Hero Update

~Our Hero~

Aj is doing remarkably well ... I guess it isn't too surprising considering how he handled Sunday. He is a trooper through and through. He spent Monday at home with me and we went on a few errands and made our way to Target for him to choose a special Bravery Treat. He chose a model truck, an old Ford pick up tow truck. And was ready to get back outside sledding Monday afternoon! I suppose I am thankful he isn't afraid to get back out there ... although before they hit the back slope J. and I will have to figure out a way to protect the boys and cover up the compost bin.

Aj was back to school on Tuesday and did just fine .
The girls are going to dig the scar when he gets older! :)

My Hero

I will start our story with a little of our Saturday ... we had our first Ritzy Holiday Party Saturday night and as if on cue, it we had our first snow as well! It was very magical and all the kids (about 17 kiddos) all were shocked and all giddy with amazement watching the snowflakes fall as if we ordered it up for the party. It was very cool!

With snow covering the lawn and the hill at the house, Aj and Z went to bed (well, they crashed actually from being so overtired) and fell asleep thinking about sledding in the morning after a pancake breakfast.



Morning came and thankfully we all slept in until 830 -- had breakfast by about 930 and by 10 I was getting the boys in their gear to tackle the inch or two of fresh snow. Boots, jackets, hats, mittens ... they were set to go and Mr.R got their sled down for the anxious little guys.

J. came back in to get his coat on and headed out himself while I got myself in warm clothes, coat and boot and gloves. As I was just about out the back door I saw J. walking Aj up the hill with Aj's hat in his hand and helping Aj along and in the back door. J looked at me with a look that said DO NOT SAY A WORD OR SCREAM. He handed Aj off to me as I took off his coat and boots and mittens and I carried him into the kitchen. Blood was pouring from his forehead and Aj looked quite stunned, or in shock, both. He was not crying but their were big tears in his eyes and rolling down his scared little face.

Aj had gone down the back hill on the sled on his own and slammed head first into the compost pile/container -- into the metal corner bracket. It was a straight on cut, nice, clean and deep.


I got him inside and sat him up on the kitchen counter so I could see what was going on. I pushed back his blood matted hair to see a huge gash, long and deep, on the left side of his forehead. I got out the antiseptic wash and a paper towel and set to wash it out. I dabbed it a bit and immediately picked up the phone to call K. to come and check him out. (K. is my friend and neighbor and also a nursing school student.) K. showed up within minutes in her jammies and sock monkey slippers :-) and took one look at Aj and asked what hospital we were taking him to - she already volunteered to go with me. She heard the freak out in my voice when I called and saw me trying to keep calm when she arrived. How incredibly sweet of a friend is that?? We got Aj's sneakers and coat on, some tissues to dab the blood, grabbed some drinks and a snack for Aj, threw on a coat and grabbed my purse and out the door to the truck. We stopped at K's house so she could run in and get dressed ... and grab her phone and GPS because in the rush to get out of the house I had forgotten both of mine. ((And thanks for K. for all the pictures - her cell phone came in handy to make calls and to capture our ER adventure!))

J. didn't even know we had left or where we were going ... he was out with Z making sure he didn't freak out.

We headed up 95N to Providence to the Hasbro Children's Hospital. He was going to need stitches and it'd be best to get him to the Children's Hospital for a pediatric doctor. We pulled up, dropped the truck off at Valet parking and get the poor babe inside. Within 40 minutes we were in a room ...

To make a long S.E.V.E.N hour story short - Aj was AMAZING. Beyond amazing actually. He didn't cry. Didn't complain. Barely said BOO. He was such a trooper and is my hero. He was so good and patient about being at the hospital and waiting on the nurses and doctors. We watches movies, he drew pictures, K. blew up gloves for him and pictures for him to color. The nurses brought him blocks and crayons and paper.

Aj is my hero through and through .
And K. is a wonderful friend.

The only time Aj was upset was here at the end when Dr. Julie was stitching him up (3 inside and 6 outside ... they almost had to do 3 layers of stitches!!) she got in his view of the movie he was watching and goes, "Hey what do you think you are doing?? You're in my way!"

He never let on when they put the numbing medicine on and barely made a sound when she put a needle on both sides of the gash to inject a local anesthetic to numb the area to put the stitches in. He got upset with me though as he was being stitched up ... I was holding his hands to make sure he didn't swat away the doctor as she was working and I guess I was squeezing his hands tightly, too tightly, and he said I was hurting him. :) My sweetheart ... Momma was nervous too.


All Aj wanted after leaving the hospital was McD chicken nuggets, fries and a vanilla shake. You can bet your bottom dollar that boy was getting his McD even though he had it for lunch the previous day!! He could have asked for anything and I would have done my damnedest to get it for him.

He is doing better today, 30 hrs later. I set my alarm throughout the night to check on him every two hours -- and not that I needed my alarm, I was awake practically all night! The doctor was worried about a possible mild concussion even though he passed all the tests and answered the questions. We have an appt with his pedi on Friday to take out the stitches and the nurse at his doc office called today to follow up his ER visit. I kept him home with me today and we took a special trip to Target for him to pick out a special bravery treat.

Today, on the way home from Target, Aj says to me, "Mom - you're a great Mommy Doctor."

Ahhh, melt my heart.

Aj, you're the best, bravest, coolest, sweetest five year old ever. xoxo

It's Friday night & Momma's Been Drinking!

Nah ... not too much - catchy title though, huh?!

Well, I *might* have imbibed a tiny bit this evening -- you know, to procrastinate the cleaning and prep work I have to do before 45 people walk through my door tomorrow evening!

Yes.
I said 45.

Holy Shit, huh!?

What were we thinking??

:) It's all good. 'Tis the season and 'tis the time to kick start the holiday cheer!

I won't even go into my whole list of to-dos --- which (happily) includes a photo shoot tomorrow at 10AM followed by getting back home in time to put my meatballs in the crock pot so they appear all home-made by 430PM.

I have been working my ass off (too bad not literally though) on making movies and slideshows and DVDs and CDs ... oh me oh my!! I have not gone to bed before midnight in about 5 nights now and aleady tonight it's 1115 and I still wanted to get the goodie bags together for the kiddos coming tomorrow. Ugh. Not gonna happen I guess tonight.

Been having issues with Aj's separating from me ... thought we were over that about 2 years ago. It has reared it's ugly head the last 2 weeks and I can just about barely go pee in peace without him freaking out. Poor baby. :( Makes me sad. I need to think of ways to help him get over it ... get over me.

We had had a call into Santa this week as well for less than ideal behavior. Ugh.

Elvis the Elf has had fun at the house this week too - surprising the boys with candy canes, a pow-wow with all their friends, a letter (aka, gentle reminder to be good and listen to Mom and Dad). Now I need to figure out what he will be up to tomorrow. This elf business is hard work! :)

Okay, I am sure I could rattle on and on and on and on about other useless "stuff" and you may or may not be entertained ... BUT, I will spare you my ramblings and drag my sorry sad tired butt up to bed.


Happy Start To The Holidays!!
3 weeks until Christmas!! (I wonder if we will have snow ... been a freak-heat wave here all week!)

Tootles,
Momma Ritz

Tastfully Successful !!

What a super turn out for my TS party last night!

I feel honored -- who knew I so so many friends that would come on out for me & the party?! Very cool.

I said that to J. last night -- about having friends -- and he was all like, of course you have friends, don't be silly. It's just that maybe because I have never hosted a party before and didn't know if people would come. It was very cool to have a little get together with lovely ladies ... and even some I didn't know well. It was a good group -- big thanks to Jenna (the TS consultant), Nicole & Sara for coming down from Massachusetts, Kristen, Cathy, Sarah, Heather, Shannon, Anne, Tammy, Korynne, Jenn and a new friend, Wendy. And big thanks to other ladies who wanted to participate but couldn't make it but still sent in orders: Mom, my sister in law Michelle, Becky, Marcie.

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!
With all the orders places I got a great hosting "prize" and get to pick out items for free and half off a few as well for 2 people who made dates to host their own parties. SCORE for me!! It wasn't a bad deal -- I had to prepare some items, bake a few, and best of all - worked my ass off cleaning and scrubbing the house and getting it all prepared Christmas style. But all that work cleaning makes it a lot easier for Saturday's prep!! I think I scored all around -- and got to have fun, too! ((Thanks again for that new mop, Mom. It worked wonderfully.))

And big thanks to Mr.R for putting up with 14 women in the house and getting the boys off to bed. ILY.


Other Ritzy News ....
Just finished editing the shoot from last Sunday and BOY oh Boy are they cute pictures. I have K's shoot tonight and another one on Saturday morning. :) Yay!


Elvis has entered the building here. Elvis is our Santa Elf that introduced yesterday. He hasn't gotten into mischief YET but this morning he was found sitting on the potty with 2 candy canes for his 2 favorite little boys. I think tomorrow I will borrow Missy's idea for an Elf Te Party set up and gather all their favorite animals for a big party on their bedroom floor for them to wake up to tomorrow. I am going to have to be tricky & use my imagination to think up 22 more Elfish ideas for Elvis! (Pictures soon of the cute little sprite!)

Hmmmm -- what else?? Making my shopping lists for Saturday's Holiday party -- the #s are creeping up there and it seems it will be QUITE the houseful. Oh, Lordy -- what were we thinking???!!! I think 45 people (kids included) will be here. I am working on my menu and thankful that I made it an option if guest would like to bring along something to share. There will be many people and many hungry mouths to feed. It will be a lot of fun though - looking forward to it!!

((As well as J's work dinner party Friday night -- an early and BIG thanks to K for taking on our 2 extra boys for a few hours while we are wine and dined by Citizen's Bank!))

Oh and Oh and Oh ... I am working on a surprise for Mr. R for our 10th Anniversary coming up in February. CAN. NOT. WAIT.

Must run now and get the boys some dinner and head over to K's for pictures.

HAPPY DECEMBER!!

Last Day & Catch up

Did you know today is the last day of November?

Our lights are up. Our tree is twinkling. Stockings are hung. It is Christmas at Our Ritzy House! The biggest month starts tomorrow and the boys are SO beyond the moon excited for all the goodness and surprises and smiles that December is going to bring. This is really the first year that they are BOTH so excited. Last year was big, but this year is HUGE for them. I love living in the moment with them and reveling in all the joys and excitement that Christmas brings. It is making my heart go all pitter-patter watching and listening to how excited they both are.

My cup runneth over.

Tomorrow will also be a big day to introduce their ELF ... I still need to name him. I am thinking Elvis would be a fun name. He will be up to fun, mischief and goodness knows what else this month as we count down until the 25th. Can not wait!! I gave them their POLAR EXPRESS book this morning from Auntie Kitty and told them that we will be going on the train in a few weeks and showed them their new jammies (red & green flannel with Christmas sock monkeys on them - so cute!!) that they get to wear on the P.E. Kat also got her and I matching jammie bottoms to wear on the train as well. We're going to have so much fun!!! (An early thank you to R&L for getting us the most coveted tickets to this magical holiday surprise!)

Tomorrow is also my TASTEFULLY SIMPLE PARTY -- will be a great night and I have a big turn out coming for it. YAY! Nic and Sara are coming down from Massachusetts; my Mom and sister-in-law have placed orders; neighbors and friends will be joining us too. I am excited!! ((If you would like to place an order, just email me -- I will have my party open until Thursday or Friday for orders! T.S. ship via UPS right to your door in time for the holidays :)

Our Holiday Christmas party is also coming right up on Saturday night ((BUT, before that Saturday night we have Mr.R's work Holiday party Friday night and Saturday morning I have a photoshoot!)) Seriously - this month hasn't even started yet and it's already filled up! LOVE IT! :) I am expecting about 40 people, adults and kiddos - perhaps more depending on last minute RSVPs. I need to come up with food & beverage menus as well as get the little crafts and goodie bags together for the kids. Decide on a Christmas movie to watch while the party goes on for the older kids and make sure to hide some of the boys' toys I don't feel like cleaning up after the kids have all destroyed the playroom.

So much other stuff going on and filling up our social calendars - such fun :) Parties, BUNCO, dinner, basketball games, birthday parties --- love this time of year!

Oh, and RPP is going awesome right now!!
I had an indoor shoot yesterday with my portable make-shift studio. *Check out the RPP blog for some preview pics!* The sun was shining, sky was bright blue and I got to take a minute (or 45) and enjoy the drive and views over to Newport. I got to drive over both big bridges (Jamestown & Newport) and it made me remember where we were living - right on the coast. I love it. I totally want to get over to Newport this winter and enjoy a chilly day on the beach. My "studio" worked out great and I have some items saved online for a January 1, 2010 purchase to write off for next year's taxes. I am going to get a proper portable set up and can. not. wait. :)

Enjoy your last day before the December insanity arrives!