Easter Trip to Minnesota

We had been planning on going to MN for Easter, but weren't sure about the dates due to our health problems and the ongoing drywall project. Friday morning, I made a stop at our favorite place lately, the Urgent Care. Turns out William and I have matching sinus infections! So, now all three of us are on antibiotics! Weeeeee! Just before noon on Friday, we left for MN with prescriptive medications in hand.

This was, by far, the worst trip with William ever. He cried/screamed on and off for close to 3 hours of the trip. Nothing could distract him. We planned the timing of the trip around his nap time (and trips to the Urgent Care). William apparently did not arrange his schedule around our trip. Yuck. We made it to MN in time for dinner at Valentino's. The pictures and some video from the trip at home are below!

Sledding on Easter? Only in Minnesota! Here we are sledding before easter on Friday.

We went down a couple of times on the hill Grandpa made for us!

Sledding on Saturday, too!

On Saturday, Aunt Megan came and we all colored eggs. Grandma thought it would be fun to have William hold some eggs. Guess what he did? At the end of the video, you'll also hear him say "Bang". Listen closely!

After the cracking...

Everyone coloring eggs (and William cracking them). The 2008 sign is because we can never figure out what year some of our pictures are from when are trying to sort them into albums (yes, we know that we could put them in albums more than just every 10 years - where is the challenge in that?)




Saturday night we had a family dinner with Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Megan, Kaye and Scott. Despite the snow, Grandpa fired up his grill and we had steak! Yummy! Earlier in the day William poured an entire cup of water on himself, hence the outfit change. This is one of his favorite shirts because it has a "Brmmm, brmmmm" on the front of it. William was in heaven because Scott played cars with him for a long time! (Mama was in heaven because she didn't have to play cars!)


Easter morning, William was playing with his cars in the kitchen while I cleaned up our breakfast dishes when he found this! He knows that anything is a can is good and you need to say "Ahh!" after every drink. Here he is reaching in for a car and saying "Ahhh!"

He finally got one out of the box - "Ahhhh....!"

We all got dressed up in our Easter outfits. Grandma was watching William while I got dressed. He figured out where in the kitchen she keeps the treats!


William's first cookie - John's favorite: Duplex Cremes.

His reaction? Mmmmmmmm...


It was easy to get that cookie away from him!

Then we loaded up and went over to Grandpa Heidt's house to visit with William's cousins! Here they are "playing" together. Okay, they are all kind of looking at each other, but none of them are crying!


I was pretty impressed with how gentle and nice William was with the babies (aren't they getting big? They are so SO cute and so SO very sweet!) Here he is sharing his truck with Alex.

Alex playing with the fire truck while William watches.

And...that is enough sharing. Alex's turn was about 12 seconds. We'll have to keep working on the sharing!


After a nap, we watched some video of William (will share some soon, I promise!). William was captivated by himself on the big screen. Nothing could get his attention while he admired himself!

Looking good!

Most of the time, even the chair was too far away from the TV. But he fits perfectly into Aunt Megan's old chair!

The trip home was much smoother. William slept for close to 3 of the 6.5 hours. What a relief! We got back home in time for dinner on Monday evening and started cleaning up. Over the weekend, the dust in the air had more time to settle and we could finally clean! It had kind of bothered me to drive away from our house so very messy and dusty, but it is what needed to happen! But, boy was I happy to get things cleaned up again!

Happy 14 Months!

14 months old and I swear we're starting the 2's early. Does that mean we'll get them over with early too? Something tells me no. We're onto antibiotic #2 for William as we still have the green nose going on strong. We're also onto night #2 of Mama sleeping on the couch as we left our baby monitor in MN. Monitor should arrive tomorrow in the mail (*crossing fingers*).

PS Please keep checking back. I'm working on a trip to MN/Easter post too, but it isn't going to be the first post at the top.

The House of Plastic and Tape (& Dust)

We are 75% done with the taping process. Progress has been iffy due to the amount of rain we have been getting this week. Damp air= uncertain mud drying time. Every fan in the house is on which means I haven't had a quiet moment (or a coherent thought) in close to three days. The fan noise is making me irritable and crabby. Good thing John finds both of these moods charming. Our Easter travel plans rest on the drying of mud and sanding progress that will take place tomorrow. Reservations at the Motel McGarry have been made tentatively for Friday through Monday morning.

Tomorrow we begin with the sanding, which is supposed to be the messiest piece of the taping. Not looking forward to this as there is already a thin, white film of drywall dust coating all objects in the house. This evening, John and I spent a romantic two hours building a dust blocker out of plastic and tape. This was a huge challenge with our open staircase in the atrium portion of our house with 7 fans blowing things around. However, the dust blocker is much needed due to the openess of our floor plan, it is difficult to keep the dust in the basement where it belongs. The cats' litter box, cat food and door access have all been considered. Now all that is left is to see how an evening alone at the mercy of our cats impacts the structural integrity of our house.

The house that John and Kelly built

If you look carefully in the window on the left behind the plastic, you can see Mango plotting his moves.

William continues to be thrilled about his kitty siblings. They continue to tolerate him and have started letting him pet them on occasion. Although he does do some pretty enthusiastic patting, he also loves to pull their tails.

Cat tail pulling picture #2


That is enough for this cat!

The Pink Bubblegum kind

Yesterday it had been 10 days since the runny nose and cough started. I considered canceling the appointment as William was running circles around the house. However, the coughing fit that left him breathless had me doubting myself again. So, off we went to the doctor's office. He sat absolutely still during the exam - so much so that our doctor commented about how good he was. Just seconds before she walked into the room he had been a wriggling, noodley monster. Funny how it works out. The verdict: an ear infection and sinus infection. Bring on the pink bubblegum medicine.

Happy St Patrick's Day

Well, the leprechaun got into the fridge in the middle of the night and turned a few things green, including John's breakfast shake. I called him this morning and said "Happy St Patrick's Day". Only then did it dawn on him that there wasn't something terribly wrong with his shake. It's okay, he gets up really early.

Tonight we had some green cake to continue our celebration. However, it is nothing like what we used to have at home:

Today was also the big day that the Super Amazing Guy came out to start taping our drywall. We worked really hard this last weekend to get the area/s all cleaned up - which I apologize lead to no video or audio clips being posted as promised. They are coming.

Doesn't look very exciting, but it is! The Super Drywall Guy (SDG) arrived at 8:30 this morning and left at 5pm tonight. It was a full day! William was not happy that something was happening in the basement without his participation. He would play for a few minutes at a time and then run to the top of the steps and yell things at the SDG like "Dadadada....DA!" Luckily the SDG has a grandson about a month younger than William and thought William was pretty cute. Otherwise, it would have been annoying. Although on second thought, it probably was annoying. Just maybe not right away.




Something springy is blooming in my backyard!


Always the little helper:William folding laundry.

Pretending to wash the floor with a washcloth


Timber!

Are you considering having children?

This is an e mail forward, but I thought it was funny. Especially the part about the grocery store.
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Are you considering having children? To determine whether you are truly prepared for the experience, we suggest you take this set of simple tests...

MESS TEST:
Smear peanut butter on the sofa and curtains. Now rub your hands in the wet flower bed and rub on the walls. Cover the stains with crayons. Place a fish stick behind the couch and leave it there all summer.

TOY TEST:
Obtain a 55-gallon box of Legos. (If Legos are not available, you may substitute roofing tacks or broken bottles.) Have a friend spread them all over the house. Put on a blindfold. Try to walk to the bathroom or kitchen. Do not scream (this could wake a child at night).

GROCERY STORE TEST:
Borrow one or two small animals (goats are best) and take them with you as you shop at the grocery store. Always keep them in sight and pay for anything they eat or damage.

DRESSING TEST:
Obtain one large, unhappy, live octopus. Stuff into a small net bag making sure that all arms stay inside.

FEEDING TEST:
Obtain a large plastic milk jug. Fill halfway with water. Suspend from the ceiling with a stout cord. Start the jug swinging. Try to insert spoonfuls of soggy cereal (such as Fruit Loops or Cheerios) into the mouth of the jug while pretending to be an airplane. Now dump the contents of the jug on the floor.

NIGHT TEST:
Prepare by obtaining a small cloth bag and fill it with 8 to 12 pounds of sand. Soak it thoroughly in water. At 8:00 PM begin to waltz and hum with the bag until 9:00 PM. Lay down your bag and set your alarm for 10:00 PM. Get up, pick up your bag, and sing every song you have ever heard. Make up about a dozen more and sing these too until 4:00 AM. Set alarm for 5:00 AM. Get up and make breakfast. Keep this up for five years. Look cheerful.

PHYSICAL TEST (WOMEN)
Obtain a large beanbag chair and attach it to the front of your clothes. Leave it there for 9 months. Now remove 10% of the beans.

PHYSICAL TEST (MEN):
Go to the nearest drug store. Set your wallet on the counter. Ask the clerk to help himself. Now proceed to the nearest food store. Go to the head office and arrange for your paycheck to be directly deposited to the store. Purchase a newspaper. Go home and read it quietly for the last time.

FINAL ASSIGNMENT:
Find a couple who already have a small child. Lecture them on how they can improve their discipline, patience, tolerance, toilet training, and child's table manners. Suggest many ways they can improve. Emphasize to them that they should never allow their children to run riot. Enjoy this experience. It will be the last time you will have all the answers.

Guess what else isn't childproof!

John was the last to get the sickness that is still going around in our house. Noses still run and coughing still takes our breath away. However, John took it to a whole new level by adding a special dose of strep throat and ear infection to the yuckiness. Antibiotics were started today and the strep test results required medical phone call #2 of the day regarding William. Seeing as William can't tell me if his throat is hurting, I was worried he might also have strep. This possibility puts me in the running for the Worst Mother of the Year (WMOTY) Award as William was the first in our house to get sick at the end of last week. If he in fact did have strep throat, he would have had it untreated for close to a week. It is great to think about our son being in pain and us ignoring it for an entire week. Luckily, my award is already in the mail for what happened earlier today and I don't have to worry about any further events. A quick call to the pediatrician's office revealed that most kids under the age of 2 don't get strep throat even when they are directly exposed to it by family members in close proximity. The strep throat exposure isn't concerning to them. However, the news that William still has a runny nose/cough after 7 days was something the nurse was concerned about. I have instructions to call back for an appointment if he is any worse tomorrow or simply "not better" on Monday to rule out the possibility of a bacterial infection, ear infections or sinus infections. Now that I know I have the
WMOTY Award in the bag, I will go ahead and follow through with these instructions. How did I came to win such a prestigious award in the first place? Well, let me tell you...

As I've said before, we're changing the routine up here from two naps a day to one nap a day. The switcheroo is requiring a lot of little changes including the time of our lunch. Lunch is occurring earlier in order to get him down for a nap earlier to prevent the complete and total "Meltdown Mode". When all goes exactly according to plan, we are making it to the crib somewhat peacefully about 40% of the time. The rest of the time includes, but is not limited to all out sobbing, a limp torso and extreme flailing of limbs by all involved as well as a pounding headache by the time all is said and done. When we get a little behind schedule it doesn't go as smoothly and we are left with the above situation before lunch starts. This presents an interesting parenting dilemma: Feed the kid or pick up the pieces and put them all in the crib and try again later.

Today I was trying to prep lunch so I could put it on the table and feed him before the projected meltdown time. William was supposed to be occupying himself in the living room with his bucket of blocks, but instead followed me into the kitchen. Somehow in his freakish tallness, he was able to reach up and grab this off of the counter:

This is a bottle of infants vitamins with a child resistant cap. Ordinarily this is not something I would let William play with, but time was short and my hands were full. Not two full minutes later, I walked out of the kitchen to find he had outsmarted the child resistant cap and had the lid off. A small amount of the vitamin liquid was smeared on his face and a large amount spread across his brand new T Shirt (with a race car on the front). This is the moment I was awarded the WMOTY Award, I am fairly certain. I grabbed both lid and bottle from him and was relieved to find approximately the same amount of fluid inside the bottle as before. However, I couldn't be certain he hadn't swallowed some and he already had his Recommended Daily Amount of vitamins for the day. A phone call was made to Poison Control (FYI: Really nice people those Poison Control people. Very calm, even when talking to the WMOTY). The good news is that he could drink the entire bottle and not suffer from any type of permanent damage - which I have no intention of letting him do. They recommended giving him several ounces of milk along with some lunch and keeping an eye on him for the next hour. Believe me, I don't plan on taking either eye off of him for more than a second after today.

So, people who have medication in child resistant bottles at their houses within reach (which means it isn't under several heavy duty sets of locks on the very top shelf that cannot be reached without the use of a tall ladder), it may be time to childproof. I'm not asking you put away the knives. But the prescriptives: yes.

And just for fun: a riddle! What is more fun than potatoes? Potatoes in a bag in a box! HAHAH!

PS Video clips and audio clips will be coming shortly as well as pictures taken by other people!