Down for the count

From sxc.hu

All three of my kids ended up in bed with me last night. My two-year-old coughed till his thick yellow phlegm made him gag, my 4 year old just “didn’t feel good,” and my 6 year old was running a 102.7. It hit them all like a ton of very nasty bricks.

They’ve been fighting allergies for awhile, but the fever made it obvious that this was just a bit more than allergies.

This morning we all headed to the pediatrician’s office after a humorous phone call that actually had the receptionist laughing.

Me: Do you have an appointment for three sick kids this morning?

Her: How about this afternoon at 1:00?

Me: Assuming I can actually get my son to sleep, he’ll be napping at 1:00, and considering the all-nighter we just pulled… I am assuming he will take a nap for me. Any way we can do this morning?

Her: Can you do 9:30?

Me: I can.

Her: And your name?

Me: (Fill in name here.)

Her: (Insert laughter here.)

Me: Why are you laughing?

Her: Does he have a ball up his nose?

Ok, let me explain. I said yesterday that a lot has happened lately, and this is just one of those many stories. Last weekend, my 4 year old decided that he would hide a small bead from his 2 year old brother. And where is the most logical place for a young man to stick said ball? You guessed it! Straight up his nostril. And for a booger (pun intended) who does not know how to blow his nose… that was an adventure!

Now back to today’s episode.

So I end up back at today’s appointment and the pediatrician takes one look at my daughter’s throat and immediately predicts (like I had) that she has strep. As he swabs her she coughs and droplets land straight in his eye. After a good eye cleaning, we both see that the swab is completely yellow. Not a good sign. He sends it off for the “quick test” and he proceeds to my boys.

The youngest has an obvious ear infection, and the older son has so much wax in his ear that the doctor cannot tell if there is an infection or not. Both boys have red throats. He went to retrieve the results for the throat swab and they are NEGATIVE.

The conclusion: three cases of tonsilitis and two ear infections. The swab will be kept overnight and all three will be treated for strep if that comes back positive. Until then, lots of snuggles, ice cream, and movies on the couch.

And how was YOUR morning?

My theory for the day: If you plaster a smile on your face long enough, your heart and mind will try to catch up. If you keep frowning, you don’t give them a fighting chance. So I choose to smile, and I choose to keep that smile afloat with lots and lots of very strong coffee.

What a racquet

One of my daughter’s friends gave her a racquetball set for her birthday. Really cool idea except for the fact that she has two little brothers.

She took the set out of the package, asked me what each part was, and then headed upstairs. She knew they would destroy her new toy in 2.2 seconds if allowed to.

Of course it did not long before she wanted to play with her new birdies which meant, of course, sharing.

She gave one racquet to her brother and she kept one. She tried to hit the birdie to him, but the youngest boy intercepted it, looked at it, and pulled the ball off the top.

I took the parts and started  reattaching it. In the meantime, she hit the second birdie which quickly met the same fate.

Within 15 minutes, the birdies were destroyed.

Devastated, my daughter went inside. The boys then saw the opportunity to roleplay some Star Wars light saber fights with the neglected racquets and a bloody nose soon resulted.

That is the amazing thing about boys… everything is a weapon. Plastic hammers, Hot Wheel cars, legos, balls… they can all be lethal.

Until we have to make an ER run for a broken bone though, I try to take it all in stride. I have paid a lot of money for my in-home entertainment. Might as well enjoy watching it.

What about you? Any homemade weaponry you would like to share about yourself, your family, or your kids? Comment below. I’d love to hear about other people’s creative destruction.

What goes down sometimes comes up

My daughter’s 6th birthday party turned out way better than I would have imagined. A classmate showed up with her mom and we had several family members and family friends in attendance as well. The pinata, cake, and sidewalk chalk were all hits.

But the real fun began a good eight hours after the party when my two year old started vomiting. Having been through several stomach bugs with the three kids, my heart immediately sank. He had three runs to the toilet over the next hour, and then we both fell asleep on the floor.

There was no stirrings from either of the other two kiddos, so I had a glimmer of hope that perhaps this was something other than the beginnings of a nasty week of vomit and diarrhea all over my carpet..

They all woke up ready to eat and play when the sun came up, and we did. I called my mother who attended the party and she laughed. The conversation went something like this.

Mom: We talked about that on the way home yesterday. We wondered how he could eat so much and NOT get sick.

Me: What do you mean? What did he eat?

Mom: I found him on the floor with a stack of empty candy wrappers next to him after the pinata. Dad took the Triscuit box away from him, and your brother caught him in the corner with the Cheetohs. He had birthday cake too.

I emailed several attendees to verify there were no other sick kids out there, and now I am pretty certain this is not another bug.

I guess some kids have to learn the hard way… even a 2-year-old tummy cannot consume everything it wants. It may taste great going down, but when the porcelein thrown calls at midnight, it will not taste NEAR as good coming back up.

Wishing for a silent night

When you have a kid that is cutting canines and POSSIBLY fighting off hand, foot and mouth disease; a silent night would be a thing of beauty.

 My 20 month old woke up with about four ulcers in his mouth a couple of days ago. I called the doctor and he said it could be the start of hand, foot, and mouth but that since there is really nothing that can be done to “fix” it, there was no reason to come in.

No fever yet. He’s just real fussy and needy. (Even fussy for him, which is saying a lot.)

We are heading home to see my husband’s family for Thanksgiving, and my kids are much younger than their cousins, so we are not really worried about passing the little virus. We are more concerned about just surviving the midnight (and all day) screams at this point.

Oh well, this too shall pass.

Until then though, I’ll keep tossing on the homemade concoction of Benadryl and Maalox to soothe the ulcers. Although it is supposed to be about 50/50, I’ll throw in some extra Benadryl for good measure. Although the potential drowsiness side effect has not kicked in yet, I’m still hopeful.

I’ll be on the road tomorrow, so just in case I can’t check in… happy Thanksgiving my friends.

May your tummy be full of food you didn’t have to prepare yourself;

May your heart be full of love and laughter;

And may you and your family make it through the holiday without the cops having to visit even once!

Poor little Ra-Ra: A lovey bites the dust

My 20 month old son is addicted to a Build a Bear bunny he has named Ra-Ra. But after a year of wear and tear, his little buddy is smelly and wore out. Since Build a Bears cannot be washed… I was in a bind. 

I have searched high and low for another one that looked the same, but I had no luck. I was almost in tears at the thought of tossing the bunny, but I really didn’t know what else to do. Lysol and surface cleaning can only go so far.

I went to Build a Bear today and found another bunny that was two shades darker, has different eyes, has eyelashes and is… well… much more feminine that his first one. But I bought it and brought it home. When he asked for Ra-Ra, I grabbed the new one and handed it to him. He just laughed. I said Ra-Ra was “fresh, clean” after a bath.

My 5 year-old said, “that looks like a new bunny.”

We told her that we needed him to think it was Ra-Ra and asked if she would help with this very big favor. We said that Ra-Ra had a bath and just looked a little different. So she did. She told him that Ra-Ra was fresh and clean and he TOTALLY bought it.

Big sister did the trick!

After I put my son down for a  nap she asked if I could wash her bear and see if it came out a new bear too. (I think she’ll be disappointed!)

I will head up to Build a Bear again this afternoon and get a couple of backups so we don’t run into this issue again. I’ll keep the original Ra-Ra in a plastic bag to give to him when he is an adult and share this story with him. I’m sure he’ll appreciate our sneakiness. Hey, whatever it takes to keep a teething toddler happy, right?

There’s a party at my house!

A pity party that is.

I just sat down and wrote out a whole pitiful entry about how awful today has been… and then in one stroke, my youngest son deleted it and clapped. I think I’ll follow his lead and try to focus on the positives. Since I am not feeling great, this will be a bit of a challenge, but I will do my best.

My hubby is pretty much 100%, and that is a good thing. My kids and I, however, still have the occasional remainder of an upset tummy. BUT… at least there has been no visit from Ralph since Sunday!

I am absolutely exhausted. It is like my body just can’t quite get the deep sleep required to recover. Top that with a lack of food energy, and I would just assume curl up and go back to bed. BUT… at least I know that when I go to bed tonight, I can look forward to some good, sound sleep.

My youngest is cutting his canines in the midst of this junk. That is making him double fussy. BUT… at least this will be one less round of teething to deal with later.

And of course there is always… this is not a death sentence. This nastiness will pass, and my chipperness will return, and we will move on and get over it. It is, after all, “just” a tummy bug. It is “just” a week from my life, and it is “just” a virus.

Rolling tummies

We survived! Three kids, two parents, and one nasty stomach bug spent the weekend together in our home. It was disgusting and overwhelming and exhausting, but we survived!

Don’t worry… I won’t get TOO graphic.

I got sick Saturday afternoon and quickly knew trick or treating would not be in the cards for me. I came downstairs in time to snap some pictures before my kids headed out with their dad. Within a few minutes, my youngest showed his signs of infection and thus stayed home with me.

My middle child woke up at 3:00 AM on Sunday for his turn. My hubby and daughter soon followed.

But it is all behind us now. (Sorry, bad pun.)

I am very thankful that tummies have stabilized, and now I am just trying to figure out the logistics of the BRAT diet with picky eaters, how long I should keep them home from school, and how to get caught up on the laundry.

Having been through a similar circumstance while my hubby was out of town before, I was very very glad to have some help this round. Things like this are an excellent reminder: teething, fussing, fighting, crying, arguing, and picky eating are all doable things. At least there are no projectiles flying from their faces. (Sorry, was that too graphic?)

Halloween morning came a bit early

My kids are PUMPED about Halloween. They will get dressed up as Darth Vader, a Storm Trooper, and Yoda tonight and go door to door to beg for candy from total strangers dressed. What a holiday!

 We told them last night that trick or treating is done on Halloween when it gets dark. I should know by now to be more specific.

At 3:00 AM my daughter and son come pouncing into my room and say, “Mom, MOM! It is Halloween and it is dark! Come on! Let’s go!!!”

While part of me wanted to laugh, I was just too tired.

I walked them back to their room, tucked them back into bed, and told them they needed to sleep till the sunshine came up. Then we would have all day together. Then, when the sunshine went down again we could go trick or treating.

“But why, Mom?” my daughter asked. “It is Halloween NOW and it is dark NOW. Why can’t we go NOW?”

“Well,” I say, half asleep and trying to decide how to explain this to 5 and 4 year olds when my mind is not fully functioning. “Right now everyone is asleep. No one would answer the door and give you candy.”

“If we ringed the drawer bell they would waked up!” my son suggested.

“They may wake up,” I said, “but they would not want to give you candy because trick or treat time is not for 16 more hours.”

“Sixteen! That’s a lot!” my daughter argued.

“Going right now would be against the rules. And if we break the rules, people will not give you candy,” I said.

“We don’t wanna broke the rulers,” my son said. “We’ll have to go to the principal’s office.”

“Yea,” my daughter said. “And then we can’t go trick or treating at all.”

I was just too tired to care about their reasoning, I just wanted them to go back to sleep. And they did.

For two hours.

Ugh… well, Happy Halloween all.

May your houses be haunted with enough to thrill but not keeping them up all night…

May they enjoy their candy fill without getting cavities…

May you find the special treat that is delectable and delightful and COMPLETELY calorie free…

And may you enjoy the day because they won’t be this cute forever.

The case of the missing library book

My daughter went to the library twice last week, but she did not come home with a book. I called the teacher, but she had not seen one. She told me to contact the librarian who then confirmed that a book had been checked out.

Hmmm…

 So I sit my daughter down and ask her about it. With the active imagination that I have grown to respect and loathe, she explained that she borrowed the book, sat down at the library table, and that she must have left it there.

 The librarian said that could not have happened based on the way things are run in the library.

The teacher talked to her. The librarian talked to her. I was fully prepared to pay for the book, but after seeing the book online, I was fully confident that it had not made it home at all. I had never seen the cover.

The story grew. Soon I heard that another student had taken it and ripped it up and threw it away. Then I learned that it had been flushed down the potty by a mean boy that was picking on her.

What’s next? Magical fairies that borrowed the book to read to the monkeys?

About the time I had given up, the teacher pulls me over to the side while I was driving through to pick up my daughter from school yesterday. “We found the book!” she laughs. “It was under a piece of paper in the back of her cubby.”

“That’s strange,” I said. “How did she not see it?”

The teacher is trying to be delicate, but I soon realize what had happened.

My poor daughter is too short to see the back of her lower level cubby.

The teacher said that she found the book and called my daughter over to the cubby and showed her. She said my daughter said, “there it is! Can I take it to the library right now so the library won’t be sad at me anymore?”

And so she did. With book tucked under her arm she proudly walked out the classroom, down the long hall, around the corner, and all the way into the library by herself to return the missing book that had been neither torn up, flushed, or otherwise dismembered. It had only been hiding.

“The book was really good at hiding seek, Momma,” my daughter said. “Really, really good!”

We got shot today

Every last one of us got shot today. The flu shot that is.

My boys got theirs at the pediatrician’s office while my daughter was in Kindergarten. We all went to CVS after school for my daughter and me and to ours.

 My oldest son is so funny about shots. He has done the same thing since his 6 month appointment. He watches them clean his leg, he watches them take the lid off the syringe, and he watches it go into his leg. Then he looks up and says “ouch.” That’s it. No drama. No tears.

 My youngest generally freaks out, but he does it at the right time: while the shot is poking him. He’s fine before and he’s fine after, but during… you better be ready. He’s gonna fight you with all his might. Knowing this, I hold both of his hands and his legs down while the nurse does the dirty work.

But then there is my daughter. WOW! She is a definite Drama Queen. I had no intention of telling her why we were at CVS, but of course one of the other kids in line asked her if she was getting a flu shot. She looked up at me with those scared eyes and said, “we aren’t doing that are we?”

I am not going to lie to her, so I have to think about how I want to answer. “Baby, I have a super cool new movie for you at home. Remember seeing that new Barbie movie advertised? We get to watch that as soon as we get home!”

“But you are gonna shoot me first? Right? Why, why? Mommy did I do something wrong? I stayed on green all day at school! I stayed on green all week! Mommy, why? WHY!”

I just grab her and hug her and I explained that her brothers both had theirs earlier today and that she could watch mommy get her shot so she would know it was ok.

For the next 20 minutes in that line she cried. She cried and BEGGED me not to do this TO her.

And for that 20 minutes I hated that little girl in front of us with all of her stupid questions!

She cried as she watched me get me shot, and she SCREAMED as she got her shot.

And 30 seconds later she was fine.

“Mommy,” she said, “can I get a candy bar before we go home? I think a chocolate would make my ouchie feel better.”

And the guilt driven mommy replied, “absolutely baby. Chocolate for a snack and pizza for dinner. How’s that?”