Feliz cumpleaños mi mama

We all want to wish you a happy birthday!! We love you and miss you very very much!

My Growing Boy!

I forgot to write about Isaak's 9 month check up last week. He's doing mighty fine I must say! Here are his 9 month stats:

weight: 24lbs- 95th percentile
height: 30 in.- 95th percentile
head circumference: 47 cm- 90th percentile

He's just a big guy all around. Following (almost exactly) Ethan's big-boy growth pattern. He also has grown his top two teeth just in time for Christmas. I have to say that biting has not been an issue where breastfeeding is concerned (thank goodness). No, Isaak is more into pinching. He's not walking yet (another thank goodness). He gets into enough trouble just by crawling around. Here is a picture of him getting into the plastic container cabinet. Take a look at those legs. Nice and chunky- Just the way I like them!

I also had a follow-up appt last week. More MRI's were taken of my foot & ankle post-operation a week prior to this visit. The MRI took 2 1/2 hours and it felt like pure torture! Next time I'm getting sedated! Then, I waited at the doctors office for an hour and a half (again) before I finally saw Dr. M. Basically he said as little as possible to me and spoke mostly into his tape recorder and to his visiting intern. Finally, I told him that I needed the information more than him -pointing to the intern. He just smiled and said, "See you in 3 months for more x-rays." I did manage to make him stay in the room for another 30 seconds to ask more questions before he quickly walked out of the room. UGH!!!!! Maybe I need the sedation for the doctor visits and not the MRI's. I just don't understand why he is an hour and half behind for a 10am appt. They don't even open until 8:30am!!! I'm positive they are double booking appointments. I ALSO don't understand how he can be really helping people when he has so many patients! I felt like I was hung on a 10 mile assembly line then when I finally got to see him he just looked at me through his scope and yelled "NEXT!" Hopefully I will only have to see him a couple more times before we move-AND believe me, WE ARE MOVING!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. We had a nice quiet day of cooking, stuffing our faces, then lounging around. It was great. Just the four of us. It would have been even better had we been able to sleep in a little. No, Ethan thought it best to burst in our room at 6:50 am. Well, what can you do.

Since everyone loves to ask what we eat on thanksgiving, here is a look at the menu for today and the lovely pictures before we stuffed our face. We only made a small dent (there was sooooo much food) but that's okay. I love Thanksgiving leftovers. YUMMY!

Thanksgiving Tofu Loaf with Stuffing (the big brown dome looking thing)
Mashed potatoes
Creamed corn casserole
Candied yams
Homemade wheat rolls
Whole cranberry sauce
Tofurkey Mushroom Gravy
Pumpkin pie (with eggs) and Vegan Pumpkin pie (no eggs or dairy)

Here is a picture of our plates piled high. Everything turned out great! We are still stuffed even now 3 hours later after a round of soccer and tag in the back yard (it was me and E against Daddy and Sinah)

We hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day!

Only 30 days till CHRISTMAS!!!

The soccer season has come to an end.

Thank goodness too! It's very tiring dragging Ethan to all these games and practices. Especially when he doesn't want to go half the time. I think all that kids have had there fill of soccer for the year. Their last game was yesterday and they just were not getting into it. Plus, it was pretty cold and windy out (finally some fall weather). Ethan did make a goal and was pretty excited about it.

Today we had a "end of season" soccer party- at a hamburger joint. Fortunately for us they had just put veggie burgers on the menu so we were saved from having to eat just french fries. It was a nice party. All the kids got a trophy, brand new soccer ball, and a little soccer guy (pictures to follow later of E with trophy). The kids also sat together at one table. We were all being brave parents by allowing them to all sit together- with no adults. I think half the parents were holding their breath as they watched there kids, us included, try to eat, play and not knock over their drinks. They had a great time laughing and talking about really silly stuff. Wish I had a video camera.

Now, we have our weekends free. What will we do? Absolutely nothing! HUH!

He's a natural

Today E and I (I as in mommy- not Isaak) played a scavenger hunt game with my digital camera. We play this every once in a while. He loves my digital camera- ALWAYS wants to take pictures. Usually I make a list of things and he runs around taking pictures of these things when he finds them. Today was a beautiful day so we spent most of it outside in our back yard. Isaak watched excitedly in his exersaucer. Here was my list:
A porcupine, A yellow leaf (with no brown), a green leaf on the ground, something blue, two wind chimes, a basketball, a net, a brick, two feet, a tree, and a chimney

Here are the pictures he took.

I thought they turned out really well. There was no coaching from me. He must be a natural!

Check out Creative Kismet

I've just started yet another blog site. It is called Creative Kismet. I made it as a showcase for my creative side of life. Here I will post my new paintings, and crafts at random. In my efforts of accomplishing my dream of having an online store called Creative Kismet, I am hoping that this will open the door towards getting my creations and name out there in the web world. Eventually my new blog will link to my new online store. You can check out my new blog site here.

I have also joined a sort of web ring called Illustration Friday which is a wonderful idea where a topic is posted every week and then illustrations (art, drawings, paintings, etc) are submitted by hundreds of different artists. It's just like art class in high school. Back then we called it "Freestyle Fridays" which I always just loved. We could draw whatever we wanted (outside of our regular art class work) and post it on the board every Friday at the beginning of class and critique all the works. Illustration Friday is the same idea and I just love it.

I know what everyone is thinking. I've heard it a bit already. "Where does she get the time" or my favorite, "You must have a lot of free time on your hands". Well I don't (obviously). I'm very busy with the boys of course, and with my creating. It's simply just what I love to do so I make time to do it. I spend the majority of my day playing and doing stuff with the boys, running errands one day a week (sometimes 2) and I multitask (for lack of a better word) like crazy. The very second that the boys lie down to nap or sleep at night I'm in my craft room doing something. I also get up early and go to bed late. So that's what I do in a nut shell. Unfortunately, there is not a lot of "free time" on my hands.

Before-After

It was high time for a haircut. Ethan's hair has been driving me mad. Once it gets to a certain length, it starts sticking up in the back, and there is nothing you can do to get it to lay down. We had wanted to keep it a little longer than usual because all the boys now days, and the boys on his soccer team, keep longer hair do's. Well, a couple of games ago, I swear they all showed up with hair cuts making Ethan look like a scraggly wild guy. So today I wrestled him down, bribed him with some Halloween candy and finally cut his hair. It was messy, but it had to be done. Here is his dramatic before/after picture. See, doesn't he look much happier now that his hair is cut?

A Cowboy & an Elvis impersonator

We had a great Halloween despite the yucky early day weather. It pretty much rained for most of the day and it wasn't looking good. I was a little worried that the Halloween festivities would be a wash but luckily the weather changed into a pleasant, slightly chilly Halloween evening and night.

After spending the weekend sewing, ripping apart and re-sewing I think the boys' costumes turned out pretty good. I do have to say that no animals were harmed in the making of Ethan's outfit -only cotton and faux fabrics were used. Anyway, It was fun, but next year I will give myself more than the weekend before to make the costumes. You know me- can't do anything the easy way.

Ethan had a blast!! He is quite the friendly trick-or-treater. We had to remind him not to go inside the houses. We also had to restrict him to saying only "Trick-or-treat","Thank You" and "Happy Halloween". Otherwise, we'd be out all night just making it through one quarter of the homes on ONE street. If you get him going, pretty soon he's telling all sorts of stories about Isaak, our cat...you name it! He kind of lingered too. You know when the candy givers say "okay... have a good night" and Ethan, several minutes later, is still standing there staring into their big bowls of candy as if mesmerized. He's a hoot!! He made out like a bandit. A pretty good size bag filled with goodies. Surely he couldn't and shouldn't eat it all by himself. Thank goodness for mommy and daddy.

It's a Girl!!

Congratulations to my sister, her hubby and little Gavin. They all became the proud new family to a beautiful little girl on the night of Sunday, October 29th. Gavin (her older brother) wanted to call her "Pizza" which is his favorite food in the world! Unfortunately (for Gavin) they decided to call her Jasmine. So, new little baby Jasmine made her way into the world a few weeks early with a very healthy weight of 6 pounds and 7 ounces. She is doing wonderfully and so is mommy. We can't wait to meet little Jasmine over Christmas break when we are headed back home for a short visit.

Congratulations again to my sister and her beautiful little family. We love and miss you!!

Aunt Jenny is gone and we were sad to see her go. We took her to the airport and Ethan had a good cry as we were driving off. He's so cute. We had a lot of fun the day before Aunt Jenny left. We went out to eat lunch then we went to the mall and played in the kids play zone. Ethan ran around with the other kids while Isaak attempted standing next to the soft alligator head. He had loads of fun. We ended the day with a cup of frozen yogurt for Ethan. What a great day it was. We will miss Aunt Jenny.

The bad part about having friends and family visit is having to drive them to the airport. It is always so sad. A few days to spend with loved ones is always worth a couple of tears.

I'm gonna get you!

Yep, he's crawling and scooting all over the house. Just won't sit still. He's even starting to pull himself up into standing position. Ethan never really crawled so this is all new to us. We put him down for one second and *poof* he's gone. We've had to do some serious child proofing around the house and we are going to be getting the door gates out very soon. He's even been going after Sloopy. He's been swatted at twice by Sloopy for getting too close and for trying to grab her tail. No rest for the weary- that's for sure!

Ethan's Special Soccer Moves

No, he's not falling. This is an action shot of Ethan's special move that he created in the middle of last week's soccer game. He busts it out whenever the mood hits him. Mostly at soccer games while all his team mates are running around chasing the ball and trying to score. He has many more really cool moves. I'm not sure how this is benefiting his team but I think it's distracting our opponents. Yeah, he's a pretty clever little guy. He likes to play goalie too. When ever the other team get the ball he flies over to the other teams goal and waits anxiously (arms flapping) to block the ball. It's pretty funny. Aunt Jenny was able to witness his many many strategic moves and maneuvers at yesterdays game. It was a lot of fun. She had a good laugh.

Fun weekend with Uncle J

Uncle J came all the way from Boulder, Co, to visit us this weekend. We had a great time. Showed him all over the Big D, watched Ethan play Soccer and took him to a few multicultural festivals. A great Weekend. We were sad to see him go though. Ethan will especially miss chomping Sweetarts and jumping over spiky things with Uncle J (Ethan's favorite computer game). I think our family life knocked Uncle J off his feet. We sent him home exhausted.

Now we are gearing up for a visit from Aunt Jenny. We are all excited. Ethan can't wait to show her how to chomp Sweetarts and jump over spiky things as well. So get ready Aunt Jenny- you have a big week ahead of you!

We went to a Hot Air Balloon Festival when Grandma C. was visiting. Ethan had a great time playing in the fun houses and eating Dippin' Dots- Thanks grandma C. Here's a picture of the balloons. They were just spectacular.

Happy Birthday to Daddy!

Today was Daddy's birthday. We surprised him with decorations of balloons, streamers, presents and a big Mexican dinner of enchiladas, rice, beans, chips and salsa. YUM! Ethan thought it was very exciting. So exciting that we was inviting people at the grocery store to come and have cake with us. Such a friendly little guy. Daddy was suprised with our little party.

Isaak has really been scooting around the room. Very close to crawling. I'll just set him down and within seconds he's on the other side of the room. I sat him down in my bedroom so that I could get ready and within a few minutes he was squirming down the hallway trying to get one of Ethan's toys. Boy are my hands going to be full.

Still very hot around here. Just barely a little cooler. Low 90's- 50% humidity. Over the weekend it was in the high 90's with 80% humidity. UGH! It sure doesn't seem like October. It is supposed to cool down by the end of the week. We can't wait. We can spend more time outside and at the park when it finally cools down.

My foot is doing very well. I'm getting around just fine and my scar is healed- I can wear shoes with no problems. I've even been going for little walks in the morning with my boys. It feels great to get out and exercise a little.

A special Happy Birthday to Aunt Jenny. We sure do love & miss her.

Go Scorpions!

Pooped out after a long game!

Ethan had another game this AM. Played against the Sharks. They again did very well. They split the two teams into two different games this time with 3 kids playing at a time. It was different and a little confusing. I guess the point was to allow the kids to play a lot more. They did and seemed to be losing steam towards the end. Ethan did well scoring 2 goals this time. We're having so much fun. We will be having guests to our game in a couple of weeks. First, our good friend Jason and then the following week will be Aunt Jenny. We are very much looking forward to their visits.

We Won!!!

It was a landslide! Our little guys scored so many goals that we lost count. Ethan had a hard time getting into the game at first but once he did he LOVED it! He was running, arms flailing about, and really getting in there to kick the ball. He even made a goal. I really couldn't believe how well organized and how well these little guys did. Our coach is really great. A very patient, kind and excited kind a guy. He's treating all the boys to ice cream for their winning performance this afternoon. Isaak, I'd have to say didn't have as much fun as we did. Every time something exciting happened we would all scream which frightened poor little Isaak into tears. It was still so much fun! Hopefully Isaak will get used to all the excitement of soccer. We are very much looking forward to future games.











Just a side note about the weather. In case anyone was worried about Hurricane Rita hitting us, it didn't. Not even a single drop of rain. Last night it was cloudy and a little windy but that's about it. Today there is not one cloud in the sky, it is 96 degrees and the humidity is at 58%. We're just hoping for some cooler weather around here.

Little teeth

Here is a picture of Isaak's two very cute little teeth. (Picture courtesy of Ethan-he loves taking pictures with my digital camera). I think Isaak's top two teeth may be making an appearance soon. He's been awfully cranky these last couple of days. The only time he isn't is when he is chewing on something. I bought the coolest little gadget for him called the Fresh Food Feeder by Munchkin. It's a little teething ring with a net bag that you put fruit in and close. He just loves it. I put pieces of apple, melon, peach, grapes or frozen banana pieces in it and he chews on it and sucks all the juice out until there is nothing but a flat little piece of fruit fiber. The best thing about it is that I don't have to worry about him choking. The only bad thing about it is that it's really hard to clean. I found another version of it called the Baby Safe Feeder that comes with removable and replaceable little bags. We might try that next when this one is all chewed out.

Ethan had his first soccer practice/meeting last Sunday. It was pretty fun. Ethan is definitely the most friendly little guy with not one ounce of shyness. He was talking to everyone telling them about this new soccer shoes and how Grandma Cindy was visiting and his little brothers name is Isaak and on and on and on. During the meeting part, each child was asked to think about what they wanted their team name to be. Ethan picked "The Monkeys" and " The Scorpions". Other ideas were dragons, rockets, red devils, fierce jaguars, lions, tigers and bears- oh my, the list went on forever! After a long deliberation, the kids finally decided on The Scorpions as their team name. Their colors are red, black and white and their first game will be on Sunday. It should be very funny and interesting considering what practice was like. Ethan is the youngest one on the team and one of the few that hasn't ever played soccer. He mostly just watched bugs fly by and ran along with the team laughing and screaming. It's really gonna be a hoot. We will be prepared with digital and video cameras in hand. Lots of picture to follow.

Stitches are out!

Went to the doctor yesterday to get my stitches taken out -actually it was more like yanked out. OUCH! The nurse wasn't very nice about it. The doctor had nothing new for me. He always talks to his patients while speaking into a tape recorder (for easy documentation purposes) and stands in the examination room for a total of 30 seconds then starts backing up towards the door (still talking) while trying to make a quick escape. I barely was able to say, "What about the mayo clinic....?" He managed to stick his head back in the door saying, "There's nothing new. Been classified as Maffucci's. See you in 2 months." Gone. What a great guy. And did I mention that I waited an hour before I got to see him for a total of 1 minute!

Anyway, I'll be back to do another MRI and x-rays in two months. Then more MRI's and x-rays every 6-12 months for the rest of my life. Yippy! It's really for my own good. I am currently at the age when these tumors start becoming malignant in people with Maffucci's. I'm just going to try to be positive and continue my healthy habits and hope for the best.

Soccer Season Is Starting!!

Ethan has officially been signed up for soccer. We are so excited for his first practice and first game- we being mommy & daddy. Ethan isn't quite sure what it really means to play soccer yet. We are just hoping that he loves it. The whole idea of him running up and down a field with a bunch of screaming kids trying to kick a soccer ball around sound like such a wonderful way for him to burn off some excess energy. We can't wait. We've already bought a little soccer kit which included the cutest little soccer shoes, socks, shin- guards and soccer ball that you've ever seen. All we need is the team shirt & shorts and he'll be quite the handsome little soccer sport. Pictures will follow soon of course.