To the Hospital we will go....

Yesterday was a busy day for us.  We were taking care of my friend Angie's boys for the day so we had two extra monkeys added to the mix.  We were having a great time, and decided to go to the park for some fries.  After we were thoroughly saturated with grease and ketchup, we went to the playground so the kids could run around a bit.  I was with Marin on the play structure, when all of a sudden I heard the CRACK of a tree branch breaking, and then a thud.  The next sound I heard was Aidan moaning.

I took off running and found Aidan slowly getting up from the ground.  He was completely dazed and disoriented, and could barely walk straight.  Turns out the tree branch he was on (yes, he is a climber) broke and he fell.  I'm not sure how he fell, how far he fell (although I'm guessing it was about 4 or 5 feet) or what he landed on but he kept saying that his head really hurt. 

We packed all the kids in the van and drove home.  On the drive home Aidan kept dozing off despite our constant efforts to keep him awake.  Once inside all he wanted to do was to lie down and sleep.  He kept complaining about his head and kept saying: "I just want to go to sleep". 

By this point both Chris and I were pretty sure that he had a concussion. After consulting with our medical expert Google, we were 99% certain that this was the case.  A concussion is a pretty bloody terrifying thing when you're a parent.  It's that whole "rattling your brain" thing that freaked me out.

We fed the kids dinner (which Aidan didn't touch) and then tried to entertain him by playing some Nintendo (again - he wouldn't even play that so we knew that something was DEFINITELY wrong!).

Then he threw up.  You have to understand a thing or two about Aidan - he is a really tough kid. He never complains about being tired or hurt.  And he is NOT a puker.  So put together the fatigue, lethargy and throwing up and you have some pretty bizarre behaviour.

I decided to take him to Emerg just to be sure, and sure enough the Dr. said:  "yep, looks like a classic concussion to me."

 Out of that visit to the ER I learned a few things:
1)  Apparently it's OK to let someone fall asleep when you have a concussion.  It's a common response to head trauma.
2)  You don't need to wake them up every four hours to check on them.  As the Dr. said to me:  "well, if you wake him up, are you going to be able to tell if he is coherant?"  To which I responded: "Are you kidding, Aidan is the heaviest sleeper on the planet!".

But, because I'm anal retentive, I made him sleep next to me last night because I was so worried. Needless to say, I didn't get much sleep because every time he moved I was up like a shot checking on him.

The long and short of it is that he woke up this morning and was back to his normal energetic self.  Although, he was rather annoyed that I wouldn't let him do any dives at the pool today.  I'm such a mean Mom!!

Random Thoughts....

Here are some random musings - in no particular order:

Overheard:  One of our friends very kindly gave Shannon all her old princess and Dora gear.  Being the true girl that she is, Shannon absolutely LOVES every single piece of clothing, jewelry and toys that she recently acquired.  Surprisingly enough, the boys also got right into things, dressing up in full princess regalia with (of course) the coordinating shoes:

The funniest part of all this is not the dresses or shoes.  Rather, it was what I overheard as they were getting 'dressed'.  I could hear them helping each other put things on, when Aidan pipes up:

"Those are my shoes Shannon - HEY!  Who took my purse?!?!" 

OMG - the blackmail possibilities are endless!


People say the most obnoxious things:  Monday night Chris and I went down to play some tennis.  The kids were in bed and asleep, so we hired our neighbour to come over and watch the kids (well, really he just watched TV - easiest $6 he's ever made!) while we went out for the first time in FOREVER.  After the tennis we went and grabbed a drink.  As we were sitting there, these three women who also played tennis started chatting with us.  During the course of our conversation (really it was more them interrogating us) they realized that we were the house with the pile of mulch in the driveway (yes, we are THAT house.  The one with the massive pile of mulch on the driveway, which we have been working diligently to remove now that the swingset is built).

Anyhow - I digress.

The women asked what we were doing, and we said that this was the first time in a long time we were able to go out without the kids so we thought we'd come down and play some tennis.

Then one of the "ladies" says:  "Oh, you're out without the kids?  Shouldn't you be working on that pile of mulch in your driveway?"

Screech, screech, screech.... that's the sound of crickets chirping. Because that's all you could hear after she made that insightful remark.

After I pummeled her  I mean, picked my jaw up from the ground, I sweetly responded:  "Well, we have an extra shovel in the garage if you want to come help."

Seriously?!?!  I mean SERIOUSLY?!?!?  Are you freakin' kidding me?!?!?

I think they like it:  So now that the swingset is complete (but don't forget - we still have mulch in our driveway!), I think it's safe to say that the kids like it:  (video link here for you Facebook types)

Weekend Escapades

OK - I know it's Thursday, but I'm just getting caught up on things, and finally have a minute to recap our weekend.

Last weekend we took off and visited Chris' sister Heidi, and her family in Harbor Springs, MI.  The weekend started off well as we tried our new Nexus passes and whizzed past all the cars sitting in traffic on the bridge.  We probably saved at least two hours by using the Nexus pass.  The boys were hysterical - as we were passing all the 'parked' cars they were yelling:  "see ya suckas!!!"

As usual we had another great visit with Heidi, Robert and Robert.  Saturday we went to Thunder Falls waterpark, despite the overcast skies.  We had a great time hanging out and getting drenched (both by the water at the park, and the rain that fell from the sky!).  Aidan was a crazy man, and went down the MASSIVE speed slide, not once but four times!!

See that huge blue slide?  That's the slide!  Aidan kept asking me: "Mummy, do you want to go down the slide with me?"  To which I responded:  "Are you crazy?  No way!!"  But the little monkey just gave me his toothless grin, and climbed up the stairs to rocket down the slide.

The weather cleared up perfectly for an evening BBQ and campout.  We had some serious badminton games going on between Chris, Robert and I, and the kids got into it to and had some impressive rallies.

A campfire wouldn't be complete without s'mores:

And the boys slept in the tent with Chris and couldn't have been happier about it:

We spent Sunday visiting a park, and then we hit the beach to do some boating and tubing.  This is Aidan getting ready for his first tube ride:

Quinn screwed up his courage and went on the tube with me.  He's so funny - he was giggling the whole time, but he held on to the tube as though his life depended on it!

I love this picture of Shannon - she has a goofy expression on her face, but the lighting is just perfect:

All in all it was a great get-away, and we loved spending time with the Hagen's.  As you can tell from this picture, I think Shannon enjoyed snuggling with little Robert and Robert!

This is how we do Friday nights....

First we gather the troops and head to the splash pad....

The littlest of the bunch just LOVED running through the rainbow sprayers:


Once everyone was toweled off and dry, we were off to Ribfest - YUM!  First we rode the rides, and then we stuffed our faces with ribs, pulled pork, chicken, kettle corn, and of course.... cotton candy!!

All in all - a pretty amazing way to spend a Friday night!

A HULKING 7 1/2 year old

Being a February baby, Aidan's birthday parties have always been indoors.  He's been dying to have a party at the pool, so this year we convinced him to have a 7 1/2 birthday party so that it would be in the summer. 

So, even though he's not quite 7 1/2, we had his party yesterday.  It was a hot, yet grey day, so I was worried that rain or thunder might spoil things.  But not to worry, the weather held out and we had a great day for swimming at the pool, followed by cupcakes and beach time.  All in all, I'd say it was a successful party for our almost 7 1/2 year old!

Aidan with his cousin Liam at our bonfire the night before:

The inaugural dive to start off the party:

When you're waiting in line for the slide it's a bit chilly!

The "HULK" cupcake cake: 

The funniest part about the Hulk cupcakes was when the kids started "painting" themselves with the green icing to turn themselves into the Hulk!  Here's Aidan's buddy Aidan (I know - two Aidan's - the irony is not lost on me!) as the Hulk:  (when he was all done he just went down to the beach and washed off)

Waterguns were the present du jour and boy were they a hit!

My Little Bieber

Aidan decided to grow his hair out.  It drives me crazy, but it's hair.  I just keep thinking to myself, "big picture Tara, say yes to the shaggy look, and then you can say no to the nose ring".

Now that his hair is long - I have to grudgingly admit that he looks pretty damn cute:

Then someone mentioned that he looks like Justin Bieber. Ok - I seriously had to Google Justin Bieber because clearly I am not in touch with my inner 13 year old.  But I have to say, Aidan is waaaayyyy cuter than that Bieber kid!

Red, White, and Blue...

Two years ago we spent the 4th of July with my parents in Ohio.  We had so much fun that we knew we wanted to go back and do it again, so this year we planned a trip down for the festivities.

The boys remembered everything about the last trip, so they were VERY excited about the massive fireworks and the parade (actually, they were most excited about the candy at the parade, but more on that later).

Saturday we kicked things off by heading to a park - they have the best parks around my parents house. Aidan posed with Marin:

Shannon was 'selling' hot dogs, so I gave her a kiss as payment:

And Quinn was busy trying out the monkey bars - I just love this picture of him!

That night we went to a hot air balloon festival.  It was probably about 28 C outside, added with the heat from the hot air balloons, and it was a hot and sweaty night.  But the balloons were certainly beautiful:

Sunday we hit a splash pad to combat the heat, and the kids loved it.  Marin was a maniac running through the sprayers and getting soaked, and Aidan and Quinn made it their mission to get Shannon to go down the slide.  In the end they were finally successful!

Sunday night was the fireworks, and boy do they know how to put on a show down there!  Of course, I forgot my camera, but Chris managed to get some shots on his BlackBerry - which I'm too lazy to download.

Monday we went to the parade and hot doesn't even begin to describe it.  We camped out in the shade, and we were still sweating buckets.  That didn't deter Aidan and Quinn from grabbing as much candy as they possibly could.  I swear those kids collected more candy from the parade then they got at Halloween!

All in all it was another great visit with my parents, and by the time we drove home Monday night we had four tuckered out children.

Happy Belated Canada Day

Canada Day has come and gone, but things have been so hectic I'm just now getting a chance to update the blog.

Canada Day was a gloriously beautiful, sunny day - perfect for the parade and party on the beach afterwards.  We biked down to the parade, which was an adventure in and of itself because people thought we were part of the parade and were cheering us on (the kids thought that it was pretty cool).  The downside of this was that we had to pass the horses, and in doing so we had to avoid the 'steaming' gifts the horses left in their wake.

Here are some pictures from the parade:
Marin, modeling the latest in Canada day gear:

Heidi was in town for a visit, so we were able to snap a picture of the James siblings:

Trying to wait patiently for the parade to start:

Shannon wasn't a fan of the loud drums and bag-pipes:

After the parade we headed down to Angie's house which is right on the water.  It was an absolutely amazing afternoon!

Our little beach bunny:

Aidan and his friends took the terms: "Re-use and Recycle" quite literally when they created this 'work of art' made out of driftwood, bottle caps, old socks, and other garbage they found on the beach.  They were so proud of their masterpiece they asked everyone to come over and check it out:

Hmmm.... me-thinks Marin was really enjoying this cookie:

Nobody loves a bonfire more than Quinn!

For his next party trick, Aidan thought it would be cool to stuff his swim-shirt full of sand.  It was actually really funny to watch!

 

So Canada Day was a resounding success and we took four very tired children home and put them to bed.  They had to get their sleep after all, because the next day we were off to Nanna & Nannu's house to celebrate the 4th of July.  More on that to come...

A Camping We Will Go

This past weekend we packed up the crew and went 'camping' with six other families.  I say "camping" because we stayed in a cabin (that's about as close to roughing it as we get!), but there were many a bonfire, lots of mosquitoes and plenty of dirty kids running around.

There was the jumping pillow - which is perhaps the coolest thing ever (unless you're over 30. If you are and you jump on the pillow you'll feel like you need to pee, or  like you've had one too many 'special' cocktails!):

Our friend Dan took Shannon on the jumping pillow - I think it's safe to say she adored him for that!!

There were many, many playgrounds to discover: (Shannon told me that they were driving to Tim Hortons - I asked her to get me my usual medium regular)

And because we TOTALLY lucked out with the weather (it was supposed to rain all weekend, but all we got was a bit of a sprinkle on Saturday morning), we spent a lot of time in the pool.  Quinn was a wild man, doing his crazy jumps and swimming like mad.

Marin loved the pool too, but since she's still quite top heavy (meaning her noggin is so darn big!) she tends to fall face first into the water, so I stayed right with her the whole time.

A couple of games of football and baseball were played.....(when you're camping no one cares if you're running around in your jammies!)

And at some point, fatigue takes over and you have to crash (behind the mosquito netting), even if your belly's hanging out for the world to see!

All in all, it was a great time, and as we were pulling out of the camp grounds the boys were already asking:  "Can we go back next year Mom?!?!?!"

Happy Fathers Day 10K!

Happy (belated) Fathers Day to all the amazing Dads out there!

We celebrated Fathers Day with our usual tradition: running the Huron Boys Home 10K.  Chris has always run the race with one child in the jogging stroller, but last year we missed the run because Shannon was sick the night before, so Chris never had a chance to run with her in the jogger.  Sooo.... this year he ran with BOTH girls in the jogging stroller!

Considering he hasn't really trained - and he's only run once before with the girls in the stroller - he did AMAZING!! First Dad to finish while pushing a stroller - unbelievable!

This year, Chris' mom Brigitte really wanted to run the race with Aidan.  I was a little apprehensive about it, especially when you consider that he's only 7 and the most he's ever run was 3km.  But we agreed to let him do it, with the provision that I would run as well to keep an eye on him (because being the world class athlete that I am, I can just whip off 10km like it was nothing - NOT!).

I have to say, without being biased in any way shape or form, that little boy was abso-freakin-lutely UNBELIEVABLE!  Not only did he finish the race, but he finished it at an all out sprint!  He was so tired at 9km that I wasn't sure if he was going to be able to do it.  Once we saw the entrance to the park the race was finishing at, I said: "let's just run to the park, then walk for a bit and then we can run to finish the race."  Well, as soon as we hit the park Aidan took off.  I was actually yelling for him to slow down because I was worried he was going so fast that he wasn't going to make it to the finish line!

Yep, we left that old guy in the dust!  ;-)

Now we certainly didn't break any land-speed records with our run (in fact, it was more of a combination run / walk) but the fact that Aidan finished the race, and didn't complain once was just amazing!

Brigitte finished the race strong.  She did unbelievably well considering the fact that she didn't really train for the race either, and considering her age (which I won't disclose here because lady's don't divulge that information!).  Here is Brigitte finishing - she had a small entourage of kids with her, because as soon as she turned the bend my niece Emma and her friends ran out to finish the race with her:

While we were running the race, Quinn was busy playing at the park with Gramps.  He even convinced Gramps to buy him a plate of pancakes and sausages - which he quickly devoured.  After the race, he was happy to cuddle with Marin and I:

Once we had somewhat recovered from the race, we headed over to Karen's house for a Father's Day BBQ and swim.  Yet again Quinn amazed us by turning into a swimming demon.  When Aidan was Quinn's age this was the summer when he 'got' swimming.  He just became really comfortable in the water, and by the end of the summer he had ditched the life jacket and was swimming on his own.  Chris and I are secretly hoping that the same thing will happen to Quinn, but thus far it hasn't seemed to be the case.

Quinn has been very reluctant to venture out of the "little pool" at the Riding Club, and when we do get him into the big pool he won't even let us let go of him in the water. Forget jumping in - he won't even go there.

Well something must have clicked at Karen's pool because that little guy became a swimming demon.  He was swimming around (with his jacket) without anyone near him, and then he started jumping of the diving board.  OH.... MY....GOSH!  This kid wasn't just jumping off the diving board, he was actually doing tricks!  One leg hold jump here, spin-a-roo jump there, belly flop here.... it was unbelievable!!!  Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me, so I didn't get any shots of him, but he was just amazing!!  Who knows.... maybe this will be the summer of Quinn swimming!

After we got home we were thoroughly exhausted, so we spent the rest of the afternoon on the couch watching soccer, followed by a BBQ dinner of beer-can chicken, corn on the cob, and fries.  We polished everything off with a Popsicle - a pretty fitting end to a great day.