Like It Was Lasterday

(Nathan up to something; his brothers oblivious)

Nathan is 8. How can this be?

Nathan was a sweet baby who loved to be held. Many people don't believe this, but he never even cried until he was 4 months old and got his first ear infection! Before that, he made this noise that was a cross between a sniff and a cough when he wanted something. The first time we heard that noise coming from the bassinet, Charles and I looked at each other in confusion. We walked over to the bassinet and peered inside.

"What's he doing?" I asked.

Charles had an incredulous look on his face. He said, "Is that his... is he... crying?"

We thought we had hit the mother lode!

As a toddler, Nathan was such a character. He looked like an angel with his blond hair, green eyes, and long lashes; but he was always up to something. He waited a long time to start talking... until well after he was two... and suddenly started conversing with us in complete sentences! He had very few baby words: "Bubba" for Matthew; "lasterday" for anything that happened in the past but not yesterday; and a precious few others. At 3, he talked like a little adult with the exception of his high-pitched voice. Charles called him our little munchkin because of his voice.

When Nathan was 5, he asked me on New Year's Eve if he could pray to ask Jesus to save him. I was worried about him being too young, and told him he could wait until he was older if he didn't understand what he was doing. Really, I tried to talk him out of it. He sighed and asked, "Mommy, I want to do this. Why can't I ask Jesus to save me now?" I talked with him at length and came to realize he really did understand; so he prayed on December 31, 2005. I saw the Holy Spirit in him after that night. Don't get me wrong... the character and mischief is still there! But so is Jesus.

The days and months flew by; and before I knew it so had the years. I can't believe he is 8! The boy who clung to me for dear life when I tried to leave him at Pre-K now hops out of the car and bounds up the stairs to school without a backward glance. He can still be sweet, though. Even though he spoke very few baby words; one precious word still remains in his vocabulary: "renember" for remember. I cannot bring myself to correct him! The other night, Ephraim fell asleep in my lap. After Charles took Ephraim to bed, Nathan said to me, "Mommy, you can sit with me in the big chair if you want to." This may not sound like much of an invitation, but it is huge for an 8-year-old boy! He still crawls into bed with me in the mornings just before I wake up. These precious moments will disappear so gradually that I won't notice exactly when they go, but I will wake up one day and realize they are gone.

Disney's Water Parks

Matthew (left)

Nathan on a water slide

Nathan

Ephraim

This was our first trip to Disney during the warm months since 2000, so we had the opportunity to try out the water parks. The older boys loved them! Ephraim fell and skinned his knee and didn't want to risk losing his band-aid on the day we went to Blizzard Beach, so he skipped that one. I was glad... Typhoon Lagoon had more for preschoolers than Blizzard Beach; although Blizzard Beach had a nice area for both babies and "tweenagers."

It is really taking me awhile to blog about our vacation! I am entering the busiest time of our year... April thru June... when every single weekend is taken up with one or more birthday celebrations and/or a holiday or anniversary. I will probably not blog regularly until July!

To complicate matters, we have two children graduating this year... no, not from high school! Matthew is graduating from the 5th grade (since middle school starts in 6th now) and Ephraim is graduating from preschool. Ouch on both accounts! I can't believe either of them has grown so quickly!

Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios

Ephraim's Brown Cow

Ephraim, Matthew, and Nathan

The "Honey I Shrunk the Kids" Playground at Hollywood Studios

The Sci-Fi Drive In Diner

Ephraim, Petting Zoo Tour Guide

If you know Ephraim, you know we spent some time at Animal Kingdom. Matthew and Nathan were wanting to move along to the more thrilling attractions... but nothing at Disney World was any more thrilling than finding a brown cow in the "Affection Section" petting zoo!

The Kilimanjaro Safari was another big hit. We didn't have our camera the first time we rode it, because it had been raining and still looked threatening. Oh, I regret not having the ability to video on that first safari ride! Ephraim was so sweet, and so in his own little world! He was so excited about every animal we saw, and even told a few of them he loved them! I remember in particular as we passed the elephants, he said,"Bye, elephant! I love you elephant!" in his sweet little four-year-old almost whisper!

I took my camera on the second safari ride, but he never said the same thing again. He was still cute, though!

Ephraim, Safari Tour Guide

Disney's Fort Wilderness Cabins

We decided to go with a cabin for our Disney vacation, because of the kitchen and living area. When you have 3 children, being able to spread out is of utmost importance!



The cabin was very cute, and we were able to spread out in some ways. I think it was the right choice for us this year, but I know we'll never choose Fort Wilderness cabins again for a couple of reasons:

• Bus transportation to and from the campgrounds (which includes the cabins) takes twice as long as other Disney resorts because you have to take a separate bus to get to your cabin once you arrive at Fort Wilderness. So, it takes 20 minutes to get from the Magic Kingdom to Fort Wilderness... and then another 20 minutes to get to your cabin. The total travel time for every place we went was a minimum of 40 minutes... not good with 3 rambunctious kids!
• There were very few drawers in the cabins... much less drawer space than a regular hotel room... which meant 5 people were living out of 5 suitcases for an entire week. That kind of cut down on the benefit of having enough space to spread out!
  

• The campground, like much of Florida, is a swamp. We had a GREAT time with no mosquitoes... but we ARE talking about a cabin in the middle of an honest-to-goodness swamp. I'm not sure what the experience would be like during the summer!
• I don't know HOW many lizards my boys caught in the swamp right outside the door of our cabin. My fear for my boys was, if the lizards like living in the swamp so much, maybe their friends the snakes are living here, too! I warned my boys of this, but it did not deter them from sneaking into the swamp to catch another lizard. I think a nice room on the 12th floor of a different resort might be a little safer for my adventurers!
  

Disney is expensive... there is no getting around that. Staying in a cabin or a suite is more expensive than a regular room, but we thought we would save money by eating some meals in the cabin. We ended up buying the meal plan that included one table service, one quick meal, and one snack per day. Thank goodness we bought the meal plan with travel time being so long, because we only ate breakfast in the cabin. We wouldn't have gotten to do everything in the parks if we had eaten every meal in the cabin.

We loved the meal plan! That table service meal (translated sit-down dinner) was priceless for parents with 3 kids! This sounds bad, but I just love having people bring me my food! We spent about the same amount on the meal plan as we had spent buying food (mostly quick-service) on previous trips; so it was definitely worth it for us. Charles and I were actually able to eat healthy once a day for about the same price as fast food all day. That worked well for us... but we do have 3 boys and they REALLY eat a lot (chicken fingers and french fries, anyway).

Next time, I think we will stay in a hotel room on the monorail (Grand Floridian maybe?) which will significantly cut travel time; buy the deluxe meal plan, and pay for child care a couple of times if we start to feel claustrophobic!

12 Hour Window for Stitches!

We had been back from Disney World for less than 24 hours.

Ephraim decided to climb on top of our high-top dining room table to look at something...

He slipped and fell; and as he fell he sliced his lower lip open when his mouth hit the edge of the table.

Charles held him and checked first for broken teeth (this is my first assumption when I see a child with blood pouring out of his mouth, since my brother knocked his two front teeth out of his mouth FOUR times!) There was a lot of blood, but his teeth looked fine. I went over to the table to see if I could tell what had happened... I was still looking for teeth or teeth marks, really... when Charles said the words a mother never wants to hear...

"Oh, my God... Samantha, you need to come look at this."

Ephraim's lower lip was gaping completely open, as if it had been intentionally sliced and pulled apart. In addition, it looked like a chunk of meat was missing.

I took him immediately to the Pediatric Emergency Center... a bit wary because of previous experiences there... but breathed a sigh of relief to see my own doctor's name listed as the physician on duty. Praise God!

A few hours later, after inhaling the coughs of a dozen children sick enough to be contagious but who would NOT (I knew) receive any antibiotics in this day and age and had therefore waited (and coughed on Ephraim and me) needlessly; I asked Dr. Ellison if I did the right thing by bringing Ephraim in or if I should have waited until the next day to see if the wound really needed stitches.

He said you have to get stitches within 12 hours of an injury, or it will be too late because the wound will begin to heal. In Ephraim's case, this could have been very bad because his lip was split beyond his lip line. If a lip is not torn beyond the lip line, stitches are not necessary; but anything beyond that may not align properly when it heals.

Who knew?

There was really no danger that I wouldn't take Ephraim to the Emergency Center because of the way his lip looked; but the 12 hour time limit is a good thing to know.

Pictures from Peru

I will try to upload more pictures to Facebook when I have time!