Well, we all love Aunt Joanne so it was a pleasure to be in attendance at her 60th birthday party at Piccirilli's. Uncle Jim threw a great party for her.
My wonderful sister-in-law Jill hooked me up with a babysitter she knew, and John and I were able to go to the party and enjoy ourselves. And we did. There was lots of great chianti to drink, pasta, cake, music, speeches ... the whole works. We got to spend time with friends and family we hadn't seen in a long time.
Aunt Joanne looked beautiful; what a great celebration Jim threw for her:
Chris, Mark, John and John Vrana pose by the bar:
John and I managed to get a picture with the waiter, ha ha. That cruet of wine kept getting filled up and I kept drinking it!
And then the next day . . .
My other sweet sister-in-law made brunch for everyone (egg casserole, monkey bread, bagels and fruit salad) and so we had all these babies together and a great meal. Joe kept saying, "Look at all these kids, Rynnie! Holy Moly!"
I got to spend a little time with the newest baby, Miss Clara Kathryn. She's adorable. She coos and squeals really loudly, for only being 10 weeks old. She's extremely alert, and just a doll. Here she is saying "Peace."
So we all sat around doing what moms do ... plopped in the middle of the toys.
I think my toes made it in the bottom left corner of that picture. Nice pedicure, huh? Compliments of my mom.
Here's Grandma with some more adorable babies:
And here she is with one little guy who thinks the world revolves around him!
But the reality of it . . .
These pictures make everything look nice, but we had a really hard weekend with Stella. She was extremely difficult the entire time. Tantrummy, resistant to transitions, not sleeping, not using the potty. It was really rough.
She got sent home from school last Thursday for crying and pulling at her ears, but when I took her to the doctor's office later that day, the nurse practitioner didn't see any ear problems -- just a sore throat.
Today I took the kids back to the pediatrician because we are trying to change Stella's nighttime medication (which has been in the works for awhile) and a flu shot for AJ. I asked the doctor to check Stella's ears, and she said her left ear was so infected that the ear drum looked like it had cracked! Yikes! So Stella's hopefully going to be acting less "psycho" once she's feeling better.
I think sometime in the next few months, her ear tubes will probably be replaced. I think they're starting to come out and she's had two infections in the last month. Poor girl. I hate the fact that she was suffering in silence.
I hope our next visit to Washington will be better for us. Clearly this time, the reason it was so rough is because she was feeling so bad.
9 comments:
Aunt Jill here...so sorry to hear about Stella's ear infection. that is so sad!! I'm glad we now know whey she was so out of sorts though. I hope she is feeling better. I felt so bad after you left knowing how tough the weekend had been. I'm selfishly VERY GLAD you made the trip though. Spending time with you guys at the party was so much fun and seeing everyone, including the kiddos on Sunday was awesome. I will be coming to B. Creek very soon and looking forward to our visit.
MUCH LOVE AND PRAYERS!!!
Jill
Hey Aunt Karmel,
I was dissapionted that I had to miss the big party, but I had fun at my dads. I hope Stella feels better. I hate getting sick! How is Albert? He looks SO cute in those pictures! I can't wait to see him. Tell everyone I said Hi!
Lot's of love,
Lauren
Oh Lauren, I'm so sorry I forgot to mention you. We all missed you a lot. It was like the cartoon "The Rugrats." There were sooo many babies and we missed the grown-up cousin Lauren. Aren't you going to Chicago in a couple weeks? Have fun! I'm glad I got to meet your new baby sister! Love you .....
Hey Puzzuolis - I loved this post with all the cute pictures! I miss you guys and I still haven't met AJ or Veda.
I'll be home for Thanksgiving this year. I'm arriving on Thanksgiving and leaving the following Tuesday. I'd love to visit you all and I'm willing to drive out to BC too. Hopefully, I can see many Puzzuolis. (I'll also be home for Christmas, but probably not for a long visit this year.)
P.S. I didn't mean to leave out Clara in the list of Puzzuolis I haven't met yet. (It's just obvious that I haven't met her yet.) So, I want to meet Veda, AJ AND Clara! :)
Sure MB. Everyone would love to see you. Maybe we can all get together for a leftovers lunch, hopefully with lots of that Shirk cranberry salad. I'm already looking forward to it. I just hope Stella is doing better and we're brave enough to try a few days away from home again.
Karmel the pictures of the party are great as well as the other pics too. It just reminds us all of how nice the whole affair was. Sorry that Stella was having such a tough time and I hope she gets rid of the infection real soon. "Ooooh, I love that girl" Joe Dad
Poor Stella! Is she doing better? We've had the same experience with Elizabeth several times--she was really acting out and only later did we realize it was because she had an ear infection (the first time we were traveling and she endured two flights before we figured it out!). It's so hard when they can't tell you what's wrong. Elizabeth still won't tell us when she's feeling bad or what hurts. She just says "I'm NOT sick, Mommy!" (meanwhile, she's running a 103 degree fever...).
Oh, and John's dad always told us that it can take awhile (up to a day) after a kid first complains of his/her ear hurting before the doctor can actually see anything. I guess he had plenty of experience with John's sister's chronic ear infections.
Great photos, btw! I agree with Uncle Joe--Holy Moly! Those kids are sure cute!
Karmel,
This is the cutest post with all of the darling little ones! Aunt Kathy and Uncle Joe must have been amazed!
I hope Stella is feeling better. Christopher suffered from chronic ear infections and never complained once that his ears hurt. I can't stress the importance of getting routine hearing exams and making sure your doctor is proactive with her care. I still blame myself for some of Christopher's delays because I didn't question his doctor enough.
I can't believe how much A.J. has grown since I saw him at Tami's house in June! He is just darling and so alert! I can tell he is a handful!
Take care and thanks for sharing with us on your blog! Your pictures and comments are really cute!
Teri
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