The End of Kindergarten

The school year ended in May and we jumped right into summer fun and I didn't get a chance to post some end of Kindergarten pictures.  They start first grade in one week.  They are excited and ready for school again. 

Michael with his Kindergarten certificate

Thomas with his Kindergarten certificate

Two silly boys excited for summer.

The Summer of Paint, the last installment.

The last room I painted was the dining room.  Mom and dad helped get the first coat of paint on the trim.  I was left to do the second coat and the walls on my own. Painting sure takes a lot longer when you are on your own.  I worked one day while the twins were gone on summer field trip with school and Ethan was at daycare. I didn't get nearly as much done as I had planned.  So David took the boys out for breakfast and to the park on Saturday so I could finish.

Before

After

The yellow turned out a little brighter than I had hoped.  I am still searching for curtains.  After we get curtains, I will decide what color to paint the light grey poles.  

To aid in picking out colors for the walls, I used valspar paints website where I could upload a picture of the room and then paint the walls with different colors.  While it wasn't exact it did help us get an idea of what the room would look like.

We are very excited about how it all turned out.  I have been having a good time shopping for accessories to help put the finishing touches in the rooms.  

While all that painting kept me busy (notice I didn't mention David in any of the painting!) we still had plenty of other adventures this summer.  Hopefully more posts will be coming soon. 

The Summer of Paint, part 3

The first two rooms were easy because the trim was not painted.  The trim in the living room and dining room had been painted.  Luckily most of the trim in the house had not been painted.  During the month of June I slowly worked on the trim in the living room.  I would paint when would get the chance.  My parents came down to help us celebrate Thomas and Michael's 7th birthday.  While they were here we were able to get two coats on the walls in the living room and one coat on the trim in the dining room. 

Before 

After

The Summer of Paint, part 2

Sue and I continued in the front room.  I was out of school two and half days before the kids were out, so I painted.  Sue and I got one coat on in both rooms on the first day.  The second day I did the second coat in the bathroom and touch up in the front room.

Before

After 

The Summer of Paint, part 1

We have been very busy around the house this summer.  One of the major accompolishments of the summer has been painting four rooms on the main floor.  I had lots of help from my parents and David's mom.  The boys were kept busy at summer school activities and Ethan went to daycare.  Over the next few posts I will show some before and after photos.

Sue and I started in the main floor bathroom.

 BeforeAfter

The boys called this green, camo green.  You can't see it in the after photo but the tub also got a coat of blue paint. I'm not sure I like to picture there, but we are still working on getting everything arranged on the walls. 

Mushrooms Anyone?

 

We have been spending time in the yard at our house this spring tending to all of our gardens.  It has been fun trying to decide what plants we have, what we want to keep and any changes we want to make in the future.

 

Ethan has been my big helper out in the yard.  This morning he discovered we had some mushrooms growing in one of the gardens. 

 

 

He may or may not have eaten some.  When asked if he ate some, his answer is yes. David tried to do some research to determine if they were posiosous or not.  He was unable to come up with a definitive answer.  So we called posion control to see if they could help us.  After talking with posion contol we still weren't sure if the mushrooms were posionous or not.  They advised us to take him to the ER. 

 

Ethan and I headed to the ER.  (a random side note, Abilene just built a new hospital and were able to check it out.  It was very nice.) He was given charcoal slurry, charcoal mixed with chocolate milk.  It looked terrible, but it musn't have tasted too bad because he drank it down easily.  After drinking the charcoal we hung out for a while so he could be monitored.  About 2 hours after we think he may have ate the mushrooms we were allowed to go home.  Either he didn't really eat any of the mushrooms or the charcoal did the job because he has been right as rain all day. 

 

Today was the first day of my summer break, I hope this is not an indicator of what the remainder of the summer will bring.  

Updates

Since I haven't been very good on updating the blog lately.  I will try to quickly bring you up to speed on some of the things that have been going on.

Thomas and Michael were 2 of 3 top spellers in their class and were able to participate in the Kindergarten - 2nd grade spelling bee at St. Andrew's.

 Out of eight spellers K-2 nd grade Michael came in 2nd.  Here is a quick video of him spelling one of his words.

Ethan is growing fast and always a character!





Michael's artwork in the Dickinson County Scholastic Art Fair



Thomas' artwork in the Dickinson County Scholastic Art Fair

David and I went on dates four weekends in a row!

Both Thomas and Michael have recieved two visits from the tooth fairy.

 

We took Thomas back to see the specialist regarding his Kohler's Disease after Christmas.  Thomas had some x-rays taken of his foot.  The doctor reported that his foot is healing.  We didn't need to limit his activity in anyway.  We also don't have to go back to see the specialist unless he starts to have problems again. 

We are enjoying our new 'old' house.  In September we bought a house that was built in 1886.  It has lots of character and plenty of room for the kids to play.  The backyard has lots of established gardens.  Those will keep me busy this spring.  We are also within walking distance to the park and pool.  We will utilize those frequently when it warms up.

Thomas and Michael are enjoying kindergarten.  They have become very good readers.  They do well in math too as well.

Ethan has finally decided to talk and is very good about making sure we knows what he wants.

Spring Break 2013

Spring break is quickly winding down. We have kept ourselves very busy. We started with a quick trip to St. Louis to visit my family. We stopped in Kansas City and picked up my mom. We had a great visit with family and were able to catch up with old friends.

Thomas, Michael and Ethan with my grandparents.

Thomas looks like he is ready to get to work.

Since David took a couple of days off to come and visit us.  We decided to take the boys to go visit The Magic House in St. Louis.  All three boys had a great time.  One of the highlights was an exhibit featuring the oval office. 

Before

After

Before we left to go to St. Louis I watched Ethan try to climb out of his crib.  I was already planning to add a brown border to his walls when we returned.  Since I was going to be spending the day working in his room.  David and I decided it was time to bring out the toddler bed.  So I sent Ethan to daycare on Thursday and set to work making a big boy room.  It saddened me to have to put his crib away.  What made me even sadder is that he didn't want to rock with me at bedtime.  Our bedtime routine included reading a story and rocking for a couple of minutes.  I hoped that he was just super excited to sleep in his big boy bed and he would want to rock again the next night.  I was very excited to rock with my baby tonight before putting him to bed!  He has made a good transition to his big boy bed so far.  He even had to make sure all his toys were put away before going down for his afternoon nap.  My baby is growing up way too fast! 

The rest of our break will be spent watching basketball and getting small projects done around the house. 

Ethan is 2 years old!

It's hard to believe that Ethan is 2.  

We enjoyed a nice family birthday celebration!

He is a happy boy who enjoys every minute of life. 

He loves his big brothers!

He is a ham.

He is happy as long as he is getting his way!

"If Thomas and Michael can do, so can I" is his motto in life.

Kohler's Update

We took Thomas to see a specialist on Oct. 15.  He really didn't tell us any more about what Kohler's is than we already knew.  He did say that Michael has about a 60% chance of having it as well.  He actually treated a family of three sisters and all three girls had it.  So now we know to keep an eye on Ethan as well.

Here is the plan of action for Thomas.  The boot seemed to be helping him.  He seems to be getting better because if we don't make him wear it on the weekend when we are at home, his foot doesn't seem to be bother  him.  We were keep him in the boot for one more week, which means it comes off on Tuesday.  Then we are to wait and see how he does.  If the pain and limping doesn't return then we have another appointment during Christmas break.  If the pain and or limping returns then we are to call the doctor and re-evaluate.

I asked how much we need to limit him.  The doctor said we won't be able to limit his activity so don't even try.  Whatever he can do, then that is fine.  So he has been enjoying recess and PE since the appointment in his boot.  This week he will enjoy life without the boot.

Thank you everyone for your thoughts and prayers.  We will continue to update you once the boot is off for a bit.

Kohler's Disease

Thomas had been limping on his right leg for about 3 days and it wasn't getting any better, in fact I thought it was getting worse.  We weren't really sure what he did to his leg, he thought he hurt it at his soccer game.So I took him in to see the doctor on Monday. The doctor sent us over to the hospital for x-rays, thinking he could have broken a non-weight bearing bone in his leg. He had booth legs x-rayed so they would have something to compare.  I tried explaining to Thomas that he was going to get a picture taken of his leg b/c we were going to see if a bone was broken.  He asked me if his leg was going to be cut open.  Poor kid, I said no, the were just going to take a picture.  In the end Thomas thought getting his legs x-rayed was pretty cool.

It was late in the day when we went for x-rays, so I wasn't anticipating hearing back until Tuesday morning.  As Tuesday progressed I still hadn't heard back, so I called the doctor's office.  The doctor was out of the office that day.  Would it be okay if he called me on Wednesday?  I said no because I was waiting to hear if he had broken his leg.  The nurse called me back and said, it wasn't broken, but the x-rays showed some differences between the feet and the doctor would call me in the morning.

Wednesday came and I waited and checked my phone frequently to be sure I didn't miss the phone call.  The doctor finally calls around 2:30.  He tells me that Thomas has a rare disease called Kohler's disease. One of the bones in his foot is not getting blood, therefore it is breaking down causing all the pain in the foot for Thomas.  Over time the bone will regrow, but this could take up to two years.  For those of you who want the more specifics, here is link: Kohler's Disease.

There isn't much that can be done for Thomas' foot.  It is a self-limiting disease (meaning it will heal on its own and no treatment will really speed this up).  We are supposed to limit his activity.  We got him fitted for a walking boot.  We will see a specialist on October 15th.  Hopefully we will learn more.

He is coping fairly well.  He doesn't like to wear the walking boot, even though it helps the pain in his foot.  He has handled not being able to play soccer for rest of the season, having to sit out during PE, and having a low key recess.  We have explained to him what is going on, but we don't think he really grasps what is happening or how long it might take to heal.  Hopefully he will continue to have a positive attitude as we continue along this journey.