Koen Update

No pictures to share today (I always feel bad when I do a post without any entertainment!).

Anyways, Koen slept until almost 11am after the 3am laydown. That was a relief that he could sleep. He had a good dose of normal energy for an hour or two, but it quickly faded away. He was asking to go to sleep by 1:30pm and I asked him if he wanted to read books and he said, "no." Now, you know Koen doesn't feel like himself when he doesn't want to read books (or have the 5 steps to the ever-extending lay-down routine).

Koen slept a solid 3 hours. Tavin took great naps today too. Each were about an hour and a half. Tavin and I actually had a lot of just us time due to Koen's sleep-in, early nap lay-down and long nap. Anyways, I'm just in love with that precious baby. I wish and pray that this sweet stage could just last a whole year. He is so happy, easy to please, sweet and happy all the time. The kid still has disgusting gallons of snot oozing from his nose all day long and he is still such a joy to be with. I am so blessed by him. I am blessed by Koen too, in so many ways, but Tavin's age just makes him so easy in comparison to the sometimes trying/testing times of the 3-year-old phase.

So, that's us in a nutshell. I have a lot of crusty snot on my clothes, but I did manage a shower and my hair is clean (although unruly, this short haircut is not as easy to leave down as I had hoped), the boys are both sleeping, the house is in stable condition and I am getting a few things done before I finally crash into bed (hopefully by 9:30/10pm). I survived a day with my sweet sick boys on only a few hours of sleep. Thank you, Lord!!!!

The Cold that Won't Quit!!!

Tavin has had a bad cold/virus since 5 days or so before our West Virginia trip, so that puts us at like 2 and 1/2 weeks of waxing and waning runny nose, cough and congestion. Ugh. Well, now, Koen has joined the sick party and yesterday he developed the runny nose and today it was really obvious.

Both boys were disturbed by their coughs during their afternoon naps and they woke up early. It is a gorgeous, warm Fall day here today, so I took advantage of another opportunity to walk (we already walked to the library after Tavin woke up early from his morning nap due to coughing). I took the boys for a quick trip to the playground closeby with swings. Both boys got their own time on the swing. When I was pushing Koen, Tavin was cracking up as I let him pretend to push him and Koen got a kick out of it too. When I put Tavin in the baby swing, Koen insisted on pushing him. That made me nervous as Koen's physical attention towards Tavin has gotten more aggressive lately, but thankfully he had great self-control and did a good, albeit shaky job.

So, back to these colds... Tavin laid down fine although coughed and did cry a little bit. Koen also laid down pretty well, but at around 10pm he woke up violently barking/coughing...croup. He was having such a hard time breathing he couldn't even swallow his own saliva. Poor little guy! He was shaking from the experience. We tried the steam approach, but after about 20 mins. or more, we found that wasn't making a difference. So, then I took him outside for another 20 mins. Unfortunately, that didn't make a difference either. We called our friend, Megan, who is a doctor, and she suggested we bring him to the ER if when he was calm we could hear "strider." We totally could hear it, so I took him to the ER around 11pm.

It was packed at the ER, so it took until about midnight until we were seen by a doctor. They immediately decided to give Koen the steroids and the breathing treatment. Koen was super sweet, laid back and exhausted before the meds. But you should see him now! He is hyped up on the drugs and overtiredness and it is intense! Thankfully, it sounds like we should be going home in 30 mins. or so. Here's hoping that we are sleeping in our own beds soon!

A Brother Moment

Tavin in the last week has discovered rolling his head back and forth against a surface like the changing table or the back of the highchair, etc. It's really cute. If I mimic it, he gets a big kick out of it. He was doing it yesterday during dinner and Koen joined in. I had to grab my camera. I suggest muting this video as I am just cracking up and frankly, it's embarassing listening to myself! I need to remember to be quiet when I'm videotaping!!

Musical Morning

Alliterated blog post titles today!!

Anyways, this morning we had to get out of the house at 8am! It absolutely kills me to wake the kids up early, but it was totally worth it. This morning the kids were scheduled to do a 2 song performance at church. The rehearsal was at 8:15am (they've been practicing in KidzChurch too). Koen was a zombie! I had to wake him up a few minutes before 8am to get him dressed. When we first got there he was acting all shy, scared and very tired. I had to get on stage with him to get him up there and practicing (that was embarassing, but thankfully it was just practice). By the end of the run-throughs, Koen started warming up to the idea and getting more into it. After practice he went downstairs with all the other kids to wait for their cue. When he came back up in his little line of friends, he was awake, alert and cooperative! He was very sweet (as you will see in the photos & videos) during the songs trying to sing and do the motions.


Doug shared a Scripture before their songs. It was cute to see Daddy up there and Koen standing among the kids. Just a little glimpse of our life at this very moment.

Homecoming Here

It was Homecoming Weekend up at Grove City College this weekend. Doug and I weren't able to go up there for weekend festivities this year (although Doug did teach at the All Campus Homecoming Chapel on Wednesday night). Since it was Homecoming though, my dear friend Sarah, her husband, Rich, and her sweet baby boy (also Rich) were in town. They came down for dinner and my friend, Kelly and her 3 kids also joined us (Kelly, Sarah and I all became friends at Grove City in our freshman year).

It is crazy to get together and reminisce about a time that feels like ages ago as we are all now surrounded by spouses and lots of kids! The college days were great, but it is also such a blessing to look and see where the Lord has brought us to now and the amazing children we've all been blessed with.

Koen fit right in with Kelly's kids, Kendall, Jackson and Katie. I actually think that Jack and Koen look a little alike. Jack was sweet, he used Koen's bristle blocks to build him a house, a car, a church and a playground so that Koen would be amazed by his workmanship when he woke up this morning. Koen definitely appreciated it!

Sarah's little boy, Richard, is a sweetheart! Here he is meeting Tavin. His facial expression is basically the same as Tavin's at that point. Tavin was at the end of his day and overwhelmed by all the people I think and poor Richard had spent a crazy day out and about with his parents at GCC. The little guy did great though and was calm and happy most of the evening. He is so sweet!

I love special times with friends, my only regret from last night is that I forgot to get a picture of us 3 girls together. Oh well, maybe next time!

Daddy & His Boys

I went out this morning to go to a baby shower for a dear friend. This last Douglas with the boys again. He rose to the challenge. Before I even left the house a few minutes after 9am, he was loading them into the double stroller for a walk to the coffee shop down the street. Tavin enjoyed some Toasted O's, Koen had his "fizzy" juice (Izze) and Doug had his coffee fix. Doug does so well with getting it all together and having a successful outing. I have to say, Koen was quite helpful in getting them out too. He put together their toys to take to the coffee shop and he also tried to help me with the present I was putting together. When I told him that I didn't need his help he said, "sorry, Mommy, I was just trying to help you get out of the house."

After the coffee shop, Doug continued their adventure to the playground. Tavin really enjoyed being able to crawl around on the rubber turf and that freed Doug up to play with Koen. Perfect!

While Tavin napped, Koen and Doug made soup for dinner tomorrow night. After that, he and Doug made "ants on a log" and Koen loved it!

I got home around lunchtime and Doug was out entertaining both boys in the backyard and had already prepared lunch for he and Koen. Not too shabby! Good work, Daddy!

Summer Lives On

I have to show off my amazing roses. Our bushes from last year have produced "wild-like" blossoms all Spring/Summer/Fall, but our new bushes seemed to be done months ago, but have experienced a re-birth in the past few weeks. Anyways, the last 2 mornings have been so beautiful that I ventured into the backyard to pick the flowers that were ready. Aren't they gorgeous with the morning sunshine streaming in? (This post is mostly for Mom and my Mom-in-law, they are garden-lovers!).

-Am