Owenland Park Productions: Pneumonia, Croup and Nightmares. That's what it's all about!

My in-laws sent us this lovely bouquet for Easter. As chaotic as things have been around here - it was truly lovely to come home to this beautiful arrangement of flowers. Thank you.

John e-mailed this to me and asked for it to be included - so here is a story from the hubs...One night at bedtime, I was reading a book to Jack, 'Otto goes to Camp'. One of the page lists the things Otto (a dog) takes with him when he goes camping - things from home to help him not miss being at home so much. He takes his blanket, his bone, something else and a cherry pie. When I flipped to the next page, Jack piped up with a question for me, "Daddy, what's a cherry pie?" So I tell him that its a pie filled with cherries. "Whats a pie?" So I say that its a sweet pastry that is filled with fruits, or puddings, or some other things like that. "What's a pastry?" "Well, its a sweet, thin, flour based bread, shaped to fit a pie pan" Then Jack asks, "what's a flour?" So I explain that flour is a milled wheat, that people use to bake or cook with. "What's a wheat?" So I let this go further by explaining that wheat is a grain crop that farmers grow and harvest so people have food. "Why do they grow food?" "So that you have food to eat". "Why do you need to eat?" "So that you can live." "Why do you need to live?" "So that you can - Jack, I don't know, so that you can enjoy your life in society." Why do you live in society?" " So that you - Jackson, I don't know pal; let's say our good-night prayers before we forget."

After John told me this story, I made a point to pick up a cherry pie and some vanilla ice cream to have for dessert one evening. I waited until dinner was over before I mentioned dessert. The kids were thrilled and Jack DEVOURED his cherry pie and ice cream.

Jack has a freakish ability: He knows exactly where every single train is. He could have 3 in the kitchen, 2 under the sofa, 4 in John's car, 10 in the toy box, 3 in his bed, 2 in Wy's bed, 3 under Wy's bed (and the list goes on) and yet he knows exactly what train is where.

Saturday morning I woke up because Wy was screaming. I went to his room to calm him down and he refused to calm down until we joined Jack in his bed. We must have managed to go back to sleep because the next think I know, Jack was downstairs shrieking at his grandma about not wanting to be in time out. It turns out that child woke up, went downstairs, opened the backdoor and went outside with the intent of getting some of his trains from his daddy's truck. Jack was not happy that Gammy decided to put him in time out over this. He and I had a talk about who was allowed to open doors. We also talked about not going outside without an adult. We'll see how long that lasts.

It isn't a surprise that Jack knows all the songs on his Thomas dvds. The child singers on the DVD are all British and believe it or not, Jack has started to sing the songs with a British accent. It is hysterical.

Melanie bought Jack and Wyatt tickets for A Day Out with Thomas for their birthday presents. Jack and I were having lunch one afternoon (Devlyn and Wy were down for a nap) and I told Jack that we have tickets to go meet Sir Topham Hatt and to ride on Thomas the day after Wy's birthday. Jack looked at me and said "When Wyatt wakes up - is it his birthday?" Now, whenever Jack sees a cake, he thinks it is Wy's birthday cake and asks if we are "going to ride Thomas after Wy eats his cake."

Wy gives "bubble kisses". I think this is a combination of a fish kiss and the sound that a fish makes. When we ask "What does a fish say?", the boys answer with "Blub, blub, blub." I asked Wy for a bubble kiss one day and he came at me mouthing "Blub, blub, blub" without any noise. This is now his favorite way to give kisses. One night this week he walked up to me to give me a bubble kiss and then he pointed at my eye and then bubble kissed it. Then he pointed at my other eye and bubble kissed it. Next came my cheek followed by my other cheek, my nose, my hair, both ears, my neck and the mole on my neck. Each feature was identified and then given a bubble kiss. It was wonderful!

Wy will do something that cracks himself up, then he will steal a huge grinning glance up at you and say "I'm funny!" and just laugh, laugh, laugh.

Devlyn spent Mother's Day fighting down a temp of 104. We had her doubled up on Tylenol and ibuprofen. We finally managed to get her temp down to 101. The little thing slept most of the day but was having bouts of trouble with her breathing - some shallow panting. Fortunately mom had all the paperwork in order that we could get her in to a doctor on Monday. That baby has pneumonia. The doctor's office sent her home with a nebulizer, which she has to use 4X every day. She is pretty upset about having to use the nebulizer because she doesn't feel sick like she did on Sunday. "I don't want to! I'm not sick!" I think we have to do the breathing treatments until her RX is finished...that is not going to be any fun.

Now Wy has croup. He woke us up about 1:00 Wednesday night with a cough that scared me half to death. We got some Tylenol in him and after an hour and a half he fell back asleep - then an hour later, Jack woke up SHRIEKING. He was in bed with one leg and his opposite arm in pj's and leg and arm out of pj's. He was sitting up in bed, holding out his hand, shaking and screaming about a spider on his hand. I couldn't find a spider anywhere. I finally managed to get him back to sleep and an hour later he woke up crying that he wanted to go downstairs. After a round of negotiations we finally managed to get back to sleep. I still say that sleepus interruptus is worse than no sleep at all.

Little Miss Jessica graduated this week. It was a busy few days for all of us. She had her 8th grade retreat on Monday, the class trip to Worlds of Fun on Tuesday, 8th grade mass and breakfast on Wednesday (her last day of school), graduation Thursday night and tonight was a series of parties and other things 8th grade...Here is our beautiful girl with her diploma - and little Wy was so excited about clapping, he could hardly stand it!

In addition to everything else going on this week, I took Jess to the KC Rep's gala Monday night. John and I were supposed to go together, but he wound up having to work late. Jess and I decided to have some appetizers before the house opened. A 60+ gentleman walked up to Jess and said "You have a beautiful ankle." Who says that to a 13 year old? OK - maybe she didn't look 13, but she sure didn't look like she was in her 20s either. I mean - it was a compliment, but it was creepy compliment from a senior citizen to a teenager and Jess nearly had a heart attack. Barbara Cook was the star of the evening. I was in tears when she sang "No one is alone" from Into the Woods... Holy WOW. Jessica refused to believe that we were at a 'concert' because the place wasn't hopping with teenagers. At the end of the concert she said "Well, it was better than I thought." The lady in front of her turned and said "I'm so glad you liked it!" Jess smiled and nodded, then looked at me with a "GET ME OUT OF HERE!!!" look on her face. I hope that someday she will actually at least think that the concert part of the evening was pretty cool.

Speaking of being outside, mom took the girls out for some play time the other day. The adults have been going a bit stir crazy with all these kids cooped up in the house. Now that the weather has turned nice, mom is making a concerted effort to get them out. One evening last week she went for a rather long walk - talking just one kid with her at a time. When she got back home with one kid, she sent them inside to get the next one. They all had a really great time getting some one on one attention.