Adam's First School Sick Days

Last Tuesday, we got a call from the school saying that Adam had thrown up and was waiting in the school clinic to be picked up. Helen happened to be on a school field trip, so I picked Adam up.

When I got to the school, I saw Derek in the hallway with his class and gave him a kiss as I made my way to the clinic. We're happy that he's still not too old for public displays of affection. Adam was lying down and sat up when I walked into the clinic. He told me, "Dadda, I threw up".

Adam had a fever, but still had an appetite. He rested and took a long nap, but the fever got worse at night. He didn't throw up anymore, but had bad diarrhea. Helen took him to the doctor on Wednesday, but they said to take him to Children's Healthcare Hospital because they couldn't do an IV and they were concerned that kids can get dehydrated so quickly.

We figured it was just a stomach bug, but we were concerned about being sent to the hospital emergency room. Thankfully, the doctor said Adam seemed fine and that we should continue doing what we were doing - rest and fluids. When they were leaving the hospital, Helen said, "See, that wasn't so bad." Adam acknowledged, "Yeah, except for the butt part." The doctor had taken a stool sample and Adam was not too fond of that part of the experience.

We kept Adam home again on Thursday and he returned to class on Friday. He was pleased that his teacher and lots of kids asked about him. They also thanked him for sending in snacks for the class on Thursday even though he was out. For the month of October, each kid was assigned a letter and day to bring in a snack that started with the letter. Adam's letter was "M". He brought in McIntosh apples and M&M's. Derek dropped the snacks off at Adam's class since Adam was sick.

We got a follow-up call from the hospital and it turns out that Adam had shigellosis. The nurse thought it may have come from the trip to the Zoo. We've used the experience to drive home the importance of good hygiene to Derek and Adam. When they go to the bathroom and before they eat we tell them to scrub their hands really good for at least 10 seconds and remind them what can happen if they don't. They'll be on the toilet for a couple days like Adam was.

Pumpkins At Nanna and Poppy's

Last Sunday we dropped the boys off at Helen's parent's house because Helen had a teacher workday on Monday. The boys always love to spend the night at Nanna and Poppy's. Helen's brother's families also came over to make it a big fun get together.

Lindsay was so cute in her Halloween outfit. It turns out the Lindsay had a bad sleep week, but she seemed in good spirits. Her mom, Chris, however was beat and hoping that Lindsay was going to be more sensitive to her parent's sleep requirements in the near future.

The big treat was heading out to the garden to see the pumpkin patch. The kids loved having their very own pumpkins.

Trip To The Zoo, Etc

With the great weather and the fact that the boys didn't have soccer games this weekend, we decided it was a good time to go to the zoo. We don't get to see my Dad that often, so we invited him to go along, but he had already made other plans. It ended up being a good thing since, as usual, we didn't make it to the zoo anywhere close to our original plan.

I had my tennis match in the morning. The boys worked on their piano assignments and then had some unstructured play time, which is always nice since it seems they're always going from one commitment to another.

On the way to the zoo, I surprised the boys by stopping at Krystal, which is probably their favorite. Derek downed a couple double krystals and several singles. He was also intrigued by the sign showing the results of various Krystal eating contests around the state. The average winning number seemed to be around 70!

It turns out that being late to the zoo was ok, as a couple of hours was plenty of time to see everything. Although we didn't have enough time to ride the train, which disappointed Adam. Helen said that Adam told her that I said we would ride the train, but I reminded her that I don't give hard commitments. I usually respond to questions like, "Can we ride the train?" with sayings like, "That sounds like fun" or "I want to" or something non-committal along those lines, which really infuriates Derek. But, hey, so does continually asking me to commit to something.

After the zoo, I surprised everyone again by stopping at the Varsity for frosted orange drinks and then a short drive over to the Georgia Tech campus for a driving tour. Derek was loving all the surprises. He kept saying how he didn't think we were going to do anything special today and now we were doing all kinds of things.

Although I graduated from Georgia Tech, Derek has been swayed by his classmates to pull for Georgia instead of Georgia Tech. I haven't really tried to dissuade him - after all Georgia has many things going for it like a better football team, a nicer campus, and prettier women. What's not to like? Recently, however, Derek has come to the realization that he will probably go to Georgia Tech since Georgia Tech is for engineering and he wants to be a "Lego" engineer, but he's still going to pull for Georgia in sports.

Go Lindsay

Look at me go

Adam and Derek playing a game with Aunt Chris

Teaching Lindsay about the finer things in life

Our neice, Lindsay, is officially walking...or at least taking some steps on her own. She really made progress a couple weeks ago at Helen's parent's house. We were there to celebrate Helen's mother's birthday and Lindsay was pushing Derek and Adam's old walking toys all over the house and having a blast.

Quick Update

Adam and, neighor Patrick, on the attack

Adam and Derek on the "Frog Hopper" at the county fair

Adam helping out with the planting

I thought I would do a quick blog update since I haven't updated it in a while. I get cranky when I feel like too many memories have gone by undocumented. It seems that all the weeks lately have been a blur with work, school, soccer, tennis, and football.

The boys are really enjoying soccer. Derek's team got a rare win this weekend, so they were all happy. They're finally starting to work together. Adam is a dynamo and never seems to tire. He's even getting better at staying on his feet.

Helen's not on an official ALTA tennis team, but her group does a weekly lesson and Calcutta style round robin. She wasn't aware that there would be a lesson followed by a Calcutta match each week. She likes being able to get out and have some fun, but she's not sure she enjoys it enough to be getting home at 9:30 when she has to get up at 4:45.

We managed to make it to a couple of our favorite Fall activities, the Gwinnett County Fair and Duluth Fall Festival, where we ate the usual funnel cakes and other bad food. Helen always complains that the food seems like it's going to be good, but that it takes days for her stomach to recover.

Helen's also been a trooper and gone along with us to a few high school football games. It's difficult on Friday nights since Derek has soccer practice on Friday nights and then the kids have to be up early for their soccer matches on Saturday. The kids are usually excited to go because they can eat hamburgers and candy, but they're usually ready to go after the halftime show.

I'm waiting for some rain in the forecast before I put down the fall grass seed, but the rain just won't come and with all the watering restrictions, I may just have to wait until early spring. However, I did manage to replace a couple shrubs that died, with Adam and Derek's help. One of the shrubs in the front died a few years back and I'm replacing it for the third time. It looks funny because it's right in the middle of a long row of shrubs. I replaced it the first time without doing much soil preparation and it died again the next Summer. I replaced it again and made an effort to prepare the soil, but it still died the following Summer. However, I did notice that our cat was using the bathroom around the shrub, so I'm thinking that the cat has been killing the shrub all along. I'm going to put some chicken wire or something around it this time.

Hogwarts Castle

Derek's been saving his money for quite a while to buy the Lego Harry Potter Hogwarts Castle and a few weeks ago he had finally saved enough to get it. But we've been so busy that we had not gotten to the store. Thankfully, Derek had been pretty reasonable about pestering us - except for a couple occasions where he didn't have enough other things to do and I had to tell him to quit asking.

This weekend, we finally made the commitment to go to Target after Adam's soccer game on Sunday. Derek was so excited and told us that once he got the castle he was going to be in his room for days and no one was to bother him. As soon as we arrived at the store, Derek excitedly did a walk\run back to the toy section. The store was being turned into a Super Target so everything had been reconfigured and, at first, Derek couldn't find the Lego section and was getting worried that the store had quit carrying Lego's. We finally found the Lego's, but there was no Hogwarts Castle. Once we confirmed with one of the workers that there weren't any in the back either, Derek started getting misty eyed. He had waited patiently for weeks and the day had finally arrived only to be thwarted.

Adam was also caught up in the money madness and couldn't wait to dump his hard earned money on the Matchbox Shark Attack. But that Target did not have any Shark Attacks, either. So I proposed that if they were willing to combine their money then I would chip in the difference and they could get a Nintendo Wii. Derek gave careful consideration to the offer, but Adam wouldn't go for it.

Adam wasn't too upset, but Derek had lost all hope. We were beat from all the weekend activities and still had lots to do to get ready for the week, but we decided, since Derek had been so patient, that we would drive over to another Target to see if they had a Hogwarts Castle. Derek's demeanor quickly changed from mopey and sad to one of eager anticipation.

When we arrived at the store, Derek hustled back to the toy section where he found the last remaining Hogwarts Castle and as we rolled up with the shopping cart, he had the biggest grin on his face and quickly deposited his prize in the shopping cart. Adam also got his Shark Attack.

When we got home, both boys immediately headed up to their rooms with their new toys. It's been a few days and Derek spends any free time he can get up in his room setting up his castle. He gives his friends at school daily updates and pulls us into his room to show us how far he's gotten. Adam has his Shark Attack setup in his room and closes his door so nobody will bother it.

Soccer

Ryan and Adam pushing the ball

Adam does a face plant

A rare shot of Adam under control

Adam loves the slide kick

More ground time

Shaking hands at game's end

Derek moves on the ball

Derek gets in on the action

Derek hustles after the ball

Derek and Adam have started their soccer seasons. Adam is playing on the U-6 Storm and Derek is playing on the U-10 Rovers. They both seem to be really enjoying it. Adam was happy that Ryan, his neighbor friend, is also on his team. Adam hustles the whole time and is in constant motion, although he would be of more use to his team if he would stay on his feet instead of taking every opportunity to fall on the ground. Derek has really had to step it up with this being his first exposure to rec league. He played a couple seasons in a church league, but the field was much smaller and the players were not nearly as good. We joke with him that all the running is finally going to shrink his muffin top belly. He really likes defense - especially goalie. He realizes that he doesn't have the speed or ball skills to be a great offensive player, but he did get a couple shots at the goal in his second game.