Hawaii

Since Lane is not much to blog about these days I thought I would do a post on our honeymoon. It's somewhat random, but my sister just got back from her honeymoon and it prompted me to look through our wedding and honeymoon pictures during naptime.

This was us a few weeks after our wedding and a few weeks before our honeymoon. We waited until I was out of school to go. We had a little party at our house in Peoria where we opened our wedding gifts.

Besides for the fact that we spent TWO glorious weeks in Hawaii (Maui and Kauai), we also have a pretty cool (now that we know the outcome) story about the end of our honeymoon. Not a lot of people may know about it and it's interesting enough that Matt's been asked numerous times by his boss at different work meetings to share that story with the group.

Here are some pics...we look so young.

Getting ready to leave for the airport.

Matt taking in the fresh Hawaiian air. It smelled like flowers everywhere!

Black rock at Kaanapali Beach.

Nightly sunset ritual.

Maui

Eating lunch on our patio.

Hotel grounds. We stayed at the Sheraton Maui Resort and Spa.

Our car while we were in Maui.

Beer of choice Kona Brewing Co.

Cheers!

helicopter tour.

View from the helicopter.

We got to sit up front with the pilot which was cool, but I thought I was gonna throw-up the entire time. I didn't realize it would make me so sick. I have terrible motion sickness. Luckily I was able to hold it in until we got out of the helicopter, took a bus ride back to our car, and then as we approached our car I lost it! Yuck! But I was fine the rest of the day. I was even ready for lunch after that! LOL!

We went to a luau on the beach.

Did some sightseeing in town.

Saw numerous rainbows.

Then we hopped an island plane and went to Kauai for a few days.

We stayed at The Hilton.

Numerous bottles were sent to our room.

Of course we never declined!

And then it was time to say goodbye.

Our flight to Hawaii was direct from Chicago. On the way home we had a layover in L.A. It was practically a red eye. When we landed in L.A. it was close to midnight and we had a very short wait until we boarded Flight 1740. It was a bad flight simply because it was late. It's hard to sleep on planes and I do distinctly remember it being old and clunky. I was also used to the big and new airplane that we just got off of from Hawaii. We tossed and turned for nearly 4 hours and approached Chicago with relief.

Relief until we felt the plane pull back up as we came in for a landing. That was the scariest feeling ever! I just remember looking out the window and seeing everything getting smaller again when just seconds ago we could have touched the ground. Apparently we were doing a fly-by to traffic control and they confirmed that the landing gear was in-fact stuck and not coming down.

Everything was very quiet and confusing. It was also 6 am and people were groggy and tired. After 45 minutes of circling the lake, we were told that there was a malfuntion in the landing gear (READ: IT WOULD NOT COME DOWN) and then the flight attendants started yelling brace for impact over and over. I was looking at Matt in disbelief. What was about to happen was so unknown. We flew a little bit longer and coud tell we were approaching the runway again.

It was so scary I kept asking Matt if we were going to be ok. He was reassuring, but I could tell by the look in his eyes that he didn't really believe we would be ok. As we got closer to the ground, we floated a little bit and then BOOM! The nose of the plane hit the ground and we skidded for a few hundred yards. It was a rough landing but considering what he had to work with, it was pretty smooth. Miraculously the plane did not break in half, did not catch on fire, did not even skid off of the runway. We exited by stairway and were taken the rest of the way by bus to the airport.

You can read some articles here and here on the incident.

Read more...

Blueberry Frog

After 2 days of being under house arrest, I was starting to go a little stir crazy. We watched enough Sesame Street that we were starting to turn red and talk in third person like Elmo. Now that I am an expert on pneumonia (I'm so weird like that) I learned a few things to help out with the recovery process. Thank you google for providing me with enough links to become pneumonia savvy. In my "research," I found that fresh air is good for pneumonic lungs, although not cold fresh air, warm fresh air. This is where living in SC comes in handy because today was 60, maybe felt like 56 or 57 with the wind, but that's not cold. So in my mind I thought we could definitely go outside. I was thinking about where to go though because I didn't want him running around.

A walk! Perfect! He is absolutely content in a stroller as long as it is moving and loves loves loves being outside. So a walk it is. In googling the heck out of pneumonia, I also found this word to come up quite often: Lactobacillus. Apparently it is also good for the prevention and treatment of respiratory illnesses. It's not only good for respiratory illnesses, it's also what helps the "good" bacteria in our system. With Lane being on antibiotics to help his infection, they unfortunately completely wipe out good bacteria and replace with bad bacteria. (Read:diarrhea) Pair that with no appetite and a hard time getting fluids down and that makes for a very dehydrated little man. I do not want that to happen!

So Lactobacillus is basically probiotics which are found in yogurt among other things. The Dr. recommended we buy these granules from the pharmacy and stick them in his drink to help get them in his system. He did fine with drinking yesterday so I was able to stick a few packs in his milk and water, but today is a different story.

I was remembering my conversation with Lisa Saturday night as we were walking downtown to dinner and we walked by this place called the blueberry frog. (If you take a look at the link click on nutritional information...it's a no brainer right! The blueberry frog is a frozen yogurt place, but not like ice cream frozen yogurt, actual frozen yogurt.) She was telling me it's frozen yogurt so I decided we would walk outside to get some fresh air to eat some yogurt. How can the child pass up what looks like and sorta tastes like ice cream!

So I bundled him up regardless of the warmer temps. and off we went. The blueberry frog is a good hike from our house. It is on the opposite end of downtown, kind of by the baseball stadium so it would take us probably 35-40 minutes one way, if we walked fast. But I figured we didn't really have anything else to do and it would make the hours pass by a little more quickly.

When we got there they had a few flavors-blueberry (awesome) pomegranate (tempting) and plain. I sampled the blueberry and figured that was the winner. They also have toppings so I chose fruit because it sounded so good and refreshing with the blueberry yogurt. So we got pineapple, blueberries (for the antioxidants, of course) and strawberries.

Let me just say it was delicious, a tad expensive, but totally worth it. But it was all Lane could do to take, oh maybe, 5 bites. He just couldn't handle anymore. His appetite is zip and not even a blueberry (which he calls grapes) or a pineapple could tempt him. So unlike him. Usually when eating blueberries he always saying "moe moe please." So needless to say I ended up eating the whole thing. He also thought he wanted out of his stroller, but he really didn't because after a few minutes of walking around he was gassed and wanted back in.

My little mechanical engineer

He was pretty proud he was drinking by himself.

I geared myself up for the long trek back. And as soon as we got home, he was asking to go nigh-nigh. It definitely wasn't a wasted trip. It just didn't achieve the goal I had in mind which was for him to eat and eat a lot of it. Although I do have a feeling I will be making several trips back to the blueberry frog.

Read more...

Mommy Instinct

Women are born with a natural intuition, it's hard to explain, but we all have it. After we have children it becomes our mommy instinct and it's never wrong so we shouldn't ignore it. I always push my mommy instinct to the back of my mind thinking I am overreacting. It is sometimes also clouded by other people or things, but it's there and it's real.

If I would have ignored or pushed aside my mommy instinct longer than 4:00 last night, we might have ended up in the hospital. Lane has pnemonia and thankfully we caught it in the early stages. Thankfully I no longer pushed aside my mommy instinct later than 4:00 yesterday and decided to call the Dr. They did not have any more appointments, but the nurse was kind enough to get us in at 6:50.

Our ped's office is open until 7 on weekdays and even Saturday mornings. We partly picked them for that reason and the fact that one of the Dr's was a mom of one of the 2nd graders where I taught when I was pregnant with Lane. She would come into volunteer and I knew she was a pediatrician so I asked her about her practice. And from there we decided Lane would go there. It's a practice of all women...I love that. And although we see the same Dr. for his well-checks, he has seen a few others at sick appointments. They are all wonderful women who are compassionate and caring and supportive and very thorough.

I ultimately decided to bring him in yesterday because of the fact that he seemed very agitated and uncomfortable. Rewind back to Saturday night. We went with our neighbors out to dinner and left all 3 kids at their house with their nanny. They set up the pnp for Lane and when it was time for bed she put him down. She said he cried a bit and it took him a long time to fall asleep. We got home from dinner and drinks at around 11:30 and stayed another hour talking with them and watching SNL. When I went to get Lane to put him in the car, he felt very warm to me. I chalked it up to being covered in blankets in a fleece sleeper in a hot room. When we got him home Matt rocked him a bit and put him down to sleep. We woke up Sunday for church and he seemed ok. We went to Panera for breakfast and then ran a few errands before returning home. By that point he was very tired.

When we got home I changed him back to his jammies and put him down for a nap. He slept a good 2 1/2 hours and woke up with a fever. It was a fever that felt higher than 100 so we took his temp. and it immediately spiked the thermometer to 103.3. Matt gave him some Tylenol and within a few hours brought it down to the 101 range. Before bed that evening is when my mommy instinct first appeared. I felt that his breathing was very labored plus the fever and on top of that he had a cough and runny nose for the past few days. I mentioned a few concerns to Matt and also looked up a few symptoms on the internet.

Monday he was still feverish, not 103 feverish though. And plus he never acted sick at all. Still running all over the house and playing. Not much of an appetite, but that's hit or miss lately anyway. Tuesday he woke up kind of cranky. I figured it was because he woke up at 7 and he usually sleeps until 8. So I tried to feed him breakfast. Wouldn't eat. I ended up putting him back down at 8:30 and he slept until 10. When he woke up I offered breakfast again. He would only eat bluberries. So we snacked on those, got dressed and off to the gym we went.

Yeah, not the Mom of the Year Award here. I figured I would get a quick workout in. It was 11 which is late for us and they are only there until 1. I dropped him off and when I picked him up he seemed to be playing. His nose was running so I wiped it and then he coughed and the one of the ladies said in passing "Lane has a cough." I was like "yeah he seems to get rid of a cold and then a week later he gets another one." (Little did I know his lungs were filled with fluid and he has pnemonia..doh! Insert forhead smack here) We came home and had lunch....well I did and he had some cheese and a banana.

I kept him up because our realtor was coming over to take pictures. He got here around 2 and I asked him to take Lane's room first so I could put him down. He did and I laid him down and he went right to sleep. An hour later, he woke up kinda half crying half moaning. I went upstairs because I thought it was way too early for him to be up already and he had his eyes closed. I just figured he was talking in his sleep. I went out to the garage and when the realtor left I came back upstairs to him crying.

I went into his room and knew he still looked tired. His eyes kept rolling back and closing. I tried to rock him and figured he would fall asleep within minutes. Nope. Could not get comfortable. Kept crying, moving his head around, scrunching his legs in and out. Just very uncomfortable. I thought it was my sweater so I took that off. Didn't help. After rocking for a while I brought him downstairs and he still barely had his eyes open. That's when I called the Dr. This was not normal behavior for him. He cried from about 3 until we got into the room at the Dr. which was about 7:00.

She came in and assumed he had an ear infection. She was talking to us about how common it is for a toddler between the ages of 17 months and 2 years to always have a runny nose/cold. She said it's partly due to teething and just the fact that their bodies are trying to regulate how to fight off infection. So when they get something their bodies respond by sending all the troops out (hence high fevers) and pulling back and sending out again. So she said perfectly common for his age to have a constant runny nose or cold after cold.

Anyway, she pulled out her stethoscope, by then he was laying motionless in my arms. Completely limp as a noodle. He had stopped crying, but was very lethargic. She listened and talked a little to us about infection and then she said "Lane has pneumonia." I think my eyes filled up with tears and my heart started racing. What! He went from having a cold for 4 days to having pneumonia! I tried to not cry in front of the pediatrician...that was embarassing, but I pulled it together. She said not to worry, it wasn't like your typical older person pneumonia and that at this point he will not need to be hospitalized. At this point, what!

She also diagnosed a left ear infection which was what was causing all of the discomfort. Pneumonia and an ear infection...great. I felt terrible, but she said we caught it in the earlier stages. Hence no hospitalization or breathing treatments and although both of those loom over us, we are hoping the antibiotics will help him heal and his little body will fight off the viral part of the pneumonia.

We went straight to Walgreens and got all his meds, immediately administered them when we got home. He also has ear drops for the pain, she told us to give him Motrin, and this packet (non-perscription) of stuff to put in his fluids that will help with loose stool because he currently has that and the meds will make it worse.

Please pray that Lane is able to fight this off and he will not need breathing treatments or hospitalization. Also pray that he is able to rest comfortably so his immune system can stay strong so he can fight off all of the infection. And also that he isn't in too much pain. Thank you!

He did rest last night. He only woke up once, but went right back down after I went up there and found his paci. He still has a low fever this morning and some discomfort in his ear that will hopefully be taken care of with his ear drops and Motrin.

I'll keep you all updated.

Read more...

Talking up a storm

One day last week I said to my mom and Matt, "At Lane's 15 month appointment, we talked about what words he can say, and it was only a handful. The Dr. said, just wait until his 18 month he will be talking up a storm. I started thinking about his words about 2 weeks ago and how he wasn't talking up a storm." I told them I didn't think there was any way he would be "talking up a storm" because his appointment was in a week. 

And then Sunday came, January 24, 2010 and all the sudden Lane started "talking up a storm!"  It was like the red seas parted and Lane had words. He now, officially as of 1/24/10, repeats just about anything you say and tries to communicate with you by saying what he wants. It's new and exciting for us right now, but can also be frusturating. His favorite word right now is "please." He says it all the time, especially when he really wants something. But the frusturating part is sometimes he'll only start saying please and we don't really know what he wants. It breaks my heart when I can't give him something even when he says please, like a knife or a thermometer he wants to play with that we only take rectal readings on. But I have to draw the line somehwere even though he is using his manners. He also signs please as he says it so he really gets his point across.

Some other words he says on his own are cheese, cookie (I swear that was his first word and boy does he love saying it!), cake, thank you, cracker, car, football, hi, bye, momma, dada, papa, various animal sounds, night night, this, beans, uh-oh, oh and of course, grapes (in his own German dialect). I can't really think of anymore. I'm sure I'll think of more as soon as I post this, but you get the idea! And suddenly he's repeating any word that we say, so he's really getting brave and trying new words.

I haven't taken any pictures or videos since last week. So I have nothing to share with you. I'm sorry it's only words today, and I hope that they weren't too boring, but this is really something to remember for the baby book!

Read more...

If I blogged about everyday this week

you would be hearing and seeing the same thing...just a different day, different outfit. We've been taking advantage of the 70* weather and enjoying the outdoors. Thanks to good ol' MLK, Matt also had the day off Monday and was able to come to the park with us, but not after he built a fence around our deck to give us more privacy. Luckily he finished with a little daylight left and off we went.
Here's a video of Lane and Matt playing at the park. Don't be alarmed. Lane falls like this all the time and you can see it doesn't really phase him. He's getting to the point where his legs can't keep of with the speed of his mind so he often bites the dust. But usually gets back up quickly and runs away!

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

I got a lot of inquiries about the cake. It really isn't that bad. It just takes some time because you have to freeze in between frosting layers. If you can believe it, it's only 2 boxes of cake mix. The part that got me was the frosting....4 packages of cream cheese (I bought fat free, but that seems redundant considreing the butter) and are you ready for this...2 sticks of butter, plus the powdered sugar to sweeten it up. Lane got some taste of the goodness last night. He ate 2 huge helpings of the spinach and cheese lasagna I made so I thought that he deserved some cake. Can I just say he LOVED it. He kept handing me his fork because he loved what I was putting on it. And when it was gone, he cried.

Read more...

Happy Birthday to Lane's Daddy!

Yesterday we celebrated Matt's 29th birthday. I got up early and made him breakfast and then I spent a good part of the day baking his cake. He picked pork chops for dinner and I made squash and scalloped potatoes to go with it. Well, I call them scalloped, but I don't really know what they are. I cut up red potatoes and then I add milk, goat cheese, garlic, butter, and a little bit of sour cream, whatever you wanna call them, Matt loves them so it was fitting for his b-day meal. After dinner he opened his present from us, a Kindle, which he was very surprised by and then we had cake.

Yummy cake, and we both ate a whole piece!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Read more...