Just wanted to do a quick little update with a couple of movies! (Yes, Grandma, they're BOTH movies.)
We've been reading a few Halloween Stories and Richie has gotten to the point where he can recite them pretty well. He's done it with a couple of other books, but I thought these were seasonally appropriate! Actually, the book that we read every night he has started to make up words like, "Not the Ninia" or "Not the Gaga-opotamus."
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Saturday, October 15, 2011
Happy Birthday to Gaga!
As many of you know, my birthday is in September. Most years, I trek home and spend a week or so with family and friends, which we did this year! We packed up the Prius and hit the road on Thursday evening after work and made it about half way before I crashed. Well, figuratively. I got sleepy. We we camped at the Red Roof Inn (spare no expense!) in Roanoke. Richie had a fund time looking for cows and water towers. I was enjoying 50+ MPG. :)
As is usual with these trips, they tend to be complicated scheduling-wise. But this trip seemed to be coming together okay. We stopped by Oma's house on the way in and had dinner with Richie's "godfather" as he was getting ready to drive back to Florida. Then we went on to Papa-Nat and Honey's (PN&H) house. We passed out shortly after arrival, as you might imagine. We had breakfast the next morning and then went back to Oma's house where we met up with a friend of mine, Peggy. After lunch, we did a little shopping and headed back to PN&H's house. That evening, we held a little (traditional) Emory reunion party. PN&H already had dinner plans, so we enjoyed the porch and the night weather with our friends.
Sunday, we PN tried to make pancakes. Following the tradition from Mama, he put MnM's in some of them. (Num-n-num's as Richie likes to call them.) He apparently had some difficulties but Richie thought they were the yummiest thing he had the entire trip. He talked about the yummy pancakes with num-n-num's for the rest of the trip. That afternoon, we met Oma, cousin Beth and her family out at my sister's house. PN&H joined later that evening when Ninia (my sister) and her family returned from their activities. PN told me he had a mild headache that he had had for a couple of days by that point. I told him to take two adult aspirins, drink a can of regular coke and call me in the morning. He did all of that a felt a little better.
That night we celebrated my birthday, and much of everyone's dismay, I conjured up something I had been thinking about for about a year. Like I alluded to above, I sing some pretty silly songs to Richie at night. One of them is a rhyming song to the tune of Hush Little Baby and Richie comes up with most of the rhymes. One of them is "Pizza-Bun." We get to that rhyme several times a week and each time I think to myself, "What a great idea! A hamburger with pizza as a bun!" So, for my birthday, that's what I ate. And my cousin Connor who thought it was the best thing ever! Granted he's a teenage, but still! The rest of the family ate either pizza or hamburgers. (Or, actually, turkey burgers.)
It was YUMMY!
Richie and Eli getting ready to eat my cake.
Making my wish...
Look! My wish came true!!
The following day, I get a concerned call from Honey who said that Papa-Nat still had a head ache and felt "Vague." After chuckling, I said, well, I don't know what to do with "vague" but maybe he should go to the ER and get a scan of his head. He didn't want to, of course, and he already had an appointment with his PCP around 4p. I told Honey to have PN stand, with his arms out in front of him, palms up, and shut his eyes. This is a quick test for stroke called a pronator drift test. He passed, in that his arms did not drift down. I said, we'll he's not likely having a stroke, but if he changes at all from where he is now, he should go right to the ER.
Oma, Richie, Mama and I went to the Georgia aquarium that day...
Hug break!
This picture of his hair will be important in a little bit...
Richie did NOT like the land-dolphin. He's okay with them when they're in the water, but not out on dry land.
Please tell Eli that there IS an albino alligator at the Georgia aquarium!
A gator is going to eat my baby!!!! NO!!!
Kiss!
That evening, the "vacation" would change. PN's PCP sent him right to the ER for a CT of his head which showed an acute-on-chronic subdural hematoma. The only trauma we can think of is a little fender bender PN was in while visiting NY in August where he poped the right side of his head on the roof based support-handle in the back seat. The bleed was on the left side making it a contra coup injury, not terribly uncommon. He must have started bleeding again just before I arrived and, the two aspirins I gave him did not help. Ironically Beth had said something about that and I totally blew it off because he had had not recent head trauma and it was just TOO silly to entertain. Alas...she was right.
PN landed in the neuro ICU and started slowly degrading. His drift test became positive the next morning. They neuro surgeons were talking about taking him to surgery possibly on Tuesday, but he got bumped. He continued to worsen and ultimately lost use of his right arm and leg with the left facial droop. Very classic. They finally took him to surgery Thursday. When he returned to the ICU, I asked him how he was feeling. He said, "Much much better. Check this out!" And he threw both of his arms into the air! It was great relief. They discharged him Sunday, but he started having shaking chills that evening, so he bounced back into the ER. They did another CT and gave him some oral antibiotics and sent him home. It was so late by the time we got released, I was too tired to drive home. By the time I realized that, Honey and Aunt Shana were sleeping upstairs and PN and I slept in the guest room. Well, actually, he slept for two hours and I listened to him snoring. It was impressive! I finally went and slept on the couch for a few hours.
NP is still recovering, but doing pretty well. His slurred speech and word-finding difficulties seemed to have resolved and now he's working on getting back his strength.
So, we ended up staying in Atlanta for an extra week and, although I haven't actually calculated the mileage, I think I doubled it from all of the driving back and forth from Douglasville to Atlanta.
The saga aside, here are some other shots from the trip. There are actually more that are still on the camera, too...
We saw this Giant Caterpillar crawling toward the house. No idea what it was going to turn into, but I'm sure it is going to be something large! I immediately thought of The Very Hungry Caterpillar.
On the way back, Richie started asking what was in each 18-wheeler. We asked him want he thought was in them. Almost everyone was apparently carrying, "Yummy Lollipops!" A few were carrying underwear and pantyhose (that's a little complicated to explain but it has to do with other funny nighttime song I sing...yes, it's complicated).
Full disclaimer:
Oh, and although it was more challenging than I originally thought it would be and more than just a trim, we finally did what Richie had been asking us to do for weeks....
As is usual with these trips, they tend to be complicated scheduling-wise. But this trip seemed to be coming together okay. We stopped by Oma's house on the way in and had dinner with Richie's "godfather" as he was getting ready to drive back to Florida. Then we went on to Papa-Nat and Honey's (PN&H) house. We passed out shortly after arrival, as you might imagine. We had breakfast the next morning and then went back to Oma's house where we met up with a friend of mine, Peggy. After lunch, we did a little shopping and headed back to PN&H's house. That evening, we held a little (traditional) Emory reunion party. PN&H already had dinner plans, so we enjoyed the porch and the night weather with our friends.
Sunday, we PN tried to make pancakes. Following the tradition from Mama, he put MnM's in some of them. (Num-n-num's as Richie likes to call them.) He apparently had some difficulties but Richie thought they were the yummiest thing he had the entire trip. He talked about the yummy pancakes with num-n-num's for the rest of the trip. That afternoon, we met Oma, cousin Beth and her family out at my sister's house. PN&H joined later that evening when Ninia (my sister) and her family returned from their activities. PN told me he had a mild headache that he had had for a couple of days by that point. I told him to take two adult aspirins, drink a can of regular coke and call me in the morning. He did all of that a felt a little better.
That night we celebrated my birthday, and much of everyone's dismay, I conjured up something I had been thinking about for about a year. Like I alluded to above, I sing some pretty silly songs to Richie at night. One of them is a rhyming song to the tune of Hush Little Baby and Richie comes up with most of the rhymes. One of them is "Pizza-Bun." We get to that rhyme several times a week and each time I think to myself, "What a great idea! A hamburger with pizza as a bun!" So, for my birthday, that's what I ate. And my cousin Connor who thought it was the best thing ever! Granted he's a teenage, but still! The rest of the family ate either pizza or hamburgers. (Or, actually, turkey burgers.)
It was YUMMY!
Richie and Eli getting ready to eat my cake.
Making my wish...
Look! My wish came true!!
The following day, I get a concerned call from Honey who said that Papa-Nat still had a head ache and felt "Vague." After chuckling, I said, well, I don't know what to do with "vague" but maybe he should go to the ER and get a scan of his head. He didn't want to, of course, and he already had an appointment with his PCP around 4p. I told Honey to have PN stand, with his arms out in front of him, palms up, and shut his eyes. This is a quick test for stroke called a pronator drift test. He passed, in that his arms did not drift down. I said, we'll he's not likely having a stroke, but if he changes at all from where he is now, he should go right to the ER.
Oma, Richie, Mama and I went to the Georgia aquarium that day...
Hug break!
This picture of his hair will be important in a little bit...
Richie did NOT like the land-dolphin. He's okay with them when they're in the water, but not out on dry land.
Please tell Eli that there IS an albino alligator at the Georgia aquarium!
A gator is going to eat my baby!!!! NO!!!
Kiss!
That evening, the "vacation" would change. PN's PCP sent him right to the ER for a CT of his head which showed an acute-on-chronic subdural hematoma. The only trauma we can think of is a little fender bender PN was in while visiting NY in August where he poped the right side of his head on the roof based support-handle in the back seat. The bleed was on the left side making it a contra coup injury, not terribly uncommon. He must have started bleeding again just before I arrived and, the two aspirins I gave him did not help. Ironically Beth had said something about that and I totally blew it off because he had had not recent head trauma and it was just TOO silly to entertain. Alas...she was right.
PN landed in the neuro ICU and started slowly degrading. His drift test became positive the next morning. They neuro surgeons were talking about taking him to surgery possibly on Tuesday, but he got bumped. He continued to worsen and ultimately lost use of his right arm and leg with the left facial droop. Very classic. They finally took him to surgery Thursday. When he returned to the ICU, I asked him how he was feeling. He said, "Much much better. Check this out!" And he threw both of his arms into the air! It was great relief. They discharged him Sunday, but he started having shaking chills that evening, so he bounced back into the ER. They did another CT and gave him some oral antibiotics and sent him home. It was so late by the time we got released, I was too tired to drive home. By the time I realized that, Honey and Aunt Shana were sleeping upstairs and PN and I slept in the guest room. Well, actually, he slept for two hours and I listened to him snoring. It was impressive! I finally went and slept on the couch for a few hours.
NP is still recovering, but doing pretty well. His slurred speech and word-finding difficulties seemed to have resolved and now he's working on getting back his strength.
So, we ended up staying in Atlanta for an extra week and, although I haven't actually calculated the mileage, I think I doubled it from all of the driving back and forth from Douglasville to Atlanta.
The saga aside, here are some other shots from the trip. There are actually more that are still on the camera, too...
We saw this Giant Caterpillar crawling toward the house. No idea what it was going to turn into, but I'm sure it is going to be something large! I immediately thought of The Very Hungry Caterpillar.
On the way back, Richie started asking what was in each 18-wheeler. We asked him want he thought was in them. Almost everyone was apparently carrying, "Yummy Lollipops!" A few were carrying underwear and pantyhose (that's a little complicated to explain but it has to do with other funny nighttime song I sing...yes, it's complicated).
Full disclaimer:
Oh, and although it was more challenging than I originally thought it would be and more than just a trim, we finally did what Richie had been asking us to do for weeks....
Friday, October 14, 2011
Making up for lost time....
I'm trying to start catching up. I'll leave text for later cause ML and Richie are on their way back from the aquarium!
As part of the summer reading program, Richie won seats to an O's game, again. Now, these seats are way up in the nose bleeds, so we usually find a few empty seats closer (there are tons!). We've seen this guy every time we've gone to a game. He's the hardest working beer-guy there is!
Hanging out in the stands. I love the expression on the face of the kid in front of Richie...
I think something interesting is happening and I'm facing the wrong way!
Just to give you an idea of where we were sitting.
My friend Kiki had another big birthday party for her boy Christopher. It was a pirate theme and so Richie got dressed up! He already had the hair for it. Yes, I guess this post is a little "back in time" since the hair is now gone!
A move from earlier this summer where Richie is actually pushing Mama!
Here is a movie Richie at the Birthday party. This was the first time he really did a slide by himself, a lot. (Yes, I keep say "movie" for Grandma's sake.)
This movie proves that my son is already smarter than the Bush family.
This cute movie is from Omee's visit earlier this summer.
This is a movie from the hurricane we had at the end of the summer. ML and I finally got the city to pick up the sand bags last week.
Here is a movie of Richie helping Mama to put pillows in cases. This is a new talent for the boy.
As part of the summer reading program, Richie won seats to an O's game, again. Now, these seats are way up in the nose bleeds, so we usually find a few empty seats closer (there are tons!). We've seen this guy every time we've gone to a game. He's the hardest working beer-guy there is!
Hanging out in the stands. I love the expression on the face of the kid in front of Richie...
I think something interesting is happening and I'm facing the wrong way!
Just to give you an idea of where we were sitting.
My friend Kiki had another big birthday party for her boy Christopher. It was a pirate theme and so Richie got dressed up! He already had the hair for it. Yes, I guess this post is a little "back in time" since the hair is now gone!
A move from earlier this summer where Richie is actually pushing Mama!
Here is a movie Richie at the Birthday party. This was the first time he really did a slide by himself, a lot. (Yes, I keep say "movie" for Grandma's sake.)
This movie proves that my son is already smarter than the Bush family.
This cute movie is from Omee's visit earlier this summer.
This is a movie from the hurricane we had at the end of the summer. ML and I finally got the city to pick up the sand bags last week.
Here is a movie of Richie helping Mama to put pillows in cases. This is a new talent for the boy.
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