So much going on....

Sorry for the delay in any updates with us. We've been keeping busy. Dave is playing primary parent a lot more lately and WD has definitly become a Daddy's Boy. I'm taking a graduate class and working on my application to graduate school (I can take a few classes w/o being admitted); that on top of work, family, doctors' appointments, etc. has kept me pretty preoccupied. I've also been having several health issues as my body still tries to recover from childbirth, including numerous physical therapy appointments for my back and hips, as well as other things I'll not go into here.

WD is growing like a weed, and so smart. He had his 18mo check-up yesterday (even though he's 19.5 mos - it was the soonest we could get in). He's 26 pounds which is the 50th percentile for weight, he's between 25-50th percentile for height, and he's at the 75th percentile for head size. We did get a referral for a speech assessment, as he's not saying any words yet. He talks up a storm in jibberish, but not in English yet. So there is a free program that will assess and help him if he needs it that we will be doing. We're not worried yet, but the doctor suggests we just have the free evaluation to be proactive, rather than wait until he's 2 years old and behind others his age and trying to play catch-up.

Hope you are doing well, and we'll try to do a better job with pictures and posts in October!

Copperhead was Sunning by the Pool

Drew C. Wilson
Havelock News
http://www.havenews.com/news/0in-5994-style-span.html

When Kim Waters found a copper colored snake curled up on some decorative rocks next to her backyard swimming pool the first thing she did was call Havelock Police.
“I have a small dog. That’s why I had to call,” Waters said.
Officer William Pressler responded to the home at 215 Manchester Road Thursday morning.
The city’s animal control officer, Kim Van Houten, was in New Bern at the time so Pressler and Waters had to wait as the snake lay still, not moving from its apparent nap in the sun.
Pressler described the snake over the radio to Van Houten as being copper colored with a V-shaped head and splotches.
“Stay away from it,” said Van Houten in return.
Upon arrival Van Houten identified the snake as a copperhead, one of North Carolina’s venomous snakes.
“It was right by her pool by some decorative rocks,” Van Houten said. “It was curled up like it was sunning.”
“I poked him with the snake stick and he didn’t move,” Van Houten said, “so we took it out into the grass and made sure he was dead.” Van Houten decapitated the two-foot long viper on the spot and put in a bag.
“It’s the kind of snake you don’t want to be messing with,” Van Houten said.
“I’ve caught plenty of them,” she said. “They’re all over the place.”
North Carolina has the highest annual frequency of snakebites in the nation with 19 bites per 100,000 residents, according to WebMD, which also said the nation has 7,000 bites per year yet an average of only four deaths per year.
Van Houten doubted that Havelock’s recent rains had anything to do with this snake’s appearance.
“It’s a little late for him to be coming up because of the rains,” she said.
“He picked those rocks to sun on. I don’t know why he was dead. He didn’t have any bite marks on him,” Van Houten said.
Van Houten gets lots of snake calls. She encourages people not to kill snakes but to call her instead.
“There are endangered species out there,” she said.
“If you get something in your yard that needs looking at, call me,” she said.
“Hopefully I won’t have any more,” said Waters.
Down the street, her neighbor Irene Zaccardelli heard about the two-foot-long snake. “Two feet? That’s a python to me,” she said.

Both pictures here are of the actual event. Bottom from Mike & top from the Havelock Paper.

Been a busy past few weeks...

Sorry for the delay as we've been pretty busy. We had family in, the family reunion, Restoration Days, I started class (for my master's degree), we planned a block party....and on and on.

Uncle Michael was back form NC, and you can see that WD enjoyed seeing him. Poor U. Mike couldn't play too much w/ his bum shoulder, but hopefully he can do more next time we see him.

I went to check on WD one night to find this scene! I was startled for a moment wondering where WD was! Had he finally learned to climb out or what??? (note the teeth marks on the railing in the bottom left of the picture...pretty expensive teether for him)

WD had somehow crawled under his crib sheet, and was sleeping between it and the mattress.

Here WD models some shades of Great Grandma's that he fell in love with while at Grandpa Ray & Grandma Karyn's house.

WD enjoys his first sucker at the Restoration Days Parade. He enjoyed seeing all the restored tractors, especially the big one that kept moving it's bucket up and down as it drove by.

WD stopped at the hardware store to check out carts and wheelbarrows. He took it upon himself to rearrange them for the store workers.

YOGURT!!!!

Today I Am - August Addition

Today I Am: a 1 on a 0-10 pain scale with my back! YEAH!!! And I really put it to work yesterday!! I Felt great yesterday (except for the heat and humidity) so I was in the yard for a couple hours while Dave took his shift with WD. But I iced it and took my Rx Naproxin (Aleve) and slept like a rock between thunder crashes.

Reading: The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid. It's one of 7 books I'll have to read for my graduate class this fall. I talked with a couple coworkers this weekend and they were telling me that I have one of those intense professors, and likely I'm wasting my time Reading ahead of the class as she's just going to make me read it all again in class, mostly because I'll need to in order to remember all the details that will be discussed. Great. Oh well - now I'm into it and trying to figure out the climax...as I just can't see it coming yet.

Listening To: The CBS Early show - it's my morning routine and it's on in the background. I'm also trying to hurry as I just heard WD starting to fuss and now bellow from his crib.

Thinking About: How I'm going to juggle everything this fall and yet not have to be committed for a mental breakdown.

Planning To: Go to Grandma's this Saturday and help Dad & Rob clean it out.

Looking Forward To: Our 2009 family vacation, the first week of September. Just going North to Don & Caroline's but hoping to get out do some things in that area that we haven't or wouldn't normally. Maybe the zoo? Or the big water park there in town (if it's still warm).

Enjoying: Life. Just some moments it's more present in my mind to do so than others.

Working On: Minimizing. I went through all the baby things to 1 year this weekend and tried to thin things down a little. This morning I hope to get all my maternity things into one tub (instead of 2). We just don't have the storage we need!

What are you up to???

Very eventful past week

It has been one crazy-busy week! Let's see - last Friday I has the stomach flu which I caught from Dave (who had it on Monday). This as we had planned to head to the Farm to have a garage sale w/ Dad while Mom was in NC on vacation. Well - we did it anyway and last weekend we had a huge 2-day garage sale.

Then on Saturday - Dave knocked down a building on the farm. He was saying, "Well, a funny thing happened."

While milling around in the garage at Mom & Dad's I found the swing Uncle John made and WD enjoyed it for a while on Sunday morning before we went back to town for Day 2 of the sale.

THEN.... we got back and Monday night/Tuesday morning I had horrible pain in my leg from my back. So bad I couldn't really sleep after 3am. I ended up getting into the doctor on Tuesday morning and the ball started rolling. He didn't like some of the symptoms I gave, and he couldn't find a reflex in my right ankle. So he referred me for an immediate MRI at the hospital. He also referred me to the pain clinic in Ankeny the very next day (Wednesday) and told me that pending the results of the MRI I could need surgery, or at least some injections.

Turns out I have another disc herniation at L5-S1. I met with the pain management doctor on Wednesday and he was very nice, and took all the time I wanted to answer my questions, and he felt (and ended up making me feel) very confidant that he would be able to help me.

Thursday at 12:30 Dave drove me to the Mercy Ambulatory Surgery Center for what I totally thought was going to be 2 shots in the back, maybe a little numbness in the leg (hence needing the driver). Well...it was a little different than that...

They actually had me in an operating room, had like 4 nurses and the doctor, and then when I looked to my right - they were x-raying me the entire time to watch where the catheters were in my spine. It was so surreal!!! I looked up and I could see my own IUD - I started laughing - and I'm sure the nurses were thinking "Oh Boy - She should have opted for the sedation." The whole procedure took 20 minutes, and we were on the way home by 2:30. My pain is better, but still there. I still had to take a couple Vicodin last night as I woke up with pretty strong pain at 3 am again.

This is the closest picture to what I saw that I could find. Very similar, but my was of my low back and pelvis, and this is of the neck. But I thought you might get the idea.

This is what they did, term was actually Intraforaminal Epidural Steroid Injection.

This is what Dave and I came home to - Buddy Too will apparently need to be kenneled from now on, and we now have a new home improvement project.

And this - this is just the cutest kid ever - he was in my kitchen this morning. I hear he's got great parents too! :-)

That crazy boy...

Here William enjoys corn on the cob for the first time (last night 07-19-09).

Here William shows off his shiner. The picture doesn't show it very well, but he got a bug bite the day before at the sitter's just under his eye. Over night it swelled, and turned red, and made him look like he had a shiner.

I walked in to find William like this one morning last week. I love his face - he's so happy Mama is here to get him up!

4th of July

We went up north to Grandpa Don & Grandma Caroline's for the 4th. Dave's sister Cindy & her family were back from Chicago for their annual trip. Dave sister Kathy's family (from Pocahontas) was also there all weekend including our niece Jessica (who's due in November) and her boyfriend Damion. I was a very nice visit, if only the weather would have cooperated more. The nicest day was Sunday - the day we all drove home!

You can see the weather was very nice on Sunday in this picture of WD with G'pa & G'ma.

William spent some snuggle time with his cousin Christi (Cindy's), as cousin Danielle (Kathy's) looks on.

WD is all smiles when the camera comes out - but he was just too tired here with Bobby & Christi (Cindy's).

The drizzle didn't dampen our spirits on Saturday when we watched the parade.