migraine...

Oh, good grief.... today I got my first migraine and it was horrible. I threw up, saw stars, and wanted to crawl in bed for the day and just cry. I've never had a pain like that before. I seriously thought my head was going to blow up.

Oh, and to top it off, today was Kindermusik. For anyone who hasn't been to a kindermusik class, it's a wonderful mix of loud instruments, clapping, jumping, singing, dancing, you get the idea. I was up and down off the floor no less than 50 times. Oh, and there was a 8 month old baby that screamed and cried the entire hour. I'm shocked that the mom didn't go and grab him. She just ignored him and went about her business with her 3 year old. So sad ... for both the baby and my head. Today, Kindermusik was definitely something I did for Caleb. If it were up to me, I would have called my mom and gone to bed.

When Andrew went down for his nap, Caleb took my hand and said, "Mommy let's cuddle". We crawled into bed and watched a movie. I swear, he kissed my head a million times. Such a sweet one, my little Caleb.

After Katherine got home from school, we went over to my parents house for dinner and let the kids play outside. It was great -- they got to burn off some energy, I got some help, and they went to bed early.

I'm off to bed. Gotta get rid of this migraine. I certainly can't handle two days of it!

blogging....

Sorry about the hiatus... It's not that I've intentionally stopped blogging, but over the past week or so, I found a new hobby...... FACEBOOK. Oh, man am I addicted. Seriously addicted. As in, 3 am addicted. Now if only I can find a supprt group! I'm having a blast reconnecting with old friends -- some from high school, some from college and there's still others I hope to find.



So facebook -- You know I had to have an opinion on this right?!?!? LOL. Before I got started I thought that facebook was disingenuous. Seriously, if you haven't considered someone "important" enough to keep in your life over the past decade or more, why contact them now? It just didn't make sense to me. I really didn't get it. But now... I GET IT!



At first, my only facebook "friends" were a handfull of neighbors and Katie Faber who I went to high school with. Her and her hubby (who graduated with and is friends with Matt) live here in town, and we've hung out with them since they moved back to Iowa. Anyway, she had a treasure trove of classmates in her profile. It snowballed from there, and I've been in contact with so many people I haven't seen (or thought of) in years. Then, I started to find old college roommates and sorority sisters. Oh, my goodness. All I can say is thank goodness for instant messaging! I can't get enough. I have reconnected with so many amazing, funny, smart, interesting women that I was blessed to have in my life during our college years. So many memories have come flooding back. So many are yet to be remembered. And I'm loving every moment. I will say this... it's sad that at one point in our lives we spent every waking moment together, sharing every aspect of our lives together, and then somehow we wake up 10 years later married, with kids and jobs and real life, and somewhere along the way, we've temporarily lost contact. I will say this... it won't happen again.



Another thing about facebook that totally shocked me. While some people look fairly similar, there are sooo many people who have aged so poorly. Shocking actually. I can't help but to wonder when someone sees my picture if they think the same thing about me. I know I've put on weight, but really, do I look THAT different? I certainly hope not.....



Oh, what else.......



Katherine got her "report card" for gymnastics on Thursday and overall she's doing really well. She's one of the top two girls in her class and really excelling, BUT get this.... They test a million different skills, everything from strength stuff to actual skills on bars, beam, floor and vault. Each skill could be graded 4 different ways (i) mastered; (ii) needs to increase consistency; (iii) needs to improve form; or (iv) needs serious work. Katherine has almost all skills mastered, but one really shocked me. She did 39 sit-ups in 60 seconds, and literally has a "4 pack" when you look at her belly, and was told on her report card that she needs to increase her abdominal strength. There were several skills that her coach put as mastered that I wouldn't have been shocked if she put them in the "increase consistency" or "improve form" category. For example, a back walkover -- when she kicks over, her legs aren't in a perfect 180 degree split and on occasion she slips on the way down. But her abdominal muscles? I'd honestly put her up almost any kid in the city. The girl's got serious abs! Anyway, I thought it was a little harsh for a 5 year old.....

We are in home improvement mode right now. Over the past week we've changed out all of our lighting fixtures on the first floor, and hired someone to change out the one in the two story entry. The only one we have left to do is put up the one in my scrapbook room which hopefully won't take long. Matt also changed out all of our drawer pulls and is waiting for the new door knobs to come in. We also took down our super-duper ugly hanging blinds on the deck door and replaced it with a new curtain rod and sheer. Then, we decided that the two-story entry could use a fresh coat of paint (and also be darkened up a touch), so I hired a painter and he came on Sunday and got the job done. The verdict is still out on the paint color, but I think I'm really going to like it. We've been changing a ton!

One funny story for you... Matt has a lot of good qualities, but "handyman" certainly isn't one of them. Let's just say that Matt and drywall aren't good friends, and watching him do any type of electrical work is just PAINFUL. Seriously. Anyway... while he was changing out the light fixture over the sink I decided to go and plug both drains. I've been down this road before and instinctly knew how bad this little project could go. Thankfully I was thinking because about 5 minutes into the project and several cuss words and muttering under his breath later he drops a bunch of stuff into the sink. He starts ranting about what idiots the makers of the lighting fixtures are and all of a sudden yells, "GODDAMMIT"!

Without missing a beat, Caleb immediately fires back, "Dad, we don't say DAMMIT in this house"! Katherine, from across the room yells, "Well, we certainly don't say GOD either!!". Maybe you had to be there, but at the time it was pretty funny!

Caleb...

There are times when Caleb is just.... Caleb. There really are no words. He's a wonderful mix of boyish energy, class clown, and total klutz, and when my dad is around he's all of those wrapped into one three year old. He's a total gong show. He LOVES my dad, and when they are around each other no one else exists in Caleb's world. Caleb is just giddy and he and my dad play together the entire time.

OK - so today... My dad comes over to our house after school so that Morgan and Katherine can play together. Caleb immediately takes my dad upstairs and they play GeoTrax. They finally make their way downstairs to the living room to play baseball (yea, don't even ask, but yes, they are playing baseball in the house.... LOL). For some reason, they abandoned the bat and decided to play catch.

Caleb is loving every second of the time with my dad. He's running around, laughing, throwing the ball as hard and wild as his little three year old arm will allow, and for some reason throwing himself on the ground with every catch and throw. It was so insane, at one point my dad asked how many pair of jeans he went through this winter...

Anyway, my dad threw the ball to him and Caleb made some exaggerated run/dive move toward the ball and tripped backwards over Katherine's balance beam (which also sits in the living room) and cracks his head so hard on the fireplace hearth I'm *shocked* he didn't lose consciousness. He had a good cry, and has a 4 inch long raised bump on the back of his head. It's horrible.

OK -- so about 30 minutes later my dad has to leave and on the way out the door, he and Caleb are still throwing the ball around. For some reason, Caleb decides that it's a great idea to throw the ball up the stairs and then tackle it on the way down. Yea, I know... such a great idea! LOL. Well, he trips trying to pounce on the ball and bangs his mouth on the step. I'm not exactly sure what happened, but blood was everywhere. Literally everywhere. I thought he knocked out a tooth or 5... After we got the bleeding stopped, we realized that his teeth just punctured his upper lip on the inside, but man... two major head injuries in a matter of a few minutes. UUUUUGH!

He's such a boy! I can only imagine what the chaos will be like when Andrew gets a little older.

Musical beds...

That's the super fun game we played at the Hanson household last night, and let me tell you ... it was one rockin' good time!!

Here's how you play....

First plan a great night out with friends, make dinner reservations, get a babysitter lined up, and pray that your 4 month old actually sleeps during dinner. CHECK!!

Next, as the time of the reservation nears, send Matt for the babysitter and feed Andrew. CHECK!

Then, right before you finish feeding Andrew, you look over at your 3 year old and notice he looks like he's going to fall asleep. So, you ask him if he's tired, and of course he says no. However, 30 seconds later you notice he's fallen asleep and HARD! CHECK!

At this point, you decide that it's a good idea to put him to bed in Katherine's bed since you're leaving for the evening. (Yea, don't ask about this one, but it seemed perfectly logical at the time). CHECK!!

Then, go to dinner and enjoy the evening. Return home around 10:30. You'll find that your three year old is STILL asleep in his sister's bed, and since you haven't seen "said" sister for a few hours, you decide that it's a good idea for her to come into your room and chat while Matt returns the babysitter.

OK -- here's where it starts getting interesting... (Oh, and as a side note, the kids have been sick all week coughing, wheezing, the works. Caleb is on medication for a respiratory tract infection).

Shortly after Matt gets home, Katherine has a coughing spell so bad that she pukes all over our bed. So, while Matt changes the sheets, I clean up Katherine and feed Andrew. At that point, we decide that she should sleep in bed with me so that I can keep an eye (an ear) on her while she's sleeping. So Matt heads to the basement since Caleb is sleeping in Katherine's room....

Since Andrew slept the entire time at dinner, he was up until midnight. I finally fell asleep shortly after, but was woken up at 1:45 by a distraught Caleb. He had missed playing with Mary Claire. He was thirsty. He was hungry. So, I got him a drink and some food, and he was up until 3:30... He finally fell asleep cuddling with me in bed. So, it's the three of us -- Katherine, Caleb and I all in the same bed, and those two aren't the best bed partners in the world. At 4:15 Andrew wakes up ready to eat. Exhausted at this point, I take him into Katherine's bed and we fall asleep crosswise in the bed because I was too tired to pull back the sheets and unmake her bed.

So here's how we ended up - Katherine and Caleb got our bed, Matt ended up in the basement, and Andrew and I were in Katherine's bed. UUUUUUGH! I'm so glad things are back to normal tonight, and pray we don't have to play musical beds anytime soon -- especially since I'll lose at that little game every time!! LOL.

It's scheduled....

Today I got a call from Iowa City, and we scheduled Andrew's surgery date. He'll go under the knife on April 30th. UUUUUGH! Right now, it seems like a long way off, but I know April will come all too soon.... We won't know the time of the surgery until the day before as they take the patients in from youngest to oldest. Hopefully we won't have to wait long!

Matt's mom is going to come and stay for a really long (and probably exhausting) weekend. I'm so thankful that she's willing and able to come and help us out. It'll make taking care of the other two kids so much easier while we're away and then it'll be great to have her there to help out with Andrew when we return from the hospital. I appreciate it soooo much!! Not to mention -- the kids love having her around. Katherine is already making lists of things they'll do when we're gone. I don't have the heart to tell her that she'll be going to school all day! LOL!

Here's a few recent pictures of my little man from the other day. Isn't he just adorable!! AAAHHHH, I'm so in love with this little face. He's so perfectly chubby, so wonderfully snuggly, so incredibly happy. He's amazing!

If there's anything on this earth more precious and innocent than a sleeping baby, I have no idea what it would be.....

Preschool .... here we come!!

Today was the day! My little man took off for his first day of preschool. He woke up excited, and couldn't wait to show me around his classroom one more time.

Since I drop Katherine off at school around 8:30 and he doesn't need to be to preschool until 9:10 we decided to start a new tradition. Every Tuesday morning on our way to preschool, I'm going to stop off at Casey's and get him a little breakfast treat. He was so proud to be a big boy. He kept looking at me with a big smile on his face and said, "You know what Momma? I'm your preschooler now". AAAAWWWW...... He sure is!

On the way into school, we saw Michelle (Caden's mom) and she had already dropped off Caden. Surprisingly, Caleb knew I was going to take him in to school, leave and come back to get him later in the morning and he was fine with it. Up until a few weeks ago, he was such a Momma's boy that he wouldn't even stay with Matt or my parents, so this was HUGE!

Here's a few pictures of my little boy on such a big day in his life. ** Never mind the hair. He didn't want me to brush it too much, and really is it worth the fight? NOPE!

As soon as we arrived at school, we stopped by Caden's classroom and said hi. After the boys hugged, we made our way to Caleb's room. Each child has their own chair with their shape and color that they have been assigned. (Caleb is the blue diamond). Caleb immediately found his chair and sat down to play with the huge ball of play-doh waiting for him. I stayed for a few minutes, and then gave him a hug and kiss goodbye. That was it. He was thrilled to be there, and I was thrilled for him. No tears on either of our parts. What a relief!

Katherine and Caleb on the way out the door this morning.

And my little man -- standing tall and proud on his first day!

First day...

Tomorrow is a big day. It's a day of firsts and I'm so excited!

For starters, Caleb starts preschool in the morning. He's going to the same preschool that Katherine did, but rather than "preschool" it's more of a "playgroup". It's only for two hours once a week, but I think it'll be so good for him. He's an incredibly smart little guy, so I'm not worried about the academics, but he really needs to spread his wings and gain some independence from me. He's always been such a Mommy's boy, so I think this will be a great experience for him.

I can't believe that he's starting preschool already. It's so unreal. Once again, I'm sitting here wondering where the time has gone, and amazed at how quickly he's grown. I'm sure there will be plenty of tears on my end tomorrow. LOL!!

Since Caleb is starting school, and my mom offered to bond with Andrew, I'm using my "free time" to volunteer in Katherine's classroom. She loves having me there, so I'm jumping at the chance. It's such a great opportunity to see a little into her world.

So -- my morning tomorrow is going to be CRAZY! Here's the rundown:

6:00 -- wake up and shower. I also have to do a quick pick up of the house since Libby is coming to clean in the afternoon.

7:15 wake Katherine up and get her ready for school. Caleb always wakes up on his own (thankfully!). It's the usual routine -- breakfast, getting dressed, brush teeth/hair, gather her million belongings and head out the door. Oh, and since it's been cold, I've been driving her so she doesn't have to wait at the bus.

8:10'ish Take some "first day" pictures of Caleb.

8:25 walk out the door with all three kids, all of their school stuff and a bag for Andrew.

8:30 drop Katherine off at school.

9:00 take Caleb to school and get some pictures!

9:15 head over to my mom's house and feed Andrew. He's staying there for the rest of the morning.

10:15 take off for Beaver Creek. I'm helping out with literacy groups and those start at 10:30.

11:08 Leave Beaver Creek and rush over to preschool to pick up Caleb. I need to be there by 11:15.

11:30 get back to my mom's house and feed the boys lunch.

I'm exhausted just thinking about it. Man, it's going to be a busy morning! Oh, and this is exactly what my Tuesday morning will be like EVERY week! This is also our "early" day at Chow's. Katherine gets off the bus at 3:45 and we need to be in West Des Moines for class which starts at 4:30. Anyone who tells you that stay-at-home moms do nothing but sit on the couch and eat bon-bons all day are NUTS!! I'm WAY busier now that I ever was back in the days what I actually worked for a living! LOL.

4 months...

4 months ago my little Andrew was born. He's fit into our family so perfectly, and it's hard to even remember what life was like before he arrived.

Andrew, at 4 months you are:

* the happiest little baby I've ever seen. You are always content, constantly smiling and trying to engage us with your eyes.

* You are starting to laugh out loud, and it's the most adorable baby giggle I've ever heard. It just melts my heart every time I get that deep down belly laugh out of you, I can't help but laugh right along with you.

* You love to sit up in your Bumbo seat and watch me cook.

* You are facing major surgery in the next several months which has me holding my breath and praying for the best.

* You are starting to grab for toys and will put anything you can get your hands on in your mouth.

* You LOVE to suck on your fingers. It doesn't matter if it's your right or left hand, your thumb or pointer fingers. You love them them all! One of my favorite sounds has become listening to you suck on your little fingers.

* You absolutely adore Katherine and Caleb and light up whenever they come near you. The smiles you give them warm my heart and remind me why I love being a mommy so much.

* When you get excited, you waive your little arms, kick your feet and squeal at the top of your lungs.

* You still wake up at least once (but usually two to three times a night) to eat. Thankfully, you eat and drift right back to sleep.

* You are an incredibly laid back and easy going baby. More often than not, you take your morning nap in your car seat and don't mind going to all of Katherine and Caleb's activities.

* You are such a strong little guy and are trying to sit up on your own.

* You are completely, 100% average. Today at the doctor you weighed 13 pounds 12 ounces (50th percentile) and were 24.5 inches long (50th percentile).

Surgery...

We're back from Iowa City, and very simply .... my little boy will need surgery. Dr. Jon had prepared us that Andrew would need to have the procedure done, and sent us to the University Hospital to meet with a specialist. As much as I was hoping it was "cosmetic" or "not medically necessary", sadly it is, and unfortunately much worse/more severe than I originally thought. In any event, I'll be getting a call from his office this week to set up the surgery date. He was guessing they were about 3 or 4 months out. The surgery should take around 2 hours, and then we'll have to stick around for several hours afterward in recovery. 14 days later, we'll go back to have tubes removed and make sure everything is alright...

As awful as I feel about my little boy needing a major surgery, I walked away from the hospital on Friday feeling so blessed..... so thankful that my children are healthy ......... so incredibly grateful that there is nothing seriously wrong with any of them. While we were walking around the hospital, we saw so many seriously ill children -- in wheelchairs, with tubes running in every direction, with little or no hair, you get the idea.... Both Matt and I couldn't help but feel so blessed that our children are healthy, strong, and full of life. As much as I'm dreading putting
Andrew through the strain of surgery, I'm also very aware, that in the grand scheme of life, this is nothing. In a matter of months, the surgery will be nothing more than a memory and he'll never remember the pain.