Scary Allergic Reaction, LegoLand and Disneyland!... (Week 176/38)

Ahhh!  SO LATE!  So what that this post is almost a week late, look for another long post tomorrow!

Anyway, pretend today is Wednesday 11/24, and Thanksgiving hasn't happened yet.  (Look for your Thanksgiving greeting in tomorrow's post, hehe).  We had quite some drama this past week.  It all started out with Katelyn getting sent home on Tuesday (11/16) from school with a fever of 102.  Poor thing.  That night it spiked up to nearly 105 and Will and I were totally freaked out.  Took her to our pediatrician's office Wednesday morning to get everything checked out.  I was pretty happy because the doctor on call that morning was her normal pediatrician Dr. Galang.  Diagnosis?  Ear infection.  Dr. Galang prescribed us some antibiotics and we were on our way.  Later that morning I went to pick up the antiobiotics (Amoxicillan) from the pharmacy, and the pharmacist warned about possible allergic reactions to the medication.  OK I thought.  We gave Katelyn a dose that morning, and another one at night.  Thursday morning she got another dose.   (Usually Thursday mornings K goes to school but I had her stay at home that day with my nanny since she was pretty grumpy from her ear infection).  Everything seemed fine until about 10am when my nanny brought K in and was like: "um...are her hands looking pretty puffy....?".  See photo below.

My first reaction was to gasp and gawk... about how cute that darn bow was that Cheyenne had gotten to stay in Katelyn's hair.  Focus Kathy!  Then I noticed her hands.  Really red and swollen.  You could see the swollen puffiness up her arms and on her feet/toes.  A rash was quickly appearing on her cheeks as well.  Uh-oh.  Definitely not normal.  I called my pediatrician's office and they asked how far I was from the office.  We're pretty close (10 min?) and they had us come in immediately.  Aahhh!  I was definitely concerned but I knew we were going to be fine since Katelyn didn't seem to having any breathing issues.  Pedal to the medal and we were brought in to see a doctor as soon as we got in (um, although I think they did take my copay first. Hmmm.)  They had us undress her to get her checked out (you can see in the picture below how red/swollen her feet were too).  Katelyn was such a trooper - happily munching on a cracker.

We saw Dr. Downes - the owner of the practice.  I had seen her once before when Tyler was a newborn - and wasn't a big fan of her bedside manner.  But this time around she really grew on me.  They gave her a benadryl shot and also drew some blood to get her tested for allergies and get her white blood count.  Dr. Downes directed us to give her Children's Benadryl and Children's Zyrtex since it would take 5-7 days for the amoxicillan to get out of her system.  Plus she'd call me later with the results of the white blood count (to see if the ear infection was viral or bacterial). 

Anyway, that was Thursday.  We started her on Zyrtex and Benadryl and the swelling seemed to go down.  Poor thing.  By Friday though, there were red splotches starting to appear on her body.  I had kind of expected some, and left a message for my pediatrician's office to call me back.  VERY annoyed that I didn't get a call back that day.  Hmm.  I was hoping the Zyrtex would help it calm down but it seemed to be getting worse.  These photos were from Friday night.  Poor Katelyn!

The redness doesn't look as dark as it was in reality.  It was all over!  My nanny was really worried too!

Ahhh!  Poor Katelyn.  It must have been so itchy!

Saturday morning we headed to the Open hours at the pediatrician's office.  They have a 830-930 hour just for walk-ins.  We got there at 840 and there was a LONG line outside the door.  ARGH.  It was really cold/kind of rainy and I guess there were a lot of sick kids.  I talked to the receptionist about our situation and she had us wait in the "well" waiting room (their office has separate waiting rooms for sick kids vs. not sick kids).  Tyler was able to play with the train table in there (I wouldn't let him touch anything in the sick waiting room!)

You can kind of see in this picture how swollen Katelyn's face was getting.  There was redness/swollenness around her eyes!  Poor K!  We saw Dr. Gans and they gave Katelyn a steroid shot.  So many pricks for my poor little girl!  Also, they prescribed us some oral steroids for Katelyn to take the next 4 days twice a day.  That was some allergic reaction!  Amazingly, within the next few hours, we saw a lot of the redness/rashes magically subside.  Whew!

After the doctor appointment, we headed over to a birthday party.  I thought about staying home with Katelyn but she seemed fine and we figured the people watching would distract her.  It was this little girl's (Madison) 2nd birthday.  Madison is Tyler's friend Dylan's little sister.  I still remember when she was a baby! Craziness!

Since it was raining on and off, they moved the party to a community center at one of the parks in Irvine.  Tyler had a lot of fun running around and around.  He would play with his friends outside, and then run in and grab a handful of goldfish crackers, and then run out and play again.

Doesn't Katelyn look like a little boy here?  This is a photo of Katelyn and our friend Stacy (Kaden and Kylee's dad).  Oh, it was a luah-Hawaiian themed party, and they had a roast pig!  YUM!

The favors were little sand buckets with the kids' regular names and Hawaiian names on them.  Super cute!  Oh yes, and yummy cookies inside as well.

I was pretty amazed at how well the steroid shot worked.  The redness/rash seemed to go away pretty quick, but then started coming back again.  ACK!  I was really worried since the pediatrician's office is closed the next day (Sundays).  I put in another call to the office and talked to Dr. Gans again - she assured me that it was normal for the rashes to come back and to keep up with the Zyrtex/Benadryl/oral steroids.  Poor Katelyn!  She's usually really good at taking medicine (not like how Tyler was) but even this was a lot for her to be taking!

Sunday morning we headed out to breakfast at our favorite breakfast joint Marmalade Cafe.  Katelyn was in a good mood and her skin was back to her usual fair/clearness!

She happily ate bananas and pancakes.  Yum!  She is really into table foods now - loves anything she can pick up with her own fingers.  Banana slices - eh, not so easy to pick up though...

Here's a video of Katelyn eating bananas and pancakes.  yum!


Later that afternoon, Tyler's cousins arrived.  YAY!  My sister Grace flew in from Texas with 2 of her kids - Adam and Ryan.  Tyler was VERY excited that they were coming (I even used it to bribe him to take a nap without any fussing!).  The boys were excited to play together.

Grace brought a bag of hairbands with big flowers.  Supercute!  That's how they do it in Texas I guess!

Here's Grace with Katelyn.  We've gone to visit them in Texas once a year ever since Tyler was born.  It's always a lot of fun!

I was secretly relieved that Katelyn was back to her pretty little self - makes picture taking much more enjoyable. :)

The boys took a break from playing to have a quick dinner.  Finally - some use out of the table/chair set I bought 50% off last year! 

Tyler has never eaten cabbage in his life.  Ever.  His usual response would be "Ewww, it's yucky!  I don't like salad!".  But throw in the idea of a race between him and his cousins?  He scarfed that cabbage down!

You can see in this picture that his eyes are watering because he was trying to eat so fast.  Hah!  I'm not complaining though!

My mom helped feed Katelyn - who was a very good eater that night.  She'd open her mouth super wide for my mom, especially for the yobaby yogurt.  At one point Katelyn even reached out and grabbed my mom's hand to get her to go faster.  She's quite impatient these days!  If she doesn't get what she wants immediately, she'll definitely let you know.

Then the boys got ready for bed.  Tyler got to have his first ever sleepover!  We put an air mattress on the floor in his room and Adam/Ryan slept there.  It, uh, took a while for them all to fall asleep because Tyler started getting clingy and insisting that someone sleep with him.  Um, hello? Your cousins are in the same room!  Then he'd wake up Adam and then Grace would come in and tell Adam to go to sleep or else.  It was a relief when they finally all fell asleep!

Monday morning. Bright and early.  Destination?  Legoland!  We had the kids dressed really warm because it was SO cold that morning!  Katelyn even had a cute flower to match her bib. :)

The flower band even stayed on for most of the long car ride.  Katelyn was entertained just watching the 3 boys in the backrow (we drove my parents' minivan).

This was their response to my question: "Who's excited about Legoland!"

Of course, right when we were almost there, Katelyn started getting super fussy in her carseat and fell asleep (quite a battle!) RIGHT as we were pulling into the parking lot for Legoland.  Thank goodness we were still super early and the park wasn't open yet, so Will and Grace took the boys to run around outside while I stayed in the car with Katelyn. 

Good thing there were lots of things for the kids to look at as they ran around.

Tyler liked the Legoboy.

This is what happens when you try to get a group picture of 2 3-year-olds and a 4 year old.

It's all fun and games (the shoving and laughing) until someone gets their eyes poked out.  Then it's "I'm not going to be your friend!" ...which I think is Tyler's favorite saying when he gets upset. 

Here's Ryan and Tyler waiting for the park to open.  This was Grace's double stroller - surprisingly compact!

Tyler hung out in our UppaBaby while I carried Katelyn in the Ergobaby.  He is totally too long for it though, but it still works!  Usually he just rides around on the rollerboard attachment.

Finally! We're in the park!  The park wasn't too crowded that day and we did pretty much every ride we wanted to do.  We started the day out in the Medieval Times style land.  First ride of the day was a little kid Dinosaur rollercoaster.  Tyler just barely made it through with the 40" height limit.  Bad idea.  He cried on almost the whole thing.  The kid is not a fan of rollercoasters!  We stuck with slower rides for the rest of the day.

Katelyn was happy as long as she had a snack to munch on.

Here's Tyler coming out of a slide.  The main slide is actually one of those long ones that you can slide down on a mat.  We got up there and Tyler totally chickened out.  Good thing they had windy slide off to the slide.  At first, Tyler wouldn't even go down that one!  It wasn't until Ryan (who also chickened out from the main slide?) came over and went down did Tyler agree.  Whew.

Next Grace took her boys on one of those slides that go up/down/up/down - lots of dropping - which Tyler had no interest in.  So instead he went to play in this shooting playground.  It was actually pretty cool, you climb up to the second level and there you can shoot plastic balls out into the main middle area.  Tyler was very into collecting ammunition for one of the guns that was being manned by an older boy. 

It was really cute, he was like the sidekick.  He'd get the ammo, fill it up and the boy would shoot into the middle area.  After a little bit, the boy asked Tyler if he wanted to shoot (AWWW!) and helped him aim since he couldn't see over the gun!  What a nice kid (he's the one in the sunglasses).

The last time we were at Legoland, Tyler was too small for almost all of the rides.  This time he could go on most of them (but chose to only go on the slower ones).  Here we are on an airplane ride.

And something called...Aquazone racers?  I'm holding him up before the ride started in this picture...

But you can see how high the steering wheel is normally...

It was pretty cold that day - Katelyn had 3 layers on and pants over leggings!  No complaining from me though - I much prefer it colder than hotter if we're out all day!  It made for very comfortable amusement park weather.

How cute is this photo?  The boys checking out the mini Lego cities. 

A cool thing about Legoland are their play areas where kids can play with Legos while the parents wait in line.  Wonderful idea!  They really need to have something like that at Disneyland...

Driving a boat!  This was fun because there wasn't a track, it was really us steering.  The boat has a delayed response to the steering which was interesting with Tyler at the wheel...but we made it through anyway!

Here's Will and Tyler on a Lego plane ride.  Will and I switched off taking Tyler on rides - it was fun because last time I didn't get to do much!

We checked out the Lego Factory as well - lots of interesting facts about Legos... that I don't remember any of.

There was also an Indiana Jones style Lego ride where you're in a car and you shoot lasers at things.  VERY disappointing and not fun. 

Tyler's favorite ride that day - the Volvo Junior Driving School for 3-5 year olds.  Whoo hoo!  He's old enough to go on it!  The 5-7 year old course is crazy compared to this one - 2 more years to go until that one.  Anyway, the kids each get their own trackless cars and go around a little track.  Tyler was ready to go!

Except he hasn't really driven anything before that isn't on a track.  Result?  BAMN!  Right into the shoulders.  I thought it was hilarious to watch.  Here he is stuck, and waiting for one of the ride attendants to help him out.  Those attendants are really busy the whole time running around helping stuck kids!

Here's a hilarious video of Tyler driving- and bumping into the walls!  I was giggling the whole time I recorded it.  HAHA, still laughing thinking about it now!


Some water gun shooting...

Tyler not so happy to have to wait his turn.  Ahhh!  Have you really forgotten how to share Tyler?  Sheesh!

Excitedly playing with Legos.  Up until this point I don't remember Tyler really being into Legos, plus I don't want to buy anything with small pieces that he might accidentally lose and end up in Katelyn's hands.  Maybe the larger Legos though...could be a good idea with Christmas coming up!

Lego hoarder. 

Here's a video of Tyler on the Safari Trek ride.  The last time he rode this ride he was really scared of the little tunnel at the end - not this time though! 


And the last ride of the day - the fairytale boat ride!  On our first visit to Legoland when Tyler was 2, he was so scared of this ride.  I forced him (bad Kathy!) in it thinking he would be fine (its fairytales for goodness sakes!) and he spent the whole ride on the floor hiding.  Yes.  This time he was fine, whew!

Family picture in front of the Christmas tree!

And one with me and the kids.

Ooh Tyler has grown!  Last year he was the same height as the little Lego kids, this year he's taller (of course). 

We had a great time at Legoland- definitely not as crowded as I've seen it before.  On the way home we decided to take Grace to my favorite fun sushi place - Sushilicious!  It's a rotating sushi bar that I am currently obsessed with.  We usually go for their lunch specials (5 plates for $10) but bit the bullet for full price that night (ouch!)  But it was totally worth it because I was totally fiending for some Sushi! Katelyn liked it too. :)

Mmmm, K wants some tonkatsu as well...

As if the kids weren't tired enough, we made a dessert stop after dinner to YogurtLand!  Tyler was very happy.  What a great way to start off the Thanksgiving week!

Haha, very happy Tyler.  He doesn't usually get to have yogurt this late at night!  The best part of the night?  The kids all knocked out QUICK after showers.  Later that night, Ken (Grace's husband) and Annie arrived. 

Tuesday morning.  Breakfast before heading off to Disneyland!! Whoohoo!  We were planning for this to be a long day (fireworks!) so we had to be extra prepared.  Legoland we only stayed until about 2-3ish.  It was SO cold that day too - had to bring extra layers to keep the kids warm.

heehee, potty line before hitting the road. :)

We're here we're here!  We got there at 730am when the park opened at 8am.  Didn't even park in the parking structure since there was still parking lot parking!  BRR it was cold, you can see us all bundled up as we walked toward the tram.

On the tram!  Ready!

First ride of the day was Buzz Lightyear - Tyler's favorite!

Here's the photo of Will and Tyler on the ride.

Next was Finding Nemo.  Man, that line was long but at least it moved pretty quick.  Tyler was pretty good at waiting too!

Katelyn even took her first nap of the day while we waited.  Love my Ergo baby carrier.

Here's Will and Tyler waiting in line with Matterhorn in the background!

Katelyn woke up as soon as we got into the submarine.  She seemed really interested to check out what was going on in the water.

Tyler was really into it too.  He got to watch Finding Nemo on the car ride to Legoland - so it was fresh in his mind.  Come to think of it, I don't think he's ever even really seen the movie - but he seems to know Nemo and Dory.  Hmm. 

Then it was Autopia next.  I had to sit this one out.  They wouldn't even let me wait with the group in line?  Weird.  Tyler always loves this ride.

Loving the driving.  Check out his dimple!

I got to go through the exit and catch them on their way out!  Here's a photo I got of them from the bridge!

Katelyn was happy as long as she had something to munch on.  She was very happy with the bagel I got that morning at Starbucks!

I even got to go on Space Mountain!  Seriously, I can not remember the last time I went on that ride.  We had fast passes which were AWESOME.  Will watched Katelyn and Ryan/Tyler were fine just watching their videos.

Here's the photo from Space Mountain.  Annie was SCARED!  In the beginning of the ride, where you're going through a tunnel slowly, she looked at me worriedly and asked: "Is this the fastest it's going to go?".  I was like, uh... then she asked: "Is this going to be really fast?".  I can't lie to the kid, so I said, "well, it's not going to be slow...".  In the second row is Grace with Adam. Except you can't see Adam because he's hiding.  Maybe they weren't ready yet for this ride!

Family photos in front of the castle!

And a group photo!

I even got to take Tyler to walk through Sleeping Beauty's castle.  Except he has no idea about the story at all...

Dumbo ride!  Hmm, looking a little concerned there Tyler...

Just kidding!  He had a lot of fun controlling the ride, listening to Annie's instructions.

Maybe we should show Tyler the Dumbo movie...

A short video of Tyler and Annie on the Dumbo ride.  Annie is good at telling Tyler to go up and down!


I took a nursing break while Grace/Ken took Annie/Adam on Snow White ride and Will took Ryan/Tyler on the carousel. 

He's always liked carousels!

And a video of Tyler on the carousel!


And a superduper long line for Small World.  Katelyn napped for most of the time we were in line though, but was really interested in looking around during the ride!  This was, um, one of the rides Tyler was scared of on his first Disneyland trip too!

Woody and Bullseye!

Tyler was really into it.

Worth the wait!

After that, Tyler got into Katelyn's stroller and TOTALLY knocked out.  It was perfect timing because the others went to ride Thunder Mountain a couple times.  Tyler had a nice long nap, and Will/I got to eat a really yummy and juicy turkey leg!

Brrr it was getting cold!  The kids all put on their heavy coats.  All except Tyler.  I had brought a warm fleece for him to wear under his jacket but he refused to put it on.  I would get SO close - having his head and one arm through - and then he'd freak out and pull it off.  He didn't like how it felt to have a long sleeve on under his fleece.  UGH.  At least he was wearing fleece lined jeans (that I had just ordered for Old Navy and had come the day before - perfect timing!)

We're waiting in line for Pirates of the Caribbean here.  He's happiest when he's holding Annie's hand!

Grace was very determined and FINALLY got Tyler to put on his fleece - OVER his jacket.  Hm. I never would have even thought of that.  I have no idea how she did it though - I think it was with the lure of raisins.  (Gummies are too mainstream for him!).  Of course she was successful right when we got into the building, at which point there was CRAZY heat.   You can see Katelyn in the background of this photo.  She was SO warm and toasty!

We even got to see part of the Disney Christmas parade!

Here's Tyler waving at Buzz.

Katelyn even got to meet some princesses!  We met Belle, Ariel, and the princess from the Princess and the Frog (haven't seen that one).  Here's one with Ariel!

Will and Tyler did some shooting at the range as well.

Since we had time to kill before Fantasmic and Fireworks (8:40/9pm) we took a ride on the Disney train around the park.  BRRR it was cold!

Family picture on the train!  And also the last picture of the night.  Weird.  What happened that night?  Well, we had warm steak gumbo in a bread bowl as we hung out waiting for the fireworks to start.  We had this great spot right in the middle of the seated section for Fantasmic.  Except it started to rain.  Hard.  We were SOOO close to watching the fireworks but then decided to pack it up and head out.  The rain was coming down pretty hard and it just didn't seem like a good idea for the kids (especially a little baby like Katelyn!) and we were without umbrellas!  So we packed up our stuff and watched part of the fireworks as we headed out of the park.  Oh well, next time hopefully!  But definitely the most fun I've had at Disneyland in a long time - I actually got to go on rides! :)

Wednesday morning.  Headed over to my parents' place after Katelyn woke up.  Kareen/Andy were in town and Grace's family were staying there as well.   It was a difficult-ish day since Katelyn ended up taking really short naps.  I had brought a pack'n'play for her to use, but the bedrooms there are just so bright (she's used to napping in dark rooms).  Oh well.  Here's Katelyn with Kareen. 

The cousins engrossed in watching TV.

Me and baby K!

My dad and Katelyn. 

Me and Kareen with our babies!

My parents with my sisters and I and our kids.  6 and counting!

All the girls! 

I need to remember to take more pictures with Tyler!  Oh Tyler.  He was not too good of a sharer that week...

I tried really, really hard to keep Katelyn from catching anything from Kareen/Andy/Leah who were all sick.  I didn't want her to get sick after everything she had just gone through earlier in the week!

Here's Tyler multitasking.  Playing with cars while watching his iPhone...

Me and Annie!  She's getting so big!  Already 6 years old!  Annie was actually born on Will and my original wedding date 9-18-04.  We ended up moving our wedding to 11/13 so that Grace could make the wedding - but we still celebrate our anniversary on September 18th! (it's our dating anniversary from 1998!)

Katelyn was, of course, happy as long as she was munching on something.

Uhoh, what are they trying to feed me?

Worried katelyn.

Andy and Will with the babies!

Dinner was hot pot that night and we set up a table in the entry way for the kids.  TOTALLY reminded me of my childhood - when all our cousins would come over for holidays and we would all have dinner on (could it be? the same folding table?) in the entry way while the adults ate in the dining room!  We're starting the next generation!

Mmm Tyler likes fish tempura.

My parents even got a roasted pig to eat.  YUM yum yum.

I know this picture is blurry but I still like it - my mom and Katelyn.

Tyler with his Disneyland souvenir - an Astro Blaster!  Will actually got one for all the boys but Ryan/Adam forgot them when they went back to Texas.  What does this mean for Tyler?  3 to play with!!

Happy Thanksgiving!  Even Katelyn is in this photo - in the chair right in the front!

Here's Katelyn playing with this weird toy my mom had brought back from China.  It vibrates but the on/off "button" is a nail!  Weird.

Tyler and his cousins!

Katelyn!

Here are some of my parents with the babies.

Leah and Katelyn fighting over the same toy...

Some family pictures!

Some of Will and Katelyn...

My parents with their grand kids!

Some of me and Katelyn

I know, a million photos this posting huh!  I can't help it!  This is our diary!

And some more random ones. 

Yummy. bread.

This is how they do it in Texas.

Heehee, love it!

And, it's been a while, a KMT photo!