Change of Command

After the Change of Command ceremony.

We went to The Broadmoor for a tasty lunch. :)

Yay! Sean has officially handed over command. It's been a long year of lots of family sacrifice. Yet we are glad both for the experience and that it's over.

yikes... what a way to spend our day (& wedding anniversary)

Side view of Cullen's arm. (palm down)
See the break? And unnatural bend in Cullen's forearm?
This picture doesn't show it, but both bones
in the forearm are broken. :(

Getting ready for the X-Ray.
We got to the ER a little after 11 am.

Finally the X-Rays are done and they
gave him pain medicine. He was able to
get a little nap.

While Cullen napped, the nurse gave Finn
a Popsicle.

In recovery. After the orthopedic surgeon reset
the bones and put him in a cast.

Ready to go home!! He's such a tough little guy!
5:45pm

Finn fell asleep (finally!) with Sean on the way
to get Cullen's script filled.

Home again, at last!
He is proud of his blue (he picked the color)
cast. He can't wait to have his friends
at preschool sign it. :)

What a day!! This morning I had the day all planned out... stay in this morning, Sean was coming home early to be the parent helper in the classroom for Cullen's leader day, I was going to iron the change of command clothes while Finn napped and Cullen was in school, then after school I was going to the spa to get a mani/pedi done. None of which happened!

Right about the time I was going to get lunch ready, Cullen started crying and yelled to me that he broke his arm. He was playing and running around upstairs with Finn. He must have fallen just wrong on it. When I went to him I could immediately see it was broken. His forearm had a huge bend before the wrist. (You can kind of see it in the X-Ray picture.) I ran around the house and got the boys' shoes on, grabbed coats and we left. I took him to the nearest ER and it started thundering and hailing like crazy moments after we left. (Thundersnow)

I'd never been to this hospital, so didn't know where to park. We hurried to the ER entrance, poor Cullen wailing. As we pass a few parking spots right outside the ER, Cullen cried "Mom, why didn't you park here?!??!" I felt awful. From the ER I called the preschool to tell him he wouldn't be in and it was his leader day. About an hour later they finally got us back to the X-Ray room. Poor Cullen was still wailing and it was really hard for him to hold his arm in all the positions they wanted him to.

Then they finally brought us back to "his" ER room and gave him fentanyl pain medicine. About that time, Finn had to go to the bathroom. The Flight for Life RN offered to sit with him while I was gone. She was wonderful! She told the boys all about the helicopter. Told Cullen they give fentanyl to a lot of the patients on the helicopter. We told her that we always say a prayer when we see their helicopter and ambulances, she told the boys how great that is and how those prayers really help a lot of those people and they need the prayers. She stayed for a long time talking, and finally Cullen was able to sleep a little.

The nurses were great! The fed Finn lots of snacks, peanut butter and crackers, apple juice, suckers, popsicles, etc. It was nice, we missed lunch time! Finn was funny, singing "No More Monkey's Jumping on the Bed" how naively appropriate is that?!?

They finally got an OR booked for 3pm, based on the time he last ate and drank anything. The orthopedic surgeon was great! He was really nice and very personable. He loved Finn's hair and showed us pictures of his red-headed grandson. He explained that they didn't need to do surgery, but needed to put him under anesthesia to line up the bones and cast his arm.

Cullen did great every step of the way! No tears when they put an IV line in his hand, wasn't scared when they put him under for anesthesia (Sean went back into the OR with him for that). When he woke from anesthesia, he was fine, not scared, crying, or bad like they told us would probably happen. He is such a trooper, which we knew, but the nurses told us OVER and OVER again! I think God makes them that way for a reason...

We FINALLY got home after 6pm. We go back to the orthopedic surgeon next week to make sure the bones haven't moved at all, and he'll probably have his cast on for 6 weeks. Good thing his last day of swim lessons was Monday!

Poor Sean had to go back to work, after spending most of the day at the hospital. I still can't believe it... he was just running and fell. He's had so many things happen that looked worse!

Notice the Cat in the Hat in the pictures? Cullen was able to take the Cat in the Hat home Monday and we fill out a journal of what we did and bring it back Thursday. Finn is obsessed with the cat and sweet Cullen even let Finn sleep with it last night, but Finn wanted to so bad. Finn ended up bringing the cat to the hospital with him... so the Cat in the Hat certainly had an adventure at our house! He even went back to the OR with Cullen. :)

PS- Happy Anniversary, Sean!! :) Who woulda thought, we'd spend one of our anniversaries at the hospital with our oldest son?!?

yoga

Cullen doing the Cobra pose.

Being Cats.

Touching our toes to our nose.

Cullen's gym teacher asked me to teach yoga to Cullen's preschool class (and the other afternoon class) last week. Even though I don't do yoga, I've taken the boys to enough kid yoga classes at the gym I knew I could do it. Cullen was excited and it was a lot of fun!

Merry Easter, everybunny!

Yes, it snowed on Easter...
Typical Colorado... Green Christmas and a
White Easter!

The boys excited with the loot the Easter
Bunny left for them!

Easter preparations....

Finn dyeing Easter eggs.

Finn painting a glue design on an egg.

The finished product.

Waiting in line for the egg hunt.

Finn is off to a good start...

Cullen really hunting for eggs.

Petting a real bunny.

Finn keeps asking why the bunny wasn't talking to him.

Finn sorting the Reeses Pieces.
He did really good at this!

Cullen decorating his cupcakes.

Cullen's chick cupcakes...
Finn's weren't as pretty....

Baby Moses, Burger King, & a strong gag reflex

I took the boys to the dollar theater this afternoon so Sean could have a quiet house to study in. Cullen really enjoyed Gnomeo and Juliet, Finn was onery and insisted on pretending he was Baby Moses a "cranky Baby Moses" to be exact. My sister (Finn's Godmother) got Finn a Children's Bible for his Baptism, and he loves the story about Baby Moses (we've read it every night for a week). Anyway, the movie was hectic, but we made it through (barely). Luckily I had popcorn, Sprite, and Jr. Mints to help.

I hadn't heard from Sean, so I knew I had to find something else to do to keep Cullen and Baby Moses out of the house. I decided to take them to Burger King for dinner and to play in the play land. They ate their nuggets and it wasn't long and they both had to use the restroom.

I took them into the restroom and immediately noticed a strong sewer smell. Both boys instantly complained of the smell, but I told them it was fine and we would hurry. We walk into the handicap stall, were both boys noticed someone had pooped and left it. And the gagging begins... mainly from Finn. I flushed it, waited until the water filled back up then held Finn up over the stool so he could pee. He started peeing..... and then the puking began! I wasn't expecting it, so it went everywhere! When he finished I put him down and started wiping it up. Then Cullen starts gagging. I tell him to stop and not to look. Then Finn puked again, walked to the corner of the stall and puked some more that time into his hands. That grossed him out and he frantically started moving this hands around, which splattered the puke on the walls too. All of this was too much for Cullen, who decided to join the party and puke on the floor too. Cullen then started yelling at Finn, "Get away from me, you are making me throw up!!" So there it is... five nice piles of puke for me to clean in this nasty bathroom. What kind of luck is that?

I finally get smart and have them exit the stall, which luckily ended the puke-fest. I cleaned it up the best I could and we LEFT! I had tears in my eyes from laughing so hard, I still can't believe the unfortunate chain of events that led to that huge mess!! In the car, I asked Finn why he threw up, did he feel sick? Did his stomach hurt? Did the poop in the toilet make him gag? His response was "the poop". Then Cullen asked me "Mom, was that a Mom's poop in the toilet?"

I think we are all pretty traumatized from tonight... At least I now know my boys' tolerance for a bad combination of smells and sights. GOODNESS GRACIOUS!

100th day

Cullen counting out 100 marshmallows.

Tuesday is Cullen's 100th day of preschool. All the kids in the class are supposed to bring 100 of something to add to the trail mix. Cullen really wanted to bring little colored marshmallows. :)

Yellow Otter and White Turtle

Cullen floating with his teacher.
He floated (unassisted) for over 1 minute today!

Cullen swimming underwater to his teacher.
He's learning to do this, then flip to his back and float.

Finn in his swim class. He has officially
graduated from mom-baby swim lessons!

Finn jumping in to his teacher.

The boys both graduated from their first month of swim lessons. Cullen is now a Yellow Otter and Finn is a White Turtle. I moved them to days now and Cullen only has one other kid in his class. Finn has got 3 other kids in his class. They are both doing great and learning a lot.

Cullen is actually learning how to swim this class. By the end of the month, he should be able to jump into the water, surface, roll to a float, and then swim back to the side of the pool. Cullen has got the float down! Finn, obviously, is still learning survival skills. But he's fearless, his teacher has him lead the choo-choo (wall walking around the perimeter of the pool) at the start of each class. I think it's because he is fast and not afraid. It is really unnatural for me to be watching my two year old from outside the pool though!

Finn officially enters boyhood

Finn watching Scooby Doo in the Urgent Care Clinic.

After his stitch.

At Sonic with his Cherry Limeade slush.

Our littlest trooper.

Today I made my 5th trip to an Urgent Care Clinic (Finn's first trip). This is just the beginning for me, I'm sure! Finn took a catnap in the car, so I knew naptime would be a struggle. It was. I could hear him playing and playing in his room, so I stayed upstairs. Then I heard a thud and shrill crying (the type of crying, that an experienced mom of boys knows as BAD). He was holding his head and as I got closer I could see the blood pouring out and dripping onto his chest. We got downstairs and Sean immediately told us to go to the ER. Cullen was mad, he didn't want to leave his Star Wars Lego Wii game (Sean was getting ready to go into work).
At the Urgent Care Clinic, Finn was such a trooper! He had stopped crying before we got into the car. All the nurses and even the PA that stitched him, couldn't get enough of him... telling us how cute he his, his gorgeous hair, angelic face, on and on. Then came time for the numbing shot, two other nurses came in to hold him down. Finn didn't try to fight them, and he didn't even cry! His little lip pouted out and he thought about it... but he held it together! Everyone in the room was shocked. The PA said Finn did better than grown men. They let him keep the big syringe they used to clean the wound.
Meanwhile, they wheeled in a TV with Wii attached for Cullen to play. Funny, he was mad leaving the house even though his brother was bleeding profusely from the head... only to get there and they had the same game!
When the PA returned to put in his stitch, she stopped and told me "You have really got two beautiful boys. I don't want you to think I say that to everyone, I don't... because it's not always the case." They didn't even attempt to hold Finn down for the stitches, and he didn't need it. He sat so still and didn't whine or anything. Again, they were all singing his praises.... what a good little patient he was.
After we left, I took the boys to Sonic for Cherry Limeade Slushes. What an afternoon!
I'm not sure if you remember or not, but I have had 2 very similar experiences with Cullen being as tough as nails. He's had his forehead glued together and had stitches on top of his head. Both times everyone was shocked at how tough he was. No tears or anything! God gave these boys a hard head and extreme toughness! I've always known Cullen doesn't feel pain, but was surprised to see Finn be just as tough (he does feel pain). Definitely no wussy boys here.

Happy Birthday, Momma!

I had a very happy birthday with my boys. Little Finn-Finn wished me a happy birthday a million times throughout the day. He even sang Happy Birthday to me before I was out of bed. :) Ignore the giant red mark on Finn's forehead, he fell just before the picture was taken. (Clumsiness due to his pure excitement of ice cream cake!)