doctor doctor doctor cake

This week has been crazy!!!  Monday morning they came and cleaned our carpets.  The were coming between 9 and 12 so I had to hurry and pick up and get ready for them and vacuum everywhere.  Alan was nice and helped my get ready for them.  I was worried our little friends would come right at the same time as the carpet cleaners...then where would we play since it would all be wet, but they didn't end up coming after all.  The morning seemed cool because of the time change and the sun came over the top of the mountain later.  It did warm up and we decided to walk with Alan down to campus and then over to get Lauren.   On our walk down we saw some dark smoke coming from campus.  At first it wasn't much, but got bigger.  I sent Alan up the stairs from the Marriott Center up to the creamery to "risk his life and satisfy his morbid curiosity...and mine".  He said the Bean Museum was on fire right where they were doing the construction for the expansion.  We walked around the building and saw the fire trucks arrive and it was out a short time later.  We saw the whole thing.  There was no internal damage to the building...which is good!  After getting Lauren we played outside.  Brad told me it was painful to go to the bathroom and he was walking kind of funny.  Since he had been saying that for a couple of days I decided I better take him in to get checked for a uti.  We were able to get an appointment with the doctor for later that day.  They said he had to be there an hour early.  We hurried and ate lunch and ran over to the health center.  They gave us the cup and we just had to wait...and wait...and wait.  I had to get him pretty excited about it and I was getting him to drink more and more.  Finally he said he was ready.  After he was done with the test he told everyone (doctors, nurses, receptionist, lady at the pharmacy, friends outside) what he saw what he had done and how cool it was.  He was pretty proud of himself.  Luckily he didn't have a uti, just some other irritation.  He is feeling better now.  We were done just in time to go get Jared.  We played more outside.  We are loving that it is getting warmer and we can.  Then had a quick dinner and family home evening and went to bed.  Oh that morning we also figured out that our phone was not making or receiving calls, so I call OIT to see what they could do about it.

Getting ready for our walk

Tuesday after taking Jared and Lauren to school we hurried to get ready to take Connor to the doctor.  Poor little guy had a low fever and I had to wake him up to take him.  He was just going for a weight check because he was so small a month ago.  We have been trying to feed him more and more calorie rich foods, but it isn't working.  He is 17 lbs 5 oz.  Which is 2 or 3 ounces more that a month ago...and not enough for the doctor.  He had been labeled with failure to thrive.  A month ago they did routine blood tests and also tested for celiac disease and maybe some other things.  All the tests came back normal.  Tuesday the doctor decided she wanted to have a sweat chloride test to check for cystic fibrosis and said it had to be done at the hospital.  The nurse was busy when we were done with the doctor and she said she would call (on our broken phone...I gave her a different number...but still)  We hurried from there over to preschool a little late...and we took snack...popcorn, apples, and a few pretzels.  After preschool we walked down to get Lauren again.  We were able to get a little done here in the afternoon, but it seemed like we had been spending a lot of time at the doctor!  We also walked down to get Jared.  We went back over to the doctor since I hadn't heard from the nurse about the test.  She said they just found out that we would have to go to Primary Children's Medical center for the test.  It is the only licensed place in the state to have it done.  Wednesday was the most open day to go this week and they had an opening that would work for us.  Tuesday night we went to juggling club for a little bit.

Wednesday we waited for the technicians to come out and fix the phone...they never showed up.  They did finally call and say they had put us on the schedule for Thursday and would that work for us. Bradley, Connor, and I went to story time at the library.  Then we hurried home and packed lunches and got ready to go to Salt Lake.  We picked Lauren up and headed up to Primary Children's.  They had a fun wagon that these guys got to ride around in while we went from place to place in the hospital.  First to out patient registration, then the lab, then to the lab upstairs.  They got Connor all hooked up.  First they cleaned both arms, then put gauze pads soaked in a solution on his arms then copper plates velcroed down on top of that...on his forearm and upper arm.    They passed an electrical current through his arm to help open his pours...the solution helped with that too..and to help him sweat.  He had to have the current through his arms for 5 minutes.  There was one person holding each arm and I was holding him on my lap.  Connor screamed the whole time!  As one of the phlebotomists said "sometimes it's a long 5 minutes and sometimes it a fast 5 minutes"  When time was up they hurried (one on each arm) and took all that off and put a preweighed gauze piece on each forearm.  Then wrapped each with what looked like plastic wrap several times around each arm.  On top of that they used the wrap they use when you give blood (green with little blue dinosaurs).  Then they pulled his sleeves down.  Then wrapped each arm with a heating pack...and taped it on.  They then told me to put his coat on him and wrap him in a blanket.  We had to wait 30 minutes.  We were able to explore around the hospital (we didn't go far I didn't want to get lost) in our squeaky wheeled wagon, but Connor wasn't very happy about it.  He was hot, I'm sure.  He was happy to get all that stuff off!  They had to weigh his gauze pads to see if he sweat enough, but he had sweat a ton!  I could see the beads of water on his arm when they took it all off.  We hurried home as fast as we could.  We still haven't heard the results of the test. We were about 15 minutes too slow for getting Jared so Alan walked over and picked him up.  They walked to Alan's lab and we got him from there.  What a day!  We played outside when we got home and then just normal things in the evening.  I think that's the night we had the dinner of champions...hotdogs!  Connor wouldn't even try one.

This sums up Connor's experience

A little happier once he was done.

Thursday I was looking forward to a doctor free day.  Besides the test though the doctor wanted me to keep a 3 day diary of everything Connor eats.  We had to weigh and measure everything!  I decided I would start it on Thursday.  In the morning they guys from OIT came and fixed our phone.   We also went and helped in Lauren's class.  Thursday afternoon I was finally able to catch up on a few dishes and things around the house.  I also made a pear pie, apple pie, and quiche for dinner.  We walked down to get Jared from school again and stopped at a friend's house for a few minutes on the way home.  They have a huge swing in their front yard.  Thursday night was also the Wasatch Storytelling Festival.  Lauren and Jared both did great with their stories!  Lauren told Froggy Gets Dressed and Jared told More Pies!  We figured out about a week before that Jared would be telling it on pi day.  We thought that was fun...and at least one other parent noticed.  After the storytelling festival we went to a pi day party.  We took our pear and apple pies to share.  It was up at the multi-purpose building and a guy from Alan's lab planned it.  It was late when we got home from the party and we were all ready for bed!

More Pies!

Froggy Gets Dressed

Yum, Pies!

Friday was another food diary day.  I went and helped in Jared's class.  Once we got home with Lauren I did dishes and started baking cakes.  I took a little break and walked down to get Jared.  I baked a little more when we got home and we played outside.  I got all the cakes baked and 2 covered that night.  The other guys ate dinner and watched Robin Hood.

Saturday we slept in as long as we could.  Then I worked on cake.  I was making a cake for the Relief Society birthday dinner.  I was tired by the end of the week and I could have made something lots simpler, but I just couldn't give up the idea of this one.  Alan played outside with everyone for awhile.  Connor took a really nice long nap too.  We all went up to the multipurpose building to set the cake up...which took me a while.  I went to the dinner and the other guys came home and had their own dinner.  When I got back they had decorated some little 4 inch cakes that I had baked for them to decorate with leftover Valentine cookie frosting.  They added a few leftover flowers from my cake to their own cakes too.  They were also playing dance dance revolution and loving it.  I'm glad we only had to keep Connor's food diary for 3 days.


Bradley, Jared, Lauren

The Chocolate Lover

The Nibbler

The Frosting King

The rest of the room's decorations.  There was a huge balloon arch over the food table.

Yum! Yum! Yum!

Today was a pretty normal Sunday.  I went visiting teaching before church and Alan went home teaching after church.   Some people in our ward fasted for a little boy who was born a couple of weeks ago.  He was 13 weeks early.  Right now he weighs just over 1 pound.  Jared fasted too.  It was his first time and I think he had a really good experience with.  We had corned beef and cabbage for dinner and green shamrock rolls.  Almost everyone loved it!

Last week I wrote about our cereal bowls.  I learned more of the guys names....and had to share.  Tony the Tiger is just Tony the Tiger, the fruit loop toucan is Tutu the Toucan, Snap Crackle and Pop are Paddy Maddy Faddy, and of course Corny the Rooster is Chika Baka.

Since there are only a couple things on the calendar for this coming week (just like the one we just had) it should be a pretty calm uneventful week. :)  Hope everyone has a good one!

Alan in Japan

Last Monday was a pretty normal day.  Our little friends didn't end up coming. Their mom called in the morning to say she couldn't talk one of them into leaving and she didn't feel well enough to make him.  We had fun playing more file folder games...mostly the ones we hadn't before.  I was surprised that Brad could do some of the harder ones without help.  We did more tangrams too.   Monday was a nice day and we were able to walk down to pick up Lauren....or maybe we walked to pick up Jared.  I don't remember now.  We walked to pick up Lauren so we could be home quickly after getting Jared so we could skype with Alan.  He was able to skype with us in the mornings before he would leave for the conference.  Monday was the day Alan had his poster presentation at the conference.  After skyping We played outside for awhile before coming in for homework, dinner, and family home evening.

Connor loves to sweep.  He gets the broom out all the time! (Also in this picture you can see Bradley's clothes.  He loves to wear basketball jerseys...and everything without sleeves is a jersey.  Even an argyle sweater vest.  Most days he has on his jersey under his clothes and unless he is wearing his basketball pants...which he is in this picture...he also has basketball shorts on underneath his pants too)

He is very thorough too.

Alan trying out a wheel chair robot

A giant Robot sculpture that is close to his robot conference.

Tuesday Bradley had preschool.  We walked down to pick up Lauren.  We had a picnic lunch outside. We skyped with Alan a little before picking Jared up and a little more after we got him.  Then we played outside until we got hungry and had to come in for.dinner and homework.

Robot during the day.

Wednesday we went to story time at the library.  Then hurried home so we could walk down and get Lauren.  In the after noon it was the usual cleaning up and playing.  We got to skype with Alan one last time.  It was his Thursday morning and he was on his way out to see a little and head to the airport.  The night before Alan was able to meet up with the Ooyamas and have dinner.  He said it was fun to get to see Katsu, Yoshi, and Sakura. (They lived in quad 2 for a year when Katsu was here as a professor doing research....They went back to Japan 2 years ago.  It doesn't seem like it has been that long.)  After skyping we played outside more....and did homework later.  (All last fall we did homework then went out to play.  We are going to have to get back into that pattern.)

Dinner with the Ooyamas

Thursday our neighbors were leaving for school right when we were getting in the car and offered to take Jared.  He said he was ok going with them...so he did.  Lauren had a special practice for the kindergarten program that day and went at the afternoon kindergarten time.  We weren't used to having her home in the mornings.  We just played and worked on cleaning up some.  We walked her down to school.  Connor fell asleep on the way home.  Bradley and I did dishes when we got home.  It reminded me a little of last year when Brad and I would spend our afternoons together...often times doing the dishes.  He really is a good little dishes helper.  He pulls the stool right up to the sink and takes care of the rinse side...sometimes even putting them in the drainer/dryer.  (I think I usually call it a dish dryer, but he calls it a dish dryer.)  After we got everything taken care of in here we went out and played...and waited for Alan to get home.  We took bubbles outside and Connor loved them.  He would laugh his cute little laugh every time we blew some.  Finally Alan got here.  It is so nice to have him home.  He got home around 2:30.  We picked Jared and Lauren up from school and had a fun afternoon together.  He brought back a few things from Japan.  Some fun Disney guys from the Ooyamas and some model cars with motors that he got.  Alan had a good time, but he is glad to be home.

We are glad dad is home!

Friday Lauren had her kindergarten program.  Bradley, Connor and I went to see it in the morning when they performed it for the whole school.  It is pretty much the same year after year.  Before it started they told the other grades that they had all had their turns when they were in kindergarten and now it was the Kindergarteners turn...so don't sing along!  (except for the one song they are invited to)  Lauren decided she wanted a speaking part.  Another boy pulls a rat out of a box and said something like this is weird it has a long tail.  then Lauren said "That's awesome! That's a rat.  I can spell rat R-A-T"  She got really into her part.  She told me she did it with the best expression she could.  After school we went to the last story telling workshop.  Jared decided to change his story Wednesday or Thursday night now he is going to tell More Pies (he was going to tell Duck on a Bike).  He likes his new one better and will do a better job with it.  We also realized that the story telling festival is on pi day...so it will be a perfect story for it.  In the evening we all went to the Kindergarten program again.  I had to keep nudging Alan through it...he is still pretty tired.  He caught all the good parts though.  We had closer floor seats in the evening than I had had earlier.  Lauren was enthralled with the show.  She sat on the top row so she could see the stage...and she kept watching (when she should have been singing).  My favorite part (besides when she says the rat is awesome) was when she just sat watching what was going on on the stage and then when that part was over she started clapping with all the people watching.  Alan and I stayed up to watch the BYU game.  It was too bad they couldn't hang on and win.

After the morning program

Excitedly waiting for the evening one to start.

Saturday Alan had to get up and go to the Spring Student Research Conference at BYU.  He was in a morning presentation group and got to be the first in group of 8 to go.  He said the allocate time for 8 presenters, but his only had 7 and then 2 didn't show up.  I really didn't know what time he would be home, but I was surprised when he got home about 10:40.  (I had just told Jared it would be 2 more hours)  We got some things done around here.  Alan did laundry and cleaned the bathroom.  We went to Winco in the afternoon.  In the evening we went to the men's volleyball game.  We had a fun time at the game and saw Jeff and Elizabeth there too.  Connor went up and down the stairs for a lot of the game.  His little legs were getting so tired by the end, but he just didn't want to stop.

Throw us a shirt!!!

Today I got to do singing time.  We learned the 2nd verse to If the Savior Stood Beside Me.  It is all about what we say.  I took my 'words' spray bottle (body spray) and sprayed it in the room.  We talked about how we can't see it, but it has a lasting effect (we can smell it even a long time later) and once it is out we can't put it back in the bottle.  Then we talked about nice words or saying true and kind thing and not nice things.  I had two jars one with a smiley face with marshmallows and one with a frown and rocks.  We talked about how nice things make us feel and that's what we all want...the marshmallows.  We also sang and clapped staccato and legato.  We did a lot of new things today.  We sang The Chapel Doors with a little box I made with doors cut into it and a picture of Jesus inside (mostly made it for nursery) and we sang head shoulders knees and toes in English and Cebuano.  We did a lot of new things today, but they loved it all.  After church we walked up to the Temple.  Bradley has been wanting to do that for awhile.  Once we got there we realized that we could run into Greg there, but didn't think it likely since there were so many missionaries.  We didn't see Greg but we did see Keegan.  I don't think we would have noticed him, but he said hi first.  Jared wore some hand me down shoes and something started bothering his foot part way there.  He ended up taking it off and since it is weird to walk with one shoe on and one off he took the other off too.  He walked all the way home from the Temple with no shoes on.  For dinner Alan made okonomiyaki.  He had it for lunch one day in Japan.  We didn't have all the right things to make it, but it was still yummy and he said it was pretty close to what he had while he was there...minus the fishy flavors, squid, and shrimp.  We are looking forward to a fun week.

Bradley playing the 'piano' while waiting for the rest of us to catch up to him.

Dinner with the chopsticks dad brought back from Japan.

okonomiyaki....giant cabbage pancakes with a little more and toppings...way better than it sounds!

Connor got a haircut!

This last week has been mostly normal week.  Monday our little friends came to play.  We made fruit loop necklaces. I was surprised that they worked on them for so long.  Bradley worked on his the whole hour they were here.  The little girl worked on hers for about 30 minutes then she just wanted to eat them.  The little boy didn't want to make one at all until he saw his sister eating the loops.  Then he wanted to make one too.  That night we had family home evening.

Busy at work.

Connor really wanted one too.  He helped just a little but mostly he just wanted one to wear around.  Then let Lauren eat it when she got home.

Tuesday Bradley had preschool, and it was warmer so we got to play a little outside.  We went to juggling club that evening, and I took my batons which I haven't done for a while, so that was fun.  Alan also started getting ready for his trip.

Wednesday was more of the same, we played outside and Alan continued getting ready.   I also decided that I was ready to give Connor a hair cut.  He probably could have used one a couple of months ago, but I just couldn't bring myself to cut off his cute little baby hairs.  But they were getting really long and just had to go.  I also knew that if I didn't cut it before Alan left I wouldn't do it while he was gone...and it couldn't wait that long.

Before

Before

Getting started

No turning back now

finished and after the bath

Enjoying his cookie!

Thursday Alan hosted a visiting professor from MIT in the lab.  We didn't help in Lauren's class because they were practicing for the Kindergarten program.  It was fun to play with Bradley and Connor here at home during that time... we did file folder games and tangram shapes.

Friday I went and helped in Jared's class.  Then we all went to the storytelling workshop after school.  That night was the Wasatch school family dance.  We danced for a little and then waited in line for cotton candy for close to an hour.  We were afraid we wouldn't get any, since it had officially ended before we got to the front of the line.  Alan finished getting ready for his trip.

Saturday Alan left early on the shuttle to the airport.  His advisor was going to go but ended up canceling the day before.  Alan went to Japan for a conference.  Since everyone got up to say goodbye we had plenty of time to make green eggs and ham and star-bellied sneech toast for breakfast. Jeff came over to babysit so I could go to our Stake's relief society conference.  Sister Burton the general relief society president was the keynote speaker at the conference.  It was good.  When I got home, everyone was having fun racing their cars they had made out of cardboard with Jeff.  The cars were made out of milk lids, toothpicks, straws, and cracker boxes or milk jugs.  I'm grateful that Jeff was able to babysit so I could go to the conference.  Everyone loves it when he and Elizabeth come to play.  He even made it to the top of some of their favorite uncle lists.  But their lists change daily.  After we did a few things around the house we went and played mini golf at Trafalga... it was such a nice day we were hoping the outside courses would be open, but they weren't so we played black light mini golf inside.  Connor has a pretty good little put...even in the dark.  Then we went to Winco.  A nice boy offered to bag my groceries, because Connor was done being at winco, and I let him, but it was hard to watch, since I'm so particular about how the groceries are bagged.  But in the end it was probably really helpful.  Then we hurried home, ate dinner, and watched Aladdin.  It was the first time for the kids to see it.  They said there were only a few scary parts and the genie was hilarious.

Do you like green eggs and ham?  (They all only like them with ketchup on them)

Connor thinks this car is great!

Golf

Sunday Brad got to say prayer in primary.  After church we hurried home to skype with Alan.  We were only able to skype for about 10 minutes because he had to leave for his meeting, and his sound wasn't working but it was fun to get to see him and talk and chat.  Later in the evening we skyped with Grandma and Grandpa for a while. 

We have 4 Kelloggs bowls that have breakfast cereal characters in the bottom...like Snap, Crackle, and Pop, the fruit loop toucan, Tony the Tiger, and the corn flake rooster, Corny.  We use these bowls almost every day.  Not for breakfast...mostly for dinner.  It is an exciting thing to eat enough of your dinner to see who is sitting at the bottom of the bowl. (Even though they don't really know any of them.)    Well Brad has named the rooster Chika Baka.  I don't know why, but I think it is hilarious!  He loves it when he get Chika Baka...and so do I.