All About Tornadoes

Auntie Judy stopped over a few days ago with gifts for all the boys.  She always finds the coolest stuff!  The Discovery Kids Tornado Lab was awesome and gave us at least two hours worth of entertainment.  Before we started our lesson, I asked the boys what they thought a tornado was.

Tommy:  It's like a tomato...but its not red.  It's purple.

Cole:  "Toe-nados" are like ghosts and monsters except they are really tiny!

They are such a riot.  Tommy was pretty smart about thinking it MUST be something like a tomato!  :)  I explained a little bit - enough to catch their attention - then we sat down and watched the DVD that came with it.  We watched real tornado chasers and learned more about what a tornado was.  

After the video, it was off to the lab!  It came with a little simulator that created tornadoes in the water and we added little beads and foam squares to show what happened to houses, cars, etc when in the path of one.  This was their favorite part.  "This is mommy's car!"  "I'm throwing daddy in the tornado!"  By the end, we had Nana and Papa...their cars...Kevin and I and both of our cars...Cole, Tommy, Grant and our house in the mix.

After the lesson was over, I quizzed them on what they had learned.

Mom:  "What would you if there was a tornado?" 

Tommy:  "Go down the basement." 

Cole:  "You never play near a tornado...you run AWAY from a tornado."

Mom:  "Are tornadoes big or small?"

Tommy:  "BIG."

Mom:  "Where do tornadoes come from?"

Cole:  "The sky!  They go fast, fast, fast and whoosh down and swoop up things!"  (Said with LOTS of dramatic flair.)

I have to say, I am pretty impressed with how quickly they pick things up.  Let's hope they never actually experience a tornado, but it was such a cool thing to learn about with my favorite pals.  Thanks Auntie Judy!

My three sons!!!

Cole, Grant and Tommy

Grant is 3 weeks old in this photo.  It only took about 80 photos to get this one...but we got it!!!  Getting THREE kids to look all at once is a lot harder.  :)  My favorite munchkins!!!

Feeling better!!

Here's our little man!  All dolled up for this morning's photo shoot.  Those pictures will be coming soon! He is just such a sweetie.  

Day of beauty...

When Tommy complained to me that he couldn't see Thomas on TV because his hair was in his eyes...I knew it was time for a little boy beauty day!

Grant lost his belly button yesterday and was finally ready for a tubby.  (And boy did he need one!)  And the boys were LONG overdue for haircuts and nail trimming.  I actually had to GIVE the boys a tub before going to get haircuts as they were covered in paint from a project from yesterday.  Ahh...life with a newborn!

My mom showed up to give me a hand in taking them.  The boys look so handsome with their new haircuts!  The only problem is they keep looking OLDER to me.  This needs to stop immediately.  Here is a picture of my handsome boys.

Grant's first tubby was actually pretty funny.  He knew something was up and immediately got a case of the hiccups.  He kept looking at my face for reassurances, but the moment his toes hit the water he was not happy.  Look at his mad little face!

Coming out was a different story though.  Once he was all wrapped up and warm, you could tell he was feeling pretty dapper.  We got some little smiles and he did lots of *talking*.

Tommy was helping me to get Grant dressed.  This picture cracks me up.  You can almost see the question in Grant's eyes.  "Are you really leaving me alone with this guy?"

So mission accomplished!  Next step is a mommy day of beauty...only 4 more days until the hair salon!  I can't wait.  We're on the mend here and starting to look the part!

RSV

Well we tried to avoid it...but it was inevitable.  Our sweet baby boy got RSV.  For those of you who aren't familiar with it...RSV is basically a cold in adults and older children.  Often accompanied by fevers and a pretty decent cough.  For babies though, RSV can be very serious as it clogs up their breathing passages and the high temps are dangerous.

Cole and Tommy developed bad colds the week Grant was born and we didn't learn that it was actually RSV until Grant was 7 days old.  We tried our best to completely isolate him.  (I was living in one room with him) but I think he had already been exposed.  He and I both came down with cold symptoms on Tuesday night and on Wednesday we brought him to the pediatrician and confirmed that he had RSV.  They immediately sent us off to the hospital where he was admitted and spent two nights under observation.    RSV usually gets worse around day four...so they wanted to monitor the progression of the virus.

Luckily for us, Grant has a great immune system!!  (Of course he does...he is superbaby!!)  He did GREAT during the three days we spent at the hospital and had all the nurses cooing over him.  You have to see these pictures as they are such a testament to his great temperament.

Here he is in his bed, checking out his digs....

You can see he isn't feeling too hot here.  Puffy, watery eyes, stuffy nose and a little cough.

Just hanging out with mom.  I love this picture. He is the sweetest baby and can focus on things that are pretty far away.  Of course, I am convinced he is brilliant.

They sent us home on Friday with confidence that he would do great at home.  There were so many sick kids in the pediatrics ward, I practically ran out with him in my arms.  During the two nights we spent there, we had two very sick little room mates.  Both were babies with RSV.  One was transferred to Children's Hospital ICU he was so sick.  The night they spent working on that baby, I sat up with Grant in my arms and thanking God that we weren't that sick.  Honestly, we were very, very lucky.

Coming home was beautiful.  There is no other word to describe it.  Tommy and Cole had never had the chance to get close or touch their baby brother as they were sick.  Watching them all together made me cry.  Cole was so excited that he could finally touch his brother.  (He is still asking me if it's okay.)  The doctor explained that since we all have RSV...we're safe to be together at last.  YAY!  He also feels confident that if Grant is exposed to the virus in the future, that he'll be able to fend it off on his own as he did so well with this first exposure.  All positive news. 

So...we're on the mend!  We're all still stuffy and congested, but getting better.  Grant has a check-up today at doctor's, so we'll see how things go.  Thank you to everyone for your thoughts and prayers.  They worked!!