Tales of a Fulltime Mom: More Boy Trouble

No sooner did Colby heal from his glued forehead and his bout with vomiting, did another mishap befall him....this time completely of his own doing. The kids were very kind and gave to me as a birthday present a massage and hair fixing done entirely by themselves. It's really quite lovely...or I guess it would have been had I actually received it. Last Friday evening, they had laid out all their accoutrements to give me said treatment. As I was standing in the kitchen finishing up supper preperations, I suddenly heard Colby whimpering/crying, saying that is eye hurt. Low and behold, he had poked himself in the eye with the metal end of the back scratcher. Now, sometimes a poke is just a little poke and in a minute or two, you're fine. But it appeared this wasn't one of those times. Of course, I couldn't actually investigate the eye myself and as usual, I was very grateful Duncan was on hand to facilitate the inspection. I, meanwhile, was quite busy trying to calm Aubree down who was HYSTERICAL. I mean, like, certifiably if that is such a thing. I had to force her to go upstairs so that Colby couldn't hear her or at least hear her as much. I'm not sure to this day if she thought his eyeball fell out or what. I don't think either of my girls has a future on the clinical side of healthcare but maybe this is typical behavior for this age group. I don't know.

Duncan determined that either it was the biggest coincidence ever and Colby had a hair on his eye or more likely, something had happened. Thank goodness he managed to have this accident before 8:00 pm so Centra Care was still open. This time I volunteered to take him. With our connections, we only had to wait a few minutes. The doctor confirmed that he has a corneal abrasion which is very common and would heal on its own. I did have to pick up a prescription to put on the eye 2-3 times a day and then also gave him a dose of Advil to help with the discomfort. Once again, he was my sleeping buddy. He was quite tickled with that fact and immediately asked, "Can we watch Paw Patrol?" I think we had watched enough episodes of that to last us a year when we laid in bed with his stomach woes. Of course, it was also now Sabbath so I had to let him down gently.

The perpatrator

The next morning was Sabbath and I had to teach so when we saw that he was still firmly holding his hand over his eye, Duncan ended up staying home with him. I was thinking to myself...how long does this part last where they won't let go of their eye? Hours? Days? But then when we pulled into the driveway getting home from church, he came bounding out in just his diaper yelling "My eye is all better! My eye is all better!" That was code for "I don't have to hold my hand over it any more." Thank goodness! We did have a few more bumps in the road when Duncan had to put in the ointment but by Monday, we were pretty much back to normal. Now that the calendar has switched to February, I'm hoping Colby's streak of bad luck has come to an end.

Duncan sent me this picture while I was at church. He had to jimmy rig something so that Colby wouldn't have to keep holding his eye.

Doesn't look perfect but we'll take it!

Sabbath picture without Colby.

Earlier in the day on Friday, we got to take a field trip to a marshmallow factory in Sanford (about 40 minutes from here) called "Wondermade." Ironically, I had noticed this company for the first time just a few weeks before when we were at the airport on our way to get the dogs and the neat packaging caught my eye. I don't even like marshmallows but the package looked cute and I noted it was a local business. Fast forward a few weeks and coincidentally, here we were going to see their operation. It has only been in business for four years but is gaining success especially since they were featured by Rachael Ray on her show. The company was started by a local pastor when he was trying to figure out something to get his wife for Valentine's Day (I think that's how the story goes). Now he and his wife (and five children!) have this thriving business. The lady giving us the tour was just very, very nice and I was impressed with their operation....even though I don't like marshmallows. The kids do though! Of course, she did say that they use beef marrow (better than pig marrow, I guess) in making them so even if I did like them, I wouldn't be eating them. I wasn't about to say the kids couldn't eat any though especially after they got to decorate their own and take them home. She says they are trying to come up with a vegan version but so far they all taste bad.

They also sell unique flavors of ice cream including "avocado." Maybe they're Tom Brady fans??

"Yum, this cow marrow sure tastes good!" Yuck!!

Aubs and her BFF, Eva.

The founder and his wife. Nice beard. You can guess whether I'm sincere or not.

Last week we had a pop in visit by Uncle Charlie and Aunt Lori who are down here at their timeshare in Bonnet Creek. We were excited to have them meet the dogs since they are the ones who introduced us to Italian Greyhounds and by extension, Whippets. I was curious to see if Uncle Charlie, who is very allergic to dogs, would have a reaction to them but he was fine. Apparently it is just me with my bumps/rash that I get.

As you can see, the dogs were very excited to make their acquaintance. They could tell they were kindred spirits.

Kelly, Steve, and the kids came down a few days later and we all went for a Legoland outing on Monday, one of the homeschool days where we get in cheap. We are experiencing very nice weather (low 70's) lately and it was terrific day for a theme park (or is that an oxymoron?). It is nice because Colby is a touch over 36 inches now which seems to be one of the big cutoffs for going on a lot of the rides. I am very happy for the two sisters to take the two brothers on the rides (many of them require riders under 48 inches be accompanied by riders over 48 inches) while I sit back and watch. Some of them I do go on like the new Ninjago ride which is a 3D ride where you have to wave your arms and such to slay dragons, etc. Basically the kind of stuff I don't want my kids watching. As you can imagine, the boys LOVED it and begged to go again.

Entering the new Ninjago area.

Such joy!

Brady boating with Uncle Charlie

My boating companions.

Colby wanted no part of this until I explained that it was a guy dressed up like how Santa Claus is a guy dressed up. Then he was game.

Little Kaitlyn is such a cutie!

Can't leave until we have the apple fries!

I give this mom some mad props. That has to be at least a four year old on her back.

Last week Thursday (26th) was my 41st birthday which I'm pleased to report is much less traumatic than the 40th. Ron and Elaine were most kind and came and picked the kids up about 10:30 am so I could do what I wanted for the rest of the day. That included shopping at the consignment store, laying out on the hammock, watching a movie (in my living room), and then going out for supper with Duncan at Urban Flats in Winter Garden. A great day! I also received a "Corey" day from Duncan on Sunday and did my usual Goodwill outing. When can it be my birthday again??

My card from Calleigh. It was very sweet once I got past the handwriting. I take solace in that hardly anyone will be writing anything any more by the time she hits the work force. I hope.

From Aubree. Love her humor.

Lastly, things are going pretty well with the dogs. It's definitely changed our way of life, mostly for the good in that the kids love playing and snuggling with them. I've pretty much had to pick up one poop or pee accident a day. I'm starting to come to the conclusion that "Donner" is the problem child although I don't always catch the culprit in the act so I'm not 100% sure. He's also the one who doesn't like going into the crate when we leave or at night and he'll drag his feet the whole way. Fortunately they don't howl through the night and in fact, the crying, if any, is relegated to about the first five minutes. They have definitely impacted our schooling in that we mostly do school now downstairs on the kitchen table. If we try and do it upstairs, they have to come up with us because I don't like leaving them alone. Once upstairs, they have a heyday in the play room finding a million things to chew on. So downstairs it is. Since the weather is so nice, we just leave the back door open and the boys and dogs play out there while the girls and I school inside. It's a little bit of a pain carrying books and such up and down and I miss my white board but it is what it is. Also, you know how greyhounds love to run and can do so very quickly? Whippets are almost as fast and these two will tear around the back yard like their tails are on fire. They will do it even in the middle of the night when I let them out to pee before bed. I'm so scared one of them is going to slam into something really hard but so far it hasn't happened. They also LOVE to dig holes and I really need to Google how to put the kibosh on that. I fear one of them will break a leg when they step into a hole running at 35 miles on hour.

Aubree selfie on her iPad.

A few pictures to close...

Big game for the Patriots almost two weeks ago now. Look at all these crazy people picking the Steelers. We showed them!

We're going to the Super Bowl!!! What a pain it was to watch the Pats/Steelers. We were under a tornado watch and the DirecTV kept going out and I had to switch back and forth to NFL Mobile on my phone.

Week 3 of Colby skating and he can already "skate" (more like take steps) all over the ice without any problem. He's doing so great! Brady was right by his side during the free skate.