She’s growing up fast

Evelyn lost one her front teeth today.  And she voted.  My baby girl is getting so big!!!!

Happy Wedding Day Shannon and Chip!

Today is a very special day!  Shannon and Chip (aka Brett) got married in St. Lucia!  We are all so excited for them and can not wait to see what the future holds!  Congratulations you guys....we can’t wait to celebrate!

First Time Fishing

Today I took the kids fishing at Brookside Pond.  It’s on the grounds of the elementary school that Evelyn will attend next year.  The kids got fishing poles from the Easter Bunny and they were excited to try them out.  As Pat was leaving for work, I told him that I planned to take the kids fishing.  His only response was to give me an incredulous look and ask “What will you do if you actually catch a fish?”.  Haha!  He knows me well!  I told him that I was bringing gloves and a net so I thought I’d be ok.  

We packed our tackle box with hot dogs and bread.  I don’t do worms.  It had been quite some time since I fished, but once I got there, I remembered the basics.  Evelyn was determined to do everything herself.  It took a while, but she finally got the hang of casting.  I made sure to tell the kids to be careful because the hooks were very sharp.  At one point, Mitch walked by me and tripped while I was baiting a hook and managed to catch my finger.  That hurt and Mitch lost it when when saw the hook in my finger.  Once I assured him that I was not, in fact, going to lose my finger he calmed down.  But after that, I think they understood more why they needed to be careful.  We fished on one side of the pond, where there was a little space to practice casting.  Like I said, Evelyn got the hang of casting pretty quickly and always remembered to warn\alert us when she was getting ready to cast so we could give her lots of space.  Mitch was content to let me cast and then hold the fishing reel. Eventually we moved over to the little pier and dropped our lines straight down into the water.  There were dozens of fish and we got tons and tons of nibbles, but in the end we only caught one fish.  And it fell off the line as we were reeling it in.  We’re still counting it though!

It was fun, and while the kids still need to work on patience and being quiet, they did well for their first time!

Derby Day

We were in Ohio for Derby Day this year.  We didn’t have Derby Pie, Mint Juleps or Burgoo.  We didn’t go to Churchill Downs or any horse track to place bets for that matter.  But we did have a lot of fun.  We had snack dinner night, which is a huge favorite for the kids.  We had taquitos, poutine poopers, pizza, cheese, pepperoni, cheese and pickles, and popcorn.  And the kids has Sprite, which was a huge treat since we rarely all them to have soft drinks.  Pat and I enjoyed highballs.  If we couldn’t have mint juleps, at least we could have Kentucky bourbon!

I made up a chart with all of the Derby Race horses and got some coins.  Mitch was pennies, Evelyn was nickels (and a few British coins from my travels), Pat was dimes and I was quarters.  We had 5 coins each and we took turns placing them on the horse that we wanted until the chart was full.  Kinda silly, but then we all had a 5 horses to cheer for so that made it more fun!  In case you are wondering, we did have our favorites.  Pat’s was Magnum Moon, mine was Vino Rosso, Evie’s was Noble Indy and Mitch’s was Combatant.

 We donned our Derby Hats 🎩.  We watched the horses walk into the track.  We cheered and screamed and jumped up and down during the race.  It was fun!

Weekend Fun

A few weekends ago had some very special visitors stop by… Aunt Holly, Uncle Cal, Avi and Asa!

They decided to get out of Cincy for the night and get a hotel room in downtown Columbus.  They stopped by our house for a little visit before checking into the hotel and we could not have been more thrilled!  Mitch was SO excited to have Avi come to his house and play.  We go to Avi’s house fairly often, but Avi has only been to our house a few times. Mitchell was so excited to show Avi his toys and play.  Mitch also decided that it was his job to encourage Avi to use the potty.  He led by example and the boys took a potty break every 20 minutes or so.  It was kind of hilarious.  Every time we turned around, the boys were back in the bathroom. 

 After Holly, Cal and the kids headed to their hotel around 5 and Rita came over to babysit for us so that Pat and I could go to dinner.  We went to a restaurant called Boiling Seafood.  It was so good!  I tried crawfish for the first time and it wasn’t bad.  I never been to a restaurant like that – we picked our sauce and spice level and they cooked the sausage, crab, shrimp, crawfish and corn all together with the sauce in a big bag.  Then they just drop the bag on the table, put a bib on you, give you a pair of gloves and a bucket for shells and you just go to town.  It was really delicious and I’d love to go back!

The next morning, I took the kids to Holly’s hotel to go swimming for a little while.  The kids didn’t last as long as I expected.  That may have had something to do with the fact that I left Mitchell’s swim trucks and Evelyn’s goggles at home.  Mitch was able to borrow a pair of shorts from Avi thank goodness!  We had a great time visiting them and we were very sad to see them go!  Hopefully they are able to come and see us again soon!

 

Mitch’s First Trip to the Hospital

On Monday night, Mitch got hit in the eye with the handle of an umbrella while trying to close it back up.  When it happened, we were at Kroger and my back was turned (I was checking out at a u-scan).  He screamed and cried when it happened and I could tell he was in a great deal of pain.  We went home, iced it and gave him some ibuprofen.  A few hours later and it was red, but it didn’t seem too bad.  I figured he’d end up with a black eye.  Tuesday and Wednesday were uneventful.  He seemed 100% fine and his eye seemed no worse.  Just a little swollen and red. 

Thursday morning, I got up around 5:45 for work.  Everyone was sleeping soundly until right before I went to leave around 6:30.  Mitch suddenly woke up crying and saying the his eye hurt.  Pat and I weren’t sure what was wrong and Mitch refused to open his eyes for us to check them.  He got more and more upset and we decided to take him to Urgent Care.  In our panic, we forgot to check and it didn’t open until 8.  Since that was still about 45 minutes, we decided just to wait and take him to the pediatrician.  We thought about Nationwide Childrens ER, but a friend of Pat’s had waited nearly 4 hours to be seen there recently and we really wanted to avoid that if possible.  I got to the pediatrician with Mitch at 8 on the dot and he was seen right away.  Unfortunately, he refused to open his eyes for the doctor for more than half a second.  At this point, they made us an immediate appointment with an eye doctor at Nationwide.  When I was getting Mitch out of the car at the hospital, he finally opened his eyes for me and it was then that I really started to panic.  The white of his eye was so red and bloodshot and I couldn’t see his iris at all - it was completely covered in blood.  

He continued to be pretty uncooperative with the doctor at Nationwide, but they worked their magic and he finally consented and opened his eyes.  They did a bunch of different tests, including an ultrasound of his eye.  The official diagnosis was Traumatic Hyphema (bleeding of the eye).  The doctor said that he most likely had a small bleed from the original injury (getting hit with the umbrella handle), and that he’d somehow re-injured it.  She told me that he couldn’t see out of his eye and that there was too much blood present for her to tell how bad the damage was.  She prescribed steroid drops every two hours and dilating drops twice a day.  We needed to keep his eye protected with sunglasses or an hard plastic patch at all times.  He couldn’t lay flat and had to sleep slightly elevated.  He couldn’t run, jump or engage in any rough play.  She wanted him to stay calm.  She also wanted us to keep him out of school and the babysitter’s to reduce the risk of further injury.  She said she was concerned about the intraocular pressure (pressure inside the eye).  High pressure is a big risk factor for glaucoma.  We made an appointment to come back the next afternoon and finally headed home.  Mitch was a trooper during our very long morning and he got a new LEGO set as a reward.  

At our appointment on Friday, the doctor was pleased with Mitchell’s progress.  His vision had partially returned and the pressure was decreasing.  I was thrilled!  The drops were NOT fun for anyone, but they were working!  She said that we needed to continue the drops and bring him back in on Monday.  We had to continue to be vigilant for changes in pressure and if he displayed any signs of increased pressure (nausea, vomiting, pain), we needed to bring him in or take him to the ER right away.  

Mitch did well over the weekend and the doctor was very happy with how his eye looked on Monday.  We were able to reduce the drops and he was able to return to school, although he wasn’t allowed to play on the playground.  He really has been a trooper about everything (outside of the drops).  These restrictions are not easy to follow when you’re three years old.  We have another appointment on Friday and I’m hoping that some of the restrictions will be lifted.  I think we still have a long way to go before we’re back to normal.  Mitch will be at high risk for developing a cataract and glaucoma in that eye so it will need to be monitored closely.  I’m grateful to be so close to such a good children’s hospital!  Hopefully this will all be behind us someday soon.  

Friends