Easter Weekend

Thursday I drove down to my mom's house. Brian couldn't miss any work, so it was just me and the boys. We stayed there until around dinner time. They call my mom "Grammy" and she's their "Flower Grammy" because my mom is a Master Gardner. I'm not just saying that, she really is a certified Master Gardner. And her yard looks like a park. Like a garden park, not a playground one. I wish I had taken photos of that. But I did take photos while we were visiting, and so did my mom. Here are the photos:



Mom and Jack love blimps, Ethan LOVED this blimp too. He carried it around quite a bit.

Stephen loved this umbrella. He's pretty cute with it.
After that we drove to my dad's house, about 30 minutes south of my mom's. We were there through Sunday. Saturday morning we went to this Easter Egg hunt. The boys were too late to find eggs. It was sad, I could tell Stephen was really sad, he didn't even have a fit, he was just sad, he's still talking about it. Break my heart! I might hide eggs here later, he will never know the difference. Anyhow they had a firetruck you could climb on.
And hay to play in. Actually this hay is where the eggs were hidden, but none here.

Don't worry too much about them! Look at all this Easter Loot the Bunny left them! SCORE!
After Church on Sunday we went to my Grandparents' house for Easer Lunch.

this is my Papa, my Grandma, me and the boys. Look how red Stephen's hair is!
My dad is pulling Ethan's ears. Ethan LOVES my dad. He looked for him this morning but we are back home. It was a little sad, but mostly cute. He was happy to have his Daddy back, so I think he's fine. cupcake face!

More cupcake face
And look at these cute rainboots! They are from my mom to the boys. They have Birthday's coming up. Her Target didn't have the full selection of boots, so I picked these up today, but they are actually from my mom.


My kids have everything. You would not believe all the stuff they have gotten in the past week! Build A Bears, candy, clothes, toys, art supplies... then they have birthday stuff pileing up all over! The thing is they are really FUN to buy for. They love everything, they really take joy in all their stuff, and they are always cute and thankful and stuff. But yea, they have a LOT of stuff.

I do not have cancer

I went today for my followup on my bad mamogram. They showed me the spots they were concerned about. They were definately spots and icky, just two of them. Anyhow they did more images with different plates on the machine. Then they printed them *or whatever they do with them* and the Radiologist read them right there while I waited. He had me go in a little room and he said right away that it was all good news. Then we talked about the importance of monthly exams and getting an anual exam and all that good stuff.

One freaky thing is he recomends the genetic test for me. I'm not sure about that yet. I rekon I'll talk to my OBGYN at my next visit.

For right now I'm happy to be healthy! :)

Never go over mine fridge

Favorite game of my boys is "never go over mine fridge"

This game is played by blocking a doorway and shouting "Never go over mine fridge!"

I THINK that they mean "bridge" and they are like bridge trolls when they do this.

It's a careful game, sometimes it will offend them highly when you pick them up and move them to get by, sometimes they will laugh.

It's best when Ethan plays it, His arms doing actually span the doorway that they most often play this in, so he sorta pongs from one edge to the other with his cute little arms stretched. You have to take him very seriously though, as if you could not possibly cross without his permission. He will say, "Mine fridge" over and over.

The whole statement is funny because of the outstanding toddler grammar. First of all Stephen is all about absolutes right now "NEVER" this, "ALWAYS" that. Then you have the use of "mine" instead of "my". This will probably be something that Stephen's kindergarden teacher will have to break because Brian and I are powerless to resist the cuteness. We dream of getting him to say "Mine souffle!" *Futurama referance*


In other news the Dr. called and they FINALLY have lab work on all the poop I collected. Turns out they have some sort of yeast/fungal infection of the intestine? Hurts my brain. Anyhow it won't go away on it's own, althought they seem lots better. So I purchased $70 of medicine yesterday to combat this.

Brush your teeth! *with video*

Oh, the cuteness!

You cannot resist.

Here is a video.

And if you can't load the video here is a still shot.

Disney World!

Our plan was originally to visit my friend Tracey two weekends ago. With our poop illnesses that didn't work out. Then this past weekend didn't work for her family. So we needed a plan B.

Turns out there was a GREAT deal on Disney tickets if we bought them RIGHT THEN. So Tuesday we decided to go to Disney. We got up at the crack of dawn Wednesday and drove down.

Wednesday = Animal Kingdom.

We enjoyed it. Animal Kindgom closed at 5 but by then we felt we had seen all we really wanted to see. It's a beautiful park, but not a ton of rides and stuff. What they did have was very nice. One thing that stunk about all the parks was that you have to wait in long lines not to see any characters. There was ONE Mickey Mouse at the park and it was almost an hour just to see him. You couldn't even SEE him without waiting. He was in a special room and all. So we didn't see him. We saw him on a parade and in a show, and that was enough.

After the park we checked into our hotel. It was the Palms Hotel and Villas. It's really close to the parks and there is even a shuttle. It was nice. We were in the "Villas" part and had a cute little suite room. Hotels are boring, that's all I have to say about ours. Oh, wait, there was breakfast too. I love breakfast.

Turns out Stephen is afraid of characters anyhow, here he is crying about Pooh Bear. Ethan liked him though.
When we had to wait in lines Ethan liked to "honk" Brian's nose.
Here are Stephen and Mommy on a safari ride. *the safari ride is the best thing there, don't miss it.*
Ethan saw his first tigers. He loves them in books and stuff and he LOVED them in the park too.

More Tiger joy.

Thursday = Magic Kingdom

We went to the Magic Kingdom on Thursday. To get there we took the shuttle from the hotel, then two monorails. Monorails are cool and fun. The kids loved that.

In the park we started in Tomorrowland. I rode Space Mountain, and we all rode the Buzz Lightyear ride. We actually rode that a few times. Stephen refused to go to the Monsters INC show because "Monsters are Scary". We all went on the speedway too, where you can drive cars on a track. They actually let Stephen drive a car! I had to do the pedal. Then to Mickey's Toontown Fair. Stephen rode his first rollercoaster, The Barnstormer. he got a cute little "first rollercoaster ride" card for that. Ethan is too little so he played in the Donald Duck boat. It's a water thing, but the water was off so it was just fun. After checking out some other stuff we took the train. They love trains. Hmm, we did teacups, "It's a small World", Magic carpets ride, The bird show Tikki Room, the Haunted Mansion, Stephen and I went on Thunder Mountain. Just tons of stuff! Oh and I ate one of those huge turkey legs. We also saw a Woody (from Toy Story) Parade.Mommy and Ethan in Donald's Boat. He loved this map thingie.

Brian and Stephen on Stephen's first ever rollercoaster.

Daddy and Ethan in line for "It's a Small World"

Mommy and Stephen. The drama is real, for some reason Stephen did not want to go on It's a Small World. He did admit that it was awesome later.

This is actually Cinderella's Castle, but Stephen insists it's Mickey's Castle. This is as close as we ever got to Mickey Mouse. But the castle is lovely. :)

Friday = Epcot

Epcot was our favorite park. If we had it to do again I think we might have gone to Epcot twice and skipped Animal Kingdom. We spent like 5 hours in Future World. We did almost everything there. Stephen rode Test Track, which is a new ride that puts you through all thest car test conditions and all, then goes really super fast on a huge track. He loved it of course, talked about it all day. We all went on the Nemo ride, it's super cute, you ride in clams. There are real fish and projected fish from the Nemo movie. Super cute. We also did Living witht he Land, Spaceship Earth, Journey into Imagination with Figment, Innoventions where you can create a robot, a real plastic one and take it home and everything, Brian and I did Mission Space which is an intense ride. We also did all the countries. We ate in Morocco, super yummy, and a belly dancer did a show while we ate. We also saw these awesome acrobats in China. Super cool and I was right up close so it was awesome. We did all the rides and little shows and all that. The boys especially liked the ride in Mexico, and it had Donald Duck (Stephen loves Donald Duck) and there was no line at all, so we did it a few times.

After all that the boys fell alseep in the stroller then slept all the way home. We drove home Friday night.

Me and the boys waiting for Brian who was on a ride. Ethan, self portrait.Ethan has the camera again. Stephen They choose Ethan to be in a little parade!He's so cute in the parade, I thought you needed another photo.

Seriously, ADORABLE!Stephen and Mommy in some sort of tribal head thingies. I know those are blurry, but it was soooo cool in real life!

Another update

Still sick. No one is dehydrated. We are all drinking a lot, sipping all the time.

I'm better than yesterday, just a bit.

Boys are running full strength, but still have the crud. *I can tell when they poop if you want to be specific*

The house still stinks, did I tell about that? They pooped all over their room and we can't get the smell out. I want to throw up all day.

Brian is healthy. He's off work until March 5th. We hope to go visit my friend Tracey next weekend. We won't if we still have plague, she has kids and none of them want this.

I made my super squish appointment for my boobs. March 17. Apparently they use a different machine and stuff for super squishes and ultrasound stuff and all, so they only do a few a day so it is far out. I assume if they really thought I was on the edge of dieing of cancer they would get me in sooner?

I've lost ten pounds. If you want to loose ten pounds quick come on over and let me give you some germs. I'm sure I can find some.

Update:

The kids are doing a bit better. Still runny poops, but much less of them and they are eating some and drinking lots. No hospital visit for Stephen this morning.


I'm LOTS worse. As bad as they were yesterday. If I eat or drink at all I throw up.


Good news: pukeing and exploding out the rear all day will really keep your mind off the cancer you wonder if you have.

Stinky day

7pm wake up to Stephen crying. Like he's in pain.





He has exploded *poop* in 10 seperate piles. It smells like death. If you are familiar with Parvo it smells like that. Nothing like it really.





Ethan has it too, but kept his diaper on.





Into the bath they go.





I make a Dr. Appointment.





while waiting for the nurse to call me and let me know what to do for them until their appointments the phone rings. At the same time Stephen throws up on me. A LOT.





The phone is MY dr. My mamogram didn't go well. There are a bunch of suspicious masses and other crud. I have to go back for more images, an ultrasound and then after that possibly biopsies. I get this news NAKED, (tore off my puke clothes) with toddler throw up in my hair and sliding down my leg.





Dr visit time arrives, by now both boys have pooped over 20 times. They are going about once every 20 minutes. My house smells like horror.





Dr can't tell for sure what it is. No matter what it is there is no treatment, but to watch the dehydration. Stephen won't eat or drink. If he doesn't start drinking by tomorrow he gets a hospital visit for IV fluids/nutrition. He looks horrible. Ethan is drinking and eating a bit.





Stephen finally ate a bit of fruit (from the list the Dr. gave me that he can eat) and drank SOME, not much but some. I'm thinking a hospitalization is in our future.





I also have whatever this stomache illness is. I'm not as bad as them and I'm drinking lots.

did I mention the smell? Turns out nothing will get that out cept professional carpet cleaning. Of course we are not going to get that until they are done.

We were supposed to go out of town Thursday to visit a friend of mine. That's off.

I almost forgot! I get to collect 4 stool samples per kid. I already got 3 per. One more poop each and I'm turning in for the night.

In totally unrelated news this was in our yard:

Some days being two is hard work

and you have to take a little nap on the couch.

New Hair.

I got a new hair cut today. I really like it. :)

The answer is yes

this photo is of Stephen drawing a "map" on the dry erase board in my craft room.

Stephen's new thing, if you tell him no and he wants something is to retort with "The answer is YES!"

S: Can I have some that soda?

M: No

S: the answer's yes

M: no

S: I said, the answer's yes

Oh also cute, right now he wants me to pick him up to see what I'm typing better. As I cannot hold him AND type to you I'm not, he's saying "Make me tall! Make me tall mommy! I want to see that Stephen on that puter!"

Boobie Smashing Update

I am compelled to write this because I didn't get any straight answers on how mamograms go. I heard a lot of "Oh Erin, it's painful, but not so bad", "It's REALLY painful, take two motrin before you go" and "It's not so bad, just uncomfortable"

None of that is very helpful.

So here's exactly how it went.

I was at Salisbury Imaging center near St. Luke's Hospital here in Jacksonville. When I went in I had to sign in, then was called up to fill out a few short forms. They had already verified my insurance from the info I gave them on the phone when I made my appointment. So that was quick. Then they called me back. It was maybe 5 minutes after my appointment time. I consider that to be very timely.

The girl who took me back was very friendly. She took me to a little room with chairs and a few lockers. I took off my top and bra and put a real actual cloth hospital type top on. Open in the front. It was hard to get it to feel like I was covered. Apparently it's not designed for that. Then I filled out one more form, asking if I had had a mamogram before. I did have to sign something saying I'm not pregnant.

Into the room. The nice lady helped me get positioned, one boobie on the machine. Then the plate came down. First thing I notice, it's clear! I can SEE my squished boobie, how fun! Second thing, it DID NOT HURT. Its some machine that knows how hard to squish. What I mean is it's not that the girl just smashed as hard as she could, the machine held me in there but not hard at all. I super promise it didn't hurt a BIT. It was not uncomfortable or anything. It wasn't super a lot of fun, but not a big deal. So they do three views on each boobie. One from sorta straight on. Then I turn a bit so more of the armpit side gets in *you know you have breast tissue in your armpits right* and then one where I had to lean over it, it tilted on it's side and I held a special bar with the same arm as the boob that was being squished. That was squishing sorta sideways. Then get the other boob out *special shirt allows you to have one in and one out* and do it all again. Start to finish it was about three minutes.

Then back to the locker room to change. Now you know you can't wear lotion or deordorant right? Well they had wipes in there to clean it off if you did. So if you have to work all day then get squishsed at 3pm you can go ahead and wear your deordorant. Anyhow I used the wipe to freshen up and then also used the little packets of deodorant that were there. They had lotion too, but I am very particular about lotion so I waited till I got home to grease my girls up.

And that is the whole story. If your mamograms are hurting you should question it I think. Or maybe you have super sensitive boobies, some folks do. I have regular boobies. :)

Happy Boobie Smashing Day... I mean Valentines Day

So we don't do much for Valentines day. I make cards, of course, but I made them over the past few weeks, not today.

But guess what I WILL be doing today? Getting my girls smashed! Yes, ladies and gentlemen *and daddy* I'm getting my very first mamogram today! Hurray! It was spurred by a freaky lump I had. I ran right in to the Dr and had her feel it too. *because when you have a freaky lump it's important for as many people as possible to feel it* She said she's sure it's "areas of denser tissue" Isn't that darling? I knew I was dense and now my boobies are too. She found MORE areas of denser tissue for me to feel. It was a regular feel fest. I'm sure Brian was bummed to miss out. The Dr decided though that to totally put my mind at ease, as well as get a healthy baseline, it was time to get a mamogram!

So I get to shower in a few minutes, NOT put on lotion or deordorant *It's important to be dry and smelly when you get your boobies smashed, just to make sure you are as uncomfortable as possible* and drive cross town to get smashed. How super duper fun!

*yall said you wanted updates*

And now for pictures of everyone's favorite toddlers.

These kids are FREAKS over ceral. They love it! So every morning I check email and stuff like that while I watch this. ADORABLE. Ethan's a bit of a mess still *notice his nekkedness* but he gets the job done.

Frog cupcakes

I made a batch of these for Brian to take to work tomorrow. Arn't they stinking adorable! :)

In other news if you feed my kids lil' smokies they will both have explosive poop for a whole day. :(

And also if you are not careful Stephen will stuff a popcorn kernal up his nose and make you freak out and call the Dr. While you are on hold he will finally blow hard enough for it to shoot out and fly across the kitchen. Maybe he will learn his lesson, there is no telling.

Stephen pronounces "nose" "noose" it's stinking adorable!

Bee-Ahhh

Here are the boys eating bananas. I had to sit them up here so they could watch me wash dishes. Apparently watching me wash dishes is super fun. Oh and Ethan calls bananas bee-aah's

I think I'm going to add thingies to the side of the blog that have current favorites. Brian and my current favorites almost never change, but we all know that when you are 2 it's hard to keep one interest! So yea, I'm going to do that now.

Here's a funny BRIAN story!

So my car is not running right.

One of the 4 thingies is not fireing.

Brian's been doing a little of this, little of that to try to fix it.

He comes up to me with dish washing gloves, cheap ones.

B: Are these real rubber

M: I don't know! *give him a looK*

B: I need to know for SURE

M: what the heck for?

B: so I don't die

M: WHAT?

B: I need to disconnect something in the car and test it to see if it has spark so I need to be able to hold a metal part with current.

M: NO

B: Do you have a rubber hose or something that I can stick a metal something into the end of?

M: You are a freak

later

B: Look *holds up a rubber hose with a metal file stuck in the end of it*

M: you are a freak

B: I need your help though

M: Hell no

B: you don't have to touch anything

M: should I get the phone so I can call 911

B: No I need you to be there to shut the car off really fast

M: FREAK

*I did help. He's fine. The car is going to the shop tomorrow*

Sleeping arrangements

You may remember a while back the drama of Stephen escaping from his room in the early hours of the morning and getting into all sorts of trouble. Well we had to do something. Brian looked at purchasing fancy kid gates for this wide opening. I had the idea to just slide our heavy couch in front of the hall at night. So Stephen is stuck! He can get in his sleeping room where he sleeps with Ethan and in the play room with all his books and toys. Now he wakes up, says hello to Brian who is getting ready for work, and then goes and plays in his toy room. I, of course, love this arrangement. Some days he yells for me early, "Mommy GET ME UP!" But some days he lets me sleep in! He will always hollar for me if Ethan cries. Today Ethan woke up but didn't cry so Stephen just sang to him! Yes, you heard it right, I woke up to the sound of my almost 3 year old singing to his little brother.

you can't put a price on that.

in other news:

Ethan talks TONS now. Not so much full sentences, but just lots of chatter. He is learning all the words for the things he wants too. So this morning I knew he wanted juice and a waffle, because he told me. I love that.

Cool Tricks!

Cool Tricks is a segment of our favorite kids TV show Yo Gabba Gabba.

This is Brian and Stephen's cool trick, developed while I was sleeping. *cuz this would never have gotten past the mommy saftey radar*

That thing Stephen is in is a baby sling, it's basicly a huge circle of fabric. He can ride on my back in it and lived in it as a baby. (when they are tiny and nursing you can sorta work it so you can nurse in public and no one even knows. "Aww, is there a sleeping baby in there" "Nope, there is an eating baby in there"

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hugs,
e

It's all about play doh here.

Do you know what Stephen's favorite thing in the WORLD to do is?





Play Play Doh.





He starts asking about it the second I see him in the morning. He can play all during Ethan's nap time. He's a freak for the doh!

Just look at all that play doh stuff he has. I only let him have a few small jars at a time, because he loves to put random stuff in the play doh and mix it up and generally make it icky. About once a week he gets new colors. Today is a new color day. Already there is bits of rubber (from stamps I trimmed today), paper, tape and a penny in there. Yesterday he put a bunch in his nose (which is why today was new play doh day) You can see the playdoh in the background here. I am working on cards at my desk. Stephen inspects each step, he is very involved in cardmaking supervision.

friends for ever and ever.

In the car on the way home Ethan was fussy and overtired and crying

S: Don't cry Ethie, I'll be your brother friend for EVER and EVER

awwwwww

didn't stop Ethan's crying though

I'm not two boys!

Stephen is potty training this week.

It has it's ups and downs. I'm sure you can imagine, I won't get into it.

But tonight he had a mess. I had to clean it up. I wasn't thrilled.

After cleaning up and during bedtime I said, "you need to be a big boy now"

S: *holds both sides of my face and leans into me* But I want to be your baby
M: You will always be my baby, but you are a big boy now too
S: Mommy, I'm not a big boy and a baby, I'm not two boys.

More curls

Today I got the curls I wanted! I put the hair in looser rolls last night (still rags though) and then took a curling iron and just made the ones near my face look just right. (it's cool for the others to be not quite right)

I also have on makeup today, I have a meeting this afternoon. So generally I'm feeling pretty hot.
Brian HATES curly hair on me. He's all disturbed. But I'm not going to do it all the time or anything, so whatever.

Just some stuff

hair now, after a lot of the curl fell out.
Stephen, feeling much better today.
And what is he wearing? You got it! Big boy underwear! But no pants, it's day 3 of potty training, it's not going perfect and I need the speed of no pants right now.
Can he fly?
Yes he can!