You know you have kids when…

Posted February 26th, 2007 by Mom | Comments (0)

Kids are better now. J is still taking his antibiotic, but he hasn’t had to have a breathing treatment since Wednesday. C didn’t make it 7 days with a dry pullup, but we are still encouraging him. So far, 5 days seems to be his limit.

In the past few days, I have noticed some things around this house. Here are a few observations… You know there are children living in your house when:

1. you find a toy tractor in the refrigerator.

2. toys are strewn all over the backyard and there haven’t been gale force winds.

3. stepping on or over toys is normal and not having toys around is rare.

4. a quiet moment is defined as the kids playing nicely together.

5. you know the exact number of sippy cups you own, but do not know the exact number of grownup cups you own (the main reason for this is that you always want to know where all the sippy cups are so you don’t later find a sippy cup with stale milk in it!)

6. Peanut Butter is now bought in the economy size.

7. The monthly calendar is filled with children activities while you have “girls’ night out” circled in a fat red marker.

8. Going shopping revolves around nap times.

9. You spend an hour, on a Monday, with the help of 2 creative 3 foot tall people to slice and juice 5 lemons and make homemade lemonade with grenadine in the dead of winter just to see the smile on their faces at THEIR accomplishment (it was quite tasty, too).

10. You live for their laughter, smiles and to watch them grow and learn!

J’s follow-up Dr. visit

Posted February 20th, 2007 by Mom | Comments (0)

I took J to the doctor this afternoon. Now he has an ear infection to add to his discomfort. Therefore, the doctor added an antibiotic to J’s growing list of medications… Also, he put J on a daily maintenance asthma medication. (This is how I learned tonight that J doesn’t like chewable medicine.)

Imagine trying to get a 2 year old to ingest tablet medicine… 1st attempt: gave it to J and told him it was medicine and to chew it up. He looks carefully at it and puts it in his mouth. SPIT! tablet flies a foot away onto the tile floor. 2nd attempt: I pick up the tablet and tell him that it is like grownup medicine (I regretted the words as they came out of my mouth – don’t email me. I won’t say it again!) J replied, “I don wike it.” I mention the basket of candy on top of the refrigerator which has the boy’s valentine candy from school in it and get J to put the table in his mouth. Out it comes again. This time after 1 chew. Tablet is now slimy, grainy and in 3 pieces. 3rd attempt: I mix the pieces in a measurer with cherry tylanol since I thought the tylanol would help his ear quit hurting as much. 3rd times a charm. Fortunately getting to pick a piece of candy out of the basket on top of the refrigerator in exchange of him taking his medicine was the golden ticket.

Poor fella is still taking his breathing treatments every 6 hours. This evening all J wanted to do was cuddle on the couch with either me or Daddy B. When I put him in bed, I laid down with him and rubbed his head and back a while. After not too long, J moved my hand and said that he was too sick for me to rub him. He just wanted to lay on my arm.

This morning, J was feeling a little better, but wore down as the day passed. Before Daddy B left for work, I overheard him telling J, “Don’t do that. That’s the cat’s water bowl!” I came into the kitchen to see B turning away from J. (B was either trying not to laugh or trying not to vomit.) J had acquired a drinking straw and was blowing bubbles in Tara’s water. Maybe J has learned not to blow bubbles in his own water, but hasn’t lost the desire to ripple some water anywhere.

Update on J and C

Posted February 19th, 2007 by Mom | Comments (1)

J made it through the night. He didn’t wake up a single time and he was breathing adequately, so I didn’t wake him for a breathing treatment.

This morning, J had a fluid cough (good, instead of a dry bark – bad) so I knew that J was able to cough the icky fluid out of his lungs. His fever seems to be gone for now. He is cool and happy and playing with C upstairs in the playroom.

I have already given J his medicines this morning (steroid, cough and sinus medicines) in addition to a breathing treatment. The nurse did a great job encouraging him to tolerate the breathing treatment. The medicine is administered to him by J breathing through a pediatric size oxygen mask. The nurse called it “J’s fireman’s mask.” Last night when I was preparing the treatment, J said, “I don wanna be a fireman!” However, he sits relatively still in my lap for the 6-8 minutes that he needs to breathe through the mask while he watches on TV his chosen show.

An update on C – We have been attempting to follow C’s lead when he tells us that he wants to sleep in underwear instead of a pullup. C gets to sleep in underwear at rest time and has kept himself dry for over a week of attempting this task. I told him that if he kept his pullup dry at night for 7 days, he could wear underwear to bedtime. So far, he has kept the pullup dry for 4 nights. YEAH!!! C is so excited. 3 more nights to keep it dry and no more pullups for him.

Poor little fella

Posted February 18th, 2007 by Mom | Comments (0)

Little J is so sick. I took him to the Sunday pediatric doctor’s office this afternoon. I thought he was taking the virus that C has had. C is much better. C’s fever got up to 103.8 degrees. J’s fever was at 103.2 an hour ago.

This morning, J was wheezing a lot and seemed to have trouble catching his breath. The prescription cough syrup seemed to help a little, but not enough to make him comfortable. At the doctor’s office, we found out that J has asthma. The cold virus has acerbated his problem and J required a breathing treatment to help him get some oxygen. His pulse oxygen was down to 93% (should be above 95% – max is 100%). The doctor sent us home with instructions to use a home nebulizer (borrowed from my mom – thanks!) to administer breathing treatments to him every 4-6 hours, with every 2 hours if necessary. I have found out that the breathing treatments wire J. Talk about dancing on the ceiling! My goodness. I don’t know if  I could handle the result of a breathing treatment every 2 hours!

The doctor told us to be aggressive in doing the breathing treatments with the goal being to keep J out of the ER or being admitted to the hospital. He said that J’s lungs could easily go into pneumonia as strained as they are. J is also now taking a steroid to help his lungs get well. No antibiotic was warranted. We were told to see J’s regular pediatrician on Tuesday to make sure that he is getting well and that this course of treatment is the best for him. Poor little guy!

…

It is now 11:30 pm and I just put J in bed. Told you the breathing treatment wired him! Plus I couldn’t make him lay down until I knew that he could breathe better. Hopefully he will rest well. I’m sure Daddy B and I will be checking on him often throughout the night. The Tylenol has brought his fever down and the cough syrup and Triamenic sinus medication are working. If he would let me, I would hold him all night to make sure he was okay. Sleep good, my little angel.

the child teaches the parent

Posted February 15th, 2007 by Mom | Comments (0)

At this moment, I am baffled, bewildered. My 4 year old just set our home alarm system.

C said he wanted to go out in the backyard. I was checking my email around the corner from the alarm pad. I heard beeping and got up to stop C from pressing buttons. He looked at me and said again that he wanted to go out back, but the alarm was “red.” I had just been out front to put mail in the mail box and knew that the alarm was “green.” I looked at the the alarm pad, and sure enough, the red light was on. I disarmed it, and the kids went outside.

I just got up to look at the alarm again, and it is still green. Don’t have a clue what he did. The alarm must have an “instant set.” on it. Will check the owner’s manual today. (If there are any thiefs reading this… our alarm system IS monitored!)

I now understand how my parents and B’s parents felt going into the computer age. They had to learn new stuff regarding computers while we were growing up with computers surrounding us. Gosh, little C is getting to be more technologically advanced than me!

Happy Valentine’s Day

Posted February 14th, 2007 by Mom | Comments (0)

Happy Valentine’s Day to all! I remember a time, long ago in my single life, where I was lonely on Valentine’s Day. I use to fantasize with envy all the couples and imagine romantic evenings with flowers and chocolates, fancy dresses and guys in ties. As I have gotten older, I realize that this was just that – fantasy. Reality is that, even with a significant other, love should be expressed daily – not just one day of the year. Love can be expressed by just a smile or something more elaborate.

Today, I showed my dear husband that I love him by filing. In our home, we have a drawer where all the papers that need to be filed go into. For the past 6 months or so, the pile has been growing to the point that papers have been getting wrinkled just trying to shove the drawer shut. So, today, while the kids napped, I filed. Now, I despise filing. This was a true act of love! I also organized our shared desk. No longer is the in-box 6 inches (literally!) high. It is cleared out, put away, neat. Organization at home is a ever present desire in my husband’s heart and mind. Not always attainable with the boys, but nice to have.

I just got home from handbell practice at church. My mom lovingly kept the boys while I went to practice. We have sick children here. C has a 103.5 degree fever and is attempting to “cough up a lung” – to quote a phrase from my s-i-l. J is on his way to getting sick (J has a slight cough – no doubt due to taking whatever candy that C has!)

My Valentine’s Day has been spent loving my family. BTW – B also got a pair of pants and several shirt. Have to have something tangible sometimes!