In which I am Found in the Kitchen in my Underwear in the Middle of the Night

So, we put our kids to bed promptly at 10:00 last night. What?! It was Oscars night! And even though the pretty darn boring broadcast was actually over early, there was still the tallying up of everyone's ballots here to see who got the most right. Kris did, he always does. But I did get best movie and best actor right. (Go, Mr Darcy!).

Anyway, we put the kids to bed. Fionn, who had spent most of the evening lying on the couch in fever-induced lethargy and occasionally kicking and thrashing out at anyone who dared encroach upon her space, came to bed with us. Preparing to sleep with a five year old who was putting out enough heat to warm the whole room, I decided to forego PJs and just snuggled down under the covers in my underwear with my live little heating element and went right to sleep.

Then, about an hour or so later, Fionn began to kick, and clutch, and grope and cry "Mommy, Mommy, Mommy," and occasionally giggle maniacally, which was a bit disturbing and made it well, really hard for me or Kris to sleep anymore. The cold medicine was downstairs on the mantel where I left it after the last time I dosed Liam a couple days ago, so, I scooped her up and we went in search of the medicine. With her begging me not to make her take the nasty stuff, but her lucidity when faced with the horror of grape flavored cold medicine was actually somewhat comforting to me.

Then things got good. I poured the medicine, but then Fionn began to gag and then proceeded to puke on the kitchen floor. Amik heard all the commotion and came upstairs to help and I sent him to the garage in search of a puke bucket (aka 'Party Pail') since my frantic search in the tupperware cabinet had proven fruitless. Well, when you open the garage door without turning off the alarm system, the alarm starts with a little warning beep. If you put the code in before the beeping stops everything is good, if not then the alarm goes off in earnest emitting an ear-splitting electronic scream that would scare the living daylights out of anyone who ever dared break into my house. So far, it has only ever done so to us though, because we are the only ones who have ever set it off. So last night, I couldn't get the stupid key pad to work. I swear I punched in that code four times and it never took. And that is why last night at about 11:30 the scene in my kitchen when people came running from all over the house at the sound of the alarm was of me standing in my kitchen in my underwear frantically punching the keys on the alarm system, while Fionn puked and cried and held her hands over her ears at my feet.

So, now I know, even if everyone in the house seems to be asleep when you creep down the stairs with a feverish baby just to grab some medicine really quick--put some clothes on, because, well, you never know what might transpire before you can creep back up the stairs to your bed.

The Beach in February

You know what Kris and I did this weekend?

We walked on the beach. A lot.

And took pictures of seals.

And sea lions.

And sunsets.

And multi-million dollar homes on the beach.

And collected sand dollars. And ate cheesecake for lunch. And slept in the sun (maybe that was just me). And walked on the beach some more. And laughed just a little at the women in their bikinis and Ugg boots. Why do you own any kind of boot at all if you live in San Diego? And ate frozen yogurt for dinner. And tried really hard to make our 3 ounce bottle of sunscreen last 3 days. It didn't. And bought chocolate at Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory--in San Diego. And laughed a lot at the road sign that said "Move Only on Green." Except, apparently, that road sign was necessary. And walked on the beach some more.

You know what our kids did?

They went to school and work. They played Apples to Apples. And PS3. And watched movies. And ate macaroni and cheese. And pizza. And goofed around a lot on Skype for their parents' amusement. And generally took care of one another and the house, and while I am sure they are covering for one another a bit, everyone seems to have mostly gotten along. And, except for a few bumps Fionn was sure to point out to us, everyone seems to be in one piece too.

The Zoo with Cousins

One beautifully warm and sunny winter day last month we went to the Denver Zoo and were met there by cousins Ande and Kyle and their momma too (John ditched us). Ande, Kyle and parents have recently moved back to Colorado, we missed them and are happy to have them back.

Amik with Kyle

Fionnula and Ande

We are generally lovers of zoos, and have visited a handful of others, but the Denver Zoo feels very much like it is ours.  We have been visiting there since our family began.

We celebrated Erin's first birthday at the Denver Zoo. She made kitten noises at the mountain lions.

Once, we took Erin, Bayley, Kegan and Rhys to see the holiday zoo lights. We got there and realized we had forgotten to bring the girls' coats. It was cold and dark and after bedtime. We ended up bundling the girls into the double stroller with lots of blankets. I pushed the girls and Kris carried a toddler on each arm through the whole zoo. By the time we were done, Kris's arms were so sore he could barely move them.

When Kegan was two we went to the Denver Zoo with our LaFond cousins on Christmas Day (yes, really, Christmas Day). A snowball fight that day nearly turned lethal when Kegan tripped, smacked his face on a rock and broke his nose! He effectually ruined Uncle Greg's jacket with the copious amounts of blood that flowed freely from his face. Most of my kids, even those who were not yet born that Christmas, can still point out that offending rock.

That was back when Enrights and LaFonds lived about 20 minutes from one another. Years later, they traveled from Pennsylvania to visit us in Colorado Springs and we wanted to go to the Denver Zoo together, of course. The day of the zoo trip turned out to be rainy, but we went anyway. Mostly the rain just effected the picnic part of the day, not the moods of anyone involved. At lunchtime we piled into the two vehicles to eat our lunches. Everyone was happily eating and chatting and loudly laughing when in the bus there was a sudden and complete silence followed by a loud chorus of "Ewwwww! Gross!" And an extremely efficient evacuation of the bus. Rain was nothing compared to remaining in the vehicle that poor Ronan had just puked in.

Last June we met cousin Alison for the first time at the Denver zoo.

Ronan and Liam up a tree

Alison under the tree

Cousins and zoos sort of go together I guess.

Ronan, Kyle, and Amik

Yes, we actually own THREE cars

Isn't it cute? Soon Erin will be taking her driving test with this little guy, and probably not long thereafter, Bayley will too. And then I can cease to be a full time chauffeur, except I don't think I will give up all my duties because I like to drive it too!

Of Snoopy Slings and Purple Casts

Okay, so I really need to catch up here. I really want to catch up. But first I am just going to jump right into what is going on now at my house and the biggest event I can come up with for the week is that Fionnula broke her wrist. Well, is it really a 'break' if what you actually did was bend your bones and not really snap them in two? Whatever, it is the first cast any of my children has ever had (just cause they don't cast toes and noses).

It started out like this; I was having a leisurely Sunday afternoon phone conversation with my mother when I hear a screaming child coming my way. I mean, really screaming, Fionn is a screamer anyway, but this scream sounded a little more serious than the usual 'my brother won't let me have his toy that I want' scream. So I hung up on Mom (well, I didn't just hang up--I mean I told her I was going and all),I listen to the story about how she was on the trampoline and first her arm 'was like this and then it was like this!' (There were actions to go along with the story, but truthfully they didn't add much and I still don't know precisely what happened to her arm, just that she was jumping on the trampoline and landed on it).

I looked at the arm, there was no bruising or serious swelling; I did the requisite 'can you move it like this and like this,' she could. So I took her downstairs, sat her on the couch with an ice pack and a movie and hoped it would get better by tomorrow. I even threatened her by asking in my most concerned parent voice; "Do you think it is so bad that you need to go to the doctor?" This always works on all my other kids, they always feel a lot better after I ask this question. I know, it is not a good mom sort of thing to do, but sometimes I am not a good mom. But whatever, because it didn't work with Fionn, she said immediately that yes she thought she needed to see a doctor, either because that sounded like fun or because it really hurt that bad. Both, as it turned out.

Later that evening I had a meeting to go to and left her with her big sisters. I came home to find them comforting her after she had bumped it in the bathroom. But she slept well that night and I was feeling optimistic until the next morning she got a little jostled and the screaming started again. So I called the doctor and I called the insurance and I bundled her into the car. There were no more tears now, she was completely psyched. This was going to be an adventure.

In the waiting room at urgent care she was thrilled to see they had a TV, and piles of magazines. And she wondered at every person she saw how they had hurt their arms, because obviously this was a place you went to when you hurt your arm. We looked at magazines, toured the waiting room, and finally they timidly called out her name. We get great renditions of Fionn's name when people first see it.

So, she loved getting her blood pressure taken loved the little red light they put on her finger to check oxygen levels (that is what it does isn't it?), declared that getting her temp checked tickled and practically skipped over to be weighed. She had not had this much fun in a long time. They showed us to a little room where she got to sit on a big old hospital bed. Oh we were having so much fun! We saw a nurse who basically told us they would need x rays and we waited a long time, Fionn singing 'The Ants go Marching' and 'The Tree in The Woods.' She makes up her own words to 'The Tree in The Woods' and she loves the format where she says it and then I have to repeat what she says. Such a sense of power! A very noncommunative tech came and led us to x-ray, snapped a few pictures of her arm, sent us to another room to wait and then back to our original room to wait some more. We sang more songs. We played I Spy. We tried to use a cell phone in a big medical building with iffy cell coverage. The Doctor came in to pronounce the verdict--buckle fracture-- they would splint it and she could go see another doctor who could decide about the cast. We waited some more. Another tech came in and measured Fionn's arm. We waited. She came back and put on the splint--a process which Fionn can describe in detail if you ask her. And found her a snoopy sling. The whole thing was just fascinating to Fionn.




Later that day I heard her detailing the whole story to Liam in the back seat of the car. "And she called me pumpkin!" Fionn says incredulously.

"Pumpkin!?" laughed Liam.

So I explained that calling someone 'pumpkin' was like calling them 'cutie.'

"So 'pumpkin' means 'cute?' Asked Fionn, sounding a little doubtful.

"Yes... sort of," I said.

Liam and Fionn, pondering the oddities of their native tongue; "Hmmmm..."

So we suffered through the splint and sling for three and a half days and then went to the orthopedic surgeon who wrapped her all up in a purple cast and told us to come back in 3 weeks for more x-rays and, hopefully, cast removal.



So far, Fionn is still mostly having fun. She loves it when people ask what happened. And it is especially fun to correct those who say she broke her arm; "Actually, it's my wrist.' After about twelve hours of not holding a crayon or pencil, she started to learn to use her left hand, because she just couldn't take it anymore. She challenges her brothers to hit the cast and then announces 'See! It hurts you and not me because it is hard!" But sometimes at night when she can't get comfortable, or when it starts itching, she just wants the cast off now and it isn't quite so much fun for anyone.

Fun Runs and Treasure Hunts

Halloween for us this year began with the Creepy Crawl race out at Palmer Lake. Bayley paid the entrance fee and ran in the 5K and got the cool t-shirt.

The shirt Bayley is wearing in this picture is actually from The Great Pumpkin Run earlier in the month, not the run she is actually running in, but it is conveniently Halloweenish anyway. Can you see the pumpkin design?

After the official 5K race they had a 1 mile race around the lake for kids under 12 and their running companions--so each of our younger kids ran with a big brother or sister.

Here is Noah at the finish line. I believe he was the second runner to finish.

And Ronan already in costume.


And Liam. Who was reluctant at first to run, but then loved it.

And finally Fionn, who fell only moments before this at the last turn, but was determined to finish.

Then everyone who wasn't already in costume got dressed up and we had the now traditional Halloween treasure hunt (right after the equally traditional photo shoot).

A fairy princess. Honestly, it is not too unusual for Fionn to be dressed like this.

Han Solo.

Robin Hood.

Sid. (from Toy Story) I painted that skull on the t-shirt the night before. Pretty good, huh?

Deb. (from Napoleon Dynamite)

Edmund? Peter? A generic knight? It is a versatile costume. And, for those of you who are wondering, yes, the sword is just a lame prop and behind that shield it actually has no hilt, but is, in fact, just a blade.

Well, Erin is a pirate, but Bayley is mostly someone who never came up with a costume idea but had run in a run that morning and acquired a conveniently colored t-shirt.

Kegan is obviously a demi-god (the question being which of his parents is the god), I have no idea what Rhys is. Cool glasses though, huh?

Yellowstone!

This post is an experiment. I want to know what happens when I finish a post that I started months ago and left as an unpublished draft. Will it be posted with today's date attached (it is actually January already!) or with the date it was originally attached to? Because if it is the latter, then that opens a whole new world of possibilities to a procrastinating blogger such as myself.

In July we went to Yellowstone. Yellowstone was one of the destinations on our list of places to visit with the whole family before our children start moving out on us. We haven't finished the list yet, which is why Erin and Bayley can't move out yet. We actually tried to go last summer. But when you call the West Yellowstone KOA in May and say you want to stay there in July, they politely chuckle at you and then suggest that you call around October and schedule something for next July. Which is what we did. And which is why we didn't even think of cancelling our plans when Kris broke his leg two weeks before our scheduled departure. One thing I might do differently if we were to return though, the KOA is not really all that close to the park, so I think I would try to get a place to stay that is actually in Yellowstone. You might have to call earlier than October. And, there is the bear factor too, it turns out there are bears in Yellowstone, and apparently they occasionally they eat park visitors, so one of the cool lodges would definitely be my preference. No tents.

But, what I am really trying to get to is the pictures. This was our first major trip in which multiple people carried cameras. And cell phones. So there are literally hundreds of photos.