I am hoping that I didn't make a mistake the other day.  We have some special markers that are washable and designed for drawing on glass.  And so I turned both kids lose with them to decorate the storm door.  Yes, both of them.  Meaning that he has NO idea why Mommy suddenly allowed markers on the front door.  So I just hope that he doesn't then get ahold of some and color the walls or something.  She understands, but not sure he is old enough to.  But he was just so excited to be turned loose with markers that he did more grinning that actually coloring.

 

And she enjoyed it just as much.  So much so that she wasn't really willing to turn around and get her picture taken.  Oh, well, that was the point wasn't it? 

On another note, Justice is busy trying to do everything just like Jordan.  Just like the other morning at breakfast.  She wanted Cheerios with milk, so guess what he had?  :-)  And you know they looked a lot like each other while they were eating them...

Can you see the matching milk dribble on their chins?

I think it is safe to say that our little man is feeling all better.  He seemed timid around food for a little bit after the pain seemed to be gone, but now he is ok.  So hopefully the trauma of the syringes is behind him!  To prove his health he and his sister had a blast playing at the new local park on Saturday after dinner.  I wish there were pictures, but sadly I didnt' have a camera.  Justice discovered the round plastic slide and LOVED it!  The slides in general seemed quicker since the playground was damp from rain and he had on nylon shorts.  He had a blast!  He even went down the tube slide face first, though he couldn't seem to remember to pick up his hands, so he went down VERY slowly that way.  Probably a good thing. 

The two kiddos are becoming good buddies, which warms the heart.  Today they have seemed extra close.  Might be because it turns out instead of napping or playing quietly in her room, our little angel slipped into her little brothers room and they were playing together.  Or as well as one can with one of you secure behind bars.  But you can see the closeness here.

 

Where she goes, he follows.  And he follows her every lead.  If she's done eating, he's done.  That instant.  If she is out riding her bike, he wants to too.  So much so that you must watch or he will end up being hit by her, through no fault of hers.  And then he must get a turn when she's done.  It can really be something to see them in action together while they are happy with one another.  But feel pity for us when it isn't going well as it swings full circle the other direction too.

 

Oh, I forgot there were other photos from the other day I forgot to share.  Here they are being sweet again.  He didn't want his picture taken, until I tried to take hers.  Then he had to have his taken too.

 

And here she is posing for a picture...

 

While he is back to being busy...

 

Look who is feeling better...

 

No pain meds today and no crying about it.  Yeah!  He is still very limited in his eating (thank goodness for milk and Ritz crackers), but he's acting much better.  He ate a couple bites of yogurt before bed last night, which isn't much compared to what he used to eat before bed, but hey we'll take it.  And then today he ate bread.  Again not much, but it's something.  Then for dinner Daddy bribed (I mean enticed) him with McD's.  He ate at least half his nuggets, part of an apple slice, and some french fries (and of course milk - that part is no surprise).  So yeah!  Who knew I would be so excited that he ate McD's?

Not that him feeling better has made him any easier to photograph.  He still wants to see the photo before I can get it focused to take the photo. Here he is "helping" me take pictures.  See how he's holding the lens cap in front of him, so I can ALMOST get him in the shot?

     I am back for a rant.... I am feeling like Andy Rooney.   Anyway... I was reading the paper this morning and they were talking about the new toll booth system they are are building for the expressway to RTP.  A lot of people are pissed because who wants to pay tolls.  Well an email to the paper was published, from a reader.  The reader basically said (Paraphrasing)...Tolls suck but if not for tolls where is the money going to come from?  Gas tax... which pays for roads hasn't been raised since 1992.  Fuel efficiency and cost of gas has shrunk the revenue even more due to less consumption.  Simple addition and subtraction!

    Well it finally stoked my inner grouch because you see in politics that every candidate wants lower taxes.  Why... because no one will vote for a candidate if they don't promise to lower taxes.  The reality is... you can't lower taxes forever.  We love having services.... police... fire.... paved roads... streetlights...etc....  Lots of citizens even bitch about not having enough services.  When cost of living rises for us... the citizen... cost of business also rises for the public services.  Things cost money.. yet instead of getting a boost of money to afford general supplies and staff they need to perform the service... they get the next politician that lowers taxes.  Taxes suck... but sometimes they are a necessary evil.  The common argument is that the government just wastes the taxes anyway... so what... pick up your toy and go home?  That is not the answer.  The beauty of this country is if you don't like what the government is doing... you can become proactive in it. You can run for office.. or you can join a watch dog group... write letters to congressmen.  Most people sit in their homes and gripe but never send a letter to their representatives.  How is the rep supposed to know what his/her constituents want if said constituents never speak except to gripe to each other?  For majority rule to work... the majority must be at least a vocal percentage as the minority.  Problem is... the minority always seems to have a louder voice that makes them sound like the majority.

 I guess my point is... we can't keep lowering taxes.. because you keep cutting into ability for services to buy supplies and staffing.  With the price of things increasing they can't keep their budgets stagnate because realize it or not.. with the services come jobs of friends and families.  But I guess it is like everything... if something doesn't directly effect you, you turn a blind eye and resist any burden you have to shoulder. 

 Nobody cares about education quality until they have kids, don't care about everyone getting healthcare until they are suffering from a serious illness with no insurance, and don't care about the war unless they have a relative impacted by it.

 

/rant

Have a good Sunday everyone! 

Yesterday was pretty rough.  Justice wasn't happy at all.  Can't say I blame him, but the issue at hand was that he would not drink.  And that gets extra tricky with a child that doesn't like ice cream or popsicles on a good day.  So, I had to resort to feeding him liquids with the syringe.  Let's just say that didn't make me his friend.  Luckily he would forgive me quickly and then mommy hugs would help make it better.  Sigh.  It was rough for everyone here, but especially for him.  So needless to say I was very concerned when he woke up this morning that it would be more of the same and that he may end up back in the hospital if he kept it up.  Instead, when he woke this morning for pain medicine (again with a syringe, a small one, but assure you he doesn't like any size syringe anymore) he actually asked for milk.  Yeah!  Such a relief!  He is still not exactly liking foods, but he is liking milk, which is all I am asking right now!

Oh, and he's told me "no" so many times in the past few days that he actually woke up from nap saying "no."  I was worried that was not a good sign, but then he came down and not so happily got pain medicine, but then asked for milk again.  Thank you Grandma for the spongebob sippy cup - it has been a huge hit, especially lately when we've needed any incentive we can find.  Though yesterday he wanted the cup, just not to drink from it.  He was content to tuck it under his arm and call it a day.  Growl.  But today he's back on track to recovery, which is such a relief.  

Here are a couple of pictures to show he is doing better.  He was busy checking out the animals to see what they were up to.  These were early today and he has a bit of a zombie stare in them, but that was all I seemed to be able to capture.  He kept trying to see the pictures on the camera before I could even snap one, which made getting a shot very hard.

 

Update:  Here's a good one that I managed to capture as he caught me putting the memory back in the camera, which meant he wanted me to get another picture of him.

 

The evening started off pretty well.  He did eat - yeah!  Though I must say I was surprised that he wanted saltine crackers.  Really?  Yes!  Then the good thing was after a few it got him to drink.  He liked them so much that once he was done eating for the time being he refused to let go of one.  He zoned out for a little while watching The Incredibles holding the cracker like a prize.

The evening however, did not go as well as we had hoped last night.  About an hour after we all passed out from exhaustion, Justice took his IV out.  So, instead of putting it back in the nurse woke him every two hours and we held him while she squirted milk or juice from a syringe into him like medicine.  He was not liking it!  All because he refused to drink because it was bed time in his mind.  Poor guy when he feels well isn't likely to drink when he's awoken from a sleep, so we knew no way was he going to drink williningly as tired and yucky as he had to be feeling.  Sigh.  So it was hard for us to handle, but he would go right back to sleep.  This morning he was happier and eating again.  He had blueberry yogurt before we left the hospital and as soon as we were home he wanted into his high chair, though it took a little while to decide what he actually wanted to eat.  Then he had to go and check out his toys to make sure they were still there.  :-)

Now he is sleeping soundly in his own bed just glad to be back home!

We knew today would not be a day that our little guy would like.  I mean really, it isn't the top of his agenda to have his tonsils and adenoids out as well as have tubes put in his ears.  But we did think we could get him out of bed this morning, change his diaper quickly and take off to the hospital.  As it was very early this seemed like a good plan.  However, instead it involved getting him up, changing his sheets, and a quick bath in the sink as he had thrown up.  I guess he was so congested that it was a problem for him or he just knew.  Either way he was leery of his trip from the beginning and has been very clingy to me.  I have spent most of my time laying in bed holding him.  But I have managed to sneak away a couple of times (even a mommy has to pee).  For the most part he is resting.  He has no interest in food what-so-ever, but he does have an IV, so he won't dehydrate.

Still he just looks so little in the big bed. 

 

That isn't a cast on his arm.  With the IV in they are trying to make it so that he can't pull it out.  And of course Mr. Bear is right there!  Hope you feel better quick sweetie!

Q and R is a term used frequently in our household.  It represent's our daughter's favorite food right now - quesadilla and rice.  These are not words you can utter in an even remote ear shot of her or guess what she will want.  And she could eat it every meal, so just because you had it for lunch does not mean you are safe.  So we have shortened it to Q and R and MOST of the time she doesn't catch on immediately.  Notice I said immediately.  :-)  But say quesadilla OR rice and she will be asking to eat at HER mexican restaraunt.  She is wise to the fact that we will visit other places that also serve Q and R, which apparently are not as good.  Sigh.

So apparently little guy takes after her.  He is also a huge fan of Q and R.  But at least we can still say the words around him.  Though while at the beach Grandma and I are pretty sure he did say "quesadilla."  An appropriate word in our household.  So while we weren't at his "sister's mexican" restaraunt the other night, we were at one that she would have enjoyed.  See?

He was quite proud of himself!





So he didn't finish his rice, but if it gives you any idea of how much he did eat - about 1/3 was left on the plate (I think).  I will admit he had more than even I realized in the beginning.  I guess he was right when he indicated he was hungry. 

I let our little princess pick our sides for tonight's dinner and she picked baked beans, so we decided that we needed a fruit to go with as well.  So the blueberries and strawberries we got yesterday were perfect.  And since she wanted to help cook and I couldn't come up with anything with the beans - fruit it was.  She got to wash all the strawberries and go through all the blueberries to look for stems.  I was starting to worry that we weren't going to have any blueberries for us for actual dinner.  Can you see why?

 

No, I guess not.  Here they actually look like little helpers.  Here you see more of what I mean.

But grins like this make it all worthwhile.

 

I mean after all it is just blueberries.  :-)  And we did end up with some leftover for dinner (and even another night).

Jordan was invited to a friend's 3rd birthday today and after a hesitant start she had a BLAST!  She has a strong dislike of loud noises, which is odd given her typical volume level.  :-)  But once I was able to "force" her into the bounce house she was set.  She jumped and jumped and jumped until the average person, or at least parent would have collapsed. Oh, and it impossible to take a photo inside a bounce house if a child is actually bouncing.  I tried.  Not so successfully I might add.  So here is a look from the outside in.

Then it was on the slides - the little, big, and the one at the end of an obstacle course.

So little guy was also invited, but well a nap is MUCH more important, so he stayed home and napped.  At least he has no idea on what he missed out on.  He is still trying to make his sister's scooter go by standing on it and rocking.  The funny thing is he is stating to get it to move across the room.  (Note the milk cup in the front basket.)

 

After the scooter it was on time for his car.  Afterall he can sure make that go.  And I do mean go.  But just in case that isn't fast enough big sis is there to make it go even faster.

 

Sigh.  I'd just settle for some of their energy.  I mean really, the energizer bunny has nothing on these two, especially our oldest.  This weekend alone I've gotten several comments on her high energy level.  Yes, thank you I am aware.