Jenna, Alec and I have had the same illness for a few days now. Jenna's peaked last week, with a horrible cough and the snots; mine wasn't really too bad, just a stuffy nose and general crankiness and malaise (don't you just love that word?); and Alec's peaked yesterday and last night, with a terrible cough, wheeziness and decreased appetite, which for him is highly unusual. That boy eats like a MAN.
I brought Jenna to the doctor's last week and it was declared a virus. I brought Alec today and he said we probably all had RSV, a common respiratory virus in the winter months, especially prevalent in the 2-6 month age range. No meds, just some chest PT (which I learned how to do today) and lots of rest and fluids. Just gotta wait it out. Please pray for us that it leaves the house quickly... the doctor said it could be up to two weeks of symptoms. Yuck.
In related news, Alec gagged on his gunk and puked all over me this morning. All three kids have now puked in the last two weeks.
TRIFECTA!
Monday, January 11, 2010
Friday, January 8, 2010
Holiday Wrap Up, Part IV
Later on Christmas Day, Jenna surveyed all of her gifts and declared, "Hmmm... Santa must have a Walmart at the North Pole."
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Holiday Wrap Up, Part III.
Subtitle: "All the Other Stuff that Happened and Cost Us Money"
So Michaela got a stomach bug two days or so before Christmas and puked on the hardwood floor as the words My stomach kind of hurts and I think I may thr... came out of her mouth. She slept alot, laid low and was fine by Christmas. We did the whole Christmas thing, which was fun, and then the vacation began.
On the Monday of vacation, Michaela got her palate expander cemented in at the orthodontist. She (and I, to be truthful) were a little anxious about the whole thing, and we stocked up beforehand on Motrin, Tylenol, ice cream, yogurt and pudding. She did great: she was a real trooper, tolerated the whole "installation" well, and I was really proud of her.
The only problem was that when the tech was cementing in the bottom expander, the molar that is used to anchor the expander fell apart. It is a deeply ridged molar that she's had three fillings in, and the dentist warned us at the last visit that we were sort of living on borrowed time with this tooth. We chose to deal with the whole orthodontist thing first and then take care of the tooth, which may need a crown to fix, when the time came. And that time was Monday.
We made a semi-urgent appointment at the pediatric dentist that our family dentist recommended for Thursday morning. Fun!!
Little did I know that at almost the same time, Dan was driving in to work and hit an unidentified object in the road which promptly blew out his tire. He changed the tire himself and then brought it to the dealer to get a new tire. On the way home from picking up the car, he felt the car shimmying and shaking and had to bring it back the next day to get an alignment and a double check of the rim. Turns out the rim was damaged and has to be replaced. Yikes.
We had to call in a claim for the tire/alignment/ rim replacement since the estimate for it all was about $950. SUPER Fun!!
On Wednesday morning we went to a showroom to look at the cost of getting new windows and siding and front door for our house. The windows and door are original aluminum- sexy!-from when the house was built in 1967, back in the Dark Ages. The siding is newer, but fading and tired and blue. The windows are about what we thought but we were stunned at the estimate for the siding: $15,000.00. FIFTEEN GRAND!! I said the guy, "What the heck is the siding made of? GOLD??" And suddenly our siding looks much less tired and faded.
Then Thursday came and we saw the pediatric dentist. (At 8:30am. Do you know how early one has to get up to get herself and three kids ready, fed and dressed to leave the house at 8am? Pretty darn early. That is why I am so grateful to be a stay at home mom.) The dentist was lovely, explained our options- either crowning the tooth, which she was hesitant to do since so little of the tooth remained or just extracting it- and told us she would talk to the orthodontist to coordinate treatment. As we left , they gave us a "worst-case scenario" of what the crown would cost. I am not lying when I say I almost wept with relief when I saw the estimate for getting the crown was only about $150.
Nothing fell apart over the weekend, but Jenna got sick yesterday with a cold and a wicked cough that actually made her puke. Twice. On the kitchen floor. This morning she woke up with a fever of 101 so off to the pediatrician we went. Thankfully, it is just a virus, so no extra medicine was needed, just Tylenol and Motrin (which we have plenty of from Michaela- serendipity!) and lots of rest, fluids and love.
So Happy New Year. I am eager for life to slow down a tad and get boring again. And a wee bit less expensive. Because after paying the hospital for Alec, the doctors for Alec and me and Jenna, the orthodontist, the Christmas bills, the mechanic, and the dentist, I'm just about tapped out.
Epilogue: The pediatric dentist just called and had good news: the tooth can be extracted instead of crowned. Hooray for small miracles. I sense a shift in the tide...
So Michaela got a stomach bug two days or so before Christmas and puked on the hardwood floor as the words My stomach kind of hurts and I think I may thr... came out of her mouth. She slept alot, laid low and was fine by Christmas. We did the whole Christmas thing, which was fun, and then the vacation began.
On the Monday of vacation, Michaela got her palate expander cemented in at the orthodontist. She (and I, to be truthful) were a little anxious about the whole thing, and we stocked up beforehand on Motrin, Tylenol, ice cream, yogurt and pudding. She did great: she was a real trooper, tolerated the whole "installation" well, and I was really proud of her.
The only problem was that when the tech was cementing in the bottom expander, the molar that is used to anchor the expander fell apart. It is a deeply ridged molar that she's had three fillings in, and the dentist warned us at the last visit that we were sort of living on borrowed time with this tooth. We chose to deal with the whole orthodontist thing first and then take care of the tooth, which may need a crown to fix, when the time came. And that time was Monday.
We made a semi-urgent appointment at the pediatric dentist that our family dentist recommended for Thursday morning. Fun!!
Little did I know that at almost the same time, Dan was driving in to work and hit an unidentified object in the road which promptly blew out his tire. He changed the tire himself and then brought it to the dealer to get a new tire. On the way home from picking up the car, he felt the car shimmying and shaking and had to bring it back the next day to get an alignment and a double check of the rim. Turns out the rim was damaged and has to be replaced. Yikes.
We had to call in a claim for the tire/alignment/ rim replacement since the estimate for it all was about $950. SUPER Fun!!
On Wednesday morning we went to a showroom to look at the cost of getting new windows and siding and front door for our house. The windows and door are original aluminum- sexy!-from when the house was built in 1967, back in the Dark Ages. The siding is newer, but fading and tired and blue. The windows are about what we thought but we were stunned at the estimate for the siding: $15,000.00. FIFTEEN GRAND!! I said the guy, "What the heck is the siding made of? GOLD??" And suddenly our siding looks much less tired and faded.
Then Thursday came and we saw the pediatric dentist. (At 8:30am. Do you know how early one has to get up to get herself and three kids ready, fed and dressed to leave the house at 8am? Pretty darn early. That is why I am so grateful to be a stay at home mom.) The dentist was lovely, explained our options- either crowning the tooth, which she was hesitant to do since so little of the tooth remained or just extracting it- and told us she would talk to the orthodontist to coordinate treatment. As we left , they gave us a "worst-case scenario" of what the crown would cost. I am not lying when I say I almost wept with relief when I saw the estimate for getting the crown was only about $150.
Nothing fell apart over the weekend, but Jenna got sick yesterday with a cold and a wicked cough that actually made her puke. Twice. On the kitchen floor. This morning she woke up with a fever of 101 so off to the pediatrician we went. Thankfully, it is just a virus, so no extra medicine was needed, just Tylenol and Motrin (which we have plenty of from Michaela- serendipity!) and lots of rest, fluids and love.
So Happy New Year. I am eager for life to slow down a tad and get boring again. And a wee bit less expensive. Because after paying the hospital for Alec, the doctors for Alec and me and Jenna, the orthodontist, the Christmas bills, the mechanic, and the dentist, I'm just about tapped out.
Epilogue: The pediatric dentist just called and had good news: the tooth can be extracted instead of crowned. Hooray for small miracles. I sense a shift in the tide...
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Monday, January 4, 2010
Holiday Wrap Up, Part I
It's hard for me to believe that Christmas Eve was not four months ago. So much fun and mayhem and merriment and madness and work goes into the holidays that time seems to both stand still and move super fast.
Jenna was a shepard in her Preschool Christmas program and did a great job singing "Joy to the World" and "We Wish You a Merry Christmas". Jenna, of course, actually wishes you a Merry Tristmas.
Then it was the Sunday School Pageant. Michaela was an angel and Jenna was a sheep. Not only are the kids out of their minds about Santa and presents and treats and SANTA and excitement and vacations and TOYS and TOYS and SANTA, they also are in all of these programs and have to go up in front of large crowds and sing all these SONGS. But they were troopers and did great. Michaela told me the morning of the Sunday School program that the red turtleneck I had picked out for her to wear so she and Jenna would match wasn't going to cut it: "MOM. I am an angel. My costume is white and has short sleeves. The red will show and I will look RIDICULOUS." So we opted for a white turtleneck and all was right with the world.
Christmas Eve-Eve was Michaela's baptismal birthday and kicked off the present parade: since my parents were flying out on Christmas Day to Chicago to be with my brother and his family, we did presents that night with Gammie and PopPop. The highlight was without a doubt my big gift from my parents: a 380-page book of my blog, starting from the first entry in January 2007 and going all the way through this past November. I was stunned and speechless and thrilled. It was overwhelming, really. I couldn't stop looking at it, and honestly, few things in my life have filled me with more pride than looking at this book, this book that contains all the big and little moments with my family, my children, my husband and the life we have created together. Wow. "This is our entire life in this book," I told Dan.
Christmas Eve meant a 5pm Christmas Eve service in which the girls had to sing yet MORE Christmas songs followed by the annual party at my parents' house. We literally started getting ready at 2pm. Honestly. Because between the fancy dresses and tights and argyle sweaters and corduroy pants and dress shoes and showers and baths and hair- the hair!!!- both straightened and curled by different appliances- and the makeup and lip gloss and "rosy cheeks" and pictures and poses, it takes quite a bit to get the five of us that dolled up. But we made it to church by about 4:30pm so we could get a good seat and have the girls to their practice. The service is very kid-friendly and we were done by 6pm. We had an awesome evening at my parents' house with various family members and friends and left at about 9:30pm, mostly because I had eaten my weight in chocolate fudge (my mom and I made 15 pounds of fudge. 15 POUNDS.)and it was time to roll me home.
Then we got the kids into their coordinated Christmas jammies, courtesy of Aunt Beth and Uncle Brian because they know what a freak I am about that sort of thing, and all tumbled into bed.
We had a great Christmas: Santa came, enjoyed our cookies and chocolate milk (we thought the Big Guy would enjoy a little variety) and brought, among other things, Josephina the American Girl Doll for Jenna, Wii Fit Plus for Michaela (to which she declared "NO WAY!! THANK YOU LORD SANTA!!") and clothes and toys for Alec. I got four beautiful charms for my Pandora bracelet and Dan got lots of clothes from Ralph Lauren and some books.
We drove down to Dan's dad's house for the day, which was a blast, and filled with food and presents and infants and fun. And, of course, matching Christmas t-shirts for the girls. We did our annual robust singing of the Twelve Days of Christmas, with Uncle Jimmy as the fabulous partridge in a pear tree, which he sings with great gusto and makes us all laugh. It was a great day.
Then the pace slowed and we hit that wonderful part of the holidays when you can't seem to keep track of what day it is. We went to the movies, we went to the mall, we hit some after Christmas sales, we picked up around the house and processed stuff, processed stuff and processed stuff some more.
New Year's Eve we spent with friends at a Japanese restaurant. We sat at a hibachi table and had a great meal together. Afterwards we went to a friend's house, ate dessert and played Rock Band. And we were an awesome Rock Band. We left at about 11:30pm and told Michaela and Jenna they could stay up to watch the ball drop. Jenna opted for bed but Michaela made it til midnight and I think was a bit underwhelmed by the ball. "That's the ball? That's it?" says she.
New Year's Day we headed over to my Aunt Kathy's house for our last Christmas party. She is an amazing- and I mean AMAZING- cook and always puts on a top-notch spread. We hung out, opened gifts, and had a super relaxing afternoon and evening with cousins and aunts and uncles filled with lots of laughs.
The rest of the weekend was uneventful- just cold and snowy and blustery- and by Sunday evening, I was eagerly anticipating sending everyone off to school and preschool and work in the morning.
Sometimes the greatest gift you get from the holidays is to realize how pleasant the structure and routine of real life is.
It was a great Christmas.
Jenna was a shepard in her Preschool Christmas program and did a great job singing "Joy to the World" and "We Wish You a Merry Christmas". Jenna, of course, actually wishes you a Merry Tristmas.
Then it was the Sunday School Pageant. Michaela was an angel and Jenna was a sheep. Not only are the kids out of their minds about Santa and presents and treats and SANTA and excitement and vacations and TOYS and TOYS and SANTA, they also are in all of these programs and have to go up in front of large crowds and sing all these SONGS. But they were troopers and did great. Michaela told me the morning of the Sunday School program that the red turtleneck I had picked out for her to wear so she and Jenna would match wasn't going to cut it: "MOM. I am an angel. My costume is white and has short sleeves. The red will show and I will look RIDICULOUS." So we opted for a white turtleneck and all was right with the world.
Christmas Eve-Eve was Michaela's baptismal birthday and kicked off the present parade: since my parents were flying out on Christmas Day to Chicago to be with my brother and his family, we did presents that night with Gammie and PopPop. The highlight was without a doubt my big gift from my parents: a 380-page book of my blog, starting from the first entry in January 2007 and going all the way through this past November. I was stunned and speechless and thrilled. It was overwhelming, really. I couldn't stop looking at it, and honestly, few things in my life have filled me with more pride than looking at this book, this book that contains all the big and little moments with my family, my children, my husband and the life we have created together. Wow. "This is our entire life in this book," I told Dan.
Christmas Eve meant a 5pm Christmas Eve service in which the girls had to sing yet MORE Christmas songs followed by the annual party at my parents' house. We literally started getting ready at 2pm. Honestly. Because between the fancy dresses and tights and argyle sweaters and corduroy pants and dress shoes and showers and baths and hair- the hair!!!- both straightened and curled by different appliances- and the makeup and lip gloss and "rosy cheeks" and pictures and poses, it takes quite a bit to get the five of us that dolled up. But we made it to church by about 4:30pm so we could get a good seat and have the girls to their practice. The service is very kid-friendly and we were done by 6pm. We had an awesome evening at my parents' house with various family members and friends and left at about 9:30pm, mostly because I had eaten my weight in chocolate fudge (my mom and I made 15 pounds of fudge. 15 POUNDS.)and it was time to roll me home.
Then we got the kids into their coordinated Christmas jammies, courtesy of Aunt Beth and Uncle Brian because they know what a freak I am about that sort of thing, and all tumbled into bed.
We had a great Christmas: Santa came, enjoyed our cookies and chocolate milk (we thought the Big Guy would enjoy a little variety) and brought, among other things, Josephina the American Girl Doll for Jenna, Wii Fit Plus for Michaela (to which she declared "NO WAY!! THANK YOU LORD SANTA!!") and clothes and toys for Alec. I got four beautiful charms for my Pandora bracelet and Dan got lots of clothes from Ralph Lauren and some books.
We drove down to Dan's dad's house for the day, which was a blast, and filled with food and presents and infants and fun. And, of course, matching Christmas t-shirts for the girls. We did our annual robust singing of the Twelve Days of Christmas, with Uncle Jimmy as the fabulous partridge in a pear tree, which he sings with great gusto and makes us all laugh. It was a great day.
Then the pace slowed and we hit that wonderful part of the holidays when you can't seem to keep track of what day it is. We went to the movies, we went to the mall, we hit some after Christmas sales, we picked up around the house and processed stuff, processed stuff and processed stuff some more.
New Year's Eve we spent with friends at a Japanese restaurant. We sat at a hibachi table and had a great meal together. Afterwards we went to a friend's house, ate dessert and played Rock Band. And we were an awesome Rock Band. We left at about 11:30pm and told Michaela and Jenna they could stay up to watch the ball drop. Jenna opted for bed but Michaela made it til midnight and I think was a bit underwhelmed by the ball. "That's the ball? That's it?" says she.
New Year's Day we headed over to my Aunt Kathy's house for our last Christmas party. She is an amazing- and I mean AMAZING- cook and always puts on a top-notch spread. We hung out, opened gifts, and had a super relaxing afternoon and evening with cousins and aunts and uncles filled with lots of laughs.
The rest of the weekend was uneventful- just cold and snowy and blustery- and by Sunday evening, I was eagerly anticipating sending everyone off to school and preschool and work in the morning.
Sometimes the greatest gift you get from the holidays is to realize how pleasant the structure and routine of real life is.
It was a great Christmas.
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