Tommy's Surgery

It was great relief mixed with anxiety and worry that we greeted today.  It has been months now that we have wondered how bad Tommy's hearing was.  Days and days of "what?" and "what did you say", days of loud tv, loud talking, repeated sentences and blank looks.  Tommy's teacher advised that he would often leave the group, table or activity when others joined him, and we wondered if the commotion, loud chatter and activity was just too much for ears that couldn't decipher anything.  On the playground she would call to him, but he would not respond unless she could catch his eye and talk directly to him.  If his back was to her, he could not hear her.  Finally, after all the worry, today was the day to get it addressed.  The day before we took him in for a tour of the surgery center, on the advice of the staff who thought it would be good to relieve his anxiety about it.  It somewhat backfired on us, as he was more worried and scared than before.  Grandpa met us there, which made it better, and like the great boy he is, he gathered his courage and walked back to the room.  I kept repeating the doctor's words over and over in my mind.  "It is a simple procedure."  I knew it would be no big deal, but when it is your child, and the doctor is saying to him, "I will be the one to put you to sleep and the one to wake you up", my heart lurched.  "You'd better believe you will be waking him up!" I thought, and tried to breathe again.  Getting him undressed was only successful after forcing the "sleepy juice" down his throat, and we had to chuckle when it finally started to work and he took on a loopy expression, big eyes and a dazed look came over him.  After that, he no longer fussed about the gown or the wagon ride.  As the nurse pulled him along, and the doctor walked beside the wagon to distract, we pulled away, hoping that our confidence was spot on.  Barely opening the new issue of People magazine, the doctor came back out.  "Wait, this is a new one!" I thought with a smile, but quickly put it down again.  It was that simple and that quick.  Walking towards the inner waiting room, we could hear screaming children that they warned us about.  Kids often wake up very unhappy, emotional and carrying on.  We paused to try to determine if we could hear Thomas, though I knew they would bring us back before he was fully awake.  When it was our turn to go back, we followed another set of parents on the walk back to the recovery rooms.  Seeing Tommy sleeping so peacefully was quite the sight.  He was so little, so still, so peaceful.  I touched him to assure myself, whispering to him that Mama was here, that we were with him.  Either my touch or the screaming child down the hall roused him, and he simply and gently woke up, looked around, cuddled up to my hand and flopped back down.  It was so easy, and I was so thankful that it was soon to be over.  He wasn't all that interested in the popcicle they offered him.  They don't know that Tommy has his own personal stash from Grandma that he can raid at his leisure.  After a bit of argument about the Lego that was his reward, he determined that the giant airplane Lego dad surprised him with was worth it, and we headed home.  Once there, Thomas was quite the entertainer as he struggled to walk on unsteady and loopy legs.  John had to guide him and hold him for a bit until the effects of the anesthesia had worn off.  A bit of an emotional ride passed quickly, and by afternoon he was good as new.  Two weeks from now we will take him back in to see if his hearing is restored.  I heard a few "whats" this afternoon, and I had to pause, but I will wait to see what these tests show, and pray that this procedure was all that was needed to have him hearing normally again.

Whistler, B.C November 21st

We headed up for the weekend, hoping to spend some quality time in the pool and hot tubs.  The last time we were up at Whistler, Cooper was just a small little guy, so we were eager to give him a shot at Whistler!  Thomas thoroughly enjoyed the pool and hot tubs, impressing us with his diving ability and creativity in pool jumping.  It is great to see his confidence growing and pretty impressive to see the show he can put on doing tricks and cannon balls into the pool.  Cooper was not so thrilled with the hotel initially.  He was rather clingy and didn't seem to find as much enjoyment in his surroundings as we'd thought.  He soon warmed up, though, and quickly found himself launching into the pool just as fast as we could get in to position.  John and I would get in position in the pool and hot tub, and Cooper would make a mad dash back and forth, launching first into the pool, then the hot tub, then back again.  Again and again!  I prayed for a snow, and we were not disappointed.  On Friday  night it was a blizzard!  Wind and snow blew while we raced from the pool to the hot tub and back.  John and I were physically exhausted from all the effort.  Swimming in the pool with the snow blowing was quite the treat!  The snow stayed for the weekend, but nothing quite like Friday night's show.  On Saturday it was more cookies at the front desk, swimming and tubbing.  Somewhere in there we worried about the boys eating more than just front desk cookies, but they didn't seem to mind and the front desk didn't say anything about our eating habits.  We took a few breaks to go look around, but the boys were less than impressed with shopping and looking around, so we had to quickly make our way back to the pool.  Cooper was almost as happy playing in the bathroom.  At one point John had to barricade him out of the bathroom as he was incessant about the toilet bowl and flushing.  We paid a lot of money for him to play in the bathroom!  Thomas started running a fever Saturday night, so it was a long night of coughing, snoring and trying to find some sleep somewhere.  While others partied it up around me, I made a mad dash through the village- with Cooper in the stroller- trying to find cough syrup amongst the throngs of villagers hoopin' it up.  Somehow the night passed us by, and soon morning brought more swimming and tubbing.  By mid morning, though, we brought the boys up to the room to pack up from our swimming stay-cation!  They sat on the bed not moving, staring at the cartoon on the screen in our room.  "John, I think we exhausted them," I said.  They didn't budge.  Quiet...for a short while!

Both in the same picture?!?!?

Earlier in the day, John worked with the Lawrence kids to take head shots for their school pictures. We joke that this is Tommy's school shot this year, complete with the dirtiest face he could possibly get! Since this is how Thomas typically looks after a day on the beach and up in the shop, it really is quite fitting we think!

Best Buddies!

You can just imagine them as old farts!

33 Big Ones

Today is my birthday. On Tuesday of this week, my office mates surprised me with an awesome Thai luncheon. After a meeting with our supervisors, Rhonda said that I needed to wait for her to run out to meet with someone at the garden that we manage. I didn't really want to wait all that long, so I put a Weight Watchers Hot Pocket in the microwave to feed my growling stomach. Jim comes over and tells me he's really hungry and asks for a piece of my hot pocket. Surprised that he would ask, as it was a small pocket and Weight Watchers at that, I quickly cut him the bigger piece, knowing he had to be hungry to ask. Shortly after sharing with me, I walked into the lunch room to find all this Thai food and my co workers set up to eat lunch together. Although I missed Don being there to celebrate, hopefully we can send him a few pictures to let him know we were thinking of him.

Today, I woke up to hit the gym early for the day with my bestest buddy Jenny and off we went. Watching the Hawks lose was no way to spend a birthday morning, but it was a lot of fun to take a birthday nap after waking up early. Once we all woke up from our naps, we loaded up the cars for a trip out to McPhail's to get pumpkins. Cooper is at an age where he is running around with the other kids, and we had a great time feeding the animals, climbing on the farm equipment and riding the tractor out to the field of pumpkins. Taking a family picture proved easier for the Lawrences than us Whipples. It may be a while before the boys will actually cooperate enough to get a good one of us all.

That evening Rhonda joined in on the fun, coming over for dinner of Thai at the Lawrences. There we celebrated with Thai, presents and sprinkle cake. It is So fun to share a birthday with my main man, Isaac! What a treat it is to share this day with him! Jenny totally over did it and surprised me with a beautiful new coat to wear and Rhonda blessed me with a new heating pad (to replaced my nearly destroyed, ancient one I've been dealing with), a massage and the New Kids CD I asked her for. How cool is that! I was thrilled. It was a great day and a fabulous birthday. Lil made brownies and I took advantage of our extra tough workouts to enjoy not only the cake at Jenny's, but the brownies as well!

October 1st Lake Swimming!

Our theme of the summer was jumping, swimming and bbq's. It was a fabulous summer and to celebrate this beautiful weather we're having and our thankfulness for a period of great weather following a less than memorable August, we took up the opportunity to jump into the freezing waters of Lake Whatcom tonight. It was almost dark, but we did it in various stages. Thomas and Isaac went in first, then quickly followed Rhonda and Cynthia into the deep end. While we warmed up in the hot water buckets, Lance and John decided they too had to get in the fun and jumped in as well. After several weeks of chilly temps, the water has cooled off considerably. We will see how long we will continue to jump into the lake!

Words by Cooper at 17 months old

Ma-Ma, Da-Da, moo-rh (more), I--see (Isaac) ba-ba (bottle) and he goes to the dishwasher to pull it out, Bah(Grandpa) Up, Ah-ple (apple) Cheesh (cheese) Off, Jush (juice),

A Day to Remember

The alarm clock didn't have to go off this morning, as I woke up to the sweet smile on the face of Thomas as he attempted to crawl into bed with me shortly before 5 am. I cuddled with him for a few minutes, then pulled myself out of the warm covers to stumble to the coffee pot. As caffeine coursed through my veins to rev me up, I quickly dressed and ran out the door, only to hear the faint cries of Cooper as he stirred back inside. I ran back in, made a bottle, quickly realizing that I didn't have keys and my IPod was dead. I briefly considered heading back to bed in defeat. Instead, I dialed Jenny up as light began to show itself above the mountains. "Jenny," I whispered. "Yeah?" she whispered back. We were both trying desperately to keep our children asleep before we escaped. "I can't find my keys and I'm late to pick you up. I have to get Coop his bottle." "Do you want me to pick you up?" she whispered. "Uh, yeah, I already had my coffee so I can't go back to bed." She showed up minutes later. Already late and pressed for time, we decided to walk the neighborhood hills instead of driving all the way to the gym. Later, as parent helper, I dripped sweat from running around keeping 14 preschoolers in check. They almost completely devoured a whole Costco box of GoGurts and a half pack of Costco string cheese. Cooper did fabulous as a pre-preschooler, playing nicely with the different centers Teacher Kathy has set up throughout the room. It was such a fabulous blessing, though, when Jenny showed up to pick him up, allowing me to focus on just Thomas and the other children for the next two hours of class. Jenny and I debated, but she agreed to go hang out with Cooper to get him an actual nap in his crib as opposed to his car seat, while I would pick up Isaac at 11:30 and keep him with me in class until Tommy let out at 12. I raced home with the boys, after struggling to get the car door open. Thomas helped me load stuff out of class, but tipped the coffee pump pot over while in the hallway, completely jamming up the hall with parents and a billion children trying to leave. Thankfully, Joan grabbed the two garbage bags out of my hand, I put down the two large and overstuffed bags I was heaving out, and Thomas quickly soaked up the old coffee. When I finally got into my driveway, I was exhausted, and the day was only half over. Jenny raced out to pick up Madeline at 12:30 and we agreed that we'd meet up later to enjoy the summer- like weather. For the rest of the afternoon we played outside. Outside in the hot buckets. Outside on the Firs Beach. Outside on our beach swimming and making sand castles. Outside with the Allens. Thomas played most of the afternoon with little Julia, content to roam the shoreline for treasures and the brushes for hidden blackberries to make into "soup". Cooper and I followed them around, wrestling on the grass together and wading in the water. At one point, Tommy told me he had to pee. Not wanting to go inside and break our outside streak, I told him to go over to our beach and pee in the bushes. Of course, he was looking at the Firs port-a-potty while he asked, so I knew what his real intent was. "Tommy, it's stinky and dirty in there. Don't go in." "But mom, I just want to go in, I will be real quick." "No, Thomas, it's so dirty, don't go in." "I'll be real quick." And he was off, pulling open the door and heading in. I just sat on the lawn with Stephanie, a smirk on my face. As fast as he went in, he was racing out, a horrified look of disgust on his face. "That is So gross!" he exclaimed, heading quickly for the girls waiting for him. "That was So, so, so, so stinky!" That was so disgusting!"
"Thomas, do you still have to go pee?" I asked, trying not to remind him yet again that sometimes moms are smarter than little boys.
"No way! That place is SO gross!"
By afternoon, I'd had a chance to chat with both Stephanie and Lil, who had returned from their trip to Wheaton with stories to share. Jenny finally made her way back down after soccer practice, and Isaac joined in on the hot bucket fun. Cooper loved on Jenny, and then Stephanie made her way over with Johanna. Realizing it had been a long while since snack and even longer since lunch, we all hustled our separate ways for the evening. John made his way home with a load of groceries. Perfect! Just perfect! I finally had a chance to hit the shower for the day. I had a chance to think about our day together. Sitting there, I realized that yet again my house was a mess. Looking around me in the bathroom, I could see that Cooper had attacked the cupboards again and had items thrown all about. The toilet paper rolls had been pulled out of the garbage and sunscreen was smeared on the the mirror. There was sand all over the floor, and finally, I looked at the dirty and sandy towels littering the floor. Smack in middle lay a big, fat stick. I had to smile with it all. Boys and their sticks! Messes all around, and yet I could only smile. What an absolutely perfect day with my boys!