The Mac Kinnon Family

Mac and Emily were invited to Austin and Amber's birthday party today (the family across the street) at Chuck E Cheeses. Mac has been excited about going for days, of course he loves the atmosphere. Emily wasn't feel the best today, poor girl is breaking through another molar. Anyway the kids had a great time, Mac LOVED the Chuck E Cheese mouse, giving him a big hug. Emily was afraid of him, Disney World ought to be fun with one kids that loves characters and the other that fears them, maybe Emily will be able to work through some of her fears there!

When John is gone we speak almost daily via Skype on the computer. Both kids love talking to Daddy on the computer. Twice now Emily has gone up to the computer and tapped it with her hands saying "Dada, dada, Hi dada" like she's waiting for him to pop out of the computer. It's way too cute. By the time this tour is over for John the kids are going to think daddy lives in the computer!

We had unseasonable warm weather today (70 degrees) so what better thing to do then hit the park. Of course Mac wanted to go to Kid Burg again, this is his favorite place. After a gym workout for me and running a few errands we were off to the park. Mac was sporting his new sunglasses and sandals we picked up for Disney World and Emily was sporting her new sneakers (she outgrew her New Mexico shoes from Gran). Emily is so much fun to watch as she explores. She still didn't like the feel of the mulch when she fell, but loved everything else. She even took a tumble into one of the tires (last pictures) which was too cute. Of course she followed Mac everywhere!

On Monday, which was a good day as Mac was finally feeling better. He had a great day at school and spent the afternoon with his buddy across the street all was well until I started fixing dinner. As I'm getting things together I hear a loud bang and Mac starts screaming. I can tell from the scream something was wrong as I turn around and can see he's hurt. I pick him up, his winter cap is over his eyes, I see blood and need to assess where he's hurt. Of course he doesn't want me to touch his face, he's got blood on his eye, nose and lip. Of course I'm freaked and wanted to make sure his eye and teeth were ok. He ended up with a goose egg on his forehead, cut lip and scraped and swollen eye which I thought for sure would turn out to be black and blue. I had to bribe him to allow me to put a cool rag on his head, he wouldn't let me touch the eye. After things settled down I asked him what he was doing, he said he was running with his cap over his eyes trying ...

As I was getting Mac out of his swimsuit tonight, Emily found something new and fun to do while she waits. I only had my camera on my phone so the pic isn't great. I was most worried about her pinching her fingers as she would try to close the door from the inside.....

Mac is doing so well swimming, today he was able to swim from one side of the family pool to the other, about 20 feet, only stopping for one quick breath. It's amazing to see how far he has come. As I was watching his lesson today, he and one of his friends were playing in the deeper end (about 5 feet) while the teacher was working with another student. All of a sudden both the boys go under the water, as I'm waiting for them to come up, after about 15 seconds (which felt like and eternity) I jumped up and started heading toward the pool, when the boys popped up. The life guard saw my worry and went to check it out, the teacher stopped what she was doing and told me that she was working with them to go down and sit at the bottom with cris, cross, applesauce legs. They were just practicing. I felt better and it's great he can hold his breath this long, I'm just not use to see him going under in the deep end for so long, it was a freaky feeling. His favorite thing he...

Mac finally got to see a little snow today, we have a 15 minute blast of a few snow flurries, which of course didn't stick but it sure was pretty. Mac was so excited to finally see some snow but wanted it to stick to the ground. He's still feeling pretty miserable, he spent a good portion of the afternoon resting, he looked so miserable, poor guy!

Pappy did a great job with the kids while Karen and I went to the Women's breakfast. I think it was some great bonding time. The kids loved to have Pappy read to them, Emily is started to become interested in books which is great. Her fascination is with a "Peek a Who" book that Aunt Holly gave her. She will have you read it 5 or 6 times before she'll get a new one! Everyone just chilled out Saturday afternoon, Mac was still sick, I'm fighting it and everyone else just wanted a nap. Pappy left this morning, Mac was very sad to see Pappy go. It was so nice to have some company while John is gone, it was a real treat to have Pappy and Karen here and the kids enjoyed their time with Pappy!

That's all I heard from the time Mac opened his eyes this morning. He wanted to call pappy at 6:30 am to see if he was on his way. I held him off until a little before 8. He called Pappy who wasn't on the road yet, a few hours later Mac wanted to call Pappy again to see where he was. He was one excited little boy this am. When Pappy and Karen finally arrived he was thrilled, Pappy didn't get a moment of peace until Mac went to bed, which I'm sure he loved! Emily warmed up to Pappy right away. Mac is feeling better today, still not at 100% but definitely on the road to recovery. Pappy's going to watch both the kids for a few hours in the morning while Karen and I attend a women's breakfast at our church. Fortunately Pappy doesn't have much hair left to pull out, it will be fun for him I'm sure!

Mac woke up happy this morning with no fever, which was a delight to see. I decided he still needed to stay home today since he was pretty sick yesterday and needed to allow his body more time to rest. By lunch time I could see he wasn't feeling as good, he took a nap and was ok when he woke up but you could tell in his eyes he wasn't feeling great. I was watching my neighbors kids while she went to the ER (she broke her finger) which hyped Mac up. By the time they left Mac was pretty wasted, I took his temp and sure enough it was at 102 again. After a dose of Tylenol he was a new kid again. Hopefully he'll feel better tomorrow. Pappy called earlier this week and said he and Karen wanted to come for the weekend, which is a blessing for me. With John gone, having the company will be great. Also it will allow for me to have a little break. Mac is so excited and can't wait to show Pappy how he can ride his bike. I think Pappy's equally excited about helping h...

In the middle of the night last night Mac came into our bed, he wasn't sleeping well, at about 6 am he got up to potty and came to me and said "mommy I don't feel very good". I pulled him up to lay next to me and he was on fire, he started fussing and saying he had to throw up. Needless to say I was on my feet quick, fortunately he didn't throw up but was pretty sick. He has a temp of 103 degrees and was just miserable. I gave him some Tylenol, and all he did was cry and want to be held. Emily woke up about a half out later so I tucked Mac into our bed with some juice and the Disney channel. I haven't seen him that miserable in a very, very long time. Last time he was really sick (other than a snotty nose) was when he had strep throat last fall and then he wasn't acting terribly sick. He's had his ups and downs through the day, not eating much but seems to be feeling a little better this evening. He likes that he's getting spoiled (as he...

Mac was off of school yesterday for Presidents Day. While we were doing the web cam with John we were talking about what President's Day was and how we honor our past presidents. I asked him if he knew what George Washington did, he said he chopped down a cherry tree. He then told us Abe Lincoln helped black people. I asked them how he helped them, he said to be just like us. John reminded him that he helped free the slaves. We hadn't talked with him about this, so he must be learning this at preschool. I was pretty impressed! He knows Barrack Obama is our 44th president as well. It's a good start to learning some history!

I wanted to do something fun with the kids today and saw the Virginia Living Museum was having a special reptile exhibit and thought Mac would get a kick out of it. After church we headed to Newport News. Mac was wired when we got there, he gets himself so vamped up and he was full of energy and ready to go. We got to see all kinds of cool stuff from snakes, lizards to turtles. Mac and I both like the huge turtle seen below. They had all kinds of activities for the kids as well which was pretty cool. In addition to the special exhibits we made our normal rounds of all the fish, which Emily thought was the coolest. She keep waving at the glass saying "HI". Too darn cute. They also had a "microbes" exhibit which was geared more toward older children. Emily was feeling better today, not nearly as fussy as she has been, although her cheeks still have a rosey glow! We stopped at Costco on the way home, which is another one of Mac's favorite places since they have a ...

I pulled out Willies kitty carrier this evening for his upcoming vet visit and set it in the living room. It had an old towel in it so I went to get a new one, when I returned I found Emily inside the carrier, her whole body. I rushed to get the camera but couldn't get a picture before she backed her way out. It was too darn cute and I'm soooo peeved with myself that I couldn't get the camera fast enough!

We had a fun day today. As I was reading the paper this morning the saw the library was doing a neat kids program today so I gave Mac the option to either go to soccer or go to this program. He thought about it and decided he wanted to do the program at the library. It was pretty cool, two ladies sang a bunch of kids songs, the kids got to play instruments, dance and have a good time. Both kids were shaking their stuff! After that Mac picked out some books and I took the kids for a special Valentines lunch. After a nap Mac rode his bike a while (I fixed the chain which John's help via instructions!). Emily had her moments today but seemed to be a little better today. We didn't make it to the gym, hopefully all will be better on Monday. I forgot my camera so I used my phone again, it doesn't take as great of pics, but it works. I also added a few from Thursday's fun at the park. Happy Valentines to everyone, hopefully you got to share it with a loved one!

Emily just cannot get a break. Not only does she have a miserable cold and is still coughing, she has at least 3 teeth coming in. Two in the front and one molar, all of which I can either see breaking through or feel. I'm beginning to wonder if there is a connection to her teething and getting colds. She seems to have a pattern of getting a cold, then we see teeth, could be a coincidence or related, who knows! To top it off as we were leaving the dentist today she was insistent she wanted to walk, so I let her and she tripped and hit her head on the brick sidewalk and has a good bruise and goose egg on her forehead. What a tough little trooper, poor girl! Red nose from all the wiping and snot, coughing, sore mouth with the teeth coming in and now a sore forehead! Needless to say I didn't get a whole lot done today, I haven't been able to get a good workout in for several days since John's gone and I cannot leave a crabby child in the nursery while I work out. I ...

Mac had his 6 month dental check up today, it went relatively smoothly. He did great up until he wanted to "polish" his teeth, then Mac lost it a little bit but still hung in there and let him do it. Afterwards he was happy as a clam and I let him pick out a special treat for doing so well. Were good to go for another 6 months!

Since the removal of his training wheels Mac has become a bike riding addict. All he wants to do is ride his bike, and ride it some more. John took him out for several hours yesterday, he is getting better and better and can do it pretty much solo with the exception of getting started. He hasn't figured out how to push off and get going. After our crazy day today (Thursdays are our busiest, craziest day of the week) Mac begged to ride his bike when we got home from swim lessons. Initially I wasn't going to let him as it was already after 5, he had no nap today so we needed to get dinner, bath and him in bed at 7. When we pulled up a bunch of the neighborhood kids were out playing, he asked so nicely again so I couldn't say no. He's going to be one sweet talker. Anyway I told him he had a half an hour. I didn't realize how exhausting it would be chasing after him up and down the street and helping get him started, toting Emily on my hip. To add to the exciteme...

Mac had his valentine party at his preschool today, he was asked to bring valentines for all his classmates. I had him pick out valentines a few weeks ago, which he chose Kung Fu Panda. We also picked out a few goodies to send with the valentines. Mac's selection de jour was ring pops, peanut butter hearts and gummy bears. We (more I than we) assembled little bags with valentines for him to take today. Mac did sign all the cards and helped for a few minutes. I also baked some cookies for him to take and share at snack time. He was very excited this morning, when I picked him up he was still excited and talked all about his day. He came home with lots of little valentine cards and goodies, it's like Halloween on a mellower scale. Has it always been this way? John is off on his next trip, so it's me and the kids for a while. I don't know what we'll do on Saturday but we'll find something fun to do.

Poor Emily has yet another bug. Although he won't admit it, I think she caught the nasty cold bug John had. Fortunately we had a doctors appointment today to recheck her ear infection from 2 weeks ago. The doctor tested her for RSV which was negative, so we think she just has a bad cough. Poor girl sounds like she's been smoking for 60 years! We hope and pray for a quick recovery. Mac has had a little runny nose but doesn't appear to be catching the bug yet (we will hope he doesn't). John is preparing for his next trip so the last thing I need is two sick kids, eeek!!!!

Emily had a really rough night last night. She has two teeth coming in so I don't know if it was that or if she is catching John's cold but she wasn't feeling well. John stayed up with her until about 1:30 until she finally fell asleep. Since it was another beautiful day today we decided we needed some fresh air and took the kids to the park to play and for Mac to ride his bike. Emily was in a great mood and seemed to be feeling ok. Emily found the sand box for the first time and thought that was pretty cool, so did I until she started eating the sand! She became grumpy tonight and took forever to go to bed eventhough she was exhausted. Poor thing is coughing so my guess is she had John's cold, I'll hope for a pleasant night for all of us!