The Boys

Ahhh, coffee time. After the usual chaos of the morning - ignoring the fact that both boys are awake (I'm so not a morning person), getting them up, changing & dressing Cody, helping Nate with the potty and teaching him how to get dressed, letting the dog out, feeding everyone, and somehow finding a minute to get some breakfast for myself and squeezing in a shower while keeping Cody content and breaking up potentially dangerous situations between Nate and Bailey (Bailey seems to think Nate's just another puppy, and Nate thinks of Bailey as something he can control) - I relish the quiet time when Cody's napping and Nate settles down for a little TV time and some apple slices. It's the best part of my morning!

Cody's on the verge of crawling; he sort of scooches forward by pushing with his toes. He has finally cut his two front teeth, making it four on the top and four on the bottom. And he's been feeding himself rice puffs and cheerios for a few months now. He is very vocal, especially in expressing his frustration and anger when he's sitting in his highchair with no food. He's seriously a little porker. I checked back on my old posts to see what milestones Nate reached at Cody's age... Wow, what a difference! Nate was waving, clapping, crawling, pulling himself up. Even saying his first word! Crazy. I suppose it's a combination of differences in personality and having a lot more time to just play and interact with a firstborn than with your second. I know Cody will get there at his own pace, and I certainly don't want to compare my boys. It just surprised me to read the differences between Nate & Cody at 9 months.

And Nate... what can I say? What a whirlwind of activity this boy has become! We were all sick last week and even then he was tearing around the house and chatting endlessly. He's still asking a billion questions a day which sometimes drives me crazy! He's learning to count from 10 to 20, and we found an Elmo placemat at Wal-Mart recently which has been helping him learn to recognize numbers. Best dollar we ever spent! We play Memory (the matching game) and he surprises me with how much he remembers. He's doing very well with potty-training, with charts, stickers and rewards to motivate him. We're concentrating now on getting through an entire day in underwear without any accidents. He especially loves running around in just his undies! He's figuring out how to do a lot of things on his own which is exciting for him, but at three years old he's not quite aware of all the dangers that opens up for him. In just one day I discovered that he could unlock and open the front door, turn on the faucet for the bath tub and turn on the hose in the garage. There's nothing like finding your front door wide open with your preschooler wandering outside, or discovering your deep-freeze is sitting in a pool of water in your garage. So I'm facing a new challenge of how to encourage him in exploring his independence while teaching him the dangers that lie within that independence. It's exhausting!

Knee Surgery

I seem to have failed miserably at blogging more often... Two months was a pretty good start, though. I've never been much for change, and March held some big adjustments. I suppose that could be why I didn't feel much like blogging.

Monte's been seeing a doctor and several specialists attempting to fix a knee problem he's had for years. He finally got in to see the best specialist around, and was told his name would be put on the waiting list for surgery; possibly to happen in April or May. At the beginning of March he got a call saying there had been a cancellation and his surgery was bumped up to March 17th. Yikes! Two weeks to prepare for this. So we made a list of all the tasks that needed to be done before he'd be off his knee for who knows how long and plugged away at it until the day of his surgery. He was told he'd be off work for 4 weeks, and that's about all that we knew. Surgery went well, Monte felt great... Dropped him off at the Chilliwack Hospital at 9am and he was home by 4pm (with a stop at Starbucks of course). And then he went back to see the specialist two weeks into his month at home and found out that they did at lot more on his knee than they expected. He was told he'd have to wear his leg-extending brace until the end of April, be off work for 4-5 months, and have no physical activity for 9 months. Not exactly what we signed up for. I mean, we're so grateful to have had this surgery so that Monte can eventually be physically active without feeling knee pain... But come on! As much as I don't like change, I really don't like surprises. This news took a few days for me to process. And now Monte's started back at work as of today, after arranging to do light duty tasks.

With Monte being at home for over four weeks, every day felt like Saturday. We slept in (as much as kids will allow), played outside, went to the States a few times and just spent lots of time together. Sometimes it felt like too much time together, but overall it was a great month as a family.