Did You Just Put Something in Your Nose?

Not the question you want to be asking when you have only been home for 30 minutes.

I got home about 15 minutes late tonight after sitting in traffic, probably because it started to rain again. When I walked in Blanca told me that she had already feed the kids. WE LOVE BLANCA! She also told me that the kids hadn’t taken a nap so they were pretty tired. When I came in they were watching a Rugrats video and seemed pretty content.

Blanca left and I made myself a little dinner, I was starving. To keep it simple I just nuked some leftover whole wheat pasta and homemade veggie sauce. I went in to join the boys and of course Dylan wanted to taste my dinner. He didn’t like it and returned the food to me. As I was dealing with the returned food, I thought I noticed something black on his face. The next thing I knew, Dylan put “it” in his nose. Neither Dylan nor Sam had ever put anything in their noses, except of course their fingers, which seem to spend an exceptional amount of time in their noses.

At this point I said, did you just put something in your nose? I must have scared him a bit because when I ran to him to check and get him to blow his nose, he freaked a bit and that was the beginning of our evening’s adventure. I ran to get a Klennex to get Dylan to blow his nose but he was scared and kept sniffling in, not blowing out. At this point I am FREAKING OUT. I have visions of crayon in his brain. That’s what I thought he put in his nose, the tip of a black crayon, more on that later.

Now remember, I have only been home for about 30 minutes and I’m running around the house. I try to call my parents (both doctors) but I can’t get through. I’m not sure if I’m overreacting but I decide to call our doctor’s after hours line. I sit on hold and then a nurse comes on and starts asking me all the questions I had just answered for the answering service. Finally I interrupt her and ask if I should take Dylan to the emergency room. She says yes and then tells me to wait for a doctor to call me back. I said frantically, do I sit at home waiting for the doctor to call, while a crayon creeps into my son’s brain or do I go to the hospital. She said go to the hospital.

While all this is going on I have changed my clothes, packed a bag of goodies for the boys (food, water, snacks, toys and books) and changed them in to their PJs. Did I mention that Mark is out of town tonight?

Anyway, Dylan is bawling because I let it slip that we were heading to the hospital. I yelled at Sam because we couldn’t find one of his shoes and he’s crying and I’m freaking out with visions of the crayon in Dylan’s brain.

We all get in the van and I race to Alexandria Inova Hospital, the hospital where the kids were born. Not a fan of the hospital but I thought they could handle the crayon extraction.

Sam was trying to comfort Dylan which was very cute.

We get to the hospital and sit in chairs for a while. Actually things moved pretty quickly and there is nothing really exciting to tell about the time in the waiting room so I’ll move on to the exam room.

Christine come in to talk to us, I’m not sure if she was a nurse or a doctor, she just introduced herself at Christine. She had a nose ring, was wearing hot pink scrubs and her bellybutton was showing when she first walked in. Anyway she was very nice and asked what was going on. I explained the situation and she looked up Dylan’s nose (he was crying again – can’t blame him). She said she saw the object and asked Dylan to blow his nose. I told her I had tried that with no success. Now I must admit I was relieved that there was something in Dylan’s nose. Not happy that something was up his nose but happy that my mothering instincts were correct.

Christine left and came back with another guy. They had to wrap Dylan in a contraction called a papoose. The Papoose immobilizes him, he was screaming and no one was happy with the situation. Christine tried to get the “crayon tip” out with pinchy things while Dylan was crying, screaming and thrashing about. It was very unpleasant. Then they tried suction. Finally, the second try with the pinchy things worked and out popped a small piece of black plastic that must have been part of some toy.

Dylan, Sam and I were quite traumatized so after paying our $75 for the emergency room visit we headed to Maggie Moos where the boys had some ice cream. I tried to make this a learning experience by asking the boys what they learned and having them repeat, “we don’t put anything in our noses. We’ll see if that sticks.

We were home by 9:15 and they were in bed and sleeping by 9:35.

So that was my night. What did you do?

Treading Water

I should start by saying our house is dry. Our pumps are working and the basement is doing fine. We did have a momentary scare when the power went out for a few seconds. Mark had checked the basement and said the water was rising in the drains with our sump pumps and with the intensity of the rain we would have been in bad shape if the electric pumps couldn’t pump.

Right now I’m at home because I couldn’t get to the office. We have had so much rain that several sections of the Capitol Beltway have either flooded or been covered with mud. There was a mudslide closing the Beltway at Telegraph Ave. We didn’t even make it to the Metro station because of the traffic. The other problem is Metro. Five stations are closed due to flooding and of course they are the stations I use to get to work.

I am going to make another attempt soon and I will likely have to go to one station and then walk to work.

Oh, did I mention it’s supposed to rain all week. Fun times!

Rainy days and little boys don't mix.

Just an observation. It's hard to get Sam and Dylan to burn up energy when it's pouring. I don't mind getting wet, but the park is out and there are just not as many high energy burning activities in the rain.

Well, they're napping now so I may have five minutes to myself!

Keeping Dylan and Sam Busy

It was a crazy busy week at work between the day job and the CC project. I can’t seem to get more than 4.5 hours of sleep each night.

Dylan and Sam had a great week. It was quite hot here so they spent A LOT of time at the swimming pool. They went to our community pool on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday and met up with their classmates at Ben’s pool on Wednesday. Mark is going to set up swim lessons starting the first week in July. The boys love the water and we just want to start working on their skills.

My Mom came east to go to a reunion with some friends from Tapawingo, http://www.camptapawingo.com/ the camp she attended from age 8-18. Anyway we got her in VA from Thursday to Sat morning and had a great time.

Mark is in OC with the bigger boys so it was just me and the little guys most of the day. Yesterday was a fun filled day. It started with Dylan and Sam’s fist soccer class. It was really funny (I forgot to bring my camera), 12 3-4 year olds running around with soccer balls. The coach, Jake was great with the kids. No class next week because of the July 4^th holiday but I got the boys little soccer balls so we can “practice” some of our drills.

I thought it was going to rain earlier in the day so we headed into DC to the Building Museum. They have a fun exhibit called the Building Zone, http://www.nbm.org/Exhibits/current/building_zone.html. It’s really just a nice sized room with building toys but all the kids loved it and we stayed for about 90 minutes.

After a quick stop at Target we headed home to get in our swim suits and go to the pool. We had a great time at the pool and the weather was perfect.

Then it was home for dinner, bath, snuggling and bed. The boys went to bed VERY EASILY and I didn’t hear a peep out of them until 6:45 (a very good night for us).

Today it’s just wet outside. We’re going to run an errand in a few and pray that the weather clears. I hate the idea of staying inside all day. Mark should be home mid day, but my guess is he’s going to be a bit tired. If the weather clears we’ll head to the pool.

Getting better and ready for some fun!

Well, I had quite a week. I actually missed two and a half days of work due to a nasty sinus infection. I actually went to work yesterday mostly because my doctor's office is near work. Thankfully, I got an appointment in the afternoon and now I’m on antibiotics. I was going to cry and beg if she didn't prescribe any drugs. Luckily it didn't come to that.

Although I’m still pretty congested, I’m feeling better.

OK, enough complaining.

Blanca had the day off and Papa was in charge. Mark did a great job and the boys had a blast. He kept the boys busy all day (gym, bagel shop, car wash, Papa toy store (Best Buy) and the swimming pool). Dylan and Sam went to bed tonight without complaint and fell asleep immediately.

Tomorrow is the Alexandria Waterfront Festival and should be a great day. We've been going for years, starting with the year I was pregnant. I think we have only missed one year since the kids were born. Kumie and Joseph will join us again this year and Dylan and Sam are very excited. I'm sure Mark will have pictures to post.

Still Sick

I stayed home today and believe it or not I slept in until 10:30. Well I kind of slept in, I got up at 7:30, sent a few e-mails and then went back to bed.

Right now I'm drinking tea and trying to get some work done. It's a beautiful day here and it stincks to be feeling cruddy! I hope I feel better by tonight because I really can't afford to miss another day of work. I have too much going on and I don't want to fall behind.

I'm Sick

I woke up yesterday morning and I could barely breathe. We still had a great day but by the time we got home I was feeling really cruddy.

I had to go to work today to finish a project but I left the office around 2:00 and when I got home I went straight to bed. I slept until I had to drive Mark to Metro (see his blog).

I worked on the CC project for about an hour before Blanca headed home and then it was time with the boys. Dylan and Sam are being so great about taking their medicine. I’m really proud of them but I hate that they have to be such troopers. We had a nice evening and then I got back to work.

I'm going to bed now and I'm crossing my fingers that I will feel better tomorrow.

Return of the Slacker Blogger

So I have just been scolded for my failure to post on my blog for the last nine days. I intend to post each day and then something seems to get in the way, like kids or work, but enough with the excuses.

So what’s happened in the past nine days? A LOT.

As you probably know from reading Mark and Kumie’s blogs, we all had a great time in Key West.

I loved our little B&B, the Tropical Inn ( perfect location and charming rooms) it’s just what the doctor ordered. Of course I woke up before most folks (Kumie doesn’t count b/c she doesn’t sleep) so I really enjoyed sitting on our balcony and reading. Since having kids I just don’t seem to find the time to read books. In Key West I finished one book (Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress) and started another about the great influenza epidemic in 1918.

I also love walking everywhere. We went to the beach at the state park twice and then just walked all over for shopping, meals and fun.

Although I really missed the boys and felt guilty about leaving them when they were sick, I needed the time away and Mom and Dad were amazing with the boys!!

Oh, and last but not least, the wedding was wonderful!! Gina and Mike were so happy and it was fun to celebrate with all our friends. Everyone came sans kids and it was kind of like old times. Of course many conversations focused on our families but it was good to have some grown up time.

Now on to the boys, this was the last week of school and there were a lot of fun activities planned. On Monday night, Dylan’s teacher called to let us know that Tuesday was sprinkler day. We sent the kids to school with their bathing suits and they got to play in the sprinkler on the lawn of the school and each lunch. On Thursday, Sam’s class had a year end party and some of the Mom’s organized pizza and cupcakes. Dylan and Sam didn’t like the pizza but according to Blanca they enjoyed the cupcakes.

Yesterday was graduation for the kids in the four-year old class. I worked from home yesterday so I could attend the ceremony and take the kids to the pulmonologist in the afternoon. The ceremony at school was adorable. Each class performed, Sam’s class went first but unfortunately Sam was not in the mood to perform. When his class stood up to sing, Sam just reclined on the steps (he was in a bit of a mood). Dylan’s class was next and Dylan sang all the songs and did the all the hand movements.

We had to leave the celebration a bit early to go to our doctor’s appointment. Last week when my folks were here they took the boys to our pediatrician and we were told the boys were pre-asthmatic and should not go outside on Orange and Red days (basically half the summer in DC). Upon hearing the recommendation I knew I wanted a second opinion and some more advice so I scheduled an appointment with the pulmonologist who cared for Dylan when he came out of the hospital. We really like Dr. Rosenberg. He’s a realist who gives you real world recommendations. Anyway, because this post is getting too long I’ll just say we have a new medication regime and the boys are going to be tested for cat, dog and dust allergies (Mark will get to take them next week for the blood work). I’m pretty nervous about what this means for my kitties Norm and Spart.

OK so I’m going to bring this very long post to an end. Today the boys (all three of them) are getting haircuts. Dylan and Sam REALLY need them!

I’ll post again later and talk about my CC project which has taken some exciting new turns.