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July
2005 Journal
July is
FINALLY here and that means soon it will be MY birthday!
Things are going to be busy in the beginning and hopefully
slow down a bit. We are hoping to get some time to do
some camping, but who knows.
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Visit
to Grandparents Wiles for the Holiday
July
1st-4th, 2005 |
We usually
always go to Grammy& Pap-pap's for the Fourth of July, last year
we didn't make it. So, this year we made sure that we
did.
Friday ~ July 1st ~
Mommy and Daddy worked half days so we were able to get on the road
early. We hit just the right time to travel because there was
no traffic. Daddy decided to pull one of his "let's take
a side trip" adventures on us. We stopped at a place
called "Chimney Rocks", near Altoona. Of course,
there was a geocache hidden as a bonus. It was a pretty cool
looking place. We walked up a pretty steep hill but we made
it. The overlook of Chimney Rocks was where the Indians used
to look out over the land....it was pretty cool. Mommy said
back then there weren't any houses or roads like there are now.
We arrived at Grammy's with plenty of time to visit and play before
it was time for bed!
Saturday ~ July 2nd ~
We got up early and went for breakfast with the gang. There
was a whole crew of us there. I ate yummy pancakes and
chocolate milk, of course!
Around 3 o'clock we went to Ford City for their Heritage Days
celebration. I rode a few rides, actually the same one over
and over again. Visited the petting zoo and got a Batman tattoo!
It is pretty awesome...I've been showing it to everyone! Next,
we went to Mertie's house for spaghetti and to watch the
parade. We had the best seats and I had a good time. The
best part was all of the candy I got! I would jump up and down
and yell "candy, candy" and they would throw it at
me! Mommy said she had more fun watching me than the parade!
Sunday ~ July 3rd ~
Today was our family picnic at Aunt Set's house. I played hard
with my cousins...even though they are mostly girls...we still had
fun. Daddy got me a kite and we had a good time flying
that. Uncle JG even took a turn at it. We visited and
ate good food for quite awhile.
Oh, I also got to try out some of my own fireworks. We did the
snakes, snappers and sparklers. I was a little afraid of the
sparklers at first, but once I got over that, they were a lot of
fun. I was very careful not to touch the hot
parts.
We didn't see any big fireworks this year, but did have fun watching
the neighbors setting off their own.
Monday ~ July 4th ~
HAPPY FOURTH of JULY! Funny, this is truly the only holiday
you really spend the entire weekend celebrating it! I think
that makes it one of our favorites. We knew we needed to head
for home today, so nothing major was planned. Daddy thought of
another side trip to take on the way home, so we said our good-bye's
to Grammy and Pap around noon. Daddy took us to a place called
Horseshoe Curve. It is a giant curve in the
railroad....hundreds of trains go on it weekly. Today, they
told us that Mondays are slow days so trains only pass by every 21
minutes! That is still a lot of trains. I was acting a
bit out of sorts....I thought it was loud and scary. Daddy and
Mommy thought it was pretty cool. We saw about 7 trains while
there, some passing each other going the same direction and/or opposite.
Our admission was for a "season pass" so, we may stop
there again on our way to Grammy's. It would be cool to see
during all the different seasons of the year. If you
have never been there and are driving near or around Altoona, be
sure to check it out!
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Happy
Birthday to Me!
July
6th, 2005 |
I'm FOUR years
old today! Mommy got me a HotWheels cake from the store to
take to school and some Batman chewies to share too. All of my
friends sang to me and then we walked down the hall so I could give
Mommy a blue icing kiss! I shared my cake with all the
teachers and got lots of hugs and kisses.
When I got home, Mommy & Daddy wanted to know if there was
someone in the house that was having a birthday. I quickly
raised my hands and came running out of the playroom! Mommy
and Daddy got me some really cool gifts. I got Teen Titans
stuff, Batman outfit, Spiderman PJ's, a digital camera (for kids)
and Cooties the game.
After I opened all my stuff, we went to Adventure Sports in
Hershey. Daddy and I rode the go karts. We went really
fast and came in 4th place. Then we went into the arcade and
played games in there for a long time. I like the driving
games and the air hockey table.
It was a fun night and I can't wait for my party in a few days!
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Chuckee
Cheese Field Trip!
July
7th, 2005 |
I got to go on a
field trip with my FunCare friends today. We loaded up on a
school bus and went to Chuckee Cheese. I haven't been there in
a long time...since I was 2. I played a lot of racing games
and won some tickets playing the dinosaur game where you had to put
the ball in the volcano. We ate yummy pizza and soda and ran
around all over the place. Chuckee even came out and sang some
songs with us. I hope I can go back there some time soon.
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My
4th Birthday Party
July
9th, 2005 |
Today was my
party. I had a lot of family and friends come and help me to
celebrate. My friends had fun playing on my new swing set.
We did a lot of climbing and swinging. We ate a lot of good
food and cake. I had a really cool Batman cake to go with my
Batman party! I got a lot of nice presents too...Batman stuff
like, helicopter, motorcycle, utility belt, coloring stuff, towels,
cups and action figures. I also got Lego's and am having a
blast already with those. I got some small wood blocks, a bug
vacuum and habitat (I've been having fun catching stuff to put in
there!); lots of new Thomas trains, Batman bedding and sheets for my
room, Teen Titans and other SuperHero things, Rescue Heroes and a Playdoh
set. I am sure that I forgot to mention some things as I got
so much cool stuff. I would like to THANK everyone for coming
and helping me celebrate my special day. The party went way into
the night....Mommy let me stay up until midnight!!!!
I have a 4-year check up on the 19th...so I will be sure to do an
update then that just lets you know what I have been up too. I
haven't really done one of those in awhile.
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My
4 Year Check Up
July
19th, 2005 |
Today Mommy
& Daddy took me to see Dr. Besselman for my yearly
check-up. I was a very good listener too. The nurse took
me into another for my weight and height. I was full of
questions for her about things that were in the room. I cam
out weighing 36 pounds and 41 inches tall! That puts me in the
60th percentile for both. The doctor checked my ears, eyes,
nose, throat, heart and belly. He said all look good and sound
good. My throat was kind of red, so he did take a swab to test
for strep but it came back negative.
Mommy told him about my fever that I had on Sunday, it was 101
degrees. I also have a rash all over my body and face.
He said I have a strain of the Coxsackie's virus. In other
words, the hand, foot and mouth disease that is going around the
daycare. Nothing we can do for it beside keep me out of the
sun for a few days.
Mommy also had him look at the mysterious pimple-like
"bumps" I've had on my side for a few months. He
said that is called Molluscum Contagiosum. It is a viral
infection of the skin and is very common in children ages 2-5.
The bumps can last anywhere from 6months to 2 years. Dr.
Besselman didn't seem too concerned about them...just said it meant
that I have "friends". :) I guess if they get
too bad they can be treated like warts. They don't bother me
as much as they do Mommy. I sure do hope that they go away
(for her) soon!
After all of that, the doctor said he needed to give me a
"pinch on the arm". WELL...let me tell you, it was
no pinch! YEOW! I got a cool circle band-aid for it and
2 stamps for my hands. A Percy the tank engine and a
dinosaur.
All in all...I was a very good boy! Mommy took me to Target
and I got a Tonka Space Shuttle Carrier toy for being a good boy.
Next, I need to have my follow-up ultra sound for the year. We
are bit behind on it because of not having insurance. So, that
has been scheduled for Monday the 25th. We will let you know
how that goes as soon as we can.
Also, I am now being told that I need to go see this person
called...a dentist?
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Hiking
the Horseshoe Trail - Day 1
July
23rd, 2005 |
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Darrin and Daddy
decided to try to hike the Horseshoe
Trail this summer. It is a 140 mile trail from Harrisburg
to Valley Forge. So they started today. I will let Daddy
tell you his story.
Darrin and I
arrived about noon at the trailhead. The first part of the
hike was a 3.5 mile hike on the Appalachian Trail to get to the
trailhead for the Horseshoe trail. This was mostly a pleasant
hike, although it was all uphill to the top of the mountain.
We got to see a huge mushroom and some good views along the
way. Once to the top, we found the trailhead and signed
in. We continued downhill through some rocky terrain, and
finally had to stop to duct-tape my feet up (it prevents
blisters). Unfortunately I left the duct tape there and didn't
notice for another 2 miles....that meant I would be in some pain
since we still had a good 8 miles ahead of us to hike. Oh
well. The next portion of the trail followed an old stagecoach
road along the mountain...we got to see some old foundations left
over from the old days. Then another couple miles back uphill
to the top of the mountain left us pretty tired...but we forged
on. We also saw a big old watertank up on top of the
mountain...miles from anything. We had no idea what that was
doing up there. We took a 1/2 mile side trip over to a
firetower, which we proceeded to climb. Darrin was a little
nervous because it was old and it was pretty windy, but we made it
to the top and saw some great views on the crystal clear day.
After the 1/2 mile hike back to the trail, my feet were in pretty
bad shape, but we figured we still had about 4 miles to go.
Darrin's knees and hip joints were also hurting him, but we hobbled
on. Finally we had to stop before the descent down the other
side of the mountain to let our feet rest for about 20
minutes. Neither of us were looking forward to the walk down
because we had done that portion of this trail before....well over 2
miles downhill, which hurt pretty bad the first time we did
it. Anyways, we forged on, limping and complaining the whole
time. About 1/2 mile down, we passed some bikers pushing their
bikes up. I offered them all the money in my wallet for their
bikes, but they refused. Finally we reached the bottom, and
were never so happy to see the car. But we are back home, and
I am just going to let my feet heal and then do the next portion,
which will be up over the second mountain, and I'm already looking
forward to it. 12 miles down, 128 to go!
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Itsy
Bitsy Spider! We think NOT!
July
23, 2005 |
While Daddy and
Darrin were out hiking on this beautiful day...Mommy & me spent
the day playing around outside. We set my pool up but this
time...under my new slide! Oh my...what great fun that
was!
Anyway, Mommy needed to finish up the weeding that Grandma had
started for her in the front "flower" (weed) beds. I
got my big dump truck out and a shovel, Mommy had her gloves on and
we got started. Boy, there were some weeds as big as the
bushes we have! Mommy was embarrassed and said she won't let
that happen again. So, we were digging up the mulch and stuff
and Mommy found this BIG BLACK spider. She was quite brave as
she showed it to me, kind of flipping it around with the
shovel. Fortunately, it was moving kind of slow, so we were
able to look at it for a long time. Then Mommy said something
about this spider looking kind of "familiar". Sure
enough...while I was running around looking for my bug vacuum to
suck it up with...Mommy smashed it with the shovel because she said
it was a "BLACK WINDOW" (widow). We saved it to show
Daddy, because we didn't think he would believe us. Took some
time for Mommy to get up the nerve to get back to the weeding but
she did.
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My
Ultrasound Kidney Follow-Up
July
25, 2005 |
Mommy took me to
Tristan Associates for an ultrasound today. Of course, I
didn't remember getting any tests done like this before, so this was
all new and kind of scary to me...at first. The lady doing my
test was very nice and we talked about all kinds of stuff during my
test. It was pretty neat seeing my "insides" up on
the "TV" screen! You could see my kidneys and
bladder....at least that is what she said they were...just looked
like blobs to Mommy and me! It was a quick and painless
test. I did a great job and got 2 superhero stickers and a
pencil!
The doctor came in and talked to Mommy about my test. He isn't
really able to give an accurate diagnosis of what he saw since they
did not have the films from my last test. We had those done in
Hershey. Also, the last time we were at Tristan's, it was
before my surgery. He didn't seem to think that the results
looks that much different!?! What? He also said it is
very hard to see reflux (what my operation was supposed to fix) in
an ultrasound.
Daddy is going to see if we can get in touch with Dr.
Hollowell. She moved her practice to Virginia last
summer. Also, Besselman has another pediatric urologist that
we can see. He is in King of Prussia and has new techniques to
treat reflux.
That is all we really know right now. I may have to have
another "dye test"...dye injected through a
cathedar....yikes!
We will let you know things as we know them.
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Grantville
Carnival
July
29, 2005 |
We went to the
Grantville carnival tonight. It is just a little event held by
the local volunteer fire department. There were rides, games
and food. I got to ride my favorite ride, the one with the
cars that go in circles. Daddy and I went in this silly window
maze thing...I kept walking into the walls! Mommy said it
looked pretty funny from outside. I also played a lot of
games. I shot cups down, picked a duck, and went
fishing. I got all kinds of cool things...a sword, rifle and
bow & arrow. We stayed for a long time but missed the
fireworks because it was getting too late and I was getting
tired. Oh yea, I got some yummy cotton candy too which made me
a sticky mess!
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A
Trip to Easton, PA
July
29, 2005 |
We had a travel
bug that we picked up in Florida that needed to return home and it
just so happened to be near Easton, PA. Today, we decided to
make that trip. It was a nice breezy day and we found the
cache fairly quickly. I got a cool new truck. We decided
to make a day of it since it was a 2 hour car ride. The
Crayola Factory is in Easton and Mommy had heard nice things about
the place, so we decided to check it out. I sure was pretty
cool. We spent the day creating all kinds of art projects
using Crayola materials. There was sidewalk chalk, gluing,
cutting, painting, coloring, using melted crayons, making slides, Color Wonder
markers, window markers and model magic clay. I got some free
stuff with admission, a couple markers, small boxes of crayons and 5
packs of model magic! (I later made Daddy a cool "beach
tree" for his cube at work). We also got to see a
demonstration of how they make the crayons and the markers and
learned some interesting facts about the company. They have
been around for a long time.
We ate lunch there, they had a McDonald's in the building! We
went to the gift shop and I got a t-shirt and a Crayon Car Making
Factory. It's pretty cool. I got to see the world's
biggest crayon. It was blue! Then we went back in the building
to check out the other museum there. It is for the local
canal. We didn't go on the boat ride but the museum was
nice. They had a train set up that I had a good time playing
with. We got some ice cream at The Purple Cow
Creamery....yummy! I took a nice snooze on the car ride
home! It was a fun day!
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Hollowell
Contact
July
31, 2005 |
Daddy tracked
down Dr. Hollowell...yay! She remembers us and has my films on
file still. We are having my new tests sent to her and she
will let us know what is going on and what to do from there.
Like we said, we will keep you posted.
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