The Most Thrilling Gift

You won't believe what came in the mail today...

 one thing that absolutely made this boy smile.

 No, make that giggle...

and try and kiss the gift.

 An autographed photo from none other than THE CURIOUS GEORGE!

Actually, it is signed by Frank Welker himself,

the guy who has voiced countless movie and cartoon characters--

but most importantly (to Kean anyway) Curious George.

Thank you, thank you, thank you Leslie Lamers!

You have made one little boy incredibly happy

(and one mom incredibly touched)!

Repeat After Me: Trick or Treat!

What a fun night we had tonight.

You can't tell from this picture but we really did dress Kean up for Halloween.

Our first stop?  The Bodily's and before I could even get up to the house,

Kean had stripped off his monkey suit, walked into the "Gobily's" house

and started pounding down the candy.

Only problem is he forgot to take off the brown paper

around his Reese's Peanut Butter Cup-- and ate it too.

(Fiber, right?)

 It sure didn't take long for Kean to catch 

on to the fact he could get a treat at every house.

He quickly learned to say "Trick or Treat" and "thank you".

It did take him forever to catch on that he needed to keep

his costume on!

 In fact, at our neighbor, Gina Kwid's house the ol' costume came right off.

 And while he, yep, ate another piece of candy, I did

get a picture of these cute girls-- H, G, and R and their friends.

 We always spend the first hour or so of the night visiting

a handful of our dear neighbors and friends.

We love that tradition.

You'd think with the slower start it would cut down on the candy grab--

unfortunately (in my book but not the kids), that's not the case.

They get especially spoiled and come home with more candy

than should be legal for a child to have!

Goldilocks and the Three Beds

This boy.

Never a dull moment.

We went to visit a friend from church and up the stairs he

went (we thought to play with her kids).

Nope, we found him first trying out this bed.

 Clearly, it was too hard...

so off it was to this bed.

I think that one was a little too soft...

or perhaps, too BSU-ey?

 He finally settled on this bed;  the teenage daughter's

queen sized bed.

Good choice son.

He was a "bear" though, to get out of there and get

him out to the car.

Speaking of the car.

Look who commandeered my camera

while I was driving.

That girl.

(And that boy)!

So Long, Farewell.

Guess who lost his front tooth?

Yep, the boy.  We have no idea where it went--

but we are smart enough to show the gap

while he's sleeping -- I do value those fingers.

He is such a comedian.  When I told him 

the girls were coming home from being away at camp for a week--

he said-- "No, no sisters."

Clearly, he enjoyed being an only child.

 The girls each came off the bus with big smiles.

 You should have heard them on the way home-- all trying

to talk at once.

 They spent the week at Camp Rainbow Gold's Siblings Camp.

About a hundred kids went-- all with brothers and sisters

who are fighting or have fought cancer.

I can't even begin to explain how much this means to my girls,

how much it means to be with others who understand exactly

what it is like to watch a sibling suffer so much.

 Camp Rainbow Gold understands that when a child

is diagnosed, the entire family is diagnosed.  And they

set out to make sure the "shoved aside" siblings are

treated like royalty.

I know my girls adore everything about camp, especially

their friends.

 I'm sure that's the one thing they don't like about camp-

saying goodbye.

Here's Looking At Zoo

After an extremely rough day yesterday, 

we had a great day today.

I got to go to the Zoo with Kean and his Kindergarten class.

 He spent a chunk of the time in the stroller but

loved trying to explore and keep up with the other kids.

 Kean was quite the good luck charm-- this sleepy tiger

got up and walked right by us several times before

hunkering down for another nap.

 It was the same with several other animals--

we had perfect timing.

He LOVED the petting zoo...

 it's a good thing those goats, sheep and llamas are all

patient with little boys who like to pull ears.

 From a mama standpoint, it was so great to see him

motoring around- even though, we kept a much slower pace

than the other kids.

 Of course, we had to take a spin on the old carousel.

That boy and his rides.

 You know it was a successful day when

he yawned all the way home.

Jelly Belly's

I'm a little late on this.  Actually, our whole family

was a bit late celebrating Easter together.

Since we were driving back from our trip to California last week,

we opted to hold the traditional Cousin's Easter Egg Hunt

at my folks house the other night.

 This was the year Kean got into the swing of finding candy

scattered about.

 We didn't do too much but the highlight in our family is a golden

egg (with five bucks inside) one with the name of each of the cousins

written on it-- and hidden relatively hard.

It keeps the older kids quite busy!
(Which is good, trust me).

 The girls were all so good at helping Kean find his candy.

 He'd take it over to Grammy and she'd help him put it

in his bag (we forgot to bring baskets-- lame mom).

I think Kean's favorite part of the whole Easter Egg Hunt

was not eating the candy in his bag (the good stuff)

but pawning jelly beans off of Grandpa.

(My dad always has a pocket full of Jelly Belly's).

Insert Sigh Here.

Phew.

I'm so glad I was wrong.

After being up all night with Kean coughing like a horse

and a steady fever, I thought for sure we'd get admitted

to the hospital today.

Luckily, by his afternoon appointment, his fever was gone and

his tight cough had lightened up a bit.

I didn't even mind unpacking the bag I had packed.

(Try saying that 10 times fast).

 Kean cracked everyone up by motoring back all on his own

to the Vampire Chamber (the blood draw room).

 My mom, broken foot, bruises and all went with us.

She did not want me going alone.  Love her!

Anyway, the verdict?  Kean has one of those nasty viruses

circulating around.  His counts all looked great except for his

Neutraphils (his ability to fight germs)-- they were crazy low.

Dr. Camilo figures it is because of the virus.  We'll

check them again in a few weeks.

And that was it-- we GOT TO GO HOME!

Sweet.

 Finally, remember the woman in Kentucky who has been paired

with Kean and runs for him since he can't run for himself?

Look at this super cool picture of her nails.

She has a big "Blue Grass" race this weekend.

Love it and love her.

Thanks Clair.

Only Our Family!!!

Clearly we can't do anything nice and easy. 

Right after Kindergarten, I took Kean for a check up

with his ENT.  He's had three sets of tubes in those ol' ears

and one of them is no longer in place but doesn't want to come out.

I'm trying to avoid more surgery, so we go in regularly to make sure

that little tube isn't causing problems. And so far, so good.

 Kean had a grand time playing trucks in the waiting room.

But geez, you should have been there for the scene we caused

in the main waiting area.

First, let me set the stage.  I never sit with Kean in the children's

waiting area.  Too many germs and germy kids.

So we always wait in the old folks area- and today we

were the only ones without grey hair.

This lady gave him one of those little Dum Dum suckers

and before I knew it, Kean had bitten off the entire sucker

and swallowed it.  Well, kinda.  He actually choked on it.

Kean is not a choker.  Until today.  He started gagging and gasping.

I jumped up, pulled him into a standing position and started smacking him on the back

and prepared to do the Heimlich.  Meanwhile, a couple of the old ladies start hollering at the top

of their lungs for help.

It was crazier than it needed to be.

Within seconds, he started screaming (to add to their screaming) and crying.

I knew he was gonna be okay since he was crying.  But he was still gagging

and mucus was coming out of his mouth.  What's up with that?  I know nothing

about choking.

Anyway, a nurse came running, a doctor and of course, everyone had to 

lookey look.

Lucky for us, they took us right back to the examining room after

the big spectacle.

 Obviously, he's no worse for the experience.

Fun, fun times.

The Girl and the Boy

Maybe somebody can explain to me when this happened?!?

When Greer got all grown up and gorgeous on me.

We did her make-up tonight for Seussical the Musical's 

dress rehearsal.

 And I've been wanting to post for a while about Kean's bus rides to Kindergarten.

Every morning, he has to climb onto this fence and wait for about 10 seconds.

Then he's off and mama is in chase mode until the bus comes.

 His bus driver in the morning is different from the bus driver

who brings him home in the afternoon.  Don't ask me why-- I just

chalk it up to more friends for Kean.

This is Deborah.

 And this is his aid who buckles him in each morning

and listens to him gab and sing.

 It is kind of crazy, he is the first on the bus in the morning and

I think they only pick up two others.

Your tax dollars at work, folks.

 He loves the bus ride and they are sure good to him.

Look at the little sign they made for his seat.

Boy, do they know him well or what?

 In the afternoon, Scott is his bus driver and Dennis is assigned to Kean.

It is hilarious, I don't think a day passes where Kean doesn't try and drive the bus.

The kid has big dreams.

 Then it is the long walk up the hill

(with those crazy puppies).