More Festibals Please

Calleigh calls them by their proper name now, festivals, but I remember when she called them "festibals."  As far as festivals go, she was lamenting to me recently that we hardly went to any festivals this year, which is true. I don't know if the church festivals were the victims of budget cuts or what but there were definitely less this year than usual.  So, I knew she would be thrilled to go to a festival, in this case, the Blue Spring Manatee Festival in Orange City.  I'll get to that in a minute.

We had a great Sabbath as usual.  Cradle Roll was particularly crowded and noisy but I guess that's a good thing since it means that people are coming to church.  I will be teaching the month of February so things will be a lot more interesting starting tomorrow.  The program has gone high tech now and the words to the songs are on flat panel TV's at the front of the room.  That's great and all but it means you need another person to help out now in order to run the computer for it.  Allen is planning to help me with the teaching part (since the room has expanded too) and then Duncan will be running the computer.  I guess Aubree and Brady will be left to fend for themselves.  We'll see how it all plays out.  

Saturday night our little family of five returned (or the adults returned, I should say) to the Fashion Square Mall after being inspired last week by the eating experience at the Green Day Cafe.  I enjoyed the rice bowl and the kids enjoyed their kids meals as did I :)  We took a stroll through the mall (highly motivated now to do so because of my Fitbit) and the girls took a turn on the little rides.  

Despite appearances, Brady is not nibbling out of a sack lunch. 

Sunday morning we did First Watch and then traveled up to Orange City (about 20 miles or so northwest of Orlando) to the Manatee Festival.  We met the Bergherms there and then by chance the Zbaraschuks and Cochrans.  There were a bunch of vendors, rides, and various shows including one called DiscConnect which consisted of dogs doing a bunch of tricks catching frisbees.  The show was very entertaining and also inspiring since the dogs had all been neglected and rescued.  After that, we strolled around to various things which proved to be a bit difficult.  I didn't plan ahead at all (ended up having to pay $5.50 in ATM fees to get some cash because I completely forgot to bring some.  Stupid, stupid) and forgot to bring our Bob (rugged) stroller.  So Duncan was left pushing the Sit 'N Stand through the dirt.  Unfortunately you don't get extra credit for that on the Fitbit.  Anyway, they had some bouncy houses that Aubree enjoyed while meanwhile, Calleigh waited in line to get into this giant inflatable ball that floats on the water while she stand in it.  I had never seen it before but it's pretty nifty.  Apparently they're popular things and I'm a little jealous at how much loot the owners must make off it considering it's $5 for 5 minutes.  I didn't think Calleigh would be interested but after she saw Zachary and Blake do it, she was all in.  It went great despite the plumber's crack that she showed off to the world.  Get that girl a belt already!

After that, things started to go down hill.  The girls hadn't gone to sleep (despite going to bed around 8:45) until almost 11:00 and it started to show.  Aubree was getting really whiny and crying over little things so we decided it was time to call it a day.  There was actually a bus that would take you a short distance to the springs to see the manatees but we didn't see ourselves waiting in the long line and plus, we had heard that there were only like two manatees.  So that was that.  I was worried that Brady would sleep the whole way home and that would be the end of naptime but, although he did fall asleep, it only lasted about 15 minutes and then he woke up.  Thankfully he fell back asleep at home so I could too.  Most importantly, so did grumpy Aubree.

Late Sunday afternoon I told Duncan to please, please get the kids out of here, anywhere, so that I can get some cleaning done.  This is where they ended up.

Monday, Monday, Monday.  Drawing a complete blank here.  Oh yes, I think we went to Publix.  I do know that Monday evening Aunt Lori took a break from her health summit to come see us.  I was afraid she would never return.  Duncan was late getting home from work so that didn't help matters.  The girls were all wound up with Aunt Lori being here and they were practically bouncing off the walls.  When it was time for us to eat, I had Brady in his highchair but he started to get really fussy and eventually started crying.  One of the girls started freaking out about not wanting meatballs and the other one only wanted meatballs and then one wanted milk in her sippy cup at the same time one started eating the butter right out of the container and Brady is crying and I'm thinking how Aunt Lori is probably going to tell everyone what a completely haywire operation I'm running here.  It was quite bonkers.  It's not usually that bad.  In the end, we did have a good time with Aunt Lori and apparently didn't scare her too badly since she returned this evening.  

Okay, so there was ONE calm moment at least.

Tuesday morning we had Brady's appointment at the pulmonologist. I forget to mention on here that the barely speaking English doc had called a couple weeks ago to give the results of Brady's blood work from January 4.  The blood had been drawn to look at his "t" cells which were low in October when it was drawn.  He said that they were still low but had improved since last time and it was his recommendation that we have him retested next month to see how it was.  As far at the appointment, one of the big things I wanted to see was his weight (we have the scale at home which I think is a good one but I always feel like it's more official at the doctor's office) and I was so happy to see he was up to 15 pounds, 2 ounces.  He was 14 lbs, 4 oz on January 10 so in three weeks he gained 14 ounces which is the direct opposite of the four ounces he gained in four weeks over Christmas.  Not sure what happened there but I'm just relieved. 

I admitted to the doctor when she came in that we hadn't been giving Brady the steroid for the last few weeks because Duncan has been reluctant to keep him on it for so long.  She reiterated that she really thinks we should, though, through at least the end of March (sick season) because if they have to give him an oral steroid again, it would not be good at all.  She says you should only give a kid oral steroids once (a five day dose would be considered "once") and then it's bad if you have to do it again.  It's pretty powerful stuff.  It seems like we've been lulled into complacency because he's healthy now but it would truly stink to have to go through those four months of sickness again (mainly for him).  So I think we will start back up again with it.  Time to get out the nebulizer.  

I asked her about the blood work and she was singing a different tune that the other guy.  She recommended we see an immunlogist because in her words "I don't know enough about the t-cells to say not to worry about the low levels."  She thinks that it's probably like that because of his age but she can't be sure.  I asked if we could just re-test but she really wants to go.  The real kicker is that she said the only good immunologist is at Shands with the closest location in Gainesville which I think is like an hour and a half drive. Not very excited about that thought.  The good thing is that she gave me a printout of the test results so Duncan is going to try and see if he can talk to one of the docs he works with and get some feedback.  At the very least, it would be nice if we can find an immunologist closer by.  

This is what I saw on the ground next to the tire of my car coming out of the doctor's office.  So many thoughts go through your head that I can't begin to verbalize them all in this caption.

That evening we hopped on over to Chik-Fil-A for kid night.  They have it every Tuesday night (kids eat free) but I figure we'll just go when they have someone really good there.  This week it was Mr. Richard (who was last there at Christmas playing "Must Be Santa).  We had a splendid time as usual despite a mini breakdown by Aubree.  She was eating her ice cream and Evan wanted her to come and listen to the music with him so she left a mostly eaten bowl behind.  Of course, it melted and I threw it away a little while later.  When she came back to find it gone, it wasn't pretty (lying face down on the floor.  I can only hope her mouth was closed).  

Aubree and Evan.  Or would it be Evan and Aubree?  Either way, they're adorable.

Wednesday I made the mistake of not leaving the house until after naptime.  We had a bunch of things to do around the house, including trying to move some of Aubree's 3T clothes into her drawers.  Seriously, it seems like I was must moving in the 2T.  I say it was a mistake because Aubree didn't want to take a nap and that just causes frustration on my part because things just don't go as planned (and I know she'll grumpy later). I've gotten used to the routine of Calleigh not napping but throw Aubree into the mix and it's just not a relaxing situation.  I think we messed her up by letting her stay out of her crib a few times and now she revolts when I try to put her in there (unless she's really tired and then she asks to go in).  After "naptime" (at least Brady slept), I had to get out of the house so we went off to the playground until supper.

Thursday I wasn't about to make the same mistake so off to the mall we went.  The first stop was the hair salon to try and find a good conditioner or something, anything, to help with my hair.  Even when I use a daily conditioner, my hair seriously takes a good seven minutes, at least, to comb out after I wash it.  Now, seven minutes may not seem like a long time but if you were to time seven minutes on your watch right now, you would revise that opinion.  Add in three kids to the mix and you'll see why I don't wash my hair, or even take a shower, every day.  The lady at the salon really wasn't very helpful but at least persuaded me to buy a $15 bottle of conditioner (Redken to be precise). Here's hoping it does the trick or the solution may be to just whack it off because I'm getting sick of this.   From there we went to the playground (which Calleigh hadn't wanted to go to because it's small and "bored."  I keep telling her it's "boring" but apparently she's too bored to even listen) where they did run around and have a good time and Aubree did take a nap afterwards.  

This morning we were back out on the yard sale circuit.  Our big find was a set of four plastic plates, bowls, cups, and flatware.  You would have thought they had been told they could eat all the ice cream they wanted, they were that excited.  A dollar well spent!  Needless to say, they used it to eat lunch (yes, I did wash it).  Brady has gotten a whole lot better with his car seat so we can actually drive around to a few places and not have to listen to wailing the whole time....just some of the time.  Still feeling burned from the Wednesday situation, we stopped at a playground before returning home.  

Wearing pants we got at a yard sale due to a diaper leak.  One nice thing about yard sales!

Things are pretty decent on sleeping front.  Brady is doing well with his afternoon naps.  Aubree is having some struggles at night.  She's having trouble falling asleep without Duncan or me in her room which is a first.  She wants us to stay there because she's says she's scared but she won't answer when you ask her what she's afraid of.  Then she wakes up every now and then and whimpers and sometimes cries for a minute.  If you go and give her a binky she's usually fine.  Fortunately this waking up typically happens before I've gone to bed so it's not particularly affecting my sleep.  In fact, my Fitbit showed that one night this week I went to sleep at 12:23 and did not wake up one time until 6:38.  Wow!  Usually there is something or other waking me up whether it's a kid, a noise, or even nothing.  

One thing that I have to complain about Brady is the poop situation.  I dare say this is common problem with many, if not all, baby boys.  So he has a big blow out poop this afternoon and I put him on the changing table and start the changing process.  As soon as the diaper is off, down goes the hand to his nether regions.  Right into all the poop.  It's like this big fight between he and I with me trying to hold up his hands with one of my hands while he grunts and pushes to be free and I try to desperately clean him with my other free hand.  What is it with boys having to touch their business every chance they get?  Checking to make sure it's still there?  I honestly don't know how he hasn't pulled that thing off by now or at least made himself cry.  Needless to say, despite my valiant efforts, the poop got all over his hands and we had to do an emergency tub.  

There were so many conversations this week that I wish I could have recorded or remembered or something so that I could put it down and save it!  But alas, my memory is practically useless these days.  This is the only one I can remember because it happened today.

Setup:  Calleigh is watching Price is Right and I happened to look while people were bidding (sidebar: Is there anything MORE aggravating than watching the incredibly stupid bids people place on that show?  There will be bids of $700, $800, and $900 and then the last person will bid $1,200 and you just want to climb through the TV and shake them.  Seriously.)

Me:  "Come on.  Come on.  $601."

Calleigh: "What are you saying?"

Me: "I'm just telling the lady what to bid."

Calleigh: (Incredulously): "But how can she hear you?"

So yes, the cat is out of the bag.  I tape Price is Right and when things are getting terribly tedious for Calleigh while I'm working, she watches the show.  A lot of the time, she only watches part of it because it gets "bored."  There's that word again.

Have a Happy Sabbath!

Some closing pictures...

Silly Willies on our evening walk.  Yup, I'm trying to walk every day to get my steps up.

All three kids fresh out of the tub.

Aubree borrowing my Fitbit...but just for a moment.

Calleigh cuts herself a pair of shorts out of construction paper.

How cool to bring my brother's sermons up right on our AppleTV?

Buried in the laundry.