Birthday and Family Fun!

 Grammas are the best story readers!

"Only YOU can prevent forest fires!"

Pop Pop is hoping for a budding golf player. Jacob's not so sure yet :-)

A handful of happiness!

The birthday cake! (No, I didn't make that!)

Micah and his friend Jonathan playing Spider-Man toss at his party.

Daddy delivering the cake...

And Micah enjoying it!

Micah opening gifts.

Quick pics with mom..

Woo hoo! Spider-Man Mega Bloks.

We are having a great visit with Grammy and Pop Pop Noden! We decided to celebrate Micah's birthday a little early so they could be here with us so we had the party last weekend. We survived six little boys running around the house (really, they were all good kids) and I think Micah enjoyed the whole thing. We played spider-related games, had some cake and ice cream and opened presents. Since mom and dad can't get back to the coast due to Hurricane Sandy, we are enjoying a few more days together! Hopefully I will be able to get some more grandparent photos tonight. They are supposed to fly out tomorrow but we still don't know if that's possible yet. We've had a low-key visit, but it's been really nice just hanging out around the town and watching the boys get spoiled :-) The only downside is that since Jacob and Micah are sharing a room, there hasn't been too much sleeping going on. In fact, almost every night around 3 a.m. a certain squirmy little person ends up snuggled next to mom and dad in the bed. Is he ever going to have a tough time when he learns he has to sleep in his own bed again! For now, we are making the best of it...and drinking a little extra coffee in the mornings. Tomorrow is Halloween, and I will be posting  photos of Spider-Man and his trusty sidekick, Giraffe, soon. We plan to take the boys over to a trunk-or-treat costume party at church. There are a million places hosting event since there really isn't door-to-door trick-or-treating anymore, so there are plenty of things to choose from. We are thinking of and praying for all of our friends and relatives who have had a visit from Sandy and hoping that everyone is safe and well.

Calling Santa...

Since Micah's birthday and Christmas are right around the corner, I asked Micah what he would like for a present. He was more concerned with how we were going to contact Santa.

Jacob loves to groove to the tunes. You can see him get down to a rousing rendition of "The Wheels on the Bus".

Not much new to say this week. Micah was very excited to receive a package from Papa Roger in the mail yesterday. He knew what it would be. When we Skyped last weekend, Papa was enjoying a chocolate bar. He tried to hand some over to Micah, but unfortunately, Skype doesn't work that way. So he agreed to send it through the mail. It was good, Papa!  Jacob is over his tonsillitis--yea!-- and has replaced that with a runny nose--blah. We are all looking forward to a visit from Grammy and Pop Pop Noden this week! Hopefully we can all stay healthy for that. I sent out the invitations for Micah's birthday party in two weeks, so I can't turn back! Hope I have the patience to deal with five little boys for a couple of hours! If not, I'll just feed them more cake ;-)

Getting Better

Jacob on Motrin!

Jacob is VERY sure he will be eating that cracker, yeah, yeah yeah.

Well, we're going on day 3 of up every hour or so at night. The doctor says it's viral tonsillitis so we just have to wait it out. It is fall break at Dan's school so he is able to stay home with him without having to cancel class, which is a big help. Jacob seems to be doing better. Last night, although he woke up quite a bit, it was not as hard because he was easier to get back to sleep, less agitated. We gave him Benedryl as the doctor suggested, so that helped him rest and I think he may not be having as much pain since he seemed to be drooling less and crying less at night. Motrin really hypes him up! In the first video you can see him playing a little peek-a-boo with Dan last night. On the Motrin he gets the best pain relief and even started eating crackers yesterday and this morning. This is an improvement over mostly just yogurt and bananas he's been eating the last couple of days. I'm hoping that we've turned the corner.

Mixed Feelings and a Very (Very) Early Morning

We had a rough night with Jacob last night, probably one of the hardest since he's passed infancy. His longest stretch of sleep was 1.5 hrs. This is after Tylenol and teething tablets, which brought about that one, blessed stretch and which is why I am still functioning this morning. And he only wanted mama, didn't want daddy to hold him at all. He just wanted to lay his head right up under my chin, hand cradling my throat where the vibrations of humming soothed his aches and pains. The other hand was stuffed in his mouth, the resulting drool soaking my shirt. In these moments when I'm tired and anxious, I sometimes resent the lack of sleep. But I fight that. From the moment we take our first breath to the moment we take our last, life is full of hard things. One of the great pleasures in life is to be held tightly in loving arms. Sometimes that's physical, sometimes spiritual. But that simple act can distract us from a world of pain. They say that if adults were to experience the same pain that teething babies do, we would be popping narcotics. The nighttime is always much worse. So I keep on rocking and hugging and humming and praying. I'm thankful that he seemed much better after breakfast and getting in the car to go to school. I know people who are dealing with much worse. Last night is a blessing in comparison. I have hope that tonight will be better, but if not, mama's late night consolation service will be open for business :-)

Pumpkin Day Recovery

 He looks like a natural!

 Jacob's one request was to see this pumpkin up close

 Micah helping 'lil bro touch the pumpkin

Playing games to win prizes

Micah's surgery to have ear tubes put in and his adenoids out was successful and he is recovering well. He was so good through the whole waiting period at the hospital and the new setting (I'm sure it helped that we were just there a few weeks ago with Jacob for his ear tubes). As we were in the staging area, he colored in his coloring book and we talked to the little girl and her mom who were waiting with us. He didn't even shed a tear! Although he had a rough time coming out of the anesthesia and we had to stay at the outpatient hospital an extra hour, he did fine after some anti-nausea medication. He just kept saying he wanted to go home. We thought he'd be really tired and sleep all afternoon, but after a nap in the car on the way home, he wasn't. Instead, we have been making efforts to keep him occupied with "quieter" activities since he's supposed to limit things for the next week. He enjoyed playing with his gifts from both grandparents and some from a friend from work. He still has had some soreness in his throat although he can eat normal foods, and had a fever on and off all weekend. We sent him to school this morning after some Tylenol for the low-grade fever. I called the on-call ENT doc on Sunday just to check and he assured us that this is all normal as the site scabs over in his palate, and it should resolve in a day or two. We made it through last night without him waking, so that was a good thing. Dan plans to pick him up early today so he can have extra time to recover at home. Plus, I feel bad having him at school all day when he can't participate in recess! All in all, he's been pretty normal except for some afternoon and early morning malaise.

Every year we go to Manchester Pumpkin Day, a little small-town festival with games/prizes for the kids, a country band, pony rides and a pumpkin patch. Although it was pretty cold, we bundled up and went on Saturday for about a half hour. Micah chose our pumpkin and played a few games before we decided to head home and warm up. We finally had to turn the heat on at the house, although you can see from the pictures that things are still pretty green around here. Micah was a little subdued, but he really wanted to go. We spent the rest of the day watching movies, Skyping with the grandparents and playing around the house.

Teamwork

                                                       "Ready for the season, coach!"

                                                "We're working our muscles...feel the burn!"

                                                           "We're building team spirit..."

                                                       "We're thinking about our next moves..."

                                                                    "and carbo-loading!"

There aren't too many dull days at the Inouye household, and this week was no exception. Jacob had a little fever virus on Thursday so I stayed home with him. He bounced back and was fine by Friday. This kind of thing is not uncommon at daycare, but I'm glad it didn't hang around. As you can see, it didn't affect his appetite any! He loves Cheerios right now and saw the box sitting open on the island. It didn't take long for him to figure out that if he could just knock it with his hand, it would fall over and all that goodness would be his. I was laughing too hard to be mad, so I snapped a couple of photos and some video of him enjoying a few handfuls with abandon before I swept the rest up. Jacob now says "more" when he wants more food and does the hand sign for "help" so that makes things a little easier when we are trying to figure out what he wants.

Micah has been reading books about pumpkins this week and wanted to make something pumpkin-y so we whipped up some pumpkin/chocolate chip cookies yesterday after church. They were delicious! It is just starting to get cool here and is finally feeling like fall. This weekend is Manchester Pumpkin Days, a small festival with a large pumpkin patch. We usually go to this every year so we can pick out the pumpkins for the front porch and Micah can ride the horse, play the games, etc. Since Micah is having surgery to get tubes and removed his adenoids this Friday, I don't know if we will get to go this year, but we will wait and see. We've decided to have a birthday party with a few friends this year, for Micah. In the past, we've just done the family thing, but this year he's been talking about having a real party with friends, etc., so we decided it's time. It will be Spider-Man themed, since he is really into that now. Well, say prayers and wish us good luck on Friday! We'll post and update after everything is done. Hopefully Micah will have much better hearing.