This Ain't No Spa Vacation

Copied from an email I just sent BB:

The stinkin' dog has been having skin allergy problems. He itches and gnaws compulsively at his feet. The constant licking gives him hairballs and he pukes. At least today the vet told me to give him half a Pepcid AC to help with puking, and he is on a prednisone/antihistamine combo again, for the second time in a month... at $40 a pop. We changed his food to a non-soy kind, hoping that would to the trick. The vet actually thinks the bugger is allergic to pollen and stuff. There was mention of doing allergy tests and antigen injections! The vet had a chuckle when I told him I used to work for an allergist! I am really not excited about the whole thing.

In other, equally glamorous areas of my life... we are headed to Bandera for vacation at the dude ranch. Three days of horseback rides (I have been on a horse ONCE in my life I think), hay rides, swimming, three squares a day in the chow hall, and watching our kids run wild with our friends' kids. The folks who have been before tell me the kids will be quite busy and will generally stay out of our hair.

I can't quite work up excitement for this trip. About the best I can do is to say it has the potential to be fun. If we survive the 5 + hour trip there with no bathroom traumas (kids!) or carsickness I might turn the corner into optimism.

Day Camp

The boy went to chruch day camp this past week. Last year was the first time there for him, and he did fabulous. It immediately made me feel better about sending him off to Kindergarten all day.

So this summer, he is a man of experience, with a year of Kindergarten and a previous week of Camp Hope under his belt. They do crafts, sing music with some teens on drums and guitar as backup, have pizza day, and two splash days. Bliss for a six-year-old.

They did a project on friendship where his classmates and teachers/teen helpers wrote about each other. So this is what others wrote about my son:

Sweet as sugar
Likes to say,"in fact." Uh, yes, a little TOO much....
Hiis rilly plafl, in a childish script. (hmmm... he's really playful?)
Happy

And a few drawings of him and friends and dogs.

Kids really do tell it how it is.

Heard on the way to the mall...

It has been nothing but storms and rain here for many days. As we approached a busy intersection with a messed up traffic light:

Son: "What happened to that light?"

Me: "Lightning probably struck it."

Son: "And it got confused."

Adventure

Schlitterbahn went really well. The first thing we did was get on tubes in the river. The boy's main issue with it at first was he could not deal with sitting his behind IN the innertube. We tried having him ride in an adult lap, which brought nervous shouts of "NO!" Finally, we found a kid tube with a mesh bottom in it, that was deep enough for him to just crouch down in. At one point we got separated and he ended up with Eddie's cousin's family. I looked through the crowd in terror, expecting to see him screaming as the waves washed through the hoardes of people in there. Nope, he was happy... loved it, once he got his spot in his tube. I also went with him down a kid slide that was fun even for me. All of us waited in line for this huge, tall slide, where the entire family got into a round raft and had a wild ride. The boy held on and immediately ducked his head down. He was half fussing, half laughing. When it was over he said he was scared, but was laughing too. (this week after vacation bible school, he said that "God was with him on the big pink slide.")

Eddie's cousins were very patient with the boy and we sure appreciate it.

This week we have spent two days just getting the kids' rooms livable again. I wish I had before pics to show how bad they were. But now, closets are clean, shoes are on racks, books on shelves, and you can even walk in there. Last night we surprised the boy with a cool solar system poster and a puppy poster.

Now the rest of the house is wrecked.

The girl had her third episode of tonsillitis in three months. If she has five or six in a year she has to see an ENT doc and we have to think about having the tonsils out. Oh boy.

At least she kindly barfed in her 'bucket' on the way home from the doc's, instead of all over my new car.

this could go either way

Tomorrow we are going on our first trip with kids to the Schlitterbahn. I have always loved water parks, boating, and swimming. My dad recently watched the boy in our little backyard pool and said, "I think he's part water like his mama."

We've shown him the brochure and described some of the activities to him. He is very excited about it, so much that he does not care that he is missing the last day of his art class to go.

I am optimistic he (and the rest of us) will have fun. But, I imagine his sensory integration issues will surface at some point. About two years ago, a neighbor's boys had set up their huge inflatable waterslide in the front yard. They invited my son over, and he was so eager to get on that thing until... it actually came down to climing up it and going down. He cried and threw the biggest fit. So his grandma and I told him he did not have to play on the slide if he didn't want to. But he kept screaming, because he WANTED to go down that slide, but was afraid. He finally made several OK trips, alternating with screaming fits. Those boys and their mother were nice, and I am sure thought I had the biggest crybaby in the world. I did not even try to explain that his problems were a whole lot more than just being a wimp.

But, he's six now. He's mastered the tallest inflatable slide at Bounce U. He plays happily all through the McDonald's plaything. With some coaxing, he enjoys the waterfall cave at the condo pool. Surely he can find something he enjoys. We are going with my husband's cousin's family, who has a son the same age. This kid has no developmental issues, and is much more mature (and athletic) than my son. I hope he is not left behind in the baby pool while his buddy/2nd cousin zips all over everywhere else. Lately cousin seems a bit irritated at my son's quirks.

And we're taking the girl, a 3-year-old fully in the throes of being HALF toilet trained.

I plan to have Domino's number in my phone, so dinner will be on the way before we even get back home. I have a feeling I won't be good for much tomorrow night.

Father's Day

It was a pretty good one. Eddie cleaned the house last night while the kids and I were in Houston at a birthday party. Today he boiled some shrimp, and my dad and stepmom came over. We also had some groovy pineapple cake (dad's recipe). Eddie got a t-shirt with a cool picture of a spaceship hovering over Stonehenge, since he has a new interest in aliens these days.