Week in Review...

(Originally typed Sunday night between 7:30 - 10:00 PM...having trouble with internet...)

I can't believe my last post was Tuesday morning...how time has flown by...(wait a minute...don't a couple of my posts start out like that??? hmmm).

Anyway...last week was really full work-wise, but I WAS ABLE TO GET SOME SLEEP thanks in part to the addition of Tylenol PM to my nightly mix of meds...oh well, at this point in time, what's one more med, right? At least this one allows me to sleep and fall back to sleep if/when I wake up throughout the night.. I was able to get quite a bit done at work..(surprising, considering everything that I'm taking...) the orientation on Wednesday went very smoothly..WhooHoo!! Thursday was an attempt to tie up some loose ends and projects at work before school starts on Monday and get things ready for me to be out of the office on Friday...I didn't actually get too much of my projects done, but did put out some student fires, which is really what I'm there for, so that was fine.

Friday I had my follow-up with the TMJ doctor...so Matt, Kellen, Bailey & I drove to MawMaw & PawPaw's on Thursday night so that we could get ready and leave for the appointment bright and early Friday morning. (Why is it that we always make plans and forget about the dog? We had planned to leave on Friday morning and then go to the zoo from the dr's...spend the night in Conroe...but Hello!!! the dog has to be looked after, too). Anyway, we decide to just take one car on Friday morning, since we figured that, if things stayed about the same as in previous doctors appointments, I'll be in and out of the office in about 5 minutes. Sure enough..we chatted about how I felt the medicine was working and he checked my jaw...2 more weeks of this medicine. I told him about the insomniac issues and the Tylenol PM addition..no problems there with him, either, and I was in and out of the office before my appointment was actually scheduled to begin.

We decided to go to the same diner that Matt, Kellen and I had eaten at during our last trip to Houston, the 59 Diner, for a late breakfast. At the diner, we sat in a booth next to three older folks who Kellen just took an instant liking to...A couple named Henry & Dorothy (she says that everyone calls her "Aunt Dotty") and another gentleman named Tom. They just took to Kellen, too. He played peek-a-boo with them, went through all of his animal sounds, described their clothes, hats, etc., named his breakfast guests (Mommy, Daddy, MawMaw, PawPaw), pointed out when PawPaw was taking a nap, and all-in-all just had a BLAST playing with them. We found out through the course of our conversations that Henry and Dotty have been married for 59 years and they've never had any children, (although by the way they interacted with Kellen I would have sworn that they had at least a dozen children/grandchildren), had been close to adopting three separate times but had put it off each time and really regret it now. Tom is a sketch artist, and ended up giving Kellen one of his sketches. He also did the thumb-coming-off joke to Kellen, which really shocked him...he clung to me with a shocked look on his face...poor Tom...I think he was really worried that he had scared Kellen badly and tried to explain to Kellen that it was just a joke...his thumb was still there. After our food arrived, Kellen would periodically stop eating and ask to say Hi...he wanted to turn around and just talk with them for a minute. It was just so cute! Dotty ended up giving Kellen a dollar to use at the zoo...and he gave them all high-fives when we left. He wasn't quite up to hugs, but that was ok...Like I said...he just had a blast with them!

A quick stop at Wal-Mart for diapers, pull-ups, sunglasses, and a harness, which we never did use, and we were off to the zoo. Kellen took a short nap during the drive, and we got to the zoo at about 11:30...just in time for feeding the sea lions. He enjoyed watching that and said that he wanted to go swimming with them. Ahhh...

Then it's off to see the monkeys. At one of the exhibits there is one monkey in particular that is stretching his athletic limits and giving us all a show. It's pretty amazing! At the monkey exhibits there are a couple of other kids about the same age or a little older than Kellen..

At the orangutangs we get a glimpse of the extent of Kellen's "mine" complex when he tells a little girl looking at the orangutan "No look monkey. My monkey."

I promptly told him that the monkey was for everyone to look at and that he needed to apologize to her. "Tell her that you are sorry."

He slowly walked over to her and gave her a hug. "I sorry," he whispered. The little girls mom looked at me and smiled. She mentioned that her daughter was at the same age and going through the same thing, so she understood. Thank goodness.

To the lions next...Lion King, as Kellen calls him, and Nala, of course.... Because of how the zoo is set up with the underground tunnel, we were able to get so close to them and Kellen just loved it! The lion was asleep most of the time...but it was amazing about how big these guys actually are!

Epetants (elephants) were next. Kellen's favorite by far. They were being so active for us! The first elephant was giving himself a bath with his trunk...and a long one at that, then proceeded to get a branch and use it to scratch himself. Then he walked to the fence and started to scratch his behind...then turned and started scratching his teeth! Kellen was just in heaven! It's at the elephants that we get the true picture of the extent of his "mine" complex. There was a set of, I'm guessing twins, who came to look at the elephants after we arrived, and he told them, in no uncertain terms, "No watch epetant. My epetant!" We had to have a discussion about the elephants being there for everyone to look at, not just Kellen.

Then Matt made the mistake of saying it was time to move one...I don't think so Daddy-o. Kellen could stay here for quite some time and it will probably be Kellen who decides it's time to leave the elephant area. And he eventually does, giving us an "All through" sign when he's finished. We take a family photo by the photo-opp elephant...whoo hoo...finally a Hapes family photo without Mommy behind the camera!

Onto the giraffes. He's just amazed by them! "Big giraffe!" We lucked out and arrived for their afternoon snack. This was just our lucky day! Great interaction and activity by the animals! It was wonderful!

Have I mentioned yet that it's an incredibly hot day? It's a beautiful day, but there is no breeze, so we have to be really careful to make sure that Kellen is drinking enough fluids to not get overheated. He has the tendency to get really hot and red, so we need to be really careful about this. Since we've been at the zoo a while, we decide that the last stop after the giraffes will be the petting zoo, then we'll call it a day.

Petting zoo it is...Grab a brush and he's petting the little goats. He doesn't introduce himself like he did during our last visit...maybe he learned his lesson since they didn't talk back at that time. One of them does actually try and "talk" to him, ...he just looks startled more than anything else. And continues to pet the goats. They've added a small water area since our last visit, but we skip it...let's get out of Houston before the traffic gets too bad, especially since it's a Friday afternoon.

Mommy demands one more Hapes family photo...I know, I know...I can be so demanding. But it is a rare occasion when I'm not the one behind the camera, so here we go!
Clean everyone up and away we go...baby wipes are the best! Sleep and snoring ensues almost as soon as we get into the vehicle...Kellen, of course, is the first to go...followed rather quickly by Matt, then Judy, then me...Thankfully, George is driving and completely awake.

Matt and I have plans to have an adult night out...YEAH! Thank you MawMaw and PawPaw!! We decided to go and watch a band called The Mighty Orc's playing at a bar called The Hideaway on Dunvale. He took another nap when we got back to his folks, woke up around 5ish...I layed down and took a little nap before we left, too. We got there at about 8:30, ordered our dinner, which was very good, by the way, especially for a bar...the band started at about 9:45 and they were good! Really good! We enjoyed ourselves. On the way home I made a comment to Matt that it was nice that we were still able to go out and enjoy ourselves - it's something that you read about in a lot of magazines...couples having kids and then not really being about to connect without those kids around...it's just nice that we're able to still enjoy each other. We need to try and do that more often...Is once a month even possible???

Saturday Judy, Kellen & I went to eat a late breakfast at Luby's, then we headed back to College Station at ~11. We worked in the yard, etc...just enjoyed each other on Saturday afternoon before Matt had to get ready to go to work. On a 48 hour shift. He hasn't had to pull one of those in a while. Matt weed-eated and we had Kellen outside with us while he was doing that...it scared Kellen really badly, although I'm not quite sure why...I think it was the loudness of it...so he calmed Kellen down and was able to make that work. Matt and Kellen took another one of their Daddy/son showers after Daddy gave him a hair cut (and Mommy gave Daddy the wrong guard...what was I thinking??? it's a 4, Rebecca...not a 2...but it's just hair, right? it will grow back). Then Daddy left for work...

Gramma and Pap Pa Gerren show up moments later...they haven't seen Kellen since his birthday party in July and this is Pap Pa's long weekend...so combine that with Matt's shift, and it's a good chance for me to have some company at the house and not be all by myself. Great timing! Gramma arrives with a toy Shrek, which is the first thing Kellen goes for. They have a wonderful time with Kellen! But it's getting late, my medicine is kicking in, and I'll have to go into details later....

Sweet Sleep!

So I had my migraine follow-up yesterday afternoon and all was well. I've had 4 migraines since beginning the medicine on August 1st, and taken 6 Imitrex for those 4 migraines (yes, 2 of those were dooseys!!) I've been marking them, along with the Kellen "special juice" dosage, on Kellen's day care menu that they send home at the beginning of each month. The migraine days are circled. He seems to think that within another month there won't be any circles on my calendar. As far as I'm concerned, I"m thrilled with the results as of now! But he said that he would be dissapointed if I would have 4 migraines a month while taking this medicine. Whoo Hoo!!! Relief!!! What a wonderful thought!

I had the forethought to bring with me the other medications for my jaw...he's a doctor right? So while I was there I also chatted with him about my insomniac phase caused by the other meds. He gently asked if I had considered trying to cure one thing at a time. I didn't have the heart to tell him that if I did cure one thing at a time that I would be going off of the Topomax...I just told him that I had to get the jaw issue under control and wasn't going to stop treatment for the TMJ. I told him that I understood his concern and under normal circumstances would agree with him, but that I couldn't continue to live with my jaw in its current condition. He was concerned that perhaps the Topomax was causing the insomnia, but I pulled out the calendar, showed him when I started the Topomax, when I started the other meds, and when the insomnia issues began...It's pretty clear to me that it's the other meds because it started up at the same time. Anyway, I asked if it would be alright for me to take some Tylenol PM along with these medications to get some rest...expressed my concern about my body not being able to function properly on 2-3 hours of sleep/night for any prolonged period of time. He said that it wasn't a problem and that the combination should be fine.

So...fast forward until Kellen's in bed...Daddy's home (but about to go to a review) and I'm taking my nightly dose of drugs...hoping, praying, "Please let this work...please let me be able to sleep...all night long. Lord, you know how tired I am, please let me be able to sleep." (I don't think I've mentioned yet that I've been up since 1:00 AM...yup...1 AM). So I'm in desperate need of sleep. And, for the most part, I DID! I woke up around 1:30 or so, but was able to go back to sleep (the very thing that has been eluding me all week long), then again at about 4:00 and thought I was a goner for sure..nope! Able to go back to sleep again. THANK YOU JESUS!

What a Week!

Time flies! And it's been one of those weeks that has just flown by! I can say honestly that I've been a work-a-holic this week...but it's been somewhat drug induced...Let me explain...

One would think that taking a muscle relaxant at night and then an anti-inflammatory with pain meds twice a day, with both of the above meds having the side-effect potential to make one drowsy would allow the recipient of said medication to rest easily, at least at night, right? WRONG!! Why is my body hard-wired to almost always react in the opposite manner of the normal side effect of anything...EVER??? Arg... I was really worried about this particular combination of medicines impacting my ability to function in a normal capacity...but didn't expect my body to react in this manner...

Anyway...about an hour or so after I take the meds at night, I get oh-so drowsy and drift off to sleep...but woe is me if I wake up at some point in time throughout the night. There is this certain point of wakefulness that if I reach or go past...I'm a goner and up for good. Tuesday night I woke up at about 11:45...worked until about 3:30, I think (do students wonder why their advisor is emailing them in the middle of the night...does it even cross their minds??? One of my co-workers did - and he is none-too happy that I am having med trouble...he's concerned about these meds taking too much of a toll on me since I'm having such a difficult time sleeping). I was finally able to go back to sleep but was up pretty early on Wednesday morning, about 5:30 or so, even before the alarm ever went off.

Surprisingly enough despite my lack of sleep (and for those of you who know me well, you'll understand why this is such a surprise...Rebecca does not function on little sleep...just doesn't happen - must have at least 8 hours a night), Kellen and I had a great morning on Wednesday morning. We enjoyed a somewhat leisurely breakfast and morning (since I was up so early, I was completely ready to go before he was even awake at 6:15...), so we were just able to enjoy each other. How nice - and rare!! He decided during his breakfast that his two big bears wanted to eat, too, so he put them both at the table with us and fed them bites of his pancakes, making "yum, yum" sounds for them as he did. It was just adorable! He's got such a great imagination!

Wednesday was a full work-day for me...but everything went really well. Then Wednesday night happened, which I've already written about..for reference, check the "Monster-man" post. That night was a little more of the same, although I don't remember having a marathon work session.

I was up and moving pretty early on Thursday - Kellen to day care and me at work before 7:30. Whoa, Rebecca. Sometime during the day between Thursday and Friday I managed to lose my voice almost completely. I am flip-flopping between sounding like Minny Mouse and like I should be on the other end of a 900 number. I'm not quite sure why or how I've lost it...but my throat doesn't hurt at all. Odd...

Friday morning...no such luck...I'm up and working at about 4:00. Sending emails, etc...Soon after I get to work my boss pops his head in my office and makes a comment about me sending emails at 5:30 in the morning...I fill him in on the med situation and now I have a couple of folks looking for a non-alcoholic mixture to get me to sleep...*grin*

Friday night and all things go crazy...I fall asleep around between 9-10, and then something wakes me up around 1...really wakes me up. And I'm up for good. So I ended up working from 1 until about 6:30 Saturday morning on the computer. Thank goodness for proxy! This way I'm really able to get things done, since I can get to EVERYTHING on my work computer. Matt got up a couple of times throughout the night to check on me...I think it really worries him that I'm not sleeping because, of course, this just isn't like me. My body just isn't hard-wired to function like this and I'm really not sure how it's doing it. He comes into the computer room, "Honey, are you feeling OK? What's wrong?"

I try to make him understand that nothing is wrong...other than the fact that I can't sleep. My body is exhausted, but I just can't make it go back to sleep. Oh well! At least I'm getting things knocked off of my work to-do list, which is good.

At 6:30 my body finally shuts off...drowsiness kicks in...YEAH!!! I crawl into bed and sleep until 9. Man-o-man that was so nice! So was waking up to a clean kitchen and the smell of freshly cooked breakfast tacos. I have such a wonderful husband!

Big plans for Saturday...we went to the Aggies football practice, which they opened up for TAMU faculty and staff. Can't say much, but it was fun! Kellen enjoyed himself by running ALL over the stadium, which was fine...he really wasn't going to any damage and wasn't bothering anyone, so we just let him GO - we did, of course, keep an eye on him. When we arrived we ran into one of the new ENTO faculty and his twin boys (~15 months), so we sat together until they left. They're all still getting used to the Texas heat, so they weren't able to stay that long. The boys didn't even make a peep! They were complete angels the whole time. I think the only time I heard anything out of them was when they wanted more water from their sippy cups. It was amazing and I can't even imagine having two Kellen boys at the same time. WHOA-momma! Kellen managed to keep the folks above us entertained as he ran through the stands...as people would pass by us they would comment on how cute he was and how much energy he had...No kidding!! When we got home from practice we pretty much all crashed, well everyone except Mommy - I tried to take a nap to no avail. That's ok, I did rest, and the boys both got great naps.

Daddy decided to help Mommy out with Kellen's bath...since we're trying to finish up the spare bathroom and it's so dusty (no, we still aren't done with that project yet), Kellen isn't getting his baths quite as often as normal. And with him playing in some sort of sand at school yesterday - not sure about how that happened - and the sun event of the Aggie practice today - he's just GOT to get cleaned up). But Mommy's back has been kinda sore lately and it's harder on my back for me to give him a bath in the big bathtub in our bathroom, so Daddy and Kellen decided to get a shower. They were so funny! Daddy was humming and singing to Kellen and they were dancing around in the shower. I think at one point in time they were taking turning drinking the water, too. Not quite sure what that was about! Kellen sure does like to take showers with Daddy - it's one of their special times!

As for today, Matt had a VERY productive day in the back room/office. He's been working off and on trying to get this room organized for a while. He'll get it to a certain point and then will stop, and things will back up again and it will almost be like he has to start over. It's been frustrating for him...but he got started today and really got on a roll. And you can really tell the difference! I won't say that it's done, but it's quite an improvement...it's getting there!

Monster-man

Kellen was in one of his moods today...Man-oh-man! We got home and he started in immediately with "Watch Pirate...Watch Pirate...Watch Pirate." (Pirates of the Caribbean, by the way - and yes, I know that it has some violent parts in it - Matt made sure to point that out to me...a thing which had never crossed my mind when I let Kellen watch it at first).

"No Kellen. It's a weeknight and we don't want TV during the week. Mommy let you earlier this week but not tonight. No watch Pirate."

Huge tears well up in his eyes as if I had just just whipped him...he proceeds to throw himself onto the floor...face first, mind you...and throws a monstrous fit, screaming his head off. Does he actually think that this behavior is going to change my mind??? So I pick him up and tell him softly, "It's ok to be upset, but if you're going to cry and behave like this, you're going to go to your room and sit in the rocking chair until you can calm down." Then I carry him into his room, sit him down in the rocking chair, and tell him that he can join me in the living room when he's decided that he is all through crying. A few minutes later I look in his room and he's stopped crying and has crawled into his bed, shoes (sandals, actually) and all. So I walk in and take his shoes off to make him more comfortable, right? WRONG! This simple action sets off yet another Kellen-bomb. YIKES!!! So we go through a repeat of the above scenario...Then he decides that he's all through in his room and he's hungry. So we're off to eat a pancake for dinner. The monster-storm has passed, at least for the moment.

Fast forward a few moments when I have to run outside to check on something...fish bowl centerpieces we have stored from our wedding that may be used for an upcoming wedding in September...gone out of the house for 1-2 minutes, TOPS. When I come back in Kellen has gotten into the - you guessed it!, DVD cabinet and pulled out both Shrek DVD's. I look at him and he puts his head down - he knows he's done something he's not supposed to. "Come here." He starts crying as he's walking to me, bawling actually. "Turn around so you can get your spanking." He obeys, gets his spanking. "Go stand in the hall." Again, he obeys, bawling the entire time. "Are you allowed to get into the cabinet?"

"NO!" He wales. "No cabinet!" (Only when he says cabinet, it doesn't sound like cabinet...bless his heart...but I know what he's trying to say and what he means - he's never heard the word that this sounds like).

"No cabinet, Kellen. You aren't allowed to get into the cabinet because you get out the DVD's and you mess them up and break them. Then you can't watch them at all. That's why you can't get into the cabinet. No cabinet, Kellen. Stop getting in there. Tell Mommy you're sorry."

With tears streaming down his face, (mind you, he's been standing in the hallway for a few minutes, bawling the entire time) he turns to me, "I sorry." he whimpers, then buries his head into my shoulder, acting like his world is going to end, just clinging to me.

"It's ok, Kellen. You aren't in trouble anymore. It's ok, baby. Mommy's here." Almost anything to make him stop being so upset at this point in time. Anything, of course, other than watching something on TV...then he's won the power struggle and that just can't happen.

Wow

This week already seems like such a blur...perhaps its the medicine...who knows...Monday night was great. I decided to lighten up somewhat on the "no TV during the week" house rule and let Kellen watch a movie of his choice - surprisingly it wasn't Shrek - while I made dinner before Matt got home from work. Yummy spaghetti! It had actually been a while since we had made a dinner...such a shame that we had gotten out of the habit of that...we were doing so well for about two months there...anyway, I digress. So Kellen is watching his movie and he's so cute...so intent on what's going on...then all the sudden he screams, "Too loud!" rushes to the TV and hurredly turns the volume down....Not quite sure what's going on with this, but he's doing the same thing to and from school with the volume of the radio. And it's not like Mommy's jamming on the way to and from school to the music here...it's just at a regular volume, low even, barely enough to hear the music, but he's starting to get really picky about volumes. Seconds later he yells, "Louder!" and rushes to turn the volume up...way up...I'm not sure if he knows his own mind or what!

He did get in trouble after Daddy got home that night - and Daddy actually did the discipline on this one. Mommy's medicine kicked in at about 8 o'clock and, yes, Kellen was still up...Mommy really is chilling out, huh? and Kellen decided that it would be fun to throw his toys at Mommy while she was lying on the couch...yikes! I got a small broom thing to the face - right above the eye - that could have been pretty bad - this kid has an arm!! Kellen knows that he's only allowed to throw balls (things that are designed to be thrown), not his other toys, and boy did he get it for that! A bustin' and some wall time. Then I overheard Matt from the hallway asking Kellen if he knew why he'd gotten a busting...reminding him that we didn't throw our toys at people because it hurt them and that he'd hurt Mommy and needed to say he was sorry. Surprisingly, Kellen's getting really good at saying he's sorry when he's done something to hurt someone else. He'll give you a kiss first whereever your owie is to make it better along with a hug, then tell you he's sorry. Again, he's showing an amazing amount of compassion for a two-year old, at least from my perspective anyway. Other than this little incident, we all had a pretty good time playing on Monday night before Kellen went to bed. It's nice for us all to have some family time, it seems somewhat rare these days with our crazy schedules.

Weekend Fun

I haven't written anything for a couple of days...so here's a recap...

Thursday was a sort of a bad day all the way around...Everyone has had one of those so I won't go into details. Friday was slated to be an incredibly full day...preparing for the graduation breakfast (at work by 6:45), the breakfast starting at 7:30, marshalling graduation at ~ 8:30 or so, shopping for speaker gifts for a program after that, picking up Kellen and getting out of town by 11, swinging by Conroe to drop off the dog and getting to the dr in Houston for the TMJ follow-up by 1. Yeah right..It ended up being a Murphy's Law morning...I couldn't get into the main office to start setting up for breakfast (new lock system and my ID wasn't coded yet), so I had to call a co-worker at 6:45 on their cell - luckily, that individual begins their day very early, so he was able to let me in within 5 minutes of the phone call. Everything smooth until checking out getting the speaker gifts and we managed to get a slower-than-molases checker....yadda, yadda, yadda..managed to get to Kellen's day care and wrangle him off of the play ground from his last splash day of the summer (stake in my heart - thank you very much), dry him off and get his clothes changed, and we're at the house at a little after 11. Off we go to Conroe..only now it's about 11:20..take the Millican road because it's shorter, right? HAH!! Unbeknownst to us, there is 10 miles of construction going on...no..there were no signs warning us..with the road down to 1 lane...man-oh-man...back on HW 6 and we finally get to Conroe...dump the dog, grab something to drink and we're hightailing it to the dr's office..mind you it's now 12:40...and let me remind you that my appt is at 1....a couple of phone calls to the office later (just to make sure they knew we were actually coming), we get there at 1:35 and zoom into the office. Apparently on Fridays the last appointment is at 1 and the dr usually leaves by 1:30 or so...they were all waiting around for me...*grin*

So...we chat about my jaws progress, or lack thereof, actually. Since we seem to have stalled on the oral steroids he decides to progress to muscle relaxants and anti-inflammatory meds to see if those will loosen things up. And he wants to see me back in 2 weeks. I asked about what happens if these don't work and he mentioned steroid injections. I think he must have seen the frustrated look on my face because he patted my shoulder and said, "We will get this better. It will get fixed." It was reassuring to know that he has some sort of understanding about how frustrating this entire process has been.

So we leave the dr's office and the fun part of the weekend begins..We go out to eat at a little diner and Kellen keeps Matt and I in stiches! We walk in and all of the sudden he starts saying "Burrito." I'm not quite sure where he got the idea for that, but he kept saying it over and over, and louder and louder. (By the way, there were no burritos on the menu...). He was so cute during lunch...He didn't really want much of his food, but wanted Mommy's pasta and roll. It was just so nice for all three of us to be together...with no time constraints.

After lunch we took Kellen to the Downtown Aquarium.

He loved looking at the fish..liked the "big phish" and the "Nemo!" But I think his favorite was the turtles, he actually got away from us a couple of times and went back through several exhibits to watch the turtles for a while. He kept asking for more turtles...too cute! I was really glad that it wasn't too crowded, because Kellen didn't really have too much of a concept of other people - he kept plowing through them when he saw something that he wanted to look at. We did mosey and take our good sweet time, and when we were all through looking at all of the exhibits, including the new white tiger exhit, we went to the interactive exhibit area.

They have several interactive exhibits at the end of the inside section. One part is where kids can climb underneath the water areas and see the stingrays and fish swimming around above them. Kellen actually did that a couple of times and I think enjoyed it. He made sure that he could see Mommy and Daddy while he was under there, but I think he liked seeing the fish from a different perspective. He liked that when we took him to the zoo, too - only that time he and Daddy were in the bubble together.

The other interactive exhibits they have are where you can touch and look at some different things. Kellen had so much fun trying to touch the stingray! There was one that was particularly friendly, even jumping out of the water a little close to Kellen a couple of times. I guess they are pretty used to human contact, so it doesn't really bother them too much. He did actually get to touch it once or twice and I'm not sure that he knew what to make of that. I guess he liked it, since he kept wanting to touch it over and over again.

Also part of the inside interactive exhibit is this cute photo opp. Such a great water suit with the aquatic background. In the larger picture you can see that is looks like a whole aquatic scene with plants and fish, etc. Matt worked really hard to try and get Kellen to pose for this shot.
After we were finished with the inside fun, we went outside, put a swim diaper on Kellen, and let him loose in the water. He got nailed a couple of times by the water sprouting up - but didn't seem to mind one single bit! He loves the water so much! He had such a great time playing! So much so that I stopped feeling guilty about taking him away from his splash day early...this was so much better! AND, he got to play in the water twice in one day...he was in Kellen-heaven!!

We had wanted to go and see Tom since we were in downtown Houston, but couldn't get ahold of him...and we were running out of time as it was about 5 - and we were in downtown Houston at 5 o'clock - yikes.... So we decided to head back to Conroe. Kellen was so worn out that he crashed about 10 minutes after getting into the truck and on the road. We started out making good time and then the Murphy's Law day kicked into gear again, but it was ok...we just took a little bit of a scenic route back to Conroe. Then Matt and I took the night off from Mommy & Daddy duties and relaxed at the townhouse. We both really needed that....

Saturday morning hit with a jolt - literally - I woke up with a killer migraine - two Imitrex later and by mid-day I was feeling somewhat better...and we were heading back to College Station. Matt and I had a very productive afternoon. I managed to get the grass mowed while Matt was getting the materials to frame out the flower beds, and when he got back he weed eated and then got them installed as much as he could with the ground as hard as it was. It's going to look so nice when it's finished! As he was working on that Kellen was just playing outside - Mommy slacked off and didn't put any insect stuff on him and he's covered in mosquito bites today...he's got Mommy's blood and the mosquitos love him - I should have known better than to have done that...and Mommy pulled the weeds from the walkway and trimmed the drive way with the red bricks that used to be the flower bed in the front. It looks kind of nice that like and is at least a use for those bricks - at least something other than having them stacked up, which is what they have been. What was so funny is that while I was pulling the weeds from the walkway, Kellen was managing to find things to pull from inside the gate and was mimicking me. It was so cute and he tries to be so helpful! If I wasn't worried about the ants I would have let him help us, which he would have just loved to do.

Matt's on a 36-hour shift today, and Kellen and I have just played around today. We've watched some videos, played with trucks and stuffed animals, read some books, and I've cleaned up around the house. We've just had so much fun! (Except for his incurable desire to get into the DVD cabinet...it doesn't seem that any amount of spankings and standing in the hallway can take that urge away - what is that???)

Such a fun day...and other than the migraine...such a fun weekend...I started my new meds tonight and I'm really starting to feel them. I just looked at the clock and realized that it's almost 10:30...and I started this post at about 8...hmmm...I hope that it makes sense...but I did upload a lot of pictures and have to move them around some..which took some time...stilll, I'm so glad that it was such a fun weekend...I need a handful of those put together...oh wait..that's called a vacation, right?

Prayers needed

Matt has a very close friend that he went to high school with that's been battling cancer for a few years. He received an email update that's really shaken us regarding Tom's status. This family is somewhat a mirror of ours...Tom and Cassi got married the same fall semester that Matt and I did (only they did it during an Aggie game - ARG!! we actually had to leave early from the game for the wedding....man-oh-man, they've heard about that one for years *grin*) and Taylor is just a few months older than Kellen. I can't imagine what Cassi must be going through...and I mean I literally can't - can't let myself even think about it...Please pray for them and what they are going through and for those that their live touch and have touched. We're going to stop by the hospital and see them on Friday if Tom is able to have visitors.

I know that God has a plan and is working in all of this, I'm just not understanding how. Maybe I/we never will. Here's the email...

I’ll pick up where Tom left off on his 7/8 email status. As he mentioned, we found out that his cancer started spreading again and he was scheduled for surgery on 7/25. During that time period, Tom ended up getting pretty sick. It got to the point that he was unable to keep down liquids. So to prevent dehydration, and with his surgeon’s advice, we ended up admitting him into the hospital the day before surgery. One thing led to another and Tom wasn’t admitted into surgery until 7:30 pm on Monday.

Just after 3:00 am on Tuesday, the surgeon came to us and informed us that the left side of his abdomen contained multiple loops of small bowel that were stuck to the anterior abdominal wall. He said tumor nodules were causing the bowel obstruction and also invading the posterior wall of the abdomen. He actually told us that he was unsure that he would be able to perform the extensive surgery……we are extremely gratefully that he decided to continue. They ended up removing about half of his small intestines and half of his colon which were obstructed; along with reconstructing his abdominal wall with cadaver tissue.

His surgeon told us that it would be longer and harder for Tom to recover from this surgery since his health was so poor coming in. After his second surgery we were only in the hospital for 10 -days. Today we are on day 17 and still counting. Tom is still only allowed to eat ice chips and an occasional Popsicle. He has had some set-backs in his recovery time. He ended up getting an infection which we are still trying to deal with. Today, we are going to start to clamp his gastrostomy (G-tube) every hour to determine if he will be able to handle his own saliva and some ice chips.

Tom’s doing ok. He has his good days and bad days……as expected. He actually looks much better now than when we brought him in over 2 weeks ago. His pain is more tolerable now and he gets up to walk around a couple of times a day.

I want to thank everyone for their prayers, calls, cards, emails, visits, flowers, plants, magazines and books. I truly believe that Tom gets stronger everyday with the help and support from all of you.

God Bless You,
Cassi, Tom, and Taylor Wallace

Caring & Compassion

For a two year old, Kellen is showing an amazing amount of compassion! My jaw has been really hurting the past couple of days, just aching terribly, actually. I finish up with the last steriod pill tomorrow and am seeing the doctor again early Friday afternoon, so we'll see what he has to say this week. Anyway, today after we got home I heated up this contraption (thank you, Judy, for letting me borrow this thing) that I'm using to put moist heat on my jaw and sat on the chair with it against my cheek. Kellen looked at me with a strange look on his face, like he wasn't quite sure what I was doing, which I'm sure he wasn't. He walks over to the chair where I'm sitting, then he proceeds to climb into the chair with me.

"Pillow?" he asked, pointing to the thing I'm holding against my face (I must check on the name of this gadget). A pillow he would understand, as he likes to sit in Mommy's big chair with his pillow.

"No sweetie." I tell him. "Mommy has an owie on her jaw and this makes it feel better."

His face registers some concern..."Kiss." I ask him if he wants to give Mommy a kiss. "Yes. Kellen kiss Mommy." he whispers. I've noticed that when he's sad he whispers. So I moved the heating pad/contraption away from my face and he leans in and kisses my cheek. I put the padding pack and he says, "No, more kiss." and proceeds to give me a half a dozen or so more kisses over the side of my face, trying to make me feel better. Then he just sits down in the chair next to me, which is fairly normal, leans his head against my chest and wraps his arms around me, which is NOT normal for him, at least not anymore. He understood that I hurt and was trying to make me feel better, and even as I'm typing this, my eyes are welling up just thinking about it again, because it was just so sweet and caring.

He didn't give me any problems, was extra snuggly tonight, and went down to bed like an angel. I wonder if he was trying to be good because I felt bad? Or maybe I'm just reading way too much into a two-year olds behavior...

Imagination

Is what my little man has. He decided that Elmo wanted to color, too. Then decided to help him. Too cute!

Bear with me as I explore the posting-picture feature of the blog. I think it may not be quite as difficult as I had originally thought. In fact, I think I downloaded some program that I didn't actually need to...oh well! At least I figured it out!

Poo-poo problems

*Warning** This post not suitable for those that cannot stand hearing - er, reading, about bowel issues.

Poor Kellen. He's had poo-poo problems for most of his post-nursed life, and I guess even some before that, but I thought that we had those under control. Since his two-year check up, he's been getting daily, measured doses of prune juice, the only thing that really works for him. We started out with 6 oz, and after three days realized that was a little too much (sorry, Ms. Shannon), cut back to 4 oz, were on that dose for a while, then cut back to 3 oz, and I am realizing that maybe that's just not enough for him and perhaps we should try 3.5 oz. Before the check-up I was worried not only about this issue - very worried, in fact, but also worried about his consumption of dairy products, or virtual non-consumption, I should really say. So after consultation with the doctor, the daily dose of prune juice was decided upon. It's Mommy who has been playing chemist, trying to determine, with the input of his teachers at school of course, which dose is the proper dose that will allow him to actually consume dairy products and his beloved bananas and also GO.

Yesterday he started off the day with his "special juice" (4 oz of prune juice, 4 oz apple juice, & water), then had three or four sippy cups full of milk and today his belly hurts him. Poor guy. I just hate to see him hurting. Soon, very soon, we'll get this thing figured out for him...

Dr. Jekyl & Mr. Hyde

Apparently there are stories about seemingly normal two-year olds turning into overnight monsters. Really hadn't needed to hear stories about other kids...just needed to listen to my mother talk about me to know that those types of things are possible. I was actually asked twice on Friday night about how Kellen was managing since he had turned two and if he had turned into a "terrible two" yet. Both times I had answered, "Well, considering the set of parents he has, he is doing remarkably well." Which, as of Friday night, was absolutely true. That statement actually remained true until Saturday afternoon, but I'll get to that in a minute.

Mommy & Daddy's child-free night, which turned into a girls-night on Friday, was a lot of fun. We went to an art gallery in downtown Bryan, which I thoroughly enjoyed and will have to do again, and then went to Revolution, a cafe/bar which I had never heard of before, also in downtown Bryan. There was some live music playing, and I realized how long it had been since I had been out - quite some time! It was nice to sit back, relax and listen to music. The courtyard kept the smoke from those with that habit from bothering those of us without, and the atmosphere was really laid-back - and they had some really interesting coffee options!

Saturday's schedule for Matt was longer than he had originally anticipated, so I headed off to Conroe to pick up Kellen and do some tax-free shopping for him - I decided to brave it, despite what I knew would be crazy-sized crowds. I'm just not really an avid "shopper," but Kellen was in need of some things and this was a good weekend to get them. Judy, Kellen & I get to the outlet mall mid-afternoon and Kellen did a really good job of behaving himself as much as a two-year old with impulse control issues can. And it didn't help that Mommy left the stroller. We hit Carters, Osh-Kosh, Liz Claiborne (some work clothes for mommy), and Nike. Somewhere in there Maw Maw took Kellen to a little coffee shop to get a cookie as a well-deserved treat and diversion, too.

Then we went to pick up Paw Paw and went out to eat. And somewhere along the way I lost my sweet, loving Kellen and gained a monster. We went to a mexican food restaurant, which Kellen normally enjoys. First he didn't want to sit down in the high chair and pitched a FIT about it - which he has NEVER balked at before. It was so much of a fit that after about 5 minutes, Mommy had to take him outside to "talk" with him about his behavior. Then he proceeds to break all of the chips given to him. No big deal. So what. But he has a COW when pieces of the chip fall/are thrown onto the floor. He's getting more and more OCD every day. I know that he gets some of that from me and yes, I really am working on that, but he's so much worse than I am about some things that I know I'm not passing all of this onto him. Anyway, he says he's hungry and wants to eat, but when the food gets there he refuses any of it, pushing it and whatever was in front of it completely away, almost knocking over his water, yadda, yadda, yadda..I have NEVER seen him act like that before. NEVER. I'm going to blame it on him being tired, and the fact that he had used all of him impulse control at the stores we had taken him in that afternoon. Case in point re: the tired theory, he was asleep within 5 minutes of leaving the restaurant on the way home to College Station.

I was awakened this morning to the pitter-patter of my Kellen rooting through the forbidden DVD's in the TV cabinet. Quick swat and redirection away from the forbidden objects (those DVD's are his THING - the one thing that he can't seem to keep out of in the house) and we were set for the morning. My normal little Kellen-man was back: hugs, kisses, sweetness and all. How long can we keep away the monster?

Go buy a lotto ticket

Maybe that's what I should go and do now! I just came back from Coach Fran's Chalk Talk with Judy and won both a door prize and a raffle ticket prize! And I rarely win door prizes/raffles, etc. The door prize is a TAMU tree (small, table-sized) decorated with various TAMU related items: Bonfire, Aggie ring, Freeb!rds burrito, elephant, etc...it's really cute! There were lots of great raffle items, but the one I ended up with is what I'll call a "pamper package" and includes a bottle of wine, two wine glasses, a bath sponge, bath mist spray, a rubber Sarge (instead of rubber ducky), bath salts, a relaxation CD, etc, all in a rectangular wicker basket. Maw Maw and Paw Paw took Kellen back with them to Conroe and Matt and I have a night to ourselves tomorrow night, so perhaps we'll get to use some of the relaxation items then. Fun stuff!

"It's not a tumor" & Interesting side effects

To quote the line from Arnold in Kindergarten Cop, "It's not a tumor." That's what I discovered Wednesday morning from the doctors office about the CT scan. YEAH! It makes me feel better to have ruled out something major, though.

Interesting note about a side effect of the prevention medicine for migraines that I've been taking since Monday night...as many of you know...I LOVE my Sonic vanilla Dr. Peppers...LOVE THEM, LOVE THEM, LOVE THEM...When the doctor was talking to me about potential side effects of the medicine on Monday, he mentioned things like:

• CO2 levels would be depleted from my body so my fingers, toes and lips would tingle, and if I liked beer (which I don't) or carbonated beverages, they might taste flat to me;
• The meds would change the ph levels of my urine (possibly TMI for some of you), so I would be at an increased risk of kidney stones;
• Weight loss (at least not weight gain)

So I didn't think much about the second part of the first item until today at lunch when I didn't have a chance to come home and eat lunch but rather stopped at Sonic for a quick grilled cheese (something I can actually chew) and my beloved vanilla Dr. Pepper (44 oz, I might add). As I took the first swig of what would have been my first carbonated beverage of the week, I stopped cold. It tasted SO ODD. I took yet another drink, thinking that Sonic had made some horrible mistake with my order and that this wasn't the drink I had ordered (which I guess I still can't really prove conclusively). Still such an odd taste. Then it hit me. I remembered what the doctor had mentioned when he discussed the medicine side effects....No wonder there is weight loss associated with this medicine! If carbonated beverages taste like this, then people aren't going to want to drink them, and there goes XXX calories/day! I worked on that drink ALL AFTERNOON long - I'm not kidding - a sip at a time was all that I could handle. Normally I can finish off a Route 44 in an hour or so (sometimes less) - which really shouldn't be a good thing, I know, but I actually threw out the vaste majority of that drink when I got home from work today. Crazy stuff...

Interestingly enough, my body is intensely craving water - lots of water - since being on this medicine. Perhaps yet another beneficial side effect.

Bless

"Bless Daddy, Bless Mommy, Bless Shrek," Kellen manages to find many things to bless each night as we say our prayers. We just finished our prayers and said our last good-nights and as I walk out I hear him whispering, "Bless daddy, bless blanket, bless..." and then I couldn't really make out what else it was he was blessing. It's just so sweet! He is such a blessing!

As we were finished up our pasta this evening, Kellen states, "Mommy bath." No, I don't think he was making a statement as to my hygiene; I had already mentioned Kellen getting a bath tonight during our dinner. That was his way of letting me know he wanted me to take a bath with him. After bathtime, I wrap him in a hooded towel (I'm holding on to those as long as I can) and carry him cradle-style to his room to finish getting him ready for bed. He looks at me and says, "Hold baby. Rock Kellen." When I hold Kellen cradle-style, its holding him like a "baby", which he normally doesn't like, except for after baths. When we get out of the bath and he's wrapped in a towel, he wants me to hold him like a baby and rock him. He even goes so far as to try and wrap himself back up in the towel when I put him down to diaper and dress him. It's actually quite endearing. So as I was holding this undiapered, relaxed toddler in the rocking chair, a couple of questions crossed through my mind. One...he usually pee-pees after bathtime and he didn't sit on the potty...am I going to get a surprise?; Two, how much longer will he want and/or let me actually do this? And I realized...once again...these are the moments to cherish. This little boy just makes my heart melt!

Relief

May be around the corner for my migraines. I met with our new GP today to discuss my recent rash of frequent migraines (about 1 that gets through the medicine every week, for the last 2-3 months - but I'm taking meds about 4 out of 7 days a week). He put me on this prevention medicine that he says should reduce the number of migraines that I get by at least 50%, but he's thinking more along the lines of a 75% reduction. Whooo-hooo! Not that I'm excited about the prospect of yet another pill to take every day, but if it works it will be WELL WORTH IT to reduce the number of these puppies that I have to deal with. I have a CAT scan scheduled for tomorrow, just to rule out any of the "big stuff" but he doesn't seem to think that we will find anything out of the ordinary during the scan. Probably not, but I'm at that paranoid stage now where I want to rule out those major things...This was my first visit with him and let me just congratulate Matt on doing such a FABULOUS job of picking out a GP for us. This guy is great! He listened to me as I walked through my symptoms, timeline of problems, potential triggers and compensations, etc., then took all the time he needed to explain the meds he wanted to prescribe for me, their possible side effects, etc., answering any questions that I posed along the way. And he didn't make me feel crazy for wanting a CAT scan to rule out a tumor...in fact, he said that it's common for a long-time migraine sufferer to request one of those if there is a major change in frequency or intensity of the migraine. Man-o-man Matt, you did a great job on this one!

Accomplishments

You know those days when you really feel like you got something done? Well, that is how I'm going to allow myself to feel about this weekend. My to-do list was long, and not everything is crossed off, but my strong Type-A personality is going to enjoy and relish in what did get crossed off that list, which is a change in attitude for me. Normally I let myself feel guilty about what didn't get done instead of focusing on the accomplishments, but I'm not going to do that today. Here are some of the things that Matt and I were able to get done this weekend:

• laundry (all of it-done and put away)
• vacuumed the house (and got rid of most of the Bailey-hair - those of you with dogs should understand that)
• trash taken out (twice, actually)
• dishes (ditto, see above)
• dissassembled Kellen's changing table (more on this later)
• rearranged living room (moved Kellen's table & chair set to his bedroom)
• dust-buster hung up in laundry room
• grass mowed (not weed-eated, but mowed)
• renewed vehicle registration for car & truck (due in July....procrastinate much?)
• restocked freezer with meat from locker
• cleaned ceiling fan (one was all that I could handle - YIKES...I'll do the other one later)
• rearranged a few items in our bedroom
• made a big batch of pancakes for Kellen for the week (hopefully they'll last that long)
• made a big batch of breakfast taco's for the week
• purchased the correct sandpaper so that I can continue work on bathroom (I will get this painted, I will get this painted...)
• old grill fixed and taken to the station
• pedicure and toenails painted

WHEW! I know this may seem odd to list this, but I'm really going to make, er...allow myself to NOT feel guilty about what didn't get done this weekend.

So the changing table...ahhh. We're getting ready to move Kellen to a big boy twin bed (which we said we were going to have done by his birthday...hmmm) and we'll need some more room to be able to do this. He's getting too big for the changing table anyway...and I have barely used it in the past two weeks or so...So why was it so hard for me to take that thing apart? (No, not literally. There were just a few screws). But as I was taking it apart I just realized that this piece of furniture has been such a huge part of each and every day of Kellen's life for the past two years...and it's just another obvious example of how he's growing up. And it just made me a little sad. As I placed the pieces of the changing table against the wall in what I call the back room (yes, I know it's in the front of the house), I leaned them against the piece of the crib that we removed when we transformed Kellen's crib into a toddler bed two months ago. Just another reminder of our boy getting bigger. Then I moved Kellen's table and chair set into his room where the changing table had been. I'm trying to think in stages about this transition. When the twin bed comes in, the rocking chair will go out and into our room (hence the rearranging of our bedroom) and the table and chair will then move to where the rocking chair currently sits. I think that will about cover it for his room...

Now, let me move to Kellen's BIG accomplishment for the day. Like I mentioned in my to-do list, I made a big batch of pancakes this morning. While Kellen and I were eating them, Kellen looked at me and said, "Penis hurt." (Bear with me, this will all make sense soon). I responded with, "Your penis hurts?" to which he replied, "Yes. Kellen penis hurt." I asked Kellen if he needed to go pee-pee. "Yes, Kellen pee-pee." Then I asked him if he wanted to go pee-pee in the potty and then come back and eat the rest of his pancakes. "Yes, Kellen pee-pee potty." I know, I know...it's taking Mommy a while to catch on to this whole thing. So, I grab the washcloth and wipe off his hands (he had been eating pancakes with syrup), and off to the potty we go. Shorts off, diaper off, training toilet seat on and there he goes. As he's sitting on the potty, he looks at me and says, "Mommy away." So I walk down the hallway a little and wait. Then I hear a little tinkle-splash in the potty and a flushing sound. I walk into the bathroom and ask if he had peed. "Yes. Kellen pee-pee potty. All through."

My little boy is growing up. And I haven't even bought any training pants, not even the pull-up kind, yet. Oh boy.

This leads me to the bathroom issue. Last October (yes, October) I got the wild hair to redo the spare bathroom. I started on the project in a very diligent fashion, working on it every night for a week after Kellen went to sleep. Then I got a staph infection that prohibited virtually any arm movements at all - hence the end to the motivation streak for that project. So now with the munchkin-man needing access to the bathroom on a more regular basis, I've rediscovered my motivation to complete this particular project. I've patched the various wall cracks, and now that we have the sandpaper I can get going. I need to sand down the caulk, then prime and paint, which doesn't sound too bad, right? Goal for self - get this done before the fall semester starts up.

TMJ Troubles

That's been what I've had since May 10th when the next-to-last bite of my steak and shrimp dinner at Applebees (compliments of my boss, as he was taking the department staff out to eat for an appreciation luncheon) did a number on my left jaw joint, which hasn't been fully operational since then. After several visits to my dentist, diligently wearing a bite-splint every night (by order of the dentist), the realization that I can never again chew gum (which, by the way, makes my mother-in-law happy), moist heat, lots of soft foods - yeah for pasta...sidenote..I've realized that there is a limit to the amount of pasta I can handle - will wonders never cease?, a referral to a doctor not covered by insurance and subsequent appointment cancellation, spending a lot of time on the phone with a very nice lady from my insurance company to find a doctor that is covered by insurance and deals with TMJ, Matt and I take a day-long trip to Houston to a dentist/oral surgeon that specializes in TMJ disorders. (Thank you Maw-Maw and Pa Pa for watching Kellen). I've discovered the following:

*the bite splint did no good - I must never wear it again
*gum is gone - for good
*soft foods are still in my foreseeable future
*so is a round of steroids

The doctor seems to think that we should see improvement after this round of steroids and wants to see me back in a week. He indicated that we would start off with oral steroids and, if necessary, move to steroid injections if the oral medication didn't work. He didn't even broach the subject of surgery...so we'll see where this goes. He seems very optimistic that we can get my jaw back to the pre-May 10th incident in a fairly short amount of time. YEAH!

Now if I can only get rid of these frequent migraines.....

Kellen had a lot of fun with his Pa Pa and Maw Maw today. He got to watch the newest Hermie and Friends DVD...Buzby: The Misbehaving Bee. Maw Maw says that it's really cute and introduces a frog character, which of course Kellen loved! I'm sure that in short time I'll have it memorized as I do the first two DVD's in this series. #3, Webster: The Scaredy Spider is quickly being committed to memory as well. They are such cute stories with good themes and messages...

Early Morning & New Class

It was another very early start to the day today (2 AM, YIKES!) when I had a repeat of Tuesday morning's episode. This time; however, I attempted to keep Kellen in his bed (Mommy's back does get stiff when half-stooped trying pat and rub a young'un back to sleep). Alas, the efforts were in vain...every time I would try to leave, he would wake up and scream. So to the rocking chair in the living room we went. I decided against mommy & daddy's bed, since I was sure that the sound of daddy snoring wouldn't really help the sleep situation. After a while, I attempted to put the sleeping guy in his bed...he woke up during the effort, but was just fussing...not screaming, so I stumbled back to my bed...only to notice that it was 3:58 and daddy's alarm clock was set to go off in 2 minutes. You've got to be kidding me! I nudge Matt awake and drift into a semi-sleep state, mumbling "Be quiet...Kellen's been awake off and on since 2 AM." The next thing I know, daddy's telling me that Kellen is screaming in his room and asking if he can bring him to bed before he leaves to go to work.

"Sure."

A couple of souped-up caffeine drinks later (thank goodness for "Mommy's juice"), I'm rolling through my day. Fast-forward to picking up Kellen from day care and I get a jolt to my system. He's not in his normal class...he visiting the next class up. WHAT!?! I'm not ready for him to move up classes...His teacher Shannon tells me that he'll probably be moving up August 15th. She tries to console me by telling me that a few in his class are moving up next week and then almost the rest of those in his current class will be moving up at the same time Kellen does. So he'll still be playing with his friends, which softens the blow somewhat...but this is just additional proof that he's growing up...and way too soon in some ways.

Kellen's rough day

My morning started with a jolt at 5:30 am as I was awakened by the sound of Kellen screaming from down the hall. Matt is on a 24 turned 36-hour shift, so it's Mommy to the rescue. As I enter his room I see him (as much as you can see someone with all of the lights still turned off) at the door, screaming "Mommy" with his arms stretched up to me. As I bend down to pick him up I ask him what's wrong (one day he'll be able to answer that question and I am not going to know what to do) and then ask him if he is scared. "Yes" comes the quiet reply, as he digs his face into my neck, "Lay down Mommy." So off to mommy's bed we go, making sure that blanket and Big Bird come with us. Kellen never did go back to sleep, but laid next to me, occasionally leaning over to give me a kiss or play with my hair. The sweetest thing was his kiss-sequence and ensuing comment. "Kiss Mommy." he says, then proceeds to give me a kiss on the lips. "Kiss nose." comes next, followed by "Kiss hair." Then he keeps kissing my hair over and over and I hear him whisper, "Kellen like kiss Mommy hair." I hope and pray that he never loses that sweet quality. He shows compassion and empathy well beyond that of a two-year old, at least most of the time anyway.

So the morning has begun, albeit a little earlier than normal. As I get ready to get a shower, Kellen decides that a shower for him is a must-have this morning. I'll spare you the details except to ask you to think about how difficult it is to actually shower and hold a two-year old at the same time...but I did learn that it's possible, sort of. Daddy makes it home from work before we leave and has some fun-time with Kellen. Then it's off to school and work for Kellen and I.

Let me begin this next sequence of events by stating, for the record, that Kellen LOVES his day care. He talks about his friends and teachers and about half of the time doesn't actually want to leave to come home. However, over the past couple of weeks he's started a "More hug" thing as I'm trying to leave day care to go to work. And it isn't as if it's more hugs all in a row...we're talking a hug, Kellen goes to play, then when he sees that I'm actually leaving, "More hugs." comes out of my sweet little angel's mouth. When he does this, I feel like I need to add a notch to the guilt-factor belt for being a working-mom. Anyway, after 5-6 "more hugs" this morning (mind you this is after our normal good-byes), I told him that I needed to leave to go to work and reached for the door to his classroom. When he sees that I am leaving, he runs toward the door and, you guessed it, falls into it - the corner of it - and cuts the left side of his nose and mouth. Poor guy! And, of course, this would happen the day after he falls on concrete at the school playground, bruising much of the left side of his face, so now it just makes you hurt to look at him and his most current boo-boo's. But, tomorrow is a new day.

Growing up

That's exactly what my little man is doing...growing up...right in front of my eyes. From saying most of the alphabet in a small whisper to "Kellen do it!" while getting ready for bed, he's fast becoming his own person...one that needs Mommy less and less. How has two years flown by so quickly?

So I'll try this blog thing out. My friend Jen introduced me to this, and it seems like one way to try and keep track of things...and stay in touch. So here goes!