Sunsets at West Point

The sunset tonight was incredible! I'm sure glad Brian called me away from making dinner to see this. :)

Jaxon's Hero

Jaxon had this little assignment at school. It says:

"Dad is my hero because....he takes care of me and he helps hurt people."

Mostly he helps people who are hurt, but I suppose on many occasions what he does to help does indeed hurt them...I guess he got it spot on!

The boys adore their daddy. As soon as they hear the garage door open at night they come a running. Shrieking all the way "Daddy's home! Daddy! Daddy's home!" They greet him by the door and maul him with hugs. One of these days I should stand by with the camera in my hand so I can document it for when my brain stops working (which might be sooner rather than later!).

On days like yesterday, days where he is gone before they open their eyes in the morning and home after they are fast asleep in their beds, those are long days. The phone call at dinner time to say goodnight has to suffice for the wrestling, hugs and kisses, and other manly games.

He's the best kind of daddy and a very super hero indeed.

Is There Anything Sweeter?

I walked by the boys room one morning a few weeks ago and saw Jaxon helping Ryker do this:

"I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth."

3 John 1:4

It's about time!

Well, it seems I've been MIA in the blogland for quite some time.


You know how it gets when you get so far behind that just the thought of catching up (or at the very least hitting the highlights) sends shivers down your spine? Yep. That's me.


Be warned. The following posts are long. And probably really boring. And I'm sure no one out there really cares just what we've been up to.


It's much easier to keep up than to catch up. I'm sure you knew that. I tend to forget the reality of it.


Enjoy!

Updates: Ryker

Ryker is 2 1/2...and good at it! He's getting taller (but not fatter) and is chuck-full of personality. He loves to yell "football!" and run and tackle you to the ground. Wrestling with Jaxon and Brian are a daily occurrence. He races everywhere he goes and swings his left arm behind him while he runs. He would play baseball out back every minute of the day or ride his plasma car out front if he could.


He continues to yell at you until you make eye contact. Saying "What?" is not enough. "Mom, mom, mom, mommy, MOM, MOM, MOM!!" (or dad or Jaxon)over and over again until eye contact is made. It can drive you near insanity at times and the rest of us usually get yelling at the other person to just look at him.

He is completely irreverent during family prayer at night and will refuse to say prayers some nights until we give in and tell him it's time for bed. Then he becomes completely undone and will cry until he can say his prayers. Yeah, he's 2.

He loves his Mr. Bink. I tell him often that Mr. Bink is going to go bye-bye but I just can't bring myself to do it. He goes down for nap and bed so great. I guess I should just gear up for it and toss the dang thing. He's had the same binky for over a year now. Eventually it's going to break right? My only consolation is that he doesn't want it until he's tired so he doesn't walk around with it in his mouth. I'm justifying. It will be gone soon. Well, before kindergarten anyway :)

There was a day not too many months ago when he cried and clung to me when I dropped him off at nursery. Now he is waving and yelling goodbye as soon as the closing prayer is said. He loves nursery. One Sunday we were talking about nursery as we were getting ready for church and I asked him "Who are you going to play with in nursery today?" He responded with "Ree, Jessen, baby Jesus!" He loves nursery and playing with his buddies Reed and Jensen.

This look usually comes with a plead to be held...in which I usually oblige. Good thing he's only 22 lbs. One day he'll have to walk on his own. When I tell him he's a big boy he tells me "Me Baby!". Yeah, we're working on that too.

He was such a brave little man during his last round of allergy testing. Notice the two bandages on his arm? They were able to get the blood draw on their second attempt and we didn't even have to drive to Primary Children's to get it done! His reward was the skittles and he earned every last one of them! He did so great.


The results came back so encouraging. Just for a reference point for all you non-allergy folks out there: anything less than .35 is considered normal (meaning there is no allergy) and a high level of allergen is anything 3.51-17.5.

In April Ryker's results were: Milk 28.1, egg 2.45, peanut .90, cashew 1.41
Now, 6 months later, his milk has dropped to 7.1, egg is now .98, peanuts are .31. He didn't run the tree nuts on the blood test, but they still came back positive on the skin test.



With results like this I can actually begin to believe that he'll out grow these allergies. There is a very slim chance he'll outgrow the tree nuts. Only about 3% of people do. Hopefully they drop even more in April when we go back!


He still doesn't eat hardly anything at all (hence his weight). He loves chips and salsa, corndogs (but just the corn part), fruit snacks, and chicken nuggets. Last night I caught him trying corn (wahoo!) and he didn't even gag and spit it out! There's still hope.

Ryker had a blast at Lagoon on Jaxon's birthday....that is until they told us he couldn't ride the rides anymore. We thought that when we called and asked if kids 2 and under could get in for free and they said 'yes' that meant he could also ride the rides. Silly us. Apparently he could walk in to the park for free but he couldn't ride the rides unless we paid for the ridiculously over-priced child's ticket.
Luckily he was able to steal a few rides before we learned of our mistake. Here he is excited to ride Puff the Magic Dragon with Brian.

After he was banned from the rides he enjoyed pushing his stroller around while we waited for Jaxon to ride. His stroller was just as much fun as the rides, and it was free.

Updates: Jaxon

Jaxon is a good kid. A really good kid. I know I'm his mom, so I might be a little biased, but every once in awhile I will witness something and be amazed that someone so young can be strong.

This summer we had some major dental drama. To say Jaxon is afraid of the dentist would be the understatement of the year. Petrified. Out-of-his-mind-crazy scared. As it turned out, Jaxon had a cavity and our insurance wasn't going to cover a pediatric dentist fixing it. I didn't think it would be a big deal. I was sure that Jaxon would rise to the occasion and surprise us all with his new found bravery. Not so. He tried to be brave. He really did. But the mind can be a powerful thing. (I should know. I can scare myself better than the freakiest movie.)

On the way to one of our appointments we talked about being brave and just letting the dentist do his job. It wouldn't hurt, and it would be over really fast. He was so scared. He asked me if we could say a prayer so he could be brave. After a heart-felt prayer from a child I was certain this trip to the dentist would be a success. How could it not be?

Tears, crying, grabbing at the instruments, and lots of "Wait! What are you going to do?", an hour later we walked out of the office without any work done. It was so frustrating and heart wrenching at the same time. I knew he was safe. I knew that if he would just calm down he would also realize that all his fears were completely unfounded.

In the car on the way home Jaxon cried in the backseat. "I tried to be brave mom, I really did, but Jesus didn't help me." And then he cried some more. Faith. I tried to teach him about faith. How do you teach faith, real faith, to an almost 6 year old? I don't know, but I tried.

We tried about every trick in the book. Bribed him with a trip to the dollar store, the D.I. (his all-time favorite store!) and even Lagoon. Nothing. So we did what any good parent does. We banned him from anything sweet until he let the dentist fix his cavity. No sodas, fruit snacks, candy, desserts. Absolutely no treats of any kind.

After the ban we made another appointment with a different dentist who would be able to sedate Jaxon. The only problem was the next available appointment was 3 1/2 weeks away. And in those 3 1/2 weeks we had birthday parties, 4th of July parades, camping trips, and a summer party with his preschool class. All of which meant treats galore.

And you know what? He did it. Even without us there reminding him. He told his preschool teacher that he couldn't have any of the treats at the party. He told his church teachers. He was 100% faithful in keeping his promise. I was honestly shocked that he was so strong. Most kids would have tried to sneak a treat or at least take one when offered when we weren't around.

Oh, and eventually he did get his cavity fixed, but we haven't overcome the fear of the dentist. Or the fear of dogs. Or automatic flushing toilets.

Happy 6th Birthday!

We surprised Jaxon by taking him to Lagoon for his birthday. This was his first adventure and he loved it...but not at first. When we pulled into the parking lot he was not excited. He started to panic and said "I can't go on those rides! They're too big! I'll be too scared! I don't want to go to Lagoon!" So much for our big surprise.

It didn't take long before we had him convinced that he would indeed be safe. He started out small on rides in kiddie land (all except for the Dino Drop...that was too much for him) and ended the day on rides like the White Roller Coaster, The Bat, Odyssey, and the new dragon ride.

After Lagoon we took the boys to Applebee's for dinner per Jaxon's request. He remembered that in the past he's recieved a free ice cream sundae and a birthday cheer from the waitresses. He reminded our waitress over and over again that it was his birthday and asked when they were going to sing to him. When it was finally time, our waitress came and asked Jaxon what kind of dessert he wanted. His reply, "I don't want dessert. I'm having an ice cream cake at home. I just want you to sing to me!"
Jaxon with his Oreo Ice Cream Pie. Have a mentioned that we aren't big cake eaters at our house? This was a hit and oh, so delicious!

Jaxon with his presents. A bigger bike and a bow with arrows.

Happy Birthday, Big Guy!

Kindergarten Rocks!First day of school with the obligatory "picture at your desk". He was so excited for school and is just as excited every single day. He loves it and I love that he loves it!
After school on the first day with his chocolate chip cookies and kool-aid.

School was a big "Two Thumbs Waaaay Up!"

Jaxon's school gives out Builder Slips. I'm sure it has something to do with the Peace Builder program that most schools participate in. They get a Builder Slip if they are caught doing something good. Jaxon is thrilled to get a slip and gets so excited to tell us when he's received on. He's acquired quite a collection of these slips.

Jaxon is doing great in school. He loves his teacher, he loves doing homework, and surprisingly enough when I ask him about school I hear about more than just recess! It will be interesting to see what his teacher says at Parent-Teacher Conferences next week.

How am I handling school? Honestly, it's hard to be so out-of-the-loop. Being there makes me miss school. I miss having a classroom full of kids. I miss planning lessons. I miss teaching. But if I were in the classroom I would miss seeing him off to school everyday. I would miss the one-on-one time after school talking about his day. I would miss being fully invested in his education. And that's just not something I'm willing to miss.

Conversation at Lunch

R:Mom, mom, mommy, mommy, mom!

M: Yes, Ryker?

R: Please snack.

M. Lunch first.

R:butter-honey?

M: Do you want a honey sandwich?

R: Hmmmmm. No.

M:Do you want nuggets?

R: Hmmmm. No.

M:Do you want a corn dog?

R:Dotdog!Yes!

We got the corndog cooked and we were sitting at the table ready for lunch.

R:Mom. Mom. Mom. Mommy. Mommy. Mom. Mommy.

M:What, honey?

R:Da fly.

M:Yep there's a fly.

R:Back. Fly back.

M:Yep. The fly is back.

R: Prayer!

M: Okay, fold your arms for prayer.

R: Bip (dip...which is ketchup) Dat way. (tips it upside down) Dat way. (puts it right side up)

M:Ryker, fold your arms.

R: Dat way. (turns it to the right) Dat way. (turns it so the side is facing him) Prayer! Bip.

M:After the prayer.

We are finally able to say the prayer.

M:Where do you want the dip?

R:No! No! No dip!

M:Do you want me to put it back?

R:Da fly.

M: (acknowleding the fly) Yes. Do you want dip?

R:Mom, mom, mommy, mom!

M: Yes, Ryker?

R: Bip! (pointing to his plate) Da fly! Baseball. Yuck!

It's hard not to laugh at his conversations. They are so completely random! Earlier this week we were driving down the road as a family and Ryker started jabbering. We had no idea what he was trying to tell us, but he was very adamant about what ever it was. Jaxon suddenly says, "Oh, I know what he is saying! He said he wants chicken nuggets from Wendy's!"