Keeping Track of Lauren & Jack » May 2009 Journal Entries » AboutMyBaby - online baby scrapbooks, photo albums, videos, birth and pregnancy announcements

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Sun, May 31, 2009 10:17 AM
This week I finally packed up the stuff in this old Ikea bookshelf that was in Lauren's room, which was mostly full of old books from my childhood. I managed to fit it into my minivan (while the kids were in school)and took it downtown to Sara's apartment on the way back from droping Mike off at the airport (where he headed to a conference in Amsterdam). The big surprise for me was how it really threw Lauren for a loop, the change it made to her room. When I thought about it, I realized that this bookshelf has been in her room since she was born, and even though we've made lots of changes, the bookshelf has always been there. One night she was hysterically crying about not wanting to move. I can see that moving furniture suddenly makes it seem real to her.

Thursday we went to get our biometrics taken (fingerprints) for our visas for the UK. I promised the kids I would take them to the mall nearby for a ride on the carousel if they were good. So we did that and had lunch at the food court and then finally took Jack to the doctor. He's had a cough on and off for weeks and weeks, so I wanted to have him checked out so hopefully he'll feel better by his birthday next week. And, yes, he has ANOTHER bronchial infection. So he got some antibiotics and we're back to breathing treatments 2-3 times a day.

Friday was the big circus day at school. There were all kinds of booths set up with games, crafts, food etc. The best one was the dunking booth! Oh, and the bounce houses of course. it was a bit hectic becuase there was a tent set up where all the classes were doing their circus themed performances, and of course Jack had to be there at one time and Lauren at another, and Lauren wanted to go around and do things instead of wait for Jack to come on. Luckily Allison was there and agreed to take her around with Taylor for a while. The performances were very cute. Jack was a lion tamer and he had a red cape and a wand, an held a hula hoop for his pals dresed as lions to jump through. Lauren was dressed as a lion and she roared at the audience quite fiercely! We're lucky they weren't in the same performance or it would have been really crazy!

Saturday I awoke to piles of dog vomit and BM. Yuck! Poor Sadie. We took her to the vet and she seemed to be fine until she had two more such "episodes" so they x-rayed her to check for a bowel obstruction. The good news is that they didn't see anything. The vet was closing so I had them keep her overnight and they were going to moniter her to make sure she's not getting dehydrated.

In the meantime we went to Darren Levy's pool party. He's a pal from school and he also lives around the corner. The kids had a blast, with the pool's many levels and walls to jump from, and spa waterfalling into the pool, etc. They also have an awesome singset, not to mention all the cool toys in the playroom. I've never seen them swim so much that their eyes get red! It was nice to feel like they're safe in the water. Not that I didn't watch them, but I could sit poolside and sip a drink and chat while watching them, and adult conversation was very welcome after a few days alone!

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Tue, May 26, 2009 11:41 PM
So it's been raining for what seems like weeks and weeks. Ok, so maybe it's not raining non-stop, but we've been having some serious downpours. Our lawn is very happy, but the kids are getting a little stir crazy. For the memorial day weekend we painting the kids bathroom. Well, Mike painted. I picked the color, bought the paint, did some taping of the trim and tried to keep the kids out of the way. I collected some packing materials from various sources and have actually packed a few boxes of things(dishes) that I think we will store here. We need to remove some large pieces of furniture in order to show the house, but in order to do that I need to pack up all the things those large peices are holding. I was informed by Mike that the company that's moving us insist on packing the boxes, which is a relief on one hand, because I really hate packing, but I honestly think I'll do a better job. So now I have the task of trying to decide what we're bringing with us to England, not knowing where we'll be living and how much space we'll have, (but assuming it's a lot less than we have here). Ugh.

The kids have been pretty good sports about being so cooped up, playing with each other, watching a lot of dvd's. We did go on Monday to see the new Night at the Museum sequel at the movies with the Brocks, followed by a brief playdate, so the weekend wasn't a complete wash for them.

I've been meaning to get Sarah to come more now that school is out and she's not taking classes over the summer. She came today and will a bit next week. Hopefully we can work out a fairly regular schedule, although I'm also considering some summer camps to keep the kids occupied and out of the house while we're packing and sorting.

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Wed, May 20, 2009 11:18 PM
Had an awesome Mother's day which consisted of breakfast in bed, brunch cruise around the bay, and an impromptu visit to the Aquarium on our way home. I felt oddly relaxed on the cruise, and I looked at my two gorgeous and relatively well-behaved children and handsome, patient husband and just felt like the luckiest woman on the planet!

We finally finished up swim classes except for one make-up class for Lauren that we'll try to squeeze in sometime. I feel very good about the progress they've both made and I think they will be strong swimmers if they keep practicing.

I finally planned our trip to LA for my 20th College reunion mid June which I've been planning since last year. I decided to go ahead and do it, mostly because it's hard to know when we'll be back to California in the near future. But I'm saddened to realize it will probably be the last trip we can take this summer if we want to get the house sold and get packed and out of here by August.

We have secured some temporary (6-8 weeks)housing in Oxford in a flat (apartment) in St Anne's, the college that Mike will be affiliated with. And we've applied to the school we liked for both kids. So we're keeping our fingers crossed, becasue if that doesn't work, I'm really not sure what plan B is!

Otherwise we have to start making some hard decisions about what to take, store, sell, or donate. Sounds like that TV show, "Clean Sweep"! Need to do some serious purging in the playroom. The kids keep asking "Can I bring this to England?" and I keep saying yes, but in reality we can't bring it all. I need to get more out of the house while they're still in school!

Speaking of school, it's starting to wind down, and they're having a lot of fun. Monday was mis-match day and Lauren got such a kick out of picking out things that didn't match, after the daily struggle with me always saying "But it doesn't match sweetheart." Then today was crazy hair day. That's not hard to do with Lauren's crazy ringlets. I put it in 5 different pony tails framing her face so they stuck out. And we added glitter spray to finish it off. Jack then said he wanted crazy hair, so I moussed him up and blew his hair straight up, but he said he didn't like it, so I had to comb it out. It's so cute, he wants to be crazy, but in the end he's just too conservative to really do it!

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Sat, May 9, 2009 11:09 PM
We went to Disney with the Brocks on Thursday to celebrate Taylor's actual 5th Birthday! We had a great time. We were just there a few weeks ago, so it didn't feel so overwhelming. I'm learning that since we go all the time, I don't have to panic s much about packing so much into the day there. Taylor got these awesome fast passes for her birthday which you could get right away, so we didn't have to wait in any long lines the whole day. What a difference that makes! We also tried a lot of things we'd never done before, The Carousel of progress, Jungle Cruise, Haunted Mansion, Mickey's Philharmonic,as well as the favorites, old and new - like Splash Mountain where Jack and I got soaked! But mostly I noticed how much more fun it is to go with friends, it makes the whole experience more full. It was so poignant to see them all holding hands and skipping happily along. It's just going to break my heart to watch them say good-bye when we finally move.

Lauren has developed Jack's cough, and Wednesday night she was coughing so badly I almost took her to urgent care, and was woried that we wouldn't be able to go to Disney at all, but my friend Jody recommended Triaminic Long Acting cough medecine, and WOW, that stuff WORKS like no cough medecine I've ever tried! She didn't cough the entire day once it kicked in. It's just that when she does cough, it sounds like really deep congestion. I think I will go have her checked at the doctor on Monday if she's not better by then.

Otherwise swimming is going very well. Of course, I worry sometimes that the coughing is related to swimming, like an allergy to chlorine or something, except that it's not like they cough every time after they swim. Ms. Emma had these great new goggles for Lauren, they're tinted like sunglasses which is great for the glare, and they were a great fit. Jack actually borrowed them and he seemed to liked them better than Lauren. After awhile she always wants to take them off, but then complains that her eyes hurt. I can't win!

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Mon, May 4, 2009 8:45 PM
I just realized this past weekend that ever since I joined Facebook I've been better at keeping my status updated there and terrible about blogging. So the update on England is that Mike was approved by the Vice-chancellor which I guess is like the provost of the university, so he's now waiting on the official job contract in the mail. But we are starting to make plans and we have told the kids that we are moving to England in August. The biggest worry is getting the kids into school as well as finding a temporary furnished place to live. Oh, and dealing with the quarantine for Sadie. Um, oh yeah, and selling our house in this terrible housing market! We met a realtor this weekend and, WOW, do we have a lot of work ahead of us!

But we have school for the kids for another month. They are continuing with their swim lessons which are going very well. They are both working on trying to breathe to the side now, and do a real swimmers crawl. Jack won't keep his head down, and Lauren doesn't seem to get her arms out of the water. But they are doing amazingly well when you consider they've just been doing it a week! Swim class seems to eat up the entire afternoon, so I will be glad to get it over with, quite frankly!

Jack developed a litte cough over the weekend, and I think under normal cicumstances I would have sent him to school. But we got this panicky email from their school about the swine flu so I decided to just keep him home. I don't think he had a fever but I feel like my thermometer is unreliable. Maybe it was just as well, they were checking each child's temp before letting them into school. Jack and I rarely get time to spend together when it's just the two of us, and it reminded me of last year when Lauren was in school and he used to be my little buddy in the mornings.

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