Logan's Home!

Logan shows off the mask he got to keep after his
stay at the hospital. He was excited because jet
pilots also wear oxygen masks when they fly "super
high" in the air. You can see there's a smile on his face
so he truly is much better.

Logan responded well to the medications he was
given at the hospital last night. The upshot is that he
had a bronchial infection that triggered a very bad asthma
reaction -- shortness of breath, fast breathing (Mom
counted one breath per second yesterday morning),
wheezing, coughing, not being able to talk well, etc. The
doctor said if there is a 'next time' that he should be given
medication relatively promptly so he doesn't get as
bad as he was yesterday. We were sent home with the
asthma inhaler, though he is not officially diagnosed
with asthma, as it might be a one-off thing. We'll have
to wait and see.

Delenn had a good day with Sue. She has a bad cold,
but is really comfortable with Sue -- and loves all the
toys there. Sue made us a beautiful dinner this evening
so we can all just get our feet back on the ground and
get better. (Dad also has a bad cold and the two
sleepless nights have truly taken a toll on him.)

There is one touching moment about yesterday that I
thought I should share. At one point, while I was going
between Logan (who was calling out in a pathetic voice
"Mommy..." and who was breathing hard and quite
lethargic) and Delenn (who just needed Mommy time
because she didn't feel well), I climbed into bed with
Logan and was rubbing his back. Delenn climbed up
onto the bed and settled herself between me and Logan.
She started rubbing his back too saying "shhh... shhh..."
It was really sweet. So between that and her constantly
asking last night "Where's Logan? Where's Daddy?" -- you
have to know she loves her brother a lot.

Logan's in Hospital for Monitoring

Logan had quite labored breathing all night long (along with vomiting
from 10-3am). Dad hardly got any sleep (except, apparently from 4-5am).
This morning, Logan spent the entire morning in bed calling out for Mom
and with very rapid, worrisome breathing. We had called the doctor's
clinic yesterday and had an appointment for 3:15pm, but we asked to see
the doctor as soon as he was available this afternoon instead. We got a
call that we could be seen at 1:15pm and rushed in. The doctor was
concerned about his breathing and oxygen levels (89% rather than normal,
ie. 100%), so we went in for an x-ray and had an appointment with the
hospital pediatrician. When Logan didn't respond to the asthma medicine
and his oxygen levels didn't improve, he said he'd like Logan to be
admitted this evening so they can keep an eye on him, try out
medications and give him some oxygen.

Daddy picked Delenn up from Sue's -- and then came over with all of
Logan's special things (jets, batty, lizard and the all-important
movie). Logan's energy levels had improved by the time Mom left the
hospital, so that's really good. Delenn is fighting a cold (and was up
much of the night last night as well), so I'm hopeful she'll sleep well
tonight. Better sign off and get her ready for bed.

Logan's Back Under the Weather

Just when we thought Logan was back to normal, he started complaining
that his neck and head hurt again (Sunday evening). Yesterday (Monday),
Mom came out of Delenn's room after reading books to find that Logan had
curled up with a blanket and was asleep on the couch. He spent more
than half the night throwing up and breathing/wheezing heavily. We're
not sure if it's just bad luck that he got gastro on top of he weird
three week bout of fevers/swelling/skin infection or if they are
connected, but we're heading in to see the doctor later today.

Meanwhile, Delenn was up much of the night too. She has a runny
nose/cold. Both Mom and Dad are pretty tired. I guess it'll be a quiet
day. At least we had a good quality day yesterday with painting,
finishing up Logan's first lapbook, board games, lots of time running
around, more than an hour reading together, etc. etc.

Delenn's Fashion Statement

Delenn gets ready to go to feed the wallabies with her Dora t-shirt, fuzzy boots and special doggie handbag.

Feeding the Rock Wallabies

Evening at the Desert Park

Delenn and Logan got to meet Yamba, have their face painted and see the special exhibits on display in the nocturnal house.

Logan's Nature Collection

Logan and Delenn love going Outbush to look for bones.
He generally calls them "Dinosaur Bones." He was excited
to find a fish head skull at Ormiston Gorge a couple weeks
ago. Also included in his growing collection are shells and
pine cones from various trips to the Australian coast.

Thanksgiving Photo

This Too Shall Pass

Over the weekend, Daddy saw that Delenn had something in her mouth.
"Delenn, what's that? Is that money?" he asked as he quickly made his
way over to her. She made a slight choking, swallowing motion and the
flash of silver was gone. "Delenn!" said Daddy. "What did you just
swallow?"

"MONEY!" Delenn said triumphantly.

Today, four days later the now dull-brown 5 cent piece (slightly smaller
than an American penny) passed through her poo.

Meanwhile, Logan has a huge swelling on his neck that has had us (and
the doctor) very concerned. We first noticed it on Sunday and took him
in first thing on Monday. He has a bright red knot that has made much
of his neck swollen. It's been very sore to the touch. He's had a
temperature for more than two weeks as well (ranging between 99 and
102). Sometimes he's just fine and sometimes he's been quite ill and
lethargic. Anyway, the doctor (in consultation with the pediatrician at
the hospital) determined that it was an infection of the skin, but its
location and size (redness about the size of a 50 cent piece and
swelling that extended even further) had us all concerned. The good
news is that now after a couple days on strong antibiotics it appears to
be starting to fade just a little. We're keeping a hawk eye on it.

This isn't the best picture, but you can see how swollen and red his neck is. Poor Logan!

Logan's First Day of Gymnastics

Logan started gymnastics on Nov. 19th. He enjoyed it. The
next week he did even better following directions and focusing.

Camping Trephina Gorge

Night Time Activities on our Campout

Hiking the Next Morning at Trephina Gorge

We were very impressed by how well both kids did on this very steep climb! Delenn did the majority of the hike up by herself -- and Logan hiked both up and down on his own.

Logan's Under the Weather

Logan hasn't been feeling well for the past few days. He keeps his
comfort toys right nearby -- as always an assortment of jets (his
current favorites are the hypersonic jet and the Eurofighter, though he
always seems to have about five with him -- plus the ones that he and
Mom have made out of wood and tin foil), a small light saber (think Star
Wars) and his "Batty" a small stuffed animal (can you guess? a bat!).
As for what's wrong with Logan? It's hard to say because he complains
of his throat and tummy hurting (and has a fever of about 101), but
otherwise is fine. Both Mom and Dad have been feeling especially run
down too, though, so maybe we're all holding something off. We'll see
whether or not we make it to Kindergym this morning.

Delenn cracks us up these days with her little quips. Often she'll look
at us grinning at her and she's declare "NOT FUNNY." That makes us want
to laugh aloud, of course, but we generally try to restrain ourselves so
we don't get the wrath of Delenn reigned down upon us. Delenn can have
quite a temper on her -- and more mornings than not, she wakes up on the
wrong side of the bed. That means she has objections to about anything
you offer her for breakfast. Sigh...

Delenn's counting antics & Logan's memory prowess

Delenn is really accommodating when it comes to sharing. The way we
handle sharing in the family is to count to 20 out loud and then it's
the other person's turn. For example, when jumping on the trampoline,
Delenn will jump while Logan counts to 20. When he's finished counting,
then Delenn gets off and Logan gets on to jump. Then Delenn
enthusiastically counts, from 1-8, and then slyly skips the other
numbers and continues from 17-20. Like I said, she loves taking turns.
Too bad Logan somehow keeps missing the fact that she's skipping the
numbers and shortening his turn :-)

Often (almost every night as of late), after reading books and the
lights are turned out, Daddy is asked to tell a 'Logan & Delenn'
adventure story. It always starts out the same, with Logan & Delenn
getting a good night rest with good dreams to give them energy for the
coming day. Then they wake up, have a good breakfast for more energy,
and then get their backpacks together, to include water, food, warm
clothes, and a first aid kit (medicine, bandages). Daddy usually has
Logan tell him what gets put in the backpack and he manages to always
remember the essentials. After that they say goodbye to Mom and Dad as
they head out in search of adventure. Every night is a completely
different adventure, but this past evening Daddy had them go to a museum
with art, dinosaurs, and various animals. Taking a break and having a
snack, a robber came up to them and took their backpacks. Daddy
described the fact that Logan and Delenn paid attention to what the
robber looked like and what he was wearing. Later, after calling the
police, searching for the robber, and going to the police station, Daddy
was surprised when he asked Logan what the robber looked like. Logan
correctly identified every bit of detail about the robber that Daddy had
described, to include his height, ethnic origin, color of shirt, pants,
and shoes (all different). This is especially surprising when Daddy
believes the kids are asleep and not even paying attention (which does
happen on occasion).

DingoDen Happenings

November 7: Day Trip to Ormistan Gorge:
Since the weather has been very mild in the week, Mommy decided to take advantage of the weather. She packed up lunches and took the kids out to Ormistan Gorge for the day. It was a long drive (a bit over an hour and a half). We had a wonderful time out there. Ormistan Gorge is one of our favorite sites around here. The cliffs are beautiful reds and oranges. When we first arrived, we ate lunch. Then we walked into the gorge. Near the waterhole, we got busy digging in the sand to find water and make our own water hole. Then we headed to the boulder area. It has been raining a lot and there were a number of places where rainwater had collected in among the rocks. Logan and Delenn spent a long time catching tiny little tadpoles (and then letting them go). Then we spent about an hour playing among the boulders -- mostly playing hide and seek and finding treasures (a fish skull, snail shells, a dead "huge" 3-inch long fish and so forth). When it was time to go, Logan was quite reluctant (til he heard there was a cookie waiting for him in the car!!). It was a great day-- the kids were quite tired (so was Mom after 275km of driving), but well worth it. The only down side was that Daddy was at work. :(

November 8: Delenn knows how to count to ten, but when we count in
order to take turns, we always count up to twenty. Logan was jumping on
the trampoline when Mommy overheard Delenn count 1 to 10 then 11, 17,
18, 19, 20! MY TURN!! Cute!

As for preschool kinds of things: Delenn is starting to recognize about
5 letters. Logan works with the abacus and is learning to skip count by
2s, 3s and 5s up to twenty and also is learning to count by 10s. He now
counts to 30. He has known the sounds of the letters for along time now. He's working to "smash" letter sounds together to make a word -- Mommy or Daddy say "f" "l" "a" "t" then he claps and smashes them all together to say "flat." Mommy and Logan are working on a "lapbook" about Thanksgiving. More about that in the next couple of weeks when we're closer to being done.

It is 9:00 am (Nov. 9). The kids are outside eating a snack and Delenn
has already been through three changes of clothes!! (because she's
gotten wet and muddy & it's a bit chilly outside). At breakfast we read
a book about the Pilgrims and the book talked about planting corn and
growing veggies. Logan and Delenn were busy, shoveling up a corner of
the yard so they could "plant" seeds that would grow!

Daddy's soccer season started up last week. This week's game didn't
START until about 10:45pm! They won 2-0. Mommy obviously isn't playing
because of the permanent soccer ball in her belly!

Day Trip to Ormistan Gorge

Logan had to make a bell for Kindermusik. He had to chose to make his out of a medal bowl and a jet airplane. Delenn also made one -- hers was made out of a bowl and fifty-cent piece.