Trip to Pittsburgh

We traveled to Pittsburgh, PA for Ryan's cousin's wedding a few weeks ago. The drive was less than desirable, but seeing Ryan's family was great. Ryan officiated the wedding, which was outside at a beautiful golf course. It was lovely, and we wish Bryan and Christy all the best. Unfortunately, I took no pictures of the wedding itself. But I made sure I got some of Great Grandma and Grandpa Bader who are faithful blog readers. We love you all!

Hooray for Nebulizers!

These are some shots I took of Caroline at the doctor's office recently. She looks pretty happy, so you'd never know that just a short time before this visit, she could hardly breathe. Basically, over the past six months, on three separate occasions, she'd gone from absolutely no symptoms of anything to labored breathing worthy of panic over the course of just a few short hours.
We (Ryan, myself, and the doctors) are perplexed about what is causing her lungs to respond so violently. We thought maybe she has a seasonal allergy that was causing the trouble, but the results from a blood test indicate otherwise. She's not allergic to anything. She's not catching some type of sickness. Her lung tissue just seems to suddenly react to something and swell. Weird.
Luckily, modern medicine has come up with something cool called a "nebulizer" that works like magic. We simply squirt a little medicine into a machine that turns it into a mist which Caroline then breathes in while wearing a sad little mask. It takes about 10 minutes, which can seem like an eternity, so we sing songs to pass the time. Caroline's favorite is "The Wheels on the Bus" just in case you were wondering.
Anyway, this little modern miracle turns Caroline's frown upside down as you can see above. Who knows? Maybe one day we'll discover the answer to her lung phenomenon. Until then, we're starting to run out of ideas for cutsie toddler songs that don't get irritating after repeating 11 times. Any ideas anyone?

You ain't foolin' me!

Caroline is a pretty good eater. She has, however, recently rebelled against raw carrots. This is disconcerting not only because carrots are healthy, but because they're my tried and true stand by for a no prep way to get vegetables into the growing bodies of my children. You can pretty much count on carrots with most any lunch we have. So you can imagine my horror when I saw Caroline spit them out recently. I thought, "What's this? You don't like the carrots? Oh, no. What does the rest of the world do at lunch time with no carrots? We have a peanut butter sandwich, a quarter apple, milk, and . . . well. . . what? We've gotta get a veggie in there somewhere. Maybe I could steam some broccoli. Or how about some yummy sweet corn? Maybe a nice side of peas. Oh, but wait. I forgot. I don't really do the whole cooking thing at lunch time. I put off that horrid practice until the evening hours when I force myself to turn on the stove. Whatever shall we do?" Hey, maybe I'll let her dip them in some peanut butter. Yeah, that's it. Camo the carrots! She'll never know the difference. Here you go Caroline. Here's some peanut butter and some yummy orange . . . umm . . . sticks! yeah, for dipping. What are you doing Caroline? No, baby. You've gotta bite the sticks. Come on Caroline. Don't just lick the peanut butter off. It's a really yummy orange STICK. BITE it! Please? Just bite the orange stick, dadgummit!! Good grief. Now I've gotta go and turn on that stove. And it's not even 5:00 yet.

Soccer?

Growing up, Ryan and I both enjoyed sports. Between us, we've played basketball, baseball, softball, tennis, golf, and football (well, powder puff and intramural, but that counts, right?) We've always hoped our kids would also enjoy sports. I've always thought I'd be open to them playing whichever sports they chose.
However, the day Anna asked to take up soccer, I was less than thrilled. I know nothing of the soccer world, other than the fact that touching the ball with one's hands is frowned upon. Nevertheless, our firstborn is now a ballet dancing, piano playing, soccer girl. I'm enjoying watching Anna and asking as many questions as she is. Why is she going that way? Why did she just pick up the ball? Why doesn't she just shove her out of the way? I think #3 is a boy. Yep, I'm sure of it. Go, Anna, go!! No, the other way!

Caught!

I knew it was just a matter of time. The day Caroline learned to open cabinets I said to myself "She's gonna find that treat jar one of these days." Sure enough, I walked into the kitchen the other day to find this. When I walked in, she turned to see me and completely froze. I just know she was thinking "Uh oh, this is really good stuff. It's gotta be bad." Unfortunately for Caroline, the treat jar now has a new home in an upper cabinet.

Labor Day and a lot of Caroline

So I'm a little behind. My parents, grandparents, and sister's family came over for a little Labor Day get together. As usual, Caroline manages to get into almost every shot. Our "other kids" are old news I guess. Poor things. Thirty years from now, they're going to use this blog as proof when we're having this conversation.

"Oh mom, you were so easy on Caroline. Anna and I could look at you wrong and get spanked. Caroline could slap you're face and you'd be like "Oh, look Ryan. Isn't she cute? She's asserting herself. Quick, get the video camera. And oh, could you spank Anna and Luke? They just looked at me funny."
I'll reply with an "Oh, whatever! It just seemed that way because she was the youngest. I treated you the same way when you were her age." Then they'll roll their eyes at me, which is completely unacceptable, so I'll spank them then go take a picture of Caroline.

Another birthday?

It is just me, or am I constantly showing another birthday celebration? Could it be that my kids have birthdays more than once a year? Maybe that's why their growing so quickly. Anna is now 7. I'm positive she just started preschool last year, so there really must be some kind of time warp occurring with our family.