Monday, December 5, 2011
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Inner Space Caverns
A few weeks back, Ryan and the Kindergarteners had a field trip to Inner Space Caverns up in Georgetown.
They were nice caves, but having been most recently to Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico, anything was bound to fail by comparison.
Still, I had a lot of fun with his class and the other moms, and its always fun to watch him having fun with his friends.
Here is Ryan and his new BFF, Giles. He even had a sleepover at Giles' house recently - his first.
Still, I had a lot of fun with his class and the other moms, and its always fun to watch him having fun with his friends.
Here is Ryan and his new BFF, Giles. He even had a sleepover at Giles' house recently - his first.
Aren't they cute?!
Saturday, December 3, 2011
Thursday, December 1, 2011
HSP = Hurt Sad Person
We were supposed to be having a fun-filled repeat of last year's Thanksgiving fun with my family down in Concan, easily one of the boys' Top Memories of all time. But instead, we've been in the middle of a pretty horrible nightmare for the past three weeks.
It started 22 days ago, when I picked the boys up from school one Wednesday afternoon. Ryan was begging me to take him to the doctor. One appointment later, he tested positive for strep - his first incident since his tonsils were removed fifteen months ago. Three days later, I had to pick Alex up early from a birthday party because he wasn't feeling well. He had a fever of 102.7 and a sore throat. We took him to the after-hours clinic, where he tested negative for strep. But the doctor there decided it was likely a false negative, gave us a prescription for Cephalexin, and sent the results for further testing.
Alex "recovered" pretty quickly, and on Tuesday morning, he showed us two "pimples" on his knee. Carl and I thought they were ant bites of a sort, and we were completely unconcerned. But the next morning, he had around 30-40 of the pimples on his legs. I sent this picture to Carl (who had left for work early) and decided to take him to an early doctor appointment.
Our main doctor was on vacation, so we saw one of the nurse practitioners. Who didn't know what the rash was, so she brought in one of the other doctors. Some debating ensued, but the consensus was that it was some odd bug bite that spreads its venom under the skin and brings other bites. The other possibility was a reaction to his meds, but either way, it wasn't contagious. So he went to school for the rest of Wednesday, and we started taking Benadryl. And I started googling skin rashes like crazy.
Thursday morning, Alex now had several hundred little dots on his skin. So back to the doctor we went, and this doctor decided it was an atypical chicken pox. Apparently, since kids are vaccinated for chicken pox these days, when kids do get it, it doesn't look like the chicken pox of the past. And the fact that his dots didn't itch didn't worry them, either.
So he spent the next few days at home, in quarantine, and despite the fact that his dots continued to spread and worsen and scab and go to all sorts of unpleasant spots, I wasn't too worried, because we knew what it was.
The weekend was especially rough. He was sick and miserable and in a lot of pain. He missed a cool Scout event all about Indians, as well as his last soccer game of the season, and the subsequent end-of-season soccer party. This party was also his last chance to say good-bye to Liam, one of his best friends who was moving to Indiana, adding much insult to Alex's injury. He was very, very upset about things.
And then early Sunday morning, around 2am, he woke up screaming and crying and unable to walk. His feet and arms hurt and were swollen. So I drove him to Dell Children's Hospital. We got pretty fast treatment - telling a hospital you have chicken pox gets you in a private room pretty quickly. Every person we kept seeing - the admittance nurse, the transport person, the ER nurse, all commented it didn't look like chicken pox. They asked Alex to describe his pain level - as if an eight year old can do that - and he said a nine. Considering he couldn't walk due to the pain, I actually thought that was pretty accurate of him.
The first ER doctor we saw didn't know what he had, so she sent the supervisor ER doctor in to see us. She came in, spent about 30 seconds looking at Alex, put her finger to one of his spots and pressed down (eliciting some "OWWW!"s from Alex) and noticed that the redness never left the spots. Another 15 seconds, and she said he had Henoch- Shonlein Purpura.
To which I responded, "What was that again?" She went on to explain that its a disease, more commonly known as HSP, and that she would run some tests to confirm it, but that she was 99.99% certain.She then threw an awful lot of information out to me in a short period of time, and went to order the tests.
I quickly called Carl (who had stayed home with a sleeping Ryan) and told him the diagnosis. We both started googling HSP, and the second we saw the photos online, we just knew she was right. It all clicked. The pictures that come up looked exactly like him, in all the different stages we'd been through over the past few days. Neither one of us liked what we were reading or what the doctor was telling us, but it was oddly calming to at least know what was happening to Alex. Having him screaming in pain in the middle of the night, unable to walk, and not having a clue what was wrong with him, is up there as one of the worst moments of my life. Knowing that there was at least one doctor out there who knew what was wrong, and how to treat it, brought such a tremendous source of relief... its indescribable.
Basically, HSP is a form of vasculitis that causes the capillaries inside his body to bleed. Hence, the spots. It only affects the joints, kidneys, and skin, and it is generally from the waist down. It also can bring on arthritis like symptoms, which is why he couldn't make a fist that morning, and couldn't bend his arms or legs. Its very rare, and hard to diagnose initially, which is why our pediatrician's office had such difficulty with it. No one knows what causes it, and there is no cure for it. It just happens, and goes away on its own. Steroids will help bring down the swelling of the joints, and he gets a higher than usual dose of Motrin to help with the pain. It mostly happens in children ages 2-6, and the older you are, the more serious the attack. If it strikes an adult, the chances of recovery are not good. Bed rest is the best treatment
There was a flurry of activity as more doctors and nurses came by, and they did several tests on Alex, and soon they brought him some steroids and pain medication to take. The meds helped tremendously, and pretty soon, he was feeling 1000% better. When all was said and done, the doctor came back in and spent what seemed like forever with us talking and answering questions. His recovery period is 4-6 weeks, and 50% of kids that have HSP have a re-occurrence. The re-occurrence is usually milder than the first case - thank God - but it can lead to kidney problems. 1% of people with HSP develop terminal kidney problems. This was NOT a number I liked to hear, and it was stressed to me that if he developed blood in his urine or had significant abdominal pain, we needed to come back to the hospital immediately.We were also told to give him his meds 4x a day, but not to wake him.
We eventually went home, and let Alex get back to his iCarly viewing. Alex was soon feeling better, since he had his steroids, and we had a struggle reminding him that he couldn't be up and running around. But we all went to bed feeling good about things, and Alex went to sleep early.
The next morning, he managed to sleep all the way until 4am before he came to us again, crying and screaming, this time about his stomach. Which freaked me out to no end, since the doctor had drummed into me the importance of immediately returning to the hospital if he had severe abdominal pain. But how to determine how severe is severe?
We quickly gave him his pills - it had been eleven hours since he last had some - and Carl wanted us to wait before rushing off. We tried to sit him down on the toilet, to see if that might help, but that action caused him to start screaming, "Ten! I'm at a TEN!" I waited a good fifteen minutes after the medication before I couldn't stand it anymore, and we rushed back to the hospital. This drive was even scarier for me than the last one, and I find it somewhat miraculous that I never let Alex know how terrified I was.
Once again, we were seen quickly, and our nurse happened to mention that we were seeing "the big guy," aka the Chief of Staff. The doctor came in, looked at Alex, and told him he had the most impressive case of HSP he'd ever seen. He then added that it wasn't the most serious, just the most impressive. As if *that* makes me feel any better. My father-in-law had joined us by this time, so I soon excused myself to go have a massive break down outside.
They ran more tests, including an ultrasound, but everything came back as 'normal' as it could be. Alex was starting to feel better, and was even asking for food, so the belief was that the pain was due to the fact he needed his meds. If I wasn't a believer in the power of steroids, I was now. So we went back home late in the morning, with a stop at Sonic so he could get a Breakfast Burrito. And Carl and I gave Alex his meds like clockwork for the next few days, including waking him up at 2am.
We had a visit with our pediatrician the next day, and felt good about where things were going. We even managed a brief 10-15 minute visit with Liam in his packed up house before the movers arrived. With our Thanksgiving plans to travel to my family cancelled, my mom decided to come stay with us for the holiday, to help out, and (I think) to help relieve her own mind about what was happening. Thanksgiving Day was also the day we were supposed to start reducing the amount of steroids Alex gets - from 40 mg per day to 20mg per day. It seemed like he was doing well, and we had a good Thursday. We even took a brief, slow five minute walk after dinner, he seemed that well.
But on Friday he woke up with a huge new outcrop of spots, and an increased pain level. And Saturday morning, it was significantly worse, so I called my doctor's office and took advantage of their new Saturday hours. We talked a lot about the medications, and she agreed that the higher dose of steroids was helping keep the spots and pain down. We wanted to go back to the original dosage with a slower tapering, and we've got it. She also gave him the okay for a return to school, with no physical activity for at least two weeks.
The rest of Saturday and Sunday went well with the higher meds, so on Monday, Alex returned to school part-time. Monday went great. Tuesday, however, he came home with a HUGE outcrop of spots - the biggest gain we've seen yet. I'd say there was well over 500 new ones, and they were starting to creep higher up his back, and almost reach his shoulders on his arms. I was really freaked out until Alex pointed out that someone (who is not authoring this blog post but who shall remain nameless otherwise) had forgotten to give him his meds in the morning.
The meds have been regular the past two days, and the amount of new spots appearing has lessened. Some of the others are fading into bruises, which we've noticed happens with a lot of them. We were supposed to go down to 30 mg today, but we've decided to wait until tomorrow to try and get him through the week at school. We have another appointment tomorrow to have his blood and urine tested, and to talk about the ups and downs and how closely the spots and pain levels are tied to the steroids. I understand that this is supposed to take 4-6 weeks, but I didn't really get the impression he would be having so many new spots erupt all that time.
We're continuing to have our ups and downs, and to make adjustments in our lives. We've gone ahead and cancelled our ski trip to New Mexico we were planning for the first week of the Christmas holidays. Alex took that news very hard, particularly since he is all about continuing with our traditions (even when those traditions are only one year old). I've had several talks with God, reminding him that he's already cheated me once in life with Dad, and given me a bad enough scare when Ryan was born, and that I think this is enough for now. Those talks usually result in a good day for Alex, so I think he's listening. And we're still not sure what will happen with the winter basketball season. The games don't start until after the holidays, but practices started this week and he won't be able to have any practices before the games - if he can even play then. Alex joked about what HSP stands for - since who can pronounce it correctly or even remember the right three words - and decided it was the Hurt Sad Person disease.
On a plus note, his teacher has been wonderful. I was really worried about how this week would go. With the steroids, he has a lot of mood swings - he can be super affectionate and loving, and a few minutes later he will be rude and bossing me around. His teacher is strict - so that rudeness would not go over with her at all. But apparently she's handling it well, and because he can't do physical activity, he's allowed to pick a friend to stay inside with him each day during recess time. Apparently all the kids want to be picked, so he feels like Mr. Popular. He needed this boost.
Alex has been a superstar through all of this. I'm so impressed at how well he handles everything, and how mature he is when we talk with him about things. He's very self-conscious about his spots, and while most are covered by long sleeves and long pants, there are probably 100 that show on his hands. So we practiced what he would say to someone who asks him about it. (This also explains the few pictures on the blog because I was only granted permission to take my photos if I didn't share them with anyone but the doctors.) He's loving his long baths, and I've let him use my bathtub and even brought out my reading tray to encourage him to soak longer.
That's my son. :)
We're grateful to leave November 2011 behind us. Welcome, December.
It started 22 days ago, when I picked the boys up from school one Wednesday afternoon. Ryan was begging me to take him to the doctor. One appointment later, he tested positive for strep - his first incident since his tonsils were removed fifteen months ago. Three days later, I had to pick Alex up early from a birthday party because he wasn't feeling well. He had a fever of 102.7 and a sore throat. We took him to the after-hours clinic, where he tested negative for strep. But the doctor there decided it was likely a false negative, gave us a prescription for Cephalexin, and sent the results for further testing.
Alex "recovered" pretty quickly, and on Tuesday morning, he showed us two "pimples" on his knee. Carl and I thought they were ant bites of a sort, and we were completely unconcerned. But the next morning, he had around 30-40 of the pimples on his legs. I sent this picture to Carl (who had left for work early) and decided to take him to an early doctor appointment.
Our main doctor was on vacation, so we saw one of the nurse practitioners. Who didn't know what the rash was, so she brought in one of the other doctors. Some debating ensued, but the consensus was that it was some odd bug bite that spreads its venom under the skin and brings other bites. The other possibility was a reaction to his meds, but either way, it wasn't contagious. So he went to school for the rest of Wednesday, and we started taking Benadryl. And I started googling skin rashes like crazy.
Thursday morning, Alex now had several hundred little dots on his skin. So back to the doctor we went, and this doctor decided it was an atypical chicken pox. Apparently, since kids are vaccinated for chicken pox these days, when kids do get it, it doesn't look like the chicken pox of the past. And the fact that his dots didn't itch didn't worry them, either.
The weekend was especially rough. He was sick and miserable and in a lot of pain. He missed a cool Scout event all about Indians, as well as his last soccer game of the season, and the subsequent end-of-season soccer party. This party was also his last chance to say good-bye to Liam, one of his best friends who was moving to Indiana, adding much insult to Alex's injury. He was very, very upset about things.
And then early Sunday morning, around 2am, he woke up screaming and crying and unable to walk. His feet and arms hurt and were swollen. So I drove him to Dell Children's Hospital. We got pretty fast treatment - telling a hospital you have chicken pox gets you in a private room pretty quickly. Every person we kept seeing - the admittance nurse, the transport person, the ER nurse, all commented it didn't look like chicken pox. They asked Alex to describe his pain level - as if an eight year old can do that - and he said a nine. Considering he couldn't walk due to the pain, I actually thought that was pretty accurate of him.
The first ER doctor we saw didn't know what he had, so she sent the supervisor ER doctor in to see us. She came in, spent about 30 seconds looking at Alex, put her finger to one of his spots and pressed down (eliciting some "OWWW!"s from Alex) and noticed that the redness never left the spots. Another 15 seconds, and she said he had Henoch- Shonlein Purpura.
To which I responded, "What was that again?" She went on to explain that its a disease, more commonly known as HSP, and that she would run some tests to confirm it, but that she was 99.99% certain.She then threw an awful lot of information out to me in a short period of time, and went to order the tests.
I quickly called Carl (who had stayed home with a sleeping Ryan) and told him the diagnosis. We both started googling HSP, and the second we saw the photos online, we just knew she was right. It all clicked. The pictures that come up looked exactly like him, in all the different stages we'd been through over the past few days. Neither one of us liked what we were reading or what the doctor was telling us, but it was oddly calming to at least know what was happening to Alex. Having him screaming in pain in the middle of the night, unable to walk, and not having a clue what was wrong with him, is up there as one of the worst moments of my life. Knowing that there was at least one doctor out there who knew what was wrong, and how to treat it, brought such a tremendous source of relief... its indescribable.
Basically, HSP is a form of vasculitis that causes the capillaries inside his body to bleed. Hence, the spots. It only affects the joints, kidneys, and skin, and it is generally from the waist down. It also can bring on arthritis like symptoms, which is why he couldn't make a fist that morning, and couldn't bend his arms or legs. Its very rare, and hard to diagnose initially, which is why our pediatrician's office had such difficulty with it. No one knows what causes it, and there is no cure for it. It just happens, and goes away on its own. Steroids will help bring down the swelling of the joints, and he gets a higher than usual dose of Motrin to help with the pain. It mostly happens in children ages 2-6, and the older you are, the more serious the attack. If it strikes an adult, the chances of recovery are not good. Bed rest is the best treatment
There was a flurry of activity as more doctors and nurses came by, and they did several tests on Alex, and soon they brought him some steroids and pain medication to take. The meds helped tremendously, and pretty soon, he was feeling 1000% better. When all was said and done, the doctor came back in and spent what seemed like forever with us talking and answering questions. His recovery period is 4-6 weeks, and 50% of kids that have HSP have a re-occurrence. The re-occurrence is usually milder than the first case - thank God - but it can lead to kidney problems. 1% of people with HSP develop terminal kidney problems. This was NOT a number I liked to hear, and it was stressed to me that if he developed blood in his urine or had significant abdominal pain, we needed to come back to the hospital immediately.We were also told to give him his meds 4x a day, but not to wake him.
We eventually went home, and let Alex get back to his iCarly viewing. Alex was soon feeling better, since he had his steroids, and we had a struggle reminding him that he couldn't be up and running around. But we all went to bed feeling good about things, and Alex went to sleep early.
The next morning, he managed to sleep all the way until 4am before he came to us again, crying and screaming, this time about his stomach. Which freaked me out to no end, since the doctor had drummed into me the importance of immediately returning to the hospital if he had severe abdominal pain. But how to determine how severe is severe?
We quickly gave him his pills - it had been eleven hours since he last had some - and Carl wanted us to wait before rushing off. We tried to sit him down on the toilet, to see if that might help, but that action caused him to start screaming, "Ten! I'm at a TEN!" I waited a good fifteen minutes after the medication before I couldn't stand it anymore, and we rushed back to the hospital. This drive was even scarier for me than the last one, and I find it somewhat miraculous that I never let Alex know how terrified I was.
Once again, we were seen quickly, and our nurse happened to mention that we were seeing "the big guy," aka the Chief of Staff. The doctor came in, looked at Alex, and told him he had the most impressive case of HSP he'd ever seen. He then added that it wasn't the most serious, just the most impressive. As if *that* makes me feel any better. My father-in-law had joined us by this time, so I soon excused myself to go have a massive break down outside.
They ran more tests, including an ultrasound, but everything came back as 'normal' as it could be. Alex was starting to feel better, and was even asking for food, so the belief was that the pain was due to the fact he needed his meds. If I wasn't a believer in the power of steroids, I was now. So we went back home late in the morning, with a stop at Sonic so he could get a Breakfast Burrito. And Carl and I gave Alex his meds like clockwork for the next few days, including waking him up at 2am.
We had a visit with our pediatrician the next day, and felt good about where things were going. We even managed a brief 10-15 minute visit with Liam in his packed up house before the movers arrived. With our Thanksgiving plans to travel to my family cancelled, my mom decided to come stay with us for the holiday, to help out, and (I think) to help relieve her own mind about what was happening. Thanksgiving Day was also the day we were supposed to start reducing the amount of steroids Alex gets - from 40 mg per day to 20mg per day. It seemed like he was doing well, and we had a good Thursday. We even took a brief, slow five minute walk after dinner, he seemed that well.
But on Friday he woke up with a huge new outcrop of spots, and an increased pain level. And Saturday morning, it was significantly worse, so I called my doctor's office and took advantage of their new Saturday hours. We talked a lot about the medications, and she agreed that the higher dose of steroids was helping keep the spots and pain down. We wanted to go back to the original dosage with a slower tapering, and we've got it. She also gave him the okay for a return to school, with no physical activity for at least two weeks.
The rest of Saturday and Sunday went well with the higher meds, so on Monday, Alex returned to school part-time. Monday went great. Tuesday, however, he came home with a HUGE outcrop of spots - the biggest gain we've seen yet. I'd say there was well over 500 new ones, and they were starting to creep higher up his back, and almost reach his shoulders on his arms. I was really freaked out until Alex pointed out that someone (who is not authoring this blog post but who shall remain nameless otherwise) had forgotten to give him his meds in the morning.
The meds have been regular the past two days, and the amount of new spots appearing has lessened. Some of the others are fading into bruises, which we've noticed happens with a lot of them. We were supposed to go down to 30 mg today, but we've decided to wait until tomorrow to try and get him through the week at school. We have another appointment tomorrow to have his blood and urine tested, and to talk about the ups and downs and how closely the spots and pain levels are tied to the steroids. I understand that this is supposed to take 4-6 weeks, but I didn't really get the impression he would be having so many new spots erupt all that time.
We're continuing to have our ups and downs, and to make adjustments in our lives. We've gone ahead and cancelled our ski trip to New Mexico we were planning for the first week of the Christmas holidays. Alex took that news very hard, particularly since he is all about continuing with our traditions (even when those traditions are only one year old). I've had several talks with God, reminding him that he's already cheated me once in life with Dad, and given me a bad enough scare when Ryan was born, and that I think this is enough for now. Those talks usually result in a good day for Alex, so I think he's listening. And we're still not sure what will happen with the winter basketball season. The games don't start until after the holidays, but practices started this week and he won't be able to have any practices before the games - if he can even play then. Alex joked about what HSP stands for - since who can pronounce it correctly or even remember the right three words - and decided it was the Hurt Sad Person disease.
On a plus note, his teacher has been wonderful. I was really worried about how this week would go. With the steroids, he has a lot of mood swings - he can be super affectionate and loving, and a few minutes later he will be rude and bossing me around. His teacher is strict - so that rudeness would not go over with her at all. But apparently she's handling it well, and because he can't do physical activity, he's allowed to pick a friend to stay inside with him each day during recess time. Apparently all the kids want to be picked, so he feels like Mr. Popular. He needed this boost.
Alex has been a superstar through all of this. I'm so impressed at how well he handles everything, and how mature he is when we talk with him about things. He's very self-conscious about his spots, and while most are covered by long sleeves and long pants, there are probably 100 that show on his hands. So we practiced what he would say to someone who asks him about it. (This also explains the few pictures on the blog because I was only granted permission to take my photos if I didn't share them with anyone but the doctors.) He's loving his long baths, and I've let him use my bathtub and even brought out my reading tray to encourage him to soak longer.
That's my son. :)
We're grateful to leave November 2011 behind us. Welcome, December.
Monday, November 28, 2011
A little bit of Thanks were Given
Thanksgiving this year was not the Thanksgiving we were expecting. More on that will come, but for now, I think we made do pretty well for a last minute, thrown together meal.
And when you are sick and just home from the hospital, you can have both turkey legs to eat during Thanksgiving dinner.
With no silverware required.
Ryan has been a star through everything over the past two weeks. He just keeps smiling and keeps his complaints that its all been about Brother to a minimum.
And me, well, a nice bottle of Chardonnay makes everything a bit more digestible.
And yes, this was MY bottle. Mom and Carl shared the Cab.
With no silverware required.
Ryan has been a star through everything over the past two weeks. He just keeps smiling and keeps his complaints that its all been about Brother to a minimum.
And me, well, a nice bottle of Chardonnay makes everything a bit more digestible.
And yes, this was MY bottle. Mom and Carl shared the Cab.
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Batman is Awesome
I've found my new catch phrase, of this there is no doubt. The boys were watching (as a special treat) Batman the Brave & The Bold tonight, and after defeating a whole bunch of bad guys, Batman states:
Which is quite possibly the coolest thing I've ever heard. Ever.
"The Hammers of justice will always pound straight the bent nails of evil".
Which is quite possibly the coolest thing I've ever heard. Ever.
Friday, November 4, 2011
The Backyardigans Gotta Feeling
Little known sad fact:
The Black Eyed Peas' I've Gotta Feeling is the #1 most played song on my iPod.
And yes, I like the Black Eyed Peas. And at one point, I liked this song. But enough to justify 472 plays? Not exactly...
Those 472 plays are due to the fact that Team Danger LOVES this song. So we listen to it in the car. Over and over and over and over and over again. They call it the "Good Night" song. Which is an improvement over the "Knight Song" they first kept requesting and I kept giving them clueless looks and insisting there was no "Knight Song" on my iPod.
In case you are wondering, the next most popular songs on my iPod are Taylor Swift, Justin Beiber, Taylor Swift, four Glee songs (mostly Team Danger favorites, like the Ice, Ice Baby remake. Please. Don't ask.) Finally, at #8, we see an actual Annalynn song cracking the Top 10: Jack Johnson's Better Together.
But not far behind in the play count are an awful lot of Backyardigans songs. This is Ryan's favorite show, by far, and one that Alex likes, too. He had a Backyardigans themed birthday party when we turned 4, and I downloaded all their songs for the celebration. We've played them so much we know all the words at this point.(I know, also a sad fact of my life)
So you can imagine the surprise and happiness on Team Danger's faces when I found the youtube video of the Backyardigans singing I Gotta Feeling.
A song Alex and Ryan know so well they can tell when the words were changed to make it more family-friendly.
Ryan: "Are there bad words in the Good Knight song, Mommy?"
Me: "Oh no, not at all."
Ryan: "Then why did the 'Ardigans change the words?"
Me: pause. "Well... they aren't bad, per se. Just that the 'Ardigans words are easier to understand."
Alex to Ryan, whispering: "Those have to be bad words. It must be bad to have money, be stressed, to burn the roof, get smashed, and to take it all off.*"
* perfectly noticing the changed words of 'I've got my money' to 'I've got my friends here,' 'I feel stressed' to 'I feel fine,' 'burn the roof' to 'raise the roof', and 'look at her dancing, take it off' to ' I see you dancing, don't turn it off.'
I'm so, um, proud.
The Black Eyed Peas' I've Gotta Feeling is the #1 most played song on my iPod.
And yes, I like the Black Eyed Peas. And at one point, I liked this song. But enough to justify 472 plays? Not exactly...
Those 472 plays are due to the fact that Team Danger LOVES this song. So we listen to it in the car. Over and over and over and over and over again. They call it the "Good Night" song. Which is an improvement over the "Knight Song" they first kept requesting and I kept giving them clueless looks and insisting there was no "Knight Song" on my iPod.
In case you are wondering, the next most popular songs on my iPod are Taylor Swift, Justin Beiber, Taylor Swift, four Glee songs (mostly Team Danger favorites, like the Ice, Ice Baby remake. Please. Don't ask.) Finally, at #8, we see an actual Annalynn song cracking the Top 10: Jack Johnson's Better Together.
But not far behind in the play count are an awful lot of Backyardigans songs. This is Ryan's favorite show, by far, and one that Alex likes, too. He had a Backyardigans themed birthday party when we turned 4, and I downloaded all their songs for the celebration. We've played them so much we know all the words at this point.(I know, also a sad fact of my life)
So you can imagine the surprise and happiness on Team Danger's faces when I found the youtube video of the Backyardigans singing I Gotta Feeling.
A song Alex and Ryan know so well they can tell when the words were changed to make it more family-friendly.
Ryan: "Are there bad words in the Good Knight song, Mommy?"
Me: "Oh no, not at all."
Ryan: "Then why did the 'Ardigans change the words?"
Me: pause. "Well... they aren't bad, per se. Just that the 'Ardigans words are easier to understand."
Alex to Ryan, whispering: "Those have to be bad words. It must be bad to have money, be stressed, to burn the roof, get smashed, and to take it all off.*"
* perfectly noticing the changed words of 'I've got my money' to 'I've got my friends here,' 'I feel stressed' to 'I feel fine,' 'burn the roof' to 'raise the roof', and 'look at her dancing, take it off' to ' I see you dancing, don't turn it off.'
I'm so, um, proud.
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Dark and Scary Times Ahead
The past two Halloween seasons, Alex has complained incessantly that our decorations weren't spooky enough.
I like my decorations. I've had a theme of scarecrows and pumpkins, and created a nice, happy Halloween setting. One that is appropriate at a house with small children. Which is what we are.
Or what we were, I'm sadly realizing.
Last year, we added this ghost.
He has a bit of a spooky face, but I still thought he was close enough to the cute and cuddly Casper variety. He flies in the breeze between two trees, and the first two weeks we had him, he would move back and forth on his string and make some ghostly sounds. That feature didn't last long, but I still put him up since he looks so good.
When it comes to decorating, Alex is my outside guy. Ryan tends to prefer the inside decorations, and he was very sad that our Halloween village didn't come out this year (our inside decorations were kept extremely sparse due to the home improvements).
Alex was also sad. Now that he is a big and strong eight year old, he needs to have scary decorations that show the world how big and strong and not scared of scary things he is.
With two sad kids, I was determined to at least make one of my children happy with our Halloween decor. I asked Alex what kinds of decorations he wanted. I was told more scary things, like witches, and vampires, and ghosts and skeletons.
One day, I came home with these three great scarecrows - a ghost, a vampire, and a witch. Scary people + scarecrow = something for everyone.
I couldn't wait to show Alex.
He took one look at them, and then gave me an "Are you CRAZY??" kind of look.
"These aren't scary," he explained.
"They are SMILING."
So I tried again. I bought some tombstones at Target. They had glittery sayings on them like, RIP, Out To Lunch, and I'll Be Back.
Alex did not approve of the bling. Turns out they were made of such cheap, lightweight styrofoam that they've blown away, so he won't have to worry about them coming out again next year.
I made one last attempt, and picked up this skeleton. He was definitely scary. I was even freaked out by him. Surely Alex will be impressed with the skeleton.
Um, no.
Because he, like the scarecrows, is SMILING.
At this point I gave up. And we spent the rest of October with a moaning and deep sighing Alex every time our car pulled up in the front and he saw the smiling decorations.
Tuesday morning, I had to pick up bagels for work. I somehow found myself at the Panera located near Target, and when I looked at my clock, it was 7:58 a.m. About a dozen folks hovered by the doors, and I soon realized they were waiting for the Day After Halloween sales to begin.
Fifteen minutes later, I was the "proud" owner of four very spooky and scary Halloween decorations.
No one is smiling.
Everyone is dead and scary looking.
And finally, Alex approves.
I like my decorations. I've had a theme of scarecrows and pumpkins, and created a nice, happy Halloween setting. One that is appropriate at a house with small children. Which is what we are.
Or what we were, I'm sadly realizing.
Last year, we added this ghost.
When it comes to decorating, Alex is my outside guy. Ryan tends to prefer the inside decorations, and he was very sad that our Halloween village didn't come out this year (our inside decorations were kept extremely sparse due to the home improvements).
Alex was also sad. Now that he is a big and strong eight year old, he needs to have scary decorations that show the world how big and strong and not scared of scary things he is.
With two sad kids, I was determined to at least make one of my children happy with our Halloween decor. I asked Alex what kinds of decorations he wanted. I was told more scary things, like witches, and vampires, and ghosts and skeletons.
One day, I came home with these three great scarecrows - a ghost, a vampire, and a witch. Scary people + scarecrow = something for everyone.
I couldn't wait to show Alex.
"These aren't scary," he explained.
"They are SMILING."
So I tried again. I bought some tombstones at Target. They had glittery sayings on them like, RIP, Out To Lunch, and I'll Be Back.
Alex did not approve of the bling. Turns out they were made of such cheap, lightweight styrofoam that they've blown away, so he won't have to worry about them coming out again next year.
I made one last attempt, and picked up this skeleton. He was definitely scary. I was even freaked out by him. Surely Alex will be impressed with the skeleton.
Because he, like the scarecrows, is SMILING.
At this point I gave up. And we spent the rest of October with a moaning and deep sighing Alex every time our car pulled up in the front and he saw the smiling decorations.
Tuesday morning, I had to pick up bagels for work. I somehow found myself at the Panera located near Target, and when I looked at my clock, it was 7:58 a.m. About a dozen folks hovered by the doors, and I soon realized they were waiting for the Day After Halloween sales to begin.
Fifteen minutes later, I was the "proud" owner of four very spooky and scary Halloween decorations.
Everyone is dead and scary looking.
And finally, Alex approves.
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Ninja Halloween
My floors are done. But the inside of my house is still in disarray, so we'll keep your suspense for a few more days and bring you an update on Team Danger's Halloween, circa 2011.
The boys were Ninjas this year. It wasn't my costume of choice, but considering Alex wanted to be the Scream ghost, an all black Ninja was an improvement. More than a few tears were shed by me at the realization that Alex has officially entered the age where Halloween is known as a scary event, and not a fun, pumpkin and scarecrow filled festival. Where did my little boy go?!
Ryan also wanted to be a Ninja. But he wanted to be a blue ninja, and the blue ninja costumes we found were not to his liking. So he ended up picking a Blue Power Ranger costume, and decided he would be a Samurai "ninja" Power Ranger.
On to the past ten days of Halloween celebrations...
We went to a Halloween party in our hood, at the house of one of Ryan's classmates. She also has a second grade older brother, and I have to say, I love how we have so many friends with kids the exact ages as ours. Beau and I grew up four years apart (plus the whole boy-girl division) and rarely had any overlay in friends, so this is nice for the boys.
Ryan was especially pleased to find his kindergarten BFF, Giles, at the party. Giles was there with his second-grade sister, as well. We've already had playdates with Giles, and Ryan talks about him all the time. The boys had fun bobbing for apples, and going on the Haunted Trail that comprised their entire backyard.
I made these oreo spiders to take to the party. I had gotten the idea from Pinterest, and it looked nice easy. Turns out that its hard to find the little licorice legs I needed, and that Twizzlers don't break apart very well. So it took me over an hour to produce twenty of these babies.
On Friday, the boys had Dress as your Favorite Storybook Character Day at school (since apparently Halloween is not an approved upon school holiday. Kinda sad.) Against all my great advice and suggestions, Alex went dressed as a Jedi Knight, and Ryan went dressed as a soccer player.
And yes, if you are counting, this is the second time this year he has gone dressed up in 'costume' as a soccer player to school.
Friday was also the day we had trick or treating at work. Team Danger didn't come down this year (since they were on their way to Waco for the Zoo Snooze campout with the Cub Scouts). But I was vastly entertained by one of our investigators and his Star Wars family.
And I have his official 501st Legion business card should I ever need a storm trooper or Darth Vader to appear at a birthday party. :)
On Sunday, we finally carved our pumpkin.
We usually carve more than one pumpkin, but with all the home renovating going on, we've been way short on time and I'm sad to say Halloween has taken a back seat this year. So at 6:30 pm on Sunday night, we carved out an hour of time.
Monday evening, the extended Swanson family came over to join us for trick or treating. Alex's friend Travis and his mom, Carolyn, also joined us, injecting some missing Star Wars into our Ninja Halloween.
Grandma Chris was a big blue LEGO. It was a very cute costume, and I know it meant a lot to the boys - especially Ryan - that she dressed up as their favorite toy.
Elaine and family were pirates,and Baby Matthew was a parrot.
I am not a big costume person, so I went with Cat in the Hat. Simple, and I got to wear jeans, a black t-shirt, white gloves, a pinned on tail, a red Christmas bow, and of course, the hat, which meant I didn't need to do anything for my hair. Bonus points all around. The cat nose I had made my glasses fog whenever I breathed, so it was quickly discarded in exchange for some eyeliner whiskers.
Carl and his dad stayed behind to hand out candy to the trick or treaters while I headed out with everyone else. I just adore our neighborhood on Halloween evening. We have our resident haunted house about two blocks down, and the trick or treaters just flock to our streets. There are so many kids running around, its like I'm living in the middle of a Norman Rockwell painting. Pure happiness.
When we were done, Alex and Ryan took over the candy duties from Carl and Al.
We had a great night, and the boys were even asleep and in bed by 9pm. Not bad!
The boys were Ninjas this year. It wasn't my costume of choice, but considering Alex wanted to be the Scream ghost, an all black Ninja was an improvement. More than a few tears were shed by me at the realization that Alex has officially entered the age where Halloween is known as a scary event, and not a fun, pumpkin and scarecrow filled festival. Where did my little boy go?!
On to the past ten days of Halloween celebrations...
We went to a Halloween party in our hood, at the house of one of Ryan's classmates. She also has a second grade older brother, and I have to say, I love how we have so many friends with kids the exact ages as ours. Beau and I grew up four years apart (plus the whole boy-girl division) and rarely had any overlay in friends, so this is nice for the boys.
Ryan was especially pleased to find his kindergarten BFF, Giles, at the party. Giles was there with his second-grade sister, as well. We've already had playdates with Giles, and Ryan talks about him all the time. The boys had fun bobbing for apples, and going on the Haunted Trail that comprised their entire backyard.
I made these oreo spiders to take to the party. I had gotten the idea from Pinterest, and it looked nice easy. Turns out that its hard to find the little licorice legs I needed, and that Twizzlers don't break apart very well. So it took me over an hour to produce twenty of these babies.
On Friday, the boys had Dress as your Favorite Storybook Character Day at school (since apparently Halloween is not an approved upon school holiday. Kinda sad.) Against all my great advice and suggestions, Alex went dressed as a Jedi Knight, and Ryan went dressed as a soccer player.
And yes, if you are counting, this is the second time this year he has gone dressed up in 'costume' as a soccer player to school.
Friday was also the day we had trick or treating at work. Team Danger didn't come down this year (since they were on their way to Waco for the Zoo Snooze campout with the Cub Scouts). But I was vastly entertained by one of our investigators and his Star Wars family.
On Sunday, we finally carved our pumpkin.
We usually carve more than one pumpkin, but with all the home renovating going on, we've been way short on time and I'm sad to say Halloween has taken a back seat this year. So at 6:30 pm on Sunday night, we carved out an hour of time.
Monday evening, the extended Swanson family came over to join us for trick or treating. Alex's friend Travis and his mom, Carolyn, also joined us, injecting some missing Star Wars into our Ninja Halloween.
Grandma Chris was a big blue LEGO. It was a very cute costume, and I know it meant a lot to the boys - especially Ryan - that she dressed up as their favorite toy.
Elaine and family were pirates,and Baby Matthew was a parrot.
When we were done, Alex and Ryan took over the candy duties from Carl and Al.
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