La Famille Armstrong

My growing pains are more like the opposite actually, decreasing size pains :) The treadmill is awesome but is also a very clear indicator of just how out of shape I am! My hip flexor was giving me trouble after just walking under a mile! Sad, but good to see that I'm not too overweight even being that out of shape I guess. I'll be just walking until I get my new shoes - I was really prone to injury my last season at Fox so I want to make sure I don't kill myself on workouts that are harder than what my knees can handle.

Cole is also going through some growing pains... teeth! This morning it was incredibly obvious that he is teething. The last couple weeks his drool really picked up, but this morning his gums were soft, swollen and I think I might even be able to feel a tooth really close to coming out! He's super cranky, chewing on everything and doesn't want to eat much at a time but eating often. I remember Asher being the same way - I'm sure it doesn't feel great sucking on a bottle when your gums are killing you.

I prayed throughout the whole pregnancy that Cole would be a fast teether... Asher was so slow... still is actually! It takes Asher over 2 months to go from teething to feeling the teeth and then usually another month to actually SEE the teeth! I'll keep you posted and hopefully I'll have a photo of at least 1 tooth within a week or so... my sanity may depend on it :)

Patience sure does not come naturally to me, which makes me sometimes wonder why I ever thought I could be a good mom. Hopefully I'm better at some of the other areas and ages of parenting! I love Asher's age now, he's more verbal and very silly and usually really easy to take with my almost anywhere. I know that next Christmas will be a huge turning point with having 2 boys... Cole will be almost 15 months and will be eating mostly "big people" food, walking around easily and I'm sure they'll both be acting incredibly silly together. Should be good times!!! I'm looking forward to it... too bad I can't stall time at that point for a while :) Stay tuned for updates!

Today I took the kids into the Dr for a couple reasons. 1st, Cole needed to get another vaccine that they were out of last week and 2nd, both kids have had croup on and off and it had gotten worse the past couple days. They gave a prescription for Asher if he gets Strider (loud and hoarse wheezing) while being active and were told to bring him to the ER if he has it while resting... also, to take Cole to the ER if he gets wheezy at all.

A little history on Cole for you: When he was born Cole had moderate ridging on the front bones in his skull. This is normal for newborns (usually newborns who actually went through the birth canal) but it is usually in the back bones of their skull, not so much on the front.  Cole has an obvious ridge from all the way between his eyes up to his soft-spot on top. The ridging would be fine if the bones haven't fused but since it's still pretty prominent his Dr is getting a little concerned. She ordered an xray to see if the bones have fused and if they have, Cole will need surgery to separate them. Sad huh?! The xray tech was out to lunch so I'll have to either go tomorrow or early next week... for some reason, I feel more anxious about working out the transportation issues than I do about his head!

We're not completely crazy about the Dr we have now. I waited over an hour after the exams were done today before the nurse brought back the vaccine Cole needed... an hour!!!! That's a long time in a small room with 2 small, hungry boys with only 2 toys. Cole had a bottle, Asher had a whole bag full of crackers with water but we survived. Anyway, we are thinking of getting a 2nd opinion from Asher's old Dr in Tualatin. We liked him so much - he just seemed very attentive to details and more on the same page as far as health concerns go. Any big health issues they refer to OHSU which we would feel more comfortable with anyway. We vaccinate, but we're not totally into the flu vaccines and he's pretty low pressure about all that.

So, please keep us in prayer. Pray for Cole's head (funny as it sounds) that his skull bones will not be fused and that his head growth will continue to push those bones out. Also pray that the boys' croup heads out of this house never to return... as long as neither of them develops Strider within the next day or so, they should be fine. Pray for me, that working out all this transportation stuff will not stress me out of leave me in want of "stuff," namely, a car of my own. Having 2 working cars is more of a luxury than we realized, but I cannot let only having 1 car distract me from God's goodness and His desire to help us. Thanks everyone, I'll keep you posted!