We'll be eating ramen noodles for a while

But the dog will be healthy. I took Hero for his follow-up today. He's been on his thyroid meds for 2 months now and we were all convinced he'd lost weight. So I very proudly walked him up on the scale today only to see that his weight has not changed - not even an ounce! I have to say I was shocked. It went downhill from there. While we were waiting in the exam room I noticed Hero was getting another hot spot. When they went to shave the area, the Dr. checked his ears and they once again need cleaned and more meds. To make a very long story short(er), $200.00 later we are home once again treating hot spots and waiting to hear from the vet for the results of Hero's blood test. The results should reveal why he hasn't lost weight. He does get to go on diet food now, so maybe I'll start taking him to weight watchers with me after all!

The Diving Board

I just have to brag on Ethan for a minute. He's been taking swimming lessons twice a week and while I would love for him to learn to swim, I honestly enrolled him to have an activity that would wear him out a couple times a week. Combine that with the fact that I can put Abby in the daycare at the community center and have half an hour to work out and it's a win-win situation. Learning to swim was just a side benefit;) Today I decided to stay and watch Ethan during his lessons - he seems to be fully recovered from the evil virus, but I wanted to be there just in case he started feeling unwell again. I'm so glad I stayed - today was the first day they ventured to the "big pool" and jumped off the diving board. Here's the deal - I really like his swimming teacher. He's big into teaching them to do things the right way, so he doesn't get in the water to "catch" when they jump in. He stands on the side of the pool and coaches - and he swears he won't let them jump in until he knows they're ready. I guess today he decided they were ready. I was so proud of Ethan - my usually whiney drama queen went first (his choice) and walked to the end of the board and jumped right in to the 14-ft-deep pool. I have to say my stomach was doing flip-flops watching my baby jump in with no one there to "catch". He did GREAT and was so proud of himself. What a big man!!

Snugglebugs

It's been kind of a long day around here. Ethan has the virus that Abby had last week, and it's a tricky one. It causes vomiting, headache, low-grade fever and cold symptoms, but the tricky part is that it comes and goes for about a week! Just when you think they're fine, it starts all over. So, we had a long night last night. Abby was up sick around 11pm then Ethan was up every hour from midnight until this morning. Needless to say, we've all been a little tired today. After bathtime the kids were in the living room and being surprisingly quiet. This is what I found:

I asked what they were doing and the response: "we're snuggling while we watch Bob the Builder". I have to say it was a very cute ending to a very long day:)

Sad commentary on my life........

We've had a pretty quiet weekend. Today after I got Abby down for her nap I headed to the gym to work out. There I was driving along in the van - I made it almost to the community center before I realized I was singing along to the Wiggles - yes, I was singing "Toot Toot Chugga Chugga Big Red Car" along with the CD and I was the only one in the van. This has happened before, but usually I notice before I'm out of our subdivision. I guess today I was enjoying the Wiggles a little more than normal. I need to get a life.

Not in the job description

One of the chores I hate most is picking up the dog poop in the yard. I dislike this chore for obvious reasons, but one not-so-obvious reason is the fact that I inevitably end up with Joe Walsh's song "Ordinary Average Guy" stuck in my head. The main problem with this is the only lyrics from the song I know are "pick up the dog doo and hope that it's hard" and I have it running through my head the entire time I'm scooping. I'm having an outdoor playgroup here tomorrow and since my husband so nicely agreed to mow the lawn in the heat, I decided it would be pushing it a bit to ask him to deal with the dog doo as well, even if it is my birthday. So I told Ethan "I'll give you $5.00 if you pick up the dog poop". His response: "Uh, that's not on my chore chart". Hee Hee. Abby's response: "I pick up the poop mommy, I put on my gloves!". Hummm. I opted to do it myself and now I have that song running through my head again. Maybe I should learn the rest of the lyrics so it's not quite so annoying.

Surprises

Ethan snuggled up in bed with me this morning with a great big grin on his face. This is the conversation that followed:

Ethan: Daddy's going to bring you home a surprise for your birthday. I can't tell you what it is.
Me: Hummm, I like surprises.
Ethan: Want me to give you a hint? If you guess I won't be giving away the surprise.
Me: OK, give me a hint.
Ethan: It's round and has petals.
Me: Hummmmm, what could Daddy bring me that's round and has petals?
Ethan: Yep, it's flowers - you guessed it!!

I won't be sharing any secrets I want to keep with him anytime in the near future;)

Slip-n-Slide (and Splash!)

A couple of weekends ago we went up to visit Ed's parents in Quincy. There isn't much for the kids to do there, so we went and bought a Slip-n-Slide to keep the kids occupied. Yesterday was the first day we've played on it at home, and Ethan uses it more as a sprinkler than a slide. Abby avoids it all together because she really DOES NOT like sprinklers. However, she loves her pool, so we got that out as well and she was happy as a clam. We were supposed to have an outdoor playgroup here yesterday, but Abby has some sort of wierd stomach thing going on, and while I suspect it's related to teeth or ears, I didn't want to take the chance of getting anyone sick. So I cancelled the playgroup and Ethan was really bummed. I told him we could still get out all the outside water toys and he perked up immediately! It also gave me the opportunity to take some fun summer-time pics which I've posted above.