Zoo trip

Yesterday Ethan and I took a trip to the zoo with my brother and his family while Matt was in class all day. Although we had a blast, we sure missed having our daddy/hubby! My nieces and Ethan had a great time together! They were holding hands and running and playing and enjoyed looking at all the animals. The kids were zapped by lunch, I would by lying if I said the parents weren't zapped as well! For those of you that frequent the NC zoo, they are adding some neat stuff! We saw construction underway for a huge walkway and tower near the giraffes... we found out that they are adding a giraffe feeding feature! It is supposed to be complete by May 16th, I believe. They are also building a huge bee hive. From what I could gather you can walk through it and the walls will be glass covered and you can watch the bee's in their hive. They are really trying to upgrade the zoo. They recently finished a new elephant exhibit which was nice.
My favorite part of the trip was when the kids walked up to the chimpanzee exhibit. Two chimps came up to the glass and sat right in front of Ethan and my nieces. One of them came up to the glass and knocked on it. It was like the chimps were coming to watch all the humans. The kids loved seeing the monkeys up close and personal! Here are just a few pictures from our trip! (I'm leaving out some adorably cute ones due to the wishes of brother not to have their pictures posted on the web.)

Up close and personal with the chimpanzee
Of course he wanted to get on the truck... that's my boy!

My cutie with the elephants

"Look mommy, an elephant!"

People I love

I have been running around an idea in my head to do some character highlights of people I love on my blog. I am hoping it will help with my blogger's block! When I saw my dear friend Jen who posted a picture of us from Courtney's shower on her blog, I thought to myself, "what better person to start with?!" Jen is one of the sweetest people you will ever meet! She is married and has twin 4 year old girls who are adopted from Kazakhstan. Jen is someone who seems to always have a smile on her face. She has such a sweet tender heart! At a friend's shower who was adopting kids from Russia, I knew before the shower started to pass her a kleenex box! She wears her heart on her sleeve and that makes her beautiful! She would do anything for her friends and has a heart and compassion for adoption and children. Jen helps teach the 3-5 year olds at our church and loves singing with them and teaching them about Jesus! Whenever we are together we are laughing about something!! I am so thankful to be surrounded by people like her! Love you, Jen!!

Blogger's block

My friend Lauren made a comment about me not blogging as much lately. I just haven't had much to say that I felt was blog worthy. Plus I know some of you can relate: when the comments are few and far between you tend not to blog as much. Sometimes you live for the comments on here and that makes you want to write some more. I haven't had many lately, so I just haven't felt compelled to think of blog worthy stories. I have also backed off on taking so many pictures of our son. The child is 2 and has over 10,000 pictures. At this rate we will need an external hard drive for every year of his life to save pictures and video on. So all around I am taking a break.
I will tell you that something i've been thinking about lately is that Ethan is at that stage where he is constantly getting hurt. He looks like a beat up rag doll. He has a shiner due to an injury in the bath tub. He was hitting around a plastic cup and laughing hysterically. I was laughing so hard too that I was almost crying. Well he hit it so hard it bounced off the shower wall and came right back at him and hit him right on the cheek bone below his eye. It bled and welted up and gave him a little black eye. Last night at Matt's softball game Ethan was running around kicking a soccer ball and fell on the cement and scraped his knee all up. As I was cleaning the wound I noticed his little shins are all bruised. I remember my friend Stacy saying that when she took her son to a 2 or 3 year check up she was afraid to show the doctor her son's legs because they were so bruised up. She didn't want them thinking he was being abused! It is just the toddler age where they are running everywhere too fast and playing too hard! And all of you know that my son LOVES to run!! He is like his daddy! I do think at this point he is going to be a soccer player. He loves all sports, loves being outside and loves trucks, excavators and tractors. He is has really become obsessed with playing soccer. A man from our church that was watching the softball game last night commented on how fast of a runner Ethan is and how he can really dribble the ball well for a child his age. I am really looking forward to putting him in a league in the next few years. Of course we will let him choose a sport to play and we will not push him, but I know his daddy would not-so-secretly love for him to be a baseball player. But we'll see.
p.s. I am heading to get an eye exam today and to pick out new glasses. I think I am more excited about this than I should be... ahh, it's the little things in life that get me going!

Little dare devil

We were over at my parent's house for dinner tonight celebrating my mom's birthday. It was getting dark but we headed outside for some play time. Ethan was riding this wagon down mom and dad's driveway. It has quite a slant. After about 5 times Ethan decided on his own to go hands-free! He did it a few times and of course fell over backwards. After a short cry he was back on the wagon riding down the hill. He is such a little dare devil and a tough boy at heart!

It has been quite an eventful week. I am starting to feel a ton better with my tonsillectomy. I had my post-op appointment yesterday and he said I was about 95% healed. Still hurts every time I swallow, but I am doing so much better than I was the first week!
Ethan ran a real high fever for 2 days and now just has some congestion. It is so hard when your baby is sick. He wants to cuddle a lot which is nice, but then he turns into a little devil. He acts out so badly when he is not feeling well. It kills us to punish him but he has to know that this behavior is not tolerated no matter how bad you feel. On a fun note, guess who is in a big boy bed??? He did GREAT with the transition. No problem what-so-ever. That is so nice and a huge relief. I had a feeling he would do well because he goes to bed without a peep and has always been a pretty good sleeper. I was a little nervous about him waking up early and wanting to come out of the bed. The first morning he woke up a little early but instead of getting out he just started jabbering and stayed in his bed. Then because he's been sick he actually slept in until 8:00 the past 2 mornings which has been heaven for us! (Not heaven when he's up for hours in the middle of the night) but I like the sleeping in! Today he was being so silly right before his nap, so we caught a few pictures of that.

Big boy bed, complete with nifty rail to keep my roly poly from falling out. This one comes with a night light and a cup holder. I laughed at the thought of using those, but I actually stuck the cup holder on because he has wanted something to drink the past 2 nights when he got in a coughing spell... actually quite handy! That will be used only when he's sick, he doesn't need a bedside snack shack!
Where's Ethan?

There he is! He discovered he could crawl into his dresser when I was putting some diapers away today.

My silly boy wanted to put on some accessories to play softball...notice the water sandals complete with winter hat and mittens. What a goober. He wore those for like 20 minutes while playing.

Potty talk

*Disclaimer: This post is about potty issues. If you are not comfortable about reading about such issues, then don't read it. If it's any consolation, it is about a toddler, not an adult.

It happened. The one thing that i've heard from other moms that their child has done before, but mine had never done. I have to tell this story because first of all I think it is hilarious. Secondly, it is about my child and I love writing and relating to other moms out there.
It was bath time. Last night I was giving my precious baby boy a bath. He was having a blast playing and laughing and kicking. I was sitting on the floor next to the bath tub leaning against the wall watching him. Then I heard something. My little one had pooted in the bathtub. It had produced some small bubbles so he laughed and I laughed. Then he squeezed again to produce the sound again. He succeeded in doing it again and I just laughed and laughed. So he did it a third time, in which case I said, "alright sweetie, no more pooter poots (that's what we call them) in the bathtub...it's time to get out". Well I know my son has a pleasing heart and he wanted to do it again to make his mama laugh. However, this time there was a little more substance to his action. He pooped in the bathtub. We BOTH looked at each other in disgust. He really didn't mean for it to happen. He pointed to it and said, "that's yucky!" in which case I said, "yes it is". I took care of the "problem", drained the bath, made sure he was cleaned off, and after we got him dried and dressed in his PJ's, I went in a scrubbed the bathtub.

The thing that I find funny in this is that he was really trying to make me laugh. The look on both our faces when the deed had been done was priceless. So anyhow, there it is. I know i've heard of kids doing that before, but I had always happily reported that my precious son had never done that before! Fun times in Motherhood!!!!

Everything I need to know about life...

I learned from my tonsillectomy. While this post isn't that life changing, I have learned a lot the past few days. Here are a few pointers before the main lesson.

1. Hair on your legs still grow at the same rate. So don't think that you can get by without shaving just because you're recovering from surgery.
2. Codeine is a beautiful medicine. It makes you sleep, forgot that you slept, and then sleep some more.
3. Always expect the worse case scenario, that way you can be pleasantly surprised when you start recovering quicker than you expected.

In all seriousness, here is the best lesson I have learned through this and it comes straight out of the bible.
"My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry..." James 1:19

I've really had no choice about how slow to speak this past week. I haven't been able to talk at all for the past 4 days. It has really opened my eyes to a lot of things about me, things in my marriage, and things in parenting. Although we only saw Ethan for a few hours before he was shipped off to the next set of grandparents, the thing about parenting really rang true. I absolutely love the fact that I have been forced not to react. I have learned that for me personally 99% of all my reactions are verbal! I also realized that I am generally a very loud person. The house has been awful quiet the past few days, but it hasn't been because of a missing toddler. It has been because of a missing loud mama's voice! Believe me when I say, that while i've enjoyed this "quiet" time, I am definitely not wanting to take on a life of being mute. "Oh to speak again!" I can count numerous times how something could have been interpreted differently either in my words, tone of voice, or volume in voice when interacting with Matt and Ethan. It is quite true that something as small as the tongue can have such huge power. Your words are persuasive, manipulative and are the way we often communicate emotions. All those times I prayed to become more of a "gentle kindhearted, soft spoken woman of the Lord" are flashing up in my mind. Just think how many times you wish you could have taken something you said back or said in a different way. How quick we are to fire our tongue back or how slow we are to listen. I have been doing a lot of listening the past few days as well. Words are very powerful. Out of the same mouth we sing praises and curse men. Just think how different our community would be if everyone stopped, took time to listen, were slow to speak and slow to become angry. I think a lot of our confrontations would be avoided. This has challenged me for sure!

Post- op thoughts from a drugged up patient

So I pretty much don't remember what i've done the past 3 days. I know i've barely eaten anything. I have now fallen asleep while...icing my neck, checking facebook, and attempting a bible study. I think i've lost about 3 pounds now because I just can't eat. The pain medicine just takes the edge off, it doesn't take the pain away completely. Although it is some really high dosage stuff. This codeine is knocking me out. I do feel like i'm making slow but good progress. Still can't talk. Not sure Matt is liking this aspect anymore because I have to snap my fingers to get his attention. Who likes to be snapped at? No one. I told him to find me a bell and i'll stop snapping. Ha ha! I'm also having crazy dreams and I even think i've hallucinated a few times.
Seriously though, I am blown away about how amazing Matt is being with me. He is waiting on me hand and foot. Bringing me anything I ask for. And is keeping the house clean and doing all the house work. He is lovingly caring for me and it is just such a blessing to have him caring for me. It is also a huge blessing that my parents have taken Ethan for the past 4 days. I could not and don't want to imagine trying to recuperate with him running all around here. I am just blessed by all my friends and family who have helped during this time. Thank you! I may be repeating things in my posts, sorry that would be the drugs talking.

Fun times

There are some ups and downs to this whole tonsillectomy. I sleep the whole day. I get to eat ice cream all I want, but i'm still in so much pain that I don't want to eat anything. Instant weight loss. Expensive surgery. Now the "fun" side affects have really begun: swelling, white pasty slime in my mouth, and horrible breath. But I will never have to deal with what i've been dealing with again because of my nasty tonsil. I've had some amazing friends and family that have blessed me so much. My husband has been awesome. I am just thankful and blessed. Even though sometimes you have to go through some down times before you get to the blessing part! We miss our little boy, but I could not even imagine going through this recovery having a busy 2 year old running around. I am so thankful for close by family that is willing to help out! Here's hoping for a great rest of my recovery!

Tonsillectomy

We left the house at 9:00a.m. yesterday and headed to Duke Raleigh Hospital. We checked in at 9:45 and was surprised at how quickly everything was taking. Then we hit a road block. The outpatient surgeries were backed up. My surgery that was scheduled for 11:45 ended up happening at 12:45. Not too bad of a wait except I kept having to use the little girls room because of all the fluids they had going in my IV. I was nervous but I know a lot of people were praying for me. Matt prayed with me in the waiting room then after a little cry I was fine. I wanted to ask if they had a teddy bear that I could hold, ha ha! But I thought I needed to suck it up! So I did. Next thing I remember is 2 nurses were up by my head "SCREAMING Cheri, wake up Cheri". They probably weren't screaming, but it felt like it. I was in a lot of pain at first and they kept letting me suck on ice chips. But after some more pain medicine and anti-nausea medicine I was good to go. (I threw up a lot when I got my wisdom teeth out, so they were giving me more nausea medicine.) We left the hospital around 4:00. I think. Everything is a bit blurry. I was pretty knocked out. Matt was being so great to me. Waking me up every 4 hours to take medicine and getting me water and some ice cream. I don't think we'll have to buy ice cream for a year because of everyone who brought some for me. Thank you so much! Matt even had a bowl full himself last night. I slept great in the night, just woke up on the dot for pain medicine. I had to ice my throat sometime around 5:30 because I could feel it getting more swollen and making it hard to breathe depending on what position I was lying in. So anyhow, things appear to be going pretty well right now. Keep praying for me, they say day 5 of your recovery is the worse. It has to get a bit worse before it gets better. I am blown away by people's kindness and love. Thank you.