The Monkey Song

(This is the one time Meghan was not very loud so you need to turn the volume up.)

Bird Watch - 04-29-08

There has been a tragedy in the little birdy world.



As I mentioned the other day, only one baby was left in the nest. We do not know what happened to the others but I worried that this remaining baby was abandoned.



Well, the mommy and daddy bird did return later that day so I thought this one had not been forgotten.



Yesterday after work I checked on the nest. The little one did not survive. Very sad news. I hope the rest of the family has found a safe home elsewhere.



Now we are left with a logistical question. What do we do with the bird? I really don't like the idea of a dead bird hanging on my front door. I think we will leave it there for a few days to see if the birds have their own way of dealing with this.

Time Suckage: Shoe Wheel Assembly

How did you spend your Saturday night? I spent mine assembling my Shoe Wheel. I know, you are jealous.

The box arrived a few weeks ago but sat untouched until this weekend. Based on the size and shape of the box I feared that assembly was required.

Look, I move it upstairs. Progress.

I was correct.

Building blocks not included.

Internal boxes contained many odd shaped pieces.

Um, where are the instructions?

Oh, thank Jesus. There they are.

Ruh Roh. It is an entire manual?

I started following it step by step. And let me just say that manuals with only pictures and no words suck. What's the deal? Are you too cheap to translate it into may languages. Words help. See how helpful my words are here? What if this post was just a bunch of pictures? You would miss out on understanding exactly how much FUN this has been so far.

Let the Assembly begin!!

What the hell does "S1" mean?

My best guess.

These one looks like the last but trust me. It is different.

Look, I have wheels!

Kinda looking like a torture device.

This does not look right.

Okay, I think I see where we are going here.

Hey look, it is starting to resemble the picture on the manual.

And now we come to the part of the evening where I wanted to toss the wheel out the window. I was supposed to attach the black tension thingy to the plastic hook thingy. Not easy. I yanked on that strap for days hours minutes before it finally did what it was supposed to.

The step that made me want to kill the wheel.

VICTORY!

And then I had to do the same thing to the other side.

Once that was complete the dividers just needed to be pulled out to the end of the wheel. Which, again, sounds simple enough but took way longer then expected.

Almost there!

Just some finishing touches and it was complete. And, after all that, would you believe I did not take a picture of the finished product? I was just so happy to be done. And it was past my bedtime.

But I did put my shoes in yesterday and it does fit in my closet (was a bit worried after it was assembled). I'll let you know if I love it after using it for awhile. I did find a pair of shoes I forgot I had which I am wearing today.

Bird Watch - 04-27-08

Ryan just said there is only one baby bird left in the nest.

What happened to the rest?
Where did they go?
They are still too little to fly.
Does the mother take them somewhere?

We checked around on the ground, nothing there.

Hopefully they are okay.

Bird Watch - 04-26-08

Take a look at our little bird friends.

Last count there were 3 babies in the nest.

Oops, my bad. Sorry little man.

Sean got gum in his hair at the mall.

And yes, I was chewing gum before Ryan found it in his head.

And yes, it was no longer in my mouth after it was found mushed into the child's hair.

But I remember throwing it out while waiting for the elevator in Macy's. I really, really do.

So we made a stop at Linens and Things to buy a pair of scissors and I removed the sticky mess.

I suppose it is better to believe that it was my gum than the alternative.

Because we had not been there for almost a WEEK!

Guess where I was yesterday? Anyone? That's right, the doctor's office.

This time it was Meghan. She has had a cough for a few weeks now. One that keeps her (and us) up at night. We've tried a bunch of different things. Assuming it was her allergies (we had the same problem last year), we put her on on allergy medicine. No luck. Added a cough medicine at night. Still no luck. Tried Sean's allergy medicine. Nothing. We even tried honey. Nope.

The coughing is only part of it. Every night around midnight or so she would wake up crying and coughing and moaning which lead to more coughing and crying which lead to gagging and, on a few occasions, puking.

Sean is now finally sleeping though the night and we dropped his 2AM nebulizer treatment so we all really just want a full night's sleep. So perhaps taking Meghan to the doctor was partially a selfish move. But, hey, we all need sleep.

We saw the nurse practitioner and, although she was not 100% sure, she thought it might be a sinus infection. So we left with a prescription and a glimmer of hope that sleep might be around the corner.

Meghan did sleep better last night. Only waking once coughing and putting herself back to sleep. I don't think the antibiotic had anything to do with it because she just took in one time. Perhaps the allergy medicine finally kicked in. Maybe she was just as exhausted as the rest of us. Who knows. I'm just glad something is working.

Bird Watch

It's be awhile since I first mentioned the bird who made a home in our wreath. Well since then, there was one additional egg (5 total), Ryan identified the type of bird and we now have at least one baby.

Meghan got Ryan a bird book for Christmas last year and he actually got to use it. He identified the bird has a house finch. And, based on what we have found on the web, that looks about right.

Today we noticed at least one, possibly two babies have hatched. I had a really tough time taking a picture. Had to wait until the mommy was gone, plus there was a ton of glare on the door this morning. I did not want to take it from the outside because I would rather not get attacked by a mommy bird. I'll try later. Here is what I did manage to capture.

The Aquarium - 2008

We went to the New England Aquarium (in Meghan speak, the "equarian" or the "hairium") yesterday. I just downloaded my pictures and most of them turned out crappy. But, I'll post a few that won't give you a migraine.

This is school vacation week in MA. So I new we would avoid the field trip crowd but I had no idea what kind of a turnout to expect. Oh. My. Lord. It was CROWDED. I think we stood in line for tickets longer than we were actually in the aquarium (Note to self: Buy advanced tickets next time). This was the day after the Boston Marathon so it looked like there were several people in line who probably participated in the event and stuck around to see the city. It was also a bit cooler out than I expected. I forgot to factor in the sea breeze when dressing myself. The kids, however, seemed comfy in their jackets. Plus the wait in line allowed Sean to enjoy his snack alfresco.

Put down the camera and give me more food woman.

It was at least pretty outside.

Once inside it was difficult to move. Especially with the double stroller. But Meghan always seemed to find a way to wiggle herself to the front of the pack to see whatever what swimming around in the tanks. Sean also seemed to enjoy looking at all the colorful fish.

The one penguin shot that was not blurry.

Where are we????

Okay. A little blurry. But not NEARLY as awful as others.

The light here was killing me.

Our original plan was to stay there for lunch but Ryan and I were both DONE with the people after we made the loop around the place. It was way past lunch and everyone was tired and hungry. So, we decided to head back to the car and scope out a less crowded place to eat. It did not take long before this happened.


And this.





We ended up at Friendly's. Meghan got to pick out whatever she wanted and Sean ate just about everything in his lunch box. The waitress also almost dripped poisonous ice cream on his head. Close call but we all survived.

Home with the little ones

No work for us this week. We are home with Meghan and Sean until next Monday. We went to the aquarium today (will post on that later) but, other than that things have been pretty uneventful. We had to cancel our plans to go to a wedding in Jersey because Sean was sick so recently. So, really, Saturday, Sunday and Monday just seemed like extra days. We went to Gymboree, shopping, took walks. Ryan did yard work. I did a bunch of catch-up laundry. Thrilling, no?

Hmm, let's see, what else? How about bullets?

• Sean is walking all over the place.
• I need to child-proof another kitchen drawer because he likes to play with the potatoes.
• We cannot seem to find the magic combination of allergy medicine to keep Meghan from waking up coughing all night long.
• Meghan has decided that wiping after using the potty is optional.
• When she does wipe we must remind her "Front first!" like, 50 times. But that just results in "back, front, back".
• The bird is still around - update later.
• Sean ate two pasta shells without yakking.
• We also discovered he loves graham crackers.
• Sean had a follow up doctor appointment and is now just over 19lbs. We can almost turn the car seat around.
• Ryan and I will be going to Vegas...alone...in just about 3 weeks. First time there for both of us. Also, the first time we are both leaving the kids for that long. (Don't worry, we will leave plenty of food and water. We know how to judge this stuff. We have a cat.)

Back to Work

I am back to work today after a weekend + of chaos. Here is a recap because, honestly, I am too tired to type the full story.

If you remember, Sean has had a cold for awhile and was put on a nebulizer. But he seemed to be doing much better and we were going to begin to try and reduce the neb treatments down from every 4 hours. Well, we never got a chance to do that.

Saturday
Morning - Sean was doing great. Eating well, playing, smiling, sleeping.
11:30AM - Sean went to Gymboree.
12:30PM - Lunch and then nap
3:00PM - Sean was up and Meghan never napped. It was a nice day so we went outside. Sean practiced walking and then we went on a ride in the wagon.
3:30PM-ish - snack time
4:00PM - Here is where things started going bad. Sean started to struggle to breathe. We gave him a neb treatment early. He was pretty grumpy. I cannot remember if he slept after this (it was a long weekend).
6:00PM - Dinner time. He really did not want to eat or drink. We gave him another treatment and his steroid treatment then a bath.
7:00PM-ish - He fell asleep.
11:30PM-ish - Meghan woke up moaning and coughing. Worked herself up to the point where she puked (but in the trashcan).

Sunday
12:00AM - ish - Sean woke up coughing and puked all over crib. His breathing was very rapid. We gave him another neb treatment but this did nothing for him
1:00AM - Sean and I were on our way to ER.
1:00AM - 7:00 AM - Lots going on and I have lost all track of time. He was given neb treatments, an IV. Drugs through the IV, blood tests done. Constant monitoring. Chest x-rays. Monitoring. They were able to stabilize his breathing pretty quickly so that was a relief. Most of the time was trying to keep him stable and figure out what was wrong. He was constantly moving and knocking off his monitors and IV. Once he was able to drink they could not track down any soy milk so he was even more grumpy. By 6AM they determined he did not need to go to the PICU but he was going to get admitted to the children's ward.
7:00AM - We were moved to a room. Someone found soy milk and he had some cheerios. No more IV so he had some freedom.
12:00PM-ish - Ryan came to take my place so I could go home and get some sleep.
12:30PM - Doctor told Ryan Sean could go home that day.
5:00PM - Ryan called and said attending doc said nope, he has to stay. Thankfully Ryan stayed the night because at that point I still had not gotten any sleep. Meghan refused to nap. She did, however, sing a lullaby to try and help me fall asleep.

Monday
8:00AM -ish - I got to hospital with breakfast and caffeine. Sean was happy but refused to sleep in the crib all night, only on Ryan.
12:00PM-ish - We ate lunch.
Sometime around this time we were told that yes, we can go home that day. They set us up with more prescriptions and a follow-up appointment for the next day.
2:00PM-ish - arrived home

Tuesday
8:30AM - Follow-up with pediatrician
Rest of day - Medications, neb treatments, no napping.

So, what happened? It really seems like we were given just a bunch of guesses. The prevailing theory is asthma, allergies and pneumonia (oh my!). His oxygen levels were way off when he arrived. The x-ray showed...something. The blood test showed some type of infection. We were prescribed steroids and antibiotics. Need to continue every 4 hour breathing treatments. Also, we were told to add 1/3 teaspoon of Zyrtec at bedtime and that, if this happens again, we could always use his epi pen to help with his breathing while on the way to the hospital. We are going to go see a Pulmonolgist as well.

And now it is Wednesday and Ryan and I are both back at work. We are going to have to miss a wedding this weekend because we don't feel comfortable taking Sean far away from home. Oh, and Meghan is complaining that her ear hurts. Great.

The good news? We have next week off!

Does this kid look sick to you?

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Signs of Spring

We have had a few nice days here (finally) and it looks like Spring may finally be here.

One sign of spring is the return of the birds. This year a few birds decided to make our home their home.

This is the wreath on our front door.

Here is a birds nest in the wreath.

First there was one egg.

Then two.

Now four.

I don't have a picture of the birds because they are a bit skittish.

So now we are very cautious about using the front door. We obviously don't want anything to happen to the nest or to scare the mother away. We won't be able to replace the window with the screen until the family decides to move on. But, it has provided a bit of entertainment around here. Everyday we check to on our new little friends.

I'll post updates on the birdies.

Hernia Watch - Update

Meghan was up all night last night. She was moaning and whining. And then she threw up all over Ryan. There was puke on her rug and toys as well. (That has provided some motivation to clean the toys off her floor. If only so I don't have to clean vomit out of toy crevices, again.)

The rest of the night was moaning and coughing. At least every hour. Drugs did not help. She finally fell asleep around 6AM (yes - you guessed it, right when Sean woke up). Ryan and I are guzzling coffee right now.

Meghan has her ultrasound appointment for her hernia today and I am hoping she wakes up OK because it took over a month to get the appointment. Plus she better wake up soon because she cannot eat or drink for 4 hour before the appointment.

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8:05AM - She is awake and GRUMPY.
We are giving her cheerios and juice (because I avoid all milk based stuff after a puke incident. I almost lost it myself last night trying to clean it up).

I'll come back later and let you know how the ultrasound went.

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2:20PM - Well we are back. We survived a morning of "I'm hungry" and "I want some candy" and about an hour of the doctor and ultrasound tech trying to find her hernia while she was moaning and crying. And....nothing. So the good news is that, as of now, no surgery is needed. If we see the little bulge again we need to go back but we have not noticed it for weeks.

Only one more scheduled doctors appointment to go this week. And then, there is next week....

Tweet

I just created a twitter account.

I am not sure about it yet but others seem to really love it.

I hooked my cell phone in but I have serious problems texting. The language is sometimes foreign to me and it takes FOREVER for me to type what I want to say.

We will see how long this lasts.

I added the Twitter box over there on the left. Feel free to follow me while I am still here.

Weekend Update and Other Random-ness

I meant to post an update yesterday but work got in the way. Here are some highlights:

Did do:

• Took Sean for a checkup on Friday. Left with instructions to get even more drugs. He needs to keep up his regular nebulizer treatments (ever 4 hours) and the doctor added one more bedtime treatment this time with a steroid. Oh, and he now has an ear infection. We need to keep all this going until at least Friday when we go for another follow-up.
• Saw NKOTB on the Today show since I was home anyway.....
• Took Sean to Gymboree class and let him infect other children. He probably caught what he has from some walking germ last week.
• Finally made it to BJ's to replenish paper goods in house. We were running low on everything so we took a family outing to the store. Now we're good for awhile.
• Fixed the gate at the top of the stairs. Sean now has a lot more freedom and seems extremely happy to explore.
• Hung the coat hooks in Meghan and Sean's room that have been on the dining room table for about 2 months.
• Started reading a new book (only made it to page 30 but it's a start).
• Got video of Sean's first steps - I would post it here but I had to take it with our actual mini-dvd video camera instead of the digital camera because the batteries dies (see "Did not do" below) so I need to wait until I finalize the dvd before I can upload it to the web.
• Ryan went golfing

Did not do:

• Food shopping
• Laundry - ok, I did some but not nearly as much as I should have
• CLEAN UP TOYS - OMG, the MESS
• Try on new dress I bought to attend a wedding
• Get Sean's 1 year pictures taken
• Charge camera batteries - seriously, it would take 30 seconds to plug them in.
• About 500 other things I wanted to do but am too lazy to type here.

Now Reading

I've decided what book I want to read next.

I heard this was going to get made into a movie and I want to read the book first. I never read "Gone Baby Gone" but I did enjoy the movie.

The "Currently Reading" box over on the left has now been updated. I just need to find time to start reading the book.....

*Edited to say I am reading a book not a boot. Sheesh.

Time Suckage: Alltop

Like I don't have enough to read in my Google Reader, Alltop has gone and put a bunch of Mommy Blog links in one place:

http://moms.alltop.com/

MisterNeb

Sean has a new friend. His name is MisterNeb. How do I know his name is MisterNeb? Well, that is what it said on his box.

(Sorry for the blur. I am not capable of taking a picture with my phone without moving my hand.)

Sean must spend 5 minutes worth of quality time with MisterNeb every 3-4 hours.

Sean is not so sure he enjoys this time with MisterNeb.

After a few minutes he looks for a way to escape.

However, Sean is willing to tolerate the 5 minutes with MisterNeb if Yo Gabba Gabba is on.

Because we all know that Sean's real BFF is DJ Lance Rock.

This is what happens when the kids are home for FOUR DAYS

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I had to jump up from my computer while creating this post because Sean apparently figured out how to open the china cabinet. He was swinging a champagne glass over his head.