So much has happened. . .

First of all - in all the madness of matching and finding out where we'll be living, I forgot to publicly wish Truman a SUPER amazing HAPPY birthday! This year really snuck by for me. I still think he is a teeny tiny baby and treat him like one - but he turned a whole year old anyway. Good thing he isn't too unmanageably heavy because he still loves to be held. He is learning some new communication forms, including nodding his head yes and shaking it no. It just completely cracks me up - along with anyone else who sees him do it. He makes the funniest faces and is an honest-to-goodness bundle of fun. He is running and starting to climb. He almost never cries, and when he does it is easily remedied with food, hugs, or a nap. For the first time this week I noticed he has really started to eat a lot more solid foods. He also learned how to drink from a straw. The first day that he learned this trick, he insisted on doing it over and over again and proceeded to completely soak two diapers in a row. I love that he thinks it is the coolest thing ever to guzzle his liquids that way. He loves to wave "hi" and "bye bye", sometimes even at the appropriate times. He is our first baby to really show a love for soft, snuggly blankies and toys. Guthrie has this little panda that he got from build-a-bear a while back and Truman finds it and carries it around with him, stopping to give it hugs right up against his face every so often. If I sit on the floor, he will almost always come plop his booty on my lap and he will stay with me down there and play with a toy or just keep me company for a while. He has been sleeping through the night pretty consistently for a while now. He goes back and forth between two naps and one nap, all depending on what time he wakes up in the morning and how long his first nap ends up being. He is adorable and happy during the day, but really lights up at 3:00 each day when the big kids get home from school. Overall, we are all SO in love with him still. I love how protective all of the kids are over him and the way everyone talks to him in baby voices still, even Sullivan.

Happy 1st birthday, choo choo!


During Tru's birthday weekend, we took the kids to Staten Island where our friends, The Sanders, live. They were generous enough to let all 6 of us sleep at their house for the night. We were able to leave the kids with a sitter (the first time since we moved to NY!!!) and go with Kirk and Brooke into the city to have dinner with friends to celebrate matching and moving onto residency. We had a great time.

The next day we took the kids to a children's museum and then to the park to eat pizza and birthday cake for Tru.


This past week we had Kyle's parents come visit us in New York. We wished we had more time to spend with them, but it ended up being all business. Kyle and I flew to Wisconsin (we took Tru) to look for a new home while Grandma and Grandpa took care of the kids. They were amazing and handled the chaos of our crazies with total grace. We are SO thankful for our families and all the help they give us. We did find a house, but only barely. The realtor scared us when we first met with her on Friday. She informed us that over 40% of their home inventory in the area had sold over the past 2 weeks because of the expiring tax credits. I'll admit that I was not too thrilled with the first batch of homes we saw. When I initially walked into our house, my first thought wasn't "oh I love this home." It was more like "I don't hate this one!" Our realtor was very patient and obliged us with a second run-through the home an hour or two after the first time and I knew then that we would be VERY happy there. We put in our offer and found out the next morning it was accepted outright. Now comes the hurtle of getting the financing put together and planning for a big move.

The house is in a large subdivision full of similar home (think cookie-cutter). We knew it was the right place for us, though, because of the sheer number of kids running and playing in the neighborhood. I wanted a place where kids would be welcomed and drivers would be careful for balls and bikes in the roads. This place fits that description perfectly. The house is on 1/3 acre, which gives us plenty of room for a trampoline and swing set. Its 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, with a nice big family room on the lower level. The kitchen has a great island with room for 4 bar stools for kids to hang out while we make dinner or whatever else we'll do in the kitchen. The previous owners must have had a dog because they installed this little iron fence at the bottom of the deck stairs. I am sure they used it as a dog run, but I'll probably really enjoy it as a Truman-run. It is a little strange to us that none of the yards are really fenced in, and the kids just use the connecting backyards as one big play place. So different than our Arizona lifestyle that we were expecting, but nice in its own way.

I don't have any pictures of this next part, but will share anyway. We found the house on Friday, thankfully, because Saturday ended up being an emotional and crazy day. Kyle and I took our time waking up and getting ready in the morning. At one point, Kyle saw Truman pick up a penny from the floor near the bed in the hotel room. He took it away, but apparently Tru had another penny tucked into his mouth already. A moment later, Kyle looks behind me and says "he's choking." *PANIC*. I was closer to Tru, so I picked him up and immediately put his belly over my arm and started back blows. It was probably only a few seconds, but when the penny didn't come out immediately REAL panic set in. I knew he couldn't breathe! I should have handed him over to Kyle (who tells me he was trying to get me to move out of the way and let him have the baby. . .but in my panic I honestly don't remember any of that). I put my finger way back in Tru's mouth to feel for the object. At the VERY back of his throat I felt the penny. I actually thought I could get it out, so I tried to use my finger as a hook (he's still not able to breathe at this point), and only succeeded in moving it slightly to the side. At that exact moment, Tru swallowed and down the penny went. I felt completely relieved because now he was able to breathe and aside from crying and a little sputtering, he seemed fine. I did have a thought that maybe the penny could be stuck, but figured we would most likely just need to watch for it to come out the other end.

Kyle didn't agree with me. He made a phone call to our realtor (whose husband is a pediatric internist) and asked his opinion. Together they agreed that we needed to at least have an x-ray to be sure the penny made it all the way to his stomach and wasn't caught on the way down. I thought it was probably unnecessary, but went along with it.

A few hours and an x-ray later, we were wheeled from the walk-in clinic at the hospital to the E.R. to wait for the pediatric GI doc to let us know what to do next. The x-ray showed the penny lodged in his esophagus at the level of his clavicles - clearly NOT in his stomach. They ended up putting him under general anesthesia and intubating him (to prevent the penny from falling into his trachea when they removed it) and using an endoscope to view and ultimately remove the penny. What an experience. I was heartbroken and worried for Truman, but honestly nothing could be worse than watching a baby choking and thinking he was going to die - so I think we dealt this the endoscope part pretty well. He had a tough time calming down after the anesthesia. He cried in my arms for about 30 minutes. I think he wanted the IV out, but they wouldn't take it out until they saw him take liquids by mouth. His throat must have been sore from the intubation and it took quite a while for us to convince him to drink some apple juice. We did eventually get some down and they unhooked him and let us take him home. It took a FULL day before the loopy, wobbly effects of the anesthesia seemed to wear off and he is obviously 100% okay. I, however, am changed forever.

I completely freak out now at the sight of anything small enough to go in his mouth. Who knew I would become a completely paranoid mother after 8 years of relatively easy-going parenting?

I am SO thankful Heavenly Father kept him safe and thankful for the sweet docs and nurses who took care of us. They were wonderful and a great introduction to the hospital in the town we'll be living in for the next three years.