Naughty Leprechaun

Typically I like to keep the photos of Mals and B man even, but our boy is a bit camera shy these days. He claims some crazy leprechaun stole his smile. On the other hand, Mallory has hired a new stylist and is camera ready at any given moment. 

On the home front St. Patty's day came and went without the slightest hint of green. Serious party poopers! I pretty much forgot about the "holiday" until our bedroom was illuminated with red flashing lights and rumbled by the loud engine of a fire truck, cop car and ambulance. Some poor soul had a few too many green beers and ingested a mysterious shamrock that made him "nap" in our neighbors front yard. Apparently some folks were debating if this was his final nap (ever) or if he was indeed just sleeping it off......in a random persons flower bed. Once the trusty men in uniform confirmed he was just resting, the little leprechaun woke up swinging. Apparently not a morning person. Brady figured he just had a sore neck from using the tulips as a pillow and thought we should offer him a cookie. What a sweet boy. 

Hope you all has a fun St. Patty's Day!

Fam-demic

Last week sucked. It started off with Mallory testing gravity and finding out that it will always win, always. Our girl took a nasty spill down three solid wood stairs and smacked her sweet melon on the floor. It was the kind of fall that makes you sick to your stomach. I scooped her up only to see her eyes rolling in the back of her head and her lips turning a awful color of blue. We immediately went to the ER, where upon our arrival Mallory started throwing up.....everywhere. I have to say I look good in most things, but puke isn't one of them. Well, after a few hours and some good ol observation they discharged us with a concussion diagnosis and several red flags to look for. Fast forward to 3:00 the next day. We are all in the car, making our Tuesday commute to speech and Mals started throwing up again, but this time Niagara Falls was barreling out of her mouth. Not the greatest thing to see in my rear view mirror, going 60mph on the interstate. A million things fly through my head including those darn red flag warnings from the ER doctor. I call our pediatrician who immediately tells us to head back to the ER. Mallory has now transformed our van into a boat floating down vomit river.

An IV, a CT scan and 7 hours later our girl is making a comeback. The CT was normal, no bleeding or skull fracture. On the downside, I was not doing so well. I got home, passed Mallory off to Jeff and proceeded to take my own voyage down puke river....for the next 8 hours....on the hour. OMG! Jeff and Brady joined me the next morning. Our whole crew was out for the count. It took a good three days for all of us to fully recover. Sanitize people! This bug is kicking ass and taking names.

Brady wasn't so keen on Miss Mallory shining so brightly in the attention hall of fame. He is the star and HE will even the score in the form of dropping a large rock on his big toe. Yeah, that's right! Brady's big toe is now the size of WY and is accented with a dark blue toe nail. He can hardly walk and constantly holds his foot and says "ouch." It's pathetic. So just in time for swim season his big toe nail will make it's exit.

I am hoping the rest of the week will be less eventful.

The circus and a lay off

We went to the circus the other day. Jeff and I couldn't match Brady's level of excitement...no one can. He maintained his applause through the set changes, restroom breaks and the incredibly boring dog act. He was so pumped to be there that his hands were sore and his voice was hoarse. Our boy has spirit, yes he does. Mallory took a clown down in an effort to wrestle a bear and ride a pony. She loves anything on 4 legs.

In other news, Mallory fired her stylist. See the evidence below:

Board Meeting

Today, Brady called to order his annual board meeting. In attendance was Mallory, Bigsby, Steve the sock monkey and bear. I was not invited and I have been stripped of my voting rights. Something about being to old and boring. I'm not progressive enough for Brady's team of forward thinkers. Huh!

They covered some ground breaking stuff today. Brady's trying to pass a few new ordinances around the house. His primary focuses are elimination of his bedtime and 24 hour access to the pantry. Mallory and friends were in accordance with the pantry raid, but firmly disagree with the bedtime bit. They all know how crazy B-man gets without proper rest. None one wants to deal with that bear cat, so the strict 7:30 bedtime stays. As the self proclaimed president of the board, Brady vetoed everyone and celebrated with an indoor bubble party. Nothing like a few bubbles to smooth the rift.

Brady would like to take a moment to welcome our newest member to the board....Mr. Brogan Scot. Since he is only 3 days old his active role won't take place for a few months. Until then, Brady has messengered him the bylaws for his review. The 400 page document makes perfect nap/bedtime reading.

Spell

Today, we experienced our first "breath holding spell." Neither Jeff nor I witnessed what triggered the dramatics, but we both saw the result. Jeff was holding Mallory and she was obviously very upset. She usually does the whole silent cry thing followed by blowing your ear drum with the loudest screech. Well, today the silence lasted a bit longer than usual followed by slumping over in Jeff's arms. We all about passed out. I quickly grabbed her and gave her a reviving tousle. I have never been so excited to hear her scream. That seriously made my heart stop. Brady has never been one for drama, so this is new.  I'm not a big fan.

Dr. Brady has offered to teach her a few coping mechanisms that keep everyones blood pressure at a nice even level 1. eat cookies 2. rake the sand in the zen garden 3. go to your happy place 4. have a stiff drink (to clarify that our children don't drink Brady is referring to apple juice sans water). Hopefully one of these homeopathic remedies will keep our girl alert through the tough times.

Happy Valentines Day

Talking is currently Brady's biggest challenge, but I think St. Valentine must have inspired him. Our boy is speaking the love language, as in, we love everything he has to say.  It's like Cupid's arrow hit a bulls eye in Brady's speech target. We are not only getting words, but sentences!! Well, 1 sentence..."I want the balls." WHOAAAA! A four word sentence! We are thankful for every word(s) that Brady says. I love hearing his raspy voice. 

Now that Mallory is spouting off new words everyday (even shit...nice) I am hopeful that Brady will follow her lead. Speech continues to be our focus and will be for a long while. After this weeks verbal explosion I am recharged and excited to see what else is in his vocal box. 

T-rouble

The other morning Brady was trying to send me a message. It was a bit encrypted so I can only assume the following: 1. He is low on some mineral only present in potting soil 2. We need to spend more time outside where digging up plant life is acceptable 3. He was testing the flying velocity of potting soil vs. Nerf balls 4. He thought the living room would look nice with an accent of deep dark brown soil. 

To say the least I was not happy with his choice of morning activity. Where was I you ask? Upstairs with Mallory for 9.2 minutes. Our boy works fast. He was like a cat in a litter box. Dig, dig, throw, throw!!! You can see the disappointment in his face that I had the nerve to interrupt such a marvelous time. He now calls me party pooper instead of Mom. 

It took me 40 minutes to clean up the mess and I even had to buy more potting soil. Mr. B has been under close supervision for the past few days. In coordination with the weather, Brady is on thin ice.