Healthy......!!!!

As I write this I can say that both kids are healthy! YIPPY! Eric and I, on the other hand seem to have the Kcare cough?? But, there is no time for parents to be sick so we are both trying to ignore it. Kennon has been so happy since he has been feeling well since about Friday last week. The prednisone certainly did the trick of getting his lungs cleared out and we only had to use the antibiotic drops in his ears for about 7 days and that seemed to take care of the infection....NO SYSTEMIC ANTIBIOTICS THIS GO AROUND!!! We have an appointment for Kennon on Monday for Dr. Anderson to look at his ears and make sure the infection is gone. We are also going to make a 'plan of attack' for what we are going to do in the future if these ears of his keep getting infected. Dr. Anderson if really a wonderful Dr. The kids and I just got home from our monthly playgroup. I am so proud of Maddox. She is such a great kid.....so friendly with the other moms and kids and she is really a good sharer, although needs a little prompting at times. The only time she gave me a fit today was when we went to leave. She wanted to stay and play! We had a great weekend this past weekend. Both Eric and I got our long runs in for the 1/2 marathon training and we got to go to church for the first time without kids. Our Dr. friends were chaperoning the nursery so we thought we'd go ahead and leave BOTH Kennon and Maddox and NOT just Maddox. Tony is doing a series on 'Raising Amazing Kids', so it was nice to be able to pay attention instead of worrying about what object I was going to try to entertain Kennon with in the service. Then Sunday we got up early, packed the kids up and headed down to Muscatine. Our church is opening a new 'branch' in Muscatine and we volunteered in the nursery down there. We met some new people and Maddox got to play in the nursery with a couple of boys her age. Then after church we met Grandpa Jim and Grandma Jean for lunch at Applebees. Both kids did such a good job at the restaurant despite it being nap time. We kept feeding Kennon puffs and Maddox had the grandparents to entertain her. It was great to see them. Then we hurried home for quick naps for both the kids because it was off to a Superbowl Party at the neighbors. Maddox and Kennon were AGAIN so good. They were both happy the entire time and Maddox even busted a moved during the Madonna half time show with the other little girls that were at the party. It was super fun. Eric and I were sad to leave. I got to chat with the moms and Eric finally got to have some 'man' time with the neighbors getting to know them. The Stegemans have this great finished basement with the play area right near the adult area so you can have a nice adult conversation but still have your eye on the little people!! This is the same type of plan for our basement too so Eric and I were nice to see it does work out well. I'm sure you all got the cute picture of Maddox at HyVee on Monday pushing her cart around. I have to say it was definitely one of my favorite 'MOM' moments. I have known about these carts for a while but figured it would not be keen to show up on a busy Saturday morning or when the store was crowded for Maddox to try her hand at 'shopping'. And boy was that a good decision. She was a crazy lady with that cart. She would get so busy running, or looking at people, saying HI to people, looking at stuff on the shelves or just looking down at her feet that she would plow into anything that happened to be in her path. I thought is was really cute and we got a lot of nice comments about how she was helping mom!! She ended up with a LARGE can of black beans, a jar of applesauce, bananas, oranges, deli turkey and deli cheese in her cart. But, let's just say that was all that made it up to the check out!! There were PLENTY of other items that she wanted to put in her cart. Funny how all the yummy sugary cereal is about 3 feet off the ground, perfect for little hands. I loved the experience watching her. She was SO HAPPY!! Kennon liked having his OWN SPACE in my cart so it was good for all. Lately Maddox is very intrigued with the car wash. We have this cool one that puts pink, blue and yellow soap on your car. So ANY TIME ( despite the rainy weather) that we get in the car Maddox yells 'I wanna go to the WASH CAR'. I have corrected her many times that is is 'CAR WASH' but she doesn't seem to get it and really it just puts a smile on my face to hear her say it that way so I'm just letting it be for now. There will be plenty of time in my life to correct her but for now I'm just taking it in. Kennon is figuring out his stance for crawling. He can just start to get his knees under him to get in position. I think it won't be too long. He is such a happy baby when he is happy. Maddox, Kennon and Eric have got a routine going with fun playtime after dinner while I clean up. All's I can hear from the sink is lots of laughter and giggles. Music to my ears!! The kids are at such fun ages. Take care for now and keep wishing us healthy days. I'm headed down for a quick treadmill run while the kids are taking their naps. Both kids asleep at the same time....a mama's dream!!