Lisa n Tom (n James n Joseph)

Lisa writes: A morning at Frying Pan Park, a walk through the corn (sorghum, actually), and a mildly alarming trip to the supermarket with my action boy.

Lisa writes: They don't actually a share a crib. I enlisted Joseph to help wake up James (who has become a night owl lately). James always wakes up happy to see his baby brother.

Lisa writes: A friend and former coworker sent some pics of her cute kiddo, so I reciprocated with these. It's not a contest, it's not a contest, it's not a contest ... but mama me will always think I won.

Lisa writes: Miss Sandy gave James his first Lego kit: a 3-in-1 dinosaur building set. We made T-Rex first and he joined the squad tonight. He requested to get in. Then he discovered he couldn't get out.

Lisa's sister Debbie writes: I survived my first week of school! W00t! In fact, I think I did quite a bit better than some of the other teachers when they took away our 2nd planning period the day before school. Tough times. Anywho, I asked the kids to buy flash cards and only like 3 in each class actually did. The rest are just writing it down on a piece of paper. I got a Spanish-speaking TA. Free labor! So I'm re-visiting the idea of providing flash cards. They're 200/$1 at Dollar Tree. I need 50,000. If I ask my TA to cut each card into 3, then I would spend $80 per semester. Not too bad. I have big envelopes and elastics or Ziploc baggies. Don't need a donation. Just thought I'd let you know that your brilliant plan is not in vain.

Lisa writes: I texted some of these pics to friends and family to keep them posted. One very cute, very young friend admitted much later that when I wrote "Joseph in the PICU with croup" she assumed "croup" was the name of the stuffed frog in the bottom picture. Update from Tom: Dear Lisa, I am in a cell phone dead zone this morning, so email is the best way to reach me. Joseph came back positive for parainfluenza 1, which includes croup.  But had a pretty good nigh and his condition seems to be improving.  He was up a couple of times, but I will just blame the nurses.  He is eating well, and had propranalol at 11pm and 7:30 am .  The computer thought he was due at 10 am for his morning dose, so you may need to remind them when it is time for the afternoon dose. His coughing and voice sounds improved this morning.   Het is also off O2, due to a patient-initiated action/request.  Sat levels are are mid 70s to low 80s. He is exerci...

Lisa writes: Sorry, this cuts off abruptly when my phone runs out of space. Long story short, Joseph woke up Sunday morning with the tale-tell "barking seal" cough of croup . James had it when he was two, and it was a one-night, quickly resolved episode. With Joseph, though, by the afternoon his breathing was sounding labored and, since his O2 levels are always low, we were worried enough to take him to the ER. Pro Tip: If you ever want speedy service in the ER, show up with a pre-surgical heart baby with labored breathing. After oral steroids, a nebulizer treatment, IV steroids, and a long night, we were released 24 hours later.

Yesterday was a red-letter day. James announced that he was going to try to go poo poo in the potty. We left him alone in the bathroom to reduce the performance anxiety.  After a little while he came out and announced he had gone poo poo! A first!  We went in, witness the results, clapped and cheered and gave him the giant lollipop he's been waiting for for a month. However, we had our suspicions ... which were confirmed later when he confessed he had actually pooped in his Pull Up and then placed the poo poo into the potty. We did not request any further details.

Lisa's sister Debbie writes: Hey Fam, We stayed with Kellen's high school friends in Phoenix for 2 days. It was great. They let us play in the pool, I saw some cool birds and we went to the children's museum there. Then we travelled 5 hrs to Puerto Penasco (Rocky Point) and the roads were pretty crazy, but the water was lovely.  We swam around for a few hours and stayed the night in an okay hotel.  We ate plenty of tastiness. Pollo asado and tree ripened tropical fruit and fresh guacamole and cactus-flavored tortillas. Lots of good stuff. We drove past the Colorado river delta a couple days ago. The area reminds me of Utah's west desert--Sagebrush, dry mini-mountains and deer. I ran over a lizard ☹️ it was like 2 ft long. We had to stop a couple times because they were bull-dozing away the sand dunes that had blown onto the road. In a few hours the geography is saguaros, then sagebrush, then salt flats, then hard packed earth, then brush, then sand dunes, then sand st...