What?! A bicycle on I-70?!

Okay, so last Monday I sideswiped my parents car as I was backing out of the driveway. This Monday, just last night, Matt was driving home on I-70 and the truck in front of him swerved suddenly off to the shoulder. Matt was not able to react with a car to the left of him and the truck now stopped on the shoulder so he had no choice but to slow down but there wasn't enough time. There was a darn bicycle in the middle of his lane!!! He ran over it and it got stuck under the undercarriage. After waiting over an hour for the state police to not show up, he called our insurance and they told him he didn't need an accident report and they filed the claim. The rep asked if it was the caravan and my husband had to inform him that it was the Rav and that the caravan was my claim. He got a good chuckle out of that. We however aren't going to find it amusing if our premium goes up. Aaahhh. Years of no accidents and then suddenly here they are. Matt was not hurt by the way...just his car.

What an exciting day!

Life has been going by at full speed these past few weeks. Many know that I have started back to class so that I can knock another prerequisite off my list. I have two to go before the nursing program and they are both sciences. I wasn't all that big on science but now I'm finding it quite interesting. It was tough these first 2 weeks adjusting to being back in school and being a mom and wife at the same time. I haven't quite found my groove yet, but it's getting better. My mornings are quite hectic the days that I have class and this morning was no exception. My parents came to watch Ethan and it just seemed that all morning I was moving so fast trying to get breakfast for the kids, clean the house and messes created from breakfast, prep dinner for the crockpot, get Brian dressed and ready for school and review my notes for the test I had today. It was non-stop go go go. Matt said I was making him tired from moving around so much. It was the pace for the day. I realized then that I may have missed Brian's bus. So he and I rush out and I'm praying that the bus is waiting for us. They usually do wait. I start backing out and I hear a big crunching scraping sound. Oh no!! I side swiped my parent's Lincoln Cartier town car. Great! I quickly pulled forward, assessed the damage in about a second and sprinted to the front porch and rang the doorbell like someone was about to attack me. As I run back to the car, I yell to my mom, "Sorry, I hit your car!!" I couldn't stay, I had to go or else I would be late for class myself. As I pull out, making sure not to hit their car again, Brian tells me that I need to be more careful and that I need to drive better. :) As we approach the bus stop, it's 11:04 and I see wet tire marks from the snow on the road that look like it could belong to a bus. I left and headed to drop Brian off. Thankfully the school he attends is right on campus. We get there at 11:15 but the school does not open for the afternoon session until 11:30. I couldn't wait with him, my class started at 11:30 so I desperately pleaded my case to one of the teachers and they said he could wait this time. Phew! I saw the bus as I was walking out and she said they waited but I missed them probably by a minute. I get to class with a minute to spare and am breathless by now. So much has happened in just my morning. I then went to lab and took my first test on the heart. I did really well and was relieved. I finally made it home and had to call the insurance company to make a claim. Done. My parents leave in there sideswiped car and I am getting back to things in the house. Ethan has been hanging out in the house bare bottomed all day. He won't wear underwear and for me it's great because he is actually potty training himself. He's such a smart boy. :) I caught Ethan dumping his potty seat into the toilet which was wonderful! It was pee. Then a while later, I see him and I kept getting whiffs of, well, do I need to describe it? I heard the toilet flushing upstairs and assumed he did 2 upstairs. Well, after a little while, Ethan brings me his potty bowl with a present in it. I was soo proud and happy to see that he can go on his own. It's the one bright thing that happened in my day of chaos.

HOORAY for ETHAN!!!

Ethan is now officially a big boy today. When he woke up this morning, he told me he wanted to pee in the big potty but when I went to take his pull-up off from the night, it was a little stinky so I told him we'd have to wait a bit. I never put a pull-up back on him so he's been running around the house with his bum out. We tried once a little later on the big potty but he wouldn't have it. He said he was too scared. I didn't put any pants back on him but I did put the little potty in the living room where he was watching television and I told him if he needed to go, he could do it there. I went back to studying and a few minutes later...one reason I can't get any studying done....Ethan comes to me and tells me he wants to pee-pee in the potty. He was very excited and when I headed towards the bathroom, he pulled me to the living room and very energetically says, "see, pee-pee in potty!" Ethan pee'd in the potty all on his own!!! Hooray for Ethan. I'm so thankful it was in the potty and not anywhere else. :)

Whirlwind

The last week has been a really rough ride for me. I have started classes and I have no idea how I was able to manage two classes when Matt was deployed because with him home, I can hardly manage the one class I'm taking. The kids are really putting up obstacles for me and mostly I'm sure, can't be helped. They're kids and that's what they do best. Time management is going to be a big one for me this semester. Yesterday I think was the craziest day of all. We had so much going on. We FINALLY got Brian's referrals and insurance squared away (since moving here in June!) and we had his first two appointments yesterday morning. One for Occupational therapy and one for Speech Therapy. The appointment was at 9am which was perfect since Katheryn went to school at 7:30 and Brian at 11am. Well, Jack Frost didn't agree and the night before it snowed. So school was delayed 2 hours which put me in a jam because that meant Katheryn wouldn't leave the house until 9:20am. What was I to do?? Thankfully right before it was time to engage in a plan, the phone rang letting me know that school was cancelled for the day. Phew! Problem solved! Brian's appointments went well. He was evaluated in October and comparing his scores from October to now, there has been improvement. This is great news! For OT, he is in the normal range on one chart and still has a few fine motor skills to fine tune like grasping a pencil in a tripod grasp rather than the whole fist. His score slightly improved for speech but not too dramatic but it still is improvement. We left the offices and went shopping for groceries. This in itself is an event with three young ones, especially when they have money to spend. Brian finally spent his gift card from his birthday and bought a black iDog. He and Katheryn now hook their iDogs up to one another and play the same beats over and over and over again. It's very loud. Once we were home, it seemed like it was time to leave again. Katheryn had 2 hours of dance and while she was there, the boys and I went to my parent's home. I tried to study there but there was no point. Ethan seemed to have gotten a little congested while there and wouldn't stop wheezing and coughing. I think it was an allergic reaction to the dogs. He finally threw up right before we left to get Katheryn. Now normally I would have pictures detailing every event but I just didn't think a pic would be great for this next one. Today I have been trying to study. I have two quizzes to take online and after trying to study and not being successful, I gave up and decided to just take the quiz. I am not great when it comes to timed tests. I had 20 minutes to get this one done and you don't know how much time you have until you open up the quiz to find out and your time automatically begins. So as I am reading and rushing to answer questions, Brian decides to come in and starts talking to me. I went over the time limit by 20 seconds. Thankfully I only missed 2 questions and got a B. Phew! So then I decide to start making notes while listening to the class recording. On que, every two minutes, someone needs something. Brian wanted a snack and left. Then Ethan needed a new diaper. Then Ethan wanted a drink. Then Ethan wanted a snack. The doorbell rings ...it's Katheryn's friend. The telephone rings and it's the neurologist's office. Brian comes in and tells me he needs to go pee. Finally just when I thought I could sit and start concentrating, Brian comes in from the kitchen with his pants wrapped around his ankles and tells me that he went poopy in the potty. I turn to look at him and I notice a brown clunk on the kitchen floor. i get up to investigate. Great! You guessed it...it's poop! It must have not fallen while he was on the toilet..it fell off when he came running to the kitchen. I steered him back towards the bathroom to wait for me while I cleaned his present up in the kitchen. Aaahhhh. Kids are wonderful. I'm contemplating on whether or not I should continue with school or drop the class, get a full refund and just wait until the kids are all in school. I have until the 20th, Tuesday, to make my decision. Most likely I'll battle it out.

The Letter 'B'

Great things start with the letter B including my son, Brian. He's fascinated with this letter since ofcourse this is the letter that starts his name. He's always asking us what letter our names start with around the house. Mine is 'M' for Mommy of course. Although the letter B is great, I've never heard it used quite in this fashion as I did today. Brian was home from school today and as I was cleaning the counters, he came up to me and at first said, "mommy, your tummy looks big." Then I think he caught himself saying this and maybe perhaps thought that it wasn't a really great thing to say so he corrected himself and said, "mommy, you look like the letter B." He said it with such enthusiasm and excitement because he could recognize this letter out of context. I guess it's time for me to hit the gym full force so that maybe I can look like the letter 'P' again. LOL!

GREAT news!

I just received a call from the school Brian is currently attending. They wanted to schedule an IEP (Individualized Education Program) meeting ahead of schedule because Brian is working way above the goals which were listed from NC. His aide said that he has made so much progress with not only her but also with the speech therapist at school. They want to get him ready for kindergarten and get the goals to focus toward that. I am really excited for Brian. This just means that he is making strides! I'm so proud of him!

SNOW much fun!

Last Saturday we decided to go out and have some family fun. Although it hasn't snowed yet, it was cold enough for the ski resorts to start making snow. We decided that we would try to go snow tubing at one of the local ski resorts nearby. We're close to at least three. We went to Whitetail in Mercesburg, PA. When we got there, we were disappointed when we read the sign that children had to be 5 to ride the snow tubes. I thought for sure that either Matt or I would have to stay with Ethan at the kiddie area while the rest went snow tubing. When I got to the ticket window I was pleasantly suprised when she said Ethan could go as long as I signed a waiver releasing the resort from any bodily injury that may occur. Hmmm. This was not too tough to sign. lol. jk. Everyone has to sign one in order to be issued a tube. We waited for our time to come up since the current time was sold out. Matt and I each got a double tube while Katheryn insisted on having her own. No big deal. Excitement was throughout all of us. We could see snow and we were on our way to the lift. We all chose different lanes to go down and met at the bottom. Eventually we ended up seperating. Katheryn was on a roll. The last few trips Matt and I decided to hook up our double tubes and go down together with the boys. We flew so fast! Brian and Ethan were having a blast. We tried to hook Katheryn up with us but they wouldn't allow more than four to be hooked together. She was a little bummed since it was our last trip down.

Brian, Katheryn and Ethan ready for some tubing.

Ethan in line for tubes!

Ethan being pulled to the lift by Matt

Brian being pulled to the lift by me

Katheryn and Matt...I don't know what they're doing

Picture I took of Matt while I was in the tube looking up

Katheryn on one of many solo trips down

Ethan and Matt tubing down the slope

Brian in the tube ready to go

The next few mornings after Ethan has woken up and his first word of the day is "tubing!" with excitement. Just for one hour it was $95 so I know this isn't something we can do all the time but it sure was fun while it lasted. Brian is constantly asking if we can go tubing.

Destruction continues in 2009

Terrible twos! Ha! What about the three's? Ethan has not slowed down one bit as to keeping me busy. I think I should embrace this though. After a conversation with a friend today, I had to think about my situation with Ethan. She mentioned that once Ethan is older and possibly on his own, I won't have anything more to write in my blog and that one day I will be reading the blog wishing for these days to come back. hmm. I'm not sure if I want to agree with her. I do know that I will miss hearing him say "mommy" and "I love you" in his cute little Ethan voice but I don't really think that I want to relive his adventurous moments. For example, just this past Sunday Ethan decided to redecorate our guest room. He must not have liked the plant in there because he had the dirt from the pot thrown everywhere. I think Matt cleaned up a bit of it before I went in to clean it up and take a picture. I will post the picture once I have it downloaded. One day I know he'll grow out of this destruction phase. I would just like for it to be today.

Our guest room floor...what a mess. It doesn't look bad here but it was all over.

Pop-pop has it with Ethan!

I couldn't resist putting this picture on here. It's a great shot! While Ethan was opening presents on his birthday he must have given pop-pop some lip so pop-pop took a swing at him.

Ethan behind the chair at end of pop-pop's fist (looks like Brian is cheering him on)

Just kidding! He and Ethan were doing something and I just happened to press the take button at this moment. It was too funny not to put on here.

Happy Birthday, Ethan!

It's hard to remember back to Ethan's bday but I will do my best to recapture the day. On December 26th, Ethan turned 3! Hooray, out of the terrible two's...so I thought. You'll see what I mean in a later post. Let me first get through the birthday.

The morning of his birthday, I spent mostly in the kitchen working on a gluten and casein free birthday cake so that Brian could enjoy the birthday with us. Katheryn and Nana spent their time playing Boggle while Pop-pop did some work. I can't recall what Matt was doing. Brian was no where to be seen for quite a while. The plan was to get to Chuck-E-Cheese to celebrate sometime that day. As we were all getting ready for this adventure, I went to look for Brian to see what he needed to have done in order for us to get going. I found him in bed covered with his blanket. He was burning up. His temp was 103. I immediately gave him some Ibuprofen. Thankfully we had the children's chewable and I was able to convince him that they were vitamins. His temp came down and a few hours later he was back to normal. I didn't realize that Matt had placed a television in his room to keep him occupied while he was in bed. My parents then came over and we had ordered take out from the local chinese restaurant. When we lived in NC, we would order takeout from a place next to Food Lion and it was pretty good. Now that we are in MD, the takeout place we order from is also next to a Food Lion and it's not bad either. Hmmm....coincidence?

Anyway, after feasting on our huge array of food (my mom also brought Christmas leftovers), it was time to cake! It was a chocolate/vanilla checkered gfcf cake!!! It wasn't the prettiest cake I had ever made but I knew that Brian could partake in this one. It was okay for gfcf.

Ethan's Birthday Cake

I took our helium tank and filled a few balloons for Ethan. While Matt and I were lighting the candle, we heard laughter from the dining room. What's going on?? The grandparents were playing a hiding game with Ethan's balloons. Nana had asked Ethan where his balloons had gone to and Ethan replied back, "Right there" as he walked over and tapped on pop-pop Joye's tummy. That's a statement if I ever heard one! Not to mention, pop-pop Joye is now taking morning walks. His excuse is that he's getting in shape for the Army 10 Miler in October. We'll see where he's at once September comes.

Birthday balloons Ethan was excited and he blew out his candle before the Happy Birthday song was finished being sung to him. It was time for presents! Christmas was just a warm up. He got some great toys, clothes and money. It was nice to be able to spend his birthday with both sets of grandparents and his dad. We missed out on having daddy home with us last year.

Ethan blowing out the candle

Ethan opening presents