Sensitivity

Easton likes to play like he is all rough and tough, but when it comes to something that really matters, he is super sensitive. He loves to have family time, and it breaks his heart almost every night when he suggests we play a game when it is bed time. We give in a lot, because we can't stand to see him so broken hearted about something, but we are trying to stand firm about bedtime. He is also very sensitive to my feelings. Women cry, and when he notices that I am crying, he runs to give me a hug to make sure I am okay. He is very sweet to his mom. He is also a good friend. We went to visit his old preschool the other day, and when he saw his best friend Hayden, he ran to give her a huge hug, and then walked away with a grin and got all red-faced. (Hayden is a girl). Easton is just a very kind boy and doesn't like to think that he has made someone upset. We really appreciate his sensitivity.

Like father, like son

Sorry no post yesterday, I could not open my eyes or stop sneezing, even after taking 4 different kinds of allergy medication. I am amazed that I did not go into cardiac arrest or something with all those meds.

Easton loves to be just like his dad. If Scott is wearing a hat, Easton must go find his hat. If Scott is wearing it backwards, Easton will switch his to backwards. If Scott is drinking milk for dinner, Easton's request will be milk, and then he'll point it out "just like you daddy." He hung out with Scott all day today, outside doing man-work, in the cold and windy weather, just so he could be by his side.

I hope his aspiration in life will always be to be just like his dad, cause lets face it, Scott is one wonderful man!

Two birds with one stone

I promised I would devote this week to Easton, but I have something else exciting to blog about too!!! (I promise it will tie in, just bear with me). I just recieved my new vacuum! I even ran out to meet the Fedex man in my driveway. Is it totally lame that I am excited about this? Anyway, with a new house, and new carpet, my $70 Hoover that we bought with gift cards for our wedding, just wasn't cutting it anymore. It couldn't pick up fuzz, hair, and I know it wasn't getting all the sand that was finding its way into my house.

I researched long and hard to find this vacuum, and even got responses on facebook for everyone's favorite vacuum. Lots of suggestions for Kirby's and Dyson's, but I just don't have that kind of cash laying around. Someone suggested the Eureka Boss Smartvac, and I had seen it had gotten excellent reviews from consumer reports. I went with it because of all the good things I had heard, and also it only cost $135, compared to $500+ for other vacuums.

As soon as I got it into my house, I unwrapped it, put it together, and gave it a whirl. OH. MY. GOODNESS! I had no idea what I had been missing. Did you know that vacuums with great suction actually self-propel themselves forward, and then you PULL them backwards? I could hear the dirt disappearring from my house. Every little grain of sand being sucked up sounded like the world's tiniest popcorn machine. The best part, was when I was done, and I checked the bag. It was almost 1/3 full, and it was clumpy with dust mites, sand, and hair all lumped together in one little goody bag for me to treasure. I am in love!!!

Anyway, back to Easton. He is also my clean freak. This wonderful little boy of mine, after breakfast each morning, goes to his room and gets dressed and makes his bed perfectly without me even asking. It does get a little compulsive from there, though. Anytime he got wet when he was younger, he would have to be changed IMMEDIATELY! He still does not like the feeling of being wet, or touching wet and gross things. He does dirt and other gross stuff, just not the combination of wet and gross/dirty. In preschool his teachers finally found a way for him to participate in finger painting. He would not touch it with his hands, but he would drive little cars and other objects through the paint. Even as a very young infant/toddler, he always ate with such precision and never had a problem with utensils, because he just couldn't stand to be all dirty and yucky. He is such a wonderful little helper, and I can always count on him to set the good example when it is time to start cleaning up, or to pick up his toys out of the way so I can vacuum. Hopefully, this trait will always stay with him, because it is one that I really appreciate as his mother.

A good big brother

Easton is the best big brother. Maybe that is why he became one so quickly. Easton and Luke are only 16 months apart, and they are each other's best friend. Easton entertains and teaches Luke all day long, and they play well, most of the time. He really came into his big brother role, though, when Max was born.

Easton loves Max to pieces. He protects him, loves on him, and actually plays with him. He will do anything to get a laugh out of Max. He is also Mom's big helper, and I can always trust Easton to do a good babysitting job while I take a shower, or have to pull something out of the oven, or get groceries out of the car. He has grown up into such a wonderful young man, and bears the responsibility of "big brother" very well.

All about Easton

Easton will be turning 5 in exactly one week from today. So I am devoting the next week to my darling Easton.

Easton was our miracle, and long-awaited, baby. After losing one child to premature labor, and then taking almost a year after that to get pregnant, we started to wonder if we were able to have children. Finally, it happened! We were excited that it was another boy, and we quickly chose his cute name Easton. At the time, it wasn't trendy, and it was a fairly uncommon name, and we thought it was extremely cute because of his Dad's love for baseball. We gave him the middle name Earl, after my grandfather who played professional baseball. Don't worry, we won't be disappointed if he hates baseball, it was more of a tribute to Scott, than a future hope that he would make us millions playing in the majors.

During his pregnancy I had an operation that we thought would help keep him baking until full term, but at 30 weeks, I was bed-ridden with preterm labor. At 33 weeks, he decided he had had enough, and after a week in the hospital trying to stop labor, he was born at about 3am on June 2nd. I'm glad that Scott made it back from Denny's in time for his birth. He wasn't breathing really well, so the nurses let me take a peek at him, and they rushed him up to the NICU. I didn't really get to meet my little Easton until 8 hours later after all the meds had worn off and I had gotten some rest.We ended up leaving the hospital without our baby, and each day was a roller coaster of emotions. It seemed like he would be getting better and off of another medication, and then the next day, he'd be a little worse, and hooked up to another tube or wire. Finally, 3 weeks later, he was healthy enough to come home. He had his cute little oxygen tubes and apnea/heart rate monitors still attached to him, and we looked pretty silly with all his gear when we would venture out into public.

It was such a blessing that Easton has progressed to be such a happy, healthy, and bright little boy after such a difficult time making it into this world. I love my Easton, and I would go through it all again if I had to, just to have my Easton with me in this life.

Productive Weekend

On Saturday, we made great progress, with Scott completing one side of our fence, and I cleaned out the garage by having a yard sale. I made good money off the stuff we needed to get rid of, and earned more than my goal to buy a new vacuum. We even took some leftover cash and treated ourselves to a Redbox and Chinese food. (Big spenders, huh!) Hey, anyone want to buy a punching bag? I'll give you a really good deal!

It's ba-aack!

We originally decided we wanted to sell our train table, because we didn't want a bulky peice of furniture taking up space in any of the rooms in our house. Easton has been so sad about this, and has tried to convince us that there is plenty of room for his special train table. Finally, he came up with an argument that I couldn't say no to. After his Grandma and Grandpa Pingel left, he said "Mommy, Grandma and Grandpa's bed is bigger than my train table, so why can't my train table fit in the office?" (They had been sleeping on a Queen size blowup mattress in the office). So, I gave in, measured it, and sure enough, there is plenty of room in the office to fit the table without it getting in the way of anything else in the room. He was so excited when we put it all together today, he even went and got all the toys out of his room and organized them just how he wanted them in all the storage bins underneath the table. What a great debater!

Special Visitors

Grandma and Grandpa Pingel came to visit us in our new home this weekend. It is always a good visit when they come! We haven't seen them since Thanksgiving, so they were surprised to see the boys all grown up and Max walking around like a mad man (I guess I haven't done enough updates on my blog lately). They even came with a big surprise........a Trampoline!!! We were wanting to get one for the boys, and so it was so awesome to see that they got one for us! I must admit, I don't know who jumped more, the kids or the parents. It was a great gift! Scott's dad also helped him put up the rest of the fence boards. On Friday we took them to the Tri-Cities, and went to the temple and a park down on the river. On Saturday we went out to Fort Walla Walla and had a wonderful picnic. The weekend was great! We had beautiful sunshine and warm weather, and great company to enjoy it with.

Stanfield Centennial

Last weekend, Stanfield celebrated its Centennial. We attended the cute little parade, the games put on by high school students, and the car show. Scott was glad he was able to be apart of it all.

Max loved clapping for all the people in the parade.

Luke had no reservations about getting all the candy he could find.

We love the llamas!

A new game!

Dramatic Change

Moving to Hermiston, and Scott's new job, have all been harder adjustments than I thought. We went from seeing each other all the time, which isn't that great either when it is because of unemployment, to seeing each other hardly ever. I guess I didn't notice it too much when we lived with my parents, because one or both of them were home around 5pm, which gave me some company, and helped tame the children for the evening. But now that we have moved, there are too many 12-15 hour work days for me to count, and we don't even have callings in the ward yet! (Hopefully we get those wonderful "Sunday Only" callings.....one can dream, right?)

The other hard adjustment is the shopping. I have WalMart and.........well, thats it! We do have Safeway as another grocery store, but I am even missing my Albertson's and Fred Meyer specials and coupons. No Target, no Mall, no Kohl's, no Costco, no JoAnn's, and no "train store" aka Barnes and Noble. I didn't exactly spend my days at these places in Kennewick, but they were a nice retreat away from the kids to window shop at night, and if I ever needed anything, it was right there! Now, I have to make an ongoing list for when I'll be up in the big city, because it costs 1/4 tank of gas to get up to Tri-Cities and back, and I am way too cheap to get up there anything more than once a week.

I am sure it will all feel "normal" soon, and I'll get into my own new groove and get used to my surroundings, but it was just such a dramatic change, that it is hard to get my head wrapped around it still. And, yes, I know what you are all thinking...."She should be glad that he even has a job!".......and I definitely am!!! But I just wish I could've eased into it, instead of going from no job to an often 60-hour-a-week job. This City Manager thing is hard work! This all makes me really glad, though, that we didn't take the other job offer that Scott got: a city about as small as Stanfield (I can't even remember the name), 45 minutes EAST of Denver, with no other surrounding or connecting cities nearby, aka "no-man's land."

Such a little boy

My baby Max is beginning to look more like a little boy, and acting like one too, instead of just being a baby. We cut his hair for the first time this last week, which was kind of sad, because he had really cute curls in the back of his head. But after a while it just started to look nappy. Some people can do the long hair with their boys, but I'm a clean-cut kind of gal. To each his own.

He also thinks that pulling all of the puzzles off the shelf, all of the tupperware out of the drawer, and pushing buttons on the television are the greatest games ever! He also loves being chased by anyone, and plays right along with the boys as if he is already one of them.

He is also becoming quite sensitive these days. He cries whenever the checkout lady or bagger at the grocery store even remotely make eye contact with him. He wants his mommy ALL THE TIME, which is sweet at first, but after a while gets a little unnerving. And he gets really sad when he knows he has hurt his mommy. When he pulls my hair a little too hard, or accidentally scratches me, and I say "OW!", his bottom lip puckers like no other.