Adiós, Appendix

On Monday Owen woke up with a slight fever and was complaining that his stomach was hurting.  I figured that he had a stomach virus and so I asked my Mom to watch him instead of send him to school.  When I went to pick him up that afternoon, Mama said that she didn't think it was a virus because he wasn't throwing up. Instead, he was grabbing his side and acting like it hurt to walk.  She suggested that it may be his appendix.  So, I took Owen to the doctor's office for him to be checked out.  The doctor examined Owen, and ruled out a virus.  She said she couldn't tell if there was something wrong internally without blood work- and they didn't do that at the office.  She suggested that we go to the emergency room.  And so we did.  We arrived in the ER at 7:30 and we sat... and sat... and sat for several hours.  During this time, they took a blood sample and ordered a CT scan.  Finally, the doctor came in and told us that Owen had acute appendicitis and that she had already called in the surgeon on-call.  As soon as she left the room, a parade of hospital staff began filtering in to prep our little buddy for his appendectomy.  I know he had to be miserable, but he was a real trooper.  They rolled Owen back to the operating room a little after midnight and he was out of surgery about an hour later.  He had to spend some time in recovery, so it wasn't until after 2 a.m. that we were able to see him- and he was zonked out.  Poor fellow.  He did great, though, and was even allowed to come home about 12 hours after surgery.  He is still recovering, but he seems to be bouncing back fast.  Still, he will be out of school for the rest of the week.  Monday was certainly a rough day for little Owen, and I am glad that it is behind us.

Harry Potter

If you'll recall last summer, Olivia and I began reading with my sister and her kids in the hopes of forming a kids reading group.  Unfortunately, this excellent idea fizzled out once school and extracurricular activities began.  There just didn't seem enough time to keep things going and stay on pace.  Since I wasn't reading with Olivia, I decided to re-read The Hobbit for my own enjoyment because the movie was about to come out and I wanted a refresher before I saw it.  This was in late October that I started reading.  Olivia saw me pick up the book and asked me to read it out loud so that she could hear it.  I obliged thinking that she would be uninterested and give up within a few minutes.  This didn't happen.  She ended up sitting there and listening to the whole first chapter of The Hobbit.  The next night she asked for the second chapter, and we kept going like this until the book was finished.  I couldn't believe that she actually sat there and listened to the whole thing!  She loved the book and we went and saw the movie together at the theater.  This got me thinking that if she could handle The Hobbit then she could handle the best series of books ever penned.  I'm speaking, of course, of the Harry Potter books.  We decided to give it a go.  So, last December we began reading The Sorcerer's Stone.  This went well, and we continued with the next book in the series, and then the next, and so on.  After completing a book, we would watch the corresponding movie.  Olivia REALLY got into it.  She started dressing up as Hermione around the house and using "spells" to turn the lights.  She even got in trouble at recess on day because she was chasing other kids around the playground with her "wand" (a stick).   We finished the last book of the series on the night before school started back.  Olivia was practically jumping up and down as I read the final, climatic scene.  We have really enjoyed reading these books together.  After being in "Harry" mode for half a year now, I'm not sure what we are going to do next.  She is already asking if we can start back over and read them all again.  We'll probably move on to another book or set of books.  It's going to be hard to top Harry, though.

Back to School

 It's that time of the year- time for back to school.  This year Olivia is in the first grade and Owen is in Kindergarten.  Both kids have been anxiously preparing for the first day of school.  Last week we went shopping for school supplies and a new outfit for the first day.  New gear in hand, the kids arrived at school on Monday and had a great first day.  Olivia and Owen both like their teachers and their classes.  The only complaint that I heard was that it took a long time for the bus to get from their school to mine.  Hopefully things will continue to go well and we will all have a great school year.

Beach Collage 2013

 Here are some miscellaneous pictures from our beach vacation.  One thing that we did was to make a "Hulk" picture.  That was a lot of fun to do. The one above was probably the best, even though Quincy is in the process of photoshopping all pictures taken to make a super-Hulk picture.  That should be interesting to see.

Quincy's improvised beach chair

The kids loved being thrown by Uncle Bobby

Bailey and her friend McKenzie are popular with the kids

Visiting the "shark"

Here's the kid version of the Hulk picture

Fishermen In Training

The private pier is one of the main reasons that we stay at the same condo complex every year.  The boys love to fish- especially at night (for sharks). One the last night of our vacation, the boys decided to take the kids out and let them fish a little.  The kids loved it.

 It's a little unnerving to realize that sharks are swimming a few feet from the the beach.  The boys pulling up fish like this doesn't help calm our nerves.

 For those of us who don't fish, the pier provides a nice view of the beach and ocean.

It's also a good place to blow bubbles.

Swimming Update

 We have been swimming quite a bit this summer- both in our pool and in the one at the beach.  Olivia has made great progress- as have Ava and Claire.  All three of these girls can swim anywhere they want to unassisted.  It has been really nice this year to be able to let the girls swim without having to be in the pool ourselves.  During our week at the beach swimming was a daily activity, and the girls improved even more as a result.  Even Natalie was swimming without floaties by the last day.

 Owen has not made much swimming progress this year, and we're really not pushing him to do so.  If you'll recall, Owen had tubes put into his ears last fall.  Water is not suppose to enter his ears, so whenever he swims he has to wear silicone plugs and his "ear bandit" (the green thing around his head).  We have decided that we will really start pushing the swimming with him once the ear situation is resolved.  For now, he is content to use the floaties and drift around the pool.

 Granny and Papa Buie's condo was located right above the pool this year, so they would often be on the balcony when we were swimming.  The kids like to wave up to them and show off their new moves.  Granny even got in the pool to show the kids how the pros do it.

Beach Vacation 2013

We had a great beach vacation this year.  As always, we spent our vacation on Amelia Island.  The weather was great.  A typical day would be to get up whenever we wanted, eat whenever we wanted, and do whatever we felt like doing (which usually involved either the beach or the pool).  I'm partial to the beach, so I was glad to see that my kids did not mind spending lots of time there. Boogie boarding was a favorite activity once again this year.  They are actually getting pretty good at it.

The kids were delighted to see a turtle walking along the beach one day.  Brian picked it up so that everyone could get a closer look.

One of the best parts about being at the beach is that we get to spend a lot of time with our family.  Since we shared a condo with the Murray family (and were only a few doors down from the Boyette kids), Owen and Olivia were never without someone to play with.  One night I walked into the kids room to find them all sleeping in the same bed (even though there were two in the room).  Making those memories- that's what it's all about.