The Veldmans: August 2014

Another crazy busy couple of weeks, that have been filled with a lot of fun. We were supposed to be heading up to the cabin this morning, but decided to spend the weekend at home. I couldn't be more excited. Weekends at home (where I'm not working) have been nonexistent this summer, so I'm really looking forward to this one.

Two weekends ago I worked, which meant Nate was a single stay at home dad. He and the kids had a lot of fun. They spent the weekend at the zoo, going to the library, and some time at the pool in our neighborhood. Last weekend Nate was again a single dad as I left Friday morning to spend the weekend in Des Moines. We had our girl cousin get together. My sister-in-law Sara was even able to make it up from Springfield, MO. We were so glad that she was able to join us. It was a fun weekend of relaxation and lots of laughs.

As for the kids, they have been busy at the park, the zoo, the Children's Museum, and daycare. Ava is still loving her new daycare. When Grandma asked her last night on Skype if she liked it she replied, "It's so awesome I can hardly believe it!". We love the changes that we've seen in her since starting there. I wish we would have found them sooner! Grant on the other hand isn't completely sold on this place yet, but is getting used to it. He's now eating, and took a 1 1/2 hour nap there last Wednesday. He still cries when Nate drops him off, but when asked about his friends at daycare he smiles and tells us their names. I think he enjoys his time there, it's just the the drop off is still a bit rough (although getting much better).

Grant's hand is healing nicely from the fire pit incident. The blisters are now gone. His hand looked pretty raw earlier this week, but the new skin is coming in nicely and his hand looks pretty darn good.

The rest of our weekend looks nice (and hot). Nate is currently golfing. We're hoping to make it to the pool this weekend, get together with neighbors for a party tomorrow afternoon/evening, and perhaps have a BBQ on Sunday. Wishing you all a wonderful weekend!

I don't think that I posted any pictures of Ava's room since we painted it and hung up the artwork that our sweet friend painted for us.

A little afternoon parade

On the train with their luggage at the Children's Museum

Ava making something tasty at the museum

Grant trying on a few hats

Aunt Lisa celebrated her 40th birthday on the 12th. I told her that this was the kids's response when I told them she was 40.

Grant loved wearing Ava's slippers around.

Cousin get together: Sara, Sara, Lisa, myself, Melissa, & Kristin

Nate and I were able to enjoy a beautiful night out at the Twins game Tuesday evening.

Since Nate took the day off, we decided to take a trip to Minnehaha Falls to show the kids the waterfall. They loved the waterfall, but more so enjoyed throwing rocks in the water and hiking.

This past week has been pretty crazy around here. Last week Ava and Grant spent their last day with Cyndi as their nanny. It was an odd feeling going to pick the kids up from there for the last time. I had a sense of sadness, mostly for Grant, as he had no idea what was about to change and I've been worried about his transition to a new center. Also because Grant has been there since he was 12 weeks old. Cyndi took great care of the kids and became kind of like family to us. She was there in case of an emergency, snuggled my kids when they were sick or tired, and kissed their owies. However, I knew that the change is what would be best for the kids.

With that being said, Ava is loving her new "school". She has her two new best friends (girls of course). She whined the past two days that I've picked her up because she didn't want to leave. She wanted to know why I couldn't come later when the other parents came so that she could stay and play longer. I couldn't be happier. Grant on the other hand cries at drop off, is refusing to eat breakfast and snack, and sleeping a whole 30-45 minutes at nap time (he takes 3 hr naps at home). I expected the transition to be rough for him. I'm hoping that in a couple of weeks he will settle into the routine and start enjoying his time there. The director and all of the teachers have been amazing in trying to make this transition go as smoothly as possible. They send me text pictures with updates to let me know how everybody is doing. I am so grateful for the kind and patient people that work there.

Not only has Grant had a tough week at daycare, but his week started out rough. We left for Cresco, IA on Saturday morning to meet some of my family down there for a weekend camping/tubing down the river trip. Aunt Darlene and Great Grandma were so nice and drove up for the day to watch my kiddos so that Nate and I could enjoy floating down the river. We had a great time, and we heard that the kids were good. A HUGE thank you to Aunt Darlene and Great Grandma for doing that. Nate and I really enjoyed our time away relaxing. That evening was a little crazy, chasing the kids around, trying to get dinner ready, etc. Ava made a friend and was invited to do sparklers with them. Long story short, she touched the end of the sparkler after it was done burning (not realizing it would still be hot since there was not spark coming off). She burnt her finger and came home crying. No, she was not there alone, Nate was supervising. So, after awhile the kids were down in Grandma & Grandpa's motorhome and Nate and I had a tent to ourselves. Good thing since this "4 person tent" barely fit our air mattress for 2 people. Anyway, the next morning we were packing up and were all outside. I was looking for something in the car when I heard my mom yell Grant's name. I turned around to see him sitting on the ground next to the firepit, his arm covered in ash and him crying.  He evidently fell backwards and caught himself with his hand in the firepit (which had been burning until probably 3 am). I could not calm the poor guy down. I forced Ibuprofen down him and we decided to head into the Decorah ER to have it looked at.  By the time we got there he had finally calmed down.  They cleaned it, put some bacitracin on it, and bandaged it up. So, he's been on antibiotics this week and had dressing changes twice a day. Yesterday the blisters were very big. I feel like today they may have gone down a little (or maybe I'm just trying to be optimistic).  The good thing is that it doesn't seem to bother him. I don't think that he feels it, because he was poking at it during bath tonight. I'm just hoping that it doesn't scar and hopefully by next week we can have the dressings off.

So that was the trauma for Sunday. Monday the trauma was spending the day at his new daycare.  Tuesday evening we got to spend some time with our friends Mike, Kristi, Cora, and Henry. We got together at a great park and had a picnic for dinner. On our way out Grant was running and his legs couldn't keep up with his upper body. Down he went, head first onto the sidewalk. Took the top layer of skin right off his head and gave him a little road rash on his knee. I am thankful we had no injuries today. If he showed up at daycare tomorrow with something new they would probably have child protective services there. Poor kid!

So that's our week in a nutshell. I'm hoping that this weekend and upcoming week will be a little more low key. I'm working my 12 hr days this weekend, so Daddy is in charge!

This is what Grant looks like when he tries to drink the yogurt out of his bowl.

He was exhausted coming home from Aunt Lisa & Uncle Brent's almost two weeks ago. We went down to pick up Ava. She spent the entire week there and attended VBS at their church. She had such a great time. We rock out to the VBS songs in the car all the time.

Superhero Ava. She got this stuff at VBS.

So this past week we've also been battling something else...Ants! Ava pointed one out to me last Friday. After that, I found MANY more. They consumed my whole day as I tried many different things to get rid of them. We now have the cleanest kitchen floor in the state...vacuuming and mopping almost nightly. I have a feeling that frequent occurrences (like pictured above) may have something to do with them. It grosses me out though!