LaFleur's Gymnastics Part 2

Even though on this first day of Spring it was snowing like mad, we went back to LaFleur's anyway. Instead of the minivan convention with no parking available last time, we hoped to find up front parking. Sure enough I doubt there were ever more than 10 cars there. Unfortunately, maybe because of the snow, a team practice was moved to tot time and they had half the gym unavailable. That half included the 2 foam pits we spent most of our time at last week and where Travis got to do flying leaps into them. The pits on the side we were allowed to use didn't really accommodate flying leaps. 50% of the space...but we still had to pay full price... grumble grumble grumble. :)

This run was right before we left and he was tired enough to cut back to one somersault instead of two, so it was funny when he declared "I did it!" because he had already done this so many times!


Avery loved this bar, but just to hold onto and drop right away like he does on the 3rd "swing" in the video. It took quite a while for him to finally hold on long enough to enjoy the swing.



Carson was quite proud of himself for climbing into and tumbling out of this:
Carson LOVES jumping on the trampoline:

LaFleur's Gymnastics

Travis started Spring break last Thursday and to start the fun we went to LaFleur's Gymnastics center. The have Open Tot Time for 2 hours Thursdays and Fridays when you can take you kids to play on all the equipment (You pay per child; adults are free). There's lots of fun things including giant trampolines, a few pits full of large foam blocks that the kids can swing into on a bar at one or just jump into at the others, and all the other standard gymnastics equipment you can think of.
Afterwards, Travis informed me he had not thought the outing would be terribly exciting, but it turns out we fulfilled some basic childhood needs for him! He can't remember ever playing in a ball pit or similar, so he took great advantage of leaping in to one of the foam pits with Avery and Carson. Now, he's looking forward to going again next Friday for a last time before school starts again (and because I forgot the camera and obviously need some shots of all that fun!) So, pics are forthcoming...

Sleeping on a Cloud

Sleeping on a cloud must be what Carson was dreaming about last night. When Travis went in to make sure the boys were covered up before we went to bed he had to retrieve me first. He thought I might find difficulty covering Carson up... and after I saw what happened he added "because there are no spares to throw on top!" Avery had climbed high enough to get down all the blankets stacked in the top of their closet and all the little receiving blankets out of the dresser and thrown them in with Carson. Carson is notorious for always bunching up and sleeping on top of whatever blanket is in his crib... but this takes the cake. He sure looked comfortable tho! I'm glad he's a heavy enough sleeper that I could pull them all out from under him so he could have the firm mattress he needs instead of all that fluff.

Charcoal Kiss

What a crazy, messed up day yesterday was! Avery decided to chug some children's cough syrup. I thought the bottle was up, in fact it was, but I forgot there was a little one on my nightstand! It's a big "no no" to be in Mommy's room, and a bigger one to touch anything on Mommy or Daddy's nightstand, but darn it that cough syrup just tastes too darn good. Anyway, it wasn't a full bottle, I just don't know how much was gone, and there was still some in it, so it's hard tellin' how much Avery drank, but according to poison control a little under an ounce is toxic at his size and it was a 3 oz. bottle.
Off to the ER.
Thank goodness for friends I could dump Carson on! It also worked to Travis' afternoon patient's benefit to cancel her appt. too so that worked out for everyone and Travis joined us later in the ER. Avery got to drink some activated charcoal (no pumping or forced puking, it just absorbs and moves thru - just to get a little graffic for you there) which he chugged down and afterward informed me that he liked it!!! UGH! Blech! Insane? Yes, I think he is. Avery was also hooked up to a cardiac monitor and stuck there for a 4 hour minimum. That was stressing in the beginning - not because that sounds serious, but because I wasn't sure if keeping him planted in the hospital bed (complete with hospital gown!) was going to go over so well with him. Two things worked in our favor there: 1) Sesame Street, etc. on TV and 2) apparently the drug in the syrup is a depressant and after a while (before TV got boring) Avery started getting awfully mellow, and eventually quite glassy-eyed. Not so great a sign, but he bounced out of it shortly before the 4 hour monitor minimum was met and we were discharged in fairly shortly after the 4 hours.
Believe me, this tongue is WAY better than it was. It was solid black down to the tip for quite a while. The crusty black around his mouth wouldn't come off with anything until I took my nail and scraped away the worst of it! YUK!
But look how happy he was. I rather think the experience was entirely too UN-scary. Avery already enjoys the doctors, and this didn't even give us the benefit of the charcoal being gross to him or being stuck in the bed a hardship. *sigh*
Avery was actually feeling so good and had so much pent energy (I guess from not getting to use any that day? rather than being exhausted by the ordeal?!) that we went the the party that night for Travis' clinic at school. Avery got to bowl and had a generally good time! First thing he said to me this morning was that we had to play bowling again with his toys. (Of course I'm a dunce and didn't take the camera to get a picture of his first time bowling. Oh well, maybe Travis' clinic coordinator got something in all the shots she was taking)

Moral of the story. Even if you think all the dangerous stuff is out of reach or locked up, you never know if something has escaped your notice. Hopefully that's the last time something escapes my notice.

Fall Favorites

With my limited computer time and so much to do, I sometimes don't get to process batches of pictures until much after the fact, particularly if they're not pics of people! So here's some shots I enjoy from last Autumn.
I Love Autumn. :)
I love this gnarled old tree:
Here's a "spooky" tree. It reminds me of Sleepy Hollow:I love how the outline of these trees is somehow so fiery:

March, oh March

I used to like March. My Birthday month and all. Now that I have a toddler I rather think otherwise. Avery can be so delightful and then turn so wickedly awful right now. I think it has a lot to do with cabin fever; by March we're just all so sick of winter and the decreased accessibility of the outdoors that attitudes get a little manic. And doesn't his attitude just make my own sense of cabin fever even worse... Argh. I try and play with him a lot more which does help, but in the end there's just no substitute for getting out. These are definitely very difficult moments to be a Mom. *sigh* Spring, please come out and play...

Baby Blessings

Today was one of those wonderful days when a baby was blessed. Our friends beautiful new girl, Kieley, received hers today and although she didn't think it was so great to begin with, it was a really beautiful blessing. I hope someone was able to write down the points (holding onto Avery and Carson while Travis was up there makes that a little difficult) because I know how nice it's been to have that written for each of my boys. Blessing are definitely a beautiful time to reflect on the miracle of creation, the responsibilities involved and the silent prayer for yourself that you can do justice by your beautiful, innocent child. Thanks for letting us be a part today, Kieley! :)

Rounds Presentation

Once a semester Travis has to do a presentation for his rounds group at dental school. They can throw in pictures of family or whatever in with their presentations. This time Travis is going to include a dental related clip from a Simpson's episode (if any of you are Simpson watchers, it's the one with the Big Book of British Smiles) and some pictures from his crew days; I thought I'd share here likewise. Travis was on the rowing team at Oregon State and these are pictures from the Spring of 2002. I might point out how very average Travis' 6'5" height is amongst this crowd! Travis also pointed out that in the picture with the boat you can see it's a 2 lane race, yet the other boat is quite absent. Another shot later shows OSU with a handy lead :) Travis' oar is the second one back on the left side of the pic.

Valentine Cards

I new I would be a bad blogger, but oh well, I'm trying.

Here's the boys' Valentine's cards quite after the fact. Gotta love the laziness of only making one template and using it for both. :)

Carson's First Steps

In the week or two prior to this, Carson would attempt 1 or 2 steps, but nothing spectacular. Tonight we decided to bribe him (that's right, pop cans, just like we used on Avery!) Here's some video of Carson's success:

Happy Valentine's!

Hope everyone had a happy Valentine's Day! Unfortunately I neglected to take pictures before a few roses in the bouquet started wilting, but happily most still looked good and afforded some nice close-ups. :)

Our Christmas Card

Family pictures are a nightmare, as I'm sure many would agree, so for the last 3 years I've waited until we got to my parents house in the week before Christmas and forced my family to let my Mom attempt to take a few pics (a lot, actually, to try and manage a decent one - and for the last 2 years I've had to photoshop a better Avery head into each anyway!). Then I throw together a card last minute before Christmas and email it out. I don't get a letter together, or take care of this ahead of time so I could actually mail the cards, but I tell you it just gives me nightmares thinking about getting the family to take pictures. I think the only pictures we have of our family posed together are the ones that get forced at Christmas and the one for the annual Parkway Ward picture directory. Very pathetic... and rather sad really... Anyway, here's this years:

New Wall Hangings

Well, soon I hope. I've got to get a mix up in picture frames fixed, but the pictures are ready to go in. I'll have two frames which each hold 4 pictures - one frame for each kid. Here are the shots I'm going to use:
Avery's:



Carson's:

Here we are

Well, I guess this will be the new family blog. Let's see if I can give this any little attention before sharing it.

Blogging...

Ugh. Blogging. So Travis kept saying "Wait, we can host our own now with Windows Home Server!" Great, big deal. When's he gonna set that up? Do I really want to give up my 1-2 hours (maybe) of free time a day to figure that out on my own? Obviously not. So, what am I going to do with this blog? Just start making it a family blog and later have to switch? Maybe actually do the digi scrapping thing with it (probably not - that's not really my favorite, I much prefer to just Photoshop pictures)...
So, I suppose if you (friends and family) stumble upon this, it's probably not going to become the family blog. I think. :)
I guess if I'm already sharing pictures thru Win. Home Server, I may as well do the rest of it.
Congrats, or I'm sorry, to those who actually made it thru that little ramble.