Mr. Spunky Pants is back!  It’s been a rough week but now instead of dealing with pink eye, the hospital and an ear infection, we are now dealing with two year old behaviors.  So last week we were in the hospital and came home on Wednesday, Friday we were back in the ER for vomiting, Sunday I had to give Ryan an enema, Tuesday he was diagnosed with an ear infection and put on antibiotics and Wednesday we were at the doctor’s office having labs drawn then in the ER for a head CT.  Everything ended up being fine but the nurse at school called us within an hour of school starting and said Ryan couldn’t walk.  I thought they were exaggerating but when I showed up to figure out what was going on, sure enough, Ryan really couldn’t walk but was staggering like he was drunk and falling over.  We never found anything wrong in his blood work or with the head CT but my guess is that his ear infection caused his equilibrium to be very off.  By Thursday he was back to his normal, happy self and he’s been a little stinker ever since.  He’s happy, giggly, noisy and into everything.  It’s fun but aggravating at the same time when we are trying to get stuff done around the house or eat dinner as a family and here is Ryan trying to throw his diapers or the bathroom soap down the stairway or slamming doors repeatedly laughing the whole time.  It’s funny how Ryan goes through stages of development so slowly.  Right now it’s like having  a curious, obstinate two-year old in a big eight year old body.  He’s decided he doesn’t like to go to bed and becomes dead weight when we try to get him to walk to his room, or he tantrums and hits his head on the side of the bed when we force him to go to bed.  But he appears to be healthy and pain-free so even if he’s a stinker, he’s doing well.

Today we are going to an event at church to pack food for people in Liberia then we have a Christmas party tonight and I also have to work.  I never did post about Brad’s birthday party but we had nineteen eighth graders here which was loud and crazy but fun.  Brad and his friend Nathan decided that instead of presents for their shared party, they would raise money to feed people in Liberia since our church is doing a fundraiser for this project.  We were very proud of them for being selfless and thinking of others, and raised $280 for the cause ($77 feeds one person in Liberia for one year).  This weekend they are going to speak at both church services about the money they raised.

Otherwise things are well and everyone is doing OK.  We’ve been busy like most families and are not at all ready for Christmas. Travis and I are planning on going on a couple dates in the next week to get things taken care of hopefully.   Thanks again to those who were so supportive these last couple of weeks.  Much love to you all.