more videos

In this video Jackson shows off his amazing counting skills ;-)



Ratatouille is one of the kids' favorite movies. They've seen it a few times and by a few times I mean probably 100. They've never really quoted any movies they watch a lot but the other day out of nowhere Jackson sticks up his thumb Fonzie style and says "his thumb". It was so out of nowhere that it took me quite a while to even know what he was talking about. Eventually I remembered that there is a part in the movie where one of the chefs looks at the camera, says "I once killed a man." He holds up his thumb and continues, "with this thumb". I had to get a video of him saying it. It sounds more like he's saying "his" thumb but he means this. I think the french accent throws him off :-)

Videos

I've had these videos on flickr forever I just kept forgetting to link them.

In this one we are shown the silliness of being rolled around in the storage container...




Here they say night night and pretend to sleep. There is even talk of a care bear which I believe was in there with them.




Here the contents of the container is revealed...

32 Months

Dear Madison and Jackson,



You both continue to be a challenge this month. The fighting. The screaming. The whining. The tantrums. We've made headway on how to deal with it all but sometimes it's just a lot to handle. But when you're not fighting you are so incredibly sweet to each other. If one of you coughs the other says "you ok Dachan/Ma-ee?" followed by "tank you".

You've been really enjoying your tumbling class although we've had to miss the last two weeks. I've even seen progress in your participation in class. When it first started neither of you would follow what the teacher was doing but now you both watch what she is doing and join in.
There really isn't any gymnastics in the class and I hope to get you into a different class that is a little more involved.

You are having conversations with each other now beyond just arguing over something. I love to listen to the things you come up with in your room after waking up.

We are all napping in my bed now between 2 and 5. I used to put you both in your beds, sit with Jackson until he fell asleep then take Maddie into my bed. Eventually Maddie wouldn't stay quiet enough for Jackson to settle down so I would send her to my bed while getting Jackson to sleep. Now we just all sleep in my bed. I just love being all cozy and snuggly with you both.

You're still both horrible picky eaters. There is really nothing you will eat on a regular basis so it makes it so difficult to cook for you.

This month we started swapping day care with Gianna's mom Michelle. One day a week she and I take turns taking care of all three of you so the other can get some things done. It's been so great and helpful that we're thinking of adding another day a week so we both get a day off every week. You guys love to play with Gianna and always talk about going to GG's house. You even saw a red SUV today and said "GG's car!"

Dear Jackson,





You continue to be a very naughty boy always getting into things you shouldn't. You really just can't help yourself. Which leads to this month's accident. While we were waiting to find out what the doctors were going to do next we really didn't have time to dwell on the unthinkable possibility that you might not stay with us. Of course since then I've thought about it but have to stop myself because it's just too upsetting. Just don't ever leave me. You make my world go round, kiddo.

You absolutely love to make people laugh. It always amazes me that you get the concept of doing something that is funny so that people will laugh at you. One day when trying to take a nap you randomly reached out, grabbed my nose, and said, "got your nose!" Sometimes you'll do it and say "got your boogers!" Just today you grabbed your baby doll's nose and said "got your nose!" Too funny.

You are starting to count this month! You still don't have the order right but you like to point at things and say numbers. If I ask you what a number is your answer is always seven. You don't know any letters yet either. And forget about colors. You think everything is orange. You argue with Maddie at traffic lights over whether the light is red or green.

You STILL bring up the elephant ride at the Topsfield Fair completely out of nowhere! Today I asked you to tell Michelle who we saw the other day (Santa) and you said "Jachan rode de efant, Ma-ee rode de turles".

You are so incredibly thoughtful of Maddie. If I give you something to eat or drink you always want some to give to Maddie too. You kiss her boo boos, you randomly hug her which is usually followed by her pushing you away.

If you grow up and "turn" gay, I take full responsibility. There are some people in our lives who think the fact that you ADORE a baby doll that I bought you and your sister is going to "make" you gay. In my opinion it means you're learning to be a good daddy - gay or straight - and what's wrong with that?

You are still very affectionate with me. You love to hug me and sit with me and always be close. When you randomly kiss me I could just die and go to heaven. One day we were cuddling for nap time and you kissed me on the nose and said "Make mommy happy". Yes, buddy you make me happier than I ever knew I could be.

Dear Madison,




You are either very serious or very silly and cute. When you're serious you won't crack a smile for anything, you go into a screaming fit in zero to sixty but when you're silly and cute you skip around the house on your toes, you tickle me, and sing silly songs in a high voice.

You tend to ask questions that you already know the answers to. If I know you know the answer I'll always throw the question back at you and you'll answer it. Last week when Jackson was in the hospital you were with us in the ER and asked to see Jackson and Daddy so I brought you in to see them once Jackson was all hooked up. I told you that Jackson was sick and that the doctors were going to make him better. Later that night you were out with Auntie Courtney and Uncle Stevie and asked where Jackson was. They both hesitated to answer because they weren't sure what to say. Then you answered, "Dachan in da hospi-al. Gonna make him all be-er."

Last week I was trying to teach you to recognize particular words in a book. I focused on the word "the". I showed it to you where ever it was printed. Later that day I pointed to the word and asked you what it was and you said "the"! You know all of your capital letters, colors, and numbers 1-10.

I got you some lacing cards and that is definitely an activity you enjoy.

Your tantrums have eased some but you definitely still have them.

I love you baby girl!!

Pictures with Santa 2009

Here are three years of Santa pictures!

I can't believe how much they look alike in the first one. They never look alike to me! But the poor things look terrified.

Horrible overexposed picture from last year...but funny that Maddie is holding an ornament like in this year's picture. And that Maddie was stone faced in this year's and last year's and Jackson is giggling in both.

Jackson wouldn't go near Santa when we first got there but Maddie went right up and high fived him. Jackson just clung to me. Luckily no one was in line so Santa had time to play a little catch with Jackson with an ornament. After that I was able to place them both on Santa's lap with no problem.

Before we got there I was telling them where we were going and who we were going to see and what they were going to do. I really don't think they remember Christmas from last year at all but I asked Maddie what she was going to tell Santa she wanted for Christmas and she actually answered "toys!" I was blown away that she knew what to answer.



After that we went behind the display to get some pictures for our holiday card and for their 33 month "birthday". Uncle Mike, Auntie Kristen and Alyssa were able to meet us at the mall and I couldn't have gotten the pictures I did without them. Mike even bribed with cookies. I was surprised they actually listened to him although Maddie would NOT crack a smile.

Then we went to the new play area outside Macy's. It was perfect. My only complaint is there is no gate on it so kids just wander out.

My little monkey. No wonder we have to keep an eye on him.

The details

This is a really long post. It's really just for my own memory so you certainly don't have to read it. Once again I want to thank everyone for their well wishes.

Sunday at 9:50 am, my mother found Jackson with two open bottles of pills in her bedroom. Ativan (an old rx from 2005 used as a sleeping pill) and melatonin (a natural sleep aid). She cleaned up the pills sincerely thinking that there was no way he would have eaten any. He spits out things that actually taste good let alone a bitter pill.

At 10:00 Jackson started to act groggy and was mumbling and not walking steadily. She called us at home simply saying that he was acting funny and that he had gotten into some pills and wanted to know what we wanted to do. We told her to call poison control. She called back saying that they said to get him to the ER. We said we'd meet her there.

At that point I called Chris's mother to rush over to my mother's house so she could help get the kids into the car. Chris and I pulled into the parking lot at the same time as our mothers. I got out of the car to help get him out. I really didn't expect to see him the way he was. My mother rushed to get him out of his carseat and threw him over her shoulder. He was all floppy but his eyes were half open. He saw me and said in the most pathetic little voice, "mommy". I stood in shock while my mom ran in with him and Eileen was screaming at me to run with them. Eileen and Chris parked the cars and came in with Maddie.

There was absolutely no waiting. We were brought directly into a room where the doctor was waiting. Every time someone else would ask what happened and what he took the person would gasp in horror. It happened with a few different people until finally I yelled "Why is everyone doing that??? What does that mean??" At that point the doctor came to me and explained that the ativan was making him sleepy and it was important that he didn't go to sleep so they were going to give him an antidote. The other issue was that he was vomiting even though ativan is known to suppress vomiting. They especially didn't want him to fall asleep and not be able to protect his airway if he vomited again. They were trying for a while to get an iv in but he was so squirmy (a very good sign) that they had to try THREE different locations before finally getting one in. Then they weren't able to get blood from that iv so they had to also draw blood from another location. The poor kid was screaming his head off but you could tell he just wanted to go to sleep. Plus they had given him zofran to help with the vomiting which can make you sleepy. After all the poking was done he ended up falling asleep. They gave him 4 doses of the antidote and still wasn't waking up. He needed to be transferred to Children's Hospital in Boston to the ICU but he couldn't be transferred asleep and vomiting unless he had a tube down his throat. Luckily the 5th dose woke him up but he still couldn't be transferred because we needed to wait for a paramedic crew so they could administer the antidote again if necessary. The crew that initially came were EMTs and couldn't give him the medicine. There was even talk of a helicopter.

The paramedic crew eventually made it and packed Jackson up. He was awake but not talking. His vital signs were all OK and being continually monitored. I rode in the front of the ambulance. He vomited again on the ride in. My mom and Eileen brought Maddie to Eileen's house where Courtney met them so she could take care of Maddie. Chris went home real quick before heading into Boston.

The crew brought Jackson and I directly up to the ICU where a whole group of doctors and nurses were waiting for him. I knew if he saw me he would cry for me to help him (which he had already done on a few different occasions) so I tried to stay out of sight. He was such a good little boy. He just sat there looking around while they connected all of the monitors they needed to. He had a blood pressure cuff on his leg with a wire, an O2 sensor on his other foot with a wire, three leads on his back with wires, and two iv tubes. Chris came in and as soon as Jackson saw him he started crying. My mom and Eileen came shortly after.
The rest of the day was spent catching vomit and making sure he didn't choke on it. By the afternoon the doctors said it was ok if he fell asleep especially since he was being monitored. He was pretty cranky and not able to get comfortable with all the wires. Eileen got him to sleep finally with her famous rendition of Too Ra Loo Ra. It was around 3 at that point and none of us had had anything to eat all day so we went down to the cafeteria. He slept for a few hours and during that time was when the fun began for the rest of us. Enter DSS.

We were all interviewed separately and even though we knew we had nothing to hide it was still nerve wracking. I felt like no matter what I said they didn't believe me. Not that they made me feel that way...they were VERY nice. In the morning it was determined that no further investigation was needed which was a nice relief.

Sunday evening around 9pm our mothers had already left. We were playing Life on the iphone when we heard an adorable little voice blurt out "PUPPY!!" We went running over to the crib where we found Jackson sitting up. He said "Hi Mommy! Hi Da-ee!" We had a small conversation about what I don't remember. All I remember is crying tears of happiness. It was the first time he spoke since the morning and I knew it meant he was getting better. After a while of being awake he started to get aggravated with the wires and was crying for us to take them "off". The nurse was able to find this random animated puppy movie and he absolutely LOVED it. Overnight whenever he woke up he would ask for it to be on. I didn't go to sleep until 4 and was woken up at 6:30 when Jackson woke up. It was so cute because every time he woke up from a nap (that's really all he was doing) he was in such a good mood and being so silly and cute. At that point he hadn't vomited all night so the nurse suggested we try some juice to see if he could keep it down. He only had a few sips and threw up twice. They ended up giving him more zofran at that point which made him tired again but too uncomfortable to get to sleep because of all the wires. Chris and I took turns literally wrestling with him while he screamed like I've never heard him scream. Nothing we did would calm him down. At that point an x-ray tech came in to take x-rays to see if there was something inside of him that was making him vomit. Well, no way in hell was he going to calm down to lay on the x-ray pad and stay still. Chris and had already been listening to the screaming for over an hour and with very little sleep we were at the end of our rope. The x-ray tech was NOT nice. She had absolutely no compassion whatsoever and once she told Chris that she would have to use restraints to get the x-rays done he lost it! He was yelling at her telling her to leave them alone and that the x-rays could wait until Jackson calmed down. There were a few f-bombs. It wasn't pretty. She didn't give in though and somehow the x-rays got done. I don't even know how because I left the room I was so upset. After she left we still couldn't get Jackson to calm down. It was probably another half hour and it was eating me up inside that no one was trying to help us. No one came in to see WHY he was crying. I went out into the hallway and yelled "WE NEED HELP IN HERE!! I don't understand why no one is concerned about what is going on in here. We're obviously not able to handle this situation!!!" Of course a heard of people came running. I spoke to the nurse if it would be possible for them to take care of him because obviously whatever we were doing wasn't helping. She said of course and that they deal with crying babies all day long. Luckily I convinced Chris to leave the room with me. We went down and got some breakfast. When we got back up I asked the reception to call and see how he was and he was already asleep. We dealt with the same screaming for over an hour fit two more times while at the hospital and once again when we got home. His voice was all scratchy.

At some point during one of the later crying fits I asked the nurse if he could try some crackers and see if he could keep them down. She said yes so I asked Jackson if he wanted some crackers. His crying came to an immediate halt and he said, "Yes." The kid chowed on crackers! He was shoving them in his mouth and saying "More cackers!" After a while he started to cry again so the nurse suggested we take another break so she could deal with it. We went back about half hour later thinking he'd be asleep but when we got back he was laughing and flirting with the nurses while they fed him pudding and milk and crackers. I was so mad that we went in though because the second he saw us he started crying again!!!! I think at that point Chris was able to get him to go to sleep by playing Too Ra Loo Ra on the iphone. Luckily he kept all that food down and when he woke up the nurse started his discharge. Once she unhooked the wires from him he was able to get down from the crib and she brought in trucks and balls for him to play with. Chris's mom had come in to visit so she was there to help us get him ready to go.

Once we were discharged Chris went to get the car while Jackson and I walked around the lobby and of course he wandered into the gift shop. I bought him a little model car that he said he wanted and I bought a little horse figure for Madison. He cried most of the way home because something had set him off. We stopped at my parents' house to pick up Maddie. He was OK when we were there but when it was time to get back in the car he started screaming again and cried the whole way home and even after we got home for a long time. Chris and I were just dead at that point. I don't even remember how we got him to stop at that point. He went to bed fairly easily while Chris fell asleep with Maddie in our bed. I fell asleep on the couch. Jackson woke up at 1am and slept the rest of the night on the couch with me. 6:30 we were all up and Jackson was totally back to normal. No more crying fits thank god!!!!!

I guess that's it. A horrible experience with a very lucky outcome.