The Reaction

My grandparents have five cats.  Josh is horribly allergic to cats.  So before we left, we got him an expensive prescription and some sleep inducing drugs.   But we forgot to think about Dylan. 

Ryan has never shown any problems with cats, so I just didn't think about it.  But, one night, one of the cats found a comfy spot in Dylan's crib. 

His eyes started to look red, puffy, and irritated.

Then they got goopy and swelled shut.
He also sounded congested.  He was sneezing and had a runny nose.
I kept an eye on him.  But I thought by morning he'd be fine.

But by morning he looked like death.  His color was pale and green.  His eyes were dull with bright red rims. He was breathing through his mouth because his nose was completely stuffed up.   He looked awful.
We thought maybe if we got him out of the house for a bit that would help.

We decided to go to the zoo.  The air did seem to help him.  But his eyes were still watery and a little gunky.

Dylan's grandma Kangas called while we were there after seeing a picture of what he looked like that morning.  She was concerned and recommended we go to urgent care.  So, we did.  We got some steroids and eye drops for him.   Later that evening, he finally looked all better!

My Grandparents

I have been blessed to have two sets of wonderful, supportive, sweet grandparents.  Both sets of grandparents have been "there" for us growing up.  They have come to birthdays and graduations, even though we lived far away often.   They never forgot a birthday and always send Christmas money.  Most importantly, both have spent quality time with us. Now both sets are in their 80's and I really feel like time is moving too fast. I feel a burden to enjoy them as much as possible while they are still around.  I have not seen my Grandparents on my father's side since my brother's wedding three years ago.  I was pregnant with Ryan at the time.  They had never met either Ryan or Dylan.  Recently, my Grandma has had more trouble with her memory, so it was past due time to visit. 

One of my favorite memories of them growing up was the morning routine. My grandparents would get up before dawn and sit on their covered porch sipping coffee and reading the paper while the sun would dawn behind them, illuminating palm trees.  I would always make myself wake up no matter how early to enjoy this time with them.  Grandma would make me chocolate milk when it was warm and hot chocolate if it was cool, and I would read the comic section.  Then, when the lazier family members were up, we would always have a large breakfast---sausage or bacon, toast, eggs, orange juice AND milk, and some sort of fruit.  Often oranges or grapefruit.  It was such a peaceful way to start the day. 

When we arrived, even though Grandma does not cook much anymore, Grandpa made sure we continued to have breakfast in this way. 

Our visit was wonderful.  I learned so much about my grandparents during their childhood and what it was like growing up for them.  I also learned a lot about our family history.  While we visited I scanned old pictures into the computer and wrote down some of the stories Grandma knew about these people who are my ancestors.  My Grandma is a member of Daughters of the Revolution and our family history is interesting and rich. 

It is no wonder my Grandma was my hero when I was small.  She is so good with kids! I had a fantastic time just watching her play with her great-grandchildren. 

She played with Dylan, holding him and cooing at him, and bouncing him on her knee.

He loved it!

As for Ryan, she took flashlights and they went around the house hunting for cats (they have five) in small places.  All were scared of us except, one, who we think grew up around children.  This cat slept by Ryan's feet every night.  It was a nostalgic feeling to watching Ryan and Grandma play with some special knick-naks that always caught my attention as a child.  They were little oriental, beautifully painted, metal jars, containers and tea sets.  The last night of our visit, we ate out at a fancy Itallian restaurant.  Ryan had missed his nap that day and was a crab.  He refused to eat his dinner.  I was about to bring justice, but Grandma just ordered him a bowl of ice-cream.  Which he ate and then fell asleep in my lap. 

It seems like our visit went way too quickly.  We were gone nine days but I wish we had more time.  Seize every possible moment to be with your loved ones.  Time passes too quickly and you will never regret time spent this way.

Miracle of Miracles....

A little more than ten days ago, I was pretty concerned that the big trip we would be taking would be delayed.  We were expecting a nasty snow storm complete with ice.  It was supposed to begin snowing Friday night.  We were supposed to drive to the airport at 4 am on Saturday morning.  That's when the ice was supposed to start.  We decided to rent a room in the hotel airport that night just in case so we would not have to worry about safety driving the 45 minutes through two tunnels it would take us early in the morning.  We were fully expecting our plane to be delayed with the bad weather, but were  concerned if the tunnels were closed that we might not make our flight even if it was delayed. 

We checked in Friday evening to the airport hotel. It was such a relaxing experience.  Instead of staying home worrying about the weather, we were all able to relax and enjoy each other.  We went swimming in the hotel pool and lounged in their hot-tub.  Ryan was a huge chicken and needed a LOT of persuasion to get in the water, but Dylan loved splashing around.

 When we had had our fill of swimming and hot-tubing, we went back to our room and snuggled up together and watched t.v.  This was a treat since we don't have cable at our house.  We were able to receive updates on the status of our flight via the television. 

The next morning the alarm went off at 4 a.m. I was fully prepared to hit the snooze button.  It looked bad outside.  Just like the newscasters had promised, everything was covered in 3-5 inches of snow and ice. But, our flight was still reading ON TIME.  We walked with our baggage and carseats through a tunnel into the airport....we didn't even have to go outside.   Checking our bags, a woman behind me told me how awful it had been to get to the airport since she had driven there with her mother that morning.   Apparently the roads were awful and they had gone off road twice even with four wheel drive.  I was so glad we had decided to stay overnight! 

We had no difficulties getting through security and Ryan went through the process with wide eyes.   He got on the plane with wide eyes.  We had a window seat for him.  Our plane boarded on time.  Then went to be de-iced.  The machines looked like something out of star wars.  A man in a cockpick that had the ability to revolve all over the plane shot chemicals from something that looked like a machine gun onto the plane to de-ice the wings, belly and back until we were ready to go.  The process took about half an hour.  Then we were off.  Not long after departing we saw the sun in the beautiful white clouds.  It was such a good feeling to be leaving the nasty mess below us behind!

Play Time

Ryan cracks me up with his imagination these days.  Today we were spending some time playing together while Dylan was napping.   First of all, he asked very sweetly if I would play with him.  He followed it with a giant hug and said, "Mommy, I LOVE playing with you!" 

My heart melted.  Of course I love playing with him too!

He has rediscovered our toy doctor kit since his appointment on Friday.  So we were taking turns playing doctor.  I went first (to provide a good model of course).  I took his blood pressure, looked in his ears and listened to his heart.  I told him he was very sick and would need some medicine.  Then I spied the one thing I had forgotten to use--the toy "shot." As an after thought I said "Oh and you need a shot."  Then I jabbed him in his leg lightly (incidently the same leg he had recieved his ACTUAL shot on just a few days ago.)

He. BAWLED.  I sat there stunned.  Between sobs he turned his tear streaked face to me and cried, "you MEAN." And then it registered what I had just done!  That the poor kid had just received his first memorable shot in the same leg two days ago!  I felt pretty mean.  And apologized profusely. 

When had had  calmed down enough, he still wanted to play doctor.  And it was his turn to be the doctor.  Let me tell you, he was a bit vindictive in the shot department.  His poor mother received a LOT of shots. 

Doctor Visit

Yesterday before our slumber party started, both Ryan and Dylan had their well-checks at the doctor.  While driving there in blowing snow I had only one thing on my mind: SHOTS.  I could see in my minds eye two sad, crying, sore little ones on the way home and I was dreading it! 

Ryan only qualified for the flu shot.  The "kind" nurses came in while Ryan  read a Thomas the Train book in a chair.  They asked him if he wanted to read his book up on the big table.  Without looking up he responded, "No thanks." So nonchalant.  But they were persistent and got him up on the table and propped his head up with a pillow like a little raja.  He was loving all the attention.  They chatted with him about the characters in the  book as he reclined, so innocent and unsuspecting.  

He was kindof surprised when they pulled his pants down to expose his thighs but returned to his book.  Then they stuck him.  He yelled, "OWWWW," and looked at them like they had grown two heads.  Then he looked down.  But that nurse was so fast she had already put a bright toy story band-aid on the spot.  He was quite proud of his band-aid.  He didn't want to pull his pants back up because he was admiring it.  He took me completely by surprise at how well he handled this shot! He did not cry even once.

Dylan was unfortunately just as I suspected. I was a little behind on his immunizations because I missed the memo that babies are seen at 4 months.  So the poor little guy had four immunizations all at once yesterday.  Just like I thought, he cried and cried and cried.  Poor little guy! Last night he had a small reaction to his shots and he ran a low grade fever all day today and was fussy.  

He did not feel like doing the plank, or playing or cooing.  All I did most of the day was hold him and rock him.  But it was a perfectly wonderful thing to do on a snowy cold Saturday!

Slumber party!

What is it like to have a slumber party consisting of a four year old, a three year old, a two year old and a 7 month old? 

It's a little bit like running your own daycare and definitely more challenging than just preparing for a sixty minute therapy session.   Ryan had some friends spend the night for the weekend. Yes, that's right the weekend....while their parents are taking an important trip to Oklahoma.  We are blessed to have them.

We still have two more days to go but we've already: played with the train set, watched four movies, colored, played candy land, played in the tent, read books, put puzzles together and did a special night-time activity.

This evening our special activity used my new black-light.  I really like it!  The kids enjoyed it too.  They watched each other glow in the light.  Then we played with some pipecleaners.  Ryan's little friend really loves all things weapon related (like knights and swords) and he made a ton of swords out of his pipecleaners.  Of course the younger two wanted to be JUST like him and so they made a bunch of soft fluffy glowey weapons out of pipecleaner too.

I found a cute idea at Play at Home Mom using waterbeads.  That was the biggest hit of the evening.  The kids literally sat mushing their hands in the beads squishing and running them through their fingers, pouring them from one side of the box to the one below and rolling them between their fingers. 

 It was also pretty neat how the beads would change color based on the light I put them under.  The beads themselves were deep blue.  When I put them under yellow light they turned green! Remember when I made that ice fishing game for Ryan?  Well, tonight it became a platform to view water beads with.  Under blue light, the blue beads became more of a clear white color than blue which was interesting. 

The evening was completed by going upstairs to sleep in the tent in Ryan's room.  We read bedtime stories, prayed and turned the star turtle on.   Not a bad way to end a slumber party....they are actually slumbering.

The creeper at our house

We have a creeper at our house.

Don't look so surprised! It's true!

He leaves no stone unturned....

 No area unexplored.

 Nothing is safe with him around!

It's a good thing this creeper is so stinkin' cute!

 Not to mention pretty thrilled with himself.