zach snack

So ask me what I did with my evening? In honor of Zach's birthday tomorrow and a short day of school due to the Thanksgiving holiday, I made buckeyes - chocolate-covered peanut-butter balls - for Zach to bring to school to share with his second-grade class. Yes, I know. I pity the kid who's allergic to both chocolate and nuts. Get that kid a celery stick. And yes, I also know that I'm loading up these kids with sugar. But I figure, it's a short day! The parents get their kids for the rest of the day. The teachers won't have to deal with the sugar-high and then the subsequent sugar crash. Hey, I'm just not one of those mom's who brings healthy snacks to school. The healthiest I might get would be Harvest Cheddar Sun Chips or maybe those ones that say something about multi-grain. You won't see me supplying carrot sticks and ants on a log cream-cheese laden celery sticks. I know what kids want - sugar and peanut butter!

Another Big Scare

I think my kids like to give me a big jolt every now and then. See if I'm still alive. So the other day, around 7 in the morning, I heard this sounds like one of the kids coughed, puked, burped. Something. So I peeked my head out of the bedroom door and didn't see anyone up or moving about. If someone threw up, they'd be up and calling for one of us. So I went back to bed. Then maybe 20 minutes later, I heard it again - this time I can tell someone is throwing up or something. I check on Asia and she's sound asleep. I go in Zach's room and he's lying there, mouth open, and drool or puke or something coming out of his mouth. So I tell him to sit up while I get a towel and I tell John that Zach is throwing up. John put a trashcan on the bed and Zach threw up again. It was just mucus. But the weird thing is Zach had his head turned to the side, like he was embarassed about throwing up and didn't want us to see. So he kept spitting up (wasn't that much) but on his shirt or the blanket and not in the trashcan in front of him. I tried to tell him to spit in the trashcan, nudging him. But he kept his head turned to the side. I realized he wasn't hearing us, so I pulled him to me and his eyes were staring to the extreme right so I could barely see his pupils. And his head was stuck turned to the side. I kept talking to him asking him if he heard us, pinching him, gently shaking him. Eventually he came to, like out of a deep sleep. He didn't know what was going on and just wanted to go back to sleep. We let him, but kept checking on him to make sure he was okay. He woke up 1/2 an hour later with a headache. And then threw up some more. The next hour or so was me in a panic, going on the internet to see if Zach had a seizure. Calling my sister to see if she was still at home. Checking the pediatrician's hours and agonizing that they weren't going to be open for another hour. I ended up calling a different branch and they said we should bring Zach to the ER. I had read that too, but I really didn't want to bring Zach to the ER. The good thing about the ER is all the tests readily available, but the bad thing is the cost and the waiting and the waiting. I didn't want to put Zach through that.
Anyway, I ended up waiting and making an appointment with my usual pediatrician. John brought Zach in (poor kid was still throwing up every 20 minutes or so but no substance) and the doctor said Zach had a mild cold. A MILD cold!!! All that for a cold? Just too much mucus in Zach's tummy was causing him to vomit. But the seizure? The doctor couldn't explain that and said it was rare. We're just to see if it happens again. Ugh... I hope it doesn't. Stuff like this sticks with me forever.

Vacationing in the Dominican Republic

John, the kids and I went on a great vacation this past week. Five nights in a beach resort in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. All-included resort. We got the deluxe suite with a jacuzzi bath tub and shower, patio, drinks stocked daily in the mini fridge, fresh fruit plate each day. Pool in the front of our villa, beach right at the side, and right next to the kid's club. Here's a view of the villa we stayed in.

The room was pretty nice. We couldn't control the A/C though and it was always set at 21 degrees Celcius which was just too cold. Especially when you're running into your room from outside in the evening and you're wet from the pool. We almost always had the A/C off and just the patio doors open for a nice breeze.

The first night we were there, Asia got sick. I think it was from the milk I gave her to drink in the lobby. They had snacks and she wanted some milk. There was a carafe of milk next to the coffee, so I gave her some of that. I gave some to Zach too but he didn't drink much because he said it was warm. He doesn't like warm milk. It dawned on me later that this milk carafe must have been sitting there all day unrefrigerated. Poor Asia. She was nauseous at dinner and didn't want to eat. She ended up falling asleep on my lap. Then when we got to the room, she ran to the bathroom, but nothing happened. She woke me up in the middle of the night saying she didn't feel too well. So I put a trashcan near her bed and a towel. She woke up a few minutes later and puked all over the floor - near the trashcan. But pretty much on the floor and on my feet when I ran over to her. We used up most of the towels in the room. In the morning, I put them all in the balcony and then showed them personally to the cleaning lady so she'd know to take them out. Asia was still a little queazy during the day but by the evening, she was her old self again.

Here's a picture of Zach on the boogie board. The kids had a blast with it and then we left it in the hotel lobby when we got on the shuttle to go to the airport. Oh well.

One of the things we did at the resort was horseback riding. It came with the package. A 2 hour ride. I've never been horseback riding. None of the kids have, besides riding a pony on a fair. But those ponies are usually led by a trainer or tied to some kind of ring or something. This was like - here, get on a horse, and there you go! I swear the guide for our horse ride was swearing under his breath in Spanish and saying stuff about the Devil, like "what the devil?" John was thinking that more likely one of the horses was named Diablo - like the horse John had. It was so tall - perfect for John. But also a little headstrong. At one point when we stopped and were getting off of our horses, John's horse kicked out after John got off. The horse kicked my horse some (more my foot) and then almost kicked John! The horse that Asia and I rode liked to torture us by riding along the edge of the trail so that we ran into trees or were whipped by the bushes. I kept trying to steer the horse back to the middle and it would jerk his head. I think maybe these horses were just tired of being ridden all day? I tried to show it who was boss, but the last thing I wanted was for the horse to buck off me and Asia. And what do I know about horses? Just whatever I read about training dogs. Wonder if you can use the Dog Whisperer's tactics on horses? Here's a picture of me on the horse right after John's horse kicked my foot.

Zach got to ride on his own horse.