family is everything

Easter 2013

Posted on by mommyinthemidwest

To see how much they’ve changed in a year, click: Easter 2012

This Easter weekend we stayed with Ryan’s parents, AKA Pop Pop & Nana.  Aunt Chelle, Uncle Bob, and cousin Spencer were able to join us for the weekend.  There was an unexpected twist on Easter, but overall, it was a great weekend.

Saturday, their neighborhood had an Easter egg hunt.

A rare photo of me & my boys.
Apparently this is their Swing Face.

Saturday night we celebrated Pop Pop and Uncle Bob’s birthdays with the delicious and adorable cake below.
Theo REALLY wanted to blow out the candles.  So we re-lit some.
Sunday morning, Dexter and I were playing on the floor.  He was laying/rolling/jumping all over me.  It’s kind of a blur now, but I recall that he started to roll off of me and instinctively, I grabbed his arm.  It must have been the angle at which he was falling + the angle at which I pulled his arm…but I heard and felt a pop.  I sat up immediately and stood him up in front of me.  He instantly started screaming and crying in a way that said something was very wrong.  We took his shirt off and his right shoulder was visibly different from his left.  It looked higher.  I picked up his right hand and dropped it. It fell limp at his side.  He was not able to use his right arm at all.  Ryan and I loaded him up in the car and left for Urgent Care.  
in the car
waiting on x-ray results
The boy went from being uncomfortable to being in excruciating pain from moment to moment. His arm remained limp throughout this time. After the first set of x-rays came back normal, the radiologist requested a second set from a different angle. This time the tech raised his arm, which was the first time it had been in that position since his arm popped.  He screamed and cried.  I noticed, though, that as soon as I picked him up off the table this time, he immediately wrapped his right arm around my neck.  I pointed it out to Ryan and the x-ray tech and we went back to the room to wait for results once more.  When we sat in the chair, Dexter sat up in my lap. Until then, he had been lying on us.  He was hesitant when I asked him to give me a high 5, but did it.  He cried a little.  He was fidgety. We asked if he wanted to get down and walk around and he did so we put his shoes on and sat him down.  He began swinging his arm normally and walked right over to the doctor’s stool and started drumming on it.  !!!  What!?  
This almost brought tears to my eyes; I was so relieved that my babe was fine.  Ryan was mortified because we had wasted all this time (and money, no doubt) and there was absolutely nothing wrong with our kid.  My perspective … we could have been in surgery for a dislocated shoulder.  I don’t know what happened, but when he had that second x-ray, he got all better.  We told the nice ladies at Urgent Care “check, please!” and hit the road.  
On the way back.
We got back just in time for lunch and just in time for the weather to warm up enough for our outdoor Easter egg hunt. 
It’s safe to say the boys loved their baskets.  Theo has not stopped playing with his Barrel of Monkeys.  I had a lot of fun hiding the Easter eggs. 
Three excited boys!
Seeing this kid run, laugh, and play made my day.
Hope your Easter was happy!
xo,
~C~

Theo’s third birthday celebration

Posted on by mommyinthemidwest

Can’t believe this was a year ago.  Can’t believe this was two years ago.  Yikes.

Friday morning we started our day with a quick breakfast at McDonald’s.  We’d planned on going to more of a sit-down breakfast place but as usual, it took us longer to get out of the house than we’d hoped.  The boys didn’t mind.

Afterwards, we drove to the Newport Aquarium.  The reason we were hoping to get an earlier start was because we knew the boys would fizzle out after/around lunchtime.  We still got there around 10:40.

One of Theo’s favorite things was this big demonstration tank and the scuba divers.
Dexy liked the alligators and crocs.
He doesn’t really measure up to Mighty Mike.
I can’t help it.  He’s such a dreamboat.
And little Mr. Handsome himself.
Waiting for the lorikeets to get interested in our nectar (they never did).
Theo showing off his little box of tiny critters/souvenirs from the aquarium.
I missed my mid-morning snack and by 1pm when we left the aquarium, I was ready to eat one of my children, poor dears.  Luckily there was the MOST AMAZING THING IN THE WORLD right there by the aquarium called a soup and grilled cheese restaurant.  What I don’t understand is if someone built a restaurant JUST for me, why am I just now finding out about it?  I give you Tom + Chee.  
Playing with new critters while waiting for our cheese. Yum. Cheese.
Heaven in a plastic basket.
Oh, ya know. Just drinking milk out of the carton like I’m in school.
Goofing off at B&N.
I found it really surprising that by this point in the day, Theo still had not mentioned anything about opening presents.  We had decided the night before that we would let him open as many of the ones that we got him and the ones that had been shipped to us from my mom and a friend when he woke up, if he asked.  We didn’t want to make him wait.  Since we ended up being in a hurry, we were relieved.  Finally, around 4pm, after we got to Ryan’s sister’s house in Cincinnati, he asked to open some gifts.  
After we went out to dinner, we came back for cupcakes, more presents, and more Toy Story madness. To say that the boy is obsessed would be an understatement!  
YUMMO.
Singing to my boy.
Make a wish!
Dexter was every bit as excited as Theo was.
His wish came true.  Emperor ZURG!
All in all, it was a long, exciting, happy day.  I think Theo got everything he had hoped for and has been playing with his new pals ever since.  We spent the rest of the weekend soaking up family time and playing outside on Sunday in the beautiful weather.  It’s hard to believe my baby boy is already three years old.  I know time’s not going to slow down any time soon.  Boo to that, but cheers to the next year and Dexter’s 2nd birthday coming up in two months.  
xo,
C
~C~

our first Christmas

Posted on by mommyinthemidwest

Oh, that’s right.  This was Theo’s third Christmas and Dexter’s second.

But it felt like our first real Christmas.  It was important to me that we spent Christmas as a family, at our own home, on Christmas day.  I figured at 2 yrs and 9 months and smart as a whip, this would be the first year that Theo would really “get” it.  Santa.  Waiting until Christmas to open presents.  Leaving out treats for Santa and his reindeer on the fireplace hearth.

I had a lot of big ideas about traditions we would start this year and envisioned a picturesque scene of the gentle glow of our tree next to the crackling fire as we sat around on the floor nearby reading The Night Before Christmas and sipping hot cocoa, while wearing our coordinating Christmas Eve pajamas.

Well, per Theo’s request, we ended up with LED lights that let off more of a neon illumination than a warm glow. Our fireplace is gas and does not crackle.  We don’t have a mantle (yet) so the stockings were hung on the entertainment center. I was too tired to make hot cocoa and the boys had very little interest in The Night Before Christmas.  We did read it to each of them separately before they went to bed.  I threw some new pajama pants for myself and Ryan in the cart at Target a few days before Christmas and ordered the boys’ from Carters a week before that because I couldn’t find any in the stores by that point. So pieces of my vision fell into place but this house is not yet what we want it to be.  We’ll get there eventually. Maybe.

Theo making some treats for the reindeer.
Our tree in our very blah, unfinished living room.
Puzzles from Santa.
Play table from Pop Pop and Nana.
Work bench from Grammy.
Regardless of what wasn’t perfect, our “first” Christmas was.  Ryan’s parents stayed the night with us so they could be there to watch the boys discover their gifts.  I cooked all day on Christmas Eve so that we could eat leftovers and lounge around in PJs on Christmas Day.  Wise thinking there, if I do say so myself.

Their faces were priceless.  They loved (almost) every gift.  I’m just not a proper mom if I don’t give my kids some toothbrushes and socks for Christmas, right?

They woke up early and quickly discovered their unwrapped surprises.
Noticing their tiny Toy Story figures and some play food for their kitchen.
Trying out their new table.
And puzzles.
Just as I predicted, Dexter was pretty excited that Santa left him some cleaning supplies.
Stockings!
Watching a movie some hours after all the excitement.

We went to Cincinnati for New Year’s weekend to celebrate Christmas with Ryan’s sister and her family.  Then we went to Tennessee to celebrate with my family once Penelope was born.  That’s about a 3 week long celebration!

With cousin Spencer.
More presents!
Aunt “Chelle”
Nana, Pop Pop, and their 3 very adorable grandsons.
So just short of 2 months AFTER Christmas, there you have it.  It was wonderful. Perfect just the way it was.  We’ll always remember it.  One of my favorite things about it was that we were snowed in the day after Christmas, when we were supposed to go back to work. So we had an extra day, just the 4 of us, to continue celebrating, playing, and enjoying.  Perfect.
xo,
~C~