Beach Saturday

I have LOADS of pictures today! Some friends invited us to join them and some other families for a day at the beach and some sailing yesterday. We didn't know who all would be there, but the inviting family's eldest boy, Jack, is in Avery's Primary class and Avery gets more excited about playing with him at playgroups etc. than any other, so Avery was super stoked to go.

I remember overhearing the boys, (Jack, Winfield, Avery and Carter) plotting here to be lions, so I had to take a picture. Minutes later, sure enough, they came stealthily around to the blankets stalking us...
Avery would go out in the water, but didn't like staying out too deep for too long. Here's Jack "Come back, Avery!"
I noticed that the bigger kids (except Carson who was pretty attached most of the time) were actually all lined up and I should hurry off my duff and get a shot of them!
Here's all of them (Carson chasing after me of course) although Avery has faded to the background to badger somebody about something. L-R: Carson, Jack, Carter, Winfield, Ty, Jane obscured behind him, and Brooklyn:
A returning bunch of sailors (Travis, Christian, Nikki and Jake). Apparently they convinced Christian they wanted to try putting the 3rd sail up despite the gusty wind. About 30 seconds later they got to enjoy a swim... (capsized) haha! So no kids got to go out since it was gusty, and that included the kid still in my belly. Large and pregnant wouldn't do well bouncing around and hopping back and forth from side to side, so I stayed safely on terra firma.
Carter and Avery chasing the gulls away from us...
The one game that stuck the longest was playing in a mud hole. The boys took turns collecting water to dump in their hole and then they would splash around in it chanting "Muddy, Muddy, Mud! Muddy, Muddy, Mud!" over and over...


Jane decided she wanted to try out Muddy, Muddy, Mud, although I think she had second thoughts when she realized that meant a muddy initiation...
What's that sea monster out there? The boys had to go find out and in the bottom frame Jack is about to get surprised...
The boys got a kick out of Travis' snorkel gear...

Carson started the day tired, so only got more tired as the day wore on. At home when he's tired he plops his face down on the floor. This is what it looks like when he does the same in the sand!
It's amazing how unfazed the kids are by sand in their food. Blech!
So many pictures get taken of the active kids, but let us not forget the beautiful babies too! As you can see, they were not sand exempt either...

We had two newborns, Audrey:
and Charles:
and the bigger little ones, Tommy:
and Sadie:

Such a fun day! Thanks so much for inviting us!!

Full Friday

Yesterday we had a full, fun day. Travis has 2 vehicle projects going right now, which deserve their own posts that I'll do later, but we started the day with running around to all sorts of stores for one of those projects.
To keep the boys happy (not that Avery doesn't love going to home centers and "tool stores") we also stopped at a Pet Co so they could look at the few animals there (last Monday we went to a giant pet store and the boys spent a very happy hour and a half there looking at everything from alligators to chinchillas). The next promise to keep them in order was that if they were good, we'd stop at the grocery store to get a deli sandwich and some drinks to take to the playground for lunch.
At the park, at the right time of year, you see lots of geese. No geese now, but we did see more wildlife than the average trip.

A hawk circling overhead:

And then we realized why it would be a good place for the hawk - lots of rodents! So, hearken back to the bug post and you know what a dork I am about this stuff... I needed to know what we were looking at. They were too big for field mice and seemed too long for chipmunks. I did a little searching and found that they're 13-lined ground squirrels. Can you spot all 3 on the left side of the picture below?
After he got his fill of watching the ground squirrels, Avery had a great time playing.
Carson used to not like this bridge (not sure of himself on it I think) but not this time! He's really into jumping right now and we were impressed that not only had he gotten over his fear of the bridge, but he wanted to jump on it! Not that he got much air on it of course...


The lunch we picked up at the grocery store included drinks, and Travis was WAY nicer than I would have been (he already said "yes" so I couldn't do much about it) when he let Avery have a bottle of pop. Pop is not something he gets to drink... Later in the day we played outside while Daddy worked on his motorcycle and Avery got to finish his pop...
Can you tell why I had to take these pictures?
Such a funny 'stache. :)
And here's some of Carson when we played outside...
I'm not sure what he was doing here, but he thought he was being really funny...
At one point, Travis realized he was missing a tool he needed, so we packed up to head out in search of the right tool. I think Carson's face below rather accurately depicts the way Travis feels about those kind of situations...
It was a go go go kind of day!

Updates

I've decided to really keep this blog as a family journal, and to try to keep it in real time. So when I get backed up enough, and have enough back posts I'd like to put up, I've chosen to back date them to keep closer chronological order. Okay, I'm a bit OCD about this... I even like having one post a day just so I can always have the date next to the post title. So I like knowing when things happened in my life, so what? Did I say just "a bit OCD?" (I've been doing the same with slowly filling out our history prior to when I actually started this blog)
If you'd really like to know what all the new posts are, here's a list (you can either just scroll down or click on the links to view):

July 22: Bedtime = Playtime
July 26: Mmm, yogurt
Aug 1: That's a DOOR, Avery
Aug 2: When Avery "works hard"
Aug 3: Bits of July
Aug 4: Sleepy reading
Aug 14: Carson Update

Carson Update

Carson's high fever continued on Tuesday and Wednesday, but finally today when he woke up it had come down to a low-grade fever! Yea! He received one dose of Tylenol and we didn't have to give him any more the rest of the day. I think it's over! In fact (I missed this because I was away at an OB appointment) after the Tylenol had kicked in, Travis put in some kid music for the boys and they started dancing together! This is the one picture Travis *ahem* attempted to take of them, but at least I get the idea. :) Apparently Avery was going for the classic Tom Cruise look with the dancing in his skivvies...

Scarce...

Tonight I finished a rather large project that's kept me busy anytime I sit at the computer (hence the rather sparse posts of late) I guess it doesn't look so bad since I made sure to get in the important stuff - B-day, anniversary, ER... So, I will be updating shortly, probably including a post about the project.

Carson's First Emergency Room Visit

On Sunday evening, Carson got a bit of a fever. We gave him Tylenol and that killed it. Monday morning he was fine. But as the day wore on it came back. For dinner all we could get him to eat was some fresh fruit and by bedtime he was refusing liquids. He had a cool bath, but that didn't help either. In the end, with the Tylenol clearly not cutting it anymore, his refusal of fluids and some really scary numbers we started seeing on both the digital ear thermometer and the glass one, Travis and Carson went to the Emergency Room at about 11:15 last night. Carson had recieved his first MMR shot 10 days before so we figured that could be the reason since it fell within the 7 to 12 days the risks sheet the nurses always give you said.

Unfortunately, the ER doc thought the fever was too high for the MMR to be the likely culprit, although still possible. They did some blood testing and the poor guy got a catheter also for a urinalysis. The blood test showed an elevated white blood cell count, but apparently not enough for them to consider further testing. The urinalysis cultures take 24 to 48 hours to get results back, but the doctor wasn't worried since I guess his urine looked healthy. (Thank you to my parents for keeping me company on the phone while Travis was away with my sick baby!)

Today Carson woke up with still a really high fever and was just as completely comatose as the night before, but the Tylenol and ibuprofen that he's now taking alternately as perscribed is working because he felt much better when he got up from his morning nap. We also had to check in with Carson's pediatrician today. He didn't find anything additional physically wrong, so now we're just monitoring the fever and managing it with the meds. Hopefully it goes away and we won't have to do the next step of checking back in on Friday to move on with things like chest x-rays and so forth.

Anyway, it's been a bit of a tiring couple days - especially for Carson! Not that I'm wishing injury on my children, but I think I prefer how Avery got to his first ER visit (read about it here). That kind of thing I understand, I feel in control - and there aren't so many worries with. Brain-frying level fevers I do NOT understand and I feel so out of control! I might also add that I don't enjoy Carson being a month and a half younger than Avery was for his first time. I definitely could have wished for more time...

PS. That picture of Carson is from back on July 22nd. I felt the need to include a picture of my adorable subject and I just love his lips! So luscious.

Happy Birthday Travis!

Can you guess how old he is?
The boys helped make the wrapping paper. Carson decorated with red and he's partially covering the red "C" for him. Avery drew a little in blue and wrote his own "A" for himself. It's kinda faint, but it's under the "dy" of Daddy:
Back in March Carson received a birthday gift in the mail and the box has been around in the toys ever since as a "garage." I didn't think it would be a big deal, or that Avery would notice if I "borrowed" the garage to wrap Travis' gifts. So I'm adding this picture just because it was funny seeing Avery say, "Hey! That's just like my garage! See it has dogs on it too!" (There are some dogs on the return address label" And I had to explain the situation. So much for not noticing...
Travis opening his unwrapped gift (yeah, it's long and heavy - in my condition it was enough just pulling it off the shelf, let alone packing it in from the garage and hiding it downstairs!)
Travis trying out one of his gifts (the new gloves):
Avery being big and strong just like Daddy with the old gloves:
Cake!
Carson says, "What are we waiting for!"
Just one last shot of my lovely cake creation before Travis cut into it :)
Happy 28th Birthday Travis!

Happy Anniversary!

Happy 6th Anniversary!

Sleepy reading

This is how Carson fell asleep for his afternoon nap today. Obviously he had been sitting up reading when he tipped over. That's a poor crushed Curious George propping Carson up.

Bits of July

Here are some bits from July that didn't make it into their own posts:

Carson enjoying a wading pool (he only enjoys about that much of it - he's too unsure of the water to go much deeper):
Carson likes to confiscate Avery's Lightning McQueen slippers sometimes. Doesn't he look rather "caught" here?
Carson LOVES this little rocking chair and just kicking back in it. It was a great little find at a garage sale our first summer here for the big price of $1. We couldn't replace those missing screw hole plugs for that price!
Avery, the baller:
We're still working on his form...
The boys getting to swim with their Daddy!

When Avery "works hard"

Avery loves his tools. He uses them frequently. He loves to "fix" things. But yesterday I had to get the camera out and snap a quick shot because for once Avery was really getting into character - the hard hat, the safety goggles, packing around his toolbox, etc. Later he even put on his tool belt with suspenders (tho the goggles had disappeared by then). It was the dress up part that brought the camera out. I'm sure this may be the norm for lots of kids, but Avery doesn't usually go all out with a play activity and it's fun to see him get more immersed.

I love that after some serious playing Avery often informs me, in a very serious tone, that he's been "working hard."

That's a DOOR, Avery

Two days ago Avery had a run in with our front door... literally.

When the front door is ajar, it rests open in just the right spot to put the end dead in the middle of the opening between the kitchen and our little entryway. Avery had been playing outside and came in for a brief pit stop. Then, as he ran back through the kitchen to the front, he managed to trip right before reaching the door, which he would have swung out of the way. Instead he smacked HARD, forehead first, into the corner of the door.

If that's doesn't give you a headache, I don't know what will, so we gave him some children's Tylenol and he sat with an ice pack for 20 minutes.


I'm sure you enjoy looking up Avery's nose - at least it's clean :) - but I wanted to try and get a profile of his rather long goose egg.













Here's a shot from today of the aftermath - no more lump, just lovely color and some scratches I'm not sure I realized were there before: