2/7 - Amy's been sick

I haven't posted anything lately because I've been so sick and tired and have gone to bed not long after the boys. We've been doing some more arts and crafts lately. Here is Eli painting.

We tried this shredded crayon thing I saw on Pinterest but it didn't come out like I was hoping. I meant to take after pictures put I can assure you it doesn't look anything like the "before" picture you see below where you can actually read 'Aiden.'

We also bought a gingerbread house that was 70% off from Christmas and finally made it the other day. The boys had fun but it was really tough for Eli to actually decorate versus just eating all the candy. Aiden enjoyed decorating but I had to put limits on the amount of candy he ate too.

Here is Eli being ... Eli and silly while he was eating some meal. The kid is too cute.

The boys decided to get out all their boxes the other day and play cars. I've had them in the garage for a few weeks so it kept them occupied for a while because they were fresh toys.

The other day the boys decided to be silly and wear pant hats. They actually wore those on their heads for about 1.5 hrs. I was quite shocked.

Aiden's therapy has been going pretty well. He had a speech evaluation last week and we found out today he was diagnosed with 'Other developmental speech disorder' (moderate pragmatic speech language disorder) and developmental articulation disorder. That said though, his comprehension is in the 96th+ percentile and that of a 5 yr old. Even his expressive communication is at a 4 yr 3 month old level (he's 3 yrs 8 months) which is good but unfortunately, he doesn't use his speech and words when he needs to. He starts speech therapy in another week so hopefully it will help. Here is Aiden at therapy learning how to grip the pencil correctly and getting his hand held down by Ms. Lisa, his occupational therapist. He really likes her and she does a great job with him.

Last Tuesday, Brad pulled in to port for the afternoon/evening. It was SO GREAT to see him. He gave us (me and 2 friends) a tour of the ship and then we got a hotel on the beach for the evening. My awesome friend Stephanie picked up the boys from daycare and then kept them overnight so Brad and I could spend some time together. He had to be on the ship by 7:30am but it was great to see him for the little bit he was here. We decided for him not to see the boys because they wouldn't understand why he was leaving again so soon.

On Saturday, we went to a friends' birthday party in the afternoon. The kids were having a great time to start with.

They were playing fairy tag (which means my kids were just running around with all the bigger kids but having no idea what was really going on) and having a blast. Eli kept trying to run in the woods and hide.

Even Aiden was having fun playing chase.

Everything was great until it was cake time. Aiden was trying to wait patiently and he just has a hard time with that.

They had some chips to munch on and that held them over for a bit.

Then it was cake time. Aiden was having a very hard time deciding if he wanted cake or a cupcake so he kept saying he wanted both. I informed that was not an option so he better choose what he wants.

Eli had no problem shoving a cupcake in his mouth and he made sure he ate every bite! He enjoyed it thoroughly.

Aiden was so conflicted about cupcake or a cake. He had a cupcake he picked out but was crying at he ate it because he wanted cake. Needless to say, even after he finished his cupcake he wouldn't stop obsessing about cake.  He followed me around for about 15 min whining "cake, cake." I gave him a warning to stop it and he wouldn't so I packed us up in the van and left before presents were even opened. Eli was sad to leave because he was having fun but Aiden was on a power trip and needed to learn that mommy was the boss and I mean business. In the picture of Aiden holding the cupcake, he is actually crying and sobbing because he doesn't want it (although he won't give it to me for a piece of cake either). It was extremely frustrating for all of us.

Last night we were doing therapy stuff for Aiden and Eli wanted to participate too. Eli likes the putty with the treasures inside. He's actually really good at it and has pretty strong hand muscles.

Aiden wasn't too much into his therapy stuff last night.

I've been sick since last Wednesday night and was just completely wiped out over the weekend. I've had a migraine for almost 48 hrs so I'm praying for relief from some type of drug soon. On a good note, Brad sent me an e-mail today telling me that he is coming home tomorrow (rather than Friday). The house isn't read (cleaned) for that but hopefully he'll understand. Also, Eli went to the ENT yesterday and they put him on the surgery waiting list for replacement tubes and to get his adenoids out. Things could change though so we'll see. I need to feed the boys dinner and CLEAN like a mad-woman!

1/26 - Sick boys update & Brad picture

I forgot to update on the boys. We went to the dr last Friday for a follow-up for Eli's pneumonia and we found out his right hear tube had fallen in to his ear canal. Boo. Aiden has been messing with his left ear so I asked their dr if she could quickly look in Aiden's his left ear tube was completely out. Wow. Thankfully, Aiden already had an ENT appt scheduled for today and the dr said if he gets another ear infection, they will have to put the tube back in. Regardless, we go back in 3 months and the might take his adenoids and tonsils because of the level of snottiness the child has even being on 3 allergy medicines year-round. We'll see. Aiden has some negative pressure in the ear that the tube fell out but no ear infection thankfully.

Brad got a mighty honor the other day. The Secretary of the State was on-board the USS Enterprise and Brad got to meet him. In fact, he came in the ready room where Brad spends a lot of time. He has spent a lot of extra time in there lately because he hasn't been allowed to fly because of a nasty infection on his eye. His right eye is fully open now and it's healing appropriately. We miss Brad dearly. He the rock of this family and as the kids get older, it's more apparent how much they need their daddy!

1/26 - Chuck E Cheese & St. Pete

Eli has been doing a good job of trying to play on his own. The sad thing is that now Aiden doesn't like to play by himself He is always trying to get Eli to come play with him. I've started intervening more and telling Aiden he has to play by himself because Eli doesn't always want to play with him.

Aiden is getting used to putting together the marble run but it's definitely a learning process and much harder to construct (correctly) than a train track.

Last week, I took the boys to the gym with me for the first time and rewarded them for sitting in a small little room for 40 min with 40 min at Chuck-E-Cheese. They had a blast. Aiden loves skeet ball but he is horrible at it. He likes watching the balls come back down.

As you can see on the scoreboard, Aiden has zero points. He can roll is just hard enough to make it over the little ramp for .... 0 points. He's gonna be so excited when he wins more than one ticket when he gets strong/bigger.

Eli just likes walking around with 2 or 3 tokens and not spending any of them. He's so cute by saving them. He has fun just watching the lights and sounds on the machines at this point.

I taught Aiden about the ticket chomper that counts your tickets. He and Eli were a little nervous to get their fingers close but they eventually found that putting tickets in was really fun. When they found out the could get a piece of candy for their tickets, they were REALLY excited.

On Saturday, we went down to St. Pete. It was fun for the boys to see their nana. It was a smooth drive and Eli started yelling "Nana's house" the closer we got. I let the boys play for a bit and then it was naptime. Aiden didn't nap at all (he tried) and Eli was starting to go down that same track. I eventually put Eli on Nana's bed with her and he was out like a light. He slept for about 1 or 1.5 hrs.

After Eli and Nana woke up from naps, we just hung around and played for the rest of the day.

The boys just having fun rolling up in blanket and sitting in special chairs at Nana's house.

Aiden is getting better about blowing bubbles and actually blew a few really big bubbles once Nana taught him how to blow nice and slow. He was excited about the huge bubbles he could blow.

Here are the boys and I at the park by my mom's house on Saturday night. It was a gorgeous sunset.

On Sunday, I took the boys over to my dad's for naptime and then he took them for the afternoon so I could go to my cousins babyshower. Dad took them to go see Great grandma Hagan which was good.

It was a busy trip. We left papa's on Sunday morning and went back over to my mom's to get the rest of our stuff. I got a run in while my mom watched the boys and then we all went for a long walk/bike ride to the bridge by my mom's house. This first black and white picture is Eli staring out over the water.

This is the picture that you get when you take a helmet off a little boy who loves his helmet. No "cheese" for me.

I had to stop taking pictures at this point because if you look very closely, Eli is in the background and his little feet are off the ground. I had to go be a better parent and make sure he didn't fall off the bridge.

This isn't the best picture of Eli and I because my face is so red from running an hour before but Eli's face is so cute.

We had a good visit to St. Pete even though it was pretty short. We'll be going down to visit more often when Brad is actually deployed.