Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Rocky Mountain High

If you're a John Denver fan, you'll recognize the title of today's blog entry. And if you're not, well then, we'll try not to hold it against you. :-) It seemed only fitting to use the title of one of his most beloved songs to describe our state of mind here in the beautiful Sierra Nevadas.

Since my last post, things have settled down considerably. I think Bodie is finally past his illness, because he's been SO much happier - a happier dictator, if you will. We thought Sierra might have caught the bug as well (really, what's a family vacation without BOTH kids having an opportunity to vomit multiple times?), but hers only lasted a day, thankfully. We've been having SO much fun the last couple of days - it feels like our vacation has finally begun!

On Tuesday, we went to the beach in the morning and took the kids out to a nice restaurant right on the water for dinner. It was GORGEOUS. Bodie wasn't as impressed with the scenery as we were, and was more interested in throwing things, screaming (again, thank God for the paralyzed vocal cord!) and crawling under other patron's tables. He was a complete and total nightmare (and for those of you thinking we're those kind of parents who don't discipline our kids and we just need to discipline Bodie, I assure you that we are working on it - disciplining a completely healthy 17 month-old is no easy task, let alone when you add in the medical issues Bodie has faced - but we have no intention of letting him become spoiled, so we are working on it). In any case, I think our entire family got a total of 10 minutes at the table together (the rest of the time, either Dusk or I was outside with Bodie, trying to keep him out of trouble). Although we were exhausted, Bodie made quite a few new friends this way - SO many people commented on how cute he was as he was jockeying to get behind their chair or under their barstool. We did snap a few beautiful pics on the beach afterwards...



Yesterday, we decided to give Bodie a break from the altitude and headed down to Reno, to spend the day with Popo Alan and Grandma Jan. We went to a great park and once mommy "disappeared" (hidden behind a fence, watching on - hoping for an out-of-sight-out-of-mind response to the unbelievable mommy-centric clinginess both kids had shows up until that point), Bodie and Sierra had a lot of fun with Popo and Grandma Jan.



The park also had a train ride that the kids LOVED. (We rode it 2x!)


After a 2 second nap in the car (only slight exaggeration - seriously, Bodie was WIRED after the park and train ride), we headed over to Circus Circus. We knew Sierra would have a blast.




What we didn't expect, however, was for Bodie to have the reaction that he did. Oh my word. The kid was in hog heaven. All the lights, the music, the games. He was crazy. Had SO.MUCH.FUN.



After dinner last night (topped off with Bodie faceplanting and splitting his lip while running out of the bathroom to get away from mommy - seriously, he is such a danger to himself) , we were blessed with a visit from two of Bodie's most devoted prayer warriors, Jim and Cris. Jim, thank you for sharing how Bodie's journey has afffected your life. We were so blessed to meet you both and spend time with you last night.


Today brought a trip back up the mountain to Tahoe, where we stopped by the altitude sign for Mt. Rose. WOW is all I have to say. This is a moment we didn't know would ever happen. Bodie, at high altitude. This has been a dream of Dusk's, who grew up in these mountains, ever since we heard about Bodie's heart condition and knew it might not happen.


satting 85 at 8,900 feet!!!....


And for us to have this moment, just one year out from this, when Bodie was discharged from the hospital after his MRSA admission (9 very long weeks), when we were so scared and had no idea whether we'd be back in the hospital immediately or not (turned out we got 2 months at home before his Glenn). We kind of view July 21st as the day our lives with Bodie really started. So, to be standing here at 8,900 feet with him grinning away almost one year to the day later is just absolutely incredible. Rocky Mountain, er, make that Sierra Nevada High, indeed. Truly, the other stuff just doesn't matter...


...at least to us. Bodie's still kind of hung up on the other stuff - like the snow, which he was NOT a fan of (as an aside, can you believe there's snow on the ground in JULY and we're walking on it in shorts and flip flops???) ...


And Bodie's take on all of the incredible excitement of the last few days? Yep, we have finally tired crazy man out... ;-)


I am so happy to report that this vacation just keeps getting better and better. As you know, from my last post, we weren't sure it would. But it has. THANK GOD!!!

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Saturday, July 16, 2011

A king and his court

Sigh...The good news is that we made it to Tahoe. And Bodie is tolerating the 6,000+ ft altitude quite well. For you pulse-ox junkies out there, he's been satting 78 most of the night and just jumped to 84 the last time I checked. For a kid that hangs out in the high 70's and low 80's at sea level, it's pretty extraordinary for him to be satting so high here. We're so grateful!

But the vacation itself. Aye yay freaking yay. I know I should sugar coat it for the blog (and Bodie's baby book) and say it's been the most amazing family vacation ever, full of beautiful moments of bliss and happiness, making lifelong memories with our 2 perfect little children. And that is all true. But I just can't bring myself to stop at that. Let me make one thing clear - Dusk and I LOVE our children. We feel so blessed that they are both happy and thriving and know how lucky we are to have both of our children with us. But I don't know if parents of more than 1 child have been lying to us this whole time or if we just have bad luck, because this seriously has been the worst.vacation. ever. We're trying to find the humor in it (and remember that someday, we will look back and laugh at this vacation), but it's been tough. Here's a little rundown of the vacation so far:

First off, it got delayed by a day because Bodie caught the stomach bug that I had last week. He was sick for about 4 days, and after 2 days of diahrea and vomiting, we just didn't feel right pushing him at altitude, so stayed at home an extra day. He seemed much better Friday, so we thought we'd be safe leaving town. And we totally were...until he puked. all over his carseat. 90 miles from home. With 2 hours still to go. And that was after we had already stopped once because he wouldn't stop screaming.

At least he thought it was awesome to sit by the side of the road, watching the cars whiz by, while I tried to clean his carseat out. With wipes. Because I had not planned well enough ahead to bring towels and water.


Yep, good times. The next 2 hours consisted of him screaming, me turning around (Dusk driving), trying to figure out what he wanted, handing it to him, him shaking his head furiously and then angrily throwing it back at me. Honestly, I felt like a court entertainer who had been thrust in front of the king to try and entertain him. If I guessed right, I was rewarded with a smile and a laugh. And if I guessed wrong, I was punished with a sippy cup thrown at my head at mach speed followed by more screaming. Hence, my title - a King and his Court. All of this was punctuated by episodes of him gagging and me yelling at Dusk to stop the car, getting Bodie out quickly, only to find him laughing and giggling once we got him out of the car. Turkey. Fun times.

We finally got to our hotel in Bishop, stopped by the laundromat to wash the aformentioned carseat and clothes, and then headed to dinner, during which Bodie refused to eat anything and insisted on walking around the restaurant and throwing everything possible on the floor. Got back to the hotel, where I gave Bodie his meds, which he promptly threw up all over the floor. Super fun times. Finally got the kids to bed, only to wake up to bedbugs this morning. Like, I said, awesome vacation, right?

Today, thankfully, was better - Bodie was a slightly happier dictator, and without the threat of barf hanging over our heads, we were able to ignore his screaming somewhat, which actually worked pretty well. Once he realized he couldn't manipulate us, he calmed down considerably. ;-). We stopped by Popo Alan and Grandma Jan's house for pizza and lots o' toys - the kids had a blast.

Then, we made our way to Tahoe, where we'll be as long as Bodie can tolerate it. He seems ok with the altitude so far, which is surprising, because the kid is OUT OF CONTROL moving nonstop. It's so fun to watch. All he wants to do is climb. We're in a 3 story condo and he is obsessed with climbing on the couch and going up and down the stairs. Oh, the meltdown temper tantrum that ensued when we put the gates up at the top and bottom of the stairs was unreal. Boy does this kid have a temper! ;-) But all in all, we are SO relieved to be here and enjoying ourselves:


So I know this was a long-winded whine. I'm sorry about that. I suppose it would've been easier just to say that this is feeling eerily reimiscient of a Griswold vacation. But that wouldn't have been as much fun to read, right? ;-) Hoping and praying for a more relaxing week from here on out.

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Friday, July 8, 2011

Mr. (and Miss) Independent

I know this is late for a 4th of July post, but between a battery of thyroid tests for me this week (what used to be a slightly over-reactive thyroid has become a crazy in-your-face overactive thyroid in the past year - big surprise, right? I don't blame it - the same thing has kinda happened to me - ha!) and a stomach bug of unknown origin (my money's on food poisoning, but we don't know for sure) that has hit only me (thankfully), I haven't had much time for blogging this week. So there you have it.

But I wanted to post some pics of our 4th of July. We went out to my parents place in Palm Springs and had some friends out to join us. We had a lot of fun. Well, actually, I should clarify - Janet, Rafael, Natalie, Damien, Dusk, Sierra and I had a lot of fun. Bodie, well, not so much. I'm not sure whether he was teething (thought we'd get a break from that, since the kid already has ALL of this teeth but his last 2 sets of molars), maybe had an ear infection that has since cleared on its own, just highly suspicious of the fact that Natalie happens to be a babysitter or read my previous blogpost and decided he needed to shake things up a bit, but he was a bit of a nightmare this weekend. We had a lot of meltdowns if I wasn't holding him. On more than one occassion, we brought me the Ergo, gesticulating and more or less sobbing until I put him in it. That was pretty cute actually. He spent a lot of time in mama's arms. Sometimes, that was cute. Sometimes, it was a bit much. But, in between the moments of sheer madness, we had a lot of fun as well. Bodie has pretty much given up crawling and is about the cutest little toddler I've seen (and I'm not biased at all).

Anyway, here's pics of the fun:

A gorgeous pool 10 feet away...and my kids would rather play with a baby bathtub filled with water and toys. Go figure.

Too much cuteness
Couldn't you just eat these lips up?
What's the 4th of July without watermelon?
So excited for his "boy boy bowl" that suction cups to his high chair tray, so he can't pick it up and throw it...
er...well...theoretically anyway...
Sierra and her beloved Nana, who was Sierra's first babysitter (Nana used to watch Sierra when I went back to work - Sierra was 4 months at the time)
Man, throw this kid in a highchair with some food and you're sure to get a smile...
Showing off his mad walking skills
Sweetest.face.ever.
One of the only times Bodie was happy to play in the pool
Damien's mad photog skills with my sweet girl
Sierra and mommy with sparklers
One of my favorite pics of the night...when did my little girl get so grown up and independent?
For a little contrast, this was Sierra on her first 4th of July. Man, they do grow up fast, don't they? Sierra and Nana ending the night

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