Celebrating a friend's 8th birthday

Well, yesterday was a beautiful day. Our good family friend's son finally got to have his 8th birthday party. It was supposed to be last weekend, but the weather did not hold up for an outdoor bounce house party. So it was pushed back to yesterday and it was an unseasonably warm day in October filled with sun and fun. The kids all had a blast. There were only a few bumps and bruises too. So it was a fun day. Here's a little video slide show of the kids jumping in the bounce house and the rest of the birthday festivities.



Happy 8th birthday to Spencer! Thanks for including us in your day.

Spencer's 6th Birthday

Today we went to a very good family friend's 6th birthday party. And what little boy doesn't like trains. We went to the train museum to ride a train. The kids had a lot of fun. When the ride was done we went and had cupcakes and opened presents. CJ got stung by a bee for the first time. Poor kid. I didn't even really see it happen. All of a sudden he started screaming and waving his arm around and I was like what happened. I looked and there was a small red mark and the stinger sticking out. So I took it out and he settled down pretty quickly. No reaction thankfully. Just a little swollen and red on his wrist. He seems to be fine and was able to enjoy he rest of the afternoon. Here are some pictures from the day for you to enjoy.

Waiting for the train

Spencer the birthday boy on the train

Natalie, Mia, and Kaitlyn

Kaitlyn

CJ sitting on the train

CJ waiting for the train to go

CJ excited that the train is moving

Natalie and Kaitlyn

Kaitlyn and Mia

CJ

Foliage

The Dam

Happy Birthday Spencer!

The party goers

Spencer loving his monster trucks

Spencer with his mini Cars

CJ's bee sting. Still all red even a few hours later. It's not slowing him down though

All in all it was a nice afternoon. I didn't get too much accomplished around the house this weekend though. Oh well, there's always tomorrow.

Park Playing

Ahhh, the joys of summer. You get to go to the playground for a picnic and fun in the sun with good friends. That's exactly what we did yesterday. After swimming lessons we met up with some friends at the park for lunch and fun. The kids played on the playground and in the splash pad (different park from the one we went to on Monday). The older kids are able to just go off on their own for the most part, but I had to spend the afternoon chasing after CJ. That's okay though, it's fun to watch him experience things for the first time anyways. Most of the pictures I got yesterday of course were of him, but I did get some of the older two and my friends kids too. My friends son is 5 (he'll be 6 in October). He does not like the water at all or getting wet. He did decide to "get his feet wet" eventually though. So I captured a little of his attempt to get into the water without getting too wet. And yes, he managed to just got his feet and a little bit of the bottom of his shorts wet. I love that boy dearly. He's funny and oddly enough reminds me a lot of myself when I was his age. Had to do it in my own way and my own time and on my own terms. It was a fun exhausting day though. Only three more weeks of days like this.

Spencer Jumps

Remember Spencer? He's doing great! The glasses have been helping his eye. It's not as turned in any longer. But that's not really the reason I'm talking about Spencer today. I wanted to share a different sort of triumph about him. Spencer is a very cautious little boy. He likes simple and quiet not hard and fast. He knows what he wants to do and he tends to not push himself to do more. Swimming is one of those things that he is very cautious about. He's been in the Parent/Child class for some time now, but this time they told him he could move up to Level 1. So he did move up to Level 1 even though he wasn't sure he wanted to be in the pool without mom. Spencer does not like to get his face wet. Therefore jumping into the pool is not really for him. However, he's been doing it. We are all so proud of him. So here he is jumping in the pool...



Now we've just gotta convince him to jump off the diving board. He says, "No no no!" He's still got time. Kaitlyn is six and has just begun jumping off the diving board. So I told Spencer maybe when you're six like Kaitlyn. His response, "Kaitlyn's six?" Hahahahaha, yes Spencer the woman you are going to marry is a year and a half older than you.

A Boy and His Glasses

Here is Spencer in his new glasses. It's not a tumor, but what is it? Well, the doctor thinks they can draw Spencer's eye back into place by giving him glasses. So Spencer will wear these glasses for the next month or so. If there's no improvement then they will put a prism on the glasses to try to adjust his eye that way. If none of this works, then Spencer will need surgery on his eye. They won't do surgery though until they've tried all of this and it's been six months. So if surgery is needed it won't happen until November or so. The doctor doesn't seem too optimistic that this will work because in the time that he was on antibiotics there was no change at all and I guess he would have thought he would have seen a change.

Spencer does not like his glasses. He pulls them down on his nose and looks over them. I think it's just going to take some getting used to. Doesn't he just look adorable in them though?

Now what about the stuttering you ask? Well, they think that's just an age thing. Four years old apparently is around the time kids will start to stutter. His pre school teacher did kind of confirm that and said that his brain is working faster than his mouth can get the words out. Anyone who knows Spencer knows that this totally makes sense for him. He is such a super smart little boy. So hopefully his speech will catch up to his fast moving little brain and hopefully these glasses correct his eye so he doesn't need surgery. Prayers are still needed though and I will update you as I get more information. Thank you all for your concern over our handsome little man Spencer.

It's Not a Tumor!

Whenever I hear that phrase I think of Arnold Schwartzeneger in Kindergarten Cop. Never before have these words been so great to hear. Spencer is tumor free. He has a severe sinus infection and fluid in his ear, but IT'S NOT A TUMOR. So we're all breathing a huge sigh of relief that Spencer's turned inward eye and now stuttering are not because of a tumor. Right now he will get treated for the sinus infection and fluid on his ears and then next week more exploring will be done into the reason for these sudden changes in him. Hopefully whatever tests he's in for next give some answers. I will keep everyone posted on how he's doing, but continued prayers and good thoughts are most definitely in order for this wonderful 4 1/2 year old little boy. Thank you all so much!

Spencer Update

Remember our good family friend Spencer? I asked for prayers for him last week. He went in today for his MRI. All went well. He was sedated for it, but woke up from sedation fine. Unfortunately, his parents have no answers yet. So not too much to update you with other than he had the test done and he's home now. He was not a happy camper when I saw him this morning. I think he might have been feeling a little jealous that I was there to take his little sister for the day and to go to playgroup. He was also grouchy that he didn't get to eat I suppose. His sister Mia and I didn't forget about him though. At playgroup Mia planted a green bean seed for him which was the craft that everyone had done today. And this afternoon I brought Mia with me to Walmart to pick out a book for him. She instantly chose something for herself, but I was able to direct her to a book that Spencer would like. So she brought home a new "Cars" book for him. Hopefully he enjoys it. And most importantly hopefully he gets a good report from this MRI next week. So prayers are still needed as we don't know what's going on with him yet.

Prayers needed

Spencer

This is our good family friend Spencer. He is in need of some positive thoughts and prayers. A week and a half ago he had pink eye. A few days after being on the medication his mom noticed that he was shutting his eye to watch TV. So she asked him if his eye was bothering him. He said, "No mommy I just see 2." So his mom called him over to her to see. When she looked she noticed that his left eye was turned in a little. So she called the doctor.

The doctor thought it was the pink eye medication so changed him to amoxicyllin and took him off of the drops. Well, the next day it was worse. His eye was turned in 90 degrees. So on Monday his mom brought him back to the doctor. He sent him to an eye doctor. The eye doctor tested his eyes and couldn't find anything wrong. He thinks it's neurological because it came on so suddenly. And being that he's 4 1/2 now a lazy eye would have shown up when he was around 1 or 2. The muscles in the eye are fine.

So now Spencer needs to go for an MRI. They finally got a date for the MRI. Only took two days to get that set up and it's not until next Wednesday morning. And in the meantime we're all worried about what could be going on. His mom keeps thinking it's a tumor. It's so scary thinking there's something wrong with the brain. So please pray that it's nothing and whatever is causing his eye to turn in is easily fixed.