Happy 90th Birthday Grandma Phyliss

My grandma turned 90 years old on August 27th.  She is amazing.  We celebrated with family at Lake Carroll over the weekend.  There were 24 of us staying in two rental homes.

(Cousins oldest to youngest: Me, Will, Cate, Joe, Sam, Tim, Annie, Whit; Not pictured: Brian, Marc and John)

We played games, floated on the lake, went boating, ate, drank and laughed.

(Nash and Me)

We had so much fun but the weekend went way too fast!  Thanks for inviting us to help you celebrate your birthday Grandma Phyl!

(Rick, Dianne, Phyliss, and Sandy)

(Me, Jason, Nolan and Nash)

(Great Grandma Phyliss and Nolan)

What's New?

I was finally able to get a good picture of Nolan's second tooth today.

I placed him in the crawl position today and he pushed himself into sitting all by himself!

Nash has a cold again but is still cracking me up every day and saying new things.  We saw a van on the side of the road the other day.  He said, "Mommy, that car broken.  The tow truck will come and take it away."

Prescription for Ice Cream?

I know the handwriting on the prescription was hard to read but I'm pretty sure it didn't say "ice cream!"

We are celebrating Jason's ability to sit and walk again.  Speedy recovery Daddy!

Home Sweet Home

Jason is now home and the surgery was successful.  He had an L5-S1 partial discectomy this morning around 8am.  He was out of surgery by 10am and we were home by around 12:30pm.  He is able to walk and sit again which is SO awesome.  Dr. Dolphin pointed out to us that this is the same level where Jason had surgery in 2008. We thought it was a different level but he reherniated the same disc as before, which I was actually glad to hear.  He also mentioned it was a huge herniation which explains Jason's pain and physical condition the past several days.  Anyway, he is resting comfortably right now.  We have a followup appt with Dr Dolphin in about a week.  Thank you to everyone who helped us get through this including childcare, thoughts, prayers, texts, and phone calls!  MMMWWWWWAAAAA!

Deja Vu

Here we go again.  We were hoping that Jason's condition would improve without having to turn to surgery again but it doesn't look like that's the case.  I got a call today that Jason had been scheduled for surgery tomorrow morning because he has another bulging disc.  It was a rough day.  My brother came over and mowed our lawn and my dad left work early to watch the boys for me.  I went to the hospital to hopefully get some answers.  I insisted on talking to Jason's surgeon and to make a long story short, here is what we know now.  Jason has a bulging disc at L5-S1 which is two levels below his last surgery.  The bulging disc is twice as big as the first one was which is why Jason is in so much pain.  I asked the surgeon if he thought there was any way we could avoid the surgery.  He said we could try other things including injections but we would probably be delaying the inevitable.  With that in mind and the fact that Jason is still not able to walk or sit without severe pain, we have decided to go ahead with the surgery.  He will have a partial discectomy tomorrow morning around 7:30.  The surgeon told me it will be an outpatient surgery like his last one and he should be able to go home after he comes out of the anesthesia.  We are praying for a speed recovery!  The past two days have been the longest couple of days EVER!!!  Nolan is staying with Nana and Papa tonight and Nash is staying with Whit and Evan so I can get some sleep and get to the hospital early tomorrow morning.  I don't know what I would do without the help of my family.  They have all been lifesavers!  I promised my mom I would get some sleep so I better wrap this up!

Get Well Soon Daddy

I am not sure when I will have time to post again so I thought I'd put a quick one in here about Jason.  His back pain has been bothering him again.  He had low back surgery in 2008 due to a bulging disc.  The last two weeks his pain returned and he was not able to walk very well on Monday.   He has not been able to sit for a week.  He went to therapy Monday and Tuesday then to the doctor on Wednesday.  He was scheduled to have an MRI on Thursday morning so Wednesday I took him to have his eyes xrayed.  He had to lay in the back of my van.  At about 1am on Thursday morning he was not able to walk and was in severe pain.  Luckily Nana was staying at our house that night so I was able to take Jason to the ER without disrupting the boys.  Again he had to lay in the back of the van.  Without going into much detail, he was in so much pain that even Mom and I were crying.  After pumping him full or morphine in the ER they decided to admit him to the hospital so they could do the MRI there the next day.  I got home at about 4am because I knew I was going to have to work a little bit on Thursday.  He is still in the hospital with a lot of pain in his left leg.  We are waiting for the doctor to see him so we know what the MRI results are.  I will try to keep this updated.

Milestones

Big things happened at the Wentland Household this past week!  At least as far as Mommy is concerned...

Nolan clapped his hands together when Nana said "Pat a cake."

Nash went potty on the big boy potty chair ALL BY HIMSELF!  He's mastered undressing and still needs a little help dressing himself. 

Nolan woke us up saying, "Dadadadadada."  He has figured out when to call for me and when he wants to get Jason's attention.

Nolan got really good at grabbing those little puffy snacks and popping them quickly into his mouth.

Nash ate corn on the cob.  I cut some off the cob for him but he wanted the full Iowa summertime experience and sunk his teeth right in.

Summer Fun

Check out the summer fun we've been having lately...

In the sprinkler...

Hanging out at home...

Out on a walk...

At the fair with friends...

Stay tuned...

Quotes From A 2 1/2 Year Old

Last week Aunt Whitney took the boys to the basement to feed the dogs while I made a work phone call.  She set Nolan down on the floor and said, "Nash, can you watch Nolan?"  Before she stepped outside for a second she saw Nash lick his hands and rub them on Nolan's stomach and back.  "Nash, what are you doing?"  He looked up at her and said, "I washing Nolan."

"I sorry Daddy.  My fault."  Nash said this to Jason after he accidentally kicked him.

Nash and I laid out in the driveway to see the meteor shower the other night.  I told him I wanted to see a shooting star.  He told me he wanted to see a shooting airplane.  I showed him the Big Dipper and he later asked me, "Mommy, where the dipping sauce?"

More about Nolan

Tooth number two has popped through...I'm sure of it this time!  It's on the bottom left, next to tooth number 1.  I also gave Nolan his first formula bottle this morning.  I thought I would try it out before we completely run out of breast milk.  He did okay but barely drank 7 oz.  I used Similac which is what we used with Nash.  I will try it again and if he doesn't seem to like it, we may try something else.

Nolan Jace-8 months old

Noley turned 8 months old on August 5th.  As always, I have no idea where that time has gone.  Let me catch you up on what Nolan has been up to recently.  Just last week he started waiving "HI."  I came home from work and Nana showed me his new trick.  He still just has the one tooth but I just know there are several more anxious to make an appearance very soon.  If we put him in the crawl position he gets frustrated pretty quickly.  He still prefers to sit but will roll around if he really wants to get at something.  Last week he also started saying "Mama."  It's usually when I'm not getting his bottle ready fast enough. It's like a plea for help...SO CUTE, and melts my heart.  He is still drinking 3 bottles of breastmilk a day but 8 oz doesn't really seem to satisfy him so I've been adding a little more when I can.  Speaking of breast milk...our frozen supply is starting to dwindle.  I think I have about 10 days worth left.  As of last week Nolan is exclusively drinking from his bottle.  I started pumping only once a day, then every other day, and the last two days I have not pumped at all.  It has been a very smooth transition so far.  I never did end up donating milk.  Mostly because I kept getting colds and having to take over the counter medicine.

As you can see, Nolan has a few scratches on the bridge of his nose.  No matter how short I cut his nails he manages to scratch himself during his naps.  He is still taking two naps during the day, usually one around 9:30am and another after lunch around 1 or 2 pm.  Whenever possible I try to coordinate his afternoon nap with Nash's nap.  He is also getting more and more vocal.  Tonight at dinner he was making noises the entire time, just enjoying the sound of his own voice.  A couple of weeks ago he started another trick (with Nana, again).  She says "Give Nana hugs," and he lays his head against her.  When he picks up his head she says it again and he lays his head against her again.  He does this over and over.  He is such a good cuddler when he gets sleepy.  He sleeps from about 8:30 pm to around 6:30 or 7 am usually.  He likes chewing on things, splashing in water, eating, being tickled and watching his big brother.  He does not like it when Mommy walks away from him or when Nash pushes him over.  He has a very ticklish back.  He has the best belly laugh that I could listen to all day long and his great big smile lights up our world!  Happy 8 month birthday Nolan Jace!

Baby Manderscheid

Welcome to the world Elyn (pronounced Eelin) Mary Manderscheid! Andrea and Nathan became parents on July 29th, 2010.  Elyn was 6 pounds 6 oz and everyone is doing great.  Andrea is still having a lot of back pain though and plans to visit the chiro ASAP!  I got to see the happy family on Friday at the hospital and took a few pictures to share.  She looks like her mommy.

Congratulations Andrea and Nathan!!!

Nolan's Toothy Grin

Nolan's first tooth has finally come through far enough to see in a picture.  Here's a few pics of his new toothy grin.