Sure Signs of Insanity

I'm not exactly sure how to start this blog, I guess the most appropriate would be a favorite saying of my mother's - "Insanity is hereditary, you get it from your kids." It probably should be two blogs, but it all has somewhat run together so here goes...

This past Friday was wonderful, we all got packed and the house cleaned up (at least somewhat decently so) and headed to Saratoga to see the family there. The drive over was great and we even managed to get the kids to bed before midnight which practically never happens it seems when we're traveling.

I think it could have best been described as the calm before the storm. Saturday morning a little before lunch time we all get the idea to go and tromp through the woods at their home. This began as a wonderful adventure. As time wore on though we were beginning to all get a little tired. It was at this point that I lost the lens cap to my camera, nearly sprained my ankle while carrying Ryan, and then a few minutes later accidentally dropped Ryan in the snow. Shortly following all of this we discovered that the stream that we had to cross was higher than normal. This left us with three options - going back the way we came which would have meant another hour at least, walking through the cold water, or trying to cross on a fallen tree. Uncle Matt became the hero of the day, he braved the water next to the tree and carried Ryan across (who was then left by himself in the snow on the opposite bank), I then had Alicia cling on to my back as Matt helped us across the tree. After watching our slow progress Mark decided to also cross on the rocks a little further down so he could get across to Ryan. I'll just say that it was an experience that I don't think I'll soon forget and that walking back the extra hour probably would have been the smart thing to do. Thankfully we all made it safely though. We were all glad to reach the house a few minutes later and warm up. I feel pretty certain that I would have made for a very pitiful pioneer. Ryan was pretty fed up with all of it too after the first little while. Alicia is my trooper though, aside from a few minor complaints about wishing it was spring instead of winter and frustration at prickers, she was determined to fulfill her destiny as a "wood explorer" and was offering me advice.

The day did not end with that however. We decided to go have lunch and then take the kids to the park. Once again, it was a beautiful day and the kids were re-energized from lunch and the excitement of being at the park. Both kids wound up on the swings after about 15 minutes and After a few minutes of this Ryan wanted down. After he was down however he decided it wasn't what he had really wanted and ran for another swing that was still going. It was one of those moments that happe n so quickly it takes a while for the brain to process everything. He wasn't really watching where he was going (not really surprising), just heading for the swing and it swung back toward him and hit him right above his eye. At first we were thinking it was just one of his normal bonks but as he turned around there was a gash. By the time that we made it back to the van to try and clean it up it had clotted for the most part and he was treating it as a war wound that no one was to touch or it would defile his honor. That pretty much ended time at the park so we drove back home. He was crashed so we finally got some ice on it and all in all it's looking okay now.

The saga continued Monday with Alicia waking up with a fever of 103. Tylenol only helped marginally so off we headed to her pediatrician. He guessed it was the first signs of a sinus infection and prescribed some antibiotics for her. Actually it made for a peaceful day because she was too tired to do much of anything aside from lie on the couch and complain whenever Ryan decided she needed to wake up and play with him. The major problem came when Ryan got bored and wandered into the kitchen and found her medicine and figured out how to get the "kid proof" cap off. Thankfully he's clumsy and proceeded to drop the bottle and only got one in his mouth before I came to investigate. This resulted in my first ever call to poison control and the wonderful lady there assuring me that it would be fine.

Thankfully that was pretty much the end of it except for a few meltdowns from Alicia. I swear sometimes that she's almost 15 instead of almost 5. A few days after the fact I can look at it and laugh at myself and realize that it could have been much worse and be grateful that hopefully a few lessons were learned along the way.