November

November 1:  Shaun left for Denver in the morning.  He was gone until Wednesday.

November 6: Olivia had her 18 month check up.  She's looking great and growing right on track!
We also surprised my sister for her 40th birthday by meeting up with them for dinner.

November 7:  I went out shopping with Tavin and Livie while Shaun got supper ready and Tavin insisted that I take their picture in the back of the car.  It was the first time Livie actually said "cheese".  Best picture in a long time of both of them!

November 10:  We dropped Livie off early at daycare to take Tavin to an eye appointment.  His eyes look great!  Dr. said he actually has 20/20 vision with a slight astigmatism in the right eye.  He needs to come back once a year now.  Such a relief!  Upon dropping Tavin back off at daycare, found out that Livie hurt herself! The full story is here.

November 14:   We went to watch the sled dog races but when we got there at 1:30 they were pretty much done :(  So we made the most out of it and stopped at Briq's :)

November 15:  Shaun left for Denver (again) for a week.  My mom and dad were able to come over for a couple days before having to go back home to take care of Griffin.

November 16:  Tavin was fine when he woke up in the morning and was good all day at daycare.  After supper, he spiked a fever and said his throat hurt.  Thankfully he slept really good but he still woke up with a fever in the morning.

November 17:  I called Teladoc and was able to get a prescription for antibiotics since I was pretty sure Tavin had strep.  When I had dropped the medicine off after lunch, Tavin was not doing good.  Thankfully by the time I came home he looked and was feeling much better.

November 21:  The kids and I went to the mall to check out the Children's Museum.  We had a decent day until Shaun got back from Denver around 6.

November 26:  Thanksgiving!  We went home to my parents house and had a great time with great food!

October Recap

October 2:  The last of Livie's freezer stash was used today.  I'm glad that I had an over supply before she stopped nursing.  My next goal is to continue pumping until she is 18 months, which means one more month left!

October 3:  Shaun took Tavin to Home Depot to build a fire truck and when they were done they got to see a real fire truck, ambulance, and the helicopter!

After they got home we went to Harvestfest on the 400 block.  We got to pick out pumpkins and go for a horse drawn carriage ride.

October 10:  Mom and Dad came over and we all went to Grandpa's Farm for the afternoon.  Both kids did great considering we were skipping the afternoon naps.

That night, Shaun and I got to go out on a date--Caribbean night for the Good News Project and then we caught a movie (The Martian).

October 13:  While we were eating supper Tavin leaned over and said "Go to Briqs?"  Ugh it's so hard to deny when he asks!  Good thing they are closing the end of the month!  Livie had her first hair cut today!  Her "bangs" were getting so long and kept falling in her eyes and she wouldn't leave it in a ponytail.

October 15: Unfortunately I didn't make my goal of pumping until next month.  Today was my last day pumping.  I have exclusively pumped for 78 days (breastfed/pumped for 529 days-just 71 less than with Tavin) which is an amazing feat for this far in our breastfeeding journey. It is not how I wanted my breastfeeding to end but when your child dictates the journey, you just go with it.  While I'm sad to be done breastfeeding, I'm so happy that I will not be hooked to the wall for extended periods and even happier we don't have to wash pump parts every.single.day!

October 16:  We had church pictures tonight.  The photographer was less than ideal.  Commenting how she had "never had a family with 2 little kids and a dog".  Then while we were choosing pictures for our photo card she was unable to do what we had wanted so Shaun and I were quietly discussing what to do and she said "if you would talk louder, I might be able to help you".   Seriously lady?!?!

October 17:  We went to Fleet Farm's toyland in the morning and we weren't putting anything in our cart.  Tavin asked why everyone else had stuff in their carts but we didn't.  The kid is too smart!

October 18:  Tavin again asked to go to Briq's!!  I told Shaun he's probably stocking up before it closes.  We also picked the last of the apples off the tree and started to get some things ready for winter (Christmas lights up, lawnmower away, etc).

October 24:  We went home to my parent's for their Harvest Days.  It was a nasty raining morning but we still got out to see the petting zoo and candy drop.  We left right after the candy drop to go home and warm up.

October 25:  We went to the Halloween parade.  Tavin enjoyed himself and did such a great job.  Livie hung out in Grandma's arms the whole time.

October 31:  We went home for the day as we had a funeral for my uncle to attend.  We left my parents around 4 to get back to our house to eat supper and then go trick or treating.  Livie was unsure at first but after a few houses she got the hang of it.  Unfortunately it was a cold and rainy day (again) so we didn't stay out long.

Happy Fall!!

Ready for a picture dump?

I've been horrible at taking pictures.  So lately, I've been making an effort to grab the camera and take a few more shots.

Here's a few from October.

Going on a pumpkin hunt

 

Playing in the leaves

Carving pumpkins

Checking out the carved pumpkin...

And this year we decided to let Tavin experience trick or treating!  We tried is costume on a few weeks prior to Halloween and he was not having it.  So it was hope-it-works-on-Halloween kind of thing and it did!  He did so well!

Shaun's costume-Willy Wonka

And mine which none of my neighbors commented on :( 

Our Afternoon Hospital Visit

Tavin had a great summer sans illness!  So when he first got sick this winter fall, he made it a doozy!

October 23 started out like any normal day.  Tavin was a little crabby, but nothing unbearable.  He got to daycare and did well until he woke up from his morning nap with a fever of 101.4!!  I picked him up and Shaun and took them both home.  He did well the rest of the day, being his crazy toddler self.  Overnight, he slept well.  Waking up every now and then with a little cough, but nothing we had to go in for.

He was up really early on October 24, and was still running a fever.

So, I stayed home with him and he was overly clingly and didn't eat well.  He managed to sleep fairly well that night again.  His breathing was really congested sounding.

On October 25 (Friday), he still was not much better and was actually wheezing while he was awake.  I called the doctor's office and they suggested bringing him in as it sounded like croup.

Our appointment was at 12:45 and I thought it was going to be a quick in and out.  After the NP checked him over, she said it was indeed croup and he would need to do some treatments.  One which would require him to stay in the hospital for 2-3 hours afterwards!! And if the treatments didn't help, an overnight stay in the hospital!

The first treatment was an oral steroid mixed with some Tylenol which he did not want to take at all.

After that fun struggle, we had an even bigger one, a neubulizer treatment.  T was not happy and I was sobbing right along with him.  But we were all troopers and got through it!  Then the long wait in the waiting room.  Thankfully, he could run a little bit and wear off some energy (even though he should have been napping).

Tired!

After our hours were up, the NP checked him out again and was still suggesting that he needed to stay overnight.  So we asked for a second opinion, and the doctor that was there (and would be in the ER all weekend) came to look at him.  She suggested that once his steroid kick in, he would be fine.  If he would have any problems, she would be the one we would see if we had to go the ER.  PHEW!!

So we made it home around 5 had a little supper and then got him to bed (which took 2 hours!).  Thankfully he slept great and did not wake up with an "episode".

Surprisingly, we got a call from the NP on Saturday checking in with us.  I was extremely surprised that she called on a weekend!  Shaun and I both agreed that if we went to the walk-in on Friday, it would have been a completely different outcome.