What A Weekend!

My weekend has been particularly interesting. It started on Friday and I was watching my niece, Kendyl, for the day. Our plan was to go to playgroup and then drive the 45 minutes to Lincoln to deliver a meal that I had made my sister, who's been ill. Unfortunately, David had other plans.
I received a call from his teacher around 9 saying they thought he had a fever. Thank goodness that we hadn't made it to playgroup yet! I can only imagine dragging a 5 and 3 year old out kicking and screaming once we were there. Soooo, with some bribery of Dairy Queen, they agreed to come with me to pick David up from school. We ran home, switched vans (David's car seat is in our new van), and headed to Clinton. Once there, they brought David down & it was pretty apparent that he wasn't feeling well. I felt his head, but it didn't feel very warm to me, but their forehead thermometer was reading 101.5. This is concerning to me since David isn't a child who typically runs a fever AND he was already on antibiotics. So I got him all loaded in the new van and got his wheelchair into the back. I noticed that he was making some funny faces, which is a sign that he might throw up. This is a pretty normal occurence for him when he's congested. So I went back around to get the towel off the back of his wheelchair. While back there, I could see that Kendyl's baby was on the ground between her and David's seats. I told her to pick it up in case David got sick. The response I got was one I didn't want to hear-he already did. I ran back around and low and behold he did. All over himself, his car seat, and my new van. I suppose he felt the need to "christen" it. It wouldn't be our van if David hadn't thrown up in it I guess. I got him semi-cleaned up and I'll be darned if he wasn't laughing about it! He must've felt better! So I decided to make the trip into Lincoln to deliver the food and along the way, David cat-napped and then was laughing and having a grand old time. Once we got home (of course after I had to stop at Dairy Queen for Kendyl and Kyle), I checked his temp under his arm and was relieved to see it was only 97.5. A HUGE relief for me. After cleaning and airing out the van, the day went on fairly event-free. Kyle got to go planting that night while Michael & I hung out and watched a movie with David.
Saturday started out pretty well. David was still a little snotty, but in a great mood, so I took the boys and hit up Old Navy's $1 flip flop sale. We came home and hung out for a while. Then my friend Kelly & I swapped children. She took Kyle and James to the movies while I kept her daughter Violet. For those who read Kelly's posts about Violet, I'll have you know she is wonderful here! Last night I decided that she was looking a little tired so I thought she might want to go out and play for a little bit. We hit the front porch and she ran right to the wagon to sit in it. I took a seat on the front porch swing and promptly fell through it. That's right, not OFF of it, but THROUGH it. The seat fell right out from under me. Somewhere along the way I hit my eye on something and am sporting my first ever black eye. It's pretty cool. I look like a boxer.
So today we are staying home. And off of any outdoor furniture, just in case.
If you can't laugh at yourself, you can only be angry about things. So I just choose to laugh!

Kyle's 5!

Five years ago today at 12:46 pm, Michael and I were blessed with the arrival of our youngest, Kyle Matthew. Weighing in at 7 pounds 3 ounces and 21 inches long, he was so much bigger than his brother was at birth. He was also full of attitude the minute he arrived!
Through the years, we have seen Kyle develop his own distinct personality. He is SUPER stubborn, and can be quite defiant at times (what kid isn't?). He is also very sweet, loving, and a great little brother. I adore the moments that he spends trying to get David to laugh or just to get a smile from him. He is definitely all boy. Kyle would stay outside all day digging in the dirt or playing with trucks all day if we let him!
It has been some of the best 5 years of our lives with the addition of Kyle to our family.  I love how he makes us laugh everyday! Kyle has definitely made our family complete. Happy birthday, and I love you so much!

First Time Out

I decided to start a blog about our boys. David, 11, and Kyle, 5. While we have probably your average number of family members, that's where many of our similarities end with other families. David is one of so many children that are believed to have a genetic abnormality that has gone undiagnosed. He is 11 years old, but mentally he has capabilities of an infant. He is also profoundly deaf, has no form of oral communication, and does not have the capability to use sign language. My husband, Michael, and myself have fine tuned our abilities to understand his needs based on his behavior. All that said, he is one of the best little boys that I have ever met (maybe a bit biased, but I think many would agree with me!) He may not have the capability to speak words, but his smile expresses all the love in the world. That is all I need from him to make my day a little brighter.
My youngest son, Kyle, is another huge bright spot in our lives. He is an average and typically developing 5 year old who, at times, can be the sweetest boy in the world. At other times, he can be extremely stubborn and defiant, but I wouldn't have it any other way. For the 6 years in between the boys, I didn't know if I'd be able to experience the things that others get to experience with typically developing children. So GRATEFUL is the word that comes to mind when I think of Kyle. Grateful that he is mine and grateful that I get to have such a wonderful life with the family that I love so much. Is it all sunshine and roses? Definitely not. But would I change it? Not for anything in this world. My kids wouldn't be MY kids if they weren't who they already are!