What a Wild Weekend!

This picture sums up our Saturday mornings for the last month. This Saturday was no different, N's D-Backs team played the Cardinals. The game was wildly successful and tons of fun to watch. Because it was the last game of the season, it went very smoothly. Most balls were thrown to first base or somewhere close and most batters were able to hit the ball from a pitcher without using the tee! There has definitely been progress made this season! N's goal is always to hit the first pitch, I think he was batting .500 with that yesterday!
This game was especially fun because N had his own cheering section! Nannie, both Aunt M's, and MJ were here visiting for the weekend. We headed out early and walked ourselves, two strollers, and N with his fast moving two-wheeler to the baseball field. Just ask the adults, this was a trek! We made it and N played a great game. Here he is with a big swing!

And waiting for the next batter to advance him to second,

It seems that after each game this season we have had something to rush home for. Not this Saturday, N was free to play at the playground while us ladies rounded up two babies and all of their paraphernalia as well as N's glove, hat, and bat! He was having a great time and I didn't want to rush him. We were making our way to the play area when I look up and see him walking towards me holding his arm and crying! One look at the arm and there was no doubt that it was broken! Unfortunately since this wasn't his first broken arm, I was all too familiar with the look! He had been reaching for the next monkey bar and fell off. We all sprang into action. One of the other tee-ball moms drove N and I home to get our car. We left Nannie and the others to make their way home in an area they weren't overly familiar with, N's bike in tow. Once we got to our house, I loaded N into his seat. As with last time, this was the hardest part. Manoeuvring the seat belt around a broken arm was no easy task. He did so well on the way to the hospital. Unfortunately, it is a bit of a drive under the best of circumstances. Add a nervous Mom, crying boy, and lots of weekend traffic and it gets a little worse. But he was doing well for the first half of the trip, the second half got a bit hairy. As soon as we were in the ED, the nurses immediately assessed him and he got so calm. He rated his pain level 2 out of 10! One nurse thought it necessary to comment on his name, we get that every once in a while but not as often as I thought we would! At any rate, they moved quickly and he was in the orthopedic room in no time. Then it was time for x-rays and more doctors! The team of nurses and doctors all worked so quickly. Unlike his previous broken arm, he hadn't eaten much that morning and so we didn't have to wait 4 hours before he could have the anesthesia to set the arm. Thank goodness he turned down the oatmeal I tried to get him to eat! I was able to stay with him until he was groggy enough to start the procedure. They don't allow parents to be in the room during the reduction because even though the child is mildly sedated, he may still vocalize the pain of the process. So I waited in the waiting room and Nannie and Aunt M arrived with Sweet Baby M. After the reduction, I was able to go back with him and the doctor was just finishing applying the cast. N was so cute as he was coming around from the medication. He said hi to me every couple of minutes as he would remember I was there! He did the same with Nannie as she came in to see him. His wonderful nurse C gave him some medication to curve any nausea caused by the versed and then we were done. We were only there for 3 hours, I am sure that is some kind of record in the world of emergency department visits!
Here he is waiting for the reduction...

We took it pretty easy the rest of the evening. We enjoyed supper at home and then took our visitors on a short driving tour of Milwaukee. F showed them all of our favorite spots in the city and we stopped at Downtown Books, a spot not to be missed. The store is guaranteed to have a used copy of any book you could want. It is three solid floors of packed catacombs of books. One could easily get lost never to be discovered again. I think there would be worse ways to go than to perish lost in a book store!

Sunday morning we headed to church were N answered at least 100 times what happened to his arm. It seems many young children have met the same fate while playing on the monkey bars!  Every doctor and nurse commented, "Oh, those monkey bars will get you every time!" Which leads me to wonder why they are still included on playgrounds?!?! After church, we headed to his favorite restaurant, Texas Roadhouse! It has always been his top pick anytime we eat out! We were celebrating what would have been Grand Nan's 84th birthday! No party is complete without cake, so we headed back to our house for cake and a cuppa! It was the perfect end to a lovely visit with family, broken arm excluded!

Talk to you again soon, hopefully without any stories that include emergency rooms!

The Baptisim of Beautiful Baby B

We had an absolutely beautiful day yesterday! One of our dearest friends, and N's Godmother, recently had her first child. Baby B was born three weeks after our Miss M. They didn't know ahead of time if they were having a boy or girl, so we were left wondering if they would be delivering M's best friend or her future husband! As it is, they had M's best friend...and N's future wife! Well, I guess there is plenty of time to figure out that situation, but I can't imagine a  better family to be connected to forever! We met Baby B's momma while F was in graduate school at U of I. F knew her for a few weeks before I was able to meet her so the anticipation was building as F told me how much we had in common and how well we would get along. Finally as we were introduced, she said "Hi, I'm C, and were going to be best friends!" She was right! We have been fast friends ever since! She came to visit us in Champaign on November 21, 2004. (Most of you know what happened the next day!) She came for one last day of hanging out before Baby Flood #1 was born. We only had a few minutes of hanging out before F and I headed to the hospital that night! C was there to meet N soon after he was born. She has played a vital role in his life ever since. About 5 years ago, C introduced us to this great guy she met while playing in a softball league in Chicago. We were thrilled she had found such happiness with such a great guy (even if he is a Cub's fan!) They were married 2 years ago and had the cutest little ring bearer in their wedding! C and I had talked about how much fun it would be to have babies at the same time and to see them grow up together. By God's grace, we welcomed our little girls 3 weeks apart! Yesterday was Baby B's baptism! She was georgous in her fantastic Christening gown, even though it didn't actually make it all the way to the baptismal font! Here she is sleeping off the excitement with her proud Momma and Popa!

After the festivies we spent the afternoon visiting with C's parents and her sibilings. They are such warm and welcoming people. Just a joy to spend time with! C's 98 year old grandfather was able to join the party for a short time. It was such a joy to see him enjoying his great-grandchildren. I must admit I was a bit teary thinking about N and M missing out on their Grand Nan and Poppie, but I know that there will always be a knowledge and love for them in their lives.
During the afternoon, we enjoyed 5 babies ranging from the age of 5 months to 3 weeks. There were babies everywhere you looked. Tons of fun! We were also able to snap a few pictures of M and B together,

M looks a bit frightened and B seems unconcerned with the whole thing! They have already changed so much from their first meeting about 6 weeks ago. I thought I would include some pictures of that day and the baby dance party that followed:

While all the babies hung out inside where it was nice and cool, the older kiddos played outside with C's very gracious sister. N did some very inspirational drawings with sidewalk chalk and he practiced for his next Brewer's tailgate with a beanbag game! He has always enjoyed spending time with C and her family.
After leaving C's house, we headed into the city to Dude's loft! Dude is one of F's best friends and N's idol! He lets N do and try absolutley anything and has some really cool things to play with! N usually leaves with some new coveted item that Mom and Dad won't buy but that Dude has laying around. Yesterday it was a mandolin that he was pretty sure was a guitar! It didn't come back to Milwaukee with us, but he sure loved strumming it! N has brought home a huge skateboard that is Dude's size (he is 6'10"!) and an ant farm that mysteriously disappeared!!! It was great to see Dude and his lady friend!
We arrived home just in time for baths and bed! Both of the kiddos seemed to have enjoyed their day and it is always great to spend time with close friends!

The Family Flood Goes To The Zoo

Welcome back to our little world! After a long morning of cleaning with two very patient children, I decided something fun should happen this evening!  So, I checked the calender and we just happened to have an invitation to Kids Night at the Milwaukee County Zoo...perfect evening activity. Since we were going to be goofing off this evening, I decided we should accomplish a few more jobs before we headed west to the zoo. So we headed to Bayshore to R&H. It was good to see my former co-workers and to peek at all the pretty baubles in the cases! Then it was off to Winkies, possibly the best store in the world! It is an adorable Hallmark store upstairs and a child's paradise of toys downstairs. N actually thinks going to Winkies is a reward! It has multiple traintables to play with and any toy a little person could dream up! It was the first place he wanted to go when he had money to spend from the toothfairy for his Hoola-hoop! We also strolled up and down Silver Spring Drive for Red Wagon Days and all of it's activities. It was such a hot day but we had a great time. After a few more less exciting errands, we headed home to gear up for the zoo.

One of the newest exhibits at the zoo is the giraffe habitat. It has an elevated viewing deck so you can be on the same level as the giraffes. This evening we had a perfect view of one of the reticulated giraffes. N couldn't get up the platform quick enough to check it out closer!

The elephants were also out and ready to play! Our zoo has two female elephants. One is much smaller than the other but she is the more dominant of the two. This is the larger, more docile one. N told me that he was so sorry he didn't bring peanuts to share with the elephants, he really thought this one needed some!

 

The large cats have always been my favorite attraction at the zoo. They are so majestic and amazingly large! The exhibit is enclosed and the cats are inside most of the time. This makes for some dramatic photo opportunities. Tonight was no exception. The lion was transfixed on the jaguar across the hall. The jaguar could see the trainer that normally does the feeding and was pacing back and forth and even breaking into a run. This had the lion very worried and he didn't take his eyes off of the jaguar's cage. I always have to chuckle as we watch the lions as all of the children, including my own, refer to them as Simba and Nala. N is always disappointed that there isn't a lion that looks like Scar. This is the very concerned lion:

 

The best part of our zoo membership is being able to go and enjoy it anytime. I also feel like we don't have to see every exhibit every time to get our money's worth. So if we want to spend the entire time looking at the cats and then playing on the playground in the family farm we can. (This plan makes N and I very happy! We'll let M choose her favorite exhibit as she gets older!) Along with the playground, this giraffe interactive is N's favorite. Tonight we asked a nice lady to take our picture so we could show you all what a great time we had!

 

This was Miss M's second trip to the zoo and it is amazing how much more alert she was versus the last time we went! She is so smiley these days. I have started calling her Smiley Pie and that makes her smile even bigger! She actually had her first giggle on Wednesday night. It was a welcome occurance as she had been very fussy all day. It just shows that even a baby's worst day can end up being your best! She is adding so many new sounds to her vocabualry. Ge, eh, and ah are her new favorites! She was all bright eyed and cheery this evening!

 

We will see you again soon with some updates on N's baseball career!

Welcome to Our Fun

Welcome to The Family Flood! I thought this would be a fun way to keep our family and friends, near and far up to date on the activities of our family. We don't do much that is too exciting, but we have a great time! We are just enjoying being a family of four. And managing life with a 5 year-old and a newborn!

As most of you know, we welcomed our second child in April. Baby M was born right on her due date. We are convinced that this means she will always be prompt and that she will strive for perfection! She arrived very quickly, within 2 hours of arriving at the hospital. Dare I say that her delivery was easy! So easy in fact that I told F that surely we could have 10 more...the jury is still out on that one!

Here she is!

I am convinced that the red markings on her forehead are from Grand Nan's lipstick. I know she gave M a kiss just before she was sent from heaven!

Baby M arrived so quickly that N was able join us soon after her birth. He is so proud of his baby sister, he loves showing her off to all of his friends before running off and ignoring us completely!

This is the first picture of them together, it is one I will always treasure!

 

Our Sweet Baby Girl is growing and developing right on track! It is so much fun to have a newborn in the house again. Her coos and gurgles crack us up and even keep Brother entertained! He enjoys laying on the floor and talking to her while she is having tummy time or just hanging out on her blanket. She responds beautifully to N and all of his funny faces and voices!

I am thrilled that they are such good friends now. I'm sure that will change when she is mobile in a few months!
They truly are a joy, we are blessed!