Desert trip #2

Gigantor (and Dad) had a blast at the desert. He played hard, ate well and slept well. He went on another motorcycle ride and spent quite a bit of time climbing on and off the parked quads and motorcycles. He also had good fun running up and down the ramp of the motorcycle trailer and running around and around the tent.

Camping with Dad

Friday, after his allergy test that confirmed he is allergic to peanuts, he went camping in the desert with Dad....alone. I stayed home with the dog so the boys could go play in the dirt. Oskar and I took a nap on Friday afternoon, went to bed early, and slept in a little. Honestly I was a little bored and missed the troublesome duo.

I wonder how G is doing with his naps and sleeping outside in the tent. It's pretty cold out at night, but I gave Dave 4 layers of clothes for him so hopefully he'll be okay. Hopefully Dad takes some pictures.

The Hits and Misses

Basically if the present had wheels it was a big hit:
Garbage truck
Ride on tractor
Radio Flyer Wagon
Grandma's convertible (pictured below)

This is Grandma Bentley's homemade (swedish?) convertible. She attached a little driving toy to it and wah-la G has his very own car! You can see him testing the durability by riding on the hood. He also enjoys opening and closing the doors.

Christmas with Gigantor

He wasn't excited about opening presents at first. He got frustrated and wanted us to finish the job. Then once he figured out there were toys under the paper he got more into it. Though we slowed down again because he wanted each item to be taken out of the box so he could play with it. Then he was too busy playing with a new toy to open more presents. It took two days and three sessions of present opening to finish the job.Playing with Dad's new brad nail gun.All aboard for the wagon ride!Quick everyone out!G's first Mr. Potatohead creation. Apparently this potato is a little old because it has quite a few eyes!Grandpa takes G out for a wagon ride with the tractor to cruise the yard.

Future rock climber

When he finds big rocks he loves to climb them. Even better is when a few big rocks are next to each other so he can climb from one to the other.

Yesterday the dogs and G had fun playing in the yard. For a while G was throwing balls and the dogs were fetching. I'm not sure who lost interest first though, but I think G's discovery of the big rock had something to do with it.

Santa Then and Now

We went to visit with Santa today. I was afraid of the crowds at the mall so we headed out early. Parking was already getting pretty bad, but inside it wasn't too crowded.

G was saying "Santa" on the way there so I had hope that he wouldn't scream his head off when Santa held him for a picture. Alas, when I plopped him in jolly St. Nick's lap he wailed. But then 10 seconds later he had a worried/stunned/stiff look on his face and wah-la you have our 2007 picture. He seemed much happier last year.

Fly! Fly! Fly!

I's Dad and Dave went flying Sunday morning. The boys spent the morning playing soccer and climbing bleachers. It was a tiring morning running around in the sun. I forgot G's water, but I was willing to share his. He even helped feed G. What a good friend!




Time for soccer! I was really impressed they were actually chasing the ball and kicking it. They'll have to get the rules of soccer down though because both boys would pick the ball up to get it away from the other.

No Exercise for Mom

I got an early Christmas present from Dave's parents today - a membership to the gym. I am especially excited about it because I can have G in the daycare at the gym while I take classes or just workout.

I headed over today to check it out. G did not want to leave my side. He wanted to inspect the toys, but insisted on taking my hand and taking me with him. I spent 10 minutes with him, until he was comfortable coloring. Then I said goodbye and he waved back and off I went. Fifteen minutes later I hear that I'm being paged. As I approach the daycare, I can hear the all too familiar screams of G. I found him puffy eyed, tears flowing, and just wailing as he had been for the last five minutes. Hopefully next time is better for both of us.

Santa's Village

We went to Santa's Village tonight. It's a couple that has opened their home for the past eight years during Christmas for people to tour. They have an unbelievable collection of Christmas related items. Singing Santas, dancing Santas, figurines, stuffed animals, lights, just to name a few things. It's such a huge display I can't imagine what their house looks like the rest of the year.

We attempted to have Gigantor sit on Santa's lap twice and both times he was not happy about it. He did get a car out of the deal so he was happy. Although when I took it away to put him to bed he threw a fit.

Botched Photoshoot

I tried to get some pictures of Gigantor in front of the Christmas tree, but he would not sit still long enough for me to move back and take the picture. As soon as I sat him down, he popped back up! He enjoys pulling ornaments off the tree occasionally, but for the most part he leaves it alone.

I tried to offer him wrapped presents to sit with, hoping to catch his interest for a few seconds while I snapped some pictures. Instead he started riping open the package! Total damage: 3 presents (1 for Dad, 2 for him), Total pictures: 0. Maybe next time...

The dogs were much more cooperative.

New Hobby: Feeding the dogs

He sneaks over to the dog food multiple times a day, unscrewing the lid and just about climbs into it! He's on his tippy tippy toes to get a big scoopful out. But by the time he gets the measuring cup out he's dumped most of it back in. I keep tightening the lid tighter and tighter, but he persists and eventually gets it open. He also likes to unscrew the knobs on his dresser, but Oskar appreciates the dog food more than a knob.
The result of his tremendous effort...three morsels of dog food...which he often tries to sample before offering it to the dog.

Decorating the Tree

Here G is helping to decorate the tree. Actually he spent most of the time dragging the garland around the living room. He also enjoyed inspecting the box of ornaments.

My favorite part of the night was when we played Christmas music and he started to shake his booty. He was really getting into the music picking up various toys to dance with. I also got sweet video of G busting a move. I hope to upload it this weekend.

The Cheerio Bribe

Bribery is a beautiful thing. A bowl of Cheerios and both G and Oskar will sit and pose for pictures. Another plus - Oskar was looking longing at G's Cheerios so it made for some cute pictures. The challenge was getting pictures without his mouth open chewing up the Os.

Sweater vest triplets

Here is Mr. Gigantor with two of his buddies. They were all dressed up to see Santa at playgroup. We all independently bought the same outfit for our kiddos. Don't they look cute?

The real thing is best

Who needs toys when you can play with the real thing? G emptied the dishwasher for me. Although picking up the dishes off the floor took longer than emptying it myself.


He also took Oskar on a road trip. He had to make sure the door was closed before he started the car. Then he got in driving position...standing up of course. Oskar looks like he's a little concerned with Gigantor's driving because he's standing up too.

I love cheesecake!

Well we had quite a busy start to the weekend. But it ended with an early dinner at Outback. Gigantor wasn't interested in eating any of our food, until dessert came. I think he ate more of the cheesecake than anyone else. He was willing to say or do anything to get more. It was pretty entertaining. Here's proof that he is fully recovered, hungry, and stuffed!

No Peanuts, Please!

Well it looks like he has a peanut allergy. I unknowingly gave him some crackers with peanut butter on them at playgroup. They were really small crackers that had a dollop of peanut butter and from that he developed welts and redness on his thighs, chest, and face. Luckily he wasn't having trouble breathing, so the advice nurse told us to give him some liquid Benadryl and keep a close eye on his breathing and color.He's currently screaming and itching like crazy.
An hour after we put him to bed, around 8:30, he was still crying and itching and coughing. We went in to check on him a couple of times and noticed he was breathing loudly, his eyes and lips were swelling so I called the advice nurse again. They advised us to call 911 and get him to a hospital. The concern is respiratory distress.

It was raining outside when the ambulance and firetruck arrived around 9pm (five hours after the crackers were eaten). They took his vitals in the ambulance and gave him some more benadryl. Then they strapped him in and we headed to the hospital. He was oddly quiet and cooperative. He just laid there and let them run their tests. He didn't cry or kick and roll over like normal. Once we were on our way, he fell asleep. His swelling and rash was much worse than it was when I first talked to the advice nurse. His eyes and lips were swollen, his ears were bright red, his whole chest was red with welts. It ran solid all the way down to thighs with blotches and welts to his ankles.

Here are some pictures from the ordeal. This first one is when we were on hold with the advice nurse driving to urgent care. We turned around and went home to call 911 after they informed us urgent care was closed and we needed to have him seen now.
This is the rarely seen little boy known as mellow Gigantor. He has a temperature reader on his ear, blood pressure cuff on his right arm. The paramedic gave him the teddy bear next to him.
We got to the hospital and he was immediately examined and then we were sent out to wait for a room and a doctor. Click on the picture to see more details of his rash. It was worse in the ambulance, but the second dose of benadryl they gave him seemed to help a lot. He's still swollen and itchy though.
Waiting to see the doctor.
In his room waiting for the doctor he got his first dose of t.v. It was Seasame Street with guest Katie Couric from about 10 years ago. The lesson was cooperation and sharing, so hopefully he learned something. haha

We got home at 1am after they gave him a prescription for an antihistamine and epi-pens. They also gave him a shot of epinephrine which immensely helped the rash and swelling. He seem much better now.