Prayer time

Last Sunday:

Daddy: "I'm going to say the prayer."

Joseph: "Me, too."

Daddy: "Okay, you can say it with me.

Heavenly Father"

J: "Father"

Daddy: "Thank you for Mommy"

J: Mommy"

Daddy: "And daddy"

J: (pointing to some dirt on the sheet) "daddy, daddy!!!"

Daddy: "Yes, there is a spot there."

Mommy: "We will wash it....later...."

Daddy: "Thank you for nursery"

J (starts singing): "I am a child of God"

Daddy: "Yes, very nice, I am a child of God..."

J (still singing): "he has sent me here..."

Daddy: "Thank you for music..."

At this point Joseph noticed that if he falls forward towards the bed he bounces back, so he continues to do this till the end of the prayer.

In other prayer news, we can hardly get through a prayer without Joseph correcting us all on how to fold our arms. If we are folding our hands he says your name repeatedly until you fold your arms instead. This can be problematic in public places because he gets quite loud. I'll try to capture it on video someday.

Pediatric Update

Thank you everyone for your concern. Joseph is doing fine, he's just sick and grumpy with a virus, which is what caused the fever. Apparently the most recent thoughts on these kinds of seizures are that there isn't anything you can do to prevent it, even giving tylenol sooner doesn't prevent the seizure. I want to do some research on this, but it appears that the main thing is to keep the child on their side during the seizure so their airways stay clear. It is more common than I realized. I had never heard of it before, but now that I have been telling people what happened I have had several people tell me it has happened to their child or to themselves as a child. There is a chance of it occurring again now that it has happened once. Of course I am nervous about it because it was no fun to watch, but I have to trust the information I have and my instincts and go from there. This website has more extensive information if you're interested. It's just a good thing to know about if you have kids or are a caregiver.

9-1-1 yet again!

I had my second experience calling 911 (well, actually my first since the other time was Warren on the phone with them not me.)
Rebecca was downstairs with Joseph and called "Help, help!"
I came down to find Joseph (who had had a fever of 101.4 that morning) lying on his side, foaming at his mouth, purple lips and shaking and making strange noises. I thought, could he just be dehydrated and started to try and give him some water while I dialed 911. The dispatcher told me he was probably having a seizure and told me to put him on his side and the medics would be there shortly. The EMTs said the same thing, they felt like he had had a febrile seizure but wanted to take him to the hospital for testing and to rule out meningitis. Rebecca and I followed the ambulance and spent the next two hours in the emergency room. Joseph had his blood drawn, had an IV to hydrate him and wasn't too happy about the whole thing. But he was a great little boy. It broke Rebecca's heart to watch them draw his blood. I didn't think to tell her not to look, I was busy trying to get him not to look.
Warren left work and joined us. When he got there Joseph said: "Daddy, owie."
Apparently some children get seizures if their fever suddenly spikes. I had been on the phone with the nurse that morning and she said, we usually recommend giving them a fever reducer if it gets to 102. And since it hadn't gotten that high I was still going to wait a little while and watch it. I was under the impression that you shouldn't just try to kill every little fever with tylenol because the fever is trying to fight the infection. I need to talk to my pediatrician and learn more. So now we have been told that since this has happened once the chances are higher that it could happen again. The doctor at the ER said they get a lot of first time febrile seizure patients, but once people learn about it they don't come in the next time.
I'm grateful everything is okay. I'm grateful that Rebecca had the frame of mind to realize something was wrong and let me know. She told me she saw Joseph's leg shaking and thought he was being silly so she went to go look what he was doing, but then she saw that his eyes were closed and he didn't look right so she called for help. I'm grateful we got home as quickly as we did. Does anyone have any experience with these types of seizures?
Anyway, we're just glad we're home and doing well.

Happy Father's Day

Rebecca's present made at kindergarten

I love my DAD. You are a gooD DAD.

This heart picture was her own spontaneous activity this afternoon. I love it when kids are learning how to write. It is one of my favorite things.

And last but not least, the children decided for their father's day present to give themselves to their daddy. What better present could there be? After all, they are the reason he is a father!



I love you Warren. One of the reasons I married you is I knew you would be an excellent father. And of course, it is true. You're the best daddy my kids could ever want. Their favorite time of day is when daddy walks through the door. You know that. You get to experience it every day. Happy Father's Day!

First week of Summer Vacation!

WE LOVE SUMMER VACATION!

Of course we had to go to Disneyland one more time with the kiddos. We stayed till 11:00 pm, something we've never done with them. Highlights: on the carousel every child was given a crown to wear. Joseph proudly and very seriously kept his crown on until our two rounds on the carousel were over. The drawing academy. We've never done this before. They give you a 15 minute art lesson and teach you how to sketch a Disney character. We did Donald and Minnie. Click on the picture and get a close up of Rebecca's Donald. She did a fantastic job.
The Pixar parade and the Toy Story ride were our other favorites for the night.

Our other adventures included a few playdates and a couple of visits to Buccaneer Bay. These photos are to wet your appetite in hopes that some of our LA friends will come down for the day and go play with us in the water.
What a fun week.

Hollywood Bowl

Hollywood Bowl 2009

The Hollywood Bowl has become somewhat of a yearly summer tradition for us. It's an outdoor concert nestled in the Hollywood hills. Warren's work goes once a summer and Warren and I usually go to one other concert by ourselves. One of the fun things about the Hollywood Bowl is all the picnicking going on before the concert. I think that is as much part of the fun as the concerts themselves. There are little picnic areas all over the place and additionally people sit on every corner and side of the walkways on benches picnicking with tablecloths, goblets and all varieties of fancy food.

Friday night we went to opening night at the Bowl with Warren's boss, his wife, and some of their friends. I was in charge of the picnic. I was a little nervous, but was told by Warren's boss just to get everything from Trader Joe's. So we had a spread of a variety of breads, fancy cheeses, meats, fruit, cheesecake and some other sweet treats. Everyone loved it and it was delicious if I may say so myself. The concert included Kiri Te Kanawa, Frederica von Stade, Josh Groban and John Williams among others. It was a lot of fun. In fact, John Williams, who was really only there as a presenter that evening conducted part of his Star Wars score with fireworks going on in sync to the music above the bowl.

Hollywood Bowl 2008

Speaking of John Williams, last summer we went to see him at the Bowl, conducting all sorts of his compositions. I think that concert was one of my most memorable ever. Other fun memories include Julie Andrews, and another favorite, Harry Connick Jr. If you've never done it you should try it. It's exhausting, the drive there can be brutal and waiting to get out of stacked parking can take a long time, but it's still worth going. We've loved our Hollywood Bowl experiences.

Dirt

I was pulling off Joseph shorts while he was lying on top of Rebecca's bed. Suddenly a whole bunch of dirt came spilling out of his pockets. We had just returned from a playdate at a friend's house. I apologized to Rebecca about the dirt on her bed and said:

"Joseph, did you fill your pockets with dirt?"

Joseph answered, yes, but then, feeling a little guilty I presume, Rebecca said:

"Maybe I accidentally put dirt in his pockets...(and with even more emphasis) accidentally."

Okay, well, then you deserve the dirt on your bed. But thanks for the confession.

Kindergarten Graduation

I can't believe the end of Kindergarten is here already. When the principal got up after all the names of the kids had been read and said: "I hereby present to you the 1st grade class of 2010" I actually got a little emotional. It's been a big year for us. Two schools, three kindergarten teachers, a big move, changes in our life...
Rebecca had a great year and I am proud of her and how well she adjusted to all the changes. She made friends wherever she went, was admitted into the Principal's Math Club for writing her numbers from 1-100, received a Principal's Award, won third place in her track and field event and had a great year.
Above all, she is and always has been a sweet big sister to Joseph and a loving daughter.

Memory lane: the trampoline

I have a hundred memories associated with this trampoline. Break the egg, hop from blue corner to blue corner, back flips, front flips, being bounced high by my uncles, the dirt that would collect in the middle of the trampoline and jump up in the air with you, running to the trampoline with wet feet and sliding around, the feel on my feet, the smell in the air, the view of the garden, the hot sun....
It has a big rip in it now, but my kids still get some use out of it. Rebecca calls it the "jumper."
I'm sure all my cousins have similar memories of this trampoline. My grandpa was always one to create fun things for the kids to do and this was one of those fun things. Thanks, Grandpa, for the great times.

December 1985

June 2009

Nothing like a good book

They kept going and going like that. One book after another.