Evan's Trip To The ER...

Thursday night, Grandpa McLaughlin was here for a visit on his way to Virginia.  We were all outside playing when Evan ran into his Grandpa, fell and hit the back of his head on the concrete driveway.  I thought he must have hurt his head pretty bad because he was crying much louder and longer than normal for him.  He is pretty tough and usually bounces back real quick.  He also looked pretty pale when he came inside and went to the couch.  However, in the hustle of getting dinner on the table and getting ready to go out for an early birthday dinner with Dennis, I didn't take the time to think about the possibility of a concussion.

However, on our way to dinner we got a call for Grandpa saying that he had thrown up.  I started to think "Uh Oh, could be a concussion".  But, I also knew that he had taken an extra long nap that day and maybe he was coming down with something.  I called the pediatrician on the way home and when I found out that he had gotten sick 3 more times since we left, I knew that wasn't good.  His doctor sent us immediately to the ER.  The ER doctor said, "At a minimum it is a concussion, but could be a bleed because of the repetitive vomiting".  Luckily, the CT scan was clear.  After getting an anti nausea pill Evan snapped back to his old self pretty quickly.  We checked up on him all night and followed up with his pediatrician today, and so far he is doing well.  No tv or computers for a week, but we can deal with that.

I will say, Evan was a trooper.  He is really great in these situations and was just awesome in the ER doing everything the doctor said and being very brave.  Dennis rewarded him with a couple action figures when we got home.

Besides Evan having to stay home and being hurt, the other big bummer was that I was not able to go on Colin's field trip today.  Colin and I had been looking forward to this for a couple weeks, so he was very upset when I told him the news this morning.  Hopefully, I will be able to make the next one, if he has another. 

Dennis is in VA this weekend for his cousin Austin's wedding (which I was also very bummed to have to miss, no sitter in Indiana prevents us from both leaving town).  So, it is just me and the boys this weekend. 

Tea Party And Volunteering At Colin's School...

The last 2 days here have been so great and make me also dread going back to work...

Yesterday, we were invited to a play date tea at a ladies house that I met at the playground.  She also has 3 boys, as does another lady that she invited.  All of our oldest are in school, so the 6 younger kids played together while the Mom's enjoyed some tea and chatted.  She had a whole spread of finger sandwiches, nuggets for the kids, grapes and delicious scones.  Logan, like my other boys, loves tea and I couldn't keep him from climbing into my lap and drinking all my tea!  Evan played very nicely with one of the other boys who was 4 years old.  I didn't hear a peep from him the whole time.

Today, the highlight was volunteering in Colin's class.  It was nice to get a chance to peak in on how his teacher runs the classroom...very well and organized in my opinion.  She is nice while still being very firm, the kids definitely don't walk all over her.  I also got to see how Colin interacts with the other kids and the teacher.  I was pleasantly surprised to see him actually raising his hands and answering questions.  It was also interesting to see the vast variety of levels of the different students.  Colin is a strong student, so I never realized how hard some of the work is for some of the other kids.  I am used to Colin rushing through his homework in 5 seconds.  There are differently a few girls in his class that are way below Colin's level in Reading and Comprehension.  They needed a lot of guidance to figure out their worksheets and even then didn't seem to grasp what they were supposed to do.  Then there was the other extreme of a girl who was sitting and reading chapter books quietly and never had a question.  A teacher I am not, but I did enjoy spending an hour helping the teacher out.   I am looking forward to going with Colin's class on Friday for their first field trip!

Colin As Quarterback...

Colin playing QB

Colin got a chance to play a drive as QB and he did pretty good especially when he got to keep the ball and run!  On defense he also did well and was able to get a flag.  He was happy to receive a "player of the week" card which gets him free candy at a candy shop nearby, I guess that will be one of tomorrow's outings.

The Wisconsin Badgers

Cheering from the sidelines

Colin got a chance to play a drive as QB and he did pretty good especially when he got to keep the ball and run!  On defense he also did well and was able to get a flag.  He was happy to receive a "player of the week" card which gets him free candy at a candy shop nearby, I guess that will be one of tomorrow's outings.

The boys spent a lot of the day playing with neighbors and Dennis and I started to tackle the huge job of organizing the basement.  We are trying to get it at least somewhat organized until we can get it finished.  We made a dent, but there is still A LOT to do.  We realized our kids have A LOT of toys and I wish we could skip Christmas this year instead of having to bring home even more toys.  I think they are actually overwhelmed by all the stuff which is why we are tying to organize it.

After that was the Hokie Football.  Dennis was relieved to be able to watch the game here since last weekend didn't work out so well. 

Sick Loggie...

I was looking forward to a day to myself today to get a few errands done.  However, Logan's cold seemed to be progressing.  He was on day 4 or so of a low grade fever and has been waking up more at night and during naps, so I kept him home to take him to the doctor.  Looks like he has an ear infection.

On a positive note....at Colin's flag football practice yesterday they were practicing Colin in the quarterback position.  So, I am hoping that means he will get to play at least part of the game as a QB on Saturday (they rotate positions so that all the kids get a chance to play different positions).  Thus far, Colin has mostly just been a lineman, which in flag football is not all that exciting.  He was so excited to be able to play QB and when he wasn't being silly and saying "Ready, Set, Hikey!", he actually had a pretty good run.  Anyway, we are looking forward to the game Saturday.

Labor Day 2011

We got a pleasant surprise this morning when our neighbor, Luke, came by with a note from his Mom asking if we would like to join them for apple picking.  So, Colin, Evan and I met them at a farm about 10 minutes from here and spent some time picking apples.  The boys seemed to enjoy picking them and Colin enjoyed eating a couple too. 

After lunch and naps Colin played at their house for a couple hours while I made a homemade apple pie for dessert.  The house smelled awesome!

As you can see in the pictures, the boys are wearing sweatshirts!  I have always thought of Labor Day as the last chance to go to the pool and BBQ's in the backyard.  But, nope, here in Indiana it is COLD.  I never thought I would have to start pulling out fall clothes in early September.

The rest of the weekend was spent with Dennis getting stuff done in the yard and organizing the garage.  It was great to have him around for 4 days, though I really could use a few more 3 day weekends, so that Dennis can get some more stuff done around here. 

One funny Colin story...on Sunday Colin was mad that his friends weren't home to play with him (he rang their door bell 10 times, thinking they were just ignoring him!).  When they finally got home later that day it was dinner time, so I told him no he couldn't go out.  He was so mad at me he ran to his room.  He then came back down with $6 and asked if he could please go out if he gives me his money.  He was trying to buy me off at 6 years old!!!  For the record, it didn't work.

Colin's 1st College Football Game

We have been waiting anxiously for the day Colin was old enough to be able to sit through a whole football game, so that we could take him to a real football game (he has been to arena football games already).  I had always imagined that when this day came we would be doing the drive to Virginia Tech or maybe tailgating with my family at a Redskin game.  Never did I imagine that his first game would be to watch and cheer for Purdue, but that is exactly where he spent his day today.  Dennis was invited by a coworker to come to the game and bring Colin along.  They enjoyed tailgating and playing Cornhole in the parking lot and then going to see the game.  Despite being incredibly hot they had a good time.

Evan, Logan and I spent the day at home eating brownies (I had made some for the big boys to take to the game) and watching a movie at home.  We then took some extra long naps.  Though, I don't think that even in the 4 hours Logan was in his bed he actually ever fell asleep.  He was just chatting and chatting and chatting.  At one point I went in to get him, thinking he just wasn't going to nap today and he had a dirty diaper.  So, I changed him and then he seemed sleepy so I layed him back down.  Well, he was quiet for about 30 minutes and then just started chatting for another hour.  He has a little cold so maybe that is why his schedule is a bit off.  He was definetly ready for bed tonight at 7:15am, so he went to be early. 

Actually all the kids have been sleeping good the last few days 7:45pm-7:00am and some have even slept a tiny bit longer than that.  I keep telling Dennis that it is him who wakes the boys up early, because during the week they always get up very early.  Well, sure enough Dennis has been home since Thursday (he worked from home Thursday and took Friday off) and all three days the kids have slept in longer!

The only other news is that I took Colin and Evan to get their haircuts on Thursday and don't tell Evan, but Evan's hair got butchered.  She went too short in the bangs and did not style it well.  Of course, Evan has no clue and is very proud of his haircut.  I am just praying it grows quickly.  I guess it will take us awhile to find a good hair cutter here, since we loved our Richmond one.

Maybe I Should Have Stayed In Bed...

Yep, it was one of those days where you just want to crawl back in bed and start back over tomorrow.  I won't repeat all that happened, but poop on the floor, red toothpaste rubbed into the new carpet, a hidden shoe (by Logan) causing Colin to miss the bus, something broken, a shelf knocked over, a wrong turn, many many dirty diapers, etc...and that was only by 10am!

Luckily by the time we we got to Evan's swim lesson later this morning things did improve.  Evan did great for his last swim lesson and has graduated to the next level.  We haven't signed him up for another class yet, but he was so proud of himself for doing everything that was asked of him.

After that was the usual for Tuesdays...lunch, then naps, then Colin home from school, play for a bit, dinner, and football practice.  The evening ended with me going to the movies to see "The Help" with 3 of our neighbors.  I guess maybe it is good I got out of bed this morning afterall.