Summer Happenings

Not to sound like a broken record, but I've let it happen again.  Here I am a month behind on the blog and trying to figure out how to catch up without this post being a mile long.  For starters, we've had a busy, fun summer.  One afternoon, we borrowed Jamie's brothers boat and took the boys out for several hours.  Noah loved it but Collier was terrified at first.  After 15 minutes of being scared, Collier settled down and all was good for several hours, both kids were having a blast... until another boat came up on us kind of close, causing some pretty big waves, sending us up out of our seats as our boat banged down on the water, which scared the mess out of Noah.  He was terrified until I finally calmed him down and he fell asleep in my lap. All in all, we had a fun day but it was slightly nerve-wrecking being out on the water with Jamie driving the boat and me trying to keep my eyes on both kids.  Especially with this being their first time on the water (well, technically Noah's 2nd time, but he was 3 the first time).  At one point I was applying sunscreen to Noah, Jamie was driving and I glanced up to see Collier leaning over the front of the boat tossing ice into the water.  I JUMPED up, Noah fell right out of my lap into the floor, and grabbed him so quickly.  It definitely scared me and Jamie... needless to say, I don't think purchasing a boat will be in our near future!  I do believe if there is a next time, another adult on hand would be helpful.  But overall, it was an enjoyable day.

Noah, my dad and I made a trip down to Birmingham for Noah's recheck on his eyes.  He has always been slightly far-sighted (which is normal for babies/small children, but improves with age) and even had some strabismus that they have been monitoring for a few years (slight wandering of the eye periodically.) The strabismus has corrected itself but the farsightedness has gotten quite a bit worse so they prescribed him glasses.  I must say, I was feeling pretty bad when the ophthalmologist told us how bad his eyes have gotten.  He actually had his eyes checked at the first of the school year and was sent home with a note saying I needed to follow up with his doctor.  I made an appointment but then all of the cancer stuff came up and I kept having to reschedule his appointment because of my surgeries, etc and his doctor books up several months in advance, so here we are 9 months later just now following through on this.  I kind of beat myself up over it but I was just doing what I had to do when I was trying to take care of my cancer stuff at the same time!  I was pretty skeptical as to HOW we would keep glasses on him but I got him fitted the following week and it really wasn't that much of an adjustment.  He pulls at them every once in a while but for the most part doesn't mind them, probably because he can see so much better now!  I've noticed he's done quite a bit of falling lately so hopefully as he gets used to these glasses, that will get much better.  And he looks pretty darn cute, if I must say.

We're fortunate enough to have a super fun Sunday school class and all got together one Saturday evening for a cook-out and baby shower for one of the couples in our class.  All the kids were there and had a blast playing outside together.  Noah fell down in the driveway, hitting his face, mouth and nose flat on the concrete.  Jamie brought him inside to me and his nose and teeth were bleeding and his top 2 teeth were loose.  However, Noah was too busy having fun that he really didn't even cry but just for a second and wanted us to leave him alone so he could get back to playing.  I tried pulling the tooth that was the loosest but it wasn't quite ready so I let him get back to playing.  The day after he got his glasses, which happened to be a few days after his fall, the tooth had wiggled its way down quite a bit more, so I pulled it without any problems. This made tooth #3 that he's lost. He almost looked like a completely different kid in a matter of just a few days with new glasses and a missing front tooth!  Here we are a few weeks later and he has lost not just the other top tooth, but ANOTHER bottom tooth.  He is currently missing 3 teeth (the front top 2 teeth and the lateral incisor, which is the tooth right beside the front 2 bottom teeth) and has lost a grand total of 5 teeth now!  It sure makes for one really cute, toothless smile!

New glasses and he lost a tooth in 1 week 

Collier playing with his friend Ethan at the Sunday School party

Noah's current smile minus 3 teeth (and a new cut on his face courtesy of another fall!)

And lastly, soon we will have 2 new members in our family! No, I'm NOT pregnant with twins, but we are getting 2 English Springer Spaniel puppies!  When Jamie and I were engaged over 10 years ago, we bought our first springer, Baxley and he was the BEST dog.  Jamie had 2 springers as a kid and loved the breed... and I quickly fell in love with Baxley.  Unfortunately, he got hit by a car a couple of years into our marriage and we were absolutely devastated.  Since we started building our house, it has been our intentions to get the boys a dog and pretty much knew we wanted another springer (or two).  We are about a month away from moving in and I did some research and came across a litter of springer puppies a few hours away.  The puppies are 5 weeks old and a couple of weeks away from being ready to leave their mom so I BEGGED Jamie to let us get two.  After a little convincing (since we'll still be in the rental when we get the pups), he agreed to us getting them.  We get to bring them home at the first of August and we can't wait!  So now, I introduce you to our new babies...

Birdie & Bogey Brink!  Yes, their names are a homage to my husband's love for golf, but believe it or not, I am the one that came up with them! :) We were watching a golf tournament on Sunday afternoon (fun, I know) and I joked that I was shocked he hadn't wanted to name them something golf-related, like "Luke Donald & Adam Scott (his favorite players) or... Birdie and Bogey!" Then it both hit us at the same time and we both said, "HEY! That's kind of cute!" and the names stuck!  Of course, the rest of the males in our family (on my side) all LOVE the names because they are all golfers.  I used to be the BIGGEST animal lover before I had children.  In fact, the past few years is the first time in my life that I haven't been a pet owner.  I will say that with having children, it is very hard to have an inside pet(s)...or at least it was for me.  Or maybe I should say that having a child with special needs makes it difficult to have an inside pet.  And since I haven't been a pet owner for the past few years, I developed that 'they are just animals' attitude.  It was really weird coming from the girl who wanted to be a vet all of her childhood.  It has slightly annoyed me when people post continuous pictures of their pets on facebook.  I mean, really?  How many different pictures must you post of the dog laying there asleep?  But now that we are about to be dog owners again, I've done yet another 360 and I'm slightly worried that I might become "one of THOSE people?!?"  I'm going to do my best to refrain myself from posting a gazillion pet pictures!