Leap Year

Happy Birthday Demi! It's not often you get a real one, so I hope you enjoy it.

Lucky 7

"May you live in interesting times"

Happy 7th Birthday, Coco! My youngest son is 7. I think that may actually make me feel slightly old.

Creatures of Habit

It takes so long to get the kids and family into a routine. It takes almost no time to throw a monkey wrench in the routine and throw the family schedule into chaos. It is jut not fair. We work hard to keep the kids on a schedule. It makes things easier for all of us. It definitely helps to have a specific time each day for homework. A set time for dinner. A set time for TV or video games time (which the boys have to earn). And a set time for bed time. Bed time is a whole routine in and of itself. There are teeth to brush, humidifiers to fills, stories to read, and time to talk about our days. It doesn't take much to throw it all out of whack and have the bed time routine come to a screeching halt. The kids' sports is honestly the most difficult to contend with. It won't be long until we have baseball games that go to 7:30 or so, so bedtime will have to move back a bit. That will be a couple of times a week too. So Coco and I being sick recently and then followed by school vacation? I really didn't think Coco would know what hit him when he had to go back to school today. It had been two whole weeks. Amazing the morning routine went well. Bed time wasn't bad but dinner was bit tough. He thought he had all the time in the world. Caz had the worse time adjusting back to the school routine. Not terrible but a rough morning and a rough finish to the night. A wise man once said, "there'll be days like these."

Sick and Tired Part Deux

Epilogue: One of the best parts of being a parent and sharing with your kids? Catching the same flu they have. Coco and I were hospital wing bunk mates (The home hospital, not a real one) for two days. I started getting a runny nose and sore throat on Wednesday, and while driving home from work started with a fever. I have been sick with a fever ever since. Today is the first day without a fever. I have not stepped foot outside in that time. I almost look forward to going to work tomorrow. Almost......

Sick and Tired

Coco has been sick since Sunday. He started with a fever of 103.6 and it really hasn't gone down much. The doctor's office said to give it until Wednesday before bringing him in. He hasn't had any other symptoms besides the fever. I feel bad for the little guy. He's just so tired. There is nothing worse for a parent than when a child is sick. It reminds me of Caz's infancy. We had to go to the ER, just before midnight, when he was two months old. He had a fever of 102.5. That is very high for a newborn. We waited in the ER waiting room for a few hours before we even got seen. When we did we were told the infant ER closed at midnight, and that we should have been seen there. Gee thanks. They wanted to get an IV into Caz, to make sure he stayed hydrated. Demi couldn't bare it, so I held Caz in my lap while they tried to insert a shunt to hook in an IV. It was awful. The nurse stuck him 3-4 times but couldn't find a vein. Caz was shrieking and even though his eyes were screwed shut, it felt like he was staring right through to my heart and saying, "Dad! What the F are you letting them do to me?!" It was killing me. So they took him upstairs and admitted him. The doctor and nurse kicked both of us out of the room to try and insert the shunt again. While it was an awful night, and obviously, imprinted into my memory, I know it could have been worse. I can't imagine parents that have to face real serious health issues with their children. My hats are off to them. They have to be incredibly strong to be able to deal with that.

Happy Chinese New Year

The Lunar New Year started this past Thursday. This is a major Chinese holiday and is celebrated for about 2 weeks. This is conisdered the Spring Festival. This is the Year of the Rat, the first sign in of the 12 that make up the Chinese Zodiac. Now I know what you are thinking: a rat? Ewww. But the Rat is actually a symbol of prosperity. Rats are leaders and conquoerors. Attributes include, charming, passionate, hard working, practical and charsimatic. But they can also be obstinate and controlling. Sounds like a lot of famous Conquerors. We usually go out with the family to dinner to celebrate, which helps the boys learn about their heritage.

MythBusters

This past Sunday, the Discovery Channel aired a MythBusters marathon as an alternative to all the hype, pregame analysis, and coverage of the Super Bowl. In hind sight, I would have been better off watching that.....but I digress. If you are not familiar with the TV series, it is essentially two lead characters, Mr. Wizard types, with a support team that run homemade expirements to try and prove or disprove certain myths, stories, scenarios, or urban legends. For instance, they had an episode dedicated to James Bond. They tried to verify that a watch could emit a magnetic pulse large enough to deflect a bullet. They also tried so jump a speed boat like one of the famous Bond boat scenes. You get the picutre. The boys love this show. And I think it is good for them. It piques there curiousity and gets them excited about science. It is a win/win in my book. It provides both education and entertainment. Demi and I like it too, so it can be a family event.

Lymes My Deer

Lymes disease and deer ticks. At least for MA, they are almost an epidemic. OK. I might be exaggerating slightly. But I do know they medical experts only started tracking the number of cases a few years ago, but every year that number increases. (Right along with the EEE virus, but that is a post fo another day) This another phenomenon that I know, we just didn't have while I was growing up as a kid. I know, part of it was due to the medical community not accurately diagnosing Lyme's. But the sheer number of ticks was not what it is today. I find ticks on the kids more in one summer, than I had all growing up in total. That is one of the reason I give the boys crewcuts during the summer. It is far easier checking them over for ticks. This is a nightly ritual in the spring, summer, and fall. It used to be I would get checked if I was in the deep woods for a hike. Of course, I never saw a deer in my yard while I was growing up. Now I see them all the time. I am sure the housing boom forced them out of their neck of the woods. That is a whole other story. But I know more about Lyme's now than I ever did. Caz got bitten, two summers ago, but an infected tick. When the doctor first said that I almost had a heart attack. But then he explained that you can be a carrier, without actually having Lyme's. And the early you catch it the better. Thanks to Demi, it was caught very early. She noticed a few rings of red on Caz's skin when he got on the bus to go to school. It wasn't raised and he didn't feel bad, so he went to school. But when he got home, he had a slight fever and more rings when he got home. So Demi went with her instincts and called the doctor. A few weeks of antibiotics cleared it right up. Demi has amazing mother instincts.