Chryptorchidism

Yesterday, we took a trip to ACH in Little Rock for Christopher’s specialist appointment.
On our way there – blurry, but he does this thing now where he puts his hand under his chin and says “CHEEEESE!”

About a month ago, during bath time, I noticed a big lump/knot in Christopher’s pelvic area. It scared me – a lot. I have a grandfather who had testicular cancer, so yeah. Scared me.  When I went to show it to Stephen a few hours later, it was gone. Weird, right?

Taking a picture in the wavy mirror.

Within the next few weeks, I saw it again, as well as my mom and Stephen. It would just show up at random times. Sometimes it was big, sometimes it was small. It wasn’t always in the same exact spot. We made an appointment with our family doctor – which happened to work out well because that’s when Christopher was sick with a cough and an ear infection. The lump wasn’t there when he went to our doctor, but my mom did have a picture of it and showed the picture to our doctor. He made a guess that it was cryptorchidism.

His “bracelet.”

We met with a pediatric surgeon at ACH yesterday who confirmed that it is, in fact, cryptorchidism. The solution is surgery – an orchiopexy, to be exact. We have scheduled the surgery to be March 29th. It should be a fairly simple surgery and should not require a hospital stay. There is a possibility that they may have to do it in two stages, but they will not know if that’s the case until he is under anesthesia and they actually go in there. The surgeon said that more than likely, it would not require a second surgery.

Bracelet I bought a few weeks ago. ($4 on Groopdealz – yay!) I thought it was appropriate for our appointment yesterday.

We are so thankful that it is nothing more serious than this.  We are also thankful for Arkansas Children’s Hospital! They are one of the best children’s hospitals in the nation and I know that Christopher will be in the best hands possible for his surgery. I’m nervous – don’t get me wrong – but it could be so much worse. We saw some seriously sick kids yesterday. Makes our problem seem very minor.

Exhausted from a long day – he was alseep before we got out of Little Rock city limits!

two point five

Christopher today…

Six months ago today…

One year ago today…

One and a half years ago today:

Two years ago today…

Two and a half years ago today…

Christopher Tyler,
How is it possible that you are two and a half years old today?!?!?! I cannot believe how time has flown by over the last 30 months.
The last two and a half years have been, without a doubt, the best of my life.  I love you more than I could possibly ever say. I am blessed beyond words that God chose ME to be your mommy. You are a bright, energetic, loving, silly, caring, well-tempered, huggable, loveable, squeezable, slightly OCD, Elmo-loving, blue-eyed, blonde-haired little boy and I have loved watching you grow from a baby into a toddler and now into a little boy.
You have really started using words over the last two or three months and that is when your true personality has really started to shine. You crack me up! You are so smart. You have my bossiness and a bit of my temper but you are mostly laid back like your daddy. You love to sleep and recently you have really gotten into playing with smaller toys, like cars and trains and such. You love to play “hide and seek” right now. You hide under the desk or table or under a towel and say “Moooommmmmaaa!!! I HIDE!” and after I’ve “found” you, you say “I HIDE MORE!” and you stay in the same exact spot. Also, if you’re hiding and I ask where you are, you’ll tell me… so you haven’t exactly figured that game out.
You love to watch certain types of programs on TV. You’re not a big fan of cartoons. You still like Shrek but right now you LOVE Elmo, Choo-choo (Thomas the Tank Engine) and this old-school 1980s movie that I watched as a little girl called Wee Sing Together, which is about a live-action musical. You prefer live-action over animations, I think.
You say please and thank you and are very well-behaved 99% of the time! We have started saying prayers at night and you always remind us if we forget. (Part of your OCD-ness.) Oh! You are in a toddler bed now and you did SO good with the transition! We had no problems whatsoever with that and I had been putting it off for awhile because I was afraid that you wouldn’t stay in bed. But you do! And when you wake up from naps or overnight you so “Momma! Up!” and you wait for me or Daddy to come into your room and get you out of bed.
You started at a new daycare in January when I started my internship. You go to a home day care now and we both like it SO MUCH BETTER than the place you went in the fall. It took you about a week and a half to adjust to your new daycare. You don’t cry when I drop you off in the mornings and it makes it SO much easier on me to know that you are happier here and have a lot of fun all day with your friends.
I know there are a thousand things I am forgetting that I could list here, but this is all I can think of right now. I love you SO much, sweet boy, and I know that it will be no time at all and another two and a half years will have passed and you will be turning FIVE! You are the best thing that has ever happened to me and your daddy and we absolutely love being your parents. There is no better job in the entire world!

I love you to the moon and back (times infinity.)
Mommy

Randoms and Pictures

Christopher has been battling a cough for the past 2-3 weeks. It started mainly at night and worked its way into a full-blown cold complete with coughing ‘round the clock, an extremely snotty nose, and fever. Our internship program has a (semi-)strict policy of not missing more than two days throughout the entire semester (obviously, they will work with you if you have extreme circumstances) so I had my mom take Christopher to the doctor today. He originally had an appointment for yesterday, but our dusting of snow yesterday caused the whole town to shut down. Not that I’m really complaining. I loved having a snow day yesterday and got a lot accomplished here at the house.

Anyway. Mom took Christopher to the doctor today. He has a mild ear infection in one ear (first ear infection EVER. at least that we know of.) and he was given a prescription for that and the coughing. Thankfully, he didn’t have RSV, which is what I was worried about. He was running a 102 temp when we got home this afternoon which bothers me… but hopefully with the two different prescriptions plus Dimetapp plus Children’s Advil… well, hopefully between all that he will start feeling better soon. He has been SUCH a healthy child up to now that I’m not really quite sure what to do when he is sick with a fever or cough.  We also have an appointment with Arkansas Children’s Hospital on February 27th concerning a different issue with Christopher. (More about that later.)

I’ve barely seen my husband on this Valentine’s Day. He always helps me get Christopher ready to go in the mornings. He gets C up and dressed and takes him out to the car for me while I am running around making myself breakfast and lunch and loading up the car with my junk important things for school. We said our “drive safelys” and “love yous” this morning while rushing around and I didn’t even remember that it was Valentine’s day until I heard something about it on the radio on my way to school. I called Stephen and told him happy Valentine’s day. So romantic! He had school today then stopped at an out-of-town game that happened to be on his way home from school and of course he will have a late night at the paper tonight.

Christopher had two big Valentine’s Day parties scheduled for today, but he missed his daycare one since he went to my mom’s house and then when we got home from mom’s his temp was 102 – so I chose not to take him to his other party that was scheduled for 6:00 tonight at a local hot dog joint. I felt bad missing out on the parties but I figured he didn’t feel up to going out plus I would hate to get any other kids sick, too. I’m hoping that his fever is gone for good in the morning so I don’t have to worry about sending him to daycare tomorrow.

We had leftover Chicken Enchiladas for dinner. This was a recipe I found on Pinterest and attempted last night. We enjoyed it and it is probably something that we will make again. It’s pretty easy and quick and it could also be made ahead of time and frozen, which I love.

I’m feeling a bit sick to my stomach tonight (not sure if it is nerves or too much candy from the day) so I am going to leave you with a few iPhone pictures and I am going to settle down and watch some TV then go to bed.

BigSexyHair root pump plus mousse volumizer. It has changed my life. (Just kidding. Sort of.)

The C-Monster and me after my week-long stay in Arkadelphia for Internship Orientation. We were SO happy to see each other!

1) Big boy bed. We moved him into it when we moved into our new (my mother-in-law’s old) house. We have not had one single problem with the transition. Praise.The.Lord.
2) I have no idea why his sock is on his hand. It was not there when I tucked him it. Crazy.Child.
3) Can you tell I’m addicted to Instagram?

Woop Woop!

I bought new Toms on Thursday. Wore them on Friday. It rained on Friday morning and this is what my shoes looked like before school even started. Story of my freaking life.

I found this mask when cleaning out a drawer of my MILs. Christopher thinks it’s hilarious.

Did you know I can type 92 wpm with a 98% accuracy rate? No? Well, I can.

Chicken Enchiladas 

The weekend of the Super Bowl I had the stomach bug from you-know-where. It was AWFUL. That Saturday morning I woke up feeling nauseous and Stephen had ball games to cover out-of-town. Thankfully, my brother and Britney had stayed the night with us that Friday night and they were kind enough to take Christopher with them while they ran errands on Saturday morning. While they were out and about, Christopher informed them that he was hungry and when they asked him what he wanted for lunch, he responded with “Papas!” So off to Papa’s Mexican Café they went. Christopher ended up spending Saturday night with my mom and this is the picture she texted me before they left for church on Sunday morning. BIG boy. So handsome. And grown up. (I keep telling him to stop, but he doesn’t listen to me.)

Being sweet with Baxter.

And just a few days later – he covered him all up with towels. I guess he thought he was cold and needed a few blankets? Sweet Baxter – he is SO good with Christopher.

And last but certainly not least – my sweet Valentine’s Day message in last week’s edition of the Ouachita Trading Post. I love my hubby! <3

I’m alive–and back!

I’m still here! Internship has not eaten me alive! (Yet.)

We moved a few weeks ago (more on that later) and we just got our internet set up this weekend.  I love my iPhone and I couldn’t live without it – (okay, I could, but I don’t want to) but I don’t enjoy using it to blog from. To be honest, I don’t even like using it to do random Google searches. I prefer my laptop, thankyouverymuch.

Today was our first SNOW DAY of the winter! In FEBRUARY! It was nice to miss a day of school. I worked all day long doing more unpacking and organizing. And laundry. Never-ending laundry.

My little man is GROWING UP. He is a full-blown TWO YEAR OLD (two and a half in FOUR DAYS) and I cannot BELIEVE it. He talks all.the.time.  He loves to watch shows with music/singing. He loves to play with cars. He loves to make messes.

The snow we had today was minimal – by the time we got up and moving it was sleeting then that turned into rain later in the day. Christopher and I looked outside and talked about it but I never even took him out in it because he has been sick with a cough/runny nose and today he started running a fever. He’s going to the doctor tomorrow.

I am SO glad to finally have internet back. I have a ton of blogging to catch up on (what’s new?) and I know it will take me forever and a half to catch up, but I’m still determined to! I still need to blog about Christmas (hello – tomorrow is Valentine’s Day.) and wrap up 2011.

More tomorrow! (but no promises! ha.)