Sensory Bin: Beans and Fluff Balls

Being a mom of two kids is hard.  Sometimes I miss being able to give Zach 100% of my time but the other part of me knows that it is best for him that I'm not constantly hoovering.

Every couple days I get some time where I can give him constant undivided attention while his sister sleeps.  And today, we decided that we would play with beans and fluff balls.

Totally a throw back to my days at the preschool.  I love that I'm able to use so much of what I learned at school and work to help my baby bear grow and play.

We did some scooping and some good old separating colors.  The little blue tweezers actually came in some medical kits that Aaron came home from the hospital with for wound care.  I didn't need all of them and so I turned a part into a tool for fine motor skills.

Uncle Markus Surprise Visit

My brother Markus was going through Las Vegas on a road trip with some friends.  He asked if he would be able to crash at my place with a friend for the night.  I, of course, said YES YOU MAY!!

He was in the hospital the night that Sydney was born but he couldn't go and see her because they would only let in two people to see her and my mom had to be one of them because she had a bracelet.  So my dad got to see Sydney but my brothers only got to hang out with me.

I'm not going to lie....I remember them being in the room after the surgery but I don't remember AT ALL how long they were there, what we talked about, or when they left.  

And the next time he was in town, Sydney was still in the NICU.  So this was the first time that he got to hold the pocket princess.

She liked him.  She liked him quite a bit.  He was the perfect nice warm chest to take a nap on.

Zach also got to enjoy his uncle Markus.

Then Markus got shaved and dressed up so that I could practice taking some pictures.  I've been off and on with my camera this last year with the new baby and hospital and everything.  I want to slowly get back into the swing of things.

(Please enjoy my yet unorganized bookshelf...eventually we'll move in)

I'm suddenly remembering why I upload to Flickr first before putting them on the blog.  Blogger really degrades the quality of the photo.

We loved having Markus around for 24 hours.  We're going to get to see him and Daniel in a month when they drive down to Texas for the summer.  Should be awesome, as always.

Anderson Grandparent Visit

My parents were in the United States for 10 days in April.  They decided to fly out to Utah for General Conference weekend to try and be in the Conference center for the announcement of the Thailand Temple.  They didn't end up going to the session that the new temples were announced but my mom said that that was a good thing because when they DID end up making the announcement, I guess my family was a little less than reverent.  It was a good thing that they were in the privacy of their own home in Draper.

After Conference and visiting with my dad's parents in Utah, they decided to take a drive down our way to visit with their grandchildren.  My dad hadn't seen Sydney since the day she was born.  She'd grownup since he had last seen her.  Already doubled in size!!

We decided that while the weather was nice, we would go on a little outing to a nearby duck pond.  By nearby, I mean that it was a 5 minute walk.  We didn't want to go anywhere TOO crazy.

My dad and I took turns picture taking.  I would take his big camera so that he could play with Zach.

My dad's picture of a mallard.

The attractive goose.  Isn't this a beautiful goose?

My mom running around with Zach.  She wasn't feeling so great but she wanted to play with Zach.

Zach was all smiles running around.  He loves being outside.

Zach did not mind all of the snuggles on bit.  He loves to cuddle into a soft Grandma.

This is a pictures of Zach in the middle of falling over.  As you can see, he is quite distressed.

He was even trying to get me to play...which was a little hard with the baby strapped to me.  I was trying to keep her safe from the cold wind.  Yes...even in Vegas you can get some cold spring wind.

Zach didn't want to be pushed home.  He wanted to do the pushing.  My mom helped him out.

At home, my dad snapped this cute picture of a little tiny.  She looked a little surprised to have her picture taken.  She should probably get used to it.

It was a quick little day and a half trip for my parents but it was good to see them and let them play with the grand kids.  We probably won't see them until Sydney's baby blessing.  Living far away is hard but we manage to make every trip count.

Quick Trip to the Pond

A couple days after I went to the park with my parents, Aaron wanted to go too.  He wanted to try and get his walking strength up as much as possible before going into the hospital again and he thought that this would be a fun family way to do that.

We even brought the dogs with us!

Zach loves to see the ducks.  We kept him strapped in while he was at the pier since Aaron can't jump in after him if he falls in and I can't jump in with Sydney strapped to me.

Over on the shore, we let Zach out to dig in the wet dirt.  It had been raining the days before so the ground was still a little damp under the trees.

He picked up dirt and wanted to come and show it to me.  I love that he loves being outside and elbows deep in nature.  That's how I was as a kid and I love to share that with him.

A really fun quick trip.  We're really happy that we live so close to a little duck pond that we can enjoy with our family.

White Board Town

Years ago, my brother bought this giant piece of white board at home depot.  He needed some of it but not all of it for a project and asked if I wanted some. I used it at the preschool and at Cub Scouts and in Primary.  It was a very versatile board to have.

Yesterday I was trying to think of a way to make Zach roads to drive his cars but also have a good flat surface to build a town with blocks.  Then I remembered this board.  I pulled it out and I drew some roads and a park and a helicopter pad.  Then I built the beginnings of a town.

When Zach woke up from his nap, he found this invitation to play.

He was pretty excited and played with the cars first.  Driving them on the roads while snacking down on some animal crackers.

Then a rock was introduced and it destroyed the hospital.  Horrible meteor shower.  Many lives were lost.

Zach started building up the city scape.

Somehow this car got on top of the meteor.  Many innocent imaginary  lives were lost.

After this, I put down the camera and we had a good time building and tearing down and rebuilding and driving around.  We loved White Board Town.

Hospital Christmas

After Aaron's first surgery, we didn't see why he wouldn't be able to be home for Christmas and so we didn't worry about it too much.  

We had been planning on spending Christmas up in Utah at my parents new home so we did start to talk about other plans after surgery.  We assumed that even if Aaron was feeling better, he wouldn't want to travel for the holiday.  Definitely not sit in the car for 6 hours.

Then we found out that Aaron would need another surgery and everything was put on hold.  We didn't know when the surgery would be and we didn't know how long he would need to recover after the second surgery.

We tried to think positive and act like Christmas was coming.  I pulled out some of our Christmas things.  Christmas quilts on the couch and stockings.  Then I would take pictures and show them to Aaron so that he knew what was going on at home.

About a week into December, my parents solidified their plans for Christmas.  They would come down to us after seeing family in Utah. And my brothers would drive here from Texas.

So about 4 days after Aaron's surgery, my family was here to celebrate with us.

On Christmas Eve, Aaron was able to go on a liquid diet!  Happy day!!  It wasn't amazing but it was something.

We gathered the family in the hospital room.  It was kind of a tight squeeze so it was a good thing that I had made this Christmas tree back in November before Aaron was even in the hospital because it was the perfect tree for our Christmas.  Zach had fun decorating it.

Every time one ornament would fall off, Zach would pull them all down and start all over.  It was very cute to watch.

We told the Christmas story using a felt board story....and used the tree as a felt board.  Very useful.  This way Zach was at least a very little bit engaged and interested.  I believe that I had one of my brothers read the story while Zach and I looked at the felt board.

We had a little down time while we were there and so we were sitting around talking and general merry making.  Zach was having fun climbing under chairs and behind furniture.

Suddenly the door to Aaron's room flew open and a good amount of hospital staff came pouring in.

"IS EVERYONE OKAY?"

"Oh, yeah...were we being too loud?"

"No.  Someone pressed the Code Blue button."

For anyone not in the know...the Code Blue button is the "Someone is trying to get dead in this room and I would like them to stop" button.

We look around and Zach is behind Aaron's bed...hanging out with the buttons.  Zero people were dying in that room.  But the hospital staff are really on their toes so good for them.

We passed out Christmas Ever presents (surprise, they are pajamas).

I went home with my parents and brothers and got Zach ready for bed.  We told him that Santa would bring all the presents to the hospital with dad because Santa knows where we will be.  He's still too young to know what's going on but it is cool that Santa always knows where to put the presents.

Then I went back to the hospital to set up everything and be with Aaron.  He didn't want to be alone on Christmas Eve.  I know that feeling.  I've been alone on Christmas Ever/Christmas before and it sucks.

I got the tree set up and went to bed.

In the morning the stockings were full and more presents arrived.  Along with the best present...my sunbear.

He immediately dove into the presents to have a look at all of them.

There he found a special present just for him that was left unwrapped.  It was something that had been mine when I was little and since Zach loves music so much, I thought that it would be the perfect present for him.

He wanted a "sing" playing the rest of the day on his "new" record player (all but one of the records are "lost" behind my bed so we currently listen to Jack and Jill TOO MUCH).

Zach even had to show his new records to dad.

About halfway through present unwrapping, Aaron had to have wound change and so we went downstairs to the lobby to enjoy the Christmas tree and each other's company.  It was bizarre how empty the hospital was.  I mean, it's good that it was empty...but it felt so quiet.

Another family was in the lobby waiting for a family member too.

When I got a message from Aaron that they were done with wound change, we headed back upstairs and finished unwrapping presents.  Then Aaron (and I) needed to take a nap.  We snapped a couple pictures of the three of us.  Zach didn't want to cooperate and I couldn't hold him up that long so they all came out a little weird.  But this was our family on Christmas day.