WICKED

Did I mention my hot husband took me to see WICKED? It was AWESOME. We dropped my boys off with my parents and went to get some sushi with our best man Nick.
















Everyone I know who has seen it RAVES about WICKED and how incredible is. They've all seen it several times. I've never heard of anyone who didn't like it! It was incredibly witty and clever and the music was so fun and we just really enjoyed ourselves.


My favorite scene:
What a moment! As a theatre person Icould just imagine what it felt like to be up there and singing with everything you got. It was incredible!



My husbands's favorite: No clue why. He is what he is! But he really liked the song "Popular".

How to Train your Dragon

I really love that we can take my little boy to the movies. There's a cheap theatre very close to us so for less than $15 the three of us get in and get a drink and popcorn. Since Monk loves dinosaurs and dragons we thought How to Train your Dragon would be perfect! And it really was. Except that he almost all the popcorn. The movie was adorable. Monk didn't say anything the whole movie and was so into it. I love how he insisted on sitting in his ownseat, but he didn't weigh enough so it was more like a lounger for him. My sweet boy!

4 Months and Where have we been???

So we really haven't been THAT busy, but it sure feels like it. I have a bunch of posts to put up this week but I'll start with my little Bruiser being 4 months old... 2 weeks ago...

I started him out on some cereal and it definitely did not agree with him. He had a stomache ache all week long so I took him off figuring that was the problem. We'll try again in a couple weeks to see if he's ready for it then. That time I'll put a tiny bit in his bottle instead of spoon feeding him so it's a more gradual thing.



Bruiser is still such a happy little guy. Jolly almost. He weighed 13.5 lbs his last dr.s visit. He's very different from his brother the older he gets. He's very quiet and likes to talk in spurts. But when he talks he really has something to say and will squeal and yammer for a good long while. He can roll side to side but doesn't roll over quite yet, which I'm perfectly happy about. I don't get those moms who are anxious for their child to do everything early. "My baby walked at such and such months..." That's nice, really, but I'll be happy if he waits until he's after a year.

Bruiser also really likes to grab onto his feet and hold him. That's when he does a majority of his side to sideness. It's very precious. I can let him play alone for a long time or put him in jumper with toys and he has a lot of fun. He likes to be held but doesn't often demand him. I wear him an awful lot with my wrap which is good because we're close and sometimes almost bad because I forget that he's there he's so quiet and it's so comfortable.



He and Monk adore each other. Monk can't wait for Bruiser to get up every morning so he can kiss him. They like to play in the crib and Bruiser just looks up and smiles and at all the crazy things Monkey puts out. Monk is such a goof ball.

What can I say? I love these boys o mine!

There are two sides to every story...

There are two sides to every story...

For the Love of BOYS

Oh everyday they make me laugh and make my life so happy. Here's a little peek of some of the things they do (mostly Monkey).

1. Potty training is always good for a laugh. As I put little Monk up on the potty I reminded him to "point down". So he says, "Yeah, dont want to pee on mommy!"

2. "Hold Mommy" said my little Monk and I pull him on my lap but he headbutts me in the cheek and we fall over. "Fine Mom-mom?" "No, I'm not ok. I think it needs a kiss." . "Thank you. How's my Monkey?" "I need kiss too." . "Oh, you fine mom-mom." Def. What an angel.



3. My little Bruiser is already the happiest baby I've ever seen. He's also one of the most ticklish. My favorite is when I'm changing his diaper and he starts laughing randomly. It's such a deep hard chuckle!

4. Monk making a sand castle out of my frosting cans.

5. Monk being convinced there's a monster in the toilet when he heard it running. He's not afraid of monsters. He likes to hunt them with his flashlight.

6. Although it started out as a way to get payback to my husband for hacking into my facebook and starting a farmville account, now it's fun to sit next to each other at night miessing around with our farms.

7. Monk got out of bed and I heard him in Bruiser's room. So I got up and found him sitting cross-legged in the crib right next to the baby talking and talking to him. What else was sweet was that Bruiser was just looking up at him smiling and cooing and totally adoring his older brother. Love my boys!

Don't Be Afraid to Call

So when we first told people we were going to have our little Bruiser, my mother-in-law bought us a super cute swaddling blanket. I love these little swaddling blankets because I never get regular blankets to stay put when I swaddle them.

So I put this cute little swaddler on my boy, and the straps slipped up! Which means that they were above his shoulders and around his tiny little neck! One quick freakout and making sure he was still breathing and the next morning I look up the company's info from the tag on the blanket so I can complain. It's not so much that I want to raise a big fuss, but more that I want to make them aware of the problem. A lot of times, they're small companies that take the input into future designs so it doesn't happen to anyone else.

I left a message this morning and this afternoon a girl called me back. She seemed surprised and said that maybe my swaddler was too big and that's why it was slipping so she offered to send me a smaller one. "No," I respond ever so politely. It's not like getting a bad haircut and you let them go back and fix it. I don't want another product. Because what if it wasn't that it didn't fit? Why would I risk that with my baby? So she totally understood and was so sweet and is going to issue me a check!

I totally wasn't expecting that and didn't ask for it so I was pleasantly surprised she didn't just offer store credit. I appreciate it when companies like that take moms seriously and don't give us the run around. Anyway, even though I was unhappy with my swaddler, they have a lot of cute things in their on-line store that are baby-friendly. See what a little good customer service will do? I appreciate people I can work with: www.gomamagodesigns.com

Did I Forget That He's 3 Months??

I like doing these month to month posts about how Bruiser's changing. Mostly, it's because I'm behind on scrapbooking so I can just copy and paste what I type in. Anyway, my little boy is 3 months old!

I can honestly say that I have never seen a happier or sweeter baby. He wakes up with smiles and dimples and coos. He loves to be laid on his back so he can kick and rock sideways. If I'm holding him, he can propel himself to a sit up position, but he can't keep himself there of course. He has the brightest eyes and the longest lashes. He's also quite the cuddler, making him the perfect baby. He lights up whenever Monk leans over him and tries to play with him and he follows Daddy with his eyes EVERYWHERE. He's such a daddy's boy. Jealous.



At his last dr's appt, he was 12.5 pounds, so I'm assuming he's around 13lbs or so now. Bruiser sleeps an awful lot and snores just a little bit. He's not a huge eater or anything. I felt at this stage with Monkey that I'd run out of milk, but Bruiser just goes in spurts. He's so laid back, which really is wonderful to have two like that. We're so blessed to have him.

The new Hemo doc found a place that would give us Factor to have on hand. They had it here NEXT DAY! Toledo never got around to that at all which confirms how wonderful these new people are. I believe the factor company is called BioRX. They're super sweet and said that they have children with hemophilia, so if I ever just need to talk or ask, they've been there. They also have a program to help train the local EMT's in giving Factor injections because with a bleeder, you have to inject him a certain way or else you could give him a muscle bleed! I'll be happy to learn all this stuff. The nice thing is though, that if Bruiser ever gets a bleed, we can take him to the local ER with our own factor since the local hospitals won't keep it on hand for us. That way we don't have to travel all the way to CBus.

So things are happy! We're so in love with our boys and every day they do something that makes us fall and fall and fall. We're so blessed!

Brian Regan Night!

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D and I had so much fun on our big date Friday night. We drove down to the palace theatre to see Brian Regan! He is our all-time favorite comic. One thing I really love about him is that he doesn't use all the same kinds of jokes that other comics do and he doesn't swear. I could take my children to see him (if they were 10 yrs older) and I wouldn't have to worry. I laughed so hard the entire time that my face hurt and I got tired. Our friends Travis and Rachel introduced us to him when we were in Idaho so we have good memories of hanging out with them, sipping our Cocoa Bean and listening to Brian Regan. Wish they could have been there with us!

Before the show we went and got something to eat and ended up at Spaghetti Warehouse. We almost missed it b/c, well, it looked like a warehouse and we were coming in from the back. They sat us right down and got our food out really fast which was good since we were running out of time. We ordered our favorite, calamari. This place was different though b/c their calamari was an entire squid that was fried. Ew. I wish I had my cameracord so I could post pics of that. It's supposedly in the mail.

The weird thing about the Palace Theatre is that they started late and let people come in no matter how late they were. Theydidn't even flash the lights to signal the show was starting in 5 min. I was kind of put of by that bc I wanted to watch the comic but kept getting distracted by entire rows ofpeople standing up to let two people in. So if you want to see a show and have a choice of where to go, pick the other place and not that one.

The ride home took a while since the roads were bad, but it was nice to be reminded how much fun dating D is. It's nice to goof off and be natural and not worry about assanine things. I really enjoy his company and am so grateful for him.

hallelujah a competent doctor!

Obviously I mean that Bruiser's appointment at the new Hemophilia Center went well. It was about a two hour drive compared to the one and a half at the other place. But figure in babysitter in the form of grandma and we saved time.

We left pretty early and took Monk with us since everyone was working. It took a while to get there but once we arrived we knew right where to go because this place is both professional and organized. They had sent us the paperwork ahead of time along with a couple introductory sheets that what floor, etc to go to.

Check in and registration took all of 2 minutes and they could see us with in five. We met the main nurse who was super sweet and so knowledgeable. A far cry from the flaky nurses up north. Anyway, she told us who we would meet that day and what their purposes were. So we met with the social worker who helps with insurance and government help as far as his health bills will go and explained that process to us. Then we talked to the nurse until the doctor came in. We were never in the room alone which was nice. The nurse had an entire work sheet to go through and gave us a big bag of Hemophilia information and stuff. She was really surprised we didn't get any of that stuff at the other place. What I liked about all the information she went over was that none of it was the stuff you find on google the first couple times you search. It was stuff we needed to know, like how to recognize a bleed, where to look, who to call, etc etc.

Then the Doctor came in and he was awesome! And you can see why-


He seemed genuinely happy to meet us and he spent some time talking to our little two month old trying to get a feel for him. What was cool was that the dr wanted to undress and dress him instead of having us do it and waiting, etc. Then after his physical exam, the dr. swaddled him and held him and tried to make him smile which was really sweet. I really felt like we were his only appointment that day and that he wanted to spend a lot of time with us. (I saw the registration paper so I knew that he had been pretty busy, so it was great.)

Really, I liked the way he talked to us and the way he treated us. For example, he told me that with Bruiser's Hemophilia, most likely, he won't have bleeds unless it's a result of some trauma. Then he defined trauma. They also gave Bruiser his immunizations where they iced his leg before hand and put his pacifier in a thick sugar water to help. We left feeling totally prepared. We were so pleased and the difference between this center and the other center are literally night and day. I didn't feel like I needed to roll my eyes once!

D and I also felt really fortunate. Dr. Kerlin is also an oncology doctor so the other children we saw were all there for chemotherapy and looked pretty sick. We felt so blessed that Hemophilia is all we have to worry about. While I wish that our little boy didn't have to have any struggles with it, I'm grateful that with all the horrible things out there, ours will basically just bruise easily and need an occasional (but crazy expensive) shot. The Lord has truly blessed us.

On another note: Monkey Monk is doing great with the potty training. So great, that we decided to buy pull-ups :)


PS I ordered my cord online so hopefully it will be here soon and I can post new pictures of my boys!

SPONSOR ME

I'm participating in a walk for March of Dimes on May 1. I'm really excited about it because I'll be doing it with my friend, Holly, and her family and friends. Holly authors caringforcarleigh.blogspot.com about her experience with her daughter that had anencephaly.

I've known Holly since I was 7 and LOVE her and her family so I'm excited to be able to do this. My personal goal is $100 and the team goal is $1000. So if my family and facebook friends donate $1-$5 I should be able to reach it easily.



Help me out guys!