No Longer Adventures in Parenting, but also Adventures in Home-Owning!

Outside our polling station for the 2014 elections stood a Friend and long-time community member.  Our sons mostly knew him as a donut-maker for the local fire company from the summer fair.  In addition to a donut, he asked the wife and I if we were looking to buy a house.  I'm always looking, I told him.  W knew I was always thinking about buying a house and she indulged me a bit (she's never looking!).  I asked about the backyard, he said it was a 1.6 acre parcel!  W and I went inside to vote (WW, now 5, also "voted").  As we walked out of the polling station, Friend asked if we wanted to come see it and we told him we would think about it as we began walking away.

Barely 100 yards from the polling station, W turned to me said (words I will never forget), "I'd buy that house in a heartbeat!"  And thus began our crazy adventure.  We looked through our finances and budget and decided it was worth looking into a bit more.  I contacted a friend of mine who I knew was a realtor.  She was fabulous and awesome.  She got us in touch with a broker she commonly uses to see how much we get pre-approved for.  After doing some basic research online, W and I had a figure in mind and we were able to get pre-approved for a bit more.  Hooray!

Next step was looking at the house.  The house is a stone house built in 1939 by a man named Carroll Brown who was a long-time English teacher and faculty member of Westtown.  The wife of the family currently living in the house was his niece.  Being an English teacher, it only made sense that this is the living room:

W and I were in love!

To make a long story short - we bought the house!

Of Poop and Ponies

We've all had those parenting days where it seems that one thing after another just doesn't go our way.  Well, tonight my wife had one of those nights.  After a difficult end of school year, the first Monday after the students moved out was not an auspicious beginning to her summer.

H needed a bath tonight and since I was cooking dinner (Lemon Chicken Breasts with Roasted Asparagus!) she was giving him one.  While pulling dinner out of the oven, I hear a frantic "Brit!  Brit!" coming from the bathroom.  As I ran into the bathroom, I tried to fool myself into thinking I had no idea what awaited me.  Oh but I did.  I have heard that frantic tone before during bathroom and it could only mean one thing:  poop.  Yep.  That's right.  My poor wife hardly knew what to do.

Now WW pooped in the tub many times by the time he was H's age, but alas, I think this may have been one of the first times for H.  But H didn't just poop in the tub, he then attempted to play with it.  When W scooped him up out of the tub he then promptly contaminated her Drink with it.  How dare he!?  Well, H was removed from the situation and I proceeded to decontaminate the bathroom.  Sadly, the Drink did not make it.

After dealing with that incident, W offered to get WW into his jammies.  He was thrilled by her offer of leap-frogging into the bathroom and gleefully proceeded to get down on the floor so she could leap frog over him.  But, alas, tonight was just not my wife's night.  After about 2 leap frogs over WW, her knee unfortunately (and ever so slightly) brushed against the back of WW's head.  Well, for any tired and worn-out 3 year old that is quite an event.  WW immediately jumped into my lap and tearily asked if I could put on his jammies.  How could I refuse?

As he started to calm down and, but still in between sobs, he asked if I could give him a pony-ride.  Of course!  So off we rode into the bathroom. . .

While W may not have had the best of nights with our boys, we've all been there; where no matter what we do just doesn't work and we have to rely on our spouse.

We Made It!

Well, despite a very stressful day we all managed to get through H's surgery!  It was a longer procedure than expected, but everything went very well.  We spent one night in the PICU and then two nights on the regular neurosurgery ward.  I'm so grateful and thankful for the wonderful nurses and doctors at A. I. duPont; they are truly amazing.

I'm also amazed by the incredible support we have received from our family and friends.  It really does take a village and we are lucky to be surrounded by such fantastic people.

H and I came home on Sunday and I feel like I've been trying to catch up on my sleep ever since then.  Of course it doesn't help when WW gets up at 5:15 am!

My running got put on a brief hiatus, but I'm hoping to start up again either today or tomorrow.  I'm also hoping that my training has not suffered too much.

My Dad has been in town since Friday.  He and WW have been having such a wonderful time!  I love that they are getting this time to bond and hang out.  It's funny because I can't tell who is wearing out whom more!

A Very Long Time. . .

So, the last time I posted, I don't think H was even born!  Bad blogger!  I am going to try to make a renewed effort to post weekly, but we'll see. . .

H was born last July just a few short days before his big brother's birthday (since I'm on my iPad I'll post pictures later).  The Wife did a fantastic job birthing him!  She was a pro.  He is a peanut compared to his older brother!  However, he is the happiest kid I've ever seen!  He is constantly smiling, giggling and cooing.  Although those coos are beginning to sound more and more like words.  He has opinions about what he eats (or at least what he eats first).

WW is a fantastic big brother!  He loves his little brother to bits.  While he continues to tower over everyone his age, he also has the biggest heart.  He is doing great at Oak Lane and continues to be very interested in music.

In the last year, I have turned into a runner.  While I swore I never would run, I needed to do something to get back into shape, so I started running.  I have run 3 5K's since November and am currently training for my first half-marathon (eeekkkk)!!  I've lost 20 lbs of fat and gained 6 lbs of lean muscle!  Much of that is due to my amazing trainer at Next Step Personal Training.

At the office, I am now Director of Compliance which is a position I really enjoy.

The Wife is doing fantastic!

While everything sounds like it is going on swimmingly, the biggest news is that on Thursday, May 30th, H will be headed in for surgery on his skull.  He was born with a birth defect in which two of his skull plates fused prematurely.  This condition is known as craniosynostosis.  Luckily, our pediatrician caught it at H's one-month check-up and immediately referred us to a neurosurgeon.

The neurosurgeon has been terrific.  He, along with his colleague at surgical specialties, presented us with two options for initially handling H's condition.  The first option was a minimally invasive arthroscopic procedure whereby the surgeons would recreate the space in between the fused plates.  This procedure would require that H wear a molding helmet for 15 - 18 months.  The second option, called a frontal orbital advancement, is much more invasive and really akin to a reconstructive surgery the fused part of the skull.

We chose the first option.

Unfortunately, that was not as successful as the surgeons had hoped, so now we go back for the second option.  The more invasive surgery.  The good news is that H hasn't had to wear his helmet and won't have to wear another one!  The bad news is this surgery is much more invasive and quite a bit longer.  So that's what we're dealing with.

I hope to post more later in the week.

Just Trying to Help

On Friday mornings, Will and I take our time getting ready.  I don't work and so we have a lazy morning and I try to get him to Oak Lane by 9:00 so he can participate in Morning Meeting.  Yesterday was a great example.  We got up, watched a bit of Thomas the Tank Engine and moved into the kitchen for breakfast.  One of Will's favorite breakfast items is an Eggo waffle with "Mama's stuff" (Nutella) on it.  When I asked him what he wanted to drink, he very clearly said "Airplane juice!"  (Pineapple juice which he had for the first time on an airplane).  I put a straw in the airplane juice and he happily ate is breakfast while I prepared his lunch.

It had only been a few minutes and he accidentally knocked over the juice and it spilled on the floor.  I quickly grabbed the paper towels and put them down on the spill.  While the paper towels were soaking up the airplane juice, I took the opportunity to put Will's lunch out by the front door.  When I got back to the kitchen, there was Will looking very proud, with Nutella smudged all over his top lip, and about fifteen sheets of paper towels stretched across the kitchen floor, from the counter to the spill.  Before I could even really register what happened, he looked up, and, very sincerely, stated, "I clean up mine mess, Mommy.  I do it."  All I could do was smile, give him a big hug and attempt to salvage some of the paper towels.  Yup, he did it!

Goodbye New Year's Resolution!

Well, I know it has been an extraordinarily long time since I posted.  I (obviously) did not keep my New Year's Resolution of posting once a week.  Oh well!  It has a busy 2012 so far!

After reading my last post, Whitney remarked that I did not share perhaps the biggest news concerning our family:  Whitney is pregnant!  She is due June 24th and we found out that we are having another boy!  We are both extremely excited and Will talks about his little brother all the time.  He enjoys kissing Mama's tummy before bed.  It's really cute - I will some pictures of Whitney up here soon!

Will is continuing to grow and provide lots of entertainment.  Although, with the growth comes even more energy!

My Mom and stepdad, Russ, recently visited us and Will had a fantastic time!  He continues to ask where "Gaga and Grandad" are!

More posts to follow!

A Belated Christmas Post

This year was a quiet Christmas for the Suttells.  It was just Will, Whitney and myself.  Well, and the new baby!!  Whitney is 16 1/2 weeks pregnant!  The Little Sprout is due in June!  I will post updates periodically.

Okay, so back to Christmas.  It was really nice to be just the three of us, although we missed being surrounded by our extended families.  We went to Christmas Eve Meeting for Worship.  We were very excited to read a passage during Meeting.  Will was champ through most of the service, and he looked adorable in the outfit Nana made for him!

And (finally) a family photo:

As mentioned in my last post, Will picked out our tree.  Here is a picture of the decorated tree:

And after Santa came. . .

Will was excited about Christmas this year, but took his time getting through all the presents.

He particularly enjoyed the electric Thomas the Tank Engine train set from Grandpa Bill, Sam and Summer.  Here is a picture of me making sure it would work first thing in the morning:

And here is Will - clearly in love!

Later in the morning, he was delightfully serving up some wonderful apple pie, compliments of Nana:

He also enjoyed cuddling with his baby snow leopard - although the cat's were a little wary!

And let's not forget about the Santa picture!  Will liked the idea of Santa, but was a little wary of sitting on his lap.  So Mommy was invited to join!

Of course after Christmas, there was New Year's and an illness (bronchitis) for Will.  All are well now though!  Will is happily back into his routine with Oak Lane, Whitney and I have started back at school and basketball season is in full swing!