: 7.5 months--our Valentine's day present



First word(da-da): 8 months



2nd word(ma-ma): 2 days after learning da-da. I put him in his playpen & he kept saying ma-ma to get out!



9 months: surprised to see him climb in the dishwasher. 1st kid of ours who's done that.



10 months: his little dance. This is one of our favorite things about him. He & Drew have dance time during the day. They are the only 2 who managed to be born with natural rhythm. Something I clearly don't have.



10.5 months: walking



1 yr: signing "fan". in his mind, all lights on the ceiling must have fans. Oh, and his sign for fan literally looks like he's pointing & shaking his finger like he's trying to scold or say "no"



1 yr: learned to use a flyswatter



13 months: favorite new game. Turn your volume down about halfway. I didn't realize he screams so loud. By the way, those are happy screams.

Pics Galore--Brent day 1 thru 14 months old

Adding in all pics & videos from these past almost 15 months that I've shared on Facebook with my family--my main way of communicating with them & keeping up with everyone, much easier than over 10 phone calls per month/week.--but forgot to add them here.

I'll do Brent's first, as he's changed the most..lol

5 days old on the 4th of July

One of Drew's size 4 diapers on Brent's torso--1.5 weeks old

1 month

2 months

2.5 months at a friend's child's bday party

3 months

 

3 months

4 months

First Halloween--4 months

6 months--Christmas

7.5 months--learned to crawl within a week of this!

8 months

8.5 months-found him asleep in the highchair after finishing a biter biscuit

10 months--walking!

11 months--can't tell you how much we've used this cradle swing for naps since we first got this when he was around 3 months old!

11 months--1st ER trip. thankfully, nothing was broken, his finger got smashed in the door & was compressed down to the width of between the 2 red marks & the skin wasn't springing back into place right away. I now know how baby xrays are done though.

11 months

12 months--running & climbing



12.5 months--with his bday present, Corduroy bear. It's so cute to watch him cuddle with it.

13.5 months--1st haircut. Mullet is gone, and he's starting to look more like a toddler.

14.5 months--this is how Brent naps during the days since my surgery, since I'm unable to put him in his swing or crib. he usually climbs in himself, unless he's tantruming, then Ivy helps me get him in.

Post-surgery recovery

Had the surgery last Wednesday morning. Went well, but there were some unexpected complications. Lost a lot of blood. That made my blood pressure drop really low. They kept me overnight at the hospital to monitor that. My normal blood pressure is like 105-ish/60, which I'm told is on the low end of normal--funny to think I've got low blood pressure with all the issues we deal with from the kids. Also, was super light-headed & dizzy. No doubt, from the anesthesia & low blood pressure. The anesthesia hit me really hard. I was in the recovery room at least a couple hours. I remember going in & out of sleep, and hearing things, being asked questions. Took almost that whole 2 hours to be fully alert. I had to beg the nurses to let me walk in the halls(per doctor's orders!) a couple times, 10 pm and then like 2 & 3 in the morning because sitting in a bed with no activity of moving around made it very difficult to sleep. I think I only slept 4 hours(2 hours at a time) Wednesday night in the hospital. They were checking blood pressure, etc. every 2 hours too.

So thankful to be off the antibiotics--they made me very dizzy. I also had to switch pain meds from Vicodin to Advil, also due to extreme dizzyness. I was having to pull out my over-the-counter meds for vertigo(which I get every time I get over a cold) to help minimize some of that.

Most of the pain has subsided, a week post-op now. I can't lift anything heavier than a gallon of milk. It's breaking my heart not to be able to pick up Brent when he cries or just wants to cuddle. I feel so bad for Tom & Ivy picking up so much of the slack on that. There's not much else I can do though. Thankfully, Brent has already been climbing for a couple months now, and I am allowed to push him in a stroller(walking and light weights(3 lbs) are all I've been officially cleared for. Tom has also thoughtfully pulled out our futon mattress for Brent to sleep on at night since I can't get him in or out of his crib. We usually have used it for when the kids are transitioning from a crib to a bigger kids' bed, since the futon mattress is pretty flat.

We've got some full blown tantrums from Brent. Collin's taking advantage of the situation and being as aggressive & disagreeable as much as possible--though, his teacher says he's much better this year than last year for behaviors at school. It bugs me that he's got a big smile on his face when he hurts others(mostly Brent, Drew, and me). I feel like there is just a brick wall that we can't get thru to get him to understand. It's bad to say or even think of feel this about your own kid, but man there are so many days I feel like giving up.

Other than that, doing a LOT of walking, since I can't take the car to & from school--I can't lift Brent in his carseat. Ivy can, but then, I'd be stuck once school starts in the morning. If I don't do any walking on Saturday, I'll have walked 11.25 miles this week. We've had a nasty heatwave this week--in the 90's with humidity. I feel bad for the kids, but this is out of my hands. I did try to get the surgery scheduled for early August just for this reason, so it'd only be dealing with it only a few weeks into the school year. But, that's not how things always turn out.