Early Christmas Present....

When Grandma and Grandpa called late one evening it caught Nick and I off guard, actually we were sitting in the hot tub relaxing after we put Lunden to bed. I dashed out of the hot tub and answered my phone dripping wet in the living room. It was my parents and it was late so I wanted to be sure I answered it in case there was nothing wrong. Well there was nothing wrong, but they did have a very important question that needed both Nick and I's attention. They asked if Lunden could get an early Christmas present and did we have 32 feet available for this present? Nick of course asked if it was a boat, no it was not a boat. We have a huge basement we just remodeled so we have plenty of room for Lunden's fun toys. We said sure no problem. They told us it was 32 feet of tunnels and forts for Lunden to play with, it came with 60 balls, a golf club, a basketball hoop, and lots of fun tunnels to hook it all together. Three days later it was at our door step in this little box. The best part is, it pops up and we can take it down and put it back up really easy. Lunden loves it and so do his friends!!!!!

Lunden, Willow, and Jayden (Lunden's Friends) playing, of course they are all in one little part of the whole jungle gym!

Lunden and Daddy chasing each other through the tunnels.

Lunden looking for Daddy, where did you go?

I keep telling Nick he may come home one day and if Lunden is running around the house like a crazy man, I may be taking a nap in the tunnels!

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa I love my tunnel fun gym!!

XOXOXOX

Lunden

SKYPE

Skype is a beautiful thing when you live a long ways from family! Grandma and Grandpa Bruggeman are 12 hours away in MN. Even though they are a long ways a way they wanted to make sure they stay connected with Lunden, their only Grandson, on a regular basis. We talk with them all the time. Lunden knows when the computer rings to come running to Mom to accept the call. Like I said in an earlier blog, never underestimate a one year old!

It is amazing how much Lunden connects with the computer and understands it is Grandpa and Grandma on the other side. Well he almost understands, two weeks ago he kept looking behind the computer wondering where Grandma was. Last week he decided to give Grandpa a drink out of his plastic cup, thank goodness there was nothing in it or my computer board would have been destroyed! He loves giving kisses to Grandma and Grandpa every time he sees them. This week he did something new, he tried to feed Grandma his golf fish snacks through the computer and could not figure out why they were still in the palm of his little hand after she had closed her mouth and pretended to chew. Remember she was just pretending....it was the funniest thing Lunden could not understand why Grandma did not eat the one off of his hand.

I love our afternoons and evenings of Skype. It is a wonderful way to stay connected with family! We take the computer all around the house, outside, poolside, and even on the golf course! Lunden is sure to know who is proud MN Grandma and Grandpa are!

Feeding Grandma golf fish.

Come on Grandma chew it up!

Christmas in the eyes of a toddler...

I guess I can consider Lunden a toddler now that he is 15 months old. Yes, my little baby is growing like a weed. In the past month I have realized that he is becoming very aware of his surroundings and catches on very quickly to anything we do or SAY! I have also noticed he loves Christmas just as much as MOM does. Yes, I love Christmas and I believe I love it even more now that I have a munchkin running around the house. There is something about seeing those little eyes twinkle every time the Christmas lights come on, even if it is at 5:30 in the morning when he comes into our bedroom to wake us up for breakfast with his blanket and pacifier in hand. All is has to do is give me a smile and grab my hand and we are off to the kitchen, oh and on the way he decides it is very important to turn on the Christmas lights and grab one Christmas bulb off the tree to join him at breakfast.

Since Lunden was small he has been obsessed with balls, any type of ball. It started out with golf balls, then baseballs, basketballs, then it went to food....tomatoes, green peppers. Yes you would be surprised how many vegetables are ball shaped. Well of course it has now led to the sparkly bulbs on the tree. So I decided to get non-shatter sparkly balls that he can play with. He puts them on the tree and takes them off numerous times of the day. Yes, I really believe I was thinking until he takes out his baseball bat and decided the tree branch is a baseball tee. What will he think of next.....

Though I have to say I still love the sparkle in his eye when we walk into the store and he sees all the hanging decorations from the ceiling. I probably would not have noticed them if it wasn't for my little guy pointing out every ornament that looks like a ball....you would be really surprised how many do. I love that my hanging beads on my fire place are now traveling beads that are drug around the entire house because Lunden likes the clinging sound of the beads on the wood floors. He carries around the wooden moose that has the countdown of how many days there are before Christmas. As of today only half of the numbers are still on the moose. I have no idea where they have disapeared to? Like I said Christmas is so much more fun today than is was a year ago. You never really know what the day is going to bring....maybe tomorrow he will wake me up with a Christmas gift in hand. Yes I already have wrapped gifts under the tree!

These little guys see Christmas in a whole different way than we do. Do you remember seeing Christmas lights for the first time, how about a Christmas Tree. What do you think is going through their little heads? He looks at a snow man and giggles, why does he giggle I ask myself. What looks funny on that snowman? Oh and the Target Christmas Catalog we got in the mail with all toys in it, Lunden would not put it down and kept pointing as Handy Manny. Do 15 month olds really know they get gifts for Christmas? I could not believe he was pointing to one of his favorite characters. Christmas is so much more than presents...I love the extra twinkle in Lunden's eyes and all the new expressions through out the day! The next couple of weeks are going to be a blast!!!!!!

Swimming Session lll

We are almost finished with our full third session of swimming lessons. We will start session IV next week. Lunden has turned into a fish. We go twice a week to Wichita Swim Club. Before we leave the house all I have to do is tell Lunden to get his swimming trunks on and he races for his bedroom and grabs his shorts and goggles. It is a win/win for everyone. Lunden loves to swim and Mom and Dad love it even more because he is so tired out when he gets home. On these snowy days we look forward to swimming lessons since we can't get outside to play ball or golf.

Daddy and Lunden with the famous Marshmallow Stick!

Check out the flippers, I didn't even know they made them that small.

Mini kick board...with mini flippers! Priceless!

GG

This is my favorite picture! You can't go wrong with a little guy and a smile all in one package!

Let me just check me emails real quick.....just a second Mom I will be right there.

Nothing like a 15 month old striking a pose!

What's going on guys?

My Little Charmer!

You ask what GG stands for, well you will just have to wait until next week to find out??? But in the mean time for GG Lunden got to take pictures with Grammy Lucas last week. They had a blast. Here are just a few pictures to preview before the big announcement.....

Happy Halloween 2009

So after reading my last blog, you can imagine Halloween was a little tough this year. Besides being drugged up with Morphine a good part of the morning and having to wear sweats all day because I was in so much pain the night turned out great. We got our little man all dressed up in his Halloween outfit, out little Payne Stewart. We decided to go with Payne because Lunden loves to golf and we figured it fit him perfectly! Plus, he was my favorite golfer and will always remember the day he passed away. (That's another blog)

Our little FAMILY!

Finally Grandma letting Lunden open his sucker after a long night of trick or treating.

Oh wow what the heck should I choose, maybe cousin A.J. will help me?

Hey Grandma and Grandpa where are you guys? Open this dang door...

One of our stops was to visit Rachel, Royal, Jayden, and Willow our friends that moved here from Washington. We saw them walking down the street trick or treating and Lunden had to get out to say hello to his friends.

Lunden's very 1st trick or treating experience! Don our next door neighbor was waiting just for Lunden, they had a special bag put together just for Lunden. He is a big fan of Lunden!

Walking up the driveway to our first trick or treating house.

Thanks everyone for coming to my tournament! Payne Stewart Jr. in the works!

Happy Halloween!

A trip to the E.R.

Do you ever have days where you just don't have the energy to write? Well it has been a long two weeks for Mamma Esterline. I have been under the weather and have not been feeling very well. The past 60 days I have had major stomach pain and have been very tired and uncomfortable. So you can imagine at the end of the day the last thing I want to do is get on the computer, I haven't even been on Face book......which those of you who know me know how much I love face book. (Become a stay at home MOM and you to will have a new respect for face book to). Anyhow after going to my family doctor three separate times with three different diagnosis: salmonella poisoning, Colon problems, and finally ????. Yes that is what I thought after I left my family doctor for the third time, he didn't have a clue and sent me on my way. What does a person do now? Get a second opinion, well it was to late until Halloween morning I ended up in the ER. Yes, I was having horrible stomach pain. We dropped out little guy off at Grandma and Grandpa's house and headed to Galicia ER.

With in five minutes I was hooked up to an IV and Morphine was headed my direction. After telling my doctor my 60 day history of what had been going on, he was furious with my family doctor and wondered why the heck I was in the ER. He decided to take an Ultra Sound to find out I had an ovarian cyst that had been bleeding into my intestines and stomach organs for the past 30-45 days, which created all of my organs to be irritated which is why my stomach, back and colon muscles were and still are swollen. I have had two ovarian cysts before and they never felt like this before. After my blood tests came back negative and everything else looked all right I was on my way to finish the Halloween day! Still have a few more tests in the next couple of weeks, but everything seems to be fine now that I know what the problem is and have pain medicine to control the pain.

Have you ever noticed you can handle pain a lot better if you know what the culprit is? All in all I have had an intuition that something was wrong, and I was right. Never underestimate a mothers intuition!