Kindergarten!

I totally know I have more pictures of Kindergarten.  But I cannot find them right now. Coming soon!

What a Week

The week before school begins is usually filled with prepping my classroom and running my last minute errands and trying to entertain the children with the last lazy days of swimming and playing outside. 

This is a summer where that week was not meant to be.  I had a day the week before where my mother in law commented on how big Lars' tonsils were.  I guess I had noticed but did not think of it as they always have been a little on the large side.  I was just at the pediatrician's office and missed my chance at a quick looksie, so I called and made another appointment to see if they were bigger than they should be.  Dr. Hackbarth took one look and promptly referred me to go see the ENT because he thought they likely needed to come out. 

Now, here is the backstory.  Bret, my husband, also had Dr. Hackbarth when he was a kid. He had enlarged tonsils.  But he was told they don't take them out anymore...circa 1975.  He still maintains that he should have had them out and it is all Dr. Hackbarth's fault.  So when I called Bret and told him about the referral he was a little stunned.

Then I called the ENT and we were able to get in Monday afternoon.  We took my happy little guy to go see Dr. Capper, the nicest and most engaging ENT I have met yet.  Lars loves him and really is enchanted with his calm and funny manner!  He told me that they rank tonsils size on a scale of 1-4.  Four typically is the worst and that is when the recommend removal.  Lars was a 4.  He told me that his breathing, voice quality and eating will all be much improved with the surgery.  In his practice he told me that he typically does T & A surgery (My 12 year old brain laughed inside when he called it T & A!) on Tuesdays.

Now, for me this is my last week- I go back to work on Friday.  Kids come at CCA on Wednesday, my kids go to school on Thursday.  So in my head I was trying to figure how many days off my husband and I would have to take.  Then I was trying to figure out how in the world I would ever be able to get myself organized since I have so much on my plate right now- with school beginning.  Oh and in case you don't know I plan on teaching a class at Kirkwood Tuesday and Thursday nights.  So- a surgery later would not be better than sooner.

So I scheduled the surgery for the next day.  This took most of the rest of my afternoon. As I meet with scheduling and then met with the surgical unit up from the ENT office.  Did you know a tonsilectomy can now be outpatient?  I thought we would be going to Mercy, but with the new surgical unit, we were in at 6:30 AM (yes! This is the earliest I have gotten up in a while!)  but we were home before noon.

The surgery went great!  He was a happy little boy skipping off with the anesthethologist before surgery.  I worried that he would never trust me again.  He did well in surgery and the doctor commented that they removed a lot of tissue.  He was amazed that Lars was able to swallow solid foods without complications.  I did remind him that Lars seemed to gag and choke on his food all the time, but we attributed it to him eating too much or too fast. 

The doctor also noted an immediate difference in the quality of his breathing, pre and post operation.    Lars has always been a loud and somewhat restless sleeper.  He does sleep pretty sound though and he always sleeps through the night.  Just in strange positions.  He props himself up, thrashes his arms around etc. all to find a comfortable position.  He also is a mouth breather- mouth wide open.  It is loud and noisy.  I have been joking about his snoring and breathing for a while but I was alerted that some of the breathing patterns resemble apnia and that is not normal for a 4 year old.  It also means that he is not as rested as he could be- which may account for restlessness, inability to listen, and other behaviors I sometimes see.   When we came home, I really could not get over how quiet his sleeping was.  I kept checking on him throughout the night- he was really sleeping soundly.  It is amazing!  His appetite is not huge but he is managing great. Last night the menu was ice cream, popsicles and pudding.  I got him to have some Cream of Wheat this morning too!

I really thought this would be enough for our fmaily to deal with this week.  I called Brenda and she volunteered to take Ella for a couple of days, so I can focus on Lars' getting better.  When the docs brought Lars out of recovery, the informed me that he had lice.  I was so happy he made it okay but this news was just so NOT what I wanted to hear.  Sure enough I saw several little nits on his head.  I sighed and decided to focus on his recovery and deal with this mess later. I guess after some thinking, I am glad we caught this now rather than him gettign sent home on the first day of school!  I only found a dozen or so nits in his hair.  I think the docs found a bug though.  It took me more than an hour to go through mine and lets just say, I am looking forward to a haircut soon!  I spent the entire day cleaning and washing all our linens and bagging up toys that need to be in quarantine for a while.  Not exactly how I wanted to spend my day or week!

Into the Woods

Perhaps next week the witch, aka mom, needs to get ready to appear in some pictures. These are pretty cute though! I am glad my kids have allowed me one more year for them to dress like kids. Lars was complaining that he did not think Hansel was cool (after one kid from his school said that he was going to be Scooby Doo) so I had to explain how Hansel was cool, as Bret snickered from the other room. Now, I know that Hansel may not be cool, but seriously- how cute is he?

Someone I was listening to or reading mentioned how they wish kids woudl only dress up as inanimate objects or story book characters. I love this idea, but pop culture takes hold of this young impressionable group especially at the time of Halloween. Add animals to the list of allowable costumes too! How is a parent to win?

Apple Picking 2009

We enjoyed our trip this year to TJ's orchard. The kids love the freedom of running around and picking as many apples and pears as we can. I have all ready made 2 apple crisps and have more coming! I do wish we were closer to Grandpa Jerry's as we could to pick from his trees too! Fall is my favorite time of year and it has definitely arrived. Welcome!

Mr. Shucks Rocks

Mr. Shucks, the CR Kernels mascot is truly a sight to behold. The kids are finally old enought and are not too scared of him so we got this great shot!

Buckethead.

Only at the Kernels can both your kids leave with a ball and a free spaghetti dinner from Zio Johnnos! Ella was so excited that she finally won a trophy!

We even were luck enough to get a free ice cream and had more than enough for 7 people. This one looks as large as Lars' head! It wasn;t quite that large but still it was big!

City Park

I live super close to this amazing park. I am pretty sure we could walk here...but oh the hill...so we don't. Perhaps next summer! But for the number of times we drive by this place, we rarely stop. My friend, Miriam, called me to go to City Park to check out shelters and then go on the rides. I almost fell over when I got a punch card for 10 rides for $6! Super cheap and you can do a few then come back another day. The people running the rides were super nice too. Nothing scared me too much and the kids love it. I am sure to go back. THis to me seems like a real memory maker for the kids- or at least me!

Kernels Baseball

Last Tuesday was our first Kernels game of the year. Twice we were not able to go due to naps or other things popping up. I was really impressed with Lars and Ella doing much better at this game than in past times we have gone and all I seem to do is walk around with them. We actually were able to enjoy ourselves. I think the kids had fun too! The Kernels staff do such a great job of entertaining everyone. Our seats were great and we even had a free ticket thanks to our Kraft cheese wrapper!

Lars was very respectful during the anthem!

The eyeball race is one of the oddest looking races. It is quite entertaining for the kids but not quite as much fun as the racing sausages at Milwaukee. I am pretty sure red won!

This is the tooth fairy- Ella went crazy for her! She really thought she was the real thing. It was cute - she brushed the bases clean after we sang "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" and she skipped from base to base.

Red Rocks

Bret and I were treated to a glorious three (yes! three) hour Wilco Concert at one of the loveliest venues I have ever seen. We both agreed living in Denver would be great becasue you would be in such close proximity to this wonderous place. It really seems like everyone wants to play there too- so you would have unlimited concert options. What a joy that would be! We will be there in soul when Phish returns to play at the end of this month for four nights! We are pretty sure it will be Phishville there. I hope phans are respectful of this great site!

When we were returning from the mountains we decided to stop for a restroom break and to walk around a little so the kids could see all the beauty. It really is a different environment than any other part of Colorado. What a state! We loved driving around and seeing all the lots. Who knew there was a cute little red rock tunnel to the top lot! We do now!





Lars was still suffering from his altitude sickness so he did not really want to walk all around so he took several breaks which allowed me some great photo ops!

Happy Fourth of July 2009

We packed a lot more into this day than I thought was possible! Here are some highlights from our evening at Invesco Stadium-aka Mile High Stadium. We saw the Outlaws, Denver's professional lacrosse team play here then we watched fireworks in the stadium following the game! It was a friendly fun evening for our family, but all head were happy to go back to the hotel to sleep!

A is for Ant

I told you this would be addictive! The "A is for ant" shirt for Lars easily came to fruitition! Here are some pics of this new cute outfit. I also am proud to say I got more blank shirts at a garage sale so bring on the prints!