laundry in the night

Doing laundry in the middle of the night is never fun. I guess this wasn't really the middle of the night, but close enough! Poor Brecken woke up about 11:00 coughing, then cried pretty hard, calling for his Mommy. (Some day, I really want him to call for his Daddy.) I went in there and the poor baby had coughed so hard he threw up. So in went the load of laundry. I got him changed while Josh threw the dirty things into the washing machine.

Josh left about 6:00 this morning for Denver for the coaches clinic. Brecken decided he wanted to get up then too. We don't have school today, so I was hoping I'd get to sleep in! But B had other plans. And from the time we got up until about 9:00, all he did was throw tantrums. Then at 9:00, he gagged and threw up again because he tried to put a toy in his mouth. So, I got to clean up puke twice in 12 hours. It was lovely. I finally got him settled down enough to take a nap. I took one with him while I had the opportunity! After a nap and some lunch, I finally got some smiles out of him.

Sure was nice out today, but there's nowhere to play outside since we still have a foot of snow on the ground. I could tell B wanted to go somewhere, however, because about 1:00 he brought me his shoes and my coat. He wanted his, but couldn't reach it. So on went the shoes and coats and we went to the library.

Now I'm watching the webcast of Encampment's boys' basketball team playing the semi-final round at State. Saratoga plays right after them, but that one will be on the radio.

regional basketball

We all spent the weekend in Torrington watching Regional Basketball. I left right after school on Thursday and picked up B, then headed out. We missed most of the first half of Josh's game but watched the whole second half. Unfortunately, they lost two games in a row, (Friday morning was their second game) meaning they were out of the tournament and are not going to State. :( The team stayed all weekend to watch the boys though- the boys team ended up Regional Champions and are going in to the tournament with the #1 seed! Hooray! We didn't get to watch any Encampment games, because Encampment's Regionals is in Lander.

Brecken did really good on the trip. He had to sit and watch a LOT of basketball and was ready to run around by the end of the day but he did so great. He really enjoyed the trains in Torrington- our hotel room sat practically ON the tracks so he heard the whistle every time. He'd then want up in our arms to see out the window so he could watch the trains go by. By the end of the trip he was saying, "Tray!" I have a smart kid. :)

i think they smell good

Here are the roses I got from Josh for Valentine's Day. I got 18 beautiful red, white, and pink roses. I said above that I think they smell good because Brecken and I have terrible colds and I cannot smell them! Too bad, because roses are one of my favorite scents.

flight for life

I never knew how much Brecken's Flight for Life trip cost because we never got an insurance claim form for it. I was always curious though, because I've never known anyone needing Flight for Life services so I had no idea how much it cost!! YESTERDAY, after a whopping 17 months after the Flight for Life service, we finally got a statement for it. I have no idea why it took that long to get claimed, but it did. And it was expensive. Are you ready for this?

$14,183.00

WOW. That's a lot of money.

older ladies

Since Josh's team hasn't played a game in almost 3 weeks, he and Amy, the head coach, planned a fun game for tonight. Josh came home the other night saying they were inviting some older ladies to play. In my mind, "older ladies" means 80-some year olds and I couldn't figure out why they would invite them to play ball... He said, "No, like Deb!" Deb is all of 34- maybe? I laughed that he called her an older lady!

Anyway, Josh coached a team of "older ladies", including his cousin Dixie tonight. There were 12 of these "older ladies", two real refs, score keeper and clock man, and then the Saratoga girls team. What a fun game to watch! And the "older ladies" an Josh won! By 9! Everyone had a good time. There was a pretty good crowd, too! It wasn't really a "game", because that would be against WHSAA rules, but it sure was a fun "practice"!

Brecken spent the day at Amy's house today. Dr. Jake had some things he needed to do in Rawlins so he didn't want to keep B. Amy's such a trooper- she's home on maternity leave, so she had her son Dylan, who will be 2 in April, Brecken, and then her 4 week old baby Cooper. Brecken had a great time playingwith his friend Dylan all day today. I held Cooper for a while tonight while the game started and Amy's mom wasn't there yet, and I was exhausted from holding the tiny little baby and chasing after Brecken!!! I'm glad I don't have a newborn right now! But it sure was fun to hold such a tiny little guy again. Cooper is over 10 pounds, but I don't remember B being that small! :) Brecken loves Cooper. At the game, he'd go pet Cooper's head or pat his feet, just to make sure he was OK. He even gave Cooper a kiss all on his own. I'm glad he loves babies. :)

aperture

Here is Stacey's assignment for this week: Aperture. This means how much of the picture is in focus (on purpose!). Here are Brecken's farm people set up in front of their big ol' barn.

it always tastes better....

When it's been dumped on the floor.

"vacation"

We had a nice day yesterday. Josh's game got cancelled AGAIN (this means their girls haven't played a game in 3 weeks!!) even though the roads were all open and pretty favorable conditions. Josh was pretty ticked. But we haven't been out of town and haven't gotten to a Wal-mart since before Christmas, so we decided to go to Laramie and stock up on everything. We went through Encampment and down that way to Wood's Landing because even though the interstate said good conditions, it was WINDY and 3-way (the way we went) is usually much better. However, yesterday, it was NOT. Very limited visibility for about 15 miles of it, with snow drifts covering the whole highway. We had to go in the other lane to get around lots of the drifts, which was scary because we really couldn't see who was coming at us! We were too far away to turn around though- this all happened in the Colorado stretch of the drive. When we got cell service again, Josh called the Highway Patrol to see if they could get ahold of CDOT to either close the road or get someplows stationed out there!

Anyway, we made it to Laramie and had lunch at Applebee's with Kristen, David, and Ryan. Then K came with us to Wal-mart while D took R home for a nap. Then we went to K's house for a while and then Kristen and I went to watch "27 Dresses" at the theater while the boys stayed home. It was a cute chick-flick. I haven't been to a movie theater since last summer, I don't think!! B and Ryan had a great time playing together. B would dance and R would laugh, and they'd run around together playing. When Kristen and I got back, we all picked up the toys that were ALL dumped out of the bins, and then we headed home. This time, on the interstate. :) It was dry all the way, just windy. Got home about 8:30, got B out of the car (he was asleep before we even got out of Kristen's neighborhood!!) and put his jammies on and he went right back to sleep.

This morning, Josh left to go snowmobiling with our neighbor and B and I are being lazy. I love lazy days. :)

polar bear in a snowstorm

We have been hit terribly with wind and snow this winter. The "old timers" in the teacher's lounge have all said within the past week or two that they cannot remember a worse winter in our Valley. The visibility is terrible, the wind is even worse, and looking at the ground, you wouldn't THINK we've had much snow but that's becuase with 60 mph winds (and gusts up to 80), the snow all blows away. I honest-to-goodness can't remember the last time the snow fell DOWN here, it always falls sideways.

Way back in college, I used to draw "art". It was completely dumb- and I must have had too much time on my hands while sitting at the front desk of the dorm, answering phone calls and sorting mail for the dorm. It looked like this Photoshop rendition: (and don't laugh- this is the extent of my artistic abilities!)

I called this "creation" Polar Bear in a Snowstorm.

My drive home today looked extremely similar to the above picture. Here's the photoshop rendition of the trip that took forever:

That grey line is the reflector pole that I would be able to see just as I came up upon it. Our English teacher also lives in Saratoga, so we booked it out of school as soon as we could and she followed me back to town. It was not fun, that's for sure! The weird thing was though, that we got about halfway back and all of a sudden, instead of not being able to see anything, we had blue skies! Saratoga was nice and clear, whereas we drove through a white-out to get there.

Our cat Ditka had to go to the vet yesterday to get neutered. The vet comes from Rawlins on Wednesdays, so we dropped him off yesterday afternoon. I was supposed to go get him this afternoon, but there was no way I was driving on these roads, in the dark on the way back, to go get him. However, one of the vet employees lives in Saratoga, so Ditka got sent home with him. He was supposed to get here about an hour ago, however. I guess the vet clinic called Josh on his way to basketball practice to tell him that the guy got stuck at a roadblock on the interstate. I'm assuming that means an accident on the road. He was going to wait a bit and then see if he could still get here, or if he would have to turn around. (I would think they would all have to turn around- the interstate is closed again. It's been open for about 4 hours in the past 48.) We haven't heard anything since the initial call, so I think the poor guy is still sitting on the interstate. With a meowing cat. I can think of better things to be doing. :)

an owie

Josh went to pick Brecken up from Jake and Deb's today after school. Jake watches B on Tuesdays, because he has the day off and Deb works at the hospital in Rawlins. Here's how the conversation went when Josh walked in the door:

Jake: We had a bit of an accident today.
Josh: Oh, great.
Jake: You know how Brecken follows you around everywhere, wherever you go?
Josh: Yeah....
Jake: Well, I'm not used to that and I ran him over. He fell and bit his lip and I thought he needed stitches, he was bleeding so much. But he finally quit bleeding and he doesn't need stitches.

Poor Brecken!!! He's been whining when eating, I think it hurts him. And he's a GRUMP, you can tell it's hurting. And his lip started bleeding again a while ago, but I didn't notice because he's sucking on his mimi, and by the time I noticed, the bleeding had stopped. So I still don't know which lip it was coming from. Good news is, at least he got hurt at the doctor's house. :) I bet Jake would've done the stitches for free, too. :)

hungry, hungry hippo!!

Brecken is eating us out of house and home. No joke. For the past week and a half, he's been eating CONSTANTLY. He seriously eats all day long. And if he doesn't have anything handy, he goes to his high chair and tries to get up in it, saying, "bowl?" And even while eating all day long, he still does eat full meals and drinks lots of milk! He must be in one heck of a growth spurt. Yesterday we got home at 4:30 and at 5:30 I finally took him up to watch the end of basketball practice to keep his mind off the food! In that hour we were home, he had juice from a real cup, cauliflower, and Wheat Thins. Then after we got home from practice, he finished the 100 Calorie pack of the Wheat Thins and then ate a full dinner. Then a snack before bed, too. He's been eating Deb out of house and home also- we'll have to give her a raise to keep up with food costs!!!!

Josh said with B eating all day long, there IS some of his mother in him. :)

accomplishments

On a board I belong to for people that are struggling and have struggled with infertility, someone asked us on the parenting side of it to list the recent accomplishments our kids have achieved. I thought it would be fun to post what Brecken can do here, too, for those of you that aren't close enough to see him a lot!

Words: bowl, mama, ah-mee (mommy) dad, daddy, dit-da (Ditka the cat) kee (kitty), dog, woof, moo, uh-oh, see, this, juice, mimi (what he calls his pacifier), milk, tee (tree), ball, vroom (when he's driving his cars) and boo!

Body parts- he can point to the following body parts on his body or anyone else's: nose, eyes, ears, mouth, belly. (though he has to lift up his or anyone else's shirt to get the belly!!)

He is in size 4 diapers now, size 18 month clothes, and size 5.5-6 shoes. He has 9 teeth and is using them lately to the fullest- we can't keep this kid full this past week! He is CONSTANTLY eating. It will be interesting to see what he weighs next time we go to the clinic.

He understands what we say. He can answer questions like the best of them. He nods, shakes his head, and turns his little hands up in the "I don't know" pose when he doesn't know. 99% of the time, he answers the questions correctly, too!! Last weekend I didn't feel like putting much effort into getting dressed, so he ended up wearing what I pulled out first- a red pair of sweatpants and a purple Panters sweatshirt. Josh asked Brecken if his clothes matched. He shook his head no. He then asked B if he was sad about not matching, and he nodded his head yes! :)

No more bottles! He FINALLY gave up that nightime bottle this past week. Now we're full-time into sippy cups, cups with straws, and his new favorite- REAL CUPS. He does really good- doesn't spill anything! If we're at a restaurant, he will not drink out of his sippy cup- he insists on the real cups. He practices lots at home, too.

Sleeping is still sketchy- some nights he does great and sleeps through the night until between 6 and 6:30. Other nights, it's like he's afraid of the dark and wants nothing to do with sleep.

His favorite toys at the moment are cars and balls. And books. Oh, how he LOVES reading books. He's very much into climbing now, he climbs on EVERYTHING. The other day he wanted up on the side table next to the couch. He stood on his tractor to get there, but still wasn't tall enough. So he went and got on his chair, up on the couch, and over the arm of the couch to get on the table.

So, there's my (almost) 17 month old! It's so crazy how fast time flies.

new words

Brecken has two new words this week: Bowl, and ah-mee. Bowl means snack, because usually put his snacks in bowls. So when he's hungry, he'll walk around going, "Bowl." :) Ah-mee is him saying "Mommy" instead of "Mama" now.

Josh's games this weekend both got cancelled due to the weather. It's been weird to have him home on a Friday night and a Saturday afternoon! He did get called out on the ambulance about an hour ago, though. They needed an Intermediate for a transport from the nursing home.

Brecken's asking to read books now, so I better go. We've only read about 100 already today.