Some pics from the kenoyer november visit i never got up . . . oops

 Yes, Gavin's feet ARE that big :)

 Haircuts mean only one thing - SUCKERS! (B,G)

 Here grandma, have some goldfish! (B)

 Aidan did NOT let that sucker go

 First time at the trampolines - too much fun! (A,G,B)

 First time on a merry go round.  Brady wasn't so merry . . . (G, B)

 Brady wasn't interested in the sweet car that shook either . . . Gavin & Aidan didn't have to be convinced!

 Aidan runs in the park

 Gavin runs in the park

 Brady chills in the park

 How we wore them out . . . (G, B)

 a few more laps boys! (G, B, A)

Family Thanksgiving picture from Aunty Coco - we did our best! (G,B,A)

We are starting a boy band - i hope ABCs will sound new and fresh in 2011! (B,A,G)

Christmas 2010! (ok, so i may have gone overboard on pics)

Gavin on his first pony.  But he didn't want to let it go anywhere :)

Grandpa V shows Brady himself and his brothers on his new video camera.  Grandpa is AWESOME. 

Aidan and Grandpa watching their new Animusic video - is that a guitar playing ITSELF??? 

 Gavin gets a feel for power - sitting in dad's chair at work :)

Let's jump Grandma! (A,B)

 Let's run Grandma! (A,B)

 Tickle fight with Dad (A,G)

 Some brother wrestling (G, B)

 Aidan and Brady's new favorite place to hang out.

Aidan our Christmas elf! 

 No wait, Brady our Christmas elf!

Gavin our serious Christmas elf! 

 'T'was the night before christmas . . . (B)

CHRISTMAS MORNING!  It's a FIRE ENGINE! (B) 

AND A POLICE CAR! (G) 

Santa brought some awesome hot wheels.  Aidan is parking them for everyone. 

Mom and dad got us some food to play with (G,B,A) 

Where else could I use these tongs??? (A) 

Gavin drives the police car over the "speed bump" 

Breakfast of champions (B,G,A) 

Mom's off work - let's go to the trampolines! (A,G) 

 Brady wasn't so sure about the loud noises from the indoor roller coaster.  So he sat on my lap the entire time . . .

A giant carrot we saw leaving the trampolines.  No idea why it was there, but it seemed like a good pic

and the gifts keep coming! new towel and truck for gavin from Uncle Chad, Aunt Erica, Noah and Gabe! 

 Brady loved re-enacting the "silly monkeys jumping on the bed" from Aunties Raber and Slabas

 Aidan decided to take the silly monkeys for a drive . . .

 pooped out (G & A watch a video while mom cat naps)

Brady and Aidan JUST up from a nap - so happy to see daddy! :)

Visitors and Illness . . .

. . . do not make for consistent blogging. :)  Well, where to begin?  Grandma and Grandpa V arrived on 8 December and we had a wonderful week, MINUS the snots that ripped through the family, including mom.  Somehow Curt was able to avoid it - must be his midwestern upbringing or something.  They grow them tougher in Iowa.  Before illness set in, we took the boys to the pool for some fun swimming and so grandma could pick them up - with her pinched nerve, she wasn't allowed to pick up anything heavier than 15 lbs.  Which our crew had passed LONG ago.  We also went to the horse races where the boys got to sit on a real live pony for the first time!  Gavin was the first one to get on the horse, but when we asked if he wanted to walk with the horse he said "no." so when we took him off (not wanting the spectacle we had seen other families endure when their kids did not want to actually ride) and when he realized what we had said he was CRUSHED as he saw the fun his brothers got to have.  Even though i'm sure we could have forced the issue and asked for him to get another ride, when you have 3 kids and there is little organization to the event (it IS Doha after all) i kinda feel bad taking ANOTHER turn.  even if others would have done it in a heartbeat.

We did some early Christmas gifting and pretty much just spent lots of quality time together.  What can be better than that at Christmas? :)  Gavin did give us a little scare by waking us up to him barking like a seal on Monday night/Tuesday morning.  We weren't sure if it was an asthma attack (even though he hasn't been diagnosed officially) or just an increase in severity from his breathing issues when he gets sick.  He was SOOOO freaked out and we were so freaked out because we couldn't get him to calm down to really feel like he was getting any air, so we called the ambulance.  My mom was up helping out before the paramedics got there and dad was up helping soothe Brady because he heard all of the commotion and was scared and crying.  The ambulance was at our place VERY quickly (HUGE improvement over Gavin's first febrile seizure experience) and curt drove behind in our car.  About 3 minutes into the ride, they stopped at a R/A and I asked why they were stopping.  The guy told me "protocol". Suddenly an Aussie hops into the ambulance and takes over the situation.  Basically the protocol our EMT was referring to is with children, they now send the ambulance and then have a pediatric specialist EMT meet you on the road in the event it is more serious.  I couldn't have been happier since the first thing our EMT did was give Gavin oxygen through a mask.  The second thing he did was blow up a rubber glove even though Gavin had calmed down on my lap.  I sort of thought he would have begun grilling me like the specialist did, but i guess "rubber chickens" is more important. :)

Anyway, we went to one of the nationally run pediatric clinics which was PACKED.  We saw a Dr. within 5 minutes or less, he said he thought it was croup (a condition where the larynx and upper airways swell/fill with snot and kids can feel like they aren't getting any air and thus the barking sound).  They gave him some NASTY tasting medicine that we had to threaten to withhold Gavin's pacifier if he didn't take it (he finally did - love the sweet paci) and then since EVERY bay was filled, they put us in a hallway to administer an adrenaline breathing treatment.  It was that or wait for a curtain and being that it was 1:30 AM and not slowing down, we were like "Hallway please!".  By 2:45AM we had had our treatment, Gavin had played in the hallways, we got a curtain/room and we were released by the Dr. on rounds.  By 3 AM we were home and ready for a bit more sleep,  My poor dad was now WIDE awake and couldn't go back to sleep and my mom had finally hit the hay after making sure they had what was needed for breakfast if curt and I were delayed at the hospital.  All the kids (and mom and dad) slept late that morning and Gavin slept until nearly 8 AM - we got him up in time for his brothers to be getting down from breakfast.  And poor curt had to go to work that day.  He is a CHAMP.

Some things we noticed about our experience in the public ER - there were WAY more people there than needed to be.  I mean, people bringing in their sick kid, also brought in their well ones, nannies, and additional family members!  I bet the population of that clinic could have been cut in half if it was limited to essentials only - like the sick child and both parents.  We also sat in the hallway in front of a room with a little girl with a bad rash all over her.  I couldn't help but notice that her mother never held her and the father just paced the hallway in front of us with one of his friends (?!).  The nanny stood holding her the entire time, except when the Dr. examined her and then gave her to her mother.  Who quickly gave her to the nanny.  It appears they were nationals, and it was incredibly puzzling to me.  I know there are probably times when one would have to bring in all children if they didn't have family or caretakers able to stay with the healthy ones, but when you SEE these families have at least one nanny (there with their sick child) WHY the hell are they bringing their healthy kids 1) to a place where sick people are and 2) in the MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT?!  crazy.  enough of my rant.

Some things I have been thinking about lately.  I haven't taken enough up close pictures of my kids feet and hands.  When they sit in my lap, their legs fall off me now and I can barely see their toes.  i was thinking the other day holding Gavin's flipper-like square feet that i can't remember what his feet looked like when he was a baby.  I wish I had some of those days back to have taken those shots for memories.  don't be surprised if you start seeing feet and hand pics. :)  Aidan has much narrower feet, and he ALWAYS seems to have a cut on his foot.  I'm not sure how - they pretty much always wear shoes outside, but he always seems to have at least one.  And Brady has his mom's hands (and skin it seems).  He is our eczema kid.  While the others have these soft little hands and feet, his are wrinkly like mine and already feel TOUGH compared to his brother's.  I don't remember when I noticed this about his hands, but it's been awhile now.  He doesn't seem to notice or mind, but it is something that is unique to him.

I also gave Brady  a swat the other day that both curt and I think he needed in the moment, that i  worried about all that day and that i can see he has recovered from (and his attitude and behavior made a REMARKABLE turnaround after).  Starting Thursday evening he was just a terror.  We have joked that he is our "retriever" kid.  If we can keep him busy doing good things (bringing things to the table, to the kitchen, his brothers, etc) he is INSANELY good.  Left to his own devices is when he begins getting into trash like a golden retriever - hitting his brothers, stealing toys, throwing everything, etc.  at least he wears a diaper and won't pee on the rug. :)  Anyway, he was in THAT kind of mood - getting into everything.  And we had missed our distraction window, so we could not convince him to stay on the straight and narrow.  I believe Curt was taking care of someone's snotty nose in their bedroom, i was filling the humidifier when Brady decided to pull the body of the humidifier (with its reservoir full) off the dresser.  Water EVERYWHERE.  in the dresser soaking clothes, all over him, etc.  amazing.  yes, he got yelled at and yes we made up with him, but that little incident paled in comparison to his behavior the next morning.  Friday morning we couldn't convince him to not steal toys, throw them at his brothers, screech at us/hit us when he didn't like what we said, push his brothers, pull on the christmas tree (not ours BTW), you name it.  Finally he had grabbed the fire truck gavin was pushing along the back of the couch and then threw it in the tree and I lost it.  I crossed the room to get him and he runs along the couch giggling.  I laid him down (that sounds pretty nice, huh?) on the cushion and swatted his bum once.  On his diaper and through his pants, but it was enough that his giggle face froze in shock and then the crying began in earnest.  he then had a time out in the bathroom so that I could control my anger (he had been in there about 19 times that morning already) and then he came out and we talked (i talked) and i swear it was like he turned a corner.  As i type this i realize several things 1) anyone reading this may turn me in for child abuse 2) i never bothered to look for the fire truck to either get it out of the tree or give it back to my victimized son Gavin.  hmmm . .. anyway, curt and i really try to be as patient as we can.  and neither of us like it when we feel like we lose control and THAT's why we swat.  It hasn't happened often, but when it does it eats at me.  In a bad way.  There are some days when i feel like "why do I always have to be patient?  How come i have to be the adult every day?"  If only because my buttons get pushed at work and then at home and then i'm supposed to be up there "teaching" by example (really in both places I could argue) and it is EXHAUSTING some times.  so boys, when you read this in 10, 20 or 30 years, (especially if you have kids of your own) just know that dad and I try really hard to teach you when you are naughty.  even if sometimes we want to sell you. :)

More posting soon - I promise.  Actually - next post - JUST PICS! :)

Brady Rocks the ABCs

I am SOOOO glad this playground was in such disrepair that Curt walked home to get the camera so we could ask management to fix stuff.  If not for that, i never would have gotten this (even if the quailty is a little pixl-ated) . . . Enjoy :)

Just Call Me the Next Prophet

So, almost 48 hours to the minute Aidan got his temp, Brady got his at 2AM on Tuesday night. He was 40.1C when we were getting the other two up for their next meds, so curt stripped him down, put wet cloths on him as we gave him meds for fever. Then of course, we just needed to put him back to bed as there isn't much more to do for him once he's calmed down, except wait for him to cool off. On wednesday morning i am finally with it enough to look at Toddler 411 to see it says after 4 days of fever you should bring a kid in. Gavin has now had 5 days. so I take him in to see our Dr. (who politely asks me to wait only 3 days in the future) who tells us that he thinks it's a virus as well (like the ER Dr. said), he thinks the seizure was probably only related to fever, nothing long term to worry about and What have we here?! a double ear infection! The funny thing is Gavin hadn't been giving any of the classic ear infection signs, so i hadn't even thought that was a possibility. he barely had a runny nose! Dr. Ihab thinks that the bacteria had taken advantage of a diminished immune system and set up shop in his incredibly clogged ears and that was why he still had a fever after so many days - the body still trying to fight things off. So after only 1 dose of antibiotics, his fever is down and he is approaching his former happy boy status.

Aidan is now fine, if not insanely jealous that his brothers get car rides with mom/dad to the store or dr. and brady spent 130 AM on in bed with us last night. I went to bed starting to feel sick and was up enough during the night to be able to track the illness as it settled in my skin, ears and throat. awesome. brady has spent the morning laying on me as we both have been in and out of fevers. the fever part has sucked, but it has been nice to slow down and chill out with him for a bit. i just wish we felt better!

The two funny parts of Brady's first day with illness were that 1) he asked several times to go to the Dr (since Gavin had "gotten" to go). and 2) around 330 AM last night when curt got up to check gavin to see if he needed fever meds again as he came back in Brady sits up in our bed and says "Monster!" (presumably to curt's shadow entering the room). I said "Brady, honey, there is no monster, it's ok." and he goes (in a scary monster voice) "I WANT CANDY! CANDY!". curt and i dissolved in giggles.

All in all, a crappy week. Send us your get well vibes . . . :)

Spooky Weekend

Our Three Soccer Players & their first pumpkins (G,A,B)

Happy Halloween! Well this weekend has been awfully spooky for a number of reasons .. . Friday morning we were all in the back yard enjoying the finally nice weather. Gavin had pushed their airplane around the corner and we figured was just playing quietly. After a few minutes Aidan says (as he looks down the side of the house) "Gavin? Gavin?". I get up to see him laying on the ground the way he usually does when he is driving his cars up and down in front of his face, only his head is sort of IN the bushes. so i walk over to him and realize his head is actually IN the bushes and he is not playing, something is wrong with him. He has his eyes closed and he is sort of moaning and barely moving. as i pull the airplane off of him and pull him to a sitting position, i can FEEL heat radiating off of him and he is FLOPPY. I realize he must have had another febrile seizure and pick him up as i yell to curt about what has happened. Of course, we have no idea just how long he was over there, even if it couldn't have been more than a few minutes. still scary and still makes me feel really bad about it, especially because of how he looked.

This was the best shot I could get - the boys were running around the house holding hands - it was ADORABLE(A, B, G)

We get him inside, strip him down, take his temp and sure enough he is 39.5C/103.1F. Literally, he had not shown ANY signs of fever or illness at all that day, or even in the preceding days, and he just had a seizure. He was still convulsing a little bit, but he had started to open his eyes as we began putting cool wet cloths on him and gave him motrin. we called the schellenberg's and ryan was over to take care of the other two within 10 minutes (thank goodness again) and off curt and i were to the ER. While we had been packing for the Er, gavin had fallen asleep on the couch - he just looked so little and sad sleeping like that. He was definitely feeling better by the time we got there even if he HATED the cool sponge bath they were giving him. We were distracting him by feeding him goldfish and raisins (snacks of champions) and by the time the dr. saw him he was pretty much himself again. He did take a decent nap that afternoon, but basically the dr. said he had a raw throat and he figured it was probably a virus and we just needed to treat the fever for the next 3-4 days.

Brady and Aidan color their first pumpkins

Saturday night was the halloween trick or treating around the compound, but we just dressed the boys in the track uni's they got for christmas last year (thanks for the costumes uncle chad and aunt erica!) and they hung out waiting for trick or treaters. it was very cute b/c some of our first were monsters and curt said at one point that "Monsters like CANDY" in a scary voice. Brady was the first to start this, but all three have gotten into it - they now say in a scary monster voice "CANDY! LIKE CANDY!". Even as we put the bowl together for trick or treaters Brady said "I like candy" i said, how do you know? you have never had candy and he said "wanna try it?" :) smart kid. They had their first candy - a fun size bag of M&Ms for each - it was a hit after dinner that night. Aidan was the only one brave enough to actually try to give kids candy in their bags, and then he would always bring me a piece and say "open it?" as he squished it in his hands. I think they now know what candy looks like. Before we could pretty much not worry about it since it didn't look like food, so they didn't know to lust after it. We are now in trouble. :)

The tub is almost to small for all three of them (sniff sniff) (B,G,A)

Anyway, so we continued to treat Gavin's fever day and night friday, saturday and sunday. Saturday night curt and i stayed up too late talking about our next plans after Doha (and when that would be for sure) and so when my alarm went off in the middle of the night to give gavin his meds, i frigging overdosed him on tylenol(i forgot that what he had gotten earlier was what i was giving him then. the bottles are now labeled more clearly thank you). THANK GOD FOR 24 HOUR POISON CONTROL NUMBERS. The woman told me she was pretty sure based on his size and what i had given him, he would need to drink WAY more than that to even come close to an OD. But of course she recommended i not give that to him again.

Sunday night, Aidan began to feel hot before bed, so we gave him fever meds too. Around midnight he began crying and when i went to get him he was HOT and he had vomited on himself. So curt cleaned up his bed, got new sheets, while i cleaned him up and tried to cool him down since he wasn't due for meds for another hour and a half. Then got up to give him meds at 130 AM and his brothers were not really sleeping. by 230 AM we had had intermittent bouts of crying from all three - with Aidan's being the saddest since we were not giving him a lot of water for fear of more puke, but also he was still SO HOT. And yes, fears of him having a seizure were always there. By 230, i decided to try to rock him in the rocking chair, hoping the quiet would help gavin and brady to go sleep. it didn't. finally somewhere between 330 and 4 am, we had had enough so we brought aidan into bed with us, where he proceeded to sleep like a ROCK until about 630 AM. when we woke up he was ON FIRE, so i took his temp - 40.2C/104.3F folks. So i put him in the tub to cool down, only we still don't have any cool water in our faucets (probably one of the things i despise most here - i HATE brushing my teeth with warm water) so it took a good ten minutes for it to cool down enough to actually help begin cooling him off. and of course, since he was so hot, it felt cold, so he CRIED the whole time.

Aidan found these "monster hands" under the kitchen sink - and loved chasing us with them!

By this point, curt and I are both FRIED. not to mention curt has one of his busiest weeks at work the whole fall semester and my work just being a game of catch-up every day. The good news is he did not have a seizure. the bad news is he and Gavin were still running fevers ALL DAY. so far, Brady has been able to stave off illness. I give him 48 hours from when Aidan got sick . . .

Bye Bye Binky

Let me start by saying that I had a pacifier until school age. I only used it at night and i don't remember it being that big of a deal that i 1) had it and 2) eventually got rid of it. I do remember it tasty dried out and funny one day - i'm guessing it was well worn by the time i got rid of it.

Anyway, it really doesn't bother me that our boys still use pacifiers at nap and bed time. they usually willingly give it up when we ask them to after a nap and in the morning. However . . . i AM sick of them waking up early from a nap when they realize they have dropped it/kicked it out of the crib and then CRYING and waking up their brothers and not going back to sleep themselves when i could REALLY USE THAT EXTRA HALF HOUR. I mean REALLY use it - to rest, finish cooking, work out, whatever. They do it in the 5-530 Am range too, but it's usually dark enough in their room that they will go back to sleep with us just giving them another one. So on Saturday when Aidan had woken up the second day in a row at 2:30PM and CRIED like he was being tortured i decided i had had it. I looked it up on the internet, found a site that looked like it wouldn't be too painful for us or the boys and we put it in action that night. Saturday I poked 7 holes in the end of every pacifier we have. gave it to the boys without saying anything and they had the "new", hole-y paci's for two days. Last night we went to step 2 - cut off the very end of the paci. Curt and I tried them out ourselves and there is a definite difference in what it feels like between even the hole-y ones and the snipped ones. We are supposed to proceed with cutting a little bit more off every day until 1) they don't ask for them at all and 2)there is no more nub to suck on. Wish us luck! :)

In truth, this does create some sadness for me - it means they are growing up and we are losing their baby and toddler time. Don't get me wrong, some days are longer and harder than others, but I really do just feel so fortunate to be their mother and to go through these experiences with them. There are times when we are playing, reading, etc that I take a mental picture/video of what is happening RIGHT THEN. Like those home movies in TV shows that somehow capture the just right moment without disturbing the scene or interaction. Their laugh, their wide-open smile, the way they put their hand on my leg, whatever and think "Aaah! This is so great!" I want to be able to remember those times, knowing that they too will fade away. I guess that's part of what this blog is for too. With the hope I can keep some of those little moments in my head long enough to pour them onto my keyboard so that in 3, 5, 10, 20 years we can all come back and remember those special moments. :)