TGIF Photo edition

A fairly good week. I stayed home from work yesterday. Asa was up from 2-6AM yesterday morning with severe leg and foot cramps. His growing pains have been more frequent and severe lately. I took him to Doctor yesterday to have him take a physical look at him and confirm that it is indeed growing pains. We are pretty sure that is what it is, however, the waking up in the night crying and no appetite is not common. Doctor felt is was necessary to have blood work done to rule out anything serious, and if that comes back OK, then we will see about Asa seeing a podiatrist about his huge flat hobbit feet. He doesn't have much of an arch and that could be a contributing factor. It was Asa's first time for a blood draw. LUCKILY he had seen me have it done a few months back and was pretty prepared. He sat on my lap in the lab chair and the 2 sweet techs had him fairly calm. The tech inched the needle closer and Asa looked a bit bewildered, but I had given him a sucker to suck on to try to take his mind off of it. The needle went in and all was good, but no blood was coming out. Asa's eyes started to tear up, but he never cried. He just said it stung. About 30 seconds goes by and still no blood. The tech started digging around with the needle still in his little arm and Asa was whining. I was sick to my stomach. Having dried up crusty veins myself, I knew that this was going to be difficult for him. Still no blood. Some more digging and blood started to flow. Slowly. It finally stopped with only a tiny bit in the vial. I sighed, knowing that it wasn't going to be enough and they would have to stick him again. Sure enough, the women came back and looked so sad. They would have to get more. They did the other arm, and this time Asa cried. He didn't scream, he was so brave. His little body shook as they picked him again, and more digging. The other tech had to take over and still no go. It seemed like 5 minutes had passed before they finally found a vein and blood started flowing. They finally had enough. Asa was a trooper. I was so proud of him. He was so still and didn't move an inch when they were digging in his arm. We were done and ready to leave when a little blond girl poked her head inside the lab. Asa instantly stopped crying and waved to her. He loses his mind when he sees a cute blond girl. Asa wouldn't talk about it afterward. I was telling him how brave he was and he could tell Beya and Daddy and Sissy about it. He ignore me. Finally, last night in bed he said "Mum, I had surgery today on my both my arms and it wasn't too bad!". I cried. It was a horrible experience for me. I was just so thankful that he doesn't have to be poked by needles and go through chemo like so many other children have to endure. Please pray/keep good thoughts for us as we are waiting for the blood work to come back.

Mom is in Goldendale this week. I miss her when she is gone, but I do love having Sissy to myself sometimes. Grama has watched the kids 2 afternoons this week which has left me with some alone time. Wednesday, Asa preferred to go to Grama's instead of getting a Christmas tree. He was too tired. Another symptom of growing pains? I told him that we were going to get it if he didn't go with me and he didn't care. Josh and I went alone and it took about 2 hours, going from lot to lot looking for the perfect tree. I prefer the small Charlie Brown tree, but Josh went for years without a tree when he was growing up, that he likes a bigger tree. We had a great time together. Josh had said that Asa would probably be mad that we actually went and got a tree with out him and to tell Asa that Santa had actually delivered the tree to us. I thought that was kind of a fun idea! When I picked up Asa he said "so what kind of tree did you and daddy get?". I said "maybe Santa dropped the tree off instead?" He said "no he didn't, you and daddy got the tree." What a fun wrecker. He did help me decorate then entire tree though, from start to finish, which was about 2 hours, since he would mainly play space ship with the ornaments.

Tomorrow, the Holiday Brewfest is going on in downtown Portland. I have never been before since it is always on the same weekend every year when Joshua's employer holiday parties are held. Since both of Joshua's holiday parties were canceled this year, we are going to the brewfest. I'm VERY excited to say the least.

My little storm trooper decorating the tree with me. Even though he is a storm trooper, he has informed us that he prefers to be called Hans Solo instead of Asa. This coming from a kid that has never seen Star Wars before. Josh would LOVE for him to watch it with him, but Asa says it's not age appropriate when Josh "happens" to have it on the TV.

playing space ship.

This was Thanksgiving at Sissy's. Valentina was pulling out ornaments and the ones that she especially liked, she would scrunch up her face, hug them to her lips and say "oooooohhhhh". I just look at this girl and she makes me either smile of laugh.

trimming the tree.

Thanksgiving day. Valentina gets her good looks from my Sissy.

Sissy's

More surprise pictures of Asa's.

Surprise

surprise.

Sissy's pretty table at Thanksgiving.

This evening, Asa and I are going on a date to see the Christmas tree in our downtown park. Maybe I can convince Sissy and Valentina to go too.

That's all peeps! Have a great weekend!

Shake N' Bake!