Whadda Crazy Month!

The month of March started off with a visit to Katie's G.I. doctor.

(See here to revisit her issues)

Katie's most recent labs weren't spectacular and she was still having issues.

It was decided that just targeting the celiac disease was not working and that she does indeed have both celiac AND crohn's.

This was not happy news as this meant that her medications would have to get stronger.

She's on a steroid to get her symptoms under control (which brings mood swings, insomnia and other fun side effects) and a immunomodulator (an immune system suppressant).

The immunomodulator can effect bone marrow, liver, kidneys and as such requires frequent blood tests.

Pokies are not a favorite of Katie's.
We have some numbing cream to help with the ouchies though.
It seems to help.
A tiny bit.

We were also advised to have Mikey tested for the chance of celiac through blood testing.  The results should be in shortly.

Annnnndddd, 'cause I LOVE having my kids poked and prodded, I signed them up to be retested for their food allergies.  It's been years since we've tested them.
Maybe there are some new allergies....
...Maybe some of the old allergies are gone....
....Maybe...

On to happier things!

Mikey had his V.I.P. day at school.

He got to share some facts and answer questions about himself.

It was fun to watch him be the center of attention.
He was so serious.

Here is his "All About Mikey" poster.

After his little presentation, we passed out a special treat to his class and a goody bag full of Avengers thingies.

"Whaddaya mean my actual birthday isn't for, like, 4 months?"

That same day was the Family Bingo Night event for our school.

For some reason, I volunteered to chair it this year.

Ugh.  It was A LOT of work.

But, the kids love it......sigh.

We held it at the local high school cafeteria and it was packed!!!

We ended up making about $700 profit from it, even though it was supposed to be a wash.

So, that's good news.

This is what it looked like from the stage.

I even recruited Huzbend to create a bingo call sheet app for me so that people would know what numbers were called.  We projected it on a big screen.

He was the official bingo number recorder, while at the same time checking all of our bingo cards for BINGOs.

The kids had a great time, but I was SO glad the event was over.

The next day we paid a visit to the traveling Cirque du Soliel show, Kurios.

It was fantastic.

If you have the chance, or the dough (expensive!!! Yikes!)...GO!

Katie ate cotton candy for the first time and fell in love.

Mikey hated it.

"Yaaayyy!  More for me!  : )"

And then, one nice Saturday afternoon, we paid a visit to a local park and brought some bikes along.

Mikey requested that his training wheels be taken off.

So, they were.

One push and he did it.

Rode like a champ.

Took him just a few more tries and then this happened.....

 

He couldn't wait to "ride in the circle" at home.

Here he is showing off his skills.

There was a Skate Night PTA event we decided to attend.

Mikey did okay for his first time.

It's very hard to hold up a 5 year old and try to remember how to skate at the same time.

He almost wiped me out a few times and my arms were killing me by the end of the night.

I managed to soften the blow of all of his falls, except one last one.

He was standing by himself and WHAM! fell right onto his butt.

After that, and a few tears, he was done for the night.

Katie jumped into her skates, jumped out onto the skate deck and did not look back.

She had a great time (and some hard falls!) and wants to go back again.

Here's some Crazee Katie skating technique.

Look for red shirt and leopard print pants.

What else would you wear skating?

And then, there's Ralph.

Yep.  Ralph.

He's a good dog.  Really, he is.

Just a big pain in the butt sometimes.

On a positive note, I think he could give Terminix a run for their money.

Emerald City Comiccon was coming up and we needed a place for Ralph to spend the day.

We decided to try boarding him as a test run for some vacations coming up.

Well, turns out that Ralph had many issues according to the lady that owns the boarding place.

This place is "open format", which means there are no kennels that the dogs stay in.  They have big yards to run in with other dogs and then every couple of hours they take a break.

At night, they sleep in a communal doggie living room, unless they're a puppy and then they sleep in a crate.

Here's the feedback I got:

Ralph loves people more than dogs.  He has separation anxiety.

When he does hang with dogs, he doesn't have good manners and annoys them (i.e. mounts them constantly).

He jumps on people (he hit some worker in the nuts), whines when alone, uses his weight to push over gates and refused to enter his crate at night.

Annnnnd, he's overweight.

Dude has issues.

Well, issues when he's not with us.

I knew that he was a Mama's Boy.

That he was a bit, uh, big boned.

That he got overexcited when meeting people.

Just didn't think it was a problem.

Guess it is, when he isn't home.

Needless to say, he survived the weekend.

He seemed fine when I picked him up, even after all the comments I got from the owner.

Sigh.

We've got a lot to work out before we go away.

So, while Ralph was experiencing separation anxiety, we were on our way to the Emerald City Comiccon.

Wampas!

Hobbits, Dwarves, Elves, Wizards, Riders of Rohan, Gondorians, etc.!

Tiamat, Dragon Lady, OH MY!

Comicon is pretty awesome.

Fun and super, super, super crowded.

They have a kids area with all sorts of stuff kids like.

Like booths to have your photo taken.....

....with silly props.

And legos.  Lots and lots of legos.

(We actually ran into some fellow geek neighbors.

The two Dr. Who's, Leia and Luke below)

Even full sized Artoo units made out of legos that move around and beep at you!

And don't get me started on the Ewoks.

If you've never had a run in with the 501st Legion.

I suggest you search them out.

Then the Starship Troopers (along with the requisite Bug) entered the building and made their way down this tight hallway near some bathrooms.

Only at comicon.....

Oh yeah.

We saw No Face.

He tried to give the kids gold coins.

Mikey, remembering what happened in the movie, was thinking twice about his choice to take the coin.

He gave it back.

Black Manta was there!

Outrageous!

And this dude.

I mean, who IS that?

Right before we left we came face to face with a life-sized MODOK and some of his minions.

The Batman and Joker were intrigued......

Joker was very pleased to meet a villain that looked so ridiculously evil. 

Batman, on the other hand, had been tipped off by that dude in the red metal suit and decided to take matters into his own hands.......

KA-POW!!!!

We decided that it was time to head home.

Walking through the parking garage, some people were gushing over the kids.

"OH MY GOD!  A KID JOKER!  OH!  AND LOOK, KID BATMAN!!!"

It had happened a few times during the day.

Mikey turned around and said,

"Hi!  You can take a picture of us, you know!"

The Joker enjoyed the days entertainment and vowed to return next year, pie in hand.

Batman told us that it was, "Awesome" and then cuddled with his Yoshi while skimming through a comic book based on a role playing game.

"Smile for the camera, Batsy!"