So....How's It Goin'?

Almost a month, I know, but not quite. At least I don't have a zero next to May!

May has been jam packed with fun and excitement! And boy, am I whooped!

Instead of trying to ask my brain to recall the past 4 weeks, I will share my blessings right now:

1. Everyone is well in my house and sleeping soundly.
2. The only rain in the forecast is on Friday, so work should be a breeze this week, until Friday anyway!
3. I had a girls' day out today with some friends and saw Sex and the City. Good movie, BTW.
4. Mom is back from vacation
5. Cheri had a beutiful baby girl this week. Welcome baby Kohen, can't wait to meet you.
6. I know I have many, many things to be thankful for - and I think that's the biggest blessing!

I will get pics and etc. up later this week.

Rescue 911

Kylie had been sick with a fever since Thursday the 24th, and Brian was home with her on Wednesday the 30th. I started not feeling well about mid-morning. Kind of achy and I could tell I was getting a fever. It hurt my upper back when I inhaled, but I wasn't congested at all. The day went on and I got to feeling worse.

I barely made it home after picking up Landon from school. I had just walked in the door and Brian went upstairs to take care of a work phone call. I felt nauseated and went to the bathroom. Landon was so sweet. He was rubbing my back and holding my hair and talking so sweetly. Meanwhile, Kylie was trying to get her hands into the toilet water! Finally, I gave up on the puking and just sat there on the floor. After a few minutes I realized I couldn't feel or move my legs and my hands were getting numb.

Brian finally came downstairs and checked on me. I don't know how many times I had to tell him that I couldn't move before he finally believed me. He helped me up and moved me to the couch. I was scared and crying and in pain. My eyes burned, probably from the fever, and it hurt to breathe.

He was on the phone with my mom to see if she could come watch the kids while he took me to the clinic and apparently I passed out. I don't remember any of that, so I have to take his word for it. At that point, he called 911 and summoned an ambulance. I remember him hitting my leg and I came to. It felt like I had been out for a while, even though he says it was only for less than a minute. The paramedics came in with their gurney and I was basically hysterical. my fever was in the 103-104+ range and I was hyperventilating, making the pain worse, and probably causing more numbness. They loaded me up and took me to Huguley to get checked out.

The overall consensus was that I had a viral infection since there was no one place that hurt, except my back which they didn't really address. They attributed the numbness to lack of oxygen from hyperventilation. At the hospital, my BP was 170/120. Weird thing was that all of this time I wasn't getting enough oxygen, not once did they give me any through a mask. Looking back now, this strikes me as odd.

I am better now after fighting the fever for a few days. I remember seeing my kids during all of theses events and being scared for them. Landon is a little scared of police officers because they carry guns and apparently one of the kids at school told him that policemen kill people and left it at that. What are parents telling their kids and letting them watch on TV???? All I could think was he was seeing his mom being taken away by men in uniform and in trucks with sirens and I couldn't tell him everything was really okay. Brian and my mom reassured him and I know he'll be okay, but it wasn't me. We have talked about it and he seems to understand that the men in uniform are here to help and they were taking care of mommy.

Sleeping Handsome (It Can't Be Beauty For A Boy, Can It?)

Landon actually went to bed on his own last night. It was 9:00 - but he went to sleep on his own. He was at the top of the stairs telling me he couldn't turn the tv off so I went up to see what the problem was and he was really trying to turn the tv off. (I just knew it couldn't be that, you know.) I turned the tv off and tucked him into his sleeping bag on the floor. I was rubbing his back and was gonna stay until he drifted off and then, you know what he told me????? Well, Ill tell you what he told me. He said, "I want you to go downstairs." What?!?! I was speechless. How dare he? At first, I told him no because I thought he told me that HE wanted to go downstairs.

Boy, was I wrong. So, I kissed him and tucked him in and went downstairs, pouting all the way. I peeked in on him later, before I went to bed, and he had moved his pillow, blanket and puppy and was sound asleep in his bed!

I was so proud and sad. My little boy isn't much of a little boy anymore. He's already making grand plans for his birthday party - Batman and Mickey Mouse, no less. He's telling me all of his friends that can come and that "Cade can't come because his mom doesn't want to do it", whatever that means. There's no telling how that conversation went. Anyhow, he wants to go to Mickey Mouse's house and Max & Ruby's, too. I told him he could go to Mickey's house when he is 5. At the very least that gives me some motivation to get this 5th birthday Disney trip planned, 'cause you know he ain't gonna forget!!!

Here's another cute Landon story, as told by Grandma:
Sunday morning he wanted to brush his teeth, so I let him. But the last time he was here, he was brushing his teeth and saw that I had a small mirror in my toothbrush cup, the one that you can look at your teeth with (like the dentist has) and he asked me what it was for, so I told him. While he was brushing his teeth, he took the little mirror and was trying to brush his teeth and look at them at the same time, and he said "Grandma, you are wrong, you can't look at your teeth and brush them, too". The way his hands were trying to work at the same time, was so funny, so he put down his toothbrush and tried to look at his teeth with the mirror and turned around and looked at me with his face all scrunched up like he does and said "Yuck". I had to laugh at him. He is so funny.
Thanks for the story, Mom!

For all of you who really know Landon, you know that this photo is a rarity. I don't think I have seen him fall asleep on the couch, during daylight hours, since before he could walk.

Digging Up Bones

We had a blast in Round Rock last-last (remember that I'm way behind?) weekend for Carter's birthday party.

We decided to make a weekend out of it and drove down on Friday evening. The drive down wasn't the most enjoyable ride I've ever taken, but who can blame them? We tried letting them watch DVD's on Brian's laptop, since Landon broke the portable ("I didn't did anything" is the story he's sticking to). Come to find out, to play DVD's on WMP or anything else you have to have some kind of decoder. Just another way to rip us off is what I think. The cheapest one we found was $14.99. Of course the WiFi hotspots along the way were helpful, but you have to activate the darn decoder and they don't tell you not to put the hyphens in the number even though that's the way they sent it to you in the first place! So, needless to say, we didn't get it to work until after we arrived in Round Rock.
Landon and Tyler had a great time and they slept so well in the same room (thanks for the cot, Cheri!). I just knew that was going to be a disaster. What do I know anyway? I think the trick was getting them so tired they didn't have a choice but to rest. No fussing or complaining from Kylie, either. She even slept through having her crib (thanks for the pack-n-play, Cheri!) moved 2 nights in a row.


Saturday morning we got up and all the boys went to Tyler's game. Landon was just enamored with Tyler. He followed him around all weekend like a little puppy. It was so adorable. (Sorry, Tyler! One little brother is enough for now, huh? He just thinks your the coolest!) Courtney went to prepare for the party and me and Kylie went to do some shopping. A little later it was party time! Landon had so much fun digging up bones and holes in the sand, climbing "mountains" and catching bugs (crickets) in the creek. Kylie watched for a while and then it was time for her and her baby to get in on the action. She found a shovel and went to town. Of course, her baby was in the middle of it all. Except for when Brian was helping her use the digger(?). The she slipped and fell face first into the handles of that thing and it was over until....PIZZA!!! She put away 2 whole slices of pizza and my crust. And, for the little girl with the longest hair that will never keep it up in the ponytail holders, she kept those sunglasses on ALL DAY! I couldn't believe it either.


After the party, the kids went home to nap with the boys and me and Courtney made a quick trip to the outlet mall and to a cute little boutique in town. We decided to stay in and grill fajitas instead of going out to dinner and the kids had a great time playing in the backyard. Sunday morning, we had to make the highly anticipated trip to Rudy's for breakfast and headed home. We were all beat and very tired, but we had a great time and can't wait to do it again.

P.S. This is what the boys do during naptime!

My Super-Man

It's a bird. It's a plane. No - it's Super Landon!

Grammy found the Superman capes that Mawmaw made for the boys when they were little and gave it to Landon on a trip to the park a few weeks back. He had so much fun zooming around the playground. It still has Brian's name faintly legible in Sharpie marker on the hem. Isn't that amazing?

It's so fun to think that Brian was doing that when he was Landon's age. Working at the Daily Planet and spinning in telephone booths and everything. Thank goodness this Superman hasn't run into Lois Lane yet! Watch out, ladies, he's gonna be a heartbreaker!

Playing Ketchup

Dear Courtney and Cheri (and everyone else out there),

Please accept my sincerest heartfelt apologies for being WAYYYYYYY behind in my posting. I know I suck at this. I don't know how I can make it up to you, but I'll try. I won't bore you with sad excuses like how I am so busy at work and the kids are crazy and I have to cook dinner and do I have any clean underwear and I WANT NEMO FRUIT SNACKS and I don't wanna take a bath I want a shower and no I want a bath and I want chicken nuggets but only if we have ketchup, my God, do we have enough ketchup!?!?!? Nope, I have no excuses. I will be catching up on my posting in the next couple days and I hope you can forgive me.

Love,
Me/MO/Mom/Momma/Mommy/Mommmmmmm-yyyyyyyyy-my-movie's-oooooooooooverrrrrrrrrr

She's SO Not A Morning Person

We have a long road ahead.

Our sweet baby girl was CRANKY this morning. This is probably the 3rd or 4th time in the past week-and-a-half that she has screamed all morning while we get her ready, on the way to school and before breakfast.

She has not been sleeping well for the past few nights, which we think may be attributed to hatching some new chompers. At odd times during the wee hours, she will start crying/screaming and shortly after, quiets and goes back to sleep. The times that we have gone in to her room in an attempt to console her, she refuses. In addition to these fits, she had been extremely attached to a lovey of some sort. Luckily for us, for now anyways, she just wants a baby doll or stuffed animal AND a blanket. It doesn't have to be one toy or blanket in particular, just A blanket and A toy, and of course her cup. For a while now, we have realized that she finds comfort in her cup, like other kids have with a pacifier, etc. She must have her cup at all times, or, at the very least, know where it is. So we schlep to school with 2 kids, a cup, a stuffed animal, a blanket, backpack and bag, and any other paraphernalia Landon must take for show-and-tell. I tell you, I feel like a pack mule most days!

This morning was particularly rough. We were trying to get everything situated and packed so that we can just grab the kids on the way out of town and not have to go back to the house. We did a lot of the prep work last night - packing clothes, last-minute laundry, snacks, portable high-chair, etc. So we expected this morning to go a little more smoothly. Boy, were we wrong! Landon was up and about after a little coaxing and reminding him that today was, indeed, Friday. Finally, it was donut day AND the day we go to Tyler's house. He wasn't hard to get going after that. He just wanted to take all of his belongings to Tyler's house. After some reassurance that Tyler had toys and puzzles at his house, he finally conceded, mostly. Kylie was stirring so I went in and stroked her hair and spoke softly, hoping to rouse her gently. NO SUCH LUCK! When Brian picked her up, she started the wailing. He got her dressed in an amazingly short amount of time, considering, and came downstairs to join me and Landon in the piles of stuff to take on the trip. I tried holding her to calm her, but to no avail. Finally, I decided to lay her on the floor on Landon's Spiderman pillow. Landon, being the sweetest big brother ever, lay down next to her on the cool tile floor and started singing to her. 99.9% of the time, if he sings to her, she'll calm down. Today, we saw the other 0.01% It was time to go, so we picked her up and loaded her in the truck. She calmed down while we were in line at the donut shop and was fine after that. Hot and cold, that one!

I can't imagine what it's gonna be like when she's a teenager. Why did I even put that thought into my head? Here's to more sleepless nights!