Andy & Jessica

Asher is 3 months away from being 2, which I find unbelievable.  He’s doing great.  Even with the bad hair cut he got recently that left him with no bangs, he is amazingly adorable.  He is so talkative and fun.  He can repeat anything anyone says.  Yesterday he ran outside and saw the dog and politely said, “Hi, dog.”  He is quick to say “please” and “thank you” even though neither Andy nor I remember teaching him his manners.  He’s definitely a keeper.

Levi turned 3 in February. By this time, Jude was potty trained. It helped to train Jude while we were in Germany. Since we had to pay to go to the bathroom everywhere we went, I insisted he come with me, even if he said he didn’t have to go. And, it worked. Here in America, training Levi hasn’t been easy. He rarely wants to try, even for a bribe. But, this morning, he woke up after I had left for work and told Andy, “I have go potty.” Andy took him and Levi did great. Levi then announced, “Mommy say I a big boy now.” Then later today Levi attempted to change his own poopy diaper, but got in over his head. He came to Andy with a poopy butt, no pants on, holding his pants and holding a clean diaper. He then showed Andy how he had deposited the poopy diaper in the garbage can in the bathroom. If Levi gets to the point of changing his own poopy diapers, it is definitely time for the potty.

We were excited to spend the past week hosting our friends from Ukraine. We met them at Jill’s House in Indiana, where both Jude and their 4 year old daughter were undergoing radiation for brain cancer. The boys and Sofia played like they never missed a beat. Just amazing since the boys don’t speak Russian or Ukrainian and Sofia doesn’t speak English. It was great to see them again and to meet their new baby, who was born here, and is an American kid. The boys just loved having a baby around and all wanted to take turns holding him, etc. The baby didn’t seem to be a big fan of the boys, however, and usually screamed whenever they took their turns.

Today was Jude’s final parent/teacher conference of the year with his online school. His teacher had him read her a chapter book about Mars during the conference. She was quizzing him on his comprehension. One of the questions she asked him is what may have happened to liquid water on Mars. She sounded kind of speechless with his answer, “You could probably know that if you went to heaven. God made the world and you could ask Him.” Well played, Jude. As in all of life’s mysteries, a good strategy is to table it and ask God for an explanation later.

This weekend was great. My older brother finally got married. We are thrilled that he was so selective and waited for the right one. He endured a lot of comments over the years. On June 23, 2010, which was a couple weeks before Mike met Sara, I commented to my Grandma Proper that Mike was going to Grand Old Days. She went on a long diatribe (that I have videotaped) in which she said, ” I hope he meets someone, even if she’s nothing to look at. I don’t care if she is as homely as a mud pail. I don’t care what she looks like. I’d like her anyhow. I’m that way. Just so she’s a nice women and not after his money. He’s young yet. He’s 35. Just so he gets a girl that’s nice for him and not mean and that. I do. That first date you know he’s got one, you sure be for sure to call me. He likes kids. I can see that. I do. I’m telling you.”

The wedding was great. Mike was sure proud to be marrying such a gorgeous and sweet girl. Jude and Ivan carried a sign that said, “Uncle Mike, Here Comes Your Girl.” Mike didn’t know that was coming so I’m sure it was pretty touching. We spent so much time coaching the boys about walking down the steps to the lake that served as the aisle, but we didn’t coach them on what to do when they got down there. They attempted to give the sign to Mike. And they wandered around for awhile before either they heard me loudly whisper that they needed to sit down or maybe someone else finally told them that. During the dance, Jude broke out some pretty impressive dance moves. He told me, “Everyone else was dancing and no one was laughing at them so I decided to dance and no one laughed at me.” We stayed at the reception until almost 11 p.m. and then headed back to my parents’ house for a little sleep before our brunch guests arrived. My mom invited about 1/3 of the wedding guests to my parents’ house for brunch. My mom told Katie and I that we were going to “keep it simple.” Katie was in charge of cooking and I was in charge of cleaning the house that had 5 little mess makers roaming freely. It was a workout. According to my fitbit, I have logged about 16,000 steps thus far today, 44 floors and 7 miles. All through cleaning and running to keep the food stocked during the brunch. Hopefully, it helped me burn off that cream puff, and chocolate muffin, and eclair, and chocolates… . Maybe a few more steps couldn’t hurt…

Winter is dragging on here in Minnesota, with our most recent snowfall just a couple days ago.  The boys are rearing to get outside, especially because Andy tends to keep them cooped up all day long.  To increase the likelihood that the boys would get to go outside to play in our fenced-in backyard while I’m at work, I put together a wicker basket that I call the “going outside bin” with everything the boys need to go outside – sandals, sunglasses, sunblock and hats.  I put it under a end table that is by back door.  I’m pretty proud of my idea and think this will make Andy’s life easier and the boys’ life more fun.

One of Jude’s favorite TV shows is Billy the Exterminator.  Imagine how excited Jude will be to learn when he wakes up today that they have trapped their 3rd rabbit in 3 days.  Andy is trying to rid the yard of rabbits so that the hostas have a fighting chance.  I’m wondering if the delicious Gala apples Andy is using as bait is actually attracting rabbits that would otherwise be uninterested in coming for a visit to our yard.  Last night, all 5 of us packed up in the car to drive the 2nd rabbit to a park far away from us.  It was after 11 p.m. and I knew all the boys were tired and expected to be able to transfer sleeping kids into the house at the end of the ride.  But, I guess that trapping and freeing a rabbit was just too much excitement and they were all wide awake when we arrived home.

I snapped this picture after the boys woke up showing their encounter with their temporary new pet.  I love how Jude is being protective of Asher and trying to make sure Asher doesn’t stick his hands in the trap.  He can be such a good big brother.

 

We were thrilled to learn recently that as a result of Jude’s normal EEG and no brain tumor recurrence, Jude can start getting weaned off his anti-seizure meds. I’m hoping we start seeing immediate changes as a result of the lower dose he’s getting. It appears to me that the meds bring down his maturity level by a couple years. In 4 weeks, he’ll be off the meds and we’ll get our real boy back.

We’ll have to be vigilant about watching him. The neurologist said he cannot swim, bathe, jump, etc. while unsupervised. Even though he had a normal EEG and no recurrence, he’s still at a higher risk for seizures from the scar tissue on his brain.

For Christmas this year my in-laws gave Levi a Blue Mountain Mystery Thomas the Train set that is really cool, but very complicated to put together. He loves it. But, I hate assembling it. I hate assembling it so much that the last time I assembled it, I attempted to glue chunks of it together with Gorilla Glue, but Jude detached them purposefully before they could dry. He must really love watching me struggle. Tonight I set a timer while the boys and I assembled it — 46 minutes. Embarrassing.

This past Friday night, the 3 little boys and I headed to my parents’ house to get ready for my brother’s future wife’s bridal shower.  It was dark by the time we were leaving home for the drive.  While on a stretch of rural highway, there was a motorcycle in front of me so I kept my distance more than I normally would.  I saw a deer jump out in front of the motorcycle and quickly jump back into the ditch.  I reduced my highway speed and was feeling thankful that I had narrowly missed that surprise, but then a couple seconds later the deer jumped right in front of me and I smashed into it.  I was still going at a decent clip.  It was a big deer and it smacked the front right side of our vehicle.  It rolled a few times and then ran away.  I kept driving, but pulled off shortly since Jude told me that Levi’s seat became unattached.  Sure thing, Levi’s car seat was no longer snapped in.  I have no idea how that happened (or if it was clipped in at all), but I’m so glad he did get thrown.  He slept through the whole accident.  I snapped him back in, assessed the damage (which I thought was minimal in the dark) and then we took off.  Asher dropped the iPad during the accident and then screamed for half an hour afterwards until I figured out why he was crying.  The damage in the light is really quite bad.  Now Jude is scared to drive with me in the dark.  On our way back home today he asked if it would be nighttime when he got home because he didn’t want me to crash again.