A future in the ministry???

So...how young is too young to be called in to the ministry? We have started a Monday night tradition in our house. We have a family devotion time. Right now, since the kids are still really young, it's nothing too complicated. We're going through a Veggie Tales family devotional. It's really neat. It gives you a little story about Larry the Cucumber or Bob the Tomato. Then it tells a Bible story and gives you a fun activity to do with your kids. (It also includes some discussion questions, but those will still have to wait a while.) Last night's story was about Baby Moses. How "his mommy put him in a basket and gave him a push into the water to keep him safe from the king. A princess found him and kept him." (That's the story in Ryan's words!) The book had us put the boys into a laundry basket and act out a "shipwreck." Rob pushed them all around the living room floor, and they had a blast! Then we shipwrecked on "Ice Cream Island." We ate ice cream and talked about the Baby Moses story. (If you ever get a chance, you'll have to ask Ryan to tell you that story and the one about Jesus and the blind man. It's too cute!) After ice cream, it was time for a family prayer and bath. I don't know if Ryan got the idea while he was in the tub, or what. But he ran out of the bathroom with the toilet paper holder. He ran into the living room, turned it upside down, and set his "Bible story" (the devotional) on top of it. Then he was going to each of us (Rob, Drew and myself) and asking, "Do you want to hear a Bible story?" I guess he's using the toilet paper holder as his podium to hold his Bible, like our pastor does on Sundays. After he went to bed, we cleaned up the house and put away his podium. When he woke up this morning, he was upset that we had moved it. He found it and set it up again in the middle of the living room. So maybe now instead of wanting to be "a man" when he grows up, he'll want to be a preacher!

Who knew our house could be so quiet???

Today was Ryan's first day of "school." He is attending the MOD program at our church. We took him last week to meet his teachers. He got really sad at one point and thought we were leaving him. So I was dreading dropping him off today. I didn't want to deal with lots of tears and having to convince him that he was going to have fun. We had really been talking up the whole idea of going to school (although he REALLY wishes it included a ride on a school bus). He woke up early this morning, a little after 7:00. He came bolting out of his bedroom door and shouted, "It no dark outside, me ready for school!" (He's been getting up before the sun comes up, so we tell him all the time that he has to wait until it's not dark outside before he can get out of bed.) He had a hard time grasping the concept that there was still more than 2 hours until we needed to leave. The morning went by pretty smooth. I got him all ready to go and took him outside for our "first day of school" photo shoot. We grabbed all of the necessary things, or at least I thought we did, and were out the door with time to spare. As I got him buckled into his seat, he said, "Mommy, you forgot to make my hair spiky." So we had to get out and head back inside to spike up his hair using Daddy's gel. Well, me being the crazy-camera-mom that I am, we had to re-do the entire photo shoot...so that 40 years from now we'll remember that he had spiky hair on his first day of MDO. We got back into the car and buckled when he said, "Mommy, I need to go pee pee." So out we got (again). We ran inside just in time to make it to the potty. And out the door we went. (Thank goodness for the "time to spare" that we started the morning with!) He was SO excited to go to his class and see his teachers. He ran in so fast that he almost forgot to kiss me goodbye.

As I walked into the house from dropping him off, I realized that I had forgotten to pack a diaper for nap time (a necessity). So, I had to head back out the door. What a morning! When I finally got home, Drew fell asleep for his morning nap. And, for the first time in a LONG time, the Nordlander house was silent. I thought of all the things I should be doing...but a nap sounded much better. Ahhh....is this what it'll be like every Tuesday and Thursday? Should I feel so guilty for having someone else watch my child so I can do whatever I want? Hmmm...

I went to pick him up at 2:30 and they told me that he had a GREAT day. (In fact, he was the only one in the class to participate in the "Creative Movements" class. And let me tell you, he can move quite creatively....so I'm sure they'll really enjoy him during that time!) As soon as we got out of ear shot of his teacher, he said, "Mommy, my teacher no let me eat my cookie." Immediately I felt guilty...thinking back to the note they sent home. Had they told me not to pack a cookie? Did I pack too much junk food? When we sat down for dinner that night and Rob asked him about his day, he told him the same thing. "My teacher no let me have my cookie." Rob thought to ask the obvious question: Why? His response, "My teacher turned off the light....and nobody could see!" I guess we need to get him accustomed to eating a little quicker. He can prolong the meal process for hours, if allowed. I guess he took too long eating the "healthy" things that he ran out of time for the "goodies." Oh well, maybe he'll learn.

(Update: When I picked him up on Tuesday and asked about his day, he said, "My teacher no let me eat my brownie." Guess he hasn't learned yet!)

There's a whole new world out there....FOOD!

For the past few nights, Drew has been waking up every 2-3 hours wanting to eat. I guess this was my first sign that he's ready for some REAL food. Well, if you consider rice cereal "real food." So, tonight was the big night. Follow along as I take you through his experience....

He was so hungry that he was gnawing at his toys in anticipation of what was to come. (In fact, his shirt was soaked in drool....he could hardly wait!) I guess he could smell the boobie milk being warmed. (When I pulled it out of the freezer, Ryan said, "Baby Drew eats ice cream??" I guess he thought he was getting to eat his dessert before he ate his dinner!) Drew had a huge smile on his face as he awaited his yummy cereal.


In the midst of feeding him, the cereal was a little too soupy, so I decided to add some more cereal to the bowl. Rob, who doubled as the photographer for the occasion, brought over the container of rice cereal. I scooped some out and added it to the bowl. As I put the spoon back in, Rob obviously didn't have a good hold on the container and the weight of the spoon caused it to fall out of his hand...and all over the table, floor, my lap, etc. Drew was not too happy to wait while we cleaned up the mess. But as soon as he saw the spoon coming back towards his mouth, he was happy again.


By the time he was done eating, he was covered in cereal from ear to ear, and head to toe.


He immediately went for an "after dinner" bath. He can't wait till tomorrow night when he gets another taste of heaven! (And he hasn't even had the good stuff yet!)

Kids say the darndest things....

This chocolate-faced little boy has a way of always bringing a smile to my face. He says (and does) the funniest things.

Yesterday morning, Rob took both of the boys on a walk (so I could get a few extra minutes of sleep). Ryan found a feather and put it in his pocket. While we were eating breakfast, he wanted to show me what he had found. He reached into his pocket to pull it out, but it wasn't there. Rob told him that it must have fallen out while he was running outside. Ryan got up from the table and ran to the front door. He said, "Be back. Go get my feather." I explained to him that he can't go outside with Mommy or Daddy because a bad man might take him. As serious as a two-year-old can be, he said, "No Mommy. No bad man no get me. Me run fast!" Rob and I giggled as we told him that the bad man might run fast, too. And he might take him and not bring him home. Ryan's face got really serious and he said, "Bad man get me, me hit bad man!" At this point, Rob and I were laughing pretty hard. At least our little boy has a plan...run, and if he catches him, then hit him!

Last night, I was busy picking up the house and I asked Rob to start the bath water for the boys. (They've recently started taking a bath together...and they LOVE it.) After a few minutes, I went in to put them in and felt the water. It was too cold, so I said, "Rob this water is ice cold. I'm going to have to drain it and fill it up again." So I let out the water and began filling it with warm water. A few minutes later, Ryan came walking in the bathroom with two hands full of ice. He said, "Here Mommy. Ice for my bath." I guess he took what I said literally...he wanted his bath "ice cold."

What a weekend!

Happy Fourth of July! We bought some fireworks and Ryan loved them, of course. Drew got to "do" his first sparkler and watch his Daddy do some other fireworks. He liked looking at the bright lights in the sky, but wasn't too sure about the loud noises that followed. We had Papa Duck, Noni and Bumpa over for dinner and Wii golf. Overall, the 4th of July went by pretty smoothly. But once the 5th was here (and literally, I mean 12 midnight)...that's a whole new story!

At midnight, Drew woke up screaming. I sat up with him for a while. He ate a little, but overall was uninterested. He was more interested in screaming. (He was not your typical "fussy baby"...he was a monster!) He pretty much screamed non-stop until after 6:00 this morning. The entire time, he wouldn't eat (which is NOT like my child). When I spoke with the on-call nurse yesterday she said to call back if he stopped eating or became extremely fussy (which he was both by this point). So, I gave her a call. She told me that he needed to go to the ER...babies can get really dehydrated, and really sick, really fast. So, around 9:30 this morning we were off to Cy Fair Hospital. We got to the ER and were taken to a room pretty quickly. I explained that his big brother has been sick with Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease...and that he's started it, too. The doctor saw the blisters in his mouth and decided we should try a "Magic Mouthwash." Basically it's a mixture of Benadryl, Mylanta and a numbing medication. They had me swab it in his mouth. It was supposed to numb his mouth enough to where he would be able to nurse. Didn't work! He was still screaming at the top of his lungs anytime he tried to eat. They wanted to do an X-ray on his tummy, to make sure nothing was wrong in there. It came back clear. So they decided we should try straight Lidocaine jelly...we swabbed this around in his mouth. Still no relief...still lots of screaming! They put in an IV line and drew some blood. They also put in a catheter so they could get a urine sample. (They were only able to get about 3 drops after draining his entire bladder...since it had been so long since he'd had anything to eat.) We waited an hour for those test results to come back. All clear. The doctor came back in baffled. I had laid him down in his carseat and he seemed content. She was commenting on how he had finally been able to be calmed. I told her that anytime I pick him up, he begins screaming. By this time my dad had arrived with the breast pump (I was about to explode) and he tried to pick him up. The screaming began all over again! I could tell that the doctor had a thought...the expression on her face changed. She explained that the only thing she hadn't ruled out was Meningitis. And the only way to test for it was by doing a spinal tap. Not something I wanted to put my baby through. After a lot of thought, I felt it was best to go ahead and test, so we could rule it out (hopefully). They got him all prepped...and it went by much quicker than I had imagined. Then the waiting game began, again. In the meantime, the doctor wanted to run a bag of fluid through his IV. The IV was not put in correctly by our oh-so-lovely man nurse (that's a whole story in itself), so they were not able to give him the IV fluids. Instead, they had me make him suck on ice chips. This made for some really funny faces! He took several ice chips well, but then I think his mouth got too cold. By about 3:30, the spinal tap results were in...clear! Whew! They decided that we were safe to go home and to follow up with his pediatrician tomorrow. UPDATE: After 16+ hours without eating, Drew finally decided to give in and eat! Yippee! We're praying for a better night tonight...and for Drew's appetite (or ability to eat) to continue.

It's a Family Affair

Okay...the inevitable has happened. The entire Nordlander family has gotten a case of the "spots." Ryan is finally getting over his. The spots are going away and he's back to his normal self. On Thursday I woke up with spots on my hands, feet and in my mouth. Over the past two days, however, they have gotten worse. Now they are all blistered and extremely sore. I have them on almost all of my fingertips. So anytime I do ANYTHING, it hurts. This makes me extremely irritable. (I can now see why Ryan was such a turkey when he had his spots!) Earlier this morning, Drew was fussing. When I went to pick him up, I noticed that he has the blisters starting in his mouth, as well. I checked his hands and feet...and found more spots. Not anywhere near as bad as Ryan had it. We were praying that Drew wouldn't get it...but now we'll pray that it doesn't get too serious. When I saw Drew's spots, I told Rob to inspect his hands and feet. I explained that they start out as red dots that hurt like crazy when you touch them. He found one little spot on his hand that's red and hurts...let's hope he's not getting it, too. Ahhh...I guess we've finally taught Ryan how to share!

It's always something at the Nordlander house...

Ryan woke up Sunday morning and asked for OJ. When he took a drink, he started screaming. I thought he had bitten his cheek (which is something he's recently learned to do). I looked in his mouth and saw a HUGE ulcer on his tongue. A little while later, I noticed what looked like ant bites all over his hands. In the past we have had a problem with fire ants getting into his bed and biting him in the night. I looked down and noticed that he had them all over his feet too. That's when it clicked....hand, foot and mouth disease. He's had it before, when he was a baby. And I'm guessing he picked it up at VBS last week. I called the doctor and he said that's what it was. He started with a rash on his bottom that afternoon. Then yesterday morning, Ryan woke up and the rash had turned into blisters, too. I called the doctor again and he wanted to see him. We went in around 4:00 yesterday and got seen by Dr. Dockray. When he looked at his hands I could tell he was thinking I was crazy for bringing him in (it doesn't look that bad there)...then he looked at his feet and got a little more concerned. But it wasn't till I took off his diaper and showed him all of the blisters on his bottom that he realized how serious it was. He said (and I quote)..."It has been many, many, many...and I mean MANY, years since I have seen a case of it this bad. This is pretty serious." He said that basically the blisters form on the nerve endings...hence why they hurt so bad. (I got it too the last time he had it, so I know the pain that each blister causes.) He gave him Tylenol with codeine to help with the pain. I asked him how long he needed to stay away from other kids. He said that he needs to stay away from everyone (not just kids) for the next week and a half. He said that since the blisters just showed up on Sunday, he's still at the beginning of it and it will get worse. The spots need to be gone for 4-5 days before he gets around people. (I'm going to go crazy being stuck in the house for over a week!) Fast forward a few hours. I get a call at about 6:15 last night that his fever had shot up to over 102 and he was shaking and throwing up everywhere. By the time I got him, he was lethargic and still throwing up. I called the doctor for a third time. I finally talked to the on-call doctor about 9 last night. We had put Ryan in the bath and gotten him to stop shaking...and the throwing up had slowed down some. She said to keep him hydrated and wake him up throughout the night to make sure he would respond. Luckily, we had a smooth night. He woke up this morning...and the fever is back. It's almost 103 today. I'm doing my best to keep fluids going in.

I tell you all of that to say, please pray for my little boy. Pray for his body to fight off this virus. Pray for him to not get dehydrated. It's hard to see him just laying there with no energy...that's not like him. I'm ready for my crazy two year old monster to be back! Also, please pray that Drew won't get it. It's impossible to explain to a baby that he has to drink or else he'll end up in the hospital. Thanks!