Pumpkin Pressure

It's been a weird month of October and I totally feel like I'm failing Halloween (shocker!).  I'm just not into it this year, and I'm not sure why.  I mean, yes, I've had this nagging cough crap (same as Carter has/had, from what I can tell), and even though it hasn't really impacted my day-to-day energy in any meaningful way, I'm starting to think the ongoing annoyance of it is starting to weigh on me.  The periodic coughing spells seem to be decreasing in number, but the congestion is still there at times and I'm just tired of it.  Maybe that's my problem.  Or perhaps some random house issues over the past week have me epically distracted.  Or maybe it's just been tiring keeping our schedule straight this month.  We've had some sort of weekend plans each week, and just enough other stuff during the week that I feel like it's been a constant struggle to ensure we don't miss anything.  I haven't been going to bed early enough, and for whatever reason I'm just a little more overwhelmed by little things right now.  We barely figured out costumes, and the thought of trying to prepare food for Jacob to take with him on Tuesday for his Halloween party feels like a gargantuan task.  Thank goodness we ran into Carter's friend's mom at Sunday School so I could ask for gift ideas for his party next weekend.  I think taking that on might have put me over the edge this week.  On the bright side, it's my last full week of work for a while, between time off for Jacob's tournament in two weeks and Thanksgiving less than two weeks after that.

Long story short, we'd had a busy month that hadn't yet allowed for pumpkin patching or anything of the sort.  This weekend we had to rectify that.  We needed memories and we needed pumpkins, stat! 
The weather wasn't looking good, but it appeared we could cram in some Saturday morning time before the rain came, so off to Stokoe Farms we went at 10am.  When we arrived I was pleasantly surprised with how few cars were there.  I figured between it being the end of the season and the crappy weather that most people would get weeded out, but it was nice to know we wouldn't have any crazy lines to deal with.

The boys wanted to start with the jumping pillows, which Jacob loved but Carter said it was "too bouncy." 

Jacob in mid-air!

Carter's short-lived bouncing

We moved on to the first round of slides, which are always fun and usually the longest line besides my favorite, the zip lines.  Both boys enjoyed rides...

...and so did I!  Then, instead of waiting for the hayride, we walked down the path to the next set of activities.  The fall colors have been weird this year, but here's proof there was some to enjoy...

Carter and I went on the pedal go-karts, and Jacob and Craig camped out at the sports ball section that is Jacob's favorite--football, basketball, and baseball with targets.  He spent a ton of time there.  Instead of doing the apple shooter that Jacob also loves, we got a family bucket for the slingshots.  Usually it's little pumpkins but apparently they were out and using apples instead.  We all took turns on the slingshots, and both Jacob and I had great, explosive hits on the targets!

There was a pen of goats nearby, and this little girl and her fellow tiny friend (not Carter--another goat, maybe her brother?) kept sneaking through the holes in the fence.  So cute!

Then it was off to another slide, this one accessible up a cargo net.  Carter loved climbing up as high as he could go in the structure!

I did the zip line (couldn't convince Jacob to join me), and then met up with the boys at our favorite set of slides.  We did some family races, and I took a break to catch this one on video...


We generally used the back way to get back up the hill (instead of going all the way back around to the stairs).  Carter was a trooper, though Jacob at one point could not keep himself upright!  Hard to tell what was legit and what was for attention, but no injuries so we'll just let it go!

My favorite slide is the long tube slide.  This is my video from my perspective...


While the big boys went back to the sports thing for a few more minutes, Carter and I fed the goats...

...then checked out this turkey.  Carter said, "I can see his brains!"  I gently explained that it's not brains, just funny-looking skin.  I had never noticed, however, that this breed has a funny black tuft of coarse-looking "hair" sticking out from its lower chest.  You can just see it at the bottom of the picture.  I don't know if those are some odd looking feathers, or if this turkey actually has some sort of hair.  So strange!

As we went to find the boys, we noticed the two baby goats were play fighting.  They liked to butt heads, but I imagine the girl was getting the raw end of that deal since the boy had little horns!

We wandered to another area with animals, and there was this giant mama pig.  Her four babies were sleeping, unfortunately, but she was clearly hungry, as she was pulling and shaking the feeding pipe violently as we stood there.  I think she was trying to tell us something!

Look close and you'll see some teeth!

My other favorite part of that section was when Carter pointed to the cow and said, "I see the milk!" and I had to gently explain to him that the cow was a boy and had balls just like him.  And yes, I used that term.  I didn't need to use the word "testicle" during our fun day...sue me.  But the comparison did make him giggle.

It started to sprinkle a bit as we headed back toward the front of the farm.  We took a ride on the train...

...and then looked around at pumpkins to see if any jumped out at us.  Not many left, so we settled for some kettle corn and donuts and headed out.   

And, of course, to be fair to Jacob, we went to Livingston County Pizza Co. to see if they had any donuts left, but he had to settle for some cookies instead.  The rest of Saturday was just wet.  Tropical storm remnants, I think, but no tropical warmth.  Yuck.  We stayed pretty low-key the rest of the day.  Just seemed right for dinner to be waffles, scrambled eggs, and milkshakes!

Craig had to work Sunday morning but the kids and I braved the rain to go to church, then came home for lunch before heading out all together to The Garden Factory to finally pick up some pumpkins.  Jacob had lacrosse practice mid-afternoon, so they could only stay for a bit.  Jacob spent most of the day complaining about having to go to lacrosse practice, and while I couldn't blame him, we felt it was important for him to be there since there's only one more practice before his tournament, and because he had already missed last week because he was wiped out coming home from Canada.  It was a very wet, very cold practice.  He almost made it through, but his hands were just too cold.  Guess we should start praying now for warmer weather in Maryland?

Anyway, prior to leaving for practice, Craig and Jacob walked around with us for a bit as we scoped out pumpkins and did the usual photo ops...

 

We couldn't pass up this one...

And yes, the pumpkin is wearing a hat and was affectionately referred to as the "third brother".

 

Close-up courtesy of Craig

Once the boys left, Carter and I checked out the rides...

Making friends on train...as usual!

And after the previous day, of course he had to do the slide.  This was his second ride down, and yes, he thought he was racing the other kid!


So much for a cute photo op...Carter was too busy being spooky!

But he did pose nicely by the white pumpkins, of which we bought our first one!

Then we checked out the snowmobiles!

It took a while to decide on pumpkins--and I even had to run out into the rain to get one the right size!  They were all either giant or small, and I really wanted an in-between one!  It was still pretty big, but it was fine!  Carter picked out a little one, and we decided on a small white one, too, just to be different.  Once the boys came home and Jacob thawed out, we had dinner then got carving.  Jacob was a little more into it this year, wanting to help clean out a bit more and really wanting to carve.  He still had a hard time with it, though, so I mostly handled those duties.  He did, however, order up the design of the big pumpkin.  He requested sunglasses like they had in the Captain Underpants Movie, which turned out to be 80s vented sunglasses.  It took a lot of work (and one stabilizing toothpick to fix an engineering flaw), but I did it.  Carter requested hair on his, and I picked the eyes, but Jacob helped suggest the rest.  And here's the final result...

The white pumpkin had to wait until tonight...pictures of that coming soon!  Jacob designed that one and attempted to carve it.  It wasn't the easiest process (for either of us), but hopefully he got a good lesson that will help him next year. 

I'm glad we got the pumpkins done in the knick of time, but I still don't feel ready for Halloween and can barely wrap my brain around all the stuff I need to remember in the morning (which still feels like a lot even without a costume for me or food for my office).  What's more, the thought of figuring out how to properly bundle up the kids for 40 degree trick-or-treating tomorrow is boggling my mind a bit.  But...I got a sobering dose of reality tonight in some very tragic news, so if these are my problems, I'll take them.  This is the easy stuff. 

Please pray...I can't promise more details, but just know, they're needed.

Lessons from a Scanner

Scanning hundreds of old photos was a really interesting process.  I experienced a wide range of emotions reliving everything from school and birthdays to relationships I'd like to forget and those I'm so glad to remember.  There were so many feelings, but there were some other things that hit me as I was going through the pictures.  Here's my top ten:

1) Film photography wasn't that great - Ok, so I know film is great and there are very good cameras that can do amazing things with film, but let's just say my camera was not part of that.  I think it was probably a decent camera for its time, but my pictures are not nearly as good as I thought they were.  When you compare to what I got via digital--even early, somewhat crappy digital--it's horrible.  Not in all cases, but in most.  The details just aren't as crisp unless you had ideal lighting and the subject was the right distance away.  In addition, because of the nature of loading film (and my fear that the film would not advance properly), I usually had one crappy picture per roll that was exposed to light, no matter how I tried to check it in a dark room.  Or the film would run out halfway through a picture.  Usually I tried not to let most of those be anything important, but even still...it's annoying!

2) I blame the fashion world for me feeling fat - The more I looked at old pictures, the more I realized the fashion world is the reason I spent all of my teen years feeling fat.  It was mostly a bottom half issue, but there were some odd top choices that I question heavily 20+ years later.  But when I see a picture like this...

That's me on the right.  Ugh.

...Well, we were all thin girls and those shorts full of material were just overwhelming us.  High waists are just terrible things.  And to make matters worse, why was I tucking in my shirt and belting my shorts?  Not a great look, even though I know I wasn't alone.  And yes, I was also the proud owner of every hockey-related XL Aussie t-shirt sold by the Tony Walker store at the mall.  Nineties fashion was just weird like that.  Even jeans I thought were cute back then were decidedly not when I see them now.  Of course, now I find myself wondering why I think I look great in skinny jeans but tapered jeans were such a disaster.  Had to be that darn high waist, I think, but perhaps someday I'll wonder what we were thinking now.  Craig complains about how back in his day everything was oversized, and now high school girls are barely covered.  True story, but thank God that wasn't the case back then! 

3) I was cuter than I thought - My biggest struggle as a teenager was boys' complete disinterest in me.  I mean, I had some male friends, but getting them to think of me as more just did not go well.  I had one high school boyfriend at the end and one other guy who was interested in me (although his motives were questionable), and beyond that, maybe one or two guys I either didn't really know or didn't find the least bit attractive (not just physically, but personality-wise) expressed an interest in me.  And that was it.  It was pretty torturous, to be honest, particularly once both of my best friends had steady boyfriends and I had zilch.  I'm still not sure what the problem was, though I did have one guy tell me later that he let social politics get in his way.  To be fair, he was a popular athlete and while we were good friends and hung out plenty at school, I can see where I might have been an odd choice for him within his athletic circle of friends.  As a result of all of the rejection, I was very unhappy with what I saw looking back at me in the mirror.  There was a lot of self-loathing going on back then, but I honestly just didn't know how to look like the popular girls, so I just kept being me.  And you know, looking back, I was sort of cute.  Maybe I was too cute and not hot enough? 

I was almost 16 here, and desperately wanted to catch the eye of my second cousin's French exchange student who was seriously gorgeous.  No luck.

Look at me rocking the red lipstick for my 17th birthday...

Not bad, right?  Oh, and of course, thanks to the clothes (per #2 above) I thought I was fat.  I think ultimately I was tormented by how I looked in a bathing suit (proportions might have been a little rough--broadish shoulders, smallish boobs, thin-enough-but-not-tight belly, and bigger hips and thighs than I think probably fit with the rest), but I looking back I looked just fine in clothes and was actually really skinny.  I mean...seriously...

Do you see how little my waist looks?!

And yes, I will feel the same way about my current self someday, so this was a good reminder to appreciate what I have.  But geez, talk about wasted energy.  Long story short, I never thought I'd look back and be okay with myself (though my pictures from about age 6-13 still leave a bit to be desired)...

Case in point...fabulous 80s accessorizing.

4) I missed a lot of moments because it was too dark - My camera was not good in low light, and it definitely didn't do well when the flash wasn't enough.  Attempts were grainy, blurry, and hard to make out.  I don't always have the best luck even now, but under ideal circumstances I know I can pull it off.  Back then I think most of the time I didn't try, but when I did it was usually disappointing.  I know there were pictures I took in New York City, primarily in a theater at MSG, at Rockefeller Center, looking at Radio City Music Hall, and at a sculpture featuring giant red Christmas balls, that were all night shots and never turned out.  I tried to get my scanner to use its film negative mode, and this was the best I could get of two of them.  I'm still a little annoyed that the film lab didn't at least try to develop these.

5) I missed a lot of moments because I didn't want to use too much film - When I consider that now on a week's vacation I take hundreds of pictures (almost 400 at Disney, more than 600 in Toronto thanks to a photogenic aquarium, museum, and castle), I laugh that something as special as our honeymoon only warranted about three rolls of film and less than 100 pictures.  Granted, I wasn't taking countless pictures of everything back then (more on that later), but I know I was definitely more conservative with my photos so as not to run out of film at an inopportune time.  Once in a while I think about a memory from a pre-digital experience, and I'll look through my photos only to find I didn't take many or any pictures of it.  I have no pictures of the Bellagio fountains in Vegas, for example.  I know we probably took video (camcorder video, ha!), but to have no pictures is a shame.  I have one of the Bellagio's Chihuly ceiling, and only two from the Conservatory there, which was so gorgeous.  Nowadays I'd have a dozen of just the flowers alone!  My roller coaster trips were pretty well photographed, all things considered, but even in those cases I know a few moments were missing.  Heck, I found a couple weddings where I didn't even have a good shot of the couple, which could have also been a product of not wanting to use my loud camera and knowing that the church and reception hall were not well-lit enough to capture it properly anyway.  But still!  

6) I was not a very good photographer - I can't even tell you how many pictures were not focused, not framed properly, or cut things off.  I didn't remember that at all until I started coming across one after another as I scanned.  The blur is tough because the camera had an auto focus and clearly if you got too close it just couldn't handle it.  But the number of pictures that I cut off or just didn't set up properly surprised me, since I always wondered why people had issues with cutting heads off!  I didn't do heads, just everything else!

7) I remember way too many random things - As I looked through pictures from my week of summer camp, or pictures from the last day of random high school classes, or recalled the stories behind rather random shots, I realized how many little details I still remember.  Names of people I knew for a school year, or even a week, are still kicking around up in my brain.  Random little trips or silly moments still have a back story.  It's amazing to think how many memories we accumulate in a lifetime, and how many stick far longer than we think they should.

8) I miss my family - Looking back through pictures I found some classics of family who are no longer with us.  There were some classics of my grandpa in particular, but I do love this one from my grandparents' 50th anniversary.  Grandpa was so not happy about the limo (too fancy and all that), but you could tell how much they were both enjoying the day.  I actually like one I took of just him even more, because it perfectly captured his bemused annoyance with the limo.

 

I didn't have one in the old scans of my other grandma, but I did have one from Christmas at her house, which was a long tradition on Christmas night.  We'd all cram into her living room, eat snacks, and open presents, inevitably fighting exhaustion by the end.  I miss it, though...and her.

Craig and I were just dating here...not even engaged!

This one has my Uncle Bink, who passed away suddenly when I was 19.  This was from my mom's 40th birthday party, and he's the guy with the glasses on the right.

And this one has my Uncle Bruce, who passed away last year after a long battle with dementia.  This was on my confirmation day, and so of course I needed a picture with my godparents.

9) I had very uninteresting periods of time in my life - I was shocked at how many breaks of many months I had between pictures, especially early on.  I'd go six months without pictures, or only take a couple in an entire year.  I'm shocked that it didn't bug me more that my pictures were trapped in my camera for so long!  It was always fun to get film back and find out what you forgot, though!  I guess in most cases I relied on my parents to take pictures, or I just wasn't doing much independently--at least that was interesting enough to lug out my camera (which was about 3" x 6" x 1.5" and maybe a pound or so) and embarass myself by using it.  I wonder what I missed in those times...

10) Digital photography helped me rediscover my creativity - Per my realization above that I missed a lot of moments because it was dark or because I was trying to conserve film, most of my pictures were pretty utilitarian.  I never considered photography to be an art form, at least not for me.  I did get lucky a few times...

Love this late night shot of the Boardwalk Casino in Las Vegas, with its fake rollercoaster!

I took this in 1999, in the midst of two weeks of constant snow during winter break.  It was out my parents' window, looking at giant icicles.  The light hit them just right.

From the (dangerous) railroad bridge at Letchworth State Park, looking down at the Upper Falls.

A perfect sunset out the window of our first apartment after we got married.  Amazing considering this was my film camera.

This was taken on the most perfect day in Toronto in the summer of 2000.  There are twice as many buildings now, and you probably can't even see anything like this from here now because of new construction.  Perfect.

I was pretty artsy craftsy as a kid (thanks to an artist grandma), but that seemed to wear off by high school and my freshman art class from hell.  I rediscovered it a bit when we bought our first house and felt compelled to decorate the front door and add to my seasonal decor, but it wasn't until I got the first good digital camera--and discovered the macro mode--that it started to get fun.  And when I saw the quality of the shots and could see beforehand what I was shooting, it made it easy to make a point of it.  Whether it was close-ups of flowers or finding the most vivid, colorful landscape view, it became a mission of mine.  I loved using them as desktop wallpaper or as part of a screensaver...and of course, sharing them here.  As a result, I will take random pictures almost anywhere, and that's part of the reason I have so many pictures now.  I take pictures a couple different ways, just in case one was blurry or wasn't positioned quite right or could capture some other detail in a different way.  It's been a fun little way to recapture my creativity, though I wish I had more time and more opportunities to really cultivate it.  It's hard to pick out favorites from the digital era, but...

One of the first two pictures I took with my digital camera, of the flowers in our front yard lamp post planter.  I mean, look at those colors!

Taken of Multnomah Falls in Oregon on the first trip with the camera

One of the first pictures that made me realize the power of the camera.  We were outside my cousin's daughter's baptism on a rainy September day and the detail in this shot, which was zoomed as I recall, was amazing.

The true beginning of my Chihuly love affair, one of the first pieces we saw in Pittsburgh on the infamous trip I took that ended up clueing me into my first pregnancy.

Accidental shot of baby Jacob and me silhouetted on our house foundation near a lone tulip.

Clifton Hill in Niagara Falls, one of the first shots where I played with the different shutter speed settings on my camera.  Love how it captures the motion of the ferris wheel and cars, but everything else is in focus.

My early attempt at a Jacob photo shoot, the day after our first ER trip on Halloween night.  So sweet, and you can't even see his split lip!

Ahhh, the lighting, the blur of his joyful leaf rustling...so sweet.

In the glass section of the Heinz Museum in Pittsburgh.  I think I was trying to do this, but it turned out so much better than expected.

At the Hockey Hall of Fame store in Toronto.  Jacob loved these guys and this is still one of my favorite random desktop wallpapers.

I took this outside Jacob's daycare.  I love the juxtaposition of the perfect sunflower with the brick wall.  It was cool in person and even better like this.

That's only about three years' worth, so perhaps we'll have to revisit this... :)

Bonus: Time marches on - There were obviously so many pictures to look through and it was pretty amazing to watch the progression from cute baby to awkward kid to improving teenager to an independent young woman and then finally into a married one.  For some reason, it was this one that struck me. 

 

I was old enough to still feel like the same person, but suddenly I see the difference between pre-marriage me and post-kids me.  Film didn't capture the details of my face too closely, but it's clear I look younger and fresher and am practically glowing.  A little of that has drained from me now, but considering the fact it's more than 14 years ago, I should have aged, right?  On the bright side, at least that dress still fits!  But it was this picture that reminded me of the pictures I've seen of my parents when they were newlyweds, just in their early 20s before they had kids, that made me realize once I was that age--like most kids finally do--that they were once young and fun, too.

 

The picture was a vivid reminder to me how time continues on.  Even if we don't feel considerably different on the surface, it's clear it's happening.  I only really need to look at pictures of the kids to be reminded of that, but when it's you it's much more personal. 

 

It's been such a journey to scan these photos and look back at my life to date.  As much as it's been a life well lived, there's so much more ground to cover, and I look forward to doing it all...and continuing to document it all the way.

A Tale of Two Weekends

Last weekend was another divide and conquer one--Craig and Jacob in one spot, Carter and I in another.  Craig had to go to Canada to work the Heritage Cup, and Carter and I went to North Tonawanda to hang out with my dad while my mom was at a church women's retreat--which I would have otherwise been at with her, had I been able to get Carter taken care of for the weekend. 

Carter's and my first stop was at church, where they were doing a Fall Family Fun Night.  I figured we could stop in and see what was going on, and then take off to my parents'.  Carter was very hesitant at first, but then he noticed the half dozen crawl tunnels and tents that they had set up, and liked crawling around those.  He drew on a glow-in-the-dark wall, and finally decided he wanted to do the glowing obstacle course.  He stepped in hoops and on shapes and over bridges.  We went out to the dark playground which had a spotlight, but chasing your kid around a shadowy playground is quite the odd feeling!  We played a couple games on our way back in, and then he got his prize--a whistle flashlight!

In a tunnel at the start of the obstacle course

The lights were just coming back on to end the night, but I couldn't resist sharing this picture 'cause he's just too cute!

Carter stayed awake for the whole ride and after some time hanging out with Grandpa, he went to bed.  Fortunately he slept pretty late and we enjoyed a lazy morning.  In the meantime, Craig and Jacob were having fun up in Canada.  Jacob got to do some ball boy duty and hang out with one of his Knighthawk ball boy buddies.

And he apparently got to drink the most interesting root beer ever...in a measuring cup!

In the meantime, Carter and I had lunch with my Dad at McDonald's (he got an Optimus Prime mask!) and then we headed up to Niagara Falls.  The plan was to walk down to the brink of the falls and check out a possible geocache along the way.  Well, before we got there my dad remembered something fun we could do.  We went to the new winter docking site of the Maid of the Mist boats, which happens to be on the site of the Schoellkopf Power Station.  You can read the history here, but we have an interesting family connection to the site as my dad's uncle and great uncle both worked there and were lucky enough to escape the disaster in 1956.  The short story is that water freezing and thawing in the rocks around the plant eventually led to some instability in the gorge walls, it caused leaks in the plant, and eventually a rockslide crushed the plant and everything collapsed.  We rode an elevator down to the bottom of the gorge and it was quite the view.

Down at the base, looking back toward the elevator.  That is the original shaft from the power plant.  You can see some of the original plant section on the right.

Looking down the gorge toward the whirlpool.  Those openings on the right were part of the plant operations.

A close-up of the same view, with the Whirlpool Bridge in the background...pretty, though, isn't it?

The chunks of rock and random pieces of metal all over the site, along with tunnels in the rock that were once part of the plant, were pretty creepy but cool.  It was hard to believe the tragedy that occurred there as we stood there, but it was amazing to see.

Piles of rock

Looking toward the Rainbow Bridge with the mist from the falls...notice the Maid of the Mist boat.

Looking up toward where the other pictures were taken from

A huge piece of metal from the plant.  It was probably as big as me.

The juxtaposition of nature with the plant remnants was interesting.  We saw this lady bug with so many spots, and I couldn't resist getting a picture of it on Carter's finger!

We eventually rode back up the elevator and looked at the view from above.  The foliage was just starting to get good, but the camera just wasn't doing it justice.  I switched to my "Vivid Color" setting on my camera and got this.  Clearly there was some color change or this wouldn't look as colorful as it goes.  It wasn't quite this good, but it's pretty anyway!

Toward the Rainbow Bridge...so many hotels!

We drove over to the casino and walked down to the brink of the falls.  Carter was losing his patience by this point and wouldn't let me take a picture, so let's settle for the top of the falls with some foliage instead.

 

Saturday night my dad tasked me with trying to pick a dinner location.  It was almost impossible, as the gluten-filled choices were too many and I barely know what places serve or what Carter would eat, so we were at an impasse for a while.  Eventually my dad suggested Ted's Hot Dogs, and while it wasn't as nice as some places we could have gone, I knew it was a great choice for Carter, who loves hot dogs.  I was also jonesing for some onion rings, which they do amazingly well.  Well, it turned out that Carter was willing to try one, and he loved them!

 

Carter and his broken ring

He did great and ate all of his food.  It was a really fun dinner!  On the way home, we stopped at a nearby house that is winning Halloween with an amazing display.

You can't even begin to see the details...a ghost at the peak of the house, another strung between the house and a tree.  The whole front yard was gravestones and skeletons crawling out.  And it was all synched to music on the radio!

I try to show the music with it in this video, but it was hard to hear out of the car... 

 

 

The night didn't end on a great note as my dad and I had a blow-up over politics (we don't agree, but I said my peace and we're good), but up in Canada, the Canadian team that Craig was working for won! 

And yes, Craig is on the far right and Jacob is right of center in the front!

They had a fun weekend and headed back early on Sunday to make Jacob's lacrosse practice, which
he unfortunately was too exhausted to go to.  In the meantime, Carter and I went to my family's Oktoberfest.  I had a great time talking and eating and drinking and finding out my cousin is pregnant (!), and Carter kept himself occupied with electronics (hey, sometimes it's easiest), someone's tween daughter, and my cousin Brian's girlfriend Katie (the one from camping).  The Bills won a dramatic game, the baby talk was super fun, and it was a really fun day.  I was happy to get home and get ready for the week, but I ended up being really tired and going to bed very early. 

Carter's ENT appointment was early Monday, and we're trying more allergy meds and nose spray to open up his nasal passages before our last resort, which would be tonsils and adenoids.  We've tackled Halloween costumes, and now we have some busy evenings before our last Halloween hurrah this weekend.  I have a ton of stuff to get straight before Tuesday!

Sleep Study Follow-Up

Last week before all of the weekend craziness, I finally managed to get in for Carter's sleep study results.  It had taken forever, much longer than they said, which I think is just because the place is so stinkin' busy (hence our original sleep study date being after Thanksgiving). 

It appears Carter has mild sleep apnea, right on the cutoff between normal and mild.  So the good news is, he barely has it.  He had a handful of episodes--though most appear to have been a brain processing issue rather than an obstruction, so I'm not sure what that means for him.  I assume it's just the maturing of the synapses in his brain--similar to why it took Jacob so long to be dry at night.  We are following up with an ear, nose, and throat doctor to see what their thoughts are on his breathing, as it's clear he snores and has some difficulty breathing through his nose.  No matter how congested, it seems his body can't transition over to his mouth, which makes for very difficult listening on my end when he's sick.

But what did concern them more is that he roused himself a lot.  Over the course of nine hours, he had a decent number of wakeups, but they weren't significantly long and I honestly think one of those was when he had to pee right before it was time to wake up and he was awake for the 10 minutes or so before we hit 6am and had to leave.  But he had over 100 "arousals", which are not wake-ups but rather enough brain activity to stimulate movement in his extremities, primarily his legs.  In essence it amounts to one every five minutes or so, which is crazy.  Clearly he's not getting truly restful sleep that way, even though his unlimited energy might make you think otherwise.

We had to go get bloodwork done to look at a couple levels, primarily his ferritin, which is the iron stored in the body (as opposed to in the blood).  From what I can tell, if he's not getting enough iron on a daily basis, the body steals iron from that storage to keep the main iron level normal, but then clearly the ferritin level will be lower.  Lower ferritin levels can cause restless leg syndrome, which  could be his problem.  And, based on his results, that's probably what's happening.  His iron clocked in around 34.  The low end of the "normal" range is in the 20s, and the high is 250, so yeah, he's low.  I chalk that up to him not loving veggies and not eating a ton of meat.  Between dinners at home and lunches at daycare he probably gets a decent amount of each, but he eats a four-year-old portion and maybe not even that sometimes, so it's hard to know for sure how much he gets from nutrition.  So, we have to supplement.

The PA that I met with explained the options, a liquid vs. a pill.  The liquid can stain teeth and doesn't taste very good, and honestly the option she presented for disguising it was rather elaborate and not particularly Carter-friendly.  I was definitely leaning toward the pill, even though he's never swallowed a pill in his life.  She suggested using M&M's for practice, and I figured Jacob picked it up pretty quickly, so why not?  Well, when we picked up the prescription, they had filled it as a liquid.  Ugh.  We tried it straight one morning because it said it was cherry flavored, and that was not fun.  I think we almost had a flashback to the time they didn't flavor Carter's reflux medication when he was a baby and he puked it all up because it tasted so bad.  He was nauseous after this one, for quite a while.  I decided to wait a couple more days until I could grab some orange juice or something, as it's best to take it with vitamin C.  Of course, you're also supposed to take it on an empty stomach and an hour before you eat, so pretty much there's never a good time in our schedule for that.  His absorption probably won't be maximized, but it's all we can do.  We'll see how mixing it with juice goes, though.  Oh, and we'll have to monitor the lower half, as constipation can be a problem.  Yay.  Good thing I already have to keep an eye on Jacob for that anyway.

We'll see if it makes a difference.  We go back for more bloodwork (oh joy) in three months.  The ENT appointment is Monday, so hopefully we'll get some quicker answers there on the rest of it.  They may just want to give him a nose spray, or if they really don't like what they see, I suppose it could go to tonsils and adenoids...but I doubt it, at least at this stage.  He does have a giant tonsil stone, which is gross but harmless, so I wonder if he's prone to those, will they consider his tonsils a higher risk for picking up germs and breeding infections?  We'll see.

Ultimately, he's a pretty happy kid and seems well-rested enough most of the time.  I wasn't sure a few months back when the bad reports came daily at daycare, but recently he's been good so who knows?  I really just want him to breathe comfortably, sleep well, and minimize the sicknesses as much as we can.  Speaking of which, his cough is still hanging in there post-antibiotics, so even though it's better, I'm still watching that to make sure it doesn't get worse again.  I have something similar now too--just sick enough with a cough to be annoying, but not sick enough to disrupt normal life--and it's a little discouraging to know Carter's has been hanging in there for almost a month.  Poor kid.

But he's still so cute, and how could you not want to make him the happiest possible?  So we keep trying...