Family day @ Pebbles farm

A great defeat. (For me at least)

This was the day I have been dreading since he was born.

Look at this picture. Notice anything?? (Other than he is  excited about some stickers) Do you see the pride in this kid’s eyes? He had just won a great battle.

Honestly, I wasn’t “in it- to win it” on this particular morning, and he knew it- and when the underdog senses weakness (or tiredness in my case) that is when they make their move! You probably didn’t even noticed that Stratton’s clothes don’t match- but they don’t.

And it Just. Drives. Me. Crazy!

This is how it went down. I laid his clothes out on the ottoman in the living room like I do every morning. (Stratton is now really good about dressing himself if I lay the clothes out.) I am in the bathroom getting ready when he storms in and throws his blue jeans at me and says “I want to wear Pants, not jeans!”- (Apparently we need to re-visit what “pants” are) then he tells me he wants to wear shorts with his new wolf shirt, to which I tell him it’s too cool to wear shorts. He’s alright with that but he’s not giving in to wearing jeans, he would rather wear “comfy pants”. Then he rushes to his room and pulls out a pair of navy and bright blue and white track pants (mainly because I hadn’t folded and put away laundry and there wasn’t much else in the drawer. . . ) and tells me he wants to wear them. His shirt is dark grey, with some white and neon green. Not going to happen. So, I tell him that the wolf shirt and navy pants didn’t match and he would either need to pick another shirt, or just wear the jeans. His answer: “But Momma, why do I HAVE to match??”

Touché.

I weighed my options at this point. I thought about how I would explain to a 4 year old (male, at that) about the rules of matching and the importance of an outfit coordinating and how we should look our best, but let’s get real. That would have been a waste of breath and time, and it was about 5 minutes till we needed to walk out the door. Then I thought about just lying. I could tell him that it’s in the bible (You know over in the first chapter of Paul) that usually works. So, I had to pick; A.) Let him win (and wear clashing clothes) B.) Make him wear what I wanted, which would take time picking something new out, and probably result in a meltdown and would make us late for school, and that would make me late for work or C.) Tell him a blatant lie that I’m sure I would be forced to deal with at a later time when some smart kid tells him there is no book of Paul (not to mention, the obvious: lying is never a good strategy).

So, I LET him win.. . . Sometimes the underdog wins.

A sick free week and relaxing weekend

Things are looking up. We didn’t go to the doctor last week with either kid! I bet they miss us : ) It was a pretty low key week! (I almost hate to say something like that in fear of jinxing things!) I’ve had a cold and the crud but I went to the doctor yesterday morning and got a Decadron shot and meds and feel much better today! Jarrod either pulled a muscle (or maybe has a kidney stone??) and he was moving slow this weekend, but he seems to be getting better everyday.

Stratton got to go to his first book fair at school. He thought that was really cool. Arden continues to bite kids at school and I’m researching possible baby boot camps. Miss attitude is actually had a better week. I think the teething must be getting a little better. Stratton went grocery shopping with me and for the first time didn’t ask for a toy or throw a fit when he didn’t get something he wanted. Gotta celebrate the small victories!

Friday night we tried to do a family movie night, Stratton and Jarrod rented the Disney movie Brave. Stratton like the movie ok, I mean the parts he actually watched. . .he was devastated when we told him we rented it (Redbox) and had to take it back! Haha! Jarrod and I have seen one adult movie in the past year probably, and guess which movie he rented for us to watch that night after the kids were in bed?? Yep. (I thought it was funny- Jarrod not so much) We didn’t feel like staying up late to watch it again. So movie night was pretty much a flop. I  guess we will have to revisit it again when we have another free Friday night in the future. . .whenever that will be!!

We spent most of the weekend in Searcy, we had Margie’s birthday Saturday night. Stratton and Archer got to play Saturday and almost all day Sunday. They are so funny. I just love watching them interact, it’s so cute to listen to them talk to each other.

Stratton decorated Nan’s envelope- No help! I think he got the holidays covered!

Arden liked the cake!

I found the cutest Red Wolves treats at Full Sun when I was birthday shopping. . .

Yummy!

We don’t have too much going on this week- for once. The Red Wolves game is tonight, but me and the kids are staying home since it’s a school night and it doesn’t start till 7pm. {Happy Anniversary to us!} We have our first “Parent Teacher Conference” Thursday night! And then Stratton is out of school on Friday and Jarrod is supposed to be off too, so I think I will play hooky as well! The weather is getting cooler and it finally feels like fall! We are looking forward to some family fun this weekend. Maybe a trip to the pumpkin patch!

Stratton’s Pre-K School Picture

I’m so proud of this picture! He’s smiling!!

The school photographer, Mr. Terry Smith, is an elder at our church and our good friend Tara’s dad. He does an awesome job! I was SHOCKED when I pulled his pictures out of his bag Friday night! I was not expecting them to be very good, since Stratton NEVER smiles. I almost didn’t order pictures (you have to order before hand) but I’m glad I did!! I can’t believe he is old enough to start school pictures! He looks so big in it!

And. . . .She’s off!

Arden is walking with no help! She’s been taking steps and will walk for a good 6 or 7 steps regularly, for almost a month, but hasn’t just really taken off yet. . . until now!  I guess we noticed Friday night she was getting braver and braver and something must have just “clicked”. She is a pro now!

Not the greatest picture, but she’s rarely still : )

Getting in her favorite drawer.

Of course she is still crawling some. It’s faster, so depending on how fast she needs to get somewhere will determine her method of transportation!

So proud of our “toddler”!

Strep and Mono?!

Stratton missed a whole week of school last week!! He ran fever off and on all week and then about Wednesday got a bad cough that seemed to be getting worse. He stayed at Gigi and Pop’s house Wednesday and Thursday and he was coughing so bad he threw up a couple of times. So, I called and talked to a nurse on Thursday and they said to give the antibiotics another day and called us in some cough medicine to give him at night to help him sleep. Friday morning he was still running fever and still coughing, so I made an appointment and him back to the Dr. on Friday afternoon. We saw Dr. Bailey and she said his throat still looked bad. They retested him for strep and did some blood work (that was a nightmare) we even had him tested for mono. He tested negative for both strep and mono on the quick test they do in the clinic, but they wanted to send it off for another mono test. They put him on steroids for his cough, told us to keep on the antibiotics and check back on Monday.

Sshhh!! He’s concentrating!

Over the weekend Stratton has gradually gotten better. He’s been crazy from the steroids, but no fever and the cough is getting better. Saturday we went to the ASU game, it was homecoming and other than being restless he did great. Sunday we opted out of class since Stratton was still hacking- and I didn’t want him coughing all over the other kids. Plus, even though he isn’t supposed to be contagious with mono, I’d hate to tell that to another mom in the class. Believe it or not, most parents aren’t as knowledgeable as me when it comes to sickness and illness : )

Sunday night after church we had some families over to eat and he played like he wasn’t sick at all. I felt like the mono test would come back negative. . .

. . .and it did, well sort of.

Turns out they can tell from his blood that he has had mono BEFORE! It’s not active in his system right now, but he tested positive for it in his blood! Apparently, he has had mono before and we didn’t know about it. They told me it could have been anytime when he ran a fever for a few days and we probably just thought it was a virus (So, yeah that narrows it down to about 100 times he’s been sick!). I feel like a bad mom for not knowing, but we know now! She said that him having had mono before doesn’t make him more prone to getting it again- but I have done some research, and it looks like there is conflicting information and studies on that, so I guess we will just have to watch him closer now when he gets run down and has a fever.

Never a dull moment, I tell ya!

He went back to school today, and I hope he’s had a good day! They had PE today, so I was nervous about another collision- or him getting too worked up and having a coughing spell, but I didn’t get a call so I assume he’s fine! I hope we can kick this sickness thing for a while! We have a lot coming up in the next few weeks!

Arden’s first pumpkin