When a trip to the ____ isn't just a trip to the _____

For those of you wondering, I have, indeed, gotten some sleep! Of course, it completely hit me around 11 the next morning. Luckily, Max was sleeping, and Nolan was playing Wii. I can sleep quite well through Wii games! Poor Nolan.

Anyway, When a trip to the _____ isn't just a trip to the _____. Have you ever gone somewhere, a routine trip, which turned out not at all like you were expecting? I had two of those experiences in the past week.

Scenario 1: When a trip to the doctor isn't just a trip to the doctor.
I've been so fortunate that my trips to the doctor have been quick and easy, with all three kids, every time. Last Tuesday I took Max for his 15-month checkup, just trying to get in and out as soon as possible since I had Nolan with me too and it was Max's naptime. Temperature, normal. Height, tall (99th percentile). Weight, normal (60th percentile). Head, normal. Breathing, oh wait. Wheezy. Ears, oops! Infection. I left with more medicine than Max has been since he was born, and he got shots too. Not so fun. He's still wheeezy, even with breathing treatments, but I'm hoping that by midweek he'll be better. Otherwise, back to the doctor!

Scenario 2: When a trip to the park isn't just a trip to the park.
Last week I took Nolan and Max to the park by Abby's school. We were going to go in the morning, but the Max took a 10 AM nap, and slept until 1. So, we couldn't do morning, and couldn't really do the picnic we planned. Instead, we went at 1:30 and stayed until Abby got done with school at 3:30. When we first got there, there was one other mom there and she had her four kids there. It was obvious that she must home school, since the park is right across from the in-session public school and three of her kids were obviously old enough to be school-aged. The boys started playing and I walked around by the mom, and she started talking to me right away, asking how old my kids were and just general questions. She was very nice, and before long I realized I hadn't asked her anything about her or her kids, so I asked their names and ages. One of the girls was 7, so I mentioned that I had a daughter who just turned 6. The mom asked me when her birthday was, and after I told her she said she had a son who passed away but would have been 6 on September 26 (which was Abby's original due date so kind of strange). I told her I was sorry and commented how hard this time of year must be for her and her family. She said it was, and then also said that she just miscarried a 12-week pregnancy, too, the week prior, so this year was especially hard. Then she mentioned her son who had passed away again at four years old, and so I asked what happened. The boy (I wish I could remember his name!) had the flu and had asphyxiated in his sleep. She said that the girl who was just a year older than him had real trouble going to sleep that night and woke up saying things like "I'm going to miss him" and "He was such a good brother." The mom promised her everything would be fine, that he just had the flu, but then, five hours later when she went to check on him, she couldn't wake him up. Wow, that's really scary! Her older 12-year-old boy said that was the last time she ever made a promise, since she promised he would be ok but he really wasn't. A different time in the conversation (which was only about 20 minutes) she also mentioned that she miscarried an 8-month old baby about 10 years ago. I just looked at her in amazement and she said that she knows there's reasons for all of this, and knows God is with her. She mentioned some of the prayers that have helped her and she was very strongly witnessing her faith. While what she said was all very familiar to me, I assumed she must be born-again or a fundamental faith of some sort. I asked her what chuch she belonged to, and she said Holy Angels, which is a Catholic church near her. I was shocked! Being one, I know a lot of Catholics, some weak and some strong in their faith. But, I'd never heard anyone be so outright without being crazy, overbearing or otherwise strange. She was very normal, nice to talk to, and so strong in her faith of being able to deal with all these things that have been dealt to her. It was really quite amazing. I pray that I never have to test my faith to that extent!

After she left, we were at the park for another hour or so, and watching Max just makes me tired. He's everywhere, trying to climb every ladder, slide, swing, ramp, everything! There was another mom who brought her son, who looked about 10 months old. As we were leaving, they were sitting by our bikes, and she asked how old Max was. I told her 15 months and I asked about her son. She said 15-1/2 months, but he couldn't walk yet because he had had several surgeries and some things wrong with him so he was about two months delayed developmentally. Point taken. Max makes me tired, but I appreciate, appreciate, appreciate him and his abilities. And I'll even take the crazy doctor appointments where he has (gasp!) an ear infection. All right, I get it. And I'll stop taking it all for granted.

One more tip

When trying to deal with the headache that drinking an entire pot of coffee will give you (see previous post), remember that Excedrin has even more caffeine in it, and probably should not be consumed. Especially in triplicate.

Do NOT try this at home

I'm not a big morning coffee drinker. On very rare occasions, I might drink a cup in the morning, but usually only on those mornings that I also feel like having some Baileys along with my coffee. Or, in my case, some coffee along with my Baileys. But afternoons are different. Especially glorious fall afternoons when the sun is shining and there's just a hint of chill in the air. Then, I love to make a pot of coffee, to hear the sound of it percolating, and to drink a cup (with lots of splenda). Today was that day. But instead of a cup, I drank a pot. 12 cups. And now, at 1:24 AM, I'm not sure what I was thinking.

Stop the Baseball!

Every year around this time Dave gets baseball madness. And I don't. I watch a couple of games and it's done for me. This year I thought it would be different. Between the Brewers, White Sox and Cubs all in the playoffs, surely there would be someone I'd want to watch. And then they all lost. And all that's left are some far off teams that no one (and by no one, I of course mean me) wants to watch. Oh well. There's always the basement.

Armadillo Soup and Other Parts of Daily Life

As we're settling into fall school life, I thought it would be fun, or maybe just interesting, to take some pics of our average life hanging out here at home. Nolan is a little lost without Abby still, but comes up with some pretty crazy things.

Once we're all up, Abby and Cody have headed out the door, it's usually not too long before Max goes down for his morning nap. When he wakes up and Nolan hears him, he loves to run up there and crawl into Max's crib with him. Sometimes Max isn't even fully awake yet, but he does laugh at Nolan. Here they are hanging out in Max's crib, in matching outfits. (Awww, aren't they cute?)



After a stint in the crib, Max loves to head into Abby's room to see what trouble he can get into. His latest trick? Climbing up the ladder into Abby's bed. And then getting stuck there.



And to round out the trifecta, they head into Nolan's room for some more ladder climbing. At least Nolan's ladde I can take down if I don't want him up there.


Then we figure out what we're going to do for the day. Last week, one of the days was heading to the zoo to meet Jen and kids for the day. To try to get the seals (sea lions? whatever) over to them, they all made fishy faces. It actually worked, even though you can't see them here.


And Max just loved holding Chad's hand. I think Chad liked it, until I asked if he wanted me to pick Max up and he said, "Yes. I'm having trouble controlling him." Yeah, tell me about it.


But they certainly look related, don't they? Blondies!


The hyenas were out and pacing through their area. What ugly animals they are!




Last weekend, Abby had a birthday party for a friend of hers, Reagan. Reagan turned 7, which of course is first grade age, but still seems strange since Reagan was just at Abby's sixth birthday party. I couldn't imagine Abby to be a year behind from where she is now, but there is certainly a difference between them. Not to mention that Reagan had a tea party with dolls and everything. Abby had fun, but really isn't that much of a girly-girl.


On other random days, I give Max Heinekin to drink. It makes the naps last longer.


Some days, we head to McDonald's. Actually, we've only gone there once since school started, and I'm pretty surprised at myself for that! But, the boys love it and Nolan's really good about going through the play area with Max. Max could spend an hour in this spaceship thing, I think.


Believe it or not, we actually prepare dinner during the day sometimes, too! Here's Nolan helping me make meatloaf. He really got into it!


Before we made meatloaf, we read Nolan's book that he got from preschool. It's a Diego book where they have a rainforest race and the armadillo wins. After we made meatloaf, he asked me if we could make armadillo soup sometime. Since Dave was making jumbalaya, I decided it was a perfect opportunity! Sure, Nolan, let's make armadillo soup. Here they are making their masterpiece. It came out tasting yummy, but Abby burned her hand a little bit from stirring. We're not sure if it was from the steam or she actually touched the pot, but she got a nice water blister that popped. Other than the first 20 minutes of crying she was pretty good about it.


And while they made armadillo soup, Max played in the bathroom. Medicine dropper? Check. Soap? Check. Towel? Check. What else do you need for your foot bath?



After that we headed to The Elegant Farmer, a pumpkin patch in Mukwanago, which was really a lot of fun, with perfect, perfect weather on Saturday. We got some apples, bread, pumpkins, cookies, and the yummy, yummy, yummy apple pie in a bag. I could eat that at one sitting!

Wooden horses, anyone?



On the hayride we saw this beautiful apple orchard.



Farmers at heart.


Max really got into his pumpkins!


Dave picked his!



Abby could barely hold hers.


Here's Dave's real pumpkin.


Max was certainly tired out...


And Abby and Nolan continued their crazies long into the car ride.



Friday night Abby and I went out to eat and had good girl bonding. I took along the book KidChat, which asks a bunch of questions, and it was fun listening to her (Would you rather explore outer space or the bottom of the ocean?--Outer space, because she wants to be one of the first people on Mars). When we got home, Dave and Nolan had set up a "pirate ship" in the house. They pused all the couches and furniture together, and had a plank and everything. It was pretty cute. Today, I cleaned out my shoes! For those of you counting, I gave away or threw out 18 pairs. And I have 20 left. Don't judge me.

Have a great week!