At 26 weeks pregnant I started this blog for my son Rooney. The plan was to document feelings, body changes and eventually to share pictures of our son with friends and family. 4 years later, with the addition of Rooney's little sister, Ailbe, we are now sharing the lives of our 2 kiddos. I'm not sure how long this blog will go on for but as long as people are reading we'll keep posting.
There are many moments when you feel proud as a parent but one of the most rewarding (so far) is when you realize your child has learned something you tried to teach them. There are two instances of this happening in this blog post and both happened moments apart.
First moment came when Rooney and I were counting his saved allowance. Roon really wants to buy a Puffle. For awhile now in an attempt to teach Rooney about money, what things cost and what it means to earn something you want we have been giving him an allowance. To buy things he wants he can use his allowance and or add it to a Wish List for birthdays, Christmas etc. We were counting his allowance & I told him he probably needed about $10. As I was counting I told him I thought he just had a little over $5. I didn't catch it at the moment but he replied "Oh this is going to take forever to get 5 more dollars!". I knew he knew some math but I was impressed. Since he didn't have enough money I told him maybe he could earn some. Mike was mowing the lawn so I sent him outside to see if Mike had a job for him to do to earn some moolah. Mike gave him a job of raking which is what Rooney is doing in this pic.
In the meantime Renae texted me to see if Rooney could play with Felix. I figured Rooney's raking job wouldn't be too long so I said sure. When Rooney was done raking Mike said that there really wasn't enough of a job for him to do for $5 but would pay him $1. I told Rooney that Aunt Renae asked if he could play and that maybe he could earn some loot when he got home. Then he had his own great idea he was going to ask Uncle Dana if he had any jobs to earn $4 more dollars!
Last week marked another milestone for Ailbe. This is a milestone that many of us in this Wade house have never reached...our first broken bone.
I recently noticed that Ailbe was starting to throw her leg over her crib rail when I would stand next to the crib. I mentioned to Mike that we should probably drop the mattress down to its lowest level, but since Rooney never really crawled out of his crib (and certainly not at 16mo.) I didn't think too much about it. I even snapped a few pics of her with her leg over because I thought it was kind of funny. Of course it all came back to bite me (and Ailbe) in the ass when last Wednesday after Ailbe was put down for the night Mike heard her crying I don't think she was wailing and normally Mike probably would have let her cry a bit to see if she would console herself, but this time he went in and found her on the floor.
I was in the middle of supervising Rooney in the shower when Mike brought her in. Mike had hurt his forearms in a freak gym accident so when he asked me to unzip her sleep sack I thought it was too help him because he couldn't. Ailbe was kind of crying but I was flipping her around trying to get her out of Mike's arms and trying to unzip the sleep sack for him. I thought he was just going to change her diaper but as I was juggling her around he asked me to look at her elbow and then told me he found her on the floor.
I got her out of her sack and checked her arm. I noticed she was grabbing her taggie blanket and pacifier. She was holding onto me but was also grabbing her right hand with her left. I kept inspecting but it did not appear anything was broken. I was going to take her to the ER, then I wasn't, then I was, then I wasn't. I just wasn't sure. Eventually I decided to wait until the morning because she could move her hand & grab things so I thought maybe it was just sore and/or bruised. Rooney had the longest shower of his bathing career and Ailbe went down for the night.
The next morning when I noticed she was reluctant to use her right hand to help herself stand up I decided to see the MD. Pip was not crying too much and at times she would giggle. I still wasn't sure if anything was broken but I thought she might come home with a splint or the MD might say that she had a hairline fracture in her hand. It was a long afternoon at the MD's but after a couple of x-rays it turns out Pip broke both the bones in her wrist. She ended up with a cast on her right arm that extends from above her elbow to the first digit on her fingers. After the first afternoon Ailbe stop noticing the cast (and stopped walking in circles) and may have even found some benefits to it such as bopping Rooney on the head.
Cast Shmast. What broken wrist? As you can see from the video below she's adapting pretty well. Only 3 more weeks to become a permanent lefty.
What can't a little 3M Scotch tape and a 5 year olds ingenuity create? Rooney came in at 7:30am to share this little gem of an idea with us. There were doubters in the house but Rooney knew better.
I was taking a random video of Ailbe here. She does alot of cute things so sometimes I remember to get my camera and sometimes she continues to do the cute thing I got the camera for. I can't remember what she was doing for me to take this video but after rewatching it I am pretty sure she said the word "banana". I didn't catch it at the time and even correct her (which I feel like a jerk for now) but see if you can catch it.
Ailbe decided to take a little break from her hour long snack session to draw a little picture. Right now her drawings are just a series of lines but she seems to be doing a great job holding the crayon and her first impulse was not to put it in her mouth. Just her second.
Rooney is ongoing in his swimming lessons. Here he is demonstrating his fabulous backstroke. He does such a great job when he is in class. In swimming and karate I can see the difference in his maturity. Makes a Momma proud!
Last week I wrote about AMAT's Drop In Art Class. Today we went again, just me and Ailbe, to make drip paint heart garlands for Valentine's Day. Pip really loved using the little dropper we used to drip the color and she also loved trying to dip her little fingers in the color too! We did dress for a mess but thankfully we didn't have any spills. We did have a tumble however, off the chair Ailb's was standing on. She brushed it off no prob. Ailbe is battling a cold and even though she was obviously not feeling up to par no amount of snot could stop her from her beautiful craft.
Pip did a great job and now her crafts can be posted on the art wall right next to her big bro's.
Today was going to Momma and Ailbe day @ Creative Mom Toys but a resurgence of Rooney's cough kept him out of preschool and made it a family outing (almost). AMAT recently set-up a Storytime and Art/Craft drop-in with some friends and their businesses. I am excited about expanding our group into the surrounding businesses because I feel this could be a baby step into more family friendly places and giving the valuable resource of the local moms more of a voice in the community. Plus we get to do something really fun with our kids. Here Rooney, Ailbe and I are making Chinese Dragon crafts for the Chinese New Year.
This is a picture of the first time Rooney and Ailbe were swinging together. I thought it was sweet because the time is starting, although probably brief, where they can actually start playing together.
Not only was this last birthday really special for Rooney and Ailbe since they were turned 5 and 1 respectively but they also had a whole lot of grandparents out visiting. Grandma and Grandpa Wade happened to be out for their annual visit to the lake house and Great Grandma and Grandpa Morse also happened to be out to visit Grandma Peggie in her new house. We all had a lovely visit and I'm not really sure if this type of get together will ever happen again so hopefully Rooney will somewhat remember it. He still remembers his visit to Chicago about 4 years ago. This is due in most part to a solar powered butterfly Grandma and Grandpa Morse had in their backyard. He calls it a robot butterfly. He was also convinced for a long time that Grandma Peggie lived in a red house because she happened to be there during our visit. But thanks to my due diligence this picture was taken and the family trees can somewhat be explained since the start of most of our branches are in this picture.
This year we have some really special birthday milestones to celebrate. This month Rooney is turning 5 and Ailbe is turning 1. I know it has been a constant theme throughout this blog me asking where the time has gone, and still I am wondering. Rooney is becoming such a big boy and I am so proud of him. He had been through a lot the last 2 years with my pregnancy. He just rolled with it and adored his little sister once she was born. I am constantly reminded what a great kid he is by the sweet things he says and does and fully realize just how lucky we are to have him. This is our final year of buddying around and I think I'll miss the little guy when he starts school next Fall.
This birthday party at Flying Pie Pizzeria for the kids was really special for us because not only is Rooney turning 5 but we get to celebrate a whole year with Ailbe. I know a lot of people think it is silly to have a party for a 1 year old but when I think about all the trouble we had getting Ailbe here and now she's been here a whole year it is definitely worth celebrating. I can't imagine life without her anymore and she really rounded out this little family. We wanted to have a party not only to celebrate Roon and Pip's birthdays but also a little celebration for all our friends that really helped us out and made it alot easier to bring Ailbe home. I don't think I was able to convey that during the party so hopefully everyone there gets to read this.
Lastly, this celebration was really great because Rooney and Ailbe had several of their grandparents present as well. Grandma and Grandpa Wade were still here from their annual summer visit to Lake Morton and Great Grandma and Grandpa Morse were visiting from Chicago. Plus Grandma Peggie lives here now and I don't know when that will/would ever happen again. So many reasons to celebrate. We are going to have small "on the day" birthday parties for both the kids but for now I'm going off to cry about losing my babies...
Today Rooney, Ailbe and I met some friends at the new Microsoft Visitors Center. They took out the cool museum they used to have and added a visitors center where people can get hands on with video games and a few other neat features. Rooney had a great time trying to play some of the games and just being able to get his hands on some of the gadgets that Mom won't let him play with at home (like her phone!). We didn't see Daddy but we were able to get Rooney a security badge just like his Dad's.
Overall September was a pretty exciting month for us. So many visitors and several adventures. Before Grandma and Grandpa leave we wanted to do something kind of touristy and something we have not done before. So yesterday we went downtown to Ride the Ducks and had a fun family day. The tour was kind of like a booze cruise without the booze but it was enjoyable. We got to hear
alot of corny jokes from the Captain, Rooney got to wear some silly hats and we got to cruise around town in a amphibious vehicle. Ailbe entertained several of the other passengers dancing in her Ergo while we cruised around town to YMCA. She's proving to be a little ham just like her big brother.
The next day, Grandma and Grandpa watched the kiddos for Mike and I while we went with Grandma Peggie, Aunt Annie and Uncle Dana to climb a rope obstacle course. We had a great time and really got to test ourselves physically. Maybe even psychologically since we were 50ft off the ground. Having the rope course set up right outside of Redhook Brewery also help to ensure that we had a nice if you know what I'm saying. In September the weather can always be iffy here in the PNW but as you can see we really lucked out. This was a great summer and the last two days were a really nice way to wrap it up.
This weekend Aunt Kristi and Uncle Andy came out for a visit while Grandma and Grandpa are here. Last time we saw Kristi and Andy both Kristi, Kim and I were expecting. We finally got to see the kids new cousin Lexy. Rooney was moderately excited but I was excited to see Lexy and Ailbe together since they are only 5 weeks apart. They seemed to be little buddies right away. It's unfortunate that we cannot all live in the same area, let alone the same state, because it would be so great to have Ailbe, Lexy and Tori able to grow up together due to closeness in age (and being cousins!). The picture of Ailbe and Lexy are of their first meeting and we finally got a picture of the 3 girls together right before people had to leave. This is the family shot that Grandpa used for the Christmas cards. Rooney had some goofy thing going on in all the pics and at least all the adults are looking at the camera and smiling in this one so it was the winner!
Today Rooney started his second year of preschool. He is pretty excited and asked me several times during the summer "Why can't we go to preschool during the summer?". I really hope that his excitement for school doesn't wane after kindergarten like it did for a lot of us. Roon will be going three days a week this year. Hopefully that is enough time for Mom to get in some workouts but I've found from last year 2-1/2hrs just isn't much time to get much done. Fingers crossed he'll get into all day kindergarten next year!
Grandma and Grandpa Wade are here! Grandma and Grandpa Wade are here! On the 4th Jim and Liz drove into town. Their Prius was stuffed to the gills (I don't really know this) and they coasted into town. Rooney is always excited when Grandma and Grandpa come to town because I think he has really good memories of the lake house. He talks about it often and knows that it is located near Nannie's (Aunt Annie's) house. The last couple of years they have talked about renting a different house but for whatever reason it hasn't worked out and they stick with their usual. It's a great house and truthfully when they finally do rent a different house I think we'll all be a little sad. The weather this summer is not as good as last year and I don't anticipate much swimming in the lake for us this year but the ducks are still there and presumably the canoes as well so the kids can still have fun on the water.
On the 10th was Rooney's preschool orientation. Roon got to see all his old school friends and actually remembered a few of their names! Parker was there so that's all that really mattered and they reconnected with their beloved Tinkertoys.
Lastly today I ran my second Iron Girl 10k. I finally feel like I'm getting back into running shape and the race felt good. I tried very hard to pace myself this race, but maybe a little bit too much. I finished the race in 1:03:03. I was aiming for under 1 hour and I feel I could have done it but I kind of stopped paying attention to my time and was kind of people watching. For some reason the last quarter mile seem to come up on me and I decided to kick it up a notch. I shaved 4 minutes or so off my previous time so for several reasons this race really felt good to do again. Tomorrow starts my running group that I am doing with AMAT. Not sure what I was thinking starting it the day after my race but I'm excited to be able to run with Ailbe while she's still light and hopefully get some other moms involved in running.
This summer was great! We really enjoyed having our pool membership, Rooney's swim team, Casey, Aiden and Becky's visits, getting back into running shape and the late summer days. The only regret I have is that we weren't able to have as many BBQ's as I originally planned. I thought this year we would do alot of entertaining since last summer my social calendar was changed to bed rest. We never really even had a chance to work on the backyard like I wanted but we did get the front yard in shape so at least we had curb appeal. The pool isn't officially closed yet but the weather says it is. That makes us a little sad but we do have Grandma and Grandpa Wade's visit to look forward to and the kids will finally get to meet their new cousin Lexy (along with seeing Aunt Kristi and Uncle Andy) when they come out to Grandma & Grandpa's lake house. Ailbe and Lexy are only 5 weeks apart so it will be kind of fun to see how they are together.
I know! I know! It's been months since I've updated. It's not that I haven't been thinking of you it's just don't know where the time goes.
Luckily I have been taking pictures the whole time and thanks to Blogger's Post Options I can go back in time and create posts in real time. Sometimes technology is so cool.
At the end of August we had a great treat. The kids Uncle Casey (my younger brother) and their cousin Aiden came for a visit. The last time Rooney or I had seen Aiden was over Thanksgiving nearly 5 years earlier. Both the boys have changed alot. The day Aiden came Rooney and I were actually scheduled to go fishing with AMAT so I asked Casey and Aiden if they wanted to come along. Casey being a vegetarian decided not to come along (I don't really know if that was the reason but it seemed like a good one) but to my delight Aiden and Felix decided they would. It was great to have all 3 boys together. Rooney and Felix fell right in with adoring Aiden and I got a chance for a little one on one and to get to know him a little better. What a great kid! During the week Casey and Aiden were here we were able to do alot of "family activities". It was kind of nice to have a visitor with a kid because all the kid activities we normally do translated pretty well and since Mom, Annie and Dana were working some of those days we weren't always trying to coordinate 12 people. We were able to go bowling, play miniature golf, spend the day in Seattle at the EMP/Science Fiction Museum (I've never been there!) and of course a couple of family BBQ's. We had such a great visit with Casey and Aiden it was really hard to have them leave. Thankfully I think this visit opened the door to more visits and I think they're due up here again this winter. Can't wait to see 'em!
