Happy Birthday to my little man, Sawyer, AKA Sawyer the Destroyer, AKA Dinosawyer. He turned two on May 19th. We had a very low key birthday for him, with MOPS in the morning. I wish we had family closer to help us celebrate. He was thrilled to open his gifts and I made him some faux ice cream cone cake pops. I feel like he matured so much at the exact time he turned two. Now he is speaking in sentences and his words are clearer and his vocabulary has really grown. He is counting a little. He even had a growth spurt at this time and lost some of his chunk. He swings on the big boy swing and tries to do everything his big brother does.

It has been a busy couple of weeks for me. I have had two craft shows, one at my Mops group and one Artisan Sale at a local Salon. I added several new products and had one baby centric table and one with more general/Mommy/home items. I started selling my custom pillows, custom banners, and name art. We started accepting credit cards through Square and Sokunn's IPAD-awesome! I feel so high tech. It was so easy to use and I think it will really increase sales and bookkeeping at future shows.  Here is my booth at the second show:

Lots of pictures to share, are you ready?

Peep bunting.

I made baskets and sold them at my MOPS group meetings. They're so cute! A girl basket and a boy basket.


Of course we decorated Easter eggs. Of course it was a huge mess!

Soooo...I know its been a while. I lost my camera and looked everywhere for it.I mean EVERYWHERE! Turns out it was right where I usually keep it. How could that happen? I must have checked there at least 5 times. Oh well. Its back and so am I. Little Travis is 2 months old already! He is doing well and growing fast. Here are a few morsels of Baby T and I will be back shortly with Easter Pics.

I made a big ole crock pot of corned beef, cabbage, carrots, and potatoes for the occasion. Then I attempted a game of color matching with a rainbow painted egg carton-Ryden loved it but Sawyer was pissed off! He just threw the gold coin prizes around. Then......drumroll please.......I broke out the rainbow cake. Chocked full of food coloring and cups, yes cups, of frosting. It is a six layer cake, people, so there is no such thing as a small piece!
 Needless to say, it is 9:45 right now and Ryden just fell alseep. Sawyer is still up! We had the cake at about 7pm. Big. Mistake. Oh well, the cake was awesome and Ryden was amazed by it. It is a special occasion, after all.

In other news, Christian came home with a new bike for the big guy the other day. He was busting out of his old Thomas bike. They took a test drive between rain showers, which we have been having pretty much every day lately. When Ryden came home he said it was hard to ride and didn't go fast enough. Christian said he was tired out after playing at the park and fell a bunch of times. Guess he has some leg muscles to work on.
  Do you notice anything about Sawyer in this photo? (Besides that big wet spot on his jammies.) Well, Ryden's new favorite thing to do is writing. He will tell you what he wants to write and we tell him the letters. He's getting really good with his letters and is even writing short words on his own. He is well on his way to reading and writing. Anyway, Sawyer likes to play along too so I gave him a pencil. Then I notice he is holding the pencil correctly. I ask Christian if he taught him...no. Neither did I. He just picked it up by watching us and Ryden. Smarty-pants! There is a down side though. Sawyer loves to draw. On everything, like the floor, the doors, the walls, the refrigerator even! Ryden never did that and I thought, "How lucky we are that we don't have to deal with a kid who draws all over the walls!"

Finally, I leave you with a photo of our little T that Ryden took. Travis is doing well. So nice to have a healthy baby again. He is sleeping better and his only enemy right now is gas. He has some baby acne but is still adorable and getting big! He no longer fits into those cute newborn outfits; its 0-3 months for him now.
 

On Thursday night/early Friday morning Travis started throwing up all of his feedings. After 5 in a row I called our Pediatrician who recommended I bring him into Mary Bridge Childrens Hospital ER. The checked his oxygen levels and vitals, suctioned him, did a chest x-ray, swabbed him for viruses and decided to admit him. At this point he was definitely getting over this virus so the main purpose of his stay was to monitor his oxygen since it was lower than they like to see and make sure he could recover the oxygen levels after a bad coughing spell. Plus, he needed to start holding his feedings down. The suctioning and oxygen did wonders for his cough. Here he is the next day. He is off the oxygen in these pictures, sleeping peacefully. He held down about 3/4 of his feedings while we were there. His tummy is so filled with mucus it can't tolerate the milk. Everyone commented what a handsome little man he was. He got a lot of rest here with no big brothers around and Mommy and Daddy's full attention, even with nurses and respiratory therapists and doctors coming in to poke him.
 
The doctors suspect his respiratory infection was cause be a virus, either RSV or Pertussis. We should get the results on Monday. They released us from the hospital Saturday afternoon since he managed the whole night off of oxygen. Other than that we are going back to the hospital on Monday to have an echo cardiogram because they did hear a murmur in his heart, although they don't thing they are at all related.

It has been a seriously rough week! Just when Travis was starting to sleep really well at night, and when I thought Sawyer might be on the mend from his cold and double ear infections, and just when I thought I escaped getting sick, and right after I washed and sanitized everything I could.....we got worse. Poor, poor Travis caught the worst cold at about 1.5 weeks old. He had awful congestion and a really mucussy cough. The problem was he would struggle to get his cough out and couldn't get air in and scared the crap out of me. We could not lay him down on his back for several days which meant Christian and I had to hold him all day and all night. On top of that he has been vomiting his feedings and he has an infection in his eye. Ahhh! Today was a bit better though so I believe he is past the worst of his cold and on the road to recovery. Better be. Nothing scarier than watching your newborn struggling to get air into his body.

Middle baby Sawyer has an ear infection and a nasty cough that won't go away so he is on another course of antibiotics. He also has Fifths Disease. It is in the rash stage but fading fast so hopefully it will be gone soon. Let's just hope the other kids (and adults!) don't get it next. I have no idea where he picked it up because we have barely been out of the house this month.

Ryden is healthy other than a lingering cough. And a major attitude! He is definitely acting out a bit. Today he was amazing though-nice to his brother, listened to me, went to bed easy...so maybe that is improving too. Depending on the day Ryden and I call him My Good Ryden or My Naut-Naut Ryden. Hope Im not giving him multiple personalities.

You can see the rash on his cheeks a bit. His mood is improving. He was a different little man the past few weeks. I can't believe he has been sick for over 3 weeks. It is wonderful to have him smiling and dancing and happy again.

As for me, I have had a cold but it was only bad for a day or two. Worse is the lack of sleep lately and worrying about Travis. Being stuck in the house doesn't help anyone's mood either. I just want to get everyone healthy, happy, and get back to a normal routine.

It is so not fair to have your first cold when you are less than 2 weeks old! (Not fair to mommy and daddy either.) The doctors insisted that he would gain immunities from me but Ryden and Sawyer have been so sick with fevers, coughs, ear infections, and more snot than you can imagine that it was bound to happen. I had a cold last week too. Now Travis is congested and not so happy, especially at night of course. We got a new contraption called a Nosefrida, or Snotsucker! Sounds pleasant, doesn't it. It is highly recommended and we've been giving it a try. That plus the humidifier should give him some relief tonight-and maybe give us some sleep!

On a happier note, here are a few pics of baby's first bath at home. He didn't even cry. Sawyer helped. Love this whale tub.

Baby Travis is a week old. He has been sleeping, sleeping, eating a bit, and sleeping some more! Ryden is feeling a lot better and I *think* Sawyer might be on the mend as well. He was slightly less cranky today and had a bit less congestion. I cannot wait until the kids are well enough to go outside for some fresh air.I tortured Travis a bit taking photos this afternoon. We actually only did this for about 5 minutes before he had enough but I shall try again tomorrow!

One of my sickies, Ryden, is feeling a little better everyday. He is taking his "morning get rid of congestion vapor bath" and playing with bubbles.

We waited 9 months and an extra week for this little guy to arrive but he was definitely worth the wait! Meet Travis Christian Handsaker A.K.A Huckleberry Orange Boxhead Handsaker A.K.A. I Love You Handsaker. Phew! Those last two were Ryden's contributions but it took Christian and I so long to agree on a name that we were starting to consider using one of them! Actually, I was quite fond of Huckleberry and I think that will be his nickname.

Travis was born in Seattle on February 13th at 2:24 pm. He weighed in at a surprisingly large 9 lbs. 5 ounces and was 20.5 inches long. After going a week past my due date I was starting to think that he was never coming out. He was somehow still very active all the way up until the end although I kept saying I thought my belly was going to burst. All of my midwives concurred that the weight would probably be around 8 lbs. My Mom had flown in from California for a week and had already had to return home, unfortunately. I was so sorry I couldn't have had him when she was still here but he was just not ready. We even walked a 5k at Northwest Trek to try to get things started a day after my due date....nothing! Funny I have a Bears shirt on here too.


Finally, on February 13th my water broke at 7am. Isn't that considerate that he let me have a full night of sleep first? Twenty minutes later contractions started fairly strong right off the bat. I had three at 8 minutes apart then they started coming at 2 to 3 minutes apart. I told Christian we needed to head out and we did a last minute scramble to get those last little items together. Of course it took a little convincing; for some reason Christian never believes me when its time to go. Christian's Dad was luckily here to watch the other kiddos. It was a 45 minute drive and bumps are no fun when you are having contractions.At least it was a Sunday so there wasn't much traffic. It was a relief to make it there and know we weren't going to have to deliver the baby on the side of I-5! Here is me right outside the hospital between contractions. Go Bears!

Labor went by fairly quickly and smoothly. This was my second VBAC. My nurses and midwives were awesome. Christian got to help "catch" the baby and place him on my chest. He cut the umbilical cord, of course. After a little cuddling and stitching up he was weighed and measured. We fed him and the nurse let Ryden assist in the first bath. Travis was a good sport; I was thinking how quiet he was during his pokes and prods and bath.
 
Christian and I were both exhausted, especially Christian! After our visitors and the kids went home we settled in our room, watched a little TV and celebrated with a glass of bubbly.
 
We spent only 24 hours in the hospital, which was really too rushed but we had to head home to our two sick bigger men.....which is another blogpost altogether.
 
We had his first checkup yesterday and he is already gaining weight. He is back up to 9 lbs. He looks healthy and strong. The doctor said something funny that we had also commented on. He smiles already! Not just gas smiles. He can lift his head up for a short while too. The Doc said he looks like an older baby. I guess thats what happens when you grow them so big!

We are very much in love with him and are so thankful for everyone who has been babysitting, cooking meals, sending gifts and cards and well wishes and love our way. Hopefully it won't be too long before all of our out of town friends and family get to meet this sweet little guy.