A Very Merry December

Christmas is still a day away, but our December has been very busy and Christmasy indeed! Warning: Lots of pictures ahead! These were all taken with my phone and some under very questionable lighting, so they're not all super wonderful, but they captured the moments and that's what I needed.

We started December off like we always do - getting a tree from our favorite U-cut tree farm. It has no name, so I can't tell you much about it. It's just some guy's property with lots of trees that he charges $20 a pop no matter what the size. It's out in Sherwood somewhere. This was our 5th year, so we're some of his "regulars" now.

Nathan had his very first piano recital! He's been taking lessons since September and he is OH SO CUTE. He's doing very well and I can't wait to see the look on his face Christmas morning when he opens his new full-size keyboard with stand and seat. He's been practicing on a $25 child's play keyboard that's missing a key, so it's definitely time for an upgrade.

John and I had our December evening that we look forward to every single year. John's company Christmas party! (Ignore John's crazy eyes. Apparently that's what happens when you have a co-worker take your picture). This year the party was a the Hotel Monaco in downtown Portland. They rented out the entire hotel restaurant and paid for everything - even our room there that night. It was so gorgeous and quiet and relaxing and child-free...... It is wonderful to get super dressed up and spend time with other adults.

 We took the boys to see our friend Erin Charles as Belle in Beauty and the Beast. It was beautiful! They loved every minute. At one point, Aiden turned to me and said, "I'm going to have to check the DVD when we get home to see if Erin's name is on it, because she sounds JUST like Belle in the movie. She has to be the one doing the voice!". We paid a little extra to do the cast meet and greet after the show, and it was very worth it.

Yes, I got in on the picture with Lumiere. He's my favorite character in the movie!

Nathan's kindergarten class had their Christmas concert. Nathan is the one with the un-tucked white shirt.

My child loves performing. He ate up every little bit of attention after the concert.

On the first day of winter, we woke up to a letter from our Elf on the Shelf, Piper. He had brought the boys new pajamas and had a letter that said:

"Dear Aiden and Nathan, Santa has an adventure for you today. You must wear these pajamas, and have your mom and dad drive you to this address:

110 Railroad Avenue

Hood River, Oregon

It will take a long time to get there – almost two hours! – so please try to be patient for the long car ride. You must be there around 6pm. Once you arrive, tell your mom and dad to give their names to the people there. Follow their instructions, and something special will be waiting for you.

Have fun on your adventure today! I can’t wait to hear all about it from Santa when I see him tonight!"

Aiden said it felt strange to follow directions from an elf, but we loaded up in the car a little after 4pm and headed out to Hood River.

Once we got there, we went into a station and gave our names. The person handed us golden tickets for The Polar Express! The boys were thrilled! Aiden said, "Are you kidding?!? We actually get to ride on the Polar Express!!"

John and I had bought the tickets back in November and it had been SO hard to keep this a secret. We weren't exactly sure how we were going to pull the whole thing off, but we finally decided a few days beforehand that our elf would be the one to get us the tickets and send us off on a secret adventure. I'm so glad Aiden still believes in Santa and the elf this year. It brought so much extra joy to this event.

We were served hot chocolate and cookies, and the conductor came through and the punched the golden tickets! (The train was wobbling super bad and caused a terrible picture, but at least I got one. He moves fast!)

Aiden had questioned whether or not we were headed to the real North Pole (it was pitch black outside, so they couldn't see where we were going), but once the conductor announced that we had arrived at the North Pole and would be picking up Santa, who we could see if we looked out the windows on the right.....Aiden believed. He saw Santa outside and said, "Oh, I was wrong! This is the North Pole!". I nearly cried. He was so happy.

I had gotten us tickets in coach and didn't think that Santa visited with the kids in coach - just handed them a silver bell as he came through. So imagine my surprise when Santa boarded our train car and sat with every single child, posing for pictures and talking with them about what they wanted for Christmas.

The boys asked for very reasonable things from Santa, so I went out last night to buy what they had asked for, even though I had finished their shopping two weeks prior. I know this will be Aiden's last year believing - he's questioned it so much already this December that I wasn't sure we could pull the belief through Christmas - so I want to go all out for him. We have a plan in place for when he questions it after Christmas has passed: A letter that explains why we encourage belief in Santa. I found it earlier this year and I knew it explained it exactly the way we wanted to. We'll probably have to word the beginning a little differently, but the rest works perfectly.

(I wish I knew who to credit for this, but I have no idea!)

So that's our December in a nutshell so far. Have a wonderful Christmas!

Catch up on....July

Yes yes, my blogging has taken a complete nose dive. I've blogged half as much this year as I did last year. Blah. So guess what? I'm doing a recap going back until oh......July. June was about when things came to a screeching halt, so July seems like a good place to start.

I blogged briefly about our start to July. Aiden taking a three-day baseball class.

Me and the boys getting burnt to a crisp no matter how much sunscreen we applied. I swear someone HAD to have switched out the sunscreen with oil.... Nope. I'm just that pale.

Any guesses on where my shorts ended?

For 4th of July, we headed out to Rockaway to spend the holiday with Laura and Kevin. It was a nice break and spending a few days on the beach was super fun! I bought a sport tent to keep myself out of the sun and it worked! We had a yummy BBQ at Laura and Kevin's, we watched fireworks over Rockaway Beach, we spent lots of time in the hotel pool and hot tub, and we flew kites and played a little baseball on the beach.

Nathan started gymnastics and LOVED it! This may be something we continue at a later time. He's quite the nimble little gymnast.

We bought our minivan (which I'm still totally in love with, by the way. Best car ever!), and said goodbye to our Subaru. John drove it to the junkyard and told me, "You know, I think something might be wrong with that car's transmission". Oh, you mean the violent shaking and growling whenever I tried to drive wasn't normal?

We got to watch the Hillsboro Air Show from the comfort of our front yard. There are benefits to living right by an airport.

Our New York friend Charlie came to visit. We treated him to a "country experience" by taking him to a gun range. As we pulled in, he looked around and said, "People are just....walking around with....GUNS. And no one is stopping them!!". If you recall, we treated him to his very first hiking experience last summer and told him to eat berries in the wild (he refused). Charlie is a computer science and robotics teacher for "elite" (translation: famous) NY families, so he really isn't used to this kind of thing. We thoroughly enjoy shaking him to his core. Although this last July is going to be hard to top next year. Especially since we were standing at a gun range with a full air show happening over our heads. In Charlie's words, "It was perfect. But it's the last time I'll ever do anything like that again!".

We also spent lots and lots of time walking around the trails at the library, feeding baby ducks and finding big sticks. We also discovered a duck with one leg. The boys were very concerned and I had to discourage them from attempting to bring the duck home with us.

And that is July in a nutshell. Busy, but it's got nothing on what we did in August!

When You See It.....

We got the boys some fun straws that they could put together in various ways, making double straws and things like that. John wanted a picture of them using the straws they'd made, so I snapped this with my phone. As I went back to look at it, I noticed the little addition in the background. A very desperate, wide-eyed PomChi peering in through the sliding glass door. 

"I want to use the fun straw too!"

It gave us a good laugh. And then we let him come in from the rain.

Chaos

I like my life simply scheduled, fairly underwhelming, and calm. I am not the type who enjoys being busy or always out and about (I really dislike driving). I like having - at an absolute minimum - one day per week where I don't have to go anywhere. This school term is shaking all of that up and rocking me to my core.

Everything is in chaos. I'm gone a lot. I don't have a handle on anything. And for those of you who were over at my house last Saturday and saw upstairs, you got a pretty good visual as to how insane things are at the moment. So embarrassing. The one year I decide to not stress myself out about cleaning upstairs for a birthday party is the one year Aiden decides everyone needs a tour. Thank you, child.

Anywho, this term is absolutely bat-poo crazy, but there is an aspect of it that I am super grateful about. This term includes my very first practicum (internship). I managed to get in at the library just down the street from us and I am loving every single moment of it. It's the 5th busiest library in Oregon and I'm getting a good handle on what that means. They are being so wonderful with training me like I'm an actual employee and providing me with this fantastic opportunity to have this experience under my belt for future employment. Everyone is helpful and fun, and I feel so comfortable there. The time is really going too fast and I know I'll miss it once it's over. I do plan on staying on as a volunteer once per week after this term is over. I just can't imagine walking away from it all once the practicum time is done. I'm there four times a week, so I'm fairly immersed into the place. Most of those days, I still walk back to my car trying to wrap my head around the fact that I'm doing actual library work. It feels so right and I can't wait until I can do this somewhere permanently.

The practicum is definitely the most enjoyable part of this term. I'm not having as much fun with driving to North Portland every Monday at rush hour to go to a four hour class on how to design bulletin boards (I'm not joking. I wish I was joking.). That's after doing my Monday stint at the library, grabbing the boys from school, and immediately taking them to the babysitter. Then there's the online course that requires more library service time, but it has to be at a different library (because I have time for that!). Nathan is taking piano lessons, Aiden is in Lego Robotics, and starting in two weeks, they'll both be in bowling. And I'm in dance class again, which definitely adds to my schedule but is good for my soul.

So that's how things stand. Not my favorite way to live, but I'm keeping in mind that it will slow down come the second week of December. I'm not even going to think about the fact that next term will probably look almost identical.

Happy 8th Birthday!

Our dear little (?) Aiden turned eight years old today. The mind boggles at how this happened, but he is indeed an eight year old. An eight year old with the reading level of a kid twice his age, the curiosity of a true scientist, the audacity of his father, and the sense of humor of his mother (uh oh on the last two). When "they" say it goes fast, they're not kidding. I'm pretty sure he was four just a few days ago. 

Or this size. Oh, those chubby cheeks. He did like to eat.

He's always been one for adventure. He's a complete thrill seeker and loves new experiences. He tried a "big kid" ride at Oaks Park a few weeks ago (those cages that flip you upside down) and LOVED it.

He's also always loved animals. My grandfather used to have a wolf (it has since passed away) and during a visit to their house, Aiden walked right up to this huge canine and started petting him softly. No fear. Of course the wolf was a big ol' softy and was very careful around tiny Aiden, but it was amazing to watch.

Aiden loves to laugh. He's discovered comic books like Calvin and Hobbes, the Far Side, and Foxtrot. It's so funny to hear him laughing hysterically after he's been sent to bed. He's had a fantastic, squeal-y belly laugh since the moment he discovered how to laugh and it brightens my day every time I hear it.

He could also live in the water. When he was an infant, he would hold his tongue out to catch water droplets whenever we were outside in the rain. It was the cutest thing I've ever seen.

He takes many things very seriously. He's a worrier and he likes to be prepared (I wonder where he got that.... Sorry, kid). Lately he's been obsessing over earthquake safety and has kept himself awake at night concerned that an earthquake is going to hit while he's sleeping. We've had to make a lot of promises regarding our family's personal disaster plans.

But he can also be a complete goof: "I've been run through with the pirate sword!"

As we wrap up his 8th birthday, here are some things we'd like to remember about Aiden:

• Favorite color: Blue
• Favorite food: Calamari
• Favorite drink: Root Beer
• Best friend: Kevan
• Favorite book: The Polar Express
• Favorite movie: Despicable Me
• Favorite sport: Soccer
• Favorite place: Disneyland

When Parenting Sticks

Yep, it sticks. Not to the kids (well, hopefully it will - at least eventually), but to the adults' midsections. Let's brainstorm some reasons why.

Stress: There's a lot of stress involved with parenting and it's piled all on top of simply attempting to be an adult. The stress is there from the moment their sweet little heads leave the pillow in the morning to the moment they finally pass out at night. You notice I didn't say "when they go to bed". No no. Because there's usually someone who needs to pee, or is thirsty, or needs a snack (especially when they're on their third growth spurt in as many months), or has lost a teddy bear (I'm looking at you, Nathan), or is just trying to sneak out of their room because it sounded like a funny idea at the time.
At varying points during the day, there's little bursts of extra stress. Like discovering a poo smear on the bathroom floor and not having anyone take responsibility for it. Or like hearing your five year old from the bathroom, "No one's ever peed in the tub before!". This was after hearing the same five year old from a different bathroom saying, "My pee didn't go where I was expecting it to go....". Those are times where I may blank out momentarily to go to my happy place, but the stress arrived and it made its mark.

Bad food choices: You may be a parent who tries really hard to provide healthy, reasonable food options for your family. Or you may just buy whatever sounds good. Either way, you end up making bad food choices for yourself when you're a parent. I think this all has to do with feeling low on time. And when you feel low on time, you don't make yourself a well rounded, healthy meal and sit down to eat it like a normal human being. No, you grab the leftover peanut butter sandwich from your kid's plate, steal a bag of fruit snacks, cram it all in your face, and then move on to the next thing on the to-do list. Oh, and let's not forget the six cups of coffee to get you through the day.

Lack of sleep: Is there a parent on the face of the earth who gets enough sleep? I doubt it. And I'm not counting the celebrity parents who hire someone to get up with their kids in the night. I typically collapse in bed sometime around 1am. I'm up again at 7am, having been woken up at least once during the night by a child climbing into my bed. Do I wish I went to bed earlier? Every.Single.Morning. But in order to do my own homework, plus the end of the day housework, making lunches, taking a shower (which I have to do in order to get to sleep) and making some feeble attempt to relax and spend a little time with my husband, the evenings go by real fast.

Ok, so there is a point to all of this. John and I want to get in shape. Any "expert" will tell you that the people who are successful in that effort are ones who don't keep it a secret from everyone. Something about accountability and all that. For John, he wants to lose around 50 pounds. In my case, I've developed what most people would call a spare tire. I don't need to lost weight necessarily, but I need to take care of the belly fat. I'm "skinny fat" (you can read a Huffington Post article about it here). I took a picture of my midsection, but I'm too chicken to post it (yet), so you'll just have to trust me. Due to some hormonal changes over the past six months or so, I've gained about 15 pounds and it's pretty much all gone to my stomach. I'm uncomfortable, my clothes don't fit well anymore, and I've ripped open a pair of jeans while trying to put them on. It doesn't help the ego when that happens and my kids say, "Well mommy, you're beginning to get stout!".

So that's where we stand. We're making food changes and putting in an actual effort to exercise regularly -which is so much easier said than done. But hopefully once we start to see it paying off we'll get the motivation to keep going. And I think it helps that John and I are in this together. Because hey, if we can parent together, we can sure as heck get rid of the lingering parenting effects together.

Kindergarten

So Nathan is a kindergartener..... My baby. My little Nathan. I didn't cry - amazingly. I nearly did a couple of times, but John said I just turned red all over instead. Whatever it takes to keep from losing it in front of everyone, right?

But oh, Nathan was SO excited to go to school.

Nathan was placed in the afternoon session, which is great as it gives us a few relaxing hours together after Aiden has gone to school and before Nathan goes to class. It does mean he has to eat lunch at an oddly early time, but maybe that will prepare him for the early lunchtime in 1st grade.

We got to class and found Nathan's desk. He was thrilled! It was so cute. 

After a few minutes, he said, "Don't leave". (I almost lost it then) I said, "But I thought you were excited?" He said, "I am, but I'm also nervous and don't want you to leave". But we did high fives, kisses, and hugs, and I reminded him that his best friend Lucius is in the class with him. As I checked in with Nathan's teacher (who was supposed to be Aiden's teacher and is the TAG rep), she said, "I was so excited to have Aiden in my 2nd grade class! He was going to be my TAG case study! But I'm super excited to be connected to your family through Nathan and I'll still be involved in Aiden's TAG progress!". Um, I love this teacher.

At pick up time, I stuck to my normal routine of getting Aiden from his classroom and checking in with the teacher before I got Nathan from the kinder group waiting at the front of the building. It felt strange not having Nathan with me, but I suppose I'll get used to it. As I walked out to get Nathan, he looked so small and in awe of everything happening around him. But I could tell by his face as he saw me that he had a wonderful day and loved every minute of it. Much smoother than Aiden's start to kindergarten....(remember this?). As I made sure that Nathan's teacher knew I was getting him, she said, "I seriously love Nathan. Your kids are awesome and adorable!" Yep, she's going to be a good fit for Nathan this year.

Oh, and I was also able to check in with Aiden's teacher and she said that Aiden is settling in very well and already seems less frustrated. Great news!

First Day of 2nd Grade!

Well, we have a 2nd grader.

Can you tell that he didn't sleep very well? He looks exhausted! He said he was too excited to fall asleep. I went in to wake him up and he said, "Oh, my alarm never went off!". In reality I had just turned it off because it had been going off for 25 minutes. This kid is just like his father.

We were running late and I didn't get close enough for the bottom of his sign to show in the picture, but it says, "I want to be a.....scientist!". I'll be more prepared for Nathan's first day on Thursday.

I did miss Aiden very much today and kept checking the clock to see if it was time to get him yet. Nathan obviously missed him too. At least his company. He drove me up the wall all day long. I eventually bought him a small lego set while we were at Target this afternoon out of desperation so I could get some things done here at home.

Aiden said he had a "good" day, but did apparently have a little trouble with frustration due to reading material. It sounded like his teacher handled it very well (and she seems nice). We had a talk about it and are hoping for a better day tomorrow. But Aiden did sit down at dinner and announce that he wanted to be home schooled. So that wasn't quite what I was expecting/wanting to hear. We then had a big talk about it and we explained what we wanted from his 2nd grade experience. The subject is not off the table, but would need to be reevaluated at a later time. He seemed satisfied with the outcome.

After we left Aiden in his classroom this morning, Nathan had his kindergarten assessment. He impressed the teacher with his math skills and is quite excited for kindergarten to start on Thursday!

Some School Changes

I have a prayer request regarding the beginning of the school year, mostly for Aiden.

Last week, we received his teacher notification. He had been assigned to the 2nd grade teacher we had been hoping for - the TAG coordinator who had been involved in the behavioral meetings, knew Aiden's TAG needs exactly, and had assisted us in creating an individualized education/behavioral plan for him. She knew his areas of struggle and what he needed in order to excel. We were ecstatic! Fist pump, did a little dance, and felt really, really good about this next school year. I felt like God had totally set this up for us.....and then it was ripped out from underneath us.

On Saturday, I missed a call from the school and over voicemail I found out that Aiden had been reassigned to another teacher due to "enrollment changes". A teacher that we have never met, who has never met Aiden, who has not been involved with the planning over the last school year, who knows nothing about him beyond whatever paperwork she's been given. I cried. I was angry, disappointed, and suddenly completely uneasy about the school year. The stress of the situation hit me like a ton of bricks.

After a little while, I decided to email the principal with my concerns. I knew that the likelihood of Aiden being switched back to the other teacher was low, but I knew I needed to be an advocate for my child and at least make sure the principal was aware of my concerns. Since I want the situation to be taken seriously and also want to be a team player with my child's educational system, I kept my email calm and understanding of sudden changes. I outlined exactly why I was worried and then asked simply to be reassured by the principal that they had placed Aiden in the best possible situation and that we would have access to any support we needed if we hit any bumps along the way.
He emailed me back promptly, with a compliment on the tone of my email - saying it was by far the easiest to read and respond to all day (which made me very happy that I had not panicked and sent an emotional email). He provided me with plenty of reassurances and promises that we could utilize him, Aiden's 1st grade teacher, the TAG coordinator, and anyone else we needed to help Aiden transition to a new teacher.

So, I feel.....better. I guess. I think it helped just getting my concerns out there to someone who is familiar with the situation and knows about the teacher. We know that she taught a 4th/5th grade combo class last year, which may make it easier for Aiden to get more advanced material. I am still nervous, but we have discussed the situation with Aiden and gone over how we expect him to handle the transition. Aiden had been very excited to get the teacher we wanted, so he was disappointed about the change and then nervous that his friends would not be in the same class. We called a few families and found that they had all been moved to the same class, so that was reassuring for him. He actually handled the disappointment very well and still seems to be excited for school to begin.

We did discover a few hours later that the reason for the change is that Aiden's original teacher had to be moved to teaching kindergarten, which means she's actually Nathan's teacher now. That also makes me a feel a little better since we will be in frequent contact with her and she can be familiar with us for TAG purposes that way.

This all may (and probably will) work out just fine. But it definitely threw a kink in things and we are hoping that it doesn't set things back significantly for Aiden. So just keep us all in prayer if you can. We have high hopes for this school year!

Nosey

A little update on my nasal situation:

I saw the ENT today and he made it very clear that he is not surgery happy. He will do surgery only as a last resort and if he is positive it will help me. Otherwise, it could cause more pain and not help at all. Hearing this was a big relief since the recovery time would be quite long. I do not want to have to deal with it unless it's absolutely necessary.

So he's approaching it slowly. He did a brief exam of my nose and found that my septum is 'S' shaped. He thinks it may have buckled from previous injuries, but he couldn't see any significant blockage. The inside of my nose is apparently red and irritated, and the bridge of my nose is obviously tender. He wants to approach it from an allergy perspective first. If I have developed allergies (he specifically asked about pets), the irritation could be causing the buckled portions of my septum to flare up and cause pain. I'm on nasal spray for the next 6 weeks to see if that does anything.

If it doesn't, the next step is a camera up the nose to see if there's some blockage or other fracture further up, and some allergy testing to see if there's another way to approach it allergy-wise. Next step after that would be a bigger scan to see way in there and find out if surgery is needed.

I am crossing my fingers and toes that the nasal spray fixes everything, although I suspect further testing will be needed. He wants the nasal spray to be completely successful (pain, congestion, and drainage totally completely gone) - not just "eh, it's a little better". I want surgery to be the very last step (especially since there's not an obvious blockage) so I'm very pleased that he's wanting to try the other options available to us first.

And while we're on the subject of surgery-alternative options, my knee is still doing very well with physical therapy. She did discover that my hips and pelvis are probably causing a lot of the flare ups, so that was interesting and has given us the opportunity to approach my treatment a little differently.

Thanks for the check-ins and prayers!

This Fall

This fall is going to be busy and require some strict scheduling and planning. I have to take one of my classes on campus this next term, and I'm doing my first practicum in a library. I'm so excited to get some hands on experience! But this means that we're looking for childcare. Please accept my apologies for hijacking the blog, but we need all the help we can get in finding childcare.

Beginning September 23rd and going through mid-December, we need childcare for both boys every Monday from 3:30pm to 6:30pm (ish). The pay is $10 an hour. There is the possibility that we'll need additional childcare due to the practicum, but we won't know for a while yet.

Ideally we would like to find childcare through the recommendation of family/friends, so that's why I'm reaching out here. So if you know of anyone (high school student, college student, stay at home mom) who would like to earn a little extra cash and is good with kids, please pass this along to them and send me a message with their info.

Thanks!

In One Piece?

Some of you may remember that I ran into a door a few years ago. Literally smashed right into a door. Because that's my style, I guess. I've had nose issues ever since, but things have gotten a lot worse since I got glasses. I can only assume it's from the extra pressure on my nose, but I've traded out bad eyesight headaches for nose-based headaches. It feels as though there's someone constantly pressing my nose into my face.

Anyway, due to the increased pain, I finally scheduled an appointment with my doctor to get this three year old injury checked out. She believes that my septum was knocked out of line when I ran into the door. I've been referred to an ENT over at St Vincent to get a little camera shoved up my nose to see how it looks in there. If it's not where it's supposed to be, then it's surgery time to put things back in place.

So.....more prayer please. I feel like physically incapable of staying in one piece and it's frustrating. On the bright side, my knee is consistently improving with physical therapy and if it continues to go well, we can avoid surgery on that for now. And if I had to choose, I'd want my nose fixed. I can deal with knee pain. But the nose pain? That's affecting daily life with near constant headaches. Here's hoping they can figure out what needs to be done.

Dog Bed

After dinner, we have family time. That frequently involves the four of us curling up together on the couch to watch some tv: either a Discovery Channel show from Netflix or some America's Funniest Home Videos. One benefit to all of us sitting down for some quiet time is that the dogs zonk out for the first time all day. And it's not been unusual lately for them to zonk out ON someone.

Nathan fully became a dog bed tonight. Honeydew was completely passed out on top of him. Nathan loved every minute of it. "She keeps me warm", he said.

We thought that was pretty adorable for a while, but then Honeydew decided to switch to me. And then Buster jumped up on John's lap to sleep.

Well, at least one of them is actually a lap dog....

Kid Quotes

I haven't posted quotes from our lovely little boys in a while and they've given us some good ones lately:

Aiden: "I know I've said that I want to be a scientist, but I really think I should be a high school science teacher. Kids need to know that science is the most awesome thing ever. But the school should understand that my science room is going to need lots of equipment and money. And that some stuff might get blown up."

Out of nowhere, Nathan randomly exclaimed, "I'm really happy I'm a boy....so I don't have to give birth to any babies!". Then Aiden said, "I'm pretty sure you still have to do something if you want kids. I still haven't figured out what, though".

Me: "Well boys, it looks like I have a kidney stone. This means you'll both need to really behave and help me out, ok?"

Aiden: "Just ignore the pain. I'm sure you'll be fine."

Nathan: "Yeah mommy, you squeezed two babies out of a tiny baby tunnel in your body, so I don't think a kidney stone should be a problem."

Me: Aiden, you look just like your daddy!

Aiden: That's because of my wimpy haircut.

And then one morning when the boys were constantly fighting, I told Aiden that he could go into his room and lock the door to have some quiet time. Before heading in there, he grabbed one of John's engineering textbooks. After a little while, he came out with some calculus problems that he had attempted on his own:

That kid boggles my mind sometimes.

Dancer Knees

Ballet class was going great. I mean, really great. It was pushing me physically and exhilarating me emotionally. And then last Sunday happened.

I was in class and I did a little jump - and I do mean little....like a bounce, really - and I felt a twinge in my right knee. If you remember, I tore the meniscus in my right knee about four years ago and it's been a problem ever since. My knees have been holding up to class really well, but they are dancer knees with a previous injury so I suppose the "twinge" wasn't surprising. It didn't bother me through the rest of class, so I didn't think much about it until I got home. Then it started to hurt like none other. I immediately wrapped it, but as the day progressed I knew something was wrong. The pain was all too familiar and it hurt. I got mad, I cried, and then I called the doctor.

Due to perfect Carrie timing, my doctor was on vacation. Of course. But I got in with John's doctor yesterday to see if we could figure out what was going on in my knee. I was expecting horrible news (meniscus re-torn, needs surgery, shouldn't ever dance again, etc), but I didn't get horrible news. I got blah news. That is better I suppose, but it could still turn into horrible news. I'll explain:

The current diagnosis is that I have strained my MDL (inner side of my knee) and bruised my meniscus where the former tear had healed itself. The pain is being amplified due to a bunch of bad cartilage under my kneecap. I have to stay off of it (no dance class) for a month. I have crutches for the bad days, and am to take Aleve twice a day for the next month. I have to keep it wrapped to keep swelling down, and I have to go to physical therapy for a month. The expectation is that it will heal itself over the next month and I can return to ballet class (limiting my movement as needed). Here's where it can still turn to horrible news though: If it doesn't get better over the next month, I will be referred to an orthopedic surgeon, who will then cut my knee open and dig a bunch of stuff out.

I'll be honest. I'm terrified that it's not going to get better. Ballet is so knee intensive, I'm not sure how well I could return to it (if at all) if I require surgery. And that is devastating. So I need prayer. Lots of it. Let's heal these knees!

Orthodontics

The boys had their 6 month dental visit about two weeks ago, and during Aiden's exam the dentist recommended that we schedule an orthodontic evaluation for him. Oh no....already?!

We met with the orthodontist this morning. Aiden was quite nervous (he has really bad anxiety when it comes to dental work), but we reassured him that it would only take a few minutes and we weren't going to do anything to his teeth. Luckily, Aiden doesn't have any overcrowding issues (yet), but he does have a slight overbite on the bottom. Still, nothing that had to be taken care of right away. And then there were the words that I had fully expected to hear: Aiden does need braces.

BUT, he's not ready for them yet. Obviously, since he's still losing teeth (there are two loose ones at the moment). We go back in one year to see what his teeth are doing then. And maybe by that time we'll convince ourselves that it's actually worth it to have dental insurance.

Magic Van

It's official. I'm a minivan mom. This is our new "Magic Van", as the boys call it. It's magic because I can open the doors via remote while waving my hand and muttering some phrase from Harry Potter.

Our Subaru finally gave out and we shared a car for about half a week before we decided that it was no good. John needs a car to get to meetings multiple times per day and asking me to drive him back and forth when I have things to do throughout the day was NOT working. So car shopping we went. After months of internet research and a rental, we knew exactly what we wanted.

It's a 2008 Toyota Sienna and we are very happy with our find. Siennas are one of the highest rated minivans out there and we know we made a great choice. This means we can actually take road trips without everyone feeling cramped and horrible. We've been planning a trip out to the Olympic Peninsula for August and this will make the 4 1/2 hour drive much more comfortable. Plus, I can finally talk John into driving down to California to see our little nephew!

Activities Recap

So I've been pretty terrible at documenting our activities. Even though it got easier to remember to take pictures of things once I got myself a fancy new smartphone, I still had trouble getting the motivation up to blog about it. I'd think "Oh, I'll do it later..." and then I'd never do it later. I took spring term off from school and had the grand plan that I'd catch up on so much stuff. Nope. I just kind of did, well, nothing every evening instead. It was fabulous. I was going to take summer term off as well, but then a class that I needed was added online and my advisor encouraged me to take it. So I'm one week into summer school. And before we get into any other activities, I figured I'd catch you all up on the ones we've done so far.

Back in March, Aiden started soccer. Yep, I became an actual soccer mom (minus the minivan), bringing team snacks and everything. This was the actual Hillsboro Soccer Club and not some parks department thing, so it was our first real organized sports (I am not counting wrestling because he never competed against anyone else). I think he had a lot of fun and it wasn't too time consuming (unlike wrestling). We made some new friends....ok, I made some new friends. Two of Aiden's classmates were on his team and I befriended the moms. We've gone out for girls nights, and send each other text messages to vent about our days - it's been a fun result of signing up for soccer.

The first week being out of school was rough. The boys were bored and I nearly ran from the house screaming by 9am every day. The following Sunday, I started my new activity and oh was it welcome. Ballet class! I'm taking an open adult ballet class at Portland Festival Ballet on Sunday afternoons and it is glorious. I began in the level 1 class because it's been 10 years since I've set foot in a dance studio and I had no idea how rusty I would be. Well, level 1 was painfully slow. The instructor took notice a few minutes in and asked about my background. After a short discussion, he suggested I move up to level 2 until I get my strength back. Then I can move up to the advanced class. Level 2 is still a little slow for me in terms of what I know from my training, but it's perfect for where my body is right now. I have angry hamstrings and hips, and my legs want to fall off by the end of the 75 minute class, so I know I have to build myself back up to where I was. Signing up for that class has been the most wonderful decision I've made lately. I feel relaxed mentally and emotionally, and it's great to start my week off that way. I love it.

After one week out of school, Aiden was ready for something. Luckily, he had been signed up for Camp Invention for months. It was his second year and he was so excited to be back. And his classmate Ella was going to be there! He ended up missing Wednesday due to food poisoning and then had a rough last day when all of his projects were given to another child, leaving him with nothing to bring home (long story - I was angry - no one did anything about it - Aiden cried). But he tells me that he wants to go again next year, even with the last day disappointment.

 Preparing to launch their rubber ducks (above).

A solution to red light runners in Paris traffic (below).

While Aiden was at camp, Nathan and I spent lots of time at the library. One day I asked him, "What would you like to get at the library today?". He responded, "Weasels. I'd like to find a book about weasels." Confused, I asked if that's really what he meant. He said, "Yes, I want you to read to me about weasels." And so that's what we did.

 He's REALLY into weasels right now. (A sentence I never thought I would type under a picture of my child)

Moving on from the weasel-obsessed child.... Aiden started a short baseball camp on Monday through the parks department.

 It's just down the street from our house, which is nice since my car can get us about five minutes down the road before it dies. It's been almost unbearably hot the past few days (mid-90s), but we've spent lots of time playing in the fountains at the park.  

 It's been fun and we've had lots of friends join us, but even with tons of sunscreen applications, me and my poor children are blessed with pale, pale Irish skin that cannot handle a even a small amount of sunshine. We looked almost slimy due to the amount of sunscreen we had on our bodies the last couple of days, and we are still burnt as can be. I can handle the burns, but the boys are in pain and I feel so bad for them. Hopefully we can avoid further burning for the rest of the summer, but we're really going to have revisit our UV avoidance techniques!