Pumpkin Time

Happy Halloween!

Last week we went to the pumpkin parch and carved pumpkins.

 

 

What a blast!

Our Lucky Charms

Way to go Giants! Another World Series won!

Good thing we aren’t superstitious.

You’re probably wondering how the giants wining and us being superstitious have anything to do with each other. Little did you all realize but Matthew and I apparently are the KEY to their successes! Honest, I have proof. In 2010 Mallory Rose was born, that year the Giants FINALLY won the World Series (they hadn’t won since 1954)… now in 2012 Wesley Robert was born and once again the Giants won. I see a trend developing. Pretty sure that if any of the die-hard fans or the owner of the team catch wind of our little sure fire way to have a winning season, we might be propositioned to keep popping these kids out!

Another Mallory Moment

Mallory was standing outside eating her popsicle (because everyone wants to have a popsicle when it’s cold and rainy, right?) Any way she poked her head inside and told me, “Momma, Sonny has no hands, hes gots only feets.” I told her she was right and held up my hands and asked her, ‘who does have hands?’ (Thinking she would obviously tell me that I did). She replied with “Moose have NO hands, silly momma.”

What was I thinking?

Mallorys Mind

  Mallory has been cracking me up lately, the way her mind works and the things she says are priceless. The other day we were invited over into our neighbors backyard so that Mallory could see the HUGE, beautiful spider that was living on her tomato plant. We oooo’ed and ahhhh’ed at it and then our neighbor asked Mallory if she wanted to name it. So Mallory looked and looked at the spider as if trying to pick the perfect name, then said, ‘yes, her name is Piss!’ My neighbor and I died! We were laughing so hard. I don’t even know where she heard the word piss. In the end I had her re-name the spider and she chose the name ‘girl’. A much more appropriate word to come out of a 2 year olds mouth.

The other night while driving home Wesley started coughing/gagging, so I asked Mallory ‘is Wesley ok?’ Without a moment’s hesitation she said ‘yeah Wesley’s fine.’ Then she thought for a moments and said ‘Actually momma, it’s dark outside so I cannot see him.’ That killed me. It’s like she realized that her previous statement wasn’t really true because she didn’t really know if he was fine. Sweet girl.

Lastly, during that same night-time car ride she saw the moon and said in her sweet, husky, sing-song little voice ‘Moon are you coming home with me?’  Once again she was quiet for a few seconds (will wonders never cease) and then told me ‘momma the moon has no mouth so it cannot answer me.’ Love this little girl.

8 Months Old

I can’t believe another month has gone by in a blink of an eye! My little man is already 8 months old! He is just the most wonderful little guy. He is turning into a little busy-body, wanting to touch any and everything that anyone is holding. He has managed to pull himself upright from a sitting position all on his own twice in the past few days. He loves to stand and really wants to walk and chase after Mallory (even though he isn’t even crawling).  When he’s sitting up he’ll move into the crawling position and rocks/reaches, then always flops forward onto his belly. But when he’s on his belly that’s when the trouble begins… he twists, turns and wiggles (almost like an army crawl) and evens climbs over things (legs, books, toys, pets) as long as he can grab it he’ll yank himself over it… nothing is technically ‘out of his reach’ any more.  He started waving last week! It’s sooooo stinking cute. He’s clapping too (and is even doing it in him highchair which confuses me because I don’t know if he’s just clapping to be happy or if he’s trying to tell me ‘more’ in sign language).  This little man is a TALKER! (Granted he’s spent the past 8 months listening to Little Miss Chatter-Box so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised). He squeals, coos, ‘baaaabaaaabaaaaa’s’, gaaaaaaa’s, blows raspberries, and screams (like a high-pitched girly yell).  He eats solids like a champ and would rather have a fist full of meat/veggies then anything puréed on a spoon. He’s gotten great at pinching little pieces of food then proceeds to shove most of his fist in his mouth when he goes to eat them. I weighed him a few days ago, he was 19.8. What a tank. (Looking back, Mallory was 21 pounds at 9 months… looks like we have another moose on our hands).

Woo Hoo

Great news…. I don’t need surgery! I spent the morning at the doctors and learned a ton about my knee. First off, when I got there they sent me over to get a few radiographs done. I had had an MRI done already, but the doc wanted some views of what my knee was doing in a standing/weight barring position. Then I headed back over to the doctor’s office.  He then informed me that back in 98 I not only had I had ACL reconstruction on my left knee but also PCL!!!!! I didn’t know that. Apparently tearing both your ACL and PCL is fairly rare and takes TOTAL dislocation of the knee and about 40-70 degrees of rotation. No wonder it hurt so badly. He then went on to ask a ton of questions about how often there is pain, swelling, immobility of my knee(s)…  all of which was vertically never (besides this injury now, and occasional stiffness when the weather changes).  He manipulated my knees and we chatted about my hyper-flexibility. He even did a few tests/checks to rule out Ehlers-Danlos syndromes (since having hyper-flexible joints is the number one sign). No worries I’m ‘normal’ just very ‘bendy’. He watched me walk and then we went through my MRI and radiographs. They look GREAT! The surgical repairs are perfect, the meniscus is clean and I have only one little arthritic change. Which according to him, is unheard of. Apparently when people tear their ACL and PCL, without fail, by the 10 year mark there is significant (and painful) arthritic changes at the ventral attachment of the PCL… I have NONE! The fact that I haven’t had swelling or pain on a daily basis since my surgery is unheard of, and the fact that I don’t have degeneration of the meniscus and am not riddled with arthritic changes is mind blowing to him… and according to all the ‘texts books’ I should not be able to run like I do. It’s as if my body never had an injury… let alone a MASIVE, potentially physically limiting injury! All wonderful news. The injury that I am currently dealing with has nothing to do with past issues! It just is a patellar (knee cap) injury that will improve with rest!!!!!!! I asked him if I should stop running and he said, “you never should have been running, but since you have been for the past 15 years and your body doesn’t mind it, take some time to let your knee heal and then go ahead and get back into it…’!!!!!!! WooHooo! He did recommend some inserts that should go into all my shoes and potentially some quadriceps muscle exercises… but that’s it! Cool Huh?!?!?

Oh and apparently the bendy-joint gene is hereditary and bendy people who play sports almost always tear their ACL, so we’ll have to watch and see what the kidd-o’s are like…. We might have to get them to strengthen their quads before playing physical sports. (Pretty sure Mallory can already squat as much as I can…. This might be frightening)

Another Stiller Parenting Moment

Pretty sure this goes against just about everything 'they' recommend to reduce the risk of SIDS. It's truly a wonder that Wesley has survived 8 months of Mallory-filled-life. Between being climbed on, pushed over, picked up by the head, buried in blankets/toys/book etc. he is bound to be one tough little man!
Oh and by the way, the MRI results were sort of 'inconclusive'... so I'm going to see a sports medicine specialist Thursday morning. Still no running. Sigh.

Knee Update

For all those who are asking, the MRI results are 'Still under review' according to my dr.'s e-mail yesterday. Pretty sure that next time I need a MRI I'm just going to go to over of the referral vet hospitals near here...those patients get their results that SAME day. It's almost been a week! Darn human medicine. ;)
The knee itself is doing better. I can walk and bend down ok. It'll start hurting if I keep it bent or straight for too long, if I go on a walk for over 15 minutes, or try to stand up after being in a squatting position. So better, yes. But still a pain in the booty.

All Grown Up

Mallory started calling herself 'Malla' about a year ago... which we all thought was just the cutest nic-name ever. Well, about 2 weeks ago she told us "it's not Malla, it's Mallory!" Our little girl is growing up too fast and has an opinion (or 2) about EVERYTHING!