Five for Friday - Catch Up

I am caught up on a good number of things that have been taking up all of my time... so as I make a renewed push to catch up on the blog, I am planning to alternate a post that isn't too outdated yet, like yesterday's, with a post that is embarrassingly over due.  Like today's!  At least I'm posting it on a Friday, like I had planned to!

Last July (!) Tim and I went to see Paul McCartney for our second time, this time with Tim and Susan.  It was at Nat's Park and it was a spectacular show!  We had much better seats this time around too!  McCartney comes across as a tremendous and gracious human being, and his shows are so much fun!

I just love this picture of our adorable nephews, Bryce and Brayden, living it up at Ocean City.

Nate had a Sonic themed birthday party at a Tae Kwon Do place.  Timmy loved it and got so excited when he broke a board with his hand!  He also thought it was super cool when Nate got to cut his cake with a Samurai sword!

What the boys were up to last July was playing Lego's and Mario.  Sometimes the costumes were put on to pretend they were Mario and Luigi, usually they were put on to play the video game in!

My favorite summer past time: watching my boys play in the pool while working on my tan!  This day they were on a ship, Tyler was using the kick-board as their map, and Timmy alternated riding along or getting half way in to kick them around the pool.

First, Second, and Third ER Visits!

Tim and I ushered our family through almost 6 years without a single trip to Urgent Care... and then we had three trips in five weeks!  Now that our boys are healed and healthy, I am prepared to write about their injuries!  Disclaimer - there are photos of their injuries in this post, if you prefer to skip over this one...

Timmy needed the first trip, and the injury and need for the Urgent Care visit were pretty much all his own fault.  Tim was home with the boys on Saturday March 15th and was outside working on his Jeep and installing his new basketball hoop.  Timmy had come out to tell him he was hungry, but Tim was not at a stopping point so he told Timmy to get himself a snack.  Timmy is a big fan of eating cream cheese bagels and when we buy them at Costco, they are not pre-split so you have to use a sharp knife to open them.  I bet you can see where this is going... Timmy took it upon himself to try to cut open a bagel, and cut open his hand instead.  Knowing that he would be in trouble for using a steak knife by himself, he cleaned up all of the blood on his own, using toilet paper, and found those little round band-aids and stuck about 4 of them on his cut.  He did a fantastic job cleaning up the blood, we never found any.  I think he may have even flushed the toilet paper, because I never saw that either!  Hours later, just before bed time, Tim and Timmy were playing basketball on the new hoop that Tim had installed that day.  Tim noticed the band-aids on Timmy's hand, and asked him how he managed to get hurt at Chuck E Cheese, where Timmy had been to a party earlier in the day.  Timmy said he didn't get hurt there, and didn't know how he got hurt.  When Tim took the band-aids off to get a closer look, he found a pretty bad gash, that had not been properly taken care of and had spread pretty badly since the initial injury had occurred.  Tim pieced the day together and figured out how Timmy had hurt himself, and Timmy finally admitted what had happened.  We texted the below picture to our amazing pediatrician and he confirmed that Timmy would need stitches.  Tim and Timmy went to Urgent Care just before closing and Timmy got two stitches.  Timmy watched the whole thing and didn't cry at all!  They made it home in time to have birthday cake with Uncle Chris, hence the chocolate ice cream mustache in the other picture.  Timmy was pretty embarrassed telling people how he got hurt, but he thought the stitches themselves were pretty cool.  He did a great job following directions on how to take care of the stitches, including not getting his hand wet at all, and let Tim pull the stitches out when the week was up.

Tyler needed the next visit to Urgent Care.  The boys and I had recently gotten home on Friday, April 4th.  I was rushing around getting laundry started and doing some general clean up and Timmy and Tyler were wandering around the house, playing in the basement and occasionally getting toys from their bedroom.  Timmy had been in their bedroom and about half way down the stairs he tripped and fell down several steps before catching himself.  We had been living here for over a year and this was the first time any of us had fallen down the stairs.  After he calmed down I turned on the TV for him in the Living Room and noticed Tyler needed a diaper.  I took Ty upstairs to change him and then I told him to go watch TV with Timmy.  I was gathering up their laundry seconds later when I heard multiple thuds going down the stairs.  Tyler had fallen from the very top!  I was at the stop of the stairs, holding my breath because he had not made a single sound, before he hit the landing.  He started wailing as soon as he landed.  The poor kid had bruises on his back, elbow, legs, right side of his forehead, and he busted the left side of his forehead when he hit the bottom.  From the amount of bleeding we knew he would need stitches.  Tim Sr and Susan picked Timmy up for us and we got Tyler in the car and went to the same Urgent Care Timmy had been to.  Tyler was seen by the same nurse as Timmy!  We were a little worried we might hear from CPS!  Tyler was very brave.  Before we even left the house he was insisting, "I stop crying now, I all better now. I okay!"  He did everything the doctor's asked of him. We had been hoping for glue but were told he would need one stitch.  Tim told Tyler that we could go somewhere special for dinner if he was a good boy for his stitch.  Tyler asked slyly, knowing it was supposed to be a potty training prize, "I go Chuck E Cheese?  I no poop on potty first?"  We laughed and agreed to his request.  They had Tyler lay down on a papoose board and strapped his arms down.  Normally they strap across the forehead too, but they obviously couldn't do that in this case.  One nurse and I both did our best to keep Tyler still.  They only did a topical numbing, so when they did the stitch he wailed all over again, I looked up and saw his poor face with the stitch half way through and it was so pitiful I almost cried!  He calmed back down pretty quickly afterwards though, knowing he was headed to Chuck E Cheese!  I was really worried he might have a concussion, but he showed no signs of one.  Tyler's stitch healed very well initially, and after much convincing, he let Tim take it out while we were at my parents in Florida, since he couldn't get in the pool until it came out!  You can't even see where the stitch itself was, and initially the scar was a paper thin line... unfortunately he managed to bump it at least two more times before it was completely healed, so it has spread a little, but it will continue to fade.

Looking a little crazy-eyed! He loved this thing though, rode it 4 times!

 Timmy got dropped off to us at Chuck E Cheese and had his first turn in the ticket machine, he'd been dying to do this since Brayden's birthday party here years ago!

Showing Stitch Tyler's Stitch!

Since they were taking turns, it was back to Timmy for an emergency doctor visit!  This was the most serious and scary, and I will be very happy to never go through anything like this again!  On the evening of Easter Sunday Tim and the boys were going out back to practice t ball.  In a fluke accident, while Timmy was still walking down the stairs of the deck, a baseball hit him straight in the eyeball.  Timmy immediately freaked out and we rushed to look at him.  At first, there was not a mark on him, no swelling, no bleeding, no trace of injury.  As I was saying, "Timmy you're okay, there's no blood, you're okay," I watched the bottom 1/4-1/3 of the colored portion of his eye fill with blood.  We now know this condition is called hyphema.  Tim took Timmy to the hospital ER and received conflicting opinions as to whether Timmy needed to see a specialist that night or if it could wait for the morning.  Thankfully Tim insisted on having Timmy seen that night and was sent to a specialist at National Children's Hospital in Georgetown.  They didn't get home until after two in the morning and they had to be back in Georgetown for the first of many follow ups at 8 am.  Hyphema is basically a bruised eye which elevates the pressure in the eye as well.  If allowed to heal fully in the first place, there is no long term damage.  If the eye re-bleeds during the initial healing, it can cause serious damage including vision loss and likely require surgery.  The stakes were obviously very high.  To allow the eye to heal, Timmy had to be very still for about 10 days.  Anything that would jostle the eye was off limits, no running, climbing, skipping, jumping, dancing, shaking his head, or laying down flat!  Timmy was put on three different drops that night, one to keep his pupil dilated so it would not worsen the injury, one to lower the pressure in the eye, and honestly I'm not sure what the last one did!  He had different combinations of these drops for 4 days, and then was taken off of them one at a time, until he was down to one drop, once a day, for about two weeks after the injury.  Timmy handled this so well, even reminding me when it was time to have his drops!  The blood was absorbed, as far as the naked eye could tell, within the first week.  The dilation of the pupil lasted for almost three weeks!  Timmy was a fantastic patient at the doctor's office and at home.  He missed the entire week of school following spring break, plus the next Monday and half of Tuesday, and then he had to continue to sit out of PE, Recess, and Tball for an additional week after that!  I know that all 5 year olds are active, but our Timmy LOVES to run (I have no idea where he gets this from) so this was really, really hard on all of us.  Him not being able to lay down to sleep was extremely difficult too.  We propped a couch cushion up in our bed between us, and he slept with us for weeks.  He would of course start subconsciously wiggling down the pillow to get comfortable as soon as he fell asleep, so Tim and I were waking up all night long to fix his positioning.  When I figured out to add the travel pillow that helped a lot!  Timmy's demeanor through this whole ordeal was unbelievably positive.  He never lashed out at us, even with constant reminders to not do anything!  I felt especially bad when re-positioning him all night long, figuring he needed all the rest he could get and I was interrupting it.  In the middle of my fixing him one night he half way opened his eyes and said, "Mama... I love you."  I was so relieved to realize that he understood that we were taking care of him, not harassing him.  Timmy had 5 or 6 doctor appointments in 9 days so they could monitor the pressure in his eye.  Luckily, after the first two appointments he was able to move to the Fairfax office instead of continuing to go to Georgetown.  At our first appointment in Fairfax the nurse said, "They weren't kidding, they told us he would be a great patient!"  On top of following all of their directions Timmy remembered all of his pressure numbers and the blood count from every appointment.  I am beyond happy to say that Timmy was given the all clear at his final check up, though the doctor gave some "fantastic" advice to, "avoid serious head trauma for the next three months."  Really?  I think we'll strive to avoid head trauma forever...  Timmy's allowed to be his normal self again, except we're supposed to watch out for rough housing or moon bounces, anything that could lead to an elbow in the eye.  Timmy is also still wearing sunglasses whenever he is outside.  He's now more aware of squinting, since the dilated pupil had him so sensitive to light for so long.  He will also be wearing the catcher's helmet to bat during t ball for as long as I can enforce it!  His only long term issue is that he has a higher chance of having glaucoma when he is older, then he would have had if this injury had not occurred.

Blood was already cleared up, just a hugely dilated pupil in this picture! 

Chicago - 9th Anniversary Trip

For our nine year anniversary Tim planned a get away to Chicago for us.  Everyone asked us, "Why Chicago" since it was early March... but neither of us had been there, and for me, as an architect, that was particularly embarrassing.  It was colder then we would have hoped for, but we had a great trip!  We arrived in Chicago on our anniversary and got to our hotel about dinner time, after a delay and cancellation of our first flight, and delay of our second flight!  After those setbacks the rest of the trip went smoothly.  We walked over to the Hancock Tower and went up to the Signature Lounge on the 96th Floor.  The views were fantastic!  We split a creme brulee there and then headed out to find dinner.

Tim used TripAdvisor to pick all of our restaurants during our trip and every meal we had was fantastic!  For our anniversary dinner we found Quartino's, an Italian Restaurant that served what they called small plates.  We split a bottle of wine, calamari, shrimp risotto, tortellini with prosciutto, and two desserts, for about $80!  We were stuffed and happy!

The next morning we jumped on our hop on hop off bus and started around the city.  When we got to Millennium Park we got off and had a great breakfast at Wildberry before checking out the park.  We absolutely loved the Bean!  It was very cool!  Frank Gherry's Pavilion is also there and houses free concerts all summer long.

We got back on our hop on hop off tour and got out at the Art Institute of Chicago to see a few things.

From there we caught the last tour bus of the day, and lucked into a driver who took us to see a view that is not part of the normal tour (though we lucked into seeing it three different times).  This first time out was the clearest day though, and it was a stunning view.

We hoped on the L and made out way to Wrigley Field just to take a look at the stadium.  We stopped at Cubby's Bar to warm up, have a drink, and call the boys.

That evening we met Kaitlin and Kelli for dinner at Lou Malnati's for some deep dish pizza, and it was so good!  Afterwards we saw Kelli's apartment, grabbed a drink at the bar under her apartment, and went to see Kaitlin's boyfriend, Luke, perform with his Improv group.  It was so much fun!

The next day we had really nice weather.  We actually got to sit on the deck of the sight seeing bus for a few stops on our way to the Sears (Willis) Tower, which is a much better way to see Chicago, so you can actually see the tops of the buildings!

We went up to the Sky Deck which was definitely worth the entrance fee.  Up on the 103rd floor, 1,353 ft above the ground, it offered an amazing view of the city, and thanks to the glass boxes, a breathtaking look down!  I can't lie, it was a little nerve wracking to step out into the box!

From there we planned to walk until we found food, and then jump back on the sight seeing bus to get over to the Field Museum.  This is the only poor planning we had the whole trip!  There was NOTHING to eat in that area, and we walked for blocks and blocks and blocks without finding anything.  We finally gave up and Uber-ed back to the main part of the city where we had a delicious lunch, and then Uber-ed to the museum to get back on schedule!

We did get a good look at some Mies van der Rohe buildings while walking aimlessly!

The Field Museum houses Sue, who is the largest, most complete, and best preserved T. Rex ever discovered.  She was impressive!

There was also a temporary exhibit about the 1893 World's Fair, which was held in Chicago, and is the reason that the Field Museum, and many other permanent features of Chicago, exist.  It was pretty interesting to learn about the curators who toured the World killing wild animals for the sole purpose of stuffing them and displaying them in the museum, where they are still housed.  As well as the way aboriginal people were brought to the fair and put on display.  Science and it's methods have certainly come a long way!  Finally we walked through the Evolving Planet exhibit and wrapped up our visit.

For dinner we wandered to the Magnificent Mile and stumbled on Bandera which had a live jazz band and delicious food!  I had a butternut squash enchilada that is in my top ten favorite meals ever eaten, and Tim had the best French Dip he's ever had!

Saturday was the coldest day of our visit by far!  Luckily, we had a bus tour that day!  We went to The Rookery which is in the middle of Chicago, and it's lobby was renovated by Frank Lloyd Wright.  It was stunning.

Next the tour headed out to Hyde Park to see the Robie House, which is hailed as Wright's best example of Prairie Style Architecture.  It was very neat to see, but is currently being renovated back to it's former glory, and unfortunately it's current state is pretty sad!

I loved how the University building across the street paid homage to the Robie House

We drove through Hyde Park on the way to the next stop, and many celebrity homes were pointed out to us, the main one being the Obama's residence.  The final stop for our tour was the Illinois Institute of Technology to see some examples of Mies van der Rohe's architecture, famous for steel structures with glass curtain walls and no ornamentation.

On the way back to the city we got another look at the skyline over Lake Michigan it looked very different under the overcast skies!

We were starving by the time we got back!  We went up the Magnificient Mile and found Giordano's for a very late lunch.  It was amazing.  It was also extremely heavy; we never ended up eating dinner!  We did a little gift shopping on our way back to the hotel and called it an early night!

I kept seeing this view while crossing the street going to or from our hotel.  I was just amazed by the density of construction!

Sunday morning we checked out of the hotel and went to meet Kaitlin and Luke for breakfast.  From there we headed back to the airport, and home to our boys!  When we got home, Tyler asked us, as he did every phone call while we were away, "Where you been guys? Where you been?  I've been at your house!"  We gave the boys a model of the Hancock Tower and Sears Tower, and told them we went all the way to the top of each of them.  Tyler pointed and asked, "You went here?  You went to this one?  I go with you guys!"  It was great to get home!