Thursday, May 31, 2012

Pretend Play

Climbing the slide with a rope.

The boys have really loved the warm weather lately - they absolutely love playing outside on the swing set. Matthew rigged up a rope from the swing set fort to the deck, and tied a bucket onto the rope. They send messages up and down the rope - Nolan doesn't write much yet, but he can send written numbers!

Nolan writes the number "2."

I love watching them play in this way. They learn so much and write more than they ever do in school. They enjoy this so much more than writing on worksheets. It isn't structured, but it is a very natural way for young children to learn.

Matt hooks up his message box.

I am looking forward to the two month summer vacation where my little guys can play (and learn) to their hearts' content!

Putting crayons and paper into the box.

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Play Ball!


Tee ball season has started in our area, and the boys love playing baseball. They are on the same team, as the cut-off dates for age place them both in the same level: kids must be less than seven years old by April 1 to play tee ball. The cut-off for soccer is the beginning of August, so Nolan will remain on the Under-4 league and Matt will be on the Under-6 league.

Their team had pictures taken the other day, and the kids were all so cute in their baseball jerseys and hats.


The kids were very cute as they had their pictures taken, and even cuter as they ran off to the baseball diamond to play their game. All of their games are held in Celeron Park down by the lake, so the setting is beautiful.

Getting ready to bat! 

Matt swings and hits a home run! 

Nolan's turn to bat. 

Snack after the game!

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Mother's Day Recap


Mother's Day is absolutely fabulous when you have four and six year old children. They find endless joy in making presents and are quite proud of their mommy when she visits their classroom. The weekend started off with Nolan's class tea party for mothers. The kids sang three songs, including "I Love Mommy."



 We had cookies, punch, and Nolan gave me his Mother's Day gift.



I planted the sunflower a few weeks later when we were past danger of frost - he was so very proud of his flower! Matt made me a beautiful card and brought me some radishes he had planted. Unfortunately, our dog ate his Mother's Day gift! He was devastated, so his teacher let him bring home a corn plant as a replacement gift on the following Monday. Unfortunately, a deer ate that - there is no winning with the wildlife (domestic or otherwise) around these parts! His card, however, was beautiful.


He drew our raised beds and some flowers growing in them. We planted a lot of seeds in the beds to replace the gifts that got eaten! He also wrote about his mommy - it is funny to see what is in the minds of six year olds!


My favorite is the magnet he made for me, with his kindergarten-sized hand print.


It was such a fantastic day with my two beautiful boys and wonderful husband. What could be better than my three favorite people making French Toast for breakfast?


I think Mother's Day might turn into my favorite holiday!

Superhero Training Camp


Our  local library hosted a "Superhero Training Camp" for kids at the end of April. My boys were so excited to attend: Matthew dressed as Batman and Nolan dressed as Spiderman.


We love taking advantage of our local library's programs, because they are always enriching. As an added bonus, they're also free! The kids had to participate in several training activities to earn their superhero certificates. Nolan lifted a giant rock.


Matt lifted huge weights that weighed 200 pounds! At least, that's what the weights were labeled with - he was certainly proud of being so strong!


Nolan crossed "hot lava" to rescue a baby on the end of a beam.


The kids had a fabulous time with this activity. I also saw several activities that were great for Nolan's birthday party this summer. He's turning five and wants a superhero party, so the "training camp" is an excellent idea. I think I will set up various stations with activities for the kids to complete, then give them their official training certificates at the end of the party.

Of course, these two are all ready bona fide superheroes - perhaps they can show the other kids how it's done!


Sunday, May 27, 2012

Catching Up: April Snowstorm

On April 23, we had a significant snowstorm that hit the Western NY area. This one took us a bit by surprise, as the winter had been so mild. It was definitely a shock after returning from warm, beautiful Myrtle Beach!


The boys were thrilled, as it meant they could spend the entire afternoon sledding and throwing snowballs at each other.


Our trees were a little the worse for wear. The Maples had already flowered and my Dogwood had to be saved from the weight of the wet snow.



While the snow was beautiful, I have to admit I was relieved when it was gone a few days later. The boys, however, are still grieving the loss of their unexpected sledding season!


The Lost Tooth

On April 18, 2012, Matthew came home with a gap in his mouth. The first tooth is gone!


Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Myrtle Beach, Day 7: The Road Trip Home


We left Myrtle Beach at a relatively late 7:30am, in the hope that Matt would stop vomiting. Unfortunately, this was not going to happen, so we loaded up the car and settled him into his booster seat with a blanket and the trusty plastic bowl. We didn't even make it out of the Wyndham parking lot before he vomited again.

Fortunately, we have a lot of extra equipment because of Nolan's random medical issues, so we had a gallon of distilled water in the back of the car. This came in very handy as we had to rinse things out on a regular basis. We stopped 8 times before we made it out of South Carolina, and another 3 times in North Carolina. Fortunately, by the time we made it to Virginia, Matt seemed to be a bit brighter.

By the time we arrived at the southern end of West Virginia, he was able to keep sips of water down. We decided to make a stop at the New River Gorge to stretch our legs and air out the car. There is a great visitor's center here, and the boys enjoyed looking at the bridge.


The boys loved driving over this bridge, though you can't really get a full sense of scale and height until you view it from afar. Matt was a little shaky, but seemed fairly recovered from the food poisoning.


We walked back from the observation deck platform, and Nolan decided to have a royal tantrum. Oh, the joys of long road trips with a four year old! Fortunately, Daddy was able to handle Nolan while I took Matt into the visitor's center.


The visitor's center was great, because it included a really neat museum and bridge-building information in addition to vending machines. We were really after the vending machines, to get some ginger ale for Matthew, but the museum was definitely an added bonus!



We headed out to the back deck, where Nolan was starting to calm down from his tantrum. We took one last look at the New River Gorge and headed back to the car.


We managed to drive the rest of the way home with almost no incident. We did run into a massive traffic jam at the top of West Virginia, heading into Pennsylvania. There was a lane closure and we were stuck in the rain for quite a long period of time. Matt had finished his ginger ale by this point in time, and we scrambled to find an exit with a bathroom for the little guy!

We were in Erie, PA by 9:45pm and we made it home at 10:30pm. A very long day in the car for two little boys and their parents. Fortunately, we had the entire next day to relax and recover from vacation!

Sunday, May 20, 2012

Myrtle Beach, Day Six-and-a-Half: The Very Long Night

After a busy day seeing dolphins, eating at a questionable buffet, and playing on the beach, we all slept very soundly. At some point in the middle of the night, I smelled something that wafted through the air. It was the unmistakable scent of vomit.

"Oh," I thought to myself, "the poor neighbors. Someone must be ill and it is coming through the ventilation system."

Since our kids always cry or come running when they are sick, I didn't really wake from my sleep to think about the situation. An hour or so later, I woke to some coughing sounds and an intensified smell. I got up to check on the boys, just in case someone had been sick and hadn't come to get us for some reason. Since Nolan uses a full-face C-Pap mask, I also wanted to be sure that he wasn't in distress (though with the Nissen fundoplication, he's never been able to vomit past the stomach wrap). I walked into the room and both boys appeared to be sleeping peacefully in the dark. The smell was so intense, however, that I knew.

"THE BUFFET," I said, in a voice loaded with dread. I turned on the light, and Matthew was lying in bed, covered in vomit. He was so ill, I could not really wake him.

I called Dennis in, and he took the bed while I took the boy. Of course, the shower in the boy's bathroom decided to break at that exact moment, so I filled up the bathtub and peeled off Matt's clothes. He was extremely incoherent (and still vomiting), so I put him in the tub and cleaned him up. I called housekeeping and had them bring up new sheets - I put them on the sofa and settled Matt down with a glass mixing bowl I found in one of the kitchen cupboards.

A very sick kiddo.

He was hard to wake, and we had to make the decision whether to take him to the Emergency Room or to wait it out and see if he got better. Fortunately, we were driving home, so we had plenty of time to watch and wait. Dennis ran to Walmart to get a plastic bowl for use in the car, and we ran a few loads of laundry.

Since we were on the 12th floor, none of the windows opened for ventilation. We opened the sliding glass doors to ventilate the condo, but there was really no helping the level of "sick" that happened in our room. We ran laundry, helped Matt when he vomited, and got everything ready for our 14 hour drive back to New York.

By 7:00am, Matt seemed to have stabilized a little, so we said goodbye to the beach, apologized profusely to the staff of the hotel (we cleaned up the mess as best we could and had laundry running), and checked out. We started our long drive home, with a very sick little boy in the back seat.

Our last view of Myrtle Beach

Myrtle Beach, Day 6: Last Day on the Beach.


After the dolphin tour and ill-fated lunch, we went back to our condo, the boys changed, and we hit the beach. There is nothing better than warm sand on a sunny day.


Matt preferred playing in the ocean and building an intricate sand castle. Nolan preferred staying in the warm, dry sand away from the water.


The boys couldn't get enough of the water and sand. Nolan did find out that there may be such a thing as "too much sand," however, as he literally buried himself in it and then got it in his mouth.


Matt continued building a sand castle and finding shells, absorbing every last minute of our last-day-on-the-beach fun.



As the sun set, we headed back to the condo to settle in for the night. We went to Barefoot Landing one last time for dinner.


After dinner, we snuggled into our beds and planned on an early departure for Western NY. Goodbye, live oaks and Spanish moss! Time to return to the land of ice and snow!



Saturday, May 19, 2012

Myrtle Beach, Day 6: Dolphin Tour

Not zoomed: we were this close to the dolphins.

Friday was a sunny and gorgeous day in Myrtle Beach. The temperature was on the cool side, barely hitting seventy degrees, but the boys were very excited to go on the planned dolphin tour. We didn't want to be on a gargantuan boat with over 100 other people, so we chose Blue Wave Adventures out of Murrell's Inlet - this small dolphin tour company provides close encounters with dolphins in a smaller boat - perfect for our two kids.

We drove to the Crazy Sister's Marina in Murrell's Inlet and ate a picnic lunch at one of the tables there. Our tour was set for 11:30am, and we didn't want the boys to get too hungry while we were out at sea.

A quick picnic lunch.

We checked in and met the crew, then walked down the pier to the boat. The boys actually ran the entire way down the pier to the dock - they were so excited they could hardly contain themselves. We boarded the Osprey, and settled into seats in the center of the boat.

The Osprey: our dolphin tour boat.

Matt was thrilled as the boat revved its engines and we darted out into the Atlantic. The captain did a fast circle in the water and told us that was our "morning doughnut." The boys were laughing and really enjoying the trip. I am glad we brought their sweatshirts, however, because the wind was bitingly cold out on the water!

Matt experiencing the joy of speed.

We saw several dolphin pods and many jellyfish that floated right next to the boat. The boys really found this interesting, though near the end of the hour Nolan did proclaim that he had to use the bathroom. Thank goodness the tour was only one hour long, because I don't think our little one would have held out for much longer!

Cannonball jelly. They don't sting. 

Nolan at the end of the dolphin tour.

After the dolphin tour, we hopped off the boat and started to drive back to Myrtle Beach. We discovered that we were suddenly quite hungry, so we pulled into a place that had an advertisement for "BBQ." As soon as we walked in, I realized this wasn't quite what we were looking for. The restaurant was more "high school cafeteria buffet" than "Barbecue." Dennis, however, was thrilled - there was vanilla pudding in a big bin that had bananas in it. He was sold.

The rest of us picked at an assortment of fried food, including some fried shrimp. This comes into play later in our vacation story (hint: food poisoning). We filled our bellies and headed back to our condo to hit the beach for one last time.