The fall

I'm not sure if I just notice it more because they're my kids, or if every body's kids fall all the time, but my kids fall.ALL.the.time. Most of the time, the falls result in some type of head or facial injury. You know, the bleeds heavily and highly noticeable by all (especially the judgy mcjudgerson pediatrician) type of injuries.

It had been about 2 weeks since we had had an injury (reference Bram's shiner and eye scab from last post), so we were due. Ambrose stepped up to the plate and filled our quota. While I was in the kitchen the boys were in the play room. There are times when I can hear an injury coming. The noise level rises, the rambunctious sounds intensify and there's either laughter or crying mixed in there at some point. This however, was not one of those times. Bram was playing trains at the train table and Ambrose was playing quietly on the floor of the room. However, as all silence goes, it was short lived. Ambrose erupts in screaming. I admit, I didn't rush to his side, because normally, the reason for the screaming is a) he can't get his Legos apart or b) he get can't get his lego together. Rarely is it a crisis.

 I get to Ambroses room, and the amount of blood on his face makes my heart skips a beat. I immediately grab a roll of toilette paper from the near by closet, and try and remind myself that head/face/mouth injuries bleed terribly and always look worse than they really are. This thought calms me a bit, however, Ambrose is completely unaware of the it's-not-as-bad-as-it-looks law, and he's freaking out as he sees the blood pooling in his lap and all over the carpet.  I initially think it's just his nose bleeding, but I soon realize (as he continues to scream), there is copious amounts of blood coming from his mouth as well. Long story short, there's what looks to be a crime scene on our carpet, and Ambroses face and mouth look like this...
here comes a pic of his gums, they're all nice and clean, and not bleeding.  It's not anything that most parents haven't seen, but just in case you're the squeamish type, scroll quickly.



After

The red line is a  cut ( well, not really a cut, he fell face first into the edge of a wooden toy storage box, so that line you see from incisor to incisor is where the wooden edge met his face)
After a few texts s to my dentist friend, and then visiting Ambrose's dentist the next day, we get it nice and cleaned and are sent home with further cleaning instructions. He's got a loose tooth, that may or may not fall out. The look of the healing gum is pretty gnarly. the color is best described as the color of silver skin on pork tenderloin, it's varying shades of gray-ish, white-ish and blue-ish. My dentist friend assures me that it looks "good" and is healing, but man alive, you could have fooled me.

After all was said and done, I found that the injury came from Ambrose tripping over a large airplane in his room, and face planting into our wooden toy storage unit.

Standard...a long over due bulleted catch up

*First, have you read that book I have linked on the side bar? Read it. It absolutely is weepy, but it's so much more than just that. Go grab yourself a copy.

* Ambrose has turned into a pretty rock star Lego builder recently. He thinks of them completely on his own and then builds them unassisted. He usually builds air planes, but he has many buildings, boats and cars in his collection as well.

* We had a small fair here in our tiny town, and to my surprise, it wasn't totally .....ugh...lame I guess is the word I'm looking for. There were a few fun rides, plenty of fried foods and a band stage with some fun local bands. The boys were much braver than I thought they'd be, and ended up costing me a small fortune in tickets, but it was a total blast! 

* John recently build a Murphy bed for the boys playroom. We've always planned to have the boys share a room at some point, but as you know (from my incessant complaining) that Bram hasn't been a rock star sleeper, so we've been hesitant. However, we hope we're getting to the point that sharing a bedroom will work for the boys (which may be my famous last words). I recently stumbled upon the plans for a Murphy bed and thought that it would be perfect for our house. With a little tweaking, john adjusted the plan so that the bed was horizontal rather than vertical. I also saw in the plans that the back of the bed would be a perfect spot to use chalkboard paint and use the closed Murphy bed as a chalkboard. It's worked out perfectly ( well, the chalkboard and bed part....we haven't attempted putting the boys together yet so Ambrose is sleeping on the Murphy bed for now).

* This boy has recently taken to the strider and is getting faster and faster on it. With that speed has come many many crashes. This one he took a handle bar to the eye. 

First day ( or hours) of school

The boys had their first day of preschool on Wednesday. They are attending the church pre-school that Ambrose has attended the past two years. 

As I expected, Ambrose loved it. He had a very easy transition his first year, and each year has gotten even easier. This year appears to be a little more academics based, but there's still tons of playing, crafts and outdoor play. 

Bram, well his first "day," was really his first "2.5 hours." As expected his transition didn't go as smooth. He began to cry even before John took him to his classroom, and evidently, he didn't stop crying the entire 2.5 hours he was there. They felt he had been traumatized enough, and asked me to come and pick him up. That's how drop off situations go with Bram. All childcare, nursery and classroom experiences he cries so long and so hard, that the childcare provider usually throws her hands up in the air, gives up and calls me to come and get him. It  is a two day program where he only goes on Monday and Wednesday, so we'll have to wait until Monday to see how things go.

Wedding

Lets start at the beginning of or trip, where we have to wake up at a terrible hour just to make it to the airport on time.  I truly have grown to like this small New Mexico town, but man alive I am jonesing to live somewhere where there is an airport close by.

We cross all fingers and toes that the boys will sleep on the 1.5 hour drive down ( in pitch black in the middle of the night), but they don't. Not a single solitary wink of sleep was had by any of us on that drive. I SWEAR! These kids and sleep. We arrive at the airport where John dumps us, and our pile-o-crap out on the curb. 

The boys go through security and board the flight like champs. However, they both have developed a habit that freaks me out. The second we get to our seat, they both take out the in-case-the-plane-goes-down-in-a-ball-o-flames card and begin to feverishly review the procedures. Every.single.time. It's like a dog and storms, I always wonder if maybe they know something I don't. 

Miracle of miracles, they sleep on the flight. 

I'm not a germaphobe by any stretch of the imagination. Quite the opposite in fact. Some people are completely skeeved out by letting their kids play on any any floor, but the airport and it's international germs really do some people in.  But, not this girl. Germs schmerms. 

After our flights, the boys are filled with excited energy. They think we're at the lake. We quickly burst that bubble by informing them, thanks for you patience with the ridiculous o'clock wake up, and the 7 hours of airport time, but we now have a 3 hour car journey ahead of us. There was a lot of, "are we there yets?", some McDonalds eating, a few minutes of sleeping and the all exciting GPS dying and getting a touch lost, but we all arrive in one piece.  

We were there for John's sisters wedding, but we of course made some time to play as well. 

Bram, I realized, is totally John's son. He is a thrill seeker. He couldn't get enough of going max on the jet ski, boat and gator. Ambrose on the other hand, is a ball of anxiety like me ( poor guy). You should have seen the drama that ensued over trying to get him on the jet ski. Thank goodness for John's brother, Sam, who literally lifted Ambrose up by the life jacked (while he was kicking and screaming) and loaded him onto the jet ski. In the end he liked it, but  only at very very low speeds. More drama when trying to get him off the jetski, he didn't want to swim, so he must be dropped off ON the dock like a 98 year old grandma afraid to get her JCPenny perfectly curled hair wet. 

He did enjoy fishing, and there was a lot of that over the weekend.

Saturday was the big day! Wedding day! Woot Woot! Ambrose and Ethan were ring bearers, and they looked stinkin adorable.

The boys had the (of course fake) rings threaded through on their fishing poles and they walked them up the aisle. Audrey was as adorable as ever, and did an excellent job as the flower girl! 

Here's the best family pic we got from my iphone. Ambrose is mid chew on a cracker and Bram is getting ready to walk away, but there we all are, in the same place at the same time. That in and of itself is an accomplishment. Hopefully the photographer got a better one. 

The location was amazing, the weather was absolutely perfect and the bride looked gorgeous! 

We spend Sunday and Monday doing much of the same lake shennanigans and then pack up for the drive to the St. Louis. On the way, Ambrose of course has a bathroom emergency, and we make a B line for the nearest exit. He goes ( while his mom takes an embarrassing pic), and then loads back into the car. We quickly realize that the exit we take doesn't have an on ramp for many many many miles, and we have to turn around, at which point we end up taking another wrong exit, and have to back track a few minutes. 

After a bit of St. Lous traffic, we get to the hotel, where john realizes we unknowingly had 2 emergency bathroom experiences on the road. Traveling with toddlers....party party all the time. 

That night we meet up with family that John unfortunately hasn't seen in 5+ years. It was awesome to catchup and talk with family! 

We go to the hotel to get some rest and get ready to fly out in the morning. We wake the boys up early, return the rental car, check in and proceed to our gate. Wouldn't ya know, our flight is delayed, and we'll miss our connecting flight. The gate attendant rocks our world, and before we can even ask, sees that we'll be missing our connecting flight and rebooks us on two different flights so we can get home on time. Awesomesauce. but again, we are delayed on the rebooked flight. waiting, waiting and more waiting.  

Here I am, embracing the germy airport floor and just totally giving up and laying down.

The smiles in this picture are a total lie. We are into hour 3 of delays, and we are tired.  Southwest comes through though, and we end up leaving late, but in time to make our connecting flight. All's well that ends well :)

For those of you on pins and needles

I took Bram into someone else to get his hair fixed. "Fixing" a hair cut is a dicey thing, it usually involves cutting more hair off of an already shorter than wanted haircut. I showed the new girl a pic of what Bram looked like before, and then showed her Bram. She explained that with a little extra thinning out and blending, he should look a little less like Dorthy Hamill, and a little more like my adorable little boy.

She delivered on her word, and while it's way shorter than I'd like, it's a vast improvement! So help me if John ever suggests getting his hair cut again. 

A little off the top

I took Bram to get a "trim" yesterday, and it ended as most trims do, With the hair being significantly shorter than I had explained, and trust me folks, I was explicit in my instructions. I love love love love his long hair, John however felt it was crossing over from "cute" to " is there a kid under that mop." I swear to you, normally, I would thrown down to defend keeping his hair long, but John must have caught me at a weak moment because I decided to satisfy us both and just get a quick trim. I should have known better. We have lived here for 4 years and a month, and I haven't found a single hair dresser I love (and for the record, neither has john, he too is sporting an awful hair cut right now). It's maddening. My normal hair dresser is in South Dakota, almost 1000 miles away. Ridiculous...no?!

I specifically said, I'd like the front of his hair to hit his eyebrows, she nods, and proceeds to cut the hair WET so that it lays at his eyebrows. If you're a girl reading this, I know you're groaning.  Every teenage girl has made the rash decision to trim her own bangs, but she mistakenly wets them down, and then snips. duh duh dun. The bangs dry, and you quickly realize your error. When the bangs dry, you now look like one of the three stooges with your bangs an inch and a half away from your eyebrows. I expect this from a teenage girl, but a freakin hair dresser?! I'm super non confrontational, so I of course didn't say anything.
Any who, he walked out of the salon with a hair cut that can only be described as "three stooges meets a mullet." I have tried every gel, serum, comb and tool but is still winning the crap-tastic medal at the hair Olympics.  So, I was bummed. I may have even got tears in my eyes at one point looking back through pictures that I had taken pre-trim . I was in a terrible mood the rest of the day and evening. I'm not sure why I care so much, but I admittedly do. I've decided to have a little more perspective today, because really, it's hair. This is totally a "problem" of someone who is blessed and fortunate. So, off I go to snag my freshly mulleted boy out of his crib, and be happy he's healthy (and thank the good Lord, hair grows).



Here ya go.

I totally was going to put up a before picture here, but it makes the after pic look even worse.

P.S nobody punched him in the eyes, he had just woken up and his eyes are a pinch puffy....sleep already kid. It would do us all some good.

Odds and ends

We are back into our groove here and adjusting to life with john here, but back at work.

 When people find out we live in NM, they often comment on how much I must hate the weather, but honestly, it is one of my favorite parts of living here! It is HOT during the day, but really, the evenings cool off and 11 months out of the year I am able to send the kids outside to play. We spend many evenings outside grilling!

 Bram loves to color. It's so cute and he concentrates so hard!

 It has rained here at least 4 or 5 times in the past two weeks, and it's been awesome! Our highs are only in the mid to high 80's and we are loving it. It will come to an end this week and the high's will be mid to high 90's again, but it was great while it lasted!

 We spent the 4th of July with friends. John wasn't here for the last 4th of July ( and I don't think he was here for the one before that either, but who's counting), so it was fun to have him around this time.

Here's our parade watching crew. It was blazing hot, of course, so as time went on, the kids (and adults) became increasingly crabby.

 The look on John and Ambrose's face tell the story of just how hot it was.

 We spend the evening with a friend at their pool.

 And then, we watched fireworks with the boys. For those of you that have been around for the boys infancy and toddlerhood, you know just how much we live by a schedule. There are very few occasions that sway us from that schedule. Ambrose is 4.5, and he has stayed up past his bed time for one Christmas, and I think that may be it. So this was a big night folks. The boys did great. They weren't as impressed by the fireworks as I had imagined, but it was fun none the less.

 Ambrose reminded us the next morning,  with his 630 waking, why we don't stray from the schedule. He is truly the good sleep begets good sleep kid. That means, the earlier we put him to bed, the LATER he wakes, and  the later we put him to bed, the earlier he wakes. So with an 11pm bedtime, he woke about an hour earlier than his normal waketime. So, with 7.5 hours of sleep under his belt instead of his normal 11, he crashed at 5:30pm with all of his friends playing around him. He slept from 530pm-715am.

 Ambrose is getting braver and faster on his bike, and with all that bravery and confidence come many falls.

 The other day I heard Bram and John reading a story, and when I went into bram's room, this is the sight I found.

 We've BBQ'ing a ton this summer, which means smores!

 I've been growing both boys hair out, but Ambrose's texture just doesn't lend itself to "longer" hair. So, John took him to the barber. It's amazing how much older he looks with a hair cut. If it was up to John, Bram would have been in the barber chair as well, but I put the kabosh on that. Bram's hair needs some cleaning up around the ears and neck, but other than that, I love it long. It's so cute.

On the third, John and I celebrated our 9 year marriage anniversary!!