Indiana Trip Part 2 - VERY EXCITING DAY

Tuesday a VERY EXCITING DAY!: This was the day that Spencer and I got to meet Heather and Hudson. Heather and I both had blogs regarding our boys. We were introduced to each other's blogs by a mutual friend and Hudson and Spencer were born about 12 hours apart. For the last 1 1/2 years we have shared our ups and downs of rearing rambunctious little boys with each other as well as our blogs. We took full advantage of my trip to Indiana and met for lunch. The boys didn't seem nearly as interested in each other as Heather and I were. We took LOTS of pictures, but it was darn near impossible to get both of these boys to look at the same camera at the same time. It was too short of a visit, but I know we will continue to share our experiences with each other as we watch our boys grow.

Wednesday: I headed back to the outlet mall with a friend from high school. We found some awesome bargains (hat and mittens for only $0.16) and had to scoop them up. This required me to borrow an additional bag from Grandma Doris in order to bring back all of my goodies. We had lunch and it was time for nap, so Julie dropped me off and we agreed, it had been too long since we had seen each other. We ended the day with a nice long walk with Sam and Dylan. Spencer wanted to get out and run, so the last few houses he walked hand in hand with Grandma Doris and Grandpa Dan. AAWWWW

Thursday: We packed and packed and packed again (Spencer kept pulling everything out of the bags). Spencer also discovered Grandpa Dan's hats. He sat and played with the hats for almost a 1/2 hour (hey, that is a lot in Spencer time). Later that day we headed to the airport. The first leg of the trip was okay, but as I feared, we were seriously delayed in St. Louis because of the storms. Spencer was not happy, mama was not happy. We were ready for HOME. We finally arrived and Spencer was EXTREMELY excited to see his daddy and big sister.

Friday: I am home and touring the neighborhood. Oh my goodness I am soooooo relieved that I was not here. There is a lot of damage around the neighborhood. No one lost their homes, no one was hurt, but that was way to close. Our good friends and neighbors, Clay and Shyla had a storm shelter installed today. Simply too close.

Unwanted Sickness

Last Thursday Spencer began to act funny. We could tell that he didn't feel good, but with no apparent symptoms, there wasn't much for us to do.
The sickness quickly reared its ugly head on Friday night with a fever and vomiting. Friday night was spent in the living room on the couch/floor covered in towels, while he slept for a couple of hours at a time.
Saturday came and we immediately started some pedialyte and water. He wasn't drinking much and definitely wasn't eating.

This was his crazy sweaty hair after his fever broke on Saturday. He continued to lay around the house. He was tired, cranky and his tummy was upset.

He found some comfort in some of his favorite books, but generally wanted me. Not daddy, not Madison, me. He would drift off to sleep on the couch and if I got up, he immediately woke up whining. Saturday turned to Sunday in a blur. No more than 3 hours of sleep at a time. Sunday seemed like things were getting better. He was dehydrated, but continuing to drink some and eating a few snacks. Sunday evening came down crashing as he vomited again. The poor little guy just cried and cried.

This picture probably describes the weekend in a nutshell. He was on the way to the doctor's office and it was all he could do to look up at dad.
Yesterday was his first day back to daycare and it went okay. He has gained his appetite back and slowly is getting back into a routine. I can honestly say that vomiting is the most unwanted sickness I want children to have. They just don't understand what is happening and it is so degrading for them to wake up covered in vomit. :(

CATS

Friday night Madison and I went to see the show CATS. Madison has never seen a Broadway show and CATS was definitely a perfect choice for the first one.

We both got dressed up and of course, she looks way older than her tender 12 years (13 is gonna kill me). And NO she is not taller than me, she is standing on the porch and I am on the sidewalk.

We had to leave really early because there was a Red Hawks baseball game, a Thunder basketball game and the show all downtown. What a mess traffic was.
We arrived at the civic center and she picked out a classic CATS t-shirt (black tee with yellow eyes and "CATS" across the front." We also picked up a program. The performance started at 8pm, so at 7:30 we headed to the mezzanine level to find out seats. They were letting people into the theater yet, so we waited, waited and waited some more.
It was also very, very warm. The $15 program instantly became a fan for the both of us.

Madison took off her shoes and sat on the floor. It was now 7:55 and no sign of us getting in. A gentlemen standing near us asked the usher was the hold up was and then we finally know what is going on. NO POWER! The civic center was one of many buildings in the area with no power. They were running off a generator and that was it. The generator was enough for the lights and of course the credit card machine, but not enough for the air conditioning.

An announcement was finally made and that they were trying to fix the problem. At this point, they were not cancelling the show, that was a good thing. At 8:30 the entire lobby and multiple levels erupted in applause with the return of the air conditioning and normal power!!!
We had to wait another 20 minutes before they started letting people into the theater and wouldn't ya know it, the ticket scanner won't scan the tickets. So, thank goodness the usher was an older gentlemen with some wits and went back to the old fashion way of doing things: tearing off the ticket stubs.

The performance finally got started at 9pm and I explained to Madison that the people really sing (no recording) and the music was live from the orchestra. Within the first few moments (they hadn't even come on stage yet) she was hooked. After the first characters arrived on stage and blew everyone away the only words that she could utters was "Oh my gosh, oh my gosh!"

We enjoyed every minute and she was in awe, act after act and then of course the reason everyone goes to CATS - Memories. I personally got goose bumps and I think the guy next to me was crying. I don't think Madison breathed or moved. She jumped to her feet and whooped and clapped loudly (just like everyone else around her). Fabulous show.

I waited to ask her what she thought until we were on the way home. Here was part of the conversation:
Me: "So, what did you think?"
Madi: "I don't know what to say, it changed me. It moved me. I only dance one dance for a few minutes and they danced and sang for over two hours. It was amazing."

My job as a parent to expose her to multiple facets of art, music and culture is a step in the right direction.

Discovery

Spencer liked his plastic eggs at Easter, but only because they can be thrown like a ball. He has good aim and you have to be on your toes otherwise an egg comes whizzing awful close to your head.

I think his favorite thing about Easter was taking the dyed hard boiled egg and accidentally cracking it open (he squeezed it too hard). Once it was open, he used his finger to dig inside and squished the contents with his fingers. We tried to convince him to "give it to daddy" or "give it to Sissy," but he knew the jig was up and he wasn't falling for it. He took off running away from anyone who tried to touch the egg. A emotional meltdown ensued after the egg was thrown away.

Spencer discovered more than just eggs this weekend.

He discovered how to climb on the pub table chairs and stand straight up on them.

He discovered that this gives mommy a heart attack.

He discovered he can pull out the dining room chairs in order to climb into them.

He discovered how to open mommy's laptop.

He discovered how to climb on top of the kitchen table.

He discovered that if he stands on the dining room chairs and leans too far that the chair will fall over with him in it (and it hurts).

No, Nigh Nigh

The last two nights have been tough of Spencer. His pacifier has been taken away. He would normally have quite time around 7:30 and he would go to bed around 8:00. He never really fussed too bad about going to bed. There were many nights that he would grab his blanket and paci and sit with dad quietly on the couch and then go to bed without even a peep. When he would get tired, he would put his head down on his blanket or point to his bedroom.

Times have changed! This is the way our conversation went last night.

Me: Do you want to get your pajamas on?

Spencer: No, nigh nigh

Me: Let's just go get your pj's on.

Spencer: no nigh nigh

Me: Let's just have quiet time (picking him up and taking him to the bedroom).

Spencer: fussing and crying the whole way

Spencer now tries to avoid (at all costs) going to bed. This was never a problem before, but now he runs from us, refuses to have quiet time and generally cries and fusses from the moment the pajamas go on. We have made it two days, I just hope it gets easier from here.

Pops

Madison was on spring break this week. We couldn't really go anywhere for a big trip, so Justin and I each took some time this week to do some smaller things close to home.

On Wednesday, I took her to Arcadia, OK on Route 66. We went to "Pops."
Pops is a diner as well as having hundreds of different types of soda pops in bottles. You name it, they have it.
Our wait was supposed to be an hour, but it only took about 15 minutes.
While waiting we looked at the coolers filled with every imaginable flavor of soda and picked out 6 to take home.
Our final selections were:
1. Nehi grape
2. Sun Crest orange
3. Faygo root beer
4. Big Red cream soda
5. Izze pomagrante
6. Red Rock saspirilla



We got to sit at the diner bar and of course we played on the swiveling chairs. The menu wasn't that diverse; five sandwiches, burgers, hot dogs and a side salad. They had an entire section on the menu devoted to desserts. YUMMY!

So, Madison and I both got burgers, she got fries and I chose onion rings.
We had a lot of fun sitting there watching all of the waiters making REAL shakes, malts, sundaes - you name it!

Our food seemed to take awhile to get there, but it was really good. It wasn't the best burger I ever had, but it was GOOD!

After watching all of those delicious treats being made, we decided that we needed a taste of the desserts. To my surprise, they had cherry cobbler. I am huge fan of cherry or peach cobbler, cherry being my favorite. They had both that day. Misty was a happy camper.

To my amazement, the size of the cobbler (with ice cream of course) was ginormous, huge, OMG! Yes, I ate all of it. I was miserable later, but I didn't care.

Madison enjoyed her carmel sundae. We decided we better walk off some of the food, so we headed outside to the very tall, giant pop bottle.

SO, if you want to get your kicks on route 66, stop in Arcadia and check out Pops. You might have to wait awhile, but it was worth it. LOVED IT!

Secrets of the Y Chromosome

There is some kind of magnetism associated with the Y chromosomes. This strong magnetism that I speak of attracts such items as dirt, sticks and mud.
If there is dirt anywhere within sprinting distance, Spencer WILL find it. He picks up clumps of dirt and squishes it between his hands. He LOVES sticks. Big sticks, small sticks, fat sticks, short stick, sticks still attached to the tree (also known as branches). He likes to put them into the holes and cracks in the sidewalks.



The Y chromosome is also responsible for the hollow leg syndrome. The amount of food that Spencer can eat is amazing. The fact that he is still in the 25-50 percentile for weight amazes me.

Boys also have a secret; they are truly lovable. How can you resist they baby blues? It is definitely hard, especially when another secret is revealed from the chromosome; climbing. If it is on the ground, then it can be climbed on or on top of. Spencer's item of choice is the BRICK fireplace. He also likes to hang over the side of the couch; I am waiting for him to tumble onto his head. He also has climbed out of his crib and fell on his back.

Spencer is also a fan of athletic equipment, balls that is. Footballs, basketballs, baseballs, tennis balls, anything that is remotely shaped like balls or can be thrown like one: he always has to be playing with a ball.