Family Trip to Seaworld San Antonio--Preview

I am trying to find the best photos of the 547 photos that Tony took during our family vacation. It is a daunting task on the week that I designated a vacation from my computer. So I have decided to post only a preview of photos. This tells the story of Cookie Monster at the Bay of Play.

Tony and I are especially fond of Cookie Monster after wearing a cycling jersey featuring him in a full cookie feeding frenzy. We both wore the jersey during our MS 150 ride from Houston to Austin before we got married.


Matthew shares that affinity:


Jacob, not so much:

Weekend with Grandma and Grandpa in The Woodlands

This past weekend I took the boys to Grandma and Grandpa's house in The Woodlands. We went to The Woodlands Children's Festival in The Woodlands Pavilion. The boys had fun but it was a lot more crowded than it was last year. There was a huge line in the "bubble runners" which Matthew really wanted to go in. Instead we enjoyed time on the hill, where Matthew did the parachute run (he also did this last year). It was so windy that I saw a few kids get dragged by the parachute. We also spent about an hour in the huge sandbox. Both Matthew and Jacob loved that. The last event was the Thomas the Tank Engine show on the stage. To the adults it was a let down. We waited all day for a 10 minute show. However, Matthew and Jacob didn't mind.






Jacob enjoyed his Sassie time after the festival. Sassie is such a sweet dog. She appeared to love the attention. Paxil and Domino usually leave the room when Jacob tries to ride them.



Saturday before we went to The Woodlands, Tony took Matthew to the Pearland Fish Festival. They seemed to have fun but Tony said he was ready for his 2 day break by the time they were through.

Matthew's Fall Program with GBCHI

On 11/11/11 Matthew's school had a fall program. Tony took video but we condensed it to Matthew's part. The school did such a great job putting this together. I spent most of my time chasing Jacob but I was happy that I could watch afterwards.

Matthew's skit involved 13 Fat Turkey's. Matthew was #10. At the end of the program the whole group did a grand finale and the students signed to "God Bless the USA" by Lee Greenwood.



Deda and Nana Sande also attended and we had a great time with them at dinner afterwards.

Matthewisms Too Cute to Correct

Matthewism's from the last few months:

• I need to “sharken” my pencil.
• I need a “bang bang” for my boo boo. (bandaid)
  
• Mama, I like your Nicholas (necklace)
• Jacob is nice and fishy. (Don’t ask me what he means…)
• H. E. B. spells “shopping”.
• M is for O’Donnels. (McDonald's)
  
• Hey Jacob, What’s Poopening?
• I remember the “slippery house”. (The house in West Houston that we moved out of when Matthew was about 3 years old)
• I don’t want to change my clothes. I want to stay handsome. (He said this after I told him he looked handsome in his astronaut costume).
• Let’s go back to the fire restaurant (hibachi restaurant)—tomorrow when it gets dark.
• During arguments with his dad: Tony: "Matthew stop arguing with me!" Matthew: "I’m not arguing with you." Or Tony: "Stop contradicting me!" Matthew: "I’m not contradicting you."
• Out of the blue: “I want to go shopping for beach balls”.
• While passing the lingerie section at the mall: "Look Mommy, booby hats"
  
• Mommy I can't kiss you goodnight.. there are no kisses in my mouth.
• Daddy, are you MY friend?
  

Jacob's Signs

Jacob continues to love Baby Signing time and he has been using many signs consistently:

Baby, Dog, Cracker, Cereal, More, All Done, Hungry, Eat, Food, Drink, Milk, Water, Daddy, Mommy, New, Bear, Up, Down, Share, In, Bath, Toothbrush, Tree, Moon, Again, Banana, Music, Car, Airplane, Horse, Bug, Friend, Diaper, Book, Write, Happy, Sad, Hat, Help, Wait, Grass, Day, Thank You, Sorry, Outside, Wind, Moon, Hot, and shoes.

He has also made up signs to indicate his favorite songs: If You are Happy and You Know it Clap Your Hands and Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes.

Words spoken: Da Da.

Every day he is learning more signs and he has probably picked up more than we have realized. I have taken the first level of American Sign Language class through Galeston Brazoria Coop for the Hearing Impaired. This is the same organization that has provided one on one help for Matthew and now his preschool classes. Jacob meets weekly with Ms. JoAnn. She has been doing a wonderful job showing Jacob how to express himself and listen for important sounds. Even though Jacob is a little delayed in his speech it is obvious that he is making progress week by week.

Video of Matthew and Jacob on Holloween

Wouldn't you know it but our video camera crapped out two days before Jacob's first trick-or-treating adventure -- while we were in the pumpkin patch (see the blog below). We so wanted to record it in HD but I guess Murphy's law reared its ugly head so we had to make do and took video with the digital camera. Sorry that the video is a bit dark but at least you can see the boys in action. You may have to turn up the brightness and/or contrast on your screen to see the video... :-(

Halloween and the Night Before

This was a busy couple of nights for Matthew and Jacob. On Sunday, Oct. 30 we went to Deda and Nana Sandy's house so that Matthew could carve pumpkins and then go "Trunk or Treating" with his cousins. First Jacob found some souvenir wooden shoes from Holland displayed and insisted upon wearing them. He gave me the sign for "shoes".

Of course Matthew had to try them too.

Then we finally got ready for trunk or treating.


On Halloween Night, Jacob went trick or treating for the first time. He was the cutest little fireman. Matthew told me in early October that Jacob wants to be a fireman. That took me by surprise because Jacob doesn't talk yet. I just assumed that Jacob has a way to communicate to Matthew what he wants. Jacob has been picking up a lot of the sign language from videos and from what Matthew (and I) teach him.

When Jacob saw the wagon that he would be riding in he had to go in and refused to come out.. not even to put his costume on.

I had to put his costume on while he was in the wagon.

Matthew after a fun night of trick or treating--reunited with his favorite monkey Bongo. He took Ham his "space monkey" since he seemed to go better with Matthew's astronaut costume.

Grandpa/Maria Dog Visit to Boliver

On November 1st I took the day off with my Dad, took the boys to daycare and then we took my parent's two Golden Retrievers, Trip and Sassy along with my dogs Paxil and Domino to Boliver for the day. It took about an hour and a half each way due to a 45 minute ferry ride. However, when we got to Crystal Beach it was practically deserted. We allowed the dogs to have two hours of leash free swim and run time. They loved it. Paxil and Domino have done this several times but this was Trip's first time. My Dad said that this was Trip's happiest day since he was adopted about a year ago.

Overall, the dogs behaved very well in the car and while at the beach. We will definitely have to do this again.

Pumpkin Patch 2011

Jacob is feeling much better now so we decided to take the boys to the pumpkin patch at a local Pearland Church this morning. The boys had fun picking out pumpkins, rolling them around on the wagon and posing for photos. It was about the limit of exertion that Tony and I could handle after a very stressful week.

Jacob's Pre-Halloween Scare

Last Saturday Jacob had a slight fever. It didn't seem unusual. We thought he might be teething because he wasn't acting any differently than normal. We decided that I would stay home with Jacob while Matthew went to the Fire Festival at the Houston Fire Museum with Tony. After they got home, I was holding Jacob and he jerked his arms up uncontrollably. He had a febrile seizure. I knew it was a seizure because Matthew had one last year. With Matthew it happened while he was eating and it happened from the corner of my eye. I thought Matthew was choking. I did everything in my power to clear his airway. When he seemed to gain consciousness I called 911 and we took the ambulance to Texas Children's Hospital. After describing what happened to the triage nurse, she said it sounded like a febrile seizure.

Back to Jacob--Tony called 911 and we had an ambulance at our door almost immediately. I knew to make sure Jacob was breathing and I held cold wet towels against his head to try to reduce his fever. Jacob was stable resting on my chest while the paramedics rolled us away on the gurney into the ambulance. Before we went to Texas Children's hospital the paramedics took his temperature and it was 103. They gave him a dose of Tylenol and his fever was reduced by the time he got to the hospital.

The Emergency Room appeared to be quite busy but we quickly got a room for Jacob and the doctor checked his vitals and then his throat. He was quickly diagnosed with Herpangina. This is a common illness in young children and involves a sore throat. The doctor explained that the illness is not life threatening but that the fever spike seemed to cause a febrile seizure. By the time we left the hospital about 3 hours later at 6:30PM, Jacob was acting normal and we had been instructed to give him alternating doses of children's Tylenol and Ibuprofen every 3 hours. The doctor also said that febrile seizures happen due to a quick rise in fever instead of just a high fever itself.

That night Jacob had a slight fever but we knew with the medications that he would have to ride out this illness for the next few days. At 3:30 AM the next morning Jacob yelled (it sounded like the yell of an adult) and he had another fever induced seizure. We called the ER doctor and they said to make sure his airway was clear and that he was breathing and if it lasted less than 5 minutes that we would not need to go to the Emergency Room. Similarly to the first seizure Jacob was extremely tired afterward and then acted normally after sleeping for about 3 hours. Obviously, Tony and I did not go back to sleep because we were on fever alert until around 8AM.

I originally started this blog to report fun happenings of Matthew and Jacob, however, I decided to record these occurrences with this illness because I know many friends and family members have been worried. I also want to remember some details. It is a week since Jacob's seizure and he is now back to normal. He is over his Herpangina and he no longer has a fever. We had him home with us until Friday. He went to daycare after he had been fever free without the aid of medicine for 48 hours.

The doctor said that febrile seizures do not mean that Jacob (or Matthew for that matter) will have more of these in the future or that he has epilepsy. Fortunately, the ER doctor's prognosis was correct--that he would be over the fever within 3-5 days and then he would be back to normal.

Wings Over Houston-Matt & Jake's First Airshow

Today we went to the Wings Over Houston Airshow. Matthew had a great time! So did Jacob. The pilots put on a great show including the re-enactment of Pearl Harbor and the Canadian Forces Snowbirds and many other acrobatic shows. Of course Matthew enjoyed the Jump Jumps on the grounds too but we tried to take his focus off of this part. We brought some hearing protection because I knew that when the fighter jets broke the sound barrier that even my hearing impaired boys might find the noise unbearable. I am glad we brought them. There were no complaints from them about the noise and I saw several other kids crying when the jets' afterburners kicked in.

Ever since Uncle Tone came to visit in August attending the airshow was an imperative for Matthew. He knows that his uncle flies planes for the Navy and Matthew took pride in knowing that as he saw the show and the planes on display on the grounds. Of course his daddy also made sure he saw NASA's Super Guppy, the "megamind" plane.

Zoo Boo and Visiting Cousin Lauren's Fundraiser

We had a full weekend. Friday night we took the boys to the Italian Festival... no photos because it was too dark but we had a great time.. Matthew did some hamster ball walking on water and Jacob danced to Italian music. Of course we ate meatballs and cannolis so I was happy too.

On Saturday we went to a Zoo Event put on by IBM. Matthew showed his daddy the new African Forest exhibit with lots of monkeys, giraffes, rhinos, and drums??



We also saw the lions. Jonathon the male lion was taking a nap while the lioness was watching over the area. I pointed out to Matthew that the Mama Lion has to keep an eye on the place while the Daddy lion takes a nap. I think Tony would have been more offended if it wasn't true.


Afterwards we stopped by the Bass Pro Shop (Outdoorworld) where Uncle Paul was making sausages for a fundraiser for Cousin Lauren's softball team, the Redhots. We have yet to see one of her games but I have seen her pitch during practice and she is VERY Fast.. Everyone who has seen her play agrees that she is an awesome pitcher.