APPLE PICKING!!

Fall is here!!  And with Fall comes one of my favorite Fall activities...Apple Picking!!

I LOVE it!!  We went to County Line Orchard again and we had so much fun.

The boys did their fair share of apple picking,

 

Owen learned the proper apple orchard etiquette...
Pick an apple, rub it on your pants to clean it off, taste it to see if you like it.

 
Joe must have only heard the tail end of the instructions the tractor driver gave us
(throw the apples you don't like)
because that's what he was having the most fun doing.

Owen also found something else to pick.  Lately he's been doing the sweetest thing.
Whenever we are on a walk and he spots a flower in the grass he walks over, picks it, then walks over to me with the sweetest smile and says "Here you go Mom."  It is so cute!
Here he is showing off the beautiful flowers he picked me in the orchard.

 After we had picked a full bag of apples, and a few flowers, we went to the Kids Farm.
The boys spent a few minutes looking at the animals,

But the real excitement was the tractors.  They are Joe's favorite!

We had Owen guide us through a mini corn maze,

And the boys watched Peter the Pumpkin Eating Dinosaur in total amazement.

We had such a great morning at the apple orchard and we're already looking forward to
our next fun Fall activity....the pumpkin patch!!

Oak Park Conservatory

Joe and I had some time before we needed to pick Owen up from school so I decided to

take him to the Oak Park Conservatory.  I had actually never been there before, even with

Owen, so this was a first for both of us.  I was pleasantly surprised.  It's not all that big,

but it was perfect for Joe.  He explored the various gardens, 

visited the fish and the talking parrot, 

 and played in the new Discovery Garden.

To be honest, I think his favorite part of the whole visit was breaking through the plastic barriers that separated each room.  It was like one big game of peek a boo.

 What a great way to keep ourselves busy while Owen was at school.

My Little Munchkin

It's been lots of fun going to Munchkins class with Joe these past few weeks.  I always see

him around his big brother, so it's interesting to see him interact with others when he's on his

own.  Surprisingly he's very independent.  I'm used to the Joe that clings to my legs and

gets so sad when I walk out of the room.  But when he is in his class, he's perfectly happy

keeping himself entertained without me by his side...and that makes me really happy.

Don't get me wrong, I love how affectionate he is, but I also think it is so important

for my kids to be independent and I love that I'm seeing that side of him.

Occasionally he will play with some of the other kids in the class, but typically they all keep
to their own activities.  It's more about parallel play and exploring at this age then playing in
a group.  It's actually probably a good thing because Joe has become very defensive having
an older brother around all the time.  He knows what is his and you better be careful if you
try to take it from him.  He's not afraid to stick up for himself.  Again, a good thing to some
extent because I want my kids to defend themselves, but we're working on the delivery.  ;)

I'm very happy I decided to do this class with him and I look forward to watching him
grow and explore a bunch of new things over the next year.

Abnormal

Dr. Bonner called me today with the results from the D&C and the chromosomes are

abnormal.  Surprisingly this is what we were hoping for, so ultimately it's a good thing to be

abnormal.  It explains why the miscarriage happened.  Something wasn't right with the

baby's chromosomes.  If the chromosomes had come back normal, they would have no idea

why the miscarriage occurred.  They would do tests to try to find an answer but she said

they normally never find anything anyway and it becomes more frustrating.  

The only negative with the abnormal result is it has been three miscarriages in a row now.

With no other reason to explain them, that is simply a lot of bad eggs.  There's no

guaranteeing whether the next egg will be good or bad.  I might get pregnant and everything

will go fine.  Or there's a chance it will end in another miscarriage.  It really comes down to

how much I can take emotionally.  But at this point, I'm not ready to give up.  I truly believe

that things will happen when they are supposed to, but I'm really hoping that's soon

because this has not been easy.

I tried to be so strong and convince myself that things were alright after the last one.  I told

myself that things happen for a reason and it would happen when the time was right.  I let

people know I was OK and I was moving on.  But what's weird is as much as my head was

telling me to be strong, my heart was falling apart without me realizing it.  I'd have emotional

days here and there, but then they got a little more frequent.  I had tried so hard to suppress

my feelings and tell myself I was OK, but there's no way to make those feelings go away.  

We've been trying for 9 months to get pregnant.  I've been pregnant 3 times, miscarried 3

times, had an unsuccessful D&C followed up by another one a week later, and I've been

waiting 3 weeks since then to find out exactly what is going on with my body and what the

future holds for expanding our family.  I don't care how strong you are or how much your

head tells you to be OK, that is a lot for anyone to take.

But for today I'm hopeful.  Hopeful that things go better the next time

and we are able to add a third healthy baby to our family.

Our First Visit to the ER

We made it over 3.5 years, but our serious accident free streak has now come to an end.

Based on how fearless and energetic Owen is, I'm actually surprised we lasted this long.

Last night after Ryan came home from work, the two of them were playing.  Owen went to

jump from the ottoman to the couch and throw a pillow at Ryan when the ottoman slipped

out from under him.  He fell head first into the wooden base of the couch.

He started crying and Ryan picked him up right away and held him.  He didn't think anything

of it until he pulled Owen away and saw the blood rushing down his face.  I was in the

kitchen and walked in to see what was going on right at that moment.  Ryan ran into the

kitchen and we grabbed a kitchen towel and put it on his forehead.

I am proud to say that we both remained relatively calm.

After a few seconds I took the towel away to see what we were dealing with.  It was a huge,

deep gash straight across his forehead about 1.5" long.  I knew we needed to go to the ER

to have them take care of it.  We quickly grabbed our stuff and ran out the door.  I sat in the

back of the car and held the towel on Owen's head.  He was actually very calm.

We drove to Loyola since I knew they always had a pediatrician in their ER and it was closer

than driving all the way to Lurie's.  We walked into a packed ER.  I asked the lady

checking us in if it was going to be awhile and if we were better off going somewhere else.

She assured us it wouldn't be long and that typically they try to get kids in pretty fast.

She was right.  They took us back to triage to do the initial assessment on Owen within

minutes.  We went back out and waited in the waiting room for maybe 20 minutes more

before they brought Owen back to a room.  The pediatric resident came to look at his wound

and the doctor followed shortly after.  They let us know the typical protocol these days is to

use glue rather than stitches.  It is less traumatic on everyone.  As long as they can

approximate the wound together, which they could, gluing was the way to go.  I was

relieved.  I was dreading the whole process of stitches.  Owen made it easy on us all

though.  He was such a trooper.

The only time he got upset was when the doctor was gluing the wound shut.  He was quiet

the whole time the doctor cleaned it out.  Then the doctor had him lay down so he could

glue it.  It was actually kind of funny because in a quiet, somewhat silly voice, Owen would

say, "Ow.  Ow.  That hurts me."  I think the calmness in which he said it was what made it

funny.  So matter of fact.  It was near the end of the gluing when he got a little upset.  I don't

know if the glue stung a little or if the doctor pinched it a little too much, but nonetheless,

one or two tears were shed.  But he calmed down within seconds and it was all done.

The cut was glued shut and Owen was as good as new.  Pretty amazing if you ask me.  I'm

a little nervous about the possibility of there being a large scar, but only time will tell.  In the

meantime we're so proud of our brave little boy and just as happy with how cooperative Joe

was through the whole ER visit.  It made our first visit a breeze.

He has to take it easy for a few days so he doesn't risk reopening the wound,

but I'm sure Owen and Daddy will be back to rough housing in no time.  

With a little less couch jumping from now on.  ;)