Pastries, diggers and arcades

Today we split up and Josh took Frost to movies (Hellboy) and arcade in Seaside while Wren napped and then went on a walk with me to do some shopping and exploring. We were lucky enough to find some road works and building going on and spent a while watching a forklift and skid-steer carrying construction materials about. A larger excavator had left its bucket by the road and I told Wren he could get inside. Here is a picture of him with his favorite toy - the "tongs" we found in the kitchen of the rental house. He and Frost have tong wars in the afternoons and he likes to walk around the house and alternatively pick up toys and pinch the family with them. Frost is particularly satisfying because he runs away screaming when Wren comes to "pinch" him.


Outside the grocery store there was a mechanical horse which Wren noticed and wanted to ride. Here is is looking serious as he clings to the 'neigh'. Unfortunately, a car alarm started to go off before the horse stopped bucking from our quarter, so we had to rush inside and do our shopping. Wren chose some corn and an apple. I chose a chocolate bar.


Frost had a fabulous time at the arcade. He is collecting quarters from all the States and found a few new ones. However, the highlight of his time at the arcade was when he was playing a torpedo shooting video game and by a pure stroke of luck struck the fast moving rainbow coloured ship which triggered the jackpot of 106 tickets. He loves to tell this story in almost unintelligible detail bubbling over with excitement. He spent his ticket bonanza on candy.

This evening he asked to go to sleep early because he wants to wake up early on his birthday Eve (tomorrow). I mentioned I might let him open one present on his Birthday Eve because we will be traveling home on his birthday on Friday. This has now evolved into 'A Promise' and he is hoping to nag me to make it a Birthday Eve Morning gift instead.

We shall see.

Up to his neck in it

Today Frost received his wish to be buried up to his neck in sand. For some reason this was an idea he has been nurturing for a while. We went for a short hike through the Sitke Spruce forest of Oswald West State Forest down to Sand Cove beach. It was another brilliantly blue-skied day with a hot sun and a cool breeze.

The cove is very popular with surfers and boogy-boarders and I enjoyed peaking at the hot bods and trendy gear of the sub-culture while shepherding Wren and Frost around the beach. Wren was afraid of seagulls (which he calls "eagles"). He kept yelling out "EAGLE!" and running towards my safety crying when seagulls landed nearby to beg for scraps.

Frost loves being in the water, no matter how cold, and waded and splashed in both river and surf despite the icy temperatures and cold wind. He deeply appreciated his fleece when it was time to walk home.

Anyway, here is the picture of Frost being buried in the sand and Wren enjoying the chance to drop sand in his face without retaliation.

Manzanita Monday

Manzanita, Oregon
This week we are staying in Manzanita, Oregon. We have a vacation rental within walking distance of the beach and after a long drive down here yesterday (I suggested a short cut and will not say more) we have enjoyed settling in. The house is very comfortable with three bedrooms close together so each kiddo has their 'own' room. Frost didn't like the squeaking of his antique spring bed so he slept on the floor on the duvet.

Wren also slept well last night and so he and Frost woke at almost the same time which is unheard of (Wren was up twice before then, but that doesn't count).

I was keen to get out so after a quick breakfast of wicked vacation cereal we were the first family on the beach. At 7.45am it is populated by dogs and their walkers with the occasional retired couple striding purposefully along. The beach was absolutely still which was a contrast from yesterday evening when the sea was covered in white horses and kite-surfers jumping the waves. It was so windy last night that we decided not to set foot on the sand.

Anyway, this morning was warm with a slight chill and we had a fabulous hour and half building sand castles and a driftwood fort which included a 'tree' which Wren climbed.


Wren climbing the 'tree'.

Both boys were exuberant to reach the sand and spent 10 minutes running around and throwing themselves down in the powdery fine sand. At first, Wren was a bit anxious. He said "scared, big" and "no no, home" and then when he felt the sand announced it was "cold, snow".


Running and falling.

The sand was very cold at first, much colder than the air, but the sea was far out with a wide flat beach to run around with islands of soft powdery sand where the water had not reached.

Later, we drove to Tillamook and ate icecream at the cheese factory. Wren ate many blocks of cheese samples and we did some grocery shopping.

I think that we will go down early tomorrow again and spend more time on the beach with Josh.

Here are a few pictures of the log 'boat/fort' and the sand castle.

Relationship Economics for 6 Year Olds

This morning at breakfast Frost announced he needed to invite X to his party too. Now X is not someone with whom he is friends. They have never had a playdate. I wondered why?

"Because he always gives money for birthday presents. He gave D $20 and I need $45 to give Alex."

Uh oh, I think, but I act nochalant so I don't scare off this candour.

"Why do you need to give Alex $45?"

"To join his club"

"What's the club called?"

"Well, actually, its TEN CLUBS. First, he said I had to pay him $10 to join his club. Then he said it would be $20 for a few clubs. Then he said $45 for 10 clubs."

"What do you do in the clubs?"

"I dunno. Like, have fun. Do spy stuff. Parker is in the club. Alex said Parker gave him $50 to be in the club. Maybe Rowan is in the clubs too."

"Oh, I see. Can't you be in the club free? Most kids make clubs free?"

"No, Alex says I have to pay him that money so I need money for my birthday?"

"So, if I give you $50 you'll give it to Alex?" [I am still incredulous at my child's credulity]

[Frost senses a trap]

"Well, maybe not."

"Why don't you start a club yourself with Elias?"

"YES! Then I can charge Alex $50 to join!"

"Or, you can make your club free but tell him that you should be in his club free too."

"Yeah... maybe" [Frost is not convinced Alex will buy this deal.]

I leave it there. One day I shall have to explain the term entrepreneur. Meanwhile, I am wondering how to set up a trust fund to prevent Frost giving Alex all his savings when he turns 18.

Remlinger Farm

Yesterday we visited Remlinger Farm and enjoyed the "Country Fair Family Park" which is open through September 21st this year. Wren loved "ride neigh" and "ride boat" and "ride train" as well as feeding sheep, goats and watching hungry bunnies.

Frost was very excited about it too and did all these activities with Wren.





It was hot and Wren was sweaty, more sweaty than other kids or Frost or me. I noticed he was sweaty after running a lot at baby soccer while none of the other kids broke a sweat. It just makes me feel more worried about him, that, and the news via the blog of another Shone's toddler that the surgery she had last year for sub-aortic stenosis is showing a recurrence of the obstruction. Apparently, her LV pressures are climbing and surgery is once again an option, possibly after the next checkup.

I need the facts but I also need the fuzzy hope that this will be the last surgery Wren needs and all memory of it will blur into the mists of time, happy times. Here are some happy times yesterday:

Frustration

These days Wren is prolifically verbal. I can't keep up with his list of words because he can copy virtually every word even though he may not recall the word to use it for a couple of days. Yesterday and today he surprised me with these phrases:

"MY burger!" (as we approached the window at Dicks to order burgers. Of course, he received his own burger to help with his mild anemia. and ate half of it.)

"Cold warm coat!" (on opening the back door at 6am and finding it very cold. I returned with a coat and he seemed almost surprised at his success, repeating "coat, warm" a few times as I put it on.)

"Taste toast!" (when I served Frost toast for breakfast but not Wren.)

Along with his newfound conversational imperatives has come an intense frustration. Half the day Wren is hooting a fierce, loud noise which means he is very frustrated and wants the toy, the brother, the mother or the world to behave differently - as he wants.

[Right now, Wren cries "bonk head" because he has bonked on the table leg as he attempts to climb up me. The moment I do something other than him he comes and demands "more muk" and goes to sit on the couch to wait for me with loud shouting and forced cries.]

Here is a picture of Wren captured in a frustrated hoot as the Duplo blocks fail to connect as he intended.



Yesterday, other moments of complaint included when the pile of river rocks he was making toppled over, when the bugs wouldn't fit in the box, when the animal cards fell out of the tub, when Frost wouldn't let him play with his toys... etc.

The Holiday Weekend

I bet this is not something a parent often says but "I didn't buy enough fireworks." Frost was exuberantly excited about them and managed to wait until 4pm. However, the fireworks I had allowed him did not last as long as his passion. Here he is leaping with energy while watching a blue smoke bomb. Before Josh started to light them, Frost lined them up along the deck in order of appearance. Thankfully, it will be dark earlier for new year's eve and my largesses will be better appreciated.



The other big theme of the weekend was SNAILS. A couple of weeks ago I planted a second batch of beans and some squash starts. Our first batch of beans which Joshua grew from seed were all decimated by snails from a few days after germination until they grew 5" tall. Only 2 survived. This time, I decided to barricade them with inverted soda bottles which I topped and tailed and gave a crenelated border to discourage snailvaders.

The method lasted about a week before the first silver trail and missing leaves announced the offensive. One sunflower and one bean were eaten bare (and the sunflower, beheaded 2" from the ground, before I decided to start stomping on snails. Wren noticed my obsession with snails and enjoys our morning snail hunts. Here are a couple of pictures of Wren on the driveway and pointing out a snail on the wall, which is where they congregate in the hundreds after a rain.



On Sunday, Wren came outside in barefeet and started stomping on snails. Clearly, this was a problem. Plus, as Joshua pointed out, I would have to squash hundreds and hundreds to save a few plants. My first Plan B was to capture lots of snails. Here are the prisoners getting rowdy. Frost was very agitated by the capture and Wren was thrilled. He found he could pick up snails and put them against things and they stuck. He said "on" and then pulled them "off" and put them "in" the cup again. Needless to say, many escaped and the rest of them went into a hardy shrub by the curb. Lauren said she puts them in the yard waste but I couldn't bring myself to do that either.



Our final plan is Sluggo. This stuff is sold for "organic gardening" but I don't think its really in the spirit of organics. It is some naturally occuring iron compound which is delicious to snails but makes them stop eating and starve to death. Frost overheard Josh reading that "the dead snails may not be visible because they may move away into a hidden area to die". Josh and I exclaimed that this sounded awful and Frost is very upset about it. But after another bean plant was eaten to death overnight I have no mercy left. We are now sluggoed and the rate of eating has not stopped, but was much diminished last night.

Wren's Health Update
Wren's fever subsided on Saturday and aside from some unexplained sad wakings at night, he seems back to his usual state of health. He is waking at 5am thesedays but I am doing OK thanks to my naturopath prescribed licorice potion.

I spoke with his doctor today and she mentioned that Wren's platelets are not as low as I thought Thursday. They are actually at 185 (base of low range is 150). Still, I have been giving him broccoli potato soup and oatmeal and am planning on some lamb tonight to help get his iron and vitamin K up.

He is also going to start on a mild iron supplement.

Yesterday I went to our monthly Heart to Heart Support group held at Childrens' Hospital. Usually, the meeting is reassuring but this time I came away with concerns about inexperienced interns (apparently it is inadvisable to be in a teaching hospital in July because the new crop of graduates comes on June 25th lacking experience). Also, problems with weekend staffing and intensivist shortages.

As if the mere procedure isn't enough. Argh.

Today we are going on a school playdate to a local wading pool playground.

Nightmares and neurotic dogs. Happy 4th of JULY!

Its the Fourth of July, the national holiday that appears each year as a cheery frenzy of red, white and blue and explosives. In Seattle, the tradition is to BBQ something under light showers of rain and afterwards gather in the glooming dark rainstorm to watch a well-regulated firework display set off on a barge on one of the city lakes. Personal fireworks are illegal which does not stop people from enjoying them on a small scale which lead to this belly-holding paragraph in the local paper. Friends on other continents, you will surely sense the absurdity here:

Thunderstorms Wednesday night also had an unexpected effect on pet owners' Fourth of July preparations, said Khadijih Harding, a veterinary assistant at Seattle Veterinary Associates' Ravenna-neighborhood hospital.

Many pet owners who had bought sedatives and anti-anxiety drugs for the cats and dogs before the Fourth exhausted their supplies during the night's erratic weather.

"We had prescribed medication for people weeks in advance, and they ended up using most of it because of the thunder," she said Thursday.

Apparently this is a well documented issue for American dogs who not only obtain prescription mood regulators but in Seattle can also enjoy dog naturopaths, dog accupuncture and dog massage.

Speaking of medical issues, Wren still had a fever this morning but it is lower, around 100, and he seems energetic but a little sombre. He is now napping.

For the past few nights I have been plagued by nightmares and last night was no exception. I dreamt that there was a huge downpour and the street filled up the water. One of the manhole covers lifted up and water poured out of the sewer. There had been a car crash on the street moments before so there was a debris field as well as the flood.

I watched out the window while neighborhood children came out of their house across the road [a house which in reality has no kids] to play by vortex of water.

Predictably [told you this was a nightmare] the toddler fell into the manhole and was sucked down after an awful almost-rescue swirling around in there. Then he was washed back out and his big brother who was about 5 tried to save him but fell in too!

Finally, both were rescued.

By this time I was outside and moved the children away from danger and went into the house and shouted at their mother. I can still remember fragments of the tirade but it was mainly stuff like "what are you thinking???" and it felt very liberating to castigate her for not looking after the kids. I was the Good Mother and Protector of Babies.

The previous night I dreamt that I took WrenFrost swimming in the Ganges in India and he drowned. I was carrying him out of the water [supposedly dead] when I realised he was breathing and injured by being in the water. So then Joshua and I had to decide whether to have him undergo surgery at a hospital in India or to risk flying him to a hospital near home [in the US].

I am sure you can see the themes here but it is still interesting to see my mind processing them. The dreams aren't frightening as such, just disturbing.

Frost had a hard time getting to sleep last night. He woke from light sleep crying and yelling and told me that he wanted a "private conversation". Joshua left us alone and he confided that he often had nightmares but they were not normally as scary. However, when I asked him what the nightmare was about he said "I don't want to talk about it". He repeated this with increasing vigor and my probing produced no results although I learned his nightmare was about "people". I tried to prompt more details but he said that he didn't want to have a "question and answer" conversation either.

I was a bit frustrated. I mean, isn't the conventional wisdom of nightmares that the fears are real until shared? How am I supposed to help diffuse the terror if he won't even talk about it? He doesn't write a blog. Argh. Why won't he talk about it? He's my son, right?

Blood draw results later

The pediatrician took a blood sample for CBC. This would identify bacteria in his blood which can indicate endocarditis. The blood draw was traumatic and Wren developed petechia in his arm and under his eyes from the pressure of the tourniquet and screaming. She said we needed to be a big aggressive in treating Wren and because it is a holiday weekend we may have to go to Children's if we did not do a draw today.

We should hear back by later in the day.

I since read that petechia are a symptom of endocarditis but I think in Wren's case it was due to the blood draw.

Update:
Wren's white cell count was normal! That means no endocarditis and this fever is probably viral. However, his hematocrit was a bit low (32) as were his platelets (153). She suggested we start Wren on iron to give him higher iron stores before his next procedure.

Fever and wren is caught by a homonym

Wren has had a fever since yesterday and I will be taking him to the doctor in the late afternoon. Since his fever is not high they were not going to see him until tomorrow but its a holiday weekend (isn't it always when they get sick?)we are going in today.

There is always a concern about endocarditis until a symptom emerges to explain the fever. It is not too high (101.6 last night and 101 again by 9.30am) and its probably a virus but I feel OK about letting the pediatrician do the worrying about the important things.

Now, the funny stuff.

The Bread Making Fiasco

This morning it was time to make bread. Wren loves when I make bread - he stands on his stool and helps by pouring ingredients into the bread machine. While the dough spins around he stands on tippy toes to watch it. After he had stood like that for 10 minutes I decided to move the bread machine to the floor and he sat mesmerized as the KNEAD cycle progressed.


Wren watching the dough go around.

After a while I ducked over to my laptop to check my email. This is what any parent of toddler does the moment their child is engaged in an activity that does not require their attention. I could see him from the desk so I felt fine about it. Eventually, Wren tired of watching and came through to see what I was doing. The dough had quieted down and was rising so I suggested we have one last peek at it and then it was naptime. The next picture shows what I saw when I opened the bread machine.

This is what we saw.

I shrieked and scooped the dough out. There were veins of bright purple and orange running right through it, not just on the surface, so there was no way to save it. My reaction saddened Wren and he was very sad when I told him the dough was no good and we had to throw it in the yard waste with the "yuck yuck". He cried and said "dough? dough?" as if to figure out what had happened.


"Dough, dough?" "Dough yuk yuk"

Of course it was not his fault that Wren had been confused by a homonym. Before we started making dough he had been playing with playdough which we also call "dough". He has seen me add flour and water to the breadmachine to get the dough the right consistency and while I was inattentive he had been innovating a tiny bit.

I did not have enough yeast to make another batch so I told Wren we would make a small bread. The small bread was fun to watch also and although nap was delayed a while the Maple Oat Sampler loaf is rising on the stovetop as I type.

Wren is napping, dreaming (no doubt) about multicolored doughs which invite retribution.