Dogs, Tents, and Birds

These three little girls have been over at our house quite a bit lately. Their mom has been busy with moving (different house, same neighborhood), and since they homeschool, she sometimes needed a couple hours alone to get things packed. They get along great with Connor (and they're stinkin' adorable!) Their very favorite thing about our house is our dogs. Last time they were here they pretty much hung on Wiley the entire visit, and were very proud to show me when they'd put all of Elise's many hair barettes and clippies in his fur. Wiley is such a good dog, his tail wagged the whole day anyway. This picture is a Connor-initiated one. He wanted me to photograph him as a "monster with one eye". He thought his costume was very creative. They've been talking about imagination all month at Joy School, but Connor supposedly didn't like to participate much in their pretending. He kept interrupting their scenarios with comments like, "We're not really on the moon, right?" So, I'm glad his imaginative side is starting to come out more.

Okay, now I have to tell the story of our tent. I love our tent. I bought it last summer when we decided to give camping with two little kids a try (you can read that blog post somewhere around here.) Anyway, you might remember that it didn't go so well, and Ryan fixated on the tent as scapegoat. He had to put it up (without looking it over before we left, as had been suggested) in the dark, with poor instructions, and it's a lot more complicated than our 2-4 man tent of olden days. The result was that, after we got home, he didn't want to put it away. He was too frustrated. So, it sat piled on one of our patio chairs outside all fall and winter. After a lengthy argument about whose job it was to put this thing away, I caved last week and decided to reclaim my tent. I took it out back, set it up entirely (and took pictures to prove I'd done it), then carefully repacked everything and put it in the garage. The new camping rules are that, 1. we always arrive before sunset and 2. Mom is the new tent-master. Two Saturdays ago we got to drive to Chino and visit with Grandma and Grandpa! My parents were there in their RV for a dog show, so we spent the afternoon with them. The kids loved it, especially the doggies and the large supply of snacks my parents always share with them. My mom got some great video with her Blackberry of Connor and Elise singing, so hopefully I'll post that later. It was a nice day. And last of all, I finally got a picture of the baby birds in our backyard! There's a family of mockingbirds that built a nest in a bush right outside our bedroom window. It's right across from my computer desk, so I've spent the past month watching the parents fly back and forth every few minutes with caterpillars or berries in their beaks. They were completely tireless and devoted, it was quite inspiring. Anyway, I was worried about disturbing them, but eventually dared to poke my camera into the bush and see what I could get. I'm glad I did, because about four days later, the babies were big enough to fly away. I kind of miss them!

Family Day at Santa Anita

Following Connor's very sudden recovery last weekend, we decided to take the kids to the Santa Anita racetrack for their advertised "Family Day". We watched a race and looked at any horses we could get close to. They also had a bounce-house and inflatable slide, neither of which appealed to Elise much, but Connor thought they were great.We also bought tickets for both kids to try the pony rides. Connor had done it before at the park, but Elise had been too little then. We thought she might be ready, but quickly learned otherwise. After one trip around screaming, the nice guy leading the pony told me to come in and walk with her, and he even threw in an extra trip around the circle after she realized it was kinda fun with Mom nearby. The next day was Easter! Okay, not really, but we'd decided to postpone our celebration for a week to accomodate poor Connor. This was the first year I've done the full Easter basket thing with the kids, and they were very impressed!After gut-loading the kids with sugar, we went to church, came home, took naps, all the normal Sunday stuff. Then we packed everybody up and went to Forest Lawn Cemetary for an Easter lesson. I'm really hoping to make this a tradition, although I don't know how easy it would be on the actual day of Easter. This cemetary is huge, and very beautiful. It covers a range of hills in the middle of Glendale, with winding roads going throughout, several different chapels and mausoleums, and a lot of art displays and sculpture. We spent twenty minutes or so at a reproduction of The Christus they have mounted over a waterfall, and walked through the walled garden behind it. Then we went down the hill a little ways, sat on a blanket, and read the children's scripture-reader version of the crucifixion and resurrection. We talked about cemetaries and what they're for, and showed Connor pictures of Grandpa Dean with Grandma Cloe. It was a very sweet and spiritual discussion (well, for the length of a 4-year-old's attention span, but he did very well.) Everybody seemed to enjoy it, so we'll try to do it again next year.

Oh, and Ryan loves this picture of Elise after a nap. I think it's a little pitiful, but he loves the hairdo.

The Power of Mall Food

So, it's been nine days since Connor had surgery, and it has been so much harder than I expected. I knew he'd be miserable for a few days, but I had no idea it would be this bad or for this long.

Up until yesterday, Connor had eaten essentially nothing. Neither popsicles nor ice cream nor pudding could tempt him enough to be worth the pain of swallowing. Getting him to drink fluids (which the doctor insisted was the key to recovery) involved at least twenty minutes of pleading and threats, which usually resulted in him drinking two ounces of juice, then collapsing in more tears. Slobbery tears. He wouldn't even swallow his own saliva because it hurt too much, so we've had to keep his pocket-bib on him at all times, and have a towel nearby. He seriously salivated more than he took in in fluids. The worst part, though, was seeing my little boy in so much pain, and not being able to do anything about it. No, even better, the only thing I could do about it was force him to take his pain medicine or drink more fluids, which felt like torture. I called the doctor's office several times to explain that he couldn't sleep, even fully medicated, but they told me there wasn't anything they could do. "Just make him drink more", they said.

Oh, and Elise has had the stomach flu all week, so that's been fun, too. We've been running a Home for Gimpy Children here.

Okay, enough wallowing in self-pity. Here's the story of yesterday! We decided that we needed to get out, so we planned a trip to the Americana (overly expensive outdoor mall) to eat at the Cheesecake Factory. We told Connor that he didn't have to eat (he was worried), but that he could play gameboy when we got to the restaurant. After we sat down, the server brought out the bread. Then something happened. A light went on in Connor's eyes, and he snatched the bread, started tearing pieces out of the soft middle, and cramming them into his mouth. He was so hungry he forgot to be afraid of swallowing, and ate nearly the entire loaf, along with a portion of Ryan's pasta. When we left, he tried to fit the hollowed-out bread loaf in his pocket. We spent about an hour at the playground chatting with friends we happened to see, then as we left for the parking garage he insisted that he needed a pretzel and lemonade, too. He didn't quite finish the pretzel, but Elise helped, and the curse had been broken.

I can't overstate how relieved I was to finally see him eat! So happy. Thanks to everyone for your prayers and thoughts. It looks like he'll be back to normal pretty soon!

Oh, and on the positive side, he no longer snores while sleeping, and he can hear us when we whisper. I guess the best quality earplugs reduce noise by up to 30 decibels, and his hearing was impaired by 35, so I can see why he was so frustrated. I'm so thankful for modern medicine!

A Visit from the Tonsil Fairy

So, for those of you who didn't happen to check the blog within the past 24 hours, you'll want to scroll down and read my previous post first. Of course, I know most of my readers feverishly check this thing every half hour around the clock, despite no activity in the past month . . .

Anyway, right before Christmastime, Connor caught a cold. No big deal, right? Except a few days later, his ears plugged up and he couldn't hear me very well. I figured it would pass in a few days, but it didn't. So, the day before New Year's Eve, I took him downtown to his pediatrician to see if he had an ear infection or something. The doctor pretty much asked Connor a few questions, then said, "He can hear me just fine! He's okay." And sent us home with a bill. I wasn't very happy about such a cursory examination, but I figured I had just been imagining things - either that, or it was something mild that would go away on its own soon anyway.

Well, two months later, he still wasn't hearing things well. His teachers at Joy School noticed it, too, so it wasn't just me being paranoid. Besides general ignoring of our non-shouted requests, I'd try to tell him stories at bedtime without waking up his sister, and he'd yell, "What? I can't hear you!" He couldn't hear whispers at church, either, which was awkward. So, I decided to try a different pediatrician, one closer to our new house. This doctor was great. He dug all the wax out of Connor's ears, looked at the eardrums, and informed me that they were both completely full of fluid. We spent almost an hour talking about Connor's ears, as well as concerns I've had about his tonsils. Connor snores like crazy at night, and he mouth breathes all day, which leads to a lot of slobbering. The doctor was worried that Connor wasn't sleeping deeply enough because of such an obstructed airway, and that was why he sometimes seemed so tired, even after a full night of sleep. They did a quick hearing test, and told us to come back in a month (Connor's regular checkup date, anyway) to see if anything had improved. In March things hadn't improved with the ears, so we were referred to an ear nose and throat doctor. To make an already long story short, we saw two - one in Provo and one in Glendale - and they both said to get rid of his tonsils and stick tubes in his ears for drainage.

So, that brings us to Thursday morning. Ryan took the day off, and we went down to Children's Hospital in Hollywood around 10am, and eventually found where we were supposed to be.This hospital is amazing. They have huge play areas, and volunteer readers on the main floor who read books to the kids and give them free ones to take with them. The smaller waiting room in the outpatient surgery area had a separate "playroom" next door filled with tons of high-quality toys, videogames, and videos. At first, there were quite a few other small children in there, but, since the surgery scheduler puts youngest kids first, Connor was one of the last to have his "turn". There was a really sweet lady whose job was to talk to each child about their surgery and what they'd see before and after. She brought a kit full of sample equipment to show Connor, with stuff like an IV, anaesthetic masks, doctor's hats and masks, and blood pressure cuffs. All he had to do to be put under was breathe anaesthetic gas, so there were no shots or pokes until he was asleep. They even had him drink a sedative about a half-hour before he went in to help the separation from parents be less stressful, but I don't think it affected him much. He was climbing all over the pre-op bed and jumping around like a nut until they wheeled him away to the OR (he's only pretending to sleep in this picture).

He thought it was pretty cool that his bed had wheels, and let them roll him away very cheerfully. Then we were taken into the parents' OR waiting room, and instructed that one parent had to remain there at all times. We had about an hour, so Ryan (who had eaten earlier with Elise) brought me up a salad from the cafeteria, and we spent the time eating, watching TV and chatting with one of the other families who was there for tonsils and ear tubes.

I had assumed all the kids were there for the same doctor and surgery, but I was wrong. Towards the end of our wait, I (through eavesdropping, of course) learned that two of the little ones we had seen earlier were there for something called retinal blastoma. It's a cancer that can develop in the eye, and affects kids from birth to about age three. I guess Children's Hospital is a world leader in treating it. So, so sad. Those families have been in my prayers since Thursday.

When the nurse took us into the recovery room, Connor was half-awake and wrestling with a recovery nurse, trying to rip his IV out and crawl out of bed. He was crying and coughing alot. It was pitiful to look at. I went over and held him in my lap with a blanket and did my best to comfort him. The nurses told me they all pretty much act like that when first coming out of the anaesthetic, and that he'd fall asleep again soon, which he eventually did. The doctor came to talk to me, and said that his adenoids were in even worse shape than his tonsils, so they were removed, too (which we expected.) We were in recovery about 2 hours, then were allowed to get him dressed and take him home. Elise was so, so good the whole day - except when we put Connor in HER stroller, at which point she started wailing louder than any patient in the room. The nurses rushed over to check on us, and thought it was kind of funny. Funny and loud.

Since then, Connor hasn't really wanted to take his medicine or drink or eat anything, and I guess I can't blame him. We still have to make him do it, though, and he doesn't appreciate that. But, he can hear us! And he's been keeping his lips closed to keep his un-swallowed spit from running down his chin, breathing through his nose in the process. So, all in all, a success!

A couple days before Connor's surgery, I finally made the family growth chart I've been meaning to do since October. The plan is to take pictures of the kids each time I measure them, and glue them around the border as they grow. I think my kids are pretty dang cute.

Update

Hey, people. As some of you may know, Connor had his tonsils removed yesterday, along with his adenoids, and had tubes put in his ears. Everything went really well, although he is not a happy camper right now. I'll fill you in on that tomorrow (hopefully). First, I'm obligated to catch up to the present.


1. Deer in the Backyard. Yeah, I know this is boring for most of you, but for us it was a treat to see these deer in our backyard one Saturday morning. They only come this far down when it's foggy or rainy (or possibly dark, I'm not sure).
2. Random Cute Pictures. Note Connor's enormous tonsils. Poor kid could hardly breathe!
3. Connor's Birthday! Connor had a great time, even though he was kind of sick, as usual. He got a chocolate cake from Porto's, a butterfly garden (still haven't sent for the caterpillars yet), a wooden toy parking garage, and a bunch of cool videos, toys, and cards from family and friends. Oh, and a new kitchen chair with a footrest so his legs won't keep falling asleep at meals. We also had a casual birthday party for him about a week later, and most of his favorite buddies were able to make it with their families. I meant to take pictures of the party, but I was too busy hosting and getting packed for our same-day departure to Utah.
4. Utah Trip. We hitched a ride up with my mom in her RV as she was returning from a San Diego dog show, and were able to spend about two weeks with family. This was (supposedly) also a chance for Ryan to study for the CFA without us distracting him. Kelli made Connor this amazing giant Winnie the Pooh for his birthday. He liked it, but not as much as Elise did. I think it's officially hers by now. Thank you, Kelli! It was fun, although the kids (especially Connor) were sick nearly the whole visit, and my poor mom caught it from them the second week. We didn't want to give it to Grandma Cloe, so we only got to visit her during the last 3-4 days of the trip. Connor was very worried that he'd get her sick, and almost refused to go inside the first time, it was sweet. We made sure to use alot of tissues and hand sanitizer, and as far as I know, Grandma Cloe was spared the plague. We were kind of hoping to see some snow, but I didn't mind the warm weather that much. We were able to take the sick kids to the park. Why not share the germs with random neighborhood children, eh? (Seriously, though, we tried to find a park that was empty!) We also had a great visit with Uncle Kevin. Elise was scared of him at first, but then she's always scared of everyone for the first 15 minutes. By the end of the evening, Connor and Elise were giggling and "hiding" under the couch blanket, then terrifying poor Kevin with their ambushes.I could kick myself for not getting a picture of Kyle up close. He and Kevin are competing in a "Samson Challenge" with one another. Kyle's ahead on the viking beard, but Kevin has about three times the hair. I'm not sure when the winner will be officially determined, but our mom hopes it's soon.