Another Camping Outing

Another fun camping weekend was had by all this past weekend out at Grayland Beach State Park. We had a mix of weather with rain happening off and on. We did have nice, clear nights for campfires both nights and the day we left turned out to be the nicest day of the weekend (go figure!).
We got out to fly kites a few times. Bob brought his trick kites and got them up and flying. He also let Seth give them a whirl.

My parents bought a wagon to transport the kids from site to site. We had 2 sites together in one part of the park and 2 sites together in another part of the park. So we split eating meals between the two sites and the kids got to ride in style. Gillian especially loved riding in the wagon and looked like a regal member of royalty sitting in the wagon waiting for someone to pull her to her next destination.

We also hit the Westport Winery. It was a pick-up weekend for Club Members. So we went so the club member could get their wine and then because we were with the club members we got free tastings. They also had Italian Wedding Soup and live music. It was a fun thing to do while we waited for the weather to get a little more pleasant. Gillian got lots of attention...she is a seasoned veteran having been to two wine tastings now! Alistair really enjoyed the music and was transfixed on watching the live musicians.

Alistair and his pal Zak. When Alistair spends time at David and Judy's house, Zak follows Alistair everywhere, just on his heels. He is Alistair's own watchdog.

Happy Gillian having some lunch before we leave. Alistair is working hard flying his kite - it requires much concentration.

Alistair is showing off his moves. After watching Bob work his magic with his kites, Alistair figured out that if he moved his arm all around he could make the turtle kite he was flying do some tricks too!

Alistair and Grandpa taking a load off, but Alistair is still flying a kite! He is one talented kid!

Happy Birthday Gillian!

Her bib says it all...Birthday Princess. Our Princess turned 1 yesterday! Hard to believe it has been a whole year! She has grown way too fast. She is such a sweet girl. She is constantly making us smile and certainly keeps us busy. We had her one year appointment yesterday. She is now 17lbs, 7oz (4% - up from 3%) , 28 1/4" tall (24% - up from 8%) and her head is now 17 3/8" (55% - doesn't take after Alistair in that dept!). She has a very hearty appetite. Most meals she starts before we do and ends after we do. It is amazing what she can put away. She is so busy that most of the food goes toward her energy and not her waistline (if only we could all be that lucky!). She is still wearing some 6 month clothes but is starting to fit into 9 month clothing too. Just like Alistair we are getting lots more wears out of her clothes than most kids get! She is doing lots of different finger foods. She LOVES Cheerios, Cheese and Bananas most of all. She loves most fruits actually so far. She also likes some of the meat varieties of jarred baby food. Alistair hated all of those and would gag on them. The only things we have found she routinely will not eat out of a jar is peas and carrots. Otherwise she is good. She is cruising all over the place and is starting to take some steps. We have been encouraging her to do so between the two of us and now I catch her doing it between the table and the couch or something like that. She still only has the two bottom teeth but she has four teeth coming in up top - any day now! They are very visible and obviously painful. If they would only break through it would make all of our lives happier! For her birthday we got some cupcakes from a local bakery. For dinner we had spaghetti and she loved it. Until now we had just been giving her some noodles with butter and cheese. We went for the whole meal deal and she gobbled it up. Then she finished it off with a Soho Strawberry Cupcake. Yum!
Last weekend we had a party for her with the family. It was a fun day! She did so well and seemed to really enjoy the attention. She let us sing happy birthday and didn't mind the applause afterward. She definitely enjoyed her cupcake!

Our little family

The Birthday Girl

Our family is certainly expanding! 3 new babies in the past year - Gillian, Carson and Cooper! Alistair will be 4 next month, Katelin will be 2 in September and Natalie will be a whopping 8 in October!!!! Where does the time go??

Here comes Peter Cottontail

Happy Easter! We had a wonderful day! We started out the morning with an easter egg hunt at our house for Alistair. They both got baskets, but the bunny felt that Alistair would get more out of an egg hunt than Gillian!
The bunny brought fun things in the eggs. He got some Hot Wheels, a Chick Hicks car, some Hot Wheels underwear and a pez dispenser. He also brought some new swimming goggles.

Here's another one!

Everything is blue!

After our fun morning, we headed to Fox Island for more Easter fun and a delicious meal. Seth's parents also joined us. As soon as everyone arrived, Alistair and Natalie had an egg hunt - each egg contained $.50! They each got $10! Then all the grandkids got easter baskets to open. It was almost as good as Christmas!

Alistair and Natalie are ready to go on an egg hunt! Of course the eggs might stay in better if they use the baskets correctly!

Right in time for the hunt the winds kicked up and the rain came dow. - such a perfect PNW hunt!

Don't forget to look in ALL the planters!

An orange racing boat!!! Wow! Uncle Jeff and Aunt Michelle received major kudos for this!

Gillian's first pony! Well probably only pony, let's be realistic! ;)

March Madness...

...and not the NCAA kind. The month of March came in like a lamb and went out like a lion for this Hennessey family. We had 4, count them, 4 ER visits in the second half of the month; 3 for Alistair and 1 for Seth. It all started on the 14th when Alistair tripped on the carpet in the rec room and whacked his head on the bookshelves in the corner of the room. We thought he just would have a wicked bump, but he ended up splitting it. We got him calmed down and the bleeding stopped to see the damage. We told him we would have to go to the doctor and he started to freak out about having to get stitches. The doctor said we could go either way with sewing up his cut; either glueing it or stitches. Considering how Alistair responded to the idea of getting stitches (he remembered from last year), we decided on the glue. He was really brave and sat still while they got his head taken care of.

We went back to the ER on that Thursday, the 18th, for a mysterious stomach pain. He woke up from his nap screaming, crying and writhing around in pain. He said his stomach hurt and wouldn't stand up straight or lay down flat. He tried going to the bathroom and it didn't make a difference. Alistair seems to have a pretty high tolerance for pain so for him to act like this was highly unusual. So I took him to the hospital. They did an xray and an ultrasound and found nothing. They tested his urine for a urinary tract infection, but it came back negative. They were baffled and had decided to do a CT scan. Right before the IV team arrived to place an IV, I realized Alistair wasn't writhing around in pain anymore. I asked him if anything hurt and he said, "No, I am all better!!" All his pain was gone and he was sitting up laughing at Spongebob that we had put on to try to distract him. So the doctor decided to observe him for about an hour and see how he was doing. When he came back to check, Alistair was racing the stool around the room and riding it like a scooter. He looked at Seth and said, "So he is like 100% better!" The doctor's best guess is that he had a twisted bowel that untwisted itself.

That Saturday the 20th we were camping at Cape Disappointment. Seth has been having a heck of a time with the tree pollens this season. He has been taking Zyrtec religiously. Apparently the alder pollen is pretty bad on the longbeach penninsula and Seth had a reaction to it...in his eye. Saturday afternoon his eye was itchy, red, swollen and looked gelatinous. So he went to the ER in Ilwaco and found out he had Allergic Conjunctivitis...his eye was completely inflamed by pollen. He prescribed him some anti-itch eye drops and within 18 hours he was feeling much better.

Our most scary ER visit happened this past Tuesday, the 30th. I woke-up around 2am hearing what sounded like Alistair's bed rattling around over the baby monitor. As I quickly woke-up and listened more intently, I realized that his bed was shaking and I immediately ran in there. He was having a Febrile Seizure. He had one in February of 2009, so I knew what to do. First I called Seth and he got him on the floor and stripped while I called 911. He stopped seizing by the time they got there and the EMTs just monitored him until he seemed to come around a bit. I rode in the ambulance to Children's with Alistair and we were at the hospital for a few hours. Seth came and got us around 5am or so. Alistair was fine but it took him most of the day to come out of the haze, a lot longer than last time. The doctor told me it takes kids longer to come out of it completely as they get older. She also told me 2/3 of kids who have seizures never have another. So that makes us the lucky 1/3 that have experienced it twice now! He should grow out of it by 6 years old, but hopefully he doesn't have another - both for his sake as well as ours! It isn't harmful to him or mean he will have epilepsy or anything, it is just the brain's way of protecting the body during a very high fever spike. Not fun!

So now it is April and we are hoping a new month means a new page and no more ER visits!

First Camping Trip of the Season

On March 19th we headed out to Cape Disappointment for 3 nights of camping with both sets of parents. We had a great time. It was sunny the first day we were there and the second day it got really windy. By the afternoon we were dealing with rain showers, but they mostly happened at night. On Sunday it was a real mix of weather, but doable to be out in. Monday, of course, turned out to be a nice day. But that is how it is when you are packing up to leave, the weather gets nice in time for you to not enjoy it! (: We tried to get out on the beach to play with sand and kites, but the wind was pretty relentless and the temps had dropped. We did do our traditional trek to Ocean Park to browse Jack's. This store has just about anything you could be looking for, and some things are aren't! If you get out on the longbeach penninsula, you have got to make time to drive out there and browse! You will be surprised! Afterward Judy and I were dropped off 5 miles from Ilwaco and walked back. We are both walking the Tacoma City 1/2 Marathon in May and needed to get a long walk in. Seth also was dropped off and did the 8 miles Discovery Trail and then ran back to meet us. He is running the 1/2 Marathon. The nice thing about this trip and the mostly unfavorable weather as well as the crawling baby is that my parents just got a new trailer. It is slightly larger than the one they had, but the layout is much different and provides for a ton more space. All of us were able to be inside without being overly cramped. Best of all Gillian was able to crawl around a play! We had a fun time and do it all again in a few weeks at Grayland.
Gorgeous day on the beach!

We put Alistair behind this piece of driftwood to block the wind so he could build a sand castle.

Bleary-eyed Gillian

All bundled up to visit the beach

This boat was washed up way up on the beach. It said Shanghai on the bow. Blowing kisses Alistair was climbing trees with Papa

Home sweet home

Alistair's fine hodge podge of clothes prior to breakfast. He wanted to go play outside but not get dressed yet!

The sea air was good for Gillian's curls. Her hair actually stayed curly after it dried! It was SO cute and I hope it continues to be that way when it gets longer!

Hanging out cooking dinner