I'm Off...

I am leaving in a few hours for my trip to New York and I am beyond excited. The strike is over so we will be able to see our shows as planned! I should be sleeping right now, but I can't. It hit me pretty hard this afternoon when I was packing my two suitcases full of clothes that I was leaving my husband and little boy for so long. I think that Dillon wanted to come with because he kept sitting in my empty suitcase! As I was trying to say goodbye to him, he just wanted to bite my nose - I guess that's his way of saying I love you, mommy, because he thought it was pretty funny. I'm not entirely sure if I'll have any internet access there, so this may be my last post for the next ten or so days. But if I can get free access somewhere (the hotel charges ten dollars per day - no way I'm paying that!) I post some updates and trip pictures - otherwise, prepare for a marathon reading session when I get back!

My Little Monkey

Dillon has learned how to climb. Tonight, that skill landed us in the ER! Dillon decided to climb onto the kitchen table and as he was getting down, he fell and hit his head on the corner of the chair. You may wonder where I was while this was happening and truth be told - I was standing there! He fell right through my hands! Bad Mommy! I picked him up of the floor and he was crying hysterically and wanted Daddy. As Jason was sitting with him on the couch trying to calm the poor little guy down, I noticed that there was blood on Jason's hand and that it was coming from Dillon's head. I decided that I should call the pediatrician before I called 911 (which was my first thought) and after much ado (I dialed the wrong number first and then my cell phone almost died) he told me to take him to the ER since he was conscious. By this point the blood had stopped and the tears had, too and all Dillon wanted was to play the drums. So we loaded him up in the car, drum sticks and all. The pediatrician recommended that we take him to St. Joseph's in Orange, so that's where we went. When we got there I couldn't find where to park right away and discovered that they valet the cars. We went in and the ER was swarming with people. I filled out the paperwork and we waited. And waited. And then they called us and a million other people back for triage. Turns out that they also have a CHOC ER there and so we were taken there. I guess I should mention that by this time, if we had let him, he would have been running all over the place - if you didn't know better, you would think that nothing was wrong with him! After we waited for around an hour, the nurse came over and put some numbing stuff on the back of his head and did this two more times. At around hour two, they put us in a room and Dillon was jumping on the bed - little monkey - and wanting to turn the automatic sink on and off and wanting to play with everything in sight. Another nurse came in the room and he pointed in the sink and said "bubbles." So, she came back with a bottle of bubbles for us to blow for him. And a little later, after it was determined that he should have a staple put in his little head, a therapist of some sort came into the room with a mini DVD player (playing Dora the Explorer), a Bob the Builder toy, some sort of spinning lighted thing and more bubbles. Dillon was in heaven! They said that the normal procedure for putting a staple into a baby's head would be to hold their head down on the table, but that he was so distracted that they would just try to do it with him sitting there - and they did - and he didn't even flinch - he just said "more bubble." We were told that he was the easiest baby they have ever done. So now the staple has to stay in for ten days and then he will be as good as new. My poor little guy!

Budding Artist

The other day, as I was getting ready to go to my mom's for Thanksgiving, Dillon grabbed a pen and wandered away. The next thing I know, I'm hearing the telltale noise of the pen scratching against the wall. I call Dillon and he comes down the hall and looks at me. "Dillon, are you drawing on Mommy's wall" Nodding his little head, he replies "uh-huh." I ask him to show me where he drew on the wall and he bolts off - pen in hand - and before I can get there, he's drawing on the wall again - well, actually, it was the linen closet door. I took the pen and explained that we don't draw on the wall and he just cried and cried. I felt so sad that I had to stop him from drawing on my wall! When Jason came home I told Dillon to show Daddy where he drew on Mommy's wall. He looked at Jason with the biggest smile and took off running towards his work of art. Now I am stuck with the task of trying to remove his masterpiece... I've tried a Magic Eraser, Clorox Wipes and 409 and it's not budging - any ideas?

Photo Shoot

While we were up at my mom's, we headed up to a nearby lake to take some pictures for our Christmas cards. I was hoping for some snow, but sadly there was none. Dillon loved the lake and was so excited by the sight of it. At one point, he actually tried to walk into the water. Luckily, he only got one foot in. Here are a few of the pictures - now if I could only decide which one to use...

Wii Are Crazy (A Thanksgiving Story)

For Thanksgiving we drove up to Bishop to spend the long weekend with my family. We were planning to drive up Thursday morning, but Jason ended up having Wednesday off, so we were able to leave a day early. We had such a nice day and an awesome meal which included a thirty-one and a half pound turkey!

Wednesday night we started talking about how fun it would be to play Guitar Hero III - the only problem was - we didn't have it. My cousin had brought Playstation but Jason has wanted a Wii for a while, so we decided to go to Kmart on the off chance that they would have one (you never know, right?). Of course, they didn't have one in stock, so we kicked around the idea of buying the Playstation one. Jason just kept saying that he really wanted a Wii and didn't want to have to buy a Playstation when we got home. While we were all standing around, I noticed a sign - it said that they were getting Wiis in on Thanksgiving! We asked the guy behind that counter about it and he informed us that they only had twelve and that the store opened at seven in the morning - but that there would probably be a line to get them. So, I decided that being the nice wife that I am, I would get my but up at five in the morning and go down to Kmart. Well, I had a hard time sleeping that night and ended up getting up at four-thirty and piled on four layers of clothing. Jason, being the nice husband that he is, offered to go with me and I took him up on the offer - I was a tad bit afraid to go out that early by myself. We pulled into the parking lot one minute after five and there were already four people in line. We decided to park the car where we could see the line because it was cold out - actually - it was freezing - it was twenty-six and there was no way I wanted to stand out there for two hours! We sat in the cold car for an hour and we saw the manager come out of the store. He was passing out the "golden tickets" to claim the Wii when the store opened! Jason hopped out of the car and went and got ours! Woo-hoo! We were getting a Wii! It was so nice to be able to go home to my mom's nice warm house to finish waiting. At seven-thirty, we went back, go our Wii, got Guitar Hero, got an extra controller and didn't have to freeze our butts off in the process. We all spent hours playing tennis, bowling and Guitar Hero. After dinner, the boys went outside and played football and Dillon loved running around in the front yard playing in all the leafs. What a great day we had.

My big boy feeding himself

Too much turkey for Brad

Look what Dillon learned to do:

Strike!

So I heard about the Writers strike and that there was some sort of strike in New York, which I thought was just a strike of the writers on the east coast. I wasn't too bothered by the whole strike thing because, honestly, I can live without TV. It will be hard, yes, but I'll survive. What I didn't realize was that the "other" strike is the stage hands strike and that the majority is currently shut down. And while normally, it wouldn't be a big deal to me, I have been planning a vacation to NYC with Susan and Tiffany since May. And that trip includes tickets to two Broadway shows! As long as I can remember, I have dreamed of seeing a Broadway musical and of going to New York. I can't believe that my dream vacation may turn into a nightmare. I may have to fore go seeing Wicked on Broadway and seeing the original Broadway cast of The Little Mermaid. I'm so sad! Hopefully there will be an end to the stagehand's strike soon and that the shows will be up and running again before December fourth, which is when we are supposed to see Wicked.

Tis The Season To Be...

busy. Make that extremely busy! Between now and Christmas, I'm helping Susan plan not one, but two Sweet Sixteen parties for my niece, I'm planning two trips out of town and two Christmas parties at my house (hmm... everything seems to be coming at me in two's). Somewhere in there I need to do all my Christmas shopping, shop for birthday gifts for five family members, pack for my trips, send out my Christmas cards, clean the house, decorate the house, wrap my gifts, bake Christmas cookies and put away everything into my not quite finished kitchen. Is it January yet?