Knudson Family Drama.


Sunday, July 26, 2009

the bloody nose

Funny, but true story you're about to hear. On Cadynce's birthday we were headed to Baskin Robins when I turn and look at her in her car seat. She's picking her nose. I say, "Cadynce that is so gross, what are you doing?" (As if I can't see.) "Are you picking your nose?" Cadynce answers totally nonchalant, "yeah, mom I got a booger." Colby and I both are laughing pretty hard now, so I turn to her and ask if I can take her picture. She says, while shrugging her shoulders and a tilt of her head, "yeah."





Anyhoo, you know about us going and getting ice cream - well not long after we got home, guess who got a bloody nose. Yep, Cadynce.





Ice cream = dirty face.






As you can see, having the tissue hanging out of her nose, didn't really phase her at all. It was so hilarious to see her wandering around the house, playing, with a tissue just hanging there.

Saturday, July 25, 2009

Her "real" birthday



On Cadynce's actual birthday, we really didn't do anything - it was a typical Thursday for us. The kids went to daycare and we went to work, we picked them up, we came home, cooked dinner, relaxed. John and Lauren came over and brought a gift for Cadynce so she opened ours while they were here too. Nana and Papa called and we went for ice cream (one of Cadynce's most favorite things to do). We all went.




Gee, you think these kids love their Papa or what?





Like I said, she loooves her ice cream.





Everyone says she looks like Rhonda so much.






And the little man with his Nana.




So Cadynce got this really cool Barbie doll that she can fix the hair on. Yeah, it's not mine! And even better, my favorite gift is a chore chart. It has magnets that say the chores/things to do (everything from cleaning room to being nice) and magnets that are like rewards that they get to put under each completed item for each day. It's really great even for a 4 year old because of the things like being nice, no hitting, brushing teeth...all things we try and work on every day.

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

I'm baaack

I'm going to make every effort to get back to blogging on a regular basis. Can I get an "A" for effort? I'm not sure why it's so hard to find time to do this... just like scrapbooking; it's something that I love to do, but can't always justify the time to do it. Oh well, it's important to keep people in the loop.


There is so much to catch you all up on. We had Cadynce's official birthday party at the bowling alley here in town. It's newly refurbished and it was sooo fun! We went to Lopez for a week (or almost) and that was a lot of fun too. We had the fly-in going on for a week and got to watch lots of planes and jets. It's been super-duper hot and we put up the slip'n'slide and last weekend bought a 30 inch deep pool. The darn pool sent me on a mission though. We heard they were on sale at Target so I headed off to get one and of course they were sold out and wouldn't write a raincheck. I ended up at Freddies too, finally found one at K-mart. It's actually 2 feet wider (a 10 footer) so we're pretty excited about it. Got it up and filled and realized it's on pretty crooked ground. The filtering system doesn't like that because it's on the high side and the pool edge kinks up there.


The Silvana Fair is this weekend and I'm back to helping out there...so that will be fun! What else?? Oh, I'm sure there's lots...on a high note--- Cam has been sleeping through the night again!! THAT is amazing! I think I had forgotten what it was like to sleep for a full 8 hours in my own bed without little feet or arms beating me or a small body laying half on top of me. Actually, in all honesty, I think I'm more tired now; it's like my body got a taste of sleep again and can't get enough.


Bare naked babies: they're good for the soul!


Friday, July 10, 2009

So Tired

I have so many pictures to post and so many things to write about, but I'm just to darn tired. My little man refuses to sleep in his own bed these days. We were so blessed with Cadynce, she was a good sleeper from the get go. Cam not so much. He really hasn't slept through the night consistently, EVER. He was just starting to do a whole lot better before we had the "episode" which left us paranoid and him wakeful. And he started sleeping in our bed most of the time. After swearing we'd never do it, we have a little boy who sleeps sideways in our bed and most of the time directly on top of me. Nighttime is especially rough, it's just been getting worse and worse. It went from him getting up around 4 am to 2 am and now he's up by 9:15 (not even an hour in bed). We've tried going in and rocking him back to sleep and putting him back to bed, he's always back up in 1/2 hour or so...and we just can't keep up with that all night long. We've tried letting him cry himself back to sleep and that doesn't work either, by the hour mark neither Colby or I seem to be able to stand it. Ultimately due to exhaustion he always ends up back in our bed where we all at least get a little sleep. UGH! Now things are getting more serious though, he won't even NAP in his crib. So, today, I decided, it's on. Crying it out worked for Cadynce and I'm out of options with him. Today is day 1. He fell asleep on the floor at 12:30 I picked him up and put him down in his crib, he woke screaming. Picked him up, put him back to sleep, laid him down, more screaming. Tried standing and patting his back, haha what a joke. At this point, I decided he could cry himself to sleep. At 52 minutes and almost a mental breakdown he was asleep. Half an hour later he was fussing again, this time for a few minutes, back to sleep for five or so and fussing again. He's back to sleep again now, and I'm hoping he at least feels a little bit rested after this so he isn't too cranky tonight. I've made up my mind and there is no backing down now, he's gonna cry it out until he gets used to it. It's miserable for all involved, breaks my heart, and I can't stand it... but what else is there to do? What has anyone else done? What's worked and hasn't worked?

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

p.s.

We are headed out of town tomorrow morning! Going to Lopez until Tuesday and we're pretty excited about that. When we get home, I'll try to get caught up on all the pictures and stories I have, and I'm sure I'll have a whole lot more from "lo-lopez" too!


Hope you all have a Happy 4th!

Reality Check.

My life is a bit of a roller coaster, most of you close to me will know that. I think most people's lives ARE, whether they are willing to admit it or not. Something most of you don't know about a woman in my life is that she is amazing. I'm talking about Rhonda(also, my biggest loop-de-loop in said roller coaster). She shields us day to day from her pain and suffering from her battle with cancer. For the most part we go along with her efforts and let her think she's doing a really good job. She comes to work, plays with her grand babies, and tries to carry on with life as if nothing is wrong. I know when she is having bad days and trust me I've seen the really bad days. We've been there when she's sick, taken her to the hospital and visited her there. It's just the way her life is; it's unfair, and it sucks, but it is. Some people may say we're living on stolen time, since she was diagnosed with "stage 4" breast cancer(terminal) about 4 years ago; that could be wrong, I've lost track of time. Stolen or not, I'm taking every second of it. For those with cancer knowledge Rhonda has 2 types of breast cancer, hormone receptive and non-hormone receptive; meaning, they are treated with different types of chemo. On the chemo she was on a while ago she had some soft tissue sarcomas start popping up and so they switched her to a different chemo. That treatment wasn't working, so she's on a derivative now. When she started she had a lump the size of a golf ball on her chest (yes i felt and saw it) NOW that piece of crap lump is the size of a softball. This awful toxin she is taking in now made her hair fall out and it didn't work! Not to mention it makes her feel like crap. She had to have an "emergency" pet scan today, why they call it an emergency pet scan, beats me because they never give you any results until a few days later. We've definitely had our dose of reality checks lately. We had a bowling birthday party for Cadynce on Tuesday night, Rhonda actually was feeling so badly that she left and went home about half an hour in... I've never seen her do that.






Camden rubs nana's head every time he sees her. It's their "thing." It is so precious to see his tiny hands rubbing her bald head - it breaks my heart. Cadynce does it too, but mostly just because her brother does.


Well, there's your reality check about how much life sucks and how unfair it is.