Arlo's Surgery

On May 25th Arlo had his tonsils and adenoids removed and tubes put in both of his ears. I have been meaning to post about this since the surgery...but boy does time fly!

All in all he did as I expected... and it was intense. Coming out of the anesthesia was rough, though the time we were in the hospital was a bit sweet. He watched a lot of TV and I sat right next to him knitting. He loved having me right there with him and I liked it too. It was actually a bit relaxing.


For the first day he couldn't eat any solid foods, so by the next morning when he was able to order from the menu he went crazy! He ate little bites of each thing he ordered...but most of it went uneaten in the end.


The following two weeks at home were very hard. He had a bad reaction to the first pain medication he was on. We ended up in the ER one night after he woke screaming as if he was being killed. I ran into his room to find him with blood spraying from his mouth. It was horrible. After 5 hours in the ER, we returned home with a new medication and things went a bit smoother. Now, nearly 6 weeks later, he sleeps all night, the snoring is gone and he is generally in a much better mood!!

Busy as Bees

Spring has sprung here at the homestead and we are quickly seeing summer peek its head out too! We have been so busy running around digging in the dirt and collecting eggs, tending our bees (yes, we have bees now...2 colonies!), mowing grasses.....the outdoor season is well underway.Finding the time to keep up with everything is such a challenge, so tonight I tried a new tactic....mowing the lawns after the boys were asleep with the mower head lights on! It was fun mowing in the dark! The boys could hear the mower through their open windows though and Sam wasn't asleep until 10 pm when I laid with him for a bit...erg. Maybe mowing at night isn't such a good idea....At any rate, we have a garden planted (mostly planted anyway) and we are sharing our large garden space with the son of an organic apple grower that Matt works with. He is an MSU student named Zach, and so far it has been a great arrangement!


We welcomed our newest "livestock" to the farm a few weeks ago...the bees. We have some dear friends that have been tending bees for years and Matt has been dying to learn. David has been a wealth of knowledge and I am enjoying learning from behind the camera!
Matt has been doing all of the "keeping" and my help will come into play when we harvest the honey in the fall. The boys are very excited about the bees and Sam keeps asking for a "small bee suit" so he can help, despite his experience with bees in the past.

Ten years ago Matt and I would sit and talk about our eventual place, our farm....bees were always on the list of "animals" we wanted to have. I am really enjoying being where we are right now...the place we've been trying to get for so long!
More to come soon with stories of Sam's 6th Birthday, Otis walking everywhere and Arlo's impending surgery!

Sam turns Six

Once again I find myself writing about one of my children growing and changing and becoming a year older. It really is amazing how fast time flies by...and today we celebrated Sam's sixth birthday.

He invited six of his best friends, their siblings and families. We ended up having a nice group of people and some great laughs. One of our chickens escaped just as everyone was arriving and most of our guests came to see me running after a chicken through the field in a dress and muck boots! I am sure it was quite a strange sight to see.
Sam requested a "guitar cake". I have never been the mom to make the entire birthday a theme and certainly not a mom to make shapes out of cake, but I did it this time for my sweet first born and he was pretty happy with it. I don't think I'll ever do it again...although Arlo proceeded to ask for a guitar cake at his next birthday. Between Sam's birthday at school, Arlo's last day of school before surgery and extra for the party...I made over 100 cupcakes this week! I'll probaly never do that again either...until next year.
Arlo had a great time and it was a good thing he was able to try to get all his "crazies" out before his surgery. He can be such a fruit cake...in a sweet way, of course.Still big into dress up, Sam had a great time with this armor set, sword and helmet included. He and his friend ran around in the orchard killing dragons until it was dark.Otis had a really great time toddling around and getting into everything. Now that he is walking his body beginning to change so much. I just had to take a photo of his ankle fat resting on top of his converse sneakers (which both Sam and Arlo wore as their first walking shoes). I never want to forget that!
And here's my big boy; so sweet and freckled. Intelligent. Thoughtful. Sincere. Compassionate.

Five years

After spending some time tonight reading a friend's archived blog posts, I was curious to revisit some of my first posts.

I stumbled across this post written nearly 5 years ago...all about Sam nursing and co-sleeping and how someday he won't be in my bed any more....

This morning I woke with not only Sam in my bed, but Arlo too and let me tell you that even in a king size bed, it was a tight fit!

Ah, I do know that really someday I won't have kids in my bed and I will miss. To be honest, I still enjoy a good early morning cuddle!

The Perfect Saturday

:: Sam and Arlo participated in a pie eating contest at the grand opening of our new local city market.

:: We snuck Arlo into the contest because the age limit was 5 - 7 years and there weren't many kids participating. He thought it was great; had to kneel on a chair to reach the table; ate two bites and then said, "IIIII'm doooone! My face needs to be wiped!"

:: Sam made it through half of the chocolate cream pie and said, "My tummy hurts. I can't eat anymore." I was so proud of him. He stopped eating because he was "listening to his body"...a term we use a lot around here (associated with potty training).

:: Sam and Arlo went to see musical production at Lansing Comminity College with a dear friend, Molly and Megan. It is a swing music based performance done by a theater class that Molly took when she was in school.

:: We are alone with Otis for an evening. Weird.

:: With the boys gone, Otis took his first bath alone. This is a very big deal for a third baby. He was so excited about the space in the tub that he spent the first 10 minutes crawling and rolling around and from end to end, while giggling uncontrollably. It was the cutest thing I have seen since the pie eating contest.

:: At the end of the bath he was very curious about the drain stopper. Once all the bath water had drained; he kept pulling it out and trying to put it back in. It didn't take too many tries before he steadied his hand on his leg and slowly lowered the "post" end into the correct hole in the drain. I was incredibly impressed that he figured out how to do that on his own. The "problem" really required some steady hands and clever thinking! I have a genius child (ok, I'm a little biased).

:: I rocked Otis to sleep by the light of the evening. He made adorable little cooing sounds...probably some of his last. Everyday there are more signs of his growth. This is such a bittersweet age.

:: Our bees arrived and we are officially bee keepers! We have two hives; two colonies! I will have photos to share very soon...

Simply Spiritual

We are in California visiting family this week and part of next. We just spent two days in Santa Cruz in a house that Matt's mom and dad rented. It was right across the street from the ocean (I'll have photos later). This morning the boys woke at 6:30 a.m. and I was able to watch the sunrise over the Pacific. It was amazing. The water crashing over the rocks...I never want to forget it.

Otis' Birthday Toy