Parenthood is Hard Work

Trying to capture Hollyn making faces at Daddy.  Didn't work out though

Watching a video of her cousin James laughing

And she wants to watch it again

 Well, it's been busy lately.  I had a lot going on last week, which was spring break, which included lots of stuff on my mind, such as Mom's health, Kelly's pregnancy announcement and Shannon having her baby. (Yay!)

On Friday morning we headed out for a vacation to the great and exciting city of Portland.  I know, we didn't go far, but it was something.  I got us a stay at a nice-enough hotel and let the boys know about its indoor pool.  They were immediately sold. :-)  So we arrived shortly after lunch time, and immediately headed for the train, which we rode into Downtown.  The boys liked the tall buildings (as do I).  We ate an early dinner and then browsed Powell's Bookstore.  (A very large, and very old store of new and used books.)  Each kid picked out a book to purchase.  Then we rode the train back to the hotel.  At that point we finally hit that swimming pool which had been talked about near constantly by the boys all week.  Late night McDonald's in our room summed up a fun and tiring day.

*Fun Fact: Our suite included a half-height wall between the beds and a sitting area.  Perfect place to put Hollyn's porta-crib.  Or so I thought.  She quickly discovered, using the loveseat nearby, she could easily climb in and out of the crib at will.  After lights out and everyone else was in bed, and she STILL kept wandering out and touching us in the darkness, I had to move her crib. :-)

 Saturday morning we enjoyed a continental breakfast, then headed for the Zoo.  It was a B-U-tiful day, so it seemed perfect.  We passed a sign on the highway saying the zoo parking lot was full and to use the shuttle parking.  So we followed those signs and wandered around that parking lot for 20 minutes before giving up.  It was full too.  I saw some kids with Easter baskets, so I'm thinking there must have been an activity going on.  Plus the perfect weather...  Anyway, it was clearly going to be a zoo there (hahaha) so we drove out and didn't look back.  We ended up at OMSI instead.  There, we were told that they'd had a ton of visitors all week (spring break, remember?) but that day, thanks to weather, they weren't too crowded at all.  Yes!  It was perfect.  I mean, there were people, but we never needed to wait for more than a minute - if that - to have a turn at any of the activities.  We all had a BLAST trying out robots and holding dry ice bubbles and exploring all parts of the museum.  Brian took the boys on the submarine tour while Hollyn and I played in the "science playground" (a closed-door area where younger kids specifically can wander and play.  Giant sandbox, water-fountain activities, etc.)

We spent ALL day at OMSI and were quite exhausted by the time we left.  But it was SO fun.  In hindsight, the zoo would have been a worse choice.  First of all because it was apparently super crowded, but also because Hollyn would have gotten bored and fussy.  At OMSI she could touch and play with things the entire time, so missing her nap was not the disaster it could have (and would have, at the zoo) been.

Where should we go next?

In the submarine

Fun views from within the museum

So yeah, we got home Saturday evening.  After getting kids to bed, I got busy making a dessert for the next day, Brian made a quick trip to the store, we cleaned the living room, filled some plastic eggs, hid all the eggs, and set up their Easter baskets.  Whew.  We were beat by the time we got to bed around midnight.

Easter Sunday morning (yesterday) I got up early, we found the eggs, delighted over the gifts from the Easter bunny, and I got the ham started.  I didn't make the 8:15 choir practice, but can you blame me?  I did join the performance during sacrament meeting though.  And THAT was a feat.

As soon as we sat down in the chapel, Asher started coughing.  And coughing, and coughing.  His asthma had started up.  Since I knew I'd be singing, I asked Brian if he'd take Asher home and administer the inhaler after I was done with that.  Well, we didn't perform until Sacrament meeting was almost over.  But I immediately sent Asher out to Dad in the foyer, Dad brought Hollyn back in to me (she was such a pill all day - probably thanks to having eaten mostly chocolate for breakfast), and I had to take Hollyn back out 30 seconds later.  That left Brenny sitting all alone for the remainder of sacrament meeting.  Thank goodness for tablets.  He was on it and never budged as far as I could tell when I got back after the closing prayer.  The rest of church was good.  For the 3rd hour the bishopric put together a really nice presentation including a couple of videos, singing primary songs, and sharing their testimonies.  The entire ward was invited, kids and all.  Which meant I had Hollyn again (Brian had to work the media stuff) and spent most of THAT in the foyer again.  Oh well.  I got to hear it, anyway.

After church, I got cookin'.  I made another dessert, and some mashed potatoes.  Brian decided he wanted to enjoy the sunshine on the porch, which meant we ended up cleaning off the porch.  Whew.  Then woke up Hollyn, and carted all the foods and everything to Mom and Dad's house for Easter dinner.

Because Mom is still recovering from her ileostomy surgery, she wasn't really involved in the planning of any of this, and hung out upstairs in fact the entire time.  So I, Dad, and Devon patched this all together around Shannon having her baby, me being gone, and Dad spending his time taking care of Mom and having some office remodeling done during the break.  Man, SUCH a busy time for all of us!  Anyway, the meal was good.  We had some additional guests, Dad filled some Easter eggs and had Brian hide them in the backyard, so the kids got to have a fun outdoor egg hunt.  Wasn't that so cool and nice of Dad to do?!?  We were enjoying the visit, but Asher started coughing again.  Bad.  Like to the point of almost vomiting.  I tried to assure everyone it was just his asthma.

But the poor kid kept going downhill.  He was weeping and wailing.  He wanted to lie down.  He panicked that he HAD to eat, and cried out "I NEED SOMETHING HEALTHY.  I NEED A CARROT!"  He was leaning over the back of the armchair.  He started looking like he was about to fall asleep or pass out.  Basically, getting a little delirious.  During most of this, I had sent Brian home to grab the inhaler.  When Brian got back with it and we gave Asher a couple puffs, he immediately started acting better.  His breathing was still labored, but his mood improved about 90% at least.  It occurred to me by the time I saw him with his eyes drooping, that we'd done this before.  After an extended episode that wasn't getting completely better with just the inhaler, I'd taken him into the Dr.'s and he was almost sent right to the hospital because his oxygen levels were too low.  He had been acting just like that.  In fact, at that time he'd actually fallen asleep on the table waiting for the nebulizer to be brought.

I also remembered that he'd been given a special steroid for the nebulizer, so we headed home and I saw that we still had some.  We gave it to him right away.  But his breathing didn't sound much better.  At that point, I approached Brian with the idea that perhaps he should be taken to the ER.  (Since he almost had been last time).  Brian, in his wisdom, called the Dr.'s office instead.  After discussing things with the on-call Dr., we were given a prescription for an oral steroid (which he'd also taken last time but I didn't have any more) and Brian went BACK out to pick that up.  Overall he made 3 trips yesterday for Asher's asthma!  Anyway, things are being much better controlled now.  He'll have to continue these steroids for 2 weeks, plus use the regular albuterol as needed.  All in all, another exhausting day.  In a row.

Today I am so very tired.  Of course, don't let that stop Hollyn from getting chocolate all over the house (including getting a hold of scissors and chopping up a candybar into small melting pieces and getting it all over the stairs).  And definitely don't let that stop her from pooping on the floor in the boys' bedroom and smushing it into the carpet.  I don't even want to know if that was the poop or more chocolate surrounding her mouth at the time of that incident.

I need a post-vacation VACATION!