More on the big birthday!

A couple of months ago, Josh and I started discussing how we were going to celebrate KayTar's birthday this year. Five is a milestone birthday, after all. She has been asking for a surprise party since she was 3 going on 4, so we started toying with that idea...who would we invite, how would we pull it off, so on and so forth...and after all of that hypothesizing, we were completely in love with the idea! We invited all of her special people; family, our pediatrician, her teacher, her speech therapist, her best friends from school and other places, and some friends she really loves but hasn't been able to see in a while. We have a rather small house, so we planned to have activities outside for the kids...but the weather had other plans which left us scrambling to make indoor room at the last minute. We had a great showing! Of course, a couple of people couldn't make it due to illness or other plans, but overall, it was AWESOME. I think there were 13 kids and 15 adults, which is quite a group for our little house. KayTar had everything she wanted because she was hypothetically planning her party aloud for WEEKS and I was busily taking notes.

It was SO tricky to pull off. You'd think that surprising a nearly 5 year old would be a piece of cake, but not KayTar. I emailed her teacher to find out if any of the friends we were inviting came from Spanish-only homes, so I could invite them properly and she replied that one of them, Ix, did come from a Spanish-only home. The next day KayTar says to me, "Did you know Ix's parents speak Spanish?" I said, "Yes, I did. How do you know that?" She replied, "My teacher said it!" I asked, "Really? When?" KayTar replied, "IN YOUR EMAIL!" I almost DIED! The kid was reading my email, where all the Evite RSVPs were and discussions of parties and whatnot. Oh my! We started speaking in code after that, using terms like "library reading session" or "seminar" instead of party.

Then when I sent the secret invitations to school for her friends, I put them in an opaque envelope with her teacher's name on it. When KayTar was putting her backpack away that day, she OPENED the envelope and read her friends' names off of the invitations. She asked her teacher what they were for, who said (God bless her) that they were secret invitations to the school Valentine's party. WHEW! I had just pulled back into the driveway from drop off when I got a call from her teacher, she led with, "If you pull this party off, it will be a MIRACLE!" and then she told me the invitation story.

Finally, the day before the party, my mom called and said, "What do you want me to bring to the party?" And what did we hear in the receiver? KayTar on another phone in the house, "What party?" AGH! Josh quickly collected all of the extra phones in the house and we told her it was for the Cub Scouts Blue and Gold party. We got really lucky that this is a big party time of year!

In the end, she WAS surprised and it was worth every ounce of effort. She was so thrilled to see all of her special people there and it was a priceless moment. It was a wonderful way to celebrate our big five year old, who has come so far, so fast, that it almost seems unbelievable. We are so proud of the child she has become; outgoing, hilarious, intelligent, and beautiful. I can hardly believe that my once slumpy BABY KayTar is now FIVE.


She requested that the birthday banners stay up for 16 days, but now she has changed her mind to 30. She wants to milk this birthday for all it is worth!
KayTar TV! Our cable lets us play slide shows of photos from Flickr.
Brain cupcakes, as requested.
The reaction! She was just about to start jumping up and down here.

We had everyone sign a big photo mat for her, so we can put it in the frame with a photo from her party and hang it in her bedroom.
Most of Josh's family was MIA, but his mom called to tell KayTar "Happy birthday!" during the party. KayTar told her, "One of those gifts BETTER be my Snow White cleaning set!" LOL! It was, but it happened to be from my mom.
She tore through her gifts at warp speed. In fact I'm STILL not sure who a couple of the gifts came from!
She needed a little helping aiming to get those candles blown out!
PINATA! Somehow the ones we buy are always defective and the men have to forcefully rip it open for the kids.

The kids seemed to have a great time, a few of them even sobbed when it was finally time to go, and the adults were able to sit and have conversations while the kids entertained themselves in the kids' rooms. I think overall it was a big success, but regardless of that, we surprised the heck out of KayTar, and that was what really mattered. She told us, "I thought I was just coming to my sweet home like normal, but it WASN'T!" She is still basking in the glow of her party and that makes all of the extra work to keep things secret worthwhile!

KayTar is FIVE!

Yesterday we threw her a big surprise party and invited all of her special people. It was SO tricky to pull off (more on that later), but more than worth it! I mean, check out her reaction! (I know a lot of people don't bother to watch videos on blogs, but this one is really worth your time, I think!)

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

I'll write more about all of this later, but I have to get back to cramming for my chemistry exam! Studying has taken a backseat to party planning lately and it'll be a small miracle if I manage to absorb anything today.

Wordless Wednesday: Goodbye Cruel World!

Imagine that you come home from school, and go upstairs to check on your sleeping children. You step out of their bedroom and into the hall, and out of the corner of your eye you catch a glimpse of two small legs, hovering in the air horizontally. You turn to get a better look and...



Then you nearly pass out from laughing so hard.

Just like old times...

KayTar and I spent the day in the hospital. Yes, after not a SINGLE visit to the pediatrician since the summer, today we knocked out a pediatrician's appointment and a brief hospital stay. Overachievement is in our nature.

She was sick a couple of weeks ago, minor respiratory crud that we didn't even see the pediatrician for. She missed a week of school, but got over it on her own. She was healthy for a week and then on Saturday, she started sounding pretty rough again and by nightfall she had vomited and spiked a fever. In the night, she started wheezing and although the albuterol helped, she needed it every 2-3 hours to keep the wheezing under control. Sunday she was pretty sick, but we managed to stay out of the ER. In the evening, though, she threw up her bolus feeding and her meds. Before her pediatrician's visit this morning, she threw up her entire feed and then threw up again. And again. AND AGAIN. andagainandagainandagain. The pediatrician listened to her and she didn't sound too bad, but she wanted a chest x-ray because she was satting at 93% and a chemistry panel to check her for dehydration since she hadn't urinated since 6 the prior evening. We went to the hospital and though her chest x-ray was clear, she was wheezing a bit and her glucose level was circling the drain at 39. She was dizzy and lethargic and just NOT her chatty self. Over several hours, they gave her zofran, solumedrol, and glucose...as well as maintenance fluids. Once her numbers came back up and she perked up, she kept down 1/2 a popsicle and a few sips of Sprite...and we were on our way home! It was a long day, but I'm so glad we didn't have to stay overnight. She has to take 4 days of steroids, and I think the IV fluids and zofran will give us plenty of space to keep her hydrated and she should be doing much better soon. Fingers crossed!

TBS would rate this as "Very funny."

For cub scouts on Monday, Josh asked his pack to bring in a collection to show the rest of the group. KayTar goes to scouts with the boys, because I have class, so she is part of the pack, too. She brought her Disney Princess doll collection to show.

Josh wanted the kids to talk about their collections, so he prompted them with questions during their presentation. He asked KayTar, "What do you like about your dolls, KayTar?"

She replied, "Well, I like their hair and the color of their dresses...and that they have B00BS..."

Josh nearly DIED when she said that in front of that room full of 7 year old boys and their parents!

There is never a dull moment when KayTar is around!

What we've been up to...

Our semester started two weeks ago and since then we've been pretty busy getting our new routine down! On Monday and Wednesday evenings, I have Chem II. On Tuesday and Thursday evenings, Josh has Unity of Life (biology I for non-science majors). On Saturday, I have Biology II from 8am-3:30pm...which means 7:30-4, when including drive time. Not to mention scouts on Monday night, along with my volunteer shift at the hospital, and my SI sessions for my classes that both happen to fall on Fridays. As busy as it is, I'm enjoying the new schedule because I get to spend two nights a week with the kids. They are pretty excited to have me around, too.

Three weekends ago, we went to an Aeros hockey game which was so much fun! Two weekends ago, we went to the symphony to see the Planets an HD Odyssey. They played Gustav Holst's music and showed HD video of each of the planets that accompanied the pieces. We really enjoyed it, especially BubTar, and it was fun to get dressed up and go into the city together. Last weekend, we had a tour of a local fire station with the scouts. That was pretty neat and MAN, does that KayTar like to talk. I think she raised her hand upwards of 50 times during that tour. She just couldn't help herself. This weekend we are going to the zoo for a scout class for BubTar and KayTar and I are going to tackle the portion of the zoo we didn't see last time.

KayTar's birthday is coming up soon and we are SO excited. We have decided to throw her a surprise party and we think she is just going to FLIP out. We invited all of her favorite people, even her pediatrician and teachers at school, and I can't wait to see her reaction! With all the busyness, though, finding time to prep things is almost impossible. I think we only have one free weekend before her party and who knows if it will even stay that way. The only free weekend that we had between now and then is now dedicated to a cub scout camping trip! OF COURSE! She is home sick today, but once she is back in class I'm going to have to start using her class time to get started on all of that!

Photos from the hockey game...




Photos from the symphony...




A picture KayTar drew of she and I holding hands...


Out to dinner...


At the fire station...


Someone lost ANOTHER tooth yesterday. That makes 3 total and she is not yet 5!


That's all for now!