Art Museum Park

On Saturday, the weather finally cleared up and was beautiful. We all headed out to the Art Museum park for the afternoon. Simon loved riding his bike there, although he got very annoyed if other people were on the path in his way.  He also loved going on the unpaved paths, and he could have spent all day riding over the little bridge. Towards the end, we all went into the art museum, but he stayed outside with Zac and just kept riding his bike around the pond.

Fun with Family

On Friday morning, Zac and I went to work like normal, but we carpooled so Tener and my parents could have a vehicle.  They planned to go downtown to the history museum for the day.

Tener went with them to take the kids to the bus stop in the morning. It was the last day of school before winter break, so it was pajama day at school.

When we got home in the evening, Simon was working on a project in the garage with grandpa.

And in the living room, Tener and grandma were playing Go Fish with Alice.

Then they cooked us supper -- delicious steaks and sweet potatoes.

It's so nice having family here.

The Family Arrives

On Wednesday afternoon my brother came, and Wednesday night my parents arrived to spend Christmas with us. They were all coming here for the holidays because the original plan was that I would have had surgery and be recovering this week. So even although my surgery was cancelled, we still decided to have Christmas here to save me (and my sore bum) the trouble of going to Ohio. Plus, they already had their tickets.

The odd thing was that Wednesday afternoon I didn't feel very well, and as soon as I got home from work, I threw up. I was a bit worried that it was some problem with my poor intestines, but everything seemed to still be functioning fine, so it's not like I had a blockage or something.  Both kids had been sick earlier, and this seemed to follow the same pattern: throwing up and really tired, but no fever.  So I just stayed in bed all afternoon and evening.

I took the day off Thursday, which was convenient since I got to visit with my parents and brother more.  The day was rainy, so we just stayed home. In the afternoon, I wrapped presents with my mom while we watched Edward Scissorhands and my dad and brother went to look at camping gear at REI.

That night, my mom had Alice doing the dishes. They've only been here one day and there's already progress.

Laurel Hills Park

On Sunday, I took the kids to Laurel Park for a while after lunch.  Most of the playground was closed off for maintenance, so they spent a lot of time at the creek.  Alice also made a friend, and they chased each other around.

Here they all are, feeding crumbled goldfish crackers to the fish in the creek.

Wet Saturday

Saturday morning I had to go into work for one of our snow make-up days.  It was a pretty damp day, but when I got home, I still wanted to take a walk.  There's still a bit of color left in the woods.

Meanwhile, Zac built things with the kids in the garage workshop. It is so nice having an attached garage, especially on days like this.

Night Walk

The kids were super squirmy and crazy at supper tonight, which made sense since they didn't have outdoor recess at school today.  So I took them on a long night walk around the neighborhood to look at Christmas lights and get some of their energy out.

Our favorite display was on the cul-de-sac on the other side of our pond.

Alice wanted to use my phone to take some pictures.  Most turned out blurry, but she managed to hold still long enough to take a couple of good ones:

There was still some snow left here and there, and the kids had fun walking in it--especially where it accumulated on top of the leave piles that lines the street. Simon is so bad at directions, that we let him think he was leading us home, while we actually did a big loop around the neighborhood.  Poor kid.

The moment I have been dreaming of

It's happening. Finally. Alice is reading chapter books on her own. I've been dreaming of this day for like seven years...

Meat & Peas

On Wednesday morning, the kids' school was on a 3-hour delay. My school was also on a delay, but I had taken the day off because I was having a flex sigmoidoscopy done that afternoon to further study my rectal problems. Zac left early that morning for work, so before I did my bag change, I checked on the kids and told them they couldn't bother me for the next twenty minutes. Thinking Zac had laid out breakfast for them before he left, I told them to go eat breakfast. Alice said there was no breakfast.  I said ok, just keep playing and I'll get it for you when I'm done.

While I was out of commission, Alice took matters in to her own hands. She made breakfasts for her and Simon: meat and peas.

Morning math: P+P=18

School for the kids was closed Monday and Tuesday for the snow. Simon evidently missed the intellectual stimulation, because on Tuesday morning I caught him doing some math problems. 

Shoulder fat

Alice to me at story time tonight:  "Mom, I'm so glad you got your shoulder fat back so I can rest my head on your shoulder when we're reading stories."

Me too, Alice. Me too.

Snow & Sledding

We woke up this morning to several inches of snow.

Unfortunately, it stopped snowing and turned to freezing rain. We still went out and played in it anyway.

Droopy Durham

Alice threw up three times last night, but seemed better in the morning.  Since we're supposed to get a snowstorm tomorrow, I figured I should get the kids out of the house while I still could. I took them the Durham.  Alice fell asleep on the way there, then threw up as soon as she got out of the car.

She was mostly fine the rest of the time, but just didn't want to eat much. Since the weather was pretty cold, we only played outside for a little bit, then explored the inside of the museum.

Second Surgery Suspended

Shit. Crap. Bummer. Pain in the ass.

So much of our frustration in life can be expressed in rectal terms, which I think reveals a lot about the source of mortals' suffering.

And it certainly encompasses the source of my misery.  About a week and a half ago, I noticed bright blood in the toilet and a sharp pain in my ass.  Since then, my life has been hell. I apparently have an anal fissure. It feels like a match is lit under me, or a razor blade is stabbing into me. (Luckily, the pain is intermittent, so I'm not in total agony all the time.)  I waited a couple of days, thinking it was just an overactive hemorrhoid leftover from the days when I still passed poop, but when the pain became so bad that it was waking me up at night, I contacted my doctor. He prescribed this ointment, which helps a little.

I knew this fissure was all bad news, since my second surgery was just over a week away. I knew that having a J-pouch would mean I'd be passing soft stools frequently, especially in the beginning. This surgery was going to be rough anyway, but with an anal fissure aggravating me, it would be worse. So I worried, but thought I might get better in time.  I am apparently delusional, because everything you read says fissures take 4-6 weeks to heal-- unless they're chronic and never really go away.

Then a couple of days later, I got a call from the surgeon's nurse. My doctor (being a good doctor) had evidently tattled on me to my surgeon, and the surgeon wanted to see me before the surgery. I felt like a delinquent being called into the principals' office.

So on Friday I drove out to Chapel Hill to learn my fate.  Sure enough, my surgery got cancelled, but even worse, the doctor hinted that this might be a sign that I actually have Crohn's disease. If I do, then it would be a bad idea to get a jpouch, and I should keep my ileostomy and bag for life.

Needless to say, this was pretty depressing news.  Stupid asshole.

Simon's HO HO HO

YMCA After-school care

Here's a picture of Alice and Simon doing some art at their after school program. (I pulled the picture of the facebook page of the after school program).  Looks like Simon is ready to go home! 

Alice's Mantle Decorations

The kids constantly play with the Christmas tree ornaments.

Sunset

Another beautiful sunset on my evening walk.

Have I mentioned how much I love taking walks? About how I couldn't do it for months when I was sick? About how much more I cherish it now?

Over the highway and through the woods...to MacDonald's Park we go

The weather was warm and lovely, so on Sunday afternoon Zac took the kids over the pedestrian bridge to the park on the other side of the highway. This is on my greenway walking route, so I took a walk and met them at the park on my way back.

Ready for Christmas!

We picked out our tree on Saturday morning, Zac put the lights on it Saturday evening, and then we decorated it on Sunday morning.

Putting a tree in your house is really a bizarre tradition--but I love it.

I also had the kids write their Christmas letters to Santa.

Hell

I'm starting to find children's birthday parties to be my personal hell. When we were mainly doing the daycare circuit with Alice's cohorts, they were at least tolerable and sometimes even fun because we became friends with the parents.

The last couple of parties I've just been bored out of my mind. It's super awkward because I suck at small talk, and lots of the other parents there seemed to know each other already.

This party was particularly bad because it was at a house and was mostly family and a couple of classmates. There weren't many kids there at all.  I talked to some neighbor dad for a while about his job working for the city of Raleigh's water maintenance, and that was the highlight. The other problem was Alice didn't actually play with the other kids much, so it was like, why are we even here?

Meanwhile, Zac got to stay home with Simon and make cookies.

That seems like heaven.

Family photo

We took our family photo for the Christmas cards this morning.  It took a while, because Simon wasn't cooperating until we gave him a snack, then he was able to smile.  

Also, I know that logically the picture should be vertical, but I just love trees and nature so much that I couldn't crop it out.

And here's a good one of Alice. Try not to think about the fact that Zac let her sit on the balcony banister for it.