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. 

Videographer

Kendrick will often find my phone and somehow take pictures. Just last week he took a picture of something on the floor that looks so much like a ghost face that it gets me excited for Halloween (except I have no clue what it really is and that is spooky).

A few days ago he happened to find our camera and being the curious boy that he is discovered how to take lots and lots of videos. Below is my favorite because you can hear him say "cheese" when he kinda gets the camera aimed at him.

Crow's Place

I cannot believe that I have not posted sense our Plasma car came. Then again it is probably the reason that I neglected this blog. It is the best toy ever! We returned Kendrick's trike that he got from his birthday (felt like bad parents for a day) and traded it for the Plasma Car from http://www.zulily.com/.  Kendrick was so stinking excited when it came. He is the cutest driving it all around while I cook or clean. It was so worth the switch. 

Features of the Plasma Car:

It propels by turning the handle left and right getting up to 6 mph

Can hold up to 220 lbs

Doesn't tip over easily

Is the best toy ever!

 The joy of being a parent 

 Free rides

 Taking the drivers seat

 Kendrick has rediscovered the joy of a toilet paper roll. 

 Bowl hat anyone?

Loan payoff goal sheet. Belize in 2 years here we come!

Bringing back the Rollerblades

In August it cooled off enough that I wanted to exercise outside but still felt too hot to enjoy running. Being the problem solver that I am I whipped out my rollerblades and I am one happy Momma. I can enjoy the great outdoors while still getting enough of a breeze to not end up overheating. I forgot how much I love rollerblading. I am currently eyeing these wheels http://landroller.com/. I am thinking that I might pinch my pennies and save until I can afford them. I'm slightly skeptical though because I don't like buying things that I can't try on and scope out first. To be honest I will probably just go on wanting them for a few more months until I talk myself out of wanting them. I can't say I'm not happy with my current rollerblades though because just typing this post makes me want to head outside and roll.

Itching to Write

I have wanted to write so much but feel like there is no point unless I add pictures (that is the best part of any post). I decided to make a promise with myself where I could write as many times as I wanted but I only have to post pictures once a week. I am almost certain I will like blogging so much more when I don't feel the pressure of having to add a picture to each post. I might be the only one reading my posts but I'm excited for being able to write about whatever topic I want without trying to take pictures to match my topics. Two thumbs up for me on my awesome thinking. :)