Living in Munchkinland

I've lived in this town for over a year and I realized that I still hadn't visited all of the parks and playgrounds here. I went over to the parks and rec site and downloaded their parks guide. The link is here . Then I uploaded all the addresses of the parks that had playgrounds into mapquest and made a map for myself. And then I hopped in the car with Sam and my camera and went playground exploring. I visited eight out of the nine parks with playgrounds. The only one I missed was the one I knew best, the Children's Park. Here is a list of the park's with playgrounds that I visted today, with photos and addresses and my personal reviews. City Park 170 Bobcat Drive This park is also known as the Purple Dinosaur Park. It is appropriate for small children. The structure is not too big. They have some benches near the playground and lots of running space and a sidewalk that surrounds the playground for kids to ride their bikes. It's near the river and a large pla...

Well, we did it. We made it to Mardi Gras. I'd never been before and it was pretty awesome. We flew in Thursday night after a weird flight delay. We were supposed to stop in Houston, but stay on our plane all the way through to New Orleans, but while we were stopped in Houston, they kicked us off the plane and told us the plane had been "taken out of service". We were put on the next flight out. Luckily, there were drinks and coffee to be had and we laughed our way through our delay. We arrived on St. Charles at our condo in the middle of a parade. We ran upstairs and dumped our luggage and then ran back downstairs. We watched a bit of parade and then went and ate dinner at Cannon's a few blocks down from us. Then Keith and Tiffany stayed to watch more parades while I headed up with Michael to get ready for bed. We were exhausted! Friday morning we awoke early and set up our tarp and chairs for front row viewing of the parades. We walked down to Bluebird for...

Remember that Christmas present from my parents that involved us going to Mardi Gras in New Orleans with my sister and brother in law and without my children? Well, we're going! It was touch and go as to whether we would actually make it there with Sam being so sick and my own sinus problems. But Sam is feeling better every day and while I think the blood thing will be here for a while, he's more active and hungry and I know my mom will take great care of him. I'm on some great new drugs and did not have to have the procedure done on my sinuses (yet) so Wooohoo! Hopefully I'll be feeling soon. I'm still really torn. Should I go or should I stay. It's hard enough to leave my boys when they are well, but Michael and my mom keep telling me that it will be fine and that I should go. I'm so excited and I want to rock this vacation! I'm terrified and guilty about leaving my baby! But I'm thrilled about visiting one of my favorite cities and I...

We have a diagnosis. The doctor called at 7:30 this morning and told us the culture that they took at the hospital had come back positive for salmonella. We don't know how he got it. I don't let him have very many processed foods and I was aware of the peanut thing so I don't think it's related to the peanut recall. I'm feeling extremely guilty that I let this happen to my baby. I'm in charge of his food and I let it happen. He's still having diarrhea. He had it all day yesterday, but was only up for an hour last night with it. It's ongoing this morning though. I know his stomach is hurting him. The good news is that he's drinking water again and eating a little bit. So that's the update. I've got to go change the baby.

In the middle of all our own medical woes, I heard that my friend Kari was having far greater ones. Kari is part of my Austin Mama community. She is a talented writer and has one of my favorite blogs, Haiku of the Day. She has had a very hard time in the last year. She had an incredibly difficult pregnancy and had her sweet baby Ike way too early. He has had so many complications. Her husband lost his job at the end of January and with it, their medical insurance. This last weekend, baby Ike grew even sicker and is now in the PICU. My community of Austin Mamas have in 48 hours, circled our wagons and created a website, planned a rummage sale, a bake sale and a family friendly music event and silent auction. We've raised money for insurance. We are doing everything we can to help Baby Ike and Karimama and I am going to ask you to help too. I am the coordinator for the music and auction event and if you can or want to help me please let me know. Also please check out Kari...

My sweet husband has always been content for me to blog about the doings of our life, but this weekend he realized that he could blog from his new blackberry. The lure of technology and his obsession with using all available gadgetry has inspired him to blog from his phone. So if you want to see all of our drama from a different perspective, hop over to his blog and check it out. The Story as I see it...

We went back to the ER yesterday afternoon. Sam had not taken more than a teaspoon of liquid in the last twelve hours and had severe diarrhea and had added vomiting to the mix. He was lethargic, feverish and glassy eyed. They took his blood and inserted an IV. It took five nurses to hold him down and they had to make multiple attempts to insert the IV. I nearly lost it, but managed to keep it together so I could reassure him. We stayed for four hours. He got two bags of fluid and some anti-nausea medicine. Turns out that despite his symptoms, his blood work showed he was not as dehydrated as we thought, though he was in need of the fluid. His illness has been deemed a virus, so we can throw out the antibiotics. There is nothing we can do except ride it out and try to keep him hydrated. The diarrhea remains unabated with one or two episodes occurring every hour. I was up all night long changing diapers and administering fluids. Michael got up at six and let me sleep another...

I was getting better, and then I was feeling worse. I went to the doctor on Friday and came home with a diagnosis of a sinus infection with impacted sinuses and a handful of antibiotics. On Saturday morning, instead of being woken with hearts and love, I was woken at three AM with a screaming, hot and very stinky baby. Sam had a high fever and terrible diarrhea. This went on all day with my poor baby getting more and more dehydrated. Around five yesterday evening I took him in to the emergency room since he had started pooping blood and we couldn't get him to drink anything. They looked him over and decided that while he was dehydrated, it wasn't enough to need an IV. They took a dirty diaper off for testing and offered him gatorade. He drank about two inches of it and then rolled over and fell asleep. They came back 45 minutes later with an antibiotic prescription and a warning to watch him for severe dehydration. They think he might have shigella or salmanella or it...

The plague had us for a while. I fell down with it last and it was horrible. It wasn't your average cold, people. This thing had me on my knees. I still can't breathe and I'm still weak and dizzy. It took our strength and our appetite and our energy and all our good humor. Today is the first day I feel halfway human again. We missed our Broadway show on Friday because I was in bed. I missed two fantastic birthday parties on Saturday. My mother in law came in on Sunday and we made it out to a bridal shower, but that wiped me out so completely I wasn't able to take Martha up on her sweet offer of a night out with my husband. The kids had a good weekend with their dad and grandma though. The virus is still making them cough and hack and drip, but their appetites and energy seems to be coming back roughly thirteen days later. Michael kept them all Saturday and Sunday and Martha spent some good quality time with them yesterday so I really got some good time to rest...

Evil, sneaky, infectious plague has entered our house and attacked my children. Davis succumbed on Thursday. He was horrific on Thursday. Tantrums worthy of his brother but in an almost four year old body. No appetite. And then he begged me to go to bed at 5PM. Fever began around 7PM and NEVER STOPPED. Dr appointment on Friday with a sick non mobile child. Davis fell asleep on the table. We checked for flu. Negative. Checked for strep. Negative. Determined this particular plague to be a virus. Was sent home. Davis spent the whole day in bed. I spent the whole day trying to keep Sammy out of Davis' bed to no avail. They are like twins. They NEED to be together all the time. Fever and no appetite raged on. On Saturday we got congestion. Lots of it. On Sunday we got yellow discharge from the eyes. Still couldn't get Davis to eat. Cough intensified. Behavior disintegrated again. Sores appeared under his nose. On Sunday night, Sam woke up at Midnight with a 102...