By popular demand...

I am sharing this video from last night's evening of art...

Happy birthday, Grandma!

Yesterday we went up to celebrate my grandma's birthday. We looked through a box of my pap's old stuff. He kept everything from old photos (my grandma's grandparents and many many others), his preaching schedule in the 1960's and 1970's which included guest speakers like Charles Shepson and the Kindervaters. There were loads of letters from all sorts of people he and my grandma helped over the years.

Anyway, we had a fun time. Happy Birthday, Grandma!

New addition

I added a blog list to the right side of my blog. I think this is the first time I realized how many blogs I follow. And this isn't really all of them. I left off the famous people becaue they blog multiple times per day and would always be monopolizing the top spot. So friends, you know how to stay at the top of the list: blog and blog often! =)

Father of the year award

1. Last night Sam woke up crying around midnight. Dan was able to hold Sam and calm him down and get him right back to sleep.

1. 2. Dan got both boys ready this morning (as he does every Thursday morning) so I can take Isaiah to preschool. It's all I can do to drag myself out of bed at 7:30, shower, and be ready to go by 8:00. He gets them up, dressed, and gives them breakfast, packs Isaiah's snack, and gets shoes and jackets on.

3. Tonight I put Sam in bed and he just cried and cried for ten minutes. Dan went over there and within five minutes had him calmed down and we heard nothing more from him.

Based on these three examples, I am nominating Dan for the Father of the Year Award.

Old MacDonald had a Woman

Tonight Isaiah picked Old MacDonald as his before bed song. I sang through a few verses with different animals. Then Isaiah decided it was his turn. I don't know where he came up with this, but here is what he sang:

Old MacDonald had a woman EIEIO

With a talk talk here and a talk talk there

Here a talk there a talk everywhere a talk talk.

What!? It's the GUYS that talk too much in this household!

Dinner with Dad

We had dinner with my dad tonight at Buca di Beppo in Robinson. The food was wonderful, and we had a great time.

Isaiah's Field Trip

On Tuesday Isaiah's preschool class took a field trip to My Gym in Cranberry. I was glad to see him interacting with his classmates. In the back of my mind, I'm always wondering if Isaiah is too young for his grade since his birthday is in June. At least in this context, he seemed to fit right in with what everyone else was doing.

Kidapalooza

This kids' event in Pittsburgh was very well advertised and poorly executed. Both boys had fun, but really, the event was pretty chaotic. It seemed that many more people showed up than they were expecting. We waited in line for over a half hour just to purchase our tickets. The line for the ticket booth weaved all over the second floor of the convention center in a way that made absolutely no sense. That should have been my first clue that the day would not be terribly well organized.
When we got in there were a bunch of vendors and only a few rides and activites that all had very long lines. It's a good thing we sat down 20 minutes early for the Thomas the Train show because otherwise we definitely would not have had seats. We ate our lunch while we were waiting, so the boys really didn't mind. It's a good thing we packed our own lunches because the concessions apparently only had pretzels and nachos. The boys enjoyed themselves despite the chaos, but I wouldn't recommend it, and we won't go back if they have it next year. Here are some pictures from the day.
Isaiah was very afraid of this dancing mouse from the Pittsburgh Ballet! This is as close as he would get. The boys on a train ride (40 minute wait!)
Sam would have stayed in the petting zoo all day!Sam, Dan, and Isaiah on the carousel. Isaiah holding on tight. Sam on the carousel, with hair flying.

General update...

I've been having a non-blogging week, as you can tell. We haven't been doing much except playing outside constantly! Sam will stand at the door and bang on it until I let him outside. He'll also grab shoes (usually non-matching) and bring them to me, wanting me to help him put them on. Strangely, today is the first day of Spring, and it's too cold to play outside.

Some random thoughts:

• I noticed that, at 16 months old, Sam is in size 5 diapers. This is the same size Isaiah was wearing when we were potty training him at 2 1/2 years old. We never bought Isaiah size sixes. Weird.


• We are excited to take the boys to Kidapalooza tomorrow. It's a kid event at the convention center.


• Dan is fencing in the flat part of our yard, right behind the house. This will help greatly, because Sam keeps trying to fall down the flower bed. Our entire yard, except that flat area, needs a V8, so it's tough for the boys to play on. If they miss the ball, it will roll all the way down to the road.

Trouble finds him

As you can see, I had a bin of clothes for this coming summer stored next to Sam's crib. I was looking for something in there yesterday. I guess I didn't put the lid back on very tightly. Anyway, when he woke up this morning, he had a fun time pulling clothes into his crib.

Playing at the mall

We went to the mall this afternoon. Thought it sounded more fun than two hours of the boys running around and annoying each other and me yelling at them. Here are some pictures.

Heard a funny joke...

What's the difference between Barack Obama and Jesus?

Jesus could put together a cabinet.

Fun Friday evening

Tonight after dinner we headed out to North Park. We found a playground on top of the mountain and let the boys run around for a while. It's amazing how well Sam is navigating the uneven ground! At one point though, he fell forward on a slight incline. He stood up, then (all in slow motion) sat down, then rolled over backward. Then he just lay there. When I went over to help him up, he started laughing. It was hilarious! It would have been the perfect America's Funniest Videos clip.

After playing at the park for a while we got ice cream and headed home. Dan had to make it to a viewing by 9:00, so I gave the boys a quick bath and put them straight to bed.

We had a fun, relaxing evening.

Recession on Sesame Street

You know the economy is bad when even Sesame Street is cutting back.

Midslide on Station Hill Road

Last week, there was a small patch of mud on our road. It really wasn't a big deal, but if you drove right through it, your tires might spin a little. Some of our neighbors up the hill have a bobcat and frontloader and some other man toys, and they often grade the road and smooth out the potholes. Well, on Saturday night, our neighbor was working on the muddy spot in the road for a few hours. It was dark, so we couldn't see what he was doing at all. Apparently he accidentally triggered a mini mudslide.

On Sunday morning when we left for church, we were just shocked! The muddy ruts in the road were over a foot deep! We plowed through with our all-wheel drive minivan which bottomed out the whole way. Just what we need - to break our new minivan!

When we came home from church we ran into our other neighbor who was trying to smooth out the road. He apologized profusely and actually got the road to look pretty decent after a few more hours of working out there. The problem was that once two or three people drove through, it was a muddy mess again. This went on all day until our neighbor finally gave up.

Everyone has been parking at the bottom and driving up. Even Dan didn't drive up last night, so you know it's bad! When I walked up after picking Isaiah up from school yesterday, I was carrying him, and my feet were sinking in an inch or two into the soggy mud!

Today we managed to go to the gym. I was able to load the boys in the car, carrying one at a time through the mud. I took Sam over first, and the whole time he was yelling, "A-ya-ya!" That's how he says Isaiah. He was worried because Isaiah was standing there by himself.

One of our neighbors went over to the concrete plant, and it turns out that they are getting rid of a bunch of scrap concrete tomorrow. So they said we could take whatever we can use, but we have to get it today. So those guys have been out there all day filling in the road. All the guys from the neighborhood are down there helping. They said it should be done by this weekend. Yeah!

As a little side story, yesterday I went to GetGo in Wexford to get a car wash. My main reason for going was to get the mud off the undercarriage. When I pulled into the car wash, the attendant started hosing off the van. He said I better go through twice because the van was "really bad." He was really nice about it and said he just wanted to make sure the van got really clean. I felt kind of dumb doing it, but hey, if he's going to let me go through again for free, I might as well, right?

Getting pulled over

Tonight on my way home from school, I saw flashing lights in my rearview mirror. I pulled to the right to let the officer pass. He waved me around the corner. I realized that I was the one getting pulled over. I couldn't believe it, because I hadn't done anything wrong.

It turns out that our inspection and emissions stickers were expired. We just bought the van less than three weeks ago and apparently, we only had 10 days to get it inspected. Dan meant to take care of it last week, but it just didn't happen. Thankfully, the officer let me off with a verbal warning.

Later, Dan called while we were eating dinner. I told him he was in the dog house because I got pulled over for the first time ever. When I was done talking to him, Isaiah said he wanted to talk to Daddy. The first thing he said was, "Which dog house are you in?" My mom and I burst out laughing. I guess I need to teach Isaiah the meaning of idioms... and watch what I talk about in front of my kids. =)

Made me laugh

Yesterday Isaiah was asking me about why something was the way it was.

Me: I don't know, honey. I don't have all the answers.

Isaiah: (without skipping a beat) Well, Daddy does!

Then today at lunch Isaiah said, "I want Daddy to run another marathon. But this time we're going to have two signs: one that says 'Go Daddy' and one that says, 'Stop, other people' so that way, Daddy will win."

Update

Sam and Isaiah are doing amazingly better. I didn't hear either one of them coughing at all today and hardly at all yesterday. They're back to their normal antics, goofing around all day long.

I'm doing so much better too. I haven't had any problems breathing and haven't coughed too much today. I can't wait til I'm done taking my z-pack (antibiotics) tomorrow. About two hours after I take one, my stomach hurts no matter how much food I ate before I took it.

I actually had some spare time yesterday while the boys were napping. I read a little and worked on some pictures for the upcoming art show at church.

Things are looking better!

Sick at the Band Festival

Yesterday morning I woke up coughing so hard my chest was burning. This was not a good way to start the day of the ACSI Band Festival! That sensation of burning in my chest stayed with me through the day and got worse to the point that it was hard to breathe.

Eden took about twenty kids to the festival in Bethel Park. There were over a hundred kids from area Christian schools there to practice music and put on a concert that evening. This was my seventh year taking kids to this fun, exhausting, rewarding event.

I ran the trumpet sectional from 10-noon. They were very teachable, and I think we had a productive practice.

After lunch, the kids were all on the stage and practiced all the songs until about 4:30 when we broke for dinner. We always go to the food court at the South Hills Village Mall. This is the kids' favorite part of the day and my least favorite. I just get nervous about keeping track of other people's kids in a mall. This year I had plenty of chaperones, which made it more manageable.

I remember one year it was just one other music teacher and myself with 27 kids. We actually did lose one kid that year, but luckily he knew the rule that if you're lost, you stay in one place. We didn't even realize he was missing until we were ready to leave the mall! We saw him sitting in the food court by himself and realized he had been sitting there the whole time were were walking around the mall!

Anyway, I directed one of the pieces in the concert. The song before mine was a hymn that they asked the audience to stand and sing to. I stood up, mouthed a few words, felt dizzy, and sat right back down. I was praying so hard that I would be able to get up there and direct my piece without collapsing! And I was determined to enjoy directing a band that large, since I only get to do that once a year.

I actually left the concert as soon as I was done directing my piece. I drove straight to MedExpress where they did a chest x-ray and gave me an albuterol breathing treatment to help my lungs open up. The breathing treatment did relieve most of the burning and made it a little easier to breathe. I got a z-pack to ward off the bronchitis and an inhaler.

This morning I feel so much better. The burning and pain while breathing is gone. Dan, the boys, and I just came in from spending an afternoon outside. I built a small fire to burn the stickes that are all around the yard. I'm not sure the smoke did my condition any good, but it sure helped my mental condition. There's something relaxing about a camp fire.

So hopefully I'm over the worst of it.

Helping

Tonight we were eating dinner, and I told Dan that Isaiah helped me set the table. We thought Isaiah was changing the subject when he said, "We'll have to send a card to the sunny side up show!" We were confused. Then we remembered that sometimes they show cards that parents send in with pictures of their kids helping around the house. So he helps set the table once, and he wants to get on tv. What's up with kids these days?!

A few pictures from the hospital

We didn't have time or mental capacity to take very many pictures, but here are the three I took.

Sam finally relaxed and fell asleep in Dan's arms. This was around 4:00 p.m. - at least an hour past nap time. And no, he wasn't wearing shorts. He just pulled his pant legs up that way.

Here's the suv parked right behind our minivan. We were going to try to squeeze between them. Luckily an attendant came and moved the car.

Another update: One of the pediatricians called today to tell us that Sam doesn't actually have pneumonia. He said that a radiologist from Children's Hospital called to say that the spot that showed up on the x-ray is actually normal. Our pediatrician said the attending doctors in the ER don't have that much experience reading x-rays and tend to err on the side of caution. So when the radiologist looked at it, he didn't see any infection. So that's good!

Another day

Last night Sam and Isaiah were both coughing pretty badly. Sam was coughing to the point he was turning red and crying. This morning I knew I had to take them to the sick clinic our doctor's office runs in the winter. (I just LOVE this idea, by the way. From 8:00-9:00 am, you can just show up with your sick kids - no appointment necessary). I
saiah has a bad infection in one ear. His lungs are clear.
The doctor, Dr. DiCenzo, looked at Sam having difficulty breathing and decided to give him a double dose of albuterol. This meant he had to breathe the nebulizer vapors for about a half hour. Thankfully, Isaiah was an angel during that wait.
Following the albuterol, she still wasn't happy with Sam's breathing, so he had an oral steroid and one more dose of albuterol. We were there for over an hour and a half and I have to say that the boys' behavior was better than I would have expected. Finally, she decided that she had done all she could for Sam and that he wasn't responding well.
So we dropped Isaiah off with Lorrie, met up with Dan, and headed down to Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh. We got a little confused because we thought the hospital had already moved to its new location. Turns out that it doesn't move for another two months. When we got near the old location, there was a long line of cars trying to get into the Children's parking garage. And that was the emergency entrance too! Good thing it wasn't a real emergemcy! I hope they have a much bigger parking garage in Lawrenceville. Eventually, Sam and I just got out at the curb and Dan met us later.
After a PA evaluated Sam, she had us give him an albuterol treatment for an hour. The first half hour wasn't bad. He was actually pretty cooperative. The last 20 minutes was pretty tough. Anyone that knows Sam, have you ever tried to hold him for AN HOUR?! The PA still wasn't satisfied with Sam's breathing, so she had us give him one 15 minute treatment of alavert. After that, she wanted us to give him ANOTHER HOUR of albuterol. I really didn't think that was going to happen. Dan, Sam, and I were all exhausted. I try to be nice and cooperative, but I asked that a second doctor evaluate Sam to see if it was really necessary.
The physician was so wonderful and actually knows Sam's pediatrician well. This seemed to help in some way that I don't quite understand. So she sent Sam for a chest x-ray to see if that would show anything. The x-ray showed that Sam does have a spot of pneumonia. So it seems that the other hour of albuterol wasn't really necessary and might not have helped that much.
While we were there the nurses and PA kept checking Sam's oxygen level. 100 is ideal. Sam was fluctuating between 89 (this only happened when he was drinking his juice) and 97. He often hovered around 93-94.
The physician said that he's in a gray area, that he could be admitted and observed more. We really didn't want this but didn't say anything. She agreed to let him go home as long as we give him an albuterol treatment every four hours, even at night, and follow up with Sam's pediatrician in the morning. Much better than staying in the hospital overnight - especially since I hadn't showered since Saturday morning!
Isaiah is with Vern and Lorrie tonight, and I'm hoping that the rest of us can get a decent night's sleep. I'm going to give Sam his treatment at 11:15, 3:15, and 7:15. That way I only have to get up once.
I took some pictures on my phone, and I'll try to put them up soon. I took a few of Sam when he conked out on Dan around 4:00. The kid was so exhausted! There's another one of our minivan with a white suv parked right behind it. We really didn't know what we were going to do, but luckily someone who worked in the parking garage came to move it. Apparently they are so short on parking spaces that they valet park cars right behind other ones. Weird!

Already?

Around 8:00 tonight I was about to put Isaiah in bed. Dan was watching the end of the Sprint race. When I told Isaiah it was time to go upstairs, and he responded with, "Mom, I just want to watch the race." Oh goodness. Since it only had a few laps left, I let him. He's really into it too. He keeps asking Dan who drives all the cars and saying stuff like, "99 could fire all those other guys. He's way faster!" He likes #99, Carl Edwards.
He's only 3. I just can't believe this is starting already! I'm fine with him being a Steelers fan. That's cool. But Nascar? Ugh.