Peponi

My lovely sister shared this song (original) and this song (adorable version) with me. It made me smile on so many levels. It is so simple which is why I love it so. Paradise should be simple. There shouldn't be a million things pulling our attention or time away from the simple things in life.

I want to blog. I love to blog. I find it so fun to just sit any type whatever my fingers feel like writing. The internet however, is not so simple. There are so many things that are accessible to us that it is easy to get distracted. For this reason I don't blog often. I try to just post when I want and if it isn't something that can be quickly simplified in a post then I won't blog about it.

I've been making a lot of changes in my life and I must say that I kinda feel like I'm living in Paradise. I am sacrificing a lot in order to get it but at the same time it is worth ever single sacrifice. I may not be informed of what is going on in the social media but I know that my little boy learned how to control his his emotions today because he was able to calm down, stop crying and look me directly in the eyes to ask for some chips. It was a powerful mommy moment and a moment of accomplishment for both him and I.

Arizona winter months really are paradise. Mostly though I'm grateful that I have a hubby and little man who make any moment a paradise moment just by being a part of it. Check out the song and let me know if you have moments of paradise in your home!

Ma-eeee

Pretty sure my little man is attempting to say Melanie verses Mommy but not entirely sure how to change that. We have had the most fun days lately. The weather here is totally worth bragging about and so we have been enjoying much of our time outdoors. My all time favorite thing is to hold Kendrick's hand and walk around the block. He points things out and attempts to have a conversation. I love how tiny his hand is in mine but how vocal he becomes when outside that reminds me of how big he is getting.

I have many blog posts to write but I can't decide exactly how to get them across so mostly I just avoid it. Things here in AZ are going well. While I am happy where we are at I am also pondering on where to move next. I loved having the opportunity to start all fresh and I am getting anxious to do it again. It may not be for a few years but I'm a dreamer so I'm already trying to plan it all out.

Nate has been Busy! The snowbirds (people that only live in AZ during the winter) are slowing migrating back. His work is short staffed and not ready for that transition. He has had to go in early and stay late a few times which make for extremely long days. I feel blessed that we live close enough for him to come home for lunch. Sometimes that is the only 20 min that Kendrick gets to see his Daddy and on unlucky days Kendrick is still napping during that time.

I love being a mom. I've found that there are so many talents and projects to work on that it isn't very hard to stay busy. In fact it is easy to get overwhelmed if I don't plan out my day. I love it though. I'm glad that I get to play house for real now rather than just pretend. It just seems so much better than what I imagined as a little girl. Life is wonderful!

October!

So so excited for October this year. It is by far my favorite month. I love Halloween and the colorful decorations in orange. There is a farm close to our house that I can't wait to take Kendrick to. There will be tons of activities for him to enjoy and it will help persuade him to love October too.

Kendrick and I are anxiously awaiting our Utah trip. We will be flying there the 31st to drop Kenny off and I will return a week later to spend some time with family before coming back to AZ.  It is such a relief to have all our tickets all figured out. Kendrick will get to spend some fun days with family while Nate and I take off to Hawaii and enjoy our first flight as a married couple. We are super sad not to be bringing Kendrick along and I have to force myself not to think about it. He will love being in Utah so much I doubt he will even miss us.

We have some busy times coming up for November and December. I will end up flying more in 2 months than my entire life combined. I am pretty excited about it. I also love that Kendrick is so interested in airplanes. He hears at least 15+ a day and will stop whatever he is doing to watch and listen. His excitement gets me so anxious for him to experience a plane ride a couple more times before he is 2.

Overall we are doing great. Kendrick has recovered 100% and is back to his happy self. I have had people comment on his beautiful blue eyes on a daily occurrence and it has pulled at my mamma heart in ways I cannot describe. So glad he was fortunate enough to be given back his eye sight to see all the beauties of the world.

54 hours of torture!

I'd rather not write this post. By writing it I have to relive it and the last few days have been the most emotionally draining and heart wrenching days Nathan and I have ever experienced. Our sweet baby Kendrick got Tide laundry spray boost in his eyes Sunday morning. Typing it out makes me want to cry yet again. Because of miscommunication and failure to follow the promptings of the spirit our son was in pain for days. 

54 hours of this!

We put him down for a nap and the Tide spray was on his changer from using it earlier that morning. There is no blame on whose fault it was but simply the fault of not being more attentive to the spirit. Kendrick was quiet for so long I though he possibly took a short nap.

When he started to cry for us I though it was because he was still tired and woke up to a sound. His cry never sounded like he was in pain or that he was hurting. My biggest regret is that I did not know this. That I did not immediately know to go into his room. Instead Nate and I both stood by his door telling him to quiet down and go night night (and he would get quiet).

I was going to take a shower and then check on him afterwards and I am so thankful I decided against that. Nate went to some meetings and I decided Kendrick could just be awake and hang out with me. When I walked into his room I was immediately confused. His eyes were so red and he wasn't crying in a way that would make them that way.

I saw the bottle on the floor and immediately knew why he had only been quiet for a short "nap". I read the bottle and we both stripped down and headed for a shower to flush his eyes. When we got out of the shower he was running around like himself and the poison control center assured me that he would be fine.

He was not fine. Only 10 minutes after the shower he was walking around like he was blind and trying to rub his eyes (which we were not to let him do according to poison control). We flushed his eyes 2 more times before finally deciding that we needed to take him to the ER.

The ER basically drugged him enough to allow us to flush his eyes without him fighting us. They gave us a antibiotic to put in his eyes so that if he scratched his cornea bacteria could not grow. We were on our way feeling confident that our son would be fine and would eventually open his eyes the next day.

Monday came and went and we still had not seen Kenny's beautiful blue eyes. We decided that an urgent care probably couldn't do much so Nathan gave him a remarkable blessing and we waited until Tuesday to take him in to see a Pediatric Ophthalmologist. It was so frightening to not know why he was not opening his eyes and to experience life with a blind toddler. The Ophthalmologist was able to reassure us that he could not go blind from the Tide spray and that neither one of his corneas had been damaged. He gave us a prescription for anti-inflammatory eye drops. It was a relief to have answers but still so sad to watch our son running into walls and not knowing when we would see his eyes open.

We did many things in order to prompt Kendrick to open his eyes. We even attempted a park we had not been to before in hopes that he would want to see where to explore. I must say Kendrick must not be afraid of anything because he confidently went down slides and roamed the play toy with his eyes tightly shut. I was so proud of him and yet would constantly cry about him not showing interest in opening them. We even went to Fry's grocery store and he happily put a blanket over his head and rode in the cart (It was hard to see other kids pointing and asking questions about his odd behavior).

After a long walk Tuesday evening we came inside and I let him lead the way. He instantly went to the cottage cheese container that was on the floor and started playing with it. I have never felt so joyous in watching him see what it felt like was for the first time. It felt better than watching him take his first step or roll over. My son could see! He could play. He could explore. I instantly took pictures and called Nate at work.

Kendrick's eyes are still pretty sensitive. He is hesitant to open them after sleeping and especially when we put in his eye drops. In fact this morning it took him at least an hour before he was willing. We have another eye doctor appointment tomorrow but I am thrilled that we will not have to force his eyes open in order for the doctor to get a look.

I feel like Kendrick was extremely lucky and we could not feel more blessed to have him spared his eye sight. Tide spray is not something that should have even caused him to be blind for a few days but with flushing his eyes with AZ water (pure chlorine it seems) and forcing them open for medicine he was very traumatized. Overall he could not have handled it better. I am confident that if the Lord did not allow him to see he would have figured out how to get around in a matter of weeks. 

I have learned many things over the past few day. Most importantly life really can change in a instant. We must always bring our A game and live every moment to the fullest. Also the ER blanket and stuffed animal they gave Kendrick were as much a comfort to me as they were to him. I hope I can somehow find a way to give back and help someone else that has to go through something so difficult.