I’m really trying to catch up on our blog posts and I feel like I’m falling even further behind! I haven’t really kept any notes on our adventures and pretty much rely on the photos to jog my memory about our weeks. I do, however, remember this morning when we were all home and awake at the same time before Kevin and I each headed in to work. We hadn’t had a chance to be together to do crack open the confetti Easter eggs. Griffin was pretty excited at 7:15 in the morning to head outside and have colorful confetti blowing everywhere. He enjoyed cracking them over Lily and Brutus, and over my belly as you can see.
Lily continues to recover well. We are still taking her out on her leash (only) and she and Brutus remain separated by her playpen walls. They do get in to periodic spats of playfulness where they basically bite at each others faces and bark and growl at each other. And Finn continues to enjoy spending time in there with Lily.
On Friday I had my first weekly Non-stress test where they put a two monitors on my belly (one for contractions (pink band) and one for the baby’s heart beat (blue band) and in the printout below the top is the baby’s heart rate and the bottom monitors contractions). I had felt him moving around all morning but it always makes me a bit nervous while they try to find the heartbeat on the monitor and then secure the monitor in the correct place so it continues to track the heart rate. After a few minutes the nurse was able to get it right (she was new and nervous I could tell!). It took about 30-40 minutes but everything looked great so I’m all done until next week. On Friday Griffin also had a follow up hearing test. Earlier this spring he had a speech and hearing screening at pre-school and he didn’t pass in his right ear. Kevin was able to take him to this appointment since i was at my appointment in the morning and had to get to work after that. We are very thankful that he passed the tests just fine. They had him hooked up to some equipment and when he would hear the sound he would have to throw a toy into the bucket. He rather enjoyed it I think, according to Kevin! Afterwards Daddy and Finn went on a shopping trip to Dick’s to get Finn some cleats for his football games.
First thing in the morning Griffin always comes to our room and hops right up into our bed and just snuggles. He is the best cuddler and I love to watch Griffin and Kevin together.
Here are a few others from this week: Z is the letter of the week so Finn made a Z for Zoo and the animals behind it. Also our Rising Sun Redbud out front is leafing out and looking pretty! And a couple from the park and the zoo.
Finn’s flag football games are a hoot to watch. There are 4 coaches and they are all actively helping the kids learn the entire game. It is tiring for Kevin, for sure, but he is enjoying it. And Finn loves that his daddy is one of his coaches.
Monthly Archives: April 2017
April 16, 2017
This week was all about Easter and eggs! We had a fun Easter Egg hunt at our neighbor Brian’s house with a few of our other neighbors. The kiddos enjoyed hunting down the eggs in his backyard and afterward we had a nice cookout at Nate and AJ’s place. It is so nice to have kids in the neighborhood and neighbors that we enjoy spending time with!
While I was working on Saturday Kevin was quite brave and took Griffin along with all of the Manning girls to the Egg Drop at Liberty High School in Powell. It is a HUGE egg event organized by age groups. And for each age group a helicopter drops a bag of eggs from the sky. Those eggs are in addition to the 10,000 eggs already on the ground!!
Griffin was spoiled with quite a deluxe easter basket. He got all kinds of candy, but also socks, wooden cars, a candy fan and other things. His facial expression when he came downstairs and saw it on the counter melted my heart.
Our front garden is looking really pretty right now with the creeping phlox blooming and the pretty flowers on our Rising Sun Redbud that we planted last year. And it is always one of my favorite weeks of the year when the viburnum blooms in our backyard near the patio and porch. The sweet spicy smell is so lovely! And Griffin was outside enjoying and observing nature too!
Easter Sunday 2017 🙂
Griffin also had loads of fun coloring Easter eggs with Debbie this week.
Brutus continues to grow big! Check him out – from the day we got him (upper left) to this week (right) he continues to grow and is inching up on Griffin!
April 9, 2017
This week we did our annual tradition of planting seeds that will grow into plants for our patio vegetable garden. Griffin enjoyed pouring the water into our expandable peat pods and watching them take shape. We planted an assortment of cucumbers, cilantro, tomatoes, zucchini, butternut squash, green beans, sweet peas, watermelon, and cantaloupe. We also planted a couple of flowers (cosmos and sunflowers). It may be a little ambitious given that we will have a busier than normal spring with the arrival of our little boy.
It was fitting that this week Griffin learned about x-rays (letter of the week was x) as he had his semi-annual trip to the dentist for his check up and he received his first-ever x-rays! It is pretty neat to be able to see his next round of teeth as they currently sit up in his gums. His dentist visit went great. He was an excellent listener and got a great report from Dr. Bob and his assistant. He always loves filling up his goody bag to take home which includes a new toothbrush (he usually chooses a superhero), a mini-toothpaste, floss, a sticker, and a toy of some sort. Today he chose the sticky action guy (that sticks to the wall when you throw it – joy!) and he got to pick a second toy for getting his first x-rays, so he chose an animal that has a parachute attached.
Lily is doing well and this week went in to have her Mast Cell Tumor removed. Everything went well and we will hear in a week or less the grade of the tumor (our hope is a low-grade tumor meaning it is localized and hasn’t spread). She has to wear the cone of shame for another two weeks. Thankfully this girl is a rock star with her cone. She is gentle with it (not blasting into things) and doesn’t mind wearing it. Sometimes I let her get comfy in her crate and then put it on her as it can be a bit difficult to turn around inside her crate with it on! Her incision was pretty large as they have to remove a large area around the tumor to ensure they get all of the tumor by taking the good skin around it as well.
After we picked Lily up on Saturday morning we quickly went home to drop her off and then headed to the fun annual Powell Easter Egg Hunt at Village Green Park. It was a beautiful and sunny morning and there were TONS of eggs so Griffin took home quite a bit of candy!
I had to head in to work for a bit after the egg hunt. While I was there Kevin and Finn headed to the zoo for Greta’s birthday celebration. Amy had party bags for each of the kids complete with baby aviator sunglasses and animal crackers! Everyone explored the zoo for several hours and I was able to meetup when I wrapped up with work. Afterwards we went to Amy and Andy’s for pizza and cookie cake.
On Sunday, we headed to Griffin’s first flag football game after church. We signed him up through i9 sports and he plays right in Powell at the South Liberty Park field which is a short 5 minute drive from our house. Kevin is helping as an assistant coach too so it is fun for everyone :). Griffin looks so small is in over-sized extra-small jersey, number 3! He had a lot of fun and even though he is typically super confident when he plays with us or his grandparents he was a bit timid this week amongst new kids and in a new environment. He was also a bit preoccupied with the mouth guard they have to wear. He was regularly taking it in and out of his mouth while out on the field playing! He did score a touchdown – see the video below.
And here are a couple of Finn’s exercises from the week – Easter and Spring words – and writing his name on his papers :).