Sick of the sickness!

Written Friday:

A few weeks ago, Gus and Sam came down with runny noses and coughs. Then Oliver picked up the cough, and then Max came down with a fever (last week). Shortly thereafter, Gus and Sam came down with mild fevers, and Oliver picked up the congestion and fever.

Max's throat was all gross, but the strep test was negative, and he said he didn't have any pain, so we let it go. Now Max is coughing and has a runny nose, and in the past 48 hours, Gus has slept 40 of them - more if you count the bits of falling asleep wherever he was sitting/laying. He went to bed at 2pm on Wednesday for his nap, and I had to wake him up at 5:30. An hour later, he was asleep in my lap, so I put him back in bed. He slept all night, and the next morning and afternoon, I kept checking on him, and finally got him up at 1pm. At 4pm, after refusing to eat, he wanted to go back to bed. He slept all night, and this afternoon, I finally got him up at 12:30 thinking he had to eat something. I figured he was just sleeping off whatever he had going on.

He was totally out of it, didn't want to eat much, even his absolute faves. He would get up and follow me if I left the room, but otherwise was happy to lay around, and snooze off and on, as long as he could hold my hand (I know, how cute is that??). I put him back to bed at 3 and called the doctor's office and they told me to bring him right in, so I did. I had just given him some ibuprofen, about 30 minutes prior, but his fever was still 100 through his shirt (underarm). Turns out he has a double ear infection and she thinks his body is out of whack from only basically having water for 2 days. We had to get blood drawn to make sure he doesn't need to be hospitalized with an IV (yikes, wth!) and I haven't had a call yet, so I'm optimistic that she was just erring on the side of caution. So, he's back in bed after passing out on the couch, with a cup of G2, some yogurt, and a dose of antibiotics in him. Poor baby. :(

Then there's Sam whose sleeping habits are not at all favorable. He is refusing regular sleep, which is rough, too. I can't wait for this cough to go away and the runny noses to go with it. It's only cute for so long when a kid pulls your sleeve up to their nose to wipe it. Actually it's only cute once, and that's the one time it happens before you realize what they're doing.

I'm just glad I haven't gotten it yet - all I've got going on is 1st trimester exhaustion - and Emma and Simon are both healthy as well. Let it ride!

Saturday update: Doctor's office called today (conveniently while Oly and I were in the process of removing a tick from Max's head that I found while cutting his hair), said Gus needed to drink about 50ozs of fluids today or he'd need to be hospitalized for dehydration. We, despite constant offering various liquids and cups (and by that I mean that I sat with him for the majority of the day and said "drink again" every 10 seconds), only made it to about half that, but mid-morning he started acting much more normally and was awake for all but about 1.5 hours all day. He is definitely feeling much better, so we're just going to push the fluids again tomorrow and take stock then. I'm sure he's still dehydrated, but he's acting completely normal now, so I'm not worried about it. It was pretty scary when he was sleeping 22 out of 24 hours, and the 2 he was awake was because I woke him up!

Oliver can't stop coughing, but Sam and Max are much better now. We still have runny noses (Gus too) but otherwise, I think the kids are mostly on the mend.

Kangaroos

Emma did a report on kangaroos, and I thought it was pretty fabulous! They also had to write a letter to the animal they reported on, convincing them to live in our climate for awhile. Spelling errors are intentional, this is exactly how she wrote it. :)



THE REPORT:

Kangaroos are BIG animals. They are VERY interesting. Did you know that a baby red kangaroo at birth weighs less than one once? Even I didn't know that! Now let's explore the facts I took from the book Kangaroos by Lynn M. Stone.

Kangaroos has long ears on it's black eyes head. And has a long tail over their big hind feet. A kangaroo usually weighs 150 pounds.

Kangaroos usually eat grass, but I think I should tell you their predetors. Their main preditor is a dingo. Every once in a while a Tasmanian devil eats a baby kangaroo. Eagles swoop down to catch their dinner of a small kangaroo.

Kangaroos live in many places, I'll name them for you. Australia is a very popular place for kangaroos to be spotted. Tasmania is a place where some kangaroos live.

There are 54 kinds of kangaroos. No kidding! Kangaroos are nocturnal, too! Kangaroos are related to wallabies.

A kangaroo seems very interesting. Can you believe that a baby red kangaroo at birth weighs less than one once? I can't! I like the kangaroo because they're cute, kind, and just plain cheerful.



THE LETTER:

Dear Katie Kangaroo,

I want to invite you to my house. You could be my winter guest!

I know you eat grass, so you could mow the uneven grass!

You don't have to worry about dingos, eagles, and Tasmanian devils in Lincoln, Nebraska, because there aren't any! But watch out for Pickles, Libby, and Hotdog, because they can be dangeres!

I know you don't have a baby to put in your pouch, but don't worry! You can give my brothers rides in your pouch!

Don't worried, either, Katie, my dog Grissom, will do the Bunny/Kangaroo Hop with you. Grissom is a handsom golden retriever.

You could sleep on my queen sized bed with me, as long as you don't be kangaroo/hog on my bed!

You will be happy when you see my backyard because it's huge, has a trampaline, a secret passage, clubhouse, a double deck, hot tub, and lots of trees.

Reply soon! Say yes!

Love, Emma

Moving and shaking!

With some painting help from my fabulous friend Carrie, I redid Simon and Max's room a week or two ago. Simon wanted a 'Star Wars The Clone Wars' theme, so I scoured ebay for some good deals, and took a leap of faith with our paint choice colors! The first 4 photos are from right after we got the bunk bed set (beds, dressers, and desk - awesome garage sale score), back when Emma and Simon were sharing a room, Max had his own room, and the other room was a play room.

Now Gus and Sam share a room (photos of that re-do coming soon), and Emma *finally* has a room to herself - no sharing with the baby anymore! In addition to that overhaul, Oly and I moved his office out to the main room in the basement, and created a nice little sitting area for me to hang out in in the evenings, with the added bonus of being able to utilize the fireplace down there! We moved the elliptical, weight bench, and his CompuTrainer (indoor computerized cycling set-up) from the main room into what used to be his office, and that is now the exercise room.

Eventually we're going to move the treadmill down there (it's currently in our bedroom), and mount a flat screen TV on the wall for use while exercising. I will post photos of that once we have everything in place! I've been trying to talk Oly into that set-up for awhile, so I'm glad he finally went for it. We're both enjoying it so far! Anyway, all these changes have been within the past couple of weeks, so that's been keeping us busy!

Anyway, the following photos are before and after, starting in the corner where the door to the hallway is.






'New' room, complete with awesome neon Star Wars sign for a night light!

Gus's latest adventure

I typed this up on Sunday but was waiting for photos to go along with it. I am a lazy, lazy woman. Here's the dish:

Today while I was making lunch, Gus was sitting in his booster seat at
the table and decided to stand up and turn around to mess with the
patio door. I heard him, and turned around, and told him to sit down.
I glanced back down at what I was doing, and heard him hit the floor.
Gus is just one of those kids who is constantly getting hurt. He's
very accident-prone, I guess you could say. So him bashing his mouth
on something and having a bloody lip is not cause for concern around
here.

I went over, scooped him up, and snuggled him, while lecturing him on
the dangers of standing up on chairs. A minute later, I did the
standard check to be sure all of his teeth are still in place and
realized that he was bleeding a lot more than usual. I wiped the blood
away and checked his mouth and realized that his lower lip was split
way open. Like, to the point where I could see inner lip stuff that I
did not care to see. I informed Oliver that I thought he needed
stitches, and we debated over who would take him in. It was already
'one of those days'!

I took him first to the Urgent Care Center, because I didn't feel like
waiting for hours at the ER, even though, from experience (when Simon
got his eyelid ripped open by Grissom's razor-sharp puppy teeth during
a play session) I figured they'd send me to the ER due to it being a
facial wound and scarring possibilites and all that. Sure enough, 30
minutes later, I was doubling back toward the ER. After an hour wait
(some of which Gus slept in my lap) we were shown to a room at the
hospital, and about 2 hours (and way too much TV) later, a nurse
finally came in. About 30 minutes later, the doctor moseyed in, and by
then I was fighting mad. Gus had fallen during lunch, meaning he
didn't finish. It was dangerously close to dinner time, and he'd slept
all of about 20 minutes worth of a normally 2 hour nap. He was running
out of things to explore in our room, and my forgotten stash of Jelly
Bellies was just about gone. Most unfortunately, the doctor we saw was
the one who had sewn up Simon's eyelid, and I didn't think he'd done
the best job ever. Not much I could do at that point, since Gus's lip
was well on it's way to healing itself by then, and apparently he's
the 'stitches guy' there.

Here we are, waiting for medical attention. The lip was swollen enough that the cut didn't look too deep at that point.



The worst part for me, when watching my kids get stitches, is when
they strap the kid down. No one likes being contained like that
(unless you're a 2 day old baby or just 'one of those' people), and it
just adds to the panic, although I completely understand, obviously,
why it has to be done. So he got wrapped in a straight-jacket of bed
sheets, basically, and they injected his lip (and INTO the cut, what
the hell!) with pain-killer, and of course some got in his mouth and
he was hating that... it was just 15 minutes of screaming, thrashing,
heart-breaking chaos including one old man with a hook and thread, a
young nurse with Gus's head in a vise, and his mama, hugging his torso
and trying to assure him that it would be over soon. In the end, he
received 4 stitches, and we realized that he'd cut his lower lip
pretty deeply on the inside in another spot, but that it didn't need
stitches.

Stitches finished (and not liking the flash). You can see the thumb nail on his left hand, all bruised from the automatic door incident a month or so ago.



We finally got home at 5:40 or so, and of course everyone was worried
about Gus, and worried about their empty bellies. And Gus was not
happy about *anything*. Wanted to be held, didn't want to be held.
Wanted a drink, didn't want a drink. Wanted to eat, didn't want to
eat, and so on. Apparently he could either still taste the painkiller,
or he was remembering the taste, because he kept saying 'yucky' about
everything he put in his mouth. But we were all starving, so Oly and I
played a game of Rock, Paper, Scissors to see who would run for
take-out. He lost, but then couldn't find his wallet, so after 10
minutes of searching, it was decided that I would go, instead.

Finally, about an hour later, we were all fed, and now all of the
children are in bed. I am not looking forward to the next three days
of a 2 year old with stitches. Do they make those dog cones for kids?

I have uploaded some more photos from Christmas Eve and a few misc. other shots. They are viewable here: http://picasaweb.google.com/kabanta/MoreChristmasAndOther# but as always, you can click on the link on the right of this main page (in the blue box, under Relevant Links) to take you to the entire album. :) If you are receiving this message as an email, you can click on the link from the email to take you to the main page of this blog. Happy weekend, everyone! :)

New photos!

Hope you all had a safe and happy holiday! We're about to go to the store to get some supplies for our rockin' New Years party tomorrow night! It'll be a fun crowd - just us and the kids! We're going to play games, make our own pizzas, and eat a bunch of junk food... and hope to stay up at least until 10. :)

I posted some Christmas photos here: http://picasaweb.google.com/kabanta/ChristmasPhotos2008# Too many to post on the blog. Happy New Year, everyone!!

Today

This morning, I took Max to the LPS central office to get his hearing and speech re-evaluated, since it's been almost 6 months since he got tubes put in, due to excess fluid behind his eardrums, which was causing hearing issues, and thusly, speech issues. His hearing is normal now, the tubes are still in place and open (not infected) and everything looks great there. His speech is also a lot better and he is right on track developmental-wise. The only thing the speech pathologist said we could work on is asking him to articulate when he uses 'gibberish', which is not nearly as often as it was before. Otherwise, she said he is doing great! That's awesome news, especially since I am apparently a huge fan of unfounded worrying. It's a good thing that the kids' doctor is a good friend of ours, or he probably would not be nearly as patient with me. :)

On the way out of the building, Gus got his left thumb smashed in between the heavy steel door and the door jamb. It is an automatic open/shut handicapped access type door, and Max had pushed the button to open the door, gone outside, and pushed the button again to close it. Gus reached up to push the button from the inside and got his thumb trapped. His thumb was flat when I got it out of the door, and immediately swelled up and started to bruise. He was screaming, obviously! I got him to the van, got all the boys buckled in, and went to the ER since it was close to where we were. We got checked in, as I was holding a thrashing, screaming Gus and a tired Sam. I then called Oly and asked him to meet us there. About 5 minutes before he arrived (10 or so minutes after I'd called him), Gus calmed down and was watching PBS and eating TicTacs. I always swore I wouldn't be That Mother, but desperate times call for desperate measures, surely. So Oly and I discussed and decided that it probably wasn't broken, since he was doing okay, and we went home. I took some photos and emailed them to Gus's doctor (our friend) and he wrote back, confirming that it most likely wasn't broken. So now Gus has a swollen, bruised thumb and is favoring it greatly. At least he's not crying anymore. :(

It's more bruised now than it was in these photos, but the swelling is about the same. Such is life with kids, especially 4 boys, eh?