Some NASA pictures

Chris got home on Friday night from Houston. I was soooo happy to see him! It had been such a long 10 days with Luca sick and everything, it felt like he had been gone for a lot longer.

Unfortunately, Chris got sick on Saturday morning with whatever Luca had- Norwalk virus is suspected as they had an outbreak at the nursing home and at the General hospital.

Here are a few pictures of Chris' trip to NASA while he was in Houston. I don't have all of them on this computer. These are just a few that he emailed me while he was away. Maybe I will put some more from his laptop later.
A picture of the cockpit of the shuttle. The astronauts have to memorize where each switch and button are so they can operate everything in the dark. There are also many switches on the roof as well.









A rocket that was built in the 60's, and then funding was cut, so it never went up. They built the building around the rocket a few years ago. Before that, it was just sitting outside deteriorating. You can see just how huge the rocket engines are (about 10ft around each).








Another view of the rocket. You can see how long it is- the building houses just the rocket. (363 feet long)












Chris beside the rocket. The rusty looking part is where the astronauts would sit, all the other parts fall off/ burn up when they have been used. The only part that returns to Earth is the pod for the astronauts.








There are so many other cool pictures that I don't have, so when Chris comes back from work, I will add a few more.

Also, I have pictures from my new camera to post, but I am a bit tired tonight. (Luca isn't sleeping well at night, so I am off to bed to try to get some sleep before he wakes up again).

Watch for another new post in the next few days!

Yuck, hospitals

Update at bottom of post.

We just got home from spending the night in the hospital. Yuck.

On Saturday night, very suddenly, Luca came down with a flu. He was sleeping fine, and started crying, so I went in to him and he was COVERED in vomit. I started to get him cleaned up and he kept on puking...and puking...and puking. My mom came and spent the night with us to help out. Luca threw up throughout the night and into the morning.

I called Health Link (which I find is hit or miss when in comes to helpful information) and they told me to keep giving fluids (duh), especially breatmilk. I thought that this sounded funny because who wants to drink milk on an upset tummy? But, oh well. I gave Luca small amounts of diluted juice and breastmilk (not combined) at 15 minute intervals. He threw up every time he had the milk. So, I stopped with the milk and pushed the juice.

On Sunday during the day, he seemed to be perking up after a good nap. He even ate some applesauce for supper and tolerated a bit of breastmilk. So at bed time I gave him a few ounces of breastmilk again. Within about half an hour, he was heaving agin almost non-stop.

I called Health Link again and they advised that I take him in to be assessed.

After 2.5 hours of tests, he was admitted to be observed. I think partly this was because I looked so haggard that the doctor took pity on me and thought I needed the break!

Being in the hospital didn't help much, except that by way of the phenomenon we all know, as soon as you get in to see a doctor, symptoms that were there disappear. Luca stopped vomiting! Horray! He started tolerating breastmilk, too.

Unfortunatley, he started to get explosive diarrhea.

And, the pediatric section that WAS in the hospital has recently been converted to offices, and their new peds section is just a room with 2 cribs and 2 cots in there. There was a toddler in the other bed with the same thing as Luca.

When one boy was trying to sleep, the other was crying. So, needless to say, no one got much sleep during the night. I was really hoping we could get some naps in, but the toddler had noisy family visitors there all day, and they kept waking Luca up.

Our room was put on isolation, which was supposed to mean no visitors, and that the nurses and doctors had to gown up and Luca and the other boy were not allowed to leave the room. (So I am not sure why the family of the other boy were there, even after I mentioned to the nurse that they were keeping Luca from sleeping).

Our doctor was there in the morning and wanted to keep us for the day to see if Luca continued to improve. She returned after her office closed and told us that we could go home. I kind of laughed, and told her that we were going home no matter what because Luca had only slept about 1/2 an hour during the whole day due to the noise in the room. She is not very impressed with the new peds set-up, either.

So, we are home now. Luca is sleeping and I am hoping that he is able to have a good sleep and that he will just continue to improve.

Sorry if this doesn't make sense, I am operating on quite a lack of sleep....

Update: Luca was throwing up again last night shortly after he went to bed. I gave him children's gravol (thankfully the dr. said that he weighed enough now that I could give him some if he needed it.) and he slept 8 hours straight. Drug induced, mind you, but at least he got sleep. Then he nursed and kept it down and slept for another 3 hours. He seems perkier today than he was yesterday, so hopefully we are almost at the end.....

SO EXCITED!

The tickets are sold! Enjoy the show Mike, Victoria and Auntie Karyn!

Carri, Jacquie and I are going to the Faith Hill and Tim McGraw concert on June 20th!!!!!! I am so excited and can hardly wait! Just a little while ago, Jacquie and I were talking about what a great concert it would be and that if they ever came, we would love to go...and then tickets went on sale! The first show sold out in 10 minutes (I have tix for sale for that one if you didn't get my email and are interested, let me know), but we got better seats for the second show that was added after the first one sold out so quickly. It will be a fantastic concert, I am sure!

Carri came to visit yesterday, and we had lots of fun! Here is a great picture of Luca playing with bubbles in the tub. I love it!

Lots 'O Stuff...

Goodbye, Riverside School

Last Thursday, (a week ago today) destruction began across the street from our house. The school, which has been closed since 2002 finally came down in front of many onlookers and to many tears. Riverside School holds a special part of many memories for the community. For example, my next door neighbor had a very difficult time watching the demolition as both her and her daughter attended the school and her grandmother was the first principal there.

I was sad to watch it go as well, but not for as many sentimental reasons. A part of this community's history is now just a memory. The beautiful, aged trees across from us have a grim fate, as well. This saddens me. And, for selfish reasons, I am not too excited to have 30 houses put up across the street from me and for our view to change from a fairly nice one to the back yards of many new homes.

The same week as we bought our house, it was announced that the land had been sold to a developer who will be bulding an assisted living senior's complex on the far East side of the lot and 2 cul-de-sacs here at the West end. I suspect that building for the senior's home will begin very soon, but I don't know when the residential area will be developed. So far I have not seen any ads for lots for sale, so maybe it will be a little while....

Sunday with the Hutchinson Family

We were invited to spend Sunday afternoon at Rob and Lana's (my cousin and his family) to have a late anniversary celebration for Auntie Karyn and Uncle Jim's 30th. It was lots of fun to hang out and visit. We also played "The Newlywed Game" which was lots of fun and had us all laughing. The winners were the most newlywed couple, Kath and Vinj, at just over a year and a half of wedded bliss. Kath had brought along a bunch of old photos of Anutie and Uncle's wedding and early years of marriage. It was really neat to look at the pictures and see my grandparents and parents and aunts and uncles in the 70s and 80s. Anyone who knows me knows that I LOVE to look at photos, so this consumed a lot of my time there, and I loved it!

It was a great afternoon and Chris and I were very happy to have been included in this family day.













Monday with Dee and Adelynn

On Monday, Luca and I spent the day with Dee and Adelynn while Chris and Layne went to work. It was a great day. Dee and I always have a good time together even if it is just sitting around chatting. That is the beauty of our friendship. We LOVE to just talk and laugh.

Adelynn is getting so big. It's funny to say that because she is only a few ounces bigger than Luca was when he was born and we thought he was so small. But, after 4 weeks, Adelynn looks big! It's all realtive, I guess.

Luca was so interested in Adelynn. He was constantly pulling himself up on the furniture to get a look at her, to touch her and to kiss her. He is such a curious little boy! You can see in one of the pictures that he is going in for a kiss.

Dee and I like to joke that our babies will be married. Maybe love is blooming already?! Haha!

And, of course, what would a post be without a montage of picutes of my little man?! These are all from the last few days.
















In this picture, Pat was throwing Luca's sippy cup lid into the air and Luca was laughing so hard! You can see that he is anticipating it to fly up above him. So cute!




I will post some new videos in a few days as well. I will let you all know when they are ready.

Chris is down in Houston for 9 more days for work. He comes home on the 23rd, and already I am counting down the days. To see him, of course, but also, he is bringing my late birthday present home with him- a new camera! I have been putting off chooing one since my birthday, and when Chris found out that he was heading back to Texas, we started lookin online. We found one that we liked for quite a bit cheaper than we could get it here, so the decision was made. Chris picked it up from the store last night, so he has 10 days to play (and figure it all out so he can teach me!) before he brings it home.

Welcome back, Sunshine!

With the gorgeous weather that we have had, Luca and I have been getting out and enjoying it!

A few days ago, Sarah, Donovan and my Mom joined us for a walk and short tobogganning experience. Here are some pics from that day...


















We walked up to Northcott and picked up Jessica from work. She was just wearing runners, so I was super nice and pulled her home with Luca! It was my workout for the day.



Luca is pulling himself up on furniture now, and just today pulled himself to standing. Once he was up on his feet, he didn't know what to do. he stood there for a few minutes, then tried to figure out how to get back down. he not-so gracefully let go of the couch and fell onto the ground with a bit of a thud. He was fine, though, and crawled on over to more interesting things.



As you can see, he is quite pleased that he is able to reach Hope now. She, not so pleased...

1 day to 8 months; A comparison

1 day old






























7 Months
8 Months