Tulip Time

Gavin wore the exact same costume he wore the past three Tulip Times (see here and... oops guess I never posted pictures of Tulip Time 2010 so here's one...

The costume is very special to us because Bryan's mom made it for Aiden's first Tulip Time (see here).

My two little dutch boys...

Easter

Aiden was definitely excited about Easter this year and Gavin... well, Gavin didn't quite understand what was going to happen but still had a blast. We dyed eggs a couple of days before Easter. Both boys loved it!

I guess we should have clarified "you may eat one of your eggs now" because Gavin (who is usually rather reserved when it comes to food) bit right into one - shell and all!

Easter morning the boys woke up to this...

Aiden and Gavin both absolutely LOVED the easter egg hunt! Gavin was hilarious. Every time he found an egg he would show it to both Bryan and I and shout "Egg!! Egg!! Egg!!" He had SO much fun finding the eggs!

Aiden and Gavin each got a light-up toothbrush in their Easter basket. It flashes for two minutes which is how long they are supposed to brush their teeth. They LOVE it!!

Trying out the bubble gun from Gavin's Easter basket...

My two handsome Easter boys! :)

My favorite family photo:

Sick!

Poor Gavin has been through the ringer. Last week Saturday morning when I went in to get him he was laying in his crib but wouldn't get up. I asked him what was wrong and he said "Neck hurt, neck hurt". I figured he has slept on his neck wrong so we massaged it and gave him some Ibuprofen. Sunday the same thing happened again. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday he complained a little bit but didn't seem to be in as much pain. Wednesday evening when I put him in the bathtub he started shaking uncontrollably and crying. I quickly washed him up and got him out. Within 2-3 minutes of me sitting with him in the chair he was asleep. That is VERY unusual for him so I got concerned. He also felt hot but I couldn't figure out if his skin was still warm from the bath or if he had a fever. I grew increasingly concerned when I had a difficult time waking him up. That's when I decided to bring him in to the ER to get him checked out.


By the time we got there his temperature was 103 degrees so the triage nurse gave him some Motrin right away. Since his appetite hadn't been great since Spring Break, he had a high temperature and still had a sore neck (he wouldn't turn his head to the left in the ER room) the doctor was concerned that he might have meningitis - that was scary. He decided to first try to rule out other things. The doctor checked his ears and said they looked great. He checked his throat and said it was red so they did a strep check - negative. They took a urine sample for a urine culture and did a blood culture but those results wouldn't be back for a few days. The doctor decided to do a CAT scan to check to see if their was an abscess in his neck causing him not to turn it. It took them three tries to get an IV into him - ugh!

Gavin did GREAT during the CAT scan (I think the morphine they gave him prior to the procedure helped to calm him). Bryan and I were able to wear lead aprons and stand right next to him during the entire procedure. The nurse even commented that he did better than some of the 25 years that have been in there!


The only thing the CAT scan showed was enlarged adenoids so the doctor decided to do a spinal tap to check for meningitis. They gave Gavin a little bit more morphine to calm him and then rolled him on his side. I debated whether or not I could stay in the room while they did that - I'm not so good with seeing needles - but I knew that Gavin would be even more upset if I left and when it came down to it, I just couldn't imagine leaving my baby in the room while he was having that done. I just knelt down on the floor next to his head (so I couldn't see what the doctor was doing) and talked calmly to him the entire time to try to distract him. He was a trooper and even though he screamed in pain he did well.

Thankfully the spinal tap showed that he did not have meningitis. We were finally discharged at 2:00 a.m. At 4 a.m. Gavin woke up crying and was burning up with a fever. I gave him some Tylenol and brought him into bed with me. His fever never broke during the night and in the morning he sounded like he had croup. We called the Pediatrician's office and got him in right away. From the time he left the ER he developed an ear infection, croup, and the start of pneumonia - wow did that come on fast! The pediatrician prescribed him a strong antibiotic and steroid.

Long story short, he ended up getting really bad diarrhea from the antibiotic and had to be off of it for 24 hours. After that, things went much better. The poor kid sure went through a lot!!

Spring Break 2011!!

We found out in November last year that Bryan would have 6 days off in a row over my Spring Break!!!! Woot woot!! We haven't been able to go anywhere before because Bryan always had to work so I was super excited to finally be able to go somewhere this year. When we originally started planning the trip we had thrown around the idea of going somewhere warm/tropical - like Myrtle Beach or Florida. We figured Gavin would be 5 months older and would be much more adept at riding in a car. Fast forward to two months away from Spring Break... we know realized that Gavin would never make a 16+ hour trip so we revamped our plans and decided on Gatlinberg, TN. Yeah, that plan went down the toilet a month later as we were about to go crazy after being in the car with G screaming his head off for the entire 20 minutes it took us to get to town. We took another look at the map and decided that Kentucky would be a better choice - definitely warmer than Michigan and only 7ish hours away. Two weeks before Spring Break (and many screaming rides later) we finally came to the realization that we weren't going to be able to go very far since G screams virtually every time we go anywhere. I wanted to make sure we at least made it out of Michigan and somewhere at least a little bit warmer so we finalized our plan to stay in Indianapolis four nights at a hotel and then do day trips from there. Day 1: Drive to Indy and go to the Children's Museum. Gavin wasn't to thrilled with the car ride and was pretty crabby on the way there. He started out okay but the further we drove the louder he was. We were glad that we had't chosen to go any further than Indy! Thankfully, he fell asleep for about 45 minutes before we got to the museum! The line to buy tickets was super long and I knew A & G weren't going to last so I found these cute little bouncy animals for them to play on while Bryan stood in line to get our tickets. Overall, the boys liked the museum (although, Bryan and I both said that we like the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago better - it has more hands on activities for kids) and had fun.

Day 2: Daytrip to Louisville, KY. We went to the Mega Cavern and rode on a tram pulled by a Jeep. Aiden LOVED it and thought it was sooo cool that we got to go underground. The tour of the cavern was an hour long and Gavin just sat and cuddled Bryan and I the whole time! At one point he felt so relaxed in my arms I thought he has fallen asleep but he was actually wide awake just cuddling and looking at everything. He is such a cuddler - I love it!

Day 2 continued: Slugger's Museum in KY. We had never been there before so we decided to check it out. It was pretty cool and we even got to tour the factory to see first hand the bat making process. The factory was in full swing so we got to see every step they take to make bats for the Minor and Major Leagues - pretty sweet!

Babe Ruth's bat! He marked the bat everytime he hit a homerun - pretty awesome!

Day 3: Newport Aquarium - KY. Both boys loved looking at all of the sea animals. We got to watch a scuba diver in a tank of sharks and walked through tunnels that were surrounded with water.

Day 3 continued: While at the Slugger's Museum the day before I found a brochure for Entertainment Junction: Home of the largest indoor train display. Bryan looked it up when we got back to our hotel and found out that it was near Cincinnati, OH which was only about 20 minutes away from the aquarium. Both of our boys LOVE trains (so does Bryan!) so we headed over there after the aquarium. It was really cool! The details were so incredible - everything from the landscaping to the bridges to the trains were awesome! It also had an indoor play center which the boys loved!

Side note: Gavin did not sleep very well the first two nights at the hotel, was crabbier than usual during the day, and didn't eat very well so we questioned whether or not the ear infection he had prior to Spring Break had returned. We decided to take him to a walk-in clinic in Ohio to check his ears. It turns out his ears were fine. I was a bit bummed - no, I don't want my child to be sick but I was kind of hoping for some kind of medicine to take the crabbiness away!

Day 4: Indianapolis Speedway. Aiden was really excited to go see the race cars in the museum and ride around the Indy track in a bus. His expectations were pretty high so we were glad that he wasn't disappointed when we got there. Now that we are home, anyone who asks him what he did on Spring Break only hears about the race track - such a boy! :)

When searching for a hotel, I had one request from Aiden: POOL! It is a bit tricky to find an indoor pool at a nice hotel (with a free continental breakfast - my stipulation!) but I was able to find one. Aiden LOVED swimming while Gavin was more content to just hang his legs over the side and kick them in the water.

Overall we had a wonderful time with wonderful weather (60's-80's every day!!!!) Perhaps we can go somewhere even further south next year!! :)