Summertime in Spring

This weekend was pretty much a whirlwind of fun and activity for us!  With temperatures in the upper 80's and low 90's it could have been miserable, but it was great!

Saturday -
We started the day at Maryland Day, which is annual open house that the University of Maryland puts on.  It was hot and crowded, but a heck of a lot of fun!  Abby had a blast playing with the bubbles when we first got there.  There were plastic ducks in the main fountain on campus, and all three girls had fun retrieving them and throwing them back into the water.

(No pictures from Maryland Day - I left my camera and phone at the house on accident.  It was really weird for me to not be connected!)

After grabbing lunch and a nap, we went up to celebrate Luke's second birthday!  Lots of family and tons of presents, but mostly it was fun to watch the children together.  Evan and Luke are constantly in motion, which is awesome to watch.  I think that Abby did not believe Luke was up to the challenge of opening his gifts on his own, so she helped a little:



We left their house way too late, but Abby did not notice too much.

Sunday:
We realized on Saturday night that our regular church service on Sunday was not going to be "normal" but rather was the Easter Choral Cantata.  I love music, don't get me wrong, but I don't love Latin.  We decided to head up to the National Aquarium in Baltimore for the morning.  Last summer we got a membership for the family as a good, indoor play place for Anny and Abby for hot summer days.  Abby has never really been a huge fan, so we wanted to go this spring to help decide if we wanted to renew our membership.  The answer is "no" but we had a fun time.

We have not been to the dolphin show with Abby, mostly because we paid for the membership and I'm too cheap to tack on extra money while I'm there!  This time they gave us tickets to the show for free, so we were not going to pass that up.  Anny went in and found seats while Abby and I walked up and down stairs a few times and looked at the dolphin tank from below.  Very cool.  When we got in and sat down it took Abby a minute to figure out what was about to happen, but when she figured it out it was hard to wipe the grin off of her face!



We had lunch at the Inner Harbor - nice big salads really hit the spot for Anny and I.  Abby went to sleep in the car, but not quite enough.  I hate when that happens.

After having folks over to watch the Capitals game, we went out and played in the yard and the street for a while.  Yes, I am a bad parent and let my daughter walk in the street without holding my hand, but she seems to be pretty clear about when that is and is not allowed.  We walk down the street with her in her wagon, or on her new bike, and sometimes we let her push her baby stroller:



Overall we had an incredible weekend and can only hope the whole summer is this fun!

Wyoming for Easter!

FINALLY! We have been home for two weeks now and I'm just now finding time to sit down and blog about our awesome trip to Wyoming. I will not bore with every little detail that I'm remembering, but will share a few things.  A little background would be that Anny's parents live in Casper, and her brother's family drove out from Saint Louis.

Flights
Abby was incredible on all four of our flights to and from Casper!  We pulled out the stops, but it was worth it.  We had and used:
1 sucker
Many songs
Madagascar on my iPod
Several books

We made friends with everyone around us just to be safe, but Abby only even whined once that I can remember.  A funny note here is that on our flight into Casper, on a little jet, Abby was blissfully happy until the plane touched the ground.  It was then, and only then, that she fell asleep in my arms!  Too cute.

Weather!

The weather was absolutely incredible.  There was snow on the ground, of course, but we were outside every day in short sleeves playing on the swing set!  We had a few well intentioned snowball fights, but nobody got too hurt.  (Sorry again, Anny.  I love you and did not mean to cream you in the face with a ball made of snow.  Funny?  Yes.  Intentional?  Not exactly!)  Really the only time that I even wore a coat on our trip was the morning we went up ON the mountain.


Schedules
Our biggest challenge turned out to be schedules.  Abby is an Eastern Time girl, her cousins are Central Time girls and we were visiting the Mountain Time Zone.  Abby napped before her cousins and was awake way too early every day.  The grandparents were good sports about all of it and extremely accommodating to our craziness! 

FUN! 
The bottom line is that we had a blast and wish we could be together more often with that part of the family but indeed the miles are vast between us, for now at least.

Finally
Of course I took lots and lots of pictures and they are available HERE and HERE.

Once again I made a trip to Wyoming and saw FEET of snow on the ground but none fall from the sky.  As my Mother-In-Law said, that's okay!  It's that I was there to see the snow that matters!

Kidney Check Up!

On Tuesday, about 15 hours after I landed at BWI from our trip to Casper, Wyoming, which I really want/need to blog about but have yet to find the time to.  Maybe this weekend.

After being weighed, I had to immediately blame my Mother-In-Law's cooking and baking habit for the three added pounds since my last visit in the fall.  The doctor was very understanding, and did not question it.  I may have left out that I did more exercise over those few days than I am used to doing over the course of three weeks, but that's for me to know, not him.

While I'm on the weight - I think there needs to be a change in the way that ALL doctors offices that I've ever been to do their practice.  Stop weighing me and THEN taking my blood pressure reading.  I'm fatter than I thought, of course my blood is racing. 

He said that my protein is a little high, but I explained the problems I had with getting my meds and he agreed that was probably the cause.  Nothing to be too concerned about.  My creatinine was at 1.3 somethings, and just about right for me.

Great news is that my cholesterol level is 134 and I won't have to fill a prescription for meds to keep that in check! It was a bit high the last time I saw him, but now we seem to be okay. Phew.

That's it - I go back in six months unless something happens, and here's hoping nothing happens to necessitate a visit!

Ready for Spring

Here I sit, just about a week away from another trip to the nephrologist.  It forces me to remember that last spring when I went to see him I had such high expectations about my overall health, not just that of my kidneys.  I was going to play organized ice hockey last year.  Didn't happen.  I was going to exercise more regularly.  Didn't happen and hasn't happened.  I was going to eat better.  That one I have done, but "better" is certainly defined by comparison to my own eating habits in the past, not what "healthy" would look like.

So next week I will sit on the exam table and be embarrassed, hoping that my lab work has been processed and to his office so that it's not a wasted trip like the last two times.

To add insult to injury on this visit - if the lab actually does their job right and he has my results when I see him - is that my mail order pharmacy has totally dropped the ball on my most recent order.  I have been waiting since March 17th for my order.  Unfortunately my drug coverage basically makes it so that I HAVE to use or get reprimanded and threatened with not covering my medicine.  Ugh.

Well, they say that my meds were delivered on March 21st by the Postal Service.  Well, since my meds come in boxes, and there are 15 boxes per order, that makes my delivery box to be about the size of a 12 inch cube.  Yeah, that's not accidentally out of sight.  I have no clue where those meds are, and they were supposed to be rush delivering a reshipment, but that has not arrived and we leave early tomorrow.  Oh well.

At least I still have a supply of the good drugs, but I am a bit concerned that I should probably have one of the other ones.  When I talked with them last week they said they would put a rush on the order, but I checked just now and it's still processing.  Since I leave in the morning for Wyoming, it will be at least another week until I get my drugs back.

Who says our health care system is broken?  I can not imagine how bad it would be if I didn't have insurance.

Leavin, on a Jet Plane

In our house hold we are gearing up for a trip!  We're headed west to Casper, Wyoming, for five days over Easter. We leave early Wednesday and come back mid-day Monday.  (Telling you this in case you want to take us to the airport - hello?  is this mic on?)

I am super excited about being in Casper.  It's beautiful country out there - plus I get to test my powers of insanity again.  I have been to Casper three or four times now.  I have never seen snow fall in Wyoming, but yet I have never seen snowless-grounds.  I'm not sure if it's me, or if that's just the way of Wyoming, but it's humorous to me.

Paul and Sarahlynn and the girls are coming to meet us there, so the fun will be doubled quadrupled!  It will be really fun to see how the girls have grown, and more fun to see how the three girls get along.  Christmas was fun and funny at the same time, and I can only hope that it's as much fun when we are together again later this week!

I have already gotten Abby's stuff together, and mine is just about ready to go into the bag.  I've learned over the years that I pack in advance, and Anny packs at the last minute.  What I am continuing to learn is that we are both right, and I just need to let her work at her own pace and leave her alone.  I'm still working to learn that, and so far have not harped on her at all about this trip.  It's called growth, I say!

But, and I am a believer that there is always a but... If I am being honest I would tell you that I am dreading the trip TO and FROM Casper.  Abby has done wonderfully on our trips by air in the past, but those have been trips aimed at success for her.  Two-three hours, direct flights. This trip is two planes - four hour and one hour, with a layover in Denver.

We have gotten together some toys and a couple of small books.  I have even picked up a bag of lollipops and yogurt covered fruits (her new favorite).  We're thinking about loading "Madagascar" onto the iPod and hoping she will become as engrossed in the small version as she has been on the regular TV for the last couple of nights.

So - what are your travel tips with toddlers?  What is the ONE thing you would not go without?  What it the biggest mistake you have made in relation to toddler travel?