The Diagnosis

The boys have:




Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease. Ick. They will be fine though. In, like, 3 weeks.

But on a good note, they blew my mind last night. Elias and Kindred both slept solidly 13 hours. Oh did I need that. It helped my outlook on everything immensely.

I'm still pretty exhausted and have caught myself a cold, so I'm gonna rest and let my eyes un-cross from staring at this crazy screen. (Thanks to all who checked in on me!)

Oh.

So this is what "Wits End" looks like. Huh. I think I've been here before, but I must've tried to block it out.

Yesterday and Today, Pt.2

Today first.

It was a gorgeous day. Gorgeous. This is how we spent it:

Yep, that's sick Kindred. He napped outside in his PJ's. Could we please get some antibodies up in here? I called the doctor and the doctor said that he is going to school so I should expect this once every couple of weeks. But the good news, he reported, is that by the time he's in kindergarten, he'll be so much more prepared immunity-wise.

Elias and I enjoyed our day pretty well despite the ailing brother.

Now for yesterday...

During our trip, we visited Common Ground Community's community garden in Cedar Grove, one of the poorest neighborhoods in Shreveport. This garden had 2 special trees in it that we were anxious to see. Here's one of them:




It's a Dogwood tree. It is special to us because when Kindred was very young, the community had a ceremony planting and dedicating this tree in honor of his birth.

Then when Elias was born, they added his name to the dedication.

The tree planting ceremony dedicated a second tree that had a lot of meaning for us as well. Brian, our dear friend, had been diagnosed with cancer after they found a malignant tumor in his neck. The community banded with him and his family, and together they beat the cancer. This tree was planted while Bri was still in treatment. He really wanted a "Syc-no-more" tree, but they couldn't find one, so he had to settle for a peach tree instead.

Yesterday and Today, Pt 1

Some stories from our trip, and highlights of today that could not be left unblogged:

Here's Kindred in the airport. Yes, he's climbing on one of those people transporters. Where are this kid's parents?

This is Mary T, singing "Twinkle... Star" with Kindred. She is the first person he has ever sang along with. After they would finish a line, they would both fling their hands up into the air and exclaim, "Woo-hoo!" It was a blast.

This is Brian, doing his thing...

...and subsequently, this is my kids, doing their part. (There are several pictures of them looking at Brian as though he is nuts. That's because he was running back and forth, making wild noises and putting stuffies on his head, mostly for their enjoyment. It was truly hilarious to watch him in his element.)

Highlights of today:

Because it was finally nice outside, I took the kiddos outside for a little while this morning. Kindred wore his hat amiably, while Elias did not allow a hat to remain on his head for a second. Literally. The minute I touched his scalp, his hands were frantically batting me away, and pitching his hat promptly on the ground. I persevered and kept replacing it. Kindred requested a drink of water at one point, so I left Elias sitting on the blanket to go inside. I turned around at the door and saw Kindred replacing Elias' hat on his head. Elias fought him. Kindred tried nobly 3 more times. Elias always respnded with a sound and fast rejection of the hat. Finally Kindred stood up, took the hat and threw it, decidedly, into the street.

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This morning, during casual conversation, Kindred remarked, "Mama no have a penis. Just a bum."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Elias, bless his heart, just now broke all precedent and successfully launched, unassisted, out of his beloved, and now useless, Bumboseat onto the kitchen floor.


What will the rest of the day hold?

Famous Last Words

"Wow, Kindred has been playing so well alone in his room. What a great kid."

Then he appears in the doorway, looking very happy, with his fists full of...

"Mama, Dada, dirt!"

Sigh. Needless to say, I made him get over his fear of the "Big Zoomie" (vacuum) pretty darn quick.

Wait for it

So folks, I just downloaded 63 photos from our trip. I also have a DVD of probably 400 photos Brian (the professional photographer) took during our stay. So be prepared for the barrage of pictures that is about to grace your computer screens-- hopefully a little at a time. I'm sorry if that means this site takes 10 years to load.

So here's the first batch. A teaser.

Elias has never met the Lewis family before. He's taken to them quite easily, and actually thanked us on the way home for naming him after such a fabulous family.


And here's just 2 of Kindred's special treats, photo-documented. (He loved being with Brian and Miss Charlotte so much that he cried pretty hard when we left. "Briiiiiiannn!")

No wonder he cried! Look at the royal treatment he got.

Haven't dropped off the planet

We're visiting friends in Shreveport, Lousiana and having a wonderful time. Mostly. The big downer of the trip so far was being outside with MC and having Kindred run over to me from the dirt pile he was playing in, moaning, holding out his hands. I saw tiny dark spots on them and realized they were ants, and I had to scrape the darn things off his skin. So now he has these ugly bites with huge whiteheads on them from about 16 fire ants. He seems to be dealing well with the pain and itch, but I get knots in my stomach when I see them. Poor child. I forgot about fire ants. But Kindred has also gotten great treats too. He's been riding on a mower and in a wheel barrow and has had tons of people loving him and singing with him. He loves Brian and Charlotte and I'm sure he will not stop talking about them and demanding to go see them long after we fly out of here. Home tomorrow.

Easter Rumblin' (or: Kindred's Revenge)

Victory!

They did it!!

Triplets

Don't freak out. I'm not pregnant with triplets. I just wanted to share a link to this picture of a woman who was pregnant with them. I am amazed by the shape her belly took during her finals weeks of pregnancy and what it looked like at 3 months postpartum. (She apparently birthed them at home!)

I think this website is fabulous. It has helped countless women with their self-esteem and their views of their post-baby bodies. (It makes me feel so good that I'm not the only woman who has to figure out how to tuck their extra belly parts into their pants discreetly and still look a little bit stylish.) These woman have been able to embrace their now mommy bodies and not be overwhelmed by the images of flat-bellied moviestar moms who achieve their perfect shape through lots of work and surgery that none of us normal moms have a lick of time or money for. So here's to us, Mama's!

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(Note: One of the triplets mentioned above got very very sick recently. I discovered this from a reference to them on the same webpage later in the month. The story is pretty sad and I am not linking to the picture to make you wrap up emotionally in it if you find it. I just wanted to share the picture. You can just whisper a prayer for Lily.)

Um, Excuse me?

As I sit here during a shared nap time (darn straight there better be a shared naptime, since there were several hours of shared awake time well after the stroke of midnight last night, snotty noses and coughs be damned!), I hear Kindred awaken and begin singing and telling himself stories.

Now apparently he wants out. And he is letting me know this. How? I hear him calling:

"Michelle! Michelle!"

(Which sounds a little more like mishewl, mishewl.)

"Jidjid's awake! Come in a room! Jidjid's awake! Michelllllllle!"

I'm sure he thinks he's soooooo clever. Little goober.

"It Happened" Story 5

It happened. Elias has gotten cuter. I didn't think it was possible.

And this one is just so he doesn't get a big head about his cuteness.

Hee hee.

"It Happened" Story 4

It happened. I left Elias in one spot on the floor and when I returned, he was gone.

Here he is after his controlled flop (not his dramatic whomp) over onto his side then belly. This is before I left the room for 2 or three minutes.

Kindred helped me locate him when I returned and he was no longer where I'd placed him.

I rescued the master scooter before he lodged himself under the changing table.

Now he's back to not sleeping. "Must practice, Mama, must practice!" Up on all fours, rocking, then scooting. (I actually love that stage. I think it's really fun to watch them learn this new trick, and the rocking is just darling.) I believe he's entirely happy with himself, and thrilled that he is no longer just stuck in one place while we all wander around without him. Many people have said, Oh watch out! Here he goes! like him moving is a bad or tiring thing. But I'm looking forward to it. I have to run around anyway, and it will be great if I don't have to lug him with me if I leave the room for 2 minutes so that he doesn't scream in total despair and abandonment. He will soon be able to follow me and Kindred on his own if he wants to. Still, he needs to work on direction. Soon enough. He'll get it.