Feeling A Little Sick

This time it's not in the way I usually mean. I can't discuss the particulars, but we just found out that the five-year-old son of some friends was abused at his school--by two older students. We are completely shocked and horrified that something like this could happen, and we feel so powerless to help right now. At the request of his mother, we're waiting to see what will happen next. I'm sorry for the downer, but this news has preoccupied DH and my thoughts today. Please keep this poor boy in your prayers. :(

All About DD

This morning, DD and I went on a Daisy Scouts outing to the zoo. One side note: when we drove up to the zoo, she was so proud that she could read the word "ZOO". First, they put together a paper sack with a picture of a hippopotamus on it and glued another picture of a hippo onto a clothespin. The purpose was supposedly to use the clothespin to pick up trash (so they wouldn't get their fingers dirty), put it in the paper sack, and then throw it all away. DH remarked that this seemed "very girly" to make something just so they wouldn't have to get their hands dirty.

The next part was a presentation about animals in general, with an emphasis on hippos. It was actually very informative, and DD seemed very attentive, but when I quizzed DD later when we got home (the same questions that the presenter had asked at the end of her presentation), she needed a lot of prompting to get the answers right. One question was how wide a hippo could open it's mouth. DD replied, "4 inches". She always seems to get the measurements wrong. The answer, of course, is "4 feet". Another question was what hippos mainly eat. She just said she "couldn't remember". The answer was "grass". This just made me wonder if she was really listening!

After the presentation, the "teacher" took everyone on a short 30 minute tour of the zoo. I thought it was interesting that DD always tried to stick close to the teacher. Even when everyone else was trying to see the animals, she would stand right next to the teacher, as if she wanted to make sure that she didn't get lost. She never raised her hand to answer any questions, although she did say a few answers out loud with my prompting.

This evening, DH took DD to the Father-Daughter Dance at our gym. Even though we told her that she could wear one of her Disney princess dresses, she refused and instead wanted to wear the dress in this photo. She also said she wanted to wear a black bow, and she wanted to wear her pink sparkly shoes. When it was time to get ready and DH told her that they might be late. She simply stated, "We don't have to be on time." DH laughed and told her that she is becoming a "true young lady." I am assuming that this crack wasn't targeting me directly. After all, DH did grow up with two sisters. ;-)

They both had a lot of fun (DH even told DD that he only got dressed up for Mama and her). DD got to make a princess hat, she got to have nail polish and lip gloss applied, and she got to dance. She was exhausted when she got home! I was so proud of DH because he took the camera and took several pictures. He even took a video of DD dancing. At one point, he said he tried to teach her the hand motions to the song "YMCA" and then took a video, but she mostly just twirled around and moved her hands over her head nonspecifically. I'm sure she will tell me all about it tomorrow. For tonight, all she could manage was "yes" and "no" answers. :)

Hope the Weather Changes

Thank goodness it's been mild weather here recently. We'll most likely pay with a super-hot summer, but for now it's been worth it.

I have to take the baby with me to soccer practices. Last night the older boys both had practices at the same field. I usually drop them off so I can go "shopping" with the baby. It's much easier coping with the baby indoors at some store (usually a nearby Hobby Lobby or Target) than in the car for an hour and a half. We didn't do anything like that last night.

DS#3 fell asleep in the car on the way to practice. After I dropped off the boys, I kept driving since I was afraid that the little man would wake up when the car stopped. I made the excuse to get myself a mocha frappucino at the Starbucks Drive Thru. I didn't need anything at Hobby Lobby or Target, so I went to a nearby scrapbook store that I haven't been to in years and parked. I thought that when he woke up, we would go inside. Well, after a half hour, he was still snoring away.

I went ahead and went back to the boys' practice field since I thought I might as well wait there. He slept until there were only about 15 minutes left to practice. That's when I took him out of the car. I couldn't get a close parking spot and I didn't want DS#2 to think we weren't there. This is where I was glad it wasn't so cold. It was cool and breezy, but it was tolerable. I put DS#3's hooded jacket on. At first he made the motion to remove the hood from his head, but then he left it. I don't know if he was chilly or he was still tired--maybe a little of both.

I walked around with him cuddled close to me. Usually he tries to escape and crawl on the ground. He stayed huddled under my jacket. I just enjoyed these moments because I know they won't last. The poor thing probably hasn't been sleeping well. My parents always told me that I was "always sick" as a young child but then later, DH would say that I had "super human immunity". Well, this one has been congested for the last several months. He can barely nurse because he can't breathe and eat at the same time. I hope that this means that he won't be sick so much later in life. For now, DH has to torture him constantly with the suction bulb. When do babies learn how to blow their noses, anyway? Despite the mild weather, I hope the weather changes so that maybe whatever is causing this allergy-type stuff passes.

Eight More Pages Done!

I've been getting a lot of scrapping done, which makes me happy. These are some pages I did this past week. Most of them are quickies, but they still satisfied my need to be creative. The first four here are more pictures from our NJ trip in 2006. I only have a few more photos from this trip left, thank goodness!


This one is for one of Catherine's Monday Challenges at Scrapaddict.com. I was supposed to use one photo on a two page layout. I stitched together two photos I took of a double rainbow on the first day of our Disney trip last year.


This next one uses photos from DS#2's first soccer party, when he was in kindergarten. Oh, how time passes quickly and how little some things change!

This one uses some really old photos that were taken almost six years ago. Look how small my nephew, DS#1 and 2 are!

Tomorrow I'll try to get some recent photos off the camera and into this blog. I'm sure my in-laws are needing their baby fix since DS#3 isn't on any of these recent layouts!

Valentine's Day Prep

I haven't had a chance to upload photos yet of today's school festivities, but here are a couple of photos of the treat bags that DD and I made. The bag on the right was part of a set of bags that we bought from Michael's. The kit came with the bags, the foam stickers, the ribbon, and the plastic bags inside to hold the candy. As you can see DD went a little overboard with the tiny foam hearts. The first ones she did barely have any decoration because I was trying to ration the stickers so she would have enough for all of the bags. The last ones she did don't have a lot of stickers either, because she used so many on some of them. Needless to say, it took her FOREVER to finish these bags! These were for her class at school.

I made these bags myself. I figured that it would take less time, but it still took me a few hours. I used some old papers and ribbon, at least. I didn't realize until after we had given them away that I had forgotten to put her name on the bags. *SIGH* These were for her Daisy troop.

So, I got to use my scrapbooking stuff but I didn't do any scrapbooking!

Pinewood Derby 2008

DS#2 won the Pinewood Derby today!!! I didn't get to see it. :( They have a pretty high-tech system and unfortunately, they were having computer problems. After an hour of this, I had to leave for DD's Build-A-Teddy Tea party for Daisy Scouts, so I totally missed all the races! DS#2 was in the first heat and they re-ran that heat eight times before I had to leave. DD believed that DS#2 won EVERY race, because he won every race that SHE saw! :) They finally fixed the glitch but they didn't start the actual races until just after I left. :(

Yes! DH cut the block of wood, but DS#2 sanded it, painted it, and decorated it. He deserves all the credit! Oh, and the medal is for being first place in his Den. The trophy is winning first place over all!!! He told me that he lost only one heat in the whole competition, and that was to the "family winner". (They have a "just for fun" race for family members' cars.) He won the other three heats for that race! I was told by one of the other moms that he was VERY excited at winning the big trophy. I believe it! DH and I are so proud!

Overscheduled

Tomorrow we're a little overbooked. Here's what our schedule looks like:

9AM Funeral - Our neighbor's handicapped DD just passed away. :(
11AM-1PM - Cub Scouts Pinewood Derby - DS#2
2-4:30PM - Build-A-Teddy Tea Party - DD with the Daisy Scouts
4:30PM - End of Season Basketball Party - DS#2
6-9PM - Birthday Party at skating place - DS#1

At least DS#1 has decided not to go to the skating party. Apparently it's for one of the girls in the 7th grade and she only invited three boys. One boy's mom said he couldn't go. One boy didn't WANT to go. There is no way my son will enjoy being the only boy at this party. DH told him to tell this girl that he couldn't make it because of his brother's party and his mother being on backup call. I just hope I don't get called in!

NJ Vacation Pages

I'm still trying to finish off these old photos from 2006. The first two pages have photos from our day trip to New York City. We visited Toys 'R Us in Times Square and FAO Schwarz. I took lots of photos and now I'm doing lots of pages. The second three pages have photos taken at my cousin Jonathan's wedding. We'll be going back to visit in May for the wedding of another cousin. I can't wait!




Update on my sick children--DS#2 still had a fever tonight. He'll be going on day 4 of this illness. DS#3 is going to daycare tomorrow. He's still not nursing like he used to, but he's still eating solid food and he has no fever and seems to be doing okay otherwise.

Day Off?

At work, they sometimes call the day after you take in-house call a "day off". Unfortunately, if you are very busy that night then your whole next day is spent sleeping and generally recovering. That was my day today--I was exhausted! DS#2 and DS#3 were both home today, which complicated things more. Usually DS#3 is in daycare on Tuesdays and Thursdays. He didn't have a fever anymore today, but he was still not drinking/nursing very well, so he stayed home. That just meant that I would try to feed him, struggle with that, and then end up having to pump anyway. DS#2 did have a fever and he was miserable, unlike DS#1 and DD last week. Let's just say that my day finally got a little better when I was able to take a short afternoon nap.

Tonight DS#1 and DD both had soccer practices on fields that were a good half hour apart--at least. So DH took DD while I took all the boys. When I dropped off DS#1, I went to Michael's craft store because it's easier to deal with the baby in a store than in a car for an hour and a half.

One interesting thing to note was that I had taped a bunch of scrapbooking shows from QVC yesterday, and since I couldn't really do anything else anyway (especially with the baby being so clingy), I was just sitting in the living room watching that all day. DS#2 even started looking at one of my scrapbooks while we were watching. So, when we were at Michael's, DS#2 kept pointing out products that he had seen on the taped QVC shows. I kept hearing, "Look Mama--there's that (fill-in-the-blank)." I thought this was hilarious. He even expressed interest in doing his own scrapbook pages. I love this hobby so much that I would definitely love sharing it with him.

We were only at Michael's for about 15 minutes (still had another 45 minutes to go before picking up DS#1) when I noticed that DS#2 really started to "slow down". I knew I had to get him home to get him some more medication. He looked absolutely miserable and I realized--wait, why am I taking this sick boy driving around? Luckily, DH was able to leave DD's practice early to pick up DS#1 and I just took the two younger boys home. DS#2 took some ibuprofen and went straight to bed. I keep hoping that his illness will go away after a day or so (it's already been two days) like his siblings. Let's hope that getting some extra sleep (he did nap today also) will make him at least feel a lot better tomorrow.

Baby with a Fever

My poor baby! He's being hit harder with this fever than the other kids. He got up to 104 today and he was just burning up! :( Luckily, the fever finally broke some time this afternoon and he was playing this evening, but we hope it stays down tonight. We had a bad experience with DS#1 having a febrile seizure at 16 months of age when his fever got up to 106, so we get a little nervous (especially DH who was with DS#1 when he had the seizure). DS#3 hasn't been nursing as much so that's something we're watching, too.

On a lighter note, we were watching the halftime show at the Super Bowl tonight. The baby started bouncing to the beat--very cute! I tried to take some video, but of course he would stop doing it then.

DH made some chili even though the weather was warm today. He started making chili for the Super Bowl a few years back when we lived in Illinois and we had a Super Bowl Party. It was just us today. We agreed to not have people over until we can redo our living room. We were going to look at flooring tomorrow, but that depends on the baby. I really hope he gets better soon!

The Sickies

After being so good at blog updates at the beginning of last month, I have been so bad recently. One reason is that this week has been full of sick children. On Tuesday (1/29) DS#1 came home from school with a fever of 102. He "didn't feel well" and aside from looking like he didn't feel well, he ate normally and acted normally after he had some ibuprofen. Still, we couldn't let him go to soccer practice that night. Besides, it was cold and windy out and we didn't want to make whatever was causing the fever worse. He didn't have a fever on Wednesday morning, so he went back to school.

On Wednesday afternoon after school, DD started lying down on the sofa all covered up in a blanket saying that she felt really cold. She didn't even want to get up to eat, although she did eventually. She had a fever of 102 also. We were supposed to go to a Daisy Girl Scouts meeting--really only the fourth one since we decided to join. Well, this is the second of the four meetings that we've missed. She was SO disappointed, but what else could we do? She still had a fever on Thursday morning so she stayed home from school. She acted normally otherwise.

On Thursday evening, DS#1 again had a fever, to 101 this time. He missed soccer practice again. Everyone seemed to be better on Friday. Today, DS#3 had a fever to 103! We think he is teething too, so he is following in big brother's footsteps. DS#1 used to always teeth and have something else simultaneously so that he would have fevers to 103 almost routinely! *SIGH* That is not an experience we want to repeat with this one.

Today was also busy, but in a different way. It has become a Saturday morning routine for me to make banana pancakes and turkey bacon for breakfast. DH and the kids all love it, so what else is a mother who wants to spoil her family to do except oblige? This morning I was experimenting and added some cocoa powder to the batter since they all seem to enjoy getting chocolate pancakes when we go to IHOP for breakfast. I guess I shouldn't have bothered, because they either said that there was too much banana or they said that they preferred it when I just added chocolate chips to the batter.

After breakfast we headed to DS#2's last basketball game of the season! Woohoo! Can you tell that I'm happy that we don't have to have Monday evening practices from 7:30 to 8:30 anymore, especially when DS#2 usually goes to bed by 8PM? After the game I started making cupcakes for DS#2's "Blue and Gold" Dinner (Cub Scouts). I didn't have too much time after that and then we had to go to the Dinner. When we got back we had to get everyone ready for bed. I can't believe that the weekend is supposed to be restful?!!

Okay, that was a rather long blog entry. I'd better stop there. I'll try to upload some new photos in the next couple of days and update here again. :)