Sunny

My name is Sunny. I have just survived my first week and a half in the Lively house. Just like the internet information said, I hid a lot in the beginning but am more comfortable in my new surroundings now, so I am slowly showin' these people what I got.

Honestly, I was a little concerned at first. I saw Evyn and Holly set Shannon up right there in the store. Holly brought little Evyn over to my cage. I kept hearing Holly say something about "look at the little brown one, see how cute she is," which could have been me or my sister. I did not know what to think. They kept talking, Evyn got more and more excited and then here comes Shannon. She rolled her eyes as soon as she saw Evyn and Holly looking in at me. She did not act like she wanted a guinea pig AT ALL. This is when Holly laid it on thick and started saying that she will take care of the cage and some other stuff I really did not understand. Shannon did not seem too happy. I think she walked away to read a few pages of a book about taking care of guinea pigs. All I could think was, "Oh Lord, these people might take me home, one of them does not seem to happy about me, and the worst part is they have no idea what they are doing." I hid at that point, or was it after I saw Reed come hopping up to my cage and talking in a loud voice? I knew I was screwed at that point.

Now that I am an official member of the Lively family, I realize that I am really not screwed. The day this family came into the pet store to buy some fish, which they never actually got, was truly the best day of my life. My cage is in Evyn's room and I can tell she loves me a lot. She talks to me, is always bringing me celery, lettuce, grapes, you name it. She also gets me out of my cage and lets me run around and stretch my legs and even takes me outside to munch grass and roam around when it is warm enough.

Because things are going so well, I am pulling out some of my cool moves and I am sure they are impressed and entertained. Even Shannon laughs at me and acts like she is glad to have me. As for Reed, he is a little loud at times, but he is actually gentle with me and loves to suck his thumb while he pets me. Holly takes great care of my cage and keeps my food bowl and hay bowl full of the good stuff. These people rock. See how happy I look?

Depends on who you ask

The kids and I met my friend Jen and her kids at the botanical garden today. Reed and Jen's son, A, are buds and it was a long overdue play date.


Tonight at dinner, Holly asked Reed about seeing A at the garden today. A huge grin came over his face and he told her he had a great time. He proceeded to tell her that, he went potty there and he went in the bathroom two times and he also played with A in the potty. What he really meant was that he and A were yelling in the bathroom lobby area to hear their echo and that he drug me back to the bathroom later just for fun. The bathroom was the first thing he thought about when asked about his morning at the botanical gardens. Hmmm...


If you ask Evyn what she did or what her favorite thing at the garden was today, I am absolutely positive she would say something about all of the flowers in bloom, the tree she climbed or something she played with. The bathroom would not even have come into her top 10.

Boys!?!?!?!?

Misha goes off for an afternoon....

So yesterday started out with Misha not taking her pills in the usual chunk 'o cheese. I was then reminded that she refused her dinner the night before. She is constantly trying to bully us for food, or ask for her pills in advance just to get a bite to snack on so her refusing to eat was cause for concern. She then proceeded to make this horrible hacking noise as she tried to drink some water, not quite a cough, note quite a gag but it is something that we have heard before.

Since Grandpa was home hanging out and we were out and about trying flower girl dresses on Evy, I asked him to take her to the vet so Dr. K could take a peek at her. I really thought this was it for old Misha.

Shortly after her arrival at the vet, they called to ask some specifics about what was going on. I was informed that Grandpa had found some country ham in his car from the previous day's breakfast and fed it to Misha as they cruised to the vet. He told this story to the receptionist and then he knocked on my buddy Milly's office door and interrupted a meeting to tell her (and the drug rep) the ham story. He really thought this was a good thing that he had done and did not see why it was wrong to store ham in your car and then feed it to someone.

Misha basically made us look like fools. She was prancing around there on 3 legs, barking and bossing everyone around, getting plenty of attention. She proceeded to eat an entire can of food, have an x-ray and blood work and more attention. They did find a heart problem, though, and now she is on yet another pill. When Grandpa picked Misha up from her day of pampering a la Cary Street Vet (cha-ching), he was sort of lectured all the way to the car about how dangerous is it to eat meat that has not been stored properly. Also, when I spoke with Dr. K on the phone, she too brought up the he-fed-her-ham-that-was-stored-in-his-car story. Many people laughed and cringed at Grandpa's expense. :)

Third annual Easter Egg Hunt

This was our best one yet. Other than our buddies, Braxton and Ayden being sick and not being able to come, it was perfect - weather in the low 70s and sunny. Holly started things off by hiding eggs in her bunny costume. Our guests arrived to find the Easter bunny in the front yard waving at them, which Holly said was great. Think wide-eyed kids in the back seats of their parents cars, clutching their baskets and waving at the bunny, some unsure if it was really safe to exit their vehicles. We set up sidewalk paint, a kid croquet course, the bounce house and other various bikes and balls. When the hunt started, we had 400+ eggs and eight egg hunters. These kids are pros by now - most of them have been attending our annual event from the beginning - so it did not take long for all of the eggs to be found.

This year we added some games like the race that involves carrying an egg on a spoon to the finish line, and we also had fun with the potato sack (or old pillow case) race. After many requests, we also pulled the Powerwheels cars out too. Our yard was almost a carnival, minus the freaks. The fun continued for hours. Good times.

We also cooked out, and since we are always short on kid seating for large gatherings, we made these cute stools out of buckets, fabric, pillow stuffing, ribbon and pom-poms, boas and other

random items.

OB/GYN

This is totally random but I cannot stop thinking about it. I received a letter last week from my OB/GYN, Dr. M. Other than my very first OB/GYN in Dallas, Dr. M has been taking care of me for almost ten years now. Holly found her first and then I started seeing her. We both liked her instantly - she is calm, serious but can also relax and get to you on a personal level.

I think most women would agree that once you find a great GYN, it makes those yearly visits a little more tolerable. If this GYN also delivers one or all of your children, you feel especially bonded and eternally grateful to them for helping bring new life to your family. I remember loving my prenatal appointments, not only to hear my baby's heartbeat, but to see Dr. M and hear her tell me that everything was fine, I was doing great. I also remember missing going to see Dr. M after my babies were born. Sounds a little strange, but I know it happens to other women too - I have asked my friends. Dr. M delivered Evyn and Reed, so I spent a lot of time in her office during those two back-to-back pregnancies, plus she referred us to the RE who helped us get pregnant without acting awkward or strange about our two mom family.

Let's not forget the fact that Dr. M was on call the night that Skylar was born. This time I got to see Dr. M from a different perspective with a stressful set of circumstances. She rocked! Her being there eased my fears about the extremely premature baby girls she was about to deliver. Her presence made me calm, and I, in turn, was the one who made Ashley calm, or tried to, when things were rather tense.

Is it obvious that I love Dr. M?

Back to the letter.... Dr. M wrote to inform her patients that she is taking a teaching position at our local medical college and will now be in private practice and no longer associated with the large GYN practice she is now affiliated with. I can change practices, but should I? The only real reason I would want to stay with her (or stalk her) other than I am comfortable with her would be so she could deliver my next child, except there will not be a next child. We are both done making babies. Annual exams are no fun, so why not just stay where my records are, have a different, equally qualified doc do my annual exams? What would you do? Why can't I stop pondering these issues?

Happenings

Let's see.... So much going on, so little time to blog about it.

First off, we had a scare with Evyn recently. She is allergic to peanuts and Reed is not. Reed loves PB&J everyday for lunch. I have a system with wiping him down, assuring they do not swap cups, no contact during the meal and seat them as far apart at the table as I can. This has worked fine for the last 10 months or so. Until last Friday.....

I was having one of those drained, kids are on my last nerve days. Reed left the table, was wiped down as usual. He came back wanting another sandwich, so I made him one. He ate it and literally ran away when he was done. I foolishly did not chase him down to wipe him off. He apparently got some of the peanut butter from his face onto Evy's cheek. I did not notice until her cheek was flaming red, a patch of hives. She then told me she was itchy so I investigated further to find a huge spot of hives on her back and one of her leg, all from a spot of peanut on her face butter that I could not even see. The only thing I saw on her cheek was 2 tiny spots of jelly right in the middle of the hives. I did not have to use the EpiPen, only Benadryl, however, she was complaining of not being able to breathe deeply. Yikes! Since then, she has had a lesson on EpiPen use, having to call 9-1-1 and I found a cartoon online narrated by a peanut allergic child who talks about all of the things I had already told her. It is a great teaching tool and she has watched it several times.

She has not outgrown her peanut allergy and I am again coming to terms with the fact that there is a food out there that could potentially kill my child. We are going back to see the allergist with a long list of questions that have been running through my mind for the last almost three years and are going to order a medical ID bracelet since she is starting kindy in the fall and will be away from home most of the day. Most importantly, we are letting go of the hope that Evyn will outgrow her peanut allergy. Bummed!


In Reed news, he has taken another step towards being totally and completely potty trained. He has been diaper-free for six months but has been wearing a Pull-Up during sleep For the past three months, he has been napping without a Pull-Up and has now progressed to waking up dry in the morning. He has earned a sticker for every dry morning and has now collected 7 stickers - 4 of them the last four consecutive days. After buying diapers and now Pull-Ups for the last 5.5 years, we are thrilled with his progress, which has been completely on his terms, in his own tome frame. Yay Reed. Today he gets to pick a toy from the store of his choice, and he chose Wal-Mart of all places.

The last bit of kid news involves teacher conferences. Last Thursday I met with the kids' teachers to talk about the progress made during the last few months. I am pleased to say that Reed's teacher had positive things to say about him this time, although I anticipated quite the opposite. Mrs. D and I have had several talks over the last six months about how Reed will not always follow directions, does not really play with the other kids in his class and gets really angry when he is called down for certain behaviors. He has improved in all areas, so that was a pleasant surprise.

Evy's teacher said she is going to be a GREAT kindergartner - showed me a check list of skills that kids should have going into kindy and said that Evyn is displaying all of them. We have noticed big changes in her social comfort level this year and thinking about sending her to kindy in the fall does not involve the feeling of "throwing her to the wolves" like it did last year when we were trying to figure out if we should send her or not. Not that a tear or two will not be shed on that first day, but it will not be because I feel like she is not ready. Ms. M said that we had given her the gift of time to mature and be a kid, learning through her environment for a little longer, and it is always nice when someone validates your own feelings.

We had our annual Easter egg hunt on Saturday. I will be back hopefully soon to talk more about that and how cute Holly looked as the Easter Bunny.

Mimi's visit

Mimi came to visit from Dallas, Texas recently. While she was here, we had a lot of fun. We shopped and then met Suzanne, Ben and Baby Alleigh for lunch.



The next day, we drove about 155 miles to Baltimore's Inner Harbor. We stayed within walking distance of the Inner Harbor and were lucky enough to get decent weather both days we were there. The suite we stayed in was very neat. The building was one of the few to survive The Great Baltimore Fire of 1904. It was restored and was a bank for many years, but it was just recently reopened as a hotel. The bank vault on the lower level was restored and is now a conference room. The original vault doors are still intact. One of the hotel employees gave us the tour and gave us a little history lesson.


The kids really enjoyed their stay. Other than a ski lodge, this was their first real hotel/suite experience and they took full advantage of things that are not normally tolerated....



We spent Saturday afternoon touring an old submarine, a Coast Guard ship from Pearl Harbor, the shortest lighthouse I have ever seen and some other big red ship ( I was not paying attention for that one). After exploring, eating and getting our aquarium tickets, we headed back to our room. I really wanted to pick up some beer or wine but could not find a market. I then discovered that Rite Aid was right around the corner. They sold vodka at Rite Aid!! I was shocked and thrilled - never, ever heard of a drug store that sells liquor. I put the beer back and bought the vodka just because I could.


Later that night while Mimi and Evy played in the room, Holly and I took Reed to an Irish Bar and Grill for some take out and a drink. Reed was wiped out. By the time we walked to the restaurant and found a spot at the bar he was zonked. He took two sips of his Sprite and passed out across my lap. We were so proud...our son passed out at his first bar when he was only three years old. Can't forget to write that one in the baby book. Our food showed up not too long after he passed out - enough of a power nap to get him back to the hotel by the power of his own two feet.

The next day we spent at the National Aquarium which was incredible. We saw volunteer divers swim with sting rays, a giant sea turtle, and a few sharks and feed them by hand. We saw a dolphin show, learned a lot about frogs, saw some incredible fish, visited their rain forest and saw a sloth sleeping in a tree, some monkey-like creatures, and several types of birds, and most of all, we found Nemo and Dory.




Once we returned to Richmond, Mimi did not have long before she had to fly back to Texas. We were all sad since we had had so much fun and were not quite ready to dive back into our same old routines.