Visit to Great Grandpa's House

Today we went to visit my grandpa. We had not been to visit him since last September. I called him on Tuesday to make sure it was okay that we came up and he said yes. So today after swim we packed the kids and some food up and headed to see him.
   The kids took a good nap on the way to his house. Once we got there, neither of them would look or talk to him. But they warmed up quickly and before long were running circles around the house. So we went outside to run off some energy. Colin was playing catch with Grandpa and Alyssa was trying to hit a ball with a bat with Daddy.  I was in and out while starting dinner.
   For dinner I made a pasta salad, chicken, corn on the cob, dinner rolls and a strawberry dessert. I thought dinner came out very nicely and everyone seemed to like it.
   After dinner we played for a little longer then headed for home. I love watching my grandpa interact with the kids. By the time we left Alyssa was running up to him and giving him big bear hugs which he seemed to love.
   He also gave Alyssa a cradle that was used by my mom when she was a little girl. Alyssa came home and rocked her baby to sleep in it. I think she is in love.
   We hope to go back to visit my Grandpa a few times this summer on our way to or from the lake. I know it is a lot of him with two little kids running around his house but I also think he really enjoyed the time. I would like for my kids to get to know their only living great grandparent. It is more important to me than ever since I lost 3 this last year.





On another note for me it was weird to be in the house without Grandma. I kept waiting for her to come out of the back bedroom or from outside. It made me really miss her. I know she would have loved to see the kids.

Colin update

About two weeks ago Colin had a really bad breathing spell. He was put on steroids for the 4th time in a year and we were back up to 4 breathing treatments a day to keep his air ways open. We went to the doctor and he wanted to put Colin back on Singular. This time we decided to try granules that are put on his food since those did not contain the aspertaine. I was nervous at first and watched him like a hawk for the first three days after giving it to him.
   Luckily we have no had a reaction and I think it is helping. Since we have put him on it, his breathing seems to have calmed down some and his allergy issues don't seem to be as bad. It has only been two weeks so we will see what happens as he gets another cold, but I am holding out a little hope that maybe by next fall we can have his asthma under control!

Missouri Botanical Gardens

This morning the weather was yucky but we wanted to get out of the house. We had decided yesterday that we were going to skip church and do something as a family.
  At about 10 we still hadn't decided what we were going to do but I went up to shower and get ready. We finally decided that we wanted to go to the Botanical Gardens. As we left the house Alyssa kept asking, "Are we going to church?" "You went the wrong way for church". It was cute to see that she really did know our routine.
  On the drive down there both kids fell asleep so we drove around and decided to have lunch on The Hill. We were surprised to find that may of the places were closed. We finally found one, had a great Italian lunch and also discovered Alyssa had an ear infection.
  We then went to the Gardens. We told Alyssa we were going to see flowers and so the whole drive there that she was awake she pointed out every flower she saw. Chris and I knew she wasn't fully understanding what we were talking about so it was cute.
   We got to the Botanical Gardens and paid to get in, we then walked a little and came upon the children's part of the garden so we paid another $5 and went in. The kids had a BLAST. They have slides, caves, things to climb on, sand, music and so much. Alyssa and Colin ran from one thing to another with huge smiles on their faces. They both enjoyed the slides tremendously. Though we are going to have to teach Colin how to go down them because he went SO slow every time. We aren't sure if his shoes kept catching or what but on every slide he went down at a snails pace.
   After spending close to an hour in there, we went back out into the gardens to walk around a little more. We didn't walk too much more since my knee was bothering me but we did enjoy some flowers and a maze.
   The maze was made of short shrubs and a brick path. Alyssa found her way through no problem, but Colin had some issue with it. At every turn you could see his little brain thinking and at one point he came to a dead end and he couldn't figure out how to get out of it. The thought of walking away from us to get out made him pout and start to tear up. Luckily with a little coaxing he was able to get out and was very proud of himself.
   When we got in the car Alyssa said she didn't want to leave. We promised her that we would go back again sometime and see more flowers.
    I love family days like today. It is so much fun to see the kids interact with each other somewhere else than home and it is fun to have a day of family time. I look forward to the weekends for may reasons but probably the biggest one is being able to spend time as a family of 4. 

Growing up

Colin is growing up before our eyes. His personality is coming out in full force lately and his learning curve is huge lately.

Last Friday we went out to dinner and Colin sat in his high chair saying "Hi" and smiling at the other tables. Now for most of people this wouldn't be a big deal but for Colin this is huge.
He has also started to give hugs and say "I love you". If you didn't say I love you first you wouldn't understand what he is saying but he says it while giving you a hug so I know that is what he is saying.
He can also say, ball, Alyssa, mom, dad, Nana, jump, and a few other words.
He knows what a dog says and will use that noise for all animals. We are trying to teach him bird and a few other animals so that everything isn't a dog.
He still loves his sister and will follow her around trying to do everything she does. It is cute to watch the two of them play. They like to hold hands and run around together.
He has been feeling better this last week and it has been nice to see him happy and healthy for a small amount of time.

My Knee

Last Friday I went running. I was so proud of my run. I ran 5.21 miles in an hour and was very proud of myself. I came home took a shower and about an hour later my knee started to hurt. Each day after that it got worse. I went to the doctor on Tuesday and she ordered x-rays and said it is either a deep tissue sprain or a torn ligament. Yesterday it felt better, I thought I was on the mend but then last night I was in more pain than I had been in all week.
Today it isn't as swollen but the pain is pretty bad. I'm hoping it is just a sprain but for right now my instructions are to stay off it as much as possible and no exercise that would move my knee (which is pretty much all of it).
 I'm disappointed because we were supposed to run a 5k on Saturday and I had gotten my running time down to 37 minutes. Now I can't do it. We were also supposed to go walk the transportation museum and now we can't do that either.
Our weekend will now be about family and hanging around the house.

Zoo

We made our first trip to the zoo this year on Saturday. The weather was perfect for a day at the zoo. We started out the day with coats and pants but by the time we left we had on  short sleeves and the kids had on shorts.
We got to the zoo as soon as it opened and went to the carousel. It was Colin's first time on it and he wasn't fully sure of it. We put him on an animal that did not go up and down. Alyssa picked a bear and had a huge smile the whole time.
On the way to the children's zoo we stopped by the penguin house and both kids loved watching them swim and splash around. It was nice in there because it wasn't too crowded yet.
We the went to the children's zoo but that was so crowded with people we didn't stay very long.
 We then walked the rest of the zoo taking out time and watching the animals.  We meet up with a few people that have kids Alyssa's age and Alyssa became fast friends with the little girl. They held hands, shared a barbie and talked to each other non stop. It was cute to watch.

After we left the zoo we walked down to The Boathouse and ate lunch outside. By then the weather was perfect and I got sunburned on my back while eating. I had put sunscreen on the kids but did not put any on myself. Lesson learned on that one!




By the time we got out of the zoo parking lot both kids were asleep and we considered the day a success.

Easter 2012

The kids had a blast for Easter.

Colin woke everyone up at a few minutes after 6. This is a new one because usually Alyssa is the first one up. So we got the kids up and came downstairs.  We discovered the Easter Bunny had come over night. We let Alyssa look through her basket first, then Colin. Then we told Alyssa all her eggs were hidden in the TV room and she went to town looking for them. Every time she found one she said "Here's one!". Then we let Colin look for his in the front room. He wasn't so sure about it at first but got the hang of it pretty quickly and was going to town picking up and shaking all the eggs.

After all the eggs were found we let them open them up to discover chocolate in Alyssa's and animal crackers in Colin's.

We then had some breakfast watch a movie and then got ready for church. The kids looked adorable for church and Chris looked amazing. I had bought a new Easter dress but when I put it on yesterday I just didn't like the way it fit so I went through my closet and found one that I wore about 8 years ago for my mom's wedding and put that on. I liked that one a lot better.

We then went outside and got some pictures then off to church we went. After church we came home and ate lunch and took a nap.

We then went to Grandma and Grandpa's house for more egg hunting and dinner. The kids had a blast. They came home super tired but with big smiles on their faces which makes for the best days!

Update on New Year Resolutions

1. Be 145 lbs by my birthday.  I hit this goal the middle of March. I am now working on toning my body up.

2. Tone up my body (by doing ab exercises and then walk/running when the weather gets nicer) . I have started this. I can run 5 k in about 37 minutes and 5 miles in a little over an hour.

3. Spend 7 hours a week with just my kids, no distractions. I have done this once again easily. This has not been an issue to keep to.

4. Go on a date night with my husband every other month.  We went out twice in Feb and once in March. So I am meeting this goal so far.

5. Have my business see a profit.  I have a small profit right now but that will be gone by the end of the month when I pay my taxes. 

6. Send out birthday cards on time to all family members.  Doing well on this one.

7. Get the basement organized and looking nice. This has been done and a garage sale has happened. I have a few more things to get rid of but the clutter has been reduced by 80%

8. Have one month where neither kid goes to the doctor.  We did not FULLY make this because both kids went to see the doctor the first part of March for their 15 month and 3 year well checks, but we did make it the whole moth of March without a sick doctor visit and not a single hospital trip. So I would call March a success. 


Looking over my resolutions I have done a good job of keeping them or exceeding them. That is a major plus in my book! 

Update

Well in the good news front we went the whole month of March without a sick kid visit to the doctor. We went the first of the month for their 15 month and 3 year check ups but I don't count those because they weren't sick.

The bad news is Colin developed a cough over the weekend and it seems to be getting worse not better. So we will see what this week brings. We have an appointment on Friday with the pulmonary doctor and I'm guessing if his cough isn't better we will end up with a chest x-ray.

In other bad news yesterday Michele went in for back surgery. During the surgery an artery was hit. She is now in a medically induced coma until Thursday or Friday giving her body time to heal. There are a lot of unknowns at this time. The good news is she is alive and in stable condition but her road to recovery just got even longer than it was.