My little MONSTER!

Happy 2nd birthday to my little Monster, Tyler William! 
We're having chocolate cake with chocolate frosting tonight to celebrate, since his real party isn't until next weekend.  Remember to watch for pictures after the party.  I've got big plans for this one! 
*Also, birth story in progress, will post soon*

Thankful Thursday

This week, I'm thankful for:

~no dental problems for our baby Tyson after a little scare

~a clean bill of health after Tyler's 2-year check-up

~the start of a new summer volleyball season

~a couple of full nights of sleep for Tyson

~healthy kids

~sunshine and beautiful weather

~a great dinner/night out with great friends

Oh, the things they say!

I wanted to take a little time to focus on the things my boys are saying lately.  Tyson is just starting to say words, and he seems to be adding to his vocabulary daily.  Tyler is talking non-stop, and if I can't understand him, I just ask Kayden what he's saying, and he ALWAYS knows.  It's absolutely crazy.  Kayden is into stating facts.  Mostly things about animals.  He's a smarty pants.  

So, here are a few things I've heard from each of the boys in the past week or so....

Kayden:

K:"Daddy, did you know that spiders have more than two eyes?"

D: "They do?  How many do they have?"

K: "64!"

*I proceeded to google this fact to find out if it's true.  It's not.  They usually have seven or eight*

As we left his doctor appointment the other day, a lady pulled out right in front of me, so I honked my horn at her.  Tyler said, clear as day, "What was that noise?" I said, "Mommy beeped the horn." To which he responded, in the most adult voice I've ever heard come out of his mouth, and with a ton of expression and huge eyes, "You did?"

On the way to daycare, the boys always point out all of the animals and things they see.  We see lots of squirrels, turkeys, birdies, and even deer sometimes.  But earlier this week, as we were pointing out the things we saw, Tyler yelled from the back seat, "(insert huge gasp here) a LION!"  Which, of course, brought a huge fight between him and Kayden because Kayden knows that lions only live at the zoo, and in Africa :)

Tyson has been saying words like, 

"Mama"

"Maya" (the dog)

"Bye-Bye"

"Ball" (this was all three of my boys' first word)

"Uh Oh"

Tyson's first trip to the dentist

Yesterday was Tyson's dentist appointment.  You can read more here, but I decided to take him in to have his front tooth looked at since it was coming in a little strange. 

So, we went in, all the ladies smiled and goo-gooed at the handsome baby (apparently a child so young is rare in the dentist office). 

The hygenist took a look in his mouth first.  We laid him on our laps, with his feet on me, and his head on her lap.  She looked with her little mirror tool and said lots of things like, "Hmm.." and "that IS strange" and "oh my gosh, it's soft" and "wow".  As she poked at it, it started to bleed, so she decided to wait for Dr. Erin to take a look.

When the Doctor came over, she poked around a little bit, and came to the conclusion that it was not a tooth.  She said that either something got lodged in his gums (some kind of food), or it was tissue that grew differently and happened to be white. 

At any rate, she removed whatever it was, and we were on our way.  

Whew!  I really thought this was the start of some serious dental problems for the poor little guy. 

Tyson John

My induction with Tyson was scheduled for April 20th.  We were to be at the hospital at 6:00 a.m.  My mom came over the night before to stay with Kayden and Tyler.

We snuck out the door at about 5:30, and headed for the hospital.  

After the whole "check in" process, we were ready to get things started by 7:00. I was surprisingly calm.  They got my IV started, and Mike and I "relaxed" and waited for things to get rolling.  It didn't take long for contractions to start. I knew I was going to get an epidural, so I requested it when I thought the pain was "pretty bad", because I knew (from previous experience) it can take a while for the anesthesiologist to get there even after you request the drugs.  

By the time he got to my room, the contractions were bad.  I remember crying a little, but I don't know if I was crying because of the pain, or because everything was becoming so real.  He ended up having to put the epidural in twice, because the first time he hit a blood vessel(sounds a little scary now, but at the time all I cared about what getting those drugs).  

As with Tyler, within minutes of getting the epidural, baby was ready to come out!  Anyone who has had an epidural knows that it doesn't work instantly.  It usually takes 10 to 15 minutes to start working.  Well, Tyson didn't give me that 10 minutes, because he decided he was coming now!  So, basically, we paid a lot of money for the drugs that I didn't even get to enjoy!  I knew I had to push, but my doctor wasn't in the room yet.  The nurses called him, and he said to tell me to "wait", and he'd be there soon since he was just finishing up a c-section. 
Well, I couldn't wait. 
The on-call doctor made it to my room, and he said that I needed to push now.  *I didn't know it at the time, but the cord was wrapped around Tyson's neck, and his heart rate was dropping, so they wanted him out*

It took about 2 pushes, and he slid right out (I know--that might be TMI for some people, but that's exactly what happened). 

I remember the nurse commenting on how small he was, which was NOT what I expected having given birth to nine and ten pound babies previously. Turns out, he was 7 pounds, 9 ounces and healthy!

Baby went nameless for about an hour after he was born.  We came to the hospital with one girl name, and three boy names.  So, after a little discussion, we came up with Tyson John.  Tyson, because it has become a bit of a tradition to have our kids names include the letter, y, and John because John is Mike's middle name.  

All was going well after Tyson's birth.  He was healthy, our families came to see him, and I was feeling good.  

Except for one thing.  

I had some excessive bleeding going on.  The nurses tried a few different things to get it under control.  They even put me back on pitocin(the drug that makes your uterus contract).  When nothing else worked, they called in the doctor that delivered Tyson (Dr. Stocker), and he decided that he'd do a D and C.  

He explained that he would need to go inside and scrape he remaining parts of placenta out of my uterus, which was what was causing the bleeding.  He said I had two options.  He said I could, either be "put under" for the procedure, or stay awake and he would do it as quickly as he could.  It just depended upon how "tough" I was.  Somehow he convinced me that I could do it without being put under, so that was what we did.  

We had to ask our family to head home for the night (it was already about 8:00 anyway), and Rhonda(Mike's sister) stayed to stay with Tyson in the hospital room.  I didn't really want to send him to the nursery yet, and since she is an RN, I figured he'd be safe with her.  

After everyone was gone, they put me in a wheelchair, and we headed to another room where they performed the procedure.  I won't go into details on this part, but it wasn't fun.  I'll just say that much.  I'm thinking the nurse who told me to squeeze her hand if it hurts might have regretted saying that by the time the procedure was done.  

In the end, it worked.  

Like magic.  

The bleeding stopped.  

I was back in my room, resting for the night within an hour. 

A day and a half later, we were home and the reality of three boys under three and a half hit, and life has been a bit blurry ever since, but I wouldn't change it for the world!

Batter Up!

I have never been real creative, or much of a planner, but for some reason, I am super gung-ho about Tyler's birthday party this year, and I have BIG plans. Maybe it's because of the time of year, and the fact that I am HOPING to be able to have the party outside, like we did for his first birthday, when the weather was BE-YOU-TY-FUL!!!!!!
We're going with a baseball theme this year.  I plan on picking up supplies this weekend, but I already know everything we're going to use to decorate, eat, etc. 

The Plan~

Food:
hot dogs with a variety of toppings (ketchup, mustard, relish, onions, chili, cheese, etc)
popcorn and caramel corn(on tables for munching)
peanuts(also on tables for munching)
nachos
baseball cupcakes (white frosting with the red laces in red frosting)


Decorations:
baseball plates
red, white and blue napkins
white table cloths with red, white and blue accents
baseball balloons
I'm hoping to find a cheap baseball pinata




Miscellaneous:
a baseball and sharpie for guests to sign
bats, balls and tee's outside for the kiddos to play
Twins game on the radio :)
guests have been asked to come in their favorite baseball get-up

Now, let's pray for nice weather, and we should be good to go!

An unexpected 1st dentist appointment

It's no surprise that Tyson has been teething.  

I've been blaming his terrible sleeping habits on "teething" since he was about a week old.  

He has his two bottom front teeth, and one top front tooth.  

(Leah, please excuse my lack of dental terminology)

His second top front tooth is coming in, with a little issue.  Last weekend when I looked in his mouth it looked to me, like he has two teeth coming in where there should only be one.  I had my mother in law, sister in law and mom look at it, and they all agreed that something about it was not right. 

I wish I could post a picture so that ya'll can see what I'm talking about, but you try taking a picture of the inside of a 1 year old's mouth.  Im. poss.  i.  ble.

He had his 12 month doctor appointment on Monday, so I pointed it out to the doctor, and she said too, that it doesn't look normal.  Her thought was to just let it (whatever it is) grow further in, and then deal with it.  

 

Well, I went home, and it was really bothering me.  So, I called Dr. Erin's office(she is Kayden's dentist).  When I told the receptionist what was happening, she said right away, that Dr. Erin would want to see him since there is really no way to tell what is happening without an x-ray.  

So, at just 12 months old, Tyson has his first dentist appointment scheduled for next Tuesday. 

Again, pray for us people. 

What the Hell Wednesday!

This is my version of a "What the Hell Wednesday". 

My "What the Hell" for this week (and last) is this crazy sickness that has been nagging my boys since last Sunday.  

That is one point five weeks ago.  

It started last Sunday night when Kayden work up and threw up.  I figured he was just sick, so he stayed with Grammy instead of going to daycare.  He was pretty much fine all day, so I sent him to daycare on Tuesday.  

Ever since then, Kayden and Tyler have been on a cycle of throwing up, and pooping like crazy every one to three days.  I swear, they seem fine, then allofasudden, one of them barfs. Or has super-duper runny poops.  

I know this might be a little TMI for some of you, but I need to talk write about it. If you don't want to continue reading, I'm not offended.  Besides that, I'll never know whether you read this or not ;)

I thought we were in the clear, then last night after supper, Tyler threw up all over the kitchen floor. 

All three boys were in bed by 8:30, which, for our house, is early.  But, I figured they'd had a rough week with all this sickness going on, so they were just tired. 

11:00, Kayden comes into our room crying, and then "blaaaaaaaaahhhh" (is that the sound a person makes when they throw up?) He threw up all over our white bedroom carpet.  

Cleaned up, and got him back in his bed.  

2:00, he is back in our room, saying he "pooped".  Yep, in his underwear, jammies, bed.  

Cleaned him up and put him in our bed.  

7:00, I called the clinic.  Explained what has  been happening, and the nurse said there is a bug going around that lasts about 5 days, but this sounds like something that is re-occuring, so they should maybe be seen. 

So, my conclusion at this point is to hope to God that they are fine today and tonight.  If there is any more pooping/puking before tomorrow morning, I will take the day off, and we'll head to the clinic. 

Pray for us people. This sucks. 

Long time, no write

This is my quick apology for a lack of posts lately.  I actually have three posts written that are just waiting for me to add pictures.  

Life in the Frericks household has been a little crazy lately.  We have had some sick kids, built a new swingset, celebrated Mother's Day and Papa's(my dad) birthday, among other things. 

So, I'm just letting you know, we are still here, and we are well, just busy.  

This week looks to be shaping up to be just as  busy as the past few. Tyson has his 12 month well child check this afternoon, Wednesday night I have a "purse party" at my mom's shop (let me know if you're interested, I can get you info).  This weekend Mike will be gone fishing and I just agreed to pick up some extra hours at the bowling alley on Saturday, along with city-wide garage sales in Albany, and shopping for Tyler's birthday party, I've got a lot planned!