Summer Days, July Edition

How is it already the end of July?  June was crazy busy, but July has possibly been even more hectic!  It started on the very first day of July, which is also Karl's birthday.  What better way to celebrate than taking your dog to the after-hours emergency hospital for a snake bite when you're in the middle of dinner?  Oh yeah.  Talk about a big surprise "present."  We were smoking ribs for dinner that afternoon, and we were all out back behind our house.  We have a big hill in our backyard, and Cooper loves to stand at the top and throw stuff to Sadie.  She stays between 4-8 feet away from him waiting for him to throw her something.  That's what the two of them were doing.  Karl was sitting by the smoker talking to our neighbor, and I was sitting on the deck.  Sadie didn't yelp when she got bit, but all the sudden, she ran up and jumped in my lap.  She was acting very spooked or scared.  I petted her for a little bit, and then put her back on the ground.  She was acting strange but not hurt.  We went inside a short time later, and I fed her right before I sat down to eat.  She has been getting in trouble for begging while we eat, and we praised her for not doing that this night.  She was sitting off to the side just looking at us.  I noticed she was panting, but it was hot outside and she'd been playing with Cooper.  When I was done eating, she jumped on the couch with Karl and a pillow fell and touched her face.  She yelped and started shaking.  Karl said something to me about it, and I said (I don't know why this even came to mind), "You don't think she got bit by a snake on the hill, do you?"  At that moment, he noticed that the side of her face was really swollen, and it was literally getting bigger before your eyes.  We were pretty sure that was what had happened immediately.  I saw that Sadie hadn't eaten any of her dinner, which has never happened, so I knew she was in a lot of pain and needed to get to an animal hospital quick fast and in a hurry.  Karl was about halfway done with his dinner, but he got his stuff together, and loaded her up.  I was a nervous wreck and a complete mess.  She's our first baby after all!!  Her blood test confirmed that it was a snake bite.  The vet said they would keep her overnight and monitor her condition.  If there were any changes, he would call.  

At 4:15 am, the phone rang.  The swelling was getting worse, she was bleeding from one of the fang marks, and her clotting levels were declining.  He said they would have to give her antivenom after all. That stuff isn't cheap, but we of course couldn't say no.  When Karl went to pick her up that morning around 7:30, they were giving her another dose of antivenom because she wasn't showing improvement after the first dose.  She had to go to our regular vet for the remainder of the day for fluids, monitoring, and blood work, but thankfully we got to bring her home that evening when our vet's office closed.  She was so pitiful, but she pulled through like a champ!  The overall price tag for saving her life was not pretty at all, but it was 100% worth it.  Cooper was only a matter of a few feet away from her when she got bit, and Karl and I have both said she took that snake bite so that Cooper didn't.  I have no doubt she knew that thing was trouble, and she wanted it away from her little brother.  

Karl's been hunting copperheads in our backyard since then.  We're determined to find and kill the snake that bit Sadie.  I told Karl that I want that thing's head! We have lived in this house for 7 years, and we have never seen a copperhead before now.  We have seen 3 since Sadie got bit.  The one in the above picture was killed two days after Sadie's bite, but it's not the one we're after (the one that bit Sadie has a very wide mouth, as the fang marks on her face are pretty far apart and wide in diameter).  Karl shot at it and then hacked it in half to make sure it was dead.  Your adrenaline gets going pretty good when you have a snake charging at you, as this one did towards the shovel Karl was holding.  He let it have it pretty good after that.  Once that thing was in two pieces he said, "You're dead now, B****!"  That's not at all how he typically talks, but this is war!  I got tickled when he said that because that was exactly how I felt at that moment too!

Sadie has made a great recovery though.  By the end of the week, she was completely back to herself.  Cooper didn't waste any time in resuming his typical play with her either.  This is him using paper towels as a saddle and riding her like his horse.  We had to have a talk about not using Sadie as a pony.

 

In the midst of that crazy week, we celebrated our country's birthday with a great cookout and awesome fireworks show with some of our favorite friends.  Cooper LOVES fireworks!

We closed out that week with my 30th birthday! By then we were beyond exhausted from the week's activities, so we kept it very calm and low key.  We took Cooper to Build-A-Bear the day before my birthday, and he built a precious fireman bear that roars.  He loves his "Smofee" (Smoky) bear.  The maternity store was right across from there, so I was able to get a couple new nursing necessities for after Jake comes.  

I'm not sure how I didn't get a picture with him!

We started our next week with our much anticipated swim lessons!

My neighbor and I signed our boys up to do lessons together. I thought since they're best buddies and play together all the time, they would do fantastic taking swim lessons together.  Apparently I was wrong.  After the first lesson, she recommended separating them.  I guess they were too playful and not good listeners together; however, they are 2 1/2 and 3 1/2.  A very long story short, we did end up separating them, and Cooper did learn how to swim.  I was shocked.  I did not expect him to swim on his own after 8 lessons, but he did.  

He had lessons 4 days a week for 2 weeks, and some days he did great, while other days he would either pitch a fit about getting in the water or act like he'd never been in water before.  Karl and I decided that bribing him was the best way to get through these two weeks, so we told him if he did good, he could get a blue icee after swim class.  Overall, this was a successful, though pathetic, tactic.  He was having a rough morning on the day of his last class, and I didn't want us to end on a negative note, so I bribed him with all kinds of things, and then Karl called before class and threw in some extra incentives.  Low and behold, he swam really well that day! It was a long 8 lessons, but I am very happy with what he accomplished!

The weekend in between those two weeks, I went away for a much deserved and wonderful girls' weekend.  Karl sent me this picture of Coop at our neighbor's pool...

That might be one of my favorite pictures to date!  I love the Nemo goggles he and Coop bought while I was gone!!

The weekend after swim lessons ended was potty training time!  I think that deserves a post to itself though...

Throw in the birth of two of our closest friends' baby, another closest friend's engagement, friends' birthdays, doctor appointments, and getting our outside trim and Jake's room painted on top of normal day-to-day activities, and you see what a fun, crazy, and busy month this has been! 

My Little Aviator

Karl's dream was to be a fighter pilot, but due to bad vision and meeting the love of his life at a very early age (yours truly), he let go of that dream and settled on a career choice that would keep him much closer to home and much safer.  I think he knew that certain love of his life wasn't fighter pilot wife's material.  I know he never lost that passion though.  I might have been the love of his life, but his first true love I'm fairly certain was war aircraft.  He is now passing that down to our little boy.  

It started one afternoon when he put on Top Gun for Cooper.  Cooper was completely enthralled.  As I watched the two of them glued to the tv and squealing with excitement over each flying scene, I remembered that I shouldn't be surprised...the first time I felt Cooper move when I was pregnant with him was during the opening scene of this movie.  I knew at that moment this child was going to be his daddy's boy, and he has done nothing but confirm that time and time again since he's been born!  

Shortly after that afternoon, "Fifi" came to visit.  She is the last flying B-29. We took our little man to meet her, but we all know this excursion was more for Karl than it was for Cooper.  The line to tour the plane was long and torturously slow moving.  We took turns playing with Cooper and waiting in line.  It was humid and hot, and I'm pregnant and not as impressed with aircraft as my husband, so I was pretty bored and a little annoyed to be standing in this endless line just so I could see a small portion of the inside of this plane.  Then I saw an elderly man step off the ladder from his turn in the plane.  He walked only a few steps away before turning back and just staring at this "beauty."  There was a very noticeable shimmer in his eye, and something in his prideful stance made it clear that this was more than just a B-29 aircraft, and I don't believe that was the first one he'd ever seen or the first time he'd stepped foot in one.  There was history there; more than likely it wasn't with "Fifi" herself, but I feel certain that a large piece of his history is within a similar aircraft a long time ago.  Every now and then he would either take a few more steps back or turn and walk away, only to stop and stare again.  He couldn't seem to peel himself away.  I found myself getting misty eyed watching him, and it made me much more happy to stand in that line so my two boys could explore something so special.  

Karl is loving that Cooper's newest obsession is planes.  One day he came home from work with a couple presents for himself Cooper.  Karl had trouble sharing and kept trying to take them from Cooper so he could "show him how to do it."  Bologna!

Little Man loves the three little airplanes he has, and many nights when I go to check on him before I go to sleep, I find that he has snuck out of his bed and gotten all three of them and put them in bed with him.  I'm just hoping he's dreaming of the aircraft themselves and not of becoming a fighter pilot.  I'm not exactly fighter pilot's mom material either.

Summer Days, June Edition

There is something about summer that just keeps you away from a computer!  The days are long and busy and absolutely wonderful!
Before summer started this year, I felt a little overwhelmed at the three months that were coming our way.  I knew I wanted to make this summer special, as it's my last with just Coop, and I knew we had to kick it in a high gear as we prepare for Baby Jake's arrival.  Swim lessons, transitioning to a big boy room, potty training, vacations, doctors appointments, birthdays...all before Cooper starts MDO in September!  Our plate was piling up fast!  But isn't that what summer's all about?!  To re-cap all our fun and excitement in the month of June, I literally had to put our calendar in front of me, and I know I will still be leaving out a lot!

• Cooper got to go with me to my 19 week doctor's appointment.  It was just the two of us, and he was super excited about going with mommy to the "do-tuh's".  I was super nervous because I had an ultrasound scheduled first, and then my appointment wasn't for another hour after that.  That is a long time in a waiting room with my son!  He did very good though and loved looking at Baby Jake.  I laughed because my blood pressure was much higher than normal this appointment.  I wonder why! :)

• Cooper and I did a "Mommy and Me" swim class in June.  It was on Mondays and Wednesdays for 4 weeks.  It was one of my most favorite things I've ever done with him, and I'm already looking forward to doing it with Jake in a couple years!  The class was very sing-songy and silly, but it really taught Cooper a lot and prepared him for his big swim lessons in July.  It was perfect for him! The child has always loved water, and sometimes I worried he loved it a little too much.  He's never been afraid of water at all, which is great...a little scary, but great.  In this particular class, he got comfortable putting his face in the water, floating, kicking, practicing reaching and pulling, climbing out of the pool, jumping in, moving along the side, blowing bubbles, etc.  I loved that he learned and reviewed a lot of swimming skills and that it safely gave me a little exercise too!

No pictures to go with this event...Big Mama doesn't do pictures in a maternity bathing suit!

• I learned that the movie theater has a movie for kids on Thursday mornings for $4.00 a person, and that includes your ticket, popcorn, drink, and a package of fruit snacks.  Coop and I went for the first time on June 6th to see Despicable Me.  I truly didn't think he would sit there for more than 30 minutes.  I decided that if we made it through the previews and enjoyed our snack together, then it was worth those $8.00.  Well, to my surprise and delight, we made it through the entire movie!  It was such a cute movie too (I even got a little teary eyed at the end); perfect for our first movie theater experience.  Side note: We all know I am an overly protective, paranoid mama.  Having a son has helped tame that slightly though.  Before the movie, I of course needed to go to the bathroom, so Coop and I went in the family bathroom.  As we were getting ready to walk out, a piece of Cooper's popcorn fell on the floor, and before I could stop him, the kid popped it in his mouth.  Totally grossed me out!!!  A few days later, he had a fever.  It was nothing more than a quick fever virus, but I was terrified it had something to do with him eating that piece of popcorn and that he had a rare and horrible bacterial disease from it! 

• We went to visit my grandmother for a little trip at the beginning of June.  Like all our traveling trips, it was ridiculously stressful.  We left 2 1/2 hours later than planned because of possible car problems (that ended up being nothing out of the ordinary) and a trip to the mechanic, and then we came home a day earlier than planned because that's when Cooper came down with that fever virus.  We were there for just over 24 hours.  I told Karl I don't ever want to go on a trip again!

Despite our late start on the way there, Little Man was a perfect traveler! 

He was so excited to see GG-Mama, but thankfully he slept a good bit of the trip. 

• I failed my first glucose tolerance test at 21 weeks.  I was the only person surprised.  I had gestational diabetes really bad when I was pregnant with Cooper, and apparently it's pretty common to get it again if you've had it once.  I decided to go ahead and start the annoying low carb/high protein diet that afternoon.  The following week I had the 3 hour test...which I passed!  The doctor said me dieting that week could have impacted my results, so to keep it up until she tests me again at 29 weeks.  I have two more weeks to go!  Honestly, I have felt a lot better since I started this diet.  I was having horrible dizzy spells and was extremely lightheaded every time I stood up.  I also had zero energy after I'd been awake for only a couple hours.  It was obvious I was having sugar highs and lows.  Within a few days of starting the special diet, I could tell a major difference in my energy and the lightheadedness was completely gone.  I don't know if I passed my 3 hour test because I had been dieting or if it was still a little early (I was only 22 weeks at that point) and the diabetes hadn't really developed at that point, but hopefully I'll pass it again!

Cooper, Me, and Jake at 22 weeks

• Cooper's big boy furniture arrived on the same day as my first glucose test.  I got home as the delivery men were finishing up.  I love his furniture, and so does he!  He hasn't slept in his crib since that day either.  We had a little trouble with falling out of bed for a couple weeks, but it seems he has since learned his boundaries!

• For Father's Day we went to the zoo and did all our favorite things... feeding the lorikeets, playing in the water, riding the choo-choo.  We also decided to watch the Reptile Show (because it was in an air conditioned building) that was mostly about snakes.  A couple weeks later, we would use of what we learned during that show unfortunately...more to come on that in my July post.  

• We got to see Baby Jake in 4D, and it was amazing!  He seems to have a much calmer disposition than his big brother, which everyone tells me is just how second children are made.  He is breech, but that's fine because we already have a c-section planned.  The only downside of his being breech is that I don't feel him move like I did Cooper.  He likes to play on top of my bladder a lot, and he doesn't really kick and play like Cooper did.  He rolls and pushes and nudges me a little.  I think he will be easygoing and content.  Time will tell if my womb predictions are right though!

• Jake's coming home outfit arrived in the mail!  I know it's a little early to have thought of that, but I like to be prepared!

Stay tuned for our July adventures...