Who knew?

Max will be 4 years old in July.  I am excited about preparing his party.  Even more excited about him starting preschool.  But what I want to know is why no one ever told me, or why I never really knew about 4 year olds. 

Did you know for instance that 4 year olds have really bad attitudes?  I didn't, I never would have imagined that Max would look at me with disdain and say No like a teenager. 

Did you know they ask 400 questions a day.  Not just why, more elaborate than that.  Why are we going this way?  Why did you do that?  Where did the dog, cat, you, me, plants, and every toy I have ever gotten come from?

Did you know that 4 year old girls tattle tale like crazy over ever little stupid thing possible?  Stupid stuff like "Hey mom the cat is eating" "Hey mom, Max is sitting in a chair".

Did you know that 4 is when they learn to lie?  They aren't very good at it yet but they will lie to you.

I can't believe I didn't know about any of this.  I know my son isn't the only one because when someone says they have a 4ish year old I say "oh dear" and I always get a knowing smile. 

Know by no means is 4 all bad.  They say and do really cool, and funny things.  For example the other day I said "I have and idea".  Max asked where and I said, um in my head.  Max replied, "I want one too."  Later he hurt himself and I asked him if he stubbed his toe, he said "no I hurt my feelings"  So now he is crying and I am trying not to laugh.

Blood Everywhere!

On Tuesday I was doing laundry.  The plan was for me to put away laundry, get Sam a nap in and then go to the park.  Sam was in his brothers corvette bed. I had my back turned and I heard a thud.  A forhead on metal thud.  I turned around and scooped up Sam knowing that had to hurt.  Then I looked at his face.  I couldn't tell where all this blood was comming from but their was a LOT OF IT!  I thought at first maybe it was his nose, then I saw his forhead.  It had a 1/2 long cut right in the center.  I ran downstairs to my phone and called my poor husband and said there is blood everywhere come home now!  He arrived to find out I was not exaggerating.  By then Sam and I were covered in blood.  I looked like I had committed a crime.  I knew he needed stitches so I took a 3 min shower and we drove him to Mott's  .  We decided to take Max with us, he looked terrified and I need Jeremy to help me keep Sam's hands of his face in the car.

 One burrito wrapped baby later we had 3 stitches.  I feel like maybe he needed 4 since on side is a little open but he seems no worse for wear. 

My little Frankenstein.  Too bad it isn't Halloween.

Hamburg Family Fun Fest

We went to the Hamburg Family Fun Fest tonight with my dad.  Its a little carnival put on by the small town of Hamburg.  Max has been there once before when he was small this was Sams first trip. 

We arrived and Max wanted to ride the big steering wheel. Ferris wheel actually.  The closer we got to the actually "steering wheel" the less excited he was about it.  He choose to ride the carosel instead with my dad.  Then we say the little kiddie coaster that all fairs have and I didn't think he would want to on but he would if I went.  So we got on and he had a great time.  We rode it twice, the second time in the front seat with grandpa. 

Sam got to sample his first elephant ear which of course enjoyed.  We played a balloon pop game and Max poped 4 balloons to win a minion doll.  The carnie was impressed. 

Front seats on the caterpillar ride.

Sammy ready for anything as usual.

This was from 2009, Max's first trip to the fair.

Where is my wiener?

Max has been asking a pretty wide array of questions lately.  I know this is normal 4ish year old behavior but he has expanded on just the simply "why".  The other day he wanted to know where he came from.  I told him my tummy.  He then proceeded to ask me where every person he knew came from.  When he ran out of people he knew he started asking about where the pets came from.  We were on the way to Ohio at the time.

Yesterday he asked me where my wiener was.  I told him I didn't have one.  And of course he asked why.  I told him mom's don't have wieners.  I thought that satisfied him, its not the only time he has asked that question but this was different, he is a little older and he then asked how I peed.  I really need to start locking the bathroom door.

Its been so long since I have posted it took me a while to remember how to "create a new post"  I did figure it out with out having to ask my software engineer husband so that's a plus. 

This summer has started out pretty well, many fewer appointments at Mott's which is cool although once you get used to it, you almost don't know what to do with all your spare time.  So we go to the park A LOT.

Sam and Max are acting more and more like typical brothers.  They fight over toys, rough house, and knit pick each other.  Today at Costco with both boys in the top basket part, Sam started touching Max, then Max got annoyed and tried to squish Sam out of his side of the cart with his butt.  Later we found out Max can sit on the end of Sam's jogging stroller, and then Sam found out he could kick Max's butt from close range.

All of these things make me happy.  One of the things I had the most trouble with was Sam wasn't going to be able to hang out and do all the fun things a had imagined he would be able to do before we learned about CHARGE and it turns out I was so wrong.  He loves outside, he talks, he fights and plays with Max, he goes to birthday parties.  He has a good time.

Mott's Hospital Continued ...

The next time I had to visit the hospital it was for a trip to see the audiologist.  Now our audiologist is really nice and she mostly gets my sense of humor which is a big plus. 

The first you need to know is that when you are small and get your hearing tested they put you in a sound proof room with 2 speakers and then when you look at a speaker after it makes a sound something cool happens.  At the old hospital Donald Duck wiggled when you looked at it after a sound was played and is was funny and cute.  At our new State Of the Art hospital all you get is a pink princess, and she doesn't even move.  But that's only if you look at the right speaker what about if you look at the left speaker?  Pinocchio.  Really Pinnocchio?  what is this 1975?  That's exactly what I said to the audiologist too when I saw Pinnocchio and she said "Oh Heather don't get me started."

So here I am thinking, man I am so not impressed and I have other mom's who think the inside of the hospital looks like an Apple Store.  It actually gets better.  Sammy was scheduled to have surgery on Feb 20th.  We got to pre op when we were supposed to, got all checked in, had someone taking care of our other son and dog, husband had taken the day off work, Sam had fasted.  In short all our ducks were in order and in a row marching along perfectly.  They took Sam down the hall for surgery, then brought him right back.  Apparently there were no rooms available for Sam to recover in.  Say what?  Our doctor said  he doesn't have to have and ICU bed we can deal with just a monitored bed.  Okay, but there aren't any of those available either.  WHAT!  I thought this was the brand new million dollar with lots of beds hospital.  Don't give me some crap about their being car accidents over the weekend it didn't even snow here.  How on earth can the hospital already be out of beds.  It's only been open for 6 weeks. Seriously?  So we had to take Sam home and reschedule the surgery.  Lame IMHO

Mott's Childrens Hospital?

We live very near Ann Arbor Mi.  As such when we go to the hospital, and we go pretty much every week, we go to Mott's Children's Hospital.  It's a nice place, they have Big Bird in the O.R.waiting room, Magna Doodles and flat screen T.V's with cartoons, fun radiation vests with themes and many other random kid friendly things.

About a month ago, the new Mott's Hospital opened its doors.  This hospital was 10 years in the making and really really expensive.  You can't drive anywhere with out seeing a billboard for the grand opening for this new state of the art hospital.  While the hospital was being built all the clinics had signs up that said "can't wait for you to see our new home."  I started asking some of our nurses if they had seen the new hospital and they said things like, "yeah is cool but you have to walk and walk"  or "it's okay but they didn't take any of our recommendations". 

So I waited with much anticipation for our first visit to the new hospital.  Our first visit it turned out was to our ENT.  When we got to the waiting room the first thing I noticed was that the flat screen T.V. apparently didn't make the trip to the new waiting room.  The next think was where were the coloring books and stuff?  Oh well, Sam's to young for that stuff anyway.  So we go in to one of the exam rooms and I am thinking to my self, the one thing I hope they have is a baby changing area because in and ENT office you get a chair with some fancy stuff attached and a small desk for the doctor's computer but there is no exam table where you could change your baby.  And let me tell you something about babies that are doctor savvy.  They poop when they see a white coat.

No such luck with the changing table sadly.  So we sit and we wait for our doctor and I look around the room.  It's Salmon colored, with a picture of an ocean.  REALLY!!!?  How on earth is this supposed to be calming to a kid who is scared to death some one is going to come in with a huge needle and poke them with it?  I asked the nurse where the coloring stuff and Magna doodles were and she said "oh, we just haven't brought them over from the old hospital yet".  OMG!  Some one actually paid money to build this?