Me: “Hey honey, want to go visit my parentals in Dallas during Thanksgiving”?
Tobie: “Sure, let’s do it”.
Me: “This will be the last time we’ll probably fly with the kids for another couple of years because there is no way we’ll be leaving the house anytime soon after the next baby arrives”.

Leftovers!

We left for Big D on Wednesday, which is supposed to be one of the busiest travel days of the year.  Things didn’t start off great.  It started raining in Phoenix, that worried us.  There was lots of traffic going to the airport.  That worried us.  We arrived at the airport, parked in the high priced lot because I was worried about lines.  We’re on the 2nd level of Terminal 4 looking to check our bags in at the American Airline ticket counter.  In all my years of living in Phoenix, I’ve only flown out of Terminal 4.  I walked from one end of the terminal to the other, no American Airlines counter.  That worried us. Ooops, American Airlines is in Terminal 3. 

We had to hop on a bus to the next terminal, that worried us.  After getting off the bus, I checked our bags in with the curbside guys.  I asked the dude if he had 5 tickets under my name and he says yes.  After he checks my bags in, he gives me just one boarding pass.  I’m like WTF?  Where are the other 4 boarding passes? He rudely replies: “You didn’t say you wanted to check all them in, so I only printed one pass“. Can you print the others now, I asked?  Nope you have to go inside, then he starts yelling at me saying it was my fault blah blah blah.  Whatever,  Have a happy Thanksgiving and I go inside and get them all printed.  How rude, right?  This dude got lucky there were no lines inside.

Anyways, there is a 35% increase in travel volume the day before Thanksgiving.  The airport was dead.  All the ticket counters barely had a line.  We walked right through the security line.  There were less people in the airport than the previous times I’ve flown in the past few months.  Where are all you travellers?  You staying at home this year?  Is everyone driving now since gas is so cheap?  Is the recession as bad as the news says it is?  All I can say is our kids are expert travellers now.  We bought them little luggage to bring on the plane this time.  They love saying “I’m on vacation”. They love it!  Cole and Drew slept the whole flight.  Paige ate Cheerios.  Who’s better than these kids? 

I usually don’t get caught up on the whole “What are you thankful for” stuff around Thanksgiving time.  I’m the let’s drink a lot, eat a lot, watch some football, eat some more and go to bed wishing I didn’t eat that much type of Thanksgiving guy.  We’ve been though enough the past few years that it takes much more than one day of the year for us to feel thankful because we have those moments everyday (well, for me twice a week, I ain’t no sappy chick!).  But this photo of Cole pretty much sums up how I feel right now. 

I still remember a moment we had in the NICU when Cole was about to go under for ROP surgery and the doctors were going over some of the CYA complications that can happen with the surgery.  They were basically telling us he’s probably going to have bad depth perception, always wear glasses, might not drive, yada yada yada.  For whatever reason, this really seemed like the end of the world at that moment.  We were just beat up after 3 months in the NICU and really couldn’t take much more of any bad news.  Big deal he has to wear glasses.  Big deal he’ll probably not play sports.  Definitely not life and death, but at that moment, the doctors words were leaving a big impact on what we thought life would be like as Cole grew older (and since Paige went through the same surgery, we got to feel like this twice).

Anyways, those NICU days are long gone for us. Everytime I see Cole or Paige do something new, simple things like one day deciding to climb a ladder by himself, one more bad memory for the NICU fades from my mind.  So on this day, what I’m thankful for most, is having very little NICU memories left in my big head.

Tobie was admitted to the hospital this morning.  Lots of contracting.   She was very dehyrdated from the flu she must of just caught.  She’s taken in a lot of IV fluids and medication to stop the contracting.  She might come home tomorrow if she’s in better shape.  That’s all I know for now, haven’t had a chance to really talk to her or the doctors yet.

UPDATE 11/21 8:30 AM:  Tobie said she had a rough night.  She’s not contracting anymore, just cramping.  Big difference I guess because no one is worried.  She took a FFN test, came back negative.  She just needs to start eating and relax.  We’re thinking she might be discharged in a few hours because there is nothing more they can give her for her flu-like symptoms.

UPDATE 11/21 11:30 AM:  She’s home!  Kids are very happy. She’s supposed to sleep the rest of the day.  Good luck with that.  Still cramping a ton though.

The kids do not watch a lot of tv but when they do it’s very quiet in the house.

Remember when Eric used to comment about how dreamy it was to take our kids to restaurants?  How well behaved they are?  Well, for the most part they still are.  Minus the extreme mess.  Drew no longer fits into most restaurant highchairs so that makes an issue sometimes.

At home we have become very creative and inventive during mealtimes.  Toast is no longer toast.  It magically becomes choo-choo trains that drive all over the table.  Chicken nuggets sometimes become hats.  Strawberries become red mountains.  Noodles suddenly can dance and sing.  Spoons are not for eating.  They are for banging the drums man.  Chairs are not for sitting in, they are for rocking back and forth.  Uug. 

I’m trying not to make a big deal of all this.  Hopefully like everything else it’s a phase.  All three of them are doing it too so if I say something to one of them the others feed off it.  And at least they’re using their imaginations and being super creative.  Even if the food is for play and doesn’t actually make it into their mouths.

Well, we have these toilet locks on all our toilets which seemed like a great idea except now we actually have to USE the toilets so they are just a pain.  So our toilets are vulnerable.  So far the kids know the toilet is “gross” but the other day a certain little brother gave Cole’s precious Bunny a bath in the toilet.  I knew it would happen with something someday.  I guess I’m glad it’s Bunny and not something we couldn’t get out of the toilet or something that shouldn’t get wet (cell phones are popular around here as toys).

We’ve also started the Christmas push.  By that I mean we started reading Christmas books, talking about Christmas, looking at Santas and Christmas trees in the stores, etc.  They are loving it!  Cole especially.  On Sunday, Cole and Daddy had a special day out just the two of them.  So cute!  Cole was so excited to go with Daddy.  He saw Daddy take Paige to Starbucks a couple days earlier and I had told him the night before it was his turn to go somewhere with Daddy.  Needless to say, they both had a great time at Home Depot walking around, then even though I had to pry info out of both of them…apparently they went to a sports bar for beer and lunch.  Never to early to start them, right?  And they looked at tons of Christmas stuff at Home Depot.

Yesterday we plunked in a DVD of Rudolph because the kids seem to be coming down with a slight cold and Cole was fascinated.  He was eating crackers and would hold the cracker midway to his mouth in some scenes.  The abdominable snowman really got him too.  He said “monster scary, where’d monster go?  Monster fall down”.  “Look at all the reindeer, look there’s Rudolph!”  It was so cute.  Paige and Drew could care less about watching TV.  That’s okay.  They’ll get it eventually…it’s the American way, right?  If they’re still not 100% healthy today we’ll watch Frosty. 

In other news:  Drew has reached the Super-Clingy Phase.  It’s getting old.  Better now than when new baby comes, but it’s driving me bonkers.  He’ll grab my arm and say “Mama up”.  Or he’ll bring me a book and say “Mama, read book” and if I don’t instantly take the book from him, he’ll chuck it at me.  Everything he needs or wants has to be done immediately or he’ll flail and cry and throw himself into me or the asphalt or whatever is below him.  Eric thinks of all the kids Drew will have the hardest time with new baby.  I think he may be right….

That’s all.  I have a secret undercover mission today of confiscating Bunny to give him a bath.  It’s not going to be easy.