Wrote it, forgot to post it

I wrote this last week! I never did finish all my thoughts but so much has happened that I figured I would just hurry and get this posted just in the name of getting it done! Then we can move on to very exciting things and pictures!

First three days of school! Duncan is having a blast even though he can hardly tell me anything they do and can't tell me any of his friends names. I miss Shelley. :/ I can't wait for the learning how to deal with Dylan is over.
Her new Spec Ed teacher said she is really concerned that she spins in circles and makes herself dizzy. She is worried that she will fall into something. Once Dylan is aware of her surroundings she hardly ever falls into things, dizzy or not. We have a lot of sharp edges at home and unless she trips, she is good to go. She said they are trying to give her the motion stimulation in other ways to get her to stop. Yea... Good luck with that!

Over all she is more interactive than she was last year and they are really noticing. I guess the first day she was really interested in all of the other kids and she was wanting to get close and touch their faces. They had to explain to the kids that it was her way of saying hello. I am sure it acted them to death. Whereas here all the kids are totally used to it and they acknowledge her and maybe give her a kiss (Ian), gently push her out of the way (Duncan) or ruuuuunnn (Asher). Regardless, they are used to it so it's no big deal. Dylan's fascination with the other kids wont last forever, she is just far more interested in other kids when she first meets them.

Ian is disappointed every time Duncan and Dylan go to school and he can't. Poor little guy. Soon, soon.

Last night we asked Ian if he wanted to go downstairs or upstairs to bed and he says downstairs with a P somehow. "powntairs" is about right. So we were saying "duh, duh, duh DOWNstairs" then your turn. "duh, duh, duh POWNstairs!" hmmm... We did it a few times. Then we said, "duh, duh, duh, DOWN!" and he said. "Duh, duh, duh... ... UP!!" and then he goes "hahaha! I said UP!" He thought he was so funny and him cracking up made Matthew and I laugh so hard! Cute little sense of humor!

The boys have been doing as well as can be expected sleeping in their own room together. It takes a bit of time for them to settle down and get to sleep but that's fine as looking as they stay in their beds. Especially a challenge for Duncan since he has a harder time going to sleep anyway. I told Ian to be quiet last night through the intercom thing and he said "no mamma, no mama no, mama no, mamma no" over and over and was saying it when I arrived in his room and scared the crap out of him. I asked if he wanted to come upstairs for bed and he said "noooo" very sadly and I told him he needed to be quiet then. I gave him a kiss and he gave me the tightest hug ever... He kept wiggling his fingers to get tighter, which totally melted my heart.

Ian is such a stinker now as he gets closer and closer to the age of three that it's a good thing he does so many things that are so wicked cute!

Wrestling has officially reached our house. I am not sure how I feel about it even though this is SO just the beginning and it only gets bigger and worse from here! Ian and Duncan wrestle... A lot. And Duncan needs to toughen up. He will wrestle and then start yelling because he has been what sounds like mortally wounded. Then he will chill and go tackle Ian again... Rinse, repeat. I told him he cannot wrestle and then whine, if he want sot wrestle he needs to toughen up and by golly it's working. This is good for general toughen up reasons even aside from wrestling. In the meantime, I imagine increasing frequency of the words "outside or downstairs! " coming out of my mouth.

All the new sheets on! 

Asher and his Woobie

 

First day of school, there were others but this was just awesome.

My cute oral gal looking rather sly.

Labor Day... but not for me!

I know, I KNOW, slacker.

We moved the two big boys downstairs! Finally! Duncan is so easy going and so accommodating. We had a train quilt hanging on his upstairs wall and he kept saying he wanted it to be his new blanket to sleep with. We told him as soon as he moved downstairs he could have it. And well, that's about all it took. It was convenient too because he had a small tied quilt from some random stranger, his bug blanket, that has been his bed blanket since he was tiny. It was definitely time for an upgrade.

Papa Bob came over to help Matthew disassemble the bunk beds and bring them down, we brought the double bed (bottom bunk) and the little toddler bed Ian was sleeping on and left the single (top bunk) upstairs just in case things didn't work out and/or for Asher later. Ian is too little for the bunk beds right now.

The first few nights Ian would come upstairs screaming his head off at 5:30 in the morning and Matthew would get up with him. Matthew is nicer about these sorts of things because I would have stuck him in the single bed up here and let him work it out... So I was hoping that maybe getting him back to sleeping through the night by having him sleep up here, then moving him again would work nicely. So instead of moving him downstairs after he fell asleep, we just moved him to this bed. But alas, he would wake up in the middle of the night and FREAK out. Again, dad would go work with him... I would let him freak out. Well, to be fair, daddy only did this one night and realized how miserable it was.

In the meantime for the last two days we have had him nap in the single bed. He is NOT a fan. And here I thought the upgrade from a pack and play for napping would be nice. So he cries himself to sleep in his big boy bed at nap time.Which is fine...

Last night we got home from Ami's late and I am starting the prep work for Ian to go in his big boy bed and scream himself to sleep and he very clearly tells me "downstairs!". So alas, we have discovered the problem, all along he just wanted to be downstairs... So we put both the big boys to bed at the same time and they went to sleep. He will continue to do the naps and crying bit upstairs though because it's the room we have available for naps! (And, as for today, he hates napping up here... he wants to be downstairs, so he is in there complaining as I type.)

It helped them to peacefully go to sleep that we got a video monitor aiming right on Duncan's bed and he knows it. He had already gotten in trouble on night number one (back when the 5:30 screaming was happening) for going "Ian, Ian, IAN!!" while Ian was staring at the ceiling trying to go to sleep like a very big boy. We were shocked they both went to bed so well last night but it was late and they had big fun at Aunt Ami's so we will see how tonight goes!

The good news is that Ian did not make a 5:30 wake up call this morning, Duncan came up at 7:30 (which is late for him actually) and Ian followed about ten minutes later. No sadness, no crying. Woot woot. One good night down and we shall see! I do love the video monitor though!

Pictures to come as we make the room a little more fun. Right now we just have kind of a big mess down there as we combine the exercise room, office/hobby room and music room. (We combine, haha... Matthew is the one who is doing everything!)

Next step is to move Asher to his own room. Yes, he is still in our room. Once we figure out where Ian will land (peacefully) it will be easy to boot him out. I might miss him though. But, poor guy... can't room with a newborn so out he goes.

Another next step is picking up a twin size bed for Dylan. Likely the top bunk of bunk beds with the railing all the way around. We (again we, haha!) might have to modify it so it is low to the ground since she dives out. She is getting a bit long for her little bed at this point.

Matthew put so much chocolate in the kids milk this morning they didn't drink it, seriously, no one ever listens. (Mini rant.)

Duncan and Dylan start school tomorrow! We went to their orientation to meet their new teachers but Dylan's Special Ed teacher wasn't there. Duncan knew the teachers from last year on the play ground and stuff so it was really no big deal to him. He just ran around the room and played with new toys. Shelley came in to play with Dylan for a minute and talk to her new teachers even though she isn't in that room any more. I have to be honest, the new teachers seemed a bit nervous around Dylan. I guess it's to be expected because people are nervous around new people all the time and her special needs makes things all the more interesting. Shelley sent me a note saying they were excited to have The D's in their class this year because I had shared my thought on them being kind of apprehensive.

Shelley told me that at Ian's age strangers should understand about 60-70% of what he says. I am not sure we understand 60-70% of what he says! Hah! My mom keeps telling me to chill out because all kids are different and I have to be clear, I am not worried!! I just know I have a smart little dude on my hands who is behind on speech and who will LOVE starting preschool when he turns three! We will set something up to have him evaluated in November and see what the deal is.

Duncan is so grown up lately it's really fun. He is coming out of the defiant stage and getting to where you can really have some fun conversations. He told me the other day "that was AWESOME!" and a awesome was in a pitch way up high. Melissa said he will get an opinion next which isn't so fun, but she has girls. Ha! And Duncan is very obedient... It will be Ian we will need to be worried about at 5!

We went to mom's for a Labor Day barbecue on Saturday night and bragged about how we had about 25 delicious peaches on our little tree. Like, melt in your mouth ridiculously yummy peaches and while we were there there was a thundering hailstorm that was insane!!! Pea and marble size hail rained down like snow and, well... There goes our peaches! Noooo!!! Well, it turned out they were okay for the most part but a lot of them have little round bruises just under the skin. Even with the bruises they are seem of the yummiest peaches I have ever had! Matthew really fought me on the fruit tree and he came in and told me how wrong he was. He is loving them and eating them like crazy.

We cashed in on mom's Christmas present and went to Wicked and it was AWESOME! (Think awesome as said really high, winkie!). Really loved it and would so go to it again. It was so amazing you almost feel as if you missed some of it because it was all so stunning. Great girls night out for sure! I bet it was AMAZING on Broadway! (And you can bet those words have never come out of MY mouth before!)

We did labs for Dylan on the new meds and he liver labs came back within range so the new medicine she is on isn't messing with her system which is a good thing. However, she is still having spasms. So we have upped the dose for a week and we will up it again in a couple of days and see if the new higher dose will work. I hate having to give her more medicine but it is what it is. Glad her labs looked good anyway, small blessings.

Duncan and Asher had sore ears, Duncan was complaining and I asked Trina to indulge him because it was so off and on. She took a peek and sure enough she said. It was red. Not infected but probably indeed bugging him. We left and it got better apparently and he is convinced Trina fixed his ear! She is magic. This is a good think for him to believe and I look forward to using her magic powers on him in the future.

People keep asking me if I think this baby is a boy or girl and I have no idea really. No clue. And I am terrible anyway, I was calling Asher a girl name for the last two months he was in my belly. So I fail the 'mother's intuition on baby gender' test. I don't even want to try. I think maybe girl since I am measuring a little smaller, but that doesn't always mean anything. I have been good and not even getting the heart rate from the doctor (which is one thing that lead me to think Asher was a girl). We have lots of cute girl clothes in the family though!

My friend Jessica said something along the lines of "Until you have that cute little boy" and I said "you think it's a boy?" and she said "it's what you have, boys." and I said "I have one girl!" Her response was priceless, she said "Fluke! She came with a boy."

We don't have a short list of names but rather a kind of long one with several that are terrible. Matthew informed me last night that he refuses to look at our name list until I am in labor at the hospital. Since my last labors have taken 12+ hours he seems to think he will have all the time in the world to look things over then. Since this baby is posterior like all of it's siblings were, he might be right.

My very accommodating easy boy in his new bedroom with a freshly laundered new train bed quilt.

\Happiness! (Albeit blurry happiness)

I guess they learn early to eat the middle out of the cookies? I laughed when I looked over and it was Asher and a boatload of cookie carcasses. 

Early morning TV. Asher is a snuggler and, as the most affectionate of our kids, Ian is happy to oblige

Feeling hot hot hot! (And so, SO lazy!)

Big blog slacker! I have been a week bit slacking lately because I usually blog when the kids all go down for their naps and instead I have been napping! Or making an attempt to anyway. Or just laying in a big pile. It's been so nice having everyone on the same nap schedule for this last little while. Well, except Dylan who sets her own schedule, she will hang out with me for a little while and then I will put her in her room where she will play, fall asleep, and then play again. I usually get a quiet hour or two to myself.

And, it's too freaking hot! My word. I thought it was the air conditioner not being able to keep up with the windows in our family room (which it was for a little stretch in there) but now that it's actually keeping up nothing has changed. I ask other people in the house if it's hot and every tells me no, it's just me. For Pete's sake, I move and I break out in a sweat! I have to get all my chores done in the morning (if at all...) and then lay around doing nothing. Cooking is pretty much off the table too. So funny that I thought it was really hot and it's just me. Oh well! Yay for the hottest summer ever!

The weekend before last we went to the cabin and Ami snapped some family pictures for Michael and Megan to take with them. It was the usual plan, 6-8 people jumping up and down, making funny faces and noises, and yelling while Matthew and I tried to hold still with the same silly smiles on our faces. Wouldn't you know, there was one where everyone looked GREAT except for me! I mean really? Not that I expected to look amazing at this particular time but come on! When Matt saw it he said "Awwwe, you ruined Christmas!" so I had to be a pain and get the originals from Ami and fix it up a little. Turned out okay, glad we always have Ami for more opportunities, getting a family picture is kind of a joke!

When in Lake Powell Ian picked up a bracelet of McKell's somehow and bless this kid, he likes to accessorize. He loves hats and bracelets! This thing is kind of bulky and hard to get long sleeve shirts on and off, and a battle for us to take off, so, I went back to high school for a minute and made him his own hemp bracelet that he won't have to take off, ever... Though they are hard to knot so it's not going to last forever. Good thing I have mad friendship bracelet skills.It does look pretty cute on him and if you ask him about it he will point to each bead one at a time and go "blue blue blue". Duncan wants one too but I am so not motivated because I know he won't keep it on longer than ten minutes, and that's being generous.

Dylan is at her full dose of the new med and she is still having occasional spasms. I don't know if it has to build up or what, but it stinks. She doesn't seem to mind, and I suppose that's good. We take her in to the lab on Friday to get a draw. I guess if everything looks good from there we watch for spasms and then wean her off the older med.

Dylan also went to the Ophthalmologist last week. Matthew took off work to take her. I warned him that they are long appointments. The previous doctor always ran late, they would get you in a room and he would come check her out, then they would give her drops to dilate her eyes and send you back into the waiting room. Then you would have to get back in a room! She saw a new doctor this time on account of her last one moving. Matthew called me on the drive home to tell me she recommended glasses for Dyl's wonky eye. So I asked him what I would have asked the doctor... Does she have a significant prescription to have Dylan notice that they glasses are helping? (Hello, Dylan will eat glasses, come on...) and I also asked if she was losing eye sight in her wonky eye. Last appointment the last Dr. Eye and I decided that, since she was working hard to use both eyes and her eye sight wasn't effected we would wait on glasses. Especially since wonky eye only shows up when she is sick or tired.

Matt told me he had no idea, those would have been great things to ask.

So I called and left a message for Dr. Eye and she called me back that night. She was really nice, I liked her. She said her prescription was very very low, and not enough to make a difference. She agreed with the plan to wait on glasses (thank heavens) and said we should follow up in three months. Which will likely be more like 5 or 6 if I have anything to do with it. What is it with Ophthalmologists wanting to becomes BFFs with their patients? The one time I had to see one I swear he wanted to see me (or my money) weekly!

Other than that though, everything looked great, her optic nerves looked swell. Dylan hated every second apparently... Matt said she was very fun and nice and sweet until it came time for the doctor to do her thing and Matthew ended up holding her down. Yay for dads!

Asher had his well-child check and that was completely uneventful. He is pretty darn typical. Short and sweet, just the way we like appointments. He is all set on the flu shot too, first in the family. He was not a fan of the two pokes he got, but he was very tough. He's a mini, around the 40th percentile in height but he was under the 25th last time! We will take it! his weight is 22.2lbs, which is about the 8th percentile, he is so skinny!

Little blond trouble maker

Yup, totally cheated. Look how cute Dylan is in this!

What? Doesn't everyone eat pudding this way?

Finally painting a wooden train Duncan got for Christmas. We have two more where this came from! He did really well and was so worried about his shirt he had me take it off. Not sure what I was so afraid of. Maybe the others will come out sooner rather than later.

Bye Kiko and Meggie!

This week we are saying goodbye (again) to Michael and Megan as they move away for a minimum of 9 months while he goes to Moscow, Idaho for his first year of law school. The name even sounds cold doesn't it?? It's a 10 hour drive from here and I am sure they will have a small apartment, but we might have to plan a little party crasher at some point! I am sure it's beautiful up there. We will miss them! We will miss Ownie (Ian's name for Owen) and we will miss the new baby! Boo hooooo! I am sure it will go faster than we know it. It's been so fun having Owen and Asher only 4 weeks apart and these new babies will be three weeks apart so they better come home soon!

Duncan and Ian went swimming with Aunt Ami last Friday. One of Matthew's cousins has a big hill in their back yard and they pull out a huge tarp looking thing of plastic and make an enormous slip and slide. While Ian was a little reluctant to go, he warmed up quickly in the car (Ben was so cute he said "I will sit next to him and make him happy." Sweet), and was just fine when they got there. Ami sent me a picture to my phone of both boys playing happily on the slide. They love their Aunt Ami, she is a party Aunt!

Last night we went to the cabin and I am not sure what is so exhausting about the cabin but man, I am DONE after a couple of hours. It's small, especially for that many people, so it's a wee bit crowded. It is far from being Asher and Dylan proof too... and the door doesn't lock closed, it just pushes open. It's especially a challenge because of some people's aversion to the spring to keep it closed so its just kind of open half the time. Asher loves being stopped and redirected every time he gets near it, let me tell you!

We did learn Matthew is a terrible shot with a bow and arrow as apparently he asked Brandon nicely to shoot it and an arrow went flying off into the wilderness instead of coming anywhere near the actual (not small...) target they were all aiming for! So he tried again with some help and nope, way off again. Matthew said it solidified that he definitely did not need a bow and arrow (a bone and arrow according to Duncan) like all the rest of the guys. Okay by me because I was in charge of all four of the kids while he was off looking for the random lost arrow! Maybe in a few years when everyone find a new hobby he can pick up that one. As for now, the kids can't be trusted by themselves and apparently neither can Matthew!

Duncan did not go to school at all this last week with Dylan so he missed out on those few summer school days entirely. Bummer! He loves school but I told him if he woke up screaming about his sore throat one single time the night before then he was too sick to go. Man I wanted to send him though. Bad mom? I still didn't!

Wednesday when I got there Ms Debi came to get Dylan and told me that, at three in the morning, she sat straight up in bed wondering where we were going to put another car seat! She is so funny. We have another seat but having it up eliminates access to the three seats in the back row so honestly, we have no idea what we are going to yet! We might have to look at a big old transport van! Each kid with their own row sounds pretty nice when you spend any amount of time in the car with Ian and Duncan let me tell you. Nice of her to think of us though! I told her we may have gotten a ittle ahead of ourselves here! Plenty of time to think about right? Right??

Dylan started her new meds five days ago and I think I can already tell a difference. I was driving in the car and I saw her having the spasms and it appeared that only her eyes were effected. They went all wonky and crazy for a second but I tried to watch her limbs to see if they also jerked and either couldn't tell or it didn't look like it. We up her dose today to the middle amount. She really seemed out of it at the cabin last night, almost tipsy, and I hope it was her having just woken up or something and not the meds. It would be the first time we noticed her being like that in the five days so I am hoping she was just in a weird mood.

She has been funny about getting your attention lately. If you are standing at the counter and she wants you she will try to push half of you away from the counter so you will turn to face her. She will even take both hands and grab you to turn. It's cute... annoyingly awesome. She was actually trying to do it to Duncan the other day and he was telling her no, and getting a little irritated and I told him she was just trying to get him to talk to her. So he looked at her and said "Dylan! BOO!" and she did a huge open mouth grin at him. He was pretty impressed with himself.

That's about all that's fit to print (and even that is qestionable).

Tickle fest with Uncle Kiko

She loved it... it looks a little like torture here, but it was fun, I promise.

Might take zooming in to see how glistening his hands were from his first Tootsie Pop ever! What a mess!

Hello impossible task, how are you? Group picture, fail. 

But this one is cute! (Cuter if it wasn't blurry right?)

We LOVE trains. Someday Duncan is going to work and make lots of money, what is he going to do with the money you ask? Why buy more trains! Of course! 

When Duncan thinks he's dying and more

Matthew took Duncan on the family trip to Lake Powell this last week and I stayed home with the three littles. It worked out great. Since most of my time is managing the two older boys fighting each other it was almost even peaceful! The boys got back a day early from Powell arriving late Monday night instead of Tuesday afternoon. We missed them!

Asher was a big old mess last Thursday, he was so sad, and he looked just terrible so I decided to take him to the doctor to make sure nothing too bad was wrong (I should mention three cousins just had strep!). He had a terrible fever that I was watching all night and Ibuprofen just wasn't cutting it. That is not typical for my kiddos, and we had no Tylenol in the house! His cute little skinny body looked adorable in just a diaper sleeping next to me though. We went and the NP said his throat had all kinds of blisters all over the back of it and it was either hand, foot and mouth or Strep. While Asher is a little young for a Strep test they decided to do one anyway. The NP said she was shocked the test came back negative because it looked so bad. Poor baby!

She gave me a script for a compound mouth wash that has four ingredients in it. I was to slightly water down and spray in the back of his throat to numb the sores. So I had a bit of running around to do while finding someone who would mix this up (took way too long...) and Target finally worked for us. BUT, that also took way too long. I am not sure I want to go in Target again for a LONG time! Managing grumpy, hungry kids in a store for that long? Bad! Dylan was even getting impatient and trying to stand up in the cart!

Cue a call from Matthew from Lake Powell, talking about how sick Duncan was and how bad his throat hurt. Duncan's a... well... okay, I will just say it... he is a bit of a wimp. So I can only imagine what his company would be like if the back of his throat was covered with blisters! So I told Matthew to check the back of his throat and it's just a virus so they have to just dope them up and ride it out.

When they got home from Lake Powell I was ready to send Duncan back! You would think the kid was dying, DYING every time he swallowed! So just in case it was strep we headed of to the Doctor again to have him checked. Strep was negative and there were two, TWO blisters that the doctor cold see. TWO! And Asher's throat was covered??? Really?? Apparently my sisters looked and said they had seen a couple so stop giving him the benefit of the doubt here and thinking they just wet away! (Yea, I know you were doing it.) Oh my word. Meanwhile Asher is fine and last night every time Duncan woke up he was screaming bloody murder waking everyone in the house up because it hurt to swallow. Please tell me he will never get sick again... please? Give me a break! And my sweet, adorable husband is just way too nurturing for Duncan's own good!

We are needing to start the new seizure medicine Depakote because Dylan is having spasms kind of regularly again. Bummer, but we were ready and it was bound to happen. I called and we have to get a baseline measurement on a few things, including liver function, since that's what Depakote can effect. So there I was, with all three of my littles headed up to the Children's Hospital! Thank goodness for handicap parking, we only use it when we really need it and this qualified! I used the old stroller because I needed to strap them in while I was tending to Dylan so Dylan was in the front and I laid back the back seat and buckled Asher in then slipped Ian in behind him. (Just an FYI here do not pull Dylan out first when they are like this because it's a little back heavy and whoopsie! Back it goes! Tipped back stroller ad two cute boys wondering why they were all of a sudden on top of each other! Hope no one was looking!)

Dylan was good for her draw, she got mad, but didn't really cry cry. Thankfully they got it in one poke! Yes! Her right arm is her lucky arm!

After the lab it was taking Paula a bit of time to get back to me on the meds. Hmmm... She was leaving me messages that she was working on it and had to talk to Dr. Neuro to make sure they were going to go forward as planned. So when I finally talked to her, just yesterday, she said Dylan's liver numbers were a little high. She said normal was 5-35 and Dylan was at 45. I am not sure what this means. She said it could be Dylan's baseline though and 45 is a lot different from, say 135, so slightly elevated isn't a huge issue. This forced me to wrack my brain on what Holoprosencephaly had to do with the liver since I had Dr. Ped order a liver test early on because I had read something about it. I found what I was looking for, it's not Holoprosencephaly that is the issue for the liver but rather the missing SHH gene. It can cause fatty liver, something in that gene protects the liver. So I also passed on this information, causing Paula to also probably have to place a call to genetics.

She talked to me about the Depakote sprinkles but because Dylan is tub fed, it's not a good match because it can clog the tube. There is a suspension but you actually have to give it four times a day (FOUR!), not great, but not a huge issue, we would do it if we needed to. She is also looking into whether or not a time release capsule can be crushed and given through the tube. So we are on hold here and have Paula running around for us again.

Okay - Before I could get this published she called back and we have a plan. We will be getting the pills and crushing them. We will be increasing the dose slowly after five days at a time and we will be going back to do the labs and check her liver and levels on the 24th. Once she is established on this we will start weaning her from the Zonegran. Hopefully one of my sisters will be available to watch the boys when I take her up there, three was fine once... let's not push it.

Dylan had an appointment with Dr.Endo on Tuesday. I was a little afraid that Matthew wouldn't get back from Powell on time to take her and I would have to take all three but phew! So he took and as usual, I have no idea the full extent of what was said. Love not going, don't love not knowing. Apparently her growth has slowed since we stopped giving her her daily poke of growth hormone. Matthew said I am getting my wish that she is small. Woohoo.

I guess there is some concern about muscle mass and her getting chubby without the steroid shot to help with building the muscle but she is doing superbly well in the weight area right now. (Woo hoo! Always a struggle with tube few kids! Managing weight!) She has finally crested 30 lbs and weighs in at a whopping 30 lbs 6 oz. Not too shabby. She looks good too. We are hoping that, because she is so active, we won't have an issue with her chubbing up. This also makes me happy because I try to squeeze in a little food at night to help with her weight since we haven't been able to increase he food for months! She is still not on the 'typical' charts for a 4 year old. This is SO okay by me! Her BMI is the highest it's ever been on the toddler chart at 16.4.

No labs either! A concern of mine since I had just taken her in to get a draw.

Dylan had school on Monday but Duncan stayed home on account of, you know, him dying and all. But I think he will be able to go on Wednesday. He was a little sad to have missed it. I guess Dylan had a good day at school and apparently I shocked Ms. Debi who had no idea I was pregnant. I guess that would be a shocker... maybe the last time they had school a couple of weeks ago she just thought I was having a fat day?

This is blue... of blue, black and brown fame. He has to have this or black at all times... it's driving me NUTS! Really. He will stop in his tracks and go "Booo!" Like, how dare we go on with our lives not knowing where blue is?!

Ahhh, toilets...

I suppose it was bound to happen... Something got flushed down the toilet. Something that doesn't belong in the toilet!
Asher makes a mad dash for the toilet and the dog water any time he sees the appropriate doors left open. I mean, mad dash. One year olds are surprisingly fast. He will play and splash and have a great time, much to my horror. One day Duncan told me he pulled a few things out of the toilet and left them on the counter for me. Toys, like some legos and a cup and a car. There were four things that day, if I remember correctly. And there were a couple other occasions. So now we know not only does he like to play but he likes to put things in the water. Yay!

Good thing he can't flush and I have trusty little Duncan to let me know when something is in the toilet that doesn't belong.

So last Tuesday Duncan tells me that he pulled a sock out of the toilet and left it on the counter. Sure enough, he had. a gross soaking wet sock. Thanks Duncan!

When Matthew got home he went to use the facilities and realized that the toilet was flushing slowly. He could hear the water going through and indeed it would flush, but at a trickling pace. He asked me if anything got flushed and I told him I didn't think so because Duncan had pulled out a sock so I don't know why he wouldn't pull anything else out if it was in there. Matthew, ever so trusting and giving Duncan the benefit of the doubt, thinks maybe something slipped under and Duncan couldn't see it but definitely do not use that toilet.

We then asked Duncan, again, (who was quietly playing Legos at the table) if there was anything in the toilet other than a sock and we got a very blank stair. And a "maybe one of these..." but then a very blank stare again. Not sure what to make of this...

This brings me to another story. When we finished the basement in this house it came down to choosing a toilet. There is quite the variety of toilets out there so after many visits to the home improvement store and much time spent contemplating Matthew asked my opinion. He made me go TO the store. I don't care about toilets!! Turns out I did... There were toilets in the store labeled "comfort height" because they are a few inches taller for taller people I guess. So all of a sudden I do care... I told him "Get whichever toilets you want as long as they aren't those 'comfort height' toilets!" So what does he come home with? Yep, three very tall toilets. Not only one for downstairs but he brilliantly decided to replace every toilet in the house. Yay! Do you know that I am short? My feet don't touch the ground when I sit on the toilet (not kidding) not to mention we have lots of kids to potty train that will now have to stand on a stool to void until the ripe age of five. (To this day he claims he never heard me say I didn't want them!) FYI - During this ordeal, Michael admitted his feet also do not touch the ground! Comfort height my patooty!

Back to where we were... and me excited at the prospect of a new toilet! (This time I WILL have more of a say!)

So at about 10:00 at night Matthew turns off the water and pulls the toilet. Thank goodness for handy husbands! I can't imagine having to call the plumber!

He found the problem... and no, it was nothing that couldn't be seen. It was a Duplo block, but not any Duplo. An EIGHT by TWO Duplo! A big long one! Like... long. So it was stuck in the back of the toilet where the water bends and curves. ARRRGGGHH!

Yay teamwork right? At least my boys can work together! And sad, no new toilet. Just a new $1 wax ring.

That is about all of the excitement for this week!

This weekend Matthew and Michael spend all of the waking hours over at Shanon and Tracy's house putting in their sprinkling system. Woo hoo right? What a way to spend a couple days in the hot HOT sun. They really took one for the team!

I always planned on not marrying a golfer because they are gone all day any time they possibly can. And I knew I didn't want that so yay, Matthew! No golfing! It didn't take me long to figure out that even if they don't golf they tend to fill up all their free time with something. For Matthew that is, most of the time, helping other people. He is so great, very willing to help anyone who needs help with anything they need, regardless of what he might have been planning. So, yes, with short notice... I was out a husband for most of the weekend.

I did, however, gain a Megan and she picks up all the toys on the floor when she comes over which I think is pretty dang awesome. See, she doesn't charitable service too!

In fact, we had the opportunity to watch Owen and Asher fight over Dylan's toy vacuum cleaner. It was pretty great since they are both so little and cute, and demanding! To be fair, Owen did have the vacuum first but the yelling and pulling back and forth was too cute to resist! We laughed at them for a few minutes and then Megan distracted Asher with a different toy, to which Owen noticed, dropped the vacuum and came running over for the new toy.

Dylan has been crawling in her bed to fall asleep more and more these days and it's adorable every time it happens because it's such a surprise. More often than not she passed out right in the middle of the floor somewhere but I love it when I peek in and she has passed out in her bed. She knows where she is supposed to sleep! It's the cutest thing ever. She has been such a doll lately wanting to come see people and smile at them. I was foot mopping the floor the other night and she was following me around everywhere trying to get my attention.

It's been such a slow week I don't even have any pictures! My bad!

Boo to Asia!

Wow! Big slacker on the blog eh? With good reason! My loving, kind, nurturing husband ran off to Asia! Fortunately that's the name of a place, and not a woman right? He was gone for a while entire week and I have just been wallowing in my sorrow and not blogging at all. Boo hoo. We like it a bit better when daddy is home, not only is he SUPER helpful, he is a likable kind of guy! Make no bones about it, I wouldn't have this many kids this quickly if he wasn't a fantastic partner. So when he is missing? Oye.

I had a bit of relief though. My sisters and mother-in-law took Duncan swimming a couple of times. They picked him up and made sure he was a fish and not a stone and he LOVED it. It was good for him to get out of the house for a little bit. Melissa also brought me fuel one night in the form of a slurpee and my mom and Michael and Megan brought over dinners.

Really funny, when my mom got here the boys came up from down stairs. Both mom and Bob were behind the couch and Duncan went one way and says "Grandma!!!!" and Ian went running around the other "Papa!!!!" Later at night my mom took a butter knife away from Ian and he flopped to the side in her lap with his arms straight up. He was looking around, looking very angry and quite pitiful. Then he heard Bob's voice and he said "My papa..." Sadly. Like, come save me, grandma is so mean. He is very clever. We are in trouble with him.

Ian continues to be pretty dang incredible with his letters. We were in Walmart and he said "P, r, i, c, e" from the sign, little letters and all. Part of it is the iPad, it's a game changer as my mom says, and part is that he LOVES the show Super Why which is a kids show on PBS. For Duncan it was Wow Wow Wubzy and for Ian it's Super Why. He would watch it all day long if I let him. They go through the alphabet a lot and they spell words, learn rhyming and some sounds. He is all over it. It's no excuse for watching TV or the iPad, but I guess if he is going to do either they should be educational while they do it. I have said it before though, I will say it again, some kids like cars, trucks, tractor or dinosaurs... that kid just loves his letters! random!

Catching up a little, we did our third annual Front Yard of Fire on the fourth of July. It's a night where we potluck (like usual family events) Matt fired up the grill and he spends a ridiculous amount of money on things you light on fire that take all of a few minutes to burn out. He loves it. He loves to entertain. Yes, I read everywhere how irresponsible it was to be lighting fireworks when there are so many fires around this season and we decided to be completely inconsiderate of fellow man and go for it anyway! We were punished.

Toward the end of the show one of the fireworks tipped over and started shooting things right into the crowd. Everyone grabbed kids and went running. Nothing was going to light on fire but there were a few surface wounds... not to mention a nice big dry patch on our lawn. Needless to say for the final two fireworks the men took the advice that one of the city fire marshalls had given on the news that morning and propped the fireworks up with bricks. (Yes, this information had been passed on earlier, but really... do you think they would do it right of the bat? No. Of course not.)

Asher was being so crazy trying to run all over and get in the way and play with fire that during the show I actually penned him up. Yea, I totally did. I went and got the pack n play for him to chill in and surprisingly, he didn't seem to mind.I was dying because Lanie was just happily playing on a blanket and no one could hold and contain Asher!

Asher is cutting all four of his canines at the same time so he has been super delightful. It's not terrible, it's just not that great. Asher was walking by and Michael said "Asher!" as he was walking by and Asher just growled and kept walking. Fortunately when Michael put his arms out and called him over he came over but growling? Ha!  He makes me laugh. We have also gotten to the point where he will flip his lid if you offer him a drink but he can't hold the cup (or, you know... the Capri Sun that he will squish and squirt all over everywhere). Flip out as in yell and walk away throwing stuff. Yay!

Duncan and Dylan had school on two days of last week as part of her ESY program and they loved it. In fact, she was so worn out on the first day that when we came home she slept for four hours straight! Her teachers said she grew five inches and I am sure they are also enjoying her long reach and ability to create quite a mess by pulling everything off shelves and tables. They will have two more days in a couple of weeks and then off for a couple of weeks until school starts again (though I am not sure when that is... end of August maybe?) Ian just wanders around the house going "where bruddah?" when he is gone.

Watching Ian with Dylan is adorable. Like ridiculous. He always brushes her hair back from her face (or attempts to) and pats her. He LOVES his Dylan. "Diddie toot" or "Diddy pitty" frequently come out of his mouth. He also has figured out if he puts his hand flat on her and wiggles it it tickles her and she will laugh so when I am doing her stuff and she is laying down he will come over and tickle or pat her. He is very nurturing. I think Duncan loves her too, he asks about her and likes to keep tabs on her, but it's a little different because she is always kind of there. Duncan even said he was going to marry her the other day, he also says he will marry me, we will work on that later. Dylan might need her brothers to take care of her someday so it warms my heart to see this!

My old man had a birthday! To celebrate we had him grill for us! Yay!

Asa got a helmet, and like, it's like, one of the cutest things I have ever seen. Matt even put ears on him just for fun. Clearly he has no idea what the excitement is about.

Aunt Ami at FYOF - All my pictures of Asher look like he is trying to devise a way to escape. This one included.

And that's why we penned him up!

This one wasn't too bad (it's the phone...) but it didn't last long. A for effort.

I got one of those value packs in the mail and Duncan wanted at it. He had lots of fun cutting out all the "tickets!" He is concentrating! (Oye at the hair, he just got a hair cut and once again looks like someone loves him.)