Jared's Dad

Sometimes I am so grateful for small things. Saturday evening after my family had left for there own homes and we had just finished bathing the kids after a spaghetti dinner Jared's mom called us. She was calling to tell us that Jared's dad had some kind of spell and she had called the ambulance would Jared meet her at the hospital. So we there diapers on the kids and put them in the car minus cloths and were off. To amuse everyone Jared's parents live less than 5 mins from the hospital we live 20 mins from the hospital and we beet the ambulance there. I won't tell you how fast we drove because it would frighten most people. At any rate Jared's dad suffered a series of 4 cardiac events which means he had 4 really small heart attacks. He is doing as good as can be expected, and board out of his mind at the hospital. He made a joke about walking home but he doesn't have any shoes since the ambulance came and got him. The concerning thing right now is that he has a protein level that keeps rising this meanings either there is some reasonable damage to the heart or we are in for another heart attack in the near future. Tomorrow they will run a bunch of test and let us know which of those is the case. If all goes well Jared's dad could get to come home on Tuesday.

So tonight I am grateful to have such a wonderful grandfather to my children still alive. I'm grateful for Jared's mom in recognizing so quick that he needed help. I'm grateful for the medical technology we have in this day and age. I'm grateful that Jared was home and could be there for his dad. I'm grateful for the time this has allowed Jared to spend with his dad. I'm grateful for children who make me laugh even when I'm crying. I'm grateful for the promise of eternal families which meaning never having to say goodbye.

Going to the Zoo

On Saturday my family, my parents, sisters Tammy and Shannon as well as three of Shannon's kids went to the zoo together. The last time we did something like this Ethan was only a few months old so it was nice to go do something as a family. So we got the zoo around 10:20 had planned to be there at 10 but with so many kids we were a little behind schedule anyhow we get there get threw the gates and hit the penguin house first and got to see them feeding the penguins which was kinda cool. Ethan liked the way the swim in the water. Next up we came across a rather large fountain which I remember from my childhood...there is somewhere in the piles of pictures at my parents house a picture of me with all my sisters in front of said fountain so I thought it would be funny to get one of the boys in front of the fountain. However Daniel was having none of that since he really wanted to walk not ride in a stroller and well Ethan managed to get his head caught in the railing around the fountain. I did end up snapping a picture of Daniel screaming with his cousins and Ethan if you look is about to get his head caught and start screaming. After this amusing event we ran from one exhibit to the next with kids pointing out things and owing and awing over them. I really like the fact that they use natural barriers on most of the animals so it's really easy to see them and get pretty close. The polar bear exhibit which actually is one of the best in the world was really cool to see. http://www.detroitzoo.org/Attractions/ARL/Arctic_Ring_of_Life/
This tells you all about it. After the bears we debated letting the kids feed the giraffes but decided they were getting to tired to wait for the next feeding time. We did this a binderpark zoo last year and Ethan thought it was so fun. So it was on to walk with the Kangaroos. This also is very cool you actually walk in the Kangaroo exhibit and it's very possible they will hop on the path with you...I didn't have that happen since they were all napping or just chilling in the shade but the kids thought it was great. Ethan kept telling me we were in the jungle. After seeing the usual Rhinos, Lions, Tigers, Bears, Bison, Moneys, etc. we heading off for the reptile house. Ethan loved tyring to find the snakes and turtles in all the cages. His cousin Gavin and him would race to see who could spot stuff first then run to the next tank. Very cute. At the end of the day Gavin who is good buds with Ethan asked to come play with us again sometime. This made me realize that I really do need to make more time for Ethan to play with his cousins there only an hour away and they have tons of fun together. Maybe well let Gavin come spend the night once we get back from Maine the boys would be over the moon about it.

Detriot Zoo Pictures

Bee Sting

On Thursday evening yet again Ethan had the talent of find and disturbing a yellow jacket nest. He did this last year and ending up with 17 stings. This year was much better but about as traumatic. He was over incidental at the same neighbors house playing in there sand box when I heard him start to scream. There was a nest inside one of the outdoor trucks they had for the sand box and when he started pushing it around they got a wee bit upset. He got stung 3 times on the top portion of his ear. For most kids this would not be a huge deal but with Ethan it turns out it a little bit of a problem. When ever he gets stung he has what they call a local allergy reaction to the wasp venom. This causes what ever area is stung to swell quite noticeably. After two days of the insane swelling and some advice form a doctor in the ward we took him to the doctor just to make sure he wasn't getting an infection. For anyone out there who doesn't know evidently bee and wasp sting can get infected and if they do it can be quite serious. Now as far as the allergy reaction thing goes it's most likely going to get worse each time he is stung. My sister has a similar problem and got stung on the neck resulting in some time spent in the hospital so that they could help her breath since her neck swelled up. So we'll just have to be a little more careful from now on and hope we don't get stung anywhere that swelling will be an issue.

Tricycle Love

Last week Tara came over to watch the boys while I did some house cleaning and when I looked out the window what did I see but Daniel on Ethan's Tricycle oh so happy as Tara pushed him up and down the street with Ethan "racing" them on his scooter. It was so cute I had to snap a picture or two. Now every time we go threw the garage to go outside Daniel tries to climb up on the beloved red tricycle...I think it's true love.

4th of July

So we had a fabulous 4th! Festivities started on the 3rd when we got to go see Fireworks at Hudson Mills which was great by the way. Daniel also took his first step on the third trying to get closer to fireworks silly boy. He is now taking about three steps at a time and today somehow even managed to jump though I think that was a complete accident and will never happen again at least not for a month or two. He's so good natured about learning to walk. When he falls he just laughs and gets right back up, Ethan always cried if it didn't go the way he wanted it to so it's a nice change of pace.

On the 4th we spent the morning painting our hall...though I still need to find time to do touch-ups. I've also bought my pictures frames that I'm going to hang to display some of my pictures but umm ya haven't figured out what pictures I want to put in the frames yet. After all that we headed to the Quinns for a fabulous BBQ. The boys had so much fun and it was so nice just to sit back with friends and have a great time. I learned a new yard game that I can't remember the name of but was so fun. It was amusing to watch the boys play croquet and then puzzle over how to get a ball with a string attached across the small pond behind the Quinns. They probably spent over an hour doing different things...throwing it, trying to hit it with a baseball bat, even using golf. It was so funny! What you may be wondering was all this for well the idea was to get a rope across this pond that they could attach a small raft to with fireworks. In the end they just pushed the raft about a foot or so off shore which worked great.

A Day in pictures