The Easter Bunny was Here!

Just before Easter weekend, we welcomed baby Mark to the world. He was four weeks early and it was quite a journey to get him here, but he's here, perfect and sweet. Many wishes and congrats to Shelley, Blaine and big sister Olivia! Mommy and baby are home and doing well.

The Easter Bunny also came to our house for the first time ever! Carter got up first and checked out his Easter bucket. Sadly, he didn't get any candy this year (or so I thought, but Cailin did slip him a jelly bean. He loved it). He was thrilled with his toys. He played with the bucket all morning. His dear sister decided that she wanted the blue one and gave him her pink one instead. They both wanted the blue one so that didn't work so well.

Cailin slept in quite late and was surprised to see eggs and a bucket outside her door. Once she figured out the eggs had jelly beans and chocolate inside though, she was all up for the egg hunt.
She was also thrilled to know that eating candy for breakfast was allowed. Cailin had a great time running around the house looking for eggs with Bailey hot on her heels. Bailey got enough dropped jelly beans and treats that she got sick later at Nana and Papa's house. Well, they say it's not truly a holiday until someone eats too much candy and barfs. Right? Please say right.

Look, Carter was even willing to do some tummy time to play with the bucket!
Pretty soon we got ready for Easter dinner at Nana and Papa's house. I told Cailin to go get dressed so we could go see GG and Papa Ray. You know how little girls always wear those cute little Easter outfits or dresses? This is what Cailin came up with:
Yeah. That would be a tutu shirt with a dress-up tutu underneath, black leggings and hot pink gum boots topped with a lovely orange monkey hat. She then paired it with a red ladybug rain jacket. Hey, at least she was dressed. This would be the exact reason why I didn't bother buying her a cute Easter dress. My lil Rockstar.

We had a wonderful dinner. Cailin played outside with a hose and washed everything in sight, including both the Papas I'm sure. It was lovely to see GG and Papa Ray. It was just a lovely Easter weekend in general.

More Thyroid Drama, Oh Snap!

First of all, happy birthday Dani! Hope it was a wonderful day!

I went back to the doc on Monday. Cailin was not so pleasant in the waiting room but cheered up by the time we got to the examination room. She sat on the bed and listened to the doc as he checked her ears and throat. Her ears are fine, but her throat was slightly irritated. Might have had something to do with her using it to voice her displeasure in the waiting room just prior, but hey, I'm not a doctor. He wants me to get her bloodwork done to rule out low iron and to check her sugar levels. I'm not looking forward to that. Carter was good, just tagged along for the ride.

So remember when I said I had nodules on my thyroid and the gland next to it or beside it or whatever? Turns out it's a bigger deal than I thought. The doc referred me to the hospital to get this pesky thing checked out with the radioactive dye/X-ray combo. Imagine my surprise when the hospital called me the next day.

I was under the impression that we would be looking for hotspots in the thyroid, but the imaging staff informed me that they were doing the procedure on the parathyroid glands. This would be one of four glands neighboring that pesky thyroid gland. One of which has a nodule on it. Only they were calling it a tumor. Then there's the whole breastfeeding thing where you can't nurse for 24hrs at least after having the procedure, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there. So they told me to call back when I was ready to do it and they would fit me in right away.

I hung up a little confused. I was sure the large nodule in the thyroid was going to be scanned, but now it's the parathyroid? Tumor? Say what?

Google is the most useful tool.

There are four parathyroid glands located behind the thyroid. Despite sharing similar names and close real estate, the two glands are not related at all. These four glands, normally the size of a grain of rice each, control calcium levels in the body. Since many systems require calcium to function properly, these glands are quite important. One of my glands presented on the ultrasound with a tumor on it. I prefer 'nodule' myself, but I stand corrected.

Sometimes these glands just simply puff up and become tumors for no apparent reason. They can mess with your calcium levels, making them too high, and cause health problems like fatigue, generally not feeling well, anxiety and irritability. And cancer and stroke too. You know, the fun stuff. Generally speaking, the cure is to remove the offending tumorous gland(s) before they wreak havoc on your body.

I made the mistake of watching a parathyroid removal video. While it is only a one inch incision into the front of the throat, the narration really got to me. "... And now the surgeon will expose the thyroid and check for any sign of suspicious nodules and remove them, being careful of the vocal chord nerve..." as he flops about the gland responsible for this poor guy's metabolism. Then they showed the removed gland/tumor and I got queasy. Not the greatest feeling when you already have heartburn....

I really hope I don't have to have this parathyroid thingy removed. It really freaks me out that I might have my throat operated on. My arm or leg or torso? That's fine, but not my teeth, eyes or throat thank you.

So it looks like I may have hyperparathyroidism as well as hyperthyroidism. Totally unrelated glands, both really hyper. Nice.

Well It's Still March

I really don't like March much. It's that almost-spring-still-winter-oh-my-gosh-get-me-out-of-the-house-before-I-go-crazy month. You know. But hey, at least it's not January right? I really don't like January at all. Speaking of which, here is our New Years card. A little late. Heh. While it hasn't been terribly cold out, the weather has still been crappy. It's been snowing more than it needs to, and the roads haven't been great. We managed to get out one sunny afternoon for a lovely two hour long walk. Carter slept almost the whole time and Cailin walked the last half of the walk. She threw snow balls and informed me she was 'popping the snow bubbles'. She got to splash in puddles, play in mud and throw snowballs all in one walk.

Carter seems almost as big as Cailin now. He popped another tooth through, and has three more coming in. Despite all that teething, he is in fairly good spirits. He's doing a lot more floor exercises, but is still pretty content to roll to his back and play with whatever he's got in his hands. He especially loves my Blackberry, and is quite sneaky about grabbing it. Seems every time I turn around he's got it in his hands or he's chewing on it. He is also quite smitten with the iPad - something Cailin is not enjoying sharing much. Carter hasn't been enjoying going to bed very much lately, but once he is in his crib (after a few cries of displeasure) he drifts right off and sleeps through the night.

Cailin is getting the potty training stuff down. Without going into gory oversharing detail, she can do all the steps herself, including getting up to the sink and washing her hands. I was bribing her with mini Reese cups (chocolate), but she is much more smitten with puffy stickers. I'm okay with that!

The potty humor is ever expanding with Cailin. Some of the things she comes up with are so off the wall. The other night she was snuggling with me while we played a math game before bed. She suddenly sniffed the air disdainfully and announced, "EWWWWW mom, B smells like poop!" It was hilarious - and I couldn't argue with her since she was right.

Gymnastics is still Cailin's favorite activity. She has so much fun there, and takes home everything she learns and performs it in our house to her fullest ability. No walking beam? She'll walk down the edge of the tub, thank you. No uneven bars? The towel rack works just fine (sans towels of course). Climbing apparatus? The couch cushions arranged into a maze/obstacle course is just the ticket. Nothing to jump off of? The back of the couch to the ottoman works great. I could pull my hair out when she climbs the curtains, and Bailey isn't fond of being ridden like some rolly polly miniature horse. Carter is very content to sit back and watch Cailin go through her routines and laughs the whole time at her.

I've also been busy lately myself. I went back for yet more bloodwork on Friday and I'm going back to the doctor next Monday. Hopefully some of the the previous issues will be cleared up and we'll be able to attack the thyroid issue soon. In the meantime, I'm still feeling antsy in my pantsy 98% of the time. It's annoying. Even after sleeping through the night I feel tired, yet hyper.

I made two cakes this week. The first, Cat in the Hat. Which strangely didn't include the Cat:

The second was a string monster much like the Oscar cake I made a few weeks ago (a month ago?). I didn't get to take a picture with the big camera before it went out the door, and so only have a crappy cell phone picture of it. I'll have to post it later.

The kids have been sleeping a little better and a little earlier in the the night, and I've been able to work a bit on hats. Every time I catch up on an order, I get four more. I might have to stop taking any new orders while I catch up with the current ones. I also found some time to update my website and deleted the hats I will no longer be making. Here is my favorite "Chloe" hat of my 2012 Spring Collection:
I've also been working on a new collection of Modern Animal hats. Here's the Teddy Bear:
This one is for a friend's baby. I also really enjoy just getting creative and crafting hats without any particular person in mind. A local store in town here asked if I would be interested in selling my designs - aka my patterns. I told her I don't write them down as I wouldn't know how to. She said that's not a problem as she would help me. I find the idea very interesting, but as of just now, I just can't commit to the time it would take to sit down with her and write up these designs. Maybe in the future. But it's still exciting!

Tonight Ryan and I sat down for some quality time together - and did our taxes. We submitted them online and I felt quite accomplished for getting them done. It wasn't as hard as I expected. Definitely beats waiting at the tax office and paying 5X the price than that of the software. Carter even helped out by swatting the keyboard for me until we set him up with Angry Birds on the iPad.

Now we wait to see if they weren't difficult for a reason (like I did them wrong). Heh.

Teething and Rolling

It's been a couple of exciting weeks for Carter. He woke up one morning with his first tooth! The other front bottom tooth is about to break through as well. He decided to start sitting up by himself too. He's a little tippy still, but getting more steady everyday.

He also decided that tummy time maybe isn't the worst thing that ever happened to him and is starting to enjoy it - and when he's tired he rolls over to his back. From his back he can roll up to his side and stays there forever, balancing and looking all over the room. Then he can roll back to his tummy. So he went from not sitting or rolling to sitting up, and rolling front to back and from back to front. Sometimes he looks like he's moving in slow motion while he's doing his floor exercises.

Carter is the happiest and sweetest baby. I didn't know he was even cutting a tooth, a nice change from Cailin's usual mode of cranky tooth cutting. Speaking of which, she's been cutting her two year molars for about seven weeks now. That means the household hasn't slept much in the last seven weeks. She now has two fully cut on the bottom, and one poking through on the top. It grew over and then popped out again. Hopefully it stays out now. We're waiting on that one last pesky tooth.

We keep telling each other that after these molars, she's DONE. At least until around six years old. But that's a long time away.

Cailin has been enjoying gymnastics, going shopping and trying out Papa's new hot tub. Everyday she is surprising me with how much she is learning. Her potty humor is developing at a rate that makes my head spin. But don't even ask me about potty training.

I've been feeling pretty on edge with this pesky thyroid thing. The kids have been tag teaming me most nights and I haven't been able to work on my hat orders. They are piling up and the deadlines are looming. I am absolutely swamped and feeling the strain.

Anyways, it's been a very event filled and milestone reaching kind of week.

The Results Are In - Kinda

Last Friday I got yet more bloodwork done. On the way home, the ultrasound clinic phoned and said they could fit me in that afternoon. I couldn't believe how quickly I got in.

The ultrasound was quick and painless (since then I've had a pretty sore throat). I watched her take measurements of suspicious white circles on the ultrasound screen. Nodules. I knew what to expect then.

Today I went back to the doctor's office. Anyone keeping track? What is this, like the 12,199th time in the last month? Anyway, my regular doc is still on vacation and the place was in complete disarray. Long story short, they finally found my results and dished them to me, cold-leftovers-straight-out-of-the-fridge style:

Liver: two different elevated enzymes. No conclusive verdict as to why.

Cholesterol: Meh. Borderline. Possibly becoming a problem if I don't clean up my diet.

Good cholesterol: Low (crap).

Urine: Contains blood (what the what!)

Thyroid blood test: Whack, yo. Overactive, or if you prefer, hyperactive. But not hypoallergenic.

Blood Sugar Level: Perfectly normal, thank you!

Thyroid ultrasound: Pesky thing contains a nodule smack dab in the center. And another one either on the neighoring gland, or pushing on said gland from on the pesky thyroid. They are both fairly small. At any rate, they are enough to be pushing my peer pressure-prone thyroid into overdrive.

I don't have many choices at this point. I can get some nice, lovely radioactive dye injected into my body and see where it floats to in the thyroid now, or I can wait another 6 months to do it. Since you can't be a nursing mother when you get that done, I guess I will wait. There isn't much in terms of medication at this point. The doc is sure my thyroid will burn itself out and quit working as is normally the case. Then I go on thyroid hormone treatment for the rest of my life. I could also have Graves Disease, an autoimmune disorder of the thyroid. There is no cure. So in the meantime, I get to enjoy a heightened metabolism, being too hot constantly, and feeling antsy in my pantsy 98% of the time. Don't forget my hair trigger irritability level. But hey, my house has never been cleaner!

The liver enzymes and blood in the urine are some cause for concern as well. The doc can't come to any conclusions other than a possible infection. I'm going in for more bloodwork in two weeks to see what we find then. It's possible everything will be clear by then. We won't ever know why things were out of whack. However, the thyroid issue is here to stay for a while.

How about a nice baby picture?
Isn't he cute? He really likes to jump in his Jumperoo now.

I'm staying positive. Now that I know it's my thyroid making me feel funny, I can deal with it. We have a game plan. Waiting isn't much of a plan really, but I'm optimistic about the results of future testing.

There are big changes coming to our dinner table as a result of these tests. It's time to eat a little better than we have been. Stay tuned for what I can only presume to be a veritable riot in our household. Heh.

Grouchy Cake and Bunk Thyroid

The last week has been incredibly busy. I couldn't get through to the doctor's office, so I paid a visit to them in person and stood in their long lineup. Most of my tests from last week were back, and the results demanded another visit, so I booked for Thursday (yesterday).

In the meantime, I did really important stuff, like baked an Oscar the Grouch cake for a friend's birthday:
I went to the craft store and stocked up on yarn, finished a few large orders (and shipped them, I detest the post office ughhhh), took the kids shopping for Valentine's day stuff and cleaned, cleaned, cleaned the house. Cailin was not impressed about going home from shopping, so we stopped by the office and saw Papa on the way home (and daddy too!)

Valentine's Day was pretty lame for a few of us. Cailin got a snazzy set of Hello Kitty pajamas that she basically has lived in since (yay!), Carter got his six month shot (boo!) and Nana got a root canal (huge boo to the hiss! aka LAMESAUCE).

Wednesday, Cailin's friend Olivia came over to play. The girls were so cute and they play together so nicely. They watched Tangled downstairs by themselves on the big screen. (OMGosh, did I mention we got a huge 3D TV for downstairs? Guess I just did).

Wednesday night was not a good night. Cailin woke up several times in the night and got up at 4am. She also got Carter up, who was on his maiden voyage sleeping all night in his crib for the first time. He did wonderfully by the way. He's been napping in his crib for a while now, and he slept stretched right out as much as he could stretch.

Cailin in the meantime, just simply hasn't been sleeping. She didn't feel good for a week, did a week of antibiotics, cut two molars and now is working on two more. She has slept through the night a whole three times in the last month. Poor girl! We're all getting a bit tired around here.

That didn't stop her from stealing a hat off the counter and running around the house laughing like she had the holy grail or something. What a goof! We've been having such good days playing and laughing. Yesterday the lack of sleep must have caught up to her. She was such a pooper in gymnastics that she had to sit on the side until she would participate properly. On the other hand, she allowed the teacher to lift her up onto the bar! Making progress in leaps and bounds.

Last night she cried for two hours before falling asleep, despite having had an Advil. Those rotten no good teeth! She's pretty sick of teething (frankly so are we). Two more teeth and she's done til she's six.

Cailin loves to sing. I'm not sure where she got 'Twinkle, Twinkle' from as I don't sing it, but she's been singing it as she runs around the house. Of course, once she runs out of words she knows, she makes them up. She uses "tractor, Jeep, Ranger and Papa Ray" mostly as substitutes for the real words, but still sings in tune to the song. Cute!

Carter finished night #2 in his crib with no issues at all. He loves having all that room. His wee basinet was getting a little snug. He did really well with his six month shot (only one needle this time!). He scrunched up his face and let out a mad squeal, then immediately sat straight up in my arms, mesmerized by the little bell the nurse was ringing. No tears! It was a wonderful change of pace. They are so caring and understanding in that clinic in Beaver City. Cailin tried very hard to take a bike home from the waiting room.

Yesterday I went into the doctor's office convinced that my diagnosis was Hemochromatosis. I was prepared for it. It meant a lifetime of maintenance to keep the iron levels in check, but I was prepared to deal with it. Imagine my surprise when the actual iron levels came back normal. Normal levels, normal binding. Normal white blood cell count (no infection). My ferratin level is still sky high (which is why Hemochromatosis was suspected) and my liver enzymes are slightly elevated. The ferratin is an indication that something is wrong and we have to find out what. But the kicker was the thyroid levels. My pesky little thyroid seems to be overactive. The doc went through a checklist concerning thyroid symptoms and I was surprised to have most of them. Some of them overlap with Hemochromatosis as well. Shaking hands, feeling tired, dizzy, being anxious, agitated and irritable, a sore throat (I've had that for such a long time I ignore it completely) and being unable to withstand heat (HELLO! Right here!); I have all of those. What I really want to know is, why aren't I skinny with this overactive thyroid thing? Feeling this awful should come with a few perks I say!

Seriously though, this should be an easy fix once we figure out what's going on. I got up at 6:45 this morning and wandered off to the lab for yet more bloodwork. My gosh, the size of the needle they stuck in me today.... I almost got squeamish. Almost. These tests are for checking liver function, diabetes, cholesterol, and thyroid stuff. I was also super surprised to get a call from the ultrasound lab telling me they could fit in a thyroid ultrasound scan today. So I'm taking control of my health and getting this all done way faster than I imagined. By next week we should have a better picture of what is going on with me.

Cailin also insisted the doctor have a look in her ears and throat while we were there. She sat very still while he checked and followed his instructions to a tee. She's good to go!

The Sickies Part 2

So we went back to the doctor on Monday for our real appointments. Cailin had finished her seven days of antibiotics (blahhhhh) and I had got some bloodwork done and we were looking for clean bills of health. Carter had his routine six month checkup.

Cailin: is perfectly healthy. All signs of her ear/throat infections are gone. She was running about the examine room like a monkey on speed. Surprisingly she wasn't the least bit concerned with the doctor even though she couldn't remember seeing him before (he was a sub for our regular doctor). We saw him before when Cailin was a wee baby.

I'm so glad her medicine is done. It was hard to get into her; she would see the dropper in my hand and run for the hills. While administering the meds one night I noticed she had FINALLY popped two molars through in the back. Now I had a clear picture of what was going on. She had a cold/ear/throat infections and was cutting teeth all at the same time. We haven't slept through the night in two weeks now, and I'm hoping we get back on track very soon. In fact, she had such a rough night the other night we sat in the rocker and shared an apple fritter. Heck, it's not like anyone was actually sleeping.

We made a quick trip to Sears tonight and this is what happened in the Sesame Street quadrant. We left with three mauve curtains for the front windows and no toys.

Carter:
Was given a clean bill of health as well. He's in the 85th-ish percentile for height/weight, and is tipping the scales at 18.4 lbs. I mentioned my concern over his odd shaped flat spot on the side of the back of his head. The nurse assured me it was nothing to worry about, and the doctor concurred. However, he offered me a referral to the pediatrician to get a second opinion just in case. Since Carter's head is over the 95th percentile mark it could be a warning sign that something is wrong. I'm sure he's just fine, but a second opinion would be great.

Carter is enjoying his baby food, and eats veggies no problem. He's been sleeping through the night, though he finds it a little hard with Cailin being up so much. During the day he's been sitting up on the couch and playing, bouncing gently in the Jumperoo and enjoying naps in his crib.

Me: I was expecting either to have nothing wrong with my bloodwork, or to have low iron. Imagine my surprise when my iron level was actually high. My iron is over twice the normal-high range it should be.

He thinks I may have hemochromatosis, the inability of the body to rid itself of excess iron. Looking back in my records, my iron was of normal range one year ago (while I was pregnant) but the year before that it was abnormally high. The year before that it was normal (pregnant with Cailin), and the year before that it was also high. The level has been trending upwards for the last five years. The high level could also be the result of an infection or liver disease. Goody.

At any rate, after the doctor we went over to the lab where I had some more bloodwork done. I'll have to go back to the doctor for those results soon.

So it's been an exciting couple of sleep deprived weeks. It's surprising how fast the household shifts into 'survival mode' with sick kiddies around. Now that everyone is feeling better, we're making the trek back into normal house rules. Oh, what a laugh. Cailin is really not liking the rules enforced once again. No, you can't eat granola bars for three meals a day. Yes, you have to brush your teeth AND your hair. Yes, you have to go to bed. Like an hour ago.

Here's hoping for a full night's sleep tonight!

The Sickies

Cailin and Carter haven't been feeling well. In a strange role-reversal, I got a cold last weekend and gave it to the kids. Since then Cailin has been having a terrible time going to bed. Ryan mentioned he thought her ears might hurt. Then she told me her ears hurt and was crying a lot. I phoned the doctor and tried to shush Cailin's crying while I was on the phone, but it seemed to have helped my case because they told me to come in for a visit within 30 minutes.

She has ear/throat infections. And she's back on the foulest medicine I've ever seen/smelled/tasted. I won't compare the taste to what I want to compare it to. It's just BAAAAAD. The doc also told us if she gets one more throat infection before her birthday, he's going to recommend her tonsils get removed. Yeah, I don't know about that.

Poor Carter is sickies too. His throat is red and his wee nose is running. Despite feeling sick, he's still been the happiest baby on earth.
Looks like someone's Advil kicked in. Heh.
We've been watching a lot of movies and enjoying the sunshine through the window. We've also taken up residence on the couch/fort/tent/tunnel/play area for the next foreseeable future. Hope everyone feels better soon, we've got a walking track and water park to explore.

Heh. This Blog Thing Again.

We had a really nice Christmas. Cailin played with her cousins and had a great time. Of course it went much faster than we would have liked, but isn't that how it always goes? I swear time speeds up the older I get.

Grace got a cool suitcase on wheels and this happened a lot:
We did Christmas day at GG and Papa Ray's house in Tumbler. Carter is quite enamoured of his great-grandparents.
Carter is getting so big. He's bordering on the 20lb mark according to our highly technological home scale. He's still very relaxed (ie a bit floppy) and needs help sitting up. These kids spend a lot of time snuggling on the couch together. Here they are just after Christmas:
Oh, we celebrated our own quiet Christmas too. On Christmas Eve morning we put out all the presents under the tree and waited for Cailin to get up. She was amazed to see that Santa had come. True to form, she didn't need any explaining or prompting. She simply walked up to the tree and started to rip and tear.
She had a great time and spent the rest of the morning pushing Elmo around in her new dump truck. Carter slept through the whole thing.

So Christmas was over a month ago, but Cailin is still talking about it. She tells us she wants to see Santa all the time and talks about opening presents. She still wants me to sing Christmas songs to her at night, her favorites are Santa Claus is Coming to Town and of course, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

The month since Christmas has passed by in a blur. Carter is really enjoying his solid foods now, especially peaches and apple sauce. He's sleeping extremely well through the night. I set up his crib in his big boy room and he's been napping in there when he's able to. It's kind of hard to get any shut eye when Cailin's awake though. Just sayin'.

Cailin has been talking up a storm and learning in leaps and bounds. Literally. We're bordering on our 10th gymnastics session and she's loving it. Her motor skills are amazing! She holds my hand less and less as she learns how to do moves/skills herself. And her talking. Good grief she amazes me every single day with new words she's learning. Not all of them are good either (ahem, Nana!).

Recently we've all been recovering from a nasty little flu/cold bug. So far Ryan has escaped the worst of it. Might have something to do with the Cold-FX pills he's been chewing like candy or the fact that he's slathering himself in hand sanitizer every chance he gets. Whatever he's doing, it's working. I was out of commission for two days and now poor Cailin is really suffering. Carter has the sniffles and is congested but seems to be fairing better than us girls are.

Currently my living room has been upended to build a fort. Our couch is the perfect fort building couch. To placate a cranky Cailin, I showed her how to remove the cushions and make bridges, slides and tunnels. Now we're lucky to have a cushion left over to sit on at any given moment.

And hats (& more)! My business is really taking off. I thought the rush would be over after Christmas, but I'm still getting new orders every day. I'm swamped in them. I'm exploring new avenues to sell them, namely Farmer's Markets in the area, but unfortunately time is an issue. I can't commit to every single weekend. I am toying with selling them out of my house, but don't have an area to display them yet. Plus there's the issue of having to keep the house clean at all times while waiting for customers to show up. I'll figure it out yet.

Oh, Hi. I DO Have a Blog!

This was our attempt at a) Christmas card photo; b) hat modelling for my website; c) spreading the general cuteness around. Cailin is saying, "Look mommy! Two Carters!" in this picture. She knows how many "2" is. Carter says NOM! ARM! TASTY! (he's getting his first two teeth). He is modelling the teddy bear hat I made him. It's made out of pure 100% itchiness. Poor baby. I'm hoping a wash in copious amounts of fabric softener will help.

Things have been wild around here the last month. I've had my hands full with kids, Christmas preparations and starting a home business.
Carter had his 4 month shots. He's 16lbs 13oz, pretty tall and has a big head. Measuring in the 75th percentile for all. He cried for quite a while, but didn't react to his shots other than getting a tad hot/feverish later. He's a very happy camper, belly laughing and generally in a good mood. He has been sleeping all night again since starting rice cereal. He's loving the rice cereal; he makes all sorts of squeaks with his mouth wide open if I don't spoon it in there fast enough. Carter is just the sweetest happiest baby. He's now been playing in the Jumperoo.

We hit another milestone too. Cailin is now in a big girl bed. I sold her first toddler bed on Kijiji and ordered a pink sparkly racecar bed instead.

Last morning in her crib:
We actually got the bed at the right time. Cailin was able to climb into her crib by herself. She wasn't quite able to climb out by herself, but I'm sure it was forthcoming. At any rate, she would fill her crib to the rafters with every stuffed animal she could find then climb up and jump in like a weird ball pit. Then of course get stuck and demand OUT quite loudly while jumping around like a crazy person.

I kept telling her she was getting a new bed and showing her pictures of it online to get her excited. She seemed to understand she was getting a new bed, but wasn't excited until it came in a big box one morning (a week early!). She helped by hiding the various pieces under the crib and using the screwdrivers before hiding them in the couch.

It wasn't too hard to put together and finally:
She transitioned without any issues at all. I put a spinny doorknob childproof thingy on the door and she went to sleep without getting out of her room and playing in the middle of the night. Although one morning she came downstairs and scared the poo out of me - holding the door spinny thing in two pieces. "Hi mommy. It's broken. Throw in garbage?" I taped the crap out of it and she hasn't been able to escape since.

I'm pretty sure she dreams up interesting things to tell me when I open her door in the morning. This morning she greeted me and said, "Daddy's truck has hemi." Why, yes it does. She surprises me with this stuff all the time.

Cailin has been able to play outside here and there this winter. She really enjoys it. Especially when Bailey is out there with her running around.So anyways, I'm making crocheted hats and selling them online. I've had a whole bunch of orders since opening my virtual doors almost a month ago - almost 60 hats have been made/sold/shipped/waiting for pickup since then. I'm very excited about it. Unfortunately I've also been running myself ragged tackling the Christmas orders. I'm down to 2 hats now that have to be made before Christmas. I still need to update my website with the newest hats, but here it is Sock Monkey Hats by Krystal. There's a link to my Facebook page on there too.

I've met some very cool ladies - and ordered a couple neat items from another online store. Carter is getting a froggy cart cover (well, both kids can use it, really) and Cailin is getting a Thomas the Tank Engine blanket. In the past whenever I've told her about something she's getting (ie her bed) she hasn't been all that interested or excited. When I asked her if she wanted a Thomas blankie today, she went ape! She asked for it many times over today and looked in the dryer, shower, closets and toy box for the Thomas blankie. I can't wait to pick it up tomorrow.

I am working on Hello Kitty hats and a rainbow monkey hat tonight. I better get after it! Good thing I have a box of chocolates to keep me company...

Happy 2nd Birthday Odin!

Our sweet little Odin turned two today. Two years ago he was born on Friday the 13th, the first grandson and our only nephew. We love him to bits!

Yesterday we packed the kids up and loaded them in the truck with sippy cups, toys and snacks galore. Then we drove up to B.C. to spend the day with Odin and family for his birthday party. It was snowing a bit here and there, but soon cleared up and it was a good drive.

Cailin was painfully shy to start with, but after a while of Papa snuggles, she joined in and played with the kids. They ran all over the house and had a great time.

There was cookies, cupcakes and happy kids (of course!).

We had a great time visiting, and the birthday boy was so funny. He got some cars and didn't want to share his new Jeep very badly, especially not with Gracie.

Cailin cried when we left, she wanted to keep visiting with her cousins. I wish we lived closer! The kids really enjoy their time together. Cailin sang songs about Odin on the way home and wished him a happy birthday over and over. I wish he had gotten to hear it from her himself!

So happy birthday Odin, from Auntie, Uncle, Cailin, Carter and Bailey. We love you!

Happy Howl-oween!

Halloween was no big deal this year. I have to admit I've been a big preoccupied what with having a three month old and all. Also it may have something to do with the feisty and sometimes assertive (ahem) two year old we're trying to parent. I wasn't even sure we were going to do anything other than retreat (treat! get it?) to Nana's and eat her candy stash while hiding from trick-or-treaters. Luckily my friend Shelley invited us over and bribed us with pizza. We took our two year old girls around the block for a quick trick-or-treat then beat a hasty retreat (treat! oh, never mind...) back to her house for supper. The guys stayed behind and watched Carter. He slept the entire time.

Cailin reused her strawberry costume from last year:
It ain't gonna fit next year. She can manage to squeeze the hat on, but I'm sure it pinches her head so bad she can't remember her dad while she wears it. I'm glad a hoodie fit under it though. It wasn't all that cold out, but the wind was freezing so we didn't stay out for long. Just long enough to get some cute pictures of the girls and a surprisingly large amount of candy. Cailin wasn't feeling assertive, but rather shy and hung back from the doorways and refused to say 'trick-or-treat'. Or anything at all. She tucked her hands into the costume to stay warm and obediently followed us around. Aside from one house that had gravel Cailin got excited to play in, she didn't take her hands out. It was funny how both girls dropped everything to play with rocks. Fisher Price ain't got nothin' on rocks. Or sticks.

Not to be outdone, Carter dressed up too:
Heh, that's Cailin's shirt from two years ago. Mr. Smiley Pants looked adorable in it, even if it did have a little too much purple glitter on it for his dad's liking. He chilled out with the guys while we ran around in the wind and watched a little hockey. His first Halloween was a success.

For our own trick-or-treaters, I put a bowl of candy out on the front step. I hoped that would prevent anyone from ringing the doorbell and stressing Bailey out. As it was, she was hiding downstairs when we got home. I wonder what happened to make her do that? Also, only half the bowl of candy was gone. Since we don't get many kids over on Halloween I'm guessing it was either one or two greedy kids, or a bunch of very polite kids. I was hoping they would relieve me of the entire lot, but alas now I have the arduous task of eating all those sugar bombs myself.

As for Cailin's trick-or-treating horde, I put that in a bowl up in the cupboard and it's being used for potty training bribery purposes. She refuses to sit on the potty these days. Today I got her to sit on there three times for the price of a sucker and a few rocket candies. She told me a few times she had to pee, so looks like we're getting on track. She can easily do all the steps needed to use the potty all by herself so I hope it goes okay.

Carter is now three months old! I can't believe the time is going by so fast. In another month he might be ready to play in the Jumperoo and have a taste of rice cereal. It's crazy. He's growing like a weed, around 16lbs now, and he sleeps all night.

Cailin is also growing a bit. She hit 25lbs and is out of her 18 month pants. They still fit around the waist, but they are way too short. Kinda looks like she's expecting a flood at any moment. We're struggling with her 24 month pants. They are too long and too big around the waist. Most of them have adjustable waists, but even those don't go small enough. Back to the farmer rolls. Her shirts are size 3 now. I can't believe how fast my children are growing before my very eyes.

The house is still working out well for us. With the great purge of aught '11, we now have lots of room to play downstairs. Cailin spends her evenings going up and down the stairs to play on both levels. One of her favorite things to do right now is lay in our bed with the iPad and watch youtube or play Angry Birds. Unfortunately I'm not too keen on the snacks she insists on eating in there. I try to talk her into eating crackers on her father's side of the bed. As a side note, if I find one more goldfish cracker in that bed, I'm so firing the dog. Also? I'm getting pretty tired of the Nutella* found in random places on my WHITE bedding. Also also? Nutella doesn't look too healthy when you first catch sight of it out of the corner of your eye when it's smeared on the bedspread. With Bailey and a kid in a diaper, you can never be too sure. Anyways, moving on.

So it's November now and it's cold out. The house is cold and I'm a complete wimp. You would never know I spent 8 winters of my life working outside. I'm not looking forward to this winter at all, but a strange thing is happening to me. I'm actually starting to look forward to decorating for Christmas. Must have something to do with paring the Christmas decorations down to two boxes and being completely organized. I'm also looking forward to seeing the wonders of the season through Cailin's eyes, and Carter's too for that matter. I'm doing all my shopping online and avoiding crowds, and I'm making presents in my spare time. I think it's going to be a lovely holiday.

*for those of you not familiar with the deliciousness that is Nutella, it is a chocolate hazelnut spread not unlike peanut butter. Except for the chocolate and hazelnut part of course.

Baby in a Basket

This is Cailin when she was just a wee sprout, about two months old. I put her in this wicker basket with her knitted hospital hat and did a big photoshoot with her. Her hat was a bit small, but it looked so cute on her. I took so many pictures and put a billion of them on Facebook. There are many framed pictures of that shoot up all over the house.

A few days ago it was Carter's turn. He went in the same basket, but there was no way his knitted hospital hat would ever fit on his head now, so I just fluffed up his hair. Of course this photoshoot was different because I had two assistants helping me. Cailin and Bailey were fantastic baby-distraction-ers. They also spent a lot of time hanging out in my natural light source from the window. That is, when they weren't laying around on the mat under the kitchen sink:
Those two troublemakers really are best friends and they are never far apart. Bailey still sleeps outside Cailin's door waiting for her to get up in the mornings and they spend their days tearing around the house chasing each other. And generally making a lot of noise.

Carter is getting very smiley and talks a lot these days. He chats away happily and falls asleep with a little smile on his face. He is truly the sweetest baby I have ever seen.
Cailin insists on calling him "Buddy". It's hilarious. Everything is Buddy's - Buddy bath, Buddy blankie, Buddy jammies. When he cries, she makes sure to tell him, "It's okay, Buddy."

We had another busy day today. I think Bailey rolled in cat poop (I'm not that interested to really check too hard) and then rolled around in our bed at my absolute horror. Needless to say I washed/changed/fumigated our room so fast it blew everybody's hair back. Cailin helped me do laundry by stuffing clean and previously folded clothes into the dryer. So helpful!

We cleaned here and there. Did a little shopping at Walmart and got some groceries. Nana bought Cailin a beautiful winter coat, but it wasn't received well. I'm hoping she likes her coat better when she doesn't have toothpaste on her shirt and is upset about it.

Cinnamon buns anyone? Looks like we need more brown sugar!

Thanksgiving, Two Month Shots and Such

Thanksgiving was wonderful. It was nice to see everyone and eat my weight in baked goods. This year I'm so thankful for my healthy children, my family and our lifestyle. There are so many people who aren't as blessed as we are with what we have. I try not to take that for granted.

Cailin, Grace and Odin played together all weekend. They are going to be a little gang of troublemakers when they get older, I can already tell. The girls kept locking Odin in the closet and he would cry, Grace would blame Cailin and they'd all march back into the closet to do it over again. They absolutely love playing in Nana's office, especially now with the addition of a very interesting and fun futon. Let the games begin!

Grace loves Carter. She asks me if she can take care of him and wants to hold him. She's quite the mother hen and always lets me know exactly what Cailin, Odin and Bailey are up to at any given moment.

Cailin had so much fun playing with her cousins that she cried when they left to go home. For days after she asked if they went home in (Uncle) Dustin's orange truck to 'go sleepy nap bed'. She's been practising their names since then, saying them over and over and ending with "go home". Apparently my brother's new name is 'Uncle Dustin Orange Truck'. Heh.

It snuck up on me pretty fast, but the day dawned for Carter's two month shots and checkup. Since it was impossible to book him in for his shots in town, I had to book them in a tiny town about 20 minutes from home, halfway between here and Beaver City. His four month shots have been booked (three months in advance) in Beaver City and I'm very glad I won't be taking Cailin with me for those.

Cailin is a very sensitive and sympathetic soul. She started crying the moment we got into the teeny tiny health clinic (which is actually an old converted house slash seniors' hall). She cried the whole time we were in there, reaching maximum pitch when Carter got his three needles and joined in for the chorus (so to speak). I was under the impression that going through needles with the second baby would be a lot easier than the first. Ha. When both my babies were screaming and the tears were flowing, I almost felt like joining in. However, it didn't last that long and we were able to get out of there in a timely manner. Cailin stopped crying once we were outside.

Of course once she was buckled in, Cailin demanded to go see Nana. I obliged since it had been such a stressful morning. On the bright side, Carter did not have any side effects from the shots. No swelling, no fever, no crankiness, no being sick. Unlike some other eldest children. Ahem, Cailin.

Carter's stats:

Weight: 14 lbs, 12 oz

Height: um, the nurse said it was 21", but he was curled up and was 23" tall at his 6 week checkup so I'm going with that.

Head: Pretty big

95th percentile for head and weight, and according to her botched measurement, 10th percentile for height. So the prognosis was that he's short and fat with a big head. But the height is off, so I'm gonna say he's 95 percentile across the board. Big healthy boy!

At any rate, Carter is sleeping through the night, eating very well and hardly ever fusses. He is such a good baby. I have no idea how I lucked out twice.

Other updates:

Cailin finally got her last eyetooth (again), and hopefully it stays out this time.

Bailey has a sore eye today and I have no idea how that came to be.

Carter is in size 3 diapers! Holy cow!

It took about 10 days, but the basement is completely purged, organized and clean. I did stay up til 5am to get the bulk of it done a few days ago. I can't explain how big a weight has been lifted off my shoulders having that done. Five truck loads of stuff left our house - donations and junk. I did the upstairs a few weeks ago, and it only took two days. Everything in our house now has a place, and it makes the tidying up so easy and quick. Carter's room is the playroom for now, and it's organized. He's got a queen sized bed in there at the moment for guests and such. After much thinking and angst, it suddenly dawned on me that he doesn't need a twin bed in there eventually - he's already got a bed. It's a big bed, but a nice bed. So I ordered a jungle comforter for it for Christmas. No need to try and make a guest room out of the (now organized) storage room. Guests can simply use Carter's room for now. Hope they like jungle animals.

Cailin is talking up a storm. Take this conversation we had this morning for example:

Cailin: What horsie say?

Me: Neigh.

Cailin: No, mommy! Horsie say WOOF! *laughs hysterically*

Cailin: Mommy, what horsie eat?

Me: Hay, or grass.

Cailin: Mommy, no! Horsie eat cars! *laughs hysterically*

Cailin: Piggy say oink!

Me: That's right! What does horsie say?

Cailin: WOOF! *laughs hysterically*

Cailin: Where daddy go?

Me: He went to work

Cailin: *twinkle in her eye* No, he went to the store!

Me: No, he's at work

Cailin: He went to bed! Sleepy nappy!

Me: Work.

Cailin: Store! *laughs hysterically*

Seeing a pattern here?

Cailin also knows how to work the iPad flawlessly and uses it to play Angry Birds and watch puppy videos on youtube.

While working on the basement, we've been leaving the baby gate down and Cailin has had free reign in the house. She loves it. While we're not letting her be downstairs without one of us there, she's been having a lot of fun. For a lot of the time I was slaving around in the storage room (upgraded to Storage Room of Mild Disarray), she would lay in our bed playing iPad games with her ever-present bowl of popcorn. Which leads me to my next point.

This kid doesn't eat anything anymore. At best we can get 2 glasses of milk into her, a couple crackers and maybe some cheese and toast per day. Maybe some meat, but always popcorn. I know they go through stages of not eating, but it's never easy to watch.

Cailin slammed the door shut on me yesterday when I took garbage out to the bin. I watched the door slam and then she was able to reach the deadbolt just enough to lock me out. Thankfully the neighbor was outside and graciously let me use his phone to call Ryan. Who didn't have his phone on him. I left him a couple messages while trying to convince Cailin to open the door for me. She cried and begged me to open the door. I told her I couldn't, she would have to be a big girl and do it for me. She got frazzled and upset. She tried her hardest to flip the deadbolt, but once it had turned a bit more (in the right direction even!) she could no longer reach it. I asked her to get her stool from the bathroom and she ran off to comply. She brought back a butterfly hairclip. Gee.

It was a gruelling 30 minutes as I waited outside for Ryan to get my messages and come home. Cailin and Bailey pulled a chair up to the counter, watched the breadmaker churn away at pizza dough and helped themselves to a bowl of popcorn. Watching Cailin and the dog eat/lick/bat popcorn pieces off the counter was almost funny if it wasn't for the circumstances.

After a while she gave up on the breadmaker, popcorn, trying to unlock the door and me in general and sat on the couch watching youtube on the iPad. Carter had cried off and on, but mostly slept through the ordeal. Ryan showed up with a key and everything was good.

I will say this though, our house is like Fort Knox. Every window had a doweling in it and was latched and locked, and all the doors were locked. With the alarm system on top of that, I feel quite safe.

It was Nana's birthday last weekend and we went out for a fire and pizza. Cailin played outside like crazy and had a great time. I brought cinnamon buns (a little overcooked, oops) and it was such a good day. Cailin ate loads of brown sugar and cinnamon helping me bake. She brings me the sugar bag and asks for some sugar. Funny!

We've had quite the month so far. It's been very busy, but good. I'm looking forward to settling down now and just living day to day with the kids.

Picture Time!

Welcome to Fall

CAILIN HAS GIVEN UP HER SUCKIE!! We are on night #4 suckie-free. Still working on that last stubborn eyetooth though. Gah.

Fall is officially here. It's been busy around here with a new baby, but things are organizing themselves into a routine. Carter has been sleeping a lot more at night and being awake a lot more during the day. At his 6 week check up he was 12 lbs and 23" long and has done nothing but grow ever since. He is now in 3-6 month clothes and even some 6 month sleepers. Carter is two months old today! Time sure flies when you're having fun.

Speaking of fun! Cailin is just barrels of fun. She is talking, singing and dancing and generally making life complete and interesting. One of her new favorite chores is to throw stuffed animals in the tub and wash them. She's especially fond of washing Elmo with soap. "Wash Elmo, soap!"
Recently I've been busy organizing and cleaning the house. It took me two days to completely clean, organize and purge all unnecessary items from the upstairs. It is really comforting to open a closet, cupboard or drawer and have a place to put away items. The playroom (which will one day be Carter's room) is also fully organized and cleaned. It's great to be able to toss the toys quickly into their assorted bins and be done with clean up in half the time it used to take. Guess watching those hoarder TV shows and getting panicky about clutter really paid off.

Of course, the downstairs is a different story. Fresh off the victory of a fully cleaned and organized upstairs, I attacked the storage room downstairs (Pit of Doom) with a vengeance. It has now been upgraded to Pit of Despair. Kinda looks like a hoarder took over the basement right now. I had every intention of getting back to it over the weekend, but we spent it at the farm instead. Meh. I'll get it one garbage bag at a time.
Grampy and Pammy came to stay with us for a week and Cailin enjoyed their company thoroughly. She's still talking about them and looks for them occasionally in the playroom. We had a good visit and look forward to seeing them again.

August Updates

Carter is now three weeks old! The days are flying by way too fast. What passed for summer around here is fading into fall - sunshiny days with brisk winds and earlier sunsets. My sweet little Carter is growing before my very eyes. Our special nickname for him is Buddy and that's mostly how we refer to him - even Cailin calls him Buddy.

Carter is such a sweet and calm baby. He doesn't fuss very often and sleeps very well. So far we've only had one night where he wasn't too interested in sleep, but quietly observed his surroundings instead. Of course he likes to be held, but doesn't mind being put in his bassinet for a sleep either. Some nights we get up every two hours, but mostly he's been waking every three hours to eat. One night we even went four hours between feedings.

I'm healing up from my c-section fairly well. Once in a while I'll think I'm farther along in the healing than I really am and over extend myself. Today I'm taking it very easy as a result. Other than that, I'm feeling very good and can get in and out of bed with no pain. That's a huge bonus when I get up with Carter. I've been tired the last few days, but I'm expecting to catch up on some missed sleep in the next few days.

We've been out at the farm now for two weeks. It really doesn't feel that long! We started out by camping here for Mom and Dad's 30th anniversary a few weekends ago - and I never went home. I'm unable to take care of Cailin by myself, so she's been out here with a swarm of grandparents to look after her. I had a choice - I could be home by myself with Carter or I could stay at the farm too. I chose to stay. It's been a great system. Carter, Bailey and I take up residence in the guest room downstairs, and I only have to worry about caring for the baby. Mom and GG wrangle Cailin during the day (with a little help from Papa Ray) and Papa takes a turn in the evenings. She is extremely well cared for, and extremely lucky to have all those grandparents doting on her.

Since Ryan is on days off tomorrow, we will be packing up the kids and dog and heading home. I'll be glad to get there and get a routine going, but I'm going to really miss being at the farm with everyone. It's been a great time with lots of visiting and playing with Cailin and getting to know Carter.

I just so appreciate all the help that has been given to us (and especially me) in the last while. Thank you to Mom and Dad, and GG and Papa Ray for taking such good care of us. There aren't enough words to say the kind of thank you I want to portray for your efforts. From the big things like taking care of Cailin and walking Bailey when I wasn't able to, to bringing me a water - it's all appreciated more than you could possibly know. Thank you so much.

Welcome Carter!

Carter Aubrey Lyle

August 3

8lbs 1oz

20.5"

Mommy and Carter are both doing fine. Carter is a very laid back baby, good eater and wonderful sleeper. We're at home now and settling in nicely. Looks like Cailin is coming back from Nana and Papa's house tomorrow, and we can't wait to be all together!