I heart nerds

Most of you know that my husband is a nerd. This is not a negative thing, he categorizes himself as such. He loves me because I love him in spite of his nerdy ways (I like to say I love him because of his nerdy ways - it gets me more points!). I know all the nerd lingo so as to appear "cool" to all the non-married nerd friends, etc. I am very tolerant.

Last night, Aaron and I went to dinner and to see Harry Potter (finally!). I got home from work, showered and did my hair over so as to look marginally attractive for the evening. Aaron did shower, but didn't shave (fine, I don't mind that most of the time) and got dressed. I wore a nicer shirt and jeans with (gasp!) a bracelet! Aaron wore his cargo shorts, tennis shoes and his new Ork shirt from Games Day 2009. Ummm...not what I would have chosen, but that's ok. I made fun of him for it in the car, of course.

We had a great dinner and enjoyed the movie (although the book is definitely better in this case). It was getting dark as we left the theater and was very dark when we finally got home. The stars were out and the moon was up - both always seem brighter out by the Bay where we live. We got out of the car and held hands as we walked up the driveway (cue "awwwww!" here).

I said "It's such a nice night!" expecting a response similar to the following:

"It is! It was so much fun spending it with you!"

or even

"It is! And you are more beautiful than the stars and moon!"

Instead Aaron's response was, "Pizza dude's got 30 seconds!"

Umm, what? Apparently this romantic moment reminded my sweet husband of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie in which the dialogue is as follows:

Donatello: Nice night.
Michelangelo: Mmm-hmm. Pizza dude's got thirty seconds.
Donatello: Hey, Mikey...You ever think about what Splinter said? About, y'know...Us not havin' him?
Michelangelo: ...Well, time's up. Three bucks off.

Liam's Minnesota Adventure!

I went to Minnesota with my grandparents when I was pretty little, and we still tell stories from that trip! Ron and Meg had planned a trip to visit Aunt Laura and Uncle Chris in Grand Rapids, MN a few weeks ago. We were in need of a babysitter, and they offered to take Liam with them on their trip! He was gone for four days and had a wonderful time!

Liam with the "World's Biggest Walleye"!

Tractor ride with Uncle Chris!

Giving Uncle Chris a ride on the Ranger!

Petting the cows with Uncle Chris!

Liam and his daisies!

Cows!

Playing bocce with Auntie Laura!

Once upon a time...

Liam is quite the storyteller lately. He wanted to tell me a story in the car yesterday morning. It went something like this:

"Once upon a time, a whale smashed my eye."

"The doctor couldn't fix it because the dinosaur fixed it."

"The end."

Live from the ER...

Well, not "live" exactly. We are now four days post-ER and slowly recovering. I woke up on Thursday morning at about 2am with extreme back and abdominal pain. I tried going to the bathroom, lying back down, drinking water. Nothing seemed to work. I finally woke Aaron up and told him that something was wrong. I decided to take a hot shower to see if that would relax things and lessen the pain. I used up all the hot water and still there was no change in the pain. I called the Bellin ask-a-nurse and was told to wait two hours and then go into the ER if the pain was still there. I made it about another 45 minutes before deciding that we needed to go.

My sister was here, thank goodness, and she stayed with Liam while we dropped Max off at Ron and Meg's. We got to the ER around 3:45am. I got right in and they started doing blood tests and urine tests to see if I had an infection. I was super nauseous during that time and threw up a few times. The pain started to get worse. The tests came back negative for infection, so they ordered a CAT scan. I almost puked as they wheeled my bed down the hall. They gave me some powerful narcotics when I got back from the scan, and that finally started to take the pain away. We waited about a half hour for the results. The doctor came in and said that I had a massive kidney stone! It was 8mm x 8mm x 4mm - which is quite sizable I guess! They couldn't break the stone up with ultrasound therapy because it was too big, so they scheduled me for surgery ASAP!

The stone had moved from my kidney to just above my bladder and was almost completely blocking fluid from passing through. The pain was horrible as all of that fluid built up. They gave me another dose of pain medication while I waited for surgery. I went into the OR around 10:30am. I was asleep for the laproscopic procedure, and spent about an hour in recovery. I was able to go home about two hours later. I have a temporary stent in to prevent blockage from swelling, and that will be removed tomorrow.

It was quite the adventure! That's enough visiting the hospital for me for now! Birthing a child and then birthing a kidney stone 7 weeks later is not my idea of fun! So, I apologize for the lack of updates! Hopefully now things will get back on track!

Ode to a mustache

My mom tells the story of how freaked out I was when my dad (who always wore a mustache when I was little) shaved his facial hair off. I believe I started crying because I didn't recognize him! I wouldn't recognize him with facial hair now, but back then it was his look!

Aaron has only shaved his facial hair off a handful of times since I've known him. He didn't always have a mustache and goatee, but I happen to think he looks really good with both. Well, he decided to shave most of it off the other night and surprised me while I was cooking dinner. I wasn't sure how Liam would react when he first saw him, so we kind of kept Aaron at a distance at first. Liam looked at him like normal, looked away, and then looked back really fast with this confused look on his face! He said "why did he take that off?" He couldn't quite figure out what exactly was different, or was so surprised that he couldn't think of the word "mustache"! It was pretty cute. He was pretty hesitant to go near Aaron for most of the night, and actually tiptoed around him in the kitchen to get a drink of milk! Aaron ran an errand to the store later on that night, and when he got back Liam said, "Did his hair grow back?" :)

And our sweet little guy! He's getting so big already, and so cute!

Name Game

Liam can tell you that his name is "Liam James Renquin." Sometimes he tries to trip you up by saying that his name is "Liam James Penguin!" It depends on the day! So, yesterday I thought I would see if he's picked up that Aaron and I have different names besides "Mommy" and "Daddy." Apparently, he hasn't caught on yet.

"Liam, what is my name?"

"Mommy."

"Mommy what?"

"Mommy James Renquin!"

FYI: Daddy is also "Daddy James Renquin." :)

Baby Buddies

My good friend Kelsey had I had fun sharing our pregnancies!

Here are our bellies at about 36 weeks for me and 32 weeks for Kels!

And here are the babies! Max is 6 weeks old and Taylor Elizabeth is 4 days old!

My chunker dwarfs little Taylor!

They sure do look cute together, and both sets of parents are planning their wedding already!

Summer

He's a talker...

I told Liam I was going to stop for some coffee today.

"Are you going to get it at the gas station, Mom?"

"No, I'm going to get it at McDonald's."

"Ooooh. I see, I see," he said!

Em-o-Ens

I'm a little late reporting on it, but Liam went to see his first movie in a theater a few weeks ago! Aaron and I took him to see Pixar's Up. He was SO excited to go and talked about it all day at daycare. We explained that there would be a really big TV and lots of chairs.

"And the lady will turn the TV on, Mom?"

"Yep, she will, Bud."

He got to choose his own movie theater candy with a little direction from mom and dad! He eventually chose "chocolate em-o-ens" (m&ms!). He sat very quietly for most of the previews, but got a little scared when the new Ice Age preview came on. He sat in my lap for just a little while and then sat in his own seat for the show. He remembered to use his whisper voice for most of the movie, but broke out into regular voice or yelling only a few times. It was pretty cute.

Of course, when it was over he wanted to see it again so we told him that maybe we could go again another day. We were going to wait until it came to the budget theater, but then Grandpa Ron and Grandma Meg decided that they might like to go and see it with him. So, he got to go again this week! He brought his own money and bought...you guessed it...em-o-ens.

:)

Maxwell

Max's umbilical cord fell off after only about a week at home. His belly button looked pretty normal for awhile after that, but then started to poke out a bit when he cried or pooped. Then it started to get bigger, and we decided to take him to the doctor to see what was up. Well, he has an umbilical hernia, which is pretty common I guess, and they don't do anything with it unless he still has it when he's 2 or 3. The doctor said that they usually close up on their own. It doesn't seem to cause him any pain, so that is reassuring. It sure doesn't look comfortable, but if the doctor says not to worry then I guess I'll have to trust him!

Max had to be weighed at his appointment yesterday, and I'm always anxious to see how big he's gotten. I was thinking maybe 13 pounds or so. NOPE. This kid weighs 15 pounds at 6.5 weeks old! What a chunk! The doctor said that he is a big kid (no kidding!) but that he's in proportion and that we shouldn't worry! I have to look at Liam's baby book to see what he weighed at this age. He was a big kid too, but I think Max is winning the baby rolls contest!

Vegas Vacation

Well, it's not Machu Picchu, but it is a trip so we are excited! Aaron and I are going on a quick trip to Vegas in October. The tickets are booked and I'm already packing. Well, maybe not really but I could be. I went to Vegas for spring break with some friends my senior year of college and had a great time. I didn't get to do a lot of the site seeing that I had hoped to, so this trip will give me an opportunity to be touristy. Plus, it's the start of all the trips I want to take Aaron on - to places I have been and want to show him. London is next on the list.

I stayed off the Strip the first time, which wasn't bad, but this time we're staying on the end of the Strip at The Stratosphere. There were some options for hotels in the middle of the Strip that we considered, but The Stratosphere has much nicer rooms and I really don't mind taking a bus or a taxi wherever we plan to go. We'll visit Hoover Dam one morning and are having fun planning out everything else we want to do. Can't wait!

Mommy needs caffeine

Liam had some fruit snacks in the car on our way into town this morning. I stopped to get some coffee for myself before dropping him off and asked how his fruit snacks were.

"Good," he said.

"How is your coffee, Mom?"

Cute.

*Side note: why does our baby sleep for 5 hours straight for any grandparent, but only 2-3 for his actual parents?

Back in the Habit

(Which is also the title of the second Sister Act movie. Now that makes me want to watch it...)

Well, maternity leave has ended and I'm back to work today! I'm actually looking forward to spending the day getting caught up at work and then going home to the children. I'm always a better mom when I have a little time away. Liam was a little clingy at daycare this morning (I think he could tell something was different), but is looking forward to going home to play with Auntie Kimmy tonight! Auntie is babysitting for Max for the rest of the summer! We had just decided to send him to daycare after my leave ended because we couldn't find anyone to watch him, but then Kimberly asked if she could come! We always have a good time when she's visiting, so it should be a fun couple of weeks! I'm glad Max gets a little more time at home before starting daycare, too.

Liam has a Star Wars book called "Watch Out for Jabba the Hutt" that he picked out all by himself at the store (yes, Daddy is proud!). He loves to read it before bed and he really studies the story and pays close attention. Last night he decided that he should call everyone a "battle droid."

"Goodnight, battle droid!"

"See you later, battle droid!"

"Are you a battle droid?"

Crazy kid.

A red, white and blue day...

Happy 4th!