Hey Batter, Batter...

For the past few months, D has shown... an off and on desire to play baseball. For the most part we stay in our backyard, with Kel tossing the ball for D to hit since we don't own a tee. And D is actually really good.

Last Friday, Kel took the boys and me to our local batting cages with one of his friends. Now I thought that the boys and I would just be bystanders, but Kel had other ideas. D was up first (with the help of Kel's friend B) in the softball slow pitch. Which still sent the balls flying towards him at 40 miles per hour. But he held his own, and even though he wasn't always watching the ball, he still managed to hit one on his own.

Kel took C into the same cage that D went to. Thankfully (for my heart), Kel didn't leave C alone too often. It was cute to watch, and C looked so small in the big cage. But he had a blast and enjoyed spending the time with his dad.

 

 

We didn't stay very long, and the boys were a little disappointed that they didn't have more chances to bat, but we'll be back again soon.

A Month of Firsts

The end of March and early April brought a few new "firsts" for D.

It started with his first "real" eye appointment. D had been complaining that he felt something was in his left eye. C had hit him in the face with Ducky after he had tossed him into the fireplace so needless to say there was a strong possibility that there was something in there that I just couldn't flush out. So we scheduled an appointment and I tried to play it up so that D wouldn't be scared. D gets really nervous when put into new situations, especially ones where people were going to have to touch him. He thinks every one is out to give him shots. Poor guy,

We actually had to go twice. The first time D did well up until we had to put some orange dye in his eyes to see if there were any particles in there that could be causing the irritation. However, the minute the doctor came near him with the "special medicine" D flipped. It took all I had to keep him still so that she could put the dye in. Then he wouldn't open his eye long enough for her to look because the light was too bright. The doctor said that as far as she could tell there was nothing in his eye but that she would need to dilate his eyes to make sure that his prescription was normal and he wouldn't need glasses.

The second time was a huge ordeal. We were called back and it took the doctor a half hour to get the drops in to dilate his eyes because a certain little boy was having an anxiety attack. At this point I'd never felt so horrible in my life for having to hold him down. I new that the drops wouldn't hurt him but he was so freaked out by them that he was sobbing by the time we were done. We tried talking, we tried bribing, we tried the no-nonsense approach and basically told him to suck it up for two minutes so that we could get the drops in, all to no avail. So I finally told the doctor to just put them in while I held his arms down, because there was no way that D would let us do it again if we rescheduled. Besides at this point we'd already got two of the six drops in so it didn't make sense to come back on a different day. So after much screaming and a lot of kicking, we finally got all of the drops in. Forty five minutes later and we had another battle on our hands. This time with the light that the doctor had to use to see the back of his eye. It was too bright and he didn't want to open his eye or let the doctor open them for him. So we did the best we could and as far as she could tell, D does not need glasses at this time. Thank goodness he hasn't inherited my horrible eyesight!

April brought D's first dentist appointment. Yes, I know he'll be five in June and therefore a little old for his "first" appointment, but it is what it is. As part of the new school requirements, D had to have an exam to make sure there were no cavities. Since we were there anyway, we decided to make it an even and took C with in as well. This was a job for both me and Kel, and I'm so glad that he was able to go with us. C did as well as could be expected for a two and a half year old. Kel took him for his x-rays, and I didn't hear a lot of crying. He wanted me for his cleaning so I held his body while the dentist held his head in her lap and cleaned his teeth. He still has two molars that need to come in and had tartar build up, a lot from all the antibiotics he was taking, but no cavities so it was a relatively quick check up. I didn't get any pictures of him but he was a cutie and thanked everyone once he was done.

D, on the other hand, had trouble from the beginning. He'd gag whenever they'd try to take an x-ray of the back of his teeth so they finally had to give up. However, he had a cavity in his top two front teeth so they decided that they'd sedate him to get all of his x-rays as well as give him his filling. My poor dude. The only good thing that came out of this whole ordeal (aside from clean teeth) is that D got to drink his sedative rather than having to get a shot. So they gave him the drink and told me to take him to the bathroom. On our way back up the sedative started kicking in and needless to say, I got a glimpse of what a drunk D will be like when he's older. Hiccups, slurring words, lose muscles which resulted in lots of head holding on my part. And the words that came out of his mouth... the lady at the front desk and I couldn't stop laughing. Kel looked at me at one point like I was crazy. But like I told him, I had to laugh if I didn't want to end up crying my eyes out. 2012 had brought procedures that caused both my boys to be sedated and it's not something that I'm happy about.

After another round of x-rays (no other cavities!) and restraining D from busting out his Power Ranger Samurai moves on the poor X-ray technician, we finally moved onto the cleaning and filling. I've never seen a young, sedated kid get their teeth clean and was unprepared for the gurney restraining system that they had set up. But I understood as soon as she started the cleaning and the sedation started wearing off. Kel said he could hear D's screams from the waiting room. Not something I wanted to hear. It's one of those "damned if you do, damned if you don't" type scenarios that I'm happy will only occur once every six months. Hopefully next time it's a much easier experience. Two appointments down, only one more to go and then D is all set for kindergarten in August!

Easter Eggstravaganza

Not blogging for over a month leaves me with a lot to catch up on. While I'm sure it made Kel happy, I know of at least one person who could use an update or two on the boys (Sorry Nana!). I had every intention of starting with March, but this past weekend the boys' participated in an egg hunt and those are the pictures that I'm editing right now, so that's where I will start.

Apparently every year, or at least the last few years, a neighboring town holds an Easter Egg hunt complete with moon bouncers, pony rides, games, and live entertainment. Last Saturday, the boys and I joined my cousins and neices' at the hunt. Although the weather was somewhat gloomy, and rain threatened, it was a lot of fun.

C, D, and H made a beeline for the jumpy slide. They stayed there for thirty minutes, until I finally convinced them to check out another bouncer.

We tried the pony ride next. D had been on a pony once, when he was about sixteen months old and cried the entire time, and C had never been near a horse, let alone on one. They seemed excited, and even walked up to a horse. But the minute I tried to put C ON the horse he started screaming. I didn't want to force him, nor traumatize the horse, so I resorted to bribing. I asked him if he wanted to be Woody and ride Bullseye. He said yes and started looking around for a toy horse. When I tried to put him on the horse, he started screaming again and said ,"No Woody!" We quickly moved onto the next activity and the main event.

Hunting for eggs.

C and I waited while D had his fun. I don't think he liked the straw, because he just found a spot that had a lot of eggs and sat there to gather what he could reach. There was a golden egg hidden, but D said that he wasn't interested in finding it. So he gathered as many eggs as he could fit in his bucket and then we went to let C have his hunt.

C did awesome. He was in the two and under hunt, and when we went there were only two younger kids in the area. So he pretty much had the space to himself. Until the Easter Bunny decided to join him. I don't think I ever saw C move so fast as he did. He even abandoned his Easter pail to hide behind me. I had to tell the poor Easter Bunny to stay away because C was scared and I wanted to let him finish his hunt. I think I pissed off the lady from the newspaper who was trying to take pictures. Oh well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After you hunt for eggs, you take your findings to the volunteers to exchange for a prize. D decided that a mini camera would be cool while C went with a blue bouncy ball. Since we were around him, I had D take a picture with the Easter Bunny while C hid behind my legs. I really don't know why he's so scared, and I don't know how to help him get over his fear, but I'm not going to push him. I'm really hoping this is something that he'll grow out of eventually.

 

 

After a quick break of hot dogs and watching a man jump through a lasso, the boy's decided to play games so that they could win some candy and prizes. Golf, bean bag toss, fishing, find the duck with an X, and pick a lollipop were our favorites

By the time we were done with our games, M was ready to go home. At the same time, K and M joined us with M and M. It was nice to see them for a few minutes, especially since I got to see C interact with the girls again. Previously, whenever C was near M, M, and Z he didn't play nicely. Especially when I was the main caregiver at the time. I know he was jealous, and I tried to give him extra one on one attention, but it didn't help while the girls where around. But Saturday must have been a good day for C, or he's gotten over his jealousy, because he was very loving and very sweet towards the girls. I was sad to have to break it up, but it was time for us to leave. We had an awesome time and I hope I remember to do it again next year!