Home

Daily News

History

    2007
    2006
    2005
    2004
    2003
    2002
    2001

About Us

Videos

Portraits

Email Us

 

\

 

 

APRIL 2003
(Click on an image to enlarge)


April 1, 2003

I went with Alex's class on a field trip to Red Lobster.  We toured the restaurant and petted a live lobster before having popcorn shrimp for lunch.  I have the best time when I do things with the kids in his class!

What a bunch of cuties! Petting the lobster's belly


April 4, 2003

My boys have the best grandparents!!!!!  Grandma (my mom) came over and spent her usual Friday playing with the kids.  And this afternoon Nana and Papa (Mark's parents) drove over to watch the boys' soccer games.  What a treat! Alex just got some new Yu-Gi-Oh cards (trading cards) that he had to torture (Oh, I mean share) with Grandma and Nana.

Granda pretending to understand Alex's explanations of his cards.  ;-) Nana being introduced to the world of Yu-Gi-Oh

Papa and Boo escaping the Yu-Gi-Oh craze!


April 10, 2003

You take your life in your hands (or he takes your hands in his mouth!) when you play with Boudreaux!

Easy there, big fella!


April 12, 2003

We went back to A Kids Gym today for Kori's birthday party.  Fortunately, no adults injured themselves this time!  This is the same place that Patch takes his gymnastics classes, so he was right at home.

Please don't ask me what he's doing here - I have no idea! I cannot tell you how many pictures I have of Patrick in mid air!

He'd old hat at this one

The birthday girl got all wrapped up in the parachute Kori's little sister - not really a relevant picture, but too cute not to share!


April 15, 2003

Becca and her boys came over for a visit today and Patch had to show off his swinging skills. 

As close to flying as he can get!


April 16, 2003

We have the best group of kids in our neighborhood and most days after school they're at a different house.  Today they migrated to our house and had a heated game of hoops out back.  You can also see from this picture that we're tearing out our back porch.  We're going to have a slab poured in the next couple of weeks, and then we'll rebuild the screen porch.

After dinner, we colored Easter eggs!

The more the merrier Getting ready for the big day


April 17, 2003

I've been searching for a new hairdresser for the kids for quite some time, and we've hit a few bumps along the way.  We really needed to find someone good who could fix all of the mistakes from the last couple of cuts. (I actually told one woman to stop half-way through Patch's haircut, it was so bad!)  I've come to realize that when you have thick, absolutely straight hair like my kids, every little mistake shows (or it just sticks straight up LOL).  I made another stab in the dark today and found a keeper.  Not only did she give great haircuts at a great price, but she also has a 4 and a 6-year-old, and the kids loved her.  Perfect!

This was their first time getting washed.  It was all Patch could do to keep from giggling! I think Alex was afraid to move!

I knew my gorgeous boys were under all that hair somewhere!


April 18, 2003

We sure weren't lacking in excitement today!  The boys were out front riding their bikes.  They went a little too close to each other, and one had to do a quick turn to keep from falling and the two bikes crashed, and suddenly Patrick was screaming his head off.  I finally got out of him that he'd hurt his arm.  We went inside and he kept on screaming (not crying, mind you, but actually screaming).  He could still bend it, it wasn't swollen, and it wasn't discolored, but it was obviously hurting horribly.  After a half an hour of this, we headed off to the ER.  On the way there, the screams turned into moans, and a block away from the hospital he started chatting with me.  We agreed to go back home.  While we were getting Alex from my neighbor, I took a closer look at his arm, and wow, was his elbow swollen and he said he couldn't straighten his arm.  Oops.  Another neighbor was there who is a nurse, and she very calmly said, "I think you might want to have that looked at."  So back in the car we went.  He was very calm - too calm for him - at the hospital, and very politely told the nurses what the blood pressure cuff was, and that he's already had an x-ray on his lungs before.  Of course, they all thought he was adorable.  ;-)

There was a woman next to us with her 2-year-old granddaughter who had been there since 10:00 this morning with pneumonia.  The little girl was very active, and Patch was just laying on the bed watching TV and trying not to move.  The grandmother said that she'd gladly swap kids with me for a little while.

The doctor finally came back in and said that they had been looking at the x-ray, and they just can't tell if it's broken.  They think it is, but there's some fatty pad or somethingorother that's swollen and showing up on the x-ray and keeping him from being able to see where he thinks it's broken.  Of course.  So they gave him some codeine and a splint and we will see an orthopaedist on Monday.  When the nurse came in to put on the splint, that calm child turned into my little spitfire.  He did NOT want them touching his arm, and was NOT going to wear the splint for a few days, and was NOT going to wear the sling, and said, repeatedly (through very pitiful tears), that this was NOT fun.  The poor nurse had to hold the splint on his arm for five minutes while it set (part of the splint is hard), and she heard all about how he did NOT like it for the entire five minutes.  While this was going on, the grandmother at the next bed stuck her head through the curtain and said, "I take it back - I don't want to trade after all!"

Can you get any more pathetic? We finally got dinner at 9:30 tonight.  (I don't know what's up with those eyes!)


April 20, 2003

HAPPY EASTER!

Alex has completely figured out the whole Santa/Easter Bunny business (I'm not too sure about the Tooth Fairy though).  At first I was really disappointed, but it's turned out to be extra special today because Alex and I got to share "our" little secret.  He was terrific about keeping up the charade for all of the other kids. It was really funny this morning, though.  I got up about 10 minutes after the kids, and I asked them what the Easter Bunny had brought.  Patch prattled on about what was in his basket, and Alex started to tell me what was in his, then he caught himself and gave me this sly little knowing smile and we both laughed.

We had our annual Easter picnic/water balloon fight on the block, which was a blast, of course.  Patch wore a raincoat during the water fight to cover his splint and was not slowed down one iota.  He even managed to climb up on the food table (before the food was there) to watch the other kids play in the kiddie pool. 

Boo was absolutely pitiful watching us through the window, head hung low on the sill.

Loading up on ammo On the attack!

Mark's picking on the little people

Oops - Patch's hand got a little swollen after all that fun! Alex is getting more and more independent every day


April 21, 2003

No pictures today, but a quick update.  Patch went to the orthopaedist today and he does indeed have a broken arm.  The break is at the very bottom of the humerus (upper arm) bone, and the doctor actually brought up the possibility of surgery (!) but said he didn't think the break was bad enough to warrant it.  So Patch got to pick out his own bright green cast to wear for the next three weeks (don't you wish we healed that fast?).  Let the fun begin!


April 22, 2003

I have a feeling this is going to be a long three weeks.  Patch is milking this broken arm business for all it's worth!  This morning he was asking Mark to help him do something, and he actually said,  ". . .  because I have a broken arm, you know."  It was absolutely hilarious then, but in three weeks, I think it won't be!

Daddy signing Patch's cast Good thing he didn't hurt his "mouse" hand!


April 23, 2003

Patch's school had "April Showers" today, where basically the kids got to play in the sprinklers.  It was a hoot!

Please say a little prayer for my baby.  Patrick's having his adenoids out tomorrow afternoon.  I'm sure he'll do just fine, but you can never have too many prayers!

Scoping things out Patrick's hogging the sprinkler!


April 24, 2003

Patch had his adenoids out today, and he did great.  He wasn't the least bit nervous and just smiled and waved to me as they wheeled him into the operating room.  It was a very different story in the recovery room, as expected.  He got a headache from the anesthesia and kept laying down face first on the pillow.  It was cute and pitiful at the same time.  As the nurse was going over the post-op instructions with me, we thought Patch was dozing.  But when she got to the part about what he can eat, she said to avoid things like hot dogs and chips for a day or two.  Suddenly, Patch's head popped up, and he blurted out "hot dogs?" through a huge grin.  Even at his worst, he had us in stitches!  The doctor said we should see a big improvement in his health, since the adenoids looked pretty bad.  I'm looking forward to that!  By this evening, you wouldn't have known he'd just had surgery. 

Alex spent the afternoon with a couple of our neighbors.  When he came home, he had this little plastic container filled with live bugs.  Naturally, I inquired as to their purpose.  He said his teacher asked them to collect bugs to bring back to school tomorrow.  Lovely.  Later we're discussing where to put his lovely little collection, and as I'm moving it, he says, "Don't drop it.  The top comes off pretty easily." 

All ready to go to the hospital


April 25, 2003

It is absolutely amazing how well Patrick is doing today.  He had a headache this morning when he woke up which went away with Tylenol.  Other than that, you would have no idea whatsoever that he had surgery yesterday.  He's eating anything he wants and I've spent the day trying desperately to keep him from bouncing off the walls.

Now he's moved on to a new malady:  his arm itches inside his cast.  I swear the itching is going to drive him mad, and his complaining about the itching is going to drive me mad!  ;-)  Tonight he couldn't get to sleep because of it, so I dug a thin spatula out of my kitchen and stuck it down in there and moved it around.  He actually rolled his eyes up in his head, leaned back, smiled and sighed.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On a very sad note, my Uncle Roger died this morning.  He was a wonderful man and we will miss him dearly.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


April 27, 2003

Mark and I spent the afternoon finally installing a new ceiling fan in Patrick's room.  It involved a lot of work in the attic installing this and adjusting that and then redoing it all over again.  By the time the whole thing was done, we were exhausted, but feeling pretty proud at having overcome such adversity.  Patch came in to see his new fan, and he smiled, said he liked it, and then looked at it for a minute and said, "It's crooked." (It wasn't.)  Little smarty pants!

I'm sure I'm looking pretty hard for signs of improvement since Patrick's surgery, but there are some things worth noting. First of all, he's only woken up once the last two nights.  For several weeks now he's been waking up several times a night, so that's definitely an improvement.  Also, today he told Mark that he could smell now.  And tonight when he was drinking his milk before bed, he said that his milk doesn't hurt anymore since he had his adenoids out.  We've always thought his milk "hurt" at night because he was too full and was aggravating his reflux, so we cut back on how much we gave him.  Maybe it was something else after all.

Even a broken arm won't stop him from swinging his bat!

 


April 28, 2003

Boy, has it been a long day!  Uncle Roger's memorial service is tomorrow morning down in Ft. Myers.  The day didn't start very well, with Patch throwing a frothing fit when I dropped him off at school.  I'm sure he's feeling insecure about how upset I've been and the trip this afternoon and all.  They had to peel him off of me, and as I headed back to the car, the dam broke and I finally broke down and took the time to bawl my eyes out.  We left for the drive down to Ft. Myers shortly after school got out, so I had a lot to do arranging for the trip.  I also had to put in my volunteer time at Alex's writing center, and I must admit, I wasn't exactly cool as a cucumber when 21 6-year-olds were all talking at once.

We got on the road and had to stop on the way down for Mark to do a closing while we waited in the car.  It turns out the drive was farther than we thought.  We had a reservation at a hotel which was at the far side of Ft. Myers (I made those reservations during my frazzled time this morning), and we got there at about 10:30 tonight.  We're exhausted and the kids are bouncing off the walls!


April 29, 2003

This morning was the memorial service.  We got up and everything went according to plan, but on the drive from the hotel to the service, the roads just kept going and going.  The map from the hotel didn't have a scale on it, and it was rather misleading how far things were.  Anyway, we arrived 30 minutes late for the service.  Icing on the cake of an already sad day.  The kids hadn't had a moment to let off any steam, but somehow managed to be little angels during the service.  There was a table of food, and immediately after the service Patrick was starving.  Mark got sidetracked on the way to the food table, and I looked up to see Patrick grab the serving fork and start eating with it right off the serving tray!

The best part of the day, of course, was getting to see my aunt and cousins.  It's been a very long time since I've seen them and we had the most wonderful afternoon getting caught up.

Brother and sister reunion (my dad and my aunt) My cousin, Gloria, letting the boys hear the ocean in the shells