Brothers: A tale of two pictures

Happy Halloween!

Our little fox doesn't say much, but he really enjoyed collecting candy during trick or treat in the rain tonight!



Luke recycled his costume from last year because who wouldn't want to be a rocket ship two years in a row?! Cheaper for me!!!



One day I'll get a picture of them together that looks nice. Obviously not today.

Pic of me

At 31 years, 1 month and 10 days. I haven't put eyeliner around my whole eye in years! (Was heading to a party.)

Famous!

We made it on the jumbo tron at the reds game last night!

(Luke doesn't like how loud things are before the game starts. Once it started he was fine.)

These kids!

A week or so ago, Nathan backed up while getting ready to go down our slide and fell about 4.5 feet from our swing set. I was standing at the ladder. I do not know how he was not hurt -- he landed on his shoulders/back/neck region. I seriously thought that maybe I shouldn't move him and just call 911. But, he was fine except that he bit his lip. Seriously, there is no reason that he was fine. It was awful. I called the pediatrician but by the time they called me back he was acting like his normal self. So much to be thankful for. 

Our swing set was the previous homeowner's and it was very old and unsafe and we had been meaning to take it down. But we didn't and just were watching to make sure the boys were safe on it. Well, that night I pulled the slide off with my bare hands and also broke the ladder rungs so they couldn't climb up to the platform. The whole swing set is now dismantled.

These kids, I swear.

Tonight, Luke, who is recovering from a cold, went to school today, and didn't nap, asked to go to bed at 7:30. Yikes. Nathan cried for an hour when he woke up from his nap (teeth and cold) and was mad when Hal put him to bed. I can't wait to see how they are tomorrow.

But then there are these moments. This picture makes me so happy. I looked up from checking email yesterday (my birthday!) and these two were like this. What a great birthday present. 



And here's Luke on the first day of school:

Luke hates his birthday, but he's three anyway!

I have no idea what happened to make Luke so anti-birthday this year. Was it the fireworks on "America's Birthday?" Was it that Nathan got all messy on his birthday? We have no idea. He was super upset about his birthday, though. He burst into tears the other night when I sang "Happy Birthday" to him! I did not think that the birthday hating started at age 3.

Due to major protests when we mentioned his birthday, we ended up having a "baseball party" or a "party for no reason." 

Instead of singing "Happy Birthday," we sang "Take Me Out to the Ballgame." Could he look more glum about it?



BUT! He loved presents. He got all sorts of things, and especially love his automatic pitcher.





(He also got that bengals jersey. He is sleeping in it.)

We celebrated with family. I was proud of my photo collage I did for him today: 

Conquering the goopy eye.

This guy had a goopy eye.
It wasn't very fun.
So we went to surgery.
And now the goop is done.

Nathan has had a blocked tear duct since birth. After massaging his eye for a year, the doctors surmised that it was not going away on its own, like they normally do. After consulting the ophthalmologist, we discovered the best course of action was a quick surgery to unblock the tear duct. Yesterday, we had the surgery.

Our whole little family trooped up to the Children's Hospital surgery center. Pre-op, Nathan was in good spirits. We loved that they marked his eye so they would fix the correct one!
   

(Check out that molar!)

Surgery lasted approximately 25 minutes. I was able to hold him while they put him to sleep, which was nice. He didn't fight the mask at all, just sat calmly on my lap while breathing the strawberry-flavored gas in. The anesthesiologist sang "Itsy Bitsy Spider" to him twice and he was out.

Post op was not as nice. He wasn't in pain, but he was grumpy and confused from the general anesthesia. He also tried to pull out his IV. I took this picture once we got to the car and he had calmed down. Poor little guy. He was pitiful.

He got a little nap in in the car and once we got home it was like nothing had ever happened. 

The eye looks great today!