our eventful night

Monday April 2nd started out an odd day. I went over to
Washington High School to register Paige for  high school. And while I was happy that she got into Wash -- I was still registering Paige for high school...
>sigh<
I still hadn't fully processed the whole thing and we all had an uneventful evening -- all the little ones were in bed and Paige was just going too after finishing up her homework.
It was around 10:20pm

Paige appears in our room with a look of horror on her face -- and quietly says to us, "You guys have to come right now. I don't think DJ is breathing"
Both Mike and I fly down the stairs into his room.
DJ won't open his eyes or respond, but he is breathing.

We have no idea what is going on.

Mike tells his dad to call 911.
Somehow Paige tells us she heard him coughing, and then making a loud gurgling sound so she got out of bed to check on him.
By the time Vic walks downstairs to open the door for the paramedics, they are here.
DJ is still not responding.
Paige is upstairs with Mikey and I think Vic went up there too.
Around this time DJ is coming out of it enough to be terrified of all the commotion and recognize Mike.

He keeps crying/yelling "Dad. Dad. Dad"
and fighting off the paramedics who are trying to start an IV.
Mike had to hold him down.
I think there were about 8 paramedics and firefighters in the room.

At this time they tell us it was probably a seizure.
Which is a relief to Mike since he thought DJ had a stroke.

They get DJ strapped into a sitting gurney and carry him downstairs and outside where he was transferred to another gurney, screaming for Mike the entire time.

I will tell you, nobody is better in a situation than my husband. He always knows how to handle things and he makes everyone feel secure in that knowledge. He knows how to fix anything that breaks -- or who to call if he can't (and he knows when he can't) He knows how to treat people. He's the guy that all the women at the market ask to reach things for them off the top shelf. He is that confident in everything he does.
But at this moment in time, with DJ calling for him, he can barely hold it together.

I'm sitting in the ambulance with DJ and one other guy who is asking me questions. DJ is still scared, but he is there.
He keeps asking, "Mama, may I please not ride in the ambulance? Mama, may I please just stay home?"
When the paramedic guy asks DJ if he has blurry vision and DJ response is,
"Well, it depends. I don't have my glasses RIGHT now. And I need my glasses or things are blurry. And I think I left my glasses on my nightstand. But usually, WITH my glasses I do not have blurry vision"
I figured he was okay.

In the ER.
Hooked up to everything. DJ is fine. Explained to him what was going on. He is just thrilled to be watching iCarly...
I'm texting Paige. She is quite upset. She's in our bed with Mikey who won't go to sleep. Kelly never woke up for any of it --
Paige is beating herself up wishing she had gotten out of bed to check on DJ sooner. We call her and both Mike and I reassure her that she did exactly the right things. She wants to talk to her brother to make sure he is okay.
DJ has a CT scan.
We are asked to explain about his ear implant, but everything looks great.

I did know a little bit about seizures, having read about febrile seizures when the kids were babies. I knew that the seizures might be scary, but usually weren't harmful. That people got hurt by hitting their head or something during them -- not from the actual seizures.
The ER doctor explained that DJ might never have another one in his lifetime and that the type he had (what used to called grand mal) didn't happen frequently, so go home, and check in with his pediatrician tomorrow.
We were home by 1:30am

Mike brought the air mattress up and we set it up in our room.
We are all exhausted, but DJ was still thrilled to be up so late -- we all stayed up for awhile. Talking, getting Paige to bed and just trying to get things situated for the morning.
Mike and I both fell asleep right before 4am and DJ was on his way, but the tv was still on.

Close to 4:30 I hear this awful gurgling, choking sound and yelled for Mike just as he heard it too. We both rush over, Mike gets DJ on his side. His eyes are closed and he is completely tensed up. I keep my hand on him, talking to him, as Mike calls the ER.
The doctor tells Mike to wait about 15 minutes and slowly try to wake DJ. If we can't wake him, bring him back to the ER. If he seems okay, call his doctor in the morning -- he will most likely have to be admitted to the hospital for tests.
Twenty minutes later, DJ is in our bed with me (and Mikey) and happy to chat about Dances with Wolves, which we are now watching.
About an hour later, I fall asleep. Mike stays up with DJ.
Mike wakes the girls up for school, they get ready -- he calls DJ's school and wakes me up so I can call Dr. Lee's office while he takes Paige and Kelly to school.
DJ is still awake, so I turn off the tv and tell him to try and sleep. He is out instantly.
I call the office right at 8:30, it's still the service. I call again, the same.
I am sitting up in bed, facing the pillows -- DJ and Mikey are both asleep.
I see DJ's mouth twitch in an odd way.
I move closer to him, between the boys.
DJ's entire body tensed up. His face was pulled and his eyes were wide open and blood shot. He had one arm pulled in tight to his body and the other extended.
His lips started turning blue.
I started to feel panicked -- I looked at the clock, it was almost two full minutes.
All of a sudden his body released the lock on itself.

I knew it would be at least 15 minutes before he would come to. I called the doctors office. They said to take DJ to UCSF emergency room.
As soon as Mike returned from dropping off the girls, I got dressed, got Mikey dressed -- and DJ was still out.
I took him much longer to come back this time. He was very wobbly and was sick in the car right as we pulled up to the hospital. His speech was still slurred when the doctor came in to check on him.

Meanwhile, Mikey decides he is going to be
The Happiest Toddler Ever
and is making me insane. He is playing peek-a-boo with nurses and running in circles and high-fiving everyone.
>sigh<
I do not have the patience for one more person telling me how cute he is...
Thankfully, a friend came and picked him up. (Thank you Misty!) She also picked up Miss K and brought them to her own kid's dentist appointment -- and back to her house. Mike O signed Paige out of school and dropped her off.
Our 7 hours in the ER would have been so much harder if we didn't have such great friends.

So, DJ slept (while we watched every twitch) for about 45 min and then was woken up by the pediatric neurologist who needed to examine him.

Then he was hooked up to an EEG

and he wouldn't go back to sleep.
He did make me take a picture of his brain though --

The neurology team that came in following the EEG explained that they were going to treat the 3 seizures like they were 1 big one. That the type they think he had usually show up on both sides of the brain not just the right side like DJ's does. And the type they think he had usually starts at a much younger age.
They want to do an MRI, and see someone in the neurology clinic since they really still have no idea what is going on with him.
We go home.

I call for the MRI, it's not in their records... the person who can help me is out of town... The neurology clinic people call on Thursday and the earliest they can see him is May 1st.
ok
But The doctor might want to see him earlier after she looks at his chart. They will call me.
ok
They call me Friday late afternoon. They want to see him first thing Monday morning. Please call their office if he has another seizure.

what? That doesn't freak me out or anything.

Monday morning. More tests. The doctor THINKS he has benign rolandic epilepsy, BUT it isn't showing up correctly on the EEG. She called it a "developmental" epilepsy. But he has no family history, isn't the age that these things start (6-8yr) and the abnormalities on his brain are different than in benign rolandic epilepsy.
...ok
Since his CT scan was good, they'll wait on the MRI, but they want another EEG. One while he is sleeping.
BUT it could very well be something else going on in his brain,
they don't know.
The seizures might happen once a month, but maybe more often. He should outgrow them within 5 years.
The good news being they will probably only happen in his sleep.
They gave me a medication to stop them if they last for more than 5 minutes.
Now we are just waiting to hear from them to schedule another EEG.


He is back at school today.

nighttime excitement

Everyone in the house was asleep except me
when Kelly woke up last night complaining of a stomach ache. I gave her a sip of water and she went back to bed, only to return
around 2:30 or so -- to cough and almost throw up all over my bed!

We made it to the bathroom, but in the meantime, Mikey woke up screaming for me. Dad, being still really asleep, tried to comfort him, but he kept screaming louder and louder as I was cleaning Kelly up and getting her new PJ's.
I get her settled, and back into bed and then go to hurry and try to clean up the bathroom -- only to find ONE Clorox wipe in the container.
{aaagh}
Mikey is screaming his head off !


I finally get back into bed and he just cries and cries and cries while I hold him. His is MAD, but after about half an hour, he falls asleep.
The bathroom light turns on almost immediately after that. I call to Kelly to find out if she needs me, and she is just cupping water in her hand and getting a drink. She gets back into her bed right after.

Then DJ is at my bedroom door.
"Kelly woke me up, and then I heard Mikey crying. It seemed like it might be a difficult situation for you, so I came up to see if you need anything"
{awwww}

DJ likes to have a job to do, so I asked him to go get Kelly a tiny cup of water and set it by her bed.
He goes down to the kitchen, comes back up and gives it to her, and then comes in to tell me he is going back down to bed. As he was walking out my door -- he meets Kelly running from her bed...

At least she hits the hardwood floor between the rug in her room and the carpet in the hall.

Well, DJ yells, "Oh great!!! This is all my fault for giving her water!" and is almost crying.

Kelly is crying.

Dad is sleeping through all of this.

I wake up Mr. Sleepsthroughitall, and he goes to help Kelly in the bathroom.
(by help, I mean that he stands there in the doorway while she is sick)

The baby wakes up in my arms with a huge smile on his face and is hugging my neck super tight and rubbing his face on mine.
It is one of those moments that you want to savor and bask in for as long as possible, but I have a sick 5 year old, an upset 11 year old, a tired 40 year old and a mess to clean up off the floor.
{whaaa}

I get everyone cleaned up and settled back into bed.

Kelly has a few more, " I feel sick" and runs to the bathroom, but she is good, and Dad goes with her every time, since I have a sleeping 2 year old laying on me.

We all have just about settled down --

and then there is an earthquake.

DJ comes up again.
The earthquake was only a 3.6, but the house really shakes when you all the way upstairs --
and since he is up, I make him check on Kelly, she is almost asleep, and is not concerned about the earthquake at all.

As I am falling to sleep, I realize we also
have a Miss. Sleepsthroughitall.
Our sleepy teenage Paige missed out on all the action ~

daddy got a crockpot

We have been super busy these last couple of weeks!
Baby Mikey turned 2 on the 5th and Daddy Mikey turned 40 on the 12th.
Just yesterday Paige turned 14!
.......14
Wow.
It seems like we have been baking cakes and singing Happy Birthday ever other day ~

Since Big Mikey's birthday was on a Wednesday (school night) and he didn't want to celebrate on one of the busy weekends on either end, it was a pretty
low key 40.

But the kids did get to make his cake

and I had a few decorations for him that I picked up

the kids "made his wrapping paper

and yeah, we really got him a crock pot!

that didn't take long

Three of the four kids are now in school full time. Three different schools.
Three different sets of GERMS

How is it that the only one not in school, got the first cold of the school year?

Pretty sure it was Paige's fault.
She said she wasn't feeling well for a couple of days, but I thought she was just tired from going back to school.
(so I sort of ignored her)
Besides, Paige has this crazy immune system where she throws off colds and such in a couple of days -- where say DJ will have the same cold for two weeks and end up with pneumonia... No joke.
(I seriously think it's because she nursed for so long)

Well, you know I caught it from the baby.
{sneeze}
I feel yucky.

I am trying to keep it away from the other kids, but as usual, my main goal is to keep it away from Mike. I'd rather have a cold for twice as long than for him to catch it --

and if he ends up getting it,
this will be all of us for the next week:

Wish me luck!

mama's boy

Maybe I should discourage the behavior, but I don't.

I kinda think it's adorable --

My little guy Mikey won't let anyone else near me.

No.

Seriously.

He will separate me from anyone I am hugging or holding hands with. He grabs them and pushes them away and YELLS at them if they don't move. If I am cuddling another kid, it lasts less than 10 seconds before he is jamming himself between us.

It is so hilarious!

Big Mikey doesn't find this as cute as I do.

I think I am liking this so much because all the others adore Dad and have definitely preferred him over me for most (okay, all) of their lives.

No joke.

AND the middle two liked their sibling over me too.

DJ, up until about 2 years ago did everything Paige asked him to, and did it with a smile. Now he does everything Kelly says... but Kelly, unlike Paige, worships him! It floors me sometimes how close those two are since they are 6 years apart.

All of this has never bothered me.
Mike feeds these kids -- of course they like him more!

But now I finally have one that likes me the best.
(tee hee)

So I plan on keeping him a Mama's Boy for as long as I can!

berryessa

I have the Lake on the brain today.

We took the kids out on the boat last week. It was Baby Mikey's first time. We all had a blast! All three of the big kids were jumping off the back --
(man, Kelly is fearless)
Mikey napped.

I am sure I wasn't the only one thinking that Robyn (my mother-in-law) would have loved it too.

But today I am missing our place there.
{sigh}
I miss the casualness of it.
I miss the kids feeding the deer.
I miss the dog running around (and the dog)
I miss the view.

Maybe I am just feeling extra girly today, because to me, it was a romantic place to be.

My husband is a romantic guy who doesn't realize he is romantic ~
He is always doing things for me and never complains about anything I do.
And he just loves me.
So yeah, he and I are never really alone. Like alone without kids. I mean, they are downstairs right now, but they are here, right? The place at the Lake was small, so they were even closer -- but the Lake always makes me think of us. Like us as a couple.

I even miss driving up there.
{sigh}

I guess that today I am feeling pretty bummed that our place is gone.

(I am crossing my fingers that Mike doesn't figure out how floopy and girly I am right now. If he catches on, the rest of the afternoon will be unbearable with his teasing!)

on our way

I like to have everything planned and organized before a trip. I start early. I get everyone's clothes together and make lists and pack bags in my head days (weeks...) ahead of time. I give myself time to have all the laundry done and straighten up before we leave. Some things came up before this trip, so I was extra glad I didn't have to stress what we were taking or try to find things last minute. Except that we couldn't find this one huge green duffel bag that I like to use.
Still can't find it!
Mike does all the boy things. Gets the van ready mostly. Brakes, oil, washing.
Packing the cooler.
(finding the bags for me)

This year we got one of those cases that go on top of the car. We looked at a bunch online and read reviews. We ended up getting a Thule 867 Tahoe Rooftop Cargo Bag It seemed better than a hard case and the one other we considered had poles in it to hold it's shape, but we decided against it thinking it might tear. The one complaint about the Thule one was that it was only water resistant, not water proof, but since we weren't driving across country or through snow, that shouldn't matter to us.
We live in California anyway.
And will be using it in the summer.
So, right before we leave, there is this huge storm coming our way.
In June.
Our last trip to San Diego was in the pouring rain.
hmmm

Mike packed up the van the night before including the big cargo bag thing. He put a tarp over it in case it started raining overnight. (we live in the city, our garage is small and the van doesn't fit )

The kids sleep in their sweats/traveling clothes and every pillow pet is in the van along with a blanket for each kid.
(yeah, I warned you I plan ahead)

We got them up at 4am and it was POURING rain. It didn't faze the kids, but Mike was stressed thinking everything was getting soaked and that the bag might fly off any second -- since this was our first time using it and we were driving through a STORM.

I ban all iPod use, thinking that if they are a bit bored, they will fall asleep. Um. Not MY kids. They are on an adventure and want to chat! Most of them fell asleep for a little bit a couple hours in.

It was still raining.

We (well Mike) drove through the rain for four hours. It finally stopped raining when were reached the Grapevine.

We gave ourselves a 12 hour window to get down to San Diego. It took us that long each way on our trip to Disneyland and the last time we went to San Diego and when we came back from there too. We always stop whenever someone wants/needs to and I hate to listen to my baby cry. So we take extra time.
But none of them were crying or asking to stop.
Other than the eventual traffic in Los Angeles, we had easy sailing the rest of the way and made it down  in almost 9 hours.

Of course that made us way too early for check in at the Grand Pacific Palisades that Michael Pagliocca at Elite Travel Planners hooked us up with.

BUT the "rain resistant" bag thing ended up being closer to rain proof
-- since only one thing in the bag got a little wet and even then it was just damp!

{to be continued}

versatile blogger award

Being fairly new to the blogging world, I feel very grateful to be one of the winners of the

Versatile Blogger Award!

I would like to say Thank You to Chauny from Chauny Writes! for kindly choosing me! Chauny Writes! is a blog that I just found and was immediately drawn to. Chauny describes herself as a "Writer, Encourager, and Motivator. Writes Self Help works that motivate and Inspire!" How could you not love that?!

Please stop by her blog Chauny Writes!


the rules of the Versatile Blogger Award are as follows:

Thank the person who gave you the award by linking back to them in your post.
Tell us seven things about yourself.
Award fifteen recently discovered new bloggers.

seven things about me:

1) I used to be obsessively organized, but I have let that go (for the most part)
I had to have every one's clothes categorized on colored hangers and all the kid's wooden puzzle pieces and their doll house and their books had to be in order if they weren't playing with them. I would still be like that if I had time to do it -- and if my husband didn't make fun of me for it. My stomach still hurts sometimes when I can't find the 'whole set' of something.
2) I was an Army Brat and I hated moving. Until we moved to San Francisco when I was 14, I went to a different school every 18 months or so. Some people thrive in that environment, I did not.
3) I was my Grandma's favorite.
4) I am head over heels, madly in love with my husband -- and it makes me mad that he knows it. If you know Mike, you know what I mean and can feel for me. It even makes me all girly and weepy to think about it.
Ick.
5) I never understood what love was until I held Paige. I remember just staring at her and being overwhelmed by this feeling of having always known her. Before and after, forever.
6) At times I have the sense of humor of an eight year old boy, and I am never sarcastic.
7) I think my kids are The Best and The Most Adorable kids on the planet. I really do. I know there must be other cuter kids out there, and I know you are supposed to think all of them are cute in some way... but, I like mine The Best.
-- I also have some majorly freakin' cute nieces and a nephew, that really, in my head I also count as mine.


I don't just enjoy 'mommy blogs' so my blog list has a little of everything -- including my son's!
So check them out when you can, I'm sure you'll like them too ~

fifteen wonderful blogs:

La Familia Hendrickson

Book Reviews and Life by DJ

Ruby Envy Beauty Blog

Elite Travel Planners

Is this my life?

The Gnome's Mom

i am baker

Super Mom Blog

that sounds like crazy

Cherry Blossoms {the blog}

Nicole's Random Things

Utah Baby Blog

Barnes family blog

Spilled Milkshake

groovy mojo

ey-s-uh

People cannot say our last name correctly.

Having a boring first name, I was always the one who tried to make sure I pronounced other's names correctly. I had a friend Leif, who would answer to LEAF, but I never called him that. I had to say it the right way. I am sure it never mattered to him, but it mattered to me.
I don't know why I had a thing about this. Maybe it it because I never liked my first name. I always thought it was a name for Old Ladies. Now that I am fast approaching Old Ladydom -- I am not so much liking Carol any better, but I have come to terms with it.
I even gave Paige a longer middle name in case she didn't want to be called Paige. She could be Beth or Liz...
but she likes Paige.

I do like Carol more than Kismet.
Yes, my mom wanted to name me Kismet. My grandmother didn't like the name Kismet, and since my grandmother worked at the hospital where I was born, she filled out my birth certificate and named me Carol.
Thank you Grandma!

Being an Aissa has brought on a new level of this name pronunciation for me.

"Thank you Mrs. Ey-Eye-See"

"Here you go, Mrs. Eye-See-Uh"

or Mike's favorite

"ASS- Ey-Uh" (which was how it was pronounced on a loudspeaker, during a football game)

Having had this weird name thing my whole life, it is now really funny that now that it is MY name that is being mispronounced,
I don't care at all.
It is really cute how people get so excited when you tell them they got it right.
And it is super amusing to see people struggle with it (maybe I am a little mean)
But it doesn't bug me at all.

I wasn't around for it, but I guess Robyn would tell people, "It's Aissa, not Asshole" which is very classic Robyn!
Maybe I should make it up on a t-shirt....

So it is EY-S-UH.
Aissa.
Originally, the name was Ay-Eye-Suh, but that is when the family was sheepherders in Spain.

While I am at it, it spelled AISSA, not ASSIA.
Just saying.

lucky girl

I know I am spoiled.

I have the family I always dreamed of having and I sing praises about my kids all the time. I don't often brag about my husband.
('cause I'm spoiled)

I know people claim that they married their best friend, but I really did.

We spend all our time together and we never argue. I mean ALL our time -- I might stay home, like right now, and he will pick up one of the kids from school, but that is pretty much the only time we are not together.

We have had exactly one fight. It was about 8 years ago and I was completely justified in being angry.

He gets up early with DJ and gets him to school. This seems fairly easy, but it is actually, huge. DJ is the only 'morning' person in our family and is really happy to start his day. He is even happier to spend this time with his Dad. You know, one on one guy time.
This allows me to sleep in with the baby.
Then he drives the girls to school.

He lets me organize everything, so he drives us to the market or soccer practice or just to the park to play -- wherever I have mapped out where we need to be that day.
And he cooks for us all. And does the menu, so all the shopping at the market too.
(spoiled)

I am sure that I must annoy him at times, and it drives me nuts when he gets crumbs on the bed, but it's almost weird that we get along so well.
(could be 'cause I'm spoiled)

He doesn't have a typical male ego, so I never worry about stepping on it.
He is romantic without thinking he is.
He puts all of us before himself.
He makes me feel safe -- and that all the children are safe.

I am always myself  with him.

So, Happy Anniversary to my wonderful husband!

I am one lucky girl.

dinner

Let me start by saying, yes, I know I am spoiled.
One of the reasons being, that my husband makes dinner every night.

Mike is a great cook. The man can make anything. He is the guy that everyone says should open his own place -- mainly so they can eat his food whenever they like, I'm sure. Seriously, we invite people over for a kids birthday party and the first thing they ask is "What is Mike making?"
{sigh}
That alone could make the argument for me not to make dinner.

Me, I like to bake. I like following instructions and measuring ingredients and having it all come out great.
I do not like having to guess when a hamburger or chicken or steak is cooked through. I can do it, but it's mostly just comical because it really stresses me out. It's even funnier watching me attempt to flip an egg, but I don't even try that any more.

Mike makes things like ribs (with his own BBQ sauce) and garlic bread. Tacos and Mexican casserole. Prime rib and roasted potatoes. He makes turkey in a citrus brine that is the best ever. He makes burritos. He makes shrimp salad with his own Louie dressing. Oh, and he makes his own mustard.

I can't compete with that.

I make pasta.

I do have to give myself a little credit and say that when I do make the things I know how to make, they come out pretty good, but the list is short and it does contain mostly pasta dishes.

None of this is why he does all the cooking.

This is why:
Me, chopping basil or something.
Mike, leaning on the counter watching me. You can tell he wants to say something, but being a thoughtful man, he doesn't say a word -- for a full 30 seconds.
Mike, "Do you want me to do that for you?"
Me, "Am I doing it wrong?"
Mike, "No, not at all. I just want to make it easier for you."

Imagine years of this. I'm not doing it the wrong way, but I don't believe he thinks I am doing it the right way either.

So yeah, the kids never ask me what's for dinner. They do ask, "What is Dad making for dinner?" the minute they get home from school and even though it's not always ribs, all of them are usually happy about whatever he makes.
Well, except Paige, but that is another story.

yelling hippos

I am going to start this by saying that I rarely ever tell a stranger's kid how to behave. Mainly because I don't want anyone ever thinking it's okay to yell at one of my kids, but also it's not my job and I don't like confrontation or drama.
Kelly wanted to go to the zoo for her birthday. Well, actually, she wanted to fly to Ohio and see her cousin Solana for her birthday, but we had to settle for her 2nd choice...
DJ and Kelly are off school this week, so we drop Paige off at her school and we get to the zoo early enough to see the bears get fed. One of the things I love about being in the city is that we get to go to the zoo often enough that we never feel like we have to see everything in one day. The train is running, so we ride the train -- and let me tell you, Mikey LOVES the train! He giggles and laughs the entire ride. It is super cute!
We have a new hippo at the zoo, so of course we have to go check it out. Next to the enclosure is a near life size bronze hippo that looks like he is half in the water, for the kids to sit and climb on. You know, it's surrounded by the squishy play mat stuff --

While DJ and Kelly are climbing on the statue hippo, Mikey and I are checking out the real hippo and Mike is sitting on the other side of it with the stroller. I am keeping an eye on them, but not paying too close attention. Then I hear DJ ask a little boy younger than Kelly, "Hey, are you trying to annoy her on purpose?" So I send DJ over to Mike to explain why he said that to the kid. He tells him that this little boy keeps following Kelly to where she is on the hippo and gets next to her and pushes her off. He has done this 4 or 5 times at this point. DJ goes back to playing and Mike just called across and told me what was going on. So now, I am paying closer attention.
For a few minutes DJ and Kelly are the only kids there and are leaping over the hippo -- then the little boy came back, along with some other kids, so I made them stop so no one would get hurt and the other kids could climb on it. I watch this boy try and get to Kelly again, but DJ put his body in front of her and the kid backed off. DJ didn't say anything to him, or touch him at all. And at this point, because Kelly is not being hurt, I am really just curious to see how DJ will handle the situation.
Mikey is just sort of running around in a circle while I pretend to chase him, when I hear DJ call me. I look up to see DJ sitting on the hippo and this little boy trying to push him off. He can't do it, DJ is too big, but he is not stopping and DJ is looking at me not knowing what to do --
So I step over to them and say, "We keep our hands to ourselves." I didn't shout, or even look directly at the little boy. He takes his hands off DJ and I take the two or three steps back over to Mikey.
All of a sudden, some woman comes running at me screaming, "Don't talk to my son!"
Well, I don't like to be yelled at --
and honestly, I don't remember all the things I shouted back at her.
But I did tell her her kid was over here pushing other kids and her she just kept yelling, "He's Three!" over and over, and "You should have come and found me!"
I think that was the point where Mike stood up and shouted back, asking her where she was the whole time her kid was pushing everyone --- and telling her if he was only three, she shouldn't have been so far from him.

She grabbed her little boy and kinda hurried away, telling me to f*** off over her shoulder. Mike told me later that I called her a dumb b**** right before that, but I really don't remember saying it.

I still cannot figure out why this woman came at me and was so aggressive.

It was strange, after she scurried away, I looked up and we were surrounded by other parents asking what happened and if I was okay. One mom even said she had had her camera ready to take pictures if need be and another told me not to let it ruin our day. Someone else even said she noticed that DJ never once pushed the little boy back. (Of course not!)
We collected the kids and brought them to the cafe for lunch. Mike of course, being a man, was hoping for chance to confront them again... and I'm trying to ignore my own feeling of wanting just to leave and go home... So we are in the cafe and Mike has the kids at a table while I was getting the food as the same woman was about to walk in. Mike made eye contact with the guy that was with her -- and was hoping to say something to him, when they turned around and left.

I am so used to how big a man my husband is that I am surprised by it sometimes. I mean, nobody ever yells at him.

I wasn't going to write about this, but I had a hard time sleeping for thinking about it. I often ask the kids (usually DJ) when they are angry or they are crying over something, if there is a better way they could have handled it, and I can't help but think I should have handled things differently.
I don't know.
Maybe I am just still mad.

Last night, I am snuggling with Kelly and talking about the day, when she says, "Mama, you got to argue with someone today".
So I ask her why she thinks I was arguing.
"Because that other Mama wasn't teaching her boy that he should keep his hands off people."
I ask her if she was upset by any of it.
"No, only I didn't like being pushed."

Well, okay then.