Christmas Traditions

Every year Nana Way gives Owen and Adam their own advent calendar.  It's not your average advent calendar. It's wooden and every day the boys get to open a drawer. 

Inside each drawer she usually has a piece of chocolate, money, and on most days a tag with a sticker on it.  They have to match the sticker on the tag with a present in their wicker sleigh. 

This is probably their most favorite Christmas tradition.  They can't wait to get up each morning and open the next drawer. 

I decided this year to include a few things that we have to do for other people.  Owen and I talked a lot about how it's really fun to receive gifts, but it can feel just as good to give to other people.  If you type "Random Acts of Christmas Kindness" in Pinterest you'll find a ton of great ideas that kids (and families together) can do for other people during the Christmas season.  Yesterday Owen got his first "task" and it is to buy a gift for someone less fortunate.  Our church is always asking for volunteers to buy gifts for other kids.  My school also has a lot of needy families that need assistance over the holidays.  I love love love helping out kids in our school, especially in my classroom. 

 

Sam, our elf, is back again.  The first day back he wrote the boys a note and gave them a movie about Elf on the Shelf.  He hasn't done anything too mischievous... yet.

 This past week the boys made gingerbread houses at Linda's house.  They look forward to this each year. 
Adam dug right into his and if we hadn't stopped him, he would have eaten his entire house in one sitting.  Owen, on the otherhand, picked a few things off and was done.
 
Tomorrow is the much-anticipated Breakfast with Santa at the Sacred Heart Church.  Owen is excited that Santa will be in Cornwall and Adam seems excited too.  We'll see how it turns out.  Last year Adam was terrified!

Owen's Cough

*Update- everything went well today.  The hardest part was not allowing him to eat.  He was starving and miserable, but the procedure went quickly.  The doctor said his larynx looked "beefy" as opposed to light pink- meaning it is irritated, most likely from the reflux.  He prescribed Zantac.  It could take a few weeks to work.  The challenge is now getting Owen to take the Zantac.  It has an awful minty taste and it took us over an hour to get him to take it tonight.  Lots of tears.  Not the battle I want to fight every night.  Hopefully it gets easier and he gets used to it.  We should get his allergy test results back in a week.  I'm interested to see what it shows.  

(I'm writing this more for myself so I have everything written down in one place- it may be boring to most people.  So many times I've gone back to my blog to find answers to things dealing with my kids and important dates.  It's very convenient:)

Owen started a seasonal cough in 2010.  It came on, lasted a few months, and then suddenly disappeared.  I'm not sure what we tried that year to cure it, but I do know that nothing worked and I was just relieved when it finally went away.

It came back again in 2011 around the same time- late October.  It lasted another couple months (I think until January-ish).  Our pediatrician thought it was an allergy of some sort since it came on every year at the same time and fall allergies are really common.  Here are the things we tried... removing all stuffed animals (very allergenic), mold test in Owen's room and basement, Nebulizer, inhaler (Pulmacort), Claratin, chest x-ray, Allegra, Zertec.  By the time we tried everything it had disappeared.

Here we are in 2012 and the cough came back October 24th.  It was Owen's last soccer game and I heard that all-too-familiar sound... clearing his throat and dry hacking cough.  Ugh.  I knew what we were in for.  It has been REALLY bad.  We called the doctor after a few weeks and he told us to try Claratin again.  That didn't work.  Right before our trip to St. John I called to say we were concerned and thought Dr. S should listen and make sure he wasn't wheezing before going on our trip.  He told us he wanted us to get a chest x-ray.  It came back clear and Dr. S could only hear one little wheeze when he listened to his breathing.  He told us to try the Pulmacort inhaler and take it with us to St. John.  He also said we could try Singulair, but he wanted to wait to see if it went away while in St. John.  Since we all thought it was some sort of allergy we were SURE it would disappear while in St. John since he was in a completely different environment.  We were shocked when his cough didn't go away.  We would have bet a lot of $$ that it would have gone away.  I'll never forget when we took the boys for icecream while on our trip and Owen was coughing like crazy and the guy working behind the counter politely told him that he's going to have to cover his mouth and handed him a pile of napkins.  We feel badly taking him to Sunday School, parties, and places where there's other people because we're afraid they are going to be upset that we brought our "sick", coughing kid.

 The fact that it didn't go away in St. John led Mike and I to believe that it was not allergy related, but then were left with the question as to what it was and why it occurred at the same time every year.  Dr. S told us to try Singulair (asthma medicine) which we weren't all that thrilled about since we didn't think it was an allergy or asthma.  We were also to continue the inhaler.  The inhaler wasn't working.  All it did was make him hyper.  I was nervous about the Singulair too because of some scary side effects.  We did one dose of Singulair and after that he got a stomach ache and didn't eat much for two days.  I didn't want to give him his second dose because he wasn't eating.

This past week was especially bad.  Bedtime has been a nightmare.  Owen ends up crying himself to sleep because he is so frustrated that he can't stop coughing.  He starts to panic.  We tried so many different things.  Mike and I feel so helpless and desperate. It's tortuous to listen to... I can't imagine how Owen must be feeling.

Tuesday we got a 2nd opinion.  I sent Mike with a long list to show the ENT doctor.  I had done a lot of research and thought it could be laryngopharyngeal reflux.  When the dr. read that he said that is exactly what he thinks it is.  He doesn't want to treat it until he is sure though.  The one thing we have found to cure his cough for at least a few minutes is a cough drop so we were giving him a lot of them.  We found out that they are really bad for people with reflux and it only makes the reflux worse.  We are also changing his diet and avoiding foods that cause reflux.

So tomorrow Owen will be put to sleep and they will put a camera up his nose and down his throat to see what's going on and if any damage has been done from reflux.  They are also going to do allergy testing.  We are happy to be heading in the right direction, but nervous about Owen being put to sleep and scared they may find something else more serious wrong with him.  I'm sure they won't, but that thought has crossed our minds.

My next post will be about the fun Christmasy things we've been doing around here, but I wanted to write this down.

The Most Wonderful Time

We are starting to get back into the swing of things after our trip over Thanksgiving.  The boys still talk about it every day.  Owen told another dad from daycare that he had the time of his life.  Adam asks every day if we can please go to Aunt Beth's wedding. 

Tonight we finished up our decorating.  I let the boys put the ornaments on the tree again this year and it cracks me up.  There are about 75 ornaments all in one clump on the tree.  It's not easy for this OCD girl to watch, but I figured I can fix it later. 

They had such a good time decorating the tree.  I just sat back and watched and took it all in while handing them ornaments ready to hang.

 After that we put on our jammies and headed to the basement to watch The Polar Express.  Mike and I dozed on and off, but the boys watched the entire movie.  I think that's the first real movie Adam sat through.  He LOVED the train.

And now I have to get ready for the debut of a much anticipated special little elf :)

Beth & Eric's Wedding

We got back last evening from our trip to St. John in the US Virgin Islands.  We had a great time and I took so many pictures.  It's good to be home, but I miss the island already.  It's definitely my favorite place on Earth and while having our boys with us may not have always been the most relaxing thing, I am so glad they got to come along.  The memories we made and experiences we had were priceless.

This was Adam's first time flying.  He did pretty well.  He had his moments, but we made it.  The DVD player was a huge help!

We  ate a lot of meals at the Beach Bar.  It was close to where we stayed- Battery Hill, and had good food.  The first night there we sat there for quite a while.  Kids are allowed to sit at the bar and they sat for such a long time taking in the sights and sounds.  We would have gotten a table, but there are only three tables in the restaurant and they were taken.

This is the view from my parent's balcony.  Doesn't it look like a framed picture?

The little cottage next to the pool is where the honeymooners stayed :)  I'm a little jealous that they get to stay there until Friday!!

Our pool- we shared it with everyone else staying at the condo complex.  There are 9 units all together.

Owen was doing some homework and Adam was standing around naked while watching a movie.  I think he was naked about 75% of our trip. When I told him he should put underwear on he replied with, "Why?"

It's kind of sad how built up the island has become.  I've been going to St. John since I was little and it's changed a lot.  That big ol' roof wasn't there the last time we were there in 2006.  Thankfully most of the island is a protected national park so nothing can be built on that part.

We stayed on the other side of the pool- Rainbow's End.

Our little kitchen.  I didn't clean one dish the entire trip, thanks to my wonderful husband :)

This was probably my favorite meal of the trip.  Steak.  Delicious!

Driving on the island is crazy.  Almost everyone drives a 4 wheel drive jeep and you drive on the opposite side of the road.  The roads are windy and extremely steep.  There are not many guardrails either.  That's Beth & Eric's jeep in front of us.

Oh that water!  There's nothing quite like it.

If you look closely at Adam's belly he has marker all over it.  He told me he was doing his homework.

One of the beaches we visited (Salt Pond) had hermit crabs everywhere.  Each of us picked one for our big hermit crab race.  We stored them in the cooler until we were ready for the race.  

Paige snorkeling

My mom and Owen playing Ninjago

Watching our hermit crabs race.  It took a while for some of them to wake up.

Paige gave her hermit crab a pep talk before the race... Pocahontas beat everyone.  She was very fast!

These huge iguanas crawled all over the bushes outside our condo.

Thursday was Thanksgiving and also the day before Beth and Eric's wedding.  Eric's aunt and uncle  were so nice to invite all of us over to their place for Thanksgiving dinner.  They made a huge feast which is no small feat on a little island with a small grocery store! 

This cat was always around our condo.  It was so sickly looking and we all tried to stay far away from it.  Paige named her Cleopatra.  She thought giving her a pretty name would make her feel better about herself.  Poor thing.  I think she's on her last life!

 Now onto the wedding...

It was perfect.  Beth's dress was so pretty! 

 The ceremony.

Beth's photographer, Sage, was awesome.  She lives on St. Thomas, but does the majority of her wedding photography on St. John.  Beth got married in Trunk Bay.  The weather and lighting was perfect.

Beth and Eric (my brother-in-law)

Adam and Payton (Eric & Beth's nephew)

 The reception. Simple, cozy, fun, and just what Beth and Eric wanted.

Beth's wedding favor was a print from the local artist-Elaine Estern.  I love her paintings.

The reception was at Spyglass.  It overlooked the harbor.

Adam was a dancing machine.  He danced all night long and had some crazy moves!!

Eric's 85 year old grandma made the trip.  She just got out of a rehab nursing home because of a broken arm and back problems.  She was such a trooper and cute as can be!

Beth had a great guitar player. 

It was definitely a wedding to remember.  Having all our extended family there made it even more special.

Owen loved having a pool to swim in whenever he wanted.  I think this particular day he swam for over 4 hours.

The infamous Ninjago pose.  He's centering himself before his big jump.

 One of my biggest fears before going on this trip was that one of the boys would get sick or hurt and need a doctor.  There is a hospital on the island, but it is only open from 8-5 everyday and has one doctor.  I had to visit it when I was in St. John in 1998.  Well, we had to visit it again with Owen.  Wednesday he got a bug bite on his temple.  The mosquitoes were so bad.  Adam was completely covered in bites.  We had to give the boys Benadryl before bed each night because they kept itching.  Thursday morning Owen woke up with his eye half way swollen shut.  I assumed it was from the bite and didn't get overly concerned except for the fact that he'd look funny in pictures.  The following morning he woke up with ear pain and swelling down the side of his face and neck.  It scared me because it was so close to throat and he said it was itchy.  I was scared he was having an allergic reaction to a bite.  We woke Aunt Beth up (thank goodness she's a nurse) and she went to the clinic with us.  He was given an antibiotic, steroid, and epi pen.  After that he started to feel better and the swelling went down. 

Poor Aunt Beth... this is how she spent the morning of her wedding.

Eric fell asleep and didn't know Cleo was this close to him!

The last night in St. John we went up to visit Boo, Judy, Maddie, and Below.  This is the view from where they stayed.

 Then it was time to say "good-bye".

A scene from the Miami airport waiting for our next flight. 

It was a trip of a lifetime and I just know we'll be going back a few more times.  Maybe Mike and I will have to take a trip there, just us, for our 10 year anniversary:)

I'm sure I'll have many more photos to post.  So stay tuned!!  I had to upgrade my google account.  It said I maxed out my free usage space.  Imagine that!