Cabin Fever

So, this past week has been very, very long. I and both kids were sick all week. And it didn't help that the weather was horrible. It actually all started off in O'fallon, IL. Last weekend we went to visit Jason's dad and his wife for the weekend. We fully intended to go to a hot air balloon race. The weather didn't cooperate and I and Molly were sick. So we didn't get to go, but to make it up to Jackson, we took him to a fun playground. He's easily amused. While we were there, a wedding party was having their photo's taken at a near by pond. Shortly after they finished, we decided it was a great backdrop for photo's and took a few ourselves. We still managed to have loads of fun over the weekend. By the time we came home on Monday, however, Jackson had joined me and Molly in our illness. And so our long week began.

So, what do you do when you can't leave the house, and you don't have the energy to entertain your kids all day? You break out the finger paint! (I voted against letting Molly finger paint this time). As you can see, it was a fun and wonderful mess! Jackson loved it and I managed to keep my sanity despite the mess I had to clean up. He has finger painted before, but never quite like this. It was EVERYWHERE! In the end, Jason got me a big towel and I wrapped Jackson up and carried him upstairs to the bathtub. Would I do this again? Most definitely!

So, now it's Monday afternoon. The sun is almost shining and it finally isn't raining! Jackson has his voice back (he had lost it for about three whole days!), our coughs are beginning to lessen, but we're all still a little worn out. Especially Molly. :)

Popcorn Fesitval!!!

I finally managed to get everyone out to one of our local festivals. It took some nagging, but, in the end, Jason admitted that it was well worth it. I don't think we were fully prepared for how crazy a popcorn festival could be. One of the main streets in Beavercreek, OH was completely shut down for this festival. There were stands for various foods, churches, crafts, and more! They even had a fantastic kids play area which I will show photo's of shortly.

As Jackson continually pointed out, as we passes stand after stand, that we were there for popcorn and that is all he really cared about.

Finally, we settled on a stand which was selling smaller bags of various flavored popcorn. We picked three bags. Caramel, white cheddar, and s'mores!

Before stopping to snack on some of our popcorn, we came across a tent which had personalized foot stools, coat racks, puzzles, and more. I loved the foot stools because the names were inset in the bench as a puzzle. Much to my delight, they had a "Jackson" and a "Molly" bench. Unfortunately, we weren't prepared to spend the money and stood there for what felt like an hour trying to decide if we were going to get the step-stools or not. So, we moved on to give ourselves more time to think. In the end, we settled on two delightful coat racks for the k

ids.

Jackson got a baseball and Molly got a butterfly. These weren't as expensive so that was our compromise.

It was going to take about 45 min. for the man to make them so went to explore more.

We found some shade and tested out some of our popcorn. We started with the caramel popcorn. It was delicious! The kids enjoyed it as well. Then, Jason took Jackson into the kids area and bought some tickets so Jackson could play games. It was only $1 for 8 tickets and most of the games were only 1 ticket to play. It was great! Jackson even got to jump in a bouncy house and Molly got in on some of the action. Kids were guaranteed a prize at every game. Both kids did great at throwing beanbags through a hole in a board! (Do I smell a future baseball player???) When we finally finished up with the games, we headed back to get our beautiful coat racks for the kids!

To see more photo's, go to www.picasaweb.google.com/themcginthys

Pre-op & Post-op

I took Molly in to Children's Hospital, Dayton, this morning, to have tubes put in both of her ears. I had the pleasure of getting up at 5:30am so I could have her there by 6:15am!!! I honestly don't remember the last time I had to wake up at that time (without being able to go right back to sleep).

So, we got in to the hospital at 6:15am and were shown to room #1 out of 60 rooms. Molly was the first patient of the day! Right off the bat, Molly wasn't too sure of the place. She has always been able to sense doctor's offices or clinics. The nurses were wonderful! They asked their standard questions (Molly is now 22lbs 8oz.) and then Molly and I got to take a walk through the halls while we waited for the doctor. What was great about our walk? Well, the hospital has little cars for the kids to ride around in. Molly loved it (not so much when they had to take it away). We had brought along her teddy bear and glow worm, so she had a blast putting them in the trunk (it was actually in front) of the little car.

After a few walks, we had to go back to our room so Molly could be given some Tylenol and another medication to help her relax. Boy did she relax! I had her sitting on the bed playing and talking when, suddenly, she just flopped down and her eye's got droopy. It was pretty funny. She sure tried to fight it, though. I had to keep her on the bed or hold her because she couldn't really walk under the influence, but that didn't keep her from trying. I think that must have been a little bit of what it's like to argue with a drunk person. Here are some photos of her just after the drugs kicked in!

I had been told the procedure would be quick, but I don't think I was prepared for it being that fast. As soon as they took Molly from our room, I went to get something to drink and a snack from the lobby. By the time I had finished them, the doctor had come back to say everything went great! About 15 minutes later, a nurse carried Molly back to me. Molly spent the next 30 minutes screaming (that would be why there aren't any post-op photos) and trying to get me to put her down and then we got to go home!

She had a great morning nap and seems to be back to her normal, adorable, self. Thank you for all the prayers and concerns.

Happy Moments

Jackson was in a time out. Of course, you wouldn't know it by the above photo. Every time we put Jackson in a time out, Molly runs over to sit next to him. Even if he's sitting there for having hurt her. She just loves her big brother so much!

Did someone order a Pebbles look alike??? She use to hate having her hair done, but after a few times, she seems to be getting use to it. She'll have to get use to it with a mom like me! :)

This is what happens when a little girl decides she needs to feed herself mac & cheese. The next day, I could have taken the same photo only with applesauce that time.

We got a little bed from Ikea for Molly's baby dolls. She loves it! Our biggest challenge is keeping Molly and Jackson from climbing into it.

Jackson still LOVES his airplanes!

This is my new FAVORITE photo of Jackson. He enjoyed putting on Daddy's hat! Go Cardinals!!!

Tidbits

This past weekend has been full of fun and firsts!

Jackson and Molly took their first of many bathes together. I had been putting this off since Jackson tends to splash around and likes to swim in the tub a lot. But, I was on my own with the two of them on bath night, so I decided to venture into a joint bath time. It was a great success! They both seemed so excited to be playing in the tub together. Initially, I had put Molly at one end and Jackson at the other end of the tub. Jackson insisted he wanted to sit next to Moo-moo. He even shared his tub crayons with her.

Jackson seems to be learning more and more from Mommy and Daddy, whether we plan on it or not. The other day I asked Jackson if he wanted to watch something on TV. I like to give him options, but, as all parents know, sometimes you just can't. His response was, "watch Mickey!" I had had enough of Mickey and was thinking more along the lines of watching a movie. So I said, "how about 'Cars'?" Jackson's response, "how about Mickey?" Me- "Umm....how about Cars?" Jackson- "Umm....how about Mickey?" We went back and forth a couple times like this. Each time, Jackson would respond with the exact same inflection in his voice as I had just used. I got a good laugh AND we watched Cars.

On Saturday, Jason took Jackson to the Dayton Air Show! Jason and I were very excited for Jackson to go since we all know how much he loves airplanes. The first fly over was to be at 10:00 am. So the boys left just after 9:00 am to catch a shuttle from the Air Force Museum. Much to their dismay, they didn't get on to a shuttle until just AFTER 10:00 and didn't get to the show until just after 11:00 am. Thankfully, Jackson was great the entire time. He enjoyed riding on the bus and even got his daddy to sing "the wheels on the bus" with him a few times. They did get to see much of the air show and even got to go inside of some of the planes. Unfortunately, Jackson didn't seem nearly as interested as his daddy. Jason did buy Jackson another die-cast plane for his collection and Jackson loved it. He would fly it in the air while Jason pushed him around in the stroller. Over all, I was told is was still a fun trip.

Saturday evening we all went to Cold Stone Creamery for dessert after dinner. Jason and I shared our ice cream with the kids and, while giving Molly a spoonful, Jason suddenly stated, "Molly has a molar!" I was shocked! This girl has had only five teeth for about the last six months. There were a couple times we thought she was teething and kept watching for another tooth in front only to have nothing show. Little did we know, she really was teething, but it wasn't for a front tooth. And she didn't have one molar, she had TWO! What an odd little mouth she has now. Three teeth in front on top. Two teeth on the bottom. And now two molars both on her left side. I feel like I missed out on a milestone in her life.

Date night!

So, a few nights ago, Jason got to take Molly our for their first of many father-daughter dates! (Earlier in the day, he took Jackson out for lunch!) Jason took Molly out for dinner at Panera and then hopped over to the mall for some bonding time. They visited the puppy's at the pet store and then Jason took Molly up to the Build-a-Bear factory, intending to get her one. Once in the store, Jason started to show Molly various stuffed animals and, one by one, Molly pushed each one away. Finally deciding the Molly just wasn't interested in getting a stuffed animal, they moved on. Jason, being the wonderful father that he is, took her in to Baby Gap!!! If only I could have been there to see it. Molly was truly like a kid in a candy store. She got excited each time Jason pulled a dress off a rack. That's my girl! So he used his best judgement, and a little motivation from Molly, and bought her a dress. Molly couldn't have been happier! I think Daddy did a pretty good job. :)

Jason and I have decided that once a month, we get to go on a date or outing with each of the kids individually!

I've already had my date with Jackson. It was so much fun! We walked around the mall. Had our pictures taken in a photo booth (photos coming soon) and then went out for pizza together. We even did a little cuddling in the restaurant booth. :)

I know it's been a while but......

...we've been having fun!!!

We threw our first big bash on the Fourth of July! About a week earlier, I thought it was going to be a fairly small party. It turned out to be 17 adults and 9 children! I got a bit nervous when I discovered it was suppose to rain, but Jason was smart and got a canopy for the backyard. Everything worked out great and I actually fit everyone inside our house when it started to down poor!

My brother, Neil, sister-in-law, Erin, and nephew, Oliver, even came to visit for the weekend. Oliver and Jackson continue to be great friends! While they were here, we went to the Newport Aquarium and the Air Force Museum. They also got to spent LOTS of time outside. Oliver had a chance to test out Jackson's scooter and Jackson taught Oliver to roll down the hill in our backyard! It has only been a couple days since they went home, but we miss them already! In fact, Jackson woke up saying, "talk to Owiver on puter now?" It would have been 6:30 am their time, so we chose not to call. :)