Reed's First Best Buddy

Reed has a first best buddy.  His name is Sam and he's two weeks older than Reed.  Since Sam's mom, Vicki, and I do a lot together, Reed and Sam get to hang out too.  (Sam's big sister is best buds with Gracen too.)  They're pretty cute together, two little blue-eyed blondies.

 Unfortunately, so far Reed seems to be the type of person that will step on other people to move up in the world.

 Haha.  We'll have to work on those people skills. :)

St. Patrick's Day

Yep, still catching up here.  We had a great St. Patty's day.  Our tradition is to build leprechaun traps the night before in hopes of catching one of them. The kids designed the traps themselves this year and Alden made his entirely by himself.  I helped Eli and Gracen's to become a reality.

 In the morning, the kids were excited to wake up to little footprints around the house that led to green candy and notes from the leprechauns.

But they were dismayed to find out that those tricky little guys were able to escape our traps!!

This one had the door propped open with a stick:

 And Alden found that a leprechaun ladder  was used to get out of his trap:

 At least he left some of his pot of gold (gold dollars and golden candy).  Alden's in this funny stage where he will doubt the existence of leprechauns (and the tooth fairy and the Easter bunny - Santa he's definitely figured out) one minute, but then gets totally into it the next minute.  Nonetheless, we love St. Patty's day around here!

Alden and Mono

One Sunday Jaron noticed that Alden had a ginormous lymph node on his neck (yeah, I'm an observant mom. ;) ).

 After observing him, Jaron guessed that Alden might have mono.  We knew there wouldn't be anything the pediatrician could do for mono, but it's nice to have a sure diagnosis so we went in to see the doc the next day.  They did blood work for mono but Alden also tested positive for strep so they gave him an antibiotic.   All the while, the pediatrician kept throwing around big words like "Lymphoma" because of the sheer size of the lymph nodes. I advised Jaron when I got home that he should be careful with his patients about musing out loud with big, scary words in front of his patients. ;) When I came home with an antibiotic, Jaron said that would give him hives if he had a viral infection such as mono.  We gave him the antibiotic anyway and on the second day, Alden woke up looking like this:

 It was TERRIBLE.  When Jaron had said "hives," I had not imagined head to toe spots and puffiness accompanied by blood shot eyes, extreme lethargy and a high temperature.  I took him back to the pediatrician again and they confirmed it was due to the antibiotics so we changed him to a different, non-reactive antibiotic.

 For the next three nights the itchiness of his feet kept Alden awake almost the entire night.  The first night I stayed up almost the entire night with him, rubbing his feet and putting ice on them, just trying to get him comfortable enough to sleep.  He finally drifted off to sleep at 6 AM.  He didn't catch up on any sleep during the day and yet the second night, he finally fell asleep around 4 AM.  We got creative that night and tried a listerine soak for his feet, a baking soda paste, and other "remedies" we read online but to no avail.  By the second morning of almost no sleep, we both looked something like this:

 Exhausted.

The third night, I thought for sure he'd just sleep out of sure exhaustion but 'twas not so.  I felt so bad for my sick little boy but I simply could not stay up again so we loaded him up with movies that our sweet neighbor, Holly Taylor, had brought over and went to bed.  I checked on him when I was up with other kids in the night and as far as I could tell, he drifted off into a restless sleep around 2ish. 

Fortunately by the third day, the amoxicillan was finally out of his system and he began to sleep better at night.  The blood work came back about 10 days into the adventure as positive for mono virus antibodies.  He ended up missing two weeks of school that ended up being pretty tough weeks at our house!  Thankfully, we have AMAZING neighbors who brought us entertainment and dinner and offered to watch the kids to give me a break (since mono is only contagious through saliva and is usually not even symptomatic in children).  THANK GOODNESS for great people who are an answer to prayer!!  

These Kids

Love these kids!!! And love having a camera that can capture their cuteness.

This kid wears his shirt inside out and/or backwards...80% of the time.  I generally just choose my battles but on this particular day, I vetoed the pants.

Catching Up - Fun Times

My kids are great at playing together but it's usually either Gracen and Eli or Eli and Alden.  I love it when I catch all three playing together.  It always makes for interesting play.  On this day, Gracen was playing with her Playmobil princess set and the boys decided to move Batman in next door.  Made for some pretty hilarious conversation, let me tell ya.

I don't remember what they were up to on this day but even Reed got in on the action.

Sometimes we feel ambitious on a leftovers night and we turn our leftovers into a cafe.  We make menus and add candlelight, appetizers and dessert, and, voila, an exciting and child-impressing dinner.

 And, of course, what restaurant is complete without a bill?  Pay up, kids!

 We got kinda-crafty one day and made banks out of peanut butter jars.  One for tithing, one for savings, and one for spending.  It's helped the kids to better visualize how much money they have where.  The banks have also become a favorite action figure hideout.

Backtracking - Valentine's Party and When Daddy's Home

Waaay back in February Gracen, Reed, and I got to go to Alden's class to do the activity for his Valentine's party.  I seem to be the only parent in that class crazy enough to do it. :)  I opted for a bunch of fun but easy minute-to-win-it activities.  I'm not posting many pictures of it, just in case the other kids don't want to be broadcast over the internet.

We did a fun cup stacking race, put nylons on their heads with tennis balls in the toe and knocked over water bottles, did a few conversation heart games, and blew cotton balls into a cup.

 To top it off, they got to decorate sugar cookies.  Gracen LOVES being able to go into the classroom.

There is no doubt that, in our house, mommies and daddies play differently.  My play is usually imaginative or thinking-based.  Jaron's play is usually the physically challenging kind.  The kids LOVE it when Daddy comes home!  

 I love this one with Reed poking around the corner of the couch - yes, even little Reed loves it. :)

Backtracking - Sweet Baby Reed

When we started having troubles getting the computer to read our SD card back in March, we ordered an SD card reader from Staples.  They lost the order, got confused, and I FINALLY picked up my order LAST WEEK!!  It has been a little frustrating!  But I am happy that I can finally update the blog.  I'm going to backtrack chronologically, starting with what happened back in March.

Starting off, here are some pics of the Reedster.  LOVE this kid.  Can't believe how much joy he brings into our family.  As Jaron puts it, this kid has a serious love for life.  And we all get to drink it in daily because we're lucky enough to be his family.

 Back in February he was doing this cute little army crawl that kept me on my toes (man, we have a lot of small toy pieces in this house!!).

 He would love to pat balls and cars in front of them and then chase them...

 ...especially under the kitchen table it seemed. He'd often get stuck, and start yelling for help.

 I guess he figured I was just going to snap pictures and wasn't actually going to help. :)

 And then he went through this little yelling stage, testing out the ole vocal chords, I guess.

 Seriously cannot get enough of him!!!

 We get a lot of comments about these big baby blues.

 Eli especially loves to play with baby Reed.