Meltdown Morning

Today, apparently, was the day designated for meltdowns of the massive, extremely loud, and public variety.  Let's start with the second one, which came courtesy of this little lady:

Hard to believe with an expression like that, am I right?  Right. 

The scene-- Trader Joe's.  We're just grabbing a few things, and both girls are nicely pushing their little carts around.  We've done very well.  Neither girl has clipped anyone's heels.  Everyone's pretty happy.  Then we hit the chip aisle.  Something you should know about us: whenever we hit TJ's, we pick up a bag of veggie chips.  The girls love those things.  They both like getting the privilege of putting said chips in their carts.  Today was Riley's turn.  She grabbed the chips.  Noelle screamed and grabbed her own bag.  I told her it was Riley's turn and that, look! she has the cheese crackers!  Yay.  She tried to put the cheese crackers back.  I took them from her and put them back in her cart.  She threw them on the floor.  I told her that she didn't get to have the veggie chips, but next time... She screamed.  She shrieked.  She had giant alligator tears running down her cheeks.  She stomped then planted herself.  I pulled her cart behind me and told her that it was time to pay (for the food, that is... but oh, how I wanted to make her pay... just kidding... kind of...)  She continued to shriek but eventually followed.  I ignored the looks of the other customers, though I should have just given them all a thumbs-up (maybe a high five?).  We don't have frequent public meltdowns, but when we do, run for the hills. 

Oh, and apparently they come in pairs, too.  Earlier, we were at Riley's second tennis lesson.  I knew that her instructor was going to be Gus, so I tried to gear her up for a male coach.  I thought it may be something of an issue. 

It was. 

She clung to me as we stood outside the courts, getting ready to go in.  I told her I'd walk with her onto the courts.  We got in, and I realized that she had my hand in a vice grip.  I tried prying her fingers off.  No dice.  I tried to get her to run with the other girl in the class.  Nope.  I told her I'd stay sitting while she did a lap around the court.  Still nothing.  I pleaded with her: This will be so fun!  Gus is nice!  Look how much fun everyone is having!!  She melted into a puddle of tears and sorrow.  I mean, we're talking full-blown, gushing tears.  Gus looked at me and whispered, "Want to wait for the next class with Hillary?"  Yes.  Yes, I do.  'Cause, clearly, this is going nowhere.  (Sidenote: class with Hillary was great.  No problems whatsoever.)

It kind of makes you wonder-- what does Brooks have in store for me when he gets up from his nap? :)

Work it.

Michael gave Riley a "new" camera, his old camera that he found while going through the garage.  I'll post more of our budding photographer's images later, but for now, I am putting aside my pride to share these with you.  Enjoy. :)

Yeah.  The girl's still got it.

Thanking God for Tiny Breaths

Sunday morning, Brooks woke up around 5:00, crying and congested.  I tried to feed him and put him back down, but he was inconsolable.  Both Michael and I tried everything-- from walking with him to playing to giving him a bath.  He was having none of it.  It was around 7:30 that I noticed that he was sucking in air big time, his little chest heaving and his ribcage showing with each breath.  Clearly, I was concerned.

I popped Brooks in the car and drove over to the Urgent Care.  It may be the only time that I'll be grateful for a screaming baby in the car.  As long as he was crying, I knew he was breathing.

Let me pause this story to say that I'm still amazed at how little I know.  I was, obviously, really worried about Little Dude (and got more and more concerned as I drove), but never did I anticipate the following hospitalization.  Sheesh.

Okay, so we get to Urgent Care, which-- thankfully-- is pretty empty.  I walk up to the desk and say, "Honestly, I just want to see if I need to take this guy to the ER."  They quickly take Brooks back to check him out.  They see the wheezing, look at his tummy sucking in and out, and they tell me that, sure enough, we'll be heading to the ER.  But we'll be doing it in an ambulance.

The nurses start Brooks on a nebulizer, and Matt and Eddie, a couple really sweet EMTs, show up a few minutes later.  They lift the bed, me and Brooks up and into the ambulance, and we head out.  Matt gives Brooks a stuffed horse, a Clydesdale who we name Bud.  Eddie tells us not to have too much fun in the back.  I think about how the girls would be really thrilled to be doing everything that Brooks is getting to do.

My concept of time was foggy the whole day, but we spent quite a few hours in the ER, Brooks getting frequent treatments.  A respiratory specialist came in with another guy who was in training.  As Mr. Trainee looked at Brooks, the specialist told him, "See, he's classic."  I'm still not sure if I'm sure what that meant, but I think she was talking about his "retractions," how he was sucking in the air.  But look at this guy-- still smiling!

Brooks was so grateful to be breathing easily that he zonked out during one of his treatments!

I think it was around noon when we learned that we would be staying at the hospital for awhile.  They had gotten us a bed in Pediatric Short Stay.  The nurse, Rachelle, was sweet and wonderful.  However, it was an extremely short stay for us.  We were the only people up there, so they soon sent down to the main Peds floor.  We were getting an excellent tour of the facility.

On the Peds floor, we met Pam, our new nurse.  And we landed in the room that we would be in for the next 24 hours or so.  Brooks was doing really great.  I mean, really, Big Man was a CHAMP.  He was sweet and cooperative and wonderful.  The treatments were really helping him, and I no longer noticed the wheezing until he started getting close to the next treatment time.  Again, I thought about how Riley and Noelle would envy their little brother.  The Peds floor has a playroom with a train table, a bazillion other toys, and a giant fish tank, complete with a puffer fish and multiple "Nemos." :)  We snagged some toys for our room.

 

I'll fast-forward and tell you that we were there till around 2 on Monday, when Brooks was able to go 4 hours between treatments without wheezing.  We were on our third nurse at this time, Melissa, who just happens to be the wife of one of our pastors.  Small world!  (And a volunteer, Kaitlyn, goes to Taylor and is good friends with Mike's cousin!)

Basically, it's not certain he has asthma.  There have to be recurrences in order to establish that.  Something obviously didn't sit well with that tiny respiratory system, and his airways reacted.  We don't know exactly what that was, but if something like this happens again, we'll have to start looking for a pattern.  Right now, we have our own nebulizer, are praying that he does NOT have asthma, and are thanking God for each tiny breath. 

We've Been Busy...

We've done some super fun outing every day this week.  I'll tell ya-- I'm setting the bar pretty high for myself.  Actually, a lot of the activities were spontaneous.  We love spontaneous playdates!  That was the case with our trip to Sonny Acres with Edison and Kylie yesterday!

Brooksy-boy looked on (and sported with faux-hawk).

Brooks: I want that thing.

Edison: Mmmmm-mmmmm....
(Don't worry, Brooks.  Edison's mommy gives me that look all the time.)  :)

Wow!  Look at that big guy!

No, Leah!  Mold your body to the tie!  MOLD!

As you can imagine, this was a big hit.

And this is why we take frequent baths in this house. :)

Thanks for the spontaneous fun, friends!

Girls and Their Tanks...

We had a super awesome morning yesterday.  First, we headed over to Cantigny.  You know what they say about girls and their tanks...

The girls were absolutely thrilled to be there.  We had the tanks all to ourselves; plus, Brooks was content in the BOB, so I even got to climb a few tanks with them.  They loved that.  And, although no one was there to see, I was super lithe and graceful.

They were really big fans of the tiger tank.

Brooks even got in on some tank action.  I love this picture of Little Man in front of the big tank. 

Riley brought her "new" camera (an old digital one that Mike just unearthed), and she took many an excellent photo.  I'll post some of those soon.

We were feeling quite patriotic, what with the Olympics and all.  U-S-A!  

"Hey, dog... Why aren't you moving?  You're a dog.  That's cool.  Say hello to your moth-ah for me."
(Confused?  See here.)

Hark, over yonder!

I don't have pictures, but after this, we had a Chick-fil-A picnic with Clayton and Aubrey at Atten Park.  It was a pretty awesome morning.

Cousins! :)

I mentioned these earlier, but here are some shots from our cousin photoshoot, taken by the lovely and talented Christy Nieh! 

 I think Noelle's dress turned out to be my favorite.  I had dyed this doily a while back and, after I finished the dress, I thought, "Hey! I'm going to slap that sucker on!"  Love how it turned out.


Hannah's dress is accented by this fun orange braided rope.  She's very beachy, indeed.

Riley got a red elastic belt with a shabby chic flower and hairclip to match.

Haley got a circle skirt, which is perfect for sitting babies.  It looks so cool, spread all around them.

 

I love love love this picture.  Sure, Brooks isn't looking, but he's so happy!

Okay... so I love this one, too. Ring around the rosie!

Thanks again, Christy!  You're amazing!