His Turn

John Burke gets a shot at being the big brother! Baby Henderson #3 is due February 11, 2012. I am very late posting this - a mixture of denial, feeling very tired, busyness with 2 other little crackheads and being out of town.

We are a little overwhelmed, but thrilled at the new little blessing! For inquiring minds, I am 11 weeks right now. Turner will turn 3 in December, and John Burke should be 20 months when this one arrives - Lord willing! So, Turner and John Burke are only 16 months apart, so I got 4 extra months this time - ha!

We have been to Atlanta and then to the beach for a week, and just running around being little boys in the summer. Hopefully I will post some fun pictures and blog posts soon!

July Random

First off, thank you so much for all the texts and calls and sweet things you have said about our little Gordito. It has been VERY weird without him around. I still catch myself looking for him to run and meet us in the yard as we pull out of the garage or start screaming like an idiot in a storm. And - the vet sent us flowers. Actually a plant. We will try to keep it alive:).

We have had such a fun summer. With these 2 crackheads, we are outside all the time. Otherwise, we destroy anything and everything in our sight!! Heath is amazed when he gets home from work what the house can look like, and I blame it on this one being into EVERYTHING!!! Not that Turner isn't - but he is a little better trained.

Here is what I found a couple of days ago. John Burke decided to spend some time in the pantry while I dared to take a shower. He broke the glass canister full of flour all over the kitchen, but decided to share the brown sugar with the den. He is a giver. Don't worry - they were going to take care of it with their shovels.

Then, they watched intently while I used "Daddy's vacuum" (you can tell who does the vacuuming around here) to clean it up. My fault - we dared stay inside for too long.

Kate Bug is ready for a baby that will let her hold it

We have been hanging with Kate and Blake the last few days while we are waiting on baby Morgan to get here. She should be here next Tuesday, maybe sooner? I know Lindsey wouldn't cry!

These were from a few weeks ago when Evan and York and Perry were over and the kids experienced the ice cream man for the first time. They LOVED it.

How cute is she?

And how messy is he?? He was hosed off not once but twice this day

Big Buddies

The red, white and blue popsicles remind me of our fun weekend! We were thinking about going to the beach, but we are going in a few weeks. So we decided to stay around here and go to the lake. It was fabulous!

Turner and York lounging at the lake in their pajamas

We have no problem making ourselves at home

Saturday and Sunday we went with our trusty friends the Harlesses to Lake Martin. The boys had a ball in the zero entry pool and checking out the lake. Not to mention running throughout the place and spending the night with each other! We were able to enjoy Niffer's and Sinclair's on the lake. So good!

Dunking Booth for a charity outside Niffer's at the Lake. This sweet old man let the boys dunk him about 3 seconds after we took this picture. Turner and York jumped a foot in the air.

Then Sunday night, our friends the Bennetts invited us to join them at Hoover Country Club for the fireworks show. These are definitely my children. I have a special love for fireworks (one year I looked at Lindsey and screamed "These own me!! - she thought I was ridiculous) - and don't even get me started at the pride when Lee Greenwood sings God Bless the USA. (And my favorite Canadian Celine Dion sings the National Anthem).

Best picture I could get at the hot, sweaty fireworks...this was obviously before they got used to them!

Anyway, they were a little shaky at first. Then they were mesmerized!! John Burke was into them, and Turner kept screaming "Awesome!" and "Bam Bam! Big One!!" all the way home.

We're nothing if not patriotic :)

Monday we were able to go to Smith Lake with some friends. I tried to get a picture of the boys in their cute little American flag shorts. But, I didn't get any pictures the rest of the day. Because it went about like this all day! But so much fun!!

Turner went on three boat rides, and even watched his old dad ski several times. It was a blast. Tonight on the way to dinner, Turner leaned up and said "Let's ski, Daddy." Um, a little off. But he is still talking about how fast the boat went and how good his dad looked while skiing. Heath still had it - he even went slalom. Too bad no pictures to prove it! You will have to take my word.

Finally, we had the best time finishing up the evening of Fourth of July at Thunder on the Mountain fireworks show in Homewood. Our sweet friends own this property, and let our sunday school class watch the fireworks here. Great location!!

I couldn't get nearly as good of pictures as the night before, so I just enjoyed. And so did the boys - it was old hat from the practice the night before!

He calls these play high heels "boots" - they are Kate's. Bless him, he is so misled. And would NOT take them off!

Meanwhile, it is amazing to me that Turner is carrying on discernable conversations with us. They are hilarious. He likes to tell me when cars are coming, that I need to be careful, and what he wants to do. He wakes up with a list - usually what I used to con him to sleep the night before. "Change my diaper. I want to put my swim diaper on. We need to go swimmin' with Pop Pop. And then get a milkshake at Chih-flay." He thinks it is his world. The other morning I went through McDonald's to get an egg McMuffin, and he wouldn't have us cheating on Chih-flay. So, of course I went across the street for a biscuit for him. Such loyalty. Oh, and the other day we were driving through Sonic. He said "I want a chocolate milkshake, Mommy." I said "I don't think they have those here" (totally lied - it was his naptime, and I just didn't want to deal). Well, he taught me a lesson. "No, Mommy, look. There is a sign right there with a milkshake on it." I felt bad for lying and was kind of impressed, so Precious got his milkshake. That's what I get for trying to trick him.

And this kid is WEARING ME OUT. I love him and all his little faces to death, but he is really an animal!! He prefers to be carrying a broom and/or dustpan at all times. I will hear a rustling and then a bump, and he comes on the scene with a broom. No matter how hidden! And he has no fear - here he is pulling a cooler at the lake. He is a wild man, but he will still give the best hugs, so I guess I will keep him!

Lastly, here was the view tonight - our naive neighbor asked us to watch his impeccable yard while he went out of town. Luckily it has rained some this week! But we decided to water some tonight, and Turner was Heath's assistant (and water consultant).

And look what I found later - that little trespasser!

Rest in Peace, Wunny

The last picture I took of Wunny, as Turner used to call him - about 2 weeks ago

Sad news. Last night - about 24 hours ago exactly, our sweet Gordon died.

Heath was cutting the grass yesterday afternoon and knocked on the door. He told me he thought Gordie was dying. I looked over, and he looked pretty pathetic in the grass. He couldn't even hold his head up!

So Heath rushed him to our vet, not very far away. They told us that his temperature was 109, and that they worried about brain damage at 108. My friend Sallie happened to be at the vet, and called me with a play by play. She told me it didn't look good - the doctor said he was an extremely sick puppy. They gave him an IV and tried to get his temperature down.

It finally got to 104 and sent Heath with Gordon to an overnight pet hospital. They had him stabilized. The hospital said they were just going to observe him overnight.

But then they called and said they weren't ready to give up, but he had brain damage. He was going blind and his kidneys were failing. We told them to keep us posted.

About 30 minutes later, the doctor called back. She was distraught and told us that he died of a blood clot. She determined that he had a seizure sometime yesterday afternoon that disabled him and he wasn't able to get any water. Therefore, he had a heat stroke. That is when we found him - they said 15 minutes later he would have been dead. Once they got him stable, they placed him in an oxygen chamber to regulate his breathing and they were checking for blood clots. They said when they came back, he was dead.

This was at the end of April. This day our friend Brooks (in the yellow shirt) saw Gordon, turned and ran to me and said "Miss Kelly, what is that?" He was serious - he had never seen something so beautiful.

Ironically, after 2 years of Heath suggesting, I had just agreed to give him away. Heath was out of town this week, and I felt like Gordon was one more thing to take care of as we tried to get out of the house and he was too much for us with 2 young children. He sheds, and he panics during thunderstorms, and we were looking around for somewhere and someone to give him a better home.

He really was our first child - he endured a lot to make me laugh. And he used to sleep in the bed with us!! Wow - he had definitely moved to the back burner these last couple of years. Bless him.

Well, more specifically, I had a real moment of frustration about a week and a half ago. I got a phone call from our precious (not really) neighbor at 6:20. She told me Gordon was "in her yard". Ugh. I realized Heath was already gone to Bible Study, and I quickly got dressed. I must have taken too long, because when I walked behind our house, she had turned on all the sprinklers (by the way - her yard is fenced in. He was barking BY her yard, not in it. I am not bitter) to chase him away. So I got soaked running through the yard and to the street behind us trying to grab that little weasel. I might have been nicer if I had known it was his last week of life. That made the decision, though - our time with him was running short.

Now I feel bad for thinking that, but I have a peace that it was his time to go! The sweet doctor was crying so hard (I am sure we will be too when we get the vet bill), but we are at peace with his crazy self being gone. (I think. I go back and forth as I write this! It is very weird to look outside and not see him after 6 and a half years! And I just realized it was exactly 6 and a half years we had him, we got him on Dec. 24, and he died June 24. Weird.)

For those of you who used to receive our Christmas cards, this was one of my favorites - waiting for Turner in his crib before he was born

Tonight it was pouring down rain, and Heath looked at me and reminded me how Gordon acted in rainstorms. Which was HYSTERICAL! We used to have to turn the dryer on just to get him to drown out the storms. This happened several times in the last week, and looking back, he woke up one morning screaming at 3 or so, without a storm outside. He hadn't been eating like normal either, so I am thinking he was already being affected by the blood clots.

We will miss you, little guy. Thank you for being our first little boy and enduring all of our abuse plus the abuse of two crazy toddlers!! We love you! (And I promise we won't replace you ANYTIME soon, no other dog could handle us!)

Gordon MacNeill Henderson

November 13, 2004 - June 24, 2011

Already winning beauty contests in heaven

I wrote THIS POST about him a few years ago! Now I am really glad I did!

Bump

Let's just start this by saying that I have a pretty weird array of photos lined up for this blog. Hmmm, I need to take some more cutesy/normal pictures for the future. These first 2 are from VBS last week, when John Burke was playing with a bearded dragon. He was ALL about the reptiles. And I was ALL about the hand sanitizer. When we went to pet the snake, he grabbed it by the face and twisted his fingers around its tongue and laughed. What?? Meanwhile, the guy from Ed's Pet World knew Turner by name and let me know he wanted nothing to do with any of the animals. That little stinker.

Oh, and please notice Burke Burke's smooth forehead in the last picture. Because this is what it looks like today.

Yep. John Burke had his first trip to Children's ER today. He was walking down the hall with me at church (I would stay he has been a pretty steady walker for a month now), and he toppled on to his bottom. Then, his head bent over and hit the tile floor. I was right there and it didn't look like a big deal, but this was what he looked like immediately when he popped up. And that freaked me out. I couldn't look at it - it wasn't our typical goose eggs (my kids have big heads, so lots of room for these). It was like a bubble!! And a few weeks ago at the Splash Pad, I saw a little girl have a similar bump like this and it freaked me out the whole rest of the day. Sooo, I called Heath and we headed up to Children's Hospital.

I was definitely slapping his feet and singing to him to keep him awake in the car, because some of my precious nursery friends kept letting me know I did not need to "let him die" if he fell asleep. No pressure - they were dramatic, but I was pretty grossed out. The sweet nurses in the ER let him take his much needed nap. That was really what I was worried about - just wanted to get him cleared before his long afternoon nap in case something had happened. But, if you notice this little joker fell, cried a few seconds, and then was totally normal. He was smiling in the picture a few minutes after (that I took to send to my nurse sister and doctor bro-in-law).

The doctor made me feel better about coming, but she and another doctor both looked at him and agreed he should be fine. Which is what I was thinking deep down, but can't really mess with head injuries. :) I had to show them the original pic so they could see the freakish bubble. Just a minute ago, Turner said to Heath "Burke Burke has a ball on his head. It purple." That's about right. (Thank you to Jami who took Turner with her to her house to nap - I am grateful we avoided the running commentary at the ER).

First hospital bracelet (well, since birth)

Praise the Lord for a good report - looks fine to me here (after his little nap)

On to other topics, Heath and I were able to escape this weekend for a no-kids beach trip with our buddies Wes and Evan. It was FABULOUS!! We had a precious girl named Stephanie keep the boys at our house, and the boys were in love with her. My sister has known her for several years, and referred her to us. She was a dream - she was awesome with the kids and even did my laundry, restocked my groceries and cleaned out my car (deep cleaned). Easily a better mom than I was this weekend, but I'll take it! It was worth it to have a long weekend in the sun and out to eat with friends without high chairs!!

Evan and I didn't get any pictures - in fact, this was the only one of me from the weekend. It was at an italian restaurant and that is an albino frog dangling its fat little legs down. A.maz.ing. I heart albinos.

Here is a better shot. It's not about the frog as much as the albino. I love albino anythings.

A more normal picture. Heath and Wes were able to go deep sea fishing and catch some red snapper. They had a limit of 2 each, and I think they had a ball trading up to meet the limit!

One thing I love about my husband - he is pretty well-rounded. He hasn't been deep-sea fishing in years, yet was able to fillet these red snapper like a champ! I stood and watched in disgust/amazement. And Wes was an excellent fisher host - awesome boat and reels and a day of fun for the boys (and for us, who laid on the beach and read!) Thank you Wes and Evan for a fabulous weekend!!

We have been doing a lot of this lately, and I only hope they didn't give Stephanie the pleasure of experiencing this while we were away. They like to be naked and they are LOVING baseball. Turner is all about watching the Braves on t.v. with Daddy, and John Burke is all about stealing the baseball and bat and tee from Turner any chance he gets!

I feel compelled to put a somewhat normal picture in here, without any animals (since almost every other one in this blog is bizarre). Lauren took Easter pictures for us, and she got some really cute ones! Sadly, Turner was sick on Easter Sunday, so I had to miss church that day, so it was a weird Easter around here. But we have some sweet pictures to pretend with!

Finally - I need to record some of the things Turner has been doing so I don't forget. He is talking in full sentences usually, and it continually catches me off guard. He likes to tell me in the car to "Watch out, Mommy" and "Don't go fast!!" (or "Go fast!" - it just depends on his mood) and today he said, "The music is too loud, Mommy." Oh, excuse me. He is constantly speaking up for John Burke, and likes to direct me on what he himself would like, directly followed by how I can meet Burke Burke's needs. "I want red sucker, Burke Burke have orange one." His little advocate.

He is almost exact on his colors when asked to identify (sometimes he defaults to calling things green just because) and is pretty good counting to 10, just tends to leave out eight? He is still very concerned with cars, their colors and their owners. And he has been extra cuddly lately - maybe because I was gone this weekend? - he has told me several times a day that he loves me, though he will snap at me if I choose to take a toy or privilege away. A work in progress for sure...

Memorial Weekend...and a turtle?!

Of course the boys ate breakfast twice at Chick-fil-A for the holiday. Look who is mastering the slide!

We always go to the beach for Memorial Day weekend. But, Kate Bug was turning 4 and had a fabulous party on Saturday, and I couldn't gear up for time without Daddy to help at the beach (when he would have to drive back for work), so we stayed here.

We did a LOT of swimming. We played in the pools at Kate's house for her party, and then went swimming at my parents' house on Saturday night.

Then Sunday we headed to the Hoover Country Club pool with some friends. Turner thought the baby pool was fabulous, and it was perfect for John Burke to walk around in. Of course I didn't remember to take any pictures.

The boys with Aunt Mary - I tried to get their cute little smocked American flag shorts in the picture, but I guess they cut off

Yesterday, we spent the day at my parents' house. My aunt Mary and her husband Ed (they got married last year) drove from California. ACROSS the country!! Wow, I don't want to do that. But they were picking up some stuff of Grandad's and they were adventurous. So we were able to see them yesterday. We had a fabulous time!

Pop Pop and Uncle Day-rek are guaranteed entertainment (and rest for me)

Randomly, I found a large turtle walking across the road on the way to GiGi and Pop Pop's house. I got out and picked it up and put it in a neighbor's yard so it wouldn't get hit. (Sidenote - I am not an animal lover at all. I swerve for squirrels.) But I wanted to show Turner, maybe it was the teacher in me. Of course he wouldn't look at it.

Anyway, I had a salad bowl in the back of my car that I had left at my parents' from John Burke's party. Luckily it was big. So I stuck Turtle in it and threw him in the front seat. I thought it was funny for a little bit, but when I called Evan to tell her, Wes quickly added that it could be a snapping turtle. Why had that not occurred to me?? Probably because I don't like animals much. So I started screaming in Evan's ear - sorry, Evan. I felt like his little beady eyes were sticking out and staring at me.

I surprised Mom and Dad and Kate and Blake. I started wondering in the car if I am going to be that weird Mom that my kids and their friends talk about. Probably.

We checked him out, petted his shell, and determined he probably was not a snapping turtle. He was not hissing or anything. Lindsey helped the kids clean him off, and then we waited for him to eventually waddle off. Ah, our little Memorial Day turtle. So far, Turner has asked SEVERAL times about the turtle, but especially as we have passed the point in the road that we found him.

All clean - check out how big that was. Wouldn't you put it in your car too? :)

I need to add that Heath was at home pressure washing the driveway yesterday morning, or this entire turtle adventure would not have happened. He thought it was insane, and was puzzled when Turner kept talking about a turtle.

I keep thinking that I need to write down the funny things Turner keeps saying. I can't remember what I have written and what I haven't, but he loves loves loves Kiet Coke. We got our carpet cleaned last week, so he is not allowed to eat or drink anywhere but the kitchen (why haven't I been doing that up until now? Good question). Today he walked in the kitchen and said "Turner spill Mommy's kiet coke. Please no spankin spoon!" Well, he did have to have the spanking spoon because I had told him a MILLION times not to go in the den.

And this morning, he and York argued all breakfast whether pancakes (cakes) or biscuits (bissits) were a better food. Seriously? Evan and I were cracking up, while telling them to quiet down. They were LOUD about their little discussion.

And in the car, Turner likes to open the gate to our neighborhood and the garage door. He will start about 5 miles from the house and say "Can I have the little one?" which is the clicker for the gate. Then, he must open it and trade for the "big one", which is the garage door opener. He does not like to vary from this system. It makes my sweet across the street neighbor nervous as he watches our door open and close, open and close. The same neighbor, Jim, also has small heart attacks every time my children run towards the road. Bless his heart.

The other thing I wanted to remember was that he likes to say "I can't" - this annoys me to no end. And "for a minute" - "Can I play the game (Words with Friends, Angry Birds, etc.) for a minute?" "Can I watch Elmo - just for a minute?" and my favorite "Me and Burke Burke sucker/popsicle/Kiet Coke for a minute?" Such a little negotiator...oh well, he is waking up from his nap. Gotta go play outside..."for a minute!"