Two sickies and one crazy lady

Randomly me and the kids all caught a delightful summer cold.  Ben got the brunt of it, but it was Natalie that ended up the sickest.  She had very few cold symptoms, but rather immediately began to have difficulty breathing, much like her little episode last month that landed her in the hospital.  Monday morning, I dragged all of us out the door at 7:30 in order to make sick call at the pediatrician by 8:00.  Ben was told he had to ride out his symptoms, just a viral cold.  No problem.  Nat's turn next. By now she was wheezing.  She got a breathing treatment in the office, a brand new diagnosis of "mild asthma," two prescriptions for steroids (oral and inhaled), and a referral for a pulmonary specialist.

While waiting in the pharmacy parking lot for her prescriptions to be filled, we side stepped another landmine when she yelled from her car seat that she needed a bowl.  I whipped around to see a look of panic on her face and her little hands covering her mouth.  I scanned the car.  It was my purse or the little cooler I had packed with some milk and snacks (in the even we had to wait long at the doctor).  I dumped the contents of the cooler all over the front seat and shoved it under her mouth just in time.  Whew.  I guess making her hold a bowl on her lap on the way back from the lake really paid off!

Anyway, long story short, Nat ended up worse before she was better and by dinner we were back at the pediatrician, though by that time all the various medications had taken effect and her breathing had righted itself.  And she had lost her mind.  The albuterol makes her really jittery and restless, and the steroid had a really grand effect.  The doctor said, "don't be surprised if her personality has an edge to it."  She was diving on and off the exam table, and army crawling around the exam room floor under the chairs.  It was embarrassing, but I let it happen because really there wasn't much else to be done and when they said "come right away" I rushed out the door, then sat in the waiting room for 2 hours.  TWO HOURS!!!  So, yes, I did little to stop it because I had nothing left with which to fight it.

Anyway, day two produced a similar result, but Natalie was a happier "drunk" on her meds yesterday.  Here's a glimpse of her on her albuterol/budesonide jag:

I love how fast she was going.  And didn't you want to yell, "watch out, Ben!" at one point?  I sure did.

Our next step is to follow up with the specialist.  In the mean time, we are all working on feeling better, sanitizing the house, and not getting too worked up about anything until we hear what the pulmonologist has to say.

Introducing...

...the newest member of our family, Goldie II.

Faithful readers may recall the short time that Goldie I was with us following the Firemen's Festival when a kindly volunteer rigged the game so that Nat could win a fish (which she LOVED).  And the subsequent brain fart I had when I told her Goldie had gone on vacation instead of to Heaven.  The poor child has lost enough animals in the last year that I thought a simple tall tale about vacation would spare her some heartache.  Wrong!  Almost two months later and she is STILL asking about a fish that was alive in our house literally less than 7 hours.  

So, today we went to the pet store to see if we could find Goldie on vacation.  We saw lots of fish that looked a whole lot like Goldie, but then saw this other fancy fish.  Unlike his predecessor, Goldie I, an ordinary carnival goldfish, Goldie II is a betta fish.  Read: Goldie II comes with a 14-day replacement guarantee in case of untimely death.

Nat picked him out of a line up of lovely bettas, picked out his rocks and plant, and off we went.  He is hers to take care of, with lots of supervision of course.  I actually like to watch fish swim, but the idea of cleaning tanks, etc really sort of grosses me out.  But I think it's a healthy thing for kids to have pets, and since right now the last thing I need is another really dependent thing to keep alive, a pretty low maintenance fish it is.

Welcome home, Goldie II.  

P.S. Natalie clarified with me that Goldie II is a boy, in case you were wondering.

The "Shed" and other funny stories

Oh.  The shed.  Let me start at the beginning about our new "shed."  Way back last August, when I was racking my brain trying to decide what to get Eric for his birthday, I landed on the brilliant idea of a shed.  Our garage is at capacity with just our cars, and during the summer when we need the mower, we've been moving one car into the driveway so that the mower can have a garage spot.  Fine, whatever.  But now that we also have two kid bikes, a wagon, a plastic pool....you get it.  It's a full house in there.  So, last August.  I toyed around with a couple of options, then ultimately decided that Eric needed to have some input since it was going to be his space.  Surprise out the window.  The time it took for us to go see a few buildings, make some calls, etc pushed everything back to so close to Ben's due date that the whole thing got scrapped.  Then winter came and the mower went over to the barn and the car moved back into the garage.  Problem solved!

But, I still owed Eric a shed, and of course the whole situation started back up again this spring.  So, finally, almost a year later....we got our shed!  And when I say "shed" I guess what we really ended up with is more like a barn.  It's giant.  But, we erred on the side of a little bigger thinking we could always use more space rather than not have enough.

Here is the spot all prepped and ready for installation:

I don't know a whole lot about the shed business, but I was really expecting it to come in maybe like 5 pieces: 4 walls and the roof, then a few guys would show up and put it together for us.  Nope!  I was blown away when the ONE guy showed up at our house with this:

(By the way, that's our's in back...the one in front looks like a dog house 

compared to the ginormous building we bought.)

So the sole guy that came to deliver the shed hops out of the truck and let's me know that he'll just unload it on the road and bring it back by dolly.  Again, knowing nothing about sheds or outdoor buildings, I'm thinking this guy, built about like me, is the Hulk.  When he said "dolly," I pictured the two-wheeled thing you might move a refrigerator with.  In hindsight, that might be better described as a "handtruck," but whatever...one guy, giant building.  

Obviously he used some sort of motorized dolly, and came cruising down our driveway like this:

...and right on by the house, and into the yard:

...and after a little maneuvering, the shed landed in its home:

Happy Birthday, Eric!

Yesterday was beautiful.  And I'm not talking sunny, I'm talking perfect temperatures, low humidity.  Very atypical for around here in the middle of summer.  So, we (along with every other family in the tri-state) headed for the zoo.  Not surprisingly, we left a little later than I wanted to, and as a result ended up having to find parking on the street.  No problem.  However, all that extra driving around plus the extra long walk to the entrance really ate up our time from when Nat had last used the bathroom.  That, in addition to her obsession with public bathrooms, meant a trip straight to the bathroom upon entering the zoo.  Juggling an infant on one hip and a toddler in a public bathroom is a real circus.  Keeping curious hands off of disgusting public bathroom fixtures, lifting her onto the potty, pulling pants up and down on sweaty legs.  It's all a recipe for driving one to head straight for the beer stand.  Once we got through with that ordeal, Ben naturally was ready to eat.  For those playing at home, we've now been at the zoo a solid 30 minutes and have yet to see a single animal.  Ben is in the midst of transitioning, unhappily, to bottles and so it takes him just shy of forever to take a bottle.  While I was trying to muster any last scraps of patience and give him his bottle, I was watching Natalie out of the corner of my eye.  I noticed her messing with a string on her shorts.  Then she got quiet.  Always a sign of trouble.  But she wasn't running away, rooting through someone else's stroller, or having a temper tantrum about riding the train, so everything was ok.  Until I looked back.  And the string on her shorts was actually a string on her underwear.  She had now pulled it to the length of about 2 feet, and it was wrapped around both of her feet and still coming.  When I lifted up her shirt for closer inspection, the entire waistband of her underwear was also off and hanging off the back.  She was now completely tangled in the fraying string and elastic.  So I ripped the string, and pulled the waistband off and tried not to make a big deal of the fact that her undies were going to be goners as soon as we got to the car, as long as they didn't fall out the leg hole of her shorts first.  

At lunch, I thought we had won the lottery when we came up on a table with an umbrella that was about to be vacated.  I had to starving kids, one of whom was on the verge of creating a real scene about needing "MMMIIIIILLLLLLLKKKKKKK!!!!!"  But I hung back about 8 feet in order to give the people getting up time to gather their things without feeling like they needed to get up five seconds ago.  Just as I was walking up to sit down, a group of 4 adults.  Not young adults, adults.  I would say between 35-45.  Took our table!  I tried to be calm, you know, in order to model good behavior for little ones, but trust me, inside was a litany of expletives.  We circled the area, and just when I was about to set up camp on a curb, a table opened up under a shady tree.  Score.  It was all going along just fine, blood sugars were rising, tantrums had ceased.  Then, Ben's stroller was a direct hit by the sweetly singing bird overhead.  Ordinarily, no problem, but it landed right on the tray and looked a little too much like something he thought he needed to smear around.  So, while I was cleaning up the mess, Natalie said in a panicked voice, "mama, what is this?" I looked over to see her hand and leg covered in bird poop.  With two kids wiped down, we moved the chairs and the table as much as we could, tried to eat fast, and got out of there before we got hit again.

And, as if all that wasn't enough for one day....in the tub last night, Natalie began referring to Ben as "Coco."  She informed me, "No, that isn't Ben.  That's Coco.  My monkey.  He doesn't talk yet because he is just a baby monkey."  Right.  She was giving him hugs and kisses and saying things in baby talk to him and every few seconds I could make out "Oh, it's ok, Coco."  After a few minutes of this, I gathered that Coco is actually Pete's monkey on Mickey Mouse Club House.  This morning when we got Ben out of bed, I said "Good morning, Ben."  Natalie looked at me very sincerely and said, "That's not Ben, that's still Coco."  

Nat & Jack

And all three kids playing "train" all afternoon.  I just love their little imaginations.  And look at Ben getting right in there with the big kids!

She Got Them All Cut

Our Natalie has endless wonderful attributes, but long flowing locks is not among them.  She barely had a head full of peach fuzz at one year, and now at 2.5, she still has such fine baby hair that's at a thousand different lengths.  I've been cutting it every few weeks to try to keep it from growing into a mullet, but it's starting to get harder for me to keep it nice and even.  So...today we went for her first real hair cut!

She was so serious, but hid a proud smirk behind that serious face all the while.

She sat so still.  I was a little worried because she was so confidently talking a big game before we went in, but right before she bailed out of the car, she went back in for the stuffed dog that came with us to run errands today (she usually brings along one "friend" each outing and they always stay in the car).  I thought she might clam up once she got inside, but she was a champ!

the lady was so nice, too...

she "shaped" all those baby hairs

Ben was happy because he got to hold Natalie's snack while she was getting pretty.

and the final touches at the end

Ben: 9 Months

When Ben woke up this morning, I swear he looked bigger than when he went to bed last night.  He looked older, too.  Maybe it's because for only like the third time in his entire life, he slept all night?  Or maybe because turning 9 months old is sort of a big deal.  I mean, 9 months sounds significantly closer to "one" than a mere 30 days ago when he turned 8 months.  In any case...we had a fun-filled day, which you'll see at the end.  Here are the pics from Ben's day:

one week

one month

two months

three months

four months

five months

six months

seven months

eight months

nine months!

9 months: the age when taking a halfway decent picture of the boy is nearly impossible.  I had like 60 pictures and only a handful where half his body wasn't a blurry mess from him moving all over the place...

seriously in love with these chubby baby feet

remember how I said he perfected his wave?  he was really showing it off for his photo shoot!

ok...seriously!  how old does he look here?  I can hardly see my baby in that face.

And, not to be outdone, Natalie also wanted me to have her picture taken with Ben's "9 months" sign.  

She says, "Cheese me, mama!"  

she likes to work the room when getting her picture taken

Since it was like 1,000 degrees today (or maybe like 88, but whatever, it was humid and the sun was hot), and the kids were all about to make me into a crazy person, we decided we'd try our hand at a pool party!  We filled the pool after breakfast so that by swimming time, it had sufficiently baked in the sun and felt more like bath water.  To the two boys (that's right, Jack was over today) who are only so-so on the water, it was perfect!

Natalie on the other hand....kid loves the water.  And the sprinkler!  

(can you see Jack trying to sneak off in the background?  Chasing him gives me a workout!)

Ben kept trying to eat grass, so when I had to run after Jack, Ben was put in the stroller.  

oy, these boys...

The sprinkler was placed so that it was spraying in one side of the pool.  Now that Ben can cruise around, he found himself right in the path of the spray.  He didn't cry, but he certainly didn't love it.

but this face loves it enough for the both of them!

Lake Life

We just got back from vacation!  A wonderful, relaxing 4-day lake retreat on the Chain O'Lakes in Waupaca, Wisconsin.  You might remember that last year Natalie and I were able to make the trip up north for a few days, but Eric had to work.  This year, all four of us got to go!  Once again, we had great company.  I usually like a faster-paced vacation, but with the kids this is the way to go...a rented house, a boat, the lake, and nowhere to be:

Nat made sure that all the water balloons awaiting launching on unsuspecting 

kayakers and boaters were nice and clean.

then she showed them to Ben for inspection

our own private dock to swim off of

the house

Ben wasn't really into the swimming part of the trip--he actually only got in the lake once--but he loved cruising along the back seat of the boat watching all the traffic on the lake.

Mr. Congeniality perfected his wave this week, and was generous in saluting anyone that passed by!

Nat loved swimming just as much as last year

Great Aunt Theresa, Aunt Jen, Nat, and Nana made a chain so no one drifted away

dada and Natalie

Papa had a remote control speed boat...he was buzzing the swimmers.  

Of course, Natalie loved being splashed as it went by.

then he put a bubble maker aboard!

the weather was so nice...

perfect for snacks and lunches outside in between swimming

Aunt Jen and Ben

my boys

Ben didn't love swimming, but he sure did like the boat.  I even took him out on a paddle boat ride.

Natalie with Nana & Papa

Ben actually napped on this trip!  Unfortunately, he missed out on the family pics.  By the way, we were so surprised that Aunt Emily came on our last day.  

Nat couldn't stop talking about spending time with both her aunts!

We are in full post-vacation chaos right now.  Both kids are still kind of wiped from the trip.  Eric and I are both tired.  We have learned that driving at night just works better for our poor car travelers, so it always leaves us a little drained.  And, to make matters worse, we pulled into our house at 5:30am yesterday, and I left for work at 8:00am.  Today, we are napping, cleaning, doing laundry and catching up on yard work.  

Eric has also been busy working on a little project that has been a long time in coming...last year for his birthday, I promised him a shed.  With it being so near the end of my pregnancy, it all got pushed back. Finally we got the shed the day before we left for the lake!  Full details coming in our next post!