Happy 2nd Birthday, Seth!

 Yesterday my little man turned two.  It's really weird.  I remember when he was a few days old bursting into tears just thinking about him getting bigger.  Now that he's bigger, it's so bittersweet.  I LOVE that he can talk and sing and understand things and look at books and play pretend, but that tiny baby is being left further and further behind. 

Anyway, his day started out with his first coffee shop date with daddy.  Carey takes one of the girls on a date to the Ugly Mug on Thursday mornings before he goes to work, and Seth has been dying for a turn.

While Seth and daddy were on their date, I had Haley and Abby help me decorate. 

Here they are on my bed, looking through the box of streamers and such.

That evening, all the grandparents plus Uncle Nate, Auntie Melissa, and Auntie Laura came over for dinner, cake and presents.  Seth seemed a little overwhelmed, but I think he had fun.

He had this very serious face on as he unwrapped each of his gifts!

Having fun with Auntie Melissa

The highlight of the birthday was the Mickey Mouse cake, which Seth had requested.  Seth first asked for it at 5:30 in the morning, when I said happy birthday to him, and all three of them continued to ask me all day long when we were having cake.  Anyway, the cake turned out adorable (if I do say so myself) and delicious!

Haley helped me make the cake.

Happy birthday, Nugget (that's his nickname, I don't know why).  You are fun and funny and smart and caring and wonderful.  I love you:)

Out Of His Crib

A few weeks ago, Seth started FREAKING out at bedtime.  He was just really scared in his room.  Finally, we figured out it was his crib that he was afraid of.  So, we took his crib out and put his crib mattress on the floor*.  That worked great for a few nights, then he started telling us that he was "nervous a bed".  Oh dear!  We still are working on it, but at least he's doing better on his little bed on the floor than he was in the crib!

*A note: We had toddler beds for Haley and Abby because their room wouldn't fit two twin beds, and they were too little for bunk beds.  We sold both the toddler beds when they moved on to a bunk bed, assuming that we would keep Seth in his crib as long as possible and then move him straight to a twin bed.  Apparently we forgot to think about the fact that kids have their own little personalities and he might not go along with our plan!

The Fair

This year we went to the fair on opening night, which turned out to be very pleasant.  The kids were all super excited (even though Seth really didn't know what the "fairy" was).  When we first got there, we got food and watched a little of the Sea Lion show.  From there we went to the frisbee dog show.  It turned out that that was really the only part of the fair that Seth really liked.  He sure did love it, though.  "Did you see that?  Mom, did you see that?  Look at that one!"

We went and saw the big veggies and the produce creatures with my mom and sister.

Oh ya, Seth liked the produce creatures, too!

Haley loves her Grammie Lori!  They carefully examined (read, very slowly) each and every entry!

A few days before the fair I told the girls that they rode horses at the fair a couple years ago!  After that, Seth kept telling us "I ride horses at the fairy."  We were pretty much sure that he wouldn't, because he's completely afraid of horses.  Of course, as soon as we got close to the pony ride, Seth started crying and saying "go home.  Nervous the horses."  The girls did it, though, and were so adorable and excited!

Other than the frisbee dog show, Seth pretty much was like this the rest of the fair.  Fussing and hiding his eyes.  Such a nervous little guy!

Other than that, we checked out a few of the big animals (you can guess who wasn't so happy about that) and headed home!  It's been a couple weeks now, and the kids are all still talking about the fair.  They are already looking forward to next year!

Good-bye fair.  Can't wait to see you next year!

Abby's Tonsil Saga

This story has to start all the way back in July, when our pediatrician (love, love, love her) referred Abby to the local sleep clinic, suspecting she may have sleep apnea.  Sleep apnea can cause a lot of behavior problems in kids (we all know how we feel when we're not getting good sleep).  After an initial appointment with the Dr. there, it was determined that we should come back and do a sleep study.  Abby's tonsils are enlarged, which is a common cause of sleep apnea in kids, she tosses and turns in her sleep, and always wakes up grumpy, which was enough for the Dr. to order the study.

A couple nights later, Abby got all ready for bed at home, and then she and I headed off to the sleep clinic.

She was really excited because she was going to get to watch a movie while they hooked her up to all the wires!

Once we got to the clinic, they showed us to the room we'd be sleeping in and let us get settled.  Of course, Abby wanted to start watching "Cars" (the movie she had selected) right away!

They had the room all set up like a nursery.  It was darling.

Abby did such a great job cooperating with the woman who was putting on all her electrodes and monitors.  By the end, she had at least 25 (there might have been a couple I missed) different things stuck on her.  Even though I knew she was fine and it was just to monitor her sleep, there was something heart-breaking about seeing her like that.

Checking herself out in a little mirror!  Sadly, after this picture, my camera died, so I didn't get one when she was ALL hooked up.

The sleep study showed that she does, in fact, have acute sleep apnea.  She wakes up 7 times an hour.  Yes, an HOUR.  No wonder she tends to be so grumpy; the poor thing never gets into her deep, restorative sleep.  Because of her enlarged tonsils, her oxygen rate drops 83% when she's asleep.  So, a referral was sent to the Ear Nose and Throat specialist, and we got an appointment to get her tonsils removed.

Abby was REALLY nervous about having the surgery, but super excited about eating ice cream and watching movies afterward!  Her biggest concern was the IV, for whatever reason.  So, the week or so leading up to her surgery date (Sept. 22) was really rough.  When she is anxious, she gets really mean and aggressive, so, needless to say, we were really looking forward to the surgery happening.  The day before the surgery, Abby was quiet and mellow.  When I checked on her at quiet time, I saw this:

Asleep in her chair in her "special space" (the curtained off space under her loft bed)

That was pretty surprising, but I thought she probably was just really nervous.  When she woke up and I held her, I knew something was wrong.  She was super hot, and when I took her temp, I found that she had a fever.  So, I called the ENT and they said we needed reschedule.  Bummer.  But, I have to believe that the Lord had a reason for her to not be in surgery that day.  

Now, the surgery is rescheduled for November 10th.  We told Abby that it's canceled and she'll do it when she's older (since 2 months might as well be 5 years to her).  The last few days have been much more pleasant, now that she has the worry of the surgery off her mind!

Seth's First Concert

Check out Seth's Natural Guitar Skills, he must take after his dad :)

Sneaky

A couple days ago I sent Abby into our "grown-up" bathroom to go potty.  After a couple minutes, I realized it was way too quiet and that she hadn't come out.  When I stood at the doorway and couldn't see her, I knew it was trouble.  Abby's "sneaking place" is in the corner, right next to our toilet, because you have to go all the way into the bathroom to see her there!  Ummmm...blush anyone?

In her sneaking place!

She looks just slightly guilty, wouldn't you say!

She might need a little lesson in how to apply make-up when the time comes!

Uncle Nate Builds a Fence!

Last week, Uncle Nate built us a new fence in our front yard, and boy was it thrilling.  First of all, the kids all LOVE Uncle Nate.  You know that crazy uncle that you have who is so much fun...in our family, that's Uncle Nate.  Plus, with Uncle Nate comes Maya, his faithful dog; and a pick-up truck; and lots of tools.  Haley, Abby, and especially Seth loved having Uncle Nate and Maya over every day, so much so, that I kind of want to constantly give Nate projects to do around here, just to entertain my kids!  If Seth was not in the front yard, constantly asking "what are doing Uncle Nate?", then he was in the house, throwing a fit that he wasn't in the front with Uncle Nate!  Nate did an awesome job, and is such a fun uncle that I had to put some pictures of it on the blog.

If my kids listened to the answers to their constant questions, they should be able to build our next fence on their own!

The screw guns (or whatever they're called) where the most exciting of all the tools!

Don't ever try and tell Abby that a froofy dress is not an appropriate outfit for construction work!

"Can I PLEEEEASE drill something?"

Seth (my dog lover) spent a lot of time just sitting with Maya.

The back of the pick-up truck was such an exciting place to be!

Uncle Nate helped the girls to really use the screw guns on some scrap would.