Album 01/23/10, by Matt Brogan

I'd like to share my Walgreens Photo Center photos with you. Once you have checked out my photos you can order prints and upload your own photos to share.

Newton's Laws of Hotel Physics

We had went to Minneapolis this past weekend to a waterpark/hotel to hang out with some family. I knew we were probably pushing our luck because Ben had puked that week at school, Zach still wasn't recovered from his laringytis and Maddie was starting to get a cough too. But, we thought a change of scenery could do us some good so we all loaded up in the family truckster and headed north. Jeremy stayed at the pool with Abby and Evan and Ben while the rest of us did some shopping and according to him, he has never seen Ben laugh so much or have so much fun. It is amazing to me, the little guy would truck up a LOT of stairs to the top of this waterslide, sit and wait patiently for the poor schmuck who honest to God sat at the top of that waterslide for a good 8 hours with no breaks to tell him he could go and hurtle himself at Jeremy waiting for him at the bottom. Jeremy said it was like trying to catch a medicine ball coming at you all the while trying to keep the medicine ball's head above water. When we arrived, it was Matt's turn to take over medicine ball catching.

Anyway, I don't know if it was the pool water or the flu, but that night both Matt and I got puked on in bed by Zach and Maddie respectively. It was great. Maddie and I stayed up most the night watching DVDs in the hotel bed and I am still waiting to see if we get some sort of credit card charge standard for puke clean up.

But we got home on Sunday and poor Zach was still just struggling. So, I finally took him back to the doctor on Tuesday (I didn't want to be Miss Overreacting Mom who was just there the week before) but it turns out he now as pneumonia and thrush (so now I am the Couldn't You Tell Your Kid Was Sick for God's Sake Mom). Confirmed by an ever fun finger poke and chest xray. He had to get a painful shot of antibiotic in his leg and we had to take him back the next day for followup. On Wednesday I took him back and his white count was down (i.e. the antibiotics were working) so he didn't have to get another shot. However, our doctor decided he wanted to do some bloodwork to make sure there isn't an underlying immunodeficiency problem. The kid has had ear infection after ear infection and then to get pneumonia (oh and did I mention he also has thrush) so soon after getting his tubes is kind of worrisome. I didn't even ask what it would mean if any of the tests came back positive, because I didn't want to worry unless there is something to worry about, but of course, I am worried. The doctor did say that he is obviously growing and thriving, it is just of some concern that he can't seem to beat any little virus on his own. Finally, today, he seems to be doing a little bit better. We won't hear back from the doc for at least a week, but I will let you all know what we find out!

Why a Baby with Laringytis is (Mostly) a Bad Thing

So Zach has laringytis. I know, I know you are all thinking...perfect, a baby with laringytis...what's so wrong with that? Matt and I thought the same thing for the first day. It was both cute and pathetic at the same time when he tried to cry and nothing came out. However, three days later, you can tell that it is really starting to tick him off and I think it hurts quite a bit too. Everytime he tries to utter a sound nothing comes out and he keeps trying until he starts coughing from the effort. It is really quite pathetic. If you were wondering, according to our doctor there isn't much you can do for laringytis besides ibuprofen and a cool mist vaporizer. However, the last two nights Zach has pretty much slept all night (this is a huge relief after a really crappy night of not sleeping much at all...it's funny you can do it when they are a newborn but once you get used to them sleeping most of the night, it really sucks to go backwards) so maybe he is on the mend. He has been gracious enough to pass the cold onto Ben who, for a sick kid, stays surprisingly upbeat.

We have a door in our house that goes into the garage that has a tendency not to shut. You have to really slam it to get it to stay shut and so we call it the "ghost door" and the kids get a kick out of that. Well, yesterday morning was one of those days where nothing was going right, the kids were driving me absolutely nuts and when my mom left she didn't shut the door all the way. This was my breaking point and there was a small crack in my otherwise perfectly serene exterior and I said (in a slightly raised voice) "she can't even shut a god d$%m door!" to which Ben replied, "Mom, it's not a God door, it's a GHOST door". I'm super glad he didn't repeat the cursing part and reminded once again that I need to watch myself around them!

Are Poptarts Healthy?

So Ben has to be the "leader" at preschool when he goes back to school next week. I asked him today what he wanted to take for a snack. He said, "mmmm, how about chocolate chip cookies?" I said, "nope, it has to be something healthy," to which he responded "are poptarts healthy?" I said, "they sure aren't". So he said, "Well, what's healthy? You tell me.". Pretty funny. This from the kid who had a lunch of glazed donut and cheetos on New Year's Day. Wherever would he get the idea that poptarts are healthy? At his "new school" (aka daycare) they have "helpers" for things. He has brought this concept home and is the "helper" for everything including lights, doors, remote controls, phones, toilet paper, flushing, the list goes on and on. He will say "I will open this door because that is what helper I am.". It's great. However, the really, really great part is that I get all the crap helper jobs like taking off his shoes and putting the dishes in the sink. He tells me that's what helper I am. Awesome.

Zach and Maddie are also doing pretty great. We actually moved all three of our kids to one bedroom upstairs, by us, which has its pros and cons. I told Matt that when I originally came up with this concept that hey, the Gosselins had six kids in one bedroom. Later I got to thinking, I should maybe (just maybe) not be taking parenting advice from the Gosselins. Anyway, the kids seem to like it and it hasn't been too bad. It is great having them just across the hall from us instead of down in the basement, however, Zach is still not really sleeping through the night and he will take any excuse to get up.

I did get my Xmas cards printed. If you are lucky, you may just have them in your hands by St. Patrick's Day.