3-year-old saying

The peaches are getting ripe. Daniel keeps telling me "The peaches are getting bright"
At Papa Dan's birthday party, Daniel got some Ginger Ale. Instead of saying it was sparkly, he told everyone "It's Shiny"

The Summit

We drove to the top of Mt. Diablo on Memorial day. It was another beautiful day. The boys were excited about the "castle" at the top. Daniel kept looking for our house, but we weren't able to see it through the haze. He said hi to a few cyclists on our way up the mountain.

After we left the summit, we found a wonderful picnic spot. We ate and then went on a short hike.

The boys are so excited to have their Auntie Jess home from college for the summer.

Gavin enjoyed the hike with dad.

Last time we were up here, I was pregnant with Daniel. It wasn't very long ago, but things have changed a bit in our little family since then.

Millions of Peaches

We went to the orchards in Brentwood today with Auntie Kia. The boys got to pick their own peaches.



After the peach orchards, we went to another farm where we had a picnic and got to play on a tractor. Both boys loved driving it...it didn't matter that it wasn't moving. Vincent said he was driving to Costco.

Happy & Healthy

Bye, Bye Picc line

Vincent got his picc line out today! Everything went well at his visit to the doctor. He's all done with his antibiotics. His blood work all looked good, all pretty much back to normal...white blood cell count, sed rate and CRP all looking good for anyone who knows what that means. I wish I could get all of this info in writing because then I'd have a better idea what they're talking about. I just have to google it once I get home. The sed rate was 60 when we checked into the hospital, it was 47 by the time we checked out and it's 11 now. This is an inflammatory marker which shows how much infection there is in the body (I think). I guess it should be under 10 normally, so 11 is very good.
So life is back to normal. No more getting up at 2am to give Vincent some gross tasting medicine only to have him say "go, mommy, go" as in, scram and let me get back to sleep. He was such a good sport about the whole thing and did everything so well. We are so proud of him and so thankful that he's got a clean bill of health now. We know we are very blessed and fortunate to live where we do and have access to the great health care and physicians that we do. Thank you all for the many prayers. God has been faithful and so good to our family.

On the Boardwalk

We spent Mother's Day in Santa Cruz on the Boardwalk. It was a perfect day. The sun was shining and we all had a great time.

These helicopters had levers that you could pull to make it go higher. Daniel and Vincent only ever got about 3 inches up before releasing the handle and bumping back down. They thought this was hilarious.
We spent a nice long time watching the waves crash below us on the pier. We lost a sippy cup and a pair of sunglasses here too, but it was worth it. I miss the ocean.

This is what Vincent's picc line looks like. We meet with Dr. Petru, the infectious disease specialist on Thursday. We hope to be done with the antibiotic treatments on Friday. V gets his blood drawn today so the results will indicate where to go from here.

Haircuts and IVs

We start and end each day with 30 minutes of IV antibiotics. Vincent does this like a champ. Once a week he gets the dressing changed on his picc line. The nurse has been amazed at how well he does this both times. No fighting, just a few quiet whimpers. He's also getting oral antibiotics 4 times a day. We shifted the times he gets these so we only have to get up once during the night to adminster this. By "we" I mean George. Vincent takes this and then points to his pillow after he swallows and goes right back to sleep.


I don't know if they make triple joggers, but this is doing the trick. We made it to the park and back just fine. Daniel was annoyed that Gavin was kicking him until I explained that he was getting a back massage. This explanation sufficed. Daniel's not that big on walking.


Gavin is 5 months old now. He rolls onto his tummy almost anytime I set him on his back. He loves laying and rolling around on the floor, so the 5 swings/bouncers/bumbo/etc taking up our living room are not doing much else. He really like the jumper. Gavin still sleeps in the cradle, but this week he's started to roll onto his tummy in there. He can't seem to get back over on his back so he just cries there on his tummy until someone comes and flips him back over. It's time for him to move into the big crib, but we still need to make arrangements for this.


Vincent moved into his big boy bed this week, once we got home from the hospital. We just need to get a third mattress for the crib. There are two toddler beds and a crib in the boys room now. We'll see if we can ever get them all to sleep in there at the same time. As I write, Daniel and Vincent went to bed 45 minutes ago and it sounds like a party in there, lots of poo poo talk. But at least they're both staying in bed at this point. Vincent's not much for staying in his new bed what with the new found freedom and all.

Photos from before

The following are photos from before the whole hospital ordeal.

These were my helpers in the morning last week...later that day we were in the hospital.

It was hot, we were playing in the water....why not.

Little did we know, this guy would be in the hospital that night.

If your kid's ear ever looks like this...get him to a doctor quick.

This is what poor Vincent was feeling like the weekend before, by Wednesday his eardrum had ruptured and he looked like he was feeling much better...aside from the huge abscess growing behind his ear.

My Dear Friend Sheryl

I've been unpacking this week: unpacking from the hospital, unpacking the boys stuff from Grandma's house and unpacking my bags from a trip I wasn't able to go on. I was in the middle of packing my bags for Vancouver when Vincent and I went to the pediatrician's office for his ear infection. I didn't return home for a week. I was so looking forward to 4 days away with my husband and attending my great friend's wedding.Sheryl and I met in college. First we played volleyball together, she was our setter and I played right side. Then we became roommates my last year in the dorms at Biola. When her heart was broken, she cried on my shoulder. When my heart was broken, I cried on hers. After I graduated, we drove to Colorado Springs together and spent the summer with her cousin, Ang. We got a job on the assembly line at Current Greeting Cards after trying to sell meat from one of those door to door meat trucks. By mid morning, the guy training us stopped at his motel room to smoke a joint and brought it back to the truck where we were waiting. It was around this time we figured that job might not work out. So we did the Lavern and Shirley gig. Later that summer we travelled through Europe with our mothers. Then Sheryl finished her last year at Biola while I taught down in Baytown, TX.

The following summer, Sherl and I were on the road again, this time we went up to WA then out to Nantucket where we spent the summer with my Aunt Susan and Uncle John. We worked the restaurant biz out there and had a great time. By September our island time was over so we bought an old VW Golf named "Tucket" in Boston and began a 5 week road trip from Maine to Florida and back out to Cali. We stayed with mostly family and friends a few days at a time. We cut our hair, went on fan boat rides, sang karaoke, canoed down the Delaware and visited Graceland. While we drove, we co-authored a book about our summer, "Coast to Coast with Beck & Sherl". There are 8 in print.After getting her first Masters, Sheryl spent a few years teaching English in China. She was the maid of honor in George and my wedding in 2002. She moved up to Vancouver a few years ago and just finished her second Masters, she graduated 2 days after getting married. Missing her and Frank's wedding breaks my heart. As I sat in the hospital room next to Vincent's bed, I pictured her walking down the isle and what a cool ceremony they were having. I can't wait to meet her new hubby, whose made my friend so happy. Sheryl is a beautiful, caring, sensitive, thoughtful person. I love her and I'm so happy for her and Frank. They're off honeymooning right now. Hopefully we'll be able to reschedule our trip and see them both very soon.