A Not-So-Silent Ninja!

We had a great Halloween weekend! We started off at the pumpkin patch Saturday afternoon and had our pick of the leftover pumpkins! Troy is great friends with a guy whose family owns the patch so after the big festivities, they let us come over and wander through and grab up what we like! We got about 15 beautiful pumpkins of all sizes and had a blast making it through the vines!

This year we carved a cool spider pumpkin! Daniel picked out the pattern!

For Halloween Daniel was a Ninja with 4 swords on his back! He made sure to tell everyone he had 4 swords, two short and two long! We trick or treated until Daniel finally told Troy he couldn't walk anymore and then he handed me his pumpkin.

Enjoy the pics!

The Wedding – October 16, 2010

I can hardly believe that my little sister who is 13 years younger than me got married his past weekend!!  She was always the baby (which she’s always hated, but has always managed to use to her advantage) and it seems hard to believe how grown up she is now.

I thought today I would just share some photos from the wedding.

(On a side note – today Troy and I celebrated 14 years of marriage – WOW!)

     Just Pronounced Man and Wife!

Troy gave her away.  They’ve been like brother and sister for 14 years, and fought like it too, but you know Troy would do anything for her!!  (And he did give Brett “the speech”.  The same one my father delivered to him, the day he married me!

Cassandra is holding a photo of my dad!  He was there is spirit!

   Daniel was sure to dance with the Bride!           

We were doing the Mocarena and Daniel charged up and down the line checking us all out.  He had everyone in stitches!

For fun – here is one of me on my wedding day, October 19, 1996, with my little sister as the flower girl – my how things have changed!

Medical Update

Yesterday we had some follow ups for Daniel's ongoing medical condition. The news is pretty much status quo. Perfect right kidney, swollen left kidney, and over-sized bladder. I'm coming to the realization that that is what they expect to see and that is about as good as it will get. Since his left kidney can never actually take a few days, weeks or months off to heal, like a sick person could, it won't actually have the chance to heal completely.

Personally I thought it looked a tad better than before and the doctor agreed that it might be a smidge better. As for Daniel's bladder, basically we're in the "he just needs to grow" stage. Daniel needs to grow bigger and older and have an understanding of a bladder and the fact that he just can't speed pee to get back to his toys.

I can hear the choruses of "Good luck with that one" now!! Believe me, I know!!

They have one more large sedated test to do, which they have mentioned several times. The doctor finally agreed that we should schedule it in the New Year or early spring "for completeness" in his words. If they don't find anything unusual, which they don't expect to, then we might actually be DONE, as in released from the urologist!!

Are we done with the issue entirely? No way.

We will have to be diligent in continuing to potty train and getting Daniel to understand his issues. He still leaks in between potty breaks (unless highly motivated) and we are trying to curtail that without so much bribery now. We will have to watch him for urinary tract infections and teach him to recognize the signs as he begins to want privacy from us (which we see starting already). Daniel will have to have regular blood pressure check ups and we'll have to monitor his kidney on some level, maybe once a year.

Thanks for all the prayers and support!! I'll update about the next test when we get dates.

Busy Two Weeks

I would like to ask for prayers for our family as we embark on a very, very busy two weeks. First of all, next week is Daniel's medical appointment. While it is just a follow up and what I call an "easy appointment" being an ultrasound and visit with the doctor, it is still stressful as it changes my work schedule, Daniel's school schedule and I still worry every time we go.

This weekend is very busy because my best friend and her husband are coming for the weekend for her high school reunion and at the same time I have a thousand things to do Friday for my little sister's wedding next week. Saturday she'll be with me most of the day as we do a mini bachelorette party at my house (just hanging out).

Then the following weekend is the BIG DAY! On the 16th, my little sister will marry the man of her dreams and Brett will become part of our family. We're ALL in the wedding. I'm a bridesmaid, Daniel the ring bearer, and Troy gets to give her away! My dad will be sorely missed on this occasion. This has been a tough month for all of us as we just passed his birthday about a week ago, and this month he will have been gone 3 years.

However, Troy is prepared to give Brett the same speech my father gave him. It goes something like this:

"All sales are final. No returns or exchanges allowed."

That was so my dad!!

That weekend proves to be crazy busy. I have several out of town guests at the house. Friday is rehearsal, decorating the church, etc. and Saturday the big day. I'm leaving Daniel entrusted to the care of my best friend and his grandparents to get him ready and to the church on time so I can spend some time with my little and big sisters before the wedding.

Thank you for your prayers.

Road Trip!

This past weekend Daniel and I took a road trip to Pennsylvania and visited my college room mate from more years ago than I like to mention. You might remember her from one of our baby showers, but we had not had the opportunity to visit together since.

Since she lives so close to Herhsey Park and was able to score free tickets for everyone, including her 3 children and a free parking pass we made a day of it on Saturday!

Daniel had such a wonderful time. We had never taken him anywhere like this before so I wasn’t 100% sure how he would do on the rides.

The verdict: 50/50

He seemed to enjoy the rides that went in circles, but the up down rides he didn’t care for - in particular the pirate ship and the Frog Hopper – which he actually started crying on and they had to stop the ride. However in his defense, on the Frog Hopper, the kids were screaming and Daniel plays into that and he got very upset once the screaming began. I’ve noticed that behavior before with him. If there had been no screaming, I think he would have been fine!

He loved the Chocolate World ride and he must have told me a hundred times that he wanted to swim in the vats of chocolate! Can you blame him?!?!

Once the kids settled into bed, Sarah and I did what we used to do in college at night – we played cards!!! Rummy in particular! She beat me – but only by 5 points in the first game!!

We had a great visit and were sad to leave, but we’ll be heading back up there again soon we hope!

So without further ado…

New Fears

Daniel has been fearless as long as I can remember, but as of late he seems to be recognizing that he is not indestructible and some new fears have been coming to the surface.

First off, suddenly he is terrified of the bath tub filling up too high. It can be an inch deep now and he suddenly stands up and cries for me to turn the water off. This is the same boy who LOVES to be tossed into a pool at rates of speed and turning radiuses that make my head spin. I've explained that the water can only go so high (if we let it, which we don't) before it would spill out anyway and that he is bigger than the tub, but he's not having any of it. If I distract him enough, and sit right at the edge, he'll let me fill it so there is at least more than an inch of water. However, last night I gave up and re-introduced him to the fun of showering. He seemed much happier…this from a child who HATED a shower just a month ago.

Second, we went to the park this past Monday and I was pushing him on a swing. I gave him the usual treatment, meaning I pushed him higher and higher and all the sudden it was mayhem. "I did not ask you to push me that high." "Stop pushing me Momma." "Too high." Those were some of the high pitched sentences I could understand coming out of his mouth. He did want to stay on the swing, but only be pushed to a moderate-slow level.

Third, I took Daniel to a Karate lesson. It was a private lesson I won through a competition at our local mall. I thought it would be a neat thing to try and since it was a one-on-one lesson, I just knew we couldn't go wrong. We walked in and some black belts were practicing and making all the appropriate karate noises. Daniel was fascinated, but he clung to me like glue and hid behind me while I filled out the paperwork. This from the child who wrestles non-stop with his daddy. We went to a private room with a male instructor who was great. He was loud, authoritative, knew his stuff and he was fun. I liked him right away. Daniel, on the other hand, was shy, kept looking at me, couldn't focus on the instructor long enough because he had to check to make sure I hadn't disappeared on him (as in every 5-10 seconds) and just stood there like we were all crazy. Needless to say, we'll be foregoing karate this year and may try to reintroduce it next year, if he's interested.

It's an interesting mix of new fears and I'm guessing it's just a stage which will pass!

A Giveaway - But Hurry!

On My Other Blog I'm giving away a $5.00 CVS gift card to one lucky reader! Hop on over and leave me a comment and you just might win! But hurry - the Giveaway ends tomorrow night and I'll be announcing the winner on Friday on the blog! Good luck!