Washington DC trip

We had to change a few of our vacation plans after Alex's surgery. Originally Janice was going to watch Alex and Jonathan while Jacob and I went with Adam to his conference in Atlanta. We decided that it was best that I stayed to make sure Alex's recovery went smoothly. He had only been out of the hospital for 2 days when Adam left and it was hard for him to be away from home.

Janice helped out a lot when Adam was gone.

Our trip to DC was not changed even when a yucky stomach flu ran through the house. Jacob and I were missed which was very nice for me. I was able to pack, clean the house and take care of sickies. I also drove the whole 12 hours to DC. It really should have only taken 8.

We arrived and had a blast the whole time.

The boys fav: the Washington Monument.

Mine was the Lincoln memorial. We were very bummed when we discovered that the pond was being renovated.

It was tremendously hot out so we spent lots of time finding shade. The Washington Memorial gave plenty for this good shot.

This was about as close as we got to the White House. It was memorial day weekend and we ran into all sorts of tour bus issues and the Rolling Thunder parade which lasts about 10 hours.

Our fav part was the American History museum. The boys just had a blast and it was in the AC which was great considering it was well over 90 outside and Adam and Janice were still not 100% recovered.

the boys on the old fashioned buses they had set up.

The only family picture could get.

Love him.

This poor boy did not sleep well on this trip. Not set naptime gave for very poor sleeping at night. Which meant I got very bad sleep as well.

I love the DC shirt.

Here are the boys hanging out in front of the Capitol Building talking about history.

PEACE!

It was over 100 degrees on day 2. Since our tour bus wasn't running we had to walk way too much. At one point we found some shade and Adam ran (I mean actually ran) 3 blocks to get water and Popsicles. He was just about dead when he got back to us but our yummys were still frozen.

The last of the 3 days our tour bus was running and we made use of it. We got to see a lot of the memorials that we couldn't walk too.

Jefferson Memorial

View of the White House from Jefferson Memorial.

Lincoln Memorial

Always wanted to sit on those steps. Just like in the movies.

We finished off our National Mall tour with the Natural History Museum. Of course, the bugs were the best part.

After dropping Janice off at the Dulles airport Adam and I headed out to the National Zoo with the boys. This was another very hot day and we spend most of the time searching for the misters.

The boys made some new friends.

Lovely!

Well, that was our trip to DC. We had such a great time. Hopefully we can go again when it is not quite so hot and not a national holiday.

10 Months

Jacob is 10 months old now. Hard to believe. He is doing just amazing and is the light of our lives.

Appendicitis

On May 16th I made Alex's favorite dinner. Homemade pizza and brownies. He stated his tummy hurt and would not eat anything ( except a few bites of brownies). We really didn't think too much of this as he had just gotten over the stomach flu. He had lost nearly 5 pounds with this sickness which is why he got to eat the brownies without dinner. We really wanted him to gain back some of the weight.

On May 17th, I was preparing all day for my Mother in Law, Janice to visit. I was to pick her up at the airport after a fun filled day. We had plans to go to the park for a homeschool social, Alex had piano lessons and we had to drive to Boston to pick Adam up on the way to the airport. After eating no breakfast due to tummy issues I cancelled the park outing and continued about my day of cleaning. I was thinking, "yay, I might actually get the place cleaned up in time." At about 2pm, following no lunch being eaten I started to worry. Alex's tummy was really bothering him at this point. But none of the really obvious signs were there. No fever, his tummy hurt all the time, everywhere; not just on the right side or when you let go from pushing on it. He hadn't thrown up or anything else that is suspect. I decided to cancel piano lessons and then called my mom. She is always my backup. I figure why pay out the copayment if Mamaw can figure it out. Immediately she said call the doc. Ok so when was I going to fit that in considering I had to leave in an hour to do pickups which would take at least 2 hours. So I made an appt for 6:45pm. I love my peds office. They are open 7 days a week, even late hours. I got everyone in the car at 3pm and headed into town. (I did remember the barf bucket and it did come in handy). We grabbed Adam and then grabbed Janice and headed home for a quick dropoff. Alex and I headed over to the doc. She was not our primary but I had her before and love her. Dr. Sachs couldn't be sure what the issue was. He was still doing weird things, like jumping up and down, laughing and running. I had to mention that he has been moaning all day long and I had to carry him to and from the car. She decided the best thing to do was to send us to Winchester Hospital. I called Adam on the way and we felt it was best he stayed with the other boys and just I went. For all we knew Alex just needed to take a big dump. We arrived at 7:15pm and things went slow and quick. Here he is before any needles when they were letting his draw on the sheets.

It seemed to take forever but by 9pm we had finished a sonogram that couldn't find his appendix and by 10pm he had an IV so that he could get a CT scan. He had to drink 4 oz of the juice stuff every hour. This was not easy considering he was exhausted and thoroughly pissed about the IV. At 1am we were bumped from the CT scan for a real emergency. Finally at 2am he was brought in for the CT scan. He cried through the whole thing. The dye they put in him made him feel like he was going to burn up and wet himself at the same time. At 3am they came back with news that he had appendicitis and that he had to be transferred to Tufts Childrens in Boston. Yay Ambulance Ride! He woke up for this and didn't get upset for the whole half hour. We arrived there at 4:30am. By this point I was so tired I could barely stand yet so scared that I was wide awake. My phone had died and I was borrowing doctors phone to call Adam. I couldn't use the hospital one since Adam's phone is a CA number. By 6am we met the anesthesiologist and got the happy drugs. (For Alex not me) I went into the operating room with him and said my "see you laters" right before he blissfully went to sleep.

Waking up for him was very difficult. The drugs made him very upset and I wasn't there. They actually had to knock him out again since he wouldn't settle down. Of course, I was in the room next door and could hear him screaming. But I was basically locked in to this sitting area. This may have been the worst 20 minutes of my life. Hearing him cry and scream for me and not being able to go to him. By 8:30am he was up in the children's wing.

One thing that has not been mentioned yet is that we only have one car. And since I rode in the ambulance with Alex it was at the other hospital. Adam was basically stuck. He ended up repeatedly calling our neighbor and got her to take him up to the hospital to pick it up. I think he was a few minutes away from renting a car from the Enterprise that is about 100 yards from our house. He made it up to the hospital by 10am and I was very relieved to see him.

Here is the first pic of Alex when he was still nicely drugged.

The drugs were wearing off at this point.

I had to go home in the late afternoon to feed Jacob and get some sleep. Adam stayed when Alex all night making sure he was comfy and happy.

Here we are taking him home on May 19th. All in all it was not quite 48 hours of hell. Of course, the recovery has become another story.

We were so lucky to have Janice fly in the day this all happened. She did a great job at taking care of Jonathan and Jacob. When Alex got home she was ready to play games with him anytime.

I know that an appendectomy is a fairly minor surgery but when it is happening to my 5 year it is major. I hope that none of the other kids ever have to go through it.

Th Big Apple Circus

Today we took the train into Boston to see the Big Apple Circus. We thought the boys were finally old enough to sit through the whole thing and that Jacob is yet to become very difficult in that sort of setting.

An absolute must was that we get cotton candy. Love it !

We got there about 20 minutes early. Which is actually not that great considering how hard it is to keep these kids still. They munched on their cotton candy and sang with the music playing.

They were both really great during the performance. Somehow Jonathan fell asleep halfway through. With how loud and exciting it was this really surprised us. We had a great time and plan to go next year. Although, we may leave Jacob home then because an almost 2 year old would not do well in a 2 hour performance.

Jacob is Nine Months!

It is hard to believe that Jacob is already 9 months old.

Check up stats:

21 lbs 14 oz : 75%

29 inches: 75%

I am happy that his growth didn't continue so rapidly. He is slowly getting into the range where the other boys were at. He has been in 12 month clothes for a couple months already and I have decided to buy 18 mo summer clothes so that he doesn't outgrow them.

Jacobs Fun facts:

Fav Foods: meatballs, beans, peas, corn, life cereal, whole apples (peeled), goldfish

Activities: dancing, crawling around, playing in the grass

Sleeping habits: sleeps from 7pm to 5am, eats then sleeps some more. Naps are horrible but we are making progress.

I had to give the older boys there due too:

They are all getting so big

Bath Time Fun!

I know the title will probably be a little racey but I just had to post what bath time is like in our house. The three boys all climb in together and take up the whole space. Shortly after this bath we switched to individual baths for the big boys and we throw Jacob in with one of them for a short time. By the end the floor is still soaked and our backs still ache but at least there is less screaming.

Happy Easter

Grandpa Don and Mamaw came for a visit on Easter weekend. We actually celebrated on Saturday since they arrived Friday afternoon and left Sunday early in the morning. We were very happy for their visit.

The boys used their Halloween buckets again. The EB left the usual candy and Adam and I gave them some new backpacks with rollers. This was in anticipation of our vacation in late May when it would be nice for them to be able to carry their own luggage. The Halloween buckets are done for. They finally asked " why don't we have real baskets like the ones at the store." Bummer, but it was bound to happen sometime.

Here they are getting ready for the surprise.

Jacob started waving this weekend. It was so very very cute.

We tried to get a pic of all the boys but it never really turned out. Here was the best one.

Grandpa Don and Mamaw gave the boys some kites. We weren't able to fly them the day they got them due to severe rain but we got some time in the next day. I can't wait to get back out there. They just loved it.