mother's day

So, maybe not the best Mother's Day I've had, but certainly could have been worse, too.  :)  Caleb and Logan both got quite sick on Saturday.  Neither really ate breakfast, but I figured it was just excitement or something (Boden was over, and we were headed to Grand Rapids for the RiverBank Run.).  Fast forward to being at the race and having to do some walking around, both ran out of energy fairly quick, but, of course, I chalked that up to not eating breakfast.  Gave them my whole "mom" speel about how they should have eaten when they had the chance, etc., etc....  They seemed anxious to have lunch, so I expected them to eat really good and things would be back to normal.  Most of my family went to Rainbow Grill for lunch after the race.  When the boys' food came they didn't touch it.  Not even the french fries!  Then I started suspecting something might be up.  We got home and both Caleb and Logan slept for the afternoon (Logan still naps off and on, but for Caleb to nap is highly unusual).  And, when I checked, they both had fevers.  We had a Mother's Day get together with Mike's family, so I went with Levi and Mike stayed home with Caleb and Logan (he had been gone all day helping with a roofing project for a lady at church).  When I got home and was checking on them I looked in their throats and figured we were dealing with strep.  :(

They slept decent most of the night except Caleb did wake up and puke once.  I took them to urgent care as soon as it opened in the morning (of course not until 10am on weekends) since I didn't want to wait too long with it being strep, although it certainly would have been cheaper to be able to take them in to the doctor on a weekday!  They did have a little more energy yesterday than they did the day before, but still not back to normal.  Now that they've been on antibiotics for a day they are certainly acting much better.  You can still see it in their throats and hear it especially in Logan's voice, but they've been pretty much eating and playing as normal.

Oh yeah, of course taking them to urgent care had to get interesting.  While we were waiting they had to go to the bathroom.  Since I knew no one was in there I let the boys go in the Men's restroom by themselves.  Caleb finished and came out, then a minute later I heard Logan crying pretty hard.  I went in, but of course couldn't get in the stall.  Before crawling under the door Logan finally calmed down enough to tell me what happened.  He had fallen off the toilet reaching for the tp!  Hit his chin pretty hard.  He does have a bruise there today and says it's a little sore.

check-up

Levi had his two-year check-up at the doctor last night.  He checked out great!  Surprise, surprise.  :)  He is 36 inches tall, which is 92nd percentile; and 32 pounds, which is 90th percentile.  Since it's fun to compare, at their two-year visit, Caleb was 37 1/2 inches tall (>100th percentile) and 30 pounds (75th percentile); and Logan was 34 inches tall (40th percentile) and 26 pounds (25th percentile).

Levi did get a little shy for the doctor - tucks his head into my shoulder, sucks his thumb, and won't talk.  Although, he didn't have trouble saying good-bye as the doctor was walking out!  :)  He sat pretty good for stuff, though.

The biggest thing I wanted to ask the doctor about was the reaction Levi had to peanut butter last summer.  I've avoided giving him peanut butter (or majorly peanuty things) since, but haven't been careful about whether something may contain peanut oil or things like that and he's been fine, so we do know he's not SUPER sensitive.  The doctor said he would probably just to continue to avoid peanut butter for now.  We could get some basic bloodwork done to see if certain levels of something test high, then if they do he'd pass us on to an allergist (which is where things start to get expensive), but he wasn't pushing for that right now.  He also said that if it was his own kid he might try just giving him some peanut butter again now that it's been awhile, and just be prepared with the Benadryl.  :)  He understands that I might not be comfortable with that since I'm not a doctor, and would rather not handle an allergic reaction.  :)

I did ask about Levi's thumb sucking.  Basically, he said we don't have to make a huge deal of it, but should probably try and limit it to bedtime (if we want to save money on braces down the road...).

Given that Levi has two big brothers the doctor wasn't all that surprised that he's been using the potty quite a bit.  But, he was surprised that he started his training with #2, usually it's the other way around.

Levi got a balance bike from Grandma and Grandpa VanBeek, and he loves it!  Basically, it's a bike without pedals and first you walk with it, then as you get better you can pick up your feet and glide.  The idea is that the chances of falling are much less because you naturally put your feet out to catch yourself, and then when he's ready for a bigger bike he shouldn't need training wheels.  Anyways, so far this spring he has really enjoyed riding around on one of the boys' bikes (he can't pedal, I have to push him), so I was hoping he'd be happy to have his own two-wheeled bike, and he really likes it!

We've barely had any spring around here, and we're already behind on yard work!  Sigh.

TWO

Levi is two-years-old today!!  Time flies when life is chaotic!  He's definitely been becoming more independent for quite some time now.  The other day when he was going potty he said to me, "Go away, Mom.  I can do it myself."  Well, he's not quite ready to do that on his own, but he certainly THINKS he is!
Levi wants to do whatever his big brothers are doing.  Including sit on the toilet without a potty seat, but he's too small for that, so I have to hold him so he doesn't fall in...  Sorry for all the potty talk!  That's just kind of a big part of our day-to-day life right now! (Between three little boys and a puppy, sometimes it feels like a majority of my day is spent dealing with some sort of elimination issue...)

Levi is definitely not always easy-going.  If he doesn't want to do something, he really doesn't want to do it.  We're talking yelling, protesting, throwing himself on the floor and not budging - you know, normal two-year-old stuff.  He gets in plenty of disagreements with Caleb and Logan.  They do get up in his face and bother him quite a bit, but there's also issues over toys, of course.

Levi still sucks his thumb quite a bit.  We've haven't made much of an issue of it yet.

Levi loves to talk about Papa's cows and tractors.  Quite a bit lately he's been wanting to wear a Carhartt baseball cap, and it's quite possibly one of the cutest things ever.  He even wears it to bed.

We went through a little stretch where Levi would sit for a book, but now he doesn't have the patience for it.  Sometimes he'll sit and watch a little tv with Caleb and Logan.

Levi has his well-child visit to the dr in a couple days, will be interesting to see where he's at on the growth charts!

Traverse City

Last week Mike and I were able to get away for a few days for a MUCH needed break, and early celebration of our 10th wedding anniversary.  July 1 isn't exactly the best time to be away from the celery farm, so some flexibility is important.  :)

We headed up to Traverse City and had such a nice time!  The weather wasn't so great, but, who cares?  We had lots of good food; time to be lazy, do some shopping (my dear hubby didn't complain once!), and tour the old Traverse City State Hospital.  (This was incredibly fascinating, a must-see.)  We thoroughly enjoyed how easy it is to get around and eat at a restaurant with just the two of us.  :)