One thing that I know we should do more of is for D and I to take turns spending one-on-one time with k and n.  Saturday night we had that chance because D took k to an Angels game with her girl scout troop.  I ended up taking n to IHOP to redeem a coupon for a free “Rooty Tooty Fresh & Fruity” (“RTF&F”). 

We had the place pretty much to ourselves.  I guess no one really goes to IHOP at 5 p.m. on a Saturday night. 

Sorry for the blurry picture. Did you know that they actually took the RTF&F off the menu?  I thought that was their signature item?!  It is still available as a secret off the menu special.  I was surprised at the boatload of bacon they gave us.  Maybe I am just too used to IKEA breakfasts!

As an added surprise, I took n to Yogurtland afterward.  n was elated—it is not difficult to make him happy!  We ended our night at home by reading tons of books on a bed of blankets on our living room floor.  We fell asleep, and D and k joined us when they returned home after 11 p.m.!  It was a nice night of mother-son bonding. 

I feel like n has been having a lot of “lasts” since he will be going to Kindergarten in September : last BSF a couple of weeks ago, last library storytime today, and last MnM meeting on Friday.  Last Friday we went on what will probably be our last Tanaka Farms strawberry tour after many years of going with our MnM group.

The berries were somewhat better than last year, I believe.

The berries were especially good where it was all muddy, which lured some pickers into the mud! (Not n, though. ).

Picture time can be chaotic with such a large group!

We gave k a rainbow loom for her birthday back in December.  Surprisingly, n was into it, so we bought him his own loom for his birthday in March.  Being a crafty person, I like how it encourages kids to make things with their hands.  While the fad seems to have died down at k’s school, it is still going strong in our house, especially with n!

n wanted to wear all of his bracelets at once.  He has made a good number on his own.  His specialty is the “Triple Single”.

My favorite site for patterns is www.loomlove.com. 

Last Thursday, n was able to go to work with D for the morning.  He was quite excited about it.  We chose not to pull k from school, although some parents did.  This was the first year that Mazda held this event, and it is nice that n has a better idea of where D goes every week day. 

I joined them for lunch (taco truck) and drove n home. 

Ever since we went to Ikea in December for k’s birthday party, n has been waiting for it to be March so we could go to his.  k’s party was quite crowded—tons of kids, not much room to move.  It turned out that n’s party was almost empty in comparison—there were just four birthday kids!  We had an entire table to ourselves, and there was no need for Petals the Clown to speed through tons of kids for the face painting.  The whole thing lasted about an hour—half of the time we spent at k’s party. 

Different cake this time—strawberry cream with chocolate frosting.  Still very good.

This is what happens when there’s not many people at the party—Petals the Clown gives each kid extra balloons to take home since she has no need for them in “Clown Town”, where she lives. 

This guy is 4.5 today.  Our evening ritual is to spend some time in the front yard after dinner.  I thought I would record some of n’s current skillz:

Last week, n had his 4 year wellness checkup.  Aside from a mild cough, the doctor declared him healthy and “low maintenance”.  The next morning, at around 5 a.m., n woke up with a hacking cough and he was slightly wheezing with every breath.  I called his regular doctor, who was out for the rest of the week; the other doctor in the practice was booked until 4 p.m.  Pediatric urgent care hours started at 1 p.m. so we all went there after picking up k from school.  Urgent care was packed, plus there was some sort of medical emergency in the parking lot that sent all of the nurses running, so we ended up upstairs at another regular doctor’s office.  It was quite the ordeal but after about 3 hours we ended up with a nebulizer machine and prescription for 2 drugs, 1 to be given every 12 hours and the other to be given every 4 hours for 7 days.

That’s our n, smiling even while receiving his breathing treatment.

It turns out that it worked pretty quickly, so we didn’t have to do the treatments in the middle of the night (thank goodness) and we didn’t have to do it for the full 7 days.  n was a good sport about it and soon he and k were fighting about whose turn it was to plug in the machine, turn the switch on, etc.  The doctors said it could be asthma, or cold-induced asthma, given his history of eczema, but it’s too early to tell since this was his first wheezing episode.  Hopefully this won’t become a regular occurrence, but at least we are better equipped to handle it if it does.