Throwback Thursday!

 I just LOVE my curly headed, chubby cheeked, happy little Pookie!

Logan, March 2008

Connor about gave me a heart-attack today!

Connor gave us the scare of a lifetime today. **let me just say, everyone is FINE now**

We had been playing outside. Today was the last day of school, it was a half day as well, so we came home and filled up the kiddie pool. Connor is not a water baby. He would rather take a bucket and dump all the water out of the pool and that's okay. He was in the pool for maybe five minutes, went down the slide a few times and then wanted a snack. 

He's sitting there, eating chex mix in his lawn chair when all of the sudden he grabs his neck with his head cocked to the side and just starts bawling while screaming ''it hurts! it hurts!". So I immediately think he had to have gotten stung by a bee. But I look all over his neck, no bite, no scratch, no redness. I start asking him questions: Does it hurt on your skin or inside, like your bones? He says '' I don't know but it hurts". His head was really bent over, so I tried tilting his neck to the other side...bad idea. He started screaming louder. 

Let me interrupt myself here by saying that on Sunday, Connor had a fever of 103, goopy green eyes and needed his inhaler...virtually out of nowhere. He was wheezing, coughing and burning up. I treated him with motrin/tylenol, gave him his inhaler and he calmed down. Monday I took him to the doctor and he was put on an oral steriod for his cough, as it was caused by his wheezing from his Asthma. So on Wednesday morning he was checked again and he sounded much much better. Doctor said to finish up the 5 day course of steriods to be on the safe side but that he was doing great.

So when today he is clutching his neck and screaming, my first thought was ''Oh shit, meningitis". I immediately yelled at everyone to strip off their swimsuits, go inside, go potty and get dressed as quickly as possible. It was 4:02 at this point and our health clinic on post closes at 4:30. I did not want to have to take him to the Emergency Room downtown. So I called the nurse at the clinic and she was hesitant ''The doctor is confident that Connor was doing better yesterday, maybe he pulled his neck playing outside, give him Motrin and rest''. I said ''No''. The way his neck was bent, I just knew something wasn't right. I said I could be there in 10 minutes, she said to bring him in. I left my house at 4:06 and was at the clinic by 4:13...I live about 12-15 minutes away but drove like an Italian and cut that time in half. To make a really long story shorter, it wasn't meningitis. 

It took two doctors but they finally said ''We think it's an acute dystonic reaction to his oral steroid medication." They were honest as they weren't sure. Neither doctor had ever heard of anyone having such a reaction after an oral steroid (only after anti-psychotic drugs or anti-nausea drugs) but since the treatment for this dystonic reaction is a high dose of Benadryl, we really had no reason not to try. If it was what they thought it was he would be better in 15 minutes or less. If it wasn't, then we would have to go to the ER for x-rays. So Connor got a big ol' shot of Benadryl. 

10 minutes passed and he was still refusing to move his head and the crying was now worse from the shot. 

20 minutes passed and Connor (who had been crying because of his shot) had snot running down his face. He immediately sat up and said ''I need a tissue'' and when doing so, had straightened out his neck. For over an hour; his neck was so bent that his left ear was touching his left shoulder and he would not stop crying. Luckily after this one shot and a full 30 minutes later, he was back to normal. We do have to give him Benadryl around the clock for the first 24 hours, just to make sure it doesn't reoccur before the prednisone works it's way out of his system. And he's done taking that. His lungs still sounded clear today so it's not an issue that he didn't take the entire treatment.

I was trying to stay calm, cool and collected but I was freaking out! Seeing him and knowing that he couldn't control his own neck, seeing how scared he was, made it really hard. Luckily Ron was able to meet me at the clinic and watch the other kiddos and I was able to devout my full attention to Connor. 

Once home, he changed into his superhero pajamas and was back to fighting crime. He's still pretty slow moving, still pretty moody but he's okay, he's home and while it might happen again, we know that it is more annoying than dangerous. (I'll be honest, I did NOT ask what would have happened had I not brought him straight to the clinic). I think I lost five years off of my life today, but he had it worse. 

Throwback Thursday

In honor of hitting 900 blog posts and almost SIX years of blogging, I'm going to post an old picture of the kids or of a trip/holiday, each Thursday. Not a lot of explanation, just a photo and maybe a line or two. It's Throwback Thursday people...Time flies!

Our little family

July 4, 2007 

{Flashback} Nanaw and Papa visit Italy: Vicenza

Okay so when we last left off, we had all spent the day in Verona. But we were all super on each other's nerves and I needed a break from, well everyone. So the following day I took just my parents downtown to see the sights of Vicenza. It was really nice having a day with just them, made me feel all grown up playing tour-guide to my parents.

We live in a suburb (or ''village'' would really be a better term) of Vicenza. As a city, Vicenza prides itself on it's architecture, most of which was designed by or build by Andrea Palladio. We actually live right down the street from one of his lesser known Villas (it is still a private residence).
So all my photos from this day are all mixed up (no clue why) and because it's been almost a year, I can't really remember what order we did things in but here is what we did...

We went downtown to the Teatro Olimpico. This theater was designed by Andrea Palladio is one of only three Renaissance theaters remaining in existence. To say it is old is an understatement...construction began in 1580 and it is full of history. The "big deal" about the theater is this: it is the oldest surviving stage set still in existence.

  The gardens outside are very pretty as well...I love the ivy growing all over the buildings.

 Inside the Teatro Olimpico...

 The set is painted to look three dimensional when in fact, it isn't at all. There is not a path leading to the distance, it's just a painting. The detail in the theater; from the carvings to the set design to the ceiling is just breathtaking.

 The ceiling:

After visiting the Teatro, we grabbed a quick lunch. Another famous Palladian work is just south of downtown, it's called "La Rotunda''. Taken directly from Wikipedia: 

In 1565 a priest, Paolo Almerico, on his retirement from the Vatican (as referendario apostolico of Pope Pius IV and afterwards Pius V), decided to return to his home town of Vicenza in the Venetian countryside and build a country house. This house, later known as 'La Rotonda', was to be one of Palladio's best-known legacies to the architectural world. Villa Capra may have inspired a thousand subsequent buildings, but the villa was itself inspired by the Pantheon in Rome.

One of the people who were inspired by the Rotunda was Thomas Jefferson. My kids recognize the Rotunda because it "is that building on the back of the nickel." Thomas Jefferson's "Monticello" as well as The Jefferson Memorial, all take inspiration from the Rotunda.

The structure itself is set just south of town, on a small hill that overlooks much of the Veneto countryside.

From the front steps of the Rotunda, you can actually see to Mt. Berico (which is where we ate dinner the night of their arrival).

We had planned our visit on one of the mornings that the Rotunda is actually open. Most days you can pay to be on the grounds, some mornings you can pay an entry fee and see inside.

 Photography was strictly forbidden and only the first floor was open to the public but it was pretty impressive. Every room is covered in floor to ceiling murals. Very ornate.

  A few architectural details that I liked (I love all the unique doors in Europe).

 We ended up back downtown to finish out the day. We ate gelato (twice) and explored the main roads and back alleys. We even found an Asian grocery store and picked Ron up a few goodies. I didn't take my camera or very many photos with my iphone as I have been downtown before.

 And my favorite photo that I feel captures downtown best....

Ponte San Michele, a cobblestone walking bridge that is adorable.

My 900th Blog Post!

I started this blog back in July of 2007 and I can't believe that here I am, six years later, still plugging away. Now granted back then I was posting much more often but back then I had two fewer kiddos and much more free time. Since starting this blog we have...

• given Bubba and Pooks two more siblings and have now completed our family. Hence where the blog address comes from...I never changed it after having Peanut because I knew it was highly likely that we weren't done having kids. After Sissy, we are done (necessary surgeries have been preformed to assure that!) but now if I move to a new web address I'll lose all my comments and I don't want that either so here we are, at Bubba and Pooks. Forever! 
• moved from small town Kansas, to bigger town Kansas, back to smaller town Kansas, to San Antonio, Texas and now we reside in Northern Italy. Five towns (2 states and 2 countries) in six years!
• re-homed one dog (our beloved chihuahua, Tito) due to Bubba's allergies and asthma (Tito had a genetic shedding disorder) and recently added a more asthma friendly, Maltese/Min Pin named Lucca to the clan. This is probably for the better as Tito was pretty skiddish around a lot of people and well, our family is a lot of people.
• successfully potty trained four kids. We have moved four kids up into twin beds. We no longer deal with night feedings, diapers leaking, breast-feeding, moving the crib mattress down or baby wearing. We don't have to carry car-seats into restaurants and we have no one rear-facing anymore. We go to the store without bringing along an ''Arf'' or a puppy or a blanket. The kids are growing up! 
• been celebrated nine wedding anniversaries. When I started this blog, we were practically newlyweds!
• finally became a full-fledged card carrying member of the Swaggerwagon club. In May 2010, we succumbed to the minivan. I wasn't sure it would ever happen but I can honestly say that the sliding doors are super convenient and the "stow and go" is genius. My only regret is not getting the model with the installed DVD player.

It's amazing how much can change in six years. It really is. With 900 posts I've learned a thing or two (I think) and I'm making a couple changes.

I am going to start using the kids' real names. When it was just Bubba and Pooks, it was easy to keep straight and it was cutesy...but now I have four kids. Four kids whose names I constantly mix up or smoosh together. Add in the four blog nicknames and it's four too many. I am no longer a new mom, new to mommy blogging or scared about people knowing their names. Granted I'm not sharing our last name, social security numbers or street address...but they will be Ryan (Bubba), Logan (Pooks), Connor (Peanut), and Maggie (who I will still call Sissy 90% of the time because that's her real life nickname too). For most of my readers this changes nothing as you knew the kids' names anyway.

I am also going to try very hard to play catch-up on the trips I haven't gotten around to sharing yet. I know Nanaw is waiting for the final installments of ''Nanaw and Papa visit Italy''...which has almost a year now (crazy!).

It seems really, really cheesy when people say ''They won't be little forever'' or ''Time flies, pretty soon they'll be graduating'' and you think ''Right! I'm going crazy waiting for BEDTIME" but it's true. It really is. A lot can change in just a few years and in just 900 blog posts...

Bubba and Pooks, Summer of 2007:

Ryan and Logan, Spring Break 2013:

And now I feel old!