Ready for Church!

We got Cade & Claire ready for church this morning (I stayed at home with Jack who developed a fever overnight). Claire looks so cute in her chic outfit and bow that i just had to take a few pictures. She's such a doll!

Country Carnival -- The Tiny Tot Edition

Last night was RBF's Country Carnival. In typical Scott & Nicole last-minute-fashion, we figured out everyone's costumes at about 2pm yesterday. Cade: Buzz Lightyear, Space Ranger. Jack: alligator (cade's old costume). Claire: a bear, of course!

We got everyone ready despite grumblings and complaints and headed up to church.

Of course we had to get the obligatory family picture of everyone in their costumes.



And then a "make a funny face" pictures:


As soon as we arrived, Jack was already tired. This seemed peculiar, especially since he took a 2 1/2 hour nap earlier in the day.l Here is Jack, looking at the petting zoo from a very safe place: outside the petting zoo.


Cade & his good buddy Gage had a blast going down the bouncy house slide over and over again.





Cade & Jack then headed for the games to win some all important candy. Jack was just about wasted (aka tired) by this time, so he sucked his thumb and watched Cade.




Mercifully, Claire fell asleep even though we were surrounded by lots of action and subjected to 115 decibel sound. So we put her and Jack in the double stroller . Here they are: passed out, and about to pass out.

Awwwww

I went and got my hair cut yesterday (i was only 4 months overdue on a cut!), and while I was gone, Cade got to hold Claire! He felt like such a good big brother; and he kept asking to hold her again and again and again. Scott got some great pictures!

Great Bumbo-lito!

No, I'm not referring to our favorite boy book: Skippyjon Jones. (Although if you have a little guy at home, you need check out this book -- it's so funny!)

Claire has a new throne to sit on: the bumbo chair! Pink, of course. She can't sit in it for long yet. But she's building up her strength!

Snips, Snails, & Puppy-Dog Tails

It has been absolutely beautiful here the last few days. Sunny, a cool crisp breeze (or gale force gusts, depending on the time of day), low 70s in the afternoons. Just fabulous weather. It's a sin to be inside.

Cade is not what you'd describe as the outdoorsy type. He doesn't like when it's sunny ("Mommy, it's too bright!"), he's deathly afraid of bugs, especially flying ones, and he doesn't like to be too hot or too cold. So getting Cade to play outside is, well, about as hard as me dunking on anything but a Little Tykes basketball goal. With some minor pleading, I have managed to get Cade outside in the backyard to play the last few days. And he's loved it!

Here are some pics from this afternoon of the boys playing around:

Mostly, the afternoon involved the boys running after each other, Jack falling down, and Cade falling on top of him.







Cade was having such a good time, and feeling like such a boy, that he was rolling around in the grass, trying to get as much grass on him as possible. He even resorted to pulling up the grass with his hands and rubbing it on himself. He's so proud of his "dirtiness."

Jack Jack

Just a cute shot of Jack. The child workers at church are always so amazed at what a happy kid Jack is. He's always smiling, laughing, and having a good time. I'm glad he's like that in public!

What's Nonsense?

Cade and Scott were talking the other day, and Scott said something (he can't remember what it was).

Cade's response was, "that's nonsense, Daddy!"

Because whatever it was that Scott had said was indeed not nonsense, Scott asked Cade, "What's nonsense?"

Cade's response: "It's something that doesn't make sense, Daddy."

Touché, Cade.

Peace & Quiet

Yesterday, Scott and Cade were mowing the yard. I decided to take Claire and Jack with me to the grocery store. So Scott and Cade took a break from their hard work to see us off on our little adventure. As I was backing out of the driveway, Cade let out a sigh and told his daddy, "Well now we finally get some peace and quiet!"

Claire -- Smiles and Concentration

Claire's curly hair was so cute today that I had to get some shots of her.





We've also noticed that she really wants to sit upright. She's not much into lounging back and watching the world go by. No. This girl wants to be upright and in the action. Here is her trying to do her best to sit up in her bouncy seat. This girl is going to have rock abs.



I think it's time for a Bumbo!



But then I put her down for tummy time. And her smiles turned to serious looks of concentration. "I must not let my head go down into that pile of spit up. I must keep my head up!" I'd be concentrating too if a lake of drool was at stake...

A Mommy Story

I was with some friends the other day and we were trading Mommy stories. You know, those embarrassing, "was anybody looking?" low moments that you experience as a parent. One story took the cake, and with permission, I will retell it here.

Names have been omitted to protect the guilty.

My friend's daughter had been sick and was on antibiotics. The really yucky kind of liquid antibiotics. Thankfully it was time to take the final dose in the bottle. After some coercing, the daughter took the medicine. And then promptly spit it on the floor in defiance. Outraged and shocked (and not wanting to waste good medicine!), my friend made her daughter lick the medicine off of the floor.

Can you beat that story?

Mulch Like You Mean It

For months now, the wells at the bases of our oak trees in the backyard have been barren; just dirt covered the poor roots of these young trees. So finally, I got out there with some top soil and mulch and dressed those trees right!

Of course, I needed an assistant. And Cade was ready with his little shovel. Jack was also helping us, but he used his bucket as more of a hat than a mulch delivery system. Didn't get any pictures of Jack... but Cade was working so hard that I had to snap a few of him!





I'm grooming my next yard man...

We Couldn't Be Prouder

This morning I drug all the kids up to church so I could go to Bible study. On my way down the hall to go collect the kids after the study was over (they are babysitters that watch our kids while we're meeting), my senses were suddenly overwhelmed. Let me be a bit more specific: my nose almost shriveled up and died.

Wafting through the halls was the most horrendous, rotten, rank smell (even worse than the rotten cheese I cooked with several weeks ago) that has ever graced the halls of RBF. Some poor child had done a nuclear disaster in his diaper. I joked to a friend that my Jack was capable of permeating an entire building like this child had done. Oh how prophetic that statment turned out to be.

We couldn't be prouder of our kids' abilities to have an entire building condemned for the raunchy smells that come out of their bodies.

Our Man of Steel (and Pudgy Belly)

Jack has started wearing some new pajamas (well, new to him -- they were Cade's: a gift from Uncle Steve who is obsessed with all things Superman!) Anyway, Cade never wanted to wear the cape. But Jack is a good sport. And he wears it well!

Please ignore all laundry laying there in the hallway.

Cade Hanging with Sis

I caught Cade nestled up to Claire this week as she was laying on our bed while I got dressed. That boy seems to know when there's a camera in the vicinity!







I also caught Cade just chillin' like a villain after his mandatory quality time with his sister...

Update on Us

Sorry for the delay in reporting on our gastrointestinal health. But as of the past Wednesday, we are stomach bug-free! It's good to have everyone back to health again. Thankfully Scott was the only one of us to not be affected. He's in an extremely busy period at work, and it would be darn near impossible for him to miss work right now.

ER: not just a show on TV

Scott and I haven't had a date night in a while. With three kids, who can afford a babysitter AND dinner and/or a movie? I'm not incredibly happy to report that we stumbled into having a date this past Saturday evening.

Let me explain.

Poor Claire has been vomiting once or twice a day since last Tuesday. The stomach bug has been staying with us for a week, so it's a natural assumption to think that Claire has it too. The strange thing is that things are eerily similar to before her surgery. She's not vomiting after every meal. She isn't acting sick. She doesn't have a real fever. Sometimes she is voraciously eating. When she vomits, she releases everything in her stomach, possibly including the previous feeding.

So after 5 days of this, we call her surgeon who says that he has never seen a re-occurrence of pyloric stenosis after a corrective surgery. We also call a nurse's line via our pediatrician, and she suggests taking Claire to the ER. Off we go.

We arrived around 4pm at Medical City of Dallas and finally checked out around 9pm. 5 wonderful hours together trying to calm a starving baby under the glare of fluorescent lights and the shame of losing the TX-ou game. Claire had her vitals taken and a sonogram of her tummy. The radiologist said that the pylor muscle is on the larger end of normal, which isn't unusual for someone who has had surgery. So the ER Doc chalks it up to the stomach bug.

I'm still skeptical (re-occurrence of pyloric stenosis has happened before) but we're in a holding pattern for another couple of days to see if Claire can shake this bug.

Ugh. We're running out of rag towels and clean carpet.

Update -- Threat Level: Midnight

Our house has been vomit free for 24 hours now. Yes sir! (as Jack would say)

Threat Level: Midnight

It began as a normal day. Actually, no, that's not correct. The day began at 6:40 AM with Cade crying for me repeatedly. By the time Scott and I stumbled into the boys' room, Cade was starting to dry heave in his bed. Bummer. Hate when the kids are sick! So Scott takes Cade into the bathroom (linoleum is so much easier to clean than carpet, you know) to change his clothes and calm him down. I calm Jack down, who is now screaming because Cade was crying.

By this time, Mawmaw comes out of the guest room (my mom is in town to help out while Scott is crazy-busy at work -- and to help me paint my room!) to survey the damage. At this point Claire starts crying because of all the commotion right outside her door. I go in to pick her up. When I come out, everyone has moved to the living room. Scott is getting Cade situated on the couch with rag towels and a pillow. Jack is wondering around muttering, "awfuls." In Jack-speak, that means waffles. Mawmaw was sitting on the loveseat. I gave Claire to my mom and told her that I would make a bottle; my mom responded by saying she didn't feel too well. I reassured her that I would feed Claire once I got the bottle made.

I had made it to the sink when I saw my mom move quickly across the room to the couch to hand off Claire. She muttered something about, "I can't hold her anymore" and then proceeded to blanket the entire room with last night's dinner. Somehow she managed to grab one of the rag towels we had brought out for Cade and made it over to the sink. She was hurtin'. I put a wet washcloth on her neck as she continued to empty the contents of her stomach. I was so busy tending to my mom that I didn't realize Scott's horrified face and his efforts to get my attention. Finally, I go over to him and realize that Claire had been blanketed with the fountain 'o spew. So my mom's pukin', Cade starts crying again, Claire is startled, Jack is now loudly repeating, "awfuls." And Scott is really needing to get to work.

Let me just say that it is priceless to have furniture that you can take out in the backyard and hose off. I hosed off my coffee table today (it's actually two outdoor benches that we have pushed together), and it's probably the cleanest it's been in years. Maybe Scott was on to something when he wanted inflatable furniture in the living room rather than slipcovered sofas...

I have cleaned up so much poop and vomit today... I'm done. I'm punching the clock and I'm outta here.

By the way: my mom gave me permission to post this story. She was giggling about the morning throughout the day today. And she feels much better, although she's weak. No pictures from today. Aside from naked Jack pictures, this is a family blog.

Jack's Career Path

The other night, I announced to the boys that we were going to Chick-Fil-A to pick up some dinner. Jack answered with a jubilant "yes sir!" that was punctuated with his fist going in the air. This was followed by a robust "amen!" and an attempt at a jump.

I think if Jack's wrestling career doesn't take off, he'll have a future as a tent revival preacher. Amen!

Birthday Party Part 2

We went to another birthday party this weekend... this one also at a bounce house place, but a place made for bigger kids. So I wasn't sure how our kids were gonna do... they had a blast!

An apology: the pics aren't good. the lighting was horrible inside the bounce place, so lots of pics are blurry. But you get the point! Also, the walls of the obstacle course and the bottom of the huge slide were too tall for me (Nicole) to see over, so I ended up holding my camera up, pointing it at where I thought the kids were, and taking pictures. Gotta love digital cameras!

First up, there was a HUUUUUUGE slide that both Cade & Jack loved going down. Jack needed to be picked up and brought to the top, but then he'd slide down himself. Jack would start with his feet down, and then about halfway down the slide, he's start to turn sideways, and a few times even ended up with his head pointing down! And Cade slid down with a huge smile on his face too!

Here is Scott & Jack going down together:

Jack at the bottom of the slide; this time he made it down with his feet first!

Scott on his way down the slide; notice Cade holding on to/assaulting Jack so that he won't get run over by daddy!

Another part of the bounce house place was a huge obstacle course where kids had to crawl through tunnels, slip between large inflated 'gates', climb walls, and slide. Cade had a blast doing this; Jack did too, although he needed help on everything!

Here's Cade climbing the wall:

Daddy & Jack conquered the wall together and bask in their achievement before sliding down:

Here's Cade sliding down:

This is somewhere in the middle of the obstacle course:

The last part of the bounce house place was just a regular bounce house. At first Cade didn't really like it; but he warmed up to it quickly.

Scott showing off his vertical:

Jack didn't like the bounce house too much. He giggled when he kept falling over. But as Jack cannot yet get air when he attempts to jump, the bounce house was not much fun for him:

All of this bouncing and running around exhausted our guys. So they had to take break before more bouncing, running around, and finally cake.

Here's Jack sitting in front of the large slide.

A sweaty and red-faced Cade lounging in Daddy's lap:

Nicole hanging with a passed-out Claire.