How I became a pirate, by Thomas

One of Thomas' favorite books is "How I Became a Pirate." Well, today, Thomas became a pirate. After telling the story to a friend of mine, she laughed and said, "Oh, it was a crime of passion!" And yes, it's true...the story of how Thomas became a pirate centers around a "crime of passion" -- well, of the three-year old variety. And in the end, Thomas became our rather pitiful (at least at first) pirate:


At first, he didn't want to open his good eye much, but by the end of the day he was playing around in the Chick-Fil-A play area with the other kids as if he didn't have a problem in the world.  And yes, we went to Chick-Fil-A because he is milking this for everything it is worth.  :)

But first, let me back up and explain what happened.  Today was the day of his first field trip at school.  His school friends gathered at Charles Towne Landing for an Easter egg hunt and a stroll through the animal forest.  The Easter egg hunt went fine (I left my camera at a friends' house and only had my phone camera, but I'll share those later) and then we finally made our way to the animal forest to see the bison, turkeys, puma (he was hiding), black bears and birds.  In the middle of our leisurely stroll, after checking out the bears, Thomas was giving and receiving hugs and love from one of his best girl friends in his class, Ava.  I saw them playing with each other and turned around to tend to another child.  Next thing I heard was this awful scream and he came running to me. 

I wasn't sure what had happened and Thomas wasn't telling anything.  He was just screaming and crying and refusing to let me see his eye.  I soon gathered that Ava had accidentally poked him or scratched him in the eye in the middle of all their hugging.  She was so upset that she had hurt her dear friend.  And Thomas was just beside himself.  It took me FOREVER (and many gnat bites to Parker) to get him calmed down.  Finally he was calm, but he kept asking to stay in the shade and I eventually held Parker or let him walk and pushed Thomas in the stroller.  He kept randomly screaming out in pain, and he was definitely not himself.  I could see a little red spot next to the iris of his eye and a lot of general redness in his watery eye. 

Anyway, he continued to act okay and then randomly scream out in utter pain so we decided I should take him to the doctor (of course we had to wait for the doctor's long lunch hourS to be over first).  When he tried to eat lunch he ended up spitting out his food at one point and screamed about the pain.  I told him to keep his eye closed (and he agreed that that felt better) and he did...for the next 1.5 hours until we saw the doctor.  And then we had to BEG him to open his eye for the numbing drops. 

So anyway, to see what's going on, the doctor puts these fluorescent numbing drops in the eye and then looks at them under a special light in a darkened room.  If there is a scratch, it appears like this (this is a "minor corneal abrasion"--from the internet, not Thomas' eye):


Thomas' scratch appeared as a sideways V and the line was several times thicker than the line above.  I drew a drawing of it for Trey and honestly, it looked worse than what I drew.

I know, I'm a dork for trying to draw it...and I'm a dork for scanning it in...and I'm a dork for drawing so poorly.  :)

But honestly, I was shocked by how much of his eye was covered by the scratch.  The doctor said, "There's the corneal abrasion and it is actually a pretty signficant one."  Even so, the doctor said that these things generally heal pretty quickly (within 24-48 hours) and said he'd be much better by tomorrow.  Still, she looked at me like I was a bit insane when I suggested that Thomas was going to ride in the stroller as I walked the Cooper River Bridge Run tomorrow...so I guess I am not.  :)

He is wearing a patch until at least tomorrow morning just to keep his eye closed.  Tomorrow we'll see how he feels and decide whether or not to keep on with the patch or just let him wear sunglasses most of the time. 

The picture of Thomas above was from shortly after we got home, and not long after that he perked up a little and wanted to look at the books as his Daddy read them.


And then after a little Chick-Fil-A tonight (we told him we'd go wherever he wanted to go for dinner), he was much better.


He is, however, saying a lot of "Ahoy matie!" and something about landlubbers and "Arrrrgh!"  So I guess, that's how he became a pirate.

We went to Disneyland!

The next morning we packed a lunch and headed out for Disneyland. One of the perks of living in Southern California is that you can buy a "membership" to Disneyland and go when you like (within a few boundaries). Another advantage of living in southern CA is that you probably know someone who works at Disney (or know someone who knows someone) and can get your visitors in for free! You can't beat a free day at Disneyland!



Thomas and Katherine were very happy to be there.


For our first ride we went on the carousel.  Thomas loved it.


And even though it wasn't her first time, Katherine seemed to enjoy it too.


Next it was time for our first long line of the day (Sheena said it was much more crowded than a usual non-summer Friday...we think some folks were on spring break), to ride the Dumbo ride.


Finally it was our turn.  Sheena and the girls picked their Dumbo:


And Thomas and I got in ours:


He was a little nervous about going high, but he enjoyed it.  Here he was in mid-flight:


In future Disney trips, we'll stand in line to take all the appropriate pictures with various Disney characters, but Thomas was really too shy to pose anyway and that just wasn't important on this particular visit.  Instead, I tried to take pictures of some of them as they rushed by to go take a break or something.  Like Winnie the Pooh...


And here's Thomas (down in front in the stroller) waving to Tigger:


If you asked Thomas what he enjoyed most at Disneyland, he would probably tell you it was riding the train that went around the park.  He loved that train.

Notice he even was wearing his favorite shirt that day...a train shirt.

Anyway, the ride was great fun for him...


We rode the train all the way around, and made a few stops along the way (this was at the main gate area).  We got on at the New Orleans Square area.




Next we went to Tomorrowland and rode the rocket ride:


Sheena decided to sit this one out with (7-month old) Lauren, so I took the two children with me. 


Thomas was in front and he was a bit nervous at first:


But he finally relaxed and enjoyed the rest of the ride. 

Next we headed over to Toon Town (VERY young child friendly).  The kids enjoyed playing in some stationary cars:


Then Aunt Sheena took them into this large boat while I sat out with a napping Lauren.


Then we (the kids and I, while Sheena was feeding Lauren and we were waiting for Pete to join us) went in Chip & Dale's "house" -- which was a treehouse you walked into and then right back down some stairs.  So I was thinking (wrongfully) that Mickey's house would be the same.  I didn't think Mickey would be there.  Then I found a line at the back and thought Mickey was right around the corner.  Those Disney people are smart.  You can't see much of the line in front of you because it kept going around corners.  Before I knew it, we were at a point where we might as well wait, but it was quite a wait (at least 30 minutes).  At least there were entertaining props along the way.




Then we got to last section before we got to see Mickey.  It was a movie theater like room showing old clips of Mickey Mouse.  Thomas was entranced.  Finally it was our turn to go in and meet Mickey.  Both the children initially went up to him, but as soon as I pulled out the camera, Thomas ran to me and Katherine turned shy.  :)


I managed to get Thomas back in the picture by standing there with him, but he still didn't want to look at the camera.  Oh well...better luck next time!


By the time we made it to our last ride of the day, the kiddie roller coaster, the kids were deliriously tired.  They were a little slap happy, screaming every time the coaster went over our heads.




Everyone around us was probably most happy when it was finally our turn (and I'm sure their ears were thankful too).  Thomas was happy when he got in...


But he wasn't a fan of the roller coaster.  I was glad it was really short because I'm not a fan either.  We made it through and there were no tears, but he did yell out most of the end of it, "I don't like this!!!!"  Sheena has a video of it; I'll have to get it from her!

On the way out, we stopped at the Disneyland fire station and the kids had a blast playing in there.




Somehow Thomas managed to stay awake for the ride home (just barely!), but Katherine gave in to her body's better senses:


The next morning at breakfast, they were still very much in a Disney sort of mood:


Many thanks to Sheena (and Pete) for sharing such a fun adventure with us; and to their church friend with connections for making it a free adventure! 

More California stories to come...

Our California adventure

I have been terrible about this blog lately. I'll blame part of it on my lame (as in injured) computer that makes blogging a bit of an uncomfortable chore and the other part on myself--someone who is still lacking her blogging mojo. But Thomas and I did recently have a wonderful trip to California, and I must share all the details here!

We set off on Thursday, March 11 for sunny California and Thomas was so excited he couldn't stand it. He didn't even seem to mind that I dragged him out of bed at 6:30 a.m., because hey! We were going to California! We got through security pretty easily (luckily it was a calm morning at the Charleston airport and we were the only ones in line), which is saying something considering the fact we had two carry-on bags, a stroller and a carseat. Anyway, we got on the plane and he couldn't wait to take off!


He loved takeoff, he loved landing and he loved everything about being on that plane. Though I do think he's in for a bit of a rude awakening in future flights. We were able to fly first class the entire trip and that was worth every cent and Skymile. :) In the future though he might be shocked to see that people won't always be bringing him food and drink constantly and he won't have quite the wiggle room either (or anything close to it!).

One of his other favorite parts of the trip was the subway/underground tram-thing at the Atlanta airport. He loved, loved, loved, loved riding that thing. We had to ride it further than we needed just so he could have the thrill of the ride. We ended up in the first car at one point (I think it was when we took the tram back from our first ride all the way to E terminal and we needed to get back to B (we landed in A). Anyway, he sat right up in the front window and he was in absolute heaven.


The only way I could get him to get off that ride was to promise him that we would ride it much more when we returned in a few days. I knew we'd have a longer layover then.

Soon we were back on the plane and headed to California. They served us lunch and Thomas thought it was delicious. But his most favorite part of that leg of the trip was the television screen in the back of the headrest of the seat in front of him. He was again in heaven. Since he doesn't watch much television at home, he was almost comatose after watching Nickolodeon for two hours or so.


I did let him have his paci on the plane (and yes, I know that nearly-four year olds should not have pacis...and he is aware that he has to give it up on his 4th birthday in a few weeks (of course now he says he wants to be three forever!)), to help his ears and just generally to kep him happy. It must have worked because several passengers in first class commented on each leg of the trip about how well behaved he was and that they didn't even know there was a little boy behind them.

We finally made it to Los Angeles and Aunt Sheena and cousin Katherine were waiting for us when we arrived. Thomas was so happy to see his cousin Katherine. He had been looking forward to it for so long. Pretty soon, they were best buddies and they got along perfectly. At dinner they were being a little silly...but I had to snap this picture because it looked so California with the palm trees and pretty skyline in the background. But they wouldn't really be still...




Does he look happy, or what?

Tuesday morning joy

Tuesday mornings always have a little bit of excitement.  Tuesdays are trash and recycling collection days around here.  The boys are usually eating breakfast when they hear the trucks rumbling down the street.  They always want to get down and run to the front (in the summer, or when it's warmer, I take them out on the front porch).  A few weeks ago, Thomas stopped and grabbed a chair from his little table and took it to a front window.  I almost teared up when he came back to get a chair for his brother and put that in the window too.  They were too sweet waiting for the big truck to come.




Some days it's all about the little things.  :)

22 months!

In all the craziness of various illnesses around here, I've neglected to get Parker's monthly update together, even though I did take pictures (or attempt to do so) on the right day, March 2. On that date he was 22 months! Twenty-two months! I cannot believe my baby is nearly two! How did that happen?


He wanted nothing to do with the monthly photo session, and the best picture came later on in the day:


That picture is what I see of Parker most of the time (as long as he is well!). He is a happy guy and loves to do what he wants to do, when he wants to do it. He is extremely strongwilled and lets you know if he's not happy about something. He is a troublemaker, but only because he's trying to be funny. He loves to get into trouble just to ruffle my feathers and he thinks he is quite hilarious when he does this.

For the past month he has been waking at least once most nights and that's puzzling since he started sleeping through the night at nine weeks. Most of the time I can change his wet diaper and he'll go back to sleep, but I'd much prefer not to have a middle-of-the-night wakeup call. When he was sick (over the past two weeks), we were getting several such calls a night, so compared to that, one a night is not so bad. At least he is finally doing better...hallelujah! He just finished his last dose of antibiotic today though so I hope that doesn't mean now he'll catch the next thing that comes along! I guess I never came back to share, but after my last post of his pathetic picture, I took him back to the doctor and he was diagnosed with a touch of pneumonia (I'm not sure I agree...but whatever) and a double ear infection. He had six days of high fever and was completely pitiful. I'm so glad to see my happy little boy again.

On the whole he is a good sleeper. He goes down for a nap anytime from 1:15 to 2:15 and he sleeps until 4-5:00. He goes to bed for the night sometime around 7:15-7:30 (as soon as I can get him to bed!) and wakes around 7ish.

As I mentioned recently, he is a big boy. He lost nearly two pounds in his illness, but he still weighs in at a little more than 31 pounds. He's very tall and a lot of his longalls have recently become highwater pants. Oh well! He eats well, but not great. He can be pretty picky about things at times. He still refuses most vegetables, but he did happily eat a serving of lima beans the other night, so I'm glad I keep trying and offering him something every day and night regardless of whether he eats it. His favorite foods are cheese, grapes (and most fruit), spaghetti and meatballs, and goldfish.

His vocabulary and ability to put words and phrases together has really been improving lately. It started when he first started saying "Hey Mommy!" That seemed to be the first time he realized he could speak in more than one-word sentences. And when he first did that it was like a light went on and he was so proud of himself. Then he started saying "Hey Daddy." and "Hey Thomas." ...etc. He'll also say things like "Seat. Do it. Self." if he wants to try to get in his seat by himself. If he sees something he wants he might say, "'Golfish.' Want it." He loves for us to read him books and I think this love has done nothing but help his verbal abilities.

Speaking of his loves, I think he loves his brother (who he alternately calls "Poppy" and "Thomas") most of all. He stayed with my parents for a few of the days Thomas and I were gone to California recently. They had a photo of Thomas on their refrigerator and Mom told me that Parker kept going up to the picture saying, "Thomas. Hey buddy!" (which is what Thomas frequently says to Parker). Is that not the sweetest? And when he did finally see Thomas and me, he was happy to see me for a moment and then quickly asked about his brother..."Thomas?" He ran to him and gave him a great big hug.

One thing he does not love, however, is posing for pictures. It is nearly impossible to get a decent shot of him next to his bear in his chair, but I keep trying. But these are the type of shots I get. These, sadly, are the best of them!


Oh, the many faces of Parker... This is the "I'm not going to smile for you, lady" face:


"Seriously, lady, give up already."


I concede. :) Better luck next month.

When Mom kept him recently, she told me after a full day of Parker, "I see why you don't get much done around the house...he's a little spitfire." That he is. He is into everything and you have to watch him and play with him. Too bad for him, his brother is quite the tattletale...so at least I have him looking out and helping me a little bit.

Even though he keeps me on my toes, he also shares many hugs and kisses and lots of love. He is a sweet, loving boy who loves to make you smile. And he makes me smile so many times during the day. I just wish he'd slow down a little bit because I fear he's going to be 15 in the blink of an eye. :)

Purely pathetic

This picture just about sums out life around our house since last Thursday afternoon.


Parker has had a time. Poor child has maintained a fever for the better part of the time since last Thursday anywhere from just over 100 to 103. And he has mastered his pathetic look.


Not sure what exactly is wrong with him, aside from some unknown virus. I took him to the doctor on Friday and he had a negative strep test. I'm hoping today is the last day of the bug, but we'll just have to see. It's been so much fun around here. I even got to sleep in the floor of his bedroom last night for 1.5 hours. Yawn.

And Thomas might be coming down with it too. I'm just hoping and praying that if he is going to get it, he can go ahead and be done with it since we leave for California on Thursday morning!