Mommathon

I almost cried this morning when Colm woke up and I saw that his right eye was swollen and I knew we would have to go to the pediatrician's....again. You see, we have been there about six or seven times this month. Let's see...let me count...we went there once as a follow up to Liam's trip to urgent care, then we went back about a week later to have his breathing tested. Then Colm got pink eye and then Colm had his three-year checkup and then Liam was having asthma trouble on Friday. Then there was our trip there today. There is a new receptionist there and she knows me now. That's not a good sign. We have also been to the pediatric surgeon's this month as a follow up to Colm's surgery last month. Most importantly, however, Colm will be fine. (If you look at his birthday picks you can see how there is a red rash sort of thing around his eye up onto his forehead.) The dr thinks he got a bug bite which might require us to go back to the dr if it gets any more swollen. I am seeing if they have some sort of frequent flyer program.

Colm had his family birthday party today. He was SO excited.

Mmmmm...cake!

Presents

Grandma trying to figure out a present...it involved a screwdriver.

Swinging with Uncle Michael (Colm's Godfather/Sean's Uncle)

The highlight of the day was the firetrucks.

Getting our helmets fitted properly.

Krispy Kreme!

Our church hosted Safety Saturday today. There was a lot to do, such as: getting to sit in the driver's seat of a school bus AND honk the horn, getting to explore three different types of fire trucks and an ambulance and sitting on a police motorcycle. There was also a station that gave away free bike helmets, a 911 simulator which was very neat, free eye exams, and on and on. This was the very first time our church had hosted this type of thing and I think it was a super huge hit. I hope we do it again next year.

Quite a while ago I said that I would talk about children's books that I thought were of good quality and had some redeeming qualities. Well, I dropped the ball because I have been busy trying to keep my house spotless and trying to take a class. Well, the house still has to be cleaned every day, but the class is almost over. So...To Market, To Market is a GREAT book! I don't buy a lot of books because we go to the library so much, but after getting this one from the library I had to buy it because Liam liked it so much. We have had this book for probably three years and I never tire of reading it because it is so much fun to read. It has a great cadence, it rhymes and the kids think it is hysterical.

In case you didn't know, there's a new Wiggle. Let me fill you in on the details. Colm and I were waiting for Liam to finish up with Catechesis today. We were walking around the church when we passed a picture of Jesus. I asked Colm who that was and his wise answer was, "A wiggle?" Ummm, no. Apparently, Colm needs a little bit more rigorous religious training.

The baseball helmet he HAD to have!

Wiggles!

The boy who loves to play grocery store can now do it in style with his very own shopping cart!

He wanted to go to Chuck E. Cheese for dinner, so that's where we went.

With the weather being so wacky the past few weeks, we FINALLY got to start soccer this weekend.

Pregame chat with Coach Brian.

Liam has wanted a Lightbooster (that's what he calls Star Wars Lightsabers) for a couple of months. I told him absolutely not, no way, it's not going to happen so stop asking. I don't want him to have one because I don't want Liam and Colm thwapping each other over the head all day with them. I don't want it to be one more thing I have to referee. Then I was talking to my friend, Danielle, about her son's obsession with Star Wars. He has a Lightsaber (he calls them Lightsavers) and they have rules about how it can be used and there aren't any problems with them beating each other over the head all day with them. The same night I talked to Danielle, Sean and I talked about buying him a Lightsaber. We decided that we would get him one (maybe two so he has someone to fight) and that they could only play with them if they were having a Jedi fight. That would entail putting on their bathrobes and bowing before and after the fight. (I figured atleast I could get a few cute pictures out of it.) So, we went to Target tonight to get him one. It was this huge big deal...it was like a rite of passage or something. We went to the Star Wars aisle and he decided he wanted something else instead! We went through all of that for nothing. I guess it wasn't totally for nothing, if we ever have to have the Lightbooster discussion again, which I am sure we will, I know the answer. Yes, Jedi knight, you may have one, but only if you can fight in your bathrobe.

As Earth Day grows closer, I encourage you to do one or two things to help the Earth and make them a part of your daily routine. One thing you can do is go to greenfeet.com and buy some reusable shopping bags. They are only $5 a bag and they come in a number of colors. I chose purple. :)

Now that they have started framing, things are really going to start moving along. (They got this much done in under two days!) This is the fun part!

We have another new member in our family as of last Thursday. Welcome to the world, Katelin. My first piece of advice to you...don't let Mark give you any trouble. If you must, ignore him. I hear he is turning out to be pretty handy in the kitchen though, so make sure you stay on his good side.

Colm will be three years-old in five days! Where did all of the time go? It really hit me today when I had him go into the three-five year old storytime with Liam at the library. He did GREAT! I was so proud of him, but I was left to twiddle my thumbs for half an hour. What am I going to do with myself next year when they are both gone all morning? This was just a half hour and I was getting bored. I am going to have to get a job or volunteer or something. Anyways, the point is that both of my boys are growing up. Sniff, sniff

We went to Applebee's for dinner tonight (the old-we have clocked many hours in local Applebee's-the kids love it) and we had the best waitress. She did backflips for the kids because they ate a good dinner. That's a first!

The new...we also went to Blockbuster tonight. We have not been there for about five years which means neither one of our children have ever set foot in a Blockbuster. Wow! I think they were speechless for the first few seconds. They were trying to wrap their little brains around the possibilities...the candy, the popcorn, the ice cream, the movies. Why did we go there after such a long hiatus? I was cleaning out our closet a month or so ago and I found a gift card I had received from one of my students (Yes, that was many moons ago.) so I decided to spend it. So, we got our movies (Little Miss Sunshine and Scooby Doo meets Batman) and went to check out. I had to go through the process of filling out a new card app. and then it turns out that my gift card had JUST expired! The very nice checkout man did some magic on his computer though and let me use it anyway. ;)

We went to Liam's kinder school today so the parents could have an orientation with the principal and the kids got to have storytime with the librarian. Liam has already made a friend. His name is Sam. Liam said he likes Sam because they both laughed at the funny parts in the books the librarian was reading. Better yet, the librarian read one of Liam's favorite books. Next week we go back and Liam gets to go to art class while the parents meet with the PTO. You know what else I love about that school? They pipe classical music into the hallways all day. I am not sure how much I buy into the Mozart effect, but it just tells you what kind of environment it is. Kindergarten rocks!

I am not a procrastinator. I do not put things off. When I get an assignment I do it. I like to check things off a list as quickly as possible. A syllabus is really just a big, semester-long checklist. So, I had an assignment due today that I have known about since January. I had attempted this assignment several times, but threw in the towel each time because I was so lost. Have you ever had an assignment like that...an assignment that is so over your head that you don't even know where to begin? This was one of those. So, since it was due, I was forced to sit down and figure it out. I did a pretty good job of hammering most of it out, but at about 11:30 last night I needed some help. Who do you call for help with a statistics question at 11:30 at night? Hopefully you have a friend who lives on the west coast who has a PhD and does research on a regular basis. Thank you, Christie. You are a lifesaver!

This has happened to me atleast three times in the past few months. Once I was at Kohl's, another time I was at the grocery store and I can't remember where I was the other time. What would you do if you were out shopping and you heard at 50ish year old woman yelling at, berating and belittling her elderly mother? The situation always seems to be about the same...the daughter is "helping" the mom shop for groceries, clothes, etc. and the mother is being indecisive or unhelpful, so the daughter starts yelling at her. I want to go up the daughter and remind her of all of the things her mother did for her throughout her life including carrying her in her womb for nine months and birthing her. That alone should garner some respect, let alone all of the other countless things that I am sure these poor elderly women have done for their families. How do I know? Because I am a mother and I know what mothers do for their kids. Also, I can't imagine talking to my own mother that way. If my mom ever got senile and couldn't decide if she wanted grapes or oranges or wasn't sure if she wanted black pants or brown pants, I would just buy them both or I wouldn't buy any of them-whatever-they aren't going to know the difference anyways! It isn't worth talking to someone like that. Now on to my question, what would you do if you witnessed something like this? My wise older brother advised me to keep walking. Would you?

We had a busy, but fun, Easter Day. We decided to go to 8 o'clock Mass so that the craziness factor of actually finding a parking spot, etc. would be lessened than if we went to the 10 o'clock service. Later on in the day we had lunch with my side of the family and then we had dinner with Sean's side of the family. We had a lot of yummy food and an egg hunt at both stops.
Egg Hunt #1



Egg Hunt #2


It all proved to be too much. They were tuckered out!

There is a lot of work to be done to get ready for Easter. We started off the day at Nanny and Papa's house. There we decorated the bunny cakes for the kids for Easter dinner dessert. They slathered icing all over them and then decorated them with a variety of sprinkles. I think they slightly resembled bunnies once we were done with them.




That evening our family from New York, who came in to town for Easter, came over to help decorate Easter eggs. It was messy, but fun.

My washing machine is going to be broken soon. I was doing laundry yesterday and I picked Liam's pants up out of the basket. They seemed a little heavy, so I checked the pockets. This is what I found: MANY rocks, several shriveled up dandelions, some stick-like things that he had broken up so they would fit in his pocket, and a Goldfish wrapper. Boys, gotta love'em.

I am going to have all of my mail forwarded to our pediatrician's office since we seem to be spending a lot of time there. We were back at the doctor's office on Thursday...Colm has pink eye which means eyedrops. Have you ever given eyedrops to a small child? Holey moley! It's like giving a cat a bath. It requires sitting on him and prying his eye open while someone else holds his head still. It is not pretty. His eyes, yes, eyes, that's plural, as in both of them, are getting better though. So atleast all of the trauma is paying off.

I spent about six hours with Liam at the hospital last Sunday trying to get his breathing under control. He is doing much better now, but for a while he was in trouble. He received two breathing treatments and a dose of steroids. The doctor we saw at the hospital suspected that he was having trouble due to all of the flowers and trees blooming, coupled with how windy it was. We were sent home and told to go to our regular doctor in a week. We went back to the doctor today and we got a new medicine that he has never had before. Hopefully, this will help him. We go back in two weeks to do a breathing test that he has never done before that will give the doctors a good idea of just how healthy his lungs are and how well they function on a daily basis.

Now, for the title of this post, since the hospital doctor suspected the pollen, I have kept Liam inside for the past week...that means no playing outside, no trips to the park, no recess at school and no walking the dog. This is hard to do since it has been SO BEAUTIFUL outside and Colm has to suffer the consequences, too. We did go to the park today though and it felt good to let them run around and climb and just be kids!