More Delta Fun!

What we've been up to...

We are T-minus 2 weeks to moving day! The home repairs are all finished and the sale is moving forward smoothly. Our living room is full of boxes and we have started packing (kind of). I think we have finally found a rental house in Washington (Thanks Yonkers)!
Some other things that have been going on:

HANNAH
Hannah broke her foot two weeks ago jumping off the stairs. She'd been jumping off the first step almost since she could walk, but recently she's been getting braver, trying to be like her big brothers, and jumping from the second and third steps. When she landed this time, she crumpled to the floor, grabbed her foot and sobbed. She wouldn't put weight on it, and after a short nap, was still crying and holding her foot. We took her to the ER where they took some x-rays, wrapped it, and referred us to a pediatric orthopedist. The next morning, Bryan took her to the doc, who diagnosed the fracture and casted her. Bryan picked the cute purple color to match her outfit that day. Way to be matchy-matchy, Babe! I'm so impressed! Despite the cast, she still gets around very well. She gets so much attention everywhere she hobbles. It's sad and adorable all at the same time.Unfortunately, I spoke too soon on the potty training. Since Hannah broke her foot, the potty situation has gone downhill, and we are back to diapers again. I've heard that life changes or extra stress can cause children to revert, so I guess this counts. We'll have to try again once we get settled in Washington.

LOGAN
Logan finished his preschool year recently. A few months ago, we did a unit on Dental Health and I let the boys use my loupes and mirrors to examine their teeth.

We made these cute snack smiles from apples, peanut butter, and marshmallows.
Our last field trip of the year was a ride on the RTA train from Shaker Heights to Tower City Mall in downtown Cleveland.
I had to take a few pictures of Hannah because she's just so darn cute with that cast.
Each child was allowed to buy one thing at the dollar store. Logan and Hannah chose microphones and entertained us all the way home.
Logan has also enjoyed playing soccer on Saturday mornings with a neighborhood team, the Orange Tigers. Last Saturday, he even kicked his first goal - sadly, it was the wrong goal, but we were still proud of him!
ANDREW
Andrew recently finished his basketball season. He did really well and I was pretty impressed with his shooting skills!
Andrew has been dying to go to Cedar Point one last time before we leave Ohio. Bryan had an unexpected day off a couple weeks ago, so he had Andrew get ready for school in the morning, then tricked him into getting in the car with him on the pretense of running a quick errand. He took him to Cedar Point instead. What a fun surprise for Andrew!!! They both had a great time together and rode almost every ride in the park.
I got to help Andrew's class with Garden Club this year. Once a week we worked together on our little plot of dirt. We planted peas, radishes, spinach, marigolds, and petunias.
On our last day of Garden Club, we ate yummy wormy dirtcakes to celebrate.
Andrew's last day of second grade was June 10th. He's sad to leave some really good friends behind. Nikhil is Andrew's best friend in his class.Noah has been Andrew's very best friend for four years.
Mrs. Cohen has been a good teacher for Andrew this year. Andrew's favorite thing about school this year was math.
I got a little teary-eyed while singing the school song at the flag-lowering ceremony. We'll sure miss you, Lomond!
Hmmm, what else?

Oh, for Our 10th anniversary, I surprised Bryan with tickets to see Brian Regan in Youngstown. That is one funny fan! My cheeks were killing me!
Phew! That's about it. I feel like I just spewed out one of those 30 second re-caps that they do at the beginning of some TV episodes. I've got a few more things to blog about before the big move, but I want to do them in separate posts. Hopefully I'll get to them in time.

Who knew family portraits could be so dangerous?!

I bet you've never had a family portrait session end in an ER visit. Yeah, it was a first for us too.

Since this is our last fall here in Ohio, we couldn't pass up the chance to take some family portraits out in the beautiful fall colors. So yesterday we headed out to Patterson Farm for a photo shoot. In order to get Hannah to laugh and smile, Bryan and I were swinging her high in the air by her wrists. Everyone does it, right: "One, two, three...Wheee!" She was loving it and giggling her guts out until Bryan felt a POP in her left arm. She immediately stopped laughing and started crying... and wouldn't stop. Now, Hannah is a pretty tough girl. She has two older brothers to rough-house with and climbs on everything! She falls and gets hurt all the time, sometimes cries for a few seconds, and then gets right back to it.

So this time, we could tell she was pretty hurt. She held her arm close to her body and laid completely still in Bryan's arms, fussing if her arm was ever moved slightly. After a few minutes of this, we were certain something was wrong. Bryan suspected it was Nursemaid's Elbow (which I vaguely remember hearing about in Anatomy, but couldn't remember exactly what it meant), so we headed to the ER to get it checked out.

Poor Hannah! During the entire 40 minutes we waited at the ER, Hannah laid completely still in Bryan's arms whimpering softly. She would only take a couple bites of the delicious Patterson's pumpkin and apple cider doughnuts we offered her (Best doughnuts EVER, by the way! Andrew wittily pointed out how lucky it was that we bought the doughnuts before we started the pictures!). Once the doctor saw her, he diagnosed Nursemaid's Elbow in a matter of seconds, and said she would be fine once he popped the bone back into place. That didn't sound like anything I wanted to be around for, so I took the boys down the hall to the bathroom. From where I was, I could clearly hear her yelp in pain briefly, then nothing else.

I was anxious to get back to her, and when we did, she was a completely different little girl! She was climbing on the chairs and giggling and I had to chase her (happily) back and forth down the hall as Bryan finished up the paperwork. She was using her arm and waving at strangers while she gobbled a whole doughnut. It was wonderful and amazing to see such a complete and instant transformation after seeing her suffer so much! In pulled elbow, the annular ligament around the radial head (left) is dislodged when the arm is pulled (middle), partially dislocating into the radiocapitellar joint when the arm is released (right).

So we've learned that in order to prevent this very painful experience, you should not grab or swing any child under the age of 6 by the arm. Once Nursemaid's Elbow has happened, the child is much more susceptible to having it happen again. Good to know.

...and hopefully we can find another day soon to get our family pictures taken.

This Has NOT Been Your Week, Logan!

Yes, it's Logan again! This morning, I plugged in the electric griddle to make breakfast. While I was whipping up the eggs, Logan reached up and... yeah, you know where this is going...

His poor little fingers! He was so brave and didn't even cry, though I could tell it was really hurting him. I held his hand under cold water for a while and then tried to give him ice to hold. He refused and said, "I just need to lay down on the couch...with a blanket...and watch TV."

Once he was all settled, watching Dora the Explorer, he said in his sweetest little voice, "Thanks for feeling me better, Mom."

I Thought He'd Be Older When He Started Doing This!

Last night, Logan came down the stairs announcing proudly, "I got blood! Right here! I got blood!" (blood is pronounced, "BWUD")

I looked up to see Logan grinning, with blood all over his chin.

I wasn't sure if it was really blood, or if he and Andrew had just gotten into something in the fridge and thought they'd be funny. I took a closer look. Yep, real blood, coming from a small cut just under his lip. "What happened?" I asked. (It seems like I've been asking that a lot lately.)

"I used your thing!" he said, making "shaving" motions across his cheeks. (He likes to watch Daddy shave his face.)

Then it occurred to me, I'd shaved my legs in the bathroom sink earlier in the day, and probably left my razor out on the counter. Oops! Good job, Mom!

So Logan shaved his face for the first time at the age of three. He was pretty proud of it too! Oh, they grow up so fast!

"When You See a Hole, Don't Put a Stick in it!"

Yesterday evening, Andrew and Logan were outside playing when suddenly I heard Logan's ear-piercing scream. I noticed Andrew was screaming too. I thought they were just playing around, but then Andrew came bursting through the door saying, "Logan has bugs on him!" A little confused, I stepped outside to see my little three-year-old screaming and crying hysterically with several black spots moving all over him. For some reason it took me a second to realize what they were - HORNETS! LOTS OF THEM!

Once I realized what was going on, I tried and tried, but no amount of flicking, smashing, or swatting would keep them away! They just kept swarming around him and crawling under his clothes! Logan was screaming, "They're hurting me, they're hurting me!"

By this time, I was in full "parent panic mode" (you know, when on the inside you are totally freaking out, but on the outside you have to keep it together and stay calm so you won't scare your kids even more). I grabbed the garden hose and just started hosing the poor little guy down full-blast. That took care of most of the darn things, but I still found three more trapped inside his shirt when I stripped him down. Logan was COVERED in stings all over his body - legs, tummy, back, chest, arms, hands, neck, ears, face, and even in his hair. They were all red and swelling up fast.


At this point, I still had no idea what had actually happened, so I shouted to Andrew (who was sitting petrified on the stairs inside), "WHAT HAPPENED?!!!"

"Well, I saw a hole in the ground and stuck a stick in it and pushed. Then all the bugs came flying out. I ran away, but Logan just sat there and screamed."

FINAL STING COUNT:
Me: 1 - on my shoulder
Andrew: 1 - on the back of his neck
Logan: 17!!! - all over his body, I kid you not!

Benedryl took most of the swelling down and knocked him out for the rest of the night (Thanks, Carissa! I really should keep some at my house at all times!) I watched him closely and slept near him on the couch to make sure he was okay (Bryan has been on-call at the hospital all night; he actually hasn't even heard this story yet).

After all this, Andrew probably summed it up best with his wise remark, "Mom, I definitely learned my lesson: When you see a hole, don't put a stick in it!"