The Last Days of Summer

Technically, summer still lasts for another month, but things are winding down around here. School starts tomorrow. We made the most of our last days of summer:

Saturday (7/30) – Rudy and I spent the day shopping in Branson and then came home (without the kids) for a date night.  We had dinner at Café Rue Orleans in Fayetteville and then went to see Horrible Bosses.  It was so much fun to have adult conversation and see a grown-up movie in the theater!

Sunday (7/31) – I drove to Hot Springs to spend a few days there with the kids while Rudy started summer band. The kids and I stayed with Mom and MrL.  It was unbelievably hot (over 100* every day).  We stayed inside as much as possible!

Wednesday (8/3) – The kids and I said our goodbyes to Lala and Pops and drove over to Sherwood to spend the day with Memmie and Poppie.  They rode over to Little Rock with us so I could get Nola a napmat for her new daycare. We enjoyed visiting with them! 

Thursday (8/4) – I took Nola to her 18-month checkup with Dr. Schaefer. (more in a separate post)  After that, we met the boys for lunch and then took both kids to the new daycare.  Caleb went there for a week while I was in meetings.  Nola cried when we dropped her off, but apparently calmed down pretty quickly.  Caleb wasn’t too keen on going to new place where he didn’t know anyone, but he handled it pretty well.  While they were at daycare on Thursday, I got my hair cut and colored. Rudy had band that night, so the kids and I were on our own.  We met Caleb’s friend Isabel and her mom and brother at JumpZone.  The kids had a great time playing and Kristie and I enjoyed getting to know each other a little better.  Afterwards, we had dinner at Bariola’s.  By the time we got home, the kids were worn out! 

Friday (8/5) – Rudy took Nola to her last day of Gymboree.  The kids would’ve gone to daycare, but it was closed for promotion preparation.  We had a lazy day at home for the most part, but ran some errands and played as well. 

Saturday (8/6) – We wanted to do something fun to celebrate our last weekend of freedom, but it was SO HOT (106*!!!), so we needed to do something indoors.  We decided to go to Fast Lanes to bowl. It was a lot of fun. Caleb used the ramp and the bumpers, so he did pretty well.  After bowling, the boys rode the go karts.  Nola and I wandered around until it was their turn. 

Nola pulled my wristlet and phone out of my purse and strolled through the place like this:

Oh. My.

Sunday (8/7) – AAAGGGHHH!  The last day of freedom!!!  We spent the morning at church, had lunch at the new Five Guys burgers and then had a usual Sunday afternoon.  Rudy took the kids to Tanyard Creek in the evening while I met my old friend Leslie for dinner at Las Fajitas.

This past week, Rudy and I have had meetings every day.  The kids have gone to daycare.  Nola still fusses at me when I drop her off, but she’s settling in well.  She has one teacher that she has really taken to.  That makes me happy.  I know she’s doing well when I’m not with her.  Every day when we pick her up, we hear what a great day she’s had and how much fun she is.  Caleb did well there too, but he’s ready to get the show on the road and go to his real school. 

On a not-so-happy note, after 3 days of daycare, Nola got her first cold. She has coughed and had a runny nose like crazy.  On Thursday night at 11:30, I sent Rudy to WalMart to buy some Vicks Vaporub.  I read the craziest thing online about putting it on her feet and covering them with socks.  I was very doubtful, but gave it a try and was shocked that she was asleep – not coughing – in a matter of minutes. I don’t know why it works, I just know it works.  She smells like I remember my Papa smelling, which makes me smile and laugh, but she’s not coughing, so I’m happy.

Sweet Summertime!

Cue the Jimmy Buffett tunes, pour me a glass of lemonade and pass the SPF 30 – it’s finally summer!  After a ridiculous 10 snow days this year put my last day of work at June 8th, summer couldn’t get here fast enough. 
I left the kids in daycare until Friday, the 10th, because I had some things that needed to be done.  Rudy was still working until noon on Saturday (he had a crazy band thing!).  I took the kids in on Thursday and rushed to the hospital only to find out that the mammogram that I thought was scheduled for Thursday was actually scheduled for Friday.  I was also supposed to have had a hair appointment on Thursday, but the stylist cancelled it because she was sick.  Hmmm…things were not off to a rousing start.  I took advantage of the free time and went shopping for our trip to Florida.  I bought myself some clothes and stocked us up for a few days away from home.  Friday was much more productive.  I had my first mammogram (not as bad as I expected, but still…) and went for a scheduled visit with my doctor.  After that, I had a wonderful outdoor lunch all by myself and then moseyed over to the spa for a mani/pedi & brow wax.  I had a gift certificate from Christmas for $100.  My bill?  $100.  That’s a beautiful thing.  After that, I started to panic about the state of my hair right before vacation.  I did some asking around and found a great person to color my hair at the last minute.  Whew – maintenance is difficult at 34! 

On Saturday, Rudy worked in the morning, then met us for Caleb’s last T-ball game.  Caleb got to play first base and did a great job!  I spent Saturday evening doing some heavy duty packing.  I managed to get pretty much everything packed so that we could load up and go on Sunday.

Sunday morning I had to meet someone at church at 9:45 to get some information, then we were on the road!  The car was loaded to the gills, but we were headed down the mountain.  We stopped in Alma to eat lunch and then cruised on down the highway to Hot Springs.  LaLa and Pops were waiting for us when we got there.  Caleb jumped out of the car literally squealing with excitement!  We spent the afternoon on the lake trying out the new tube that Pops bought for Caleb.  Jimmy and Kim came over by boat to watch Caleb’s first try on the tube.  He LOVED it.  First, he rode with Rudy and then it was my turn.  I wasn’t so sure about it, but I’ll do things for my kids that I wouldn’t do otherwise.  Caleb and I rode the tube all the way to Aunt Harolyn’s house!  When we got there, we swam for a while in her pool.  Nola loved the pool.  She may be my waterbaby after all.  She’s definitely going to be the more adventurous of the two kids!  We boated back home, had dinner and went to bed pretty early. 
It was the beginning of a wonderfully sweet summertime…

Stuff We Did in March

Holy Moly – It’s worse than I thought.  I haven’t updated what we’ve been doing since the first of March.  Here goes nothing (thanks to backtracking through my Facebook posts)…

March 13th ~ Caleb went to LaLa & Pops’ house for the week because we had so much on our evening calendars that it seemed like a good time for him to go for a visit. 

March 15th ~ Nola started running a fever at daycare and I had to go get her.  She ended up having a respiratory infection and an ear infection.  I took her to the ENT to get her ears suctioned…again.

March 16th ~ Caleb’s fish, Ronnie died.  We went through the classic 80’s sitcom dilemma of whether or not to replace him with a look-alike and decided against it.  When I told him, he was fine.  After a day or two, though, it because a major issue.  He wouldn’t sleep in his bed because he missed Ronnie.  He sobbed one night because he didn’t get to say goodbye to Ronnie.  He told me that he had prayed that Ronnie would come back to life and he didn’t understand why it didn’t happen.  Ronnie was soon replaced with a goldfish named Swimmy.  All is well in the tank again.

March 17th ~ Caleb and my parents went to the St. Patrick’s Day parade in Hot Springs.  These showed up on my phone via text: 

 

March 19th ~ I met my parents to bring Caleb home.  We sang Justin Bieber’s song “Baby” about 25 times between Waldron and Rogers. 

March 19th ~ Rudy and I cringed when we found out that Caleb was playing on the Cubs t-ball team.  I nearly killed our Cardinals fan hearts.

March 20-27 ~ SPRING BREAK!!!

March 20 ~ I spent hours sorting through the kids’ outgrown stuff to sell/consign/give away.  We have a lot of outgrown stuff!  We spent some time in the afternoon walking the trail at Compton Gardens.

March 21 ~ I spent the day in Branson with my friend Stacy.  We shopped ‘til we dropped and then some. 

March 22 ~ One of Caleb’s friends came over for the day.  I decided for absolutely sure that 2 kids is plenty for me.

March 23 ~ We all packed up and went to Hot Springs for the rest of the week.  Yay!!!

March 24 ~ Rudy and I had a date day while the kids stayed with my mom.  We went to Oaklawn & out for a fabulous dinner.

March 25 ~ Rudy went to deer camp to help out with some work & stayed for the rest of the weekend.

March 26 ~ Aunt Harolyn had us all over for a family dinner.  It was fun to see the Caleb and Maddox playing together & we enjoyed catching up with our whole family!

March 27 ~ Came home to get ready to go back to school.  The end of spring break is always sad. 

March 29 ~ Caleb:  “Thunder is good.  It scares away the lightning.”  I love the logic of a 4 year old.

March 31 ~ Caleb at bedtime:  “My heart beats happy.”  I admit that I got a little choked up at that one.

The Bad and the Good of Late October

There is nothing on this planet that makes me cringe as much as a whiny child. Guess what...I now have one. Since Caleb's surgery on the 10th, he has whined like there is no tomorrow. It makes me crazy!!! Let me back up a little and please excuse me if I whine.

The last time I posted, we had had "A Strange Day." That was the start of what turned out to be a nasty bout with bronchitis for me. It's now 11 days later and I'm still coughing. We were supposed to go to the Pumpkin Patch with friends on Sunday (10/12), but I spent the day in bed with fever. I spent the nights of the 13th and 14th laying awake and coughing. I actually went to the guest room so that Rudy could sleep. On Wednesday, the 15th, I went to the doctor and ended up with a ZPac, which helped but didn't knock it out totally. I also got some fabulous nighttime cough medicine. If hydrocodone had a fan club, I'd be a member. It turned out to be the only way I could stop coughing long enough to sleep. Caleb has also had a cough for quite a while. We thought the antibiotics after his surgery would solve the problem, but he's still coughing and now his nose is running too. Aaaggh! Silver lining: he doesn't have a ear infection! Rudy was a super-dad during all of this. He took full responsibility for Caleb while I had fever and continued to take care of him most of the week since I was feeling so crummy.

I had the day off on Friday, the 17th and it was a busy day! I took Caleb to school and came home to do laundry and pack for our trip to Hot Springs. We also had the carpets and living room furniture cleaned to rid ourselves of the remants of having an indoor dog and potty-training a toddler. Yeah!!!! After the Sears guy left, I called Stacy and met her for a quick trip to the Hammonds center craft fair and lunch. We went to get Caleb at school and came home to meet Rudy. Not long after he got home, we hit the road for Hot Springs. We made it there without any trouble. It was one of Caleb's easiest trips in a while! Hallelujah!

We thoroughly enjoyed our trip to Hot Springs. Mr. L was at deer camp, but came home on Sunday morning before we left. Rudy played golf at Hot Springs Village with Chad on Saturday morning and Mom played with Caleb while I slept in. Unfortunately, Caleb hasn't taken too well to sleeping in the "big bed" with siderails at Lala's and one of us ends up having to sleep with him. Again...thank goodness for hydrocodone. :) Shortly after I got up, Aunt Harolyn came by to see us and then Pepapa and Anna Joyce came over. Caleb and Mom spent some time outside collecting acorns for Pops to feed the deer. I went shopping while Caleb napped and got an outfit to wear Saturday night. When I got home, Rudy was there and got ready to go over to Little Rock. We went to dinner and then to UALR for the Air Force Band Concert. Our friend, Chris was playing a trumpet solo, and it was our first time to see him play professionally. I think the last time I saw Chris play was at our wedding 10 years ago! After the concert, we all went over to Chad & Ronni's house for a little bit and then Rudy and I drove back to Hot Springs. When we got home, Caleb was sound asleep in Lala's bed. I'm not sure which one of them enjoyed that snuggle more.

On Sunday, Mom treated me to a special birthday lunch! She made my favorites: crawfish ettoufee and chocolate pie! Yum! After our early lunch, we hit the road for home. We made a short stop in Ft. Smith to see Jan and her friend Sue, then came home.

Of course, in our family, it seems that someone always has to be sick. Rudy woke up during the night Sunday with a stomach bug. He went to work on Monday, but came home early after a trip to the doctor. He was officially quarantined to the bedroom until this morning.

Sunday night, I went to bed at 9:30, thinking I would get a good night's sleep to prepare for a busy week. No such luck. Caleb woke up at 12:00, crying. I put him in the guest bed with me and we both went back to sleep. He woke up at 2:00 and whined/cried until I had to get up at 5:45 to get ready for work. I put him back in his bed at some point during all of that and he cried so hard, I thought he was going to be sick. So, I started the week on minimal sleep. This week is parent-teacher conference week for me, so I knew it would be busy. I left school at 4:30 on Monday and picked up Caleb. We went to the grocery store and then came home for dinner, bath, play and bedtime. I admit...I bought him a new movie at the store so we could have a low-key night. It worked. I put him to bed at his regular time and then had some work to do. It was midnight before I could get to bed. Of course, Caleb woke up at 12:30 screaming. I thought I was going to cry, but my Mom abilities kicked in and I sucked it up. He kept saying that his ears hurt. I gave him some pain medicine from his surgery and he went right back to sleep. Again...I love hydrocodone. We both slept most of the night and made it to school on Tuesday morning.

Tuesday was a LONG day for me. After school, I had parent-teacher conferences until 6:45. On Monday night, I had called our fabulous superhero babysitter, Kelly and worked out a way for her to take care of Caleb for me on Tuesday night. She came by my school and got my carseat, then went to Caleb's school to get him. They went to an early dinner at McDonald's and then came home to play. Rudy was still quarantined. When I got home, Caleb and Kelly were playing happily. Caleb told me he had to go potty, so I took him. My heart sank when I realized that he had diarrhea. I just knew that he had gotten Rudy's virus and we were in for another few days of misery. After a few more trips to the bathroom, I finally got him to bed. I called my principal and told her I wouldn't be at work on Wednesday and settled in for another long night. I got to bed at about 10:15 and, as expected, Caleb woke up at 2:00. Again, he told me his ears hurt. I gave him more pain medicine, took him to the bathroom (no diarrhea!) and we climbed in the bed. The pain medicine wasn't as effective this time. He fussed and cried and whined for over an hour while laying in the bed with me. He finally fell asleep around 4:00. We got up at 8:00 this morning and he played and watched TV while I dozed on the couch and counted down the time until his nap. After lunch, I finally got him in HIS bed for a nap and started some laundry. Then I hit the bed and slept like a rock until Rudy got home. Rudy woke up Caleb and took him to his follow-up appointment at the ENT. I went to school to get some work to bring home. I'm not sure why - it's not like I've even looked at it tonight! I guess I just needed to get out of the house and that made me feel productive. When I got home, Caleb was playing and Rudy had dinner almost ready. It has been a pretty good night. Rudy has felt so much better and enjoyed playing with Caleb tonight. He put him to bed not long ago and we've agreed to let him cry a little longer tonight before going to rescue him.

Everyone is going to school tomorrow. Rudy and I both have parent-teacher conferences and I have someone coming to my school to watch Caleb and another teacher's child. Good heavens, I hope it's a better day.

Now...for the update from the ENT. Nothing. He told Rudy absolutely nothing. He said that Caleb's ears looked fine. He wasn't worried about anything. He suggested a steroid for the inflammation that may be causing the ear pain, but Rudy turned it down. Caleb doesn't handle steroids well. We'll just keep giving him Tylenol and Motrin. Rudy said that Dr. Lee considered another round of antibiotics, but decided against it. I guess we're just going to have to ride this storm out with a test of patience.

Caleb's whining is ridiculous, but I don't know how much of it is because he doesn't feel good and how much is him being a pain. He will throw a holy fit and whine and cry, then look at me and say, "Mama, I not crying anymore." Usually, when he whines, I ignore him or tell him that I can't hear his words when he's whining. When it's the middle of the night, I tend to cave a little quicker. I'm just too tired to deal with it at 2:00 in the morning. I know I shouldn't get him out of his bed and sleep with him in the guest bed. I know that goes against every logical parenting rule. But...usually that cycles through about 2 or 3 nights every month or so. Not a big deal. Now, this has been going on for almost 2 weeks. It's not just getting old - it's old already.

I know I've written a lot of negativity in this post, so let me finish with some positives.

• Caleb has learned some pretty amazing things the past few weeks at school. He's starting to pretend a lot and his language has exploded once again.
• There is a child in his class that likes to try to scare the other kids by talking about ghosts and monsters. With Halloween coming soon, we've been tying to tell him that ghosts and monsters are pretend. When he starts talking about them at night when he goes to bed, I spray some air freshener that we call "monster spray" and he seems okay.
• As usual, he sings a lot. The new favorites are "Where is Thumbkin" and "Old MacDonald."
• Yesterday, Caleb walked into the living room with his blanket wrapped around his shoulders and told me that he was a princess. I thought that was pretty funny.
• Last Monday, he told me that it wasn't raining, it was just sprinkling.
• With all of the fall decorations out right now, he likes to point out all of the "squarecrows."
• When he is in the car with Rudy, Caleb likes to "help Daddy drive" by pretending that he is holding a steering wheel. He actually turns it the right way most of the time.
• He also likes to tell everything "Happy Birthday" - especially Taco Bell and the cows that we pass on the way home. That's a game that he and his Daddy made up one day and he's holding on to it.
• Caleb has started playing with his toys by "making them talk." He'll hold an Elmo figurine and say, "Hi, Elmo" then, "Hi, Caleb."
• Caleb's sense of direction seems pretty impressive to Rudy and me. He knows which way we turn to get places and if we don't go that way, he gets upset. He can also guess where we're going based on which way we're going.
• And, to make things truly positive...I would venture to say that Caleb is now fully potty-trained. He goes days between accidents. When we were in Hot Springs, I asked him if he needed to go potty and he said no. He then went into the bedroom, closed the door and wet his pants. I asked him why he did that. He said he "want to play, not sit on the potty." That's a pretty good sign to me that he can control his bladder. He's just being two.

Pepapa's Birthday Party

We went to Hot Springs on Friday for Pepapa's 70th birthday party at Mom and Mr. L's house! We got there Friday night and let Caleb play for a while before trying to put him to bed. We weren't sure how bedtime would go, though. For the first time, we were trying to get him to sleep in a "big bed" with rails on the side, instead of in the pack & play. He has really gotten too big for the P&P and we all decided it was time for another solution. Caleb was having none of that. He cried and asked me to stay with him. He's started telling me that he's scared a lot lately. He knows it gets me every time! Rudy insisted on sleeping with him Friday night.

We spent most of Saturday getting ready for the big party! We slowed down long enough to visit with Jimmy and Kim for a while. At 2:30, we all paused just long enough to watch the beginning of the Hogs' game against Texas. It was a completely nauseating experience. The Hogs are just so bad this year and Texas beat the living daylights out of us. We were glad when the guests started arriving for the party and we could put that behind us and have fun.

The party was a complete success! There were over 50 people there, including Pepapa's family and friends. Everyone had a great time and the food was delicious. Rudy treated us all to the Arkansas fight song and then played Happy Birthday on his trumpet. Pepapa seemed to really enjoy the party and that was the most important part!

After the party, we cleaned up a little and then headed for bed. We were all exhausted! I slept with Caleb in his big bed and for once, we both actually slept. We were both so tired, there was no way we could avoid it!

We headed for home yesterday, loaded down with leftovers from the party and exhausted from all the fun. We stumbled through the evening and put Caleb to bed a little early before falling onto our pillows. The family fun was well worth the exhaustion, but we're sure glad we aren't doing it all again next weekend! :)