Connor's globe

 

Connor has really been a sweetheart lately with Paige. Recently, Paige likes to chit-chat with him at bedtime and Connor will let her lay in his bed while he lies on the floor in a pile of stuffed animals. For a few weeks, Connor and I have been discussing world politics and the involved countries in WWI and WWII. He will often carry around our globe and he's getting pretty good at finding lots of landmarks and countries. 

Last night at bedtime they both fell asleep in Connor's room, and Connor had been teaching Paige about WWII with the globe. It was too cute, so I had to get a picture of them together.

Paige posing, coloring, and princess story time

Paige is feeling much better after her surgery. It's been a long recovery period, but we've pretty much made it now. She's done with pain meds and is mostly back to normal. She's been talking with a weird nasally baby voice recently. We're not sure if it's some kind of a side effect of the surgery, but we're thinking it's just a bad habit. Recently she also will go in to Mommy's closet to try on jewelry and high heels.

Andrea got Paige some neat coloring sheets for being such a good girl. Paige loves coloring the big princess pages.

Paige is still in to her princesses. We have pretty elaborate stories lately. Usually one of the princesses isn't behaving and Paige likes the story to ruthlessly punish the princess and make her miserable. For instance, Elsa will cut in line for makeovers and the for the rest of the story she has horrible things happen to her as a result.

I took a short video of us during the story. I love Paige's idea of how romantic her ideas are.

Creeks soccer team - Orlando Tournament - GPS FL Pre-Season Classic

Connor's team played in a soccer tournament this weekend in Orlando. We all went with him and spent the weekend going to the games and supporting our little man.

We stayed the night Friday night and early Saturday I got up to take Connor to his first game. Since it was raining and gusting 20+mph winds, the girls stayed at the hotel and arrived when the game started. The weather was pretty horrible for that first game and it rained and was super windy the entire game. I didn't get any pictures of it at all, mostly just tried to block the wind with my umbrella and watch. Connor's team lost 1-4 that game.

After the game, we went to lunch at Uno's and then to his second game. The second game was very close, but they lost it 2-3. Connor had a couple chances to score, but the goalie managed to stop him. That was the only game where we took some pictures.

Sunday morning, I had a match, so Andrea took the kids to the soccer game. The team was another good one, but Connor's team played very hard and Connor scored his first goal with his team during a game! He went down field with Landon and when the goalie blocked Landon's shot, Connor was there to clean it up. He had another opportunity later in the game, but the goalie stopped his second shot. They ended up tying the game 3-3.

There were 6 teams in his age group and by luck of the draw his team was scheduled to play against the three hardest teams. Their first game was actually against the team that ended up winning the tournament. The second game was the team that got 2nd place overall.

 

It turned out to be a fun weekend, and we're very proud of Connor for being aggressive and scoring his goal!

Connor's sleepover with Trevor

Connor had his buddy Trevor over last night for a sleepover. They've been playing with Nerf guns, Ping Pong, Xbox, Football, and with the stuffed animals. They're good friends and he was very happy with Mommy that she put together the sleepover with his friend.

Tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy for Paige

On Monday this week, Paige had a tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy. She's been plagued with throat infections including strep throat for years. For a couple years now we've been consulting with an ENT and although he was initially conservative with his approach, the number of infections lead us all to decide that it was time to try surgery to solve the problem. It was a tough decision, and we knew it was going to be painful and very difficult with Paige to get through the recovery.

Early Monday morning, babysitter Jessie came to the house to get Connor ready for school, then the rest of us drove to the Jacksonville Surgery Center for the surgery. Paige was the first of the day, so we didn't have to wait long.

They took some measurements and then we waited as they prepped the room for surgery. Paige was in pretty good spirits, but she was pretty nervous. She reluctantly went with the anesthesiologist back to the surgery room and we kissed her goodbye.

The surgery went pretty quickly. Dr. Sandler came out to the waiting room after surgery and reported that it went well, and that the tonsils were large and swollen. He hadn't been sure if he would do it, but during the surgery he decided to also take out the adenoids. After surgery, Paige was very upset in the recovery room. She cuddled Mommy for a long time. We needed to get some of her oral medicine down, and it was a big struggle. The nurses tried tricking her and coaxing her, but Paige was very stubborn and pretty delirious.

Mommy eventually got her to take the medicine with some ice popsicle mixed in. We waited for some IV fluids to get in her, then we drove home.

When we got home, Paige fell asleep on the couch.

The rest of the day, Paige was pretty mopey and tired. She didn't want to do much of anything.

The day of the surgery I had a short interview with Paige to see what she remembered.

Right away, the medicine became a big issue. We had to give the pain medicine to her every 5 hours and had to give her the antibiotics twice per day. Every time it was medicine time, she'd get worked up, cover her mouth and would cry for upwards of 30-45 minutes before finally giving in. It was a big struggle at first and it wasn't really until day 3 that she started to take the medicine without first making everyone upset. We talked about it a lot, but she would just get so emotional she'd shut down and would refuse the medicine. Eventually she realized the arguing didn't change the fact that she was going to take the medicine and we were able to do it without the drama.

Paige read books, played with her toys, and watched iPad during the recovery The first day home, Paige wanted to color, but didn't have the energy to do it herself so she just directed Andrea on what to do to make the picture perfect.

Throughout the week, Paige spent most of her time relaxing and recuperating. She hardly ate anything at all the first few days. It was mostly popsicles and water. Andrea spent most of the week with her, tending to her, and doing most of the medicine. Andrea was able to get out of the house for her tennis matches this week, and while I was home with Paige I had to get work done but I wanted to keep an eye on her too. I setup a little spot in the office with cushions and Paige liked hanging out with Chloe and with me.

We had a sticker chart, and every time Paige took her medicine she could put a sticker on the chart. When she filled it up, we would give her a special gift. Her favorite gift so far was a new fancy Cinderella dress with a headband and gloves. I took a few pics of her out front modeling it.

The hardest part of the week was definitely staying up on the medicine. We've been setting alarms at night to wake us up and give her the medicine on schedule. After about 4-5 hours, Paige will start to really get in pain. At night, she'll wake us up sometimes before our alarms even go off because she's hurting so bad.

This morning we took our last dose of antibiotics. 13 doses in all for the antibiotics, and we still have a lot of pain medicine to go. Paige has gotten pretty good about the whole process, but it's still a time-consuming ordeal every time.

Our neighbor Rachael brought over some organic fruity popsicles made with fruit juice. Paige really likes the strawberry flavored popsicles the best. In the last couple days she's been eating more regular food and had a little pizza last night (Andrea cut it in to very small bites).

This first week of recovery is mostly done at this point. It was harder than we expected, but we have persevered and have been a good team. We're very thankful that Paige has been doing as well as she has. We're hopeful that it will all be worth it and Paige won't get sick like she used to!

Princess dresses and makeup

Paige loves playing dressup and princesses with the neighbor girls. On Sunday, the night before surgery, she was playing out front with her friends and came running to Mommy to ask if she could put on makeup. We told her OK and then she went in to Olivia's house. Soon after she came out with one of Olivia's dresses and all the girls were wearing makeup. I snapped a pic of them posing together, so cute!

First basketball game - Connor with Owls - Upward

Connor had his first game today with his new Upward basketball team. He's on the "Owls" this year and was lucky enough to have his buddy Reid on his team and also Chandler, who used to do recreational soccer with Connor for a couple seasons on the Giant Alligators team.

Connor's team did very well today and he's got a pretty good team. There are still a number of boys that don't dribble with one hand, or don't understand some of the basic rules, but there are a few (including Connor) that are pretty advanced and are able to dominate. The kids wear colored wristbands and are only allowed to guard the person they're matched up with. Connor and Reid both played shut down defense and got a lot of turnovers and baskets. Connor scored three times during the game and had a few very close shots that could have gone in with a luckier bounce.

We're very proud of our little man and looking forwards to watching more basketball this season!

Connor and his Oregon Ducks jersey

Connor has been a fan of the Oregon Ducks for a while, we're not 100% sure why, but he loves them. The Oregon Ducks are in the College football national championships this year and Andrea found a cute Ducks jersey for Connor. Connor wore it to school on Friday and looked so cool I had to get a pic.

Simeon and Olivia

During the winter break, Connor got to have Simeon over for a sleepover. Simeon is one of Connor's best friends from school and they were in the same classroom in 1st and now 2nd grade. Simeon's one of the best behaved kids and he was very fun to have over. He was a good listener and at bedtime when Andrea went up to check on them, they had both already brushed their teeth and they were relaxing on the couch with stuffed animals watching the Ohio State and Alabama bowl game. I took a picture of them together smiling and then we had to take a pouty picture because Ohio State was losing. 

Fortunately for Simeon, who is a big fan of Ohio State, Ohio State caught back up and won!

Paige's friend Olivia came over during the week too for a short visit. They did a fashion show in Paige's room and made a huge mess of all of Paige's dresses.

Alex and Laura visit + New Years

Alex and Laura came to Florida to visit us after Christmas this year. I picked them up from the airport on Monday December 29th, and they stayed through until Sunday January 4th. They stayed some with us and some with Grandma Alice and Grandpa Rick. Since I had to work for part of the week, it was nice that Grandma and Grandpa were nearby to entertain them and be with them.

On Tuesday, we went over to Grandpa and Grandma's to play and to exchange some gifts.

During the week, we had them over to our place too for some fun and games.

We heated up the hot tub once for everyone and some of us jumped in to the cold pool.

On New Years, Connor and Paige went over to Grandpa and Grandma's house to party with neighbors and to ring in the new year.

Connor and Paige stayed up late and watched a "3 Stooges" marathon.

Andrea and I went to our neighbor Tina and Rick's for a New Years party. A bunch of the ladies from Andrea's tennis team were there.

On Friday, we went to Old St. Augustine with Alex and Laura to walk around and have dinner at Harry's Seafood. Unfortunately our babysitter was sick, so Andrea had to stay home with the kids.

On Saturday we went out to Serenata Beach Club to enjoy the warmest and sunniest day of their visit.

We played at the beach for a while, but the water was very cool so we didn't do much swimming until we got to the pool. The pool was heated to 84 degrees, so it was just barely tolerable. We swam for quite a while and then went home.

On Sunday we had brunch at Cantina Laredo and then Uncle Alex and Aunt Laura surprised Paige and Connor with some very cute stuffed animals from the Disney store!

Alex and Laura just packed up and left a few minutes ago. I'm glad they were able to make it down to Florida to spend a week with us. The kids had fun playing with both of them and it was nice to catch up with them since we hadn't been able to visit much at the wedding. Laura's got more interviews for school soon and Alex is going back to work this next week, I hope they have a safe flight home!