Thursday, January 31, 2008

Toddler + the Croup = Disney? Yes, apparently we really are that nuts.

So here's installment number one of the Mellon Disney Chronicles. Let's go back, back into time. A week from today actually, the day before our big adventure was set to begin. The day started so well...noodle went off to school, and I set to packing everything we'd need for the trip. During my packing frenzy, a most wonderful surprise made its way to my front door. My friend Teresa, who henceforth will be known as the most wonderful person in the whole world, brought me a pepperoni roll from her hometown. Mmmm, I thoroughly enjoyed that tasty little treat while taking my break from suitcase stuffing. Mmmm my belly growls just thinking about it...

Things continued to run smoothly. I got most of the needed supplies stuffed into various containers, noodle came home from school, and we sat down to dinner. The little guy was starting to cough, but he still seemed content and happy. He headed up for a bath and bed with his papa, and I settled down to zone out in front of some must see tv. When all of the sudden, I hear Drew on the baby monitor saying, "Mellon, Chase just threw up". Ugh.

I arrived upstairs to find that "threw up" was much too gentle a phrase to describe the event I was witnessing. The child was violently ill with piles all over the room which included a bit running down the dresser drawers. Projectile. Lovely.

I held him as he continued his upchuckage, and then stripped him and put him in the bath. There he started wheezing and developed a rash. Uh-oh. Since we thought he might be allergic to the antibiotic that he was taking for his ear infections, we rushed off to the doctor for a diagnosis. Of course, there was no definitive answer to what caused the reaction, but the doc thought it was probably croup rather than an allergy. Croup is a fun vocal chord infection that causes wheezy like coughing all through the night, and can last for several nights. We were given Prednisone for the possible croup and a new antibiotic for the his ears just in case there was a reaction to the medicine. The doctor didn't seem to think the odds were in our favor for making it to our vacation destination the next day. Things were looking grim...

So, we resigned ourselves to being up all night with a coughing, hacking noodle. Or, I should say Drew resigned himself, as nothing short of an earthquake keeps me from getting my 8 hours of shut eye. But lo and behold, the kid slept through the night and was perfectly fine the next morning. Disney here we come!




The plane ride was quick and stress free. Of course, Chase didn't nap on the plane, but are we really surprised by that? We arrived at the Animal Kingdom Lodge around 4, and thought he might take a quick nap before dinner. Nope. Not going to happen. He was too interested in looking at the giraffes and zebras outside his window, and who can blame him really?





Since the lack of sleep had made the little guy cranky, we opted for room service and a little downtime in the room. We ate, sat on the balcony and watched the animals. Chase fell on the door track and got a nasty bruise, but since he has the pain threshold of a WWF wrestler, it barely registered a cry from him. Then we got him into his bed and patted ourselves on the backs for having a pretty relaxing/successful travel day. Until we heard the sounds of the little man regurgitating his dinner in the next room...

Our little traveler was sick again. What were we going to do? Was our trip ruined beyond repair? Dum... dum... dum!


Tune in next time for the second installment of Mellon's Disney Chronicles.

See you real soon...

for a Disney trip recap. Until then, enjoy this picture of the monkey carrying his monkey through Disney Hollywood Studios.

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Chef BoyarChase

If you dad won't let your mom get you a kitchen, it's ok. Just use your friend Allie's kitchen as if it's your own. Oh, and be sure to pose nicely for pictures to show Daddy. Order up!




Saturday, January 19, 2008

It's going to be an all nighter


Noodle wanted me to let you know that he shouldn't be disturbed under any circumstances. He has lots of research and coloring to do in order to prepare for his big Disney Trip coming up here in late January. He's well stocked in the refreshment department, so please don't worry about his health. However, if you happen to come across a Wiggles CD, he'd love a little mood music.


Friday, January 18, 2008

This is your life Mellon

This morning after getting noodle from his crib, changing noodle, feeding the fish, getting juice for noodle, entertaining noodle, feeding noodle breakfast, cleaning up after noodle, feeding the dog, letting the dog out, locating and emptying stray sippy cups, cleaning up the kitchen, picking up noodle toys, dressing noodle, clipping noodle's fingernails, cleaning noodle's room, and folding and putting away three loads of laundry; I look at Drew who just woke up 20 minutes ago and who has just emerged all sparkly clean from his kid-free shower and say:

"I'm going to take a nice long shower now. One long enough for me to wash my hair and shave my legs. Ok?"

To which Drew replies:

"What do you think this is? A spa or something?"

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Let's Talk Pepperoni Rolls

Or rather, let's just let Laura whine a little bit about how no one in Northern Virginia knows what I'm talking about when I say I want a pepperoni roll. No, it's not a calzone. It's a pepperoni roll. There is a huge difference. For starters, a pepperoni roll is made from bread dough not pizza dough. Also, there is no cheese or sauce in a pepperoni roll--it's just the pepperoni, the bread and the grease--god bless the grease.

Now in my hometown, you can buy these heavenly concoctions at the local Foodland, Dairy Mart, or even get them in your high school cafeteria, but please keep in mind that there are degrees of tastiness associated with each pepperoni roll's origin. Oddly enough, the ones from the school cafeteria are the tastiest due to the meat to bread ratio that results in terrifically greasy bread. Dairy Mart's are a little skimpy with the pepperoni and try to make up for it by adding sub par cheese into the mix. As previously mentioned, there is no cheese in a pepperoni roll, but a DM roll will do in a pinch.

So anyway, why am I rambling on about this topic? Well because I'm going through withdraw. We went to the lake last weekend to see my parents because we miss them and because I needed them to bring me a 6 pack of the mouthwatering goodness from their Foodland, and now I've eaten them all and I want more. In truth they were gone Monday morning. It's a sickness I tell you. So while I dream of eating more of that artery clogging divineness, you can look at these pictures of Chase from tumbling and the lake. I'd have more pictures but the battery died in my camera which is a reoccurring theme that deserves its own ranting post.



Ps...it's Drew's birthday, so if you see him give him a few birthday swats.

Tuesday, January 08, 2008

Republican? Democrat? Eh Demopublican?

Here are the results of a little quiz I stole from Ms. Mander's journal. The quiz matched my views on key issues with the presidential candidates' views. It's difficult for me because I think that the liberals are right about things like civil liberties, gay marriage and health care, but I disagree with their ideas about banning fire arms and government spending. Hmmm. I guess I should really be an independent since my views don't match any party really well. That's me, Independent Mellon. But actually, I think I'll stay a registered Republican so I can use my ballot to vote against any of the crazy, right wing, equal rights denying, Bible thumping, fire and brimstone candidates that can often thrive in this party. When in doubt, vote for the one that you believe will cause the least amount of damage--that's my motto.

65% Bill Richardson
58% Tom Tancredo
57% Hillary Clinton
56% John McCain
56% Barack Obama
56% Chris Dodd
56% Mitt Romney
56% John Edwards
53% Mike Huckabee
53% Fred Thompson
49% Mike Gravel
48% Rudy Giuliani
48% Ron Paul
46% Joe Biden
44% Dennis Kucinich

2008 Presidential Candidate Matching Quiz

Truly a future Mountaineer



See, he's already working on scaling those mountains, but we have to start small you know. Another item of note concerning our little alpinist is that he has a current fascination with wearing all items made of cloth as a scarf. This includes--but is certainly not limited to--pants, shirts, towels, rags, sun visors, socks and underwear. Every kid should have mommy's bra wrapped around his neck at least once right? Sorry no pictures of that--yet.

Wednesday, January 02, 2008

The jury's still out

on how wonderful 2008 may prove to be for the Mellon family. So far, it has fallen short of spectacular. It all started a couple of days after Christmas when Chase was diagnosed with Strep throat. Now, this sounds worse than it actually was...overall he was pretty happy and easy going considering how bad he could have been. Now, he's back to his old self even though he has to continue taking his antibiotic until Monday.

But then, Andy woke up on New Year's Eve feeling a little something in his throat, so off we went to the CVS Minute Clinic to be swabbed for Strep. I was negative as I knew I would be since I felt fine. But Drew, well Drew was "inconclusive". The nurse said his throat looked like he was probably positive, but she'd have to send a sample out to the lab to be sure. Well, this was a big bummer because it meant we had to cancel our plans since no one with toddlers wants to be around a strep carrier. Nor, does anyone want to kiss a tainted mouth, so no stroke of midnight kisses for me this year. Thus, New Year's Eve was spent watching Jon and Kate plus 8 and HGTV. I was in bed by 11 and asleep just after I heard all of the neighborhood fireworks going off. Yes, I party hard.

On New Year's day, Drew was feeling worse and we were pretty sure that he had the strep. So he returned to CVS to get Noodle more antibiotic (I didn't realize I had to refrigerate it. Bad Mamma) and check on the results of his strep test. Well, the nurse the day before neglected to mention that even though the results would be ready the next day, the actual clinic wouldn't be open on New Year's Day to go ahead and pass those results on to us. So, off he went to Urgent Care where he spent 3 hours just to be told what we already knew: strep positive. He got drugs and dinner, and came home to a starving, grumpy Mellon. You see, when I'm hungry, there's only a brief amount of time before I go from reasonable to psychotic. So, when the hunger strikes, those near me either need to put something in my face right that second or they need to get far, far away from me. Unfortunately, Drew's arrival time had passed that reasonable threshold and I was in spitting fire mode. I quickly recover though after food has hit my tummy, so at least he was only miserable an extra 15 or so. :-)
So anyway, that's the story of our 2008 so far. I'm really hoping that I don't get this strep thing from Drew as the last time I had it I was so miserable for days. I was a senior in high school, and I distinctly remember lying on my dad's La-Z-Boy under a mountain of blankets watching Night of the Twisters and thinking that I would gladly trade places with Devon Sawa if it meant I could swallow without screaming out in pain. I think I might have to pull a Michael Jackson and start walking around with a mask over my face until the Drew is no longer contagious. Probably should carry some Lysol around with me too, and spray everything the man touches. Happy New Year.