O' Christmas Tree, O' Christmas Tree!

I hope that everyone's Thanksgiving was great! We enjoyed our turkey day with some close friends here in Baltimore. It was relaxing, calm, and the Ravens won! On Friday, we held to our annual tradition of going to the Festival of the Trees. We picked up BB and trucked on over. We were all pretty excited since E was big enough to really get into all of the trees, rides, and decorations. My goodness did he! We was so so excited to see all of the trees! Lots of OOOH's. There was even a performance by Milkshake (a kids music band) E rocked out on top of daddy's shoulders in order to get a good look at the stage. He rode lots of rides, thanks to BB spoiling him rotten. He even got to see Santa. E was not a huge fan of Santa, was actually really shy around him. It was pretty funny. No crying or freaking out, just shy. We decided to call it a day when we saw that E could barely keep his eyes open. He fell asleep the second he hit the car seat. All of the beautiful decorations motivated me to put away all the fall decorations and bust out Christmas in full gear. The only thing missing is a tree, and I think we'll go get ours next weekend! XOXO

These two and the train garden, they could have stayed all day!

YAY! Milkshake!

Carousel

Train ride, every time he'd wave I'd miss the pic...grrr!



E: "Uh, I do not know you but you are kinda strange"



Loving every moment of the pony ride

Out like a light!

Me and My Boys

Since Ferrous' surgery, we have limited our time away from home for obvious reasons. Today I decided that I had to take E on a special expedition because he has been such a good boy with all the change the last two weeks. Problem, the weather was crap today. Freezing cold, windy, and with occasional drizzle. Nothing outdoors, which is E's fav. So I was thinking of places we hadn't been to in a while. I decided on Storyville, it's an interactive children's area in the Rosedale Baltimore County Library. Best part, its FREE. It is always so well maintained, clean, and so so fun. I explained to Ferrous he'd be OK for a few hours and we bundled up and headed out. E had a blast!

and...off E went!

Shopping for produce

Rock, rock, rock the boat!

Climbing through the log tunnel

Watching his gear masterpiece at work

Firefighter hats make this project work!

After about an hour and a half, we decided to break for lunch. We headed out to meet E's BB (godmother) for lunch. We had a great lunch and came home just in time for nap time. Ferrous was frazzled but not too bad. I put E down, and not 5 minutes later, he jumped out of his crib!!! He didn't hurt himself, just got scared then started playing with his toys. I went in picked him up, checked his extremities for any injuries, and had a talk about needing a nap and staying in his crib till mommy or daddy come. I then placed him back in the crib, and he was NOT HAPPY. He decided to complain (not screaming, just making noises and talking) for an hour and a half till he finally fell asleep. Of course by the time he fell asleep, I was an hour and 15 minutes away from needing to wake him up to take Ferrous to the vet for his staples to be removed and an EKG. Awesome. I woke E up at the necessary time and he was in a pleasant mood, shockingly! I packed up Ferrous and E and we trucked over to the vets. I dropped E off at our dear friend, Hugh's house so I wouldn't have to micro manage a toddler and a neurotic dog. I then had to take poor Ferrous back to the place that cut him open, as he saw it. Prior to this, Ferrous thought that vet's offices were the equivalent of happy hour. This time he had doggie PTSD. He was trembling, and begging to get out of the door. He made some friends in the waiting room which helped, even though they were the size of his paw. Vet gave Ferrous a clean bill of health, and took out the staples. We ran outta there and headed back to Hugh's to pick up E. I walked in to Hugh's house to see this:

budding pianist?

He apparently had a great time! We said our goodbyes and I put E back in the car. Ferrous was seated next to him. As I was getting on the expressway, E started to giggle and scream. I look back in my rear view mirror only to see Ferrous laying his huge head right across E's lap. I might have started crying. I am so so very thankful that Ferrous is OK and survived this whole ordeal. I am also thankful for my beautiful son who makes everyday so much brighter, no matter the challenge. I love my boys. I cannot wait for my husband to get back in town so that ALL of my boys are in the same place.  xoxo

Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?

Every night, we have the same bedtime routine. Dinner, bath, books, and bed. It has been like this since E was teeny, like maybe a month or two old. E's favorite part of this routine are the books. This boy loves to read! Brian and I always joke that we are going to threaten to take his books away if he's bad when he gets older. Tonight after splashing like a mad man in the bath, I got E changed into his PJ's and he then crawled into the rocking chair and was reading to Sockey (his sock monkey). Here are the pics I snapped, I love this boy!
xoxo

Pointing out the animals

Snuggling in to Sockey

Reading to Sockey

There is no place like home

Today was the day. FINALLY. As I type this, I have a big blue dog's head in my lap. He is sound asleep and very happy to be in his home. When we put him in the car he looked at us, and laid his head on the seat like, phew. E was screaming and giggling the whole way home. We are fully prepared to face the weekend ahead of possibly waking up like we did when E was brand new. No complaints here. We are happy to have Ferrous home, and our family complete. Thanks to everyone who sent texts, called, sent cards, ect. Ferrous papa is a well loved boy. xoxox

Pupdate

So the last few days have been crazy. On Monday night, Ferrous started having some heart issues, an irregular heartbeat and what the vet calls VCT's. They gave him some meds to help the issues. They also tried to feed him and he wanted no part of it. We went to visit Tuesday morning and he kinda perked up. We were unable to get him to eat anything - which is bizarre. We were telling the vet we were shocked that they didn't find a tire or other strange objects in his stomach when they did the surgery. The dog loves his food, just not post surgery and while in doggie ICU. Tuesday night, I talked to the vet again, and heart problems were the same, and he encouraged me to make Ferrous' favorite food. So I made some chicken and rice and rushed down to see if I could get him to eat. The nurse told me he had been trying to bust out of his cage (YAY- there is that spark) and was really restless during his EKG. So, they had to sedate him. So he decided to try and throw himself on my lap and went to sleep. Not at all interested in the chicken. The nurse then told me that his veins were blown from the IV's and that they tried to find a new vein, but were not having any luck. So they were going to start administering oral meds for everything. This morning E and I went to visit and Ferrous was a million times better than yesterday! He came to meet us in the waiting room and was wagging his knob like crazy. We went in the room and E was quick to give him a huge hug and kiss, then tried to jump on his back - which we put to a quick stop. The vet explained that if the oral meds started to work, Ferrous could go home tonight!!! Well, I just got off the phone with the vet and Ferrous and his VCTs got worse. They had to find a vein and put him back on a lydocane drip. They are also giving him potassium to see if that will help with the lydocane. As of now, it looks like F-papa is in for another night. SIGH. Not a happy mama. Hopefully tomorrow will be the day.

XOXO

Dogs are not our whole lives....

Dogs are not our whole lives but they make our lives whole. ~ Roger Carras

A dog and his boy

Ferrous Blue, our crazy beloved weim was acting really funny last night. We had got home from a lovely dinner with friends, put E to bed, and we were getting ready for the big game. Ferrous was retching and restless, and his stomach was large and distended. Brian and I didn't even hesitate - I yelled for Brian to take him to the Pet ER and I'd call him with directions.  Those were all the tell tale signs of bloat. Bloat is when a dogs stomach is twisted into a figure 8 and can cause a host of problems. Weims are super prone to it, so we have been pretty educated on key symptoms and what to do. It has a 50% mortality rate. It is very very scary. Brian had to have driven like a formula racer, because he arrived not to long after I called the ER to tell them Ferrous was coming and we were pretty certain it was bloat. They rushed him to x-ray to see the extent of the torsion. They determined it was going to require emergency surgery and that they needed to stabilize him before they could do anything. Ferrous has a lot of "spirit" and was not too happy to be feeling so uncomfortable. By this time it was 10pm. They didn't get him stabilized till after 12am. The surgery went really well, and we caught the bloat super early so there was no dead tissue or spleen damage. He was woke up at around 5:30 am. We talked to the vet and she assured us he was doing well, but that things were going to be tricky because of the chance of toxemia which is noted by an irregular heart beat. We were also told we could see him at noon. E woke up and was not happy that Ferrous was not home. I took E to school trying to get my mind off of everything. E had a blast with his buds and if was nice to see my BMF's. We then hopped in the car and met Brian at the ER. We then got to go into an exam room to see Ferrous for a little bit. So Brian and I went in expecting to see Ferrous a little out of it and in pain post op, but still cognisant of his surroundings and his parents! We got the complete opposite. He was is pretty severe pain, really uncomfortable, and not very sure who we were. It was heavy realization that he is doing a lot worse than we thought, and the recovery from this surgery was going to be really tough. We laid with him and tried to snuggle him and he fell asleep. The vet tech came in and was talking us through the next 12 hours. Ferrous kept laying his head in her hands. That made me feel very good. They were buddies. They then took him away, and E started crying...shouting Ferrous over and over again :(. We came home and all took a marathon nap. I just got off the phone with the Vet and he is sedated because he was so "spirted" and he has not eaten like they hoped he would. The house is very quiet, the couch in our family room is lacking a large blue snuggler in between Brian and I, and E is trying very hard to figure out where his buddy is. Ferrous papa is our papa. We picked him out at birth, and he thinks he's people - not a dog. I love him and hate him being away from us. Please send some healing thoughts to papa. He needs 'em big time.

baby Ferrous

Ferrous in the Chesapeake