An unstandard Thanksgiving

boy, has this been an interesting weekend.  filled with the wrong kind of excitement.  thursday morning, we get a phone call from my mother-in-law saying that my father-in-law is in the ICU at the hospital with bleeding on the brain.  he had been in the hospital since wednesday night and  was going to be going into surgery thursday.  we got dressed and headed over, first dropping owen off at jeff's sister's house (she has two little ones so wasn't going to go, plus her husband had the car seats in his car).  when we got there, papa was in good spirits, and about 95--97% himself (aside from being a little grumpy and drugged).  surgery was scheduled for 11 a.m.  the took him a little before 11 and we got to walk nearly to the OR with him.  they told us to expect 6 hours from the time he left his room until he got back.  as it was thanksgiving, we were the only ones in the surgery waiting room.  around 1:30 or so, maybe 1:45, the doctor came in and told us that everything had gone great.  papa was in recovery and would be back in the ICU between 2:00 and 2:15.  three hours was so much better than 6.  needless to say, dinner that night was cancelled.  we went to jeff's sister's house for shrimp fajitas.  they were quite yummy.  

papa was moved from the ICU to a regular room friday afternoon and came home last night, just in time for Thanksgiving dinner.  we are all very thankful for him this year.  if the bleed had been quick instead of over a period of weeks, we'd be planning a funeral.

owen had a first at dinner last night.  he ate some of everything on his plate - turkey, stuffing, baked beans, green been casserole, mashed potatoes with gravy, and a roll.  the turkey, stuffing and green beans had ketchup on them, and he thought the turkey was chicken (misled by mommy, but it worked!)  he also had apple pie for dessert.  this has been a very long road getting owen to eat what the rest of us are eating.  i think we've finally made it.  it was so exciting last night to see him eating what was put in front of him.  

we are now in tree season.  papa can't do much but take money and walk around the lot this year, per doctor's orders, so jeff has stepped up to the job of running the lots on-site.  he's been doing this most of his life, so he's ready.  the tricky part will be convincing papa that the lots ar in good hands with jeff and his brother, scott.  we're wondering if this might not be the last (or second-to-last) year of trees.  jeff wants to do it one more year after this year to make it 30 years of selling trees.  time will tell.  it will be nice to have my husband back this time of year when they finally do stop doing the trees.

Where were you

45 years ago this weekend?  As for me, I wasn't even a consideration.  I'd love to hear from those of you who read my blog and are old enough to remember back that far what you remember about November 22, 1963.  

350

this is post number 350.  yahoo!

owen is too smart.  he just took one of his alphabet puzzles and spelled the word "house".  it was very intentional, because after he got all of the letters out, he said, "h-o-u-s-e, house."  oh, dear.  

see my other blog for an announcement.

check-up

owen had his 3-year check yesterday.  he's doing great!  he's 40.5" and 35.5 lbs.  as the doctor (dr. kreg, according to owen) put it, he's the size of your average four-year-old.  (95+% for height, 75% for weight.  i remember when he was under 50% for weight.)  he got two shots, which he hated.  he watched our nurse (who we both adore) poke him for the first one and screamed bloody murder.  she got the second (and last one) done quickly and were were ok.  i'm glad we only have to do this once a year - and that with an october birthday, he can get the flu shot (which was one of his two shots) at his check-up.    he has a very snotty nose right now and his ears look great!  yay!  i think we've outgrown the need for tubes.  that makes me a happy mommy.

swimming lessons continue to go very well.  last night he not only jumped off of the side of the pool, he launched himself off at me, swam the 4 feet to get me, then preceded to swim across the pool with help from mommy only to come up for air.  he's got the propulsion thing down.  he's floating on his back with me supporting his head with only one hand.  he wasn't doing that a week ago.  he's also was doing the arm part of the elementary backstroke (chicken-airplane-soldier) yesterday for the first time.  he spent nearly all of the free time jumping off of the edge, swimming to me, then swimming back to the edge to do it all over again.  he is amazing.  he was also the most vigerous splasher in his class.  he's gone from being one of the least-accomplished kids in his class to one of the leaders.  he loves swimming.  maybe he's the next michael phelps!  

Halloween

orange for the holiday!  

owen went trick-or-treating for the first time last night.  we started out at a street of treats in our city, which was fun.  owen sorta got the idea there.  then we had dinner and headed over to grandma's some of owen's cousins were there and they ended up all going out trick-or-treating in that neighborhood.  owen came back with a total haul.  his pumpkin was just about full.  they had a blast.  i enjoyed some peace and quite (and jeopardy) with grandma while they were out.  

today is a party with play group.  i'll try to get pictures and post those.

owen nearly lost trick-or-treating this year.  he is every bit of three.  two nights ago, it took us an additional 20-30 minutes to get home from swimming lessons because someone wouldn't leave his seatbelt alone.  he kept pulling the shoulder strap away from his body.  we didn't leave the lot at the Y until it was staying where it was supposed to.  then, as we got off of the freeway, he started doing it again.  i pulled into the center turn lane two blocks from home and stopped the car.  at some point, the guy whose house we were in front of came out to check on what was going on.  i told him that everything was fine and that my son wasn't sitting the right way in his seat belt and that we weren't moving until he was.  the man seemed convinced that everything was ok.  before he went back in, he told me, "good job, mom."  needless to say, owen went straight to bed when we got home.  if i had had my cell, i would have called jeff to come pick up owen (walking, most likely) so i could drive home.  my other thought was just walking home with owen and going back to pick up the car after he was in bed.  i finally just ended up winding the seatbelt around the guides and going from there (we can't pull our seat belts out all the way and have them lock.  i really hate that!)