Me loves me a fair...video edition

Me loves me a fair (that's what makes it funny)!

How many clowns can you jam into a tiny train engine?
Cheese!
Berry-tastic!
Luke, Ella, and Sam
Ella, Luke, Sam, and me
Future boyfriend/girlfriend
Con, Luke (under the bar), Sam, and Ella

We rode some rides with our buddies, Sam and Con, the other day. Good times were had by all.

Tumblers

The kids have discovered lately that they really enjoy doing somersaults. No, I haven't signed them up for gymnastics classes..........................yet.

Hot fun in the summertime!

Dude! Where has the summer gone? It's almost Labor Day already, ladies and gents! We decided to get in a little bit of last minute summer fun last weekend by going to a local swimming pool which looks very much like a water park. It was only $8 for me and the 2 kids to get in. It was great! It had both a little kids slide area and a big people pool.

Unfortunately, there was a Lifeguard Nazi--if you don't understand what I'm talking about (Mom) click here. He yelled at me a couple times. One time because I went down the little kids slide with Luke because he was afraid and one time because the kids were wearing floaties in the pool. Aparently, floaties are illegal at that particular pool. We all watched the Lifeguard Nazi yell at people like he owned the pool. He even made one little girl cry. I was going to try and get a picture of him for the blog but was afraid I would be escorted from the premises for that offense as that would have been my third strike.

Thanks for the idea, Con!

My friend, Con, recently reminded me of this great craft for kids. I never did it when I was small (my mother is very what I would call "not crafty" but we love/like/tolerate her craziness anyway) but I had heard of other kids doing it. You take these tiny little beads and put them on a little plastic animal shaped thingy. Once assembled, you take an iron and essentially melt the plastic beads to fuse them together.

Ella loved it but her kitty's tail broke off which caused some drama. Con can relate because her kid, Sam, had his break, too.

It's tough being a little kid when your craft breaks!

What happened to your tooth, little guy?

Who's that kid with the big grey tooth? It's me! It's me!
I said
Who's that kid with the big grey tooth? It's me! It's me!
Uh huh, uh huh, uh huh, uh huh, uh huh
Go dentist!

Man! I miss those old Saturday Night Live shows with Cheri Oteri and Will Ferrell as the cheerleaders. You remember... back when Will Ferrell was funny for more than 5 lines in a two hour movie and before Cheri Oteri fell off the face of the earth. But I digress.

As you can tell, Luke's got a big ol' grey tooth. Our dentist is guessing that he fell at some point and hit his tooth pretty hard. Hard enough that he busted some blood vessels inside his tooth which caused bleeding on the inside of his tooth which turned it grey. So now he gets to have a grey tooth until the tooth naturally comes out when he's about 8.

Here's to not buying a lot of close up pix the next time we get them taken!

Aron update

We went to a rheumatologist/infectious diseases specialist today to further explore Aron's illness. The doctor did a very thorough exam on Aron and got a detailed background. He has concluded that what Aron has is a "post-viral syndrome." It basically goes along the same theory that the other doctors had. Aron likely picked up some sort of nasty virus from our vacation (remember when he had the 105 fever after St Augustine?) and his body has had a hard time recovering from it. He tested positive by IgG testing for several nasty viruses that can linger and cause nasty side effects. The IgG testing can tell you that Aron has been exposed to these viruses but cannot tell you when they were there. So, these viruses could have been in his system when he was 12 or it could have been there in March when this all started. They have no way of knowing what was where when (if that makes sense--haha).

So, basically, it boils down to this: Aron is slowly but surely getting better. He continues to have a "soft feeling" in his joints, a feeling of numbness and tingling in his legs, and feeling warm in his legs. The doctor thinks that the virus may have caused some nerve damage in his legs that will hopefully, not be permanent.

BTW as an interesting aside, did you all know that you can look your doctors up online to check their education, age, and if any formal actions exist (if they've ever been before the board for improper behavior as a physician). Click here to look them up. I find it to be a handy tool to gain a little insight into the person who treats you.

Also, Aron was weighed today and he's back up to 139# which is just a few shy of where he started. Way to eat, Aron!

This one's for you, Tori and Lana!

The singing is kind of soft but here's Luke singing the theme song from one of his favorite CD's, Billy Gorilly. He is highly recommended by this household--not just because "Billy" is Auntie T's uncle/Lana's brother.

Luke's definitely turning into one lovey little guy. The other day, he was just sitting there and he looked at me and said "I love Grammie." I told him that was nice and asked him if he thought Grammie loved him, too. The answer was a definite yes. He then went on to say "Grammie makes me happy in my heart." I told him I could guarantee that Grammie felt the same way. He just nodded and looked very happy.

Mommy's Little Picassos

Aron has been slowly but surely scraping paint off our house and repainting it. Around May or so, he got one side scraped off but hasn't been up to painting it yet. Last weekend, Grandpa Steve and Lindy came over to help finish it up for him. These two little guys got in on the action, too.

Derby-tastic!

A few weeks ago, Luke and I went to a demolitian derby. For my friends who do not know of this event, click here. Ella was feeling a little under the weather so she stayed home with Aron who was also not up to going.

The derby we went to was a bit unique. Instead of cars, it featured trucks and combines. That's right. Combines. In all seriousness, it kind of reminded me of the scenes in Cars where they go tractor tipping and the tractors get all mad and stuff.

I think the craziest feature of the entire thing were the people who paid an extra $3 to get into the infield to watch it up close. Come on, people! Do you really think that a tiny little cement barrier is going to keep a big combine from running you over while you sit there and eat your funnel cake? I mean, look at the bottom picture (click on it if you need a closer view) and how close these people were front getting run over. Crazy!

Good Luck, Natalie!

Luke and Ella's good buddy, Natalie, is having some eye surgery tomorrow. Take a little time to send some positive vibes her way. I know we will!

KiKi

KiKi seems to be adjusting pretty well to not having her kittens around any more. She's enjoying a leisurely life of coming and going as she pleases.

Yes, she has an appt at the vet for the old snip-snip but unfortunately it's not until 8/13. Let's hope she can be good until then. We don't need anymore of her little miracles running around here.

Kindergarten Cop Moment

Ella turned to me the other day and told me that "Girls have maginas and boys have peanuts." I tried really hard not to laugh as I corrected her to the right words.

Dime a doggers

It was a classic rematch between Joey Chestnut and Takeru Kobayashi
We went to a park for a little while before the game because we were early.

Aron was feeling a little better that night.

We went to a Clippers game the other night where it was dime-a-dog night. For those of you unfamiliar with this Columbus delicacy, you pay a dime for a hotdog up to a limit of 5 hotdogs per customer per trip to the concession stand. Aron was definitely feeling better that night and was able to eat 3.5 hot dogs. Luke ended up eating 3 hot dogs. Nutrition be damned!

I'll post more pix from that night later.

Sicky McSickerson, Mayor of SickTown, PA

So here's the Aron update. He went to a hematology/oncology specialist on Thursday to make sure he didn't have leukemia or lymphoma or some sort of blood disorder. Good news: he doesn't. The doctor that we met (Nse Ntukidem, M.D. ) was awesome! He was very thorough, sat down and explained every last bit of information to us, and was just great with his bedside manner. He showed us a picture of his kids (he could not have been a prouder dad) and told us that he weighs himself nakey (I know, sounds weird but it was kind of endearing for some reason). Dr. Nse's guess is that (again) Aron has this weird virus thing that lingers for 6 months.

6 months!

He told us what the virus was called (something like Chronic Viral Syndrome or something like that). Basically, he thinks Aron's getting his little fever (99.5 on a daily basis in the afternoon) because his body is still trying to a.) fight off this virus or b.) is in a habit of fighting off the virus even though it's not still there. There's a possibility that he might now have some sort of variety of lupus from the original virus. Everyone remembers that scary 105 fever from after our Florida vacation in March, right? Well, we think that's when it all started. Dr. Nse ordered an IgM test on Aron which is just a blood test. The IgM test will (I hope I get this right because I couldn't find it on Wikipedia to link it) hopefully be able to test his cells memory of the original virus to see if it's still active or has just left it's viral fingerprint in Aron's cells. The other possibility that's still out there is that he could have a type of MS that didn't show up on his MRI. Dr. Nse said there is one type of MS that is sneaky and doesn't show up unless you do a lumbar puncture. We're holding off on seeing a neurologist because he thinks this virus thing is way more likely. The next step is a referral to the rheumatologist.

All in all, I'd say Aron looks a bit better. He has a little bit more energy but not like before. He's still pretty thin (weighing in at a hefty 134#) and looks kind of tired when you look at him but I think he's on the mend.

Good news is that if it is the Chronic Viral whatever and it started in March, Aron already has 4 months of this under his belt.

You can do it, Aron!

Empty nest syndrome

Ella and her (temporary) BFF, Ellie.
Luke and the boys.
Don't ask me who is who cause I totally can't tell.

That's right. It's time for the kittens and the kids to part ways. The boys (aka Spitter and Whiner) went to their new home today. Aron's coworker and his wife decided earlier this week that they would rather have the kittens' first few days be over a weekend so they could be there with them to help transition them into their new life. I was kind of sad to see them go even though we totally can't keep them and do not have space in our life for 3 more kitties (One Jane is plenty for everyone, right??).

I tried to make Aron take pictures of the kids in their new digs but he said he was unable to be "that guy." I guess I can understand but it would've been nice to have a little photo to post.

Ellie will be transitioning to her new home on Monday (unless I hear from Karen that she, too, would like to start on a weekend).

Tank-tastic

Part of the perks of visiting T is going to her biology lab where they house turtles, fish, and iguanas. They thought the turtles were the best part.

No, we're not getting them turtles so don't bother asking.

Pottery Nation

Ella's piece was a kitty bank.
T's piece was a circle thingy.
Luke's was a piggy bank.
Here, the excited painters anxiously await my instructions.

The kids and I went to visit Auntie T the other day. I decided to surprise T with a trip to....drum roll, please...HOT POTS! Don't know what Hot Pots is? Click here.

IT WAS SO MUCH FUN!

Course, if you ask Tori, I used my "angry face" an awful lot when interacting with the kids. Do you know how hard it is to keep a 2 year old from yanking down an entire rack of pottery?? Very.
Do you know how hard it is to keep that same 2 year old working on just 1 piece of pottery (vs. his grabbing 10 pieces and starting on each one thus making Mommy purchase all of them). Very.