Irony

I can't count how many times in the last couple of years I have gotten phone calls from the boy's school.  No, it's not because they are in trouble, it's the school nurse.  The kids are sent to the nurse anytime they bump their head.  "Mrs. Gillis your son had a tower of blocks fall on him."  "Mrs. Gillis your son bent down to get something under his desk and hit his head on the way back up."  "Mrs. Gillis your son tripped and fell and hit his head."  Sometimes I get 2 a day...one for each kid.  Once I got 3 in a day!  

So, in one of life's ironies, the winner of the first Gillis family concussion goes to: Sadie.

Yesterday at about 5:00pm all the kids were in the basement and I heard Sadie yell, "Mom, William's coming upstairs."  So, I left the computer room and went to the top of the stairs.  Unfortunately, I heard a really big smack just as I got to the top of the stairs.  Sadie had her arms around William on the tile floor and the were both screaming.  I can't believe how terrified I was.  It was so loud.  I saw no blood, so, I got them both picked up and on my lap.  I didn't know the damage of course, but frankly, I was freaked out.  I got them both calmed down and couldn't find any bumps on either head.  William seemed fine after he stopped screaming.  Sadie immediately said she wanted a nap.  At that point I had the kids start putting their shoes on....I was headed to Urgent Care.  Then, she said she was fine, so I thought I'd wait a bit.  Then I found her sleeping on her bed. I kept waking her up, but she wasn't particularly interested, but she seemed alert enough.  A couple of hours later we were headed to a birthday party at the drive-in and Sadie got quite agitated, so I left Henry there and drove the rest of us to Urgent Care.  On the way she threw up.  Urgent Care couldn't do anything, so my lovely neighbors took Samuel and William (and even offered to drive me to the hospital.)  We drove to Children's Hospital where she had a CT.  Thankfully it was normal, and they determined it was a concussion.  I actually made it home before Henry did.  She has thrown up 3 more times today, but the Dr's say it's to be expected with that big of a bump.  I think I'll call again tomorrow just to be on the safe side.

Her sticker after the CT scan:

Facelift

BEFORE

AFTER

Big Mac Museum

"Museum" is a bit of an overestatement, but this McD's does have a few display cases of memorabilia.  Not far from here, the Big Mac was first invented.  The McDonald's where it was first created is still a working McDonald's, so after Henry's ball game we headed out to eat Big Mac's at this historic venue.  Well, at least Ben and I had Big Macs...the kids--not so much.

Big Mac creator Jim Delligatti

World's Largest Big Mac

 Samuel showing off the "Two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun."

Henry plays Baseball

Last summer Henry went to a weeklong baseball camp here in our township.  This year he wanted to play on a team, so we signed him up for his first Little League team.  He plays on the River Bandits.

That's Henry catching.  If you could see in that glove you would see the ball that he just caught

Lucky #13

Some spectator pictures

Henry & Samuel's Sleepover

We have great neighbor's here.  They asked if Samuel and Henry could have a sleepover a couple of weeks ago.  This isn't the first time.  They have a son that is Henry's age that they play with a lot.  That was a Friday night.  Saturday we had to go to the airport to pick up Ben.  This is the drive there.

We had a couple of showings that day, so we had to kill a couple of hours before Henry's baseball game.  We headed to Ikea for lunch.  Samuel seemed to bounce back ok, but here's Henry:

Too funny!

Pittsburgh in Pictures

Fort Pitt Tunnel...our route to downtown

My favorite building in Oakland (section of Pittsburgh)

Anyone who has driven in Pittsburgh knows why I took this picture.  NEVER make a right on red unless you don't see one of these signs...or in this case, two of them.

Convention Center

 

Pittsburgh is surrounded by 3 rivers, the Monongehala, Allegheny, and Ohio.  This translates to a lot of bridges and tunnels.  Here are 5 of them, plus the one we were on when the picture was taken.

That's right.  Home of Heinz

Love this sculpture in downtown Pittsburgh.  Its made of Bridges.

These crazy staircases are everywhere.  I told the kids to count the steps, but alas, they did not.

Road that used to be 2 lanes, until one lane slid down the hillside.

Roadside Attractions

We downloaded some POI's to the GPS a couple of months ago.  A couple of weeks ago we had to get out of the house for 3 hours on a Sunday for an Open House.  So, at that point our options were a little limited, so we decided to check out a couple of roadside attractions.  You might not know this, but Mr. Rogers was filmed here and that is something they are very proud of.  I have to say I never really liked that show, but I am grateful for the children's TV movement that he started.  Anyway, here are some pictures taken outside the studio were the show was filmed.

I don't understand the significance of the dinosaur, but notice the Mr. Roger's clothing.

A SPACESHIP IN MARS

(Mars, PA, that is)

Just because he's cute

Spiders

Samuel was studying spiders in school a little while ago.  He would come home each day and tell me everything that he learned that day about spiders.  He was fascinated.  He wrote an awesome, informational report about them.  The other day we were watching one of Henry's baseball games and Sadie and Samuel were off exploring.  Samuel ran up in an excited rush asking if I had the camera.  After rushing off to the van to get the camera he ran over and took some pics, of spiderlings.  He was just so excited, that he had to show me.  Here are some of the pictures.