Tales of the flu

This flu just won't quit and loosen it's grip on me! I'm still laid-up with it since early Saturday morning and I've gone to see my doctor to get some relief or at least keep it from getting worse.
She's got me out of work until next Wednesday when I can return and also gave me a prescription for my cough/congestion called Benzonatate . It seems to be helping for now, but has a side effect of making me (even more) drowsy than I am; especially since I have such little energy to anything.

For now and thru the next 5 days, the doctor's orders are rest, rest and more rest. Tell that to Ryan, Megan and Mommy who are doing their best to put up with me and this flu. We can only continue to hope and pray that none of them get it since they were the ones that got flu shots this season. I won't pass it up next season, I can promise you that! :-(

Ric

Sidebar Links

By the way...we added a couple of links to some great websites we frequent.

Paperback Swap - the best place to trade your old books for new ones!
Swap a CD - another swapping site (this one is Ric's favorite)
Swap a DVD - this is where we get the DVD's for the kids! Once they've grown tired of them, trade for something new!

Check them out - they are HUGE money savers - free to join too!

Breakin' in the Christmas Sled!

If you can believe it, we haven't had the chance to use the sled that the kids got for Christmas until this past weekend!

Unfortunately Ric has the flu (and he's still fighting it today!) so we just stayed out long enough to get some pictures.

HOW CUTE ARE THESE TWO?


Mom pulling the kids around. The funniest part was the Ryan didn't want Megan to be laying on him...so the whole time we're making sure that he doesn't push her off the sled into the snow!










Ummm...Megan? Are you enjoying this?















The snow that we had on Friday ended up turning to rain. So...the top of the snow is all crunchy, but it made for a slippery ride in spots!



(Not that we have a huge hill in our yard or anything, but there is a slight slope!)












You know...this just can't be good! hehe













Ryan just wants to help! But I don't think that the idea of shoveling is to take the snow OFF the sidewalk - not put it back on! :)

She gets around!

Megan has started rolling over with a purpose now. She's also getting on her knees a little and rocking back and forth. It's only a matter of time before she's off and crawling!




Enjoy some REALLY cute pictures of our Meg-a-Muffin!

The worst part of being sick...

I came down with some sort of mild flu on Friday night, but as always, it managed to knock me out and make me grumpy all weekend. I'm sure it's no fun for Marnell either since she has to pick up a lot of the slack that I just can complete.

So it's my opinion that the worst part of being sick is "kids". There's no break for any of us and they don't understand that Daddy isn't feeling very well.

Ric

Maddie's Birthday!

On Saturday, we had the opportunity to go to Maddie's 3rd birthday party. It was held at the Providence Children's Museum, a place that's just INSANE! (BUT, it's a TON of fun for the kids!)

Here are just a few pictures - some are pics I took, and others I borrowed from Maddie's Mom. (Thanks Rach! SO CUTE!)

	Ryan "stole" the drum as soon as he saw it! (Taking after Mom, I think!) He carried it around for quite a while - until the M-n-M's were put out on the table!
	Again, the moving to the beat of his own drum - he had to sit at the FRONT of the room, not with all the other kids while they were reading a story!
	After animal stories, the kids all made their own masks. Ryan's ended up with just a few pieces of paper on it - call him a minimalist I guess! Then the kids all marched around the room with their masks and the leader beating the drum. Did Ryan follow along? Nope...he just did his own thing, marching in place.
	And here's the birthday girl! How cute is she? (And how cute are they holding hands?)
	I wish this picture wasn't so blurry! Just so cute to see them holding hands! (Notice Ryan's name tag on the back of his shirt...that way he wouldn't take it off!)
	Cute Megan, just hanging out while she takes it all in!
	Ryan was making sure that I knew there was a birthday cake on the table. He pointed it out a few times!
	CUTE CUTE Birthday Girl!
	Happy Birthday Maddie! Thanks for inviting us - we had a great time! (LOVE this picture! Look at how much fun she had with her cake!)

How is this possible?

Pay no attention to the fact that I have to have my "roots" done... what I'm wondering is WHERE ALL THESE GRAYS ARE COMING FROM!?! I seem to find more and more every day!

My mom always said that her gray hair was because of all us kids - maybe I'll start blaming Megan & Ryan for this! hehe

(Ewww...just noticed that the products I use on my hair make it look messy close up!)

Anyway, I just turned 39. I'm STILL young, right? (At least having 2 little ones makes me feel young most days! OK...so I'm completely exhausted most days too, but that's another story!)

Thank goodness for Rob - he'll fix me right up! If I can just wait until my next appointment...

Look closely at Ryan's face...

...that used to be my eyeliner.

Valentine's Festivities!

Happy Valentine's Day!

We did our best to be festive at the Levett Home... since *someone* decided that he had to get up at 6:00 am AND stay up, we had a lot of time to kill!

After breakfast, while Megan was taking one of her famous cat naps, Ryan and I make heart cupcakes. Once they cooled (which took an eternity in 2-year old time!) we frosted them. Ryan's job was the red sprinkles. Can you tell? After every sprinkle job, I had to dump the cupcake and reload the shaker so there was enough for the next one! (He's took his "sprinkling" job VERY seriously!)

Somehow, I managed to get everyone into the car, WITH the cupcakes and cards that Ryan stamped. (SO CUTE, right? Even the backs of my stamps got "inked" - oh well...that just shows they were loved!) We took a ride to Daddy's work and dropped off some of our valentines for the post office people.

We also stopped and dropped cards with cupcakes to a few of Ryan's girlfriends who happen to live near the post office.



Not to be outdone, Megan is sporting the ribbon from the Chocolate Covered Strawberries box that Dad gave Mom. (Mom loves these MORE than flowers!)

It was a pretty good day overall...thought there was a time (more than once) that I thought I would lose my marbles if I smelled one more poopy diaper! *sigh*

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

It's all over now...

...Ryan just climbed out of the crib by himself.

ps - Happy Valentines Day! Pictures of the festivities will be posted shortly!

Happy Birthday Mommy!

Today is Marnell's birthday and it's the first and last time she'll celebrate 39 years old! This year, Daddy was on top of things and actually planned for it in advance (not to mention worked some overtime to be able to spend some money too).

Happy birthday Marni! I hope you have a great day and I love you so much.

Ric

Such a Brave Boy!

When we took Ryan to the Pediatrician for this 2-year checkup, she noticed that one of his testicles was larger than the other, so she referred us to a Pediatric Urologist to check it out. It ended up that Ryan had a hydrocele - or just a sack of fluid, which is usually harmless, but needed to be fixed.


Yesterday was the day. He was scheduled to have the procedure done at Hasbro Children's Hospital at 9:00 am. The day before we went to their "Pre-Op Program" to show Ryan the hospital and a little about what would be happening. He pretty much took it in stride, and eventually "owned" the room as he usually does when he goes somewhere new. I was really impressed by the program, they gave the kids dolls dressed in "johnny's" to color on and showed them what mom or dad would look like with scrubs and a mask on.

So Ryan couldn't eat anything after midnight - which wasn't really a big deal! He did ask for Juice and a Breakfast Bar, but didn't complain too much when we had to tell him he couldn't have it. We told him that we were going back to the hospital to see the doctors and nurses, and he talked about going to see the fishes in the aquarium and the Mr. Potato Head again. (It's Hasbro Children's Hospital, there's TONS of Potato Heads around!)

Everything went really well! We changed Ryan in to his tiger PJ's, and we played in the kids room while waiting for our turn.

Dad was "elected" by Ryan to go into the O.R. with him until he was asleep. Ric said that it was so quick and easy! Ryan just sat on his lap and smelled the "bubble gum air" and that was that! About 45 minutes later, the doctor came in to the parent's "holding tank" to tell us that everything was perfect!

A few minutes after that we went into the recovery room, where Ryan was propped up a little in the bed. He was pretty dopey, but was awake as he left the O.R. - all the nurses kept saying that he was the cutest little thing! (Well...of course he was!) We went in, gave him his Red Sox blanket and the doll he got the day before and waited while he sucked in oxygen and wasn't so "stoned."


Our nurse was saying that she was so lucky to have him as her patient! He was so good! No tears or fussing. (Though he did keep taking the pulse-ox thingy off his finger! For some reason he didn't like the E.T. finger-glowing thing!) Another 45 minutes and we were on our way home!

The one thing we learned is that this 2-year old is resilient! When we asked about his "boo-boo" he pointed to his hand where the IV was. He has a little scar about an inch long on his lower right hip that's covered with some glue stuff, but he hasn't really noticed it. We did give him some Motrin last night and this morning, but it's as if nothing had happened to him now! Unbelievable!

We're so happy that everything went so well! Ric had given Ryan a blessing the night before, which was probably for Mom and Dad's peace of mind rather than Ryan's! (He kept calling it a special prayer.) We know that all is well because of that blessing and the skilled doctors and nurses who took care of him.

Let's hope this is the first AND last time we have to be in the hospital with him! :)

Play Date...sort of

I had the opportunity to watch a friend's daughter for a few hours the other day while my friend went to a funeral. Maddie is barely 3 years old, and quite the cutie! We had been telling Ryan since the day before that Maddie was coming over to play, and that's all he talked about - he was so excited!

OK, maybe he was a little TOO excited, because as soon as she arrived, he was her little shadow! She'd sit on the floor, and he's sit right next to her. Then she would scoot away from him, and he followed. It was too funny to watch! Eventually, they would roll the ball back and forth for a minute, until Ryan decided that he wanted to be close again and we'd start the scooting away thing again.

Maddie was very protective of her little doll and pocketbook - even when she went potty! (Hooray for mom - she's potty trained!) Other than that, they played really well "together" - or side by side anyway.

Maddie especially loved Megan. She wanted to sit next to her and hug her. Meg didn't always cooperate, but I was able to get a cute, but blurry, picture of the two of them.




By the way...this is what happens when girl and boy toys are mixed together! I guess "baby doll" needed a little dental work! hehe

Thanks for coming over Maddie! You are welcome any time!

Our Budding Artist...?

So as we were getting ready for Church on Sunday, Ryan decided to branch out from his little chalkboard on his arts and crafts set to the TV Cabinet!

Isn't this lovely? Luckily, it's just chalk and it wipes right off! Isn't the first time...and I'm SURE it won't be the last!

Still an amazing season, but this one really hurts.

Although I'm not a huge fan of football which probably dates back to the season they went on strike, I am a fan of our local New England Patriots and teams in general. The fact that the Patriots went the entire 2007
without a loss is terrific and that they went all the way to the Super Bowl is even better, but to not have them win it "all" with a loss to the NY Giants in the Super Bowl really hurts. Yesterday at work (Monday after the game) so many of the people I spoke with seemed so depressed and let down. What happened?