Today Kylie, Melissa and I ventured out to Plymouth to take in the ice show. The annual ice festival seemed smaller this year compared to memories of past years, but it was still neat to go and see. Despite it being very cold this year we all enjoyed it. It was Kylie’s first time going so she was very impressed with all the ice sculptures and enjoyed seeing them being carved out as we watched. Hopefully we can go again next year and it won’t be so cold. Here is a picture of Kylie all bundled up at the event (the rest of her from this day are in her album here) and as you can see she was really enjoying herself. All the pictures of the ice sculptures can be found in the gallery here.
Category Archives: Family
All Wheels Are A Go
Well that wasn’t too bad, the 4 wheel selector switched has been replaced and they even did it for less than the quote, a dollar less but still less. Surprisingly I was only at the dealership for about 40 minutes, I think I am happier about the speed of getting in and out than I am about the lower cost. Though I looked at the receipt and wish I had the tools, knowledge and ability to perform some of these repairs myself as the part was only $28. That would have saved me some money, but then again maybe not considering I would have had to have the tools and such as well. Oh well, it’s fixed now and functioning properly and that is what is really important.
An Odd Heart Issue
I got o a phone call this morning from Tiffany saying she was on her way to take Kylie to the doctor and asking if I could meet them there. I told her I could most likely move some things around on my schedule and meet them at the office, and then I asked why they were going. She said that yesterday Kylie was supposed to have a hot lunch at school but when she came home she told Mommy that she didn’t eat. When asked why she didn’t eat Kylie said that the chicken fingers were to hot. Mommy told her she could have blew on them to cool them down and Kylie said she decided to just eat her carrots. Everything seemed fine and they went about their day, later that evening Mommy had plans to go out to a hockey game and while she was gone Mimi had asked Kylie how her day at school was. Kylie told her about her day and when she told Mimi she didn’t eat her lunch and Mimi asked why she was given the same response of the chicken fingers being to hot. However this time, when Mimi said she could have blown on them, Kylie responded with a slightly more expanded answer that seemed rather odd, and so Mimi told Mommy about it when she came home. It turns out that not only were the chicken nuggets hot but Kylie said she couldn’t blow on them because her “heart was beating very fast and was hurting her chest and back” so she just ate her carrots. When Mommy asked Kylie about it this morning Kylie said the same thing and that it was to hard for her to blow on them so she just ate her carrots. She said she told the “lunch teacher” as well, but didn’t say what that teacher said and nothing was said to Tiffany about it when she picked Kylie up. So Tiffany called the doctor and explained the situation to them and they said to bring her in right away because they wanted to check on her. When I met them up at the doctor’s office Kylie seemed perfectly fine, as usual, but I was still interested in what the outcome of this would be. The exam went smoothly and all seems to be well, but the doctor said there still could be an issue. He said it could be something as simple as she pulled a muscle in her chest from coughing and that is why her chest and back hurt and she relates it to her heart because it is on that side, or she could have a case of costochondritis which Mommy also has. Alternatively, he said it is possible that she had an episode of Supraventricular Tachycardia, which apparently is something that children often flip in and out of, and “means that from time to time your heart beats very fast for a reason other than exercise, high fever, or stress.” It is really difficult to diagnose in children Kylie’s age due to their inherent lack of fully understanding their bodies yet and also the limitations of their vocabulary (though Kylie’s is extensive) and how they express themselves. He said it is nothing to worry about seeing as this is the first time she has ever mentioned anything like this, but if she does mention it further that we should make note of it and depending on the frequency we may do some testing at a later date. Either way she had a clean bill of health for today’s exam; weighing in at 52 pounds and having a slight fever (99.7), but her heart sounded perfect and her lungs were clear; additionally there were no signs of ear infections and surprisingly no strep.
The Cost of Ownership
Called the dealership today and got a quote to repair the switch for the four wheel drive, as it turns out they can’t replace just the knob but instead need to replace the entire switch. They gave me a quote of $97.40 for parts, labor and tax and they are estimating it will take 30 minutes to an hour to do the repair. The part needs to be ordered because they don’t have it on hand so I made an appointment for next Monday seeing as I don’t have work then. I guess next Monday I will be spending around an hour at the dealership and be $100 poorer when I leave. Such is the cost of owning a vehicle I guess.
There Goes The Four Wheel Drive
It was bound to happen eventually, especially in the winter. The switch that controls the four wheel drive on my truck finally stopped working tonight. When I purchased the truck over a year ago (my how time flies) the knob on the switch was already broke. It could slide out of the console and I could see that the plastic stem that connected to the switch mechanism was broke, but it could still be used to engage the four wheel drive. Tonight it stopped properly activating and deactivating though. I was able to put the truck in four wheel high tonight, which I needed to drive home down 94 (thanks for doing such a fine job of snow removal on the highways MDOT) but when I got back home I could only drop it into Auto-four wheel, not back to two wheel. I guess I will need to call the dealership on Monday and find out how much it will cost to replace it, hopefully we don’t get to much snow before I get it fixed.
It’s Christmas! It’s Christmas!
Merry Christmas!!
Surprisingly enough, Kylie slept until almost 8:30, I expected her to wake up much sooner. She was very excited to see she had a new Dog Pillow Pet waiting by the tree. She enjoyed all of her new gifts and was especially excited about her new Yoda plush that actually talks when
you squeeze him. The most precious and special gift, though, was her new pair of earrings. Daddy got her a very special pair of earrings, her very first diamonds! Kylie was very surprised to see them and she said they were very pretty and just what she wanted, but she wouldn’t let Daddy switch them out. I think because this would be the first time her earrings were switched out since they were pierced, that she was a little nervous to have Daddy do it. So we need to wait until she goes home to Mommy’s so Mommy can change them. In any event it was a very happy morning and I am very glad I was able to spend it with Kylie.
[Update: 2:46] Mommy just sent over this picture, (above to the right) they just put Kylie’s new earrings in and everyone loves them. They look great and Kylie loves them!
Merry Christmas Eve
This year is the first one that Kylie is staying with Daddy on Christmas Eve and opening gifts here in the morning. So to prepare for Santa’s arrival Melissa and Kylie have baked some sugar cookies and we are going to place them on “Santa’s plate” on Kylie’s table right near the tree. Kylie has already opened one present, her brand new pajamas that Mimi made and as an added bonus she got to talk to Nana and Uncle Wayne! We are all very excited to see what the morning is going to bring. Unfortunately Melissa won’t be able to join us because she has to work in the morning. Some pictures were taken tonight and can be found in the gallery here.
Weekend in Frankenmuth
This weekend Melissa and I did something we have never really done before, we simply went away for the weekend. Sure we have gone places before; back to NY for a wedding, and Melissa tagged along once on a work trip to PA, but we have never just gotten away. This weekend, however, we had the opportunity to get away and so we took it. We didn’t really go far, only about 90 minutes from home up north to Frankenmuth to walk around and visit the shops and then head over to Bronner’s. We had both been to Bronner’s a number of times before, but I had never actually been to Frankenmuth, I’ve driven threw it, but never actually stopped in and walked around. Considering we were able to get a really good deal on a hotel room at the SpringHill Suites, we decided to go up for the weekend. We spent, literally, the entire day Saturday just walking around all the little shops along Main Street and the River Place shops, we even had lunch at the Bavarian Inn, but I did not have chicken. It was real nice and I think I would like to go back up when the weather is a little nicer to see what it looks like thawed out and to take one of the riverboat rides. Also I wouldn’t mind going up and seeing the inside of the Frankenmuth Brewery, apparently they don’t open until noon on Sunday and we had to go to Bronner’s. It would also be great to be able to someday purchase one of the beautiful Grandfather Clock’s from the Frankenmuth Clock Company. I think the best part of the weekend though, was just simply getting away from all the hustle and bustle that has been going on recently with work and the holidays fast approaching. Hopefully we will be able to get away again some other time.
Wiggly Teeth
For quite a while now Kylie has been asking when she was going to lose her teeth, as this would mean she is growing up and becoming a big girl. When I told her that I didn’t know, that they would get loose and come out when they were ready, she would say “Well when I am six they will come out.” So imagine her surprise when she awoke this morning to find not one, but two loose teeth! She was so very excited that she had to call Daddy and tell him all about it. When I answered the phone she said “Daddy! Guess what!? I have two wiggly teeth!” Turns out that both of her front two bottom teeth are just becoming loose. She is very excited about this new turn of events and is looking forward to them coming out and her new grown up teeth coming in. As for Mommy and Daddy, while we are both very excited for Kylie, we are also a little sad because it means Kylie is growing up all to fast.
First Kindergarten Parent-Teacher Confereence
This morning Mommy went to Kylie’s first kindergarten parent teacher conference with Miss Rader, Kylie’s kindergarten teacher, about Kylie’s progress for this marking period (Daddy was going to go too, but it was a 10 minute meeting, so Mommy told Daddy not to make the 2 hour round trip when she could easily fill him in). Miss Rader started off saying that she LOVES having Kylie in her class, she said she wished she had 20 more just like her. She said that Kylie was progressing a bit ahead of the class and that she even knew some things that she needed to know by the end of the school year already. She said that Kylie will more than likely be reading by February at the latest due to how much Kylie already knows of the alphabet and how she is already sounding out many words. She told me most of the kids want to sit next to her in class all the time, so she’s pretty popular too. When Mommy asked if Kylie behaved herself and didn’t have to be told things over and over, Miss Rader said that Kylie did much better than most of the children. She said that there are sometimes that she has to ask Kylie twice, but it never has to be said more than two times. Miss Rader told Mommy that Kylie had a couple of boyfriends, to which Mommy laughed. Miss Rader said that she told Kylie that she needed to find some better boyfriends, but between the two of them they figured out the reason Kylie likes the so called “bad boys” was because she had empathy for them because they didn’t have a lot of friends. Miss Rader also told Mommy that Kylie asks questions that seem so adult (which we have always knows). She said one of the questions that stand out in her mind is when someone from the school board came for a visit. He was making his rounds when he stopped by the kindergarten room, he said “hi” to the class and said where he worked. At this point, Kylie raised her hand and asked, “So, are you an educator or a builder?” The man didn’t know how to respond to that question, the cool thing is he came back to the classroom after he had an answer. He proceeded to tell the class for the next 20 minutes about what he did. We (Mommy and Daddy) think it was cool that he did that because of a question Kylie asked, but even better that someone in the school board came back to respond to a 5 year old. It showed Kylie and the rest of the class that it is good to ask questions and if you don’t have an answer, to follow up later when you do. Over all Miss Rader gave Kylie a great report and confirmed that Kylie is ahead of schedule and doing great!