Well, that's what Kellen did. He spread his little wealth of virus to Mommy on Saturday. Luckily, I didn't actually feel fully ill until after the graduation breakfast was completely done and I was back home...I felt a little yucky for a few hours and then it hit me like a ton of bricks. So much for the fun Gerren family Christmas weekend! Gramma and Pap Pa Gerren were already on their way, and this was the only time that they could do Christmas with us, so we needed to have our Christmas this weekend, really. I kept hoping that maybe it was just something that I had eaten and that it would get out of my system quickly, but no such luck. Matt was wonderfully helpful, because I could barely life a finger, literally. This little virus just took it all out of me!
Despite me and my sidelined illness, Gramma & Pap Pa had a wonderful time with Kellen....is anyone surprised? When they first arrived we decided to postpone the big feast until Saturday night dinner (Pap Pa had made a chicken breast in the slow cooker & we were going to do all of the trimmings- I was so looking forward to that!), they put Kellen down for a late nap then they went to watch the Chronicles of Narnia and I took a very long nap. When they got back and I finally woke up, they ate (I watched) and then we opened up the presents - what fun! Kellen was the official present-opener, I believe, but he was also the official present-deliverer, and did a wonderful job of handing out the presents to the correct people. Then Daddy & Pap Pa went to the mens basketball game and left the women and child at the house. Poor Gramma! With Kellen and I to look after, she barely made a dent in the cleaning up of the kitchen, which she was also trying to do in addition to caring for the two of us. Kellen shocked us...he was playing with his new tool set, pulled out the two blue heart shaped wooded parts, looked at us and said, "Kellen have 2 hearts!" Whoa buddy! He also put together his new puzzle, a much harder one, with very little trouble...he's amazing when it comes to puzzles and it just astounds me!
During the course of the day, Kellen would come over to me and try to interact with me or play with me, etc. He wouldn't understand why I wouldn't really let him, although I would tell him that Mommy didn't feel well. As he said his prayers for the food, he incorporated, "Bless Mommy feel better." Also during the day, I had asked for a quick hug from him and Gramma had mentioned to him that hugs make Mommy and Gramma's happy. He smiled, walked over to me with his arms out and said, "Kellen hug Mommy. Make Mommy happy." Every so ofter he would come over and do that to me. Too cute!
To progress with the sharing, and to show that our household does our fair share of that...it's Matt's turn today. Because of his souped up immune system, his external symptoms aren't near what mine were yesterday, although he's had his share. He's been sleeping virtually all day long, so it's been pretty rough for him and I know that he feels miserable if he's staying in bed that long. As I tucked Kellen into bed tonight, Daddy got a, "Bless Daddy home. Bless Daddy happy feel better." Gramma and I went on a small excursion today...she had some Christmas shopping to do and I was going stir-crazy from being in the house non-stop for so long, so we decided to go to Ross Dress for Less and then TJ Maxx if we had the time. We did pretty well at both places, but were gone much longer than we had originally anticipated, much to Pap Pa's chagrin.
All in all, despite the illnesses, we had a pretty good Christmas weekend. Not much we can or could do about being sick, so we weathered through and made the best of it!
Sunday, December 18, 2005
Thursday, December 15, 2005
Sick kiddo
My little man is sick. I hate it when he doesn't feel well! I got the call this afternoon at work - and it's one of my least favorite - throwing up. Apparently there is a stomach virus making its way around daycare and the throwing up lasts for about 12 hours...we're in hour # 7 at this point. He threw up twice at daycare and then once again on the way home...Yup...in the car. I hope I got it cleaned up ok...I didn't go back out to the car and check again once we were situated in the house (what was I thinking??)
Once we were home and situated I tried to get him to drink some Pedialyte - which he had liked before in previous illnesses, but because it wasn't the apple juice, prune juice, or milk he had asked for, he wanted no part of it. What a stubborn kiddo! I later disguised it by just putting it in one of his sippy cups and calling it juice...he drank it right up and asked for more...a couple of times, actually. That made me feel good...so I know that he's hydrated at least a little bit.
He has told me on and off tonight that he's hungry, but I'm only allowing crackers until we figure out what is staying down and what's not. He ate part of a cracker but wasn't too interested - ended up smashing it on the table, so I guess he wasn't as hungry as he made out to be...
We had a discussion about the "bucket" and getting sick in it...haven't tried that out yet but good luck Mommy on that one, I'm sure. He did mention it to me later on, though, after he reminded me that, "Kellen no feel good. Kellen throw up at school and Kellen throw up car, but Kellen throw up bucket, ok?" As I went into slight panic mode, I realized that he wasn't expressing the need to throw up, just reminding me that he understood he was supposed to throw up in the bucket if he needed to do so. Hmm...not so sure that will actually happen though.
We watched Madagascar, Shrek, then Shrek II (he was playing while these were on, so it wasn't as if he was glued to the TV the whole time here...). It was way past bedtime when that last one was over, so I put my foot down when he sweetly asked to watch Aladdin. No sir, buddy boy...It's night-night time. No real complaints; however, when I said that. Change of diaper and of clothes and he actually crawled himself into bed before I even made it into the room! Poor guy! I rearranged some furniture and some of his toys, just in case...and put the bucket right next to his bed...also just in case. You never know, right?
As I tucked him into bed with all of his favorite animals, I inadvertently covered Shrek up with the covers and Kellen didn't realize that he was in the bed. We were saying our prayers and Kellen says, "Excuse me Mommy. Kellen forgot Shrek."
I uncovered Shrek for him and he smiled, "Oh. Ok. Thank you. Where Shrek's eyes?"
I turned Shrek around so that he was facing Kellen and pointed to his eyes. "There they are sweetie. Shrek's eyes are right there."
"Thank you, Mommy."
Unscripted, unprompted...and while he's sick...my little sweetie with the wonderful manners. Wow! I am just so absolutely blessed!
Once we were home and situated I tried to get him to drink some Pedialyte - which he had liked before in previous illnesses, but because it wasn't the apple juice, prune juice, or milk he had asked for, he wanted no part of it. What a stubborn kiddo! I later disguised it by just putting it in one of his sippy cups and calling it juice...he drank it right up and asked for more...a couple of times, actually. That made me feel good...so I know that he's hydrated at least a little bit.
He has told me on and off tonight that he's hungry, but I'm only allowing crackers until we figure out what is staying down and what's not. He ate part of a cracker but wasn't too interested - ended up smashing it on the table, so I guess he wasn't as hungry as he made out to be...
We had a discussion about the "bucket" and getting sick in it...haven't tried that out yet but good luck Mommy on that one, I'm sure. He did mention it to me later on, though, after he reminded me that, "Kellen no feel good. Kellen throw up at school and Kellen throw up car, but Kellen throw up bucket, ok?" As I went into slight panic mode, I realized that he wasn't expressing the need to throw up, just reminding me that he understood he was supposed to throw up in the bucket if he needed to do so. Hmm...not so sure that will actually happen though.
We watched Madagascar, Shrek, then Shrek II (he was playing while these were on, so it wasn't as if he was glued to the TV the whole time here...). It was way past bedtime when that last one was over, so I put my foot down when he sweetly asked to watch Aladdin. No sir, buddy boy...It's night-night time. No real complaints; however, when I said that. Change of diaper and of clothes and he actually crawled himself into bed before I even made it into the room! Poor guy! I rearranged some furniture and some of his toys, just in case...and put the bucket right next to his bed...also just in case. You never know, right?
As I tucked him into bed with all of his favorite animals, I inadvertently covered Shrek up with the covers and Kellen didn't realize that he was in the bed. We were saying our prayers and Kellen says, "Excuse me Mommy. Kellen forgot Shrek."
I uncovered Shrek for him and he smiled, "Oh. Ok. Thank you. Where Shrek's eyes?"
I turned Shrek around so that he was facing Kellen and pointed to his eyes. "There they are sweetie. Shrek's eyes are right there."
"Thank you, Mommy."
Unscripted, unprompted...and while he's sick...my little sweetie with the wonderful manners. Wow! I am just so absolutely blessed!
I like ta' move it!
I went in to get Kellen just now, and those were some of the first words out of his mouth, after he told me that he heard the train coming and that he had broken a book. He also informed me that he wanted to watch the Madagascar music (music video that accompanies the DVD) and dance. Hello! it's 6:20AM - boy does he wake up with lots of energy - sometimes at least! He's so cute when he tells me that, "I like ta' move it, move it!"
As for me...I was just exhausted last night! Lost was a rerun - again! Arg! And I couldn't even muster the energy to make it through all of Alias...Someone had kidnapped Syndey and was drugging her? That tells you how far into the show I made it! I'll have to get online and get the update...and I didn't want to miss any of the shows this season, either...arg Rebecca!
As for me...I was just exhausted last night! Lost was a rerun - again! Arg! And I couldn't even muster the energy to make it through all of Alias...Someone had kidnapped Syndey and was drugging her? That tells you how far into the show I made it! I'll have to get online and get the update...and I didn't want to miss any of the shows this season, either...arg Rebecca!
Tuesday, December 13, 2005
Funny things
Funny and cute things that Kellen said today before I zapped out on the recliner and Matt took over full parental, put Kellen to bed, night-night duties:
"Wait just a minute."
"I want to go home and see my Daddy."
"Come on guys. Give me a break." Said from Kellen in the backseat of the car to the guys riding bikes who did not stop like they were supposed to at the stop sign.
"Kellen busy." What is Kellen busy doing? I asked him. "Kellen busy looking at cars."
"Kellen want to see the big bear and Santa Clause come out and say Hi again." referring to the decorations at one of the houses next to our mailbox that we saw yesterday - twice. The Santa Clause comes out of the chimney on top of their deck roof and then descends back into the chimney.
Oh my, oh my...where does he get this stuff?
"Wait just a minute."
"I want to go home and see my Daddy."
"Come on guys. Give me a break." Said from Kellen in the backseat of the car to the guys riding bikes who did not stop like they were supposed to at the stop sign.
"Kellen busy." What is Kellen busy doing? I asked him. "Kellen busy looking at cars."
"Kellen want to see the big bear and Santa Clause come out and say Hi again." referring to the decorations at one of the houses next to our mailbox that we saw yesterday - twice. The Santa Clause comes out of the chimney on top of their deck roof and then descends back into the chimney.
Oh my, oh my...where does he get this stuff?
Monday, December 12, 2005
Locking doors
Locking doors is something that I've learned Kellen can do today...car doors. Luckily, I had my keys out of the car, since he and I were both out of the car and Kellen hit the car door locks and tried to close the car doors, all the while thinking that he was helping Mommy unpack the car and get into the house after coming home from work. Well, that's what he sees me do every day, right? Oh boy! I'm going to have to be extra careful from now on about this one! The guys from Pop-a-Lock will be even more of our friends than they already are, and that could get really costly really quickly!
Side note regarding the car...many of you have heard me say that I'm going to drive my wonderful Grand Am into the ground. I've had this car since 1999 when I bought it from its original owner when it barely had 30,000 miles on it, now it doesn't even have 80,000, but the driver side mirror just fell out this morning. Strange! I'll re-glue it and the upholstry that's starting to come undone from the driver side panel, but hmmm... It's just a '97, so it really isn't that old and I guess I would rather have the body have issues that the inner workings, but it was just odd that I closed my door to leave for work and the mirror just fell off. And I really didn't realize how many times a day I actually use that mirror until today when I can't use it. I need to glue that thing back in quickly!
So I get to daycare to pick up Kellen and his teacher tells me that he had fallen sometime today...not hard enough to hurt himself, but he decided that he wanted some ice. The teacher told him that he didn't need ice, so he proceeded to hit his head against something and then said, "Now Kellen need ice." What a hoot! We're really in for it!
Side note regarding the car...many of you have heard me say that I'm going to drive my wonderful Grand Am into the ground. I've had this car since 1999 when I bought it from its original owner when it barely had 30,000 miles on it, now it doesn't even have 80,000, but the driver side mirror just fell out this morning. Strange! I'll re-glue it and the upholstry that's starting to come undone from the driver side panel, but hmmm... It's just a '97, so it really isn't that old and I guess I would rather have the body have issues that the inner workings, but it was just odd that I closed my door to leave for work and the mirror just fell off. And I really didn't realize how many times a day I actually use that mirror until today when I can't use it. I need to glue that thing back in quickly!
So I get to daycare to pick up Kellen and his teacher tells me that he had fallen sometime today...not hard enough to hurt himself, but he decided that he wanted some ice. The teacher told him that he didn't need ice, so he proceeded to hit his head against something and then said, "Now Kellen need ice." What a hoot! We're really in for it!
Sunday, December 11, 2005
Sleeping in
Well, as I rolled over and looked at the clock this morning, I realized that I had done just that. I cannot remember the last time that I had slept in until...wait for it...10 AM! I couldn't believe it! I had let Matt sleep in yesterday morning, and he returned the favor for me today, but I just couldn't believe that my body had allowed itself to do that! He laughed when I finally came out of the room and said that I must have really needed some sleep, because I hardly stirred when he had gotten up. Granted, last night we were out later than normal because of his Christmas party, but I fell asleep around 11:15ish, so it wasn't all that late. I have been burning the candle at both ends lately and I guess my body just kicked in and said that it had had enough...so I'll consider this a recharge and a leisurely morning rather than laziness. Man-o-man was that nice!
Kellen hasn't been feeling well today...he's struggling to go poo poo and telling us that "Kellen tummy hurts and Kellen needs prune juice." If you could just hear the way he says that it would break your heart. It has almost made me cry a couple of times today to see how badly he's hurting. I've been juicing him up for the last couple of days, so he has been going a little bit, but I guess it's still hurting him. To add to this, he's got a rather substantial case of diaper rash, so it's really painful when we change his diaper, poor guy! And he knows that it's going to be painful and tries to avoid it after he's had even a small poo poo, which of course compounds the problem. Quite the catch 22 here. (Yes, he's still in the diaper at home but doing rather well on the potty at school - except for the last couple of days when he's been having trouble with the poo poo)
On a lighter note, he's otherwise been in an ok mood...wanting to watch just about everything today. I went to a conference a few months ago and brought him back a stress zebra (you know the stress ball material stuff that they now make in all kinds of shapes?, well this is a zebra) and he's now calling it Marty because of Madagascar. Well, all day long he's been carrying that around and occasionally he'll put it on his head and just sit with it there. Not quite sure what's going on with that, but it's quite entertaining. He was doing it while we were out of the room, so it wasn't even for attention or show. I walked into the room and saw it and just about fell over...but tried to be quiet so that I could get Matt to see it, too. His comments and actions are more and more grown up every day. It's quite scary sometimes what comes out of his mouth. He told us today that he wanted to watch the other Toy Story when Einstein was finished. Are 28 1/2 month old kids supposed to be saying coherent sentences like that?
Kellen hasn't been feeling well today...he's struggling to go poo poo and telling us that "Kellen tummy hurts and Kellen needs prune juice." If you could just hear the way he says that it would break your heart. It has almost made me cry a couple of times today to see how badly he's hurting. I've been juicing him up for the last couple of days, so he has been going a little bit, but I guess it's still hurting him. To add to this, he's got a rather substantial case of diaper rash, so it's really painful when we change his diaper, poor guy! And he knows that it's going to be painful and tries to avoid it after he's had even a small poo poo, which of course compounds the problem. Quite the catch 22 here. (Yes, he's still in the diaper at home but doing rather well on the potty at school - except for the last couple of days when he's been having trouble with the poo poo)
On a lighter note, he's otherwise been in an ok mood...wanting to watch just about everything today. I went to a conference a few months ago and brought him back a stress zebra (you know the stress ball material stuff that they now make in all kinds of shapes?, well this is a zebra) and he's now calling it Marty because of Madagascar. Well, all day long he's been carrying that around and occasionally he'll put it on his head and just sit with it there. Not quite sure what's going on with that, but it's quite entertaining. He was doing it while we were out of the room, so it wasn't even for attention or show. I walked into the room and saw it and just about fell over...but tried to be quiet so that I could get Matt to see it, too. His comments and actions are more and more grown up every day. It's quite scary sometimes what comes out of his mouth. He told us today that he wanted to watch the other Toy Story when Einstein was finished. Are 28 1/2 month old kids supposed to be saying coherent sentences like that?
Saturday, December 10, 2005
Party
We've just gotten back from Matt's EMS Christmas party and it was so nice! They served steaks and all the trimmings, had Santa bring gifts to all of the kids, and then had a Chinese gift exchange for the adults. Kellen refused to sit on Santa's lap, and just had Daddy take his present from Santa. I can tell already that trying to get a picture with Santa this year for MawMaw Hapes will be very interesting.
See what I mean?? Matt ended up with some coffee mugs and some hot chocolate (which is ok, even though I made more than a half dozen batches of homemade hot chocolate mix today...I'll always drink hot chocolate *grin*), and I ended up with some rechargable halogen light of some sort that Matt was so excited about. The service gave everyone personalized travel coffee mugs with the logo and personalized pens...what a nice treat!
As for our anniversary yesterday, there isn't much to speak of at this point in time. That's not to say it was a bad day, just not much to report. Matt got home from the end of his 36 hour shift and after being away for that long, he pretty much belonged to Kellen for the night, because that little man had really missed his Daddy! They played for a good long while, then Daddy put him down to bed quite a bit later than his normal bedtime. Matt had given me a card prior to going on his shift (on Wednesday) because he knew about the pending bad weather and was worried that something would happen that would cause him to get held over at work and that he might not make it home on Friday...so he figured better early than late. For our actual anniversary celebration, we were planning to go to a cabin in the hill country for a couple of days during the week after Christmas, but I talked with MawMaw today and she regretfully informed me that the person who we were to be borrowing the cabin from had just sold the cabin. Bless her heart, Judy had found out about this yesterday and couldn't bring herself to tell me this on my anniversary...Oh well! We'll just figure out something else to do for a small retreat/escape for a couple of days.
See what I mean?? Matt ended up with some coffee mugs and some hot chocolate (which is ok, even though I made more than a half dozen batches of homemade hot chocolate mix today...I'll always drink hot chocolate *grin*), and I ended up with some rechargable halogen light of some sort that Matt was so excited about. The service gave everyone personalized travel coffee mugs with the logo and personalized pens...what a nice treat!
As for our anniversary yesterday, there isn't much to speak of at this point in time. That's not to say it was a bad day, just not much to report. Matt got home from the end of his 36 hour shift and after being away for that long, he pretty much belonged to Kellen for the night, because that little man had really missed his Daddy! They played for a good long while, then Daddy put him down to bed quite a bit later than his normal bedtime. Matt had given me a card prior to going on his shift (on Wednesday) because he knew about the pending bad weather and was worried that something would happen that would cause him to get held over at work and that he might not make it home on Friday...so he figured better early than late. For our actual anniversary celebration, we were planning to go to a cabin in the hill country for a couple of days during the week after Christmas, but I talked with MawMaw today and she regretfully informed me that the person who we were to be borrowing the cabin from had just sold the cabin. Bless her heart, Judy had found out about this yesterday and couldn't bring herself to tell me this on my anniversary...Oh well! We'll just figure out something else to do for a small retreat/escape for a couple of days.
Thursday, December 08, 2005
Bad Weather Day
Well, today was a bad weather day and TAMU was closed...only I didn't know it until I was dropping Kellen off at daycare. Considering the fact that I was minutes away from work, he and I were already dressed, and he loves daycare, (he was, in fact, actually asking to see his teacher Christy and some of his friends this morning)...and I had some major things on my schedule (a luncheon planned for over 75 people that had required an RSVP and $$ that we had to figure out how to now handle postponement & communication for), I decided to head into work to cover some details and get some things done while no one was around. Apparently there were two other people with the same idea. *grin* I really didn't think that things were that bad...I had left ~ 10 minutes early, gone out 15 minutes before I was planning to leave to turn my car and defroster on...it was cold, but I didn't have any problems. I can understand the apprehension of people having to travel in from other surrounding cities, but Matt drove to his shift this morning and left before 5, so I guess I don't really see the point of this day (listen to me begrudging a day off here...what is wrong with me?). Indulge me for a moment...what gets me is that it seems like every time we get the spur of the moment day off splurge, Matt was originally supposed to have the day off and then had just recently switched with sometime, usually to help them out and be nice...he wasn't supposed to be working today...he was supposed to be on a 24 hour shift yesterday and then a 12 hour shift tomorrow...It's better in the long run because it saves on a round trip's worth of gas, but still...we could have had a whole day to feel like we were playing hooky together. I think that's what really gets me about today. Anyway, I ended up working until noon (the absolute latest that I was allowed to stay in my office, per direct order from the head honcho himself *grin*) and will just end up taking a half day at some other point in time before the holiday break to make up for it. On a very positive note...my to-do list that I had set out for myself yesterday afternoon actually got accomplished in the half-day that I was in the office this morning. YEAH! It's amazing what can be accomplished with few interruptions!
By the time I left, Kellen was being put down for a nap at school, so I just left him there and ran some errands. Our 5 year anniversary is tomorrow, so I was finally able to get some shopping done for it and Christmas shopping done for Matt, although we'll really be celebrating our anniversary in a cabin in the hill country for a few days the week after Christmas, which of course means that we'll have a small celebration tomorrow and a larger one then, right girls? Then I came home and made some cookies...I have a Holiday party tomorrow afternoon and then Matt's EMS party is Saturday & we have another Christmas party on Sunday, so there are three events that we'll need to bring something to...so the cookies (no bake chocolate cookies - I take them to virtually any function that requires someone to bring something) are the simplest thing that I can whip up quickly, which I did. I was planning to make a couple of batches, but ran out of some things, so added grocery shopping to my to-do list. One batch down, ran to pick up an order for Waller County EMS at Collegiate Illustrations in Bryan, something they need for the party on Saturday. Then I picked up Kellen from daycare, ran to the grocery store, then went back to the house to make dinner & let Kellen watch Madagascar, one of his early Christmas presents from his Gramma & PapPa Gerren, which is a totally cute movie, by the way - and I can even get past the fact that Ben Stiller is in it. I decided that instead of another batch of cookies I would make brownies, so I cooked them after I finished up with dinner. I had planned to also make some peanut butter fudge & homemade hot chocolate mix, but I'm thinking that those two things are going by the wayside for tonight...maybe I'll get to them tomorrow. I'm beat!
Speaking of Madagascar, Kellen has just immediately fallen in love with this movie...yesterday he just got me in the car. I almost lost it driving. I guess Matt had let him watch the movie again yesterday morning during their fun time before they came to the chili cook-off, but on the way home, Kellen just busts out in song with,
"I like move it, I like move it. I like move it, I like MOVE IT!."
Let me tell you what..It was actually on beat to the music that accompanies this song. I just about died it was so funny, but of course maintained my cool and control of the vehicle and managed to get us home safely.
Tonight, we ended up watching the video to that song..hmm..I think three times total...it's really cute, but then Kellen would say that he wanted more dance. It was hilarious, because he was watching the video intently, then would start to imitate their dance moves!
What a hoot!
By the time I left, Kellen was being put down for a nap at school, so I just left him there and ran some errands. Our 5 year anniversary is tomorrow, so I was finally able to get some shopping done for it and Christmas shopping done for Matt, although we'll really be celebrating our anniversary in a cabin in the hill country for a few days the week after Christmas, which of course means that we'll have a small celebration tomorrow and a larger one then, right girls? Then I came home and made some cookies...I have a Holiday party tomorrow afternoon and then Matt's EMS party is Saturday & we have another Christmas party on Sunday, so there are three events that we'll need to bring something to...so the cookies (no bake chocolate cookies - I take them to virtually any function that requires someone to bring something) are the simplest thing that I can whip up quickly, which I did. I was planning to make a couple of batches, but ran out of some things, so added grocery shopping to my to-do list. One batch down, ran to pick up an order for Waller County EMS at Collegiate Illustrations in Bryan, something they need for the party on Saturday. Then I picked up Kellen from daycare, ran to the grocery store, then went back to the house to make dinner & let Kellen watch Madagascar, one of his early Christmas presents from his Gramma & PapPa Gerren, which is a totally cute movie, by the way - and I can even get past the fact that Ben Stiller is in it. I decided that instead of another batch of cookies I would make brownies, so I cooked them after I finished up with dinner. I had planned to also make some peanut butter fudge & homemade hot chocolate mix, but I'm thinking that those two things are going by the wayside for tonight...maybe I'll get to them tomorrow. I'm beat!
Speaking of Madagascar, Kellen has just immediately fallen in love with this movie...yesterday he just got me in the car. I almost lost it driving. I guess Matt had let him watch the movie again yesterday morning during their fun time before they came to the chili cook-off, but on the way home, Kellen just busts out in song with,
"I like move it, I like move it. I like move it, I like MOVE IT!."
Let me tell you what..It was actually on beat to the music that accompanies this song. I just about died it was so funny, but of course maintained my cool and control of the vehicle and managed to get us home safely.
Tonight, we ended up watching the video to that song..hmm..I think three times total...it's really cute, but then Kellen would say that he wanted more dance. It was hilarious, because he was watching the video intently, then would start to imitate their dance moves!
What a hoot!
Wednesday, December 07, 2005
1st Place
Although I was just entering for fun, it ended up that my team, "Hapester & Catanach" actually won 1st place at the 9th Annual Entomology Departmental Chili Cook-off today. Wow! My team partner was pretty funny...she joked that she had chosen the right team to join and that maybe next year she would actually help to cook the chili. *grin* For the most part, she was a team member in name only (although she did wash and clean up the crock pot, as I was supposed to be in two places at the same time today during this cook-off), which didn't bother me at all...I wanted as many students as possible to be a part of this if they wanted to be. I think one of the funniest things about this is that many of the people there today were teasing Matt about him not letting me actually make this chili for us at home...and now it's "award-winning" chili! We hadn't thought that he was going to be able to make it to this event today, but before we were sure about it we had discussed he and I making two different kinds of chili and entering two teams...maybe we'll be able to do that next year. He ended up switching shifts at the last minute with someone at their request and brought Kellen up there with him to join in on the fun - which was a HUGE treat for everyone, but it wasn't enough time for him to make his chili. The students just love it when I bring Kellen around!
In case you're wondering, yes, the prize is actually a stock pot...and it has the first place plaque on the outside and then on the inside is a smaller plaque with the individual year winners, so I'll get it to keep in my office (after they've updated it) for the year. Whoo hoo!
In case you're wondering, yes, the prize is actually a stock pot...and it has the first place plaque on the outside and then on the inside is a smaller plaque with the individual year winners, so I'll get it to keep in my office (after they've updated it) for the year. Whoo hoo!
Tuesday, December 06, 2005
Chili Cook-off
The undergraduates host a chili cook-off every year during the "dead days"...and this year it's being held tomorrow, so my chili is currently brewing in the kitchen and it smells so good!. Maybe next year both Matt and I can enter a "team" since we cook our chili so differently. Mine is "yankee chili" with beans - three different kinds...yummy!!!, which Matt won't allow me to make at any point in time unless I'm taking it to a pot luck or something. His chili is southern chili and doesn't include beans. I do; however, have another member for my once one person team - one of the undergrads was around when I was trying to turn in my entry form and fee and said that she didn't have a team but volunteered to be on mine. Whoo hoo! So we're "Hapester & Catanach" - not a really catchy name, but I wasn't in creative-mode today, I was in productive mode...and did get quite a bit done...not everything on my to-do list, but 5 of the 8 things off of it that I had ear-marked for today (and quite a few that had never made it onto that list). Not too shabby for trying out that new technique learned in that workshop last week (and the technique isn't a to-do list...those of you who know me know quite well that I have those with me virtually ALL of the time). It's more of a to-do time allocation management list, and I haven't fully implemental all aspects of this system at this point in time. Phases Rebecca, phases.
Anyway...I have never actually made it to the Chili Cook-off, so I'm excited to see how the turn-out will be for tomorrow. I hope for their sake that the turn-out will be a good one...When I talked with the president earlier today, he only mentioned 5 teams, including mine, so I'm hoping that there were more teams that had signed up that he didn't know about. I'm not thinking that we'll win or anything like that (my chili isn't a hot chili), but I just think it's nice to support them in what they're trying to do. I'm supposed to be in two places at once tomorrow, so I'll enter the contest and stay for a little while there, then leave to go to the COALS advisor meeting and just make it over to that a little late, which shouldn't be too much of a problem.
As for Kellen...He woke up on the wrong side of bed this morning, but his Daddy got to deal with him and get him dressed for school. We're still counteracting the effects of the grandparents, I think, because he wanted to watch everything on TV, or what he wanted he wanted right then, etc. He was just being a bear! I don't think he actually got a swat, but it was pretty close. He had a rough morning, because Matt had brought him into bed at I don't know what time...and I finally had enough at about 5 and took him back to his room and put him back to bed, and he went back to sleep, amazingly enough. So he just had an overall rough morning, so it was somewhat understandable that he wasn't acting like himself.
After work, I got to daycare to be told that he had successfully poo poo'ed in the potty today...and had a nice little sticker on his shirt as a reward. When asked if he had done so, he replied quite proudly, "Yes. Kellen poo poo potty!" I once again do NOT understand what world warp we go through when we leave daycare that he does so well there and NOT at home. Will I ever understand this?
There are some days when all I want to do is have him sit in my lap and I wish he would just let me snuggle with him...but alas, it seems that those days are over now. He only does that on rare occasions when he feels like it, and usually that's when he doesn't feel well, so although I enjoy snuggling with him, I don't like for him to feel poorly. I just wanted to snuggle with him tonight as I broke rules and let him watch the Charlie Brown Christmas special on TV (which doesn't help the overcoming grandparent rule-bending weekend, but oh well!). He was being so sweet, but no such luck. I managed a hug and a quick sit down on the lap, but that was about the extent of it. He did; however, enjoy the show...and asked for more when it was over. Too cute!
Anyway...I have never actually made it to the Chili Cook-off, so I'm excited to see how the turn-out will be for tomorrow. I hope for their sake that the turn-out will be a good one...When I talked with the president earlier today, he only mentioned 5 teams, including mine, so I'm hoping that there were more teams that had signed up that he didn't know about. I'm not thinking that we'll win or anything like that (my chili isn't a hot chili), but I just think it's nice to support them in what they're trying to do. I'm supposed to be in two places at once tomorrow, so I'll enter the contest and stay for a little while there, then leave to go to the COALS advisor meeting and just make it over to that a little late, which shouldn't be too much of a problem.
As for Kellen...He woke up on the wrong side of bed this morning, but his Daddy got to deal with him and get him dressed for school. We're still counteracting the effects of the grandparents, I think, because he wanted to watch everything on TV, or what he wanted he wanted right then, etc. He was just being a bear! I don't think he actually got a swat, but it was pretty close. He had a rough morning, because Matt had brought him into bed at I don't know what time...and I finally had enough at about 5 and took him back to his room and put him back to bed, and he went back to sleep, amazingly enough. So he just had an overall rough morning, so it was somewhat understandable that he wasn't acting like himself.
After work, I got to daycare to be told that he had successfully poo poo'ed in the potty today...and had a nice little sticker on his shirt as a reward. When asked if he had done so, he replied quite proudly, "Yes. Kellen poo poo potty!" I once again do NOT understand what world warp we go through when we leave daycare that he does so well there and NOT at home. Will I ever understand this?
There are some days when all I want to do is have him sit in my lap and I wish he would just let me snuggle with him...but alas, it seems that those days are over now. He only does that on rare occasions when he feels like it, and usually that's when he doesn't feel well, so although I enjoy snuggling with him, I don't like for him to feel poorly. I just wanted to snuggle with him tonight as I broke rules and let him watch the Charlie Brown Christmas special on TV (which doesn't help the overcoming grandparent rule-bending weekend, but oh well!). He was being so sweet, but no such luck. I managed a hug and a quick sit down on the lap, but that was about the extent of it. He did; however, enjoy the show...and asked for more when it was over. Too cute!
Monday, December 05, 2005
Whoo hoo
Yippee! Except for two address, one of which is sitting on my old planner at work and the other of which I'm waiting on a return phone call and/or an email reply...my Christmas cards are addressed. Yeah! Now I just need to put the return addresses labels on them, stuff them, stamp them....yadda, yadda, yadda. BUT, I'm going to celebrate the small accomplishments here folks! YEAH!
Special Day
I had such a special day today, but I'll get to that in a minute...Gramma and Pap Pa Gerren came down yesterday in preparation for the special day today and were able to spend yesterday afternoon with us, and they just had a ball with Kellen, of course! Gramma is sometimes more of a kiddo than her grandson, and brought some early Christmas presents for him to open, and he LOVED THEM! He got a Winnie the Pooh 3-D puzzle, and I had never even seen those kind of puzzles before! They are so cool! We've determined that Kellen is a puzzle king...he's just a genius at some of these puzzles that he shouldn't be able to put together yet...really! They also brought him some Veggie Tales figures from the Jonah story, which I don't think he's put down since he opened...he even had them watch him eat dinner last night & tonight and took them to daycare with him today. He got a snowman snow-globe and some sort of snowman singing gun thing...not quite sure what to call the latter...and two Christmas books. Unfortunately for the books, they came after the Veggie Tales, so he really didn't care one thing about them since he was too busy playing with Twippo and Junior, but he'll read them later, I'm sure...
As for today, it was a great day! The awards ceremony for the President's Meritorious Service Award was this morning, and it was so nice to have my parents and Matt's folks there for my cheering section...I had lots of other folks there for support as well, so I don't want to leave anyone out, but it was just a really nice day. The awards ceremony went really smoothly (except that I just wanted the video that Matt took with the digital camera and realized that I didn't shake Dr. Gates' hand again at the end of the comments before I went to sit down and it looked like he was trying to shake my hand and congratulate me again...Whoops!) Then Matt, his parents & I went to lunch at Cheddars and had a wonderful lunch...topped off with the Cookie Monster dessert(YEAH!!! - I just LOVE that dessert & it's such a treat!!!). So it was a leisurely day and lunch...I was nice to myself and had scheduled my freshman on Friday for their pre-registration appointments and only had one appointment on my calendar for 3 PM today...
Back to the office after a late lunch to actually work for a few hours and the day was virtually gone...worked a little late and tried to prioritize what needed to get done for tomorrow (I'm trying to implement some of the skills from a workshop I attended last week - Balancing Work & Family - we'll see how that goes). Kellen and I played for a little while with his new puzzle and Veggie Tales after we got home and I tried to counteract the effects of the grandparents schedule (you know...things get a little off-schedule when the grandparents are here - he was up until at least 9 PM last night...but it's ok) by getting him in bed pretty much at 7:30 PM on the dot...he was so tired tonight! Although he fussed while getting ready for bed, I didn't even have to go into his room once to tell him to turn the light off...I think he just crashed once he actually laid down!
My goal for the rest of the evening...work on addressing Christmas cards...wish me luck!
As for today, it was a great day! The awards ceremony for the President's Meritorious Service Award was this morning, and it was so nice to have my parents and Matt's folks there for my cheering section...I had lots of other folks there for support as well, so I don't want to leave anyone out, but it was just a really nice day. The awards ceremony went really smoothly (except that I just wanted the video that Matt took with the digital camera and realized that I didn't shake Dr. Gates' hand again at the end of the comments before I went to sit down and it looked like he was trying to shake my hand and congratulate me again...Whoops!) Then Matt, his parents & I went to lunch at Cheddars and had a wonderful lunch...topped off with the Cookie Monster dessert(YEAH!!! - I just LOVE that dessert & it's such a treat!!!). So it was a leisurely day and lunch...I was nice to myself and had scheduled my freshman on Friday for their pre-registration appointments and only had one appointment on my calendar for 3 PM today...
Back to the office after a late lunch to actually work for a few hours and the day was virtually gone...worked a little late and tried to prioritize what needed to get done for tomorrow (I'm trying to implement some of the skills from a workshop I attended last week - Balancing Work & Family - we'll see how that goes). Kellen and I played for a little while with his new puzzle and Veggie Tales after we got home and I tried to counteract the effects of the grandparents schedule (you know...things get a little off-schedule when the grandparents are here - he was up until at least 9 PM last night...but it's ok) by getting him in bed pretty much at 7:30 PM on the dot...he was so tired tonight! Although he fussed while getting ready for bed, I didn't even have to go into his room once to tell him to turn the light off...I think he just crashed once he actually laid down!
My goal for the rest of the evening...work on addressing Christmas cards...wish me luck!
Sunday, December 04, 2005
PS
Stands for Percussion Studio...a student organization that had their fall show last night that Matt and I went to watch. One of the grad students in the department is in the group, and they were FABULOUS!!! If you can't imagine what this organization is...think Stomp crossed with Blue Man Group, then add in any ole' thing that you can think of that, when hit, could be used as a percussion instrument. It was great and we had a blast! They did some rock n roll, new and old school (Stairway to Heaven was very cool, by the way) some Christmas music, threw in some videos of the group in a Lounge type setting between acts and then had some comedy skits in there as well. It was just really enjoyable, especially given that it was just Matt and I - date night!!.
During the day yesterday I tried start working on my Christmas cards...worked through the address list for missing or outdated addresses and tryed to figure out what we were going to do. I always seem to have these good ideas about Christmas cards, but the follow through is sometimes lacking - trying to get a family picture made to them order through Shutterfly is a great idea, except that we don't yet have a family picture made...and I don't see a "nice" one getting made in the near future. So, considering the fact that it takes ~ 1 - 1 1/2 weeks for something to come in from Shutterfly when ordered...ummm...don't think that idea is actually going to work. So, scratch that one and we'll go with a different idea. I know what we'll do and have already got the plan working...now I just need to sit down and start addressing the envelopes...or do I just want to be hi-tech and print labels out? Hmmm...now that's an idea...
Today Gramma and PapPa are coming into town so to play with Kellen and for the Holiday Coffee and awards presentation tomorrow morning. They should be here shortly after Kellen gets up from his nap, so he'll be really excited to see them. We haven't told him they're coming, so it will be a nice surprise for him. He's be cracking Matt and I up all day long today. He's just been so adult-like in his conversations lately.
I guess I'll need to start getting used to that...him begin more adult-like...there's a twinge of sadness to that realization.
During the day yesterday I tried start working on my Christmas cards...worked through the address list for missing or outdated addresses and tryed to figure out what we were going to do. I always seem to have these good ideas about Christmas cards, but the follow through is sometimes lacking - trying to get a family picture made to them order through Shutterfly is a great idea, except that we don't yet have a family picture made...and I don't see a "nice" one getting made in the near future. So, considering the fact that it takes ~ 1 - 1 1/2 weeks for something to come in from Shutterfly when ordered...ummm...don't think that idea is actually going to work. So, scratch that one and we'll go with a different idea. I know what we'll do and have already got the plan working...now I just need to sit down and start addressing the envelopes...or do I just want to be hi-tech and print labels out? Hmmm...now that's an idea...
Today Gramma and PapPa are coming into town so to play with Kellen and for the Holiday Coffee and awards presentation tomorrow morning. They should be here shortly after Kellen gets up from his nap, so he'll be really excited to see them. We haven't told him they're coming, so it will be a nice surprise for him. He's be cracking Matt and I up all day long today. He's just been so adult-like in his conversations lately.
I guess I'll need to start getting used to that...him begin more adult-like...there's a twinge of sadness to that realization.
Friday, December 02, 2005
Schedule
So I'm going it again...getting off-schedule with my daily blogs...and what, you might ask, am I doing blogging at 1 AM? Beats me!?! I sat down to work on some quick emails after putting Kellen to bed tonight when George of the Jungle II was over on the Disney Channel (breakin' rules right & left here!) - and that was ~ 8:30 (another one bites the dust!). Anyway...one email led to another...and here I am...1 AM. But on the bright side...I had a HUGE dent in my emails, which had been overwhelming me lately.
So, to catch up...Last Friday was the game...tu vs TAMU...Unfortunately the outcome wasn't what we had hoped for...but it was a close game and the Ags played well...McGee did a tremendous job! I'm looking forward to watching him for a while! Then we out to eat at Koppe Bridge, then back to the house and played Monopoly. I hadn't played that game in AGES - and we had fun...for a while...it was just taking forever for the game to be over. Officially, it was a tie between Matt and Judy...but at the very end, Judy had totally smoked Matt...and the rest of us, out of the game.
My Christmas decorations had arrived at the house with George and Judy, so my Saturday morning consisted of decorating the house for Christmas. Since they were coming back over in the afternoon, my goal was to get the house decorated so they could take the boxes back with them and store them back in the store room...for those of you who have been to my house, you understand why this was a goal...little to no extra room for storing boxes in the house...And I did it...the house is decorated for Christmas minus a box or two that just didn't make its' way over here for whatever reason. For those of you who aren't there yet, don't feel bad...we aren't putting up a tree this year, so the decorations were really easy!
On Saturday afternoon we ended up going to the George Bush Library and saw the train exhibit, which was on its last weekend there. Kellen had so much fun at that exhibit! He didn't want to stop playing on some of the trains! He was so cute! We stayed there longer than I thought that he would actually last. After that, we headed to Wings so that Brenna could get her Wing fix for this trip...then we went to the basketball game...and had originally intended to buy the tickets online, then decided against it (sorry guys - that was a total - my bad on that one - but Kellen had still been running a low grade fever on Friday...wasn't sure how Saturday was going to go when everyone was talking about getting the tickets for a Saturday night event). The line to purchase the tickets was unbelievably long...we thought that we would be smart and swing by my office and buy them on the internet...nope...they stop selling internet tickets after the game starts...which is a good piece of information to know, which now we do. So back to Reed and back in line we go...Arg...Then confusion ensues with reserved vs general admission tickets, etc...it was just a little crazy there for a while...But, we finally got our tickets and got inside to watch the game, and it was a good game. I thought sure that Kellen would fall asleep, but nope - he was a trooper and made it through the whole thing.
And he liked the dancers - a lot. When they would come on to dance and then leave, he would look at me and ask, "More dancing, Mommy. Please." Well all right then...
Sunday was an attempt at a restful day. Just getting ready for the craziness of the upcoming week - which I knew would be hectic for me with the continuation of registration for students and other things that are happening at this time of the semester. Matt wasn't feeling too hot...which is always a shocker since he has a super-strength immune system, but he's been knocked out almost all week this week not feeling well.
This week itself has been just a blur...I can't believe that Friday is upon us...and now it's actualy December. How crazy is that? Where did this year go? Now it's 1:30...and I know where I need to go...night night all...
So, to catch up...Last Friday was the game...tu vs TAMU...Unfortunately the outcome wasn't what we had hoped for...but it was a close game and the Ags played well...McGee did a tremendous job! I'm looking forward to watching him for a while! Then we out to eat at Koppe Bridge, then back to the house and played Monopoly. I hadn't played that game in AGES - and we had fun...for a while...it was just taking forever for the game to be over. Officially, it was a tie between Matt and Judy...but at the very end, Judy had totally smoked Matt...and the rest of us, out of the game.
My Christmas decorations had arrived at the house with George and Judy, so my Saturday morning consisted of decorating the house for Christmas. Since they were coming back over in the afternoon, my goal was to get the house decorated so they could take the boxes back with them and store them back in the store room...for those of you who have been to my house, you understand why this was a goal...little to no extra room for storing boxes in the house...And I did it...the house is decorated for Christmas minus a box or two that just didn't make its' way over here for whatever reason. For those of you who aren't there yet, don't feel bad...we aren't putting up a tree this year, so the decorations were really easy!
On Saturday afternoon we ended up going to the George Bush Library and saw the train exhibit, which was on its last weekend there. Kellen had so much fun at that exhibit! He didn't want to stop playing on some of the trains! He was so cute! We stayed there longer than I thought that he would actually last. After that, we headed to Wings so that Brenna could get her Wing fix for this trip...then we went to the basketball game...and had originally intended to buy the tickets online, then decided against it (sorry guys - that was a total - my bad on that one - but Kellen had still been running a low grade fever on Friday...wasn't sure how Saturday was going to go when everyone was talking about getting the tickets for a Saturday night event). The line to purchase the tickets was unbelievably long...we thought that we would be smart and swing by my office and buy them on the internet...nope...they stop selling internet tickets after the game starts...which is a good piece of information to know, which now we do. So back to Reed and back in line we go...Arg...Then confusion ensues with reserved vs general admission tickets, etc...it was just a little crazy there for a while...But, we finally got our tickets and got inside to watch the game, and it was a good game. I thought sure that Kellen would fall asleep, but nope - he was a trooper and made it through the whole thing.
And he liked the dancers - a lot. When they would come on to dance and then leave, he would look at me and ask, "More dancing, Mommy. Please." Well all right then...
Sunday was an attempt at a restful day. Just getting ready for the craziness of the upcoming week - which I knew would be hectic for me with the continuation of registration for students and other things that are happening at this time of the semester. Matt wasn't feeling too hot...which is always a shocker since he has a super-strength immune system, but he's been knocked out almost all week this week not feeling well.
This week itself has been just a blur...I can't believe that Friday is upon us...and now it's actualy December. How crazy is that? Where did this year go? Now it's 1:30...and I know where I need to go...night night all...
Sunday, November 27, 2005
Thanksgiving
Despite Kellen's "viral infection" and corresponding come-and-go fever, he's been in a relatively good mood for the past few days. As my last blog detailed, I got the phone call on Tuesday to come and pick him up from daycare, and we've been fighting this thing ever since. Matt took him to the doctor on Wednesday and the diagnosis - "viral infection" - which in my book translates to "we can do nothing for you...your life is turned upside down until his body can fight it on his own...tough it out."
Matt was able to stay home with him on Wednesday, as I still had a half day of work - and a schedule FULL of students needing to see me for registration advising, which would have been really tough to reschedule. Our original plan was to keep Kellen in daycare on Wednesday afternoon and for Matt and I to go and watch Walk the Line...a plan which obviously had been sidelined. Oh well! After work I ended up going out to eat with a professor and one of the students that had just defended their master's internship project, their final thing to complete their degree, as a celebratory lunch, then headed back home to relieve daddy from Kellen-duty so that he could go and run some errands. Kellen's fever came and went all day, apparently, with the highest spike being a little over 102, which ruled out the Rockdale Thanksgiving option for he and I on Thursday - there are too many kids there and I'm not taking chances around other kids with him running a fever.
So, Thursday morning Matt and I are up pretty early because he has to go to work, and lo and behold, Kellen wakes up around 5 AM as well, just as Daddy's walking out of the door for the day. He gets to see Daddy, but he's awake. I try, to no avail I might add, to get him to go back to sleep, so we end up watching the morning sequence on PBS, then Veggie Tales after Sesame Street is over at 8 AM. By 9, he had gathered all of the items from his bed and had carefully arranged them on his SpongeBob couch (which was salvageable, by the way), then he tells me, "Kellen go night, night."
"Ok buddy. You can go night night if you want to."
And within 5 minutes...he was fast asleep. He would have stayed that way for more than the hour that he slept if the dog hadn't started going nuts outside barking a who knows what. Much needed nap cut dreadfully short by Bailey. Big ARG on that one!
So we ended up driving to MawMaw and PawPaw Hapes house for Thanksgiving. It was relatively safe, as there were no small children there, so we hopefully lessened the chance of Kellen sharing his illness with anyone else. His fever had spiked to its highest Thursday morning - 102.4. When it's over 101, we actually give eiter Tylenol or Ibuprofen to bring it down. He slept the entire drive, and was a super cranky monster when we arrived...for about the first 30 minutes or so, at least. I couldn't leave his side...literally. PawPaw brought out the bed for him (a super cute, blow up, Winnie the Pooh, bed with attached covers and pillow-ish headboard) and he laid on it, but I had to be next to him so that he could hold my hand.
Now let me clarify some of my statements here...despite running the fever, Kellen has been acting JUST LIKE HIS NORMAL SELF. He's not telling me that his tummy hurts, his ears hurt, he's not throwing up, having trouble from the other end, nothing....The only things that we can tell that's a physical symptom of something being wrong is that he's running a fever and isn't eating as much. That's it. So I want him to rest, but neither Matt nor I think it's a big deal to take him somewhere since he's acting virtually normal.
Aunt Boo gives him a new Hermie video and stuffed Hermie doll, which to this current point in time I don't think has left his side. They proceed to watch this "New Hermie" for what will be the first of many times over the weekend. After waking up a little bit and getting used to all of the people that aren't normally at his MawMaw and PawPaw's house, Kellen overcame his clinginess and was fine. He didn't eat much, but then again, I didn't expect him to...other than rolls, of course. I think he had half a dozen of those!
I'll have to detail Friday's game day activities and Saturday's George Bush Museum visit and Basketball game later...Kellen wants me to come and watch the "New Hermie" with him...
But first...I have to share this...we were looking for his stuffed Hermie yesterday and he asked me where it was. I said, "I don't know. Kellen where is it?" His reply?
"I don't know either."
Gotta go!
Matt was able to stay home with him on Wednesday, as I still had a half day of work - and a schedule FULL of students needing to see me for registration advising, which would have been really tough to reschedule. Our original plan was to keep Kellen in daycare on Wednesday afternoon and for Matt and I to go and watch Walk the Line...a plan which obviously had been sidelined. Oh well! After work I ended up going out to eat with a professor and one of the students that had just defended their master's internship project, their final thing to complete their degree, as a celebratory lunch, then headed back home to relieve daddy from Kellen-duty so that he could go and run some errands. Kellen's fever came and went all day, apparently, with the highest spike being a little over 102, which ruled out the Rockdale Thanksgiving option for he and I on Thursday - there are too many kids there and I'm not taking chances around other kids with him running a fever.
So, Thursday morning Matt and I are up pretty early because he has to go to work, and lo and behold, Kellen wakes up around 5 AM as well, just as Daddy's walking out of the door for the day. He gets to see Daddy, but he's awake. I try, to no avail I might add, to get him to go back to sleep, so we end up watching the morning sequence on PBS, then Veggie Tales after Sesame Street is over at 8 AM. By 9, he had gathered all of the items from his bed and had carefully arranged them on his SpongeBob couch (which was salvageable, by the way), then he tells me, "Kellen go night, night."
"Ok buddy. You can go night night if you want to."
And within 5 minutes...he was fast asleep. He would have stayed that way for more than the hour that he slept if the dog hadn't started going nuts outside barking a who knows what. Much needed nap cut dreadfully short by Bailey. Big ARG on that one!
So we ended up driving to MawMaw and PawPaw Hapes house for Thanksgiving. It was relatively safe, as there were no small children there, so we hopefully lessened the chance of Kellen sharing his illness with anyone else. His fever had spiked to its highest Thursday morning - 102.4. When it's over 101, we actually give eiter Tylenol or Ibuprofen to bring it down. He slept the entire drive, and was a super cranky monster when we arrived...for about the first 30 minutes or so, at least. I couldn't leave his side...literally. PawPaw brought out the bed for him (a super cute, blow up, Winnie the Pooh, bed with attached covers and pillow-ish headboard) and he laid on it, but I had to be next to him so that he could hold my hand.
Now let me clarify some of my statements here...despite running the fever, Kellen has been acting JUST LIKE HIS NORMAL SELF. He's not telling me that his tummy hurts, his ears hurt, he's not throwing up, having trouble from the other end, nothing....The only things that we can tell that's a physical symptom of something being wrong is that he's running a fever and isn't eating as much. That's it. So I want him to rest, but neither Matt nor I think it's a big deal to take him somewhere since he's acting virtually normal.
Aunt Boo gives him a new Hermie video and stuffed Hermie doll, which to this current point in time I don't think has left his side. They proceed to watch this "New Hermie" for what will be the first of many times over the weekend. After waking up a little bit and getting used to all of the people that aren't normally at his MawMaw and PawPaw's house, Kellen overcame his clinginess and was fine. He didn't eat much, but then again, I didn't expect him to...other than rolls, of course. I think he had half a dozen of those!
I'll have to detail Friday's game day activities and Saturday's George Bush Museum visit and Basketball game later...Kellen wants me to come and watch the "New Hermie" with him...
But first...I have to share this...we were looking for his stuffed Hermie yesterday and he asked me where it was. I said, "I don't know. Kellen where is it?" His reply?
"I don't know either."
Gotta go!
Tuesday, November 22, 2005
Coupons
Well, a while back at the departmental party, I bid on some kiddo coupons that I thought would come in handy...some GattiTown kids eat free coupons and Bush Library kid free with purchase of adult entry tickets. I had the brilliant idea of using the kid coupons so that my friend Jennifer, who is in from New York for the holidays, and I could go out tonight for dinner, and loe and behold...our kids aren't even old enough to have to pay yet. So it appears that I bid on that item at the auction for nothing...There were two families with kids that came in immediately after us, so I used 5 of the 6 coupons, paid for their kids and treated them for the night. I hope that they enjoyed themselves!
Anyway...she and I had a good time during dinner catching up, but it wasn't really long enough. Kellen is sick, so he ended up falling asleep on my shoulder (really sick, huh...) and James hadn't really had his normal nap or normal sleep routine since being back in Texas on vacation and was tired as well, so we cut the evening a little short.
Speaking of Kellen, we aren't really sure what's going on with him. I got a phone call today a little before 4 PM from daycare and they indicated that he was running a fever (100.3 auxillary, so really 101.3), just wasn't acting like "our Kellen" and that I needed to come and pick him up...Yes sirree...I'm on my way.
I got to daycare and he informs me that, "Kellen no feel good. Kellen temperature." When asked what hurt and what was wrong, the response was, "Tummy hurt." Well all right. I've been hearing those words for a few days, they just haven't been accompanied with a fever.
He really was acting like a relatively normal Kellen, in my opinion anyway. I talked with Matt and, luckily enough, they had had to go to the Med Center and were in town, so we ran by to see daddy after leaving daycare. Kellen was so excited to see him as we drove up to the hospital! We were only able to stay there for a few minutes, and as we drove off I hear from the backseat, "Bye bye truck! Bye bye Daddy. Daddy loves Kellen." Doesn't that just make your heart melt? "Yes Kellen, Daddy loves you very much."
Fast forward to home from dinner...the dog is missing (Houdini dog, by the way...who can open the gate), so I drive around for a little while looking for him, but it's really too dark for me to see anything, so I give up. He's got a full dish of water and dog food outside, I'm leaving the gate open and praying that he makes his way home sometime tonight and that I hear him outside or see him on the swing in the morning.
Take Kellen's temp to compare with daycare's reading earlier today...the "right" way, and it's 101.5...so I gave him some meds and got him ready for bed, one book and he goes down without a fuss, surprisingly enough, considering that he had been asleep (GattiTown), been woken up (getting in the car), fallen back asleep (car), been woken up again (out of the car into the house), then was getting put in his bed. Normally, that wouldn't make Kellen-man a happy camper. Yeah for small miracles! We have an appointment with his pediatrician for tomorrow morning, so we'll see how that goes and how he's feeling then.
Anyway...she and I had a good time during dinner catching up, but it wasn't really long enough. Kellen is sick, so he ended up falling asleep on my shoulder (really sick, huh...) and James hadn't really had his normal nap or normal sleep routine since being back in Texas on vacation and was tired as well, so we cut the evening a little short.
Speaking of Kellen, we aren't really sure what's going on with him. I got a phone call today a little before 4 PM from daycare and they indicated that he was running a fever (100.3 auxillary, so really 101.3), just wasn't acting like "our Kellen" and that I needed to come and pick him up...Yes sirree...I'm on my way.
I got to daycare and he informs me that, "Kellen no feel good. Kellen temperature." When asked what hurt and what was wrong, the response was, "Tummy hurt." Well all right. I've been hearing those words for a few days, they just haven't been accompanied with a fever.
He really was acting like a relatively normal Kellen, in my opinion anyway. I talked with Matt and, luckily enough, they had had to go to the Med Center and were in town, so we ran by to see daddy after leaving daycare. Kellen was so excited to see him as we drove up to the hospital! We were only able to stay there for a few minutes, and as we drove off I hear from the backseat, "Bye bye truck! Bye bye Daddy. Daddy loves Kellen." Doesn't that just make your heart melt? "Yes Kellen, Daddy loves you very much."
Fast forward to home from dinner...the dog is missing (Houdini dog, by the way...who can open the gate), so I drive around for a little while looking for him, but it's really too dark for me to see anything, so I give up. He's got a full dish of water and dog food outside, I'm leaving the gate open and praying that he makes his way home sometime tonight and that I hear him outside or see him on the swing in the morning.
Take Kellen's temp to compare with daycare's reading earlier today...the "right" way, and it's 101.5...so I gave him some meds and got him ready for bed, one book and he goes down without a fuss, surprisingly enough, considering that he had been asleep (GattiTown), been woken up (getting in the car), fallen back asleep (car), been woken up again (out of the car into the house), then was getting put in his bed. Normally, that wouldn't make Kellen-man a happy camper. Yeah for small miracles! We have an appointment with his pediatrician for tomorrow morning, so we'll see how that goes and how he's feeling then.
Monday, November 21, 2005
Family NIght
Tonight was family night...and it was GREAT! We all got home right around the same time...later than we all had intended, but within about 5 minutes of each other. Matt asked me to run to the store and pick up a few things and in exchange, had virtually the entire dinner prepared by the time that I got back to the house. What a deal! We bent the rules and let Kellen stay up WAY too late, and finally put him to bed in the midst of a meltdown around 9 PM...ohhh...I'm going to pay for that tomorrow. But he and his daddy had a good time watching some TV...yet another rule bent tonight. That's ok. Matt's on a 24 tomorrow & again on Thursday, so we needed some quality family time.
Kellen was so sweet eating his dinner. He commented that he liked the pasta, so I suggested that he thank his daddy for making it for him. So when daddy came back into the room, he did just that.
"Thank you, Daddy"
Matt looked at me with a slightly confused look on his face, so I explained our exchange regarding the pasta and resulting thank you.
It's just so nice to have a night where we're all at the house! We need more of those...I'm submitting a formal request to the scheduling folks...whoever those people might be...more family nights, please!
Kellen was so sweet eating his dinner. He commented that he liked the pasta, so I suggested that he thank his daddy for making it for him. So when daddy came back into the room, he did just that.
"Thank you, Daddy"
Matt looked at me with a slightly confused look on his face, so I explained our exchange regarding the pasta and resulting thank you.
It's just so nice to have a night where we're all at the house! We need more of those...I'm submitting a formal request to the scheduling folks...whoever those people might be...more family nights, please!
Sunday, November 20, 2005
Training Continues
This must be a two way street...one in which I am not in the right gear or something...Kellen did just spectacular during his potty training at daycare this past week, but at home...well, let's just say it was a different story entirely.
On Monday he had a grand total of three accidents all day long - which I thought was fabulous for his first "official" day of potty training; Tuesday it was two (and that included actually sitting on the potty for a BM - yes boys and girls, my little man who has SUCH a hard time going poo poo in general actually sat on the potty and went); Wednesday, well Wednesday doesn't count for the potty training week - if you have questions about that ask his daddy and MawMaw Hapes *grin* since he didn't go to daycare; Thursday we were still at two accidents; Friday we had gone down to one accident - ONE! - Oh my gosh!
I'm just not sure how to proceed on the home front...Tried the exact same training pants and vinyl covers that he wears at daycare on Saturday, tried to get him to sit on the potty every 30ish minutes or so, but by noon we already had three accidents, one of which required a major clean-up and overhaul of the beloved SpongeBob couch, rendering it unusable for at least the rest of the weekend, and if my clean-up job doesn't meet Matt's inspection standards (who knew he was such a germ-a-phobe?) - forever. I gave up and went to the diaper/pull-ups and just continually sat him on the potty as I remembered (hmmm...have we hit on something that might be the problem here???).
But seriously, his teachers tell me that he gives them no trouble at all about sitting on the potty at school, but when I take him to sit on the potty, he throws a fit about half of the time, saying that he doesn't want to sit on the potty. I know that there is a fine line here between consistency, readiness, and pushing too hard...but when I get him to finally sit down he is fine, normally actually doing some business 3/4 + of the time he sits down. We aren't making a big deal of the accidents, aren't requiring him to do some business before he gets off of the potty, just asking that he sit there...no punishments at all - only praises for when he pees - I can't imagine what we would do if something else came out of his body while he was out our house and sitting on the potty like he's demonstrated he's capable of at daycare. He still makes a spectacle of telling us, "Kellen go poo poo" and walking into a corner or something. When I ask him during those times if he would like to sit on the potty and poo poo, he tells me, "No" and I might ask him if he's sure, then I drop it and let him do his business. I'm trying not to push things here.
Wow. All-out potty training here we come! And I obviously need to get out those potty training books that I bought a while back in my attempt to get prepared when the time came - HAH!
Matt made a comment to me on Saturday about Kellen having the ability to turn him into mush...I snickered, which caused him to ask ask if I already knew that, which just made me giggle even harder. Now, for those of you who know Matt, you know he isn't normally a mushy man...for those of you who don't know him...think Marine, then think Medic...then push those two imagines together & throw a Christian belief system in there (i.e. he's not a wimpy guy). If anyone has ever been around Matt being around Kellen they know that munkin turns him into mush...Which is, I'm sure, one of the ways that God intended a man and a woman to continue to be able to stay in love after having children. When the woman sees the man with their child, acting like a true father should act, it makes her fall in love with that man all over again, which is how I felt on Saturday. Those two were just so cute wrestling, playing and running through the house! I love watching them together! Then today they decided that they needed a nap...well, Kellen fell asleep watching a cartoon and Matt snuggled next to him long enough to do the same...It amazes me how much Kellen is like his father sometimes - It looked like Matt and mini-Matt while they were taking their nap.
Migraine update time...So far this month I've had 3...Arg...If this dosage doesn't help then we'll increase and try another month. However, I have noticed that I've been more functional during the migraines while on the higher dose of medicine, even before the Imitrex really has a chance to kick in, which is a plus - I guess. Unless the migraines are my body's way of telling me to slow down...then if the medicine allows me to continue to work during and through them, I'm just totally ignoring my body's signals. Hmmm...new twist on that...
Jaw update...still clicking and popping...I was supposed to call the doctor a month after my last visit. I can't remember when that was, which means it's probably been at least a month. Nothing new to report on that front.
So I was debating about whether or not to include this, but I guess I will. I found out on Tuesday that I was selected to receive of the 2005 President's Meritorious Service Award. Each year, twenty individuals and one team is selected out of the employees of Texas A&M University to receive this award, and I found out that I am one of those individuals. The award will actually be given by President Gates during the President's Holiday Coffee on the morning of December 5th. I feel so honored to be selected for this! I think that Mom & Dad will be coming in for it - Mom put in to take the day off and they'll drive in the night before, and I feel pretty sure that George & Judy will drive in as well. Dr. Heinz made it pretty clear that virtually the entire administrative staff would be there for support during the award presentation, too. It feels so nice to have such a supportive and appreciative work environment! I just love it!
I think that's all for now...I get the slacker award for the least amount of blogging activity, but will try to get back in my once-normal routine of nightly blogging. The nightly routine that replaced blogging this week was washing soiled clothing from daycare, but I'll see if I can somehow manage both *grin* I miss too many fun and cute details when I cram an entire week into one blog...
On Monday he had a grand total of three accidents all day long - which I thought was fabulous for his first "official" day of potty training; Tuesday it was two (and that included actually sitting on the potty for a BM - yes boys and girls, my little man who has SUCH a hard time going poo poo in general actually sat on the potty and went); Wednesday, well Wednesday doesn't count for the potty training week - if you have questions about that ask his daddy and MawMaw Hapes *grin* since he didn't go to daycare; Thursday we were still at two accidents; Friday we had gone down to one accident - ONE! - Oh my gosh!
I'm just not sure how to proceed on the home front...Tried the exact same training pants and vinyl covers that he wears at daycare on Saturday, tried to get him to sit on the potty every 30ish minutes or so, but by noon we already had three accidents, one of which required a major clean-up and overhaul of the beloved SpongeBob couch, rendering it unusable for at least the rest of the weekend, and if my clean-up job doesn't meet Matt's inspection standards (who knew he was such a germ-a-phobe?) - forever. I gave up and went to the diaper/pull-ups and just continually sat him on the potty as I remembered (hmmm...have we hit on something that might be the problem here???).
But seriously, his teachers tell me that he gives them no trouble at all about sitting on the potty at school, but when I take him to sit on the potty, he throws a fit about half of the time, saying that he doesn't want to sit on the potty. I know that there is a fine line here between consistency, readiness, and pushing too hard...but when I get him to finally sit down he is fine, normally actually doing some business 3/4 + of the time he sits down. We aren't making a big deal of the accidents, aren't requiring him to do some business before he gets off of the potty, just asking that he sit there...no punishments at all - only praises for when he pees - I can't imagine what we would do if something else came out of his body while he was out our house and sitting on the potty like he's demonstrated he's capable of at daycare. He still makes a spectacle of telling us, "Kellen go poo poo" and walking into a corner or something. When I ask him during those times if he would like to sit on the potty and poo poo, he tells me, "No" and I might ask him if he's sure, then I drop it and let him do his business. I'm trying not to push things here.
Wow. All-out potty training here we come! And I obviously need to get out those potty training books that I bought a while back in my attempt to get prepared when the time came - HAH!
Matt made a comment to me on Saturday about Kellen having the ability to turn him into mush...I snickered, which caused him to ask ask if I already knew that, which just made me giggle even harder. Now, for those of you who know Matt, you know he isn't normally a mushy man...for those of you who don't know him...think Marine, then think Medic...then push those two imagines together & throw a Christian belief system in there (i.e. he's not a wimpy guy). If anyone has ever been around Matt being around Kellen they know that munkin turns him into mush...Which is, I'm sure, one of the ways that God intended a man and a woman to continue to be able to stay in love after having children. When the woman sees the man with their child, acting like a true father should act, it makes her fall in love with that man all over again, which is how I felt on Saturday. Those two were just so cute wrestling, playing and running through the house! I love watching them together! Then today they decided that they needed a nap...well, Kellen fell asleep watching a cartoon and Matt snuggled next to him long enough to do the same...It amazes me how much Kellen is like his father sometimes - It looked like Matt and mini-Matt while they were taking their nap.
Migraine update time...So far this month I've had 3...Arg...If this dosage doesn't help then we'll increase and try another month. However, I have noticed that I've been more functional during the migraines while on the higher dose of medicine, even before the Imitrex really has a chance to kick in, which is a plus - I guess. Unless the migraines are my body's way of telling me to slow down...then if the medicine allows me to continue to work during and through them, I'm just totally ignoring my body's signals. Hmmm...new twist on that...
Jaw update...still clicking and popping...I was supposed to call the doctor a month after my last visit. I can't remember when that was, which means it's probably been at least a month. Nothing new to report on that front.
So I was debating about whether or not to include this, but I guess I will. I found out on Tuesday that I was selected to receive of the 2005 President's Meritorious Service Award. Each year, twenty individuals and one team is selected out of the employees of Texas A&M University to receive this award, and I found out that I am one of those individuals. The award will actually be given by President Gates during the President's Holiday Coffee on the morning of December 5th. I feel so honored to be selected for this! I think that Mom & Dad will be coming in for it - Mom put in to take the day off and they'll drive in the night before, and I feel pretty sure that George & Judy will drive in as well. Dr. Heinz made it pretty clear that virtually the entire administrative staff would be there for support during the award presentation, too. It feels so nice to have such a supportive and appreciative work environment! I just love it!
I think that's all for now...I get the slacker award for the least amount of blogging activity, but will try to get back in my once-normal routine of nightly blogging. The nightly routine that replaced blogging this week was washing soiled clothing from daycare, but I'll see if I can somehow manage both *grin* I miss too many fun and cute details when I cram an entire week into one blog...
Monday, November 14, 2005
Potty training...
Went to a whole new level today. We went to day care in training pants today. Not diapers, not pull-ups. Training pants. The almost regular, I'm a big-boy undie kind with the vinyl undies over them in an attempt to stop leaks and complete messes on everything around him. I talked with his teachers at the end of last week about how he was doing after I saw all the "P" for potty on his chart - he was sitting on the potty virtually every diaper change. So they suggested that I bring him with the training pants this week just to see how he did.
And did he ever! Only three accidents today. And every time they put him on the potty - which based on the chart was almost every thirty to fourty-five minutes, he went for them. Wow!
Then I get him home...try to get him on the potty and I end up with a MONSTER-MAN! What is it about being a home that brings out that side of him? I just don't get it? Power struggle? Hmmm? But he was wet when I got him home and I don't remember on his chart what they had written about the last time that he had gone potty. But I'm still impressed...three accidents on the first "real" day that we've tried anything resembling hard-core potty training. I think that's wonderful!
I"ve just realized that it's been almost two weeks since my last post...horrible!
We had a wonderful weekend this past weekend...My aunt and uncle's 50th wedding anniversary was this weekend, so their kids threw then a party and my two aunts and an uncle drove in from Ohio for what was supposed to be a surprise...unfortunately, the surprise was ruined when my cousin from Ohio called looking for his grandfather, my uncle, the night they were scheduled to make it in...the night prior to the party, but all-in-all the party was still a great success.
And did he ever! Only three accidents today. And every time they put him on the potty - which based on the chart was almost every thirty to fourty-five minutes, he went for them. Wow!
Then I get him home...try to get him on the potty and I end up with a MONSTER-MAN! What is it about being a home that brings out that side of him? I just don't get it? Power struggle? Hmmm? But he was wet when I got him home and I don't remember on his chart what they had written about the last time that he had gone potty. But I'm still impressed...three accidents on the first "real" day that we've tried anything resembling hard-core potty training. I think that's wonderful!
I"ve just realized that it's been almost two weeks since my last post...horrible!
We had a wonderful weekend this past weekend...My aunt and uncle's 50th wedding anniversary was this weekend, so their kids threw then a party and my two aunts and an uncle drove in from Ohio for what was supposed to be a surprise...unfortunately, the surprise was ruined when my cousin from Ohio called looking for his grandfather, my uncle, the night they were scheduled to make it in...the night prior to the party, but all-in-all the party was still a great success.
Wednesday, November 02, 2005
Tackle
Matt has taught Kellen how to tackle, and so far this has been a Daddy & Kellen thing. However, today he decided that he wanted to tackle Mommy. Down, set, hut, and he runs to me, arms spread wide with a huge grin on his race, and bowls me over. I was ready for it, because he had asked, "Ready?" before he started, but it was so cute! He backs up as far away from you as he can get and still be in the same room to prepare for the run..it's so funny! Then he wanted to play airplane, and horsie...all fun activities that he realized he would need to play once it sunk in that Mommy really wasn't going to bend on the no TV during the week rule...his options were to play (with his toys or without, didn't matter) or read. Period.
He's also on a yogurt kick right now...ate one in the grocery store yesterday (thank goodness the lady behind the counter at the deli told me where to find some available plastic spoons - since he had opened one without me catching him - he's too quick for me sometimes!), then another one for breakfast this morning, then asked for another one on the way home from school today. I like it when he's on a roll with foods that are really good for him! And hurray for the kind that doesn't come off of the spoon - whoever thought up that one MUST have had kids...
He did his "Bless Daddy work" quite a bit tonight while getting ready for bed...he misses him, but he normally does when Matt's on shift, so we just roll with it and deal...He's getting more and more pack-rat-ish at bedtime and wanting more and more things to sleep with...Clifford, Shrek, Larry the Veggie Tale, various books, blankets, etc. I've put my foot down on the 4 foot alligator...if he wets the bed too bad, that thing can't really go in the washing machine and would be virtually ruined, so I've upset him by telling him, "No" on that one a few times. He's going to get to the point where he can barely fit on the bed with all of the other things in there! Do we need to set a limit? I remember seeing pictures of me when I was little with tons of things in my bed, though...so I know that I did it, too. Hmmm...
He's also on a yogurt kick right now...ate one in the grocery store yesterday (thank goodness the lady behind the counter at the deli told me where to find some available plastic spoons - since he had opened one without me catching him - he's too quick for me sometimes!), then another one for breakfast this morning, then asked for another one on the way home from school today. I like it when he's on a roll with foods that are really good for him! And hurray for the kind that doesn't come off of the spoon - whoever thought up that one MUST have had kids...
He did his "Bless Daddy work" quite a bit tonight while getting ready for bed...he misses him, but he normally does when Matt's on shift, so we just roll with it and deal...He's getting more and more pack-rat-ish at bedtime and wanting more and more things to sleep with...Clifford, Shrek, Larry the Veggie Tale, various books, blankets, etc. I've put my foot down on the 4 foot alligator...if he wets the bed too bad, that thing can't really go in the washing machine and would be virtually ruined, so I've upset him by telling him, "No" on that one a few times. He's going to get to the point where he can barely fit on the bed with all of the other things in there! Do we need to set a limit? I remember seeing pictures of me when I was little with tons of things in my bed, though...so I know that I did it, too. Hmmm...
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