Day 1 at Disneyland-October 1st

We made it to California last night, and after a bit of a search (ie. husband got the wrong directions from someone, then wouldn't stop to put the right address into the GPS) we found the hotel. We found the room and dropped the bags off and then John, Steph, and Krystan went to get us some groceries. As they were leaving the fireworks were going off over at Disneyland. I was glad Caleb got to check them out from a distance to get a bit used to them. The noise sometimes scares him a bit. Finally got settled in-Caleb decided to be a big boy and sleep in the room with the girls on the top bunk! I was a bit scared about that, but he made it through the night without falling.



We woke up bright and early this morning. We got our bus passes and finally got to Disney's California Adventure Park about 9:45 or so. They were supposed to open at 10, but we got in right away. After a slight delay with 2 of the tickets printing wrong we headed over to ride Soaring. On the way we saw Lightning McQeen and Mater and Caleb went to have a chat with them. He was very interested in checking them out and not real interested in posing. He would have been content to hang out there for quite a while.

Then we headed over to Soaring and had just a very short wait. Very cool ride. It's a flight simulation ride and it's supposed to feel like you are on a hang glider. It's a bit of a shock when you start out. I lost my stomach and Caleb was a bit worried. I told him to close his eyes if he got scared and he did keep his eyes closed a good bit of the ride. You see this big screen and the wind blows over you and it does feel a bit like you are flying through the air. You go through clouds, a stream in the mountains, Disneyland at night, an orchard, over the ocean and a big cargo carrier, and several others I'm forgetting. When we asked Caleb when we got off the ride if he wanted to go again, he said NO! After that we headed over to ride the Toy Story Mania ride. We got over there and it was broken down, so John and Steph rode California Screaming and Krystan took Caleb on King Triton's carousel. After we rode the carousel we headed over to the ferris wheel and saw Jessie from Toy Story posing for pics. We got in line for that and when it was Caleb's turn he turned shy. Krystan took him up there so we did get a pic.


Then we headed for the ferris wheel and got in line. John and Steph joined us and we got on. It was pretty lame. It took forever to load and then we went one circuit around and that was it. It was fun to see everything from so high up though.


After that ride for some reason I thought the Mailboomer would be interesting to try. Steph, of course, agreed so off we went. There was little wait or I probably would have backed out. THis ride resembles the games at fairs where people hit the thing with a hammer and see if they can ring the bell, however on this ride, you are the device that goes up. You get in and you immediately are catapulted through the air to the top of this thing and then immediately fall down. I'm surprised I didn't pee my pants. Then you just kind of casually go up and down. It's not bad after that initial rise and fall.

Krys and Caleb went over to ride the Jumping Jellyfish. It's a kiddie ride that takes you up in the air and kind of floats you back down. Caleb looked nervous but seemed to like it.


We decided to try to get on Mulholland Madness again-they said Caleb was too short a bit earlier but just by a hair so we tried it again and were able to get him on. It's a small little rollercoaster and Caleb loved it and wanted to do it again. We tried but this time they wouldn't let him on. We didn't get any pics of that ride dang it because I didn't realize that John wasn't riding until it was too late. Oh well. We heard at this time that the Toy Story mania ride was back up and running so we got in line for it. It was about a 20 minute wait, but was a ton of fun. You have to put on 3D glasses and you ride a little car and go through different shooting galleries. It keeps score and was so much fun. John creamed me, but I'll get him next time. I think we all enjoyed that ride.
After that we decided to get some lunch and had pizza at Pizz Om Mow Wow. It was tasty and it was nice to rest for a bit.

We headed over to the Hollywood Studios portion of the park and saw Snow White and Dopey and the kiddos got their pics taken with them.


We went in the Animation Studio and checked out the exhibits in there and saw the show with the turtle from Nemo named Crush. It's an interactive show. You are watching it on a movie type screen, but he interacts with the crowd. He points people out and the CM (cast member) goes over with the microphone so that the people can talk to him. I was hoping that caleb would get to talk, but he didn't. It was a cute show.



After that we caught the Playhouse Disney show that features the gangs from The Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Little Einsteins, My Friends Tigger and Pooh, and Handy Manny. Caleb was glued to it, but by the end you could tell he was whipped so we headed back to the hotel for a nap and that's where we stand as of now. More later!

After Caleb's nap we headed out for Disneyland again. We had planned on going back to DCA but we didn't head out til after 6 and DCA closed at 6 so we went over to Disneyland. The crowds were substantially heavier at DL. People were already staking out their spots for the fireworks that started at 8pm. We had planned to go to Fantasyland but detoured to Tomorrowland instead because of the crowds. The kids rode The Astro-Orbiter first. This was one of Caleb's favorite rides last year and he really enjoyed it again.



Our next stop was Star Tours. It's a flight simulation ride that has you racing through space. Caleb and I hated it, but the girls loved it. It was loud and rough and messed with my equilibrium. Wish rides didn't effect me so. After that we headed over and rode Buzz Lightyear and that was a lot of fun. You ride through and shoot targets and fight Zurg. The only problem with that ride is that you end up in a store that sales all kinds of Toy Story stuff and Caleb wants it all.



It was a battle getting him out of there and at that point we decided to leave. It was around 8 so we headed for the exit, but stopped to watch a bit of the fireworks at the castle. The fireworks have a Halloween theme right now and are actually based on Jack Skellington from the Nightmare Before christmas. The little bit that we could see of the show was awesome and I hope we get to see more of it before the trip is finished. It's just so hard to get a good seat unless you stake it out hours before and it gets extremely crowded in front of the castle and all the way down Main Street.

Good News for Caleb

We had our long awaited appointment at Scottish Rite Hospital yesterday to figure out if Caleb has arthritis. He has been doing better lately but still has mornings where he wakes up stiff and occasionally has a bad night with his legs hurting. We got good news. The doctor examined Caleb, watched him walk around, and asked us lots of questions. She does not think that Caleb has arthritis-Yay! She said that his joint pain was probably a combination of things. She said that arthritis is a symptom of Kawasaki disease and that he probably did have a touch of arthritis with the Kawasaki disease, but like his other symptoms that it was going away. She also said that Caleb has hyper mobile joints, which basically means that he is ultra flexible and that that can cause pain. She said that his ankles kind of roll when he walks so they sent us down to another part of the hospital where they gave us some inserts to put in his shoes that are supposed to help give him the support he needs. What a relief to finally have some answers and to hopefully put this behind us. It's been a long two months and I'm thankful that they don't foresee any long term medical issues with Caleb. Thank you all for the prayers and support.

Caleb's first year scrapbook is finally done!

In honor of Caleb's 3rd birthday, I felt it was time to finally finish his first year album. LOL. I don't scrap in order and just do what interests me at the time but I was ready to get the first year wrapped up. I ended up with 3, yes 3 albums for his first year. The first one chronicles my pregnancy all the way up to him going home from the hospital. The second one goes through his fifth month, and then I finally got smart and got a 3 ring album for the rest of the year. It is packed with layouts. I guess his first year will be very well documented. So, all I had left was the title page and the last page. I used CTMH Animal Cookies L2 paper-I love this pack. I also used the stickease and some Dimensional Elements. I covered the DE in stickles for the sparkle effect. I used a sketch in Becky Fleck's Page Maps book for this layout. That's the first time I've used a sketch out of that book. I really wish she had included the dimensions of all the papers she used on the layouts. There are some cute ideas in her book, but I found it difficult to duplicate the sketch because of the lack of dimensions.


And here is the last page. When I started it, I intended for the title to be "What a Year". After I started printing the pics for it, I decided that it needed to be "Oh How I Love This Face!" The title was cut using All Mixed Up and was welded in Design Studio. I used the foam numbers from CTMH for the numbers. These are pics of him at 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12 months. The "months old" was cut with Opposites Attract and was also welded in Design Studio.


Now if I could just get his second and third years done I'd be doing good!

Caleb is 3!

I can't believe that my sweet baby boy turned 3 yesterday. Where in the world does the time go? We had a party for him with family and just a few friends. When I asked him what he wanted for his birthday all he would tell me was "a birthday cake and balloons". Well, he definitely got his birthday cake and balloons.


He was also really into his party hat, until the party started that is.

Here is a pic of our little family. I try to get a shot of all 3 of us for his birthday every year.


We also rented a bounce house/slide combo and he had an absolute blast on it. They dropped it off about 10am on Saturday and he played on it for about 2 hours then. When he got up from his nap and remembered it was out there he headed out there again. It was a hit at the party and then we got to play with it on Sunday too. They didn't pick it up until around 8pm on Sunday so we got lots of use out of it.


He had a great party and got lots of fun gifts. He is really into Toy Story right now and got several toys in that theme and has been completely enamored with them.

We had a nice weekend and then topped it off with a visit to the Arboretum this morning. I wanted to get some 3 year portraits and I got a couple of cute shots-what more could I want?

And for the record, we have our hopefully last cardiologist appointment tomorrow. At $1000 a pop, I won't be sad to see those go. Obviously the important thing is that Caleb is fine, and so far all signs point to no problems with his heart. We have our rhematologist appt at Scottish Rite on September 14th to address the joint pain that he's been having. He's still been having a few problems along those lines so I'm glad we have that appt set up.

Baby Hunter!

My brother Kyle and his wife Jennie welcomed their first child into the world on August 27th. Hunter Reed was born around 8pm after about 14 hours of labor and was finally born by c section. Both Hunter and Jennie are doing well and got to go home yesterday. Here is a pic of sweet Baby Hunter.

Caleb seems to be doing better!

We had a Dr. filled week. Last weekend Caleb hurt all weekend. He kept saying his feet hurt. We went to the pediatrician on Monday, and then the cardiologist Tuesday. The good news is that the swelling in his coronary arteries is gone. The bad news is that they didn't really know what was causing his joint pain. The pediatrician and cardiologist talked and they thought it might be viral induced arthritis. We did some bloodwork and they will send it to a rheumatologist and see if they think he needs to come in for an appointment. Tuesday was probably his worst day yet. He could hardly walk and cried if you picked him up like it hurt him. Thankfully by the next day the pain seemed to just disappear. The last few days have been good. He's had very little fever, hasn't woken up in the night with pain, and he seems to not be having any joint pain. All those prayers are working.


I've been majorly stressed about all of this and have been in kind of a funk. I finally kind of got off my butt and tried to be productive this week. I cleaned out some closets and took a bunch of stuff to Goodwill. It always feels good to let go of clutter or stuff you don't need. I also found a little bit of time to scrap. Lately I've been trying to do some stuff that isn't quite so time consuming. I feel so behind and want to get these memories recorded so I'm trying to use the stickease that comes with the paper to get my layouts done more quickly. Here is a layout I did using CTMH Tinkerin'. I used the Level 2 papers stickease:

A twist of fate

July did not unravel the way that I had planned it to. I enrolled Caleb in the First Steps program and planned for him to spend Tuesdays and Thursdays there from 9-2. On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays I thought we would spend our days swimming and trying to find fun ways to beat the heat. Weekends are usually a grab bag. We seem to spend a lot of time travelling to my parent's house or spending time at various family members houses. Then there's the task of finding a church. We've been on the hunt for a new church for quite a while now. I've been praying about it for probably 3 years. We like a lot of things about our old church, Hillcrest Baptist, but it is really far from our current home-30 minutes at best, and we'd like to find something in our immediate community. Anyway....

I took Caleb to the Dr. on July 7th because he was running a fever and had thrown up. The Dr. said it was tonsillitis and gave us an antibiotic. In the past when he's had tonsillitis after 1 or 2 doses of the antibiotic he was feeling much better. That was not the case this time. He ran a pretty high fever all week even with taking Advil and Tylenol and the antibiotic. John took him back to the Dr. on the 10th because he didn't seem to be getting any better and he had also thrown up a few times. Our regular pediatrician wasn't there so we saw a different dr. and she ran a test for strep. It came back negative and she seemed to think Caleb might have something called Kawasaki disease because of some of the other symptoms that had shown up later in the week. He had swollen lymp nodes, red eyes, a high fever, and a rash on his hands and feet. She referred us to Children's hospital. We headed over there to the ER. After 4 doctors looked at him they decided he had a bad viral infection. We felt a surge of relief when we were told that it wasn't Kawasaki, but I told John on the way home that I hoped that the drs. at Children's were right as opposed to his pediatrician. How do you know who is right? Is one dr. smarter than the other? Are the drs. at Children's the experts? These were the thoughts going through my mind on the way home. Another week went by and Caleb didn't seem measurably better. I took him back to his pediatrician on the 20th because he was still running fever and had also started limping. His pediatrician said that he hadn't been satisfied with Children's diagnosis and he sent us to Charlton to get an Echo cardiogram done. Gee thanks-wish he'd told us that when we'd left Children's. Kawasaki disease causes swelling around the heart. After the echo was read they determined that Caleb did have Kawasaki, so we checked into Medical City hospital on July 20th so that Caleb could have the treatment for Kawasaki done, which is an IV of hemoglobin. Definitely not a fun experience watching your 2 year old being held down to get an IV. We did another Echo there and there was just a small amount of swelling and the cardiologist didn't think there would be any long term problems. We were released the next day around noon. Caleb is still not 100%. In fact we went back to the pediatrican this morning because he's having a lot of pain in his joints and has still been running a fever. Apparently that is still consistent with Kawasaki and the fact that it wasn't treated early enough-that part really sucks since we took him to the dr. not once, but twice that first week.

We also cancelled our plans for our 7th anniversary. John had a food show in Monterey, CA and I opted not to go since Caleb was still running a fever and not up to speed. I had been looking forward to getting away with John. Caleb did end up spending a couple of days with my Mom on the 27th and 28th so we did at least get to go out to dinner once John got home from CA.

We head back to the cardiologist tomorrow for a checkup and another echo. I'm hoping that the coronary arteries are back to normal and that there are no long term effects from this thing.
And since I record just about everything, here are a few pics of Caleb in the hospital. John got him this scuba diver in the hospital and Caleb named him Scuba Rusty-not sure where he came up with that name.


Here he is checking Scuba Rusty's blood pressure:

And helping the nurse take his temperature. He wasn't trusting anybody after that IV experience.

And cheesing for the camera after eating his favorite, Pepperoni Pizza: