Some Words on Puke

Ever since the 2016-17 school year started, Tyler has had some puking issues. Yes, he has always been an easy puker, but it has become quite frequent in the past year. Poor guy. 

We had decided to move him to a different school this year. Thurgood Marshall is one of the school district's HCC schools. HCC stands for Highly Capable Cohort...basically, gifted. I'm not bragging here. I truly feel that being gifted comes from more than academics. Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be the way the district sees it. But, I'm not going to go into my issues with this program. 

The school itself has been lovely. We like the campus, the teachers, the administrators, etc. It's a much bigger school than Montlake, but the community building is still pretty strong. Unfortunately, the whole package has not been a good fit for our boy. The school start time is almost 2 hours after Montlake. Ty still goes to bed and wakes up at the about the same time as Vincent. We have encouraged an earlier bedtime, or for him to sleep in, but let's face it, it's hard to when your brothers aren't in bed, too. The later start means a later dismissal. By the time our guy gets home from school, he's pretty tired. 

The first few weeks of the year, he was throwing up 1-2 times a week. It was miserable for all of us. We thought he was overwhelmed by the new, tougher karate class, because it seemed like those were the days he suffered from most. But, looking back, he was just so tired that the extra energy needed for this advanced karate class was already spent. He stopped karate, and it did seem to help a little, but would still have puke spells about once a month.

This is Tyler's typical "puke day" routine: 1) Ty complains that he doesn't feel well, usually in the afternoon; 2) we check his temperature. Usually he has no fever or ever so slightly warmer than usual, but not a true 100.4 fever temperature; 3) we ask him to take it easy, maybe he'll lay down, check in on him from time to time; 4) he pukes; 5) he skips dinner (maybe pukes, again), and takes a nap; 6) he wakes a couple of hours later, is hungry, and feeling better, but we are still very cautious and only let him eat plain food, like crackers; 7) goes to bed for the night; 8) wakes up next morning feeling "Great!" or "Awesome!" Sometimes this varies a little, but it's still pretty close.

All this is to say that yesterday was another puke day. Difference was it involved me taking a Lyft from work to grab the car from home to drive to his school to pick him up. 

T-Minus 1 Week

My littlest dumpling is turning 4 years old in one week. Wow. Time truly feels like it zoomed by at light speed. It's an especially significant year because as he turns 4, I will not be pregnant, unlike when dumpling #2 turned this age. I am done making babies (*sigh*).

I've been thinking a lot about this upcoming birthday. Age 4 isn't a really a milestone year. Like, 5 is halfway to a decade old, 10 is two-digits, 18 is voting age, 21 is drinking age, and so on. But, in our family, turning 4 means you get a "big" birthday party. This is the age I set as when I should be able to throw my kid a birthday party that doesn't only involve family members and maybe one set of neighbors if they happen to be home when I call them that very day to come over for cake. This is the birthday party that he gets to pick his guests, I make a big stink about decorations, and party favors, and cake, and food, and, and, and...

Unfortunately, being the youngest of 3, his Mama has grown tired. I decided that he can have a big party, but it will have to be on his actual birthday, which is a TUESDAY during spring break, and not on a weekend day some time before or after the actual day. If you are a parent, you know that throwing a party on a different day means you end up having 2 birthday celebrations. I did that for big bros in December and February. Along with Christmas, Daddy's birthday, Valentine's Day, etc. Tired. So, my sweet, sweet baby dumpling will get a special celebration, but only once. Let's be sure, though, it's most definitely not for lack of love, but for lack of energy.

 

Is It Spring Yet?

Oh, it's been a little while since I've last posted. No reason in particular for it. Mostly because nobody really reads this so-called blog, but also because I haven't been up to it.

Moving on...

I'm pretty done with winter. Everyday I look at my weather app on my phone, and it's the same as the day before; 40s, cloudy, some rain. Today, though, it's 50 degrees, cloudy, and some rain. It's an improvement.

At Crosby's dance class this morning, one of the other moms hot-tipped us on chicks being at the hardware store! You bet I took my little man straight there after class. This, and the ever so slightly warmer weather, are positive signs that spring is around the corner...right?

Where do you find these chicks? 

Greenwood Hardware (True Value) 

7201 Greenwood Ave N

Seattle WA 98103

10 Year Anniversary

Hard to believe that 10 years have gone by since the day David and I got married. That was such a beautiful day. Today, I got to wake up with the love of my life by my side, in a gorgeous setting in Walla Walla, WA. We are celebrating at Inn at Abeja. This place is incredible. And, it's harvest season, so the wine makers are busy at production, sorting and pressing grapes. It's truly a treat to be here!

The tasting room and winery.

The Carriage House Suite, where we are staying.

We arrived on Wednesday afternoon. We were welcomed with a beautiful bottle of the winery's Innkeeper's Red. While we enjoyed our wine on the back deck of our room, we were greeted by Casey, the resident cat. 

We then went for a walk around the grounds. There's a small creek behind us, which we have a view of from the deck. We saw some wild turkeys crossing a road, and I saved a bird from a net (used to keep the birds out of the grape vine, ironically).

View from our deck.

Look at this sky.

I rescued this little guy. It closed its eyes while I stroked its head to calm it down. 

There's A Nip In The Air

After a summer full of warm days, the weather quickly took a turn in the past week. Rain coats and light down coats are being dusted off and put back on the Hunt family members. The heater kicked on this morning!

We are (hopefully) t-minus 6 days to the start of a new school year. It's been a long summer - 12 weeks this year. I so wanted to be different than the other moms who can't wait to send their kids off to school again. They were in various camps for most of the summer, but I left the last 3 weeks wide open for spontaneous outings. Let me tell you, it's pretty exhausting coming up with stuff to please 3 different ages and personalities. Not to mention, expensive. Even a bus ride downtown now costs around $10 round-trip, depending on how long we stay out. Cost of parking around the city is the pits. And, the food! Unless I pack our whole refrigerator with us, I inevitably end up buying some food to feed these constantly hungry boys. Or, I pack all of them food, but have forgotten myself. 

This last week of summer is always bittersweet for me. The older boys got to spend a lot of time together, bickering and bonding these past few months. It's nice they attend a small school and run into each other sometimes during the day, but it's a drastic change from the near constant companionship of the summer. They spent lots of time with baby brother, too. When he's not with his older siblings, he will ask where they are.

Speaking of baby brother, he will be starting preschool next week, too. I can't believe it. 

In the meantime, with the colder (sometimes wet) mornings, it's not as easy to let the toddler fulfill his digging needs in the sandbox outside. He was really sad about it this morning, so I improvised with some dried black beans.

Brothers bonding over lunch time at Veggie Grill.

Seattle Center Playground

New playground at Seattle Center is awesome. It's really arts and music focused. The above rock pit for toddlers has metal logs inside a log cage for little ones to grab a fistful of pebbles, drop in, and make "music." The two large slides are the perfect solution for the need to burn off some big kid energy. If it's a warm day, the giant, nearby fountain plays music while water sprays high up into the air. It's great fun to sit back and watch, or run in and get soaked.

Murray Update

Yes, Murray is still dead. Last night, before the kids went to bed, David & I started asking Tyler how Murrary's doing. He said, "He's just hanging around in the water..."

We went to look at him with Ty. After a little examination and analysis of the situation, Tyler calmly said, "...he might be dead." He explained how sometimes tadpoles die soon after turning into a frog. He was so matter-of-fact. 

He did eventually get sad. Very sad. Poor buddy. He said, "I'm scared I will have a dream that I turned into Murray, and then I die." Oh dear. What finally made him feel better was that I said we'll sew a little frog stuffie. Now, I gotta figure out how to do that.