Have you seen it? I can’t find it. Perhaps I should post some signs in the neighborhood: “Please return to owner”.

I seem to have lost a bunch of time somewhere. In four short weeks, my first born will be starting school. In a couple months, my second born will turn 3. Whoa! Whoa! Stop the clock…or at least slow it down, please. I’m begging here.

I’m so excited for Gabe to start school but in the same thought, our lives are changing so much at the end of this summer. Soon, I’ll be getting two of us ready in the mornings. I probably won’t be leaving breakfast for Mike to handle. I’ll probably need to find time to feed two of us in the morning. We will be purchasing school supplies over the next 4 weeks. Over dinner maybe I’ll get to hear some stories about what they did in school or something the teacher said or new friends.

Mike will get to spend more time with Evie. You know she doesn’t know it, but she kind of got gypped. When Gabe was a baby, one of us was constantly holding him and cuddling him. When he was a toddler, we were working with him with flash cards. We played with him frequently. We were completely engaged. Evie didn’t get that. When she was a baby, we just couldn’t hold her all the time. We had to tend to Gabe and keep an eye on Gabe. While she’s been a toddler we’ve had very little time to work with her, play with her and engage with her. So, Evie is going to get some one on one time with her Daddy during the days and I’m excited for her. She’s got one of the best daddies in the world and will be a lucky little girl to have him all to herself.

Mike said something that broke my heart. He said, “Once Gabe starts school, I’m not going to see my son.” The part that broke my heart is that he’s not exaggerating.

Most of you know we work opposite shifts. Consequently, one of us is always with the kids. Mike is home with them during the day. I’m with them in the evenings. Mike sleeps in split shifts. He goes to work between 9:30 PM and 10:30 PM. He gets home between 3:30 AM and 5:30 AM. These days he usually gets in around 4 AM. He sleeps until 7 AM, 2-3 hours of sleep. Then he’s up with the kids all day. He goes back to bed around 6:30 PM after I get home from work and sleeps another 2-3 hours, waking around 9 PM. Once Gabe starts school, Mike may see Gabe just for the car ride to school. He’ll get a couple hours with him in the afternoon. That is about it.

Mike and I have contemplated having Mike move to a weekend only work schedule and I’ve always been against it. You see, our only “family time” takes place on the weekends. This is the only time we co-parent. The only time Mike and I have alone time is on the weekends after the kids are in bed. So, selfishly I just haven’t wanted to forfeit any of that time. Hearing the sorrow in Mike’s voice as he pointed out he would have such little time with his son was all I needed to change my mind.

He needs to be with our children and our children need to be with him. So, maybe we won’t have as much alone time. Maybe we won’t have weekends available to do fun family things or visit our non-local family…but we will make this work.

Life is changing in the Roberts household.

I try but I’m sure I fail to convey exactly how much joy my children bring me. You all know the story. I wasn’t supposed to have any. I’ve got cyst covered ovaries and consequently thought my body was too broken to provide me with children of my own. Yet here I am with two angels. Two miracles.

I’ve never laughed quite like I’ve laughed as a Mom when my kids say or do something funny. For example, my son knows that there are two kinds of pizza. There is pizza with “big pepperoni”…like homemade pizza, pizza you order for delivery/carryout or some larger frozen pizza. Then there is pizza with “little pepperoni” like the small personal pizzas that we keep on hand for the kids that are easy to microwave and quick. Gabe calls them “little pizza”. The pepperoni is chopped into tiny little pepperoni squares. Similar to what might be found on a Totinos pizza.

Well, my hubby being clever put some left over “big pepperoni” on one of the small personal pizzas before heating and serving to Gabe. At which point my 4-year old son exclaimed, “HOLY MOTHER OF PEARL! Big pepperoni on little pizza!” Mike told me about this while I was at work and I literally laughed out loud. My cubicle neighbor even commented because I got such a tickle out of it, so I had to tell her about it too.

I’ve never felt fear quite like the feeling when one of my children is critically ill.

Parental emotions are really overwhelming but the most wonderful part is the JOY. The overwhelming joy that I feel every day of my life because of my family and my beautiful, wonderful children. The joy that brought tears to my eyes as I kissed my daughter and laid her down to bed tonight and she says to me, “Aw woo woo Mommy”. Words that maybe only Mommy and Daddy can understand. Words that mean so much and I kiss her sweet little face, as a tear of joy rolls down my cheek and I say, “I love you too, Boo. Now get some…”

She finishes my sentence, “seep.”

Here is a glimpse into our morning. I’ve got a few pictures:

And a lot of videos:

Well, we had a fun, but busy Halloween. If possible, I try to take Halloween off at work, so Mike can sleep in and take part in the festivities in the evening.

I took Halloween Friday off from work but it sure was a busy day! I got up with the kids, we all got ready and went out for breakfast. I love taking the kids to breakfast. It is just “us” time. We typically have breakfast at Super Saver every Saturday morning before we get groceries. It was nice to have an extra day to get breakfast with the kids.

Then we drove to Omaha to drop off Evie’s heart monitor. I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned it before, but since Evie had issues with her heart as a newborn, we’ve had regularly scheduled trips to a cardiologist, which have included Evie wearing a monitor for 24 hours a few days prior to our appointment with the cardiologist. So, basically it is one trip to Children’s hospital to have the heart monitor hooked up. Another trip to drop off the heart monitor so they can read the results prior to the visit and the third trip for the actual appointment. So, I was handling the 2nd trip. While we were there we realized that they were having a “Fall Festival” in their lobby.

We hung out and did that for a while. There were games, with a lot of prizes; face painting; pumpkin painting; loads of fun to be had. I wished I had Evie’s stroller for the excursion though! Then by the time we wrapped up at the hospital, it was all ready 11:00 AM. So I headed home so we could have some lunch and put the kids down for their nap.

I was hoping they would nap early, because I planned to take them to one of the ConAgra buildings that was having a trick-or-treating event. No such luck, but we rushed after the nap and still made it for the last 20-30 minutes of the event.

Then we headed to my Brother’s place. We don’t have much trick-or-treat activity in our neighborhood, so we always take the kids to my brother, Mike’s place. His wife, Lea, always puts on a big show. She outdid herself by making chili, cornbread, guacamole dip, candy corn nut mix, caramel apples, brownies and more! They have a ton of kids in their neighborhood too and nearly every porch light is on. It was a lot of fun and Gabe had a bit more stamina this year than the past years.

So, it was a full day!

Plus, we had the actual Cardiologist visit this week. Evie is now completely off medication to regulate her heart, her readings were completely normal and we don’t have to go to the cardiologist anymore! I look at her now and it is hard to believe she spent so many days in the NICU.

Another older one.

This is an older video that I’m just now getting posted.

Evie went in for her 1-year check up today. She was so good for the doc. He typically talks to the kids, plays with them a little before he gets started so they feel comfortable with him. He was talking to her when she leaped into his arms and gave him a hug. It was too cute. It didn’t take her long before she was ready to go back to Mom, but she never fussed and really seemed happy for most of the visit. We even pinned her down so the doc could dig out some hunks of ear wax and she didn’t make a sound. In fact, it kind of looked like it felt good.

So, she is a picture of good health. She is now off the charts on height and above average on weight. She is 32″ long. Seriously…the kid is over 2 1/2 feet tall and she’s only 1-year old. He is at 75% for weight at 23.1 lbs. She’s on target on all landmarks.

So, all went well until it was time for shots. Both Mike and I left with the same feeling. She’s a vocal baby. You can count on Evie to let you know if she is mad, disappointed or hurt…but now we aren’t sure if she’s ever truly been hurt. Neither of us have ever heard her cry like that before. It was really heart breaking. She had a low-grade fever when I put her to bed and she was a little fussier than normal after the shots, but seems to be well otherwise.