The One About the Dune Buggy Crash

      This is all very funny now, but at the time I was not laughing.  The boys were playing outside.  Asher suddenly ran in the house crying.  I couldn't make out what he was saying, but I could get the words, "Gavin, dune buggy, hurt me."  He was hysterical.  I walked outside with him to see what was going on, thinking that Gavin ran into Asher or wouldn't let him drive or something minor like that.  Asher led me to the dune buggy, which was tipped upside down at the bottom of the boulder wall.  Panic now set in.  Asher calmed down enough to tell me that they drove the dune buggy over the rock wall, and that it landed on top of Asher.  I still didn't see Gavin, so then I was worried because he must be hurt somewhere.  Gavin has a tendency to run off and hide when he gets hurt, whereas Asher comes straight to me.  I looked to see if any limbs were sticking out from underneath the dune buggy, but he wasn't there.  I ran around the house, and eventually found him sitting in the garage crying over his bloody knee.  He was furious with Asher, because apparently Gavin was driving and Asher reached his leg across and hit the gas making them go forward over the wall.  Asher then started crying again, screaming, "It's all my fault.  I'm sorry, Gavin."  I finally got them calmed down again, and found out that Gavin was dumped out of the dune buggy during the fall, but it landed right on top of Asher.  Gavin lifted it up enough to get him out.  What a hero!  So now thankfully we have no broken bones.   Just bloody knees, scraped noses, and a bump on Asher's forehead.  It could have been worse...that was quite a fall.

The One About the Field Day 2013

   Gavin had his field day last Wednesday.  It was a beautiful day for it.  This year, Ewing has a new P.E. teacher, and he made some great changes to the field day.  First, he gave out prizes for the wackiest outfits.  Second, he added all these fun challenges, instead of the boring old field events/races.  The kids had so much fun!!
    Here are some pics of Gavin in his events:

Shoe Kicking

 Frisbee Toss

Long Jump

Softball Throw

50-year Dash

Potato Sack Race

And then the fun began!!  First, they had a Water Balloon Relay Race where they had to pop a water balloon by sitting on it.

Then came the Toilet Paper Mummy Relay.

Sadly, this is where I sent my camera to the car with Ernie, who was leaving.  After this, they had a Water Bucket Relay, which turned into a HUGE water fight.  Several other parents and kids got in on it.  Callum and I did not, but Asher was right in there throwing buckets of water and the high schoolers.  Both boys were soaked!  It was hilarious to watch and awesome to hear all the laughter on that football field.

The One About Kindergarten Graduation

   Gavin has officially graduation Kindergarten.  Tomorrow will his last day.  I am sad.  Kindergarten still feels "little" to me, but 1st grade is old.  Grown up.  True elementary.
   He did a great job at graduation. He had a big day that day.  In the morning, the kids took a trip to Shamrock Nursery to buy flowers for their Community Day planting.  They had lunch at the park and then came back to town to plant flowers all afternoon in the 90-degree heat.  When he got home from school Monday, he was exhausted.  In fact, many of the kids were dragging at graduation.  His allergies have been really bad lately, so the poor kid looks like a wreck.  When he first got home, I could tell something was wrong.  Like his Mommy, he has trouble hiding his feelings. He finally admitted that he was nervous for graduation.  We talked about it, and I told him that he only graduated Kindergarten this one time and it would be so sad if he didn't enjoy it because he was scared.  That seemed to help.
   The program was cute.  They sang some adorable songs.  Gavin sang and did the actions.  He definitely isn't the most animated performer, but he did it.  It's obvious he would rather be anywhere but on stage singing.  :)

Recognize the cute baby in the background.  :)

The One About Surgeries and Stomach Flu

       The last month is a blur.  With Asher's surgery, my Mom's surgery, my surgery, and then the stomach flu, I was just getting through each day hour by hour.  We all were.  Luckily, all the surgeries went well and everyone is back to full health.  I was going to write some things about the last month, but decided I would rather just pretend it never happened.  We made it through it, and that's all that is important.  Now we are gearing up for Kindergarten graduation, the end of the school year, and our class reunion BBQ that we are hosting at our house Memorial Day weekend. 

 Callum is 8 months old now.  Here are some pictures we took for his baby book.

He is on the move now, belly crawling all over the house.  If I take my eyes off him for a second, he's gone.  He just had his two top teeth poke through a few days ago, so he has four total.  He is so observant, and watches his brothers constantly.  He loves getting their attention and then making his high inhale noise that he makes.  He is still an easygoing and happy little guy.  :)

The One About the Spring Concert

It's been almost a month since I posted.  I will sum up the last month in the next post, but thought I would share some pictures from Gavin's spring concert, which was April 23rd.  Funny enough, the concert had to be rescheduled due to the winter weather.
   If you remember, Gavin was not excited for his Christmas concert.  He barely sang and did not do any actions.  So I wasn't expecting much out of him.  However, he did great.  The theme was the pioneer days and early America, so Gavin borrowed some western wear from Asher.  (He's in a blue plaid shirt and a black cowboy hat).

These were just some pictures we took before the high school graduation.  Callum doesn't look happy to be in the hands of his crazy brothers.

The One About the First Soccer Practice

    Gavin had his first soccer practice today.  He is playing with the Elgin club.  He really enjoyed it, although he wanted so badly to hold the ball and punt it like a football.  He loves punting.  It's fun for him to get to know some of the Elgin kids.  They are grouping the preschool and kindergarteners together, and there are only a few in kindergarten playing.  So he is one of the oldest, and definitely the tallest.

   I'll just share some recent pictures we have taken of Callum, pre-haircut.  I am waiting to get his new pictures back from Michael's Photography that we had taken last week.  We did some of the same poses that the other boys had done around this age, so we can have a matching collage.  He was so good during pictures.  All Michael had to do was look at him, and he gave him a huge grin.  With the other boys, I remember dancing around behind Michael and singing to get get them to smile.  Callum is so easygoing and happy!

This next one is post-haircut.

   Callum has started reduplicated babbling, "Dadadadada."  He went to his first bridal shower yesterday, and was the entertainment of the afternoon.  When the bride opened up a musical card, he put both arms up and sang, "da da..........."  It was hilarious!  Ernie and the boys, and now some of the women at the shower strongly believe he says, "Hi!", but I am not buying it.
    Asher is pretty much back to normal after his surgery, other than he continues to have a higher-pitched Mickey Mouse voice, which I have read is normal 6-8 weeks after surgery.  It's juts so different, because his voice was so low beforehand.  Now we have to get through my Mom's surgery this next week, and then my gallbladder surgery on the 24th.  I will be glad when the month of April is over.

The One About the Easter Tonsillectomy

   Catchy title, huh?  When the doctor first gave us the date of March 28th for Asher's surgery, I thought it would be perfect because I would be off work for an entire week, because of how Easter break falls with my working days.  I didn't think about how it would completely ruin our Easter.  :)  Oh well, the surgery needed to be done.
    Asher did very well during the surgery.  The doctor said his tonsils and adenoids were huge, and she sucked out a lot of thick goo from his middle ear space.  She said he had to have been pretty uncomfortable with all the goo.  I remember they told us that when he got his first set of tubes as a baby.  Poor kiddo!  Hopefully he is old enough now to get through the next year to 18 months with the tubes in place without the goo coming back, and now with the added benefit of now tonsils or adenoids, which can help with ear infections.  Waking up from the anesthesia was hard on him.  He had an IV, and absolutely hated that.  He kept trying to rip it out, so we had to hold his arms down.  It was awful...I felt so bad for him.  Through his tears, he was telling the nurses, "Take it out!"   Once they got him drinking juice and were able to take the IV out, he was fine.  He fell asleep for a long time, and then did okay on the ride home.  He has had his ups and downs since we have been home.  Mornings are worse, which the doctor said is normal because the throat dries out so much at night.  He isn't eating, which is fine, but he also hasn't been drinking as much as I would like.  They want us to offer him a drink every 30 minutes to keep the throat moist, but he isn't interested.  Even popsicles aren't working, which surprised me.  So now I am watching him like a hawk for symptoms of dehydration.  He definitely isn't his normal self.  He is very quiet and inactive.  When Gavin makes loud noises, it bothers him.  Which just confirms that he was hearing everything muffled before and now hearing things as they are is very loud.  That could also be why he always talked so loudly...maybe I will finally get him to use an "inside voice."  He will have another hearing eval at the follow-up appt in a week, so we'll know for sure if that has improved.
    So basically we have just been hanging out at home since Thursday.  Because the weather was so nice, we did go outside and play.  Ewing had their Easter Egg Hunt on Saturday, but Asher wasn't up for it.  I thought he would still want to go, but he told me he wanted to stay home.  So Ernie took Gavin to it.  We didn't go anywhere on Easter, but the boys did hunt eggs at the house Easter morning.