Pre-3 school year

Amelia has finished her first year of preschool this week! She has grown and learned so much while there, and made some good friends that I am sure she will miss. She has learned to spell and write her name, made countless art projects and learned a lot about waiting your turn, being patient and most importantly, being line leader! She is always telling me that i need to "let her go first" because she is the line leader! She could count to 20 or more before school started, but did learn to count by 10"s to 100 and has been able to identify about 1/2 of the alphabet by site. I am hoping the new year will teach her even more and help prepare her for kindergarten. We will be putting her in a new school next year. It is closer to home and seems a little more on track for what we want for her. here are some first and last day shots! look how much taller she is on the last day!

water fun!

The kids are huge fans of the water table. Once the sun sets, we usually head out to the driveway to let them cool off and burn off some energy! They will stand there and bucket by bucket empty out all the water. We usually re-fill it once and let them do it again, bucket by bucket! For my long time followers, does that suit look familier? Here it was last year! Last year she required a swim diaper. Once she was potty trained, we lost the swim diaper and it still fit. Chances are, it will fit next year too! I changed my angle while taking these pics and was able to come up with a new idea. I love these! I hope to get some with all 4 of us in them soon!

Quality time with Pop

Super

heros, kids, special, funny, fast, loveable.
they are just plain super!

pulling the rug out from under us

yesterday (tues 5/11) i went to lunch with my mom and my sister, mia luca and bella. while at lunch i noticed luca would not eat and luca felt warm. we had a 1pm appt for pics so i stopped and bought him some motrin at walgreens and gave him a dose. he perked right up and was happy for the pics. as soon as we got in the car, he and mia fell asleep. i needed to run an errand so i thought they could both sleep while i ran to swansea and then headed home. Luca woke up when we hit collinsville so i stopped in dollar general to look for a rug i wanted that they had. he was fine, mia was fine. mia wanted some dora snacks. i got them some and gave them each a pack when we got in the car. i headed home, all was fine. when i went to turn on the service road, i saw lucas out of the corner of my eye. he was bright red, arms and legs drawn up and eyes fixed, he was having a seizure. my heart stopped. at first i thought he could be choking. i stopped, pulled him out which was difficult because he was so stiff. i gave him some back thrusts and tried a finger sweep. his teeth were clenched, although he had never had a seizure before, he was having one now. i screamed at someone driving by to call 911 for me. some nice guy did. then a lady came running over with her daughter and told me she could help, she was a nurse. we both determined it was a seizure. at that point he was blue and we almost began some rescue breathing but he relaxed and his color returned to pink. she got a blanket out of my trunk and we layed him down. he was just laying there moaning and it broke my heart. i felt so helpless and was so scared. EMS arrived after that and took a history and took him to the hospital. Darrin met me at the scene and took mia. i followed them to the hospital, although i wanted him at SLCH, they said having him seen at anderson would be better, so that is where he went. he was awake and crying when i arrived. we were there for 3 hrs or so and they let him come home with the diagnosis of febrile seizure. he was really sleepy last night, so i will see how he is today. we are going to see our ped this am too. they said he probably has an adno-virus which is common this time of year and i think mia has as well. of course i play the what if's out too - what if he had been sleeping in his crib and i hadn't seen it, his car seat was still rear facing etc. i hope and pray he doesn't have another one. if he were to have another on w/in 24 hrs, they would work him up for a seizure disosrder.

Wednesday (5/12) - so we went to the ped who confirmed it seemed like a febrile seizure. we were hoping he would be one and done but he had another small one later that night. we were told by the on call dr if he has another, he will be worked up which is an EEG, CT scan, and a spinal tap.

Thursday - 5/13 He had another seizure last night at 11:30pm. we were taken to anderson again (not by my choice) and lucas was transferred via helicoptor to SLCH (thurs am 0230). he was still having seizures about every 3-5hrs. they varied in length and we all the same in appearance. all scary as hell! He did have an LP on arrival, an EEG is scheduled, and he will get an MRI on friday (5/14).

After the 8th seizure at 6:30pm thurdsay night, they decided to start him on Keppra to control them. and it has! he has been seizure free so far. he is mostly happy, except his IV is in his foot! he has some residual left side weakness that the dr seems to think will resolve on it's own. The EEG did show some seizure activity, the MRI and LP were clear!!

We were dc'd sat afternoon about 12:30pm. No further weakness, he is back to running and climbing! Go lucas!

At anderson, looking for the nearest exit.

prior to the eeg - luca was not happy

after the eeg, still not happy

right before his MRI

wagon rides were a favorite of luca's. we probably walked 2 miles a day in them!

the million dollar view from our penthouse room!

the muny

lunch

can you spot the IV inflitrate - poor luca!!

resting w/ pop

the dreaded foot IV

tooltime

a visit to the beautiful olsen rooftop garden

last day!!

home sweet home!!

and oh so happy!!

Party time

We were invited to celebrate Tyler's first birthday recently. It was held a a local park. there was a nice pavillion that had a playground nearby. The kids had a great time. There was even a pinata for the kids to break open! The kids had a great time and tyler got some great gifts! Happy First Birthday Tyler!!

Playtime at the park

this boy has moves!

vaccum cleaning moves! Luca loves to vaccum, loves it! The vaccum was orginally mia's

and luca plays with it way more than she ever did. Can't wait till he is old enough to use the Dyson!

hello mr. chompers!

It was finally time to take Mia to meet Mr. Chompers and Dr. Trost! I love Dr. Trost! She is our
family dentist and is wonderful. She always tells me "that tooth looks so good i would put
it in my mouth!". She is super patient and was wonderful with Mia. And look how good Mia is
scrubbing those teeth!

nana and pawpaw's

On weekend's that I have to work, Darrin will take the kids out to his mom's to spend the day. They decided to get the tractor out so miss mia could go riding around the property. She even allowed Lucas to ride along with her for a brief moment! after that she would stop and wait for him to cathc up, act like she was going to let him get on and take off!! It's a benifit of being the big sister i guess.

opening day!

Darrin and I have been lucky enough to catch opening day at Wrigley 3 times now and it is always the same! Lots of excitement, a big crowd and always fun, fun fun!! There is no place like Wrigley! Chicago has the best city for baseball! We stayed in Wrigleyville this time, were able to walk to the stadium and grab lunch at the cubby bear prior to the game! Well, we had appetizers - we saved out lunch appetite for a chicago dog in the stadium! yum!! We can't wait to take the kids to Wrigley when they are a little bit older. The bottom right picture is on of my favorites - the lady had on some vintage cubbie attire - her hat, pins, jacket and bag! and she kept score on a score card too! Her friend was just as vintagly-festive, but I didn't get a picture of her. She was quite lively for take me out to the ball game too! very enthusistatic and a true cubbie fan!

what a difference

6 months can make. He is looking less like a baby and more like a big boy!

friends

lots of love

I have lots of love for these girls! they can go from crazy to sweet in 2 seconds.