Nolan's idea of a good time

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today I am especially thankful for easy access to good doctors and the medications we need.  We are so lucky and blessed!  Of course I am also thankful for family, friends, and all the freedoms and prosperity we enjoy in this country. 

Nolan had an ok night.  He came to our room at 4 am asking for a breathing treatment, but did ok otherwise.  His breathing does not seem as fast and the wheezing is not as loud as it was.

We will be enjoying the day at my parent's house with Bryan's family as well as Cristina's sister and her family - 9 adults and 7 kids.  I think the plan is kids on one floor of the house and adults on the other!

Thanksgiving illness

Poor Nooney is sick with bronchitis.  He came in our bed around 2 am last night and was sounding pretty bad.  Bad enough that I got out the nebulizer which we haven't had to use in probably 6 months or more and gave him a breathing treatment.  Bad enough that I was running emergency room scenarios through my head.  He was wheezing so much it really sounded like we had a purring cat in our bed.  Luckily the treatment did seem to slow down his breathing and loosen it up a bit.  I took him in to the pediatrician this morning and she said it was really good that I brought him in - he was not breathing that well, although his O2 sats were still ok.  He's on an antibiotic, oral steroid, and 4 breathing treatments a day with 2 different meds.  Poor baby!

Hiding

"Me and doggie are hiding and you can't find us!  But my feet are not hiding!"

The other day Nolan was taking cups of water outside to water the plants.  He wanted to know why plants only drink water and not juice or milk.

Having fun at the mall a couple weeks ago.

Missing Blackie

Out of the blue tonight Karly said, "Do you think Blackie [our cat] still remembers me? I dream about petting her again and taking her for a walk." It's been 5 years since she lived with us and 3 years since Karly saw her.  So sad...

Future Hallmark card writer

At Brownies today, the girls wrote cards to send to the troops serving overseas.  Karly's went something like this:

"Thank you for serving our country.  I hope you don't die fighting in the war."

Nice.

Ahh, the time change.

Kids were in bed at 6:50 pm!  Feeling ever so slightly guilty that we haven't changed the time on the clock in their bedroom yet, so Karly was blissfully ignorant as to how early she was going to bed.

The halloween/pumpkin pictures are still comin'

Karly's Brownie troop had a fun field trip to the pumpkin patch a couple weeks ago.

Nolan made quite a few laps around the place pulling Spencer in this wagon.

Then he and Alaina got a ride from Karly and Lizzie.

Ohhh, so artsy!

sickness

The dreaded stomach virus swept through our household this past week.  Nolan started it on Sunday.  Karly was next on Monday evening.  I made it through Tuesday and foolishly dared to think I might be spared.  Oh no, Wednesday was my day!  That morning I started feeling not quite right.  Thinking it might be all in my head, I tried to eat some breakfast, but got very little of it down before I decided, no, it's not just in my head.  I spent the rest of  the day feeling progressively worse and progressively more nauseous.  I ate nothing but pepto-bismol tablets and crackers all day, but to no avail.  Finally threw up that evening and ran a fever most of the night - miserable!   But guess who didn't get sick, yet again!  Not fair!

Letters

Nolan has really gotten into letters lately - both recognizing them and writing them.  He recently learned to write his name and his papers are usually filled with various random letters these days.  He will ask me how to spell some word and then he will write the letters as I dictate.  He also loves to point out and identify any letters he sees.  He put on a t-shirt the other day that had a USA logo on the front.  He pointed to his chest and proudly read outloud, "U. S. A.  That spells shirt!"

Ghost Train

 Last weekend we went for a ride on the "Ghost Train."

Waiting for the train...

There it is!

Here we go!!!

The spooky tunnel.

Umm, girls, what happened to Nolan???

Halloween 2010

The day started off with a bang when Nolan showed up in our room at 7:30 am, "Mama, my tummy hurts."  He starts gagging and I fly out of bed, grab the cup on my nightstand, put it under his mouth, and then pick him up and race to the bathroom.  He got back in bed with us for about 45 minutes and seemed fine, and then all the sudden he said he was gonna throw up again.  I hauled him back to the bathroom.  Marco said he'd never seen me run so fast.  As the day progressed, he seemed fine and I optimistically hoped that was the end of it and gradually let him eat more.

The weather was beautiful, perfect fall weather, and we spent a nice day at home with the kids excitedly awaiting trick-or-treat time.  We did some pumpkin carving.

Scooping out pumpkin guts.

The master at work.

Word got out, and soon more kids and more pumpkins started showing up.

Real pumpkin carvers use power tools.

 

What happened to all the kids?

 

The finished products.

We made some fun Halloween food - Freaky Franks and Mummy Dogs.

Finally it was time to go out.

"Sweetheart Bat"

"Lion"

I could tell Nolan was starting to not feel well again.  About halfway through I ended up coming back home with him as he was really dragging.  We walked inside, got as far as the door to the bathroom and all the sudden he began to throw up every single thing he'd eaten all day.  And thus the day ended just as it had begun.