This video is an oldy but a goody. Colin wasn't even a year yet when we took this, but I can still watch it today and find myself laughing. It's definitely contagious, so if not looking for a chuckle, you should probably skip it until later.
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Photo Alert
I have posted some new pictures that we just got back of the boys. These were their spring pictures taken this month at Mom's Day Out. These are the first professional pictures we have had taken that Noah is genuinely smiling. It's so funny, as I have lots of candid pics of him just grinning away, but every time a pro has taken pictures, we get at most a look as if he's contemplating about smiling.
There are several more new pictures to be seen at the link on the right-hand side of the page. Enjoy! We sure do.The pictures just reiterate the title of my previous post, of how time flies. They are getting so big.
How Time Flies
I'm still finding it hard to believe, but Colin will be entering kindergarten this August. He'll be 5 years old in just two months.
The other day, we went to Kindergarten Round-up at the elementary school in Wylie. Although we live in St. Paul, we are in the Wylie school district. The mascot at the school is the Bulldogs, but I've always wondered why Wylie goes with mascots like the Pirates and Bulldogs. Why can't they be the Wylie Coyotes?? That would be too funny...
We can't quite determine Colin's feelings about going to kindergarten. He currently goes to Mom's Day Out twice a week, which he really loves. I think he's more concerned about losing his current friends in Mom's Day Out than he is excited about his new school. The first thing he told the teachers during Round-up was his name and then he quickly advised them, "I'm going to come to this school, but not until August." He has expressed concern several times over the past few weeks about not getting to see his current friends anymore, which is endearing. Tammy tries to be sensitive about his feelings, but I just tell him to suck it up, that's the way life is, get over it! Just kidding.
Of course, he'll be just fine. He always adjusts so well to change, and although he didn't want to go inside at first, once he was inside and saw the library he was just fine. He loves books and thoroughly enjoys reading so much, that I think this will be his favorite thing about school. He's been to the public library many times, but who knew there were libraries in the school! Also, they have a really cool mural painted on the wall, with numerous recognizable dogs painted - Pluto, Scooby Doo, Lassie and Lady and the Tramp.
Also we saw several other kids he knows - Adam from playgroup, and Dylan who lives across the street. There are four kindergarten teachers, so will be interesting to see if either of them end up in his class.
The other day, we went to Kindergarten Round-up at the elementary school in Wylie. Although we live in St. Paul, we are in the Wylie school district. The mascot at the school is the Bulldogs, but I've always wondered why Wylie goes with mascots like the Pirates and Bulldogs. Why can't they be the Wylie Coyotes?? That would be too funny...
We can't quite determine Colin's feelings about going to kindergarten. He currently goes to Mom's Day Out twice a week, which he really loves. I think he's more concerned about losing his current friends in Mom's Day Out than he is excited about his new school. The first thing he told the teachers during Round-up was his name and then he quickly advised them, "I'm going to come to this school, but not until August." He has expressed concern several times over the past few weeks about not getting to see his current friends anymore, which is endearing. Tammy tries to be sensitive about his feelings, but I just tell him to suck it up, that's the way life is, get over it! Just kidding.
Of course, he'll be just fine. He always adjusts so well to change, and although he didn't want to go inside at first, once he was inside and saw the library he was just fine. He loves books and thoroughly enjoys reading so much, that I think this will be his favorite thing about school. He's been to the public library many times, but who knew there were libraries in the school! Also, they have a really cool mural painted on the wall, with numerous recognizable dogs painted - Pluto, Scooby Doo, Lassie and Lady and the Tramp.
Also we saw several other kids he knows - Adam from playgroup, and Dylan who lives across the street. There are four kindergarten teachers, so will be interesting to see if either of them end up in his class.
Saturday, April 5, 2008
Nothing Much Ado About The Kids
While this isn't really about the kids, it did start with something we were doing for the kids....
We take our kids to a gymnastics class every Wednesday at ASI. It's like a Little Kids gym class that they really enjoy and we've had them doing it ever since they turned 18 months old.
This past Wednesday, we came out of gymnastics and as we were putting the kids into our SUV, we discovered that the passenger window had been broken into. Glass was all over the inside of the car and I noticed that my laptop computer from work had been stolen.
It's a growing trend, referred to as "smash and grab", where the thieves not something in the vehicle and break in with only that one item on their agenda. They don't spend time trying to take more out of the vehicle or the car itself, thus greatly minimizing their chances of being seen or caught.
Luckily, since this was a smash and grab, the only thing they took was the laptop and it's bag. I did have some personal items in there, but nothing too significant except for a checkbook and my jelly beans. I can live without the checkbook, but the jelly beans just about put me over the edge. That's enough to make someone want to go vigilante! But they missed things like my iPod, some cash and some other items that could have been of some value to them.
When I called the police to make a report, I knew they weren't going to come out and take a look at the break-in. But I was on hold for over 30 minutes waiting for someone to assist with my police report. Tammy had her car there as well, so she took the kids on home. I didn't want to wait in the parking lot the entire time, so I decided to go ahead and drive home, but realized this could be fun since I had all these glass slivers and shards all over the front seats, floor and console. Since there was no window on the passenger side, there would be wind blowing inside which could easily blow the glass around.
As I waited on hold, I drove slowly to a car wash so I could vacuum the worst of the fragmented glass. Unfortunately, when I got there I realized the cost to vacuum was $.75 and all I had was $.50. The change machine was broken, so I couldn't get anymore quarters. After searching the truck, I found another quarter. Success! I started the vacuum cleaner and had just begun to clean the inside of the truck when the police department answered the phone. Uh-oh, I thought, as I realized the vacuum cleaner was far too loud to be able to hear. I quickly jogged a short distance away from the cleaner and began speaking to the police department to file the incident. I was disappointed to find that in order to file a report, I must have the exact address of the incident and I had no clue what the address was to the ASI we had been at. Annoyed, I disconnected the call, only to discover that alas, the vacuum cleaner time had run out and my last quarter was spent without cleaning up the particles of peril. I had to take the long way home, staying on back roads and bike paths in order to keep my speed and the amount of wind down to a level to minimize the risk of eye injury or death. OK, that's an exaggeration. I didn't drive on bike paths....
The next day at work was quite a challenge, of course, since it was my work laptop they had stolen. I had to get a loaner to use and there were some files saved to the hard drive that I won't ever recover. Thank goodness I had mailed a co-worker a copy of the large project I had been working on for the last week or so, otherwise there's no way I would have met my deadline.
When the claim adjuster for my insurance came out, he received a sigh of relief from me as I contemplated the positive benefits of insurance. Insurance is such a necessary evil. While you pay money out of your pocket for just these type of circumstances, you never really want any of that money back. But in this case, since they weren't careful, considerate thieves (I guess that would be an oxymoron), they had damaged the area surrounding the window and the glass track and had tore the seats inside when they pushed the glass in.
Now, dear old truck (Mac, as the kids call it) is in the shop getting fixed. Since it's a truck and not a dog or cat, it's getting repaired.
We take our kids to a gymnastics class every Wednesday at ASI. It's like a Little Kids gym class that they really enjoy and we've had them doing it ever since they turned 18 months old.
This past Wednesday, we came out of gymnastics and as we were putting the kids into our SUV, we discovered that the passenger window had been broken into. Glass was all over the inside of the car and I noticed that my laptop computer from work had been stolen.
It's a growing trend, referred to as "smash and grab", where the thieves not something in the vehicle and break in with only that one item on their agenda. They don't spend time trying to take more out of the vehicle or the car itself, thus greatly minimizing their chances of being seen or caught.
Luckily, since this was a smash and grab, the only thing they took was the laptop and it's bag. I did have some personal items in there, but nothing too significant except for a checkbook and my jelly beans. I can live without the checkbook, but the jelly beans just about put me over the edge. That's enough to make someone want to go vigilante! But they missed things like my iPod, some cash and some other items that could have been of some value to them.
When I called the police to make a report, I knew they weren't going to come out and take a look at the break-in. But I was on hold for over 30 minutes waiting for someone to assist with my police report. Tammy had her car there as well, so she took the kids on home. I didn't want to wait in the parking lot the entire time, so I decided to go ahead and drive home, but realized this could be fun since I had all these glass slivers and shards all over the front seats, floor and console. Since there was no window on the passenger side, there would be wind blowing inside which could easily blow the glass around.
As I waited on hold, I drove slowly to a car wash so I could vacuum the worst of the fragmented glass. Unfortunately, when I got there I realized the cost to vacuum was $.75 and all I had was $.50. The change machine was broken, so I couldn't get anymore quarters. After searching the truck, I found another quarter. Success! I started the vacuum cleaner and had just begun to clean the inside of the truck when the police department answered the phone. Uh-oh, I thought, as I realized the vacuum cleaner was far too loud to be able to hear. I quickly jogged a short distance away from the cleaner and began speaking to the police department to file the incident. I was disappointed to find that in order to file a report, I must have the exact address of the incident and I had no clue what the address was to the ASI we had been at. Annoyed, I disconnected the call, only to discover that alas, the vacuum cleaner time had run out and my last quarter was spent without cleaning up the particles of peril. I had to take the long way home, staying on back roads and bike paths in order to keep my speed and the amount of wind down to a level to minimize the risk of eye injury or death. OK, that's an exaggeration. I didn't drive on bike paths....
The next day at work was quite a challenge, of course, since it was my work laptop they had stolen. I had to get a loaner to use and there were some files saved to the hard drive that I won't ever recover. Thank goodness I had mailed a co-worker a copy of the large project I had been working on for the last week or so, otherwise there's no way I would have met my deadline.
When the claim adjuster for my insurance came out, he received a sigh of relief from me as I contemplated the positive benefits of insurance. Insurance is such a necessary evil. While you pay money out of your pocket for just these type of circumstances, you never really want any of that money back. But in this case, since they weren't careful, considerate thieves (I guess that would be an oxymoron), they had damaged the area surrounding the window and the glass track and had tore the seats inside when they pushed the glass in.
Now, dear old truck (Mac, as the kids call it) is in the shop getting fixed. Since it's a truck and not a dog or cat, it's getting repaired.
Tonsils, knees and emergency rooms
We had some fun recently when both boys had their tonsils taken out. They both continued to get strep over and over again. Let's just say that in the prior six months, they had strep more often than not. So we made the decision to get their tonsils out, and decided to do them both at the same time.
What a challenge that was, but we wouldn't change it if we had to do it all over again. For the most part, they seemed to alternate not feeling good afterwards, so it was never both really cranky at the same time.
But the day after the surgery, we had an ordeal where Colin complained about his knees really hurting and he couldn't walk. He did this for over half the day and his fever spiked above 104 and wouldn't stay down below 102 for more than an hour or two before it would spike again. Luckily my parents were here and Tammy and I took him to the emergency room, where we spent the next 9 hours as they did all kinds of test on their "mystery patient of the day."
What parent wants to hear a doctor refer to their kid as the mystery patient, due to his symptoms stumping the doctors? Not a good feeling at all. They did blood test, xrays, urine tests, flu tests and I can't even remember what else. After about 9 hours, the doctors were still stumped but Colin was starting to feel a bit better and could stand on his legs, although he still didn't really want to walk. They gave us 4 possible diagnosis for the symptoms: 1. Some reaction to the medication or anesthesia from the surgery. This makes me curious what they used this time, as Colin had his adenoids removed and ear tubes in a prior procedure (same doctor). Plus, why the knees? It doesn't make a lot of sense. 2. A virus that sometimes occurs in kids that age that they call some kind of "transitory" virus that causes inflammation and pain in the joints. Maybe, but quite a coincidence on the day after surgery to get this transitory virus. And again, why just the knees? Why no other joints like the shoulders, ankles or elbows? 3. Regression - sometimes kids regress after surgery. I have a real hard time believing this one. I could see peeing in his pants or acting like a baby or some other things to get attention. But to go for over 19 hours complaining about his knees hurting without even once forgetting and walking/running before he remembered. He's only 4, after all. I couldn't even remember that long. 4. Position of the legs/knees during the surgery. This is most plausible to me, as it's possible they strapped him a certain way during surgery to hold him steady and maybe the day after surgery when the pain medication wore off, he was really beginning to feel the stiffness and soreness from how they positioned him. Even so, nothing was certain. But the next morning when he woke up, his knees seemed fine and he was walking okay. What a relief! Still, it would be nice to have a definite diagnosis, especially if surgery were ever needed again. Was it something they gave him during surgery?
What a challenge that was, but we wouldn't change it if we had to do it all over again. For the most part, they seemed to alternate not feeling good afterwards, so it was never both really cranky at the same time.
But the day after the surgery, we had an ordeal where Colin complained about his knees really hurting and he couldn't walk. He did this for over half the day and his fever spiked above 104 and wouldn't stay down below 102 for more than an hour or two before it would spike again. Luckily my parents were here and Tammy and I took him to the emergency room, where we spent the next 9 hours as they did all kinds of test on their "mystery patient of the day."
What parent wants to hear a doctor refer to their kid as the mystery patient, due to his symptoms stumping the doctors? Not a good feeling at all. They did blood test, xrays, urine tests, flu tests and I can't even remember what else. After about 9 hours, the doctors were still stumped but Colin was starting to feel a bit better and could stand on his legs, although he still didn't really want to walk. They gave us 4 possible diagnosis for the symptoms: 1. Some reaction to the medication or anesthesia from the surgery. This makes me curious what they used this time, as Colin had his adenoids removed and ear tubes in a prior procedure (same doctor). Plus, why the knees? It doesn't make a lot of sense. 2. A virus that sometimes occurs in kids that age that they call some kind of "transitory" virus that causes inflammation and pain in the joints. Maybe, but quite a coincidence on the day after surgery to get this transitory virus. And again, why just the knees? Why no other joints like the shoulders, ankles or elbows? 3. Regression - sometimes kids regress after surgery. I have a real hard time believing this one. I could see peeing in his pants or acting like a baby or some other things to get attention. But to go for over 19 hours complaining about his knees hurting without even once forgetting and walking/running before he remembered. He's only 4, after all. I couldn't even remember that long. 4. Position of the legs/knees during the surgery. This is most plausible to me, as it's possible they strapped him a certain way during surgery to hold him steady and maybe the day after surgery when the pain medication wore off, he was really beginning to feel the stiffness and soreness from how they positioned him. Even so, nothing was certain. But the next morning when he woke up, his knees seemed fine and he was walking okay. What a relief! Still, it would be nice to have a definite diagnosis, especially if surgery were ever needed again. Was it something they gave him during surgery?
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