School's Out!

Almost.  We're down to 3 days.  Part of me is ready for a break from the routine, but summer is so busy!  I've got the kids signed up for activities, but tried to limit it this year.  Most of their activities are a day here and a day there so hopefully it won't be too bad.

Cole is playing youth soccer.  He seems to enjoy it and I know I do.  I struggle with the whole "be a parent and not the coach" thing, but I'm trying to keep it in check.  It's a very basic league.  They focus on giving everyone playing time in all different positions.  It's been good for him.  He's signed up for 4H camp and a day of FCA camp with his chosen sport, cross country.

Tate wanted to play soccer, but he is too young yet this year.  Instead he'll be doing baseball, which is thankfully only 1 night a week for the month of June.  Shelby is signed up for T-ball which should be entertaining.

I'm trying to get everything finished up in the last week of school.  Once Cross Country is over in the fall I don't have to think about it again until the end of the school year.  Never fails the end of the year approaches and I'm not ready with summer workouts and getting captains in to visit 6th graders.  I think it all got done.  I'm also trying to use up my budget and get answers to some end of the season stuff from this fall.  It's all been very frustrating.  Dealing with the administrative part makes me wonder why I do this.  Tonight I got a little validation.  I was chatting with a former runner, who moved, and he was telling me he was going to miss running for me next year.  I like our program, but it's far from great, but whatever.  He told me I was the only coach he's ever had who would have chosen him over his brother.  I think what he was trying to convey was that I never compared him to his brother.  They are 2 very different people and I enjoyed having them both run.  His comment made me feel pretty good.  I just want to give kids a place to belong.  They don't have to be the best, or even good, to be part of our team.  Runners come from all different cliques in high school, but in cross country, they are even keel.  I guess I accomplished that for at least 1 of them.

In other news, I joined the direct marketing world.  I started selling LuLaRoe clothing.  It's been an up and down start, but I'm hoping June will level out a bit.  If you are on facebook here is my group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/969423743151626/ 

Spring!

The calendar says spring and they are forecasting a few inches of snow tonight into tomorrow.  It can't be too far away though, because baby kitties!

We have a bazillion cats, but only a handful of tame ones.  Peanut had 4 babies a couple of weeks ago.  She lost one when her box tipped over, but still has 3 healthy babies.  Our housecat, Cingrilla, also had a litter a few days later.  She had a total of 6 babies, lost 1 right away, but still has 5 babies in a box in our basement.  I am not sure how I am going to get all of these cats out of my house.  If anyone wants a kitten...I'll even throw in free replacement if it doesn't make it :)  We have a few we can spare.  

Peanut's newborns

Shelby with a Cingrilla baby

Things have been running fairly smoothly.  Pat's parents took a 10 day trip to Hawaii which left Pat and I in charge.  My sister and dad came to help get the kids ready for school so I could milk in the mornings.  Upon his parent's return, we headed to Sioux Falls for a night without kids.  Pat's dad is having knee surgery again, today, so we wanted to get away before we won't be able to for a while.  We didn't have anything specific in mind, just a little shopping.  We came home with a new car.  That was not the plan, but I'm weak and wasn't about to say "no, don't buy me that nice shiny new car!"  We traded in our Expedition for a Yukon.  I didn't realize how much Pat hated the Expedition, but he really likes the Yukon.  I really like all the fancy buttons and gadgets!  

The boys took swimming lessons and finished up last week.  They were both in the same level this year.  Tate moved up last year and Cole didn't move on.  I wasn't sure how it would go.  Tate is just generally a bit more daring and athletic than Cole is.  Cole also tends to sink like a rock.  They both managed to pass, which was exciting.  

I am so ready for warmer weather so I can send my kids outside!  Tate and Shelby have been at each other more than usual lately.  They are like oil and water most days.  The other night Shelby went to Pat's sister's with his parents.  We didn't let the boys go since it was a Sunday night and would be late getting home.  All evening Tate moped around asking when she'd be home.  Monday morning, while he was getting ready for school, and she was still sleeping (which is the norm), he kept asking when she'd be up.  They can't stand to be around each other and they can't stand to be apart.  

Cole is not the most outgoing kid.  He doesn't need a lot of friends.  He tends to be more of a loaner.  He's not and never has been very empathetic.  He made a great friend last year in second grade and they are still getting along great this year, despite different teachers.  He was invited to a slumber party this week to the house of a new student in his class.  I asked him who else was invited and he listed his best buddy, another boy, and another boy who is special needs (I think he's on the autism spectrum, but am not positive what his diagnosis is).  He explained that they were thinking that Z~ probably didn't get invited to a lot of parties, so they thought they would invite him.  I was floored.  I couldn't ask for better friends for him than that.  I hope they keep that attitude through high school.

Tonight I am heading to Mayo to get my memory tested and brain scanned over the next couple of days.  My sister and I have been participating in a research study for the last couple of years.  I hate it.  I'd love to pull the plug and say "I"m out!", but I know that's not an option.  I love spending time with my sisters without kids, but I'd rather do it on a warm beach than while getting injected with radioactive dye.  Adulting is hard.

Spring has Sprung!

Spring has finally arrived!  Pat has been busy digging and planting corn.  We haven't seen much of him in the last few days.

Spring also means baby chicks!  This year we decided to add a few ducks to the flock.  It's been a few years since we've had ducks.  We don't raise a lot of birds.  We tried to sell some last year but what we have to sell them for to break even is a bit higher than most people are willing to pay.  So we'll stick to raising them for ourselves.

 We moved them out of their tub into a plastic calf hutch.  We can't let them roam, or they will become really expensive dog treats, so we have an area penned off where they can roam and 2 hutches for shelter.  It works well.

 Shelby loves the chicks.  As soon as we set foot outside she asks "chicks?"  She tries to pick them up and then squeals at them.

Tate is our chicken whisperer.  He'll just quietly stick out his hand with some feed and they'll come up to him and start pecking away.

Last Day of Preschool

Tate had his last day of preschool on May 1st.  Yep, he was still wearing his winter coat, hat, and gloves on the last day of school!  Have I mentioned we get out ridiculously early here?

 That afternoon, they had graduation.  It was a big deal for him, and probably a bigger deal for me.  This marks the end of a 4 year stretch of having a child in preschool with the same teachers.  They are obviously fabulous for putting up with me for 4 years :)

On the last day of school, each kid takes a turn sitting in the big rocking chair and their classmates can say something nice about them.  Tate's teacher teared up trying to tell us about what some of Tate's friends said.  He's made some great friends this year and I hope they become lasting friendships.  Here's to my brand new kindergartner!

Therapy

I have never been so excited to find out something is wrong with Cole.

Cole will turn 8 in June.  He still won't ride a bike and can't swing himself on the swing.  I get frustrated and he gets frustrated and shuts down.  When Shelby was in for her checkup (she's 2! and I'll get to her birthday post before she turns 3), I asked our doctor about some of Cole's issues.  She suggested we take him in for a short assessment, aka free, by a physical therapist.  I checked with his PE teacher at school, but wasn't hopeful he would notice anything, he didn't, and I wasn't hopeful the PT would notice anything either.  Cole tends to be anything but text book and I figured he has learned to compensate with other things so well that the same would be true with this latest issue.

He had his PT assessment today.  I explained to the therapist about his ear and what's been going on.  He looked at me and says "he has a vestibular impairment.  That was my specialty."  I think my mouth hit the floor.  He ran the assessments and wouldn't you know it, my boy is a text book case.  The even better news: they can fix it!  We start after Easter.  Here's to a summer riding bikes on 2 wheels and swinging!

Potty Training and Trimming Nails

Those are 2 of the things I dislike the most about having kids.  My kids are finally getting to the age where they can sit still to have their nails trimmed.  Shelby only because if her brothers do it, she must do it.

Unfortunately, that mentality is also following her into potty training.  I've been trying to capture a picture of her, but have been unsuccessful so far.  She walks into the bathroom, closes the door, lifts up the potty seat, lifts up her shirt, sticks her belly out, and says "potty".  Since she doesn't have "that" body part, I think she thinks it's her belly button.  She'll tell me "potty" once in a while and I try to sit her on it when she does that, but other than a few toots, we've been unsuccessful.  I'm in no rush.  I've learned twice that you can't force it.  The fact that she's interested already is a major improvement.  She's a full year ahead of either of her brothers in that department.

March Madness

I introduced Cole to the world of college basketball this year.  Okay, only to the NCAA tournament and only because the Bison made it in.  I remember filling out brackets every year and losing horribly to my dad.  I always had a thing for the underdog, but in the long run it doesn't pan out so well.  I thought this year Cole would be old enough to understand what's going on and since the Bison were playing, he'd enjoy following along.  So far, so good.  He's getting into it a little more.  Our brackets don't look too bad, except he picked Ohio to make it to the Elite Eight.  Oops.  I kind of a like having an older kid who can do these things with me.

Friday's Picture Post

We've had a busy couple of weeks.  I'm working on my addiction to time wasters (namely the iPad).  So one afternoon Tate wanted help with his Lego building and I obliged.  We were close to finishing when he told me I could go lay down if I wanted to or do something else.  I said no, I could finish helping him.  A few minutes later he told me he was going to go have a rest :).  At any rate, here is his Lego hotel, which has now been transformed into something else.

 Last weekend, my sister and her family traveled up to get their new puppy.  One of my CC runners breeds her golden retriever and she had her batch of puppies just before Christmas.  Shelby thought he was great as long as he wasn't in her face.

 Even Juno got some loving.

Shelby also really liked his play yard.  The puppy, not so much.

 We've also been out enjoying the last few nice days before winter reared her ugly head, again.

 There were plenty of snowballs thrown,

 and Cole even built a snowman.

We also managed to find time to finish his 40 books so he joined the Super Reader club at school.

Catch Up, Again

So the last 5 months...

• I finished cross country in October.  I took a group of my runners to watch the state meet.  That was fun.  I miss being part of that.  
• Harvest was not fabulous.  It got done, but that was about all that was positive about it.  
• Tate is exhausted all the time, which is causing us some worry.  I'm hoping it's just that he's growing, but he will willingly nap.  What 5 year old does that?
• Shelby refuses to nap.  She is going to be trouble.  She now has a mouth full of teeth and talks all the time.

• Thanksgiving was spent with my family in Iowa.  This kids love being together and we had a good time.
• Christmas was low key and spent at home.  Cole did a great job with his lines in the Sunday School program and Tate sang his heart out.

• In January, Pat and I travelled to Frisco, TX, to watch NDSU win their 3rd straight national championship.  We had an absolute blast.  It helped that it was in the 60s on game day. :)

• Cole started piano lessons when school resumed.  Two of his 4 lessons have been cancelled or rescheduled due to weather.  I am tried of cold.

• While we were in Texas, the boys were introduced to MineCraft.  If anyone understands this game and can explain it to me, I am all ears.  Otherwise, my typical response is glazed eyes and feeling ready to explode with "I don't care!"  I just don't get it.

 And there you have the highlights since September.  3 blog posts in 1 week!

I Love to Read

**Disclaimer:  I love to read.  I enjoy reading and I want my kids to enjoy reading.  Do not read this post thinking I am against reading in any way.

February is I love to read month.  I hate it.  I love reading, I hate all the work that comes with February.  Our school does some fantastic reading things with the kids, but they all come to a head in February.  

They do One School, One Book which means the entire elementary, pre-k through 6, staff, custodians, bus drivers, cooks, everyone reads the same book.  We read one chapter a night until the book is finished.  Every morning they get a question to answer about what was read the night before.  It's a great program.  The problem, they also do Fast Start Reading, and the first grade is doing a super reader's squad challenge (40 books in February).  That means, on top of the chapter every night, he has a poem to read, his guided reading homework, and the books for the reading squad.  That's on top of the library books we have to read and Cole's piano practice.  That's a lot of reading to do between the hours of 4 and 8, if there is nothing else going on.  Cole likes to read and he's good at reading, but it's a lot.  We already dropped the ball with the One School book.  We forgot that last night so I read it to them over breakfast.  At least it's cold and no one wants to be outside.

Summer into Fall

I think I should just give up on blogging.  I can't keep up with anything, let alone a blog that no one really reads anyway.  Just in case I still have a loyal reader or 2, here is my update...

Cole had ear surgery #2 in August.  This was the hardest one yet.  This time he knew exactly what to expect and he did not want to experience it.  He held it together until the nurse anesthetist came in to take him back.  Then the tears came for him and just try not to cry when your kid does for something like that.  He handled it like a champ though.  There was no regrowth, so they rebuilt his ear.  It was a much shorter surgery this time.  He's had his follow up and goes for a hearing test in October.  I think he hears better, but I don't know that we are without-a-hearing-aid better.

Tate is loving year 2 of preschool.  He has made a great buddy, named G.  G just so happens to be the little brother of his good friend C, from 3s preschool.  I find that funny.  He and G get into a bit of trouble, but nothing major, mostly talking and not listening.

Tate-preschool, Cole-1st grade

Shelby is as busy as ever.  She is constantly on the go.  She never walks, always runs or climbs.  She still doesn't have a lot of words, or teeth.  She says night and hot along with mom and dad.

Cheese!

I am coaching cross country again.  This is my 3rd season.  So far my top 2 returning runners have been out with a concussion or appendicitis.  We have enough girls for a team this year, which is great.

Pat finished up our heifer shed, and today we moved steers into the old heifer yard.  So now they are done with building projects for the year!  Our silage is chopped and they should start on earlage this week.

Cole and I ran in a road race last week.  It was a fundraiser for our local pet rescue.  We ran about 2.5 miles.  He only walked a few times, and for just a few steps each time.  He talked the whole race!  It was a blast and I am so proud of him.

 That's all for now!

The County Fair, Part 2

Pat hated showing cattle growing up.  Well, he didn't hate the showing part, it was all the prep work.  It takes a lot of work to get an animal show ready.  Kids spend months walking their animal and working with it.  Then there is clipping, cleaning, brushing, pampering, etc.  It's a ton of work.  We decided that if our kids want to show, great.  If they don't, that's fine too, but they do need to try it.

Since I am new at showing animals, I didn't want to bring one to the fair this year.  I didn't know what was going on and I wanted to get a feel for it before I was thrown into it.  I registered Cole for the dairy show, but wasn't sure if he'd participate.  His good friend's cousin, C, was going to let us use one of her calves, so I decided he'd try it this year.  All we had to do was show up.  The show was on Thursday.  On Wednesday, I dropped Cole off to work with C and Renae.  He was nervous.  I felt bad leaving him there, but knew he'd be in good hands.  Sure enough, when I went to pick him up, he and his buddy were scooping poop and having a great time.  While I was gone, Cole and C were interviewed for the paper while they were out walking Renae.

On Thursday we showed up for the show, minus the white pants, which apparently is a thing for showing dairy that my husband informed me of 30 minutes prior to show.  Probably a good thing, I would have spent months searching for white pants in a boys 6, had I known.  The show went fine.  There were 5 cloverbuds that participated.

Talking with the judge

They walked the animals in the arena (parents were in control), talked with the judge, lined the animals up, and walked them back out.  All of the calves were very well behaved and the judge was great.  

It was a good experience for Cole, but the best part was the prep work.  As much time as we spent at the fair, and it felt like a lot, not once did I run into a group of kids sitting together texting on their phones.  In fact, I only saw one kid on a cell phone the entire time, and he was talking on it.  Instead, they spent their time talking to each other, playing games, running around the fair, and helping each other with their animals.  These are the kids I want him to look up to.  These are the kids that know the value of hard work, are good leaders, and good role models.  These are the reasons I hope he sticks with showing cattle.

The County Fair, Part 1

We enrolled Cole in 4-H this year.  He was a Cloverbud, which is essentially learning years.  They can take whatever they want to the fair, perfect or not and get a participation ribbon.  Cole brought 3 projects.  He brought some cucumbers, which he was pretty "meh" about.  I made him put together a photo book about our trip up north and actually made him hand write captions for the photos, cuz I'm mean like that.  He did fairly well about talking to the judge with the book, once he got into it.  His favorite project was this:

Farmall 450 tractor hood

He refinished the tractor hood with very little help.  He is very proud of it.  He got a lot of comments about it the day we brought it in too.

He also showed 2 calves.  This is Renae, we borrowed her from a friend so we wouldn't have to keep an animal at the fair all week.

He also brought his calf, Rocket, for the Cloverbud pet show.  He was the only Cloverbud to participate, but he worked hard to get Rocket ready for the fair.  It was good for him to put the work in himself and see what it takes to get an animal ready.

Tate got to bring a couple of projects too and help bring Rocket into the arena.  They had a lot of fun, but it was an incredibly busy week.  If the fair wasn't enough, they also had VBS at church this last week.

My sister mentioned that she thought we weren't going to have Cole show an animal.  Stay tuned for my response!  :)

The Last 4.5 Months in Bullets

So I've been busy...

• In early March, I broke my arm doing chores.  I broke the neck of the ball of my humorous, basically right below my shoulder.  I didn't need surgery, but was put in an immobilizer sling.  Essentially, I had fabric wrapped around my waist and my wrist and elbow velcroed to it.  I wore that for about 6 weeks.  I slept on the recliner for 3 weeks.  I do not recommend the experience nor care to repeat it.

• A few days after I broke my arm, my sister and 6 kids (3 of hers and 3 friends) traveled up for spring break.

• It was actually nice to have her help.  The kids played well together and had a blast playing outside in the hay, despite the cold, rainy weather.  They even got the snowmobiles out before they left.  We even managed to go sledding, which was a horrible idea.  Poor Tate came home looking like this:

• Just before Easter, I started a long term sub position.  It was a mostly good experience.  I had some pretty good classes and one horrible class.  So horrible that most other teachers would see my class list and go "oh, well there are a couple of good kids in there."  It was the longest 42 minutes of my day.
• Shelby turned 1 on Good Friday.  She wasn't walking then, but is now.  The only time she is still is when she is sleeping.  She's also a climber.  I caught her one morning trying to scale the refrigerator.  She is constantly busy, but she's happy. 

• The end of April brought my dad's retirement celebration.  The whole family was there.  It was a great day.  My mom had a fabulous day and we saw many friends that we haven't seen in years.

• Tate graduated from the school readiness program.  He will get to do it all over again next year too!  He had a good year.  He made lots of friends and learned a lot.  

• Cole finished up Kindergarten in May.  He had a great year.  He is reading well and did great in all the subjects.  It was fun to see all the writing he's done throughout the year and to see how far he's come. He had a fantastic class and teacher.  I'm sad he has to move on, but I think he'll have a couple of good friends in his class next year too.  

• In June, Cole turned 7!  SEVEN!  Where does the time go!?!  He's been busy working all summer.  He spent about 20 hours picking rock and he's always ready to help Dad or Grandpa do whatever it is that they are doing.  He's trying to get enough money for a $100 bill.  What is he going to spend it on?  He doesn't know, he just wants to be rich :-)

\

• The summer has been busy with swimming lessons, t-ball, running club, soccer camp, summer camp,  trips to my parents', trip to my sister's, strawberry harvesting, landscaping, and remodeling.  July is a bit of a break.  We have lots going on, but most of it involves me staying home and that's OK.  Stay tuned, I might update before Christmas :-)

Ear Surgery #1

I have about 30 minutes before the kids get off the bus.  I should probably be folding the gobbs of laundry, but instead I will enlighten you all on ear cysts instead.

Cole had his surgery about 2 1/2 weeks ago.  It went well.  It did not go as they had hoped.  They hoped for one large mass that could easily be scooped out.  What they got was a large mass that had grown into all the nooks and crannies in his ear.  It took a full 4 hours to remove it.

He was a little nervous this time.  Thankfully, we had just gotten an ipad so Bad Piggies was a great way to keep his mind off of it.  He was the second surgery of the morning so he went back around 8:30/8:45 and they came to get us at about 12:45.  The doctor gave us lots of info, but I didn't retain much of it as my thought was "when can I see him?"

The cyst did not erode any of the bones, which was good, but they did have to remove at least one of the ear bones (I believe it was the incus).  They also had to cut around his ear lobe and go in through the bone behind his ear.  That incision is where he had the most pain.  It still looks painful, but as long as you don't jab a clippers into it, he doesn't complain.  Yes, that was a brilliant mommy moment.

He had to wear a cuff for 2 days, then a cotton ball in his ear for a week.  He slept on the couch for a full day before he felt ready to get up and move around.  He was very dizzy when we brought him home.  By Saturday evening he was up and moving and by Sunday he was his normal self.  He went back to school the following Monday.

The first smile after surgery.

He sees the ENT in a couple of weeks and will have to have a second surgery sometime this summer.  The second surgery will be to remove any regrowth and rebuild his ear.  Cole claims he can hear better now, but I'm not sure if that's actually true.  Hopefully when it's all said and done that will be true!

The Final Frontier

Cole has been bring home lots of books about space lately.  Unfortunately, most of the books he brings home are horribly outdated.  I don't mean just 9 planets outdated.  These books talk about what the future of space travel might be like in the 1980s.  Yeah, that outdated.  It's kind of funny.  At least they are so old they don't talk about the Challenger.  I don't think I have the heart to tell him some people died trying to go into space.  This week's book was actually fairly recent.  It was all about Mars and mentioned only 8 planets.  This morning he was up before 7 building a Mars Rover with his Legos.

Time Wasters

We bought an iPad this week.  Apparently, I didn't have enough things to waste my time with.  It has been great motivation for the boys.  "If you are late for the bus, no iPad" or "no iPad until your chores and homework are done."  I wonder how long that will last.  We don't have a lot on it, so if you know of any must have apps, let me know!

My other time waster has been Downton Abbey.  Thanks K!  I'm still on season 1.  I don't watch a lot of TV, so it's hard to find the time to watch it, but it is good.  I watched 2 episodes yesterday before the boys came home from school.

I've also started volunteering in Tate's classroom.  I've been going in for about an hour during center time.  It's fun.  Tate loves having me come and I'm sure that won't last forever.

We've also been spending lots of time at the doctor, but thankfully none of the kids are sick.  Shelby had her 9 month check.  She's a little thing.  I think she weighed in at about 15 pounds.  That doesn't stop her.  She's crawling, pulling herself up, and cruising.

Cole has also been busy at the doctor.  He had his pre-op this week, his post-op next week, followed by surgery next Friday.

Pat and I are taking off next week for a few days.  He'll attend exciting meetings about grain elevators and marketing, and I'll go shopping.

Oh, and I applied for a job.  I interview on Thursday.  It's a long term sub job.  I'm not sure that I want it, but I'm not sure that I don't want it either.  Guess we'll see what happens.

Christmas Recap

Huh, it's January already.

We had a good Christmas.  My parents came out on the 23rd and stayed until Christmas Day.  The boys had their Sunday School Program on Christmas Eve.  Yes, we still do that.  We are a small country church that doesn't like change :).  I'm glad they haven't changed that.  We had 38 kids participate this year.  Four years ago we barely had 20.

Christmas Eve

The kids claimed to have gotten everything they wanted.  I try not to go overboard with the kids.  They have grandparents and aunts, so they get tons of gifts.  This year Cole got a Lego remote control train, extra tracks, books, and pjs.  Tate got a Playmobil knights castle and a couple of smaller sets to go with it, a book, and pjs.  Then, of course, little things in their stockings, wind up toys, splat balls, hexbugs, and candy. Cole also got his very own notebook, stapler, and tape dispenser!  

Pat and I decided to buy a new TV for Christmas/anniversary and not buy anything else.  Then we found this right before Christmas:

We have one snowmobile, but with the boys old enough to ride along, 2 would be nice.  I've wanted a ski-doo since high school, but they aren't easy to find.  I'm not sure if that is because no one is selling them or they don't run anymore, but we finally found one close by.  So I got a new snowmobile for Christmas!  We took the boys for a ride last week.  We met Pat's parents for lunch and by that time, Tate was done.  So on the way home, I got to ride, sans kid.  I flew over a drift, then another and managed to crack and take a chunk out of my windshield.  I'm fine, but mad.  I can't believe I broke my pretty new sled!

On a side note, Cole's next surgery is scheduled for the 25th.  The CT scan showed that his ear bones are in tact, which is wonderful news.

Ears, Take 1

Cole had his surgery today.  It did not go well.  Well, I take that back, it did not go as hoped.  I should have guessed today was not going to be a great day.  Shelby was up 7 or 8 times between 10:30 and 4 this morning.  I finally managed to get 2 1/2 hours of sleep in a row, at the expense of my alarm clock which apparently shut itself off this morning.  Pat called wanting to know if I was up 15 minutes before we needed to be on the road.  We were not off to a great start.  We managed to get there on time, miraculously.

The surgery process itself was fine.  Cole was a trooper.  They said he hopped up on the bed and chatted away until he was out.  They came to get us 20 minutes later.  I knew that wasn't a good sign.  Turns out the drainage in his ear isn't drainage.  He has a cyst which may be harder to remove.  They took his adenoids out, then went to suction the drainage, but kept getting chunks, instead of liquid.  So what does that mean?  He has to have a CT scan to get a look at the ear bones.  The cyst can erode the bones of the ear, so they need to check that they are ok or if they need to rebuild them.  It will also give them an idea of the placement of the cyst.  The reason they don't do the CT scan first is that drainage and cysts look the same, so they don't know what they are dealing with until they go in.  Removing it can be as simple as lifting the ear drum and scraping it out or as complicated as having to drill in the bone behind the ear to get at it.  The CT scan should give them a better idea of what they are looking at.  I'm obviously hopeful for the first option, but not terribly optimistic.  He has his scan on Friday.  I'm not sure what we are looking at for surgery #2 yet.

Coming out of surgery was no picnic.  He did well, but he was hurting and didn't know what to make of it all.  As I write this he is back to his normal self, so he bounced back quickly.  I gently broke it to him tonight that he would have to go back again, but this time they wouldn't be messing with his throat, just his ear.  He takes it all in stride like he usually does.

As far as his hearing goes, if the bones are not eroded, he should regain perfect hearing.  If they have to rebuild bones, he can come away with good hearing, but it will never be perfect.  I guess I'm just glad it's not life threatening and he still has perfect hearing in his right ear in which to ignore me with. :)

8 months!

 My baby girl turned 8 months last week.  I cannot believe how fast she is going.  Facebook lost my album of her and so I went back and added her pics since she was born.  I can't believe how much she has changed!

Without further ado... her 8 month pics:

So big!

 Do you have any idea how hard it is to get a picture of an 8 month old?!?

Yummm!  Camera!

We did manage to get a fairly decent shot.

She is semi-mobile and gets a little more ambitious every day.  The trick she learned this morning...

She did that all on her own.  She's started pulling her knees up underneath her too.  I was hoping our tree would be safe this year, but I have a feeling she won't wait until after Christmas to start moving.  She finally started rolling all the way over this weekend.  She'd go over but wouldn't pull her arm out.  Now she just rolls and rolls and rolls.  She's never in the place I leave her.  Guess we need to start using baby gates again!