an Eventful weekend

On Saturday, his final day of Prednisone, Kyren took his first steps -- two of them-- smiling all the way!
By Sunday he was up to 12 or 13!
He also turned 17 months that day. Such a fun milestone-- truly a "toddler" now... though he still prefers crawling or crawlking.
Our power went out in the big windstorm of Saturday. For 24 hours!
Had it been thursday or friday, when it was 65-70 degrees, it wouldn't have mattered, but the temp dropped back down into the 30's (oh yeah, it IS february) and off we went to Gramsy/Poppy's for the night, crossing our fingers and holding our breath, so as not to return home with Gramsy's Pneumonia. ...which we think she probably caught from the boys last week.
We watched Inception with Dad and subtitles, which was a much different experience than it was seeing it the first time in the theater. We then had a pretty terrible night's sleep, all in one room, with K up every couple hours, disoriented, and Christian randomly coughing throughout the night. Although we're sure it was a much more comfortable night than we would have had at home, freezing our tookusses off.
Sunday evening was Bethany's bridal shower-- cannot believe she's a grown up! Definitely one of those 'woah' moments in my life.
Today we had a lazy morning (still have not cleaned up those beans all over the kitchen floor, and now strewn about the rest of the house). Then we spontaneously decided to go to Hank's Place and Longwood for a little family time.
Hank's is simply the best breakfast place around, and Christian saw someone order french toast with whipped cream and strawberries upon walking through the door. . . so his heart was set on that. Both boys actually did a GREAT job waiting patiently, even though they were hungry. And they both gobbled their food (Kyren shared my omlet, toast and homefries...actually he ate so much I was still hungry afterward!). Christian ate his whipped cream first, devoured most of his french toast, and then proceeded to lick the strawberry syrup off his plate. So endearing.
We had one of those rare 'proud parent' moments when an older lady stopped on her way out and complemented us on our boys' good behavior. i half expected one of them to throw a tantrum when she turned and walked away, but we just sat there, smiling, knowing it was only a matter of outings before that will surely happen.
Longwood was fun, though somewhat disappointing, when we walked into the conservatory expecting an escape from the frigid weather, only to find it barely warmer than the outdoors. apparently they were doing some construction and had the windows open (or something). the boys started shivering while playing in the fountains. fortunately we have our season pass and didn't feel compelled to stay more than a half hour or so.
Upon returning home, we all fell asleep for a couple of hours, and woke refreshed.
SUCH a nice way to spend Presidents' Day.
hope to post pics soon----

i'm an organizational wannabe

i have always loved being orgnaized.

but i'm really not great at it.

i look at a picture like the one above, of all the nice, matching containers that stack and fit perfectly in your cabinets, and i think, "Wow, if only i had all of those, i'd be able to stay organized." (good marketing, right?)

the problem is, even though i bought 4 of them (for my flours and sugars), and reorganized my baking cabinet, it doesn't look as cool as the picture. i also don't have enough cool-looking foods to go in them. or space. or need! i mean, cereal boxes were made to hold cereal, right? it seems like a waste of time to transfer the cereal to a container when we eat it well within the expiration date,

just so i can look organized.

the other problem with trying to get organized in one area, is it just makes me look around at all the other disorganized areas and sigh. it's hard enough to keep up with the daily clean-up of 2 little boys. you know, the whole "as soon as i clean up it's time for another meal" or "we just put all the toys away, and now they're pulling out the tupperware and spreading it around the house... but i have to let them if i want any time to prepare the next meal."

but i feel like if i get one set of outgrown clothes put away, i'm just going to have to turn around and get the next size out to go through. if i organize the tupperware, well, what's the point?

it's unending--

and maybe that IS the point.

motherhood, in the midst of it, is just one big disorganized blur where you do the best you can with the space you have, and let organization be what it is for you.

and for me, it is sporadic and always seemingly just out of reach.

and for now... that's OKAY.

What must he be thinking?

my favorite parts of this video are the beginning, when he's trying to shake the peas off of his hands, and the end, where the peas are stuck to the bottom of his foot, and he doesn't seem to know. 

Kiddos at play

playing nicely.

done playing nicely.

teamwork. 

laughing at big brother.

Busy Boys

Silly Hat Time

a rare moment of sharing his hardhat.
k looks honored, doesn't he?

his very own idea.
it's an insert from my new flour container.

and this is why we call him Kute Bear.

this photo credit: Christian A. Brown

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Kyren the Klimber

*yes, every one of these photos was snapped by this child's mother during a dangerous moment.
but, c'mon, you gotta take risks in life to capture the cuteness before it's gone.

*no koo-bears were injured during this (particular) photoshoot.

happy heart day

This is the positively sinful scrumptious gift i gave myself husband for valentine's day. 

unfortunately he brought home some gelato and panna cotta from macaroni grille with our v-day dinner, and we didn't have room for this outrageously outstanding indulgence.

so i decided to cut into it today.

poor me. all by myself with no one to share it.

man, that was a good bad idea.

it truly lives up to its name.

not that i would KNOW.

thanks for being my lover, honey. 

it's a great excuse reason to gluttonize celebrate with all of my your favorite ingredients.

i'll try to leave you some.

poor little guy

it's been almost 2 weeks since our trip to the ER.
I wish i could say all is well with the little guy. But he has been coughing ever since, and getting progressively worse (esp. at night and while eating/drinking). After a call to the nurse on saturday (who recommended going back on the nebulizer 4x a day w/2 of those being albuterol + pulmicort, making it a 20 min treatment, instead of just 10), we payed Dr. Curley a visit yesterday morning because, in her words, he was wheezing all over the place. not good.
so he's back on a 5 day regimen of Prednisone. . . which seems to be helping-- he slept through the night w/out a coughing fit/spasm til 6am-- although it is not without it's yucky side effects. he is agitated and fussy and not like himself.
but if it's one thing this kid is, it's a trooper! he fights his treatments only part of the time, and is most distracted by us singing. and thanks to the Janes's and Gia, he especially calms down to "Wheels on the Bus". somewhat ironically, he laughs every time you get to the mommies on the bus saying, "Shh! Shh! Shh!"
So today we've just been having a lot of messy fun.
i got the sand/water table off the back porch where it's been collecting snow all winter, and scrubbed it out, and put the dried peas/beans back in it from last winter. It was supposed to be something fun for C to do while K was napping, but by the time it got all set up, K was awake, so i let him put his hands in it. He thought it felt so good, he laughed. (i love the way he cracks up at things). i tried to get some video of it, but of course by the time i ran and grabbed the camera he was putting the peas and beans in his mouth (which is why we were trying to avoid him being awake). but after a few minutes he got really into the digging and playing, and didn't try to eat them anymore (well, not often, anyway). he's starting to understand when things are 'yucky' and the words "no eat".
so there are beans and peas all over the place, but 2 happy boys with diggers and dump trucks. AND i got dinner made and did some dishes!
later we will make a game out of vacuuming up the peas and beans. because C has discovered how much FUN vacuuming can be. he has his own vacuum (well, that's what he calls the dust buster). he even begs to do it. which i find hilarious. i only wish he did a thorough job. by the time he's able to i'm sure the thrill will be gone.
we've been practicing being KIND toward poor little kyren, and telling mommy when he's doing something 'wrong' ( or at least 'annoying', like stealing a toy) instead of screaming, pushing and hitting. it's going well... about 10% of the time. meanwhile, k is learning to push back. like i said-- Trooper.

Eat to the Beat

Last Week's Snowstorm

Some recent favorites:

Our first trip to the ER

Amazingly enough it took over a year of being home for Kyren to contract something bad enough to send him to the ER with respiratory distress. Good old Croup. Only, there's nothing GOOD about it.
Both boys had very MILD runny noses the past few days-- like maybe a tissue here and there. no biggie. but K had been night coughing for a while, and it was starting to bother me. just a little too intense and often. i was thinking about having him looked at just for that since it seemed to slowly be getting worse.
He went to sleep in the packnplay at community group and woke up crying, snotty and coughing, with barky labored breathing around 10pm. (or maybe before, no one ever heard him :( ).
we cringed with every cough on the ride home, they sounded so painful!
i rushed him upstairs and got him nebulizing but half way through the treatment he started writhing and hyper-ventilating, and looking a little blue around the mouth.
i 'threw' him in the car and sped away, leaving dave with C. i ran a couple stop signs and as i turned onto Market St, lo and behold there was a cop car at the stop sign ahead of me. i turned on my hazards and waved out my window. he pulled over after the intersection and i pulled up beside him and asked for an escort to the ER. it was like a dream. what are the chances? i've never gotten to do that before-- ride behind flashing lights and sirens and run all the red lights while people slam on their breaks for you. it was exhilerating, terrifying, and yet all felt part of some grand plan-- like that's exactly how God wrote the story to go. i'd never been to Chester County Hospital's ER, so i wouldn't have known where the entrance was, let alone where/how to park, etc. . . so the Good Lord gave me a guide, who led me right to the entrance, let me park behind him under the portico, and then came inside w/us till we got settled and asked if he could go park my car for me. I don't believe in luck or coincidence. I know for a fact that God gave me that gift. Isn't that so KIND?
Anyway, we had a rough night. But at each scary interval of needing more meds, coming down off of the Epinephrine high, more distress, painful coughing, utter exhaustion, confusing surroundings and strange people poking and prodding at him, I kept feeling both the weight of being a parent, and the beauty of it. There were a few times I felt really alone, really tired, and a little like crying. Especially by 7am, when we'd both only slept a little here and there and K was on his 3rd breathing treatment of the night. He was not too keen on any more cool mist being shoved in his face. It dawned on me that this meant at least 3 more hours of observation (which turned into 5), and my hopes of going away on my surprise birthday trip with my husband tonight were being quickly snuffed out. i felt the tension between disappointment and guilt, and then extended grace to myself to be sad... and received grace from the Lord to be thankful for all of the wonderful birthday gifts He has given me-- a son who has been so impressively healthy this year, and who was going to be "ok". . . a husband who'd taken the day off of work ahead of time and could be with C at home, and then join me later at the hospital. . . and who will surely make it up to me with a nice rain check of some sort. Even just knowing Dave's personality would be to roll with things, and not be thrown for a loop or upset about cancelled/postponed plans or loss of money, brought comfort to my heart in that moment.
We were home by 12:30 and were able to nap peacefully for several hours.
Dave just went to pick up C and they should be arriving here shortly.
Not the plans we had in mind for birthday weekend, but i am so filled with peace as i write this-- peace that surely comes from knowing God has the best plans... and He is good ALL the time. Peace that is found not in getting what I want, but in getting what I need in the midst of rearranged schedules, in the midst of the unknown, the scary, and the not so fun. The assurance of God's Love and Goodness. Nothing can beat that! Not even a really good bed n breakfast!