Week in Review...

(Originally typed Sunday night between 7:30 - 10:00 PM...having trouble with internet...)

I can't believe my last post was Tuesday morning...how time has flown by...(wait a minute...don't a couple of my posts start out like that??? hmmm).

Anyway...last week was really full work-wise, but I WAS ABLE TO GET SOME SLEEP thanks in part to the addition of Tylenol PM to my nightly mix of meds...oh well, at this point in time, what's one more med, right? At least this one allows me to sleep and fall back to sleep if/when I wake up throughout the night.. I was able to get quite a bit done at work..(surprising, considering everything that I'm taking...) the orientation on Wednesday went very smoothly..WhooHoo!! Thursday was an attempt to tie up some loose ends and projects at work before school starts on Monday and get things ready for me to be out of the office on Friday...I didn't actually get too much of my projects done, but did put out some student fires, which is really what I'm there for, so that was fine.

Friday I had my follow-up with the TMJ doctor...so Matt, Kellen, Bailey & I drove to MawMaw & PawPaw's on Thursday night so that we could get ready and leave for the appointment bright and early Friday morning. (Why is it that we always make plans and forget about the dog? We had planned to leave on Friday morning and then go to the zoo from the dr's...spend the night in Conroe...but Hello!!! the dog has to be looked after, too). Anyway, we decide to just take one car on Friday morning, since we figured that, if things stayed about the same as in previous doctors appointments, I'll be in and out of the office in about 5 minutes. Sure enough..we chatted about how I felt the medicine was working and he checked my jaw...2 more weeks of this medicine. I told him about the insomniac issues and the Tylenol PM addition..no problems there with him, either, and I was in and out of the office before my appointment was actually scheduled to begin.

We decided to go to the same diner that Matt, Kellen and I had eaten at during our last trip to Houston, the 59 Diner, for a late breakfast. At the diner, we sat in a booth next to three older folks who Kellen just took an instant liking to...A couple named Henry & Dorothy (she says that everyone calls her "Aunt Dotty") and another gentleman named Tom. They just took to Kellen, too. He played peek-a-boo with them, went through all of his animal sounds, described their clothes, hats, etc., named his breakfast guests (Mommy, Daddy, MawMaw, PawPaw), pointed out when PawPaw was taking a nap, and all-in-all just had a BLAST playing with them. We found out through the course of our conversations that Henry and Dotty have been married for 59 years and they've never had any children, (although by the way they interacted with Kellen I would have sworn that they had at least a dozen children/grandchildren), had been close to adopting three separate times but had put it off each time and really regret it now. Tom is a sketch artist, and ended up giving Kellen one of his sketches. He also did the thumb-coming-off joke to Kellen, which really shocked him...he clung to me with a shocked look on his face...poor Tom...I think he was really worried that he had scared Kellen badly and tried to explain to Kellen that it was just a joke...his thumb was still there. After our food arrived, Kellen would periodically stop eating and ask to say Hi...he wanted to turn around and just talk with them for a minute. It was just so cute! Dotty ended up giving Kellen a dollar to use at the zoo...and he gave them all high-fives when we left. He wasn't quite up to hugs, but that was ok...Like I said...he just had a blast with them!

A quick stop at Wal-Mart for diapers, pull-ups, sunglasses, and a harness, which we never did use, and we were off to the zoo. Kellen took a short nap during the drive, and we got to the zoo at about 11:30...just in time for feeding the sea lions. He enjoyed watching that and said that he wanted to go swimming with them. Ahhh...

Then it's off to see the monkeys. At one of the exhibits there is one monkey in particular that is stretching his athletic limits and giving us all a show. It's pretty amazing! At the monkey exhibits there are a couple of other kids about the same age or a little older than Kellen..

At the orangutangs we get a glimpse of the extent of Kellen's "mine" complex when he tells a little girl looking at the orangutan "No look monkey. My monkey."

I promptly told him that the monkey was for everyone to look at and that he needed to apologize to her. "Tell her that you are sorry."

He slowly walked over to her and gave her a hug. "I sorry," he whispered. The little girls mom looked at me and smiled. She mentioned that her daughter was at the same age and going through the same thing, so she understood. Thank goodness.

To the lions next...Lion King, as Kellen calls him, and Nala, of course.... Because of how the zoo is set up with the underground tunnel, we were able to get so close to them and Kellen just loved it! The lion was asleep most of the time...but it was amazing about how big these guys actually are!

Epetants (elephants) were next. Kellen's favorite by far. They were being so active for us! The first elephant was giving himself a bath with his trunk...and a long one at that, then proceeded to get a branch and use it to scratch himself. Then he walked to the fence and started to scratch his behind...then turned and started scratching his teeth! Kellen was just in heaven! It's at the elephants that we get the true picture of the extent of his "mine" complex. There was a set of, I'm guessing twins, who came to look at the elephants after we arrived, and he told them, in no uncertain terms, "No watch epetant. My epetant!" We had to have a discussion about the elephants being there for everyone to look at, not just Kellen.

Then Matt made the mistake of saying it was time to move one...I don't think so Daddy-o. Kellen could stay here for quite some time and it will probably be Kellen who decides it's time to leave the elephant area. And he eventually does, giving us an "All through" sign when he's finished. We take a family photo by the photo-opp elephant...whoo hoo...finally a Hapes family photo without Mommy behind the camera!

Onto the giraffes. He's just amazed by them! "Big giraffe!" We lucked out and arrived for their afternoon snack. This was just our lucky day! Great interaction and activity by the animals! It was wonderful!

Have I mentioned yet that it's an incredibly hot day? It's a beautiful day, but there is no breeze, so we have to be really careful to make sure that Kellen is drinking enough fluids to not get overheated. He has the tendency to get really hot and red, so we need to be really careful about this. Since we've been at the zoo a while, we decide that the last stop after the giraffes will be the petting zoo, then we'll call it a day.

Petting zoo it is...Grab a brush and he's petting the little goats. He doesn't introduce himself like he did during our last visit...maybe he learned his lesson since they didn't talk back at that time. One of them does actually try and "talk" to him, ...he just looks startled more than anything else. And continues to pet the goats. They've added a small water area since our last visit, but we skip it...let's get out of Houston before the traffic gets too bad, especially since it's a Friday afternoon.

Mommy demands one more Hapes family photo...I know, I know...I can be so demanding. But it is a rare occasion when I'm not the one behind the camera, so here we go!
Clean everyone up and away we go...baby wipes are the best! Sleep and snoring ensues almost as soon as we get into the vehicle...Kellen, of course, is the first to go...followed rather quickly by Matt, then Judy, then me...Thankfully, George is driving and completely awake.

Matt and I have plans to have an adult night out...YEAH! Thank you MawMaw and PawPaw!! We decided to go and watch a band called The Mighty Orc's playing at a bar called The Hideaway on Dunvale. He took another nap when we got back to his folks, woke up around 5ish...I layed down and took a little nap before we left, too. We got there at about 8:30, ordered our dinner, which was very good, by the way, especially for a bar...the band started at about 9:45 and they were good! Really good! We enjoyed ourselves. On the way home I made a comment to Matt that it was nice that we were still able to go out and enjoy ourselves - it's something that you read about in a lot of magazines...couples having kids and then not really being about to connect without those kids around...it's just nice that we're able to still enjoy each other. We need to try and do that more often...Is once a month even possible???

Saturday Judy, Kellen & I went to eat a late breakfast at Luby's, then we headed back to College Station at ~11. We worked in the yard, etc...just enjoyed each other on Saturday afternoon before Matt had to get ready to go to work. On a 48 hour shift. He hasn't had to pull one of those in a while. Matt weed-eated and we had Kellen outside with us while he was doing that...it scared Kellen really badly, although I'm not quite sure why...I think it was the loudness of it...so he calmed Kellen down and was able to make that work. Matt and Kellen took another one of their Daddy/son showers after Daddy gave him a hair cut (and Mommy gave Daddy the wrong guard...what was I thinking??? it's a 4, Rebecca...not a 2...but it's just hair, right? it will grow back). Then Daddy left for work...

Gramma and Pap Pa Gerren show up moments later...they haven't seen Kellen since his birthday party in July and this is Pap Pa's long weekend...so combine that with Matt's shift, and it's a good chance for me to have some company at the house and not be all by myself. Great timing! Gramma arrives with a toy Shrek, which is the first thing Kellen goes for. They have a wonderful time with Kellen! But it's getting late, my medicine is kicking in, and I'll have to go into details later....