Birthday Redux/Papa Update

www.nolanpchak.blogspot.com Before I could write a post recapping Reagan and Nolan's birthday, Mother's Day happened, then they got sick, they are teething, and finally my Grandpa fell and went into the hospital on Thursday (details later in this post). To say it has been a hectic week is putting it mildly. Pictures will be coming soon. I'm trying to get them uploaded, but I've just about had it with photoworks and would like to move to another site, but they have about 11 YEARS worth of our pictures on-line and I'm not about to lose that. Blogger is also giving me fits tonight, so I'm throwing in the towel with pictures and just getting a post up. The celebration this year was MUCH smaller. I promised myself (and everyone else) I would only put myself through 1 huge birthday party. The weather cooperated at times, but the party still ended up in the house for cake and presents--"Christmas" as Nolan called it. Leaving me with one very trashed house at the end of the night. The theme birthday parties at on-site locations are looking better and better each year! LOL While Reagan may have looked like she had a run-in with a cougar, it was more a meeting with the driveway. It was pretty awful for a few minutes.....the silent scream, followed by the real one, a la Godfather III. She survived and was back on her trike in less than 5 minutes. Nolan continued on with the sidewalk chalk while this was going on. He gets very focused when he is doing anything artsy or building with megablocks. I have said this before, but Reagan and Nolan are so blessed. They have a small biological family, just because Bill and I come from small families ourselves and both their Grandpa's are gone. But they have so many friends that consider them family. They have many Aunts, Uncles, and even a Nonnie and Grandpa Fred. I have to say that those people are family to R & N. When they talk about the people that "love them so much" (and we go through the laundry list every night) after the bio family always comes Aunt Deb, Aunt Jan, Uncle Sam, Uncle John, Nonnie, & Grandpa Fred and others depending on who they have seen recently. Bill and I are so thankful that our friends have accepted our children, that they love them, have taken the time to get to know them, and do things with them. We come from a very mixed group of friends, some with kids, some not, some single, some not, so throwing kids into the equation was kind of scary. Would the friends that didn't have kids still want to do things with us? Lucky for us, Reagan and Nolan made friends with some VIP's and get us into the hottest restaurants in town so our friends still keep us around! LOL On to the Grandpa situation: He has slowly, but steadily been losing weight (and strength) due to an esophageal condition that leaves him unable to swallow over the past couple of years. On Wednesday night he fell in his living room and was unable to get up or get to the phone to call for help (we've tried to talk him into a life alert button, but he said he would not use it.) Anyway, he was discovered probably 16 hours later by my mom and his neighbor. They finally talked him into going in the hospital. There it was discovered that he also has pneumonia and has been having abnormal EKG's, in addition to severely swollen legs. They are taking things day by day at this point and he is refusing a feeding tube. There is a doctor that seems to think he can do surgery to help fix the esophagus (where was he 4 years ago when my mom was taking him to all kinds of doctors and no one would help?), but first he has to get the pneumonia cleared up. So, please think a kind thought for him (and my mom as this is very hard on her.) Tonight Nolan was talking to Quacky (his cribmate/pillow/stuffed duck) and I heard him say, "Quacky very sad." I asked him why Quacky was sad and he said, "Papa's sick. Papa's very sad." If he isn't the sweetest thing to walk this earth...... of course, he took his cement truck to bed with him tonight so don't think for a minute he isn't "all-boy" too!