Monday, January 24, 2011

Our Little Pinocchio

Just imagine this little guy singing...

I've got no strings to hold me down
To make me fret or make me frown
I had strings but now I'm free
There are no strings on me.

Yes, Kekoa is finally off of oxygen as of January 21, 2011. We are grateful for the all that the oxygen did for the boys but we are even more grateful to be off of oxygen!

Friday, January 21, 2011

And the Award Goes to...

CYLYNN

Cylynn is the recipient of the Mother of the Year Award. She has demonstrated exemplary skills in nurturing and protecting her children. Her ability to stay calm, during moments of extreme stress, goes above and beyond the call of motherhood. She is able to communicate in many languages, including foreign sign language. Macgyver has nothing on her when it comes to getting out of a bind. Above all, she thinks before she acts when it comes to the well-being of her children.

Today we (Makaio and Kekoa) are happy to present our very own mother with this prestigious award. She displayed all of these skills in the matter of 30 minutes when we were supposed to be headed to the doctor. Though she will try and put a positive spin on everything, allow us tell the real story.

Mommy was preparing everything for a trip to the doctor's office. I (Makaio) had an appointment scheduled since October. Mommy was running around like a mad woman trying to get everything ready because it takes some serious planning when it comes to getting two babies ready to leave the house. Since I (Kekoa) am on oxygen, it usually takes quite a bit longer for us to get ready since mommy and daddy need to make sure we actually have enough oxygen to get us through any given activity.

So mommy had just switched me oxygen onto a tank, put Makaio into his car seat and headed out to start the car so that it could be warm. We keep the car in the garage to help with this but that particular day happened to be really cold (go figure, we live in Minnesota). As she walked out into the garage, she shut the door behind her and we think we heard her scream "CRAP!" The next thing we heard was the car back out of the garage and then...nothing. All I know is that Makaio started to scream at the top of his lungs and mommy was not coming to get him, didn't she know I was trying to get some sleep before our trip to the doctor's office! After this, we don't really know what happened so we have to trust that what she told daddy was actually true.

She said that "Upon closing the door she realized that she has just locked herself out and us in" and she did in fact scream "CRAP." In her panic stricken state, she backed the car out of the garage and then tried to think of what she could do. She had also left her cellphone inside the house and of course the number to the landlord was stored therein. She decided to try and enlist the help of our neighbors. Even though she was quite certain that the neighbors don't speak English, she gave it a try anyway. Sure enough English is not spoken within the walls of that home.

Mommy did her best to communicate the fact that her children were locked inside the house, she was locked outside the house and that she needed a phone. All of this she did using rudimentary sign language and hoped that most of all the sign she was making to indicate telephone would be understood. Luckily there was a small child in the house, probably two years of age, and she seemed to understand the word telephone. Oh great, were we to rely upon a two year old as a translator? Well, no one really knows if it was the sign language or translator that made things happen but within a matter of 5 minutes, a telephone was presented to our mother.

Now the hard part, how would she communicate the fact that she needed the landlord's telephone number? She said that she just kept repeating the landlord's name and praying that this person actually knew her name. We are pretty sure she didn't know the landlord's name because she brought out a bunch of papers, none of which contained the landlord's name, but somehow there was a number with a different name next to it that looked familiar to mommy. She called the number and BINGO it was the right number.

Of course, as luck would have it, there was no answer. So she left a message, probably unintelligible, but a message no less, stating the dire circumstances. At this point, the neighbor was trying to ask a question. Good thing mommy is skilled at deciphering messages - after all, we can't speak but she knows what we want each and every time we cry - and therefore she understood that "Your man" with the phone being pushed toward her meant do you want to call your husband? She called daddy, even though she knew that he wouldn't be able to answer. Then she tried to call the landlord again and this time there was an answer.

We think you might remember that we have previously spoken about the genius suggestions from the said landlord. This time it was to try and break in using a credit card. Mommy's thought, "Are you kidding me, my children are locked in the house and instead of coming to my rescue, you want me to try and break into my own house?" Lucky for us or in this situation, unlucky for us, mommy is slightly paranoid and therefore always keeps the deadbolts locked. We don't know of a single credit card in the world that is getting through a deadbolt. Instead of stating her thought, mommy pulled it together and politely said, "I will try but can you please come over here and unlock the door." The landlord conceded.

Mommy returned to the house and put her ear up against the door only to hear Makaio screaming. He doesn't like his car seat for very long if he isn't going anywhere. Now she really started to get stressed out and even considered breaking a window with the hammer if the crying got any worse. Mommy paced around the outside of the house hoping that the landlord would arrive quickly and that we would be fine.

About a half of an hour later, mommy finally got into the house. Mommy seemed pretty stressed out and as for us, we were just hanging out waiting to go to the doctor's office.

As proof that we are okay, please enjoy this cute picture of us.

The lesson to be learned here is that even though our mommy isn't perfect, she is a great mommy.

Saturday, January 15, 2011

A New King

Usually my daddy sits in the living room recliner like the King of the Castle. I hope he knows that clearly, I am the king of this castle!


Thursday, January 13, 2011

I have finally found a reason why living in a colder climate is a good idea. I'll take snow any day if it means looking at this cute thing!


Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Wisniewski's are Sleepers

Over Christmas we had some visitors and all three of them did a good deal of sleeping. I can't blame dad for sleeping so much because he was extremely ill. We let him sleep as much as he wanted and in the end I think it paid off because he left here feeling pretty good.

Please do not be misled by the burp rag on dad's chest. We did give him something larger to cover up with when he slept. In fact we gave up our bed and slept on the hide-a-bed in order to keep the parentals happy and healthy.

Mom also did a great deal of sleeping but we can't blame her either. At the age of 6? (age partially altered) she tends at least six children under the age of four, manages to keep a clean house, cooks dinner for dad and grandma, crochets blankets and burp rags, quilts and well who knows what else! We think she should be allowed a nap or two if she feels like it.


As for our other guest, she just slept and as you can see from the picture it was usually in a strange position. The first night after they arrived, she told me to wake her up at 7:30 am the next morning. So, like a good little aunt, I did just that and she had the nerve to tell me that I woke her up too early because back home it would have only been 6:30 am. My apologies, I didn't know that I had to account for the time change.

Even though there was a whole lot of sleeping going on, we also managed to have a lot of fun also. The boys got carried way more than they usually do when it's just me and I think they liked the added attention. I also enjoyed the company because when babies cried in the middle of the night, I could keep on sleeping. Perhaps it wasn't a vacation for some of the company after all...oops!

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

NDE

In case you don't know, that is a Near Death Experience. I didn't actually leave my body but it was a close call. Not really...well maybe...who knows. Let me get on with the story.

So this morning we (the boys and I) were awakened by some really loud beeping. This is what the boys looked like when all of the beeping was going on. The bunny in between them is a souvenir that the fire department gave us to remember their visit.

Back to the story, I was a little frustrated because I thought it was Kekoa's oxygen concentrator and we really tried to get rid of the crappy one when Makaio was taken off of oxygen. Anyway, I was tired and a little crabby because I was hoping to get a little more sleep before I got going for the day. After a couple of minutes I drug myself out of bed and much to my surprise it wasn't the concentrator at all but our carbon monoxide alarm.

I wasn't sure if the beeping meant that we needed new batteries or if it was detecting carbon monoxide. I climbed up on a chair and next to the flashing light it said "If beeping four times, call 911." Who did I call you ask, our landlord. I knew that nothing in the apartment was operated by gas so I thought that this might be a false alarm for sure. The landlord didn't answer and I kept thinking, "Carbon monoxide is the silent killer, all I need is for Sterling to come home to a dead family."

So I took matters into my own hands and called 911. The fire department was dispatched out and of course after I made the call our landlord returned my call and said that it was probably nothing and that I should just unplug the alarm, take it outside and let it air out. I was not okay with that answer so I was glad that I called 911.

Once the fire fighters arrived, the immediately started walking throughout my newly cleaned house, tracking snow and mud all over my newly mopped floors and vacuumed carpet. All of their contraptions were detecting carbon monoxide. They were trying to decide where it was coming from and as soon as they approached the garage, the CO detecting contraptions went CRAZY!

Evidently the levels by our garage were at 200 ppm which they informed me would have dropped me if I entered the garage. Luckily for me I was too chicken to go around the house investigating the source, finding it and leaving my children motherless.

Today I am grateful for carbon monoxide alarms in houses even though there is nothing that is gas operated. Today we are alive because someone invented an alarm and another someone installed it in our house!