Trip to Dallas ( 3 years and 17.75 months)

After Great Wolf the kids got really sick.  Sydney had a bilateral ear infection.  She got started on antibiotics.  Austin had a bad cold with fevers and cough.  I gave him his inhaler a few times because his cough was so bad.  We even kept them home from school on Thursday because we were leaving for Texas on Friday and needed them to get better.

Luckily they did get a little better. Friday morning my mom came and played with the kids so I could finish packing.  After lunch we drove to the airport.  Our flight was at 3:30pm to Charlotte. The kids were pretty good on the plane.  Flying requires constant entertaining but we know that going into it.  They like watching their Kindles, playing with stickers, or reading books.  Sydney did not like having the window shade up so she always wanted it down.  When we arrived in Charlotte we ate dinner.  Then went to our gate.  We found out that our flight had been delayed because of an ice storm in the east which had our plane delayed.  We were delayed about 2 hours.  Brian let the kids run around the airport.  They were bored and needed something to do.  Finally we boarded our plane to Dallas.

That flight was easier because the kids both slept most of the flight.  When we arrived in Dallas the airport shuttles had stopped since it was midnight.  We went and got our rental car.  It was not what we planned but what we had to do.  Brian installed the car seats and we drove to our hotel.  We checked in and tried to go to bed.  Despite being 2am back home, the kids were wide awake when we arrived at the hotel so it took some work to get them to go back to sleep.

In the morning we drove out to Donnie and Cheri's house.  Everyone was there waiting on us.  It was so nice to see everyone.  Cheri made an awesome breakfast.  She got the kids so much stuff.  They really liked it.  They had stuff to play with like bubbles, puzzles, books, and blankets.  We hung out at their house for the day.  They have a playground right across the street.  It was perfect.  Austin and Sydney loved it.

That evening we went out to dinner then went and saw some Chinese lanterns.  It was really neat to see.  Eveyone had a great time.  It was nice having so many people with us to help push the stroller or carry Austin.  Sydney really wouldn't go to anyone other than Cheri.

The next morning we all went to the Dallas zoo.  The zoo was awesome.  We walked around and looked at the animals.  Austin had everyone carry him around.  He wore his uncles out.  :)  The best part of the zoo was you could feed giraffes.  Austin and Sydney loved it!  It was really cool.  We got some really good pictures of it too.  The weather was beautiful and it was a great day to spend at the zoo.

That night we went to an Hibachi restaurant for dinner.  Austin and Sydney were a little scared at times but did enjoy watching them cook in front of them.  It was neat.  Sydney loved eating shrimp and steak.  This was her first time eating sea food and she liked it.  Austin did not eat any of his dinner for some reason.  We got him a doggie bag and he ended up eating it back at the house.

Monday was our last day there.  We went to a local park with a bigger playground.  Again Austin had a great time.  He was every where playing.  Sydney had fun too.  They played with balls and bubbles too.  They even went and fed the ducks.  It was another fun day.  We had dinner at Donnie and Cheri's house.  Sadly it was time for us to leave to head towards the airport because our flight was really early Tuesday morning.  We had a great time with everyone in Texas!  I was sad to leave.

Once we checked into the hotel, Brian went and returned the rental car.  Austin did not take a nap that day so he was super tired and went to sleep before Brian got home.  Sydney however really did not want to go to bed. Finally we got her to sleep.

We woke up at 4 am to get ready to leave for the airport.  We packed up and went down to the lobby to catch a shuttle to the airport.  We were the only ones on the shuttle.  Once we got dropped off Brian was placing the car seats on the luggage so he could move them around the airport.  He belts them to a carry on suitcase so he can easily wheel them around  It is very impressive on how he does it.  Then I looked for my purse and could not find it.  My heart sank. I thought I had it on the shuttle but the morning was a blur so I wasn't sure.  In my purse we all of our passports, my wallet, and phone.  Brian called the hotel and they had to check with the driver.  About 10 minutes later they called back and said it was in the shuttle.  Luckily the driver brought it back to me.  I think Brian wanted to kill me for doing this.  He says now Austin is in charge of the passports because he is more responsible!

The flight home went well. Austin watched his Kindle then took a nap.  Sydney played with stickers and read books.  It was a direct flight.  When we got home we had about 8 inches of snow in our driveway.  Brian had to do the driveway before he went to work.  I went grocery shopping and tried to get laundry done.  I love traveling but it's a lot of work packing and unpacking with everyday chores on top.  We had a great time in Dallas though!

During our Dallas trip Austin was doing good with the potty for a few days.  Eventually he regressed to decide to only go in his pull ups and not use the potty.  At the zoo he had to go potty and I left the potty seat in the car.  Austin was very upset by this but I thought it may help him with starting to go to the potty at school.  After a lot of talking Austin did go pee pee in the potty at the zoo without his potty seat.  However he did not use a potty again until we got back home!  It took a few days back home but now he is using the potty every time for pee pee when we are at home or out (Walmart, Dr office, etc) but he still won't use it at school.

Ear tubes Again and Great Wolf (3 years and 17.5 months)

Austin had his ear tubes placed again on January 27, 2014.  We decided to have it at Rainbow this time.  It was a longer drive and the weather was nasty that morning.  We made it fine however the doctor was running late.  The surgery was suppose to be at 8:30 am however they did not take him back until around 9 am.  Austin got to pick who he wanted to go back with him and he picked Daddy.  It worked out because I went back with him the first time.  Brian kept Austin busy talking about Mousekatools and looking for tools in the operating room.

The surgery was quick and the doctor came out and talked with us.  He had a lot of fluid behind his eardrum so it was good that we got the tubes again.  Hopefully this will be the last time.  Austin woke up and we were not there.  It took them a while for them to call us back.  He was a little dazed but basically himself.  He did not want to drink anything but he had to drink before we could leave.  Finally he drank some juice and we were on our way home.

My mom stayed with Sydney while we were at the hospital.  This helped since it would have been very hard to bring them both to the hospital.  When we got home Austin was back to himself.  He was running all over the house, jumping around, and playing with Sydney.  You wouldn't know anything had happened.  There is no slowing Austin down.

Austin has been potty trained at home for pee pee.  He has not went poopy on the potty yet.  He will also go in public places if we have his Mickey Mouse toilet seat.  He will not go at school.  We don't understand why.  We have tried and tried.  He now wears pull ups because he will keep them dry and use the potty unless he poops.  He is still not dry at night though so he wears a diaper then.

This past weekend we went to Great Wolf Lodge in Sandusky.  We went with Lisa, Keith, and Kaitlyn.  We left on Sunday after lunch and stayed until lunch time on Monday.  Austin had so much fun.  He loved all the water slides.  Sydney had fun too but Austin really had fun!  The water park closes at 9pm.  They usually start going to bed at 8.  Austin still wanted to play at 8:50 and we had to carry him out!   It was nice to get away.  Kaitlyn and Sydney played together a lot when Austin was off doing something they were not interested in.  They had a smaller pool area with a little slide that they both liked.  Austin liked the little bit bigger water slide and climbing up an area in the middle that had water falling on it. There were areas that he could turn on and off the water using knobs, ropes, and wheels.  It was a good time.

Austin was quick to claim a bed in our hotel room at Great Wolf Lodge.  Can't you just hear him asking, "So where is everybody else sleeping?"

Winter Weather Fun

It has been a very cold winter with lots of snow this year.  The past 2 winters have been very mild.  Last winter Brian only used a snowblower once.  This year we've had lots of snow and it's been very cold.  We have had snow on the ground most of the winter since it hasn't often gotten warm enough to melt much.  It has been somewhat refreshing to have a real winter again for a change.  The kids have had a lot of fun with it so far.

Early on this year, Brian decided to shovel the snow into a giant pile for the kids.  He originally did this with Austin's help.  The first few snows were only a few inches, so it was more reasonable to do. I say more reasonable because our driveway is still 100 feet long and two cars wide, so that's a lot of snow to move.  He wanted to preserve the snow for them as long as possible knowing our limited snows last year.  Eventually he ended up using the snow blower to blow it into the pile and it got bigger and bigger.  Austin called it his snowman and would put a bucket on it that he called his hat.  He also brought out carrots to put on eyes and ears.

The kids across the street built a giant snowman that was 7 feet tall.  Austin went over to see it and helped a little and got his picture taken with them.  They have been over to sled ride in our backyard at night with Austin and Sydney.  They even played on the playground.  The yellow slide was icy and was so fast that it would shoot them out the bottom a good 5-6 feet from the base.  Sydney went down it twice and loved it. Apparently she has a need for speed. Austin did it once too.

We also made snow ice cream this year.  One of the kids books mentioned it, so Brian looked it up online.  You just mix sweetened condensed milk with snow and serve immediately.  The kids helped scoop up some clean snow after we got a few inches one day and we made some.  They both liked it.  We had some too and it was good.

In addition to having regular snowfalls, it has been remarkably cold this year too.  That has allowed the snow to pile up and never melt.  Our temps have been the coldest in 20 years.  Lake Erie froze solid for the first time in our lifetimes (last was 1979).  We've had two waves of bitter cold with temperatures -10 F or colder with wind chills even colder.  We've seen days where the high temperature was below zero!  Fortunately both frigid periods were early in the work week when I was home with the kids, so I stayed inside.  Brian worked.  The one day leaving work, he said it was so cold you could feel the inside of your nose freeze when you inhaled (the temperature was close to -10 that day).  The one night our wind chills were close to -40.  Brian found it fun and played outside.  He used an infrared thermometer to measure the temperature of the gutters on our house and they measured -40 F degrees.  It was so cold, we actually had ice on the inside of our windows!

Brian also went outside and blew bubbles to watch them freeze.  They would fly away and you would see them pop and little pieces of ice fall to the ground.  During our first cold spell, it didn't occur to him to take pictures.  He said it was also probably too windy.  During our next cold spell, it was not as windy the one morning and temperatures were -12.  We had clear skies, so Brian went outside and blew bubbles and took photos of them freezing on the hood of our car.  He also took pictures of them frozen on the ground, but they were not as impressive since there wasn't good contrast against the white snow.  He went into work late the one day and spent about an hour taking photos.  He got some really cool photos of frozen bubbles.  It was too cold and the kids were too little to go out with him, but they'll have so much fun with him doing these crazy things as they get older.

In the bubble photo below, I briefly went outside to help Brian.  I blew bubbles while he took pictures. Most pop, but this one landed on the hood.  Brian took this photo before it had completely frozen.  You can see our reflection and the rising sun behind us.  It's kind of cool.