Baden is walking.  He has really started to pick up speed.  He always walked around the furniture, but then he started walking a few steps between the two couches.  Now he is everywhere.  His favorite place to go is up the stairs.  He started climbing the stairs on his birthday.  He giggles and laughs as he climbs each step.  Then his giggling becomes even harder when he is caught.  The next step is putting shoes on him.  He hasn’t really worn shoes except when we went to the Grand Canyon and he was only three months old.  It was because of the elements more than anything else.  Otherwise, it’s barefoot or socks.  Baden loves walking and he gets so excited.  We do,too. Billy is especially excited about his little brother’s newfound ability.  Baden still will crawl, but I think walking has given him a whole new prospective on the world and it’s full of things he can’t wait to get into.

Another week, another visit to the orthopedic clinic.  This time around more x-rays, stitches out and a new cast.  The ankle looks great even though it a rainbow shade of yellow, green and purple.  Getting stitches out is not suppose to hurt well at least in the experiences I have had with getting stitches removed.  This time it hurt!  The nurse told me it will feel like a mosquito bite, but it felt more like a mad hornet stinging me.  I was so glad that was over with and hopefully I won’t have to do that again. I finally got to see my x-rays so I could finally see where I actually broke my ankle and how the hardware looks. I wouldn’t advocate breaking anything to get hardware placed in your body, but Billy thought it was pretty neat.   My last cast was blue, nothing that would standout.  I almost got a green cast until I mentioned to the nurse how about red, white and blue.  I thought maybe he could wrap some blue, white and red casting strips and it would look pretty cool. Well he had a step up on me. He brought out the “designer” cast material and now I am adorned with red, white and blue with stars.  I am a patriotic person not to mention a military brat and now a military wife so this suits me to a tee. 

Today was Billy’s first day of Pre-K. It is hard to believe that next year he will be starting kindergarten.  He is going to Good Shepherd Education Center again this year. He had a really good experience there last year and he was excited to go back. His first day went well although he would have rather played with the dinosaurs instead of the sand play area. I think it will be a good year.

With all of the excitement around here I have blogged about my injury and birthdays, but this entry should have been shared a while ago.  At the beginning of the month we went to Ohio to meet up wtih our friends, Larry and Brooke Tarbox.  We have been like family for 13 years now.  After our departure to Maryland, they moved to St. Louis.  Anyway, we always talked about meeting them in Ohio (that’s where Brooke is from) and going to Cedar Point.  This is the first year we have actually been able to plan this trip so it would work out okay with everybody’s schedules.  We had a great time at Cedar Point. It’s an amusement park on the shore of Lake Erie in Sandusky, Ohio.  The skies looked like it may rain, but it turned out to be an awesome day.  I spent a lot of time watching Billy ride all of the rides in Kiddie Kingdom and Planet Snoopy.  Brooke and her daughter, Morgan were great sports and hung out with me as I watched Billy and pushed Baden along in the stroller.  Bill, Larry and Grayson, Larry and Brooke’s son, were in roller coaster heaven as Cedar Point has several top rated coasters.  I didn’t get to ride a lot of the rides, but I did enjoy “racing” on Cedar Downs and getting soaked on the river rapids ride.  Billy had a blast and got to meet Snoopy.  I wish we would have had more time to spend because the time seemed to go by way too fast.  We did have a farewell breakfast at Cracker Barrel and then it was back to Maryland.  The boys are road warriors. They are great travelers.  We didn’t have to stop too many times and they were kept occupied with toys and coloring books and the most important thing, snacks! 

Today is Bill’s birthday.  He has been playing Mr. Mom lately and doing a great job.  I felt horrible this morning when he woke up and I had nothing for him. I had no card, no present and not even a cake.  He spent the day cleaning the house. How fair is that?  I was thankful that my friend called this afternoon and after I told her that it’s Bill’s birthday she offered to pick up something for him so I told her a cake and some balloons would be nice.  It was a nice surprise for him.  I am sure he would rather be at work then dealing with me and the boys, but he is doing a great job of making sure we are all taken care of.  I really am thankful for him and hope that his birthday wasn’t too bad.

Yesterday, I went to the Orthopedic Clinic to get a hard cast put on my ankle.  That sounds easy enough, but obviously not for me.  I had more X-Rays taken and they showed I had torn some ligaments so a cast was not all I got yesterday.  I had surgery yesterday afternoon to put in a plate and screws to help align my ankle so it will heal correctly.  I have another “soft cast” on and will have it on for four to six weeks.  It is non weight bearing so I will be back on the couch with my leg elevated and ice packs three to five times a day for 30 mins.  I was surprised how fast they did the surgery and I am glad that since I did have to have surgery that it is over. I am also very, very thankful that my mom will be here on Saturday.  If there was ever a time I needed her, it is now. I move very slowly with the crutches and while Billy can pretty much do a lot of things on his own, Baden is a different story.  I am also thinking that having a one story home would be really nice right about now.  More updates later.

I have a couple of signs in my kitchen. One says housework makes me want to croak and it has a cute picture of a frog on it and the other one says whenever I think about housework, I lay down until the feeling passes.  So from those two little signs you can tell I am not fond of housework.  I think I do an alright job considering I have two tornadoes running and crawling through the house all day, but now that I can’t do anything I really want to clean my house.  I tired unloading the dishwasher today, but could only do the dishes on the top rack and that was exhausting.  Bill took the boys out today and I got up and tried to sweep the floor.  It was driving me crazy to see Cheerios on the floor underneath Baden’s high chair.  I got it swept up, but couldn’t get it in the dust pan.  I am hoping that once I am all healed up that maybe this feeling will stay with me and I will be a better housekeeper and organizer, but I guess until then I will just lay down until the feeling passes.