Antics

Hunter's highrise building and three car garage (done with building code restrictions that the height not exceed the pew). Medium of choice: hymnbooks.

Shopping trip to Winco from last night. Elle is modeling the latest fashion: Caution signage. Note the latest trend of wearing shoes on the wrong feet.

End of the Season

We had the end of the season for the Dodgers. It was bittersweet. No more mid-week practices, but no more family Saturdays dedicated to the boys' baseball games. I must say, rooting for my boys was SO much fun! I was the team mom for the Dodgers. I sent out the reminders and e-mails and ran the dugout during the games. There was a time or two when Ethan and Hunter were playing at the same time so Michael and Elle cheered for him. My mom would come to some of the games and Uncle James and Aunt Kristi liked to come too when they were in town. It was a VERY fun family activity!

Getting older and losing teeth

Hunter and Ethan have their birthdays a week apart. Ethan's comes first which has usually meant that Hunter gets shafted when it comes to birthday parties. Ethan has a harder time planning his however since his birthday falls on or around Thanksgiving each year. This year they both had a simple family party at home. To add to the excitement Ethan lost his front tooth two days before he turned 7 and the other one on his birthday. Both required a little help to come all the way out. First from Jeremy and then I got the second one in a tissue with a quick tug.

Hives

I've discovered that taking pictures has helped considerably in my mental capacity. Over a two week span I really didn't take any pictures other than the one day when Hunter woke up with hives. Other than that I can't for the life of me remember anything that happened. (I must have been abducted by aliens!)

Hunter woke up complaining that his feet were itchy. I looked at them and noticed they were red and swollen with what looked like little bug bites all over. We put anti-itch cream all over his feet and then stripped his sheets to wash them. I figured he must have somehow gotten bugs in his bed.

That night when he took all of his clothes off I realized that he had horrible welts and redness all over the bottom half of him. His fanny was the worst, and I could tell at that point...they weren't bug bites. We opted not to take him to minor injury and be up until 11pm. I called the phone line, but since school is starting all of the appointments were taken. I sent an urgent message to the doctor that he needed to be seen. I gave him a generic version of benadryl for the itching, covered the red parts with hydrocortisone cream and sent him to bed.

The next morning first thing I checked his bottom. It looked significantly better, so I figured that the benadryl worked and almost called to tell the doctor, "never mind". Hunter came back shortly thereafter and complained of itching again, so I looked at his back. The night before the redness was isolated to the lower half of him. This morning his back and chest were covered with similar welts and redness. I had him strip down to see what I was dealing with. His entire body was covered with blotchy welts and redness all over. Since the cream and the benadryl seemed to work in significantly improving his fanny, I first took pictures to make sure that I had something concrete to show the doctor and then covered him in the hydrocortizone cream and gave him more benadryl.

The doctor diagnosed him with hives. We're not sure why. He said there are hundreds of reasons why people break out in hives. I wonder if it wasn't the tunafish sandwiches.

I took the kids to the pharmacy to get more benadryl. Anytime I go anywhere now it feels rather like a three ring circus. While I was waiting in line Garrett was crying because he wanted to be held, I was trying to steer the double stroller one handed and the other three were playing Limbo with the retractable ropes. Elle was short enough (even with her hair) that she could walk right under the ropes, but she bent over anyway to play fair.

That same afternoon I had my six week postpartum appointment so I just stayed and let the kids play in the courtyard for a while. I had inadvertently left my phone at home so I couldn't call my neighbor who was going to watch them to tell her that I had taken the whole crew with me for Hunter's earlier appointment. I didn't want to dump the other two on her (especially one who's potty training) for the entire afternoon.

The children each got an "arm sticker" (i.e. temporary tatoos) at Hunter's appointment. Michael doesn't like pretend tatoos because he doesn't want to encourage real ones, so we call them arm stickers. There was another little girl, about 2 years old, in the courtyard with her father. Hunter went up to her and said, "Hey, you wanna see my tatoo?" Great. That's just what a father wants to hear some random boy say to his daughter.

They all played a rousing game of tag and then I gave them the trail mix snacks I had brought.

Since I didn't have my phone/clock we showed up 20 minutes early for my appointment. The appointment time came and went. Twenty minutes after I was supposed to have been seen the children were all but swinging from the ceiling from the boredom. I locked Elle down into the stroller after a screaming match with herself and several dirty looks from the nurse behind the counter. In protest she got a hold of a magazine and threw it across the room and hit some lady. Have I really become a terror?

Forty minutes and four children were my limit. I got up and left. I didn't really want them with me anyway. Besides, the scheduled the appointment for 6 weeks after my due date, not 6 weeks after delivery. I'll reschedule. If I stayed much longer I'd probably break out in hives myself.

Face First

For Family Home Evening Hunter and I spent the evening in the Minor Injury Clinic.

After Dinner Daddy took the boys over to the park to play some ball. Hunter tried running fast "like Flash" and tripped over himself going face first into the walk-way. This particular walkway wasn't smooth like concrete, or soft with dirt...it was more like asphalt, but with jutting rocks to make it more "grippy". Hunter didn't stop his fall with his knees, hands or elbows....it was ALL FACE.

His nose looks the worst. We were concerned that he needed stitches which is why I took him over to the hospital.

I will spare you the bloody pictures (I didn't take any).

We got there at 8pm. We weren't seen until 11pm. By then he was completely passed out on the couch and a nurse had to carry him in to be seen.

I was told to keep him out of the sun until it heals and then to make sure he wears hats and sunblock whenever he goes out to prevent scarring.

It's been a while since Hunter has damaged himself. When he was little he was top heavy so he was constantly falling over. Inevitably he would always fall on Saturday, so his shiners were always big and ugly for church.

Nasty flu

We just got over the whole fever thing just in time to get a really nasty case of the flu. Ethan got it first with simultaneous throwing up and diarrhea. He had to wear diapers just to contain the mess. Unfortunately Elle and Hunter both wanted some of his Gatorade, so they drank from his sippie-cup and promptly got the same thing. While they were sick we kept the kids downstairs on puddle pads and in front of the garbage can so they'd be near us at night. Elle slept in our bed. Hunter slept on the couch and Michael slept out with him to assist with the midnight barfing. Elle fell asleep half on and half off the couch. Poor baby!

Ethan and Elle recovered fairly quickly, but Hunter couldn't stop throwing up. I could tell that he was really dehydrated and when I noticed that he hadn't gone potty in well over a day, the doctor had us come in. We were at the hospital for 4 hours while they pumped him full of IV fluids. He slept through most of it. After the first round he was feeling better and wanted something to eat. They brought him some juice and applesauce, but he promptly threw it up. After the second round of IV fluids they let us go home but gave us some medicine to help him stop throwing up. I think he just needed some fluid to get a foothold onto healthy again.
The day after his IV recovery was his friend Denver's birthday party. He was just barely feeling better so I kept him home. When he realized he was missing the party he cried that he wanted to go. We made up for it later.

Lil' bit of culture

Some friends of ours who had season tickets to the San Fransisco Ballet moved to Florida and gave us three tickets for one night. I had originally planed on going with Michael and Ethan, but neither one was feeling well, so I went with Grandma and Hunter. The seats were in the balcony and right up front on the rail. They were AWESOME seats. The performance was three different smaller performances that didn't really have anything to do with one another, but showed the range of the ballet company. Hunter loved the first part the best since it was more of a story without words. His favorite part was when the robber came out. During the second intermission I took Hunter out to get a cookie. He was quite the novelty for the other patrons and got lots of attention, especially dressed in his handsome little suit. He did fairly well considering the performance started at his normal bed time. I brought a pair of binoculars and that seemed to hold his interest.

get dressed. Get Dressed. GET DRESSED!

I know now why when their children are grown mothers are crazy. You all know what I'm talking about. We love our mothers but by the time we're all out of the house they've fallen off the edge of sanity.

Perhaps it's the constant repetition of simple requests that fall upon (seemingly) deaf ears.

Perhaps it's that they go where you are not so as to make their desired messes. "Mom's here! Switch rooms!"

Perhaps it's that whenever you are cooking dinner, it's a battle to cook dinner and shoo the children away from the fridge so as to protect the apatites, avoid the obstacle course being laid out by the littlest one or even that after the table is ready they don't want to eat all of a sudden only to come back at bed time saying they're starving to death.

Perhaps it's that when I give them different things for lunch they don't want what's been prepared for them. They both want what the other one has, but when the meals are switched before anybody has gotten their cooties on the food they whine that the want their original dish after all.

Maybe it's that after a full day of running around with the little darlings, bed time begins a two hour game of get out of bed which leaves mom without any time to wind down.

I could go on.

So I had an appointment with Hunter to be seen about the rash on his face that hasn't been getting any better. I told him a half hour in advance to get dressed. Crunch time arrived and he was still running around in pajamas and had no time to eat breakfast. I got him dressed myself and then after a successful shoe hunt... we had to go.

Trying not to be completely heartless, I made him a chocolate protein shake that he could drink in the car on the way in lieu of the breakfast he didn't have time for. However, much to my chagrin he liked it so much that his stomach got overfull and he had one of those bile-burps. Hunter has a very weak stomach. Anything could set him off. This did.

We're going down the freeway and Hunter starts throwing up all over himself. Which grosses him out more and more barfing ensues. I can't do a thing. I have no barf bucket (mental note) I have no change of clothes (another mental note). My one happy fact is that Hunter is wearing a zipped up raincoat which deflects the barf off of his shirt. His pants are a mess.

So we walked into Kaiser with Hunter covered from top to bottom in chocolate barf. It smelled more like barf than chocolate.

We got up to the window to get registered and the receptionist told me that our appointment was at 8:30 not 9:30.

No, no....She said that the 8:30 was gone and gave us 9:30.

"I'm sorry Ma'm. You're appointment was at 8:30. "

(Did I mention that I'm starting to develop an eye tick?)

"...I'll see if the doctor can fit you in."

We did see the doctor. Hunter's rash is highly contagious (oh fabulous) but we were given antibiotics for it.

It's not over yet....

I left the window down to air the stink out of the car, because the last thing I need is for Hunter to get in the car, get a good whiff and have a repeat performance.

It rained.

I forgot about the driver side window being down.

Being a trooper, the next time I had to go out I got a towel and a puddle pad and dealt with it. I couldn't really blame the children for this one. Not directly anyway.

I know now why mothers are nuts.

Spider Hunter

The boys have been devising a Justice League for 4 to 6 year olds since Halloween. They build forts in the living room on a daily basis and make it a point to get the big superhero books from the library full of plenty of color pictures....for research, of course.

Hunter decided that he wanted to emulate Spiderman and took it upon himself to draw the spiderwebs himself...


....ON himself


.....with a black marker


....a permanent one.

Hunter for Hire

The continuation of the saga...A boy and his bottles.

Ethan hired his younger brother Hunter (2 1/2) to help him on his recycle route. The first day that Ethan asked him to come with him I thought, "Hmmm, 25 cents sounds reasonable"

"Hey Ethan, how about if you give Hunter 25 cents for helping you?"
"Ok. Hey Hunter. Do you want a dollar if you help with my recycle route?"
"YA!"

Well, I guess it's only appropriate that they negotiate the terms without my getting involved. You'd think I would have learned my lesson by now.

$1 for 15 minutes of collecting bottles and cans....that works out to be $4 an hour. Despite the minimum wage in California being $6.25 both boys were more than happy with the arrangement. Imagine that!

They were so excited to work together that they took off with out me and I got out to the curb just in time to see two VERY excited little boys running down the street at break neck speed. I started running after them but, they were nearly a block ahead of me running as fast as they could. One pulling, one pushing. It seemed at any moment the little red wagon would achieve lift off.

If any of the neighbors have thought that I'VE been the one pushing him to do his recycle business.... surely the sight of me chasing my boys down the street would have been a testament to the contrary.

Hunter was a very hard little worker. He did have his moments when he didn't want to help anymore, but Ethan would remind him of the dollar waiting for him at the end of the route. (Yes, I realize this is a carrot (Kiyosaki's illusion) and it is NOT my intention to train Hunter to be an employee. He'll have his chance once he can speak a little better and is out of diapers.)

When all the bottles and cans were collected and the wagon was full the race back home was on! The boys were very efficient working as a team. Ethan cut his time out on the route in half. Once we were home Hunter and Ethan each got to wear a pair of rubber gloves and sorted the bottles and cans into their respective bins.

When they were done and back inside Ethan told his brother, "I changed my mind. I don't want to give you a dollar anymore." I stepped in at this point (The LAW & Proper Role of Government). Hunter kept his end of the agreement and Ethan was obligated to pay him one dollar. Ethan got out his wallet and I helped him count out one dollar in change. Ethan was very upset that so many of his coins went to his brother. I think he still is learning that different coins have different monetary values. Right now he'd rather have a pile of coins than one bill even though they might be the same face value. He must think it's worth more since there's more. But if HE values quantity I guess it really IS more valuable.

Hunter was SO pleased with himself and his big handfuls of coins. He sat patiently dropping each little coin into his piggy bank. Ethan got over his angst when he took his load of bottles and cans to the recycle place and got $32 for them.

Ethan takes Hunter on his recycle route any time he can. Ethan gets help and likes it. Hunter gets paid... quite generously and likes it. I get home faster and LOVE IT!