Visit With Daddy!

Phew!

What a day! I just got home from the hospital yesterday, but I missed him so much, I had to bring the boys to visit him today!


9:00am
Annual Santa Photos! No screaming this time, sorry! The Christmas cards will be pretty boring this year. Dexter and AJ were so excited, but Dexter got really shy. There are no smiles from Dex, I don't think. But, he did talk to Santa. He asked for drums and AJ asked for Bakugan (wth?). The pics, as well as the ones from the Hallowe'en photo shoot and the brother photo shoot are on CDs. I'll ask Richard to help me out with those tomorrow. We'll get crackin' on those Christmas cards.

10:45am - ish or so - or maybe 11am?
Visit with Daddy! The boys had play-doh from their loot bag from the Santa photos and occupied themselves with that most of the time!

AJ making a pirate ship.

Daddy helping Dex make a boat.


My phone-photos, sorry. Forgot the camera. Oh heck, I had enough to carry! I was bringing all of Richard's winter gear!

He was pretty darned excited to see Daddy. Both boys were very happy that Daddy was well enough that they could cuddle in his bed with him.

I cannot remember what he was showing us here.

Richard
He's on half of the IV nutrition now. He's taking the horse-pills successfully and keeping them down. He really wants to get out of the hospital.
White blood cells - 4.8
Haemoglobin - 96
Platelets - 111
Neutrophils - 2.8

YAY! He seemed to be a little nauseated at the end of the visit, but up until then, he was in good spirits and happy to see the boys (and me too).

12:30pm
Dad had met us at the hospital to bring Richard's laundry and to join the boys and I for lunch.
Unfortunately, with Dexter's naptime looming and a wait at the restaurant, we decided to bail on that idea. Dad still got in some time with the boys. While I got their packed lunch all ready, he and the boys threw snowballs at my car. The boys LOVED the snow. We didn't really get any at our house, or what we did get, blew away with the nutso winds. Thanks Dad, for attempting to do lunch with us, still paying for the lunch to come, and putting up with my sassy attitude about where I parked. (I just don't care about parking close).

2pm
A little bit of Christmas shopping at the DC outlet, and Dexter only napped for about 10 minutes before that. Silly me for turning on a movie in the car for the ride.

2:30pm
Letting the boys take their time on a field trip to Toys R Us where both of them changed their minds on their Santa gifts. I think I escaped there without them noticing that I picked up two gifts. We'll see. Dexter was the spitting image of my little brother at that age in complete turmoil over wanting a set of lazers. It wasn't a tantrum. He wasn't uncontrollable or on the floor. It's more that he's absolutely devastated that he cannot take it home right then and there. I was tempted too! Try explaining to an almost 3 year old that he needs to wait until Christmas!!!

4pm
Leaving Toys R Us with one treat for each of them... a little mini-pack of Lego that makes a Star Wars aircraft of some sort.
French Fries at the McD's drive thru, as promised for them. They were absolute stars all day! Seriously, all day. Both of them. It was nice.

4:45pm
Home. Exhausted.
In the house to build Lego aircraft together. I was surprised how well AJ could put most of it together himself by following the instructions!
Both of them have been avidly building Lego non-stop for about a week now. They liked their Lego before, but right now, it's a daily obsession. I can barely make out what Dexter says to me on the phone, but he can build guns and swords out of Duplo with no problem at all. AJ is a whiz at making dinosaurs and space vehicles. Luckily I LOVE Lego, so it also means extra quality time. I don't care for playing Transformers, but I'll stop what I'm doing to play Lego, anytime.






5:30pm
Normally dinnertime, but instead, we start getting out Christmas decor.

The tree was already up from last night when Mom and Ken brought the boys out (thanks for that, by the way, Mom and Ken).

Mom and Ken also brought out a birthday cheesecake for me. We did the candle blowing and all. I'm sure you can imagine what I wished for, but I can't tell you. Thanks for the birthday gift too, Mom!

I do miss having a real tree, dearly, but I will say, it has really come in handy these past two Leukemia-recovery-Christmases. You can put up a fake tree as early as you want!

The boys started watching "Santa Claus The Movie" while I got stuff ready.

Here are the boys putting up their special ornaments first.
Spider-man.


Dexter trying to put up Wolverine.


AJ helping him out.

Each year, on Boxing Day, we go to Hallmark (all the special ornaments are 50% off), and the boys get to choose one for that year. It's a tradition I love.

Those McD fries meant dinner (uh.. well... kind of dinner... crackers... fruit.. veggies..) got pushed to 7pm. Late naps in the car until 4:45pm meant late bedtime.


In fact, it's 10pm, and AJ's been in bed for well over an hour and he's come into my room unable to fall asleep, asking if he can write out his Christmas list that he started in the night-light-lit bedroom.

So far, he's written Starscream, Bumblebee, and Ravage (Transformers).

Here's the tree all finished.


It looks more like this... without the flash.. but the picture didn't turn out well.







Here are some pics from when I was watching Jen's kids the other day. Early in the morning, all 5 of them were all doing their own things.

Dexter - colouring.

Emerson - Puzzling.

Jaxon - Chilling.

AJ - Camping.

Makenna - Cuddling.
It was a pretty good day. Until about.... 4pm... then everything started to unravel, including me. Oh well. That's just the way it is sometimes! It provided some good conversation for Jen and I the next day.