I have a new child

Since Zane's surgery only a few short days ago, he has been the most wonderful boy on the planet. He has not any thrown temper tantrums. He's obeyed each time I've advised him of a "NO" taking place. He's been sweet to his sister and sweet to his mama. Who is this child! Had I known all he needed was his ears fixed and his breathing bettered by adenoid removal, I may have requested these procedures done in utero.



Zane playing alone in the playroom. By himself. Concentrating. Happily. Without whining. There's a first for everything.

I'm so thankful he's not in pain any longer and a happy boy.

sheesh

Her Royal Highness is awake. How is your Monday morning going?

(She created this nest herself, the girl likes comforts)

Surgery: check!

Before Zane's surgery we all went out to dinner at Chili's, he was apparently very excited about finishing his meal.

Then on Friday, we got to the hospital super early, he seemed pretty confused about it all and was in very good spirits. Until he saw nurses. Zane hates nurses*. He knows that when there are beautiful women walking around in scrubs, one of them is going to bring the funk and bring the pain.

He did pretty well, especially when the nurses brought out the bubbles. Blowing bubbles indoors! What a treat!! He got his happy juice cocktail (I wish I had vials of Versed for myself sometimes!) and became as calm as a heavy wet blanket. They wheeled him away and within the hour the doctor was done cutting out his adenoids and popping the tubes in his ears.

The recovery nurses took a while to come and get us in the waiting room. When they finally did, the sweet little nurse had a very odd look on her face. She whisked us back to Zane's area and said that he was having some trouble coming out of anesthesia. Essentially, Zane was having one of his fits. Luckily, I've become quite accustomed to these fits and it was this very type of fit that caused me to dive into the world of surgery to get Zane better.

Once he goes into them, you just have to wait them out. So we did. After an hour of a screaming, wailing, convulsing, bucking up and down child, mama had had enough. My arms were putty, I was beginning to shake from exhaustion from holding onto him.

During this hour long torture session (for everyone) various people tried to help. God love 'em. Look at the light! Look at the toy! Look at the puppy! Distraction works well on most kids, but not mine. Their will is just a tad bit stronger than you can imagine.

The nurses were about to order some morphine for fear that this never ending fit was because he was in pain. But then...

One of the nurses flippantly said..."Zane? Do you want to go home?" ....Zane had been screaming, kicking and punching with his eyes closed and teeth clenched for the past hour. But all of a sudden, he opened his eyes, looked straight into the nurse's face and said. "YES!!!" After about 5 seconds of silence, he started screaming and bucking away again. The nurse said, "He's not in pain! He's just MAD!!!"

That was the cue. IV came out, monitors came off and we were sent out the door. As soon as he saw sunlight, Zane was a happy man. Until he realized he was strapped into a car seat and not back in his crib.

He slept most of the day and then woke up ready to party. He's doing great, rarely a complaint is heard and I think we're going to see a whole new kid on our hands.

Tonight we went out to celebrate with pizza.

"what, do I have some on my face?"

(you can see he's still a bit swollen)

A big thanks to Nana who came in to town to help us out with Miss Lily and we also got a treat by seeing Shirley and Daddy Zane who came over to the house to visit.

* with the exceptions of his Aunts Jodie, Melissa, and Alex.

Day off

Wanna come color?

Today I took the day off with Zane. With the exception of a quick trip to Walmart together (gotta get those air filters changed [stupid pollen]) we just spent most of the day lounging around together. We didn't go to speech therapy, instead we just sat and played. Lily was at school and sometimes it's just nice to "take the day off" and see what life would be like as a mom of only 1 child. Breezy.

Tomorrow is his surgery to put tubes in and take his adenoids out. It should all go smoothly, I'm sure he'll fare better than dad will. I hope the hospital serves cocktails for his sake.

Houston Trip Pt 3 of 3

Well this took me forever to get up, sorry about that.

Sadly I didn't take a single picture at either of the weddings we were at, which was a shame because they were both gorgeous. Mom needs to remember to whip out the camera for things more than just child related.

Here are a few snap shots of the kids at Nana and Pawpaws house...

(Would someone pass me the ball!!!)

Reading and snacking with Pawpaw

Ft. Worth Children's Museum

This morning we headed out to the Ft. Worth Children's Museum with Ms. Katie and Landon. Whew.

So...it was kinda packed. Yay for elementary school field trips?

Zane thought the goal of the grocery section was to slam dunk the food into the basket. He celebrated his victories often.

Lily did the shopping while Zane did the checking out dunking

Theeeeeeeeeeen....he found the touch screen. This kept him occupied for most of our time there. Also, Lily was in the background organizing the blocks that had been spread out everywhere.

As you see older bigger children wanted to also play with it, Zane blocked each one of them out.

Video of them shopping. You can also see cute Landon come into frame near the end in his blue shirt.

Playing with Daddy

1 video broken into two parts

Art Festival

Saturday afternoon we went to the Southlake Art Festival. I didn't have much interest in the art but I did have interest in the pretzels, funnel cakes (FUNNEL CAKES!) and beerwurst sausages.

The kids had a good time and did pretty well holding our hands for the whole thing. I think we only had one "let go of the hand and run off into the massive crowd" moment. So, that's pretty good!

We stopped in the grass to listen to a band playing and have some snacks

It looks sweet but really Daddy is restraining him from running to go dive into the pond.

There were also two ladies with adorable Golden Retrievers there. Zane is getting better about his fear of dogs and wants to be their friend. Lily on the other hand is still not a fan of dogs and when these two came to sit down close to her (as in 20 feet) she cried for a while and was not a happy camper.

....and then Saturday night I went to a drag show with friends for a bachelorette party. Those ladies on stage are phenomenal.

I love Fridays

Because we have no requirements on Fridays and tomorrow is Saturday!

I made this for Lily, so that she could match her colored Easter eggs to the colors in the carton. I expected it would take some time to explain what to do and how to do it. I put it on the floor, took a picture of it and then walked back to the kitchen to put up my camera. My phone rang and I took the phone call. By the time I came back into the playroom, this is what I found. sigh. so much for teaching lesson of the day.

Um? Was this supposed to be challenging or something? Maybe next I could derive the volume of each egg, that would at least require me to break a sweat.

Ya, so what. I like my boots, I'm just ahead of my time in fashion.

Then as things often turn out. Both kids started battling over the little stuffed animal. I mean, we only have 20,800 stuffed animals in this house. But they each wanted this little blue blanket one.

Accepting defeat.

Ok...time for mom to separate the two and make them play in their rooms for awhile.

You wouldn't leave a lady with a baby would ya?

So, duz this mean I cans sleep?

PS: for all of you who have emailed me regarding Zane and his pacifier. Ya...thanks. I get it. I know he's almost two. You forget I live with him.

Our ENT suggested Zane suck on his pacifier a lot right now to help promote the drainage in his ears and the back of his throat. The pacifier is also forcing him to breathe through his nose. Thaaaaaaaaaaaanks for your concern.

A toddler girl

Happy

Smiling

Pretending to be mommy

Clean

sigh, need more lightbulbs before they work.

I decided instead of buying new vanity lights I would just spray paint the old ones in bronze and put new globes on them. How do you like the before and after?

BUT...Zane was able to open my closet door and grabbed the lightbulbs for them. As soon as I saw them I tried to react calmly so he wouldn't smash them together (because he takes wiffle balls and tennis balls and bangs them together in his hands). I sternly told him, Zane, no, put those down! So he did. By throwing them at me.

The lightbulb explosion was enough to scare the ever living daylights out of him, so maybe next time he'll listen.

Time is flyin' by ya!

Sometimes I look back just to see how fast time goes. I can't believe it. ever.

2009: http://valhawthorne.blogspot.com/2009/04/10-months-old.html

2008: http://valhawthorne.blogspot.com/2008/04/28-weeks.html

A portrait of a toddler boy

Do I get dental?

Put together from my garden

They say the job you should have is your hobby and what you love doing. So I guess I should be getting paid for playing with my kids, arranging flowers and adoring animals/rodents/reptiles.

Spring means weed pulling

My garden is in bloom which means so are the weeds. I spent almost 4 hours yesterday yanking the little buggers out. As you can see in the background of the first picture, the rye grass needs some serious manicuring but the lawn people will be on their way soon to limit the field effect we've got going on right now.

You can also see Zane and Lily's little stool that they stand on to help me tend to the plants.

Finally the colors are arriving!

Snowball plant

Roses look good this year. I think the freeze killed a lot of the garden pest bugs

Japanese maple also has great color and I'm still waiting on the iris's back there to bloom out

Houston Trip Pt 2 of 3

Along with hanging out at the zoo and having dinner with friends plus two weddings, me and the kiddos got to hang out with the grandparents!

Here are a few shots from taking the kids to the Children's Museum in Houston as well as a trip to the park with Pop and Neenee.

Neenee guides the daredevil children up the high platforms.

Pop catches one of the said daredevils

Afternoon tea at the Children's Museum with Pop

Neenee also took some time to grab a few quick shots of me and the babies toddlers. Lily was sick that day so she wasn't the best of photo subjects :) Thanks Neenee

(PS: For those of you who don't believe me when I've said that my eyes have turned green since I got pregnant...PROOF)

(PSS: Lily's eyebrows? now you see where the shape comes from...mine are just thinned out in my old age)