Halloween 2009

For Halloween, Peter was Percy (Thomas The Tank Engine's best friend). His costume was lovingly and painstakingly crafted by hand by his mommy (and I helped out a little, too). It was probably about 42 degrees out when Peter hit the street to get his share of loot, and we were out for about an hour. He got many compliments on the costume, too the point where some people told us he was getting extra for being so cute.

After getting home, he was more than happy to hand out candy to the other kids still trick or treating. He would get very excited when he saw some coming up the driveway and would shout "kids!" Then he'd hustle to the door with the basket of candy and help dole out the goods. And for the most part Halloween passed with "no scary."

Halloween Pix

Pre-Halloween Pix

No news here

So anyway, we had to take Peter into the shop for servicing ten days ago. No story there.

 

…Fine, fine, I will elucidate. Peter has an under bite, and it caused his front bottom teeth to essentially scrape away the enamel on the front of his upper teeth, leading to tooth decay and cavities. To make matters worse, he likes getting his teeth brushed about as much as he likes wearing a coat these days (i.e. not much), and so he’s always made tooth brushing time a matter of a wrestling match. Because of that, he also got a couple molars that had problems, too. So, his dentist said we could either bring him into the dentist’s office many times, strap him onto a board and wrap him up like a little mummy so he couldn’t kick and scream like he’s inclined to do (all while being on laughing gas) or we could take him to Children’s Hospital where he’d be put under and they’d do the work all at once.  We decided to go with the hospital.

 

Technically, the experience at the hospital was pretty good, aside from Peter coming down from the anesthesia in an exceptionally aggravated and delirious state. They said that’s not uncommon, but even if it’s ordinary it’s not fun to go through.

 

Getting the preapproval from the insurance companies before hand was nightmarish, though. I don’t see how anyone can be against government involvement in health insurance after all the time wasted talking to people who couldn’t help me or even look up what I was talking about. I went through layer upon layer of useless bureaucracy and was transferred around without explanation or announcement 3 or 4 times each call before I could talk to someone who knew how to find out what I needed. I even talked to one guy who apparently had no access to the original request tell me it wouldn’t be covered because of reason A, B and C (and needless to say, Peter was qualified under each A, B and C, so why was this knob giving me his unqualified opinion?). We did get the approval sent out at about 4:15 the day before the procedure, but it took them a month to do even that. I’d take the Zimbabwean government taking over rather than keeping the status quo, because at least I’d know I just need to bribe someone to get something done.

 

Peter’s post-procedure recovery seemed to be going ok until he pretty much passed out on his mom’s lap two nights later. He stared running a fever that was getting to the 101-102 degree range. We talked to the hospital and also his dentist, and they said that if he was going to have an adverse reaction to the anesthesia that it would have occurred on Friday night or early Saturday, so whatever he had was likely something else. His fever did come down on Monday, and he had lingering symptoms until about Friday morning, including congestion and coughing. We came to the conclusion that he has the flu, probably (hopefully) the swine variety. If that’s as bad as it got for him then we’re pretty happy because he should be immune now. Over the weekend he would cough in the morning so we tried to limit his exposure to others, but even that is gone now. He is still a little whiny, though. Partly because he just doesn’t nap much at all on the weekends and so winds up burned out come Monday, and partly because he’s a toddler asserting control any way he can, and this is the method du jour. He’ll get over it. Sooner is better than later, though.

 

In other news, I carved his pumpkin the other night. He wanted Elmo, so I gave him Elmo. We have three other pumpkins to carve. He said he wants those to be Elmo, too. I am opposed to that, quite frankly. Especially my long tall pumpkin, that looks kind of like a tall, orange zucchini. That one is mine. I found it. I hauled it around that pumpkin patch (well, I hauled all 4 of them, and I killed my back and arms on the two gigantic ones – one now being Elmo) and it is Daddy’s Precious Pumpkin. I know Peter thinks everything is his, but that one is Daddy’s assertion of parental individuality and authority. But I shall adhere to Peter’s new Halloween mantra: “No scary.” I just have to figure out what to do with it.

The Ghost of Halloweens Past

I went down to the basement to look for Autumn shoes for Mommy now that Canada has exported their weather to us, and found Peter's first Halloween costume (but not the shoes). Peter wanted to put it on immediately, and then started asking for Halloween candy. He knows how the game is played.

Photos

Above, Peter tries on his sister's infant clothes.

And below, Elana gives Peter a smack.

Some More Pix

Some Pix

I Was Never Tardy In School

I know I haven’t posted anything since Jimmy Carter was president (or maybe it just seems that way), but I have many good excuses. So select the one you like and run with it:

 

1.         I was busy.

2.         I was really busy.

3.         Boy, was I busy!

4.         Can’t talk – busy!

5.         Busy!

6.         My bookie had my fingers broken for failure to pay up on my bad bets, so I couldn’t type anything.

7.         I have a blog?

8.         Summertime! And the living is eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeazayyyyy!

9.         Peter has been sitting quietly in a corner, reading Chaucer, Faulkner, and Danielle Steele ever since June, and has therefore been boring.

10.        The internet was busted so I couldn’t do nuthin’.

 

 

And for anyone who doesn't know, Peter's going to be a big brother in about 4-5 months. We just found out today that he will have a little sister (well, we can't say that with 100% certainty, but we did not see any twigs or berries in the ultrasound this morning. There could have been some hiding going on, but we doubt it). Peter was pretty adamant about preferring to have a puppy instead of a baby at first, but now he's come around 180 degrees and is now obsessed with Baby.

 

I had started another blog way back when we found out about the baby so I could record what was going on in the early stages of the pregnancy, which I failed to do in this one. I started this one what, two or three months before the due date? I wasn't going to let that happen again. Except for the part about having about 18 minutes of free time all summer. Didn't see that coming. Well, I'll just dump everything in this blog now, you know, every three months or so...

 

Ok, maybe not that intermittent, but I can't guaranty anything. I'll see what I can do.

 

Oh, and Peter's doing fine. Talking a lot, running around, doing little boy stuff. I'll ask him to do something entertaining one of these days so I can write something about it. Or forget to...

The Long Short Weekend

Saturday morning we hit the road with Grammie for a trip to Green Bay, with the National Railroad Museum being the ultimate destination. The Day Out With Thomas tour was in town, and there was no way we were going to let that go by without taking Peter there.

 

Now, it has been “unseasonably cool” here in Southeastern Wisconsin for the past 3 or 4 weeks. (When the high temperature in June is something like 15 degrees below average the weather people will say “unseasonably cool.” In December, they call it a cold snap or something like that. Can we call it a cold wave if we would call 15 degrees above average a heat wave?) The weather in Green Bay was as close to perfect as you could get, temperatures in the low-to-mid 70s, pleasant breezes, sunny. There were a bunch of cottonwood trees around the museum grounds, though, so there we seed puffs floating around most of the time, too. It was your typical Green Bay snow shower, but with a different kind of snow.

 

We got there about an hour and a half before the scheduled ride on the train. And might I add that parking was free? Chicago, you could learn something from that. Seriously. Anyhow, we got there about 10:45 or so, maybe 11:00 by the time we were actually inside the grounds. Peter was delighted, to say the least. Besides the life-sized Thomas taking people for trips around the museum, there were a bunch of retired engines and passenger cars. And of course a gift shop, which was the first thing Peter ran to. After getting him out of the gift shop tent, we took him to see the big engines.  He liked that, but at the same time they were gigantic, black, dirty things that didn’t bring to mind the colorful happy engines one would find on the Island of Sodor, so he was a little intimidated, too.

 

There was also a wooden observation tower on the grounds, and I carried Peter all the way to the top, about 50 feet up. Once at the top we waved for Mommy and Grammie, and then Peter headed right back to the stairs, which was just as well.

 

Soon enough we were in line for the train ride with Thomas. We waited about 20 minutes in line, and if we had gotten to the line about a minute earlier we could have fit into the open-air car. Instead we sat in the 1917 passenger coach named Josephine, which I think turned out better than being on the open air car. Especially when the fluff from the trees really started clogging up the air. Peter liked the train ride, and he also liked the kettle corn that he was munching on for most of the trip. He was very well behaved, unlike some of the other kids there, and really soaked in the experience of the ride. He probably could have stayed on the train all afternoon, but he understood when it was time to get off.

 

After the ride we went inside the museum building for the first time. Peter liked the models running on the tracks. Making our way to the back of the building we found Sir Topham Hatt, and Peter got in line with Mommy to get his picture taken. When it came time for the little boy in front of Peter to go up to Hatty he decided it wasn’t really a good idea, and cried up a little storm. Not Peter.  He went up there with Mom and posed like it was no problem. Once that was done he took off like a shot to go see the set-up of model trains with Thomas, Percy, Gordon, James, Toby, and pretty much every engine in the Thomas universe.  He checked them out for a while and then he agreed with the rest of us that it was a good time to get something to eat.

 

We went to a restaurant a few blocks away and dined well.  Peter enjoyed drinking a lot of Mommy’s root beer, and also liked dipping his fries in the tartar sauce that came with his fish fry. He ignored the fish for the most part, but then he did drink a lot of the root beer when we told him it could give him a belly ache. We were sitting outside at lunch, and next to the restaurant was a private marina. When we were done Peter wanted to see the boats (which he calls “dips” for some reason we aren’t sure of). After we saw the boats we loaded him into the car and took off for the amusement park at Bay Beach. But within about 2 minutes Peter was passed out in his seat. It was around 4:00 at that time, so we decided the park could wait for another visit. Peter slept in the car for about an hour before waking up in time for me to pull into a McDonalds on the drive back so I could inject some caffeine into me. Peter ordered a 49¢ cone.

 

After we got back home Grammie was packing up to leave. When Peter saw her pulling out of the driveway he got very upset, so I brought him inside and we watched some Thomas DVDs to take his mind off things and decompress.

 

Sunday (yesterday) wound up being another beautiful day, and Peter was outside playing with the kids next door from about 11:00 AM to 4:30 in the afternoon. Inflatable pools were inflated and splashed in while parents did yard work. Again, Peter lit the candles from both ends and played harder than anyone. After we brought him in he went down for a nap, but he slept for maybe 45 minutes before getting up. After he got up he just sat on the sofa with us and chilled out with his blanket.

 

So it was another action-packed weekend for Peter, and come Monday morning we needed heavy duty machinery to get him out of bed. He seems to know that other kids are on summer vacation, so he’s got that sleeping-in mentality.  I would have liked that this morning…