Crayon Marks Galore!

While I was upstairs with Connell (he got into trouble for jumping from kitchen chair to kitchen chair and jumping off as well), Liam was drawing all over the kitchen floor with a red crayon he must have found. There were 5 large spots like this one all over the floor. With a lot of elbow grease and some different products, I was able to get 4 of them off. The 5th is really stubborn and I will have to find some other stuff to try and get it off.

While I was cleaning up the red crayon mess, Marta Fendrich called saying that my old department at Rosemount High School was coming over to lunch at her house on their workshop day. So I gave the kids something quick to eat and bundled them up and went over to her place for some wonderful leek soup and extras. While I was eating and gabbing with ex-language department members, the boys had made their way to Natalie's bedroom. I suspected something when Liam came down with two plum-colored marks on his socks that weren't there when we left the house. I went upstairs to Natalie's room to find 4 spots of washable marker -- similar to the crayon spots that were recently on my kitchen floor! Liam was the culprit although I imagine that Connell watched and didn't prevent him from doing it. So I ran home and grabbed two different carpet cleaning products and came back spending 10 minutes scrubbing their carpet. It isn't perfect, but at least it is on the carpet that was the original and not the new stuff on the main level that they recently replaced. Ugh! Now it's back home as the faculty had to get back to doing grades on their workday and I need to find something to get the crayon off of my kitchen floor! Ugh! (Sorry I didn't take a photo of the Fendrich's carpeting for the blog!)

Caught off guard...

I was totally caught off guard last night at our bi-monthly Ladies' Night Out shortly after I presented the top 3 awards for "Turkey Husband of the Year". (By the way, Jennifer's husband, Richard, took home the top prize for jumping up and down on their bed shattering the light fixture above, Vicki's husband, Eric, took home 2nd by putting an entire ham down the garbage disposal at once and running it with little water and Deann's husband, Chris, got 3rd place by cutting some baseboard on their kitchen countertop sawing through the counter. Ray tied for 4th by driving 19 miles to work in my car with the emergency brake on. Amber's husband, Dave, who mixed up her name a little bit while proposing to her also tied for 4th.

Jessica came out with a survey for everyone to fill out stating that now we were voting for "Playgroup Mommy of the Year". Well, if anyone can read the questions above, you will see that it was a little biased and I won. They had all kinds of gift cards and liquor and gifts for me. I was very touched. Everyone wrote me a personalized note (handwritten which was interesting because I have known these people for almost 3 years and yet I didn't recognize many of the handwritings -- that means all of our correspondence is by email!) I do the planning for the fun of it and because that is the type of person I am. It meant a lot to me for them to plan all of these surprises behind my back so cleverly!

Shhhhhhhh! It's a secret!

No, Connell is not picking his nose in this photo. He is practicing the "Shhh! It's a secret!" that we talked about as we wrapped daddy's present for Christmas. I thought that I had clearly explained the meaning of surprise and secret for several minutes. Come to find out the same day Connell went to daddy and said, "We bought you a watch for Christmas -- shhhh! it's a secret!"

Note to daddy as he reads this --- we kept the receipt so if it's not the secret/surprise you were hoping for, you can return it!

Our Long Weekend

Our weekend was nice. We went to Ray's aunt Nancy's house for Thanksgiving and had a nice time. There were 21 of us which was a nice size group. The boys didn't really eat much, but they enjoyed getting into mischief and playing with their cousins.

The rest of the weekend was filled with shopping, relaxing, attending church, etc. There wasn't really anything exciting that occurred except that Ray got the Christmas lights on the front of the house and I finished our Christmas newsletter. With the extra week that this year brought with that early Thanksgiving, we really are on top of the holidays for once.

Oh, and here is the shocker of the century for anyone who knows me well. I took up reading!!! Yes, that's right. I am the person that has never read a book (for pleasure) in her adult life besides ones required for college classes. Here is how it happened...I was in the Dollar Store Friday going up and down the aisles and found myself in the book aisle. This hardcover book jumped out at me -- especially when I saw that it had a list price of $24.95 and then a Wal-mart sticker for $4.95 and then of course it was down to a dollar. So I read the flap and it sounded really good and so I bought it and thought, "I could read this!" I started it on Friday eve and finished it this morning -- and it was 365+ pages long. It was called "All is Vanity" by Christina Schwarz. She is the author of a book called "Drowning Ruth" which was on Oprah's reading list (and maybe I'll read that in coming weeks). Anyway, I did love the "All is Vanity" book although never having read a book before I don't have much to compare it to! My friend Vicki says that she has more books to recommend to me and I think that perhaps I will discover the glories of the public library in coming months.

Standing on the Table

Yes, Liam does climb up to the top of the end tables, kitchen tables, etc. etc. It's getting ridiculous. Consequently he spends a lot of time in his "naughty chair" since he is persistent and can rarely be redirected.

(a message to my mom...you may not want to look at the picture!)

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

We are spending the holiday in Maple Grove at Ray's aunt Nancy's house to celebrate with the Harvey family.

Here are projects that the boys did at school today (ECFE). Liam didn't really get the concept of pushing his hand onto the paper once covered in paint. The teacher drew the turkey "extras" on!

Writing His Name...

I'm not sure if this has improved or not since Connell's early October attempts at writing his name. The "E" certainly gets lost and the "L"s could definitely be straighter. I guess since he's only 3 years old that we can't expect perfection.

Connell's Parent-Teacher Conference

Ray and I met with Miss Theresa this afternoon for Connell's progess report at school. There were lots of positives --- Connell is great at using the bathroom by himself, he has good manners, talks to all the other kids, plays extremely well independently, loves to go to school (no separation issues) and academically is "really bright". Miss Theresa says that his vocabulary is great and he has improved immensely in using his words to get things from other students and the teachers. When prompted, he has actually shared things at "show and tell" although he talks very softly in front of the whole group. He loves playing during gross motor time (on the play equipment or in the open area).

Some of the areas in which he could improve include sitting still for circle time, singing along with the class, transitioning between activities as requested, keeping track of his personal items and getting his projects into his backpack by himself. He tends to be quite chatty with the other students and tries to move around instead of listening during circle time.

Most of the above were not shocks to us. I was a little surprised to hear that he wasn't singing during circle time because he loves to sing at home and sings his songs from school for us. I was pleasantly surprised to hear Miss Theresa say that Connell has a huge vocabulary and communicates very well. Within our playgroup and ECFE, Connell was very late/the last to talk (didn't say much at all until age 2) and so for an outsider to compliment him on his communication skills is really an uplifting thought!

Preparing for Advent...

The boys and I went out this morning to the Dollar Store and got some pillar candles to make an Advent wreath. We tested it -- they all lit. Since Thanksgiving is so early this year and Advent starts the second Sunday after Thanksgiving, we are really organized and on the ball. I also was at the Catholic Bookstore/Gift Shop in our area on Saturday and got some booklets of Advent/Christmas activities to do with the boys. Now that Connell will be talking about Advent/Christmas at preschool and see the wreath during Masses that he attends with us, we figured that we better do some things at home as well to really prepare for Christ's birthday.

We're Making Crescent Rolls!

Connell and I decided to make crescent rolls this morning (with help from Pillsbury!) Can you tell which one I made, which one I helped Connell to make and the 6 that he rolled on his own?!?!?

A Weekend of Hugs...

The boys were in a "huggy" mood this weekend. They were spotted hugging several times.

We had a pretty low-key weekend with some shopping, watching tv, doing laundry, going to church (Connell was a little squirmy in the worship space with us, but Liam did really well in the nursery) and that was about it!

Monday we have conferences with Connell's preschool teacher. Both Ray and I are excited to see if she has him pegged just like we do. Of course there always has to be an issue with the Hagens --- the church is so nice to have the nursery available while the parents are conferencing with the preschool teachers. Now that Liam does great in there, we thought we were set! Connell has unfortunately been telling us for more than a week that he will NOT go in there during conferences, the nursery is for "babies in diapers" and so we don't know what we will do. He cries about it every time it gets mentioned. I guess if we can't work something else out, I will keep the kids busy while Ray talks to the teacher alone. In a strange way, I almost DON'T want to hear what she is going to say because many of you know that while I am at church on Tuesday and Thursday mornings for Bible Study, I often run into Connell's class in the hall. Connell is always lagging behind and the aide is usually there trying to keep him moving. So I have a sneaky feeling that he is the "in the clouds" type that teachers struggle with. We'll let you know what occurs...

Liam's Allergy Results -- Shocker!

Liam had his follow-up allergist appointment this morning...

SHORT VERSION FOR THOSE OF YOU WITH LITTLE TIME TO READ...

Liam currently has no allergies whatsoever (to food, dust, etc.). However, the doctor has ordered that he follow a totally peanut-free and tree nut-free diet until age 3 (minimally) and age 4 (preferably) and then come back for further testing.

LONG VERSION FOR THOSE WHO WANT DETAILS...

Thousands of dollars later (although the insurance should only leave us a few hundred dollars to actually pay), the doctor has found no allergies. All of the RAST blood test samples came back negative (peanuts, dairy, soy, several tree nuts, dust, etc.) When he told me that this morning, I was absolutely in shock and more puzzled than ever as to why Liam was having so many strange reactions -- especially the one that he had while eating peanut butter in early October -- see the blog posting for the photo if you haven't seen it. The allergist was actually as perplexed as I was. So we decided that we should try scratch testing for all the tree nuts and peanuts. Liam did surprisingly well with the 11 scratch tests as he snuggled with me as they pricked his back and then he had to lay on me for 15 minutes so as to not disturb the pricked areas. Everything came back negative on the scratch skin tests as well.

However, when talking about the bright red raised spots in his diaper off and on for about a week in October (at which time Ray thought maybe he had an apple allergy and I couldn't pinpoint it to any particular food), the doctor said that sometimes a viral infection will manifest itself in hives and rashes instead of a cold/upper respiratory, etc. I had never really heard that before and so he seems to think that the viral infection reasoning is our best guess to all the reactions in October.

The allergist was very clear today that we have to keep all peanuts and tree nuts out of Liam's diet (just like Connell's) until at least age 3 and perhaps age 4. That should be easy given Connell's diet. The allergist said that if Liam has any chance of not developing the tree nut and peanut allergies, the only way is strict avoidance until that age. He still could develop them regardless, but it's within our power to try and avoid the allergy by avoidance. We are supposed to tell people that "at this time, Liam doesn't have any dianosed food allergies, but the doctor has ordered strict avoidance due to the fact that he is predisposed to developing an allergy to them at any time." I guess that will have to do for now -- perhaps before he starts SJN preschool in the fall of 2009 that we might want take him back in to be tested if they don't like the simple reasoning given above.

The positive of all of this is that he can have all the dairy he wants now and I can put milk back in his diet totally. I'm not so sure that he will drink it after not having it for more than a month, but it's worth a try. He will enjoy having his goldfish crackers and cheese and such.

The negative is that I never did find out what has caused his stuffy, runny nose for almost 17 months straight! At least it's not dust and so I don't have to clean the house! Ha, ha, ha!

A Visit with Santa

Once again, the picture says it all...

Practicing to see Santa...

Looks like we have the look down perfectly for our Santa visit later this afternoon -- Connell looking super serious and Liam screaming bloody murder. Let's see how it all turns out...

Fun with Popsicle Sticks

Connell found a bag of colored popsicle sticks as he was digging through my cupboards. So we used them to start spelling words. It was great until Connell started trying to play with them and wrecked our names!

Liam and Mommy Time...

As you can see, I have to take the photos myself since no one else really gets photos with me and the kids in them!

Some Mommy and Connell Time...

Ready for the Week...

Liam is all ready for the week. He has been wearing his hat for much of the morning and we haven't left the house. He got his 3 comfort items... his Elmo backpack, his Mickey Mouse water bottle and his baby and has been looking like he is ready to leave the house. Unfortunately we took all three items with him to the church nursery yesterday morning for 8 am Mass, yet they paged me halfway through and I had to bring him back to the worship space with me. Connell got very antsy about that point as well and he wouldn't even try the nursery. So the four of us were quite the spectacle for the last 20 minutes of Mass or so.

Yesterday afternoon we got together with Ray's mom (the sandbox grandma) at Wendy's near her neighborhood for supper (spur of the moment). The day seemed pretty long with us home from Mass by 9:15 and no other real plans. Ray even gave up on the Viking-Packer game somewhere near the beginning of the 4th quarter.

Ray is now spending 3 days on business in the Carolinas. He left this morning and returns sometime about 8 or 9 pm on Wednesday eve. We are hoping for an uneventful few days and nights.

The stray cats appear to have left for good?!?!? The boys' colds are finally subsiding (although Liam still has his constant runny nose -- I am on pins and needles waiting for the call from the allergist to see whether he has a dust allergy). We are trying to fill our week with stuff to do so that it isn't so long with Ray gone.

The Boys go to Great-Grandma's for her 75th Birthday Party

Ray, Connell & Liam made the 2 hr 45 min. drive up to Hoffman today for Great Grandma (Betty) Hagen's 75th birthday party. Connell got to play with his 4 1/2 yr. old 2nd cousin Jeffrey (Clough) and Liam got to dig into the food! They had a fun time.

I stayed home and changed the sheets on the beds, did about 5-6 loads of laundry, cleaned and some other misc. chores. Mainly I enjoyed the silence as the last thing I felt like doing was spending 5 1/2 hours in the car listening to the boys whining after I listen to them 12 hours a day everyday! Ray is traveling this week (Mon-Wed to the Carolinas) and so I really needed a day to catch up on stuff before I am on my own for about 72 hours.

We Have a Skater Boy!

...or a "sk8er boi" to quote Avril Lavigne in a song from a few years back! Liam's latest obsession is putting on Connell's thrift store Mickey Mouse roller skates and skating around the tv room with them on. His balance is incredible! Of course he falls when gets onto the slippery kitchen floor, but his balance on the skates on the carpeting is better than Connell's right now. He is definitely our son that is exhibiting signs of being a future athlete -- Connell seems more into arts/crafts or music.

Lunch in Lonsdale

We drove to Lonsdale this morning to meet some of our playgroup at our friend's Penny and James' new house. Their children Alex and Bella were there and Monique, Adrian, Sarah and Kaiya were there. Cathy brought her grandson, Alex as well. It was a little confusing with two boys named "Alex" running around, but we managed. We had a simple potluck lunch and the kids played and we got a little idle chatting in.

Our Little Climber

Liam has started climbing onto everything --- the kitchen table, cupboards, kitchen island, flipped laundry baskets, bins. Connell also had this cunning way of climbing on top of things and being proud of himself.

Cat Update

Yesterday afternoon as I left to vote, I went out back and didn't see any of our 7 cats. So either they were all under the deck keeping warm (although I am not sure how the momma cat would have squeezed under there) or they have found a new home already. We are hoping for the latter since we aren't really excited about paying big bucks for someone to take them off our hands (like the humane society).

Oops! Major allergy error.

Well, last night while Ray was at the website committee meeting at church, I did some serious searching online and found that McDonald's French fries indeed DO have dairy in them. This stems from the fact that over the 5 or so weeks that we have kept Connell dairy-free, that he has had a few bouts of eczema in the crooks of his arms and knees and on his elbows and I couldn't pin-point the cause. When I had originally found ingredient lists for fast food restaurants' foods, McDonald's fries DID list milk as an allergen. But I found other places on the Internet where it appeared that they had removed it from their product. Last night I actually went to www.mcdonalds.com where I looked on their nutrition section and lo and behold --- MILK!!!! So I think that we have found the culprit as I can remember 3-4 times that Connell has had them in the last 5+ weeks. So now he is down to basically a hamburger with ketchup (he removes the pickle). I told him he could have two hamburgers since he can't have the fries any longer. Burger King's fries appear to be safe -- but they are pretty yucky. Arby's fries (curly) also have dairy.

I feel fortunate to have figured out the problem early as I was frustrated seeing the eczema coming back now and then without eating anything with dairy or peanut or tree nut (as far as I knew).

We are still waiting to hear the results of Liam's test from last Thursday.

The Boys are Stylin' in their Scarves

I bought a fleece scarf at the dollar store yesterday and actually cut it into 4 little scarves because it was so wide and long. I was practicing wrapping them around the boys' necks so that tomorrow won't be such a struggle getting them to wear them to church. I insisted on snapping their picture.

Weekend Update

Ray stayed back from deer hunting this past weekend and good thing he did. The boys were not on their best behavior and with an extra hour, the weekend seemed like an eternity! They were still coughing and with runny noses although their coughs don't seem quite as debilitating (and still seem productive, but I wish that kids could actually cough up that mucus and phlegm!) I also came down with a cold and for the first time in about 4 1/2 years am able to take zinc tablets (Cold Eeze) since I'm no longer pregnant or nursing. The zinc seems to be keeping my symptoms pretty minimal at this point which is great as I try to keep up with the boys all day long.

This weekend we tried something new. For the first time in 3 years, we tried to put the boys in the nursery during weekend Mass and attend Mass together. They had only gone there during my weekday church programs in the past and if you have been keeping up on the blog, you know that Liam doesn't do well in the nursery during the week. Well, we were pleasantly surprised to NOT get paged and so when I went to pick the boys up I was feeling elated! Except that both the nursery director and my cousin Carrie (who incidentally was volunteering that evening) told me that Connell was weepy the entire time and they didn't know what he wanted. He has never had a problem in the nursery nor being away from us. After grilling him in the car on the way home, it came out that he wanted to be with us at Mass and not "at Liam's church" as he now refers to the nursery. Preschool is "Connell's church". If you can follow that...Connell refers to the actual worship space as "mommy and daddy's church" and then the nursery as "Liam's" and his Tues. Thurs. preschool room as "Connell's". Yes, we are confused too! So now that Liam actually did well in the nursery for once, Connell is the problem! He insists on attending the hour-long Mass next weekend with us and only having Liam going to the nursery. How many of you out there can see that being a pleasant experience?!?!? I did take Connell by myself to Saturday afternoon Mass back in early September and it was a longer Mass than usual (running about 75 minutes) and so by the 45 minute mark, he was running up and down the aisles. I decided to wait a while before trying that again or letting Ray take his turn!

We also took our Christmas photo of the boys this weekend. I took about 20-25 shots with the boys wearing the outfits that I put together for them from the thrift stores and clearanced items. There wasn't a single picture with both looking decent, so I opted to choose one with Liam looking cute. Even if Connell cooperates and smiles, he still has a goofy look to him so I favored Liam this time. Sorry, Connell! This year's photo is no where near as good as last year's so don't get too excited for its arrival in the mail in early December!

We also have a momma stray cat and her 6 babies (see above photo for the momma and one of the babies) living in our bushes and under our deck. Ray made some calls and found out that no one will come pick them up (animal control, humane society) so he will have to think of how to transport the 7 of them somewhere to donate. We don't want them all dying next to our back window (by the window well) and stinking up our house all winter. With the animal protection laws, we know that we can't do anything drastic to them (you probably know what they would do on the farm to 7 stray cats!) and I told Ray that I didn't need him doing any jail time and leaving me here with the boys!

That's pretty much the summary of the weekend.

Three Hours in Owatonna

On a whim, we decided to go to Owatonna today for a visit. We spent about 3 hours with grandma and grandpa -- at Wal-mart, McDonald's and their house. The boys had a good time and even slept the entire trip back!

Bowls on Head - Hugging

They were actually wearing my mixing bowls on their heads as hats this evening and when I tried to snap a photo, Liam went in to hug Connell and he reciprocated. It was darling. Usually they are pinching each other or stealing toys when they are this close to each other!

Boys and Their Cars

I think boys will always be drawn to cars! It was Sam's 4th birthday at preschool and so Connell came home with a birthday favor of a car mat and 4 little cars. The boys loved playing with it this afternoon.

Liam's Visit with the Allergist

While Connell was at preschool today, I took Liam to see Dr. Chenworth (Connell's allergist) to discuss all the reactions that we have seen lately. The doctor wants us to treat his eczema like Connell's (with hydrocortisone and Vanicream) and also requested a similar RAST blood test.

I took Liam to the hospital and he was not happy about the blood draw (it was long and we had to hold him down on the bed while his blood only trickled out). The doctor had requested to check milk, soy, peanuts, dust mites, cats and several tree nuts. The dust mites was because I had mentioned the continuous stuffy and runny nose that Liam has had since birth and although some people had mentioned thinking it was dairy allergy related, Dr. Chenworth said that it would be more likely to be a dust allergy. I wonder if that comes back positive if I am going to have to clean my house better. The results won't be back for 1-2 weeks and I will update the blog with them. Until then we are avoiding all peanut products and I am somewhat limiting his dairy intake just so that the transition to "no dairy" won't be as sudden as it ended up being for Connell.

Messy Day at Preschool

You can see from Connell's orange socks, pants and shoes that he had a messy day painting at preschool today. It had even soaked through to his feet and so he spent minutes rubbing his feet with dishcloths to get the paint off. The paint they use is washable and so I should be able to get it out easily in the wash (Grandma and Grandpa Hagen might recognize the jeans as ones they bought Connell for Christmas of '05 -- they are 2T and since he isn't eating much and has such a skinny waist -- they still fit him although they are a little short and the cuffs don't come down)

Sick, Sick, Sick

While waiting for the preschool doors to open, I was chatting with Isabella's mom and Mackenzi's mom as the kids were taking turns coughing. Mackenzi's wasn't too bad (a dry cough), but Isabella sounded like a barking seal. Connell's cough simply sounds like he has tons of phlegm in there and doesn't know how to cough it up. Anyway, I was lamenting the fact that Connell has been sick for over 2 weeks to which Isabella's mom claimed that Isabella has been sick since August 29th and saw the doctor twice with no help. Mackenzi's mom said that she was sick since the last week of June and has never gotten truly over it. Then they started talking about allergies and such. At any rate, it made me feel better to know that other kids are chronically sick too!