Winter Break

The last time I wrote N was just getting over strep, but developed a cough..The next day he started to complain of his ear "Being full" and was having difficulty hearing. I took him into the doc and sure enough he had an ear infection. Gee whiz! With hesitation and much thought, the Dr. decided to order another antibiotic in addition to the antibiotic he was already taking. When I went to get the medicine from the pharmacy the pharmacist rightfully questioned the doubling up on meds, but I explained the situation and she gave it to us. I had growing concerns about putting N on two antibiotics at once, so I talked to our family pharmacist and to the pediatrician once more and decided to give it a try. I stocked up on probiotics (and foods with probiotics in them) and N is doing just fine. He's healthy (knock on wood and cross my fingers) and has been for several days. Now that he's healthy I'd like to go out and do fun things, but I also don't want to take him anywhere because I really don't want to have any more illness in our house!!

N and D are currently on Christmas break. D and I had my family over to our house to celebrate Christmas on the 22nd. We enjoyed seeing everyone, exchanged gifts, ate too much and relaxed. We were glad my sister and her family were able to drive down for the day. We thought the snowfall, ice and wind that hit us two days before were going to cancel our plans, but things cleared up and the roads were just fine.

Saturday night I set up the boys' new camouflage tent and felt campfire in the living room. I do this from time to time in hopes that the boys will have something interesting to play with for a while and D and I will get to  sleep in (lay awake in bed) the next morning. My plan worked and the boys played long enough to give D and I about thirty extra minutes of sleeping in time. However, when D headed downstairs he found the boys in the tent with grinny grins on their faces! He knew something was up, so he asked L (cause L is still at the age of honesty) what happened. And L excitedly said that they'd been eating chocolate covered gingerbread cookies (a gift from Grammy) and JuicyFruit gum for breakfast! 

On Sunday all four of us needed some fresh air and a change of scenery so we bundled up, headed outside and played in the snow.  Our yard doesn't really have much snow covering on it, but the wind piled the snow in a big drift back by the creek that's about eighteen inches deep! The boys gathered up their loaders, toy snow ploy and shovels and we played for a solid hour. D and I played a game where we'd stand on one side of the creek (the side without the snow),jump, twist and land in the deep snow on the other side of the creek. It was so fun! I felt like such a kid.

Later that day we loaded up and ate dinner at Cracker Barrell. After dinner we drove through the local display of lights on the big hill (if you know where we live you know what I'm talking about). We drove through the back entrance to the park and that was the best idea we had because we avoided a huge line at the front entrance. We've driven through the park of lights for several years, but haven't ever gone on a night as busy as it was Sunday night. Which, honestly, I actually liked 'cause it forced D to drive slower. Driving slower allowed the boys and I to really take it all in. D and I laughed several times because L was our personal little commentator. If you don't know him, you have no idea how chatty he can be. And being at the park of lights took his chattiness to an entirely new level! It was precious. I know in just a few years the boys probably won't be as interested in the lights and we may have to drag them there (or bribe them). So, I soaked in their wander!

Monday was Christmas Eve. Believe it or not, our gym was open about half the day, so we were able to get out and get some exercise. It felt so good to get out and get a good work out! Other than that, D and I took turns playing with the boys all day long. It's so wonderful that D has time off at Christmas for an extended period of time. It allows all of us to slow way down and really enjoy the holidays.

"Elf-a-bet" (per L), "Steve" (per N)

Zoo

Bey blades

So on Christmas Eve afternoon we ate a big snack, took some family photos by the fire place and headed to church. Side note....L was amazed that you can set a timer on the camera to take a picture. He squealed whenever D ran across the room to jump in the picture. The boys were really good at church. We don't go that often, not as much as we should. So, church was kind of a new thing for L. Once again, his commentator skills surfaced during church and posed a few tiny little embarrassing moments. But, overall the boys were really good. We ate dinner when we got home. Daddy continued a tradition and cranked up (literally cranked up) the victrola for the boys to hear. N read a paragraph of the history of the victrola as we listened. Oh, and before bed the boys laid out cookies and milk for Santa and carrots for the reindeer. N was adamant that we provide one carrot for each reindeer. I think we had a total of five cookies, nine carrots and a glass of milk laying by the fire place ('cause that's where Caillou says you're supposed to put it).

We also started a new thing of hanging a "Magic key" on the front door for Santa. Our fireplace is enclosed with glass, so Santa is not able to enter the room after dropping down the chimney! It would be a true shame to trap him, so we took the precautionary measures to allow him to enter the house unharmed. The magic key will only work for Santa, so it's okay that it hangs outside our house.

Christmas morning was as much fun as you can imagine. The boys tore through their gifts and stockings and D and I opened ours too. N was pleased with the Switch and Go Dino Santa left him. L was happy to see the excavator he wanted. And I was super excited to see my new scooter in the living room! D got it for me. I knew he was buying it, but to actually have it in our living room made my eyes light up. I road it around the kitchen before taking it for a spin outside.

Mom and Dad came over in late afternoon Christmas Day night. We visited and the boys showed them all their new toys. Mom gave the boys the pillow cases she finished making for them and we ate Chinese at home. 

Wednesday we hit the gym again, taking turns, of course. N and I went to the grocery store afterwards. We recently got an Aldi in our town. For some reason, when N sees our Aldi he doesn't see the Aldi sign on the building. He sees the "food market" part of the sign, so he thinks the name of the store is Food Market. I'll let him think that. It's cute. We went there and Wal Mart. We stayed home and played the rest of the day. My favorite part of the day was the rousing game of Hot Potato we played as a family. We got to laughing so hard! 

We stayed busy at home on Thursday. D and N worked on N's pinewood derby car all day. They mostly worked on the design of the car and haven't actually done any cutting or carving on the car itself. It's so interesting to listen to N and his "collaboration" skills. The boys were a tremendous help doing chores.

On Friday we actually we left the house!!! We have spent lots of quality time at home but were ready to get out and about!! ;) We realize Daddy's portion of winter break will come to a close soon, so we went to a Children's Museum for a family field trip. More on our field trip and pictures to come soon.

Family Tradition Part II

Last time I wrote I informed you of our marathon of illnesses over the last eight weeks and the marathon hasn't ended. As I said in the previous post, N had the stomach flu Sunday and Monday and L had it Wednesday. Well, D kept things going by being down for the count with the tummy bug Friday and part of Saturday. I know when a bug is bad when D is wiped out on the couch and does not eat much. He did, however drink his Diet Dew (ick!), so he wasn't completely deprived.

Friday night we had tickets to attend a Christmas event featuring Santa and a train ride at a local state park. This would be our third year attending the event, but Daddy was too sick to go. We called Grammy and asked her if she wanted to go. I knew I'd have to twist her arm pretty hard (ha, ha), but was able to talk her into it. :)  We had nice, warm-ish weather and the rain that was in the forecast held off. It was a wonderful night....However, I do believe N picked up another bug while we were there. I don't know if got him at the cookie decorating table, craft table or the pool of fake snow, but it got him. And it got him good as he went to bed with a cough and runny nose. The next morning he woke up with rosie red cheeks and a fever of 103.5. Eek! I suspected he'd be bitten by the strep bug that's going around, but needed to confirm that. I wasn't able to get him into his pediatrician on Monday (they've been inundated with illnesses) so we went to  a prompt care and my suspicions were quickly confirmed with a strep test. This was my first go around with Strep. N missed school Monday through Wednesday of this week. His strep has gotten better and his fever is gone (thank goodness), but his cough has gotten worse. It seems to be aggervated by cold air and physical activity. So we'll see how that goes..Anyway...I continue to disinfect when I can and hope L doesn't come down with anything!

Family Tradition

This is the time of the year when we start to think about family traditions. Favorite family recipes, driving in the car and looking at Christmas lights, sending Holiday cards and making plans to eat "Fun-due"...However, there is something that our family has made into a tradition without meaning to...being sick. We've been sick around this time every year for the last four years! This morning when L woke up with a tummy bug I just wanted to crawl back in bed and cry. Why? Because someone in our house is sick AGAIN! Again? Really? Yes! I told D it feels like we've had one person sick in our house forever. So, out of curiosity I looked back at our calendar to see when this began. Can you guess? October 8th! Yes, nearly eight weeks ago on Columbus Day I started these festivities when I felt a cold and sore throat coming on. And it's been nothin but colds, coughs, bronchitis, inhalers, steroids, antibiotics, breathing treatments, ear infections, barf bowls, thermometers, and doctors visits since. Par-tay! Okay, so I may be exaggerating a teensy bit 'cause we have had a few days here and there of days where all four of us have been healthy, but they've been few and far  between! Heck, I'm the only one that's had a flu shot in this family because (a.) I remembered to get one and (b.)I've been healthy enough to get one. The next few days will be the true test to see if that 'ol flu shot's gonna work 'cause N had the stomach flu Sunday and Monday and L had it all day today. I've been eating my fruits, veggies and vitamins to build up my immunity. Let's hope it works! I think taking care of sick kiddos should win a Mommy Immunity, don't you?