Bm-bm-bm-bm-bm, I'm lovin' it!

A few hours ago, I was fully intending this post to be a bitter rant against McDonalds and everything they stand for - namely, pricing all of their soft drinks at $1, thereby practically coercing me into buying a large root beer so that I could spill a bit on my white shirt on my way to a banquet dinner where I would be seeing professionals in the field of gifted and talented education who I hadn't seen for five years and somewhat wanted to impress.

BUT, thanks to a pit stop at ShopKo where I found a cute red shirt on clearance ($5.19 plus tax - price was vital since the white shirt had only cost me $4, and spending too much more than that to replace it seemed wrong), I can calmly look at the situation and realize it's not my beloved McDonalds' fault - it's mine for not drinking the clear, spill-friendly Sprite that Chuck always orders.

So it all worked out; Clyde got his order of chicken nuggets so I didn't have to worry about him starving at the banquet (the child only eats a few select items, grrrr), I got to catch up with two men for whom I have the utmost respect, I got a new shirt, despite my recent self-admonishment that new-shirt-buying wasn't allowed right now, and the white shirt appears to be salvage-able. Yay!

My own little Buddha

During the first two months of Clyde's life, we noticed that his abdomen at times appeared somewhat enlarged. As new parents, we dismissed our concerns as overreactions, especially since he ate well and had regular bowel movements. The morning of his blessing at church, however, it became evident that something was definitely wrong; he was very bloated, vomiting bile and lethargic, so we called the next morning to make an appointment with the doctor. His pediatrician walked into the exam room, saw his Buddha belly, and immediately made arrangements for us to go across the street to the hospital for a variety of tests. This was the point at which I barely maintained any composure - thank goodness Chuck was there to be level-headed and rational.

An ultrasound early on ruled out tumors and other physical obstructions, but a barium enema test pointed strongly to Hirschsprung's disease (yeah, we'd never heard of it either). We returned to the pediatrician's office where Dr. Schaffer briefly explained the diagnosis: the ganglion cells in the large intestine that contract to move everything along (think conveyor belt) had not developed fully in Clyde's body, so everything was getting backed up. When enough pressure built up, things were pushed through and that's why we hadn't noticed any long stretches between bowel movements. We were then sent back to have Clyde admitted to the hospital for the night. There we met with Dr. Curnow, a pediatric surgeon who has served as Clyde's 'Hirschsprung's specialist' ever since. He explained that a pull-through surgery was needed to remove the affected portion of the large intestine, but that before that could happen, Clyde's colon needed to be cleared out and return to normal size. We stayed overnight and learned how to do the necessary treatments (details would be in poor taste, trust me) that I would continue at home for six weeks until his surgery in December. Despite a rocky time for Clyde pre-surgery (he was only allowed Pedialyte, no milk, for the last few hours before surgery and was NOT a happy baby), and a rocky time for me during surgery (five hours in a waiting room while your three and a half month old is operated on is WRETCHED), everything went very smoothly. We stayed in the hospital for three days for recovery and went home just in time for Christmas!

(Ridiculously silly sidenote that still riles me up: one mid-morning after the surgery, Clyde and I were both asleep in his hospital room and Chuck hadn't arrived for the day yet, members of the Boise State football team came to the pediatric floor to visit the kids and sign autographs and such, but the St. Luke's coordinator DIDN'T WANT TO WAKE US UP! AHHHH! I can't believe we missed out on that, just two weeks before their awesome win at the Fiesta Bowl. Whatev, I'm mostly over it . . . )

Since the surgery, Clyde has mostly done very well and we've been able to stop the at-home treatments. In March of this year, however, he became very dehydrated and backed up as a result of a stomach bug (turned out to be rotavirus, which they now vaccinate against) so he was hospitalized for three days while they stabilized his fluid levels with an IV and worked to get his colon back to size. Thankfully that occurred two and a half weeks before Will was born instead of after!

So, this brings us to our adventure today; Clyde got another stomach bug this week and woke up this morning (after a night of diarrhea and vomiting) with a big, rock-hard abdomen. We went in to the pediatrician's office (Chuck had worked all night, so my mom got to be my helper) and he sent us for an x-ray. After consulting with Dr. Curnow and getting the x-ray results, we decided that I would just resume treatments here at home but let them know if Clyde wasn't improving. The x-ray actually showed the same level of distention as the x-ray from March, but this time Clyde is chugging Gatorade like a champ, so dehydration isn't a risk. He's been such a darling boy today, as has poor, somewhat neglected baby Will. Chuck and I are, of course, very grateful for our supportive families (thanks for pinch-hitting today, Mom!), excellent insurance (x-rays are not cheap), and the fact that Clyde's condition is very managable and shouldn't greatly affect his life or future.

Same mold, maybe a little bigger :)

I was thinking the other day about how much I think Will looks like Clyde at times, so I decided to play around with their baby pictures to see if I was right, and the following is what I came up with. In each set of pictures, Clyde is first and Will is second. Even though Will looks bigger at birth, Clyde actually outweighed him by half a pound; Clyde was 8 lbs 5oz and Will was 7 lbs 13oz.

Perk of c-sections: cute husband decked out in scrubs :)





The boys getting ready to go home from the hospital

They both liked this pose quite a bit






First doctor's appointments

Will's chunkiness begins to play a part in discerning who's who

I think Clyde's head was more round, as opposed to Will's more oval-shaped head

Not huge fans of tummy time on the boppy!

Will's hair has grown faster, I think, and lightened up more quickly than Clyde's did . . .

I think there is a very strong resemblance, but I can definitely tell their pictures apart (sometimes that's due to recognizing clothes and furniture in the background, though!). They're both darling boys and we think we'll keep them, even Clyde who's miserably sick tonight and getting all sorts of germs on my pillow right now . . .

Me and my mountain men . . .

We decided to be really brave last weekend and take the little boys on our ward camp-out. We were nervous because: A) Clyde tends to jump off of things and try to seriously injure himself, and I had no idea how rocky the terrain was, B) Will is four months old and although he generally sleeps VERY well, it would be our luck that he would revolt that night, and C) we're still pretty new in our ward - there was all sorts of potential for ostracization :). Luckily, our children did fabulously and we got to meet and get to know several very cool families in the ward - and even tentatively plan for some football watching parties this fall :)

Chuck and Clyde set up our very cool tent that Sam got us for Christmas a couple years ago. Sadly, the only other use this tent has gotten was when Quinn camped out in our backyard for a week to get his Outdoor merit badge.
Chill-axin' in the finished product
Will supervised
After our yummy pancakes and eggs breakfast the next morning
The Pratts thought ahead and brought a wagon for the nature walk, so along with their daughters Madeline and Aliza, we also piled in Clyde and Daisy. Cute girls, eh? I think Clyde likes blondes . . .

Will and I did NOT go on the nature hike;

instead, we sat by the fire and had a lovely time talking to Emily.

The boys definitely needed baths when we got home, and apparently my need to photograph my children in coordinating clothes extends to towels!

Splish splash

I've never been a very strong swimmer (I still have to plug my nose when I go underwater) but I want the boys to be comfortable in the water, so I was excited to find out that parent/tot lessons were offered at the swimming pool a mile from our house. Clyde loved the two-week class and learned how to scoop his arms, kick his legs, jump into the pool, retrieve toys from the bottom of the shallow end, and (kind of) float and glide on his back and tummy. Safety warning: looking at my WHITE thighs straight on may cause blindness :)

The day that Chuck got in the pool with Clyde - I got a break!


The last day of class, the kids in the older classes got to go down the big water slide, accompanied by their teacher. Clyde was mesmerized by this, so his fabulous teacher Lisa offered to take him on it, too.

Of course, he LOVED it

Big smiles all around

Clyde will still be in the Parent/Tot class next year since he won't quite be three yet, and Will will be old enough too, so Chuck and I will both get to get in the water everyday, yay! Hopefully Lisa will be there again :)

Talk about your revolution:

it's Independence Day!

Chuck and I started dating the end of May/beginning of June of 2003, and we both fell kinda hard kinda fast, so I was psyched about accepting his invite to head to his hometown - Elko, Nevada - for the 4th of July weekend and (gasp!) meet his family. Chuck, his roommate Barry, and I drove the windy canyon roads to Elko and I then discovered that, in true Chuck fashion, my brand-new boyfriend had neglected to specify to his parents and siblings that one of the "friends" he was bringing down for the weekend was, in fact, a GIRLfriend. They were naturally a little surprised, but we had a way fun weekend getting to know each other. Since then, we've made it a point to be in Elko every year for Independence Day, although we missed it in 2004 - we had just been there in June for our wedding open house and couldn't finagle the time off, BUT we've rocked the holiday there every year since! The Izatts meet up at the park with the extended Wills and Dickenson families (the men folk get up EARLY to reserve our shady spot) and we party all day long, eating, playing games, sports, readying for the annual water fight, chatting, and waiting for the fabulous fireworks put on by the city. This year's highlights included our first time playing Apples to Apples (Chuck was ridiculously good at it), my staunch political rival Dick Wills admitting that he's voting for Barack Obama JUST LIKE ME! (it's better for his upcoming retirement), and, of course, delighting in a country where we are allowed freedom of speech, press, worship, gathering, and so on.

And now for the photographic evidence that we had buckets of fun:

We arrived in Elko pretty early on Thursday, so we had Grandma Izatt and the house to ourselves. We sent Grandma and Clyde on some errands and Chuck and I took the opportunity to de-hippie-fy our younger son. That's right, at the ripe ol' age of three months, Will got his first haircut. Above is the 'before' shot, and below is the 'after' - my child has ears, who knew?

We also made time for naps; Chuck and Will slept pretty contentedly until Will got hungry and I scooped him out of there. I came back a while later only to find a different son in the same position:

Clyde slept there for quite a while, but Chuck continued his nap after Clyde got up and left. When Chuck did wake up, he had NO IDEA that either boy had napped with him at all - he's a pretty deep sleeper :)

Chuck's dah-ling sister Amanda decided to bike down to the park for the festivities, and Chuck opted to tag along. Unfortunately for him, the only bike available was of the female variety (not a big deal) and had problematic (read=essentially non-existent) back brakes (apparently a big deal).

Here's Chuck showing us what happens to a biker who can only brake with front brakes . . .

and here he is riding down the hill calling back "I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die!"

He managed to arrive without incident, and we followed shortly after. Clyde loved flying a kite with Chuck, but really wanted to hold the string himself.
My little red, white and blue baby was not a huge fan of lying in the grass . . .

The founding fathers . . . of our party: Ron Dickenson, David Izatt and Dick Wills!
Chuck and Clyde braved the water fight, and despite making faces like this whenever he got wet, he signed "more" whenever Chuck tried to take him aside. Goofy boy!

Here are the boys drying off with a little Ultimate Frisbee. Clyde was such a daddy's boy all day!

We played at the playground a bit, and Clyde got bored going down the slide the regular way, so he tried going down on his tummy and going down backwards - such a daredevil.

It started to get dark, Chuck's mom broke out the glow necklaces and bracelets - a definite favorite every year. Clyde sported them on his ankles and wrists so that we could see him running in the dark. Then we watched the AMAZING fireworks - Clyde loved them. Baby Will slept through it all, but Clyde stayed awake until right BEFORE the big finale. He woke up to everyone cheering :)

The next morning Dave, Kevin, and Chuck took the older kids to shoot off pop bottles and go to the parade while the gals put on a sweet baby shower. Here's Clyde setting up the Coke bottle and then scurrying away.

We were setting up for the baby shower, but baby Will and Lilly were getting fussy, so Aunt Amanda tried to take on both of them at once with the help of Melissa's baby sling. She was doing fine until Will got hungry and gave her a hickey on her arm!

It's been a very reproductive year for the Izatt family - Melissa and Kevin welcomed Lilly on January 20th, Chuck and I had Will on March 26th, and Lee and Aleesha are due July 26th. Melissa, Amanda, Terri and I took advantage of all being together in Elko to host a baby shower for Aleesha, and we had lots of fun! Aleesha's such a doll, I'm glad she and I married brothers!

All the sisters! I kinda stand out with my non-reddish hued shirt and my non-flip-flop foot apparel, eh? But aren't we cute?
Happy, giggly girls!