A Wakeup Call

We had a scary situation happen last week that I haven’t been able to get out of my head. I was at Bunko last Thursday and didn’t get home until 11:30. The next morning, I couldn’t sleep after JJ left for work, so I watched Grey’s Ana.tomy from the night before. If you don’t watch it, the episode was about two eight year old boys who were playing and found the mom’s gun. One accidentally shot the other one. At the end of the show, Ellen Pom.peo came on and said that every 24 hours, 9 children are shot accidentally, and usually by a parent’s gun. That stuck with me – we have guns in the house.

Fast forward a few minutes later, and Drake was calling for me, ready to get up for the day. I went into his room, and the first thing out of his mouth was “take daddy’s gun and shoot bad guys!” Now, him talking about daddy’s gun, and especially bad guys, isn’t all that unusual. But he kept on and kept on, and after just watching that show, it was a bit odd.

A few hours later, we were coming home from Chloe’s dance class and she randomly said something along the lines of “daddy’s gun, lady got out of a van, tried to help Drake across the street.” Huh?? Now, at Bunko the night before, one of the mom’s said my kids were at her house when she left to come over and that her mom was visiting and saw a little boy keep running across the street. I was wondering if maybe that was Drake, and her mom helped him, and maybe Jason misunderstood? Even that seemed a bit far-fetched, so I just dismissed it.

That evening, as soon as JJ came home, he said he had something to tell me. The night before he was over at the neighbor’s house and the sun had just set, so it was fairly dark. He, and four other adults were standing at the end of the driveway talking, and JJ was watching Drake ride his little scooter back to our house to go in for the night. The neighbor’s house is not directly across the street – we live on the corner so if you are thinking of a T in the road this guy’s house faces the right side of our house. Basically, it wasn’t like the adults were directly across from our driveway, they were off to the side. Anyway, a van came slowly down the street, passing the adults, turned down our street, and stopped at the end of the driveway. A woman got out of the passenger side and started following Drake up the driveway. JJ, seeing what was going on, took off running towards the house and yelled at the woman. He had gotten his gun out of his car not long before since he was going inside for the night, so he put his hand on his holster as he was running, and by the time he got across the street and into our yard, he stopped and aimed the gun at the woman. Drake was about 10 feet from our garage and she was about another 10 feet behind him. The woman ran back to the car, the driver backed up, and they took off the other way down the road.

As soon as JJ got to the part that this woman was following Drake up the driveway, I burst into tears. Even typing it now, it’s hard not to. Something just came over me how real the situation was and how quickly something bad can happen. I’ve gotten a little lax letting the kids play outside, usually when the neighbor kids are out, but still – not always an adult nearby. And even two weeks ago, I let Chloe go to a neighbor’s house behind us, who I had never met the parents before. I ended up yelling over the fence and at least introducing myself to the mom while Chloe was outside, but then they ended up inside so I went over to check on her. The Grey’s Anat.omy show is what had been on my mind about that situation all day, not knowing if that family had guns and if they were locked up somewhere, but then to add this situation on top of it was just too much. It was clear how shaken up JJ was over the whole thing too. He hadn’t slept well the night before, and couldn’t get it off of his mind. (He was already asleep when I got home that night and it wasn’t something he wanted to call me and tell me over the phone while he was at work – that’s why he waited until he got home the next night).

After recounting everything, he said that he had never aimed his gun at someone before. Full disclosure though, there wasn’t a bullet in the chamber and he didn’t have his finger on the trigger. He was wondering if maybe he overreacted and misread the situation, but I sent my mom friends in the neighborhood a message just as an fyi, and all of them said that if the woman was just concerned that Drake was out alone, she would have either A) stayed in the car and watched him go in the house, or B) at least put her hands up and yelled back at JJ that she was just trying to help. But running and hopping in the car, backing up, and driving off sure makes them seem guilty. I did go ahead and call the non-emergency police number to ask for extra patrol. The officer asked if we had reported it, but unfortunately JJ was so caught up in the moment and shaken up, not to mention it was pretty dark, he didn’t get a good enough description of the van or the woman to make a decent report. It sure was a wakeup call, and we have had numerous neighbors all tell us that, even though we feel like we live in a safe neighborhood, you can never be too careful. Especially when it comes to your kids.

Kansas In All Its Beautiful Glory

Last year I noticed several friends posted pictures on Facebook in a sunflower field. I had never heard of it before, but it was in a city about 40 minutes from our house. We decided to make the drive one afternoon and take our pictures like everyone else in Kansas. It was beautiful. I guess I had never seen a real sunflower up close, but they were enormous! And it was sunflowers as far as you could see. On the farm’s Facebook page, they said that 10 million seeds are planted and they only bloom for about ten days or so, so the window of them actually being a pretty sight is very small.

I knew the time was coming up again this year so I got on the farm’s facebook page, and sure enough, within a week it was going to be prime time. We decided to go last Sunday evening. It was pretty hot outside so we wanted to time us getting there just before the sun set so hopefully it wasn’t as hot, and there were less people. Coming from our new house this year, we went a different way and it took us every bit of 40 minutes still to get there. We knew we were getting close, when traffic stopped and it was bumper to bumper cars. We were about ¼ of a mile away from the field, we could see it, but we were stuck in traffic. We arrived around 7:07 and the sun was supposed to set at 7:23. That did not give us much time at all! We finally found an okey-enough place to park, even though it was on the complete opposite side of the field we wanted to be on like last year.

 

Sunflowers only face one direction, and we ended up on the backside of them of course, so we had to walk a ways to be able to turn around and see all their faces. As we were walking, we saw a mom taking a picture of her one year old daughter in a high chair. I thought that was cute, and as we got closer I commented that we had one like that. As JJ and Drake caught up, I was still looking at the turquoise high chair and noticed some pink peeking through the blue paint. I pointed and said I think that’s our chair, did you buy it from Emile?! She said yes and oh my gosh, what a small world!! The high chair that we painted pink for Chloe’s 1^st birthday and then blue for Drake’s 1^st birthday, was in the middle of this huge field 40 minutes from our house being used for another little girl’s first birthday pictures. What are the odds that we would have come across it again?! We told them how much love and time had gone into painting it and then we kept our little family moving since we were in a race against the sun setting

 I think the kids were over pictures at this point.

Since we were not in a prime location, it was a sea of heads among all the sunflowers. Last year, we didn’t have anyone in the background, but this time, I don’t know if we got a single picture without someone’s head poking through somewhere. We snapped several pictures, managed to get ourselves deeper into the field, and then JJ said it was time to go because it was getting dark and he didn’t want to lose the path to the car. As we made our way out, there was a horse and a little pony that someone was taking pictures of, so of course the kids had to go over and say hi.

I think this has become a new tradition for our family. The field is gorgeous, and although I wish we had more time, we always end up with some pretty pictures after our visit.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

We shouldn't be surprised, but our plans for Christmas Day with family fell through. JJ's parents were supposed to come over but they both have the nasty illness that's been going around so hopefully they'll be able to come out one day next week instead.

That left us to spend our day just the four of us. Thankfully JJ got the day off from work, otherwise it wouldn't have felt much like Christmas with just the kids and I all day.

Backing up to Christmas Eve, we spent the afternoon and evening decorating a gingerbread house and making another batch of cookies. Once the kids were in bed, JJ and I had to get to work wrapping presents and putting together a small table and chairs set Santa was bringing. I can't believe we waited until the night before Christmas to wrap gifts, but it went pretty fast. 

 

This is the first year JJ and I decided not to exchange gifts with each other and we drew names with extended family and will get together with them on Saturday. So all the presents that we had out Christmas morning were for the kids. It made for a smaller loot, but it was a much less stressful season trying to buy gifts for additional people that really weren't necessary.

Once the kids finally woke up at 9:00, which is unheard of for them anymore, JJ brought them downstairs this morning and the first thing Chloe saw was a pink mirror for her room that was $4. She loved the pink mirror! :) Then the next thing they did was head straight for the new table with the leftover cookie crumbs from Santa. Gifts were next and JJ was smart enough to buy the kids several of the same gifts. It was this sands alive and magic sand stuff. Chloe opened it and yelled, "yay dirt!" No kidding, that's what she said. And he got them three sets each so gift after gift it was, "yay, more dirt!" It was hilarious.

The rest of the morning was spent going from new toy to new toy and before I knew it, it was 1:15. The kids had spent all morning playing with their toys and it was so fun to watch them really enjoying them. Chloe probably spent an hour with that magic sand, then water coloring, then back to a different sands alive set. Drake played with his peg board, some magna-tiles, getting up and down on his new chair, pushing it around, we played Zin.go as a family for a bit, and then I forgot about Drake's Bat.tat take a part truck that hadn't been opened yet. Oh my gosh, that thing is awesome! He was adorable watching him play with it and he could even take some parts apart himself already. 

 

The kids are down for a nap now and we're debating on going out for a low key dinner (like at Waf.fle Hou.se or Per.kins, the only places open today) or just staying in and watching a movie in front of the fire. The weather is actually pretty decent today which makes it easier to want to get out of the house.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, I know we did!

Snow Day

Our regular sitter's husband was diagnosed with cancer and was scheduled to have chemo this Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. We had arranged for her granddaughter to watch the kids today and tomorrow before I'm off the rest of the year so she could be with her husband to care for him.

JJ told me to look out the window this morning (at 4:30 am when he was getting ready for work and I was all nice and warm in bed) to see the snow. So when my alarm went off at 6:00 and I saw I had a text message, I wasn't surprised to hear the granddaughter wasn't going to be able to make it. She doesn't have a great car and couldn't get here. Then I got a news alert saying schools were closed. People...we got 1-3 inches depending on where you lived. 1-3 inches now calls for schools to be closed?? I remember it had to be like a foot of snow or more when I was in school for them to cancel but these days it seems like they do it for flurries! Anyway, we had our first snow day of the season so I stayed home with the kids.

Chloe must have looked out the window first thing when she woke up, because when she came into my room, she said mommy look and pulled back the curtains. She was really excited to show Drake once he got up.

I am off work for two weeks, and after having five days off for Thanksgiving, I know I have to keep myself and the kids busy in order to keep our sanity, and preferably leave the house and do something each day. JJ had taken a car seat out of my car last night because I thought I was picking up a large Christmas present today, so I knew we were home bound. I decided to make the salt dough ornaments with the kids. They were super easy and they both liked squishing their hands in the dough, and then Chloe liked rolling the extra out. We don't have the right paint at home, so I'll have to go to the store and paint them later.

Then all morning Chloe had been asking to go outside to play in the snow. You'd think with this being our fourth winter with kids we'd be more prepared, but besides Drake having mittens and Chloe having snow boots, that's it. And I wasn't all that excited to attempt to get them bundled up only to be out there five minutes and wanting to come inside again.

Instead, I brought the snow inside. I brought in two big buckets of it and dumped it in our bathtub. Chloe got right in, but Drake on the other hand wasn't feeling it. Another reason why I'm glad I didn't take them outside. Chloe played in there for probably 45 minutes before she heard the timer going for our ornaments which was a good excuse to get her out and go eat lunch.

Checking things out

 Yep, two minutes in and he was done.

 I love this - just chillin' in the tub, eating snow

 Peek a boo! His hangout spot while she played in the tub.

 "Here Turtle P, try some"

 Brrrrr

It's been a great first snow day and I have a feeling a little girl will be asking her daddy to bring more snow inside once he's home from work. Oops, what have I started? :)

Long Overdue

I don't think I've taken a picture with my dad and brother since my wedding day almost six years ago.  That's pretty crazy!  So I made it a point to bring our nice camera to dinner yesterday for Father's Day so we could get some updated family photos.  No one was really dressed for the occasion, I hadn't done my hair or make-up, but Chloe was sporting her pretty new boutique dress that I won for Mother's Day and she made the pictures look good. 

I took just a few pictures of Chloe alone and then a few with her and JJ.  She was having a good time being spun around by him in the backyard. 

Then after dinner we all went out front and rotated taking pictures of each other.  I had brought the tripod so we could all get in a shot, but of course I didn't check to make sure all the parts were there and one was missing. 

JJ always has to be silly and make us laugh, so most of these pictures are us trying not to bust out laughing.  Then when my brother was taking some of the four of us, many of them were either out of focus or JJ was being his normal self making faces or putting bunny ears on me. 

 

I'm glad we got some pictures with my dad and the kids though, and I love this one of my dad with Chloe.

And I couldn't leave out these gems.  Poor buddy wanted to be put down but it looks like my brother is torturing him.  We thought it was cute how he covered his eyes like it was the worst thing in the world.

Where Did My Healthy Kids Go?

About a week before Drake’s birthday, Chloe was stuffy and seemed like she was coming down with a cold.  The very next day, Drake was more congested than I’ve ever seen him, and hearing his poor clogged nose as he tried to nurse broke my heart.  Other than being congested and sneezing, he seemed to feel fine though.  We were thankful it was happening now and not over his birthday.  The Thursday before his birthday, we were all in the kitchen and we were trying to get Chloe to eat something for lunch (now I can’t remember what it was).  She took a bite, covered her mouth and gave me this oh shit look like she was going to gag.  She didn’t, but a few minutes later she walked up to me, laid her head in my lap, and about a minute later, she puked all over the floor.  Great…We got her cleaned up and that was it, she seemed fine.

Fast forward to this past Tuesday.  I had put Chloe to bed and JJ was out running errands.  I no sooner walked back into the living room and I heard gagging and choking coming from her room.  I hauled ass back up there to find she was covered in vomit and was scared and crying.  That is one thing that really scares me, is one of my kids vomiting in their sleep or laying down and choking on it.  In both of my kid’s lives, we’ve hardly dealt with any sickness, especially vomiting, and of course I hate dealing with it, but I’m surprisingly getting better at taking care of things when it’s my own kids.  So I grabbed a trash can while she finished and was able to get her into the bathroom for a bath.  She was burning up with a fever and breathing a little funny, so she ended up sleeping in our bed that night, which has never ever happened.  JJ even said he was thinking about taking her to the hospital in the middle of the night because he was that concerned. 

The next day (Wednesday) we had Drake’s 12 month well visit scheduled so I called the office first thing in the morning to see if we could bring Chloe in too.  They were fine with that, so off we all went to the doctor.  Two hours later, a strep culture that almost brought up anything remaining in Chloe’s stomach, a toe prick that lasted five minutes for Drake while the nurse milked his big toe to get a small vile of blood, and three shots later we were headed home.  Her rapid test came back negative but I was kind of hopeful it would come back positive so we’d have a cause for her feeling so crappy.  The rest of the day both kids napped and just kind of laid low, but seemed to be feeling better.  The nurse had given Chloe some Tylenol while we were there and she had perked up before we even left.

That afternoon we had interviews for a new part time sitter.  Unfortunately the three women we met with either didn’t get to meet my kids at all because they were sleeping, or if they did meet them, they weren’t their normal, happy selves.  We ended up going with a girl who is a middle school teacher and will be with us through the summer.  She knew Chloe wasn’t feeling very well so we said we’d keep an eye on her the rest of the night and make the call later whether or not she was to start the next day or if I was going to stay home.  Since she seemed to be fine, we went ahead and had her come out Thursday morning for her first day with the kids.

She sent me a text about 10:30, shortly after Chloe woke up saying she had tried to give her yogurt for breakfast, but she got sick.  Crap!  I felt awful that this girl had to deal with a sick kid and offered to come home.  She said she seemed to be feeling a little better and was just lying on the couch and wanted me to know.  I told her to keep me updated and I’d be happy to come home if needed.  A short time later she called me saying Chloe had gotten sick three more times, she’d no sooner take a sip of water and it’d come right back up.  She was going to give Chloe a bath and see if that helped.  Again I felt so bad that not only was she dealing with this, but I wasn’t there to help Chloe.  I talked to her on the phone, and through tears she said she thought a bath would help so I let her go so she could hop in the tub.  I called the doctor and was told to avoid water and give her watered down juice or sprite in 5ml spurts every 5-10 minutes.  That seemed to help and I didn’t hear anything more from the sitter the rest of the day.  Oh, and she did Chloe's laundry too because she was in desperate need of clean clothes - how awesome was that of her?!

Friday morning when I nursed Drake before work he seemed a bit warm and I even told JJ I hate to say this, but Turtle P felt warm.  I went on to work and about halfway through the morning, I got a text from the sitter that she thought little man had a fever.  We could just not catch a break!  I only work half days on Friday now so I came home at 1:30 and took over from there. He definitely had a fever and was fussy.  He had slept until 10 that morning, was fussy when he woke up so she tried putting him down at 11 and he slept for another two hours! 

Over the weekend we thought things were finally behind us and both kids seemed to be over whatever they had.  Until last night.  I put Chloe to bed with a half cup of water.  She started crying a few minutes after I left her room and right as JJ got home, so he went to tuck her in.  He exchanged her half cup of water with a full cup of grape kool-aid (see where I’m going with this?)  She kept coughing and we thought it was fake.  She’s been doing this ever since she got sick the first time, coughing, saying her tummy hurts, but clearly she’s faking it.  We were starting to get annoyed last night because as soon as we’d leave her room, she’d start crying again, coughing, and we’d have to go back in and tell her to stop.  After the last time JJ walked out of her room, I heard the familiar sound of gagging/choking and saw her getting sick again on the monitor.  Damn grape kool-aid!  Into the tub she went, again, at 11 pm.  Into the washer went all of her sheets and blankets.  We put her in our bed for a short time, and after she started asking for snackies and coo-coo (kool-aid) we figured she was okay enough to go back to bed.  I kept the monitor on her room all night just in case, but we never heard a peep out of her. 

I really don’t think she was sick last night, I think she made herself get sick.  It’s like she enjoys the attention she gets when she’s sick, so she does it on purpose.  That sucks!!  I hate not being able to give her food without her coughing, saying her tummy hurts, and fearing she’ll get sick.  It was pretty cute though, after I got her out of the tub and was holding her wrapped up in a towel in my arms she asked me to sing twinkle star.  We’ve never been one to sing to our kids although I sing more to Drake.  So I sang the song, she calmed down, and then asked for JJ to sing it.  When I took her in her room I told JJ and he started, only getting through the first two lines before saying he didn’t know the rest.  It was funny and adorable, so we finished the song together. 

It is heartbreaking to see your kids sick and it makes me so thankful that we have had extremely healthy children since they’ve been born.  Whatever this is that they can’t seem to shake is welcome to leave any time now.  And I hope the sitter comes back on Thursday and that my kids didn’t scare her away.:)

An Impromptu Photo Session

I scheduled Drake's birthday photos about a month ago and at the same time, scheduled a Mother's Day mini session to get a few updated pictures of the whole family.  That was supposed to happen last Sunday but we had some crazy rain.  We rescheduled for last Wednesday, and once again, it rained.  We finally (fingers crossed) will get our pictures taken tomorrow morning at 9:30.  If Chloe's asleep in the pictures, now you know why, ha!  I'm not sure yet what time everyone will have to wake up in order to make it in time and look presentable, but we'll make it happen.

In the meantime, Drake's birthday photos were yesterday and the weather was absolutely perfect.  I've seen one sneak peek and can't wait to see the rest. I wanted more of an urban feel for his photos, with his hair color and the outfit I had in mind, I was picturing a bright background rather than the normal fields and greens we've been used to.  So we went down to the west bottoms in downtown KC and found the perfect spot.  It was in an alley with some awesome graffiti in the background.  I brought several props to use, but we didn't get to all of them.  I had made a fabric pendant banner and that's what we didn't use, so I pulled out the backdrop stand, our go-to gray curtain, and a few other things and set it up in my kitchen this morning.  And if I do say so myself, I got some pretty cute shots.

Chloe was hanging around while I took pictures of Drake so I figured it was the perfect opportunity to throw a dress on her, put her hair in a clip, and get a few poses out of her too.  I didn't even brush her hair...oops!

 "Sissy?  You up there?"

 "Turtle P, where are you?"   "I give up..."

After we were done inside, the kids changed clothes and we went out front to play, and I decided to bring the camera along.  It was just one of those days that I felt like taking pictures with the good camera.  And this was the first time Drake had worn this outfit, and once it was on him I realized the hood had ears.  I mean, come on, you gotta take pictures of outfits with ears! :)

 Ears!!

 This isn't even our dog, it's the neighbor's.

 Hi buddy!