Catching Up

Will be updating the adventures of these two rockstars soon!

Our Little "Chef"

Our dear sweet little Collin.

With all the research on the psychiatry of birth order, I wonder if there is research on the psychiatry of rainbow babies, the children that come after loss and fertility struggles. Collin is our miracle and at 2 1/2 years old he seems to be aware of it. He is a sweet, bright, snuggly boy, full of energy and admiration for his big brother, but he also has that occasional twinkle in his eye that says "I'm a little chef"

Boys will be Boys

September 23, 2003-November 21, 2010

I believed the phrase "Boys will be Boys" meant

*newborn baby boys pee on the wall every time you take their diapers off

*toddler boys prefer Thomas trains to Cabbage Patch Dolls, but still enjoy a daily dose of Dora

*preschool boys eat, live and breathe Star Wars

*primary school boys love Harry Potter and Magic Treehouse books, but will tolerate Junie B. Jones

*boys of all ages love Legos

November 22, 2010

The phrase Boys will be Boys actually means boys will jump off a piece of furniture causing fractures in both tibias. The only evidence of this is a mysterious limp, and that after two weeks of medical appointments, xrays, blood tests and an MRI, will be diagnosed as toddler fractures probably caused by an attempt to jump off something.

After growing up in a house where the G:B ratio was 4:2, God decided that I should have Will first, an intro to boys, the pre-algebra of boys if you will, before giving us Collin. Boy. All boy. The algebra of boys.

He started limping on Tuesday, November 9th. He didn't seem to be in pain at all but he was definitely limping. Mike took him in the following day and he was diagnosed with a limb length discrepancy, but that just didn't sit right. One leg grew a centimeter overnight, without the other leg?

We are blessed to have a wonderful friend, Mark, who happens to be an orthopedic resident at the Mayo Clinic. By the following Wednesday we were on the phone with a resident on the service of the limb length specialist at Mayo, Dr. Stans. He was concerned about an infection in the hip so we brought Collin to the ER at St. Marys. They took some standing xrays, ruled out an infection and sent us home with orders to see Dr. Stans. Dr. Stan's resident, Dr. Abdel called the following evening to tell us they found a fracture on the xrays and to report to the cast room in the morning.

I laid awake that night trying to imagine life with a two-year-old in a full leg cast.

When we got to the cast room the next morning they took more xrays and could not find the location of the fracture. What they saw on the xray could be evidence of a variety of things, simple things like infection or arthritis and scary things like leukemia. They found this on the right leg. He's been limping on his left. They then sent us to the children's lab for bloodwork.

I left the cast room wishing I was leaving with a two-year-old in a full leg cast.

On Friday night we learned that the blood counts were normal, ruling out leukemia! There were two other levels outside the normal range indicating a range of problems, this time on the infection/arthritis end of things. We were to be scheduled for an MRI on Monday.

We reported to St. Marys at 6:30 on Monday morning. At 8:30 I held my baby while they put him to sleep and handed him over to the professionals. We would be hearing something within the hour and would be there when he woke up. At 11:30 we were finally reunited, numb to the possibilities awaiting us.

At 5:30pm Dr. Stans called. They found fractures on both legs, explaining the limp on the left and the xray results on the right. Toddler fractures are common, but somewhat unusual in both legs, probably the result of jumping off something.

The phrase Boys will be Boys means finding relief that it's just two broken legs.

You've Got a Friend in Me

This year's Pixar Halloween theme was Toy Story!

Special thanks go to Grandma Sharpe for sending Buzz his space suit and to my godmother Joan Izzo for making the perfect cowboy shirt and vest!

We had a busy Halloween weekend!

Collin's school had a costume parade on Friday afternoon.
My friend Kate also signs her monthly paycheck over to Primrose. We don't teach together anymore so it was great to see her and her darling Fairies at the school's Halloween parade!

The Winters hosted us for pumpkin carving on Friday night and for a sleepover on Saturday night so we could party in up with locals at the annual neighborhood Halloween party.

Sunday night was trick or treating and Monday was detox day!

Apple Orchard Update

Apparently the Repede Family Blog has two disgruntled readers who are not on Facebook and want to see updated pictures of the boys. I'm not really sure what happened to the month of August, and I give myself the six weeks between the start of school and MEA weekend to let just about everything go to heck (laundry, eating habits, exercise and the blog...) Well, here we are, the Sunday night of MEA weekend and it is time to get back on track!

Vegas Baby!

4th (somewhat) Annual Mother's Day (or pretty close) Weekend in Las Vegas!

A highlight of our June trip to Phoenix was going to Las Vegas to meet up with my Aunt Linda and cousin Amy. For us, what happens in Vegas doesn't stay in Vegas. It either needs to be crammed in your suitcase or walked off when you get home! Our four days went something like this (not always in this order)

Eat. Drink. Shop. Relax. Repeat.

Arizona-June 2010

Here are a few of the highlights from our recent trip to Arizona.

The Main Event: Toy Story 3 in IMAX 3-D!

Everyone was dressed for the occasion-Pixar shirts and Movie Shorts.

(Movie Shorts-shorts with cargo pockets, necessary for sneaking candy into the theater when no one with a purse is invited!) Will, Uncle Kevin and Grandpa were the VIPs who saw the IMAX 3-D version. Mike, Grandma, Collin and I settled for the regular version a few days later. Poor Collin had to sit on my lap, his hair soaked with my tears as I watched Andy go off to college!

Collin LOVED swimming in the pool!

In keeping with the theme, Grandma got him a "Foody" towel.

Uncle Kevin selling soup with SARRC

Diving for Dollars.

This is a game Grandma invented. The player who recovers the most dive sticks gets to choose a numbered upside-down dixie cup containing money, anywhere from a penny to a dollar. The player with the most money at the end of the game wins five bucks. For those of you who are fans of Friends, it is was very reminiscent of the episode where Chandler invents cups to give Joey money! I believe the final score of Will vs. Grandma was $7.32 to $0.26.

Will and Collin at the Sugar Bowl in Scottsdale. Collin had been on a BRAT diet after some pretty nasty diapers. This was the first thing he'd seen that wasn't bananas, rice, applesauce or toast in a few days. He finished his sherbet AND Will's dreamsicle drink!

Costco cake to celebrate Father's Day, Bridget's return to Phoenix and my birthday. Rumor has it they are still eating it.

Collin eating one of Grandma's lemons, as if it was an orange.