Physical Therapy Again...?

I went to the doctor today to have my knee checked out again. The same knee that I hurt in my car accident in April. After waiting over an hour, I finally got to see the physician's assistant. He asked me how things have been going with my at-home physical therapy. No change. My knee still hurts like a bugger whenever I kneal on it or if I touch it in any way. I hit in on something in the car the other day and about cried. So I tell the PA this and he does a few things to my knee to check it out. Mind you, the MRI I had done in July showed no tears or really anything major. So why do I still have bruising and pain after 6 months? He's sending me back to have another 4 weeks of physical therapy. This is the third round of PT and I'm starting to think that it's not working. He also had me get this brace thing to wear just below my knee to take the pressure off the tendon that goes over the patella. I'm just sick of all the run around and my knee is not entirely healing. I can't get down on the floor and play with my kids the way I want to. This whole situation with my knee and the few scars I have left from my accident is why I have no tolerance for people who run stops signs or traffic lights. It has to be one of my biggest pet peeves to see people do that. It has also left me with a slight fear of intersections where only the cross-traffic stops. I'm afraid that those drivers won't stop and I'll be hit again. You can add that to the fears I have of driving in heavy traffic. I'm afraid that someone will cut me off the way that someone did 6 years ago and caused the accident I was in first. I just can't win.

Stairs

Tanner decided to come down the stairs the other day - the really fast way. Nick was upstairs putting on his shoes, I was downstairs getting ready to start dinner. The next thing I heard was a lot of bumps on the steps and then an ear-splitting scream. Tanner fell down the big stairs - all 15 of them. Scared the life out of me practically (my mom said I was as white as a sheet)! I got to him before Nick was able to get down the stairs. I swooped him up in my arms. I didn't care if anything was broken. I just wanted to hold my little boy and make his tears go away. Nick finally made it down the stairs, and being the good x-ray tech that he is, he checked him for broken bones. None - thank goodness! All of this happened within about 2 seconds. Craziness. It took a while for my heart to stop pounding and for my hands to stop shaking. Tanner eventually stopped crying after being held by his mom, dad, and grandma. He wanted love and sympathy from anyone that would give it to him. Through the whole ordeal, he still managed to hold on to his little toothbrush he'd been holding. Goofball! He ended up with two pretty good goose eggs on his head, but thankfully that was it. Scary stuff, lemme tell ya! I have to say, I hope it's the last time this happens, but I just have a feeling that it won't be. Tanner is Tanner and he is all boy. Anything he can climb up on or crawl off of and he's all for it. Gotta love him! Is he afraid of the stairs now? Heck no! He was back climbing up and down them just a few minutes after the trauma. I just shake my head, smile, and love him even more for his determination. Love that kid to death!

This and That

"Busy" is the word you would use to categorize my life at the present time. I guess having 2 boys under that age of 2 is an easy definition of that word.

The weather is changing here - FINALLY! I love the fall. It is my absolute favorite time of year. The leaves will be changing soon. I hope to get a few pictures of the boys outside this fall. I love the cooler nights and the comfortable days. I look forward to taking a field trip - literally - to the pumpkin fields over at one of the local farms. It'll be fun to watch Tanner try to pick up the large pumpkins. We're planning on making and canning applesauce here in the coming weeks. My dad also suggested that we can pumpkins as well since we use a lot of pumpkin throughout the year.

The boys are changing every day. They learn new things all the time. Tanner just got a toy laptop from grandma this week. He loves it. Anything that lights up and makes noise and he's in heaven. Spencer has his first tooth. I wasn't even expecting this to start until at least next month. Nick discovered it when Spencer pulled Nick's thumb into his mouth and bit down on it. Tanner is started to say a word here and there. He'll say "Hi" and sometimes he'll even say "Cracker" when you're holding one and he wants it. He's becoming super-independent. He wants to feed himself all the time now. He gets mad when you try to feed him something. The other day we stripped him down and put mashed potatoes with gravy, chicken, green beans and a corn muffin on this tray and he got mashed potatoes all over the place. Made for good pictures. Spencer is started to try and roll over. He's really active now. He's pulling toys toward him and putting things into his mouth. He's just now moving into the 3-6 months clothing, however he's only going to be in these for a short while because he's already too long for most of the pants and pajamas. I think he'll be taller than Tanner will be. Tanner's learned to bite and to hit. Not sure where he learned that. I've gotten a few suggestion about how to stop this behavior, but if you know Tanner, he doesn't much care about being disciplined. He does it anyway. He likes to pull Spencer's hair and smack him on the head. He's a little jealous of little brother.

I took Spencer up to the children's hospital the other day for a urology appointment. Turns out that he doesn't technically have what they call hypo spadius. So they'll go ahead and circumcise him after he turns 6 months old. While the nurse was taking his vitals, he was weighed and measured. He's huge! He's only 3 1/2 months old but he weighs 15 lbs 8 oz and is over 25 inches long. He's a giant!

We heard back from Thomas Jefferson University for Nick's application. They want to set up an interview for him. Hopefully it's a good sign that they want to interview him, and that they don't just do this for everyone. They told him that he should know about his application decision before December 15. So we've been looking into alternative schools. It's not that easy to find schools for what he wants to specialize in.

I could use a vacation. I've had a rough week with screaming kids. It seems that they both like to scream and yell at the same time. They both are waking up before 6:30 now. So we get an early start around here. But with all their screaming and loudness, I still manage to love them tons.

So Long Sweet Summer

Our summer was a fun one. Not too involved, but fun nonetheless. Our Labor day celebration was a close-knit one. Nick and I made some BBQ pork, baked, beans, potato salad, and watermelon. We had my sister, brother and his wife, and my grandma over. Kevin brought their Nintendo Wii with them and we had tons of fun playing that. I really don't care for video games, but I really like the Wii. So much that we are thinking about getting one. We played bowling and tennis. Tons of fun!

My mom and dad took off to Colorado for the Labor Day weekend. My new nephew Andrew was being blessed, so they went out there for that. I was pretty disappointed that I wasn't able to go, but there will be other nieces and nephews I guess to take part in their special days.

I managed to drop 4 dinner plates on my foot yesterday while I was cleaning up from dinner. They didn't fall horizontally either. They landed edge side down right on my toes. I thought for sure I broke at least one of them, but once the initial pain wore down I could move them with no problems. It's really sore today however. Painful is what that was!

I start back up teaching piano lessons today. I'm not too enthusiatic about it, but it's an extra few dollars in the pocket to save for something special - whatever that might be. We took the summer off mainly because I didn't want to give lessons during the summer, but also because of me having a new baby. I don't think I'm a very good teacher, but whatever. Should be fun.

Nick was able to apply for this school up in Philadelphia a few weeks ago. Now it's just a waiting game to see what happens. We should find out in October if he is accepted or not. If he's not then Nick wants to find another school to get certified as a radiation therapist. I've only been able to find a few schools so far that offer this training. One in North Carolina, the other in New Jersey. I think North Carolina would be fun, but Nick I don't think wants to go there. We are - or I should say I am - keeping our options open for different places to live. I'm pretty sure Nick would rather stay here though. He says he doesn't care, but he made a comment the other day when we were looking at North Carolina that made me think he didn't want to move anywhere. So who knows. The next few months should tell us a lot about what the next year will bring. We shall see.

We decided for Family Home Evening - this is one night set aside during the week that we as a family get together and have a small lesson centered on Jesus Christ along with maybe some singing and some games and always a treat afterwards - that we would go to Rita's Italian Ice to get a gelati. While we were there Tanner wanted to run around and be goofy. In the video he is struttin' his stuff. He cracks me up!

Tanner does some of the funniest things ever. The other night, I went in to put Spencer down in his crib for the night. I turned around to check on Tanner and noticed a diaper on the ground. I figured Nick missed the trash can. I looked in on Tanner and he's curled up asleep on his blanket with no diaper!! I about died laughing! I called Nick and told him to come and bring the camera. That's the funniest thing I think he's ever done!