Toddler Bed Update

We didn't have to go in one time last night to settle the kiddos! Yay!!! So - I just had to go in and check on them before I went to bed. When I went in Ryan was not in his bed. I glanced over to Riley's bed and saw the sweetest 2 children sleeping head to toe! I so wanted to take a picture, but I knew the flash would wake them up. So, for now I will just have to have that picture etched in my brain...it's one I don't want to forget! When I asked Ryan this morning if he was proud that he slept in his big boy bed, he nodded his head and replied, "Riley's bed"! He loves his sister!

Toddler Beds

Ok – so I mentioned in an earlier post that Riley and Ryan figured their way out of the pack n plays…well today was the day that they figured their way out of their cribs. I went out to run a few errands and Kevin heard the radio flip on in their room over the monitor. He knew the radio was across the room from their cribs, so he went upstairs to investigate. He found Ryan sitting in the rocker reading a book and Riley on the floor playing. They got a little “talking to” and he put them back in their cribs and off they went to sleep. This was only after almost 2 hours of playing (in what we thought was their cribs) prior to the radio incident. When we heard them up from sleeping, Kevin was greeted by them at the door when he went up to get them. …Hello toddler beds. We went in tonight and took out every possible item that could harm them or make a mess and turned their cribs into toddler beds. They had probably the best time I’ve ever seen them have together playing in their new beds. We quickly had to state the new rule “no jumping” and each went to time-out a couple of times for not following the rules, but overall they had so much fun. They got into everything and tackled each other several times. It was fun watching them have so much fun. We were anticipating a crazy evening putting them to bed tonight, but they went right down without a word. I think they played so hard this afternoon that they were totally pooped. I’m sure in a few nights we will enter the real “transition” time, but for now, I’m grateful for an uneventful evening thus far. As I’m typing this, I’m hearing a few sounds coming from their room, so the fun may just be starting. Wish us luck!

Time for Night Night

Web Album Added:
http://picasaweb.google.com/hutchinson.heidi/20091129ToddlerBeds#

Visit with Santa

We logged onto the web at midnight on October 6th to make an appointment to see Santa. Yes – you heard it correctly. The new “system” is to make an appointment, which is a great system because it prevents long wait times, but there are a lot of people that want these appointments, so they fill up quickly. We got a great time and our appointment was yesterday at 5:30. The kiddos were perfectly dressed and could not have looked better. They were so excited to see Santa and even started to walk up to see him before it was our turn. They were eager. Then – it was our turn. I walked up with them to see him and Ryan sat down on his lap. He wasn’t totally sure about it, but he did it. Then it was Riley’s turn and it all went south from there. Riley clung to me like her life depended on it and her panic and tears brought on Ryan’s tears. Santa quickly stepped in and decided to let Mommy and Daddy sit in his chair holding the kiddos while he stood by us. The photo this year will have no tears, but it’s a bit odd to me that we are in it. That was not the plan, but does anything ever happen as planned around here? What happened to the photo of the screaming crying children sitting on Santa’s lap? I was completely prepared for that one, but we got one of the 5 of us. Once we were done with photos they got their candy canes and were as happy as could be. They even talked about seeing “Ho Ho” and were thrilled that they were able to do it. I will never understand it, but at least I know we didn’t traumatize them for life!

Web Album Added:
http://picasaweb.google.com/hutchinson.heidi/20091128VisitWithSanta#

Decorating for Christmas!

We spent all weekend decorating for Christmas and we are 100% in the spirit! We bought a bunch of "unbreakable" balls last year for the tree, so we brought them out and let the kiddos help us decorate the tree. They had a blast handing us the ornaments and they loved the lights. We talked about the nativity as we brought it out and went through all the people. Baby Jesus, Mary, Joseph - they know them all now. When you ask who is Jesus' mommy, they will quickly answer Mary. Wow! They are like sponges and absorb everything we tell them. They have "heard" us say "no touch" and will even repeat it to one another, but they haven't mastered the art of "no touch". Hopefully the nativity will make it through this season, but if not, we will have already had enough good conversations about Jesus to make it all worth it.

Web Album Added:
http://picasaweb.google.com/hutchinson.heidi/20091128DecoratingForChristmas#

Thanksgiving 2009

Thanksgiving this year started out with a very special lunch with Riley at Open Arms. Ryan was still home with Daddy recovering from his croup, so it was just some one on one time – just us girls. We had a full Thanksgiving feast and Riley couldn’t have been prouder to have me there with her. We ate together at the little table and then she showed me all over her classroom. She brought me just about every book in the room to read to her and was so sad when I had to leave to go back to work.

After work, I headed down to Washington (GA) with Riley and Ryan for our holiday. After some heavy traffic to get out of Atlanta, we finally arrived and MeeMaw and Grandaddy had grilled cheese sandwiches ready and waiting on us for dinner. We settled in for the night and started our cooking and preparation for the big meal.

On Thursday morning we woke up and called to wish Daddy good luck on his half-marathon. He has been training for months and ran 13.1 miles in 2 hours and 8 minutes! Amazing stuff! I can’t begin to imagine running that far for that long, but he did it without a hitch! After resting for just a bit, he hit the road and joined us in time for our late afternoon lunch / early dinner. Earlier that day, we watched the Macy’s Parade and they had so much fun watching everyone go by. They are already enthralled with Santa (or “Ho Ho”)!

The kiddos helped Grandaddy in the yard and were just plain busy.

When it came time for nap, they were not happy about any part of it. They played around forever and finally we found them out of the pack-n-plays. We knew the day would come but I was hoping it would still be a little bit longer that we could keep them contained. They ended up on the floor on the mats from their pack-n-plays – Riley in one room and Ryan in the other (Grandaddy joined him to help calm him down and they both rested for a bit).

Once they woke up and Daddy arrived, it was time for the big meal. MeeMaw and I had been cooking for almost 24 hours and we had a great meal prepared. We all sat down with full plates of fabulous food and Ryan declared “all done”. He ate not one bite of the meal and quickly asked for pretzels. So – he had a feast of pretzels and Riley ate only mashed potatoes. Everyone keeps assuring me that this is what 2 year olds do. I guess at this point nothing surprises me!
After dinner we lit up a nice fire in the fire pit outside complete with s’mores! Riley and Ryan played chase with each of us and thoroughly enjoyed every second!

We made a quick trip “downtown” to see the lights and then it was time for bed.

We drove back on Friday and got home just in time for dinner and bed time. They have watched The Polar Express at least 3 times already and keep asking for it over and over again. They ask to watch “The Choo Choo” movie. They have great taste as that is also one of my favorite movies! What a great start to the holiday season! We are grateful for many many things, but most of all we are thankful for our health and for one another!

Web Albums Added:
http://picasaweb.google.com/hutchinson.heidi/20091125ThanksgivingLunchAtOpenArms#

http://picasaweb.google.com/hutchinson.heidi/20091126ThanksgivingInWashingtonGA#

Croup / Stridor

We had a scare last night with our sweet baby Ryan. (yes – today he’s my baby!) About 10:30 last night I heard him coughing and then crying and then coughing some more and I knew it was not just a small stirring. When I went in I found him coughing like a seal. Yep – this must be croup. It was crazy because he had not one symptom at all prior to this. By the time I got him to our room I realized he was really having a hard time getting his breath. We called our neighbor Paul to come over and stay with Riley and headed straight to Scottish Rite. I didn’t feel comfortable driving him alone, so Kevin drove us and I sat in Riley’s car seat right next to him. I knew he was going to be ok, but that we needed to get some sort of medicine into his lungs so he could catch his breath. As I talked with the hospital on the way they told me to get him to drink some juice and to let him breath in the cold air. He was so sweet just sitting there wheezing and holding tight to my hand. The harder he coughed the harder he squeezed. At one point the nurse heard him cough and asked if we needed to pull over and call 911. My quick response was that we needed to get to the hospital and the quickest way was to continue on our trip there in our car. Once we arrived, they weren’t in a huge hurry to help us, so I quickly rushed to the desk and asked if we could be seen immediately. The lady didn’t appreciate my assertiveness and that was when I burst into tears. I went to sit down and Kevin took over. Finally after a couple of minutes of listening to him hacking away, a nice man called us over and took us right back. They said he had croup and stridor. I have never heard of stridor, but from what I’ve read it can be serious so I’m so thankful we didn’t waste a minute and got him right to the hospital. They started him on a nebulizer right away and then an oral steroid. Within minutes he was almost completely fine! Miraculous for sure! We had to wait 2 hours after the treatment to see if he would have a recurrence of the incident, but thankfully he was a-ok! He didn’t sleep a wink until we returned home about 2am. He is contagious, so he’s home today with Daddy and they are having a great day. Even made it to Chick-filA! He has had no more signs of breathing issues and really isn’t even croup-y when he coughs. He’s a trooper! We are now really looking forward to a little break from the day-to-day and a nice relaxing Thanksgiving Day. We are very blessed and very thankful!

A big boy at the hospital

Hanging with Daddy at Chick-fil-A

So this weekend started out as one with not a lot of plans, but as I was thinking back through all we did, there was a long list! We had a nice low key night on Friday night hanging out at the Fenzl's house with them and the Talberts. It was just like old times - we just came home a little earlier than we used to!

We woke up Saturday morning and made a family trip to Costco. There were quite a few items we needed, but as we were checking out, we realized that a family trip to Costco means big bucks! I think sending Daddy on his own with a specific list is a better choice for the sake of our checkbook!

I ran a few more errands during nap time while Kevin worked in the yard. Once they woke up we went to their pediatrician's office for the H1N1 vaccine clinic. There were people everywhere. The line wrapped around the 4th floor, then the 1st floor lobby and out the door. We took our place in line and thankfully walked out 1 hour later. From the looks of the line when we got there 1 hour was a piece of cake. The kiddos did great - just a few tears right after the shots, but nothing that lollipops couldn't appease.

We had a great day today on a very cold and rainy Sunday. We were inside all afternoon after getting home from church and you could tell they were getting a bit cranky. They eased up a bit after Gran-daddy arrived and offered a bit of a change of scenery. He helped me feed them and put them to bed while daddy enjoyed a trip to Philips Arena for a hockey game.

Riley is sporting a new shiny coat!

Jenni & Jay returned the car we let them borrow for their twins. Guess who we found INSIDE the car...you guessed it!...and they each had a turn!

They are loving the blocks the Fenzls gave them for their birthday (yes there are 200 pieces!)They enjoy putting on the boots from Katharyn. Ryan can even get them on all by himself - almost!
They discovered their new favorite "snack" (it's one of their favorite words these days) - - Raisins! We bought them small boxes and they love to open them and savour every last one!

Gran-daddy came over tonight and they showed him their magic with their stamps. They stamped everything they could find, including themselves. He and I both tried to scrub their hands, but it didn't all come off.

Looking forward to a short holiday week! We are heading to Washington, Georgia to celebrate Thanksgiving. Kevin is running the half marathon on Thursday morning, so say a little prayer the he finishes with no injuries and is able to drive himself to meet us!

Web Albums Added:
http://picasaweb.google.com/hutchinson.heidi/20091122ShinyNewCoat