Quick Rant About Ears

Poor Sarah, she is on her 2nd month of ear infections - basically since February, she has been on antibiotics for ear infections. She also has conjunctivitis - Pink Eye. Poor, sweet girl, today she had a shot of Rocephin - awful stuff - she was a champ though, always is, I'm sure it's all the fat on her thighs that helps, and the Elmo sticker that she got!

 I am so tired of ear infections, I could scream - as much as Sarah does! Anyhow, she will be heading to the ENT soon for an evaluation for tubes - hopefully that will help this poor girl! I'm pretty sure I also have an ear infection, just trying to ride it out myself. Anyways, I don't think ears were designed when we had so many "super bugs" going around (obviously), I am just questioning this "intelligent design"! Don't you think there would be some kind of evolution of the ear that would prevent this. Maybe my kid was passed over on that! 

OK, I'm done ranting and raving. 

Sweet Boy

So, as some of you know we are going to be moving in May, to another place, in Portland. It's been a hard decision for us, but we found a cute place, with 3 bedrooms and it's close to our friends (Amber and Josh and the Brink family) and in a great neighborhood (Multnomah Village)! Plus, it makes good financial sense, so we are doing it. I have been nervous and anxious about moving, mostly because of the change on the kids - mostly Jakob - but I know he'll be fine.

Before I told Jakob about the move, I was making dinner and he said:

"Mommy did you know there are kids in other countries that don't even have food. They ask their Mommy for food and their Mommy says that they are sorry that they don't have food and they are hungry too." "Isn't that so sad Mommy."

Me: "Yes, Jakob that is really sad,  we are very lucky to live where we live."

Jakob: "Yep, that's why people want to move from their country to ours, to have food."

Me: "That's right honey." "Aren't you glad we live here and that we have all the choices of things to eat, where to live, and jobs to pay us to buy food."

Jakob: "Yeah"

Me: "Jakob, we are going to have an adventure, we are going to be moving to another house, the one we saw over the weekend."

Jakob:"Oh, that's ok with me, we will have stairs and the park is close to us there, and we will have Joe (the neighbor who showed us the place, who is very nice)"(Jakob actually looking at the postive part of the move - so great). "We will need to put everything in boxes and in a truck (how he knew that, I don't know, maybe from a TV show?)."

"Will we take Roxy...will we take this (the kitchen sink)...will we take Sarah...will she sleep in my room still?"

Me: "Of course we will take Sarah and Roxy - you goofball! Do you want Sarah to sleep in your room?"

Jakob: "Yep, I need to be there with her to help her, she might be sad from moving, but I will protect her."

Me: "Jakob, we could live anywhere and be happy anywhere, as long as we are all together, right?"

Jakob:"Yeah Mommy, even if we were in a tent, we are family."

Me: Eyes watering now, "That's right sweet pea."

So, we are in the mindset of packing and moving, wish us luck!! I know it's not our ideal place, but it will be great - especially for visitors as we have an extra bedroom now!!  I think my kids will do just fine and we'll survive the great recession of 09!

Happy Easter!

We had a nice and fun filled Easter Weekend, beginning with egg dying on Friday and Saturday nights (Auntie Amber helped on Saturday night). Jakob and Ian had swim lessons Saturday morning, followed by yet another Birthday party! Today, the Easter bunny came to our house in the morning, dropped off a few things and then made a second surprise visit to the Brink's house, where we had dinner. 

Peter, Ian and Dillon's Daddy, had a great project for the kids to do outside (bubble making, complete with Dry Ice, which somehow made the bubbles able to be held), it was raining so this was done on the porch. Jakob, didn't want to partake in the bubble holding (not surprising as he is much like his Daddy and doesn't like anything gooey in his hands), but he had fun watching. While they were outside the Easter bunny snuck in and hid some things for the kids. Julie (Ian's Mom), said she saw a white tail hopping out of the house, I wish I had a camera for the kids faces - they were so surprised and so determined to find that Easter bunny, they ran straight for the back door and looked around, but the bunny was gone! He left some great things behind though!

Egg Dying

Serious concentration
Auntie Julie, has the best head bands!!


Ian holding some bubbles!

Finding some treats!


The whole gang, showing off their loot! (Jakob and Ian got butterfly nets - which of course were used for many other things)

Wishing everyone a wonderful holiday and cheers to Spring!!

Sweet, sweet girl

It was 76 degrees here today, almost a record! Of course it felt like 85, since it's been in the 50's everyday, our poor bodies aren't used to such wonderful weather!
Sarah and I were home today, took lots of walks, planted some plants and enjoyed walking in the grass barefoot - well kind of! Sarah didn't like it at first, but got used to it. She also didn't like wearing a dress without pants or tights or baby legs under it, she kept pulling her dress down over her knees saying "Oh No", but she got used to it pretty quickly.

Sarah, trying to fight the sun hat, before she realizes what her feet are on!
Immediately sitting down, once she feels the grass on her bare feet. She also had a bite of our fertilizer with her pretzel - didn't like that much either - you can see some dirt on her chin. I wish I would have caught a picture of her face with the dirt on her tongue, it was hysterical!
Later in the day, with shoes and socks on getting ready for a walk to the park, with a quick inspection of our flowers. 
Cutie pie!

Video of her running like mad, down our street. 

Hurray for the sunshine!

The sun has finally come out in Portland, and so have the people! Not too sure what to wear or how to feel without having to wear a hat or long sleeves! We actually got a bit of a sunburn on our faces - totally worth it!

Jakob had a big weekend, 1st swim class of the spring session, a bowling birthday party and he decided he would ride his bike without training wheels! He rode quite a bit this weekend without the training wheels, to the park, New Seasons Market and around the neighborhood. He's really getting the hang of it, only a couple falls so far (and I'm glad we put the elbow pads on for those). He really just needs help getting started now.

Taking the training wheels off.


Taking off, no problem!
Found some ladybugs at the park - Spring is here for sure!
Showing the ladybug to Sarah

Racing with Mommy at the park
Oh, checking in on the status of the bellybutton.
Throwing sticks for Roxy
Here's to more sunshine, hopefully it will hold out for Easter!

Missing Nana!

Nana left on Sunday, Sarah got diagnosed with a third ear infection on Monday morning, and we are all tired and in need of Nana's cooking and cuddling!! Seriously, Jakob got a bit spoiled with the cuddling - but that's what Nana's are for!

Here are a few pics I took of Nana and the kids - many failed attempts at a nice picture of her with the kids!

Nana - pitching to Jakob!

Nana showing Sarah the "baby" on the camera - really Sarah is pointing to the picture of herself!
Out walking/riding
Independent Women!
Nana and grandkids - Attempt 1 (trying to distract Sarah by feeding the ducks, she was not enthused)
Attempt 2 - seriously, look at poor Sarah (probably had the ear infection starting this day), and do you think Jakob could possibly look up at the camera!

Love you Nana, sorry we didn't get a good pic of you with the kids - but we have the memories and all the pictures definetly show their personality and age!

Ice Skating

We had a special date night with Jakob tonight, his first time away with Mommy and Daddy - without Sarah in a very long time. We took him ice skating, quite the experience. Jakob went from not being able to walk on the carpet in his skates to skating without using the wall, we are very proud of him. He only fell a few times, luckily he was wearing his mittens, (helped to cushion the inevitable fall). The great thing I figured out with ice skating is, if you are freaking out and whining, you just need to calm your body down and you'll be ok - so I used that a lot "Stop whining, calm your body down and you'll be fine," and he was. Also, pointing out people that aren't doing as well as him, helped too - not as nice, but it did boost his confidence seeing the 20 year old guy gripping the wall and falling!
About an hour into our ice skating, the Zamboni came out - quite exciting for Jakob to watch. Then there was a little performace by a young girl (9 or 10 years old). As she started her routine, she did one spin and Jakob yells "WOW!"
Then he says, "Mommy, does everyone get to take a turn by themselves after her?" (There are at least 75 people standing around waiting to get out on the ice)
Me:"No, honey, you have to be a very good person to get out there and do that."
J:"But, I am a good person."
Me:"Oh, I mean you have to be a good ice skater."
J:"I am a good skater, now."
Me:"You are getting to be good, but can you do what she does?"
J:"Oh, no. Can we go skate some more?"

First steps on the ice

Moving along the wall!

Getting braver!
No hands on the wall!

Jakob's special after ice skating treat! His first McDonald's soft serve cone - yes his 1st, (he has had one other soft serve, I think from Dairy Queen). Oh and yes, he ate the whole thing!

Jakob asked in the car, "When can I go ice skating again?" I am so happy that he wants to do it again and that it wasn't a traumatic experience!!