First Day of School!

The boys all moved to new schools this year, and yesterday was their first day back. The day went smoothly for the most part, but it's going to take us a while to get back into a good routine with early wake-ups, breakfast, getting dressed, lunch boxes, and homework.

Owen, 4th grade, Mrs. Adkins' class:

Cole, 1st grade, Mrs. Carter's class:

Jacob, 1st grade, Mrs. Carter's class:

Jacob was obviously less than thrilled about having to go back to school.

Jacob's turn!

The tooth fairy had to visit the Walters house again last night! Yesterday morning the dentist decided Jacob's tooth needed to come out since the adult tooth was in behind it & it wasn't getting very wiggly. Jacob's mouth was already numb in that area from a little cavity that he filled, so out came the tooth. Jacob did great with the extraction & was excited about the cash he knew he'd be getting from the tooth fairy.

After school I told Jacob & Cole that I wanted to take a picture of them together to show off their missing teeth. This is the pose they came up with. That's Cole outside with the scary looking expression. Excuse the filthy window, please.

 
This is more like what I had in mind for the picture of them together, although I admit their pose is much more creative. :-)

Cole lost a tooth!

Yesterday evening Cole lost his first tooth! It's been loose for a while, and the adult tooth was coming in behind it. Despite his smile here, he was NOT happy about it. There were tears and lots of begging to stay home from school today so no one would see that it is missing.

This morning he found $5 under his pillow from the tooth fairy. Suddenly the missing tooth wasn't such a big deal after all.

And one of Jacob from last night, just because it's cute. Catching these genuine smiles is getting tougher & tougher. Jacob has a loose tooth, too. It's the exact same one that Cole just lost, and he even has the adult tooth coming in behind it. 

iPhone Photos

I just discovered how easy it is to blog from my iPad, so be prepared to see lots more of the little moments I capture with my iPhone.

Owen making treats to sell at his classroom economy day:

Jacob & Cole's Valentines boxes:

Kindergarten Mardi Gras parade: Krewe of the Wild Wild West:

American Cancer Society Mardi Gras Gala:

Cole was Star Student for February!

Kindergarten field trip to the planetarium:

LSU basketball:

A birthday surprise from my guys:

Cole is a little bookworm:

Upward basketball:

Taekwondo Promotions

This past week our boys had testing to promote to higher ranks in taekwondo. They all did great!

Owen is now a blue belt and is moving to the advanced class.

Jacob & Cole showing off their new Full Splits Club patches:

Jacob doing the full splits while waiting for the promotions to begin:

Now they're both green belts (that's half way to a black belt!) and will be moving out of Tiny Tigers into the intermediate class. That should be interesting!

Field Trippin'!

All 3 boys had their first field trips of the school year today!

Owen & Marshall left the house at 4am to head to the Houston Museum of Natural Science with Owen's 3rd grade class. Owen has been excited about this trip for weeks, and I can't wait to hear all about it when they get home later tonight. The buses are expected back around 10:30pm (and yes, Marshall has to work a long day tomorrow for the LSU game...such a good daddy!). Marshall has been updating me via text message, so I can already share some pictures of their adventure. It's so fun to get these photos throughout the day so I know what they're up to!

This morning I got to join Jacob & Cole's kindergarten class on their walking field trip to learn about community helpers in Zachary. We spent just over 3 hours visiting some fun places around town, and we were all exhausted by the time we made it back to school. It was a fun-filled morning!

We started out at the fire department. The kids learned about fire safety, toured the entire firehouse, and got to inspect a fire truck. Here they are watching a demonstration about all the gear firefighters have to wear.

 

Next we made our way to the police station. They gave us a wonderful tour of everything, including the holding cells, and the kids got to look at a police motorcycle & talk on the loud speaker in a police car. 

I didn't take any pictures at our last stops because it was so crowded, but we also went to Chris' Specialty Meats and Cajun Catch restaurant. The kids learned about Louisiana seafood & got a little snack of fried catfish. The boys were asking me if we could eat dinner there before we even got out the door!

Kindergarten!

Kindergarten has begun! Jacob & Cole were beyond excited to go to school this morning. When the bus came they both climbed right up & only looked back when the bus driver asked them to so I could take a picture with my phone. They are both in the same class & have Owen's kindergarten teacher, who was wonderful. We are thrilled that Jacob & Cole will have her, too!

This morning after Zumba I got a text from Owen's first grade teacher. She'd seen the boys & sent me a picture of them - they looked like they were having fun! I can't wait to hear how their day was!!

Jacob:

Cole:

Owen & Jacob wanted a picture together in their matching uniforms:

Surgery Update

We are so appreciative of all the calls, texts, e-mails & Facebook messages sending prayers & checking on Cole this week. I'm happy to report that he is doing just fine. His incisions are a little tender & his throat is still sore from the tube, but otherwise he's doing great. He's been eating pretty well since about midday yesterday, and he spent a good bit of yesterday up playing Uno and action figures. This morning he has been smiling, laughing & talking a lot more, and it's nice to have our spunky Cole back!

The surgery itself went well, but 20 minutes into what should have been at least an hour long procedure we were called back to talk to the surgeon. We couldn't imagine what he would have found that he'd need to talk with us so soon, and our thoughts were running wild as we waited for him to come in. The surgeon walked in holding up the picture of Cole's belly I'd sent him, and then he told us that once they got the camera inside they couldn't find a hernia! We were all shocked! The bump that appears on Cole's belly when he bears down has every characteristic of a hernia, but there is no hole in the muscle. Since he hadn't yet made the incision in the "hernia" site and since Cole doesn't have any pain or symptoms from it, we all agreed it's best to just leave it alone for now rather than trying to fix his muscle when we aren't really sure what's wrong to begin with. So instead of a hernia repair Cole ended up having more of a diagnostic/exploratory laproscopic procedure, which should make for a much easier recovery for him. It's likely either some sort of spasm or weakness in the muscle, but I'm hoping to get more answers when we follow up next week. While it's a little hard not to feel like poor Cole had to endure surgery for nothing, it's relieving to know that whatever that big bulge is has been checked out thoroughly and isn't anything concerning. 

Here's a recap of surgery day:

The day of surgery we spent a lot more time at the hospital than we'd anticipated. His surgery started 3 hours later than we'd been told it would, which meant we were there for 5 hours just waiting for them to begin. Cole, of course, had not eaten or had anything to drink since 10:30 the night before.  He was a trooper, though, and only mentioned being hungry once.

In the pre-op room he refused to go near the hospital bed for the first hour or so, instead he sat in our laps & watched Spongebob on Netflix. Thank goodness for iPhones and Netflix streaming!

Finally he not-so-willingly agreed to put on the hospital gown. He was NOT happy about the gown being backless, and by the time they wheeled him back he'd put his clothes back on.

The Child Life Specialist came to help prep him for what to expect in the operating room. She left his blue raspberry scented mask with him, and every few minutes he would pick it up & smell it. It was adorable!

 

By the time they came to take him back he was pretty annoyed with being there. The nurse anesthetist was great & as soon as she showed him the games on her iPhone he was content to go along. Another nurse was handing him an iPad as they wheeled him away. We were once again very impressed with how great OLOL hospital is with kids.

Once the procedure was over we were called back to the recovery room. In true Cole style, he woke up screaming "I HATE THIS PLACE!!". Then he kept crying & saying "ouchie" that his tummy (incisions), throat & IV were hurting. Kids often have a hard time coming out of anesthesia, and we knew to expect that since this was his 4th time having it. He had some trouble keeping fluids down, but otherwise recovery has been very smooth.

We're very thankful it's all over with now!