Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to you and yours! Team Thompson did not send out Christmas cards this year, simply because we just didn't. Also, the pic below is the only one I have of the three of us taken in the last couple months where all of us are recently showered and wearing more than just yesterday's mascara. However...

We send our best and pray for blessings and joy for you all in 2014. We wish you a wonderful, merry Christmas, wherever you may be and with whomever you're celebrating. 

We're entertaining Justin's parents this Christmas, and are excited to reinstate some of the traditions we started as a young married couple during the years we spent Christmases all alone in California.

Merry Christmas!

A new month

Rolin is glad November is over, I'm sure. It started with a pre-op visit to the eye doc Nov. 5th, followed by his surgery the 8th.

He had a booster shot on the 14th, where he tied to claw his way to the top of my head as soon as I opened the door to the doc office. I'd never heard such a screech of pure terror come from him as I did that day. Poor buddy was a little traumatized at the hospital, I think. Thankfully it was just a shot and then we could go, but he contorted his body in such a way I could hardly get his clothes off when it came time to weigh him. He did not want to be there. It made my mama heart hurt.

Unfortunately, less than a week later, he came down with a barky cough that I called the doc about. We went back to the doctor again, and the screech crying resumed. I couldn't even hear what the doctor was saying about how to treat him at home -- he had croup -- so I had to ask her to repeat things and to write them down because Rolin had grabbed my face with both hands, looked me straight in the eye and asked, "Why, WHY! do we keep coming back to this chamber of torture! You say every day that you love me! You call this love!?!?!"

The next week we had a post-opp eye appointment, which involved no needles, poking or prodding, but it was still a doctor's office and Rolin could sense something was up. Luckily, that appointment went relatively smooth. Everything looked great and both tubes were still in place. Rolin still let them know, however, he wasn't a fan of doctors or doctor's offices. He cried the hardest, cried like a wee little baby, when they took away the toy they use as a focal point to check his eye tracking. He full on went limp noodle an laid on the floor when they took it away. Blerg. I suppose he's still a baby, so that's expected. :)

Then, THEN, just four days later, Rolly woke a bit earlier than normal so JT brought him into our room. As soon as he set him on the bed, JT said, "Uh oh, I think one of his eye tubes is sticking out."

It was.

So, imagine if you will, trying to hold down a 16-month-old boy, press his eye tube gently to his face and then stick it down with a bandaid. His tears made the bandaid lose its stickiness, so we had to try a couple times. Luckily JT was here to help, but he had to get to the airport and I had to get Rolin to the ophthalmologist an hour away ASAP. We said our goodbyes to daddy, hopped in the car and I prayed he wouldn't mess with the bandaid or tube in the car. We played a lot of clap your hands in the car to keep his hands busy.

The poor thing was all sick with croup, coughing, sneezing and snotting all over the place, and at yet another doctor's office. Luckily it's just a 3-second procedure, but, all the same, he let everyone know he was unhappy about being there and that he now hates doctor's offices with a fiery passion.

He got to tell them again just last Tuesday because HIS OTHER TUBE POPPED OUT during a nap. Well, I shouldn't say nap. No sleeping was happening. He was in his room, during what should have been nap time, just playing with Pete the Sheep, talking to the owls on his crib bumper and chewing on his crib rail. As I marched in after an hour to tell him I'd had enough of his shenanigans, I noticed immediately his tube sticking out of his eye. UGH! I grabbed a bandaid, sat on top of him, stuck that damn tube down to his face and threw everything in the car to race to the doctor's office. We played more clap your hands, where's your foot, here eat a snack... anything to keep his hand away from his eye.

Terrible pic, but you can see the bandaid on his face. It's holding the tube down. It was hard to get the bandaid down, but even harder to get a pic of it.

He actually did better during that visit, but still let out a very sad whimper as soon as he realized where we were.

All the while I've been leaving him more and more in the church nursery or at the child care room while I go to MOPS, which has just been twice, but still. He's in there for two hours; screaming when I leave and screaming when I get back...but not too much in between, which is great news. He only screams toward the end when other moms come to pick up their littles and he's left thinking, "I knew it, I knew she wasn't ever coming back!!! Why didn't anyone listen to me when I was screaming about this earlier!?!!? She's not coming!! Oh, wait. Is that you, mom? You did come back!!! I knew you would, just like you said."

JT took him to the nursery last Sunday, and I could hear Rolin screaming from the sanctuary...even over the pastor's sermon.

Let's just say Rolin has a severe case of separation anxiety at the moment.

And that Rolin is glad November is over.

Curls

Rolly has always had a curl at the nape of his neck, but, as of late, his hair has become increasingly curly at the bottom and wavy at the top. He was a little hot (read: sweaty) in this pic, so it's extra curly, but it's still curly. And wavy. And adorable.

Christmas tree

Same shirt, same baby. Different house, different state.

2012

2013

31

My parents came down for my birthday weekend. This was probably the strangest birthday for me, mentally...I've always been pretty pumped about my birthday...I used to create countdowns and hang them in my locker at school. I think I was always so excited about them because my parents did a great job celebrating us. Whether we had slumber parties, family parties or just pizza after a soccer game, our birthdays were always made special.

I can only hope to do the same for Rolly and other kiddos.

But, as I said, this just felt different for me. I kept forgetting my birthday was coming. I kept forgetting it was October. I think the weather had something to do with it. Maybe it's because, while I still am important to myself, there is someone much more important that I think about all day long. Little Rolin!

However, mom, dad and Justin still put on a fun celebration, we gave Rolin his first taste of real ice cream (because he could have dairy at that point) and I scored a bicycle, some artwork for the wall and some other sweet gifts.

On my actual birthday, we went to breakfast before I took mom and dad to the airport. The exterminator came to spray our house later that afternoon and life went back to normal. Thanks to all who sent birthday messages! It's so nice to be remembered on your birthday :)

Riding the new bike!

Rolin with Grandpa and Gigi at breakfast.

Rolin was cleared to have diary shortly before my birthday, so my dad requested to be the first to give him a taste of real ice cream. It took a few licks, but he loved it!

Rolly and momma. Thanks for the earrings, mom!

We also went to a concert in a nearby park. Rolly got his groove on:

Aunt & Uncle Visits

Rolly is one lucky little guy to have loving uncles and aunts. I'm not officially an aunt myself, but I can only hope to be at least half as wonderful an aunt as Rolly's Aunt Brianna, or Nana, as the kiddos say. She loves him and he knows it. Sometimes he carries her family-photo flash card around the house or gives her photo a ride on his truck. I'm not kidding. And her photo is the only one lucky enough to have been offered a ride. So cute!

Rolly and Aunt Brianna at the pumpkin patch. The best thing about these two together is that Rolin doesn't seem to have much stranger danger with her. Soooo nice!

Everyone was, of course, excited when we moved back to Washington, particularly because we had a baby on the way. We had lots of family come visit while we were there, mostly to see Rolin, the main attraction. Naturally, they all feared Rolly wouldn't remember them very well when we moved to Arizona, so we've already had multiple rounds of visits from both sides of the family, and expect Grandpa Lee and Grammy again at Christmas. We are blessed with family that wants to and is willing to come visit. (I'm sure the Arizona weather has something to do with frequent visits, too, but I'm going to pretend it's really the three of us that keep everyone coming back, teehee.)

Aunt Brianna came out to visit in October. It was perfect timing as Justin had to work again that weekend, and I'd unpacked to a point where the necessities were out so there was a 98 percent chance it would take me a year to get other things out of the boxes. With someone here to play with Rolly, I was able to get more things unpacked, hang some pictures and get some work done without Rolin tugging on my pant leg. Plus, I got to introduce Brianna to "Steel Magnolias," and she got to watch me turn into a blubbery mess at the end (it gets me every time!). Good golly...it's even worse to watch as a parent, yet I willingly subject myself to it again and again.

We went to the pumpkin patch while Brianna was here in October. This one was much more than just a patch...there were rides, food stations, trains, pig races...the works!

He did not want to get his face painted. We walked away with only one swipe of yellow that he screamed about until it was removed, ha!

Just over two-feet tall this fall.

Back to school, back to school...

We rode the carousel.

And the train. It was hot. Jeans were a bad choice.

We picked out pumpkins.

Rolin loved this pumpkin so much he kept giving it hugs.

There was lots of snuggle time and game playing with Aunt Brianna.

Rolin and Nanna had pompom fights, too. Rolin thought it was hilarious to grab a handful of as many pompoms he could and throw them at Aunt Brianna. The giggles lasted a long time :)

Aunt Brianna and Uncle Joe came back to visit in November. We'd been practicing with our family photo flash cards so Rolin was well practiced in saying Uncle Joe and Aunt Brianna / Nana by the time they got here. It's so stinkin' cute!! 

I think Rolin's favorite part about that trip was all the lounging on the couch watching football with Uncle Joe. 

And playing shapes with Uncle Joe.

And giving Uncle Joe and Aunt Brianna high fives.

And just having Uncle Joe and Aunt Brianna in the house. There was always someone to play blocks. 

After the farmers market on Saturday we went to lunch at Joe's Farm Grill. Had to take a picture, of course. 

And on Sunday we went to check out Arizona State University. The stadium was open, so we helped ourselves. 

Rolin loved playing on the stairs in the center of the courtyard. I thought this was similar to WSU's "nipple of knowledge." Coincidentally, this structure is also positioned atop the library. 

We're so glad to have visitors, and our house is always open to whoever, whenever! Come on down!

The great outdoors

Oh, how I love the sunny days in Arizona. I'm sure at some point we'll long for snow, or even a foggy morning, but, for now, Rolly and I really enjoy the weather and our (almost) daily trips to the park.

Here are a few vids of him at the park doing what little boys do best...running, playing and hurting himself.

This was the first time he went down a slide by himself, and on his tummy, no less. You don't actually get to see him go down because I freaked and jumped off the toy to meet him at the bottom. I'll tell you what happened instead -- his shirt came up on the way down, resulting in a wicked slide burn on his belly. He shook it off in a few seconds, but did not like when I busted out the hydrogen peroxide to clean it off at home. Doing so produced a nasty scab and what looks to be a scar he'll have for life. He wears onesie shirts to the park now. This video is from mid-October:

This was a sleepy day at the park...most of the time was spent sitting in the rocks, looking at and saying "moon," and watching airplanes. I can't help but laugh every time he starts putting that rock up to his lips. This was taken the day before Halloween:

This next video is a barrel full of laughs. He's on a steep hill (much steeper than it looks in the video). I recommend you bookmark this one, in case you have a day when you need a good laugh:

Rolin LOVES to wear this monkey on his back. He'll wear it for the better part of a day, if we let him. Sometimes he'll wear it at a store, sometimes to the park. Other times it's just around the house while he rides his truck in the kitchen or plays blocks in the living room. He likes to check out his reflection in the oven when he wears it. This monkey is actually one of those child leashes, but we don't use it as a leash. Right now it's just a source of entertainment for our little boy who has a growing imagination and personality. This video was taken in early November, the day before his eye surgery:

Shortly after I took this video, Rolin fell. He fell hard. He fell flat on his face on the sidewalk. There was blood. Lots (ok, not that much) of blood. I couldn't tell if he put a tooth through his lip, chopped a tooth or lost a tooth...all I knew was I'd never before seen that much blood come pouring out of my baby. I scooped him up and power walked home where I called my dad while I waited for the doctor to call back. Daddy-o suggested a popsicle, which seemed to heal and cheer Rolly right up. In the end, it turned out he just bit his lip pretty good. He was completely healed in a few days. Whew!

If you look closely, you can see his puffy lips. Poor buggy. He was a champ, though. I would have cried harder and longer if it'd been me!

No, the blood didn't come out of my shirt. But that's ok.