happy birthday to nobody

Today was Encampment's graduation. I had told Brecken that we were going to my school for a party. He thought it was a birthday party we were going to, and even practiced singing the "Happy Birthday" song. We were going to stay for cake after the graduation, but they weren't going to cut it for a while and Brecken was getting hyper, so we went home. I told him I would make a "birthday" cake when we got home. Of course, with him, you can't just make a cake- you have to have candles and singing too. We had quite the laugh tonight. :)

(oh, and forget the fact that it looks sloppy- if it had been for a REAL birthday, it would have had pretty edging, I would've taken more time making sure the {homemade!} frosting was nice and even, and the sprinkles, done by Brecken, would have been not in one huge pile. :) )

something old, something new...

Happy 5th Anniversary to my wonderful husband!

the "special" day

That's what Dylan called it, anyway. Today was B's last day at daycare, as school was out for me today. I won't lie- I cried when I picked him up. Amy cried when Josh dropped him off for the last time this morning. In Amy, we found an INCREDIBLE lady to hang out with my son this school year and we are beyond blessed to have her. Amy is fabulous and I cannot say enough good things about her. She has taught my son more things than I ever imagined he could learn this year. He now has a "bes' friend", her son Dylan, who can hardly stand to have Brecken away from his house over a weekend, let alone this whole upcoming summer. We'll have to make plenty of playdates with Amy and Dylan, so the two boys can continue to be "bes' friends".

If you know my son at all, he isn't fond of people. If it's not his mom or dad, he doesn't want you holding him. Or talking to him. He's getting better, but that's his personality. However, he will sit on Amy's lap and tell her, "No, I love YOU more." That's a huge thing!!

Here is what Amy and Dylan made for Brecken last night, as a "going away until August" gift. I LOVE them. Dylan has the same "best buds" one to hang on his wall in his room. :)

cousins

The five Sandlian cousins were finally together for the first time this weekend. We ALMOST didn't get this picture. We had four children sitting on the ground nicely, waiting patiently. One child was running away in a screaming tantrum saying he will NOT have his picture taken. The child screaming was mine. Of course. :) I finally bribed him with a popsicle, and it worked. Now Grandma can have a picture of her five grandbabies.

mini-me

On Fridays while I am at work, Brecken gets to have a daddy day with Josh. They have been going golfing after pre-school and B's nap and B has had a BLAST doing that. He talks about it for HOURS afterwards. After this Friday's golf excursion, we had to call Papa in Gillette to place an order for new clubs- we're afraid these little plastic ones aren't going to last much longer hitting hard golf balls down the fairway. While not at the golf course, Brecken practices in the yard. And practices. And practices some more. And if he doesn't have a tee, he will search until he finds one. We have a little mini-Josh on our hands.

signs of spring

finally.

NICU reunion!

We get to go to a Children's Hospital NICU reunion! We got the invite a couple weeks ago and then another one today with more information. It's for "graduates" of the NICU from 2003-2006. I'm totally excited. I've wanted to see the new Children's Hospital since it's been open but never thought I should just go there and say, "Hi, can I tour your hospital?" :) But now we get the chance. And hopefully we'll get to see some of our nurses that we really liked. (Though since I only remember one of their names, I sure don't expect them to remember us at all!!) It's June 7th, the day we were going to Denver anyway to catch a plane early the next morning, so it worked PERFECTLY! We even get to send in a picture of B from the NICU and a current one too, for a slideshow they are putting together.

Whoo-hoo! A NICU reunion! (And yes, you can call me a dork for being so excited. :) )

mother's day

What a great day! It started with Brecken sleeping in! Hooray! Then he and Daddy brought me to breakfast. After we got back, Josh mowed the lawn and B and I took a walk to the greenhouse. We picked out some flowers and strawberries. When we got home, we planted the strawberries. Brecken is so excited to grow them and is a bit impatient- I think he thought the plants would have strawberries on them already. He walked through the greenhouse saying, "HEY! Someone ate all the strawberries!!" :) He is loving it though- he insisted on going outside tonight before bed so he could check on them.

After we planted, we were able to chill out on the deck. It was wonderful. It was so warm that even I had shorts on! After lunch, B and I took a nap while Josh watched golf. After we woke up, we got to go swimming! It was nice and warm in the pool today! Then we came home and got ready for popcorn night.

Never mind the colors of his shoes- nor the fact that they are both left feet. That's how he has been insisting on wearing them lately.

It was a fabulous day! Happy Mother's Day to all you out there. And hugs to all my friends from the infertility board (and all others) that struggle to have children. You are in my thoughts today!

sign of the times

Brecken was in the car with me after I picked him up. He had my phone and was pushing buttons. When we stopped, he handed me the phone and said, "Here Mommy. I texted Daddy."

Yup, he's growing up a lot differently than I did. :)

b

More on the other blog!

a list

I've had every intention of posting stuff in the past few days but haven't gotten around to it. Here's a few things that have been going on and I'll get back to post a "real" post later.

1. Sunday, we woke up to SNOW, so we didn't go see Bryell. :( We really wanted to, but figured the interstate would close so we couldn't get home, and we both needed to be at work on Monday. We'll try again this weekend.

2. Prom was Saturday night and it was a blast! Brecken could only stay awake until 9:30 so that's when he and I came home, but while he was there he had the time of his life.

3. I was selected for a jury yesterday. Spent a long day in Rawlins and go back today- and probably tomorrow, and hopefully not on Friday!

4. Brecken woke up at 2 am yesterday with a barking cough. Woke up at 6 am with a 102.7 fever. AGAIN. Josh stayed home with him yeseterday and then took him to the Laramie clinic yesterday around noon. Diagnosis? THE CROUP. The poor kid can't catch a break. Got a dose of steroids yesterday and has another one today. Poor baby.

5. Don't want to be late for jury duty, so I'll be back for a "real" post later!

said to me this morning...

(by Brecken of course.)

"I need to brush my teeth. My teeth all dirty. I feed the dogs, that why my teeth all dirty".

B: Mommy, what's this guy's name? (question of the month)
Mommy: I don't know, buddy- what should we name him?
B: (squinting and looking at him closely) ummm.... SANTA CLAUS!!
Mommy: Perfect! Looks like a Santa Claus to me!

in love

Brecken is in love with his new baby cousin and he hasn't even met her yet. Yesterday morning before school is when I found out Beth was in the hospital. Josh was in the shower while I talked to her, but Brecken was up so I told him. Josh came upstairs and B exclaimed, "Daddy! I have a new baby sister today!!" :) He also said, "She has a polka dot shirt." Last week while in Laramie, we found some little tiny dresses, and he picked out one for Bryell that had polka dots all over it. He remembered, a week later, that he was going to give it to her!

Just this afternoon, I was showing B a picture of Bryell. He knew exactly who it was. You should hear him say her whole name... "By-ell ewwabab0-beth." It's dang cute. Anyway, this afternoon after seeing the picture, he said, "I need to go see my baby cousin." I told him we would go on Sunday. He furrowed his forehead and exclaimed, very sternly, "No WANT to Sunday! Go 'morrow!!"

I think we need a new baby doll for him to play with- he has two right now and their names (given to them by Brecken himself) are Baby Hailey and Baby Brooke. Now we need one for him to name Baby Bryell!!

bryell

I want to welcome into the world my new neice, Bryell Elizabeth! She was born at 10:54 a.m. this morning weighing in at 6 pounds and was 19 1/2 inches long. She's a beauty!! I have another beautiful neice to add to my collection of beautiful neices and nephews!!

Welcome to the world, Bryell!! We can't wait to meet you!

the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day

OK, it wasn't actually that terrible. :) Could've been lots worse, that's for sure! We made it though the night fine- his fever broke and he slept peacefully. I had him in bed with us, just in case it spiked suddenly again, so I could feel it. But we made it through the night, waking up every two hours to give the next round of medicine. It was weird- the alarm never went off, I always woke up exactly two minutes before it was supposed to. Mommy-intuition is a powerful thing sometimes!

We got up early this morning and left for Laramie at 7:00. The clinic opens at 8:30 so as we pulled into town, we called right away to get the first appointment available. It wasn't until 10:30, with a FABULOUS nurse practitioner who after today I will DEFINITELY see again. So we went to Wal-mart and got a birthday present for Amy's son for his birthday party on Tuesday. Brecken really, really, really wanted to keep what we bought Dylan (a set of little water guns), so I promised if he did a good job at the doctor, we'd come back and get him some. ALL HE TALKED ABOUT for the next three hours was "I need water guns to shoot Mommy with water!!!" :) Then we went to breakfast at Perkins- haven't gotten to do that in a long time so that was fun.

Unfortunately, before our appointment, Josh had to leave us. He is in Laramie today and tomorrow for a coach's clinic with UW. So he didn't get to have "fun" with us at the doctor's office.

We got an exam room with a little electronic keyboard in it! Brecken had so much fun playing it. Until the nurse came in and had to take his temperature and stuff. He now dislikes that nurse. Then the NP, Paula, came in. She was so fabulous! She let Brecken look in her ears first, to see if there were monkeys in there. Then she looked in his ears and he screamed. And no wonder. The right ear is totally infected, and the other one is a little bit. Then she grabbed a quick peek in his throat and said how disgusting that looked, too. So she ordered a strep test. She also ordered an influenza test because he was telling me the other night his legs hurt bad. She left, and the nurse came in with a popcicle and some swabs. Swabbed the boogers in his nose for influenza and swabbed his throat. That was the "fun" part I was talking about. I'm glad the little guy only weighs 23 pounds because it was hard enough to hold him down while they did that! He cried and cried and cried. But then enjoyed the popcicle while we waited for the results. :) Both were NEGATIVE, thank goodness! So we left with a double ear infection and a throat infection. Fabulous.

So, we went back to Wal-mart to get his antibiotic filled and he got to pick out his water guns finally. He was in 7th heaven, I think. :) Then we got lunch to go, and he ate a great lunch and then slept the rest of the way home. He's feeling pretty good this evening- we blew bubbles and played and watched some cartoons. He even took a bath so he could play with his water guns- I wouldn't let him go outside to do it because it is snowing once again. So the bath was a good substitute. :)

Yay for feeling better!

i'm not cut out for illnesses

I'm not cut out to have a sick child. It scares me to death. I always assume the worst. That's terrible, I know, but I can't help it. I know I should stay calm because I'm the mommy, but it's so hard. Even tonight, while talking to the pediatrician on the phone, I was shaking so bad and had to try hard to not cry on the phone.

Brecken woke up in an absolute panic about 10:30 last night. We could not get him to calm down. I had a feeling he was getting sick AGAIN, because this weekend he was rapid belly breathing again. And Amy said he hadn't been himself at daycare Monday and Tuesday. I slept with him last night and every time I moved, he would panic. It was a LONG night. He woke up this morning with a 101 fever. I was right- he was getting sick. So I stayed home with him today, and after mid morning, he perked up a bit. His fever stuck around and would creep back up as the medicine wore off, but he was in a better mood.

Well, after an OK day, we almost went to the ER again tonight. Brecken's temp was 101 at 7:45 and even after Tylenol and ibuprofen, it kept climbing. I called the pediatrician on call in Laramie (Kristen told me to) and it was Dr. DeHart, the doctor who was at B's delivery. While on the phone to her it got to 104.7. His rapid breathing was back again tonight too. He had told me his ear hurt, and I told Dr. DeHart that, and she's pretty sure he has an ear infection. But she said the rapid breathing concerned her, given his full history of breathing problems. She said to watch the fever and if it didn't go down, and if his breathing stayed rapid, we needed to get him to the ER. She said if I couldn't convince myself that he was OK, we should bring him to the ER. And if we don't go to the ER tonight, she definitely wants him brought in to the clinic tomorrow. So, a sub again tomorrow... Josh has a coach's clinic in Laramie, so we'll go over together and then leave Josh there with the other coaches. We have bags packed for a trip in the middle of the night though, just in case. But the fever has come down some.

I'm quite tired of illnesses. I feel totally guilty of him being born premature, because I'm very convinced his immune system is so low because of that. I know it wasn't my fault, I didn't make my body go into labor, but I still feel guilty. And I'm QUITE glad I don't have two kids. I couldn't deal well with having Brecken so sick all the time and having another baby, too!!!

So. Until the next update...

new blog

I'm very excited that I have had the opportunity lately to photograph a lot more people. I want to be able to share some of the photos I've taken, but I don't want to really have them on THIS blog because when I print this blog off in book format for Brecken when he's older, I don't want a lot of random people's photos in his book. :) Because of that, I've created a new blog just for the photos I've taken for people. Feel free to drop by!

hailey

Another beautiful neice...

nuggets

Josh won tickets in an auction that was a fundraiser for his football team to put lights on their field, so he and Jeffrey headed to Denver this afternoon to watch the Nuggets play the Sacramento Kings. THIS is where they sat- holy moly, what great seats! And a trip to the concession stand is worth it, because you burn a million calories climbing the stairs to get there. :)