A Bunch of Buddies

We had friends over for dinner and the mama's went to find out what the boys were doing and we found this. After throwing rocks, dirt and tomatoes into the little pool they decided to get in themselves, with all their clothes on. This picture shows Willie seconds after dropping something that sent a splash upward dousing his clothes followed by, "wet."

It is fun to have friends with children the same age, even if our dinners are a bit loud at times. Like, all the time....except when they are up to something. Then all is quiet.

And here are their little brothers, looking on wondering when they will be big enough to join in the fun. I can't imagine the noise level that will ensue once these three join the crowd. Not to mention the mischief level. Oh, and by "little", I mean in age of course. As there is nothing little about Lukas and Nathan and I don't think Logan is little so much as he is just dwarfed by the mammoth boys on his right. And could these three look any more different?

It is pretty fun and helpful having friends with children the same age as I can call any of them with the "Is this normal?" question. Apparently having children in a home creates many bizarre moments, but most of them are normal......unless it involves Nik. He really is a bit abnormal.

A Tragedy Averted

Last week I was hanging out at my friend, Angela's, with a couple other friends. It was a hot day and she has a pool so, naturally, we tend to congregate at her house when we can. Her husband Will, and my friend Melindas' husband, Ben, were outside with 3 of the kids. As us mamas were inside talking suddenly Will comes bolting in the house heading for the phone yelling, "If anyone knows CPR get out there NOW!". I bolted out of my chair and raced outside followed closely by Angela. What we saw was every parents nightmare. Ben and Melinda's little boy, Wyatt, who is just 3 1/2 years old, was laying on the pool deck completely blue and not breathing. Ben was next to him, but as you can imagine, not in a position to be able to help as he was overcome with emotion. I quickly knelt down next to Wyatt and after Angela positioned his head correctly I gave him two rescue breaths. Immediately his mouth moved, but he was still blue. At this point I could hear everyone around me praying to spare his life and I started praying as well. Angela checked for a pulse and found a strong one so I gave him two more breaths and he started opening his mouth more and gasping and then started opening his eyes as well and suddenly the blue drained away and his pink color started quickly returning. He was soon in his mothers embrace crying and we knew he was going to be all right.

As the fire department, sherriff and ambulance came and made sure Wyatt was okay, the rest of us were standing around pretty much in a state of disbelief that we almost lost one of our precious little children, and it could have happened to any of them. Ben had been sitting two feet from Wyatt who had been sitting on the edge of the pool above the steps with his older sister and friend in the pool next to him. Ben got up to check on the hamburgers and turned back around to find Wyatt missing. It was that quick people!!! Unfortunately there was an inner tube on the pool deck which was blocking Ben's view and so he was unable to see Wyatt in the water until he moved closer. It was then that he saw the two girls tugging at Wyatt who was face down and still. He quickly pulled him out and that is when Will saw Wyatt and immediately ran inside. Through everyone's quick thinking and Jodi falling on her knees in prayer as we ran out to help, God mercifully spared his life.

All I could think of as this was happening and pretty much every day since then, is that i had just been over there the day before to swim and Nikolas had been playing around the pool and I had been less than vigilant with watching him. So, of course, the thought that keeps going through my head is, "It could have been him, and could I have saved him?". It makes me shudder to think about it.

And to answer everyone's question, no, Wyatt was not wearing a life jacket. HOWEVER, it may not have helped anyway. It wouldn't have made a difference had it been Nikolas as whenever he has his life jacket on and I let go of him he immediately tilts forward and his face goes in and he is unable to right himself. That is just how it is with little kids as there heads are bigger than the rest of them proportionally and they don't have the skills or knowledge to move their limbs to float upright.

With that said, things will definitely be different for all of us when we are near water, even when Nik is just in his kiddie pool at home. I used to think it wasn't a big deal to leave NIk in it so I could run inside to grab something as the water is only up to his thighs, but now i am not so sure. It really does only take a second. We also are all wanting to take a first aid/CPR class as those of us who know CPR need the refresher course and the rest simply need to know it.
So here is my plea to the rest of you:
LEARN CPR.
YOU COULD SAVE A LIFE.
THAT LIFE COULD BE SOMEONE YOU KNOW.
SOMEONE LIKE WYATT.


DO IT NOW.

Most every hospital has infant/child first aid and CPR classes. There are many places around that offer them as well. It is more than worth the price. At the very least, ask someone you know who knows it to show you the basics. Or even check out a book. Don't wait. Someone's life could depend on YOU.

Toddler Phrases

Nikolas' favorite sayings lately are:

1) I do dat.

He has to do everything by himself these days, which means he walks around the house with one arm through one sleeve and his head and other arm through the neck hole. I have no idea how he manages to do this. He also walks around with both legs through one leg hole when he is wearing shorts, it looks like he is wearing a skirt. Brother.
This phrase also means that he wants to wipe his own dirty little bottom, not good. There is lots of disaster recovery involved after potty time.

2) Hi Mama.

Over and over and over again. It is cute the first couple times. It's the 15th time in 5 minutes that has me wanting to change my name.

and some funny ways he says words are:

1) Dewey - which means orange. Um, okay.
2) Yump - at least this one is understandable, it means jump. We go yumping alot.
3) Yack - is his name for his cousin, Zach. "Z's" are a hard letter, i will give him that.


and names he has given to things:

1) hello - cell phone
2) beep beep - car
3) kiki - blanket

I am sure i am leaving out lots of funny things he says, but I figured I would throw out a few at least. He constantly makes me laugh with his tiny little voice and his funny little words. Admittedly, he drives me bonkers as well as he repeats himself constantly, but i know that is being two and learning how to talk, so i try to repeat the word or phrase back to him properly so we can move on to a new word to be repeated again and again. And i bang my head against the table a few times a day........ it helps.

Olympic Hopeful

High Bar
In honor of the Olympics I thought I would post some pictures of our budding little athlete.
We were going to gymnastics on Open Gym day in Clackamas before the hot weather started. Nik looked forward to going and was always the very last one off the gym floor when it ended.

Rings

Daddy even was able to come once during his lunch hour. He had a great time watching Nik run around and Nik had an even better time with someone able to play with him as Mama usually had Lukas to care for.

Floor Exercise

He impressed the instructors there with his ability to jump with both feet together at such a young age.

Now, of course, I would love for Nikolas to be a world class rock climber like his mama, (okay, like his mama wishes she was), but I realize he should be able to choose which sport he wants to participate in.

As long as that sport is rock climbing:)

I would like gymnastics, but it is way too expensive and time consuming. Mainstream sports are too boring ("just gouge my eyes out" boring) and most all the other extreme sports are too expensive and require machinery (ski lift, boat, etc.). so it all comes back to climbing!

Maybe rock climbing will be an Olympic sport in 15 years....

or maybe it is just better to leave a good thing alone.

Little Skater

Nikolas has discovered skateboarding.

His cousins, Zachary and Alexandra came to stay with us for 5 days and Zach brought his Waveboard. While Alex watched for cars, Zach, Nik and Mama rode our boards down the driveway. I felt like a hip, young mom on my longboard looking like i could actually skate. Having snowboarded for so many years helped, I was at least able to skate down the driveway and down the street a ways. Zachary just purchased his waveboard this summer and already handles it like a pro and little Nikolas really wanted to stand like the rest of us on his skateboard, but Mama only would let him sit or lay on it. I am sure Nik will be skating with no problems next year.
Am I a cool mom or what, letting my 2 year old ride a skateboard down a driveway and into the street?
Either that, or reckless and crazy....
Here is Zach and the latest trend in transportation.

The Wonders of Walgreens

This may be a weird post for some of you, but I had to share about the AMAZING DEAL I recently made at Walgreen's. I have only recently begun to discover the money saving deals at Walgreen's, thanks to moneysavingmom and my friend Angela, who doesn't blog anymore so I can't link to her. If you are needing to save money on household items like I do, or you just want to save money period, then you should check out the link I just mentioned. Okay, so here is the deal I just made: I bought 30 jumbo packs of diapers containing 40 per pack, 480 count wipes, 4 packs of flushable wipes, a bottle of baby oil, two bottles of children's tylenol and a pack of M&M's (to celebrate) for a grand total of $30.65! Just to put that into perspective, a box of 4 jumbo packs of diapers at costco costs around $42. Not only did I save $320.77, but i also received $30 in Register Rewards, which is money I can spend on anything at Walsgreen's.
So then, with $20 in Register Rewards I purchased the above. Not only did I only spend $1.23 for ALL of this with my own money, but I will be receiving $18. 53 back in rebates which i will then be able to spend at Walgreen's again. Pretty sweet.
And with my last $10 in Register Rewards I purchased this, which only cost me $1.47 out of pocket. Are you amazed?! I was. How they stay in business is beyond me, they certainly don't make a profit from me shopping there. These deals were made by using their EasySaver Catalog and ad found in the front of the store and by using coupons from the paper. Every week brings new possibilities, so much so that I am now a bit obsessed with my weekly trip to Walgreen's.
So, there you have it. For $33.35 I bought all of this. I figure I won't have to buy diapers for at least 7 months, which I am hoping will take me right up to nearly potty trained for Lukas. Yes, I know he will be only 14 months old, but I have a plan. Plus, and this may freak some of you out, 6 month old Lukas has been going potty on the little potty once a day for over a month now. I take him after he wakes up in the morning. I am in no way planning on potty training him until he can walk and has turned at least one year old, but I figure that by taking him once a day he will be that much more comfortable with it when it comes time. No pressure on him though, if he isn't potty trained until he is two like his older brother, I think I can handle that:)

Teething Baby

Yep, this is what my teething baby looks like. Have I mentioned what an easy baby Lukas is? My niece, Alexandra, discovered that he had a razor sharp tooth poking through his bottom gum on Thursday. He hadn't been cranky in the slightest so I had no idea he was teething. Upon further investigation I found another tooth just under the gum coming through.
This is his grumpy face on Saturday. He was a kindof grouchy all day, but I think mostly it was because he kept getting woken up by a certain two year old. We have become friends with the tylenol bottle and gum numbing medicine in hopes that he will have a restful night. Either way though, this teething phase with Lukas is already looking manageable.

Sweet Summer Days

Just some photos of Nik enjoying a sweet watermelon in his underwear. He wanted the whole thing even though it was a bit difficult to eat.

I absolutely love summer.
Having Nik able to run outside during the day and be as loud as he wants is perfect. I also love the abundance of fruit, such a great and inexpensive alternative to any other snack and Nik begs for any and all kinds. It will be sad for summer to come to a close:(