Happy Birthday Daddy!

I love you!!!!

Getting Daddy at the airport!

End of Summer:(

And just like that…summer’s over The kids and I ran ourselves to the ground and are slowly getting back to a normal schedule. We’ve had a little bit of excitement in the last week but hopefully will be settling down now.
The kids and I (with the help of ‘Grandma from Ohio’) did a 10 day Wood family tour in July, hitting Michigan to see new baby cousin Adelyn and play with Aubrey, then trekking down to Ohio for a week with the grandparents and see cousins Asha and Eli. We went to play places, COSI, the zoo, the pool, and of course had a water-gun fight, courtesy of Papa Wood. Rob flew in for the last weekend and join for the drive home. The kids did great and had a blast.
At Brett’s 3 year check up, they suggested we visit an ENT (Ears, Nose, Throat) Specialist. He has always snored but it has gotten pretty bad and started showing some signs of sleep apnea. In the initial evaluation the doctor asked to have his hearing checked, which showed his hearing was low in both ears. Here I thought he was being oppositional, the poor kid couldn’t hear me. The doctor described it as ‘it’s like he’s on an airplane and his ears haven’t popped yet’. In addition to ‘retracted eardrums/water in the ears’, we discovered Brett had enlarged adenoids and tonsils. The doctor asked Brett to clinch his lips shut and breathe out of his nose…he couldn’t do it. So we scheduled surgery for tubes in his ears and to get his adenoids and tonsils out.
Last Friday we were going for a walk after dinner, Brett was acting a little strange like maybe he was starting to get sick. Bailey just had a fever a couple days before so we figured maybe it was making its rounds. We split up for Rob to take Bailey home with some groceries and Brett decided to come with me to get more covers for the thermometer to check his temperature. We were having a sweet walk home, he had just picked out a card and wrapping paper to wrap up Josie’s birthday present (Cars, of course). I just said 'Hey Brett it’s really nice having some quiet Brett and Mommy time.' He agreed and held my hand. Two seconds later, he dropped. I picked him up thinking he just tripped, but soon realized he was having a seizure. After a very dramatic and stressful run to the Jewel, yelling at people, and trip to the ER….we learned Brett had a febrile seizure resulting from a high fever that jumped quickly. They were concerned because he fell straight to the sidewalk and had a sizeable knot on his forehead, so lots of tests were ran to find out he is just fine. They said it very well could have been the same thing Bailey had but because it jumped up so quickly, Brett’s body wasn’t able to adjust fast enough. Now that we have experienced it and have learned more about it, apparently it’s pretty common and usually kids are fine after. I still would be perfectly fine if we never have to experience that again, it was not fun. We thought for sure they would postpone his scheduled surgery wanting to give him more time to recover, but since his fever was gone, they went forward as planned. So 3 trips to the hospital in 5 days for Brett and now we have 2 weeks of recovery. He’s doing better as the time goes by but is not a fan of taking medicine so that tends to be a fight. The bigger struggle will be in the next week keeping him calm. He and his father were both told they were restricted from any type of wrestling or rough housing for 2 whole weeks. It’s going to be tough! It was nerve-racking to have all this done in such a short amount of time, but I will say he is already sleeping/breathing better and much more soundly.

Quotes/Short stories

First thing in the morning in Ohio, Brett woke up and passed mommy to give Bailey a hug…she pat his back

Brett yelled for Daddy at grandma and grandpa’s, he forgot he didn’t come with us.

Ohio vacation would not be successful without a Buckeye Store trip to stock up on Ohio State gear. Brett found me after walking around with papa and asked if he could get this tackle dummy (Michigan of course). I said, ‘I don’t know, did you bring any money?’ He said he wasn’t sure and checked his pockets, ‘OH NO, I think I forgot!’ Thank goodness for Papa:)

Grandma was sick so Brett told her, ‘Maybe you need some medicine, like Tylenol, then you will feel better’

Bailey was a huge fan of Uncle Phil’s dogs, 2 grown chocolate labs. They would come up and lick her and she would laugh hysterically.

At grandma and grandpa’s house, we heard Bailey saying, ‘color, color’…then realized she was drawing crayon all over their wallpaper. Sorry about that:(

Grandma got Brett and Bailey stamps of Cars and Princesses. We showed Bailey how to use the inkpad….then she showed her Minnie doll covering poor Minnie’s hand with red ink.

‘Brett, don’t dump all your toys out just to make a mess’
He replied, ’Maybe just a LITTLE mess’

Started realizing how much Brett was struggling hearing when he asked me ‘hey mom, did you just say ‘awesome’ or ‘already have some’?

Bailey tells herself to be careful walking down the stairs.

For some reason, Bailey started singing ‘beep beep, hi daddy’ in the car. This was repeated about 60x and now is a favorite.

Brett during breakfast told a LONG story about a baseball player getting hurt in the game and he was very concerned if he was ok. Then remembered Grandma Nancy was here the night before, I’m sure they were watching the Cubs.

Brett was pouting a little in the car, I figured because we just told him he couldn’t watch his show as a result of not listening to mommy and daddy. I asked him what was wrong. He said his toy snake couldn’t see. Confused, I asked him why he thought that. He replied, ‘the middle of his eyes are white not black like our’s, that means he can’t see. I’m kind of sad about that.’

On a 90+ degree day, Brett asked how the ‘hot day’ got in our car?!

With all the summer birthdays, Bailey is now obsessed with singing Happy Birthday. We sing to daddy (every night), to bunny, to Uncle Chris, to Minnie, etc. I used to sing You are my sunshine before nap and bed. She stops me and says ‘no, happy birthday’

Brett: “Come on Bailey, let’s go build”
Bailey: “Ok Brett Brett, bye bye Mommy”
And off they ran into the other room, which made me proud and a little sad:(

Brett wanted to get daddy a pair of Spiderman shoes to match his.

Brett: 'I’ll be REALLY careful and maybe one day I can have a motorcycle'

Auntie Zora was sitting in the car with Brett and Bailey so I could run into the store. They were discussing how we all (Harman family) have blue eyes. Zora said that 'Uncle Brett had really pretty blue eyes too'. Brett asked what they were now. Then said he knew that Uncle Brett wasn’t here anymore and he was sure that we really miss him.

2 weeks later at dinner out of the blue Brett said, ‘Uncle Brett Brett’s not here anymore just like the dinosaurs are not here anymore’.

I ran to take the trash to the garage, ran back to find the door locked….Bailey locked me out. Thankfully grandma Nancy just put a spare key outside. When I came in, Bailey said, ‘Scared Bailey, scared me’ pointing to her chest.

Now that we are back into daycare mode with Grace and Colin here full time, Bailey wakes up and says ‘CaCa come our house?’ She sure loves her Colin.
She also has picked up that my name is Kelli and thinks it’s really funny.

I attempted to take all 4 to the park. 1. They are all much bigger and heavier to push in that huge stroller. 2. They are all mobile and all still need supervision which really just means I was running around like a mad woman. We may have to hold off on the playground unless I have help! But running in the park is a great idea!

At the park, I was really proud of Brett making friends with another boy and I said he should see if the boy wanted to play catch. Brett took 2 steps back and for some reason threw the football as hard as he could, nailing the poor boy in the stomach making him fold in half and groan. I quickly apologized for Brett and told him he wasn’t used to playing with other big kids. Secretly his father is very proud.

Bailey at every meal now says ‘mmmmm, delicious mommy!’

Right before Brett’s surgery, they gave him some medicine to make him a little loopy. He was swaying a little and started slurring his words. We tried to get him to lie down. Before we left he made sure to tell us he wanted to have a costume party with his doctor for Halloween and maybe they should have matching costumes. The nurses laughed and said that was certainly the first they have heard of such a request.

From Rob:
In an attempt to make Brett laugh and lighten the mood in the dreary ER, uncles pat & helma donned the rubber straps that are used when giving a patient an IV as headbands – their straining faces as they attempted to stretch and tie the rubber was funny enough. To up the ante, uncle helma pulled back on pat’s headband and the snap reverberated throughout the ER and nearly brought tears to his eyes. The rest of us were cramping with laughter. In retaliation, Pat snapped Marc’s headband and it sounded like a gigantic leather belt hitting flesh. Marc screamed, and little Brett, Pat and myself cried with laughter.

A stern older nurse soon pulled back the curtain and curtly stated, “Keep it down in here! This is a hospital not a playground.”

This of course caused us to laugh harder, although we attempted to mask it in fairness the other ER occupants.

Brett was happy. Their mission was accomplished

End of Summer/Hospital time

Mich/Ohio Summer trip 2011