As July Ends

As July 2010 ends, I keep thinking about how on July 1 (and July 12 for that matter) our life was the same, but yet so much different than it is on July 31. July 13, 2010 will be a day that our family will remember, the day that we found out that "Our Colin's" future, and our future is going to be so much different than what we would ever have imagined; the day that we received the diagnosis of SMA. These past couple of weeks have been a rollercoaster of emotions, uncertainties, worries, hope, faith, love and so many things that can't be put into words. I say that our life is the same, because erase this news, and nothing in our life has changed. We have the same blessed life - our daily life is the same, Colin is the same, and so far his brother isn't cutting him any slack (big surprise ;). But, we now have a new weight on our shoulders. Over these past couple of weeks, two well known quotes keep popping into my head, "Ignorance is bliss" and "Knowledge is power". Before we found out that Colin has this disease, we were completely ignorant to what lie ahead for us, we thought that eventually he would figure it out, start moving and before we knew it would catch up to his brother and be running around like crazy. While I was a little worried about him, I didn't really think that anything was seriously wrong with him. In that respect, ignorance was bliss and we didn't have the worries that we do now. Part of me wishes we could go back to that; unfortunately, that would not change anything. So...now we move on to "knowledge is power". The best thing that we can do now for Colin (aside from loving him to pieces like we already do) and our family is to obtain knowledge; knowledge about the disease, the best doctors and resources to care for him, the best way for our family to adapt to what we were given, how we can become active in fighting for a cure that will help our sweet little boy and so many other children and families that we are learning about. So many things to think about and figure out. We will be seeing some specialists next week and will hopefully walk away from these appointments a lot more knowledgable about what is ahead for us and more confident in our care for him. Anyone reading this, THANK YOU for any thoughts or prayers you have been sending our way. Whether you have actually told us or not, we can feel it and it means so much to us.

Weekend of Visitors

While Travis spent the weekend in Colorado with Danny and Willie, the boys and I had some visitors which was SO much fun. Friday night Kristie and Maria came to town. We got pizza and played in the slip 'n' slide. On Saturday we did a little shopping and they headed home. It was so much fun having them here. Of course I couldn't find my camera, but I did get a little video.



Saturday afternoon auntie Kayla came to town. We ran some errands and went to the park on Saturday evening. Then Sunday was pool day!! It was so nice having her here - kind of like old times :)

LOVE, LOVE this picture!

Thank you for coming to visit us :)

4th of July

We spent the 4th in the Wisconsin Northwoods with the Tetzlaffs. It was a weekend filled with some time on the boat, a parade, a little playing in the rain, a LOT of great food and great company.

The most memorable float - a car made completely out of wood -

Eli pushing Colin around town...let's just say it took us a while to get anywhere!

A rainy 4th of July - but the boys still had a blast.

Our Colin

Since my last blog update was dedicated to Eli and how he humors us, this one is dedicated to "our Colin" (as his brother calls him). He is 14 months old today. Although he isn't moving yet (which has its pros and cons), he is doing a lot of fun things. His vocabulary currently primarily consists of Mama, Dada, and STOP. I would say the STOP is the most commonly used (big surprise), usually used when Callie is barking or Eli is doing something he doesn't like (but not hurting him – then he cries). He talks A LOT, usually quite loudly, but there are only a few words we can actually understand. Otherwise, it's mostly just noise.

Colin is getting quite pudgy as well. He eats WAY more than his older brother and at some meals eats more than me! He's become quite a beggar for food, he knows when someone is eating and usually wants to take part. He'll typically eat almost anything – a quality that I'm sure he'll outgrow too soon!

His personality shows more and more every day. I predict that he is going to be a very sweet boy, with a temper. He is very sweet and loves to cuddle, which I love. Give him his puppy and his thumb goes in his mouth and his head down to your shoulder. The kid is like a light switch though – one second he will be happy and laughing and the next he'll be so mad you don't even know what to do with him. Doesn't take much to make him mad – he is starting to throw things that he doesn't want, etc. It's becoming more apparent that he is entering the toddler years. The best is when we have 2 tantrums going on in our house at once (JK!).

He really likes to sit and play with buckets, balls, and anything else that he can either take in and out of a bucket or bang together. He also loves to read books – he gets the biggest smile when it's time to read and usually tries to turn the pages faster than I can read them. He LOVES LOVES music, we turn the music on and his face lights up and usually the shoulders start moving, which is pretty hilarious. Between him and Eli and their love of music, we may have a rock band in our basement sometime. Yikes!

I think those are the biggest highlights for him right now. These boys seem to get more entertaining every day so once Colin starts talking more, it's going to be interesting!

Below are some of his 1 year pics that Allison took about a month ago. So cute! (At least I think so)

Some Eli Quotes

Eli has said a few things this past week that have given Travis and I some good laughs and since I am kind of using this as my kids scrapbook I needed to write them down.

1) Getting ready to get out the door before work and Eli finally gets out of bed (which is a struggle every morning) and the first thing out of his mouth "oh man, I should be mowing the lawn". Travis' response "remember that when your sixteen!"

2) Eli is really into doing things "my, by yourself" these days so one night he is getting out of the bath by himself and I am helping him a little. He is standing on the edge of the bath and says "I wanna look at that guy" (because he can see in the mirror in the bathroom). I said "well who is that guy?". His response "that's Eli - he's pretty cute". At that moment I wouldn't say I disagreed one bit.

3) Again in the bath (different night) he is playing with a little water cup and says "mom, I going to pee in my cup" so I took the cup away from him. After a lot of whining and bargaining with him that if I gave it back he would NOT pee in the cup I gave it back to him. He says, "Thank you for listening to me Mommy". I say that to him all the time - I suppose I now need to be careful about the phrases that I use because sooner or later one is going to come back and bite me.

Sorry no pictures this post. Hopefully I will be updating with some pictures soon!

Eli’s First Tractor Ride

I just realized that I still had this post on draft form and never actually posted it. I think Eli's first big farming outing is worth blogging about so here goes.

Between job transitions (which WAS a while ago), I had a week off. So…the boys and I headed to Iowa for a couple days. It was planting season so we finally got Eli in the tractor – not willingly I might add. After a few minutes he realized how much fun he was having. Ryan even let him drive a little. I think the planter was up so hopefully there aren't any crooked rows. Grandpa Cecil wouldn't be too happy about that J

Thank you uncle Ryan – it was so much fun!

We also made a stop to see Maria's new Barbie Car. Also a lot of fun!

Kayla's Bachelorette Party

In traditional fashion, we had a girls night on the town to celebrate Kayla's upcoming wedding to Bobby - for Kayla we went Chicago Style.

Here are a few pics before we headed out for the evening.

My beautiful mother and her beautiful sisters

And the whole family (that was present) - some of my favorite women

Ashley, Kayla, & I

Kayla and her ladies

Dinner at Buca Di Beppo where we showered Kayla with gifts (most of which were definitely NOT practical which was fantastic) and a question game in which Kayla had to take quite a few shots (and also got to give some out!)

For example....she also got these in black

Followed by some fun at Howl at the Moon (a dueling pianos bar)

Kayla on stage

Is that Grandma Cathy drinking out of a bucket! What has gotten in to her?! I hear she did a shot too which I unfortunately missed. Nice work mom!Molly, Hannah, and Abby - not sure what they're doing but they look like they're having fun!!Everybody dance around Cheri....

Now Christy....

Op..and now it's Cindy's turn!

This was followed by a drag show at the Baton - unfortunately no photography allowed (because there would've been some good ones!)

After that there was a lot of running around in the rain after which we all looked pretty great!

Thank you ladies for a Fantastic night and most importantly one that Kayla will remember (or maybe not?!)

Happy Birthday Colin!

We celebrated Colin's 1st Birthday on April 23. I can't believe our baby is 1! The Tetzlaff's helped up celebrate with pizza and of course cake.

Here is a pic of our little guy on his Birth day.

And 1 year later - enjoying his cake.

Before things got too messy

And after....he went straight to the bath

It's amazing what a change a year makes. We love you Colin :)

Another Post?!?

I know...2 posts in one day when I haven't had one in weeks. I just had a few more things I wanted to add and the Easter one was getting to long.

What else has been going on in our world?

We replaced the pathfinder with a 2007 Nissan Altima. It's kind of fun to have a car again! Eli is obsessed with it (well he's just obsessed with cars, trucks, buses, semis, motorcycles - really anything that has a motor), but he loves to tell everyone about "Daddy's" new car.

We've been able to have a lot of outside time. It's been such a beautiful spring. Eli mostly rides his tractor around, but takes breaks sometimes to push Colin around in his walker. Since Colin doesn't like to move it around himself - he usually enjoys the rides.

Last weekend we made a trip to Iowa for Cal and Michelle Trumm's wedding. It was a great day! Here are a few pics from the celebration (I apologize - I'm not the best at taking pictures)

Mr & Mrs. Trumm

Me and my boys (minus one)

Typical goofy face

Eli & Zoey

Eli & Aunty Kayla (hope he has this much fun at her wedding!)

Just because I loved the baby blues

Colin all tuckered out after all that dancing - Bobby's got the touch ;)

And perhaps my favorite picture of the night - Father of the Groom/Best Man dancing the night away. Love it!

Congrats to Cal and Michelle. Thanks for letting us help you celebrate!

A recent Eli story - because I don't want to forget this one. So...we all now what a "busy" child he is (busy being an understatement). Well kids as busy and rough as Eli get a lot of time outs. Perhaps he's had too many recently b/c I was recently changing Colin's diaper (pretty routine stuff around here) and Eli walks up to me with his Elmo and swings him at my leg. Pretty soon I hear this, "Elmo, you don't hit mommy! You need a TIME OUT! Here...you sit in the chair" a few seconds later "ELMO SIT!!" (like he was actually getting up). BTW - the "chair" is where Eli gets his very own time outs.

Oh and another one (I really need to write all of them down!). Me - "Good morning Eli", Eli - "Morning mommy", Me - "Eli what happened to your eye?" (he had a new cut on his eyelid and it was a little swollen), Eli- "it hurts", Me - "I know it hurts, what happened?", Eli - "Daddy hit me". Not good.......please don't say that at daycare (by the way - that is NOT what happened) - perhaps is the HUGE tractor and firetruck that he feels the need to sleep with everynight!

Lastly, after quite few months of searching, I finally got a new job. My Deloitte days will soon be behind me and now I'm on to Capella University. So excited for the new opportunity!

Ok - enough rambling (if anyone is actually still reading). We have a busy weekend ahead - our baby is 1 tomorrow and Kayla's bachelorette in Chicago on Saturday. Should have lots of pics to post!!! Stay tuned - maybe they'll be up next month.

Easter

Now that Easter was almost 3 weeks ago I thought I'd FINALLY post some pics.

We spent Easter with the Tetzlaff clan. It was a gorgeous day and the easter egg hunt was a HUGE success (notice Eli's full basket). The eggs kept falling out as he was trying to pick more up.

Colin just took it all in and hoped that someone would bring him some eggs.

Eli and Jack got quite a bit of yard work done too with the new garden tools.

After some wonderful food and some rest we spent some quality time at the park. Eli is getting around the playground pretty well this year and Colin was LOVIN the swing.

Check out Colin's big smiles in the swing!

Bye Bye Pathfinder

After talking about it for about 3+ years, we finally said goodbye to our 1998 Nissan Pathfinder otherwise known at our house as 'Daddy's car'. A little bittersweet - as Travis said his life changed pretty significantly while owning that car. He bought it a few days before he moved up here to Minneapolis. He went from being right out of college and broke to 5 years later being a married man with two kids and a house. Crazy how much your life can change in 5 years.

On to the next vehicle. What will it be?!

Another month....

So I know that I am long overdue for this update as it’s been over a month. Here are some of the highlights of our February and first part of March –

(1) Sunday trip to the zoo with the Tetzlaff clan. Of course Eli and Jack HAD to find the water. They seem to find it wherever they go.
Colin and Lauren were SO much easier – they just hung out in their strollers. They’ll be in the water soon enough!

(2) Welcome Cole William McCarthy on February 19th. He was long awaited by the McCarthy family and all their family and friends. He is absolutely precious and we are so glad that he is here. Unfortunately he is already causing his parents more grief than they deserve – but he is quite the little fighter and it going to be one tough cookie. Kristie- I stole a pic from Facebook of the little guy b/c I HAD to have a picture of the newest addition on the blog and I didn’t get one when I was at your house! Isn't he sweet :)

(3) Saturday evening trip to Chuckie Cheese. So MUCH fun! Eli loved all the rides and Colin enjoyed watching all the activity. Here are a few pics of “Yucky cheese” as Eli thinks its called…

Colin - oh so tired, but riding the merry go round anyway.

(4) We made a long awaited trip to Iowa for a weekend so that we could meet baby Cole (see #2), see family and friends, and help Dad (Grandpa Mark) celebrate his birthday. Travis and I hadn’t been there since Christmas (which is a long time for us) so it was great to get back.

Eli and Maria got to play for a couple hours and had a LOT of fun. This is what we found them doing in Maria’s room….a couple of little monkeys.

We made a visit to play with Zoey too, but unfortunately the boys were both starting to get sick so it wasn’t quite as crazy. Eli and Zoey still had fun playing the my mommy, my mommy game….

(5) On March 14th we FINALLY got to play outside! Yay! Eli finally knows how to drive the tractor grandma and grandpa gave him ALL by himself. He needs to work on the steering still, but it’s progress from last year. I’m picturing Colin to be riding in the wagon by the end of the summer (could be scary!). The boys were thrilled to be outside and of course we had a tantrum when it was time to go inside and eat dinner. Love the warm weather!

I think that’s the longest Colin has sat without wanting to be held for a LONG time (We hope spring is here to stay!)

(6) Thought for the day – This morning I was in major need of some caffeine so I treated myself to some Caribou Coffee on my way to work (my fav). They started this new thing where when you’re in the store you can write down thoughts and “what you stay awake for” and then they put them on their cups. One of the ones on my cup today was “Spend time with your kids, tomorrow they’re a day older”. I thought that was a good one so I decided after work all I was going to do was make a quick dinner and then play with my kids. Well turns out they both had grumble soup for lunch – that combined with going to bed to late last night = NOT fun playtime. They got baths and were in bed around 7:30. I still spent time with them I guess – just that somedays that time is more enjoyable than others. Maybe tomorrow night will go better?