Because Normal Doesn't Apply to Me

Want to hear a confession? I am a huge klutz. Catastrophic is a better way to describe it, yes, a catastrophic klutz is what I am. And you know, I am okay with that. In fact, you may even say due to my inappropriate reactions to accidents and falls, it is fitting for me. I can see the humor in these embarrassing moments. I will laugh to myself for days, replaying what the scenes look like from the outside, in my head.
Tonight, despite moments of me thinking I just killed, or at the very least severely injured my two youngest children, was a doozey even for my standards. I should start by telling you I forced my run tonight. It is oppressively hot and humid and the weather predicted storms, so despite outwardly saying I was bummed I couldn't run, inwardly I knew I was somewhat glad. But the skies heard my inward rejoicing and didn't show any signs of raining. And it became breezy. Touche weather, touche.
Out I went. I was making good time, and was very happy I sucked up the laziness to get out, because no matter how bitter I am before the run, I am always beyond happy when I am actually out. I was a mile in, going at full speed, when my stroller must have hit a rock or something because the next thing I knew the stroller, babies in tow, went flying in the air and I was leaping trying to catch it, or brace the fall, or turn into some sort of superhero and magically appear in front of the stroller instead of behind it. I failed. Miserably. To my horror, the stroller, kids strapped in landed face down, babies face down, and I, in all my valiant effort managed to flip head over heels over the entire stroller and land on the other side. For a split second I sucked in my breath, slightly, no overwhelmingly scared to lift the stroller and see the condition of my two babies. I mean they flew, strapped in and landed on their faces! I expected blood, lots of blood, gashes, broken somethings, ambulances, hospitals. But I lifted it, and found instead two terrified, shocked babies. Keira with a scraped up nose, upper lip and cheek, and a slightly skinned knee. Brody with a scraped chin and a tiny scrape on his eye.
It was then I noticed the young guy in the truck who was by my side, asking if we were okay, who he could call, what he could do, picking up water bottles and batman toys and sippy cups. I assured him we were okay, just a bit shaken up. Despite my words, he stayed, waited until we were all pulled back together, until the crying had stopped. His momma raised him right.
All in all, it was a close call. My shins are badly, badly bruised. A mountainous lump resides on each shin, black in color and one of which has a nasty gash. My hip bones are scraped up and bruised, I am pretty sure I pulled my lefts back muscles, and my right forearm is bruised a bit.
I walked for a bit after that, another half mile or so until I got up the courage to run the remaining two miles. I kept asking the kids if they were okay, to which Brody would respond, "We go boom, mommy?" To which I sighed and said "yes, we did, but I promise I will try to never let that happen again."
Just another day, right? Now for tylenol and some ice.

Summer in Full Bloom

Are you bored of seeing beach and pool photos yet? Well here's a whole crap load more.

Hearing Update

I have delayed writing this post to give some time to the issue. I guess I thought maybe I'd be more informed before I wrote about it, but it seems answers are always hard to come by, and more tests are required to even start the answer process, so this post is what it is. Y'all can wonder and wait along with me. How does that sound?
As most of you know we have been dealing with ear issues for a while now (see here or here for a glimpse.) Although we seemed to make headway at his last audiology appointment, in my hear I know the results were not accurate because Brody easily predicted the pattern in which the woman played the sounds (she never switched up the pattern in which she played the sounds, she instead just alternated one ear to the next, and Brody was predicting the pattern rather than hearing the noises.) I was so frustrated with the testing that day, and Brody had simply had enough of it, so I didn't push the matter, and I should have. My fault.
Now here we are, and there has been a new development. Brody can not hear whispers. This realization began when we were working with Jenn, Brody's Early Intervention worker and were addressing his extra loud speaking voice. Brody has two volumes, loud and screaming. We started to question if it was because he could not hear himself. This prompted the "inside voice" talk, and whispering to show him the difference in volumes. Low and behold, the boy couldn't hear a whisper. He just kind of stared and then tried to change the subject and divert our attention because he was uncomfortable. Since that time two weeks ago, I have worked tirelessly, whispering at different volumes, trying to get him to hear me. Every now and then he pick up a word or two, but mostly I got a big fat nothing for a reaction. Jenn spoke with Brody's speech therapist, Carla, and she is in full agreement that he is probably just not hearing and needs to be reevaluated.
To top this off he has recently been complaining about his ears again, so we're sure the negative pressure is building yet again.
My poor Brody boy.
I have put a call in to his pediatrician and am waiting to find out what course we will take next.
I just thought I'd put it all down here so y'all are up to date.
Let summer vacation officially begin!

Father's Day Cookout

Hello! I hope everyone had a great weekend and got to honor the special Dads in their lives. We spent the day Saturday at Nathan's family's house, splashing around in the pool, eating delicious food, and roasting marshmallows by the fire. It was the definition of a perfect day.

my coppertone baby in pigtails for the first time!

Daddy's Girl

Soccer time

Ice cream!

Keira and her Honey/Godfather

The "babies" are loving this.

marshmallows and a glowing fire

Some arm wrestling fun

Riding on her Daddy's shoulders

Keira developed a new bond with her Uncle Adam.

The kids and I prepared a candle lit Father's Day Dinner on Sunday night.


And a special Happy Father's Day wish to my own dad. I miss you always, and love you very much.

Here We Go Agin

A stomach bug has hit this household hard this week. Thankfully only three of us ( so far) are suffering. It has done wonders for my body confidence though, because my 2 lb/week weight loss goal was met only 3 days into the week. heck, at this rate, why not shoot for 4 lbs!
We are beginning to get into a rhythm for summer vacation, despite having lots of appointments and things scheduled the past few weeks. Brody got his staples out yesterday, and didn't even flinch. In fact I don't think he even realized they were being taken out. He is my tough little guy!
Keira is repeating EVERYTHING now. It seems like her vocabulary has tripled in the past week or so. Nate has been extremely active, and is missing school, and his classmates. He is keeping me o my toes trying to come up with creative things to keep him occupied.
On another note, although I briefly stopped running daily, to give the every other day run a try, I am back to every day again, because well to be honest, I need the stress relief at the end of the day. I am running 4 miles pretty much every night, and it feels great.
We have met a family that lives down the street from us, and Brody looks forward to seeing his new friend (who is also two.)
Ty has two more days of school left, and I am happy to report that he got an A+ on his Dustin Pedroia/biography report project. We're so proud of you Ty!
Not much other than that going on right now. Sometimes no news is the best news, right?

Rainy Day Fun

This weekend was different. Friday I was down to just my two youngest babies. Ty went to the Red Sox game and and Nate and Nathan went to New Hampshire. I took advantage and went for an extra long run and made it a very early night.
I picked up Ty mid morning and we headed to my mom's house for dinner and some fun.

Sweep The Leg!

How smart of Brody to know that one of my favorite all time movies is The Karate Kid. And what a way to pay homage to that movie, and celebrate the opening of the new Karate Kid remake today, then by channeling his inner Johnny Lawrence. Not to go completely off subject here, but have you ever noticed that the bleach blond haired kid is always the bad one in the kids movies? The Karate Kid, Johnny Lawrence. Harry Potter, Drako Malfoy. Rocky IV, Ivan Drago. I'm sure I could think of more, but those are the ones popping in my head right now.
Okay, back on point, so in all seriousness, poor Brody boy took an awkward spill and landed against a screw. No we do not have random screws sticking out of walls, we removed our gate at the bottom of the stairs to repair it, and there is a screw that is not quite flush with the wall, well Brody managed to fall right back onto it, and it went in his head. Because it was a rainy day, and I decided to fill it with chores, I was smack in the middle of folding clothes, and was treating myself to a facial mask while doing so when I heard Nate and Ty scream Brody's bleeding, and then heard the cries of poor Brodster. Brody's crying of course got Keira crying, and one glance I knew we were hospital bound, so I got a face cloth, cleaned up his head so I could get a better look, told the kids to get ready, and brought the wet face cloth with me to wipe down my face as we went (because no one would have wanted to see my face white with a cleansing mask at the hospital.) I have a super power ability of remaining completely, unnaturally calm in these situations. I never knew I had this ability until these things happened, but I am grateful I do, because being a hot mess would definitely not make the kids feel calm and like everything would be okay when say, their head is gushing blood, or their arm is stuck in an old sewing machine (a story for another time), or when they just swallowed a cup of coins (again, another time.) Brody had stopped crying by the time we got to the car, and although he was still bleeding, really was acting fine. I called Nathan and he met me and picked up Nate. I had no idea how long I'd be, so I kept Ty with me to help with Keira (who was clinging to me because even though every one else was okay, she was freaked out by everything.) We got to the hospital, and they put a gauze pad with stuff to numb up his head, and almost two hours later, we finally saw a doctor, who said two staples should just about do it. I bribed Brody by telling him if he laid down on his belly so they could fix his boo boo, Daddy would get him cookies and he could watch Diego when we got home. So Ty held one of his hands, I held the other, while holding Keira, and somehow managed to crouch to look him in the eye (because actually seeing staples going in my son's head is something that I would definitely not be able to handle. My superpowers don't reach that far. A quick snap snap, and we were done. No more tears, only where's my cookie? Brody got bandaged up and off we went. Just another Thursday evening. And our little Karate Master is one heck of a trooper!
Oh, I didn't explain. Nathan and I think Brody resembles Johnny Lawrence, the bad kid from the original Karate Kid movie. We have taught Brody to do great karate chop moves and we say "Sweep the leg!" to him about every half hour, which he thinks is hilarious. The poor boy will not remember his first bad injury, just that he became a karate kid for a random week.

Another Day at the Beach, Ty's Big Speech, and the Park!

(What am I not cramming enough into one post for you??? *wink, wink*)First and Foremost, Ty's big speech. The third grade did biography reports and Ty chose his idol, Dustin Pedroia. Ty did an amazing job. I apologize for the shakiness of the camera, as I was juggling Keira and Brody (who had pooped and was threatening to stick his hand in it.)

Here are some photos from Biography DayWe also took an impromptu beach trip this week, and had a lot of park fun... here are a few of my favorite shots, followed by a slideshow of them all, ENJOY!