Busy!!!

Things are going well.  Ok, as well as they can when you have 3 small kids and a 10 week old puppy at home.  It’s Easter break this week and I’m guessing Kathie will probably go crazy fairly soon.

Braden continues with his gross and fine motor skills therapy sessions twice a week.  He is already getting tan from playing outside!  He loves playing with all his friends and (sometimes) his sister.  His birthday is next Monday and he’ll be five.  He’s very excited.

Emma is a constant:  A constant roller coaster of emotion.  She can be the sweetest girl one minute and a screaming devil child the next.  She’s very smart and I think she takes advantage of our lack of constant discipline at times.  Wait, I meant to say consistent there.  No, actually, with her it’s probably constant.  But I mostly joke about Emma and her fits.  She really is a sweet girl.  Her latest thing is pretending to be a baby, a momma or a daddy.  “I’m not Emma!  I’m a baby. Waahhhh”

Alex has had a rough week or so.  He hasn’t been feeling quite himself and we suspect it’s new teeth coming, but really aren’t sure.  No fever or other symptoms.  He’s just cranky a lot.  Ok, a lot for him… because he still is a very happy kid.  He’s also getting physical therapy once a week to help out with his core muscle tone.  But that doesn’t stop him from trying to climb everything in sight.  The other day he figured out he can get into the bathtub.  Or, rather, he figured out that he can get over the edge of the top and that gravity takes over from there.  He also really enjoys being outside and swinging.

Bindi is doing well.  Probably amazingly well for a 10 week old puppy, but it’s a little hard to judge when your embedded in the situation.  She has had a few accidents, but is house broken for the most part.  Of course we don’t really let her out without supervision yet, so there’s still some work there.  She’s getting a little better with the nipping and is starting to learn commands.  She came up to Emma the other day and Emma said “Sit!” and her little..um… moderately sized… butt plopped right down on the ground and she sat there looking for her treat.  At last measurement she was 27 pounds, but I think she’s growing in size faster than weight.

I know this is getting a bit long, so I’ll leave you with a Bradenism.  Braden took on himself to hide an Easter egg for Emma in his toolbox.  Then he wanted to give her a subtle hint, so he said “Emma, there’s an egg in the toolbox.  No.  Wait.  I didn’t mean that.  Um…. there’s an egg someplace where we carry lots of tools.”  Subtle he isn’t!

Science Night

Last night was Science Night 2009 2010 at Trinity.  I crossed out 2009 because I figure I can just use this post again for the next 5 years as we’ll have someone in preschool at Trinity for that long!  Next year it’ll be both Braden and Emma!  Good thing it’ll be Kathie’s turn to take them.

It was another fun night.  Braden loves science night.  His favorite experiment last year was blowing up a baloon with carbon dioxide.  His teacher was oddly impressed when we told her we do this one at home all the time.  She also asked if we're going to make paper airplanes for the class again this year, since that was so much fun last year.

I think Braden's new favorite experiment is the baloon rocket.  It's all about speed in these things... the faster they move, the more fun they are!

I also ran into an old friend.  Well, an old friend's dad any way.  Richard Ash, who taught at Manitowoc Lutheran when we lived there, saw my name on the sign in list and sought me out.  I was good friends with his son Allen in grade school.  His daugher is a member at Trinity and her daugher, Lucy, is in Braden's class.  Talking about a small world!

Trains at the Domes

Another annual trip to the domes was a success.  The kids really enjoy the trains and plants.  Kathie really enjoys the warm weather.  I think she’d move into the tropical rain forest dome if they let her.

We’re not sure, but we think Alex forgot what it was like to be outside.  He really enjoyed sitting up in his stroller and looking around.  Emma probably would have enjoyed sitting in the stroller too, as most of the time she spent asking to be carried.  That’s going to have to change!  She even tried telling us that Alex wanted to get out of the stroller (so she could get in).  She’s a sneak that way.

After the domes we had a special treat for lunch.  We went to Friday’s Front Row at Miller Park.  Braden couldn’t quite figure out why we were going to Miller Park when we were supposed to be going to a restaurant.  He also had ribs for lunch, which he thought was fun, once he got over the fear of accidentally eating a bone.

All in all it was a pretty fun day!  Although that night was a bit tough, as I think both kids were over-tired after the Admirals the night before.

 

 

Are Any Kids Really Normal?

Are any kids really normal, or are our kids just all abnormal?  Braden has anxiety issues and was speech delayed.  Emma has asthma and has a significant issue with leaving toys in the bathtub while it’s draining.  And I mean screaming, panicking type issues.

Now Alex is going to see Birth-to-Three,  (Birth to Three?  Birth 2 Three? Birth 2 3?) because we’ve noticed that he only stands on his tip toes when trying to take steps.  It’s pretty severe: to the point where he’s curling his toes underneath and walking on the top of his foot.  Hopefully it’s just a phase, but he hasn’t started pulling himself up or cruising yet, so getting a consult on it will be at least reassuring.

I think society is a bit more concerned about slowly developing kids these days than it used to be.  I’m still on the fence whether that’s a good thing or not.  On one hand it can help catch issues earlier and get children help.  On the other hand, it tends to cause anxiety in parents more.  Then again, parents are generally more anxious these days anyway, so maybe that’s just a wash.

I’m still not sure whether this is a real issue with Alex or not, but I think it’s good that we’re consulting with them now.  I think it’s mostly an excitement thing where he gets really tense when he’s excited about taking steps, or standing next to the couch and he contracts his muscles, making him stand on his toes.  I stood him up in front of me and let him calm down a little and he was standing flat footed.  Plus he jumps in his exersaucer very well and doesn’t seem to stand on his toes there.  So, we’ll see. 

But, all things considered, I think we are extremely blessed as a family, regardless of our ‘minor’ issues.

New Dog

We have a new dog. Yes, I know… we’re crazy.  Braden picked out his name: Chuck.  He’s a very nice dog.  Braden loves feeding him.  Braden even likes it when he licks his face.  Quite often we find Chuck looking at Alex.  He also likes sleeping with Braden. 

Braden walks Chuck and makes sure we pick up his poop.  We’re also very careful when we see other dogs when walking so that Chuck doesn’t get too excited.

Here’s a picture of Chuck with Braden and Alex:

Yes, Chuck is an imaginary dog.  But Braden has been taking care of his imaginary dog 24 hours a day for 2 days now.  He has even been telling our neighbors and people we meet on our walks about Chuck.

So, maybe we don’t need to get a dog after all.  We could probably  even get an imaginary pony for Emma. 

Good weekend

Great weather this weekend and good times.  No, not the big parties or exciting events some people might focus on, but a great weekend in my books.

Today we had a great picnic in the park.  Braden is really starting to become an accomplished tag player. Emma can climb playground equipment like no one else.  And Alex thinks napping outside is divine. 

We decided to stop having Braden take naps this weekend.  So far he’s doing very well with it.  He does seem to relax and calm down a little while Emma is napping, so that probably helps.  But so far he’s done pretty well and an earlier bed time seems to be working out well too.

Alex is doing great!  He’s eating like a champ and is growing very quickly.  He’ll sleep somewhere between 5 minutes and 3 hours at a time.  Although right now he’s going on 3.5 hours… SHHHHH…. Alex… go back to sleep.  Well, time to go get a bottle!  Good night!

Memorial Day

I started to write ‘Happy Memorial Day’, but then thought better of it. Memorial Day is intended to remember and honor the soldiers who have given their time, talents and in some cases, lives or health to server their country and protect our values and way of life. I’m not really sure ‘Happy’ would be right in most cases.

So, I’ll simply say thank you to all those men, women and their families who have sacrificed so much for all of us.

I think the Happy part comes in too much for a lot of us ‘civilians’ who see Memorial Day as just a long weekend. I hope we can all take some time out of our festivities and parties to thank these heroes.

The new Miller Lite commercials are annoying. You know the ones where the Sopranos characters come in and offer ‘protection?’ They’re annoying to me for two reasons:

1. Vincent Pastore (Salvatore) and Frank Vincent (Phil Leotardo) are just looking OLD!
2. Braden and Emma go “Oh!” every time they say it in the commercial. And then say it again and again.

Ok, maybe it’s Braden and Emma that are annoying there? Nah… we’ll blame the writers at Miller.

Little Shopper.

We went grocery shopping while in Algoma. Since we were only picking up a few things, we let Braden take his own shopping cart... a child sized one. He was on a mission! He would not let us help him steer, even though it kept veering to the right. And then he started shopping.

First item on his list was Turkey Bacon. He very seriously went to the shelf, picked out a package of bacon, then placed it in his cart. At that point we figured he'd just start tossing in everything in sight. But no... he was very selective. He went down a couple of aisles and picked out some wheat bread. Followed by some crackers, some cereal and a few other choice items. The jug of orange juice was a bit heavy for him though and he wouldn't let us help him, so he left that. If we tried to help him steer the cart, he'd shove our hand off the handle.

He was so intent on shopping and doing it himself it was just hilarious!

Another first...

I think we set a record tonight. A record for shortest time for a trip to the ER. The fall happened at 8:15, and we were back home by 9:45.

Braden was wrestling with Dad on the bed tonight and fell off. To make matters worse, Dad tried catching him and only managed to spin him around so he smashed his face on the corner of the nightstand.

He is ok, but he cut his cheek just below his right eye, right on the top of the cheek bone. It obviously needed stitches, as it was a pretty good gash an inch long and it just kept bleeding. So off we went to the ER. By the time we got in the car for the trip, he was already smiling, so we know it wasn't too bad.... or he's really tough.

Braden was very brave! They ended up strapping him to a papoose board and putting in three stitches. He cried through that, but did much better than I thought he would!

But boy is he going to have a shiner! Pictures to follow.

No, Mark, we didn't ask him what he hit... he can't talk yet.

No...

Braden's new trick is shaking his head no and nodding his head yes. It's very cute. You ask him if he wants something or if he can do something and he lets you know! Maybe he'll start saying no soon!

I give up on catchy titles.

Holy cow, the Packers won! And the Bears didn't! Yeah, the Bears didn't play, but I figure that's the only way they're not going to win right now.

Braden sat through a whole church service yesterday! He was very good! Either that or we're just getting better at distracting him. He was even singing. That's something knew. I told him that we were going to sing now and he started going "la, la, la".

Another rainy Monday...

Yes, I've been lazy with the blog. But that's ok... the only person that really reads it (my mom) has been on vacation and couldn't read it anyway :)

So, Thursday & Friday were rough days for Braden. On Thursday he developed an infection in his thumb due to finger nail clipping. Since his neutropenia means he will probably have a hard time fighting off bacterial infections, we decided to take him to the doctor to get it looked at. We also decided to have his 18 month checkup at the same time.

He jumped up to the 75th percentile for height and the 25th percentile for weight! Yeah! And everything else looks great... even if he SHOULD be talking by now. They sent us home with some antibiotics for his thumb.

Friday morning he woke up with a 99.9 degree fever. Which, of course, could have been caused by his infection or the 4 immunizations that we gave him. In retrospect, we should have waited on the shots so we knew which caused the fever. Oh well, lesson learned. We called Children's Hospital and they had us come in for blood tests to make sure he was fighting the infection and didn't need a booster shot for his neutropenia . After waiting a couple hours, the blood work came back and his neutrophils were at 1,890. His base line has been around 300-400. So this is great news... it means his body does indeed mount an attack if there is an infection. We still have to get some baseline numbers to see how he's doing, but it certainly alleviates some of the worries when he does have an infection!

But the poor guy had a rough couple days... 4 shots and a blood draw.

Uncle Brett and (soon-to-be) Aunt Lori came over on Saturday and brought pumpkins! Wow that was fun. I'll write more about that when I've got the pictures and video uploaded.

Monday update

Exciting title, eh?

So, we got all the mulch in this weekend and we're pretty much done landscaping! Yeah! No, I don't have pictures Sonja.

The Packers and the Admirals really, really, really stink. Admirals lose 7-1 and looked like they thought preseason went on for another month. The Packers should have won but 3 dropped interceptions and a last minute fumble kills them. That game was important as I think it was the difference between a 2-14 season and a 1-15 season.

It was great to see Kay and Stess at the Admirals game Saturday! I don't get to see them nearly enough with as busy as we and they are.

Braden has a cold and is just miserable. Well, miserable for him. He still manages to laugh and play and be generally fun, but he also has times where he just needs to rest and cuddle with his mom. Mom likes that because it's unusual for him to sit still long enough to cuddle.

Rain, rain...

Yes, I'm sick of all the rain.

So, what's new? Not a lot.

I got the results from my blood work and my cholesterol is better than it was with my last test. Still not 'perfect', but better. Doc says to just keep exercising and watching my diet and I shouldn't have anything to worry about.

Braden is finally starting to talk. We think. He says dad and mom and tries to say things like jump, down, and a few others. Problem is he doesn't do it very consistently. But at least he is starting to try and use words.

Hair today, gone tomorrow....

I came home from work yesterday and I almost didn't recognize the little boy that met me at the door! Braden got a hair cut yesterday and boy does it make him look different. He's definitely growing up fast.

More pictures are available at our picture site.

No wasting time...

Brett and Lori sure don't waste any time. They're already picking a date for the wedding! Sounds like July 28th is the day. Yet another July wedding. It's like we have a bunch of teachers or pastors in the family or something.

Sorry for the Bretty nickname Brett. Ah, who am I kidding? No I'm not.

Braden is going for his first professional hair cut today. I want to take this time to wish the barber/stylist luck. Hopefully he'll come back with both ears!

I get to go for a physical tomorrow... and thanks to Dad, I have to have the most fun of tests done. Thanks Dad! I donated platelets yesterday and my blood pressure was 118/60, which is a lot better than it was at my last doctors visit. This working out business is apparently helping.

By the way, you can post comments to my blog... click on the pencil to the lower right. Not that I need validation or anything, but it would be nice to hear feedback.

Braden helps with the laundry

Yesterday Braden was a very helpful little boy. While he was in child care at the gym, there were a couple of other kids crying. So he would bring the kids a toy, then walk away. If they kept crying, he'd try again with a different toy. His 'teacher' said he was very concenred that they were crying. This is one of the moments that really make a parent proud.

The following video, on the other hand, doesn't make a parent so proud. But it IS hilarious.

Video: Braden helps with the laundry

Monday...

Back to work. Pretty good weekend... Tim & Anne Marie have a great crew working on the haunt and are doing great. They've had most of the haunt built by the end of Saturday, even with my help.

The Packers look great! For a high school team. I will say the running game looks like it might be ok... the Bears D is very hard to run against. So, say if they match up against Waukesha North High School, I think we can win.

Braden had another fight with a door jamb. He's got a great bruise to show for it.

We find out Thursday if, by some odd chance, we break the string of Ehlke boys and actually produce a girl.

I'm getting a cold.

Another week...

Tough week... Off Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Work Thursday and Friday. Thank god the weekend is finally here! ;)

Braden started side-kicks today. It's a pre-preschool gathering for kids at church. I really likes it. Last year it wasn't as much fun for him because he was too little to do much playing with the other kids, but now he loves gym time.

Tomorrow I'm helping our friends build their haunt. Should be interesting... it's a new site and design this year, so hopefully Tim has got his plans in order! They're at the Waukesha expo grounds now, which is great for them as it's a lot closer and in a more populated area. Here's their website if you want to see more: Morgan Manner

Sleep

Well, I saw my doctor yesterday. He gave me trazodone to help me get to sleep. And it does work well... at least until Braden wakes up screaming at 1:30 AM.

We're really not sure what to do about this. It's almost a nightly occurrence. We think it's probably something similar to night terrors. He doesn't want a bottle or to be held. Usually we can lay him on the floor and he'll calm down right away. Sometimes he'll just scream himself back to sleep (how bad does that sound?) but usually we need to do something.

We're thinking about moving him up to a toddler bed at this point. That way he can get out of bed himself and lie on the floor. But we're nervous about what he'll do then and whether he'll go to sleep when we put him down for naps and bedtime.

This next kid better sleep better!

I get to golf at the Irish Course at Whistling Straits Sunday! I can't wait! And of course it's supposed to rain. Oh well, at least it's not supposed to snow like the last time I was there. Now I just have to find some time to get to the driving range, since I've only played twice this year.

Oh, and I give platelets today. Please donate blood... they really need it. And no, I'm not talking about hockey.