Silly Kids

Avery was sitting on the potty for a long time the other day, when I went in to see if he had fallen in or not, this is what I found. He loves to look at and be read stories about super heroes right now.

 Azrielle had a fifteen month checkup yesterday. She is finally on the charts for weight, but not for height, she is the average for a eight month old. She also has had a bad reaction to something and has hives all over her right side, from her chest to her knee. She is on an oral and topical medicine to see if we can get rid of them.

While waiting for the Doctor to come in she kept climbing in to the cubby hole below the table, which in other times of the year actually contain toys for the kids to play with. But it is the season to spread nasty germs around.

I love it that both of my kids love to read. Tonight Avery went with Jeremy to the store. While they were gone, Azrielle brought me a book, handed it to me and while signing "up", and saying "up, peas". After reading her that  one, I had her take it back and put it on the table with the other library books. She made a pile of the books that we had read and would get another one from the unread pile. She went through all the new books that I got at the library today, then started to bring me some of our own that were laying around.

Pay Back

Avery has been getting in Azrielle's bed VERY early in the morning and waking her up. The other day it took Avery a long time to get to sleep at quiet time. Azrielle woke up just after he went to sleep. I brought her upstairs and we were playing, she then took Avery's socks and put them on him, then my socks, then she tried to put his boots on, but I said no. She put on one of Dad's shirts and then went and found some little people. He jerked a couple of times when she was not very gentle, but never did wake up.

We found this little unicorn horn at a thrift shop the other day, we have all had it on and played with it. Avery told me that we need to get more dress up things for him, I laughed.

When we got out the Halloween box to put up some decorations, Avery got out the costumes that were inside. Even though they are too small, he still had to put them both on and play.

So Pretty

On Friday night, after the kids were in bed, I went over to a friend's house to play some games. Jeremy stayed home to study and so we would not leave the kids alone. I stayed out a little too late, I did not get to bed until after 1 am.

 Saturday morning Avery, because he can leave his bed unassisted, came in at just after 6 am. I was really not ready to get up, plus the sun was not up yet either, anyway I pulled him in to bed with me and had him cuddle up (I sure wish he would go back to sleep). After about half an hour he leans up on his elbow and puts his hand gently on my cheek and says, "Mommy, you are so pretty....pretty like a crocodile." Maybe crocodiles have bed head, bad breath, sleep filled eyes and are prone to laying around. I then was wide awake and laughing, giving him a thank you hug. What a way to start my day!

Full Day

I took the kids to the Boise Art Museum today, it is free on first Thursday. The exhibits were crazy shapes made up of things found in thrift stores and similar places. There were amazing textures that the kids would have loved to touch and play with, but Azrielle was in a front carrier and Avery did really great at holding on to my hand.

There was an inter active video area, I had the kids listen to Chinese music and poems.

 There is a Kid's Area were the kids can play and touch all they want, there are books and puzzles, huge magnet boards and different kinds of building materials.

 We then decided to use up the free dinner that the kids won from the library this last summer, we also had a gift card. There was a guy going around doing balloon animals and hats for kids in the restaurant. He made Avery a mouse (we are listening to a story about mice in the car right now) and a horse for Azrielle. When he came back around again Avery had seen some of the hats that he had made for kids on the other side and asked for a hat.

 Azrielle drank out of a straw all  by herself for the first time tonight. Yeah!

Tricks

On Sunday, Avery and Azrielle and I were hanging out at the bottom of the stairs. Avery goes up on the landing and starts doing head stands against the wall. Neither Jeremy or I have shown him or told him how to do it, he just started all on his own. 

We have been outside working on the yard again now that it has cooled off a bit. Azrielle has been rescued by Avery, when I turned my back to her for 1 minute, she took off across the road to go pet one of the neighbor hood cats. I turned back around and  Avery was carrying her out of the road, what a watchful big brother. She has also started to walk along things and balance.

Walking!

Four days after her birthday, Azrielle, who had been walking four to five steps at a time, up and walked all over the house. She is a pro now, stepping over obstacles, turning, dodging Avery and even a little running.

A couple of weeks ago we were just hanging out outside and Azrielle walked over to the trampoline, got on and started to jump. I just happened to get this video of it. She has no problem with the stairs, she goes down backwards and climbs up all by herself.

Near the end of the video she pats her tummy, this is the sign for 'dog'. She can spot a dog before anyone else. She loves dogs, the other day at the park I was watching Avery on the equipment, I thought Azrielle was right beside me. Then Avery starts to run at me asking if he could pet the dog, I turned and Azrielle had already taken off toward the lady walking her two dogs through the park.

Happy 1st Birthday!

OK, this is a little late, but here it is. We had fresh blueberry pancakes. Azrielle loved them!

I found out that they were having Kuna Days out in Kuna, so we decided that is what we would do for the day. It was a nice HOT day, we slathered the kids in sunscreen and headed out.

There was a free kids carnival, most of the rides were water rides, I did not bring clothes for the kids to change into so we kept away from those mostly.

We got Azrielle all settled in to the swing and they were getting ready to start it and a lady comes around asking who the parent's were to the little girl. She told us that Azrielle was too small to ride. Azrielle had something to say about that when I went in and took her out, she loves swings.

There were a couple of guys walking around on stilts, Jeremy took Avery over and held him up.

Our little Azrielle loves animals. If there is a dog around, she will find it and get as close as she can. There were a couple of people with dogs sitting at the bench were we ate lunch.

 Azrielle had lots of help from Mom and Avery to open her gifts, she did not know quite what to do yet. I bet Christmas will be a little bit different.

After she finally tasted, with Mom's help, her cupcake, she nibbled it down to nothing. She played with it for awhile before I went over and put her hand in her mouth so she could get a taste. Then very daintily she took   little bites until it was gone.

Avery must have eaten his cake and ice cream so fast that he needed eye protection.

Lake Lowell

My friend invited the kids and I out to a lake by her house in Nampa. She has two kids also.

 Azrielle loved to sit in the water, but not to be splashed. She would start to cry.

 Avery had fun running back and forth in the water with his stick. Before we left, Avery found a little shovel in the mud.

After the lake we went to lunch in the park, they serve much better meals in Nampa than they do in Boise.

This morning, while I was getting Azrielle ready for the day, I noticed that she had something in her mouth. I put my finger in and what did I find? A new tooth!! She finally got her first tooth, it even came in before she turned one on Saturday. 

Riding

A few times this summer the kids and I have gone down to Les Bois race track and ridden around on a friend's horse, RB. I just throw on a saddle pad that is a neoprene on one side, that makes it stick to the horses back. Both of the kids love to ride.Two Saturday's ago was the first time I had allowed Azrielle on a horse, she giggled and talked the whole time. I took her on a longer ride this past week, she had a lot of fun.

Avery really likes to wear hats while we go riding, sometimes it is his cowboy hat that he got for his birthday. Two weeks ago he found one of my hats that I had picked up in Australia and decided that was the hat for the day.
I have not been on horses much in the last three years and so it is not so easy for me to jump up on a horse.  I have been having someone give me a leg up, and then Avery gets handed up to me. Well as we were trotting down the lane to the paddock area(where they saddle the horses before the race), the loose hat on his head bounced right off. We stopped and I looked down at the hat on the ground and thought of my options. I could leave it and stay on RB, I could jump off and try and get back on down at the paddock area. I chose to get my hat, which thereafter went on my head.
When we got to the paddock I decided to try and jump back on from a bench that was cemented into a pad. The cement pad was set up about 6 inches high, so it had nice corner. RB does not like to step onto a surface that is different than the one he is standing on, so I could not get him very close to the bench. Now you would think it wise to get Avery off, get on again, and then get him on. I did not think of that at the time, I tried to jump on with him still sitting on RB. Did I happen to mention the bench was situated under a pine tree, so there was not a lot of clearance overhead? I had to be careful not to jump too hard and push Avery off the other side. I jumped and I got my leg over RB's back, but not far enough. I started to slip, I then tried to push off so that Avery did not come off too, but he started to come off with me. I grabbed him on the way down, so that I could protect him as best I could. He landed on top of me, and what did I land on? The nice corner of the cement, right square on the left bottom cheek.
I was glad that RB did not run off, he side stepped two steps and looked down at us like, "What are you doing down there?" I then did what I should have done in the first place and hopped on first and then grabbed Avery off the bench next. It worked much better that way. I was very proud of him, he got right back on and was not scared.
We then went down and I let him ride all by himself in the test barn area. He had such a blast.

Dancing

We turned on the music tonight and took turns dancing with the kids. Avery is too heavy to dance with for very long, when you are carrying him. Azrielle was laughing and having a great time, as were we all.

I left the room for a couple of minutes and this is what I hear from the other room, "Daddy, would you read me this chapter book?" I think that it is so amazing that Avery loves to read so much that he would do anything just to get a book read to him.

Pink Eye

When I woke up this morning I took one look at Avery and knew that we would be visiting Dr Rutherford today. Both of his eyes were pink and goopy. I love that my children love to share with each other!

I have been feeling like my eyes have been itchy and irritated all day long. I don't know if it is just because I feel sorry for my kids or if I will have to be getting drops in too.

Azrielle takes the drops much better than Avery, who screams and wants Daddy.

Poor Baby

I am not sure if I am referring to one of our chickens or Azrielle when I say 'poor baby'. Well maybe both of them. One of our neighbors gave us two of their chickens last night (they had the city called on them because they had too many). When I went out to see how the new chickens were integrating with ours this morning, I noticed that one of our girls was hopping around on one leg. We could not find any thing visibly wrong with her, so she is going to hang out by herself for a couple of days and see if she can get healed up.

 Azrielle has been to the Doctor this week also. I can't wait for the time when she can/will go a whole month without having an appointment. I guess I should be glad we are not every single week still! She has a yeast infection and pink eye in both her eyes. I am glad that she is as cheerful as she is. She is enjoying some of the chicken food too, even though we just got done eating dinner!

Our neighbors got a new bunny last week. They had it out on a leash tonight so we went over to meet him. Very soft, the kids (me included) liked petting him. I can remember raising rabbits when I was growing up, living in Pocatello.

2012 Garden

I just had to plant some tomato plants. I did not put anything in the ground at our other place, I knew I would not get anything from it. Jeremy helped me to dig out a small section of the weeds and put in my four little tomato plants. I hope that I get something off of them, they went in so late. Can you find them?

 Avery has started to really like to ride his bike this year, I think it is because his legs reach the ground better. We found this on Craig's list and then I had Jeremy take the pedal's off so that Avery can work on balancing and turning, no training wheels.

What cute kids.

This last week, Thursday and Friday, Jeremy took Avery and met up with some of his family in the City of Rocks for a camping trip. They both had fun and came back very tired and dirty! On Saturday we held a yard sale. Did not get as much sold as we would have liked, but such is life.

Biker Ma

On May 28th, I got to collect on a gift that I had purchased in January 2011. Our ward had a service auction, were you can bid on things with the points you add up from the service that you have been performing. I bid on and won a ride on a bike with a couple in our ward (she was the previous Relief Society President). Last year I was unable to collect, as I was uncomfortable large during the warm months of the year. So they took me out this year. It was great to have the wind on my face, I did get a little too much sun, but it was worth it.

We went with the Temple Riders Ass. Took a ride up through Emmett on the old Emmett highway and then down through Horseshoe Bend.

Boise Aquarium

On May 26th, I took the kids and went with a friend to the Boise Aquarium. Azrielle wanted to touch everything she saw, lizards, frogs, birds, the water. Avery on the other hand did not want to touch anything until the very end, when he saw how much fun Azrielle was having splashing in the water, then he put his hands in the water also.

Avery looking at the sting rays and sharks.

 Avery watching Karen and Azrielle splashing in the water.

 Avery finally putting his hand in the water, he wanted to catch a fish.

They had one of the ladies walking around with a large lizard for people to pet, they also had this one just sitting on a boat. Azrielle wanted to pet both of them, I had to keep her from climbing all over the one on the boat.

We had a fun day.

Quick Update

So much has happened in the last almost two months, where do I start?

Azrielle has had a couple more visits to St. Luke's for some more testing. She went in during the first part of June and had an MRI and X-ray of her head, the results came back that all is fine. This last Thursday, I took her in and she had a sweat test to check for cystic fibrosis, which also came back negative. She has put on a little weight, she in now up to 14 lbs. She has still not gotten any taller.

 This is from the head scans.

This is from the sweat test.

In May, we took a trip down to Utah. It was a nice break. While there Jeremy and I left the kids in the capable and caring hands of Grama Kathy for a day as we went to Lagoon. That was my birthday gift this year, we rode lots of roller coasters and did some people watching. There was a dance competition going on and so it was a little busier that we would have liked it.

While in Utah, Avery started to cough on Thursday. He ran a slight fever Friday through Sunday. On Monday, I took him in to see the Dr. He had pneumonia after only four days with a cough! On the second to last day of his antibiotic he woke up with hives. The Dr. took him off the Amoxocilin on Thursday. By Saturday morning he was covered from head to feet in hives, and they were turning into bruises.

I took him back in and the Dr. put him on steroids. It took a few days before he started to look better. He has had two more chest colds since the first of June. I am glad that none of the rest of the family has gotten sick from him.

We are now living in my Mom's house. We lost ours and she has been willing to allow us to use it while Jeremy goes back to school this fall. He is going to go for a nursing degree. We are so grateful for the time that she is allowing us to get back on our feet.

Nothing!?!...well maybe

This morning I asked Avery to walk on my back, because I remember doing it when I was a little girl, and it hurts. He would take a couple of steps and get off and come back and take a couple more steps. Then all of a sudden he leans down and flips my hair up at the back of my head and says, "Nope, there's nothing there!". There are times that that is how I feel to, that I don't have anything in my head.

We went over to a friend's house this morning who have installed a zip line in their back yard. Avery really liked going on it. He also really liked their bunnies.

Sharing a bed

Azrielle woke up screaming this morning at 3:30, I tried to let her go back to sleep. But after 10 minutes, I went in and picked her up. I don't turn the light on in the middle of the night and so there is not much light in their room. I thought that I saw something in her bed after I got her out so I reached down to find out what it was. I almost let out a scream of my own as I wrapped my hand around something warm left in her bed. It was Avery's ankle. I was amazed that Avery was sleeping soundly in her crib, with her climbing all over him and crying! Not sure when he climbed in, I did pull him out and put him in his own bed. I hope this will not be a frequent occurrence.

Back Again

In the evening of Sunday, April 29th, I took Azrielle in to the ER. She was not eating, having a hard time breathing, was running a high temperature, and was very lethargic. I had a friend, she had come over to play games, go with me. I was glad Karen was with me, it was very busy and it was hours before we got back in a room to see a Dr. After examining her, they did chest x-rays and put in an IV. They wanted to keep her for further observation also.

Karen drove my car home and left me at 1:45am. Azrielle pulled out her first IV within the first two hours, they put in another in her left hand. We finally got transferred up to our room by 3:30 am. By the time the nurses had done their vitals and the Dr.'s had come in to see her it was after 4:30 am. I was not expecting to stay the night and had not taken anything with me. Someone brought me throwaway scrubs for pj's, except there were two sets of bottom's, it was the thought that counts! I got a toothbrush and toothpaste and about 2 hours of sleep before they came in to take more labs in the morning.

 Azrielle did a lot of sleeping while we were there, you would think that I would have gotten some too, but that was not the case.
Jeremy and Avery came and surprised me on Monday morning, Happy Birthday Jeremy! They came with clean clothes and cheerful smiles. Azrielle even came out of her stupor a bit while they were there.

 This is what she looked like most of the time that she was awake while in the hospital. Every time someone new saw her I would have to explain that the bruise on her forehead was caused by her starting to pull up on everything. She had slipped and fallen on the stool in the bathroom.

We got to come home on Tuesday evening. On Thursday, when I was at her follow up appointment, she had a rash all over her trunk and up on to her head.
She is gaining weight, this last Monday, she weighed in at 12 lbs 5 oz. She is in the 50% of weight for a 3 month old, she just turned 9 months on May 4th.

Sink bath

I decided on Saturday night that I would give Azrielle a quick bath in the sink before bed. Usually I give both kids a bath together, but I needed to cut Avery's hair before his bath. I put her in the sink and Avery thought that was so cool. He came out with his bottom half naked because he wanted to have a bath in the sink too. He ran back and forth to keep bringing out bath toys for Azrielle to play with.

First Stitches

Last Wednesday, we went to a dinner hosted by the Young Women in our ward who are trying to raise money for a white water adventure this summer. At the end of the evening, as I was going to get the family to leave, Avery jumped off the stage and landed on Jeremy's foot. That catapulted him head first into the wall right onto a strip of molding. 

There was blood everywhere! One of the ladies, who is a nurse who works on the PEDS floor of the hospital, came to the rescue. I was running back and forth trying to get things to stop the flow of blood. They pulled out a table and laid him on top. The crowd of boys that had been jumping off the stage crowded around to see what was going on. The flow of blood got stopped and Jeremy took Avery into the ER. Avery came home with four stitches.

 Yesterday I took Avery into our Dr and got the stitches removed. They were replaced by glue and tacky strips. Avery did great holding still and letting Dr. Rutherford cut the stitches out.

I think he was jealous of the bands that Azrielle and Mommy got to wear. Now we all have had hospital bands on in the same week.

Hospital Stay

I waited all day on Monday, April 2nd, for the Dr. to call with the results from the scope. Every time the phone would ring, I would get a stomach ache, it was never him. On Tuesday morning, he did call and say that there was nothing that looked wrong with the results, so he would like to go ahead and admit Azrielle to the hospital and run some more tests.

I was so glad that Shannon had called to see if Avery could spend the night out with them on Monday. I did not have to worry about what to do with him, that day. I called a friend and had her go with me to take Azrielle in, Jeremy was working and I thought it would be nice to have some moral support. I am so grateful for all who helped watch Avery during the week!

 When they checked her in she had lost 6 more ounces over the weekend, she was down to 11 lbs 1 oz. They did not put an IV in her, I told Dr. Ellison, Pediatric GI, that she had tried to kick the one out that she had had in on Friday. It was rather frustrating in the hospital, at first they did not do much other than keep tabs on everything that went in and then everything that came out. All the diapers and burp rags had to be weighed after they had been used.

On Tuesday evening as I was getting her ready for bed, I noticed that her little chin and cheeks were bright red. She was having a reaction to their laundry soap/cleaner. I brought a pile of burp rags home and washed them with my wash. Which I came home that night and did after I laid her down for bed that night. Washing the burp rags helped. We had access to anything that we needed for her stay; high chair, exersaucer, toys. 

She had her 8 month birthday while in the hospital. Not a great way to spend a birthday, but what do you do? She did gain a little bit every day, by the time we got out on Sunday morning, she was back up to 11lbs 7oz.

On Thursday, after I got through with an appointment, I went and picked Avery up. He then spent the afternoon and evening with Azrielle and me at the hospital. They have a playroom on the PEDS floor for the patients and their families. Avery and I spent some time in here while Azrielle was sleeping and then came back for a little bit later on also. It was nice to get to see him as I had not since Monday when Shannon picked him up.

He was able to stay with Shannon again Thursday night. I took him out after I  laid Azrielle down to bed, Jeremy was going to come and take him, but did not get off work in time. It was heart wrenching for me when I dropped him off. He had fallen asleep on the way out and cried and wanted to 'come home with you, Mommy'. 

 They have wagons on the PEDS floor that can be used, I would put her in one and wander the hall ways. I felt the need to get out of the cell like room. There was a fish tank right around the corner from our room, Azrielle loved to watch the fish.

Her medicine got changed to see if it would help her to get the food moving through the stomach and into the intestine. She is on a meal schedule to give her as many calories as possible each day. We will see if she can gain some more weight.