Halloween

We had a fun Halloween! Emma was a Princess and William was a fireman with an ambulance. Mom and dad were a Spiderweb and Batman.

We had a great halloween weekend with parties Saturday and Sunday night that the kids had a blast at! Then Halloween night we headed to hang with friends, Trick-or-treated with the Helie & Steppen families. Then we hung out with the Helie gang and the kids passed out candy, enjoyed some chili and good company!

Bunk Beds!!!!

Emma and Wil decided about a month ago that they wanted to share a bedroom so we moved them in together and they have been doing well in the one room so we went ahead an bought bunk bed to make the most out of a small bedroom. They were both very excited to get to bed tonight! Here's a quick show of construction.

Healthy Boy!!!

Went back up to Hasbro today for our follow us Platelet check and all is well! Wil's count is up to 195,000 well within the "normal" range. Will be doing follow ups for the next 6mo but feeling we can finally relax again!

Missed His Nurses!

We had another visit to the hospital today. I was out running errands when Eric called to say Wil was complaining of a headache and tummy pain. These were listed as things to watch for so Emma was off to a friends and we hit the road. Ended back in the ER at the children's hospital. Another central line in, only took two tries to get it in :( Then ran his blood again and good news is his platelets are up to 85,000. Still had a head and stomach pain and while sitting with daddy we got proof when he lost his milk all over the room we were in, poor house keeping kid that has to come clean that up. They gave him some meds to settle his stomach and some extra strength tylenol for his head and little guy started perking up. They sent us home again! Took a side trip for Wil to have a little toys-r-us therapy and then some dark chocolate to go with red wine for Eric and I. Little guy is now asleep and all is well once again. Fingers crossed we can just spend tomorrow hanging at home, cooking, watching football and relaxing!

Home Safe And Sound

After the results from this afternoons blood test we were OKed to head home. Platelets are up from 2,000 to 16,000. They need to get back to about 150,000 to be normal so we are on our way but still not out of the woods completely yet. Biggest thing is to keep this very active 3 yr old calm till we at least go back in on Monday to get another blood test done and see where his levels are at. Bleeding for a big spill is still our enemy right now but we are on the mend. This is something that fixes itself and just because it happened once doesn't mean it will happen again in the future. There is no know reason why the body does this, just a freak occurrence. Again have to send thanks out to my girlfriend for catching this! The Children's hospital for making our stay as comfortable as possible. While we were waiting for lab results today a pink Care Bear stopped by our room to deliver a box that was decorated by other children in the hospital, it was filled with a few toys from the Hasbro Toy Company. A very nice distraction :) for these young patients. Wil was beyond cooperative the entire time, the worse part was when we were leaving and they had to remove the tape from his central line. He screamed louder for that then he did when getting blood drawn!

I have to thank my lucky stars that we left only 24hrs later with a relatively healthy little boy, nothing that he won't rebound from with a little TLC. There were families there who weren't as lucky as us, there children were there for cancer treatments and it really made me think about having to be in the hospital for months on end, praying for the best but everyday fearing the worst. Hug your children a little tighter tonight and take those extra few moments to enjoy the small things. You never know when something in your "normal" world might be turned upside down and things may never be the same.

Ok speaking of taking more time, Wil and I are snuggled on the sofa watching Pooh Bear! Love my snuggle time!

Never A Dull Moment!!!

Yesterday started off as any regular day! Wil and I joined Emma's class on a walk to the neighborhood fire station. After that Wil and I headed to a girlfriends to have a morning play date with some buddies. At the play date my girlfriend who is a nurse practitioner noticed some spots on Wil that I hadn't see, after a closer examination she suggested that we take him in to see the pediatrician. Headed in at 2pm to get the little guy checked out. Dr. was concerned sent us to the hospital to get blood drawn. Left her office with the diagnosis that it could be anything from a virus causing this to leukemia, so needless to say I was a bit emotional on the ride to the hospital. Called Eric and had him come home from work and started crying in the car after hanging up with him, to many mommy thoughts playing the worst case scenario out in my brain. From the back seat I here, "mommy why are you crying that's silly" played it off and dried up my tears and put on my brave face for Wil. Blood work taken and then we headed home to wait on a call back from the Dr. Got a call back very shortly there after and the worse case was taken out of the equation, not leukemia, huge sigh of relief! Still didn't know what it was though for sure. His Platelet count was extremely low so she told us to pack up and head to the Children's hospital in Providence and be prepared to stay for the weekend. Packed Emma up and dropped her off at my folks then Eric, Wil and I headed for Hasbro's Children's hospital. Time to draw more blood, our least favorite part, but at least this time they put in a line so that they could just draw/administer meds through that, Wil thanked the nurses afterwards after being prompted and they laughed that nobody has ever thanked them for that!. Blood work run again at the children's hospital and still crazy low count, normal would be 150,000 and Wil's was only at 2,000 so we got to stay overnight! The simple explanation of what was happend was that Wil must have had a virus and his body created anti-bodies to fight it but they went nuts and also started attacking his good cells. What they needed to do was give him meds to tell his body to calm down and stop killing the good cells. With the low Platelets the biggest thing was to keep him calm and not let him fall because is he did take a good spill he could have started bleeding internally and that could be hard to control. We hung out in the emergency ward till 11:45pm when we finally got moved upstairs to a room. Eric hung with us for a while but by quarter to 1am he headed over to his office to get some sleep on the sofa. Wil finally passed out for a bit and then at 2:30 we got the process started of treating him. Big dose of Tylenol and Benadryl then the meds to get his body to calm down. Wil was a super trooper and slept through everything last night, vitals checked every 30 mins and he didn't stir! He woke up at 7:30 when the Dr. came in to check on him only a half hour left being hooked up to the IV meds machine and then we were good to unhook and chill. I have to praise Hasbro last night while in the emergency waiting room they had a person there with an art cart so the kids could color and paint! Today we were able to hit the playroom, it was filled with toys and art supplies. It was a nice distraction from the movies in our room and the toys we brought with us. We are now just hanging waiting for them to take another blood test around 2pm to see if the meds are doing their job! Till then we are heading back to the play room :)



Watching Netflix while waiting in the ER!




Being a good boy while they get ready to do his blood draw.




Passed out waiting to be transfered upstairs :)

Fantastic Fall Weekend!

We had a great weekend, beautiful weather for this time of years. Windows are still wide open and the breeze feels fantastic. Dinner with the folks on Friday night. Birthday party for Emma with one of her new best buddy from school. Straightened up the attic and put all the summer stuff up and took down the winter items. Gorgeous morning at the Jamestown playground today, 2 hours of running around in the sun! Then off to support friends at their lemonade stand to raise money for the flood victims in NH. This afternoon we made a big change. We've been talking to both kids and decided with them that they would move into the same bedroom and turn the extra bedroom into a toy room. So we moved both kids into the smaller of the two bedrooms and move all the toys in extra room. Now we are looking into bunk beds! There is no more stay our of my room! They have also been getting along better then ever all day today, hoping the happy last they enjoy sharing a room, kids have shared bedrooms for a long time and while they are still young I think it will be a good bounding experience. I'm sure you'll be hearing more about this in the future :)

A DAY AT WORK

Wil went to work with Daddy this morning. They both dropped Emma off at school then hit the road up to Providence. Like true working men they had to stop for coffee and donuts at Allie's Donuts in North Kingston. The boys hung out at the office for a short time till mommy arrived! Wil and mommy headed out to spend the rest of the morning at the children's museum. Then it was back to pick up Daddy to take him out to lunch with us! After lunch we headed home to hang out till the bus came to drop off Emma.

Time to start fresh!

Life has become to saturated with social media. It has consumed to much of my time and now it's time to take a step back and focus on the more important things in my life. I'm going to start using this blog to keep a record of all the fun, silly things that I used to post on FB but instead of forcing these adventures on others it will be their choice to come and see what we've been up to.
Stay tuned as I make this transition and try and simplify one more aspect of living my best life!

Day 3 Ohio, Indiana, Illinois

Day 3 and the kids have asked today more then the last two combined "ARE WE THERE YET"???? My kids are such good road trippers but 3 long days strapped into the backseat of a car will get the best of travelers antsy. Can't give enough praise to our hotel, fun time swimming, great nights sleep and then a killer FREE breakfast. Kids and I hit the road by 8 and headed the 2+ hours to the Toledo Zoo. Kept time tighter today unlike yesterday so we had 2 hrs to get through a pretty amazing zoo, only did half the zoo but got to see a 16 day old baby elephant (SO CUTE) a white lion, tigers and bears. The primates at this zoo are fantastic, orangoutangs, gorilla, and many others. We were bummed that the Hippo exhibit was under renovation, it was one of our favorite stops last year :( Below are some pictures of our day at the zoo








We made it in good time to Dan & Bete Krause's house just outside Chicago late this afternoon. Kids were so happy to see Dan and Bete, they immediately pulled out all the 70's Fisher Price houses and people and were busy for the next few hours. They are now snuggly tucked in bed and mommy is drinking a well deserved margarita :)


It's been a fun adventure so far. It's funny the things that the kids talk about while in the car for such a long time. Emma wants to know if we can someday drive to Paris so she can visit the Eifel Tower! We talked about how Paris was in France and France is in Europe and that was across an ocean but she still wanted to know if we can drive there :)

I really enjoy having this time with my children, I know most people would be horrified at the thought of getting in a car for 8 + hrs a day and driving half way across the country with a 3 & almost 5 year old but I truly enjoy this time with my children, the days are long, routine is out the window, they eat junk, stay up late, and I'm beat from juggling it all but I'm away from all the distractions of daily life. There is no laundry to fold, meals to cook, errands to run. We are driving through some beautiful countryside exploring America together. We snuggle at night more then normal and if they fall asleep with me in bed they stay there something I fear they will soon not want to do anymore :( I look forward to making road trips across this great country an annual event that I hope we'll all look back on fondly in years to come!

Day 2 PA All Day :)

Day 2 was spent mostly in the wide state of Pennsylvania! We had a fantastic time at the Knoebels amusement park. I had set a side about an hour and a half to play in the water section but the park was just to much fun and we ended up staying over 3 hrs and in addition to the water park we also went on tons of rides. The kids had a blast and were so tired that they didn't even stay awake for more then a mile. Here are a few of the fun things they did!








We made it into our hotel by 7:30pm order the kids favorite a cheese pizza and then enjoyed almost an hour in the swimming pool. Kids were beat!!!

Time To Hit The Road!

It's time for our summer adventure trek out to MN again! Have to say that I was much more relaxed this year with planning, not really securing lodging till a week ahead of time and figured out stops a few days ago. Day 1 was from Newport RI to Madison NJ. We stopped at the Roger Williams Zoo to pick up our new member card and then Livingston NJ to have dinner and hang out with my cousin Diana's family finally arriving with two sleeping children in Madison. The weather today was incredible, Down pours paired with numerous thunder and lightning storms. Took us 7hrs to make a 4hr trip, oh well hopefully tomorrow will be sunnier :) The kids had a fantastic time playing with their 2nd cousins 3 boys 12, 9, 6 they enjoyed some delicious jersey pizza and some homemade cookies. It doesn't get much better then that after being trapped in the car for such a long day. We did see a flat bed semi stacked as high as if it had a container on it with bee hives the hole length of the bed covered in a huge net and loaded with bees, It was very interesting! Tomorrow we are head across the great state of PA , landing just outside of Akron OH for the evening. We are all excited to hit Knoebels adventure water park tomorrow as our fun activity of the day to break up the drive. Mommy is looking forward to getting away from the crazy east coast traffic and into farm country where there is nothing exciting to slow us down! Kids are excited that the hotel we'll be staying in tomorrow night has a pool. we'll be enjoying it in the evening as a great way to get out some energy. Good night all time for mommy to get some shut eye before the troops rise bright and early.

A Year in Review!