A growing kid

Guess who just ate 2 corn dogs, 2 helpings of veggies, and is now on his 3rd piece of toast with peanut butter (because I refused to give him another corn dog).

Jeez.

Summer School

Today was the boys' first day of summer school, at their new school that they'll be attending in the Fall. I wasn't super thrilled to send them to an academically focused program over the summer, but I thought it would help them get acquainted with the school, the teachers, and make friends, before the overwhelming start of the school year in the Fall.

Logan was a little suspicious this morning as he interrogated me while we were getting ready. Will there be games and sports? Well, not exactly, but there will be activities. Will there by field trips? No. Will I know anyone there? No, you'll have to make new friends.

This sounds like school, not camp. I want to go to summer camp.

And it went on and on, all the way up, during our 45 minute drive through traffic (ugh).

Drop off is done in the playground where the kids line up with their assigned classroom/teacher and then head to class. Logan was not having that. I tried to get him to join and follow as his class marched off but he fell behind and then lost them (and then got even more upset).

So I told him to stay put with me, we'd go with Callum to drop him off first and then I'd go with him to his class next. As we were walking along the corridors, Logan stomped around in a really pissy mood exclaiming "This is so confusing! There are so many halls and so many doors!!" :)

I reminded him that we found the first day of Kindergarten confusing too but eventually figured it all out and he'd learn quickly at this new school too.

He continued to stomp with a scowl on his face.

Callum was actually much more excited about this new school - but when we dropped him off to his classroom, with one of the kids bawling his eyes out, afraid of leaving his Mommy, it registered for Callum that maybe he should be upset too.

So he suddenly clinged to my legs and wouldn't let go and started getting upset himself.

Grrrrreat.

After several minutes of me trying to coax him to join the circle with his new classmates, I somehow pulled away and quickly backed out of the room. I felt so awful leaving him on his own. You'd think I'd be a master at this, after going through this sort of thing many times in the past. But no, it's still hard and it makes you feel awful to leave your child so upset, clawing at you to hold on and not let you go. :(

Next Logan and I headed to his class. We peeked in and could see they had already started with their circle time (and introductions). He stopped dead in his tracks and said Nope, I'm not going in. What?!? They've already started. I'm late. I can't go.

Yes you can.

No I can't.

How about I go in with you?

No, I can't Mom.

This continued for a few more minutes before I finally lost my patience and said get in there now. :/

I went in with him and we sat down toward the back. They were still doing their round of introductions and what, or where, people would be visiting this summer.

Mom, I don't know where I'll be going this summer, he whispered to me.

I reminded him, aren't we going to go to Hawaii?

Oh yeah! He brightened with a smile.

I stayed a little bit longer until I saw a few more smiles and could tell he was finally starting to relax. I slipped out after he no longer insisted I stay. I still felt bad leaving him as well, knowing he really didn't want to be there. But also knew he'd eventually (I hoped) have a good day.

When I picked them up a few hours later, they were both excited and happy! And both had the same news to report.

Mom! I made a new friend!!

Phew. Thank god.

Out with these three good lookin' fellas!

Lugabug

I recently backed Lugabug on Kickstarter because I think this idea is fantastic - and we got ours today (just in time for our summer vacation!).

Here we are doing a test spin - Callum (and I) can't wait to try it out, for real, soon!!

If you haven't heard of them yet, check out: www.lugabug.com

Becoming a bookworm

It's taken awhile, but Logan has finally started to appreciate reading now that I've got him hooked on Encyclopedia Brown. He now heads to bed without protest, so that he can read a chapter or two before bedtime each night.

When all else fails, hit the classics! ;-)

Last day of school

I forgot to post Logan's last day of school, damn it!  Too many things hit us last week and frankly, I'm surprised I made it to his festivities at all.  ;-)

Anyway, the school had a fun celebration of (another set of) end of the year awards for kids - mostly for things like 100% attendance (which my kids will NEVER get, mark my words).  What's fun is that Logan won an award (just like last year), for being the top dog fundraiser from the Walk-a-thon.  He raised just over $3000 (amazing right?!? thanks to all of our wonderful supporters, family and friends!) and got VERY close to the same amount he raised last year (which is a huge deal since a big chunk of last year's funds were thanks to my company's matching policy, which we didn't have this year).

In addition to getting a cool plaque with his name on it (which he LOVED), he got a brand new mini iPad too! (which came in handy since he just dropped and cracked his old one *sigh*)

He was VERY proud and we, of course, are very proud of him.

I was surprised to find myself (and Logan), much less nostalgic and sentimental about the last day at this school (ever - we are moving schools!) than I thought I'd be.  But, I did at least have the wherewithal to think about snapping one last quick pic of Logan, with his teacher, before we left.  Ms. Mills has been very good to us this past year, helped Logan grow tremendously, and is someone we will miss very much.

Adios First Grade!  Onto Segundo we go!  :)

When it rains, it pours....

It's late, and I've had a really long day, so I'll try to keep this short.

We're in the middle of a heat wave - so our A/C has decided to conk out on us. We scheduled a guy to come look at it first thing early this morning.

Last night, without any warning, sadly, Jon's grandfather had a massive heart attack and passed away. :( We were suddenly up very late arranging a flight for Jon first thing in the morning. And also arranging for my Dad to come over to take Logan to school for me, since Jon would now be flying out, but someone had to stay home to meet the A/C guy.

Both boys had a terrible time sleeping last night. They've been a little under the weather and the hot house wasn't helping matters. So, Jon and I split up as we've been doing the last few nights - with him staying in the boys' room with Logan and me with Callum in our bed (since he tends to wake up 1-2 times a night with these horrendous coughing gagging fits and is only able to finally relax enough and fall back to sleep if I hold him, comfort him, and rock him back to sleep). It's made for some very long and sleepless nights for Jon and I.

Then this morning, at about 7am, Callum said he was cold and wanted to snuggle under my blankets (he had been up earlier about 6:30). I felt his forehead and sure enough he was burning up, just like last Saturday. :(

Took his temp and he had spiked up to 102.2. Grrrrreeat.

So, I'm on the phone calling/talking to the on-call doctor. Jon is pushing his flight out to a later flight. The A/C guy shows up early. And a few beats behind, my Dad arrives to take Logan to school (who is trying to sneak in some last minute zzzz's totally dressed for school but conked out in bed).

I hear them all bustling around the house while I'm begging poor Callum to take some Tylenol (I got permission from the on-call dr after I told him I wasn't interested in waiting forever in another ER with a feverish kid) and packing up our things to go.

My Dad took off with Logan. Jon set up the A/C guy to run some tests. And Callum and I headed back to the beloved nearby ER.

We were actually admitted quite quickly this time, thank goodness. The ER doc and I discussed the tests we had just ran on Saturday and debated whether to do another chest X-ray. I asked if there can be change, that quickly, from a few days to now. He said yes sometimes there can. So I said ok let's do another X-ray too.

That happened to be the best decision we all made I think. Because it turns out that sometime between Saturday and this morning, Callum had developed pneumonia. :(

Poor Jon canceled his flight plans for now, until we can see how Callum does over the next few days. I'm hoping, once Callum is a bit more stable, that Jon can still make it down to spend time with his family - I know it would mean a lot to him - and his family. We are all going to miss his grandfather very much - he was a wonderful man. :(

Callum received a heavy dose of antibiotics via IV at the ER and they sent us home with an oral prescription as well. We already had a normal check up at the clinic scheduled for Thursday so now we'll use that as a follow up as well.

I was caught off guard with the pneumonia diagnosis, but after several (and I mean several) discussions with the ER doc, ER nurse, and a couple of nurses over at our own clinic, I'm finally feeling a little better. It seems like we may have caught it early, hopefully, and because his counts are still good (he's not neutropenic), everyone felt very comfortable about sending us home and treating it just as we would an ear infection (for example)...

Still, given everything that's been thrown at us, I think it's safe to say we're a little pissed and frustrated at the Universe right now and just a tad bit on edge. If Callum does well over the next 24-48 hours I think we'll all, finally, start sleeping a little better again.