Twelve on the Twelfth

Today is the twelfth so it is time for my second installment of twelve on the twelfth. We didn't have any major plans for today, just the usual, Target trip, backyard playtime, trip to the park, naps, ect. here at home with Zane and I.  Today we went to play at Tilles Park on Hampton, which is one of my all time favorite parks near us. It has tons of play equipment, swings, lots of trees and green grass to explore and today there was the added bonus of a tractor mowing the grass, what more could you ask for. When we got home from the park we did a little texture play outside with some old cereal, then waited for Daddy to get home. After dinner Zane and Daddy found a cocoon that had fallen off a tree. It was obvious, by the rattling inside that he moth inside had died, do we used it as a learning opportunity and opened it up to see what was inside.

 Here is my collage for the day. I will explain the pictures top to bottom, left to right. The first picture is Daddy cutting open the cocoon, while Zane watched carefully.  Then there is Zane on a rocking grasshopper at the park. This was his favorite activity at the park today, right up until the point when the overly friendly four year old showed up and turned the grasshopper into his "trash truck." Then there is the bug carcass and Zane in texture play. The picture of Zane on the couch is a classic morning here for us, except usually he would still be in pj's except they had some pee on them this morning, so straight to daytime close he went. After couch cuddles Zane went to work in his kitchen, while I did the dishes. Then we headed outside for some morning playtime in the sand. Of course we had to swing at the park as well, always fun. The next picture is Zane with a block in his mouth which needs some explaining. After multiple trips to time out for not listening and not helping pick up his toys, Zane finally decided that he could only pick up his blocks if he put them in his mouth, then spit them into the box. It was pretty entertaining and got the job done. Zane spent a lot of time in the garage today, looking for Daddy, and hammering all of Daddy's tools. I took a picture of him at lunch because he ate better than he has in weeks. He ate all his tuna salad, a ton of green beans, and a cheese stick. Almost like a normal human being, but he was back to himself at dinner, eating hardly anything. Finally the bottom right picture is my pathetic attempt at getting a picture of Zane and I playing in his kitchen. At least I made it in the collage somewhere.

This is a great snap shot of a spring day here at the Korenaks. The day really ended with Zane getting a hair cut, using my new "How to cut a little boy's hair" tips from pinterest, but I didn't take any pictures of this event. I am happy to say that the tips really helped and I think his hair looks great, making him look even more like a little boy.

First Fishing Trip

This past weekend Zane accomplished a pretty big milestone in a little boy's life. Zane went on his first fishing trip with his daddy and and Grandpa, what a lucky boy. Grammi and I were there too, mainly acting as paparazzi, capturing  every adorable moment of Zane's first fish encounter.

The key to a good first fishing trip is going to a small pond that you know is well stocked with all sorts of little fish, willing to be caught. The second key, fully operational fishing poles. This is usually the hick up at the farm, but Grandpa Korenak had great fishing poles that didn't take all day to fix. It only took a few minutes for Papa to catch the first fish. Zane of course was excited to meet his new fish friend. He said hi, pet him, tried to stick his finger in the fishes mouth, and gave it pats before Papa threw it back in the pond. Daddy wasn't far behind with his first catch of an awfully cute little fish, just Zane's size. I think all together they got about five different fish, each one loved and closely examined by Zane before being thrown back in the pond. 

It had recently rained there so it was a little muddy around the pond and Zane did fall down into a bit of it on his way to see one of Papa's fish, but we just took that opportunity to learn the art of wiping your shoes off in the grass and using tree leaves as paper towels. While doing both of those things I couldn't help but think that usually those skills are used after stepping in cow poop, but luckily he got to learn that valuable skill with only mud, what a lucky boy. Zane also found a bent stick that he occasionally pretended to fish with, which was terribly cute. After the fishing was over Zane got to take a boat ride around the little pond with Papa and Daddy. Finally we had a big pine cone hunt, narrowly avoiding tons of poison ivy, before heading back up up the hill to clean up. 

The entire thing was beyond adorable and one of those moments where I couldn't help but feel a little sad at the thought that Zane won't ever get to go fishing with my dad. Dad would have loved an afternoon of fishing with Zane. Saturday morning Zane had also gotten to take his first tractor ride with Papa, which was another difficult milestone to watch and not be sad, thinking about Zane never having a tractor ride with my dad. However, we are truly blessed that Zane has another Grandpa who can take him to do all the fun farmtivities that he would have done with my dad.

When I was going through all my photos yesterday, trying to weed out a few pictures before uploading them to Picasa, I could not bring myself to delete any of these pictures, because each one was adorable in it's own way. So I made a little slide show of the most of the pictures I took so you can get a feel for just how cute the day was.

Ten on Tuesday

1. First of all I would like to wish a very happy Siblings Day to both of my siblings. You guys are fantastical and I love you dearly. Hope you had a great siblings day, even if you didn't know it was happening.

2. My mom's visit proved to not be as fun and entertaining as we had hoped, due to Zane deciding to go through a couple difficult phases all at once. Randomly he became unable to even come close to behaving himself in restaurants, fought naps toothe and nail, and wasn't his pleasant happy shopper so much as hitting me and throwing fits during even the shortest shopping trip. I don't like the term terrible twos, because terrible seems like way too strong of a term to call my own son. That being said strong willed twos and overly emotional twos seem to have hit us pretty hard.

3. Friday night we headed down to SEMO for the big Korenak family Easter celebration. We have driven home after I got off work numerous times and Zane has always slept on the ride home and then fell asleep rather easily once we got there. Friday Zane was having a blast on our ride home, feel asleep for maybe thirty minutes before we got there, then was up until 4AM once we got to Zach's parents house. Not the best start to our celebrations, but he did sleep well Saturday night and napped much better than expected. I will chalk that night up to a life lesson learned and we will drive home early Saturday morning from here on out.

4. The Easter celebration was a lot of fun and Zane had a blast playing with all his cousins and second cousins. The weather was beautiful and there were plenty of eggs to go around. Uncle Zach may have tried to start a riot with the twenty some odd kids that were waiting for the eggs to be hidden. There were chants of "we want eggs" and "let us out" led by Uncle Zach,  who had temporarily forgotten that he now also is acting in the role of a father, not just fun Uncle Zach. But I thoroughly enjoyed the possible over throwing of the egg hiders. Here are few highlights of the big day. I was trying to capture the craziness of twenty three kids running around, while most of their parents admittedly didn't know any of the other kids names or who they belonged to.

Here is the riot forming in the shed.

 And the hunt is on

 I love this picture because if you look closely Zane is trying to give his egg to his second cousin, Keaten (I am only mostly sure that is his name) who was born the day after Zane. So cute on so many levels.

 Here is the whole crew in one of those pictures where you can't see anyone's face, but the pure number of people is pretty impressive. I have to say Zane sticks out just a bit in this crowd of dark hair dark eyed people. Also I couldn't tell you half of these people's names, but they were all very lovely and had cute kids.

5. Just about the time that I think that maybe I will let Zane drive or ride on an ATV of any sort, go cart, small motorized vehicle ect, the Lord makes it very clear that this is probably a terrible decision. He does this by giving me a patient with a terrible brain injury or skull fracture received courtesy of some sort of ATV accident. Sorry Zaney it's not looking good for you and the go carts, I love your little blonde, beautiful head/brain waaaayyy too much.

6. I almost forgotten our Easter family photo. It actually turned out pretty cute. Zane was rocking a Mexican wedding shirt, a la Great Grandpa Dotter, Grandpa Blakley, and Uncle Able. He looks like such a cute little old man. Zach almost didn't wear a bow tie to mass, but I politely asked him "What does Jesus have to do to get you to wear a bow tie? Is dying for your sins and rising from the dead not enough?" Nothing like a little Catholic guilt on Easter morning.

7. Zaney also enjoyed his Easter basket, though I'm pretty sure he had no idea what was going on or why we were randomly trying to get him excited about candy, dinosaurs, and trains when he had just woken up. I didn't realize that he had pee all over his pants until I looked at the pictures. Classic, not my best parenting moment, but oh well.

8. Yesterday I received my free baby trees from the Arbor day foundation. I guess they weren't free, I did donate $20 to the cause of planting new trees. Of course I was mainly trying to get my mother to love me more by taking up her cause of planting trees every chance I get. Now I realize I have no where to plant them. I think we have decided that Zach will give them to his parents when he meets them for lunch Thursday. Hopefully they can plant them on their farm somewhere and they will thrive down in the wetlands of SEMO. Thought about trying to send them to mom's but I thought if they didn't die in the mail they would surely die in the hundred degree temperatures this summer.

9. Mom and I did have a pretty successful trip to the train museum, though it was surprisingly cold. Yes, it was chilly two days after it was in the eighties. We got to have a private train ride, ran around in a few different trains, and the highlight of the day, Grandma B bought Zane his own conductor hat. Here is he saying "lets go" and fist pumping on the train.

 I love this picture of tiny little Zane by the biggest train at the museum.

 Here we are by the huge wheels. 

10. Tonight it is suppose to frost/freeze here so I have covered up all my little plants with sheets. I am hoping that they don't freeze and die. They are all looking so good and not being eaten by anything. Turns out my neighbor has been shooting squirrels and probably bunnies with his blow gun. More power to him.

11. Speaking of neighbors I forgot to mention that when we got home from Easter fun Zane made a new friend with our neighbors nephew. Little Aiden is three and often visits Eddy, but is usually out in the back yard being watched by his Grandmother who doesn't speak English. Sunday Zane kept throwing the ball over the fence, in an attempt to start a game of catch. It took a little bit for Aiden to warm up, but by the end of our outside playtime they were jumping on the trampoline and repeatedly telling each other bye bye. I love it! Maybe Aiden can come to his birthday party this June. 

Ten on Tuesday

1. Mom arrived Sunday afternoon to freakishly hot St. Louis weather. Yesterday, April 2nd, it was 90 degrees with 50% humidity and felt like the middle of June. We were red faced and sweaty after only a few minutes at the park. What in the world is happening? Apparently I will get to use all the inside activities I found for the winter, this summer when it is a million degrees outside. I find this all very interesting since last year mom came to visit this exact same week and arrived in a snow storm. I just happened to look at my blog post from last year at this time and saw pictures of my daffadils covered in snow.

2. Our neighbors gave Zane their old sand table, which their kids had out grown, and he is loving it. He has a slew of new sand toys and all his little CAT machines are now being used to dig and play in the dirt, as they should be. Of course his favorite activity to do with his sand table is throwing the sand onto the ground. Play sand is cheap, right? We have yet to capture him in action, but I'm sure there will be plenty of sand covered pictures to come.

3. Zane and I have both finished our five day course of oral steriods and are both decreasing our Albuterol inhaler use. The Albuterol inhaler made Zane a complete crazy person, but I knew that was going to happen. His cough sounds much better as long as we don't let him run himself silly, which still occasionally ends in vomit. I feel a little better but my head is still very congested, so I can't hear, and I am still coughing but I think I am slowly improving.

4. Mr. Mopples has remained a huge hit at our house this week. Zane has even learned how to make appropriate chicken noises, which is rather funny. He also likes making Mopples fly, which involves throwing him around the room for extended periods of time. I can't really figure out if Mopples is a boy or a girl though. He/she looks like  a hen for the most part but then has the comb of a rooster. It remains a mystery.

5. Here are some adorable pictures of the week. Zane will occasionally tell me that he needs to go pee pee, which is always a blatant lie, but I humor him sometimes so he can sit on his Thomas potty seat. He always wants to read a magazine and last time I captured this classic shot of Zane checking out the Pottery Barn Easter catalog.

6. Our neighbors cut down a huge, beautiful, tree yesterday which I found kind of sad. It offered a lot of shade for our yard, which I will miss this bleeding hot summer, but also what is the big beautiful tree hurting? However, watching the whole process was pretty interesting. I have no idea how, at least some part of the tree, didn't fall through my kitchen roof, but they managed to keep most of it in their yard. There were random people walking on my roof at one point, which turns out is a terrifying way to wake up from a nap. Also, when the big trunk finally fell down mom and I were pretty sure there had been an earthquake.

7. Tomorrow is opening day for major league baseball and by some sort of terrible rip off the first game isn't being played at Busch Stadium. I was always told that if you win the world series, which the STL Cardinals did last year, you get to play the first game at your stadium. Some how this isn't happening this year, but whatever, I'm still excited for some Cardinals baseball. We will be celebrating the day by going to see the 2011 World Series trophy at Zach's work, before he heads out of town.

8. Here is my latest pinterest idea that I want to try outside soon. It seems like easiest idea and someone at work told me it worked out great. You tape three sides of a big painters tarp together, making a huge envelope, fill it with water, add bath toys and blue food coloring, then tape the last side down. The girl at work said her kids played with it all day and it didn't break until they poked holes in it at the end of the day. I think we will try this the next 90 degree day we have.

9. Zaney stayed home with mom today while I was saving lives and from the looks of things they had a great day, minus a few bumps and bruises which are par for the course. Here is Zaney after thoroughly enjoying Grandma B's mac and cheese. It doesn't look like any of it actually got on his little apron that he had on, of course they had made cookies earlier so he had his apron on still.

10. Tomorrow we will have more adventures with Ga-mama, hopefully the rain passes soon so maybe we could go see some Choo Choos. Happy Easter everyone!

Mr. Mopples and our maching inhalers

After a restless night of coughing Zane and I headed off to his doctors visit Friday morning, bright and early. I was braced for the old, he sounds great, it is probably all viral, conversation. It was going to be worth the twenty dollars to say I had done something to try to make my baby feel better.

 I should really start by telling you that Zach and I had searched amazon.com a few days ago for a stuffed chicken to put in Zane's Easter basket. I promise it wasn't a random idea. Chickens are currently at the top of Zane's favorite animal list. I wanted something that actually kind of resembled a real chicken, since he loves Grandma's chickens so much. This is what we landed on, Mr. Hairoid Mopples. It is from the Hairoids line from Gund. I love Gund because they always come with highly original names and they really look like they they are going to be able to withstand a lot of love, in turn becoming real. I haven't captured any pictures of Zane with Mopples so the amazon picture will have to do. But keep in mind it is 14" tall, so good sized.


Mopples arrived Thursday and Zane tore into the package before Zach could hide it. I had planned on hiding Mopples after Zane went to sleep, so he could be an Easter gift, but of course forgot to hide it before going to bed. This meant that Mopples was sitting on the couch waiting for Zane when he woke up Friday morning. Zane was beyond excited to see him and of course had to make the trip to the doctor's office with us. All the grown ups at the doctors office where somewhere between highly amused and thoroughly confused by my choice of a chicken for my son's stuffed animal. I tried to explain the situation, "I grew up on a farm, my mom has chickens, Zane loves them ect ect" but I think they thought I was crazy. It's fine, Zane was having a blast showing Mopples around the doctors office, playing with all the random wooden bead mazes and books.

When the doctor finally came in to see littley Zaney he was actively tap dancing around the room in his big boy jeans, new sandals, shirtless, rubbing his scar. To which I said "it is going to be hard to convince you that he is sick when he is tap dancing around the room." But much to my surprise he actually sounded wheezy and congested when she listened to him. Cue me going from feeling stupid for bringing my kid in because nothing was wrong to feeling stupid for not bringing him in because I am a nurse and didn't know he was wheezing. Yes, I had listened to his lungs when the cough started and he sounded fine, just for the record, but it had been a few days and I had been at work listening to other kids wheezing. So he got a couple puffs from an albuterol inhaler, with his very own teddy bear spacer, and was swabbed for RSV, which was terribly traumatic, but luckily came back negative.

So off we went with prescriptions for Zane's very own albuterol inhaler and steroid prescription to match his mommy's. And here in lies the first time I apologize to Zane for his useless lungs. I told him to blame his Grandmother, but I don't think he was buying it. He surprisingly enjoys taking his inhaler though. He sits very still and takes big deep breaths, just like we show him. I think it is helping and Zach tells me that his cough sounded better today. He seems to be feeling better, but who knows, he may just be hyped up on albuterol.

Cough, snot, and mommy guilt

Today was one of those days where the mommy guilt was laid on pretty think, for numerous reasons. Zane has been coughing on and off for about a week now. He hasn't been lethargic and not wanting to do anything but I wouldn't say he was at one hundred percent craziness level either. I listened to his lungs numerous times and he sounds fine so I figured it was just his lingering winter cough, most likely worsened by the crazy amount of allergens out and about lately.

Then I got his cough and became a huge baby about it. I also think the allergies played a part in my worsening asthma flair up, but mostly I think my little boy coughing in my face for days was the main reason. Yesterday I felt like death on a cracker so I sucked it up and made an appointment with my primary care physician. As a side note I have no idea how to actually use the health care system properly. I know I am a nurse and should be all over it, but growing up my health care system was calling grandpa, telling him "I have a musty cough that has moved to my lungs" (had to say those magic words) and then he would call me in antibiotics and I was better. I never remember having actual check up, so much as visits to Grandma and Grandpa's house. So it has taken me a while to get on board with how primary care physicians actually work. Turns out you yield much better results if you see the same physician repeatedly instead of going to minor emergency, waiting forever, and praying the will just give you a Z-pack. Moral to this story invest in a primary care physician.

I digress, what I was trying to say was I went to see my doctor and told her that I was coughing up a lung, my sinuses hurt terribly, my head felt like it might explode, my ears hurt, I couldn't sleep due to coughing, and all my inhalers and claritin were no longer working. She quickly devised an asthma action plan, as it is called in the pediatric world, upped my steroid inhaler, prescribed a nasal spray, oral steroids, antibiotics, and told me to call back if that wasn't working in a few days. In and out, simple and painless, and highly effective.

Then I got home and started my new regimen while little Zaney continued to run around and play, but occasionally want to watch tv on my lap for thirty or forty five minutes. He would ask to go outside, quickly followed by asking to go inside and being a pretty emotional little guy. This is when the first wave of mommy guilt hit. How can I need multiple prescriptions while I occasionally give him tylenol because there isn't really any other option. And here in lies why I could never work in the adult world of medicine. Turns out children, contrary to what you thinking looking in from the outside, are one hundred percent better patients than adults. Kids will continue to play through pretty much everything, which can be dangerous at times, but for the most part makes them easier patients to take care of. Zane came home from open heart surgery on OVER THE COUNTER TYLENOL for Gods sake.

I was still too sick to think clearly enough to say, actually call his doctor and make him an appointment, but I did feel guilty about it the rest of the night and gave him some Benadryl in hopes that might help. I blame this on the lack of oxygen getting to my brain due to my lungs closing in on themselves. This morning I woke up feeling a little better and headed to work while Zane headed back to daycare. He didn't make it long, Zach got the call, that Zane had thrown up twice and needed to go home, by noon. Cue huge mommy guilt on all levels on my part. First of all I will never be the mom that can go pick their sick kid up from daycare or school because it is next to impossible to leave my job. Secondly, what kind of mother doesn't take their kid to the doctor when they have a terrible cough for days. Probably the one who listens to their lungs and if they don't sound like bilateral pneumonia they don't think it is a big enough deal to go in to the office. Or possibly the one who still doesn't grasp how the health care system works, as discussed above.

Long story long, Zach went and picked up our cuddly sick boy and loved on him all afternoon, while I hacked up a lung at work taking care of other people's sick children. I'm sure I appeared really professional, but for some reason health care workers can't call in too much without getting in trouble, but that is a soap box issue for another day. Zane appeared happy as a clam when I got home, but I am sure he will be up coughing with me tonight. Don't worry we will report to the doctor bright and early tomorrow and hopefully they give him something to feel better soon.

Ten on Tuesday

1. Zane and I both have our ears down. Zane has had a pretty nasty cough for awhile and no I have joined in on the hacking, coughing, and stuffy nose. No fun at all. You know Zane isn't feeling good when he requests to go inside, which was happening Sunday so we cuddled and watched movies with the occasional Ipad thrown in. Zach said he had a good day at daycare yesterday and was very hyper when I got home. Today he was pretty emotional, but seems to be feeling better.

2. Zane's new phase is throwing things, sometimes for fun, but sometimes when he is mad or frustrated as well. Sometimes he throws his toys or sippy cup, but my fear is that he will throw the Ipad. I guess we should stop the unsupervised Ipad time now.

3. Our new washer and dryer arrived bright and early Sunday morning. Zane was not to sure about the two random men talking to daddy. We had to keep daddy in our line of sight at all times, but even then he was still very concerned. So far they have worked wonderfully and it is amazing to have the laundry in the dryer done when the clothes in the washing machine are done. The added bonus is now Zane can help transfer clothes from the washer to the dryer. He loves being involved and helping so this is right up his alley. This morning he was devastated that we didn't have any laundry to do, I can't remember the last time I could say that.

4. I finally did some scrapbooking again this weekend. It is such a process to get all my stuff out, it gets strewn about my table which stresses me out, but in the end I am always happy I did it. I did an adorable page of my niece Adeline on her fifth birthday and thoroughly enjoyed getting to use some girly colors for once. Of course the next page was a Handy Man page, which was all boy, but I think it turned out really cute.

5. Take a look at my cute little garden. My tulips started blooming today, making it that much more adorable. All of my veggies are up and growing quickly. I'm thinking positive thoughts so hopefully it stays this way.

6. This past week I made the rounds of the children's clothes resale shops and a children's clothes/toys consignment sale. I was on the hunt for summer clothes, which I did get a lot of, but have yet to find a sand table which was my other goal. I guess I could buy one, but they seem extremely expensive. I did find some great deals on train tracks and other Thomas paraphernalia at the consignment sale. Now we have quite the train track set up just waiting for a train table. Our house is quickly being over run by choo choos. 

7. Here is Zaney in his new U.S.A. shirt. I was hoping it would fit for the upcoming summer Olympics, but I'm not sure it will last that long. We did practice his U.S.A. chant and fist pump, very cute!

 USA, USA, USA, USA!!!!!!!

8. Mom is driving up this weekend to spend next week with Zane and I while Zach is out of town. I am hoping the beautiful weather continues and that Zane and I feel better soon so we can go out and about with Grandma. 

9. We are also getting excited for our upcoming visit to S.E.M.O. for the Korenak Easter celebrations. From what I hear it is going to be quite the shin ding, with approximately eighty five members of the Korenak clan. I still find it very entertaining that of the thirty something great grandchildren in that family Zane is the only one with the last name of Korenak and he could not look less like the Korenaks. The Korenaks all are dark eyed, dark haired, and look like native Americans to me. Zane is the polar opposite of that, but a Korenak just the same. I am sure he will love playing with all his second cousins.

10. Zane is also looking forward to hunting some Easter eggs. We practiced in the front yard the other evening and thoroughly enjoyed it. I do think that he was under the impression that it was a chore, like when we collect sticks from the yard, and not necessary for fun, but he seemed to like it either way. I am hoping no one swallows any coins that may be found in their Easter eggs, because that never ends well. Just a little side note from the pediatric nurse, we always see kids in the ICU after having eaten coins from their Easter eggs. I mean you eat everything else found in the eggs, so it only makes sense that they would swallow the money as well, then you get intubated. Ok I'm off my soap box now.