Lengthy Silence

Things have been pretty busy lately, and we haven't had a chance to post in a while. Where to begin? My parents came up last weekend and took us to Zoo Zoo, which we were looking forward to quite a bit. It combined some pieces of Biglittlethings - which we enjoyed a lot this past winter - with a couple pieces from Frogz, which we haven't seen. Oh, and as you can see from the photo, Elias also spent part of the afternoon dying eggs.

On Sunday, most of our morning was taken up by holiday-related activities. Elias tracked down his basket of gifts not long after waking up, and later hunted around in the backyard for eggs. After that, we enjoyed an enormous meal - even with myself, Cara, Elias, my folks, and Patrick, we barely made a dent in it.

Cara's dad made a very welcome visit for most of this week, which also happened to overlap with Elias catching impetigo, which, uh, isn't pretty. Luckily, I was able to stay home with him for a couple days, and get him to the doctor on Monday, so he's almost fully recovered. Anyway, Elias was thrilled to see his papa, and I imagine the feeling was mutual. They went to the zoo, hiked in the Gorge, watched some glassblowing at Edgefield, picked up some books at Powell's... it sounded like a pretty decent week.

Bullet people

Last night we were all eating dinner when Elias warned us that this world was dangerous. There were "bullet people" with "shooters" that could put holes in our bodies and break our skin, and we could even die.

"What should we do about that?" Cara asked. "Should we take their shooters away?"

"No," Elias replied. "We should fight for justice, because even if we take their shooters away they would still have their arms and legs, and they can still hurt people."

The democratic process

Ever since Elias got sick, he has been taking advantage of our sympathies and sleeping in bed with us. Usually I am pretty strict about him sleeping in his own bed, too, though I have been much more lax about it since I've been so busy with school and see him less often. Tonight I got home around 9pm after student teaching all day and then going to class. It was past Elias' bedtime so I sat with him while Harry read "The Patchwork Girl of Oz" (yes, we are still working on the Oz books) and then it was time to go to bed. It was Harry's turn to put him to sleep, but Elias asked me where I thought he should go to bed. I told him he should go to bed in his own bed and Harry agreed. Elias wasn't happy with that answer so he decided to put it to a vote: "Whoever thinks I should sleep in my bed, raise your hand. Whoever thinks I should sleep in mommy's bed, squeeze your nose." Harry and I raised our hands and Elias squeezed his nose. Harry pointed out that Elias was outvoted but Elias said, "Actually the person with one vote wins." At this point I was so charmed and was feeling guilty for not having seen Elias all day that I asked for a re-vote; after all, how often do you get to vote by squeezing your nose? So we voted again and this time I squeezed my nose and Harry raised his hand. Elias looked confused at this point, especially after his insistence on only one vote winning, but then he looked at Harry and said, "Oh. Well, it looks like mommy and me win!" Right now he's sleeping in our bed.

EEG

Elias's doctor asked us to set up an EEG for him after his seizure a few weeks ago, so this morning we went to the hospital to have that taken care of. We were told to keep him up a couple extra hours last night and wake him up a couple hours early this morning, so that hopefully he'd fall asleep during the test. He was tired and grumpy, but a pretty good sport about having to sit still and have the machine hooked up all over his head. He never did sleep, however.

Later, we all decided to go to Fernhill Park. Before we left, though, Elias had some instructions for us. I may be paraphrasing, but...

"Okay, Mom and Dad, you stand over there. Next to each other. Okay, now, do you want to play pirate ship? I'll be the captain. That means I'll have to bring my sword to the park. Okay, now Dad, you can be my first mate. And Mom, you can be my second mate."

At the park, we swam from our ship to an island with a jungle on it. There were snakes there, and lions, and packs of wolves, but also a friendly dog named Willoughby, who came home with us and shared some chocolate with Elias after dinner.

Goodnight Moon

This afternoon we went to see the Northwest Children's Theater production of Goodnight Moon, which Elias's uncle Kai gave us tickets to last Christmas. The play featured quite a bit more singing, dancing, and physical comedy than the book, but that was probably for the best. I think Elias enjoyed it very much - there was a lot of giggling, as well as some very charming eye-covering and shivering during a few moments that he found a little frightening. Also, the disco ball that was turned on during one sequence had him mesmerized. So thanks a lot, Kai.

Emergency room

Just a few more photos from our visit to the hospital last weekend:

Wizards, castles and the emergency room

I know... it's been a while. Things have been pretty busy here. Elias is doing well. Two weekends ago, his grandparents visited from Roseburg and he got a new castle for his many knights. He's pretty excited about it and has been playing with it a lot. Harry had a parent teacher conference with E's preschool teacher who told Harry that Elias spends a lot of time looking at books, likes to play with all of the kids at different times and likes yoga. She also said that Elias loves to talk at circle time but has a hard time listening to others when it's their turn. I guess he thinks his thoughts and experiences are more interesting than anyone else's. Where could he possibly get that? She also said that often when they're talking about something, like the water for instance, they have to put it in superhero terms to get Elias involved. Example: "Elias, what power could a superhero have that would change water?" Answer "I know! Maybe the superpower would be to freeze so that the superhero can turn water to ice!" Thank you Frozone from The Incredibles and thank you, Harry.

I have been really busy with school so I haven't been around as much, though Elias and I seem to be trading an illness back and forth. Neither one of us has been sick in a couple years, but this season has hit us hard. Elias got sick again last weekend and came down with a fever. During the course of the fever he had a seizure and we ended up taking him to the emergency room. He's fine, but on the advice of his pediatrician we scheduled an EEG for Elias and he has to go see a pediatric neurologist. He has recovered from the fever though he still has a cold and sinus infection. He's in pretty good spirits but he's been getting really tired and he stayed home from preschool all week. Harry and I took turns staying home with him, but I spent most of the week home and got to slow down from school a bit.