Cooper's Allergies

At around 12:15 today I gave Cooper a small piece of the peanut butter and Jelly sandwich I was eating. (I literally gave him less than a normal bit size piece) After he ate that he puked up some mucus stuff. I didn't think much of it because he does this when he has a runny nose accompanied with mucus draining down the back of his throat. He chokes on the mucus and when he coughs to clear the mucus he pukes up the contents of his stomach.

So I went on with my normal routine not thinking there was anything major wrong with Cooper. Once I got Cooper out of his high chair I noticed he was really slimy so I put him in the tub for a quick bath before nap. After his bath I got him dressed and took him in his room to nurse him and put him down for his nap. After nursing him he puked once again. This time he managed to puke up everything he had in his stomach. It got ALL over him, me, the rocking chair, and the floor.

Once he puked he started freaking out and nothing I did seemed to comfort him. I got Cooper out of his nasty clothes and took Cooper to my room with me so I could change my clothes. Once I was in better light I could see that Cooper had hives all over and his skin was BRIGHT RED, and his face was swollen. (This was around 1:45pm)

I put some hydrocortisone cream on him and that didn't seem to calm him down any, so I also gave him some tylenol. After about ten minutes of no improvements I called Jeff, crying. I told him to go buy some benadryl and come home now! He said ok and I hung up with out really saying good bye. I can't remember with all the stress if I even told Jeff what was wrong.

Once Jeff got home around 2:30pm we gave him some benadryl and finally about an hour after that the hives started to go away. All this time we monitored his breathing to make sure he was not having a hard time breathing. Cooper was able to catch a little nap laying on me and when he woke up the swelling in his face had gone down a bit.

Before putting him to bed at 6:30pm we gave him another dose of benadryl. The hives were gone, except a few on his legs and the swelling in his face had gone down all the way, his skin was still blotchy and pink.

Also, Cooper was diagnosed with eczema a few months ago, but now we are thinking that maybe he is allergic to peanuts and when I eat peanuts or peanut butter, and then nurse him that he is getting a small amount of the peanuts and that is what is causing him to break out in (minor) hives that looks like eczema.

So I guess I won't be feeding him anything with peanuts in it for a while.

Crystyne

Mason's lunch date

Aren't they just so cute! I have joked ever since Abby was born that she is my future daughter-in-law. And Mason is beginning fill that husbandly duty already, he just had to sit RIGHT NEXT to Abby as they ate their lunch. Today my friend Amber had a bridal shower to go to so she asked me to watch her little girl, Abby. In some ways it was a welcomed break having a girl in the house. I'm not so out numbered. In other ways girls are much more emotional. Abby stubbed her toe on the bath room door and you would have thought the whole world was crashing down on her. I know she is not the only girl who acts like this. My brother-in-law, Steven's oldest girl gets really emotional when she gets hurt, she will go on, and on, and on as long as her little vocal cords will last.

It's just more reinforcement of why I'm not sure I would ever want a girl. Yeah, part of me does want to have that mother/daughter relationship, but hey I can always have that type of relationship once Mason and Cooper get married.

Crystyne

We're going green, we have a tree!

Alright Al Gore! This ones for you, you big green machine. Our tree.

We have a sprinkler system. The sprinkler heads are where the little green flags are.

Ah.... look at how the kitchen has changed in just one weeks time. If you remember all we had last week was the second layer of sub-floor. Now we have a vinyl floor, cabinet, counter tops, and our tile back splash. The fridge will go on the right, the dishwasher will go on the inside of the eating nook, and the stove will go in the middle. We asked for a full tile back splash. The area where the vent (over the stove) was also suppose to be tiled, but is not. I'm not sure if the tile workers were not done or if they think we are having them put in a space saving microwave, which we are not, because it will be half the price if we do it ourselves. So if the tile work is not finished by next week, I will let our realtor know, so he can have that corrected before we move in. The counter tops look almost black in the pictures, but they are actually a dark brown.

Another view of the kitchen and "eating nook". We will actually be using our "formal dinning room" for our office. So we will be putting our dinning room table in this area. (This strange character is our realtor, Larry)

Along with all the other work that has been done this week, all the interior doors we put in and the trim around those doors as well. This is the coat closet.

The pantry

Main bathroom. It is hard to tell from the picture, but we chose a charkle gray counter top for this bathroom. This vinyl is also in the laundry room, and furnace/hot water tank room.

Master bathroom. We chose kind of a redish/orange color scheme for the counter top, tile, and flooring in this bathroom.

Tile work around spa tub in master.

Mason was about to jump when Jeff took this picture.

Crystyne

Oh fearless one

I don't know what it is about Cooper, but he is fearless. I don't know if he watches Mason and wants to do everything Mason does, or if it is just his personality. The one thing I do know is that he is going to give me a heart attack!

Last night we cut Mason's and Cooper's hair. After cutting their hair I started a bath for them while Jeff cut his own hair. I left the room for a minute (while Jeff was still in the bathroom cutting his hair). I came back to see Cooper lifting his face out of the water. My heart began to pound, my body temp. shot up a few degrees and Cooper just looked at me with a big grin on his face.

Cooper also has no fear about laying face down in the tub while the water is almost covering his face. He seems to really enjoy this. Maybe he can see the fear in my eyes and that is what he enjoys about it.

Cooper just after having his entire face under the water.

When Cooper decided he was done in the bath, he flung his head and one of his legs over the side of the tub, causing the rest of his body to follow behind. This all happened in one second, I was sitting right next to the tub and I was unable to catch his slippery body, so he hit his face on the floor. When he got himself up he had a look on his face like "WOW look what I just did!".

One thing Cooper is afraid of is the vacuum. But last night after Jeff used the vacuum to clean up all the hair, Cooper took the opportunity to become acquainted with it.

Look at his cute little bum!

Crystyne

Doctor appointment

Our Doctor (Dr. Osmun) that we had for the last year moved to Portland in June, so we had to switch to a different practice. We were really sad to see him go. Mason LOVED him. Mason talked about him all the time. If we were on our way somewhere and we passed by his office. Mason would get really excited thinking that we were going to go see him. When we didn't stop at the office Mason would get sad and tell me to go back.

Mason had his three year well child check up yesterday. I tried to explain to Mason that Dr. Osmun moved and that we have a new Doctor now. As we were getting ready for his appointment he kept telling me that he did not want to go. On the way to the appointment the protesting continued. Once we got there he realized that we were not at Dr. Osmun's office. When the nurse called us back, Mason stood behind me and would not walk. I had to coax him to come. Mason would not get on the scale or stand in front of the ruler for the nurse.

I felt really bad for Mason, he doesn't understand why Dr. Osmun moved or why we were at a new office.

By the end of the appointment Mason had warmed up a little bit. He allowed to Doctor to exam him, but he would not talk to her, he would only whisper in my ear for me interpret for him.

Mason finally got on the scale and stood in front of the ruler. He weighed 36 1/2 pounds and was 3 feet 4 inches tall.

Crystyne

New closing date

If you have been paying attention to the countdown of when we close on our house, you would know that earlier today the countdown was still at one month, four weeks, and six days (or something like that).

A few days ago, I was talking with our realtor, Larry, he mentioned how exciting it was that our house only had a few weeks left worth of work to be done and then we would be able to move into our house a few weeks after that. I reminded him that we still had two months until we closed.

He said that he didn't see why we couldn't get the closing date moved up a little bit. Larry said he would look into that for us.

Today Larry sent us an email telling us that he did speak with Viking Construction and they confirmed that they are running between two and three weeks ahead of schedule and so that means we should be able to close on the house two to three weeks sooner than originally planned.

Larry was not able to give us our new closing date at this time, but I am going to go ahead and put our new closing date at two weeks sooner, so that would make it September 11th. That way if it ends up being three weeks sooner (Sept. 4th) I will be that much more excited that it becomes sooner than I anticipated.

Why I married Jeff

Yup this is why. Look at that adorable face. Who could resist? Really? No, I actually married him because he is crazier than me. (If you can belive that)

One thing I didn't know about Jeff before we got married, but I am well aware of now is his strong political views. Basically he thinks that he is right, if you don't agree with him, you are wrong. And even though he has strong political views he tends to add a sense of humor to his views. Just take a look at his TWO blogs and you will see what I mean. (Yes I did say two blogs, one apparently wasn't enough for him)

http://jeffscrazyopinion.blogspot.com

http://bordyforpres.blogspot.com

Crystyne

And now on to number three...

I finished "new moon" and am now about to dive into "Eclipse".

Maybe I will finish just in time for "Breaking Dawn" to be out.

Crystyne

We have a driveway!

I feel like I am constantly trying to come up with something new to say about our house.... I wonder if my posts about our house is boring for everyone and if you all just skip right past all the boring text and go right for the pictures. That's OK if you do, I really don't care.

Jeff and Cooper standing on the newly poured driveway.

We have had the steps for a few weeks now, but the walkway leading up to the stairs was just added. The big white spot on the side of the garage is where a piece of siding is missing. I don't really know why it is missing, maybe the piece that was meant to go there got broken, or maybe was the wrong size. I am thinking that Viking Construction may have had to order a new piece.

We are not really sure what is on the floor here, but all the texture and priming has been done, and is now ready for the paint. The floors were all cleaned up after the mud, taping, and sanding was completed. (It was a BIG mess, with lots of mud dried to the floor) In front of the door another layer of sub-flooring was laid down where the vinyl will be put down on top of that sub-floor. In addition to in front of the door, another layer of sub-floor was also laid throughout the kitchen, eating nook, half bath, and pantry; as well as the storage room where the furnace and hot water tank are, the laundry room, and both the main bathroom and master bath room upstairs. Why was another layer put down? Well, we assume that it is so the carpet and vinyl floor will be flush with each other.

Kitchen cabinets have arrived!

As well as the interior doors!

And the trim!

Finally our very small back patio, if you can call it a patio, was also poured this week. We plan to add on to the patio when we landscape the back yard once we move in.

Two months until closing! Hurray!

Crystyne

Finished and on to number two

I can't believe that I have finished "Twilight" and in such a short amount of time. It took me about twelve hours of reading to finish it. If anyone has not read this book, you should. Look at me, someone who hates to read, and I thoroughly enjoyed this book! Last night I couldn't sleep because my mind was so full of questions regarding what was going to happen next in the book. So instead of laying there allowing these questions to continue to swirl inside my mind, I grabbed the book and picked up right where I had left off. It was about 11:30pm at this time, I looked at the clock at 12:30am when Jeff stirred a bit, and continued reading. I finally finished at 2:03am. I could not believe how late it was. And all though I am very tired today I am going to take advantage of nap time to begin "new moon" instead of sleeping. Crystyne

I'm a BIG kid now!

I don't want to speak too soon by saying that Mason is potty trained. So I will happily say that he is well on his way to Begin potty trained. As any of you who have read my post from this past Thursday, you would know that I began the process that day. I have to admit that the first 24 hours was stressful.

Friday he sat on the potty for much of the day, with about the same success as Thursday. He peed in the potty three times and only had one accident, which really wasn't too bad. He had pooped in his underwear, but came to me as soon as he had done it, so nothing was mushed up on anything. The underwear were save-able if you can believe that. Him pooping in his underwear was still stressful and I wondered if this was what I really wanted to deal with at this time. But then I calmed down and tried to be rational, I was going to have to go through this at some point, so I may as well go through it now. I tried to tell myself that it would all be worth it in the end, I wouldn't have to potty train him in our new house and get pee all over the new carpet, and I wouldn't be spending as much money on diapers.

Saturday we took a break from the potty training when we went to Riverfront Park and I think this threw Mason off a bit because he didn't have any success the rest of the day.

Sunday we stayed home from church (can you believe that) to continue the training. The morning was tragic for Mason. He pooped once again in his underwear, but this time they were not save-able. So as we cleaned him up and put his underwear in a plastic bag, showed him the underwear, and told him that we were going to have to throw the underwear away because he pooped in them instead of in the toilet. Mason watched me throw the underwear in the garbage and began to cry. Later that afternoon Jeff let Mason try peeing standing up, right next to Jeff as he went "potty". (sorry of the mental picture, I'm sure it's just what you all wanted, right?) Well, Mason was very successful at peeing standing up, probably more successful than most adult men are.

Monday we had just one accident in the morning. But as soon as he began to go, he stopped himself and we went to the bathroom where he finished going and was also able to poop in the toilet!

Today he did not have any accidents! YEAH! He told me when he needed to go and went right in and did his thing (standing of course because he wants to do it just like his Daddy.)

I am really surprised at how fast Mason has potty trained, I really figured it would take him at least a few weeks before he went a day without an accident, not just five days. I am so proud of Mason, but also of Jeff and I for finally sticking to the potty training this time. I hope Mason continues to have the same success with this.

I don't have any pictures of his poop this time so sorry for those of you who enjoyed the last picture and you are welcome to those of you who did not.

What? Crystyne, reading?

Yes that is right, I decided to pick up a book and actually read it, well actually I would say that I was sort of pushed in to it. See several of my sisters have read this seiries or are in the middle of reading it. They keep talking about it and have told me what a good series this is and that I should read it. I have replied for SEVERAL months that I DO NOT like to read and that I do not have time to read. Well my sister Julia let me borrow this book and told me to read it. When she handed it over I thought to myself, yeah I'll read a chapter or two and be so bored I'll put it down and never pick it up again.

Well before I got a chance to read any of it, Jeff started reading it and would not hand it over until he was done. He read it in under twelve hours. So I figured if he couldn't put it down it must be OK atleast. (Really, you should read about his sceptisism on his blog http://jeffscrazyopinion.blogspot.com/.

So I picked it up late last night, I have read four chapters and I can't stop thinking about it. So I'm going to end this post now so I can get to reading while both the boys are taking their nap. I'll let you know how it goes...

Crystyne

Fun at Riverfront Park

Today we spent part of our afternoon at Riverfront Park. We met Bill, Julia, Connor, Zachary, and Ben-a-min (Benjamin) there. We had tons of fun soaking up the sun and enjoying other activities.

Here is one of the signs by the water. My question is, isn't everything slippery when wet? Doesn't everyone have enough common sense to know that? So why did they post the sign?

It's a really good thing that Mason cannot read yet, or he would have known that we were setting a really bad example for him. Oh well I don't think it's against the law to feed the ducks. It's more of a suggestion. Right?

This one goose kept taking the crackers right from my hand.

Cooper doing what he does best, supervising.

We all packed lunches, so we found a shady spot to sit. Zachary didn't want to eat his sandwich, he wanted to go straight for the good stuff, the cookies. This was his way of making a statement.

Then when that statement didn't work, he thought he would try this one out. Mason thought he could persuade Zachary to come eat.

Causing trouble together.

Feeding the garbage goat

Riding on the carousel

Sliding on the big radio flyer slide.

We all had a great afternoon and came away wondering why we don't do these kinds of things more often. It was fun and only cost us a couple dollars to ride the carousel and the extra bread to feed the ducks.

Crystyne

Not much has changed...

So not much as changed to the appearance of our house. The siding has been completed all the way around the house, they have dug out more dirt where the driveway and back patio will go, and I believe all the mud, taping, and sanding is complete. I have decided that Jeff will be our photographer from here on out, he takes better pictures. My sister, Julia and her little family, and Jeff's parents joined us this week to check out the house with us.

Here is a close up of the house, so maybe you can see the colors and details a little better.

Looking from the corner of the formal dining room and is of the formal living room.

Looking from the corner of the formal living room (opposite of the front door), looking in at part of the family room and eating nook.

Looking from the corner of the loft, the door next to the stairs is the furnace and hot water tank room. The other two door ways are the two secondary bedrooms. The hallway next to the stairs leads to the master bedroom.

Looking from the corner of the master bedroom at the entrance into the room and the entrance into the master bathroom.

Sense there wasn't much to "brag" about this week, we decided that we would show off what the rest of our block looks like. As you can see from the two pictures above and below, there isn't much human life to speak of. The above picture is looking out from one of the master bedroom windows, looking to the South of our house. Neither of the these two houses have been sold. So if you are looking for a great house to buy, here are two wonderful options and did I mention that you would have some really great neighbors? Both of these houses are the same floor plan as ours. I guess it is a really popular floor plan. Also if you look closely, you can see another house that is blue right in the middle of the picture, though the trees. We are not sure if that house has been sold or not, but it looks to have been completed. The picture below is also looking to the South of our house, it was just taken further North of our house so you can see that there is no one to the North of us either. It will be great in some ways if we end up being the first on the block, for one we would have the bragging rights of being just that, and two it will be quiet.... well in the evenings that is. The down side of being the first on the block is that there will be construction going on all around us, so you can bet that we will have the noise from all the heavy machinery, cement trucks, and other construction workers building houses, not to mention the block will be dusty and dirty until the majority of the houses are built. Just look at the sidewalk and road right behind our car in the above picture and you will see what I mean.

This was just too cute not to share. Nothing bets the love of grandparents. Our boys have truly been blessed with the greatest grandparents who love them and the boys know it.

Crystyne

Potty Train

I was talking to a friend of mine (Amber) who's daughter, Abby is ten months younger than Mason. This Sunday Abby decided that she did not want to wear diapers any more. So sense Sunday, Abby has been in "panties" and doing great, with no real accidents to speak of. Not only is she not having any accidents, she is also telling Amber when she needs to go potty.

This news made me excited and annoyed at the same time. Excited that Abby had figured out the whole potty thing, annoyed that Mason, who is ten months older that Abby, still had not. I know what you are all thinking, girls potty train earlier and easier that boys, yeah I know, but ten months earlier, give me a break, Mason should be getting this by now.

So, today Amber came over and had brought Abby's potty seat with her, just in case Abby needed to go. Amber asked if I wanted to borrow her potty seat as Abby was doing really well and probably didn't need the seat. Of course I jumped on that chance to borrow it. Amber gave me a few pointers on what she has done with Abby and then we were off, well actually on, the potty seat that is.

Mason spent a good part of his afternoon on the potty seat, drinking a ton of juice and water, and eating saltine crackers.

Mason peed in the potty THREE times!!! Hip-hip-ha-ray! We are on our way!

Hopefully more updates to come!