Kalasek Kiddos: Family Flu and Family Fun!!!

Easton Lately: Nothing new or earth shattering to report since last blog. Easton still fills our every moment with his constant chatter, laughter, and of course 2 year old demands! No matter what he is doing he is always asking "You try" to whomever he is around. He will let you quiz him on numbers, shapes, colors, etc but then you better get ready to be quizzed right back. He is extremely curious and "whats this" is a phrase we hear 100 times a day. I love that he wants to know what everything is and repeat back to us what we tell him. He amazes me with his tender heartedness (if thats even a word) and he is so extremely polite. "Excuse you" "Pwease" "Fank You" "Bless you" "sowwy" are everyday sayings. Cant believe in 6weeks or less we will have another lil monkey to bless our lives! We are trying to get out of the house and do lots of fun family activities whenever we get a moment. The weather here has been insane. Beautiful one weekend and then tornado like winds the next day so when we are lucky enough to enjoy the outdoors we do but mostly all activities have been indoor lately.

Easton painted a canvas for his baby brothers room

We took Easton to the Amazing Pizza Machine a couple weekends ago. HE LOVED IT! (And with their endless and great buffet of all things- not just pizza- Brian was in heaven too LOL). There is an area for kids ages 5 and under but Easton ran around the entire place and had fun just pushing buttons whether he was helping dad play games or just pushing buttons for fun! I highly suggest it for a family night out of the house.

Dad helping E play games

Easton helping Dad with his game

Dad thats cheating...cant use your hands!

Got em

Buckle up!

His absolute favorite. CHOO CHOO! We rode this a LOT!

One handed Steering What a pro!

Last week on Tuesday Easton woke up with the flu! As any parent of a toddler knows its the WORST! They are miserable, you cant do anything to make it go away, and they never throw up in one place. After cleaning him and his bedding up he seemed fine. We werent sure if it was the flu or just something that didnt sit well in his tummy overnight. Mary Pat (the lady who watches him) said that she would still watch him because she didnt want him around me since I was pregnant. She kept him confined from the other kids but by noon he was throwing up so much that Brian went and picked him up and they just hung out upstairs while I worked from home downstairs. Well sure enough around 1pm I started throwing up non stop. Even after there was nothing left to throw up I kept on going. I never get sick and couldnt tell you the last time I had the flu (and yes I did get my flu shot). By 5pm I was in pure misery and SO dehydrated. My doctor had me come into the hospital where I was given 2 Liters of fluid and anti nausea meds in an IV. I was there from 7pm-11:30pm. The dehydration brought on contractions. At 33 wks pregnant we are not ready to welcome lil Benjamin so that was a bit scary. The scariest part is that I didnt even know that what I was feeling was contractions - LOL the nurse asked me if I was feeling them and I said "oh those are contractions I thought he was just moving around and making my stomach tight" - she just laughed and we explained that this is the problem we ran into with Easton's birth. I was in active labor for quite some time before I realized it. High pain tolerance. After being able to eat and drink something without getting sick and getting another dose of anti-nausea meds (which knocked me out!) we were ready to head home. My doctor wasnt worried about the contractions bc she says with me being so little and pretty much all baby I feel everything. Even a full bladder brings on braxton hicks contractions bc then lil Ben is really out of room. Needless to say after a night at the hospital I felt much better Thursday. Easton was fine after sleeping it off as well. Brians parents stayed with him while we were at the hospital and my parents watched him Thursday so I could recoup at home and Easton couldnt go to daycare bc he gave the flu to Mary Pat too!!! I know I say how lucky we are to live so close to both my family and Brians...but in times like these you really realize how fortunate you are. I know we wouldve made it work and figured out what to do had we not had both sets of grandparents within a couple miles from our home, but man we are so lucky we do! Poor Brian woke up Friday with the flu bug. We thought he missed it somehow but turns out tending to both a sick child and sick wife makes it pretty hard to get by without catching it. Now all the Kalasek's are well! Luckily it happened during the week and not this past weekend bc we had a lot of French Family Time that we did not want to miss out on!

My amazing and beautiful Aunt Cindy. Saturday was 1 year since she left us.

This past weekend was one of reflection, love, and family! The Kohler's came into town and we had 2 days of nothing but family fun! This past weekend was the 1 year since my mom had surgery to remove a foot of her intestines due to colon cancer. The day of her surgery my incredible Aunt Cindy sat with my dad at the hospital all day and had lunch with their other brother and me. As My dad and I went to see my mom once she was in her recovery room we hugged my uncle and my aunt and she said "See you Sunday" unfortunately the next morning my dad was on my doorstep letting me know that she just didnt wake up that morning. I still cant believe I could have lunch with her one day and then not even 24 hours later she is gone forever. I miss her not just daily but hourly. I miss her huge bear hugs, infectious laugh, and just the light that she carried with her. We are seriously the luckiest family in the world bc she was a part of it. Anyone who was every around her felt joy just bc of her presence. She was my dads sister and best friend and even after a year there is such an ache within all of us. Her son Ben, his wife Kristina, and their 3 year old Kobe and 10 month old Jack came into town along with my uncle Dick. We all knew this weekend would be a hard one but being together made it pass quickly and with lots of laughter. Friday Easton and I met them all at the Children's museum and then that night everyone came over to my parents house for pizza. My dad and Cindy's other brother Jack and his wife also came over. It was great to just hang out, relax, and catch up. Easton loved playing with his cousins and children are the best way to cheer up any situation. Saturday my dad has a BBQ contest here in town so we all stopped by that for some food and fun. Then that night we met up at a sports bar to watch some basketball and let the kids run wild together one more time before everyone parted ways again. A year ago this weekend/week was literally the hardest and emotionally draining time in my life. I still have no idea how we all made it through. Family and God saved us all and this weekend being 365 days since that dreaded day we were all able to smile and celebrate the good that has happened since: weddings, babies, etc. I still have a hard time grasping that she is gone and I can hear her laughter in my head whenever I am missing her so much I cant stand it. I know she was smiling down on us all and was so glad we decided to spend this weekend together. We are now lucky to have her as our angel! Things wont ever seem the same without her here on earth but we also know that physically she is absent but spiritually she is with us all the time!