Terrible Twos

I wouldn't really call him terrible. Maybe daring. Or fearless. A little on the crazy and risky side. Either way the kid turned 2 on March 20. And he's the typical middle child- sometimes put on hold, but totally okay with it since he's used to entertaining himself anyway. I'm thoroughly convinced that Erik was the easiest baby ever. I would lay him down to go help Taylor with something and I'd come back and he'd be asleep. Without even making a peep. Even now he's pretty easy-going. He'll entertain himself for hours. Unfortunately it might consist of drawing on my walls. Or running with scissors. Or belly-flopping off the couch onto the hardwood floor. But he's a sweet boy, and we love him. I admit- I have a soft spot for him. Probably because he's the middle child and I know he'll get the shaft 90% of the time.

We had some friends over for his birthday. Nothing big. I don't like lots of planning and big birthday parties. I'm a little-or-no-effort kind of gal. The one thing we did do was rent a helium tank. Erik LOVES balloons.

Look at that. Could he be any happier? Okay, maybe if he had a sucker in his hand jumping off of something while holding the balloons. But you get the drift.

Have I mentioned that I hate any and all cake decoration? Every time I think, "Okay, I'm gonna try this and it's gonna come out great!!" And it never does. I've come to terms with that, and I've resorted to cupcakes. And even those don't come out as I envision them. But whatever. Cupcakes it is. I can't stand paying a bakery to make a cake that's 90% frosting, since I hate frosting.

Sorry, kids.

"Really, Mom? That's the best you can do?"

He didn't even eat the thing.

Opening the presents. Thanks to all our friends who gifted him with toys that make loud noises and drive into my unsuspecting ankles- he loves them. I've been wanting to get Erik one of those balance bikes for a while. You know, the ones that are short and don't have any pedals. I just knew he'd love it. And he did. Until he tried to get on it, realized his legs were too short, and saw Taylor take off with it as soon as he got the chance. The poor middle child. Can't even get a present he can play with from his parents on his birthday.

Since it was Erik's birthday and Kent was on call I figured I'd let the boys stay up and watch a movie.

This is Erik sniffing the cupcakes during intermission (yes, he did finally eat one).

Happy Birthday, Boo!

(There was a period of about a month when he was around 9 months or so that he was constantly crying. He was sick and always had the sniffles, he was trying to walk so he was falling down a lot, and he just couldn't keep up with Taylor. So whenever he would cry I would say, "Boo-hoo-hoo!" to him. Ever since then we frequently call him, "Boo.")

HSP

About two weeks ago Erik was having a fever on and off. And then he got a nasty rash on his arms and legs. It didn't seem to bother him at all, but it looked pretty nasty. Two nights after the rash showed up Erik started having a hard time walking. The next morning the poor boy couldn't walk at all. It hurt him too much to put any weight on his feet. So I took him in. He got x-rays, blood tests, and a urine test. There was swelling in his joints in his ankles and slight traces of blood in his urine. The doctor told us that he probably had HSP: Henoch-Schonlein Purpura. Don't ask me to pronounce it- ask Kent. I hesitate to even describe it seeing as how Kent and all of our other medically-knowledgeable friends will read this and think, "She got that totally wrong..." but I'll do my best (honey, feel free to edit this post after reading). HSP is a sort of autoimmune disease that occurs after an infection (which he had about two weeks prior to this). Luckily Erik didn't get some of the more serious symptoms like severe belly pain, and although he did have slight traces of blood in his urine, it was a very small amount and the last urine test that we did was negative. HSP clears up on its own and although it can reoccur it isn't likely.

Two days after he stopped walking his wrists and knees started swelling. The poor little boy. He couldn't move anywhere. He just sat there and watched TV or read books. For almost a week he couldn't walk, which really stunk having two little kids that couldn't walk. Thankfully HSP isn't destructive, so it didn't leave any lasting damage. After it cleared he's back to normal and jumping off of things as usual...

By the way, if I did a horrible job at explaining what HSP is and I made absolutely no sense, click here to read more about it.

Peacock

That's what my mom called Melanie. You see, she had this crown of long hair that stuck straight up, kinda like a peacock's feathers. It was really cute. Until it started getting too long and all her other hair fell out. Then it looked kinda silly.

So I had to give Melanie her first buzz.

Before:

And here she is after. All of her girly jammies were dirty, and so the only ones she had clean were some green ones that were Taylor's and Erik's that I use solely for emergencies since they don't scream "girl". There was no way on earth I was going to post a picture of her in which she could be taken for a boy. Especially since she looks so much like Erik did when he was a baby.

Hence the bow.

Baby Blessing

Okay, so we actually blessed Melanie over a month ago on February 7th. The same day that Erik woke up with a fever, actually. Which is why I am just now posting it, seeing as how it's been quite a busy month with Erik sick, then Melanie in the hospital, then Erik sick again (more on that later).

Let me start out by saying that, once again, my mother-in-law Linda is amazing. I was very picky about the kind of blessing dress I wanted for Melanie and asked her if she would make it, but I knew she would try and get out of making it by buying one. Lucky for me I have expensive taste, and the one that I absolutely fell in love with was $250, which she was not willing to pay. Here's the original:

Kent gave her a beautiful blessing. Such a lucky little girl to have such a great daddy!

These are from the day we blessed her.

I wanted to try and get some cute pictures of her with her dress. These next ones weren't done until about two weeks later, after she was out of the hospital and feeling better. But isn't the dress absolutely beautiful? Linda did such an amazing job making the dress and don't you think it looks exactly like the original? Thank you Linda! And I have to mention that my grandmother, Donna, made this blanket for her, and my friend, Tara, made her that sweet bracelet. Thanks, ladies!

Once Melanie fell asleep in the wagon, I took the boys for a walk to try and get some pictures of them.

This one is my favorite.

Hospital Stay

It's been quite a week. Well, I suppose it actually started two weeks ago. Superbowl Sunday to be exact. Erik woke up with a fever and was really cranky. After two dayswith a fever and lots of crying, for the first time as a mother I had to deal with an ear infection (I was happy to have avoided it for so long). So after a week of staying indoors and listening to Erik cry a whole lot, he started to get a little better.

And then Melanie got a fever.

It wasn't as high as Erik's, but I knew that it was her turn with the crummies. So she was cranky and didn't really want to eat too much all Monday and Tuesday. I wasn't really too concerned since Erik had just had it. On Wednesday morning at about 2 a.m Melanie woke up crying hysterically. She wouldn't nurse, didn't want her pacifier, and after an hour of her screaming in pain Kent woke up thinking that she might have an ear infection like Erik. But his ear-light-scope-thingy wasn't charged, so he couldn't check. She was also breathing hard since she was all stuffy, so he decided to go ahead and take her to the E.R. And she was admitted that morning. Her oxygen levels were low, she was absolutely miserable, and she wasn't keeping anything down.

And this is where we stayed for 2 1/2 days.

The poor little thing. It took them about 45 minutes to get her IV in. With all that fat it was hard for them to find a good vein, and the one that they did find was in the bend of her arm (or, as Kent would say, the "antecubital fossa") so they had to board her arm to keep it straight. She had bruises and pokes all over her arm from them looking for a good one.

On Thursday they found out that one of the cultures they took was positive for RSV. So she ended up with RSV and viral pneumonia. So we just waited it out until she didn't need oxygen, stopped wheezing, and kept her food down.

The boys colored pictures for her and put them up around her bed. These two are Erik's.

And this one is Taylor's. It's a picture of the hospital. See all 5 of us? For some reason it won't rotate.

Meanwhile, Kent was able to have his schedule cleared so that he could stay home with the boys (thank goodness). So he was busy holding down the fort. Apparently this is what happens when you let two boys watch Peter Pan and then let them jump off the couch next to the blind cords-

Nice rope burn, eh?

We're home now, and aside from a nasty cough and the slight sniffles, she's doing much better.

Although I was not happy in the slightest that she was in the hospital, I have to admit it was lovely to have an excuse to hold my baby all day long. It was so wonderfully quiet, I got so much reading done, and I didn't have to worry about dinner. Oh. And I got a break from my two rambunctious boys. Does that make me a bad mom? I figure I'm still a half-way decent mom since I did start to miss them.

Ski Bums

I'll be taking over this post as Stephanie and Melanie are out for a girls night out, sort of. I'll put a post of this in the next couple of days, but both are doing well.

Anyway, it was about time that Taylor and I hit the slopes. We had the Winter Olympic fever and it was time for him to learn to ski. He and I went to Crystal Mountain for a fun day in the sun as I had President's Day off.

The day started out slow as Taylor was hungry and tired after the first run, but after an early lunch he was ready to go out for some more. He slowly got the hang of making a pie wedge, but learning to turn will have to wait until the next trip. He would make it down about 10feet and crash, but was ready to get back up and didn't complain.

In the afternoon after another trip to the bathroom for Taylor, I was ready to call it a day, but Taylor insisted on skiing more. We had a blast skiing and crashing all day as Taylor appeared to have as much fun licking the snow and making snow balls each time he fell. His favorite part at the end of the day was skiing between my legs with myself holding him and skiing fast down the hill hitting all the jumps. Taylor keeps asking when we'll be able to go again..... just him and daddy.

I had to stop the video shortand race down to catch him before he took somebody out.

Warm Fuzzies

Saturday the weather wasn't too bad, so the boys went out in the back to play. After a while we found that Taylor had pulled out the little swimming pool and turned on the hose. And they were naked. The water was freezing! So I used a pot to fill up the pool with some warm water from inside. They loved it. Until, of course, Taylor sprayed Erik with the cold water from the hose.

Crazy kids.