weekend | The Angel Forever

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Time to get the Daddy

Posted on November 4, 2008 12:30 am by TheAngelForever

Last week hubby went away to a wedding alone. He left before the sun was up Wednesday morning and was due back in town Saturday at about noon. Thank goodness for my parents. The boys and I stayed with them Tuesday night to Saturday and enjoyed our extra time with Nana and Papa. Having extra hands on deck to assist me, and especially to go trick-or-treating was beyond a blessing. It was also pretty nice sleeping in my old room and looking at some of my things while the little guy bunked in with me.

NHL knew where Daddy was going and understood that he would be back by the weekend. Since he is in kindergarten he was able to count down the days before JL returned. Of course he did have some trouble expressing how he missed Daddy. Although he was very good while at my parent’s house, he was a little challenging at school on Wednesday and Thursday. Of course many of the other children were as well, so perhaps Halloween was a large factor with NHL.

Poor JSL did not understand what was going on. Daddy just disappeared and he never uttered "Dada" all Wednesday morning or afternoon until we called JL to chat with him. My goodness the little guy’s face lit up as he chanted and clapped his hands. This was repeated many more times over the days JL was away. Still each night he looked sad and settled in to sleep in my old room. He was supposed to sleep in a Pack N’ Play in the room with NHL, but he was so restless he kept hitting into the side and waking up.

When Saturday morning arrived NHL was so excited. He knew that Daddy was already on an airplane coming home. JSL did not have a clue. I think he was too skeptical to believe anything we had to say.

As we drove to the airport I realized something. Neither of the boys had ever been there in the daylight to see planes landing. We went up to the observation deck to show the kids the runway. NHL was amazed with the size of the planes on the ground. He was able to see several small airplanes take off and land. Eventually he saw JL’s plane land and taxi into the terminal.

The little guy gets a boost

Sadly, I did not take any photos of the reunion of my boys. It truly was priceless. Had security not been there I think the boys would have run to Daddy. Neither of them wanted to let go of JL. For the rest of the day they were quite attached to him, especially the little one who seemed afraid of Daddy leaving again.

I know that I am also glad to have my husband and best friend back home as well!

Categories:
family jl jsl my boys NaBloPoMo nhl photos travel weekend

Clean up on the dairy aisle

Posted on November 3, 2008 8:38 am by TheAngelForever

Being a parent is never easy. Not only do you have to take care of your children, but you have to be body language experts and mind readers. Yesterday we had one of those days where we wish we had been better at the latter two.

NHL woke up in the morning asked to go to the couch to watch some Noggin before getting breakfast. When it was time to eat he did not want anything and asked to head back to sleep. Not on the couch to watch television – he went to his room on his own.

WHAT?

Seriously this should have been our first clue. NHL has hardly napped since he turned four and is five now. He woke up just in time to get ready to go to hebrew school. JL was able to get him to eat just a little something. When we picked him up at hebrew school at 12:30 he seemed a little tired, but nothing alarming. We told him that we were going to the grocery store quickly to get a few things.

When he got into the cart I noticed that NHL looked horrible. His coloring was washed out completely. I felt his head and it was cool. He said his tummy hurt and was hungry. We bought a package of pretzle crisps for the two boys (sitting in a car cart together) to share. Once we had the snack he did not want to eat it. As we moved along the store he asked us to hurry up. We assumed it was because he was hungry.

Can you tell where this is going already? I sure wish I had.

When we were on the dairy aisle (our second to last one – only needed frozen after that) things went horribly bad. All of the sudden NHL started to gag. JL saw this and jumped right in and stood there trying to catch what was errupting from Mount St. NHL. Thank goodness NHL turned his head to the right and not the left where JSL was sitting next to him.

I quickly picked JSL up out of the cart and ran to the front of the store to call for a clean up on the dairy aisle. Then I went to the bathroom where they only had toilet paper. I got as much as I could and went back to JL and NHL. At this point NHL was sitting there wimpering and barely able to sit in the cart. I told JL where the bathroom was to take him in case he needed it and to wipe him down quickly.

When the boys came back to us on the now nasty dairy aisle NHL was burning up. I gave them the keys to go to the car and I quickly got a new cart and went to check out. When we arrived home NHL’s temperature was 101.6 and climbing. We managed to get ibuprofen in him and it stayed down. The rest of the afternoon he was napping and barely able to move. At about 4:30 he woke up soaked, his fever had clearly broken. He asked to go to the couch and drank a little apple juice.

This morning he woke up and has his appetite back and we are fever free. Still, thanks to that fever last night, NHL will be spending the day home today.

Please let there be no more volcanic members of our family!

Categories:
messy NaBloPoMo nhl sick kid weekend

Fright Fest 2008

Posted on October 30, 2008 12:05 am by TheAngelForever

Several weeks ago we went back to Six Flags to get our photos taken for our new 2009 season passes. This time we decided to take the little guy with us and thought the big kid would love to go on some rides while there. JSL was mesmerized with watching the rides as he waited in line.

Thanks to a short rain storm, the lines were not too long. The boys were able to get some rides in before the rain started back up.

In addition to just taking in the rides, we were able to enjoy the Halloween atmosphere within the park. Starting in October the parks all participate in Fright Fest. If you have never been before it is absolutely amazing. They go all out. Every inch of the park has something Halloween-ish going on. Whether it is cobwebs, skeletons, or wandering characters you definitely get the feel for the holiday. Now if only they realized the Chain-Saw guy running around with the horribly loud noise was NOT very friendly in the afternoon for families with young children.

Even the park entrance was decorated going out to the parking lot.

Here are some of the decorations from throughout the park to get you in the mood for Halloween on Friday.

This was likely our last trip to the park this year (they close this coming weekend), but we look forward to many more memories with our season passes in 2009!

Categories:
fun holidays jl jsl looking back my boys nhl photos weekend

Thanks to Joe the Photographer

Posted on October 26, 2008 10:11 pm by TheAngelForever

Sunday afternoon we went on an adventure. It was finally time to do NHL’s five year portraits. For those counting, that would make it over two months since his fifth birthday. We decided to head back to the popular portrait studio that we used in the past. JL and I just were not impressed with the other place that we had his four year portraits done at and JSL’s first birthday.

When we arrived we were all dressed in red with our jeans on. Talk about getting looks from people later on in the day – LOL!

We were told to head into the first studio as soon as we arrived. When we went in a very friendly photographer came into the room. We learned his name thanks to NHL. He asked and Joe told him. NHL quickly told him that he knew another Joe, you know, the one in Blues Clues. Of course all that went through my mind . . . . Joe the Plumber!

We decided to start with family photos since JSL had not napped earlier in the day (our session time was 2:00). Needless to say, it is quite tricky to get a decent shot with all four family members looking at the camera at the same time. I kept blinking, NHL kept talking/smiling funny, and JSL wanted to walk away. If you have done family portraits you know exactly what happened. We managed to get one that was not too bad.

Then it was time to get the much anticipated photos of NHL with the giant number five, dinosaurs and his camera. Joe did a great job working with NHL. NHL definitely played it up. As you can see we switched his red shirt and I really like the ones with the short sleeved blue on more.

October '08 Portraits - 16 October '08 Portraits - 14

Once NHL was done Joe asked to try some with both of the boys alone. That did not work out too well. The overtired 17 month old kept walking out of the frame. We did manage to get one cute one before we switched gears.

Before calling it quits I asked Joe to try one of all of my boys. This time both of the little guys were getting tired.

We bought a package that included the portraid CD so we own the photos and can print them whenever we want. JL was quite happy about this. That would be why I was able to post this so quickly.

The rest of the photos from the photo shoot by Joe can be seen on my Flickr photostream.

Categories:
birthday jl jsl milestone my boys nhl photos weekend

Giant pizza and chopping time

Posted on October 26, 2008 12:02 pm by TheAngelForever

For several weeks we have been looking for one item that will be needed for NHL’s Halloween costume. You would think that it had to be something horribly complicated since it has taken us so long to find. The sad truth is that it was only a plain white turtleneck shirt. Who knew that this would be so difficult to find here?

Yesterday we were on a mission. We opted to go to the more "quiet" of the malls to see if Sears had the pesky white turtleneck that we desired. On the way there we stopped for lunch. We have been curious for a while about a pizza place that had opened on the route there back in the summer. We finally went in. They have what they call "The Big Mama" pizza. This pizza is HUGE by any standard. It is a 30" pizza and the slices are larger than our heads. The boys ordered some slices and I just had to take a photo of these monster slices.

We really enjoyed the food there and the owners were extremely nice. We will definitely be going back again.

After lunch we went to the mall. Our first shop was Sears. Once we made our way to the boys section we almost gave up. Then out of the corner of his eye, JL saw turtleneck shirts. We purchased a white, red and pattern one for NHL to stay warm this fall and winter. Next we wanted to head to one other store in the mall. NHL was exhausted. We think the pizza must have made him sleepy. Luckily JSL was antsy and wanted out of his stroller. So I decided to stuff NHL into the stroller and he was willing to go for the ride.

On our way back to the car we stopped at the Sears Portrait studio to make an appointment for NHL’s 5 year portraits on Sunday. Last week we had to cancel them thanks to his pinkeye. The appointment was made and I decided that I wanted to finally go through with something I had been thinking about.

What was that you ask?

I have been toying with getting my hair cut again for quite some time. I knew pretty much what I wanted to do, but I could not decide where to go to have it done. With the budget being smaller these days, I opted to go where the boys get their hair done. There is just something about not spending more than $15 for a simple hair cut.

When I went in I asked the hair stylist to take a photo of my hair before. I had not had it cut since I had 12 inches taken off for my third hair donation after JSL was born. Now my hair is finally bad to the thickness it was before the pregnancy and is quite long again. Thanks to this it is hard to work with and quite heavy on my poor head.

Please ignore the frizz, it is the story of my life (even with products made specifically to combat that issue). I simply asked to have my hair cut to about shoulder length so that I could still get it back and out of my face if I wanted to. She worked and worked and worked on it. You should have seen the pile of hair on the ground. I must have had at least 7-8 inches cut off thanks to the curl factor.

When it was done I felt so free. We went home and I immediately found my headbands to push it back (wearing the one that Airing Dirty Laundry gave me in our Swaparooni last year) . Here is what it looks like after. Please note I did not have my hair colored. The lighting in our dining room is that bad that it made my hair look really dark. The photo above is pretty accurate.