R-O-O-N-E-Y

(Super Rooney with Power Ranger Sword)

Now that Rooney is almost an official big guy (he's 3 next Friday!) his maturity is really becoming evident. He has entered the stage where he really wants to be independent. We are constantly hearing "I wanna do it!". Sometimes this is great and makes life easier like when he can climb into his own carseat and booster seat at the table or that he can also comfortably traverse the stairs by himself. Of course with the good there is bad and Roonster is now wanting to push the grocery cart instead of ride in it, he wants to walk everywhere including parking lots and he has started the dreaded talking back. So far it hasn't been bad. We are very lucky because he is a pretty sweet kid. Most of the time, although it seems almost counter instinctive, if I get down to his level, speak in a softer tone and explain to him:

a. he is too little for cars to see him when walking in a parking lot then he will hold my hand.
b. that we consider him an "official big boy" once he is potty trained. That means he will have a big boy bed, he will no longer have to sit in highchairs at restaurants, he will be able to walk in stores (not the cart) and finally he an go into the ball room at Ikea.
c. I am the boss and I do the bossing

Point B normally covers most areas and he gets it. He will list all the things that will happen once he's a big boy and potty trained (which he is definitely in the process of). If Point A or C don't cover the rest we rarely, but sometimes have to, resort to dreaded Point Z...timeout. Ugh!

Also now that Rooney is getting older it's time to start learning even more things like spelling his name. I came up with this little song awhile ago- maybe even a year ago where I spelled out Rooney's name! This kid has a great memory (and I know that will come back to bite me) and he remembered it. So this is a short clip of Rooney singing the spelling of his name and letting everyone know its Rooneytime!

The Monster Within...the House

The other day I was casually walking through our office to let the dogs outside. As I was walking back across the room something caught my eye...this something was something large. I gasped and nearly screamed when I saw the biggest, ugliest and strangest looking spider I had ever seen in real life. I suddenly found myself in a real conundrum. How was I going to get this monster out of the house? There is a small child and two small dogs to protect. I'm sure they would have been small appetizers to this thing! I quickly thought "how do you get rid of such a large spider"? Normal spider eradication means would not work. He was much too large to crush, I was way too afraid to get close enough to capture him and even the thought of vacuuming him up left me uneasy. However, the vacuum method seemed the least likely to go awry and I decided to get him with the shop-vac. I know there is a chance of reemergence but I just couldn't see any other way. I got the shop-vac out and was all prepared to take care of business when I realized he was as big, if not bigger, than the hose opening. It was too close for comfort so I decided to get the wide hose attachment. I mustered up all my courage and put the hose over the beast. He struggled a bit but it appeared he was gone. I was relieved and all the small inhabitants of the house were safe...so I thought.

The very next morning, in the exact same spot, there was either the same spider or his brother came out looking for him. Thankfully Mike was able to handle this one. I don't know if my heart could have handled it. Whoo!


This is also really a bittersweet week for all of us. We've been seeing alot of Grandma and Pop-Pop (which is great) but I am sad to say this is their last week with us. I'm still so amazed how fast the month has gone.

In the last week or so Rooney has spent the night over at Grandma and Grandpa's...twice, had several meals with them (along with Mike and I), we got to go to the fair, had a beautiful trail walk and Rooney finally got his great canoe ride on the lake with Grandma and Pop-Pop. Not that Grandma wasn't excited but Rooney and Grandpa seemed really jazzed. You know what they say about men and their boats (although no one has shared what that is with me). We all have such wonderful memories of this summer, that I think it's safe to say, we are kind of dreading Saturday when they leave us.


Finally, my last update on baby# 2 for awhile. I have been scheduled for minor surgery on October 22nd. Once I am healed from this hopefully we will be able to progress with the program. We will know more about how to proceed next month.

Smashmouth

As promised I have updates from the last blog post. Mike and I had a reconference appointment this week. There was news. I would not really call any of it good but there is alot of it. First, the semi-good news is that the MD believes the PCOS I was diagnosed with over a year ago is a mild case (as I suspected). My OB felt this is the reason that we have been having problems with baby #2, but after having it confirmed that this case is mild, I am dubious. I am quite certain this is something I have had a long time and not a new development. Now for the series of bad news. We appear to have issues on both sides here. It is really almost laughable that we could have obstacle upon obstacle. To further the bad news, the MD believes that I should have surgery to remove a fibroid they found on ultrasound. Earlier this month I had an MRI to find it's exact location and size. Wow that was kind of a weird experience! Anyway, it looks like the size is small but the location is bad. A small percentage of it is basically in the way and the MD's feel it should be removed. I have recreated the exact picture the MD drew for us so you can get a clear idea of what I'm talking about.

I'm sure that explains it all, but if not email me and I'll see if I can draw some more pictures. Mike is going to have to endure some unpleasantness also for his issue and has started to use a pillow when using his laptop. There were also more pills given to me to do various things. The pharmacist was really selling them to me while going over all the possible side effects and grimacing. She ended the lengthy consultation with a happy "I hope you won't have to take these very long". I think I will try to stay positive about this and find her honestly refreshing.

It's not all bad news here though. Since my last post I have run two races. I did a 4+ mile on Labor Day and I completed my first 10k on Sunday. The 10k was pretty tough and the race photographer actually got a picture of the exact moment I died. However they are charging $35 for it so you'll have to use your imagination. I was able to get a picture from the 4+ race though. It's almost sadistic that they take these. Does any one's turn out well? Maybe the marathoners know how to smile while trying to suck in precious air, but I haven't grasped that yet (as evidenced by this picture). If you are really curious I think you can view the 10k photos temporarily here.

Also in the last post I made no mention of Rooney's 2 Grandma's and 1 Pop-Pop visiting. My mom was here for a long weekend but Mike's folks have been here about 3 weeks so far. Rooney really enjoys his time with Grandma and Pop-Pop. I really feel like he has a special bond with Pop-Pop and I love having Rooney spend time with them. On Tuesday night he did his first sleep over with Grandma and Grandpa. I think we were all a little nervous, but Mike and I turned off our cell phones and had a great date night! (Just kidding we didn't turn our phones off for the whole night). I think Rooney had a really wonderful time and wants to do it again real soon.

Finally, yesterday was another first for all the Wades present...we went to the Puyallup Fair. I have lived here 13 years and I have never been. I don't know if it was worth waiting 13 years for, but Rooney had a great time (for most of it). He got to go on alot of rides and really enjoyed them until he smashed his face on one of them. He trooped on to do one more though but by that time the tears had already been shed and so the end of the day had begun. Most of the day was happy times though and here are a few pics. I'll try to post more photos soon on Flickr.

The Specialist

Now that Roonster is going to be 3 soon I am sure many of you are wondering when is little Mike Wade numero dos is going to be announced. I'm not making that announcement today but we have decided to share what has been going on in the sibling department for the last 1-1/2 years. We are having trouble. I'll save you any gory, TMI details but I will share that on August 5th we started seeing "the specialists".

Some people reading this blog may not want to read about this. I've been told this is a "happy blog" so why depress everyone with this unhappy news. I thought about it and just had to decide that this was important to me. This is our blog, our lives and everything we are going through is shaping this family. When I started this blog it was a way for me to document what was going on in Rooney's life (and ours at the time). Even though Roon is not really aware of having a sibling at this time, the difficulty we've had during the past 1-1/2 years has surely effected him. When Mike and I decided to start planning for baby #2, shortly after moving into our new house, several of the moms in our moms group were also planning their 2nd children. Most of those women, two of which are now Organizers for our new group, have become pregnant and already had their children. That was really difficult for us, especially me. It seemed I was coming home every day telling Mike a new person was pregnant. It was not difficult because these women were pregnant with their own children, but because I was waiting every month to make our own announcement, and I have yet to be able to.

Eventually I decided I had to focus on something else and just stop expecting news. We are not exactly sure what the problems are right now. It could be one of us or it could be both, it is still inconclusive. For awhile there, I was so sad about not having a new baby and probably wallowed in it. We don't really know if the reasons we are having problems now were present when Rooney became a bun in the oven, but after we saw the specialists and started having tests done I realized Rooney could be our "miracle" baby. Although I have always loved him more than anything, I realized that despite the difficulty, we really did need relax and focus on him (then ourselves). Accepting that Rooney may be our only child is hard (we're not ready to start thinking about having someone else's child), but thinking we may have been close to a life without him is even harder and makes me love and appreciate him even more.

Now I remind myself that he may be our only one so I better damn well enjoy him and be enjoyable for him!

Follow ups to come