Back from Bermuda

This family hardly ever takes weeklong vacations. It's my fault. I've been chained to my mouse colony almost since we've been married--can't leave them for more than 3 days. But finally, the papers are almost done and the mouse babysitting duties have significantly decreased, so I can leave them for a whole week. And when one of my summer teaching jobs got canceled and I had two months of flexible schedule, Jim announced that we were going away. Somewhere. For a whole week. But we didn't have much time to plan on such short notice, so we booked a cruise to Bermuda. You can only cruise two places out of Boston: Bermuda and Canada. Not that we don't love Canada, but... So on two weeks of notice we put the cruise on the calendar. I told the kids all the things that would be there and their eyes got bigger and bigger. We packed up and took an Uber car (Jim's new crush) to the cruise terminal. The kids didn't really believe me that it was a boat because it looked like a hotel. We spent the first afternoon exploring the boat and dancing on the pooldeck. Jed was in as soon as they started playing "Gangnam Style". The kid can't walk across the pool deck all week without a hip swivel. They don't really understand the words, though--after a few tries they settled on "Hey, chilly lady!" Find that poor woman a sarong for her shoulders; she can't have mine, the kids are obsessed with it. They were in a singing mood that day. We've been teaching them the Doxology so that they can participate in the singing in church, and took the opportunity to sing it as loud as possible all afternoon all over the boat. Next day was the sail to Bermuda. We took the kids to the kids' pool and water slide area in the morning. Jed is water slides and Gus is calm pool; their swim styles say a lot about their personalities. In the afternoon we took them to kids' club to play. Jed was fine, but in Gus's class they started teaching them circus tricks. Gus couldn't do them straight off, and somebody laughed at him, and then he was just miserable so I picked them up early and we had snack instead. The cruise we went on doesn't have scheduled seating; you can show up whenever you want at the nice restaurants or the buffet. We had eaten the buffet on the first night and wanted to try restaurant for the second night; unfortunately it was "dress-up night" and everyone else wanted to eat in the restaurants too. We waited about 45 minutes for a table and then had ridiculously slow service (I'm quietly wondering if they make this night difficult to encourage people to go to the expensive restaurants later in the week instead). But the kids did well and earned some video games the next day. On the third day we arrived in Bermuda. We started by swimming the kids around in the big pool, then had a late second breakfast. By that time we'd moored and we all headed downtown. Bermuda is in the shape of a fishhook, and the cruise termainal is at the Royal Dockyard which is way at the end. In order to get anywhere more interesting, you have a bus ride of an hour or a ferry ride of 20 minutes. We voted ferry, but it only leaves once an hour. During the wait, Jed discovered that you could see fish in the shallow water. Huge schools of minnows, some bigger fish eating the minnows, and some yellow striped fish we called bumblebee fish. Once we got to Hamilton, the main city, it was HOT and time for lunch. After that we didn't have much exploring time left so we went to a local oceanography museum called BUEI. The kids loved it, we loved it, and everyone should be eating lionfish. When we got back to the boat, they were playing "Gangnam Style" again and Jim rode on down the tiny hallway, taking up all the available space with limbs flying. The kids talked about that all week. After the previous night's debacle we were going to eat at the buffet again, but Gus begged for the nice restaurant because they had excellent macaroni and cheese, so we went to the other, slightly nicer, restaurant. The wait and service were reasonable the rest of the week (enough people were scared off?) and the kids learned that "dressing up" for dinner means putting on a nicer pair of shorts. They did a great job all week having dinner in the restaurants with napkin in lap and behaving (mostly). Jim took them to play the videogames they had earned the previous evening and Jed fell in love with skeeball. Jed loves to hold things in his hot little hands, and skeeball gives you tickets --it's like the game that pays you back! Day four was our only full day in Bermuda. We had hoped to see Crystal Caves, but since it's clear on the other side of the island it just wasn't doable in half a day, so we went to Fort Scaur instead. You can get there by local bus; the driver was a little concerned, since the entrance is 2 blocks from the bus stop and there's no sidewalk. However, the roads are so curvy that traffic doesn't go very fast, and half the traffic are scooters anyhow which take up less space. We taught the kids the meaning of "single file" and came in a back entrance which was thoroughly explored (including a jungle portion which left us shaking off ants and amazed at the armored spiders) before we went into the fort itself. We brushed off our ants and explored the fort. The fort was constructed to protect the Dockyard, and we could see the cruise ship from the top of the hill. It was well maintained and explained, with lots of staircases inside the hill to explore. The last entry in the guest book was 3 days ago, so no large tours for the kids to interfere with, really the perfect size for us. We exited at the main drive and Jim scouted out the nearest bus stop while the kids and I had some munchies, and then we headed back for lunch. That afternoon we took a fantastic tour. The first part was in the open air of a small boat, hearing about Bermuda and some of its history. We passed a feeding ground for visiting sea turtles and saw a couple really well as they came up to breathe. Then we went to a shipwreck site (the ocean surrounding Bermuda is covered with shipwrecks) and gathered in the bottom of the boat to see the site and the fish through glass. This was Jed's favorite part of the day. Then we went to a snorkeling site with a tiny beach. Gus practiced with his mask and snorkel on the boat and decided he could do it. Jed tried, changed his mind, was bummed out and tried again, but just couldn't handle all the stuff on his face, so we played on the beach and looked at the fish in the shallows. My biologist heart wants to think he'll be a naturalist when he says "Mommy! Look at that fish!" but it's immediately followed by "I want to eat it!" Not a naturalist, a chef. Jim and Gus swam off with their snorkels. After about 30 minutes they came back our way and I asked Gus what he saw. "I saw coral, Mommy. I saw the brain!" Jim took Jed to try out the water slide on the boat, and Gus and I snorkeled around a bit more before it was time to head back. On the way home I had local ginger beer, Jim had rum swizzle, and my poor deprived children were in raptures over their cups of Coke. "Mommy! It's SO yummy!" Day five, last day at Bermuda. We took the bus down to Elbow Beach on the south Shore to see the pink sand. It's pink and very very fine; I was still shaking it out of my ears the next day. The water temperature was fantastic. Jim and Gus bobbed in the swells and Jed and I played in the shallow waves. We dug a few holes and built a sand castle that looked like coral, and after a couple hours of beach, Gus fell asleep on the bus back to the Dockyard. We had lunch and then shopping for souvenirs: necklaces with and without shark teeth, a Christmas tree ornament with pink sand inside, and some sea glass. Then an early dinner and all went to see a fantastic Cirque-like show before bed. Day six, back at sea. The kids club in the afternoon was doing more circus stuff, so we brought the kids in the morning. Today Gus's group was engineering ways to keep an egg safe. Jim and I did a crossword puzzle and played trivia. It was television trivia; and even though Jim knows way more random information than he should, we still bombed it. After lunch we traded off time in the sunshine watching the kids at the kids' pool. In the late afternoon there was face painting on the pool deck and Gus was a fearsome pirate and Jed a terrifying tiger. Day seven, last day at sea, looked much the same. General trivia this time: Jim's knowledge of random facts is a bit terrifying, and I filled in his (minor) holes and we won. The prize was beer coozies, solving the firstest of first-world problems, that my beer is TOO COLD. This morning Gus's group was building legos and Jed was offered a part in the circus show, so after lunch and some time at on the water slides, Jed went to rehearse and we all dried off to see him in the afternoon. His group was the fierce tigers, so he got to spend a second day in tiger face paint (some of the orange is still on his face). He marched across the stage and growled and jumped through the ring of fire (twice). These last couple of days we could really have used an indoor playground; there wasn't anywhere without a lot of sunshine for them to burn off energy, so the ramminess really set in. Day eight, we woke up and everyone helped pack. After breakfast we headed home. Jim went to the office to deal with his >1000 emails, and I dropped off the kids at camp and school to re-integrate asap. We slid right into Friday pizza-and-movie night and are readjusting back to normal. It was a great time, but we loved the island way more than the boat, so next time we'll just fly to Bermuda and spend a lot more time there.

Memorial Day 2013

What a weekend. Gus has been begging for a visit to the Children's Museum, so we started with that on Saturday morning. We arrived right after opening and the line was out the door. When we left at lunchtime, the line was still out the door. That's par for a rainy Saturday. Jed spent as much time as possible climbing the big structure, and then they took turns picking places to play. After the museum, we went to the local seafood place for lunch. Jed bopped wordlessly to Michael Jackson while we waited for lunch, and then he tore into Jim's salad. Gus shared some clam chowder, and I showed him the difference between and clam and a potato. Then we hung out at home for a while and I prepped half of a picnic. We headed to our (reasonably) local drive-in theater. It was raining, so there was practically no one else there. Unfortunately it was also too wet for our typical picnic outside, so after picking up the rest of the picnic at the snack bar, we put the rear seats down and spread a blanket out, and had a picnic *inside* the hatchback. The kids loved it, I was okay, and Jim had to be extracted afterwards. Then we settled in to see the movie, Jim and me sitting against the front seats and the kids on our laps, covered with blankets. We saw Epic, which was not the world's greatest movie but was absolutely gorgeous and had some great jumping-off points for imagination. Gus dreamed about riding a hummingbird that night. After the movie was over, Jim stretched out some more, we put the back seat back up and strapped in the kiddos. Gus was super-tired by then, but suddenly woke up and said with alarm that we hadn't had dinner. "Yes, we did," I said, "we had a picnic inside the car. That was pretty crazy!" "No," Jed said emphatically. "That was awesome." The next movie was Star Trek--Gus was awake for the first ten minutes. No "Gus beep car" this time. Home about 1:30 a.m.; brought kids inside still in sweatshirts and put them to bed. Everyone slept as late as possible, but we made it to church on time. Another slow afternoon, and then the neighbors joined us for an indoor picnic on the floor. Everyone had a blast. Our neighbor toddler had watermelon for the first time and tore into it like a Tyrannosaurus. They're from Mexico, so when she said my guacamole was the best she's had in years, I felt pretty good about it. Addicted the dad to the same puzzle ball that entrapped Kyle after Christmas. That thing is dangerous. Another late to bed. But we wanted to see the parade in Cambridge on Monday morning, so we set an alarm again and got everyone on the move. I wore red and dressed both kids in blue American superhero shirts. Jim may still be a little bitter that when he showed up wearing a Google I/O shirt I called him a corporate hack, but he changed his shirt and called me out on the Gap hat I was wearing later (one of my other baseball caps has mysteriously disappeared, and then Gus stole my hat. He also steals my socks. Yes, he's 6. Yes, I must be Tinker Bell). We didn't get started quite quickly enough, and so arrived in Cambridge just after the start of the parade. Drove right into a spot in Harvard Square that seemed too good to be true, and walked up the parade route to meet Uncle Mike and Aunt Sarah. I'm getting weepy in my old age; all I did was point out to Jed that there were the soliders, and I about burst into tears on the sidewalk. One of the parade drivers tossed a piece of candy right at Jed, who couldn't believe his good fortune. He told everyone for 10 minutes that the soldier gave him candy, and then spent the next 10 minutes looking for another piece for Gus so that he wouldn't have to share it (successful mission). After the parade ended we played for a little while, but Jed wanted to go re-scour the streets for candy so it didn't last long. It was about a mile to the boat rental place, but we figured they'd never be happier to walk that far so off we went. After a few blocks a gentleman we were passing exclaimed, "Those kids don't have flags!" and gave us two. Apparently we'd broken a rule of Memorial Day in Cambridge, and were preceded by a color guard for the next half mile. The kids got a bit cranky near the end, but when Jim increased speed to try to take care of paperwork before we all arrived, they had enough energy to chase him down. No yellow jersey for Daddy. We rented a canoe with two big paddles and two little paddles (and lifejackets of course) for a 5-mile trip downstream to Kendall Square. Jim and I are out of paddling shape and I'm sure we'll be sore tomorrow, but it was fun. I sunscreened my face but not my arms which are now pretty pink. We passed a goose family with 5 goslings, and a lot of brown and white ducks, and a fishing bird that I didn't know what its name was, and a bunch of little sailboats and at least 12 bridges. We passed a scull and Jed hollered, "Ahoy, matey!" Gus was feeling a serious lack of snack (usually I would have had one but we were in such a hurry that I forgot) and whined for the last 15 minutes or so, but eventually we got everyone paddling to speed our way to lunch. It was a gorgeous day. The trip was about 1.5 hours on the river; we've rowed in Jamaica Pond before but had never made it up to the Charles before. Caught the T from Kendall Square back to Harvard Square and met the long-suffering aunt and uncle for lunch who we'd now met late twice. Washed hands well of river water. Nachos and guacamole. Back home for some rest and then finished out the day with a trip to the park, another picnic on the living room floor, and a bath. What a great weekend.

Dudes on vacation

When we realized in January that I would get a few days off from teaching this week and that since I would be finishing up experiments and wouldn't be chained to the mouse colony, we decided to go on an actual spring vacation. (Note: neither of those discoveries turned out to be true. Oh well, maybe next year). We thought about a cruise, but didn't want the hassle. And we're already planning to see family in August. So I began scouring the web for fun family things within driving distance that we hadn't already done, and found Rocking Horse Ranch in upstate NY. It's a dude ranch, with over 100 horses that you can ride without having to shovel up after. But the horses are only the start, with lots of kids sports activities. And it has great reviews on Tripadvisor, so we gave it a shot. First afternoon there and we went straight to the pool. There's a waterslide that you only need to be 36" tall to ride--it's the first long/enclosed waterslide the kids have been able to ride, and they loved it. Jed slides down sitting up, and you can hear his Tarzan howl long before you see him shoot out the bottom. Gus loves still water better, so the pool that never gets more then 4' deep is perfect for him, with lots of room to splash and swim without worrying about getting out too deep. The next day we spent exploring. They give "pony rides" on their super-gentle horses with a pony saddle. Gus thought it was sorta cool, but Jed was transfixed. He rides around in a circle, patting the horse. Gus thought watching his brother ride was not very exciting, so when Jed came around he hollered that we were going to the bounce house. "You go ahead," answered his brother, "*I'm* on a horse." Meeting the barn cats. Bounce house, foam cannons, ping pong. Paddleboats, bungee bounce trampoline, miniature golf. Playground, shooting/archery range, arcade, panning for arrowheads. Pool again. Oh, and cups of popcorn pretty much whenever you want it. Soft serve ice cream that is surprisingly good. Marshmallow roast and guitar singalong. The Gambler and Sweet Caroline. Kids and parents wiped out at the end of the day. Day 3: The kids spend the morning in day camp where they do lots of the above again and have a great time. Jim and I go for a trail ride, which is learning how to keep your horse from biting the bum of the horse ahead of him on the most well-fertilized trail in the country. More pool and pony rides. Beach kayaks. Arcade games. Gus declares that he would like to be a girl. When asked why, he says that girls wear more fun swimsuits. True that. Tour of the stables, where Jed meets a big white horse he would like to ride, and Reb learns that buying a well trained horse is only $1500. I know that's not pocket change and it doesn't include the care, feeding, and shoveling, but for a horse! No, I'm not saving my salary for one, just surprised. Kids show with gentleman whose hobby is reptiles, and he brings out an alligator and a rattlesnake. All impressed but too worn out to see the end. Day 4: More day camp (hike and bounce house today) and trail rides. Jim notes that walking your horse in a line is not very interesting. I tell him that if he doesn't want to be treated like a dude, he needs to put more effort into not being one. And wasn't the bit of dancing his horse did when the horse behind him got too close and nipped his on the bum interesting? Meeting the "character" horse at lunchtime trolling for fist bumps. Jed realizes that the hoof is the size of his head and gives him a head bump instead, getting a genuine laugh from the emcee who must not see new things that often. Packing up and more pool. I introduce Gus to the sauna, which is the first place that has ever been too warm for him. We dry off after pool by standing in the doorway. Wagon ride behind some BIG horses; talk with Gus about Little House in the Big Woods that we've been reading. Wait for the horses to cross the street to their pasture after work (once the horses finally come out the kids are transfixed--which one did you ride, Mommy? That one; his name is Elvis and his best friend is Memphis. No joke.) and then head home ourselves. Overall review: a good time was had by all. Jim wishes there was more grown-up stuff to do. No one goes hungry and everyone is asleep within seconds. About the right length of stay for us. Dudette sore after 2 days on horse, still can't believe one of the young ladies wore flipflops on the stable tour. Bedtime and recovery prescribed for all.

Cardio update

It was time for Jed's yearly visit to the cardiologist. Bit over one year since the surgery. Jed is excited. No one else in PreK has a cardiologist, and neither does Gus. He talks about visiting her by name, just verifying several times that I will be with him the entire time. I, on the other hand, am mildly PTSD remembering last year and hoping the results a year later don't warrant another surgery. Luckily I'm a decent actress, so Jed romps happily along beside me to the bus. As we ride the bus to Children's Hospital, it becomes clear that Jed's preferred unit of height is a Daddy. "Look, Mommy! That (ten-story hospital) building is taller than Daddy!" We check in and get height (3'6"), weight (41 lbs) and blood pressure. The check-in lady hands me a bunch of papers to update with his symptoms since last time. There are no symptoms since last time, so I hand them back. Jed rocks his EKG, then we eat our lunches in the waiting room. Well, Jed eats most of him lunch and as much of mine as he can wangle me out of. I promise him chocolate after we see his cardiologist. Then it's time for the echo. Y'all may remember the eventful first drunk-baby echo that Jed had. This one is eminently more boring. He watches Toy Story with a loose grip on my hand for about an hour while the echo techs take pictures of his heart from lots of angles. Then we go to wait for the cardiologist to look over all the data. Another nurse comes in to wonder why I didn't fill out the papers. Because there have been no updates (or even events) since last year. He's not on any medicine? Just his vitamin, which is already on the chart. Not even anything herbal? Nothing, no symptoms, no medication. No one who doesn't see this kid without his shirt on would imagine that he was born with only three chambers in his heart. She humphs a bit in a nice way and heads out, and I have avoided filling out three sheets of paperwork for no reason. Small victories. I meant to bring toys, but forgot, so we improvised a game of catch-the-pen. Jed whines a bit about wanting chocolate, but I remind him after the doctor. She eventually comes in and listens to his heart through the stethoscope. Then he gets to listen to his heart (and my bellybutton) through the stethoscope. She says the holes that were patched last year are healed up, and the small tricuspid valve that we've been watching is still small, but doing fine under the new blood pressure, and he is great. We schedule for next year and go to catch the bus back to school. I found a quarter on the ground for Jed on the way in, and he's been waiting for two hours to find the donation box for the hospital so that kids who don't have enough money can get the care they need. Yes, he's that sweet. Once we arrive at the bus stop I break out the chocolate. Jed is surprised. "Mommy, I forgot about the chocolate!" Heh. Mommy never forgets about chocolate. Back on the bus, back to school where the other kids are waking up from nap, back on the bus to work. I sit down at my desk and give thanks for a small but healthy heart on my fabulous boy. P.S. As we got off the bus, we passed a row of magazine stands. Magazine stands are sources of endless fascination for my children, they must look inside every one. This day Jed decided that he needed one of the magazines to read at the doctor's office. He selected his favorite and carried it in his hot little hand all the way to cardio. It was a bridal magazine.

North Shore Beach

After realizing that Jed had never been to a beach before, we decided that such a situation must be immediately remedied. So we went to a North Shore beach on Cape Ann on a recommendation from a friend, and it was perfect.

It was supposed to be a super-hot day, but we left the house in the middle of a thunderstorm. Halfway there it stopped raining. Unfortunately it took us twice as long to get there as it should have; construction on one major road and a huge accident that closed down another. Once we finally crawled our way to the beach, we paid our parking fee and walked (sloooowly with Jed) down to the dunes.

Jed was not very sure about it all. But after we'd pitched our cooler and sunscreened up we headed to the water, and then he was sold. This beach is only about 3 feet deep for half a mile, so the water warms up (!) nicely, and you don't have to worry about your kids being over their head unless they tip over.

The bottom has lots of tiny sand dollars. Jed got really good at spotting them, and we collected a few, along with some snails, in our buckets for a short walk. Then we hiked out to a sand bar, and Jim dug jumping pools while Jed reinvented the eternal game of "waves got your toes". Then we investigated the big rocks on one area of the shore, which were covered with interesting seaweed in parts and had small tidepools on the others. Gus said, "Mommy, this was a good idea!" Jed said, "Mommy! Beach! FUN!"

After climbing the rocks we bought a very reasonable lunch from the nearby chow hut, and then the kids spent a couple more hours making a series of castles that were overrun by the incoming tide.

We changed the kiddos and handed them a snack. Jed fell asleep mid-pretzel. We stopped by a farm on the way back and Gus and I went to pick blueberries. "Mommy, this was a good idea too. I like all your ideas!"

Thanks for the recommendation, chica, for our new beach spot!

In Which the Grandparents Visit and We See Winnie the Pooh

Jim's parents came to snuggle the poor sick baby after his surgery. However, after the amazing results of the cath, the poor sick baby was nearly all better, and the week became more about tiring out the grandparents than not overtiring the baby!

They arrived on Sunday. Gus and Jim picked them up from the airport and brought them home, where Jed and I were eagerly anticipating their arrival. The kids were so excited to see them!

On Monday and Tuesday we all kept mostly regular schedules. Jed took some serious naps (the last part of recuperation apparently) and had a blast showing the grandparents his parks.

On Wednesday Mom and Dad took both kids to the Children's Museum, which they always love. After a nap they headed out to our "backyard", the park down the block. Jim and I showed up to arrange a picnic dinner in another park where a kids' band was playing. Jed loves to dance, but after a bit of post-dinner dancing they both blew off the band and headed to the playground. The kids are so thick in the sandbox on these evenings that the air is dusty.

On Thursday we all took off. It was awfully hot, so although our itinerary doesn't look so bad we were all pooped when it was done. We took the train downtown to the Common and played in the playground for a bit. Then a quick (well, for everyone else but Jed, who's been the Poky Little Puppy lately) walk over to the movie theater to see Winnie the Pooh. Gus is fine, Jed spills lemonade on me and then climbs around for almost the rest of the movie. Good thing it was short. The rebooters really nailed it; Craig Ferguson is an awesome Owl and the stuffed animal credits at the end are adorable and memorable. After that we hoisted the kids up to shoulders and went to the Purple Shamrock for chowder, fried fish, and lobster. Another quick jaunt to the harbor, where we just missed a ferry. Waited about an hour. Mom observes that there is water to play in everywhere in Boston, including just off the docks. Of course Jed wants to play with me in the sandbox that is just short of diamond-creating temperature.

We board the ferry and enjoy the A.C. It takes about 45 minutes to get to Spectacle Island, which is made from the dirt from the Big Dig. It was a lot of dirt. There's a classic New England rocky beach, which Gus enjoys to the fullest for about half an hour. Jed is not sure what to do about the waves, but ends up happily filling his bucket with rocks in my lap. We realize that Jed has never seen a wave before, never even been to the beach before! More about that in the next post. We haul all tired people back onto the ferry and over to Fanueil Hall for some dinner. Mom tries a lobster roll for posterity. Jed is so worn out that he pukes up his dinner all over himself, precipitating a cleanup effort that is almost as long as dinner and ends in his falling asleep on my back in his swimsuit.

Boys and parents say goodbye and thank you. Houstonians ship out early on Friday morning, taking the worst of the heat wave with them. Thanks for that too!

Notes from the Cath Lab

And now the gory details...

I set my clock for 5:15 on Wednesday morning. So of course I woke up at 4:17. Sigh. Jed woke up early too, before 6, so to keep him from thinking about breakfast we got him dressed and Jim bundled us both out to wait for the bus. Waited about 20 minutes; walked all around the bus stop, looked at other people's gardens, counted the other people waiting for the bus. By this point Jed can say that he's going to the hopital.

We check in and are soon called to a room, where we meet one of the anesthesiologists and another of the cardiac cath fellows. The nurse invites us to come choose a toy, and while I'm chatting with one of the doctors he decides he wants to be held and jumps into her arms, thereby endearing himself to the entire staff (apparently this doesn't happen often). She was our nurse for the rest of that day, and he alternated between calling her "friend" and "lady".

Jed in tiger hospital gown. I give him the sleepy drops to chug, and I'm told that he will be mellow but awake. After about two minutes his head starts to seriously nod, and then he's out in my arms. While he was going down I sang him our little song about all the people who love Jed, and he said "Mommy" sleepily, so I sang him the "Mommy loves Jed" verse again and he went to sleep with a smile.

And then the doctors came back in and I put him down on the bed. The head anesthesiologist said, "Wow, he's so asleep we won't need any more anesthesia!" which for sticking a tube up from your groin to your heart is entirely unrealistic and in that second I didn't realize she was joking. She could tell by my face. Anesthesiologists don't make good standup comics, and parents who are about to send their child off with a bunch of doctors don't make a good audience.

Soon he was surrounded by a bunch of highly qualified people in blue scrubs, at which point I almost lost it. I must've looked pretty stricken, because the head anesthesiologist gave me a pat on the shoulder as they headed out. I went to the waiting room and didn't cry. Discovered that knitting is better than reading for not thinking about other things. I get the first call from the surgery room (they call you instead of having you stay in the waiting room so that you don't wig out the other patients, I think). Jed is doing fine, his vitals are good, they are starting to get data. Jim arrives after dropping off Gus at school, bearing a bag packed for a week's stay. Apparently I look bad, b/c he takes me out for breakfast. Note: if the place that sells you the muffin doesn't also carry butter, it means the muffin is already so full of butter that it doesn't need any more. Probably not the healthiest breakfast.

Back to the waiting room. A good friend who happens to be in the area comes to distract me while Jim boots up his laptop and starts to work. Second call from the lab: almost done, waking up Jed in around 15 minutes. What? It's only been 2 hours. Must be that they couldn't fix any holes here, so we're staying for surgery tomorrow. Dang.

Soon they call us back, and one of the fellows tells us that they put in 2 devices and everything is fixed. I almost fall over. So fast? Sometimes it just goes really well, he says. An excellent outcome. We hustle back to the room where Jed is coming to. I park myself on his bed and we put on a video. Jim says a prayer of thanks and then heads to work since there's not room for three on the bed. After the video both Jed and I have a nap (remember the 4:17 thing?). When he wakes back up we watch another movie and have some brief battles over staying still, but really he does fantastic. We have some juice and crackers, and later a late lunch. The mac and cheese is really quite good. Around 4 p.m. the nurse says he can get up and go for a walk, so she brings him some slipper socks and we go touring around the ward. It's a tiny ward, but Jed is so tired of sitting that we do laps for about an hour. The nurse has other work to do, so she does it and Jed gives her a hug or a shout-out every time we pass like he hasn't seen her 2 minutes ago.

Over time all of the doctors come by to check in. We see both cath lab fellows, both anesthesiologists, Jed's cardiologist, and eventually even the head cath doctor, who pioneered this treatment in children and has done more of them than anyone else in the world. I get the impression he did this one because there might have been surprises. "He has a good heart," he says, then explains, "We just didn't know."

In hospitals time doesn't pass like I would normally expect. I'm told that soon we will be sent down for an xray, and I think that means within 15 minutes or so, but actually it's an hour. Hurrah for a diversion, because Jed is so bored of the walk by now that he's trying to bust into the other rooms to say hello to the patients. My apologies to the parents of the baby he was trying to stalk. He does love babies. And then he's standing in the doorway of our room, calling "Laaaaady!" down the hall in the hopes that our nurse will come and play with him.

Wheelchair ride down to xray. He's now an xray pro. Everything looks great; the devices look like two little spiders in his heart. After around 6 months the skin will grow over them and they will just be part of his heart forever.

Back to the room. Try another video. Getting sleepy. Uncle Mike and Aunt Sarah arrive to great excitement that can't be sustained. Nearly asleep when dinner comes. Jed eats like a hog and crashes at about 7:30. I keep myself awake until 9 and then curl up next to him on the hospital bed.

Not a hugely restful night but not bad. Several times Jed rolled over and disconnected an electrode, which caused his electronics to beep and the nurse to come in and reconnect him. Around 3 a.m. my eyes bothered me awake and I had to go to the bathroom and do hot washcloths for a while. When I came back he was up and said, "Mommy, you back!" So thankful he didn't panic. So we went back to sleep again. Around 6:30 things started to hop in there and we just kept working to sleep through it, until 7 a.m. when the echo-man came and told us to be ready in about 15 minutes (finally, a man on my kind of schedule!). Jed lay calmly through the whole echo, which would have been impossible 6 months ago and which still surprises me even though he was watching cartoons. The echo man and I have a nice talk about science and puzzles (he started as a lab technician, but really finds echos to fit his puzzle needs better since he gets an answer in around 20 minutes rather than months. There is a lot to be said for that). Back to the room, where breakfast is waiting. We talk about colors of the Froot Loops and suck down some juice.

Apparently I have a REALLY cute kid. I heard some variation on "How cute is HE?" at least 30 times, and this is a children's hospital in which I assume that cute kids are a dime a dozen. The anesthesiologist says that some kids are cuter than others (but we don't go around telling the other parents that). One of the day nurses stops by and says, "How do I get to take care of YOU?" and our new day nurse says, "Sorry, he's yesterday's model."

The nurse practitioner comes in to give us discharge instructions. Jed's cardiologist comes to visit pushing an echo machine; she really wants a couple more measurements of the tricuspid valve. She explains what she's measuring, and upon understanding it I tell Jed that he has a nice Vmax. She says, "What do you do again?" Scientists who are recovering engineers are doubly weird people. The new days nurse comes in to remove Jed's IVs. Time to get dressed. Waiting the last 10 minutes for Daddy to come is torture. Out of the hospital by 9:30 a.m.

Note that I am really impressed with Children's on how they managed our expectations. I have the impression from the doctors after the procedure that the outcome we had was a reasonable expectation, but before it they had us completely ready to do surgery so that we wouldn't be crushed if it happened. Mind games are not always a bad thing.

I still can't believe I get to sleep in my own bed tonight!

And ... we're done

I like it when proposed extended hospital stays end in a giant anticlimax.

Rebekah and Jed showed up at Children's this morning at 7am. They gave Jed a glass of knockout juice which made him nice and sleepy, and then they put him under and took him to the cath lab. This was about 8:00. They put the catheter in through his leg up to the heart, looked around, and were able to "insert two devices" into his heart which plugged the holes in there. Around 10:30 they informed us that they were about finished and would be waking Jed up soon, and that his vitals were good. Then the doctor came to us and gave us the good news. We went to his room, and he was lying there, clearly stoned but conscious. He's supposed to keep his leg still for about 6 hours after the procedure, which is a challenge. He'll get a few more residual tests this afternoon (x-ray, blood test), and then he and Rebekah will stay there overnight. But he should be discharged tomorrow and hopefully that'll be the end of it!

Pre-op Day

Well, pre-op morning. It went really well. Jed was great right up until he was DONE (and then he went with Jim, bwahaha).

We were up around 6, but missed the bus by around 30 seconds. So up over the hill we went to the other bus stop. I don't wear Jed on my back much anymore, so he really enjoys it and we had a few conversations on the way.

"MOMMY!"
"Yes!"
"Hi."

"Police car!"
"Yes." Then Jed gave his abbreviated version of "It makes this noise, like that", which comes out as "Whoooo dat! Whooo-wooo dat!" So we "who dat"'d the police car, and then later the fire truck, and talked about how we were going to the kids' hospital and what we would do there. Got on the bus and rode it to Children's. Gus pointed out every other bus we saw on the way.

Checked in, no problem. Then to the cardiology pre-op office, where they directed us all over the place. First to radiology. Jed didn't want to get off my back until he saw crayons in their waiting room. Then we took three xrays which he much enjoyed, and wanted to spend the rest of the day shirtless.

Second jaunt was phlebotomy, where the assistant phlebotomist looked about 12. The head nurse looked old enough to drive, so I didn't ask for her diploma before she inserted the needle. I had told him what would happen, and he was upset by the needle but handled it well. He smushed his face into mine and cried all over me. Then he calmed down a bit, saw that the needle was still in, and cried all over me again. Then the nurse took out the needle and asked if she could give him a bandaid, and he choked out a sad "yes". All better after about 10 seconds, and he showed off the bandaid to whomever would listen all day.

On the way back to cardiology is a playground. Now, it's just not fair to have to go straight from giving blood back to the boring office, so we played for a little while. Three xrays and blood by 9 a.m., not bad!

Then a consult with one of the cardiac fellows for consent. Then vitals with a nurse, which he completely rocked. He took every exam and command like a pro and even pointed to the blood pressure as "I want that next." Sat still for the EKG and took off his own stickers.

Then paperwork with another nurse, and Jim showed up for consult with our cardiologist. By this point Jed would lift up his shirt whenever anyone brought out a stethoscope.

He was still doing great until after a 30 minute wait for the anesthesiologist. He was pretty done in that meeting, and then we took a quick tour of the cath lab and he was tugging me out the whole time. Lunch as a group and then I sent the boys home and went to lab to count cells.

Tomorrow we catch a 6:30 bus to begin at 7 a.m. If all goes perfect, we'll be done tomorrow. If not, surgery is already scheduled for Thursday.

Hospital Ho-oooh!

Next week is Jed's hopefully not surgery. We were asked to reschedule for Thursday, which is fine with us. Here's what next week looks like:

Monday huge experiment for Reb. Home exhausted. Must pack Sunday.

Tuesday arrive at hospital at 7:30 a.m. for blood work, EKG, etc. Expecting 4-6 hours of hospital with 3-year-old. This should be fun. Jed will be on a Jello diet at some point on Tuesday, I think.

Wednesday head to hospital for cardiac cath. If they can fix the holes during this procedure they will. Stay overnight and rest.

Thursday surgery if necessary. Then a few more days in the hospital for recovery.

I'll post when I can. Pray for us, please!

The O'Donnells do Disney

Almost all of them; well, almost all that don't live in St. Louis at least. Our crew met Grandma and Granddad and Aunt Erin and Uncle Kyle at Disneyworld. Here's the review.

We flew down on Tuesday. The flight was over naptime so I hoped the kids would sleep. Nope. Jed's in this phase where he has to get really mad before he falls over asleep at naptime. A helpful parent asked me if his ears were hurting. No, he's just mad. And then he didn't sleep anyhow, so we gave up and watched a movie until landing. Saw those same parents at baggage claim, who were coming home from visiting Boston, so they know my kid isn't always howling.

We may have discovered a new home remedy for ear pluggage. My chronic cold (thanks, kids!) means that my right eardrum tends to swell shut and take a painful while to reopen. This flight I spritzed a little olive oil into my ear before takeoff and things went significantly better. We'll have to test the lubrication hypothesis further on later flights, but if it means less Motrin for me I'll be happy.

We landed in Orlando and there's a fountain INSIDE the airport. Gus was wet before he even left the building. Picked up our rental car and headed for the outlet mall (it was on the way!). The kids played and snacked while I went to the Disney outlet for some tshirts and coloring books. Then we went to our hotel near Downtown Disney. They saw Jim's Expedia reservation and upgraded us to a suite. :) Made the repacking a lot easier.

We pulled out the strollers, ready to walk for dinner. Two raindrops fell before we had the strollers set up, and then the sky opened. Took the car.

Ate at Earl of Sandwich in Downtown Disney (really good). Jed was so hungry it took him three times his usual scarf time. He ate half a sandwich and almost all of a bowl of soup. The kids did a little playing at the Lego store, decided they didn't like the dark chocolate at Ghirardellis (more for me), and helped pick out silly Mr. Potato Head accessories (Storm Trooper Potato Head) at the toy store. I also gave them permission to choose one new toy: they both chose noisy light-up battery-powered stuff. Silly me. But they love them. Then we finished off the day with some playing in the splash pad and headed back for bed.

Jim made a quick run to the grocery store for snack/breakfastage, and I repacked from airplane mode to Disney mode. Crash.

On Wednesday we headed over early to the Pop Century. At about 6:30 a.m. our room was ready. Note to self: always arrive on a Wednesday. The Pop is basically a motel, but it's really well done. Clean, very soundproofed, and with a great pool/kids pool area. We met the rest of the crew and caught the bus to Epcot.

First ride the kids have ever ridden was the Seas. Jed enjoyed it so much he started running back to the opening, but we had to talk with Crush instead. I have no idea how they had an animated turtle holding a conversation with a roomful of children, but it's the closest thing to magic I've ever seen. Then Jim took Gus and company to the hang-gliding simulator (Gus loved it) and I took Jed to the splash pad on the way to World Showcase. Jed now has a real love for splash pads. He would chase the fountains and search for the tiny dribbles and sit on the big ones.

After a change into dry clothes, we met Figment and rode Maelstrom. Gus LOVED Maelstrom, and kept talking about how the troll said "Get out of my lake!" "and then we went BACKWARDS, Mommy!" He appreciated Norway even more when we saw that they had contributed Billy Goats Gruff to the world. Lunch at Biergarten (good).

We were hoping to put the kids down for a nap in American Adventure (which I did not entirely enjoy), but they only slept for the last 5 minutes. Oh well. We toured a bit of the World Showcase and enjoyed a performance of Off Kilter (which Jim has loved for ever). The last ride was Spaceship Earth, which has been retooled for the better since we were there last. The final part was a simulation of Gus and Jim being astronauts, which was the best thing EVER.

Thursday was the Animal Kingdom, bright and early. It's a good zoo, but we know other good zoos so maybe we'll skip this next time. Kids were underwhelmed by Lion King (the rest of us enjoyed it), but loved Triceratop Spin. The Boneyard playground is really really hot.

That evening we went to Fort Wilderness for the Hoop-de-doo Revue, which is a silly dinner show. Gus unexpectedly loved loved loved it. And he got to be center stage: during a "my side versus your side" holler competition, the sound system played a loud Tarzan yell and the spotlight searched for the hollerer. It ended up on Gus, who was shocked and denied everything, then smiled and enjoyed the attention. He talked about the show all week.

Friday was Hollywood Studios. We rode Toy Story Mania first thing, which was fun but is also a good Wii game without the long wait. Then Grandma and I took the little ones to the Playhouse Disney show. My kids have never seen Playhouse Disney but enjoyed it anyway. And this time Jed was the star; every time the human actress made her rounds through the audience, she stopped to hang out with Jed. My kids are chick magnets.

Then we hoped to see Muppets 3D but they were having technical difficulties so we just went to the Honey I Shrunk the Kids Playground. Jed spent almost the entire time on one big slide. He would sit at the top and wave and yell "Hi, Mommy! I coming!" then slide down, give me a hug, and climb the stairs again. Gus raced around the whole place like his usual grasshopper self, once bumped into Jed and rode the slide with him, then took off again. I must say that this playground got nasty reviews in the guidebook and that's the only part we disagreed with. Yes, you can't keep track of your child the whole time in this playground, but they come back into sight often enough that you can just stake out the place where they were last seen, and find them easily enough.

Lunch at Hollywood and Vine. Food was decent, characters were fun. More Playhouse Disney that my kids don't know. So Gus was reduced to calling "Girl! Hey, Girl!" for June's attention. Mini mac-daddy. Pomegranate lemonade is good stuff.

Back to the Pop for nap and then finally got to try out the pool. Jed loves to climb out and jump back in. Gus is learning to float and practiced some swimming. I love rashguards; so much less burnable skin area to worry about!

Then out to dinner at Chevy's Fresh Mex, which is across from Downtown Disney. Good food and the most amazing balloon man we've ever seen. He made the boys a Spiderman and a dragon. It was like watching performance art.

Disneyquest was a bit disappointing. They had a new bumper cars ride in which you also get to shoot balls (okay, asteroids) at the other cars. Seems like the perfect answer, but the execution was lacking and so you left sad for how much fun it could have been. The whole place was fun, but not as much fun as you felt you ought to be having.

On Saturday morning Gus tried to decide which park was his favorite. I told him that today's would probably win... we were going to Magic Kingdom. We rode Dumbo, but thankfully only once. Winnie the Pooh and Peter Pan were other winners. Peter Pan had minor technical difficulties so I told Gus more of the story and Erin and Kyle showed Jed how many things glow under those lights (teeth are especially fun). We saw Philharmagic, when Jed blew off but Gus loved and seriously interacted with. Quick trip through Small World (which is still not my favorite place for a number of reasons, but the kids are too young to know them yet). Climbed the treehouse with Gus humming the song. Then Crystal Palace for lunch with Winnie the Pooh and friends. The kids loved it. Gus declared that Magic Kingdom was in fact his favorite park.

More nap, more pool, dinner was pizza by the pool. Then Jim and I went to Cirque de Soleil and the grandparents wrangled the boys to bed. I think I'm done with animal circuses, because human tricks are much more fun! But after the really neat things they did with jump ropes and bicycles and diabolos and trampolines, I feel that my play abilities are subpar. It was amazing.

On Sunday the rest of the crew went to Universal to meet Harry Potter. We went back to MK and rode Space Ranger Spin and the Astro Orbiters ("Mommy, these are FASTER than Dumbo." Sure are; we rode them twice in a row and then I felt sick). Rode Peter Pan again and Gus had to be dragged away ("Mommy, that's MY flying boat!") Rode Aladdin (Dumbo with camels), had a very dry Jungle Cruise guide, and made pirate hats for the boys to ride Pirates. We'd forgotten about the drop in the dark, but both boys were thankfully unfazed. Bought two spyglasses to be used with great frequency.

Jim's fit of brilliance of the day was to take the Monorail to the Contemporary. There's a little cafe there right near the tracks, and the boys cheered the arrival of every train through lunch.

We were all exhausted and went back to nap, but the kids refused to sleep. For two hours. Although they were completely wiped out. Naptime ended at 6:30, and we went to dinner, then back to MK for the Electrical Parade. Now I want a lit-up swirling snail. And since no one was sleeping again for a while, we enjoyed Disney by night and had a blast. Grandad's fit of brilliance was necklace glowsticks, which identified the boys in the dark. They rode Astro Orbiter again and loved it in the dark!

Monday the grandparents took the boys back to MK, and we went to Typhoon Lagoon, which was just what we needed. I think all roller coasters would be better on a tube.

And then Tuesday we flew home, had lunch, and everybody had a nap. I think sometime around Saturday we were finally caught up on sleep.

P.S. I was clearly tired when I wrote this post, b/c I forgot to put in what was for me the funniest part of the week.

Jim goes to get ice to refill the breakfast milk cooler. Instant flurry of distress. Rush to the window to await his return, because they miss him already. Brief bout of hypothetical thinking.

"If we had long arms, we could grab Daddy and bring him back." "Uh-huh." "If we had a rope, we could tie Daddy up before he gets the ice and drag him back to Mommy." "Uh-huh."

Calling the Roll

Jed likes to gather attendance. At anything. At the dinner table, for instance. "Mommy milk. Gus milk. Daddy milk. Jed milk." Followed by a nod of the head and a sigh of contentment that the dinner table is what it ought to be. In the car this morning as we are all driving out to breakfast: "Mommy coming? Gus coming? Daddy coming?" (Daddy is DRIVING the car to breakfast.) Brief pause. Daddy finishes it up: "Jed coming." Sigh of contentment.

And the cutest thing I think I ever saw happened tonight. The guys all got shaggy, so we scheduled tonight as haircut night. Jed was really excited, which surprised us because last month he cried through the whole thing. So Jim buzzed him after dinner, and although he howled through the whole thing at least he wasn't shedding salt water onto the towel. It took him most of Gus's subsequent haircut to calm down. Gus has a lot of hair, and is getting impatient by the end. "Daddy, am I done YET?" And Jed puts his arms around as much of Gus as he can reach up there in the chair, and comforts him. "It's okay, Gus. I gotcha."

They had a blast in the park this afternoon while Daddy was getting his haircut. Chasing each other around, taking turns on the big slide, and once climbing the rock wall side by side while laughing hysterically. Watching them makes my heart happy.

A Boy and His Sweatshirt -- A Love Story

When Gus was three, I bought a spring green sweatshirt from the secondhand store. It was soft and cozy, and we have lots of pictures of him wearing it (because we're always outside). Then he got too big for it, and I put it away for Jed.

When Jed arrived it was summer. In fall he was introduced to Sweatshirt in an offhand "Are you cold, honey?" sort of way. They hung out together for a few weeks. And the acquaintanceship ripened into more.

I was dressing the kiddos one morning and said to Jim, "Jed needs a sweatshirt." Jim went into their room and Jed dropped everything and ran after him, yelling, "I pick! I pick!" Stopped in his tracks once he arrived and saw Daddy was holding Sweatshirt. He didn't want to pick, just wanted his Sweatshirt.

He misses it when it's in the laundry. One day he spied it folded in the basket during breakfast and ran to welcome it back.

I finished scrapbooking last year and showed the boys their new pages. Jed loved everything about it. Looking through it another day, he pointed at a picture of him with the jack-o-lantern on the Halloween page. I was sure he was going to say, "Pumpkin!" because he was obsessed with that pumpkin. Instead he said, "Sweatshirt!"

Last Saturday we went out to see a show and left the kids with a great babysitter. Got home to find Jed in his pajamas but wearing Sweatshirt on top. If you can't have Mommy, at least you can have Sweatshirt.

New Year's

Sorry I'm so behind. My eyes are much better, thanks for all the concern. At my last visit the doctor pronounced them "good" (which is an adjective that hasn't been used for them in a long time), took out the Band-aid, and cut my meds in half. Woot! Back there in a month.

We went to Austin over New Year's and had a second orgy of presents with Jim's family. The kids met the new puppy, who is 50 pounds. It took Jed most of the week to touch her at all. Gus was willing to play with her in the backyard until she started nipping at his heels (she is a puppy, after all). But he did enjoy telling her to sit from the safety of the other side of the gate, and would pet her as long as she was being held tightly by someone else. Jed invented a game called "throw the stick to the doggie from the safety of the top of the picnic table", and that was not bad progress, I think. Next time will be better when they're all older, but happily they could all coexist without terrible anxiety by the end of the week, and I'm sure the puppy was happy to have her house back!

We spent some quality time at Zilker Park and took the obligatory trip to Chuy's. Jed dug into the salsa. That kid will try anything. Jim warned him it was spicy, and he nodded, and then continued to tuck it in. I guess if you can put it on a tortilla chip it has to be good. We also took the boys on their first mini-golf outing to the charmingly sketchy local spot. No one was brained, and the boys spent about ten minutes dropping their balls into one of the more interesting holes.

As a reward for breaking a bad habit, Gus got to watch Jungle Book for the first time. I watched it with him in case he was scared of the big mean frightening tiger. But he was fine. The new scary movie was actually Curious George. I know, right? But there's a part where the man in the yellow hat sends George back to Africa and he's all by himself on a big boat in a cage in the dark, and Gus was petrified. We talked about it a bunch and he worked through it.

The boys had a blast being loved on all week, and by the end were lifting anyone's iPhone in the hope it was Granddad's (his has games; Mommy's does not. Put It Down). They were pretty spectacular on the flights home (two layovers so quick we couldn't even get off the plane). Jed and I toured the aisles a lot, and Gus plugged into his videos. The boys were wearing matching sweatshirts from their aunt and uncle and were much adored by the ladies in the flying public.

And then it was good to be home.

Wars of Rosacea

I haven't blogged since Christmas, and that's because I've had a recurring problem with using screens. The glare is awful. Apparently my ocular rosacea flares up when it's very cold, and so as soon as we got back from Texas and the temperature plunged, my rosacea went nuts. What happens to me is that the oils in my tear glands are blocked in from the inflammation, and so the oil parts never get into the tears (I can now testify that they are very important). As a result, I wake up crying projectively and have to force drops into my eyes to hydrate them properly. Repeat every hour or so, all night. It takes about 2 days for my eyesight to recover in that eye, and a few more for screens to be comfortable.

The first week this happened, I had three flare-ups in a week and then one of my corneas got over-wet and exploded (it's like a waterbed; too much water in between the cornea and the basement membrane and boom!). Since that has happened once before, I had a pretty good idea what had happened and hauled into the opthamologist's office and he cleaned it up for me. (First time he took dead tissue of of my eye with tweezers, horror movie. Second time, eh. I guess it all depends what you're used to. Personally, I am tired of the receptionists knowing my name.) So now I'm on drugs but still had a couple flare-ups this week. Jim got me a pirate patch just in case. Saw the uber-specialist again today and he put a contact lens bandaid in my eye (preemptively? he doesn't say much, but the last flareup might have caused a bit of a fissure, too). In three weeks we'll see how much better I am.

Humph. Now you know why there's precious little news coming out of this house. But the drugs are helping and the weather is warming, so soon I'll update on New Year's and etc.

Christmas!

It was Jed's first Christmas at home, and he was a bit overwhelmed. We start with stockings in bed, but he had trouble understanding that he could open everything in his stocking, and actually stopped about halfway through, content to scarf down a breakfast bar and watch everyone else. Gus exclaimed with almost every small present that this was "the best one EVER!" My favorite things are the wind-up caterpillars, which the boys mostly ignored until today. If they don't play with them, I will. The hits were the airplanes which make lots of noise when you zoom them.

After breakfast we opened the presents under the tree. That wasn't too overwhelming, since our family presents don't come until 3 Kings' Day, so all that was under the tree was from out-of-town family. Gus feels that the presents should never stop coming, even though today he can't remember half of what he received yesterday. The boys most enjoyed their Philadelphia sports slippers, the Viking-esque ship from their cousins, and the big box from Mike and Sarah. We had some friends over for dinner who are too far from family (Scotland!) to head home, and the 3 boys spent about an hour in and out of the box, yelling "Surprise!!!"

Today we are awaiting around a foot of snow, and will probably have part of tomorrow off to go sledding. Later this week we will go visit Jim's family in Texas, where there will not be enough snow to go sledding.

No More Shots!

Oops, I forgot until now to celebrate online, but the fix to the Hague has finally been passed and signed by the President. Now kids coming home under the new rules can be exempted from shots in China as long as their parents promise to bring them up to date at home on a reasonable schedule. Woohoo!

Monster Ball

It's been a weird eye month, with a scratch in my eye for which I have now seen three opthamologists. The third one actually snorted at the advice the first one gave me. I don't suppose he'll be at that practice for long. The scratch should be healed by now, and next week I have another appointment which will hopefully take the bandaid out of my eye and be fine. I also have rosacea which affects my tear ducts, so that explains the dry eye and eyelid pain I was having. Anyhow...

After one of the first opthamologist appointments, my eyes were still hurting. Jim came home from worship practice to find me with a baseball cap pulled way down over my eyes. "Honey, you look like Gwyneth Paltrow on the way to the grocery store." Glare from screens was especially painful, but since it was movie night I put on the hat and sucked it up. It was Jed's first turn to pick a video, and Gus was not pleased. But then Jed picked Gus's favorite video ever, Robin Hood (with the fox) and all was well. That night they both wanted to wear their new monster pajamas, and I'm pretty sure that Jed picked Robin Hood because of the music in the video, because he's Jed and he loves to dance. Even a sore eye can't dampen how much fun it was to watch both boys in their monster jamas gettin' down together with Alan a Dale.

I think we talk enough about why we discipline, because Gus can say it all when Jed is in trouble. "You don't talk with boys in timeout." "He can make a better decision next time." Of course he doesn't seem to remember it when he is having trouble behaving. And I can't say I like the preemptive whining: "Jed isn't sharing!" "Have you asked him to share?" Well, no. It's so much faster to jump to conclusions.

Just got back from a week in Pittsburgh with my family. Gus was a bit miffed that Great PopPop belonged to Jed too. The cousins were the big hit, of course--it took the boys a little while to figure out how to play together, and then they were great, and we played with the girls. A day without the cousins was a day with lots of whining, so we got them together as much as we could. At one point Jed went up to his oldest cousin (6) and said something not particularly memorable. She said to me, "You sure can tell he's a Chinese boy!" Wondering how she had learned that from him saying "Hi!" I asked her how that was. And she looked at me like I was a complete moron and said, "Because he looks like one!" Moral of the story: sometimes the thought is not all that deep.

Jed spent the week impressing everyone with his prodigious appetite for poultry and pasta (one night he ate chicken faster than my sister could cut it), his determination, and his progress with English. He started three-word sentences early in the week "That's my daddy!" "I want this!" and progressed to a 5-word sentence before we left, "I want do that again!" Pretty much everything he says has exclamation points. "Mama!" "Sweatshirt!"

When we got home I rushed to get out the advent calendar that I made last year. Yes, I'm crazy, but I couldn't find what I wanted anywhere so I ended up making it. It's a felt calendar which tells the Christmas story (I felt a little less silly when one of my coworkers told me that she has a felt menorah for Hanukkah). We have another "calendar" made out of socks on a string, and in each sock is a piece for the Christmas calendar (and sometimes a treat). It's only day 3, and Gus is already overjoyed when it is his turn for a sock and despondent when it is Jed's. Jed loves all things foot-related, so he will stand there and say "Sock! Mama, sock!"

"SOCK!"

Indispensability

Remarks on Halloween: as Reb was raised with a healthy dislike of trick-or-treating, we also stayed away from other people's doors last night. We did, however, dress up the kids in their costumes (Gus was a monkey and Jed a headless toucan (no blood, he just doesn't like to wear the beak part)), take pictures of them with the pumpkin, and take them out for ice cream, where they were appropriately sugared up and oohed and aahed over. We saw the Cat in the Hat and a whole family dressed as the Little Engine that Could. Anyhow, after Jed went sugar crazy after 3 pieces of candy at Jim's work party, I don't want him acquiring much more. Also of note, we saw a mom *pushing* two kids in a stroller trick-or-treating! No way--no walk, no more candy. "We're trick-of-treating as future participants in the obesity epidemic." Jim noticed how different the costumes are here than in Houston, b/c either they have to be warm enough to walk out in the chilly fall weather or you can't see them b/c of your coat. We voted as "most inconvenient" the hockey player complete with rollerblades. It must be awful to climb the steps to 30 porches in rollerblades. It was sweet to see one house that was clearly staffed with college students excited to be grown-up enough to hand out the candy.

Jim and Gus picked out the perfect pumpkin to carve on Saturday. Undisemboweled, it weighed 24 pounds. That's only 3 pounds less than Jed weighs. Jed loves the jack-o-lantern. It's currently sitting on the coffee table and he will point it out to me several times a day. "Mommy! Pumpkin!" with a huge grin.

We also had our first three-word-sentence this week: "I WANT SHOES!" I was very impressed and told him so, but he was too busy howling to take the compliment.

On Sunday afternoons I often crash on the couch while the kids take their nap. When Jed woke up and came out to the living room, he immediately climbed up for some more snuggle. Only half-awake, I settled him in next to me and thought how quickly someone can become indispensable to your life. I don't mind at all him climbing on me while I'm mostly asleep, and I miss him when I'm not home, and he's only been here 2 months.

Hallelujah!

On Monday Gus said to me in the morning, "I don't have to cry when I go to preschool." He repeated it to himself several times, last right near the door--and HE DIDN'T! He had a great transition in all week, and we celebrated with brownie sundaes tonight. It took a whole month, but he is now comfortable at preschool. Whew!

But the drama is not over. Jed starts daycare with Lois on Tuesday. Dun-DUN.

Language acquisition is fun. Jed wants to say "Bus!" He started with "Bu!" Then it went to, "Butt, Mommy, Butt!" That took a minute to figure out. Now it's "Buck! Buck!" I think that's progress.

We were invited to the lab for lunch this week so that everyone who liked could come meet Jed. He had an absolute blast being the complete center of attention, and was ridiculously cute. Thanks for making me look good, little man.