Busyness

(This was written last week.)

Looking back at my last post, I realize it's been weeks since I last blogged. I have been busy! It's parent participation time of year at Mattie's pre-school, and I agreed to do a cape making project with another mom. I definitely bit off more than I could chew. It's not that the project wasn't a great idea, and the results really cute, but for a three year old's preschool project, there is really no commensurate benefit for the 10-15 hours of behind the scenes work that we logged.

I've also been busy chasing one newly walking, barely sleeping baby boy. One Tuesday afternoon, Theo woke up from his nap and decided that he wanted to walk. He had taken 2 or 3 steps countless times before, but had never really had any interest in walking. For some reason, that changed on May 12th. He still prefers to crawl to get somewhere, but he just keeps standing himself up and setting off on foot now. He's very proud of himself, and his brothers love it too! Mattie shouts out, "Look! Theo's walking!" every time he takes off. He's also going through that tough transition from one nap to two, and from what we can tell, getting his first molars. He's waking up in the middle of the night, rising with the sun each morning, often skipping his afternoon nap, and crying a lot. So, while our days have been full of excitement and new discoveries, we're both exhausted.

New Game

The boys have a new favorite dinner table game. Jack invented it yesterday. It's called "You Can't Say Any Words, or You're Dead." The rules are simple. You can't say any real words, or you lose. You can only say non words. So, Jack, Elliot and Mattie have been enjoying spouting gibberish, for as long as their breaths last, at constantly increasing volumes, to out non-talk the other. There is clearly only one real loser in this game.

Whisper Down the Hallway

I had to pick Jack up early from school today because he wasn't feeling well. (Stomach pains.) When I went back for Elliot at the end of the day, he ran out to greet me. He couldn't wait to ask whether it was true that Jack had broken a bone and had to leave school early!

Vacation Flashback

Massachusetts has the strange tradition of not having a Spring or Easter vacation. Instead, we celebrate the inexplicable (at least to those who grew up elsewhere) traditions of February and April vacations. I have come to appreciate several things about this unique school calendar. First of all, there are two weeks of vacation instead of one. Second, it's a great opportunity to travel when the rest of the country is in school and at work. We spent our most recent April vacation visiting my parents in PA. We had a great week, but like any trip involving four young children, there were plenty of unexpected twists as well.

The kids spent lots of time outdoors, playing baseball and riding their bikes. I can never get enough of sending Jack and Elliot out the front door alone to play! They got to go see a Phillies game with Ted and my Dad. We made several trips to our favorite Wilson Park, with the obligatory stop at Rita's Water Ice on the way home.

I took all four boys for haircuts, giving myself a rare break from the job. It was Theo's first professional haircut. Jack chose a buzz cut with a triangle shaped section of hair left long on top.

We visited with my 92 year old grandfather, who remarked how quiet the four boys were. I suspect that his hearing aids were turned way, WAY down.

We celebrated Mattie's 3 1/2 birthday.

We went to the Philadelphia Zoo with my parents. We were there from 10am until 3:30pm, which seemed like a really long day for the kids, but they had a blast. Theo was enjoying himself so much that he stayed awake the entire day. They had a neat Lego exhibit at the zoo, with lifesize versions of several endangered animals made entirely of Legos. The polar bear was amazing, and contained 96,000 pieces!

Unfortunately, after that part of the trip, things took a turn for the worse. After our wonderful day at the zoo, the kids went to bed normally. But, Theo started vomiting just after midnight that night. I spent most of the night up with him. Thankfully, the vomiting stopped the next morning. I thought we were in the clear by that afternoon, but then he started having diarrhea. That continue off and on through the night. The next morning was Friday, the day I had been planning to drive home to Boston. Alone with kids. I debated trying to go ahead with my plans, knowing that Theo was likely to have diarrhea blow outs on the road. While I thought things over, I breastfeed him. He started throwing up again, making the decision fairly easy.

He couldn't keep any milk down. He got worse very quickly that day, and I ended up taking him to the hospital that afternoon for fluids. When I took him home from the hospital, he still couldn't keep any breastmilk down, so I had to give him Pedialyte by syringe. I squirted 2 tsp. of Pedialyte into his mouth every 10 minutes while he was awake. But, just when we thought things were improving again that evening, my mother got sick. The three older boys were almost too excited to sleep, knowing that they were going to stay an extra day at Grammy and Pop Pop's. I crawled into bed myself, dreading the wake up calls I was sure would come. By 1:00 am I was throwing up myself. The only thoughts running through my head that night were, "how am I ever going to get back to Boston?" and " how many more dominoes are going to fall?" The answer to at least one question came quickly. By 3:00 am I was throwing up along side Mattie in the boys' bathroom.

Luckily this particular stomach bug seemed to be of short duration. While my father also succumbed during the night, only Mattie was still throwing up by the next morning. The grown ups felt awful, but we could at least function enough to take care of the kids. I gave up on any hopes of driving back to Boston alone that day, and called in reinforcements. Ted took the train down that morning, and arrived in time to help take care of Jack, who fell during the next night. We decided to make a break for it the next morning. It was Sunday, and 4 of the 6 of us had already had the bug. Ted had been scheduled to fly to DC that morning for work, but had to delay his trip for a day to help get us all home. I don't think my parents had ever been more relieved to get rid of us, or our germs. We made it home, with only one very neat, ziplock bag vomit incident in the car.

When we pulled into our parking space, relief washed over me. I had never been more happy to be home. Elliot never did get sick. Ted made it to DC before getting sick, and missing most of his conference. It was certainly one vacation I'll never forget. We may not be invited back for quite a while...

New to the Gallery

This is a still life drawing Mattie did at school. He was looking at a pink gerbera daisy, in a glass vase, with rocks in the bottom. I am so proud of him, and so amazed at the results! This is the first piece of representational art that Mattie has ever created that was recognizable. His teacher told me that he worked very hard on it, and spent a long time working to get it just the way he wanted it.

Here are all of the paintings from the class: