From sick day to sick week…

Sigh.  Last week sucked.  It blew.  I demand that week of my life back.  Elijah was sick on and off.  That was annoying, but THAT I could handle.  On Tuesday, Jerry came home for lunch and sounded horrid.  I asked him not to go back into work… like asking gravity to stop working.  heh. He was going to try to get home early, but because of one thing or another he didn’t get home until almost 8.  And when he DID get home, he said good night to the kids and went to bed.  He took Wednesday off.  Elijah was FINALLY feeling better, but we were working on our 24 hours without fever, so while fever free, we still had to keep him home.  So we GOT OUT of the house.  Jerry needed rest and I needed OUT!  So out we went.  We ran errands, we got lunch, we got OUT! And then it was nap time.  Ahhhhh.  I love naptime in our house.  No one is required to sleep, but they are required to be still and quiet on beds.  At 4 I went into check on Jerry.  Got him some meds and put him back to sleep.  The kids were up and I set them up with a movie.  At 4:45, I went in again to check on Jerry.  I had plans with a friend that evening and I really needed to know if I needed to cancel.  He was sitting on the edge of the bed.  Could I go get him some Primatine Mist?  Sure…but maybe Urgent Care for a stronger inhaler would be better.  He agreed.  I got the kids dressed and threw some things in a backpack to keep them entertained.  I was worried, but really thought he just needed a different inhaler.  I started to worry a little more, when he couldn’t really talk in the car.  And even more when he gasped that he needed a wheel chair in the parking lot.  Still…
2.5 hours later, with me running out of ways to entertain the kiddos… The doctor came out and told me Jerry was on 92% oxygen, had had three breathing treatments, and had a positive Flu A test.  They were sending him to the hospital.  WHAT?!??!?!  Crap.  I REALLY REALLY tried to keep it together.  I failed…but only broke down for a few minutes in the parking lot.  I called my mom.  I called my friends.  I recalled my mom and asked her to please come first thing in the morning.  I went home, fed the kids, and cleaned.  I threw all the sheets into the wash and cleaned the kitchen and folded clothes and got the guest room habitable and waited for news from my husband.  Apparently after waiting for an hour and a half in the ER at one hospital, the ER doc saw him and admitted him…except there was no room there.  So, ANOTHER, ambulance ride to the OTHER hospital and he got a room.  The next morning, a good friend watched the kids while I went to see Jerry.  He looked horrid.  He had called for a breathing treatment, which APPARENTLY only the respiratory therapist can administer, and APPARENTLY telling one that he cannot breathe is not a sign of distress….so one and half hours after he requested said treatment, he got one.  *eye roll*  This sort of “care” continued the rest of the stay.  Alas.  Anyway, he stayed in the hospital until Saturday morning.  I must say that Saturday was one of the better days in life!   I was still worried about him, but on Sunday:


I want to send a shout out to our friends who checked on us and helped us out.  AND A HUGE HUGE HUGE thank you to my mom.  I was very comforted to know that the kids were in good hands and there was no rush while she was here.  My friends never would have made me feel that way by any means, but it is still nice to have your mom when you need her!!!  THANK YOU MOM!!!
Oh yeah, and Elijah…. sigh.  He developed a horrid cough and I was freaked out with the fever at the beginning of the week that maybe he had the flu…even with the flu shot… So we went to the doctor on Friday.  Flu free and doc said that whatever he had he was just coughing the last of it out.  Phew!  Back to school with him on Monday and Jerry went back to work on Monday as well.  I’m glad that week is behind us and that I made it through with a little help from friends and family.  I am freaking exhausted, but it’s a small price to pay for healthy family!

A Survey with the 5 year old

My good friend Kristie did this with her son and I’m totally stealing it.  I hope that I remember to do this yearly.  I’m sure some of the questions will change to fit the needs and purposes of the survey.  I will do it with Grace in the Spring.
1. What’s your favorite color? I love all the colors!
2. What’s your favorite number? 5. Because I’m 5!
3. What’s your favorite letter? E
4. What’s your favorite word? Love (AWWWWWWWWWW!!!)
5. What’s your favorite movie? Lightening McQueen (Cars)
6. What’s your favorite book? Batman Book
7. What’s your favorite song?  I’ve Been Working on the Railroad
8. What’s your favorite TV show? Cat in the Hat
9.What’s you favorite animal? alligator
10. What’s your favorite food? BBQ Chicken with a bone in it
11. What’s your favorite special treat? candy cane
12. Who’s your best friend? Avery
13. What’s favorite adventure? Going to Oma and Opa’s house
14. What’s your favorite park? The spinny park
15. What’s your favorite thing to do at school? Morning work
16. What do you like best being 5 so far?  That I’m going to go to kindergarten
17. What’s your favorite toy? A fire truck
18. What’s your favorite game to play? The Bike Game  (racing to the stop sign and back)
19. What’s your favorite thing to pretend?  To pretend with Wolverine (Superheroes)
20. What do you want to do when you turn 6? Pretend I’m driving a train!
And there you have it! heh.

Sick Day:2

Sigh.  So Elijah stayed home from school and still had a (much) lower fever.  Only 100.5.  So he stayed home today.  And boy did he obviously feel better.  Unfortunately, he has to miss tomorrow too since he hasn’t been fever free for 24 hours.  ANYWAY, it was also rainy and cold and miserable.  And I had a house to clean and laundry to fold.  Oh whoa is me!  heh.  The kids actually played (quasi) well together in the morning, and I (quasi) napped with Grace…Elijah didn’t nap at all…obviously felling better.  BUT after nap, i had finished with cleaning, the soup for dinner was simmering, so we played.
Elijah wanted to build:



So we built.  And we played.  Elijah set guards at all the entrances.  Apparently the queen was bad and the king was good.  And I got to be the queen….hmmmm.
Gracie wanted her face painted…like a princess:
 
  
And so I did.  Heh.  She’s lucky she’s cute! ;)  So that’s how we spent our afternoon.  Not to shabby…for a sick day!

What to do on a Sick Day…

So today Elijah is out of school for a teacher workday.  We were SUPPOSED to go to the railroad museum as a reward for the kids staying in their room all night for 10 nights straight.  HOWEVER, yesterday he woke up from nap with a 102 temp that shot up to 105 before bed.  With IB the fever broke and he slept through the night only waking a few time.  This morning his temp was 103.  Sigh.  So after taking Jerry to work and putting a call into the doc, we came home (doc said wait 24 hours and see how he is in the morning.)  Now I have a well 2 year old and a sick 5 year old… What to do?  First, feed the mama, cause if mama’s hungry NO ONE’S happy.  Second, call Oma and get sympathy!  hehe.  Third, come up with a game plan.  Make some cookies and a smoothie (cause what’s better?), try to get the boy to eat, and come up with something that will keep the kids entertained.  I mean videos only go so far.  SO, I found this site via Teach Preschool on Facebook (if you are a mom or preschool teacher I HIGHLY recommend “liking” them on FB…awesome resource!) and decided to make puffy paint with the kids.  I’m not a huge fan of using foods in crafts or other areas of play, because I feel it’s wasteful to use food that can be eaten… BUT I made an exception this time.  the recipe is 1T self rising flour 1T salt 1 T (we actually used almost 2T) water and food coloring.  We only did four colors and with that we made about 7-8 pictures.  The first ones were pics I copied off the internet.  After they painted we popped the pics in the microwave for 15-20 seconds.  It was pretty cool!
 



So after all the dripping and finger painting and mixing of colors (see we do learn when we play!!) we still had a TON of paint left over.  So we decided to try some other fun things.  We have a couple of bouncy balls lying around (who doesn’t?) and they each happened to have different size, weight, and texture (SCORE!) so we put paper on a jelly roll pan and rolled the balls around in the paint and then on the paper by picking up the whole pan and tilting it around.  Nice marble effect.  We also tried bouncing the balls and rolling them back and forth to each other.  Rather messy, but super fun!  After each one we microwaved the paper and examined the result of the puff.  The larger the blob, the larger the puff!

The Birthday Party!

We held Elijah’s party at a local skating rink.  On certain days and times you can rent the whole place out for your party.  Your guests can brings anything with wheels, so that’s what we did.  We ordered pizza and had cupcakes and snacks.  The DJ played age appropriate music at an age appropriate volume!  It was SOOO much fun!
Grace and Elijah helped assemble the skate board cupcakes the night before.  The next morning, all the toostie rolls had melted and they looked more like Dr. Suess skateboards.  Alas, they still tasted super yummy!  The skating rink also had two huge screens that said HAPPY 5th BIRTHDAY ELIJAH on them.  He thought that was “awwesome” (yes with two w’s)!  Even though the evite said no gifts (and our playgroup is VERY strict about this!) Elijah did receive some gifts, which we put under the table until we got home.  He got some cool things.  He was excited to open presents, but we just feel that is not what birthdays are about.  We do gifts from family (and some CLOSE friends we occasionally make exceptions for) but we would rather the day be about celebrating and having fun!  I know this will get harder as the years progress, but as long as possible, I would really rather try to make it more about celebrating and not about presents!
Again, not too many pictures because of the other kid rule I have, but it was super doper fun!!!

Wordle...

It was fun to make this.  Here's the link to make your own.  It's free...and fun!  By clicking on the picture, you can go to the website too and it makes the picture bigger...and clearer!

Five Years Old??? WHAT?!?!

There is no.possible.way.  Elijah is 5.  How did this happen?  He’s going to kindergarten in the fall and we are visiting schools now.  How the HELL did the happen?  I’m a total wreck.  He’s my baby!
See:

My little guy… he came into the world a big guy and hasn’t stopped growing.  Look at those feet!!  They are still huge!
And then, after making it through the first year….which was unbelievable in and of itself, he was still my little guy.

I mean, he has straight hair.  He still has that baby chub… Seriously, the rake is bigger than he.  He JUST started walking…and then running…
And then BAM, he was 2.

The hair is starting to curl, the feet are still big.  The baby chub is almost gone…and the train obsession has started.  He started moving from signing to talking this year.  He became a big brother this year.  He made some big advances this year.
But wait, he didn’t stop!  Now he’s what? 3?  geez…

WHOA!  Wait, how did that happen?  He’s huge!  The hair is crazy!  He’s a little man.  His language is developing.  He’s empathetic.  He’s got friends.  He’s playing soccer.  He’s riding a bike.  He’s unstoppable.  He's embarking on 3-hood, which is a trying age…and had we waited to have that little one behind him until Elijah was 3, he MAY have been an only child, cause man!  But still, his personality is developing and he’s becoming his own person. 
Then, before I can turn around and get myself situated and figure out 3-hood….4 knocks on the door.

He’s still obsessed with trains, he’s obsessed with fire trucks, he LOVES books.   He has a speech therapist, who after 8 meetings, says he’s up to par!  He starts really playing with his sister and really becomes able to entertain himself!!  He is mastering skills and showing immense athletic talent.  He starts preschool and is the star of the class.  He is polite and sweet.  He is a ball of energy.  His imagination is amazing.  He starts drawing pictures that are easier to depict.  He recognizes letters and numbers.  He goes on his first sleepover with his Oma and Opa and Gracie and they do GREAT!  (all four of them!!)  He is turning into an even more amazing kid!
And, now, today, he becomes 5.   F.I.V.E.  How can this happen?  I feel like this is the year he leaves babyhood and becomes a boy.  Such exciting things ahead for my little guy.  It’s really hard for me to take it all in.  He’s such a cool kid and I want everyone to know him and love him as much   as we do!  I want to protect him and shelter him, but I know I can’t.  He is already so independent, that, when he cries from a nightmare in the middle of the night, I want to crawl in the bed and snuggle him.  I adore the times he needs his mama for a hug and a kiss.  My heart melts when he looks as me and says, “I love you mama!”  My little guy… all grown up.

More to come…

SNOW!!!! A Picture and Video Post!

So yeah, it snowed.  It rarely snows here, and when it does, it RARELY sticks around a WHOLE day!  But this time it snowed, it stuck, and it’s still out there!  We got around 5 inches (after it being predicted that we would get around .2 inches…that’s 2/10’s of an inch… WRONG!) and once it stopped snowing the ice started.  It was a perfect snow day.  Elijah was out of school and Jerry was out of work… So Grace and I were in 7th heaven!!!
Enjoy our day, I know we did!!!