Picnic Friday

The boys and I have been spending so much time outside, and we ate outside for lunch again on Friday under the tree out front. Jacob enjoys his picnics, and it's nice to just spend hours outside in the morning without having to sweat to death! I am already looking forward to fall now, remembering all of my great times with Jacob the past few years, and getting to enjoy two boys for the first time this fall.

After naps, we headed to the grocery for a few things, and then enjoyed dinner together as a family - since Bob works so much, he is only home for dinner 3 nights a week. I love and treasure the nights we can all eat together.

Afterwards, we went on a long walk around the neighborhood. Jacob wanted to ride in the double stroller, which hasn't happened in a while, and it was nice to talk for a while with him about everything he saw in the neighborhood. He has been really interested at the hitch concept and how trucks and cars can pull things, so he pointed out all of those. Joshua took a much needed nap in the fresh air.

After the walk, Jacob and Daddy rode their bikes around the neighborhood a little while, and then both boys got a much needed bath and bed time! Fresh air knocks us out!

Finger Painting Fun

Thursday was more beautiful weather, and we have been so happy this week to have mild weather after such a horrible stretch of the 90 degree humid days! We have been outside so much!

Jacob and Joshua have woken up at 6:45 or 7 every day this week, which has been nice (and tiring) because we can really take advantage of the weather. We've rode our bike, played in the sandbox, ran around the backyard, taken walks.

Thursday, after naps, I set up Jacob to finger paint in the front yard. Our front yard is the only place we have shade, and I just set us up there so Joshua stays nice and cool whenever we aren't running around.

Joshua got to roll around and play while Jacob painted.

Jacob enjoyed his "finger markers" as he called them. He instantly wanted purple finger paint, so we learned about mixing colors together to make the colors he wanted. It's so fun to see him understand older concepts. He created three works of art for Daddy to bring to work.


Daddy got home soon after the painting and reminded us that Rally's opened. They have been building a Rally's in front of Meijer for a long time, and Jacob has been watching it closely and wanting to go there and eat. I had never been to a Rally's, but we promised him as soon as it opened we would take him there.

Jacob was excited to eat at "that white building" and we ordered ice cream, fries and enjoyed eating outside. Jacob was thrilled that Rally's has chocolate ice cream. McDonald's only had a vanilla cone, and Jacob always tells me to find him a place that sells chocolate. The other day, he told me, "see mommy, you looked and looked and found me a place that sells chocolate." He is so sweet.

After our Rally's fun, we headed home and got ready for our very first ever parent meeting for Jacob's preschool. Jacob and Joshua played with my parents while we were gone. Joshua decided to take a few further moves towards crawling while we were gone, too!

We are thrilled with our preschool teachers. We bought Jacob's tote bag, and he was so excited when we brought it home.

That night, I explained to Jacob that some kids might cry when their parents leave them at school, and that he doesn't need to worry and the kids just might not know how fun school is and that their mommys are coming right back. So, now Jacob tells us that "those silly kids just don't know school is fun!" I'm hoping this attitude stays on the first day when we drop him off.

Preschool Meet and Greet

Jacob had his preschool meet and greet on Wednesday. My mom took the day off and we headed to the zoo in the morning. It was great weather and we had a blast having Grandma with us for the day.

The meet and greet was at 2 in the afternoon, which isn't ideal for a toddler, so we had to skip a nap. Jacob was exhausted that night, but he held up alright and had a great time. Here is my handsome man before we left for school.

We had to change his plaid shorts because they are way too big now that he has ditched his diaper. He had a great time and really enjoyed playing with all the kids. We realized that out of the 16 kids in his class, only 4 are girls. Looks like it's going to be a very active preschool class. The boys enjoyed playing cars, dinosaurs, and sticking monster trucks in the play washer and dryer. Jacob made some friends, and had a blast. He's been talking about school a lot now, and is very excited to get started.

I can't believe he is old enough to go to preschool!

It's Too Hot!

I cannot believe this weather! It is just so hot, and it's sad that I think it's a good time to play outside when it's "only 90." We live in Indiana, not Texas! Poor Jacob has been stuck inside so much because of this heat - it's even too hot to let him play in the water, especially with Joshua not being able to stand the heat as much as his older brother.

This morning I was woken up with little Jacob running into our room, holding his stuffed Lightning McQueen. He jumped into bed with me and slept there for another hour. Then we had some breakfast and went grocery shopping.

Bob had to work tonight, so I was on my own with the kids for the evening. I love seeing the boys get to the stage where they start interacting. Joshua is 7 months old, and has now started saying his version of Jacob. It's more a specific noise he makes for his brother, but it's just so darn cute! They sat and played cars together, and I loved being able to play with both boys at once and have us all interacting together.

Dinner was some shake n bake chicken, and Joshua was an angry baby right before dinner so I had to hold him through the meal. He was blowing raspberries like crazy, and got Jacob laughing so hard he was drooling juice and he peed his pants a little bit. It was so funny to see them laughing back and forth at each other. Joshua was kicking his feet like a crazy man with excitement when he was watching Jacob. After dinner, I took the boys to get some ice cream (sorry, Joshua, you just get to watch for now!) and then we walked around the neighborhood a little bit before Bob got home for his dinner break around 7:30. Baths and bed time!

Love these boys more and more each day!

jacob - 3 years old

tonight, jacob told us on the car ride home:
"when i get oder (older), i will take my purple car and drive joshua to mickey donalds for an ice cream cone that doesn't drip."
bob asked him where he was going to get his money.
"from mickey donalds. they will give me money."

jacob has been in a big joke phase. tonight - "why did the chicken cross the road? to get a pop and a map."

he loves his brother, loves to make you laugh, loves that he is smart (he always tells us he knows his letters and numbers) and that he is going to start school soon.

just wanted to write these few things down before going to bed tonight and forgetting how funny jacob was tonight!

Broken Elbow

We had quite possibly the WORST week as parents.

Saturday, April 30 was actually a great day. My parents came down and watched the kids so Bob and I could clean out the garage. After their naps we got a lot done, spent a lot of time as a family and had such a great night.

Then, right before bedtime, I picked up all the toys in the living room and vacuumed. Jacob LOVES when I vacuum because everything is off the floor and he feels like he has a ton of space to run. So, we goofed around for a long time chasing each other and pretending to be different animals. Finally, I knew we were done, so we stopped running and I laid down on the ground flat. Jacob just stood up on my back and hopped off. Something he has a done a million times, and definitely not a far jump (just a matter of inches!). He caught himself wrong, and started SCREAMING. We have NEVER heard him scream like that, and I instantly knew his arm was broken.

Jacob kept complaining that his wrist was what was hurting. We iced his wrist and kept it still, not knowing the whole time it was actually his elbow. We couldn't get him calmed down, so I ran next door and our neighbor watched Joshua until my parents made it down. I was originally just going to take Jacob to the ER until my parents came and Bob could join us, but Jacob needed someone to hold his arm still. He never stopped screaming the entire time. It was the worst feeling in the entire world, and even worse when he kept saying, "I can't do it, I can't do it!" I think the pain was so terrible for him that he just didn't know what to do.

We rushed to St. Francis, which luckily is just around the corner from our house. Again, luckily our pediatrician is through them so all of our information was already loaded and we didn't have to go through paperwork. They got us in and out within two hours, and were so wonderful taking care of us and putting him before everyone else because of his age. Even the doctor thought it was his wrist at first from the swelling, but we found out it was in fact his elbow that was fractured. They put a splint on him, gave him a prescription for the pain, and we were on our way.

Sunday we had to lay low as he got use to his arm in a sling and was on pain medicine all day.

Monday morning I called and got him into a pediatric orthopedist at Peyton Manning Children's Hospital. On the way, Jacob started saying his belly hurt, and I knew right away he had an ear infection. If he has an ear infection and we are in the car, he throws up. Sure enough, he throws up all over himself. We had to strip him down in the waiting room, and my mom ran to Target for us and bought us new clothes. They did more xrays to make sure they weren't missing anything, and put a cast on his arm from his wrist to his shoulder. Jacob wanted a pink cast, but we talked him into his second choice of purple. We still have to wait until Monday when we go back for another round of xrays to see if he needs to have surgery on his elbow or not. Keep Jacob in your prayers.

Because he threw up, we made an appointment at our pediatrician for that afternoon to get his ears looked at. They didn't see an infection, so we went home.

Fast forward to Wednesday, he seemed fine all day and then started screaming at night. I took him to an urgent care for the first time ever, and they said he has so much fluid in his right ear that they were sure his eardrum would rupture. He also had his first fever ever, registering at 100 degrees. We are surprised we made it this far without a fever. Jacob was miserable, and I have spent every night sleeping on the floor in his room since Sunday to make sure he's okay. Sometimes he rolls funny on his arm, and it's been easier for me to sleep in there and jump up and readjust him than to have him wake all the way up. He's doing really well with his cast now, though, so in a few nights I'll probably go back to our room. Whenever Jacob is sick or needs us, we stay in his room instead of bringing him in our bed...he loves his bed and I love that he sees it as a safe place, so we keep it that way and just stay in there with him if he needs us for things like this.

Anyway, this ear infection made us decide tubes were absolutely necessary. So, we called his ENT doctor, who is also through St. Francis, and unfortunately he was in Mooresville's office on Thursday. So, off to Mooresville we went. He agreed that he thought the eardrum would rupture, and we are now scheduled for surgery on May 20. Jacob's eardrum hasn't ruptured yet, and we are hoping we caught it just in time. It's crazy that his ear went from not showing the infection yet and two days later being so bad that we are afraid of it rupturing.

So, poor kid has had a rough week, and we feel terrible watching him be in pain. Jacob is getting pretty good at getting around with his cast and he truly doesn't complain ever. I think this whole ordeal has really shown us Jacob's personality, and we couldn't be prouder of him. We see how determined he is to do things on his own even with his cast. He doesn't ask for help and wants to try to do everything himself. He doesn't ask us how to do things and you can see the wheels turning in his head when he tries to figure out how to do things without his right arm (yes, it was his right arm and he's right handed...just can't catch a break). He's just so positive through all of this and is just such a joy to be around despite the hand he's been dealt. I wish we didn't have to see this side of him at such a young age, but we are so proud of his outlook and how he handles situations and how he knows that everything is going to be just fine.

Jacob, we love you more than anything and we are just so thankful that all of this is fixable and we will have our healthy baby back very soon. Crossing our fingers we get good news on Monday at the orthopedist.

Randoms

I clearly have been terrible at keeping up with this, which means our family will have few details of how life is like right now to look back on, especially since I haven't even touched Joshua's baby book since the hospital. Oops. I need to post on our trip to Florida, since it was Jacob's first flight, Joshua's first trip, and our first excursion as a family of four. I need to post on Cincinnati because it was our first trip as just a family of four. But, for now....just random things I don't want to forget about the kids. *The weather has been great, and we've been enjoying lots of outside play time. If Joshua is sleeping, Jacob loves getting me to be able to run around the backyard again with him. If Joshua is awake, I am just thankful Jacob listens so well and that we have a fenced backyard. *Joshua is in a pretty good routine now. He eats five bottles a day, and sleeps through the night every night! He still cries occasionally at night, but not nearly as bad as his full-force colic we had going for a few months. He is a very happy baby and loves to smile and laugh. *Bob thinks it's great that Joshua will smile when he raps. *Jacob is so use to Joshua screaming, that now even when he screams a little bit in the car, he says, "Joshua, you are making trucks crash." *Jacob loves the movie Chicken Little now, and because he memorizes movies after only one or two times watching them, he now asks me, "Mom, do I need closure?" Chicken Little asks his dad this during the movie. *I love that Jacob randomly says, "shake your booty." *Joshua loves to babble and has some great sounds. Still showing no interest in rolling over, but desperately wants to sit up on his own. He's doing great with grabbing onto toys, bringing things to his mouth, lifting his head up during tummy time, lifting his legs up while on his back, and following Jacob around the room. He just really doesn't seem like he wants to roll over. Maybe he's just content. *Joshua loves to chew on blankets. *Joshua is extremely proud of himself that he can make the music on his playgym start by kicking the bars. He gets the biggest smile on his face when he makes the music start. *Jacob has another ear infection. I pray that these get better for him. He's miserable. Not sure if tubes are still in our future or not. *Love that the weather is warmer and we've already enjoyed a few nights out with the neighbors letting our kids play. Jacob has had a blast. *I also love that a new season means new clothes for the boys. New clothes always look so nice on kids! *Jacob loves books, and lately I've been starting to emphasize the noises that letters make to start words. He's catching on, and is starting to be able to tell you the letter a word starts with. He also asked me the other night about the spaces in between words. I was so proud of him for thinking about that, and just amazed at how his little mind works. *I'm so happy we decided not to do a party for his 3rd birthday. Looking forward to just family and no stress. *While playing with wood blocks the other day, Jacob put the blocks together and spelled out "Mom," and turned to me and said, "That's you." Amazing. *I feel like we are starting to come out of "survival" mode after bringing Joshua home and finding a new routine and falling into a comfortable place now. It's nice to get back into a regular routine and just being able to figure both kids out at once. I still feel like the days go by way too fast before I get much accomplished, but we are doing well! *Can't believe that in two months Jacob will be three. Also can't believe he's still two, if that makes sense. Sometimes, I just consider him three already because of how well he behaves, speaks, and carries himself.