Tulips in Holland

My parents were here, thankfully, for Judah's surgery, but they left the next day.  That afternoon Brian came home and took these three children to Holland to see the tulips while Hannah stayed home to help me with the recovering patient and Bob.  They only went for one night and were back the next evening.  Here are the picture from their adventures...

I forgot how much easier it is to get good pictures of just three kids.  He got so many!

In the Great Hotel Hospital

I talked this hernia surgery up to Judah quite a bit.  Back when I thought he was staying overnight I was calling it a "Hotel Hospital" and told him how we'd eat popcycles, read books, and watch movies together.  The night before the surgery when we were giving him his bath before bed, Brian and I were discussing the surgery and one of us said something about where they are going to "cut him."  He did a double take and said, "What?  They are going to cut me?"

I normally take pride in being ultra honest and giving them all the information about doctor stuff and far in advance so they have no reason to fear the unknown and so they can trust me each time a new thing comes up that I have to explain.  I guess I just dropped the ball here and never actually told him what exactly was going to happen.  Brian took the lead here and explained what was coming.  He started to panic and I thought for sure I should have done this long before to give him time to process it.  However, he calmed down very fast and was amazingly brave going into surgery the next day.  He's a bit of a Wild Card, and I never know how he's going to respond to things.  

The nurses offered a sedative before taking him back into the OR since they don't let me go back there with him for the anesthesia part.  He was being so calm and easy going about the whole thing that I turned it down and he was wide awake and alert when they wheeled him away from me through the big door to the operating room.  He took his Grumpy Cat and his Polar Bear for comfort

We had a while to wait before and after the surgery, so I brought a special chapter book picked out just for him.  I made the right choice.  I read Mr. Popper's Penguins to him for the whole time we were waiting and after he woke up.  I chose that book because it had short chapters, some pictures, and a whimsical story for my silly boy.  We read most of the book before leaving the hospital around 1pm.  

Thy told me he'd be sleepy all day and they were really wrong.  He didn't sleep at all the whole day until I gave him his Oxycodone before bedtime.  I turned on a movie when we got home to keep him still.  I looked up from my work and he was hanging from the couch by his waist.  He was a little hard to keep still and calm, but when three days later we went to the local Hutte to have dinner, at the playground there he followed all my guidelines about him not running, climbing, or hanging.  He's not one to be THAT obedient about something when everyone else is getting to do it, so I think he did it because he was sore.  I saw him trying to keep up with the big boys and walking behind them, yelling, "Hey guys, wait for me!"  He never once said it hurt.  The closest he got to saying it hurt was the second night when he woke me up saying, "Mom, it doesn't hurt, but it feels funny."  I took that to mean that it did hurt a little and gave him more meds.  Brian said he was like a puppy after surgery, because we couldn't keep him still so he could heal.  However, as I write this about a month later, he is still being very careful pulling up his pants and wearing his pants extra high so that it doesn't touch his incision site.  All in all he's been a tough cookie.

Easter Weekend

Holy Thursday we went to a different church where the three oldest were singing with the Gregorian Chant group.  They have really enjoyed this group and I'm glad it fit pretty easily into our schedule because that is not easy to do these days.

Good Friday, I was starting to feel bad again and wavered a little, almost not going to the Eucharistic service, but decided that I could make it.

Well, Easter weekend did not go as planned when Saturday, I woke up feeling absolutely terrible.  I didn't get out of bed.  Thankfully, my mom and dad were still visiting and were able to help with the kids and household stuff.  My mom and Brian ran the egg decorating.  I'd already boiled 60 eggs, 48 of which were to be taken to the Easter brunch at church the next day after being decorated.

During Bobby's nap, Brian planned to take the oldest four on a bike ride, but Genna started feeling bad too and decided to stay home.  She never stays home unless she really doesn't feel good, especially from a good challenging bike ride to get ice cream.

Drew's still not a strong bike rider and so he was going to scooter.  Brian brought the trailer to carry him if he didn't make it which I hear it didn't take long for him to fall and give up.

Dinner was supposed to be easy that night so I let Brian and Isaac follow my recipe together.  They made French Dip Sandwiches.

Sunday morning, I was feeling "better" but not great.  Truth be told I might have pushed myself to go to Mass anyway had Bobby not woken up with a fever and Genna woke up feeling badly still too.  I decided to stay home and take one more day in bed to rest.  Bobby, Genevieve and I laid in bed all morning and most of the afternoon.  I did get up to give the kids their Easter baskets before Mass.  I kept Bobby back in my room.  We were desperately trying to keep Judah healthy since he had a scheduled surgery that coming Thursday and we'd already rescheduled it a bunch of times for sickness, travel, and the doctor's issues.  It seemed a little useless to even try since his Kindergarten had shut down because all but two teachers were out sick the week before.

Poor Bobby!  He did enjoy his Easter basket though.  I read his new book at least a dozen times just that day alone.  He now has it memorized completely and it is so cute to hear him "read" Nobody Likes a Goblin in his tiny voice.

I was sad to miss out on Easter with my whole family.  I missed the church egg hunt and brunch.  Brian ran our own little Easter egg hunt in the woods behind our backyard.  

Originally, we had planned to have our friends over after church, but we had to cancel when it became apparent we were all dropping like flies.  It was a low key day.  Later on, when Bobby was sleeping, I did play a game of cards with everybody.  I really love playing games with the kids, Brian, and my parents. 

Day 3 and 4 of Our Kid-Free Trip: Porto, Portugal

The breakfasts were my favorite!  Sunday morning we got up and went to breakfast just down the street from our place.  We tried a new kind of breakfast sandwich with ham on a sweetish bread.  Again...delicious!

We went to the train station with an amazing foyer with the blue painted tiles decorating the inside depicting scenes and battles from Portuguese history.  It was definitely a must see in Porto (and a quick one if you're short on time).

It was Palm Sunday and we had decided the day before when coming across this church that we wanted to come here for Mass.  It was a Carmelite church called Igreja do Carmo.  The priest spoke in Portuguese making it at least my eighth language, other than English, that I've had Mass in, not counting our Lourdes multilingual Mass.  

After Mass we headed towards our restaurant that had been recommended to us as the best place to have a Franceschina.  On the way we found a street fleamarket and wandered through it.

Since the restaurant was closed we had to find another one in the area.  We were brought a nice appetizer and we both ordered the Franceschina.

The sauce on this one had a little too much paprika and was redder, compared to the browner gravy style in the restaurant the day before.  I prefer the brown sauce, personally.

During lunch I got a really bad headache that I couldn't shake so we decided to go back for a power nap before going on our river cruise.  I didn't feel better after waking up, but once we were out again walking around the meds kicked in and I did feel better.

Then it was on to more Port tasting.  We went to a tiny place that did just tasting and appetizers to complement the wine.  Here we were able to pick exactly which ones we wanted to try as opposed to the tours where they have a selection already set for you at the end.  This time we were able to try the delicious vintage Ports.  

It looks like a lot, but we shared and were there for hours.

Dinner and that's about all for our trip.  The next day was a travel day, uneventful except for the landing of our plane.  We were coming in for a landing, nearly on the ground, and suddenly we were going back up again.  Turns out the runway was not clear.  Scared me a little bit, but not my unshakable husband.  We were united with our beautiful children by dinner.  We are so very grateful for the opportunity to get away together, and to such an amazing location!