Moving in the little brother

So school started back up again for this year and that means my littlest sibling moved into his college dorm room. So weird! Alex got a scholarship to play golf at Central Missouri State so we made the hour trip out to Warrensburg a couple weekends ago to help move him in and see the place.

 

Setting up the TV stand

Looking all grown up

 

Stocked up on snacks

 

Some of the helpers

 

The cutest helper

 

Obligatory parent pic

 Wheeling through the dorm halls on a rolly suitcase

 

Giant calendar

 

Forced Big sister and her family pic :)

His new home course

 

 

We tried eating dinner there but they were hosting a banquet that night. We drove into town and found a place with some yummo onion rings though so we were all good. :)

 

We miss having him around already, stopping by my parent's house is more quiet and empty. He came back in town to celebrate our birthdays with us which was awesome. I hope with him being somewhat close we get to see him often.

Until then I will continue to send him good tips like this to help him succeed in college. Such a good big sister. :)

PSA

So Matt and I ran into our first "what the heck is this?" moment as parents and I thought we would share. I know there are a lot of my friends who read my blog every so often and thought if we could give you a heads up you could be in the know as well. Rowan got these little raised bumps awhile ago that looked at first like bug bites. They were slightly red when they first appeared. She got one by her diaper line and two on her legs. After 2 weeks or so when they hadn't gone away I started getting suspicious that they weren't bites. They turned more skin colored over the 2 weeks and started looking almost like warts. They didn't seem to bother her. I tried "popping" one just to see and nothing popped and it just ticked her off. Then one appeared on her back and a few more on her legs, right around the time the one by her diaper line disappeared. They had tiny indentions in the middle of the bumps and almost a dark little dot right in the center. By then I was really curious and sure that these weren't bites. I texted our doctor friend Ingrid, googled wart like bumps and called our pediatrician. Then once I had an idea of what we were dealing with I took these pictures and brought them to work. I got a resounding yes from 3 doctors, our fellow and 2 other nurses that it was what I suspected. Rowan has Molluscum. It is a common skin condition caused by a virus. The bumps can vary in size and number but it can take the body up to a year or so to get rid of the virus completely. Until the body fights it off, these bumps will come and go appearing and healing on their own. They say if they bother the kid they can try topical treatments but all the meds are really harsh. The neonatologist I work with said she looked into them when her kid had the same thing and they were similar to chemo drugs and she steered away from putting that on her son's skin. It is best to just let it run its course. I was told to not let her share towels or anything damp with other kids and if one does pop, that is the only time it is contagious. So far I don't think Rowan's have popped, they all just kinda get reabsorbed and disappear. I was surprised how many of my co-workers said their kids had also had this and there is even a care card on Children's Mercy's website about it. It cracks me up that something so "common" is so foreign to me. Such is parenting I guess. So anyway, if you notice your kiddo developing bumps that don't quickly go away, this may be something to keep in mind. Here are the pics of what it looks like on Ro. And that is the end of your Public Service Announcement, have a happy Tuesday!

 

Video Update

My favorite things about Rowan lately...

-Playing Ring around the Rosey. She gets all excited to hold hands and fall down

-She loves to help me with chores, vacuuming is her favorite. She likes to push the button to turn it on and then runs around the room the whole time I am vacuuming. Usually a fit happens when we have to turn it off and put it away. She also is very interested in sweeping the floors.

-She gives a lot of hugs and kisses

-She is learning parts of her face and when we say nose, she scrunches her nose up blows in and out dramatically

-Her current favorite song is Macklemore's, Ceiling Can't Hold Us and she jams out baby style to it

-She has started picking up her binky and blanket and laying on the floor in her room when she is ready for nap. This doesn't happen all the time but the times is does is super cute.

-She likes to "golf"

-She still doesn't say no much, most everything is Ya! Ya! Matt will ask her ridiculous questions like, Do you like to eat dog poop?... and she will respond very sure of herself, Ya!

-She sings all the time with me now and it will actually calm her in the car when she is throwing a fit to sing songs together. She can be very picky though and will only sing along if it is something she feels like singing at that moment.

-She has learned to pant like a dog and will often pant instead of sign dog when she sees one now. This was great the first few times because she would just start panting and I would be so confused until I saw whatever dog she was looking at.

-She is a lot more independent eating now and gets proud of herself when she can scoop or stab her own food.

 

I need to take more videos of her but it's hard when I am by myself. As soon as she sees the phone come out she wants to hold it and stop whatever she is doing. I love watching the little clips I do record though, it helps me remember more of her personality at each stage than pictures do.

 

Shout out to my wonderful husband too, he celebrated his 29th birthday yesterday! Ro and I are lucky girls to have him in our lives :)

Following in daddy's footsteps

Well we officially have a new disc golf fan in the family. We have taken Rowan out to play with us a few times recently and she loves watching the discs fly. She also likes when we get them in the baskets and the chains clank. She got her own discs for her birthday from Leanne and she was copying us as we threw. Her biggest setback was that her little pink disc would fall right through the bottom of the pin when she would put it in the basket. She would pick it up and put it back in and then get confused when it fell out on the ground again. She made it to hole 17 on this day before we headed for the car to get home and nap. I love her company these days, she is so much fun to watch explore her surroundings and experience new things!

 Disc selection is very important

Found a good one!

Found a turtle!

 

Matt climbing a tree to get help some guy recover his disc, never leave a disc behind!

Watching the pro

 

Loose Park

I have been wanting to take Rowan to this park all summer. We finally took advantage of a nice day and made it out there. This park is special to Matt and I because this is the place he proposed. Then we took our engagement pictures, wedding pictures and maternity pictures here. We have some history with this park. I used to love feeding the ducks with my mom when I was little and the tradition continues on with Ro. We fed ducks, walked around, sat in our special spot and played on the playground. It was quite the nice little Sunday afternoon.

Playing peek-a-boo on the bench