Matthew's Second Birthday

We celebrated Matthew's second birthday today with family. I still can't believe that my baby boy will be two on Wednesday! The weather today was gorgeous and we spent most of the afternoon outdoors playing with toys and watching Matthew explore. As expected, he loved his cake and did a much better job of eating it than last year. He opened some gifts and went right back to playing. Once everyone left he crashed for his afternoon nap a little later than usual. He is still sleeping now (over three hours later)! Ryan has spent a few hours a day this week building Matthew's swing set and today we finally moved it to it's "home" in the backyard for him to finish. We would like to thank our friends and family for their support and love. Matthew is truly blessed to have such a wonderful group of people surrounding him on a daily basis. Before we know it he will be in kindergarten...but let's tackle potty training first! Enjoy some birthday pictures at our photo site.

Race for the Cure

This has been a very busy week in the Chenery household. Ryan took Matthew to Binder Park Zoo on Thursday to be with me and my first graders on our field trip. He loved feeding the giraffes and laughed with amazement when they ate the cracker from his hand. He also liked the monkeys, peacocks and the prairie dogs. Last night we had a pre-race dinner at Dave VanDam's house and that gave Matthew the opportunity to play with Jack and Brady. They had a blast!! Today Matthew participated in his second Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure 5k. Granted he was pulled in a wagon, but he toughed out the rainy, cold morning and windy conditions to walk it with me, Ann, Heidi, Jack, Matt and some other friends. We were walking in the memory of Nancy VanDam (Matt's mom and Heidi's mother-in-law and a former co-worker and friend of mine), who just passed away in early April after a very LONG battle with breast cancer. This is the second year we have walked this race. I am glad I can take Matthew along with me and let him see what this is all about and how much we care about this cause. We look forward to this tradition on a yearly basis. Tomorrow we will be celebrating Jack's fourth birthday with a gathering at the park! I enjoy this kind of busy!

Ryan leaves on Thursday for his annual fishing trip up north with his buddies, so Matthew and I are looking forward to a quiet weekend home together. We are keeping our fingers crossed yet again that Ryan will get on this upcoming call for Wisconsin. The last call was not for his trade, but this one is suppose to be. He is #2 at the hall for this traveling position. If he is called to go, he would leave right after he returns from his trip. We are hoping that this is it. It is hard to get excited for every new call because we have been let down so far. If this one doesn't work out, we know there will be more. So, we are asking that you keep your fingers crossed too and that this is "the one". Once my computer gets fixed, I will post pictures of the walk and the zoo.

Happy Mother's Day

We hope everyone had a great Mother's Day!

New pictures

I have posted new photos at our site for those of you interested. There are two albums. Some are from Easter and the others are just silliness. Ryan finished up his short one month shut-down at the power plant and is once again laid off. He is #112 on the list for a placement through the union hall, so we play the waiting game once again. At least the weather is a lot nicer and he can spend some time on the boat. We look forward to getting Matthew out on the water again this year. Maybe this year he will hold a pole over the water and try his luck. There is a slight possibility that he will go to Wisconsin. Rumor has it there will be a call out in a week or so. If they call our hall looking for workers, Ryan is on the list to go. I only have 38 more school days (who's counting though...) or roughly seven weeks, so if he went it wouldn't be too long until Matthew and I could go stay for a while. I had a very nice birthday yesterday (29 isn't that bad!). Matthew and Ryan surprised me at school with some roses and a little playtime with my other kiddos. They were pretty excited to see Matthew and once Matthew warmed up, he was eager to play with the rest of the kids! We met some friends for a small dinner and ice cream too. We look forward to spending the 70 degree day outdoors today before the 50 degree weather and cold rains blanket the area for a few days. Ryan will celebrate his 31st birthday on Monday too! Sorry for the long delay between posts, but enjoy the pictures!

Back to Work!

Ryan went back to work last Monday and is slowly getting back into the routine of working. Last week was all about training, background checks, and drug testing to make sure he was not a terrorist! He along with 600 other workers started. The other 600 started this week! This is a huge job, but a short one. The goal for the project to be finished is April 21st. He should start his twelve hour days on Sunday and work every day until the final date. Then he will be laid off again. Hopefully the economy will be improving ever so slightly to have more jobs available through the union. If not, Ryan will play the waiting game again, but at least this time he can utilize the boat on the boring days!

Matthew is doing well too! He is finally starting to talk and is using some words on a regular basis such as momma, dada, nana, papa (for all grandparents), Ojala (sounds like Halwa), Norm, Deah, Sonja, hi, bye, ouchie, yeah, no, up, ummmm, and of course cheese (especially when I am taking photos of him...go figure!). If we ask him to try a word, he will give it his all, but usually won't get it all out or remember it for now. Anyway, we are thrilled with the words he is saying now.

We hope everyone had a great St. Patty's day! Enjoy the warmer weather!

Just teeth!

I took Matthew to the ENT today after calling about the recent changes in behavior. They wanted to see him just to be on the safe side. Luckily his tubes are still in place. The right tube is still fully in his eardrum and the left tube is hanging on by a thread in his eardrum and will most likely fall out in the next few months. He doesn't have any infection or irritation either, so that was good news. His nose and throat are good as are his lungs. The doctor thinks his two-year molars are pushing forward into place and that is what is causing such the drastic change of behavior. So, with that being said, we are using some Tylenol and Orajel when he seems to be upset. I will take him back in early July for another recheck of the tubes.

We enjoyed the beautiful weather today with a long walk around the neighborhood with Matthew and the dogs. He enjoyed seeing all the people out playing and walking and especially the honking geese. They were pretty funny to Matthew as he tried to imitate them. We are going to try to get in as much family time this weekend before Ryan goes back to work on Monday! He got a call yesterday asking him if he could start a week early. So for the next 30 days or so he will be working twelve hour days, seven days a week with an hour drive time each way. He might have the option of working nights (7pm-7am) instead of days (7am-7pm) and we are hoping that will work out. If he works nights he will get a chance to see Matthew for about an hour a day instead of nothing if he works days. On nights he will get home around 8:15 am and have a quiet house to sleep in while I am at work and Matthew is at daycare. He will be awake once we get home at 4:00 and not have to leave until 5:30. The next month will be a long one for all of us, but well worth it. We have been waiting 12 weeks to hear that phone ring! Once the shutdown is over, Ryan will once again be laid off until work picks up here, but hopefully by mid-April they will have more work. Only time will tell!

Twos or Tubes?

We have seen a drastic change in Matthew's sleep and eating patterns in the last week. He is hardly taking a nap, in fact last weekend from Wednesday to Sunday he never took one. He is getting up at 6:00 a.m. instead of 9:00 too. He has been a bit more fussy and crabby and will just randomly start crying for no reason. He will also start shaking his head and pulling on his ears. He eats when he feels like it too. This is not Matthew's normal behavior, so we thought he might be starting his next phase of life. However, after pulling it all together we tried looking in his ears tonight just to see. He wouldn't even let us touch his lobes without crying, which tells us that they are tender. It almost looks like I can see his tubes in both ears just exiting the ear canal. So, we are keeping a close eye on him and his behavior to see if his tubes are actually falling out and to see if he gets an infection. Hopefully it all will pass soon...who knows?