Friday, March 30, 2007

Lilli's New Talent

Email from me to Dave:
"Just wanted to let you know that Lilli found the beer bottle cap that you left on the counter. She flung it across the kitchen. Not sure if I should reprimand her for throwing, reprimand you for leaving it on the counter, or encourage her to develop her talent... "

Email reply from Dave:
"Make sure to teach her that the path to highest velocity is to place it on the thumb and then launch it with the same motion that is used for snapping your fingers."

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Humor

Tipton: Knock Knock!
Me: Who's there?
Tipton: Orange!
Me: Orange who?
Tipton: Interrupting cow!

And then Tipton laughs hysterically.

Friday, March 16, 2007

Happy Birthday to Me


Wednesday was my birthday. And it was a great day! Tipton did not want to go to school, because he wanted to stay home with me and go to my birthday party. I promised him that we weren't going to have my party until Daddy got home, and that he (Tipton) could help me with the cake after school. Lilli and I made the cake batter and cooked 2 of the three rounds for the cake while Tipton was at school. We got McDs on the way to pick Tipton up from school. I baked the third round while we ate lunch. After lunch I put Lilli down for a nap and Tipton helped me make the cream cheese frosting and frost the cake. Mmmmmm - carrot cake (with carrots, pineapple, chopped walnuts and coconut) with cream cheese frosting. Yum! I made crab cakes and french fries for dinner. Then we had birthday cake! Tipton put the candles on and Lilli supervised the lighting of the candles. I put on the birthday balloon hat that (Aunt) Jenni had made for me and blew out the candles. Dave had come home early and brought me red roses and chocolate (although he didn't need to get me anything because he had already taken me out for a nice dinner last week while Aunt Jenni was here to watch the kids.) The day was wonderful. Beautiful sunshine and lots of hugs and giggles from my kiddos. I couldn't ask for more!

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Tonsilitis, Schmonsilitis

Tipton has had a cold recently. I just assumed it was a cold. He'd wake up congested and complaining of a sore throat. After about an hour he'd be fine. No fever or anything. Then on Wednesday I got a call from his school. He was having acute ear pain and I needed to come and get him. Poor, pitiful little guy. He was in a lot of pain.

When we got home I took him inside and took his temp. It was normal, or thereabouts. I gave him some motrin and had him lie down in his room. He asked if he could have a cookie. I told him that I would get him a cookie as soon as I got Lilli in from the car. I went out and got Lilli and put her into her crib for a nap, then went back to Tipton's room. He was sound asleep. He slept for three hours. When he woke up, he was absolutely fine. Throat didn't hurt, ear didn't hurt. He did NOT want to go to the doctor.

But I had struggled through the medical system and finally broke down and begged for help from Eva (our contact at Human Entrance. Eva is absolutely WONDERFUL and I'm not sure what I would do without her.) Eva was able to get us an appointment with a doctor that afternoon. So we all piled into the car and set out in search of the doctor's office.

We found it with relatively little trouble, and even found a place to park. We rushed in right on time and were seen pretty much immediately. The doctor looked in Tipton's mouth and said that his throat was very red and that he had white dots on his tonsils. He had tonsilitis. Then he looked into Tipton's ears. One was fine, but the other was not. The doctor said that his eardrum was "billowed, like a sail." So he had tonislitis and a secondary ear infection. The doctor prescribed an antibiotic and something to help with the inflamation.

We walked down the street to the pharmacy, but the pharmacist did not have the antibiotic. And also, the pharmacist said that the medication the doctor had prescribed for the inflamation was no longer sold in Sweden. Niiiiiiiiice. She called the doctor and he prescribed another medication. And then the pharmacist (a very nice lady) gave me the address of a pharmacy that would have both prescriptions. We walked back to the car and found a parking ticket on the windshield (my day just kept getting better.)

So we drove over to the other pharmacy and found a parking space and went inside. It was very busy, so we took a number and waited. They called your number and you went up to the counter and got your prescription. Only, they skipped my number. And much screaming (Lilli, not me) and confusion (all me) I got my turn at the counter. I swiped my credit card to pay for the medications and the pharmacist said "Um, there is something wrong. It is telling me to call the bank." (Oh sweet mother!) I ran my card through again and it went through just fine.

We got the medications. We went home. I decided that I needed caffiene, so I opened my emergency Dr Pepper that I keep in the back of the fridge (not realizing that it was partially frozen.) It exploded all over me and all over the kitchen. If Aunt Jenni had not been with me through all of this, I probably would have just sat down in the puddle of soda and cried. I was emotionally spent. But thankfully Aunt Jenni was there. And we just started laughing.

I kept Tipton home from school the next day, and he was bouncing off the walls. He was absolutely fine. Throat didn't hurt, ear didn't hurt. He didn't even have the sniffles.

Aunt Jenni!

My friend, Jennifer Eidelbach (aka Aunt Jenni) just came for a visit. It was great. We always have fun with Aunt Jenni. Aunt Jenni can make balloon animals (she used to be a clown, seriously.) She brought all sorts of wonderful goodies - stove top stuffing, oven fry, dried canberries and these two candy filled noses. Yes, candy filled noses. "Candy Hose Nose. Candy Slime Filled. Sniffles the Leaky Nose. Catch It On Your Tongue..." Aunt Jenni is always good for some crazy fun!

We went down to the harbor and walked along by the water. We had lunch in a cute little cafe, then explored the neighboring park. It turned out to be a dog park. And although we didn't have a dog, we had two small children - so we still had lots of fun. Got lots of great pictures.

We went to the zoo. It was about an hour's drive. The furthest I've ventured out of the city. It rained on the way there, but didn't rain while we were there. It was a zoo of nordic animals. You can check it out here. Several of the exhibits were closed (I guess the animals were still hibernating) but we still had fun. Lilli "moooooo'd" at every large animal - cows, horses, buffalo, deer, moose. We ate lunch overlooking the wolves (very cool!) I can't wait to go back in the spring! Tipton fell asleep in the car on the way home. It was very cute - he'd picked out a pair of polar bear ears from the giftshop and was wearing them. Got several cute pictures of Tipton asleep in the car, wearing his polar bear ears. Also got several good "road trip" pictures (courtesy of Aunt Jenni.) You can check them out on our flickr page. (Just as soon as I update it.)

Sadly, Aunt Jenni is on her way back to the USA. We will miss her, but she promises to be back soon!

Friday, March 02, 2007

Housekeeping

You know it's time to clean the house when your almost-two-year-old piles dust bunnies onto her little plastic play dishes and pretends they are food.