Monday, November 21, 2011

Choo chooooo

Back at the railroad museum. Such a magical place! Stenn is IN LOVE WITH CHOO CHOO TRAINS! He could play with trains for two hours at a time without breaking focus. Hmmm wonder what this little conductor will be getting for his birthday and Christmas?! Love the last photo - you can see his little lips saying "choooo chooo!"

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Halloween





Look at the excitement?


Stenn's expression is priceless in this photo! This is how reacts to Everything Halloween!


Who doesn't love a 4 year old Spiderman in a pile of fall leaves???


And you'll never believe (if you read the last post) my big boy who was COUNTING the days for Halloween to come rips off his mask, croutches down on the ground and says to me about 35 minutes in "I'm sick, I'm not well, I don't feel good!" He had not even had any candy yet! I asked him what was wrong but he couldn't explain it - he just looked miserable - we snapped a picture. He said "Mommy - just one more house and then we need to go!"


The good news is - nothing ever came from his sudden illness!!! So other than me being totally sick and on anti-bitotics (inevitable after that week with Stenn) all is calm ~ but I am not holding my breath . . .

A wonderful Pacific Northwest Trip - that led into the longest week of my parenthood life...

The Plan:

I have a free ticket - Stenn is free until December 7th - Stenn MUST meet childhood best friend Jennifer and family before THEN! Sooo - here we go! Then I say to myself - "Hey it would be great to visit Emilia & Carrie and family in Portland for a day! I'll take the train! - Then get a call from Deanne (who also lives in Seattle) and says "forget the train- I'm drivin'!" Sooo it all started out relatively normal . . .

The plane ride there was quite easy but Stenn was NOT acting like himself. Basically he was very cranky and had a BAD stomach ache (if you get my drift?)! I was disappointed because Jennifer and family were not able to see the true sweet spirit that Stenn is! But we made it work (WITHOUT ANY SLEEP)

Christie and Bruce - Jennifer's parents. Their home overlooks Lake Washington - So beautful!

Jennifer's apartment - giving Stenn a ride!

The flowers at Pike's Place Market - AMAZING!



And then of course - the beloved fall foliage!!

Stenn's first city bus ride!

Jennifer's Great Aunt (who I have know sine I was 12) lives on Queen Anne Hill - This is her view.

Such a wonderful time with Jennifer and family - they adjusted well around Stenn's "off-ness" - sooo happy they were able to meet!

On Sunday afternoon Deanne picked us up with her precious daughter Kate. And we were off ....


A half hour outside of Portland - The gas coming out of Stenn could have wilted all the flowers in Pike's Place Market! So we pull over - no poop - just rash - a small rash at that...

And by Monday morning - it looked like this!


Obviously I was a mess! The rash did not bother Stenn - But IT BOTHERED ME! On Emilia's request we went to the most AMAZING Emergency Room on the planet! St. Vincent's hospital has their OWN Children's Emergency Ward!


The Dr. basically said - well I don't even remember what he said because I was basically out of my body - however he was not overly alarmed and gave him a three day dose of the steroid decadron. By that night it was almost gone!

The next morning before we were leaving Charlie and Stenn snuggled by the fire right after they woke up (There's that "cheeese" smile - bless his little heart).

And more beloved fall foliage . . .


So we got home Tuesday - Stenn had more stomach issues. 2:15 Wednesday morning - a blow out again and THE RASH WAS BACK! Off to the pediatrician Wednesday morning. Dr. says it is Erythema Multi-forming. Basically his immune system went on overdrive and this was the way it manifested itself as it was trying to drive out whatever stomach virus he had!

The rash ended up going away on it's own Thursday night. All was happy in the Woods household as we were watching the traditional "Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown" and THEN - Oh yes there is MORE - Stenn was happily walking toward me as he tripped on his blankie two feet away from the coffee table and BOUNCED - yes - BOUNCED off the corner of the coffee table and then flew back and landed flat on his back. It all happened in a nano-second. When I went down to grab him the blood was SPEWING and SPURTING like 12 inches into the air from his chin!!!! ARE YOU KIDDING??? I was home alone - by the time my mom and Patrick got there they both thought a stitches were unnecessary. I disagreed. But in all honesty - I hadn't slept in SIX DAYS and I could not IMAGINE schlepping down to the inner-city ER late at night - I HAD NOTHING LEFT . . . (is that terrible?)

Our friend Joe came to the rescue with steri-strips - but unfortunately they did not stick longer than an hour because of the ooze and blood. The next morning I took jack to school and all the moms and the teacher about passed out when they saw Stenn and said "You must take him to the doctor now!" Sooooo off we went again. Stictches can only be done within six hours of incident (just in case any of you didn't know that) - so they glued down the steri-strips and all is healing!

Now who's ready for Halloween????

longest week of my parenting life

8 on the 18th

P and I celebrated 8 years of marriage on October 18th. P took the day off and we went to Apple Hill to pick apples (there were none left to pick) and then headed over to Venezio Vineyards where we had our wedding reception. We try to go every year. As we were driving I was saying to Patrick that I just had no idea how they kept that place running - It is literally in the middle of no where. Sure enough as we pulled in there was a HUGE for sale sign. It just broke our hearts. Even worse they were closed that day. Each year the Venezio family gets to see how our family is changing and they did not this year. On a more positive not, Jack has turned into quite the little photographer and get this - Stenn doesn't make his heinous "cheeese" awkward smiles when the camera is on a timer!!! For those of you at the wedding - you can see the new vineyard they have grown behind us which was not there in 2003.