Vacation Post #2 - Sunday

So we all got to bed really late and hoped to sleep in, but with three toddlers in the condo, we should have known better. We were all up and dressed and eating breakfast before 9:15 am (for those of you that know me that is really early for me and Isabella who usually sleep until about 10 am). When we got out of bed Kevin noticed a big dead spider in the center of our room. He wanted to me to throw it away so I picked it up in a Kleenex and flushed it down the toilet.

The girls all were so excited to go swimming in the pool. Aunt TT got her girls moving faster than me so she headed down to the pool before 10 am. I got Isabella dressed in her suit and started to head down to the pool when I noticed something on Isabella's arm. In the sunlight, I noticed two bug bites on her right arm that had swollen to the size of a baseball. I examined her other arm and found another bite, swollen, but not as bad. I immediately took her back to the condo and showed Kevin who immediately grabbed her up and said to get in the car. We were heading to the hospital. Grandma came, too, since she knew the way.

We only waited about 20 minutes in the waiting room before being taken to see a nurse who did an initial workup and sent us to a room the room where we waited nearly three hours to see a doctor. We never really even saw a doctor but a physician's assistant who examined Isabella's bites and prescribed Benadyrl and Prednesone for 4 days. She said if the bites became infected to start her on the antibiotic she prescribed and to return ASAP.

After another 30 minutes of waiting for the first doses of drugs, a nurse came in with what appeared to be two large syringes - at least they looked like that to Isabella who immediately started screaming. It took two of us to hold her down and another one of us to "shoot" the meds down her throat. Most of the meds got in her hair and on her clothes but enough get in to help.

While we were at the hospital Papa Al was on the phone with the rental place to get someone in to clean the condo of bugs and dirt. When a housekeeping lady told him we should move, he immediately got with the rental people and got us two side-by-side rentals - which turned out to be bigger and much, much nicer than the first one.

We headed back to the condo by 1:30 pm, just in time for lunch. While the other girls napped, I took a very tired Isabella who refused to lay down to the pool for some girl time. After moving to the new condos, Aunt TT and I went grocery shopping and filled Isabella's prescriptions before helping to make spaghetti for dinner.

That evening we all headed to the beach for a nice evening walk and romp in the very warm water!

Vacation Post #1 - Saturday

We took a late afternoon flight out of Cleveland on Southwest since it was the best deal. We left our house about 2:30 pm so we could stop and eat a late lunch at McDonald's on our way to the airport. Isabella got a Happy Meal with chicken nuggets and apples. She mostly ate my French Fries so I packed her leftovers in her carry-on for dinner.

We parked at FastTrack Parking Services off Engle Road. This new parking place had such great service. We pulled up to the door; they unloaded the car, placed the baggage (8 pieces in all) on the tram and parked our car for us.

The driver dropped us right at the Southwest Curbside check-in. No line. Fast check-in. And on to security.

Isabella was in her stroller so we got to go through the wheelchair line at Hopkins. We walked right up to security, took off our shoes, took Isabella out of the stroller and walked through. No problems. No waiting. We had plenty of time to find our gate and wait for the flight.

Once to the gate, I checked us in for pre-boarding since Isabella was in her stroller. We could check the stroller at the gate and the airline would have it ready for her at our destination.

During our wait, Isabella said she had to go to the bathroom. I took her and sat with her for 15 minutes. No pee-pee. She said she was done. Not two seconds after I set her down off the toilet did she pee all over the floor, my feet, her feet and her shorts. Good thing I had a change of clothes in her carry-on.

Uncle Keith, Aunt TT and Kelsey & Kylie arrived just before pre-boarding and it was time to go! The plane ride was uneventful except for the fact that Isabella didn't understand that she had to sit in her own seat. She never did. She sat on Kevin's lap, my lap, the floor - anywhere but her seat.

Once we arrived in Orlando we gathered up the bags - everything made it! - and proceeded to the tram to go to the car rental place. By this time it's 9 pm and the girls are tired - so are the moms and dads. We had to wait in line to check-in at Thrifty for 45 minutes, then load the vans and head to a gas station for snacks and a potty break.

We didn't get to the condo in St. Augustine until 12:20 am. Papa and Grandma were so nice and had pizza ready for us to eat before everyone went to sleep!

What a day!

"I'm flying. Look out my window!"

"Uncle Keith, I see you!"

"Aunt TT - Where's Kelsey?"

"We are so tired!"

"I love my Papa!"

We're Home!

Florida was amazing and I plan to have a day-by-day story for you later this week. We are still catching up on sleep today and running errands - getting to the grocery store and pharmacy, heading to Grandma Mary's & Papa Steve's, taking long afternoon naps (I hope). Watch for a new post soon but to keep to coming back, here's a few pics of our "little mermaid" enjoying her vacation.

It could happen to you

Identify theft! We hear about it everywhere - TV, radio, newspaper, but we never think it will happen to us. We're careful with our account numbers, our credit cards, our banking information. We're safe!

But let me be the first to say this - It does happen. We should know. It has happened to us.

We found out yesterday.

I'm religious about checking our online banking account each morning to confirm what posted the night before. Yesterday morning was no different, except for a mysterious debit for hostway.com. I called Kevin right away to make sure he didn't make the purchase. Nope.

So I immediately called the bank. I had to go in to fill out a form to recoup the money, but while I was there the banker noted four new charges that hadn't yet posted. We didn't make those purchases. In fact, they were made online with overseas companies.

So I called one of the companies. They had my credit card number, my name, but a different address. This address is unlisted. So, to be safe, we had to close all our accounts to make sure no more activity would take place. Right before a vacation in which we planned to use the bank card for expenses...

Plus, I had to place a hold on all the credit cards so we can monitor those accounts.

But we had to go farther since we knew someone had our names and numbers; we had to place alerts with all the credit bureaus. We purchased service from Equifax using our both social security numbers to check recent activity. And it's a good thing we did.

Kevin has three mysterious accounts opened in his name that he does not have. All with purchases on them. All with up-to-date payment activity.

I have four mysterious accounts, again, with purchases and up-to-date payments.

We've contacted one credit card, and they say the account does not exist so the next step is to work with Equifax on Monday to remove the activity.

Hopefully, this all works out, and we can relax some on our vacation.

Off to Florida

Well, I'll be going a week without Internet access so don't expect any pics or posts until at least next Sunday. But, to keep you busy, I've got a 14 minute video for you to watch over the week. It covers everything Isabella has done this summer. We'll finally be all caught up on pics. I am excited to start fresh when we return from St. Augustine!


Summer 2007

Pictures Galore

I am so behind in posting pics from this summer!

We have been so busy - zoo trips, birthday parties, visits with the cousins, swimming with friends and neighbors, picnics, cookouts, boating on Portage Lakes, playing outdoors - too many to count. Plus we leave Saturday for a Kramer family vacation in St. Augustine, Florida.

I'm hoping to post a LONG video recapping everything really soon! For now, check out these pics - Isabella in the backyard drawing with sidewalk chalk.

Time with Papa Steve

Isabella loves spending time with Papa Steve, so she wanted to wish him an extra special Happy Birthday. He takes her fishing and reads her fun fish books. Here they enjoy some bonding time at Portages Lakes.

The Help Me Grow Evaluation

Toady, I received the formal evaluation from Help Me Grow on Isabella's development. And it was great!

She scored in the 28-30 month range in the following areas: cognitive, receptive language, expressive language, gross motor, social-emotional and self help. She scored 24-30 months in fine motor. What this means is that Isabella is developing well above her normal 25 months and there is no need for additional one-on-one services.

Some of the comments given by the evaluators:
"When handed a book upside down, Isabella was able to turn it right side up. She point to and talked about details in the book. Isabella is able t match and name the colors red, green, yellow, blue and orange. Isabella can match animal sounds to pictures of animals."

"Isabella will answer yes/no questions and who, what, and where questions through words, phrases and pointing."

"Isabella is very expressive. She uses facial expressions, pointing, gesturing and words to communicate her wants and needs."

"Isabella can become easily frustrated with some fine motor tasks and will not be persistent." (We have to work on this one.)

"Isabella is a very capable girl."

"Isabella is a very independent little girl."

Overall, a wonderful assessment from the doctors and social workers! They did offer a few suggestions to help Isabella with her toe-walking and sensory integration issues which we have immediately implemented.

We are so happy that she's doing so well. Now we have confirmation to our feelings that she's doing outstandingly.

Fisher-Price Recall

Fisher-Price recalled millions of toys today because lead paint may have been used in the manufacturing process.

Isabella has several of the recalled toys, and I have already taken them away. For those of you with children who have Dora, Diego or Sesame Street toys purchased since May 1, 2007, please take them away, look at the product code on the back and visit http://www.service.mattel.com/ to see if the toys appear on the list. You can take the toys to any retailer to get a voucher for a new toy or can get mail-in information from Fisher-Price.com.

Barbie Jeep

Kevin has wanted to get Isabella a Power Wheels for as long as she's been with us. I have always said no because she really has nowhere to ride it except in the backyard since we live on a steep hill and have a very steep driveway. I didn't want to let her ride it in the street even though it's quiet because it would teach her the street is a place to play.

But when a friend of Kevin's from work called this weekend and said he had a Barbie Jeep to get rid of, Kevin said ow much. When Randy said free, I said okay!

Isabella was excited to see the Jeep and kept saying Kelsey's, Kelsey's so we explained that this was hers. She hopped in and immediately played with the phone. She had no interest in driving. That will come though.

Birthday Club

We finally took Isabella to Toys 'R Us for her birthday. She got a personal birthday card from Geoffry, the Toys 'R Us giraffe, the week of her birthday along with a $3 gift card. It instructs mom and dad to bring the card into the store with the birthday girl for a special surprise. So, with her card, gift certificate and birthday gift cards, we went in - our first stop: customer service. Isabella got a special birthday crown, a balloon and stickers. They even announced her name over the loud speaker. She used her birthday money to buy a stuffed Mumble from the movie Happy Feet and a Diego animal blow horn.

I didn't forget about sharing Isabella's special Father's Day gift with you. It's a shirt that says: World's Greatest Dad!

Sprinkler

Aunt Julie & Uncle Chris got Isabella an Elmo sprinkler for her birthday. We tried it out but Isabella wasn't too sure about it at first. Now she loves it.

I can't wait until she's feeling better because we will pull Elmo back out for some backyard fun. (Summer virus update: Still running a low-grade fever and have moved into the diarrhea phase. I talked with her doctor today and she said that the diarrhea means Isabella is fighting the virus. The low-grade fever and diarrhea could last up to 10 more days.)

Summer virus...argh!

Isabella is fighting what the doctor's call a summer virus! She's running a fever, has diarrhea and is just miserable. She just wants held and doesn't want to eat. Motrin seems to help bring the fever down a little but does not seem to provide any other relief. She finally slept well last night so I'm hoping that the extra rest will help kick this flu-bug out (and hoping no one else in the house gets it!).

My Sandbox

Isabella's Grandma & Papa Kramer got her a Little Tikes Sand & Water table for her birthday. This toy serves two purposes - a great outdoor present and a therapy for her sensory disorder. The textured sand helps her learn to "feel" different things. Plus she loves to make a huge mess in the water and sand!

Thanks Grandma & Papa!

Speech and Occupational Therapy

At Isabella's 2-Year Well Visit, Dr. Rubin noted that Isabella's sensitivity to certain textures had not improved. She recommended that I contact Help Me Grow for a full evaluation for a sensory disorder. I called right away and within a week was paired with a Summit County social worker.

She visited the house and did initial developmental screenings with Isabella. The screenings showed a delay in speech as well as a fine motor disorder. Tomorrow, Isabella's team of therapists (3 in all) will come to the house for the first visit. We will spend 45 minutes on speech therapy and 45 minutes on OT.

A lot of adopted kids go through speech and occupational therapy. We remind folks that for the entire time her mother was pregnant and for the first nine months of her life, she heard nothing but Spanish. A speech delay is expected. And as for the OT, sensory disorders are also very common in adopted kids because of the shock of changing homes. It's a coping mechanism that usually works itself out before kindergarten.

So wish us luck tomorrow as we begin our new adventure.

Reunion Success

After lot of planning and preparation, the Stow-Munroe Falls' High School Class of 1997 10-year Class Reunion was a success! At least in my eyes, and I hope in everyone's who was able to attend the event last night. It was so great seeing old friends and reconnecting with everyone. Ten years changes a lot of things, but it also reminds me how much things remain the same. To those classmates who are loyal Kramer blog readers, WELCOME and continue to visit. Post comments so I know you're still reading and stay in touch! Check out some of these great pics from the reunion!

Thanks Sam or Brian or whomever did this...

That's a nice pic!

The class president announced how thankful the class was for my hardwork and presented me with these flowers and a $50 gift certificate for dinner. (Kevin and I think we might go to our favorite place that we never get to go to-Smokey Bones!)

Harry Potter Mania

Many of you know of my obsession with everything Harry Potter. At exactly 12:01 a.m.. Saturday morning - tonight are all the parties - the seventh and final book will be released for sale.

This morning, Isabella and I waited in a long line at our local Borders store to get my number for the long lines tonight. Anyone who has a book reservation can buy their books after 12:01 a.m. July 21 so thousands line up hours ahead of time to get the book then. I guaranteed my spot in line by arriving this morning at 8:15 a.m., waiting in line and getting my #. I'm #70!

I can't wait to read the first chapter tonight. That's all I'm allowing myself because I have a busy day tomorrow with the reunion and I need to get a good night's rest. Sunday though - don't call, email or come to the house because I'll be tucked away reading!

Videos Galore

Had a few minutes during nap time and away from reunion stuff to post this LONG video of everything Isabella. It is a collection of videos from the past few months. Enjoy and check back next week for new posts and lots of pics.


Lots of Videos of Isabella

Planning takes up time

If you see only a few posts the next few weeks, it's because all my free time is being spent finalizing plans for my 10-year class reunion. It's been kinda a one-woman planning committee for an event expecting 150+ people. So lots of odds and ends to take care of the next few weeks. But I'll be up and running full-steam after July 22!

The Hot Pool

During the summer, Grandma Mary and Papa Steve turn down the temperature in the hot tub so Isabella can swim in it. She loves the water so the hot pool, as we call it, is the perfect size and depth for her to swim and splash around.


The Hot Pool

The Zoo with Grandma Sue

Before Grandma Sue started her summer classes at The University of Akron, she went to the Akron Zoo with Isabella and me. We had a lot of fun and saw lots of amazing animals. Isabella loves saying the names of each animal and making the sounds the animals make.

Our Super Busy July 4th

Up at 7:30 am and running all day, left us a tired crew last night. Isabella and I had to arrive in Stow by 9 am to hop on the Little Leapers float for Stow's Annual Fourth of July Parade. All the kids looked adorable in their gymnastics outfits, but a mix up in the parade order had little girls crying on the parade route, nearly 2.5 hours later! From what I heard, the Little Leapers float was originally assigned the #3 position after the military salute in the parade because the little kids have such a hard time sitting to wait for the long parade. But that didn't happen. At 10 am when the parade kicked off, the kids got really excited because they knew we would be moving soon. By 10:45 am, we were still in the same spot in the parking lot and the kids were getting anxious.

Finally at 11 am one of the Little Leapers staff went to ask what was going on and was told of a mix up in the order. The parade official explained that he was working on getting us in the lineup ASAP. That didn't happen until nearly 20 minutes later. Some of the girls were crying and one little girl had to go pee so bad it trickled down her leg. Isabella was tired and cranky but was a sport about waving to the people watching. But as soon as she saw Daddy, she wanted off and started crying. (Good thing he was toward the end.)

Needless to say, an hour and 15 minutes later, (for a total of 4 very long parade hours) at the end of the parade route, Isabella and I were ready to get off the float. I was so exhausted! But we had a picnic at Grandma & Papa Kramer's and one at Grandma & Papa Gaylord's yet to go! But we had a really good time eating barbecue and smores! Plus Isabella got to hold her first Sparkler - with Aunt Julie's help, of course!Our FloatMom and Bella before the parade

The Hip Hoppers Team practicing the dance

Waving at the crowd

"I see Daddy! I want down!"

Grandma Sue, Kelsey and Bella reading after eating burgers and hot dogs

Watching firecrackers with Daddy

Holding a Sparkler with Aunt Julie

Vacation (May 2007)

Finally I've got a video together of the fabulous trip to Corolla, North Carolina. Everyone who went had a great time and it was fun to see Great-Aunts Sue and Jeong A, Second Cousins Tricia, Stephanie and Ryan and Great-Uncle Brad. Plus it was great to hang out with Grandma Mary, Papa Steve, Aunt Julie and Uncle Chris all week long.

Thanks for all the great memories and all the swimming lessons!


Corolla, NC Vacation (May 2007)

Finally...Isabella's Birthday Celebration

When I was searching through the hundreds of photos of Isabella's birthday party for pics to post, I decided there were too many great shots of the party. So I made a video! Hope you all enjoy!


Happy 2nd Birthday, Isabella!

Happy Birthday, Grandma Sue!

Today is Isabella's Grandma Sue's birthday. We can't wait to go over to her house later to play on the swing and slide and pick fresh blackberries to eat. Then we get Isabella's favorite meal "pizza, pizza." Oh and cake!

Happy Birthday!

Here's a pic of Isabella and Grandma Sue watching the Lemurs at the Akron Zoo. (You'll see more pics of our fun day later this week!)