Some Pictures

Here are some pictures I took with my cell phone (not the best quality) throughout the day...

Piper & Zak holding hands

Piper

Ryder, Piper, and Zak

Josephine stuffing 2 brownies in her mouth

Chelley & Josephine

Madelyn showing off her cute outfit

Madelyn standing without holding onto anything

Ryder & Zak watching Barney

Piper wearing Zak's cowboy boots

Chuck (aka Pops), Piper, and Zak

Today has been a long and stressful day. We had 2 viewings at the funeral home which was pretty emotional at times. The boys were very good for the first viewing and did well for the first half of the second viewing, but then they started to get tired and restless. Ben took them back to the hotel while I stayed for the end of the viewing. Tomorrow will be the funeral and then we are having a little get together at the hotel afterwards for everyone.

Funeral Details

All of the details have now been worked out for the viewings and funeral. The viewings will be held Wednesday October 21 at 2-4pm and 6-8pm at Taylor Funeral Home in Annapolis. The funeral will be at 11am on Thursday October 22 also at Taylor Funeral Home.

Tribute Page

The boys and I are leaving tomorrow morning to go into Annapolis and Ben will meet us once he gets off work. We will be staying at a hotel in Annapolis (the same place my mom is staying) until Friday so that we don't have to drive back and forth. The dogs are going to stay with Rich and Laura for a few days while we are in Annapolis.

The boys have horribly runny noses with so much snot that it isn't even funny! They both run as soon as they see a Kleenex coming towards them. They seem to be acting fine (maybe a little cranky) so I am hoping the next few days won't be too bad.

Sad News

I am sad to announce that this morning Mum Mum passed away. I am thankful that she will no longer be in pain, but she will be very missed by everyone in our family. I am also happy that the boys were able to know their great-grandmother for 2 years. The last few years have been difficult for all of us as we watched Mum Mum battle cancer, Multiple Sclerosis, and Alzheimer's. She spent the last 3 months in Florida with my mom and was able to peacefully pass away with her close by. The details are still being worked out for the viewings and funeral, but it looks like they will be Wednesday and Thursday. If you would like to know the exact dates and times feel free to leave a comment or e-mail me. I wanted to post a few pictures of the boys with Mum Mum...

Of course the boys have no idea what is going on so they have been up to their normal silly antics. Here are a few pictures and videos...

New Jammies

Yesterday I decided the boys needed some new footy pajamas because it is getting cooler out and they refuse to keep socks on overnight. I found a few older pajamas, but they were a little snug so we needed the next size up. For some reason I felt the need to go out in the 44 degree rainy weather with two 2 year-olds to Target for new jammies!

Here are the boys ready to go out in the nasty weather...


Even though the weather was horrible we have a successful trip to Target. The footy pajamas were actually on sale so I was very excited about that! I bought 2 packs of them (2 in each pack) and will probably go back to buy a few more since the boys love them. I think they are so cute!


The weather is not improving at all so it looks like we won't be going to the Fall Festival at Homestead Gardens this weekend. It was even snowing last night!

Sickness Update: The boys have been fever free for a few days now which is good. They both have really runny noses and a hoarse voice, but are acting completely themselves which is good. I think this is just the first cold of many this winter. The other night they were so cranky so I put them in a bubble bath which made them very happy for a while...

WIC Appointment

This morning the boys and I had a WIC appointment to get re-certified and pick up new checks. Now that the boys are 2 years old WIC requires you to switch to 1% or fat free milk which we were not happy about because of their weight gain issues. Our pediatrician sent a form to WIC requesting whole milk for another year. WIC said if the boys were below 10% for their height to weight ratio they would give them whole milk. We figured this wouldn't be an issue because they have always been on the low end. Well, today I had a big surprise when neither of them qualified for the whole milk!!

Zak is now 33.5 inches tall and 25 pounds. He has not grown in height for a while, but he gained a pound! This puts him at 18% for his height to weight ratio.

Ryder is now 33.25 inches tall and 24 pounds 10oz. Just like Zak, Ryder has not grown in height for a while, but gained about 1.5 pounds! This put him at 21% for his height to weight ratio.

I am really worried what will happen when we switch them to the 1% milk so we will watch them closely. Hopefully they will not lose weight, but if they do we will have to start buying whole milk on our own or try to get WIC to re-certify them for whole milk. I am so thankful for the WIC program because they have provided so much for the boys, but it is so difficult with it being a state program and they do nothing case-by-case. Even the nutritionist today said she would love to be able to give the boys whole milk, but just can't...

That Time of Year

Yesterday afternoon Rich & Laura brought the boys home from their sleepover. It seems like they had a good time as always. I laid them down for a nap, but Zak was very whiny and just not himself. When I picked him up I felt that he was burning up. I took his temperature which was 101. So I gave him some Tylenol and put on Barney in the playroom for him to watch. About an hour or two later he was crying and just curled up in a ball so I took his temperature again and it had gone up to 103. Since I don't have any Motrin we had to get in the car and run to CVS to guy some. When we got home I gave him a dose and he laid on the couch watching Barney.

I called the pediatrician's office and the nurse took my name, phone number, and asked what was going on. She said that the pediatrician would call me back because they were pre-screening everybody before making appointments. This is one of the ways the office is trying to avoid spreading germs more than necessary. When the pediatrician called they told me to treat his symptoms (Tylenol, Motrin, saline nasal spray, etc) for now. If he continues to have a fever (above 100) for 3 days, has difficulty breathing, shows signs of ear infection or strep throat, or stops drinking we need to call back and schedule an appointment to come in.

Last night he just wanted to sit in my lap which is fine. I gave him another dose of Tylenol at bedtime and he slept through the night. This morning he woke up with a fever of 101, but seems to be more himself. His nose is pretty stuffy today, but it doesn't seem to be causing any breathing issues. He will play for a while and then lay down and start to whine for a bit, but then he gets up and plays more. Here are a few videos of my sick boy and Ryder...

Looks sick to you, right?

They are obsessed with the suitcases

And here they are crashing

On to the name of this post...it is flu season once again. The boys got the seasonal flu shot on Saturday, but we have decided not to get the H1N1 shot. With their asthma and Zak's lack of immune system we will once again be using hand washing and other precautions throughout the flu season. We are going to try and avoid crowded indoor areas and stay away from sick people in general. We have stocked up on the medication for our nebulizer along with their inhalers to help battle any colds or dreaded pneumonia.

Busy Day

This morning after the boys woke up I packed their suitcase for a sleepover with Rich & Laura while Ben fed them breakfast. While waiting for Rich & Laura to come pick them up we made some candy necklaces which the boys LOVED!!


Of course we had to dress the boys in their Redskins jerseys which Laura was not excited about since she is a Ravens fan...


Zak was extremely excited for his sleepover! He loves pulling around their little Cars suitcase...


After the boys left Ben and I started to work on cleaning and organizing the house. We started with the kitchen and then moved into the living room. Around noon we took a break for lunch and to do some Christmas shopping. In the ads we saw that Toys R Us was having some good Columbus Day sales so we headed there. We were going to look for scooters and trains for the boys along with a Barney stuffed animal. We walked out with 2 Harley Davidson Scooters and 2 Barneys. When we got home I got online to find a picture of the scooter to post on here and found a big surprise...these scooters were on sale for half price on the Toys R Us website! So I bought 2 online and then we returned the 2 we had bought in the store. We ended up saving $30 by buying them online (even after shipping costs were added in). On our second trip to Toys R Us (to return the scooters) we also got some stocking stuffers...trains, candy necklaces, and a few glow sticks for Halloween.

Tomorrow Ben leaves for VA for a few days. I will continue to work on the house some more until Rich & Laura bring the boys back home sometime in the afternoon/evening.

Past Few Days

Tonight the boys went with Laura to a Halloween party. They LOVED being the center of attention with all of the girls at the party! They got to run around and play, paint a pumpkin, make smores, and many other things. Here are a few pictures once it got dark outside (Zak wouldn't go anywhere near the fire pit)...

The other day it got pretty warm (around 80 degrees) so Zak begged to play in the pool (holding the hose up and trying us "water pool please"). They had a great time putting their heads under the hose and Zak was trying to drink from the hose.

Ryder decided to try something new and use the plastic chair as a diving board to jump into the pool and Zak quickly followed....

Playground

The other day we made a trip to the playground after Ben got home from work. The boys love going to the playground, but it can be difficult for me to take them alone since they are now climbing everything (including things they really can't which means lots of falls) and go in opposite directions. Also, the playgrounds are not completely enclosed so they can easily escape if I don't keep an eye on where they both are. I have made trips by myself in the mornings when it is not busy, but it is stressful.

Yesterday I realized we already have something to use as a tool belt for Ryder! We still have one of the Home Depot work aprons so I just folded it in half and Ryder wore it all evening. We now are have whole construction costume because Laura found a hard hat for us. It is hard to see since in the picture his shirt is also orange....

The next few weeks are probably going to be crazy for us because Ben will be going out of town a few times. First, he will be going to VA for 3 days or so to help out with jobs there since one of their techs is injured. We are not sure when this will be, but probably in the next 2 weeks. Then Ben just found out that his company has a new contract dealing with a new product which means they need to train some of the techs on how to work on it. Well, Ben has been told he will be going to the training which is in California! It looks like he might be going the first week of November, but that is not definite yet.