Friday, December 31, 2010

7 Years and Counting

Yesterday Brian and I celebrated our 7th anniversary, and it was the BEST ONE EVER! In the past, our routine has been the same: dinner and a movie. As boring or cliche as that sounds, it was always magical because neither of those activities is something we do without our kids other than the one night a year basically.


This year though, we decided we'd better take advantage of having only 2 kids for a sitter to watch and Devon's unmarried availability (until this March) and Devon stayed with the boys OVERNIGHT! Brian and I headed up to Portland yesterday and had an amazing 24 + hours child-free.


We started at McGraths before leaving town where Brian's boss graciously comped our meal for us. Brian surprised me with the hotel and I was delighted to see this:



Alright, so technically, that's the back and I never saw it from that side. But any pictures of the front (see below) don't do it justice. This was definitely the nicest hotel I have stayed in that I can remember. (Note to unmarrieds - pick an anniversary date that's off season) It had the grand piano in the entry and and a fancy restaurant that looked over the river. The Red Lion Hotel at Janzten Beach was like it's own village. Very large. Our room looked so luxurious and the bathroom was at least twice as large as ours at home, plus generally much nicer.


This was the view from our room, a little foggy because I couldn’t get the door open.

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After checking in, Brian and I found our way to the Max station – the local train. I should mention that Brian’s “gift” to me was to come without his laptop. Unfortunately our GPS crashed and burned minutes before we left for Portland earlier that day, so this was a technology-free trip. It was actually pretty fun to get ourselves around with one map (of Portland Downtown only) and rough it like that. Thank goodness I married a boyscout because I never had any idea where on earth we were or how the heck Brian managed to get us anywhere. Anyway, we found the train station and rode it into Downtown Portland.

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It was FREEZING cold outside (we reminisced about Rexburg quite a bit) but we made our way to Powell’s City of Books where we thawed out and bought a couple books. Downtown was beautiful with the Christmas tree and grand buildings and lights. We loved it!

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Back at the hotel we ate dinner at the restaurant overlooking the river and called it a night.

This morning we had our delicious breakfast at Denny’s (o.k, first of all, we love Denny’s anyway, but they have for a limited time a “cranberry orange pancake” which I highly recommend. I think we’ll start making our own pancakes that way all the time!) and found our way to Lloyd center. We wandered around the mall for a while then got our slick on for some ice skating.

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All in all, we agreed this was our most favorite anniversary ever. I love my wonderful man I’m so excited for the next many, many anniversaries to come!

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Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Some Thoughts on Learning



I would put this on my "musings" blog, but I think this video is REALLY worth watching, and only, like, 2 people look at that other blog ;-)

The video really struck a chord with me as a parent with children entering the school system. A couple years ago I did a research project in support of separate-gender classrooms. In that research I learned SO much about the differences in how boys and girls tend to learn. As a parent of boys, it's hard to swallow the sad fact that our school system tends to work much better for girls than boys, which is why boys are so much more likely to fall behind, demonstrate supposed ADHD, lose interest in learning, and drop out of school. Anyway, the movie isn't about gender issues, but to me it's all related. We've GOT to really think about the American school system and if it's meeting our needs individually and as a society.

Monday, December 13, 2010

Boy for Sale



For sale: 1 boy, age 2 and 11/12ths. As is. Will deliver.
Very cute and sweet. Enjoys getting into markers and drawing on furniture, clothing, slippers, hardcover books, bedding, doors, laptop, and carpet in parent's room - at 11:30pm while you doze downstairs.
Follows up the previously mentioned activity with climbing onto the bathroom counter and getting into lotions and toothpaste.
No returns or refunds. Make offer.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Children are Funny

Asher

Asher cracks us up! Some time soon I hope I’m going to write an update on him and try to capture with words what makes him so darned irresistibly cute. It won’t be easy, but in the mean time, here’s an Asherism.

Not every night, but occasionally – and more often lately – Asher will sneak out of his room at night. I usually hear something suspicious, like an extra loud sneeze, and know that he’s out, but I generally leave it alone. He usually goes back into his room when he’s ready to sleep, and while he’s in the hall he just plays or hangs out near silently. He has a special spot, you see. In our small hallway we keep a communal laundry hamper which sits very close to the boy’s bedroom door, about a foot or less away. This is Asher’s nook. When he is being sneaky, it’s where he hangs out. Brian and I have always gotten a big kick out of it.

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Twice in the last week though, Asher has fallen asleep there. The first time was a night when Brian was at work, and he asked me if he could be the one to move him after he got home. Asher woke up too soon though and I helped him to bed. The other night, Asher did it again and this time Brian and I didn’t know it until we walked upstairs to go to bed ourselves and heard soft snoring amidst our conversation. That kid is just too fun. For some reason, we love finding a little boy sleeping in the hallway, tucked into his nook and blocking his door. It just makes us smile.

Brennan

Brennan has been making this Christmas season… interesting. The child is trying SO hard to reconcile the idea of Santa with his understanding of the gospel. He constantly asks questions that make me have to think way too hard to make it all fit together for him. “Will Santa ever die? Then how can he be resurrected?” “Why did Heavenly Father make just Santa’s reindeer able to fly?” “Did Santa visit Adam and Eve?” “Who were Santa’s parents?” Don’t even get him started on elves! I mean, where do they fit into the plan of salvation?!? In general, he’s always been a worrier about “what ifs” too, so I get a lot of questions about possible scenerios that Santa might encounter (and not just your usual, “what if there’s no chimney?”) I don’t think he knows anything about the concept of “global warming,” but on his own he seems concerned about things like “what if the North Pole melts?” Brian and I both don’t remember having such a problem with the existence of Santa, especially without a tip-off, which Brennan hasn’t had. I never thought including Santa in our Christmas celebrations would confuse a child or make my brain hurt so much!

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And the Ugly Tree Award goes to…

The Stevensons!

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As usual, I had rather high hopes for my tree this year. It started off on our traditional search for lights of a certain color. Several stores later, no avail, so I had to stick with what I had including white cords and several different ones being hooked together. Once I got the lights up, Brennan and Asher excitedly attacked the tree with ornaments and I didn’t have the heart to stop them. Brennan stood on the stool and placed all his ornaments in one spot, while Asher stood below doing the same. In the end, the tree had one vertical stripe of ornaments and a bead/chain thrown up half-hazardly in another spot. I intended to “fix” it after they went to bed, but was too tired. It’s been almost a week and I’ve just left it. In the mean time, Brennan broke 2 bottom limbs, disrupting the lights among other things. I’ve always let the kids hang up soft crocheted ornaments on the bottom even though they don’t match. They like to remove them just as often so it never really made the tree look all the worse, but this year the clashing colors seem more obvious with all the other disasters going on. (Incidently, the tree looks even worse in person. Being a super cheap artificial tree, it’s not actually as “full” as it looks in the pictures, and it’s a pretty gross color green.)

In the end, I’ve decided to just leave it alone. After Christmas I’ll get us another (and better) tree on clearance, and hopefully the lights I want online. In the mean time, I have no plans for company and we’ll be out of town over the Christmas weekend anyway, so I’m going to let this just be The Year of the Ugly Christmas Tree (which the kids love just as much;-)

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Tuesday, November 23, 2010

November Adventures

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There’s no school today. Not because of Thanksgiving, after all there will likely be school tomorrow. But, because it’s SNOWING! It started last night and kept Brennan awake hours later than otherwise. His bed sits right up by a window, even overlapping it a couple of inches, so he can see right out while laying down. What I love about our neck of the world is that we get a couple of snowfalls each season, but it doesn’t stick around in the meantime so we don’t get tired of it or have to drive in it much. The whole town shuts down if there’s about 2+ inches or an ice storm, then a day or so later it’s back to real life. I love these isolated snow days!

Friday, November 5, 2010

We Love Lucy

Asher likes to pick out his own movies, which is easily done as we keep the kid moves accessible. Unfortunately, Brian and I are usually too lazy to put our own movies away so they usually get mixed in with the kid movies.

This morning Asher selected a DVD and showed it to me. It was I Love Lucy. I told him it was a "Mom Movie" but he was undeterred. I figured, why not? He'll be bored within 2 minutes. Boy was I wrong.

Brian is always good for watching my favorite show with me, but I'm very excited that now I've got a child to laugh along with me :-)

Monday, November 1, 2010

Growing Up

Our usual wake-up routine is that the kids are allowed to play in either their room or the play room across the hall while I doze as long as I can. The result is usually that they’re incredibly noisy and I get up several times to shush them and remind them that they cannot hang out in the hallway, they cannot scream and fight, and they should keep their door mostly closed.

A couple days ago after a long night, I finally relented and agreed to let the boys go ahead and go downstairs while I took a few more minutes to wake up and prepare myself mentally to get through another day with young kids and too much to do. When I eventually wandered downstairs I was a little nervous about what sort of destruction I might find. Sure, they had pulled out a bunch of blankets and toys and made the living room look it’s usual wreck, but I did get a little wave of pride when I saw the dining table. Brennan had gotten cereal for both of them, INCLUDING the placemats. Sometimes having a 5 year old is actually pretty cool :-)

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Thursday, October 28, 2010

I Asher!

Asher has started getting very defensive about exactly who he is. It seemed to coincide with my sister having her baby a week and a half ago, but suddenly he is NOT "Asher the Baby." Brian and I of course purposefully push his buttons because we get such a kick out of his angry defensiveness. The video below is a very toned down version of his usual attitude.



Yesterday Asher and I went shopping around the mall and every person that paid any notice of Asher - no matter what they said to him - got his response, "I Asher!" I loved the way he was introducing himself to everyone. Previously, he's always been that child that says a cheery "Hi" and waves to everyone we pass. It always makes people smile when he does that and I love it. He's a cute kid!

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

I ♥ Craigslist

At least once a month I go through an obsessive craigslist phase. Inevitably, I find a dozen things I really want (but didn't know it 'til I saw them posted), maybe 1 if any will pan out, then I go back to a more productive life for a few weeks not missing the purchases that didn't work out in the slightest. When I search, I start with a few basics - things I want to update ONLY for the right price and look, or things we'll need some time soon but not immediately, and so forth. Christmas gifts for the boys has been coming up lately, for example.

During this current phase, I decided to do another check at dining room chairs because I've never liked the ones we have - style wise - but can't justifiably spend too much money on such a non necessity. Plus, the styles I like always go for more than I want to spend. In yesterday's search, I happened upon EXACTLY what I've been looking for these last few years, and for a steal at $75. I sent Brian out immediately. He came home with the chairs plus the matching table included and I got to work cleaning our old chairs to post on craigslist in return. I did so last night, and by 2:00 today had gotten several calls. The first (and only) family to come see them also wanted the matching table that I'd indicated I would consider selling with the chairs. $200 dollars later, this lovely S. Korean family no longer has to eat on the floor after moving into their house last Saturday, and I've made a profit - so far. (I'll need to buy us a new table as the one that came with our new chairs only seats 4.)

The fun part about all this? So, our neighborhood is about 40% LDS, but also about 40% Korean and they all know each other. (Our previous LDS manager told me once they, like us Mormons, are great networkers.) This family that came over also knows many of the Korean families in the neighborhood. When they arrived, their 3 children took off their shoes, ran right upstairs and played with Brennan and Asher like old friends. They were so comfortable in our house because they've apparently played in several of them in our neighborhood. The family had to make a 2nd trip to pick up everything and again my boys played happily with their kids, their oldest and youngest matching Brennan and Asher's ages. When they were leaving, Brennan was asking their Mom why their son (also 5) had to go. She responded by inviting us to play with them at their house some time soon. She then proceeded to write down her name, phone number, and address and encouraged me to call so we could get together. I actually kinda want to. Brennan kept asking me all night when we were going to call "Minjea" and was he coming back tonight. I'd rather she called me though. It's a little outside my comfort zone, particularly to invite us to their house.

Anyway, it's been a pretty fun and interesting 24 hours.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

This is from a couple months ago... I'm very behind. I was trying to get Asher to recreate something he says to me often, out of nowhere. "Hey, I have idea! Let's build a CASTLE!" If you say yes, he starts preparing to go to the beach :-)



One day I overheard Brennan giving Asher a counting lesson. At the time, Asher could count to 10, but he wouldn't do it for the camera because he'd gotten all confused about what was going on. Now, Asher counts to 13 (sometimes even to 16) and often trails off by saying, "11, 12, 13, 13, 13, 13,..." He can also count "how many" these days.

Wednesday, October 6, 2010





Oh I am so overdue for an actual family update. It's been a busy few weeks and months.

Last month my parents VERY graciously invited Brian and I and the kids to join them at the resort town of SunRiver. It was amazingly fun and busy yet peaceful and relaxing... just what we needed! Unfortunately, I only whipped out the camera long enough to get some hot tub shots, but other activities included:

Swimming in the pool - Brennan wore a life vest and proudly announced to everyone that he knows how to swim now*. (*Brennan, until last summer, has always been phobic of swimming, so he hasn't had lessons since he traumatizing took waterbabies at 14 months. This was like his third time ever in a pool beyond the stairs.) He loved it!

Standing on a bridge over the river, located just beyond our backyard.

Browsing the "mall"

Brian bringing his telescope and stargazing

Bike riding and going on walks

A canoe trip, thanks to Dad and Brian's expert rowing

Watching the small planes take off and land in the small airport/Seeing the horses

And of course, the hot tub

Not bad for two days. The con: Asher had asthma the entire time. Thank goodness I'd learned my lesson from the camping fiasco last summer and brought the nebulizer with me. That thing tends to come in handy anytime we stay somewhere else. My poor little baby boy. I don't know what was setting him off (too warm for fireplaces to be the culprit) but he was fine once we left the area.

Monday, September 20, 2010

Sleep Walking?

Last night Brian and I were in bed and watching a little TV. We heard the door to the boys' room open, and waited for the inevitable sound of Brennan crying. Instead, our door opened and Brennan walked in without a sound.

He and Brian looked at each other. "What's wrong?" Brian asked. No answer. "Do you need to go potty?" No answer as Brennan looked around and glanced at the TV. Brian picked Brennan up to give him a hug, then Brennan laid down next to him on our bed. He laid there watching the TV like this was a normal thing... just coming in to hang out. Brian and I joked about it for a while, then Brian picked Brennan up to carry him back to his own bed. Brennan looked a little startled but still didn't say a word as he was carried out of our room. Very strange.

What makes this weird is that neither of our children has ever slept in our bed with us, or even attempted it. It's a personal preference not to open that door, so to speak. (You know, "never start a habit you're going to have to break.") The only reason our children come in to our room at night is if they need help going potty or were having a bad dream or something. Anyway, Brian and I got a kick out of it. We're pretty sure Brennan was sleep walking.

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Brennanisms

While playing with Star Wars legos with his friend: "Wyatt, isn't my Dad the best?!!"
Wyatt: "Yeah, he's even better than me."

Walking in to Sacrament meeting one Sunday, Brennan proudly bragged to the Elders Quorum President as he walked by: "My Dad knows the Gospel!"

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Brennan's surgery has been rescheduled while the Ear, Nose, & Throat Dr's office goes in with Brennan's primary care physician to appeal the denial by the insurance. Apparently, he hasn't had enough ear infections for sufficient treatment history. Hopefully things will work out. Unfortunately, at the moment it's been rescheduled for his first "real" day of school. I'm very disappointed about that, but what can you do?

Brennan met his teacher yesterday in a one-on-one meeting. Mrs. L is super nice, as I'd heard from other ward members. She tested Brennan on how well he knows his colors, numbers, reading, counting, writing, and drawing. Not a complete IQ test or anything, just to get a basic idea. She showed Brennan two cards, one said "red" and the other "pink" or something. She asked him to identify "red" and he did. She said, "Good job, how did you know?" Brennan responded, pointing to the card, "Because it says RED" in a sort of "duh" tone of voice. She then showed him "black" and "brown" and asked him to identify the one that said black. He did so apparently (I was filling out a questionaire and only got some of their conversation) and she complimented him that "most kids don't look at the end of the word for clues." I was pretty proud. Anyway, it went well and he's excited to start kindergarten next week.

Thursday, September 2, 2010

For those who care

Brennan's ear and adenoid surgery were scheduled for this Wednesday, the 8th. When I originally scheduled it then, I was pretty sure that was the first day of school, but I thought since we'd be gone that Friday anyway, might as well keep him out those 3 days in a row and start school being able to hear the following Monday.

Then, I gave it some more thought. It would be nice, after all, to be there for the first few days when there's introductions and rules laid out and all that. I was on the verge of rescheduling his surgery, but wanted to find out for sure the school schedule (Is there a staggered start? Which days? ect. Because I transferred Brennan back from a different school I'd considered, I had to wait until the offices opened Aug 25th to do that, and had been waiting still to receive the welcome letter and all the info. Ugh!) Anyway, I decided to go ahead and reschedule the surgery... but in true Heather form, I didn't do it yesterday as intended.

And then, that evening I got my mail. Hurray, the info from the school I've been waiting for! As it turns out, school does start Wednesday the 8th - for grades 1+. During that time though, the Kindergartners and their parents have individual meetings with their teacher. Then, classes start the following Monday and Tuesday (staggered). What a huge blessing! I had wanted so badly for Brennan to be able to hear well when he started school, and now he will, thanks to them starting Kindergarten the following week. So, this long explanation for those who care, is that Brennan WILL be having surgery Wednesday the 8th, so be sure to keep him in your prayers that day. :-)

(Also, I got Brennan in the afternoon Kindergarten. Woo-hoo, one more year of sleeping in as late as we do... not that that was the main reason, but a perk for sure.)

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Guess We're Not Eating Enough Apples...

... because our family has had 8 Dr. visits in the last 9 days, and one more coming in less than a week! Just the last 3 days alone yielded 4 visits! Boy, when it rains, it POURS monsoons around here. These include two phone call visits, an x-ray, a specialist, and stitches among other things. Even the Dr.'s office is joking with me that we live there now.

Brennan's visits have been regarding his ears. Since his ruptured eardrum last May, he's had some follow-up visits to check on the healing. It was observed that some sort of flaps that are supposed to move up and down aren't doing that in him, so he was referred to an ear, nose, and throat specialist. Brennan's visit there was on Monday, and we learned that he hears around the 40 decibel range (average is 20-25). The Dr. compared that to having your fingers in your ears of how well Brennan can hear. (You have no idea how much this explains over the last 5 years.) The reason is fluid in his ears, so he will receive surgery to have tubes put in. While he's there, he'll have another, related, surgery on his adenoid. Brennan has always been a mouth breather, and apparently he has an enlarged adenoid (tissue behind the nose.) It's supposed to be related to getting the fluid in his ears. Anyway, Brennan is super excited, thanks to my careful explaining. He's happy to tell everybody that "the Dr. will give me special medicine that will make me go to sleep, and when I wake up my ears will be all fixed!" Although I'm nervous about the surgery and healing, Brian and I are SO excited that Brennan will be able to actually hear us without us having to yell or repeat ourselves a million times. The added perk will be his breathing as well, which we hope will take care of the "wake snoring" when he watches movies ;-)

Thursday, August 12, 2010

A Stevenson Family First

A momentous occasion. After a busy day, the boys and I were playing at a friends house when Asher had an accident that caused him to reopen the gash in his forehead from 4th of July. Once again, the blood was gushing down his face like Niagara falls! Since the friends live just about around the corner from our Dr.'s office, I just went straight there. I think the gash was a little wider apart this time, as gluing was not really an option. So, the family first is STITCHES! Somehow Brennan has survived his first 5 years without even getting close to needing any. Asher couldn't even make it to 3! Interestingly, In-between these injuries on the same spot, he cut a second location on his forehead - not bad enough to need any treatment, but that makes 3 cuts in his head in a month's time! If this kid isn't the death of himself, he's going to be the death of me!!!

Sunday, August 8, 2010

Fountain Play

Courtesy of Corvallis Parks & Recreation

I didn't end up bringing the camera, but I FINALLY took the kids to the fountains yesterday. I was surprised to realize that it was August already, and I hadn't worn my swimsuit even once since last summer. I've been trying really hard to pack-in all sorts of activities this summer before Brennan starts school and the weather turns rainy(er). Still, now it's August and we haven't been to the pool, played in the fountains, and only once played in a kid-pool at Mom and Dads. Haven't pulled out the sprinkler either. Not for lack of nice days, just keeping busy - with what, I have no idea! - but apparently too busy for activities that I thought we'd do often.

Anyway, the boys had a GREAT time! These fountains are situated downtown on the riverfront park. It's just an area about 12'x12' where the water shoots up from the ground in varying heights. The best part? Free!!!! You have to pay to park downtown, but we stayed for an hour and a half and spent a total of 75 cents. Not bad at all.

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

We're having a great time with Peter and Jill here!!! Yesterday we visited the Oregon Coast Aquarium and the beach... a special treat for these Idahoans.





(This was not on purpose... we were in the shark tunnel and I was just trying to get a few decent shots.)



Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Makin' Do

It's been a big 2 days for Asher. As the previous post mentions, we have started potty-training. He has bad diaper rash so on Saturday I decided to leave him naked for a while, and figured I might as well pull out the potty chair while I was at it. So this was rather impromptu, although I had intended to do it this summer anyway.

I get a certain satisfaction out of having my kids make some sacrifices. I mean, they want for nothing, but I've made some decisions that others might find interesting. For example, although we have a three bedroom house, I've chosen to have the boys share. Then, I took it a step further, and moved them into the tiniest room which just barely fits a bed, a mini crib and a dresser, with a 2 1/2 foot walkway down the middle as the only floor space. I figured they didn't need any room other than getting to these essentials since we already have toy room(s). (Since Asher did and does take naps it didn't make sense to keep the toys in the room where Brennan wouldn't have access.) Anyway, I've now taken it a step further...

We received a bunkbed from my parents, but it's missing the all-important ladder. Without it, Brennan can't move to the top bunk, and Asher *couldn't* move out of his crib. So, after like 2 months, I decided that I don't want to wait for Brian to find time to make a ladder before I move Asher out of his crib. Since he's spent the last 2 months trying to sleep on Brennan's bed anyway, I moved him in WITH Brennan last night. I put their heads at opposite ends, and after the usual (or less) distractions, the boys went to sleep without a hitch. It was so cute to peak on them last night. Even sharing, they each still had a ton of space and never touched the other person. Asher even gained room compared to his mini crib.

I don't know, it's just kind of fun to figure out how to make do, and teach the kids at the same time. I find it satisfying and exciting.
Ah potty-chair ol' friend... so we meet again.


Don't you love parenthood? Actually, we're off to a GREAT start (knock on wood.) So far, only one floor accident and several successes in the chair. Woo hoo!

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Weather Report

Corvallis temperatures today: 97*F

Newport coast temperatures today: 62*F.

What a difference 50 miles makes!

The boys and I headed over the mountains today to escape the heat. It was fun, though not exactly what I expected. It was incredibly foggy at the coast today, so much so that we didn’t see the ocean itself until we were just about standing in it. Pretty chilly too. That didn’t stop Asher from lovin’ the ankle-deep stream running parallel to the beach though ;-)


Monday, July 5, 2010

Brennanisms

Geography Lessons

While visiting Mesa Falls in Idaho, Brennan and I were standing at the overlook at the top of the falls, and watching the river below running swiftly away and around a bend. I commented to Brennan, "Look at all that water! Where do you think all that water is going?"

Brennan thought for a second, then sighed matter-of-factly, "China."

(I'm quite sure he has no idea what or where China is, but how did he even know the word?)

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A Good lookin'Group

A bunch of us grown-ups were sitting around the family room of my inlaws when the conversation came to a lull and we all silently watched Brennan, also sitting in the circle. Suddenly and sweetly, he broke the silence with, "You guys are all so cute."

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Miscommunication

This morning I saw a small spider on a door in our house. I grabbed a kleenex then walked into the living room where the boys were and asked, "Who wants to get a bug for Mom?" Brennan looked at me curiously, then walked over to me and gave me a big hug. He pulled away and asked, "Why did you want someone to give you a hug?"

Sunday, July 4, 2010

Catch My Breath

It's been an... interesting... 24 hours. Last night after a 16 hour drive home from Idaho, we rolled into our driveway at 10:30pm. I'm glad we made it safely, and with relatively little problems from the boys during the long driving stretches. Oh my gosh, that reminds me... after I'd been driving for a stretch I pulled off in a little town in rural Oregon and followed signs to a State Park along the Columbia River. I was super impressed with the park that offered an easily accessed swimming spot and everything. And then, as we walked through it, we noticed dog (and/or other animals') poop everywhere. I mean, EVERYWHERE, getting progressively closer together. By the time we'd walked across the park to some swings, there was poop about every 2 inches. We can't even wrap our mind around how on earth it could be that way, particularly in an obviously regularly mowed, nice-looking park. We've decided to name it "poop park" and we'll not soon forget it!

Anyway, it felt good to be home after the long trip. This morning, we got ready for church. It involved a personal fiasco for Brian because our printer was apparently out of ink and after several other means had been exhausted, he apparently had had to go to Staples to print the bulletin. Church itself was good, but later in the evening as Brian got ready for a work shift at the restaurant, Asher hit his head. I immediately grabbed him and set him on my lap for a snuggle when I felt a large wet spot on my face. I looked at Asher and his entire face was covered with blood, gushing out of his forehead and running down his face and body. I screamed and ran him into the kitchen to the sink where Brian joined us with his own mouth hanging wide open.

I'm so glad Brian was still home because I started getting nauseous and almost fainted as Brian took care of the cleaning and assessing. The wound, as far as we could tell below all the dried blood and hair, was really just a slash on a huge goose-egg bump. After we'd cleaned it a little I snuggled on the couch with Asher who immediately fell asleep and Brian left for work. After he woke up, Asher started playing and made the wound start bleeding again. At that point I called my parents, who came over later that evening. I had put a large bandaid on Asher's forehead, so we had to cut some hair to get it off. My Dad ended up shaving Asher's head around the wound and we applied some bandaids. Then, Asher did something that got his head gushing blood down his face (and onto the carpet) yet again. We decided the bandaids just wouldn't cut it, so Mom stayed home with Brennan while Dad and I tried Urgent Care with Asher. Unfortunately, they had closed an hour and a half earlier. We eventually got a hold of the on-call Dr who saw us at the office where she applied a tissue glue to avoid the "agony of stitches" as she put it. Poor Asher was crying "It hurt" as it was applied, but otherwise did wonderfully. Hopefully he's fixed up enough to let the wound heal. Of my goodness though, that's the most blood I've ever seen in person, and it was rushing down my BABY'S face. In actuality, the cut does not seem to justify the amount of blood. That's a head-wound for ya, I guess.

Here's something to be thankful for though... thank goodness he's got that super-blond hair. I think it may have actually rendered the monk-shaved-front-of-head hairdo rather unnoticeable. Of course, without the band-aid in that spot, it may be a lot more noticeable. Cross our fingers...

Friday, June 25, 2010

Havin' Fun at Grana & Grandpa's

We've been having a nice time in Idaho so far. I snapped some pictures of the boys playing outside on Wednesday... it was really bright out so I started playing around with the different settings on the camera - everything from foliage to aquarium to color swap. That's why the coloring looks a little different on some of them. Anyway, the boys were having a great time.




Brennan has also been very excited about all the legos Grana has.