Ross' First Birthday and the party that didn't happen

Ross got up several times during the night Friday night. I knew one time he felt really warm but I never got the thermometer out. Each time I just put him back to bed. When he woke up on Saturday morning he still felt really warm and I took his temp... 102 degrees. I gave him some Ibuprofen and it went down but it was back up even before the six hours was up. He was miserable. I told him that we were going to have to cancel his birthday party for the next day.

We stayed inside all day Saturday and Ross was pretty crabby most of the day. Luckily on Saturday night, he did sleep through the night. When he woke up Sunday morning he was fever free and in a pretty good mood... for a while. Luckily we got some pics of his 1st birthday outfit right when he got dressed because it didn't stay clean for long.

Ross really did not need anything for his birthday. He has all the common toys a one year old needs - coupe car, wagon, Tonka truck, Kangaroo Climber - you get my drift. He does really enjoy slides when we go to the park so his grandparents (Grandpa Steve, Grandma Linda, Grandpa Jerry, and Grandma Cella) went together and got him a new slide. I plan to keep the slide in the house during the winter and then take it out back next summer. It's a bit big for Ross to do by himself right now but big enough that he can share with his brothers too!

Ross says "wheeee" when he wants to go down the slide...




We still had a couple of visitors on Sunday even though the party was cancelled. Cheri, Scott, and Caits swung by for a while and had some lunch with us and gave Ross a toy and some money for his savings account - thanks Cashiers!!! In the afternoon Carol, Alyssa and Taylor Zimmerman swung by and gave Ross a set of keys with multiple buttons (noises and a flashlight) and a helicopter with four balls that has several activities on it. He loves them both... and so does Ryan. We have had to remind Ryan that they are Ross' toys. Thanks Zimmerman gals!! It was really nice to see you all again.

While the Zimmerman girls were there we decided to do Ross' birthday cake. Hockey Ross and our visiting hockey player, Tyler, were home also. We all sat around and watched Ross basically destroy his cake by playing in it... but I don't think he ever really took a bite of it.

Before:

After:

That evening before bed all three boys actually played on the slide for about 20 minutes so I had to get some pics of it.

If the picture is not clear:

"My mom is 1st plase girl. she is not werde."

Reid wrote this in his "Dude's Diary" that he got at his school book fair. AHH!!! Melted this mom's heart!

Our attention seeking booger

Ross had his follow up ultrasound and appointment with the kidney clinic at Children's Mercy on Wednesday. This ultrasound wasn't quite as easy as his 6 month one. He laid still and chewed on his sock for about 5 minutes but the entire ultrasound took about 20 minutes... they took pictures of both of his kidneys on each side of his belly, through his back and then of his bladder. 20 minutes is a long time to ask a one year old to lay still. We played toys, distracted him with lights, tv, and everything we could think of and he did pretty good overall but I was sweating by the time they finished.



When the ultrasound was finished we hung out and played toys while the head ultrasound doctor reviewed the pictures. She was happy that we got all of the images that Dr Blowey would need and stated that her initial review was of "no change." (meaning that Ross' left kidney still showed some unilateral hydronephrosis.



We followed up with our appt with Dr Blowey a couple of hours later and he said that while hydronephrosis still existed he did believe that he saw some small improvement. Given that Ross has experienced no difficulties to date (knock on wood) we would continue with a monitoring approach. He will go back when he is two for the same scans and review. As long as he does not experience any kidney infections this will be our course of action until it corrects itself or they are comfortable that monitoring is not needed.

When we got home, Ross and dad practiced some trick or treating...

Ross missed his afternoon nap due to his appointments. He was a bit fussy during dinner time and very ready for bed by 6:00. We spent some time outside to keep him happy walking up and down our street and then put him in bed at 6:45. Reid came home from hockey around 8:00 and I sent him up to take a shower in the master bath. He misunderstood me and went to his usually shower spot - Ross' room. Russ went up to help Reid with his shower and found him in Ross' shower with the door open and Ross' bedroom overhead light and ceiling fan on. Did it wake Ross up? NOPE...

Breakfast with Mr O

Last spring we bought a 'Breakfast with Mr. O' at Reid's school fundraiser night. He has been very excited for this opportunity and this morning was the day.

He woke up before it was time to get up and immediately mentioned it. I said that I was going to go pick out his clothes. He said to make sure and get something that HONORS Regency Place. I kind of chuckled and then got his RP t-shirt. Honors? Seriously, it's 6:30a.m. Anyway, I bought him 5 pair of jeans last week at the Gap and they are all too big so he has no jeans yet for this year and has only been wearing sweats and slicks. I look in his closet and find a pair of khakis that are 7 Slim that Scottie gave to us. I told him to try them. Thankfully, they fit! Reid says, "Is Scottie a skinny kid too?" I told him that he was. He says, "Oh, cool, we can be GIRTH twins." "What?"... He goes, you know "girth" like fat or skinny - I learned it in first grade... Oh, yeah, obviously! Who teaches my kid this crap?... he's going to be smarter than his mother by second grade.

Mr O said that he'd be at the house between 7:30 and 7:45. Caden came shortly after 7:15. His dad, Kevin, said that he was up several times during the night saying he couldn't sleep because he was so excited. Minutes later Ella showed up as well. Caden and Ella's families have been helping watch Reid in the mornings before school so we were happy to get to share this opportunity with them in an effort to thank them for all that they are doing for us.

Mr O arrived at 7:50 and after a couple of quick pictures, they were off for breakfast at McDonald's. I can't wait to hear how it all went... but here are the pictures:

Mr O is really one cool principal. I hope that we are lucky enough that he stays at Regency Place through all three of the boys' elementary school years. The kids just adore him! They certainly don't want to get in trouble to see him but they love any opportunity they get to do fun things with him!

*********************************************************************

Another quick story from this morning, I had panty hose on and Ryan asked me what I had on my feet. I told him that they were panty hose and women wore them with dresses. He asked me why I was wearing a dress and I told him I wanted to look pretty. I said "do I look pretty?" In true Ryan fashion he says "not really, only a little bit." Yep, my sweet Ryan, brutally honest as ever.

I should be blogging about Ryan's first soccer night today too - I'll summarize instead: crying, leg grabbing, screaming "I don't want to play soccer." Yep, it was a DISASTER... and all of this after he has been so excited for the last three weeks and doing nothing but talking about his 4 year old soccer. The most energetic, crazy kid ever has a bit of stage fright when it comes to playing with other kids. Stay tuned for the drama next week!

KC Pumpkin Patch

We went to the KC Pumpkin Patch on Sunday afternoon. I had talked about taking the boys last weekend when Russ was out of town but decided to wait until he could go with us. Then Sunday he had to go into work for five hours so the boys and I played outside for almost three hours in our neighborhood. Russ got home from work shortly before 2:00 and we packed up and went. We had so much fun that I'm not even sure where to start. I think I'll do a top 6 list of the fun things we did:

1. The Zip Line. This was actually one of the two things we let the boys do after we had already said it was time to go. By the time we were leaving the line had cut down dramatically so we waited (much to Ross' dislike) and let Reid and Ryan try it out. I was surprised and impressed with Ryan even trying it but he did and he loved it.

2. The big, orange bouncy thing. I have no clue what this really is but it looks like so much fun. It's like a trampoline, bouncy house type balloon thing. The line is divided between big kids and little kids so no one gets hurt and then each group gets 5 minutes to bounce. I think Reid had like 5 turns on it and Ryan did like 3.

3. The ghourd shooting gun. Reid and Ryan each shot this as well. This was the last thing we did before we left. Ryan's shot landed out in a pond. Reid's shot landed square on the democratic donkey sign (which I might note was pretty dirty from having been shot at all day).

4. The variety of activies available...

The slide in the barn...

The numerous scenes to have your pictures taken in...

The tires lined up like a snake that you could walk down... or sit inside the mouth and play with the tongue on your head like Ryan did:

The rope course. Reid loved this and did it like three times. You linked yourself up to a rope and then had to follow it through the course over and under the other ropes...

The Spongebob squarepants haybale stack...

The hay bale maze...

The wooden train structure...

5. Plenty of things for Ross to do too...

6. FOOD! We had been at the pumpkin patch for almost three hours, the kids were filthy, hungry and thirsty. We (okay "I") actually relaxed our standards a little and we ordered food from the concessions and just let the kids enjoy them... root beer, snow cone, nachos, brats, and funnel cake. Ryan was a complete MESS! He had a blue snow cone which dripped all over his shirt and mouth. I did use a napkin to keep most of the "sticky" off of his face but I didn't freak out about the mess he was making. After his blue snow cone he decided to eat Reid's funnel cake. Reid didn't care for it much and was having more fun bouncing so took off to play more after he downed an entire can of root beer.