Much Needed UPDATE!

I just found out that my cute little grandma is reading my blog!  This is new motivation for me to keep it updated and up and running!  So much has happened since my last post and I PROMISE I will work hard to give some much needed TLC to our blog. 

Here is a small little update of some major stuff that happened recently in the Harrop Household:

Stryder turned one!  Don't worry, I have many pics of his birthday, but want to wait to post until after his little party next week.  We made him a racetrack cake and he loved every bit of it!  He is finally walking and talking--much to my happiness--his only word to date is "mama."  (He calls everyone 'mama' though.)

Keith also turned....older.  We did some fun things to celebrate his birthday, like see REO Speedwagon, Styx, and .38 Special in concert.  Happy Birthday to my two favorite boys!

We took a weekend trip to Minneapolis recently.  Keith had never been to Mall of America, which was vast and huge and overwhelming.  Stryder loved the aquarium and Lego Land.  Keith loved the Harley Davidson store.  I loved the tai food we had!  (So did baby brother..........he kicked my guts out when I was eating.)

Baby brother is growing and becoming quite the little kicker.  Our last ultrasound measured his femur length 2 weeks longer than normal.  I hope he doesn't have gigantism.  I am huge already at 23 weeks, but have one pair of normal jeans that I can still wear with the zipper undone.  It makes me feel somewhat normal :-) 

We had a great Easter.  The weather was lovely and we all color-coordinated our outfits, like some stereotypical Mormon family.  Stryder actually got one of those huge Easter baskets that are way overpriced, but it came with a MONSTER TRUCK that he loves.  But, the edible Easter grass (which I thought was the best idea ever)---NOT so good! 

"My mama is really busy chasing me around all day, but when she gets time I promise I'll make her update this blog with lots of pictures of me!"

Gender Bender

YES, that's right.  It's a BOY!  We knew pretty early on that it was a boy, but decided to wait until our 20 week ultrasound to announce it.  I am very very happy to welcome another little boy into our family so soon.  I have a lot to be grateful for.  After I found out, I have become obsessed with daydreaming about my what life will be like with two little boys.  These are some of the things I'm excited for:

1. For my two boys to be so close in age (only 17 months apart!) and be best friends!
2. To dress my boys alike.....Come on, I HAVE to do this when they are young!
3. To watch them play together--trucks, trains, planes, whatever it may be!
4. To watch Keith teach them manly-boy-stuff, including but not limited to hunting, fishing, camping, etc!
5. To sew endless badges onto their scouting uniforms!
6. To teach them to always be there for each other, no matter what.
7. For them to show me frogs they catch and bring home.
8. To scrub the dirt off them after they catch these frogs!
9. To be a soccer mom, swimming mom, little league mom, football mom, whatever the sport may be!
10. To teach them how to ride their bikes and kiss their scraped knees "all better"!

 

I know that Stryder will love his little brother. We ask him where the baby is and he points to my belly button :-)  Now, we have the tasks of weening him off his bottle, somehow getting him to sleep throughout the ENTIRE night, and making his binky disappear before baby bro comes....Stay tuned!  I've got my work cut out for me on this one!

"What? Are you sure?"

Those are the words uttered out of Keith's mouth when I called him up to the bathroom that exciting Sunday night in early December. BACKGROUND: I had been feeling sick lately, then everyone got mad at me because I could not get up for church.  Hmmm....Sick, tired. dizzy, nauseous.....somethings afloat!  I thought I had chronic fatigue or something.  I even took a prenancy test a few days earlier and it was negative.  Keith raced upstairs, no doubt hearing the high pitch tone of my voice, which is when I handed him this:

So, as you can see.....there are TWO lines.  One is quite faint, but there are definitley two lines.  Thus, just to make sure we were not getting our hopes up, Keith dashed to Wal-greens to pick up a fool proof test (I'm in that statistic of "1 out of 4 women that can misread a traditional pregnancy test.")

I drank about a gallon of water and this appeared.....clear as day:

No mistaking it this time! 

Three tests later, I was convinced that indeed, I was pregnant!  YAY!  Baby Harrop #2 is expected on August 14th, 2010.  I love summer birthdays :-)

Our Happy Stryder

I was talking to my sister-in-law, Stacy, and she told me what her girls call Stryder...."our happy Stryder." I thought it was so cute and endearing that they could see what a happy little boy he is while we were out there for Thanksgiving. It also occured to me that I have totally been neglecting one of my duties as his mom....taking lots of pictures and posting them on our blog. Indeed there is a lot to update when it comes to
Stryders' latest mannerisms and milestones, so I'll do my best to highlight the ones that are especially great.

Stryder is now a pro at standing and walking....sort of! He will actually stand on his own, bend down and gracefully sit on his bum to avoid taking a step. I know "mama didn't raise no chicken" so I have no clue why he would rather sit and crawl then try to walk! Although a few weeks ago he did take his first step, albeit then sat down on his bum and started crawling to his destination. Since then he has successfully continued standing alone and mastered the art of walking with only one hand barely touching whatever furniture or person is nearby. This video is actually from a while back...but its the first time Stryder walked with his walker. He is so proud of himself, like he knows he did something really cool. Ha ha.

Stryder is also obsessed with the vaccuum. Not watching it being used, but actually playing with it. He LOVES to climb on it, walk around it, and touch it. It is really the strangest thing! The best entertainment I have found is to bring the vaccuum into his play area and let his have his fun. I am keeping my hopes up that he will never give up his fondness of the vaccuum and even learn how to use it someday! (He will have a happy wife in that case :-)

He also loves baths! He gets super excited when the water starts running, he will crawl to the side of the tub and jump up and down, hardly containing his joy. He loves bubbles, bath toys, and splashing in the water.

Stryder has learned to go up and down stairs. He has been going up them for quite a while now, but what goes up must come down....and now he has finally mastered that part too! We all worked with him, teaching him to turn around before he goes down the stairs, and after continual teaching, he finally got it. He is also soooo proud of himself when he does this. He really looks at us all and expects us to clap for him. Ha ha, it is the cutest thing!

 

He loves his Johnny Jump Up. I had some stuff to clean the other day and there is no way I let him out of my sight even for a split second, since he does eat the potting soil and who knows what else. So I put him in his Jump Up and he jumped and jumped and jumped. He also likes his little flying saucer...it doesn't really fly.....though sometimes you'd think he was trying to make it! (Although he doesn't look particularly happy in this picture, I promise he is :-)

Stryder laughs at nearly everything. He loves games and when mommy and daddy play with him. But it is not only fun and games that make him giggle. I can look at him, and he will laugh. Give him food....he laughs. Put him to bed....yup, he laughs. Give him a bath...you guessed it, he laughs. It is so funny! Here is a video of him laughing while playing a game he made up:

Of course, no little boy can be happy ALL the time. There is one thing that makes Stryder's temper show: eating peas. He hates them and that is not exaggeration! I guess it's a good thing we are almost done with the baby food....I wouldn't like peas if they were mashed up to mush either!

Stryder, Mommy and Daddy love you!  You are the joy in our lives! 

Congratulations, Graduates!

I just want to say how proud I am of my sister and my mom.  They have both recently graduated nursing school and passed their NCLEX, which means they are both Registered Nurses.  Hooray!!  Anyone who has been through nursing school and taking the boards knows how completely stressful all of it is.  So congratulations Mom and Jenessa!  I love you both and know how hard you worked on this accomplishment.  You should be so proud of yourselves! 

Life Lately

I am totally guilty of blog-neglect lately. Our life is so busy, so I thought, why not write a little up-date post on the things that keep me going and going and going and going.....

1. Rounding off the top of my list is......Keith's crazy clinical schedule. (See post directly below this one for further explanation.) We have had to learn to be flexible (that is really not even the right word to describe it!), to expect that he will be on-call when we make plans, and that his pager is REALLY loud!

2. Next up.....A trip to Dominica?! Yes, Keith is going to Dominica in two weeks to give a few presentations about the Falcon review course he took.  It is a great opportunity for him to gain valuable presentation experience and to network :-) Falcon is paying for everything, food, fun, plane tix, hotel, ect, ect. You may wonder, 'Lesley, don't you feel left out that you don't get to go?' Ahh....I could have gone, all expenses paid, even. But, when we thought about taking Stryder with us....ummm too many nightmares to handle. There are other issues with me going on the trip.... which brings me to my next item:

3. School. Not Keith's school this time. Mine. I am going to Kent State University completing my Bachelor's Degree in Nursing. It is a great program, but it keeps me so busy. I have more homework than ever and I fear getting behind and having to play catch up. Not a fun game! So I am constantly reading textbooks, doing research, and studying in an effort to succeed. I am also taking Organic Chemistry online through UC Berkeley. I am convinced this class will be the end of me....if I ever make it through. But to my surprise I got a 94 on my assignment about Markovnikov's Rule and how alkenes react with other molecules.

4. I got a new job! I was offered a fill-in position in the school district here working as a school nurse serving grades K-12. It is part-time and will most likely last for a few months. Yes, I am still working per diem as a health coach/educator for corporate companies. I worked a couple events last week.  Now Keith introduces me as "the breadwinner." Ha ha.

5. My son. I'm beginning to wonder how early the doc's can diagnose ADD. He doesn't ever sit still. He is hyperactive. I chase him around the house all day. He insists on playing in toilet water and eating potted plants. Baby Einstein doesn't even keep his interest. AND he is the joy of my life! I love seeing him each morning, as he greets me with a big smile, jumping up and down in his crib. I am glad to have such an active (or hyperactive) little boy that wants to explore everything life has to offer!

6. Ah....Church keeps me busy, but I'm not one to blog much about calllings, other than I really love planning and giving sharing times, teaching the gospel to children, and serving in the Primary :-)

7. Last, but not least, my few hobbies. Hmm. Hobbies...does watching Glenn Beck everyday count? It's kind of a daily thing that my dad and I watch Glenn's show on Fox News. I will refrain from posting anything political in nature, but I will say that I do have in interest in following politics and keeping current on issues that we face as Americans today. Glenn Beck can decipher and explain things in a common sense, no-nonsense kind of way. (He is also the #2 most favorite tv personality.) Other hobbies....taking hot baths. Very nice. Oh so relaxing.  And that is about all I can squeeze into my life at the moment!

So, when I have some free time, I will try to keep up our blog.  (Try, being the operative word!) 

Keith's Rotations

I wanted to give an update about Keith's rotations thus far. He started his med school rotations at the excellent program here in Janesville, WI about 3 weeks ago. So Far, So Good! His first rotation is OB. He has already assisted in a few live births and C-sections....which I NEVER want, BTW! (Did you know they actually take the entire uterus out of the womans' body during a C-section, ummm....way too invasive for me-I like my uterus right where it is, Thank you very much!)

He is learning things so fast and is very excited being a med student. He works with the Resident Doctors and the Attending Physicians. I see his determination and vigor as he gets up everyday at 5:30am and arrives home sometime after 6:00pm (usually). His schedule is variable at best and quite unpredictable. He is on-call about once every 5 days or so. This means he spends a 24 hour shift at the hospital. He gets paged whenever there is a new admit, something wrong with a patient, or any other matter that only a doctor must handle. Each rotation is about 6 weeks in length, so the next rotation he is scheduled for is Internal Medicine!

Below is a picture of his first day of OB rotation: (you'd think it was the first day of school!)

I wanted this post to be about my husband....but I do wish to say a bit about being the wife of a very busy husband. It has been quite challenging for me to not know when Keith will be home at night, for him to be gone for over 24 hours at a time, and to become adjusted to being a stay at home mommy. I have alot of help and support from my parents and from my husband....So THANK YOU very much for all the help you give me. It was also great to have my siblings here over the holidays, as they entertained my over-active son for much of the day, when I needed a "mommy break."

I know that this situation is only temporary, with Keith being a med student, but I have to realize the fact that it could be the exact same when he is in residency and becomes a doctor. The crazy hours. The unpredictable schedule. Ect. Ect. I guess I am going through the process of accepting that fact at the moment. I have to admit it is hard to swallow at times. But, I then I think of how happy I am that Keith is doing something that he loves and is helping the greater good of this world, not to mention being able to provide a good and responsible living for his family.....all are things I appreciate very much.