Thank Goodness for Big Brothers

So I have been having some TV guilt with Charlie.  When I come home from work, he gets to watch Thomas while I get dinner together.  It's a great occupier.  He sits and plays with his trains and watches trains, and yells 'choo-choo' at the TV and becomes more obsessed with....trains.  But when he started coming home and going straight to the TV and handing my the remote, my TV guilt was a little overloaded.  Yikes, I have that kid?

We were gifted a HUGE box of Geotrax.  This awesome, but VERY large train system made by Fisher Price.  This is like 4-5 sets of them.  My sister-in-law scored them at a garage sale. 

Surprise, Surprise, Charlie flipped.  We got them Saturday and set them up.  HE PLAYED WITH THEM FROM SUN UP TO SUN DOWN.  I could barely get him to eat and he napped with one of the cars.  Not once did he point to the TV or hand me the remote.

So even though these have over taken my tiny house, I'm happy to have them.  We do put them away every night though, so every day I have to help him re-set it up.  Some of the tracks are too elaborate for a two-year-old.  But last night, big brother came over and jumped right in.  They played all night at it- it was fantastic.  Mom just got to sit and relax (and take pictures of all the cuteness)

Ethan is at that great age where he's old enough to be responsible and independent, but you put a cool toy in front of him and he's still young enough to 'play'

See Ethan's new glasses?  Soooo cute on him (don't tell him that, he's already a hit with the ladies and not exactly...humble about his studly-ness)

Excuse the broom and old TV stand- we were also gifted a new TV stand and were getting it cleaned and set up, more on that another time

The reason I don't have a computer

This has never been a problem before, but the reason I don't have a computer is that I spilled coffee (with sugar and cream) on our old computer.  Matt took it all apart and it was limping along and I go and spill wine on it....he was not happy.  So when we got the temporary computer from my sister-in-law I woke up to find this on it.  (mind you, there is my coffee right there next to it)  I should have been named Princess Grace

Pinny Party

Still no formal blogging computer- hang in there. Wanna look at some pretty pictures? Okay! 

Kitchen Love Source

More Kitchen Love Source

I wanna chop my hair!  I want this!  But shorter!  (hope my husband doesn't pack his bags- we have a long hair pact that is more sacred than our vows...ha ha) Source

I've been a little dog crazy lately- I'm embarrassed how much time I spend on petfinder.com just looking at doggies Source

I love him Source

Sadly, dealing with a little of this right now Source

But thankfully, also a little of this Source

Sadly, that one friend is usually me....Source

Ugh I'm getting old...Source

Just because Source

Made me tear up I was laughing so hard Source

My whole life right now Source

KU is number one again!! Source

That's what I have to say about that! Source

Winning Source

Again...my dad rules

My sister's family went home to my parents for the weekend.  Poor Lucy was sick, but the Hubbards went to Mall of America and rode the rides for a while.  These pictures literally made me want to cry I'm so sad I missed it (that's my dad in the upper right next to my sister)

This is this tiny ride at Mall of America that has these little dips, and my dad making a face like it's the biggest drop in the world for his girls.  This man is almost 70- hilarious

Biggest Hit of the Season

Aunt Sheila and Uncle James got Charlie a Thomas book, but in the back was this play mat and 13 of the smallest, howl-when-you-step-on-them trains.  He is obsessed.  He plays with this now more than he plays with his actual Thomas trains.  Nice work Sheila!

We're still working on the computer issue.  We have a couple options in the works.  I wish we were in the position to just go buy a computer, but even if money was flush, we still aren't the kind of people to go drop that kind of money.  I hate spending money on things like computers and TVs- it just seems so frivolous, but as you can see, a good computer is key to my being here and I have missed it.

Charlie is doing better.  We haven't had a flare up since last week.   He's on a lot of meds though, so I hope that it's actually gone instead of  just being kept at bay by the meds.  I'd like him off, I hate the idea of so much medicine pumping through his little body.  We are going to get more blood drawn today, so we'll see how it comes back. 

We still don't have a definitive answer as to what caused it and probably never will.  We paid an enourmous amount of money for Doctor's to sit and scratch their head at him.

Charlie is as busy and active as ever.  His speech is better and better each day.   He can recite the alphabet and recognize every letter by sight.  He still counts 'bye, two, bye two', but the other day we were counting up the stairs and he counted 'bye, two, bye, two, bye, two, seven, eight, nine, ten'.  SO, he can count 7-10 but not 1, 2, 3 - weirdo

We work on his colors, but everything is 'yeyyow' and he's pretty uninterested in learning about them.  I'm not too worried, he'll learn it when he wants to. 

He's very polite.

If you cough it's 'okay mommy?' - 'yes Charlie, I'm good'

If you burp it's 'excuse you' - 'thank you Charlie'

If Charlie burps it's 'excuse you' - 'no Charlie, it's excuse me' - 'ya, excuse you'

If you say 'thank you' it's- 'tank you' - 'no Charlie, it's your welcome' - 'ya, tank you mommy' - 'whatever'

But we are definitely barreling towards being a three year old, which is way harder than the 'terrible two's' I hear, especially with boys.  He gets very frustrated he can't communicate like he wants, which makes for a very whiny child some times.

That's about all the updates for now.  We were hoping to get him into a big boy bed sometime soon, but he wakes up busting out of his diaper, so unless we want to lay rubber sheets, it's stay in the crib time.  And I realize I should keep him in there as long as possible, but seriously, he got the CUTEST big boy sheets eva and I want to use them!

The Cathedral

Our house looks like Catholic Cathedral- my mother in law can't burn candles in her house anymore and cleaned out her stash.  I was happy to oblige.  Most were small and just about  to burn out, but I'll take em'.  Again, still having problems with a computer so posts are going to be few and far between.  I apologize.  Please hang in there, I'll be up in running in a while-I've told my hubs we need a new computer with our tax refund and he has agreed.

Update

And by 'good', I mean 'I have no idea what I'm doing' Source

I have been on a little hiatus.  Life has become extremely hectic and I pretty much broke my computer at home, so posting is an ordeal and a half.  

Charlie is still on the mend.  Took him to the allergist yesterday for a follow up and she wasn't happy with his progress.  It was actually a relief, because I'm not happy with his progress either.  He just breaks out at the littlest things.  The good news is that he is not allergic to penicillin!  The allergist said it was just a reaction of the amoxycillin and the virus he had. Posting will be light for a while, I apologize, hang in there...

2 1/2 Years Old

Because of his reaction, we're a little behind on this, should have been done Monday

Charlie has figured out how to use my old camera and is taking pictures of everything

Not the jump he had from 18 months to 2 years, but he is growing!

On the Mend

Looking a million times better

For my own memory, a brief (?) summary of what happened:
Charlie woke up Sunday (12/30) with spots.  We didn't think anything of it, kids get hives for weird reasons.  He had been up very late the night before for the McAuley Christmas party and had tried several new foods, so we just decided to keep a close eye on it.  About 3, it was getting pretty bad, he couldn't nap because he was so itchy.  I called urgent care, they were full, went up to minute clinic, they were full, called my sister for the third time and asked what to do. Went to give him an oatmeal bath that evening and took all his clothes off for the first time and was horrified.  Called Melinda again, and we all concluded that it was time for the ER.  The ER was pretty full, but Charlie got streamlined pretty quick.  We were put in a small room where we had a TV, so lots of distraction for all of us.  They gave him oral steroids and sent us on our way.  He quickly got better.  The next day, there were literally bruises from where his hives had been, and a few new ones, but he looked good.  It was New Years Eve and we were preparing for a mellow evening on the couch in our PJs and an early night.  I went to bed around 11 and Matt fell asleep on the couch trying to stay up and watch a space show.  (this is pretty normal 'round these parts)  Charlie woke up screaming around 1 am and I ran in there.  I picked him up and brought him into bed with me and tried to calm him down.  I didn't turn the light on and after a while when I couldn't calm him down, I turned on the light and saw, well you saw a few posts down.  His eye was swollen shut and he looked terrible.  We hightailed it to the ER again and this time, just one look at him, they jumped to action.  They gave him steriods by injection, by oral, straight antihistamine, nothing would calm it down.  So we had to wait, and wait and wait.  The Doctors were just stumped.  Finally at 5:30 am, they let us go.  None of us, even Charlie, slept a wink, but because of the steroids, Charlie wasn't tired.  So we took turns sleeping.  It was New Years Day, so we couldn't see our Doctor.  I called Dr. S on call and told him what was going on and we'd be in in the morning.  He took one look at him and called in a favor to an allergist and got him a same-day appointment.  So, we've started a new regimen, and it seems to be working.  He is still blotchy and got VERY blotchy during his bath, but it calmed down and he got a good nights sleep.  We see the allergist again next week and we'll go from there.  The outpouring of good wishes and prayers from friends, family has been truly overwhelming.  Charlie is loved by much more than just his parents...and nothing could make me feel happier.  Thank you.

Wreaths- are we sick of these yet?

This is the one I made for my mother-in-law for Christmas

This is the one I made for my Aunt Myrna if she likes it.  Sadly, because of Charlie's reaction, we won't be able to go to the King Christmas this year, which breaks our hearts....but I can't bring myself to venture too far with my poor little Charlie

2012 Year In Review

We need to remember how good we've got it.  Amazing friends, family, children and lots and lots of love.  God is Good!

Here We Go Again

Well, we had to head back into the ER last night. After doing better all day, he woke up around 1am looking like Chunk. We flew to the ER and were there until about 6am. Everything they threw at him wasn't working and none of the doctors or nurses could figure out what was going on. It was very frustrating and we are very sleep deprived today. Prayers appreciated.

McAuley Christmas Part II

'No dad, I don't want to eat my carrot.'  Every time he's being fake dramatic, he puts his hand over his eyes like a damsel in distress.  If he's really upset, he doesn't do this.  What a drama queen

Poor B just had her wisdom teeth out and was feeling a little rough

Charlie had to open all his presents in Uncle Chad's lap

I had so much fun shopping for Ally this year.  She's Charlie's age, so it's fun to shop for girly stuff!

Choo Choo!!  From Michelle and Greg

Of course you can't really see it, but Matt made an angel for his mother out of soldered metal - it was adorable

This present was probably the biggest hit- it's a Thomas book and in the back it has Thomas figurines and a play mat- he played with it from sun-up to sun-down the next day.

Uncle James works at Menards-type store and they have the awesomest rubber boots- the whole McAuley family got a pair.

Charlie playing in dad's new boots