Working on it...

The past few days have moved SO slowly. Monster Boy is STILL battling whatever the heck it is that he has. The doctor's office was out of flu tests when we went in on Monday, so we have no idea if he has the swine flu or not. However, the doctor did say that their primary concern with swine flu is secondary infections - like bronchitis, pneumonia, etc. And Monster Boy was showing signs of a sinus infection, so they prescribed him an antibiotic to take care of that. It has been going slowly. My child who has NEVER fought taking a single medication in his life, has suddenly decided now, while he is so sick, that medicine is yucky. I am at a loss. He literally made himself throw up tonight while taking his antibiotic because "It tastes like soap, Mom." and then he promptly made himself gag so hard he threw up. Lovely. Last night it was the same thing with the Tylenol. I can't win. I went and got the chewable tablets, and those are going over SLIGHTLY better than the liquid I was using previously. It's still a fight, and he chants "Yuck, yuck, yucky" while taking them, but at least he takes them.

We are keeping our fingers crossed tightly, but so far, knock on wood, Miss Sunshine is not showing any signs of whatever the heck it is that Monster Boy has. In fact, the rest of the household is not showing any signs of anything. This may be due in large part to the fact that we are religiously washing our hands, using antibacterial gel, wiping down anything that can be wiped with Clorox wipes, and anything that can't be wiped is getting sprayed down with Lysol. Hopefully this is successfully killing off the bad germs. I changed his sheets and pulled his comforter off of his bed tonight to wash too since his room was starting to smell like sickness. I will wash those in HOT water, like I have all of our sheets and blankets that he has come into contact with. I sprayed down his pillows and mattress pad with Lysol before putting the new sheets on too, so hopefully that kills off any germs that might be hanging out in his bedding. His fever broke twice today, and each time it came back lower than before, so I am hoping that maybe this crud is on it's way out the door... because I just feel terrible for my poor little boy and want him to get better soon!

Oink...

I so hope that Monster Boy does not have the swine flu. I have a sneaking suspicion that is what we are battling here though. Yuck. I have him quarantined to our bedroom (where the TV is so he can be occupied during his banishment) to keep him away from the baby, and we are spraying down every surface with Lysol at night before we settle down in there. I'm not really sure what else to do except make him continually wash his hands and stay away from the rest of us as much as possible. How do you do that with a four year old, anyways? He's been battling SOMETHING on and off for about a week now - but this afternoon his fever shot up to 104 WITH Tylenol. That freaked me out a bit, so I called the doctor's office. The on-call doc called me back and said it could be flu, but if it is, he's out of the time-frame for Tamiflu to be effective, so unless his fever got totally out of control, to just treat the symptoms until we can get him in tomorrow, rather than taking him to the ER and risking exposing him to the flu if that isn't what he has. I am sincerely hoping that it isn't what he has. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for an upper respiratory infection or something like that, that we can put him on antibiotics for and send him back to school on Wednesday in time for his class Halloween party. Poor guy.

Miss Sunshine seems to *knock on wood* have escaped whatever it is that he has. And Daddy Mac and I, while battling headaches, seem to so far be illness free as well. I certainly expect that to change, at least for me, in the next day or two, as I have been the one providing all his care at this point so I've been exposed to him a lot more. If I come down with something, I'll be calling in reinforcements to take over Miss Sunshine to avoid giving it to her if at all possible.

On the plus side, I gave Miss Sunshine chunks of pumpkin bread today, and she wolfed it down. Apparently my weird little kid likes Hummus, pumpkin bread, and guacamole. Who knows. At least she is eating some solids. I'd like to get her on a more regular solid schedule but every time I try that, she tends to start a boycott, so we'll just keep up with what we have been doing, which is rice cereal in the bottles and solids a few times a week. I really would like to see her gain quite a bit of weight before her surgery though. When we took her in to the doctor two weeks ago for the Roseola, she was 13lbs 14 oz, but that was fully clothed, so who knows what she ACTUALLY weighs at this point. I was really hoping to get her up around 15 lbs by her nine month appointment, but since that is in two weeks, I'm not holding my breath that will happen. HOPEFULLY we can get her close to 18 before her surgery though, I would feel much better about that. We shall see, I suppose.

Chaos...

So, Miss Sunshine recovered from her illness after a few days. She did indeed have Roseola - high fever for about 3 days and then BOOM! No fever and rash all over her tummy and back. She is completely back to normal.

Monster Boy, on the other hand, decided HE needed to then come down with something. So last Saturday was his school carnival - we went, he had a blast, all was good. Sunday was just a nice quiet day of chilling out and getting some stuff done around the house - made a run to WalMart for a new rug and various other necessities, and home again for a relaxed dinner. Monday morning, Monster Boy wakes up with a low-grade fever - very low-grade, like 99.1. Monday also happened to be Pumpkin Patch day. After much begging and rechecking of said temperature, which went back down to normal, I made the decision to go ahead and take him - they went straight to the pumpkin patch - no time in the classroom or anything. He had a blast at the pumpkin patch - playing and running around and all sorts of fun. Started coughing late in the afternoon, low grade fever showed back up around dinner time. Sent him to bed early with some Tylenol for the fever. I checked on him before I went to bed and his fever was up to 101.8! I gave him some Motrin, and he slept the night through, and woke up fever free the next morning. Hasn't had a fever since then. Still has the cough, some very light nasal congestion, and is losing his voice. But he says everything feels fine, and he is acting more than normal.

I was very disappointed today. We looked at costumes for Miss Sunshine last week after deciding that the costume we were going to make will be too cold for the weather. Found a super cute Strawberry costume, but I waited to buy it because I wanted Shane to see them first and make sure he liked it too. Well, I took him back two days later and he agreed on the Strawberry, but they didn't have her size, so I said I'd go look at a few other places for it. None of the other stores around town even had the costumes at all, so we went back tonight, and they had only 0-3 months. I was thinking I could probably make a 3-6 month one work since she's so tiny. But nope, they didn't have it at all. So she's going to be a Ladybug instead. I'll still keep an eye out to see if I spot that strawberry somewhere else, because I really liked it, but at least i know I have a costume for her if all else fails... I'm still going to pout over it though!

Second Blog...

I have started a second blog. It's a rather long story as to why - mainly involving the format change I implemented here, but I decided that since I was going to be using up a url, I should at least attempt to actually USE it.

Soooooo... without further ado, I give you the EXCITING life of the Stay-at-home-mom! Visit it at www.theexcitinglifeofthesahm.blogspot.com. I'm not as active on it as I am here - this is more my day-to-day updates. My other blog is arts and crafts, activity ideas, and fun recipes for mom's with young kids. I'm still working on getting pictures for BOTH blogs as Daddy Mac has the camera at his office for work purposes (but a new camera for Mommy is in the works, I promise...) but I do give directions and I will be adding photos to go with said directions at some point along the line!

So I just wanted to let you all know to stop by and visit me over there, and maybe even start following me if you feel so inclined!

Our first "official" illness...

Well, Miss Sunshine is "officially" sick. Officially it's being called a "virus", which, anyone who is a parent knows, is doctor speak for "Well, they are obviously ill, but I have no idea why...". Our doctor is great, all joking aside, and even ran a flu test although she has no symptoms of the flu. Better safe than sorry. Luckily it came back negative, so no flu for her. At this point it's just the fever and some loose stools - I wouldn't even really call it diarrhea - it's basically the consistency of the poop of a breastfed baby - which is what she is. Although her poop had started to solidify a bit with us introducing solids, so it is loose for her. But she is eating normally, possibly even more than she normally does. No runny nose, no cough, no ear pulling, nothing other than the fever. Our doctor did advise us to go ahead and administer the ear drops that the ENT gave us after he placed her tubes (we have a standing prescription for them for the next year as needed). She has very small ear canals, and the tubes take up most of her eardrum, so between that and the fact that infants do NOT hold their heads still when someone is looking in their ears, it's very hard to determine if there is any inflammation in her ear drum. So the doctor feels that it either could be an ear infection, or if it's a bacterial infection of some kind, then it will become and ear infection. So we are to start using her drops for a few days along with treating the fever to see how it goes. Hopefully something will work because I don't like seeing her miserable.

Sickies...

So Miss Sunshine started running a low-grade fever yesterday. She was very fussy. But no ear pulling, runny nose, throwing up or anything of the kind. I think (or rather, HOPE) it's just teething. Today she's still running the fever (in between doses of Tylenol) but seems to be in a much better mood, which makes me hope that it really is just her teeth. It's very low, but still there. We wound up not going to church this morning because between the cold and her fever, I didn't want to take her out in case it was something more than just her teeth.

I'm a little bit frustrated with Daddy Mac today. Thursday was supposed to be my day "off". When he got home from work, I was going to go out shopping with a friend while he stayed home with the kids. Well, that didn't happen. It was cold and rainy and my friend didn't feel like going, so I wound up staying home. Then today, some of my friends were meeting at a sports bar to watch the football games. He was gone yesterday morning for a church deal, and last night for a work deal. So I was thinking that maybe I'd get some time to go out with my friends today since I didn't on Thursday. No such luck. I was only gone for two hours because he apparently has no patience to deal with the kids today since Sunshine is fussy and Monster Boy really wants Daddy to play with him. I am pretty annoyed right now. It's not like I ask for a whole lot. He plays volleyball every Tuesday night, so every Tuesday I am home with the kids alone from the time they get up until the time they go to bed. Plus, being at home with them all day long every day. And then on Saturday he was basically gone the ENTIRE day, and yet I can't get more than two hours of time to do something by myself? Seriously? Don't get me wrong, he is a great dad, and a great husband and I know I am extremely lucky to have him. But sometimes, I just want to smack him upside the head and make him realize how much I NEED time to myself! I have to leave the house to get it, because even if I'm supposed to be having me time and I'm in the house, he'll ignore Monster Boy or Miss Sunshine and I'll wind up taking care of one of them instead of taking care of me. So I really need that time away so I don't go insane, and lately I am not getting it. So frustrating. Anyways, that's my little vent for the day!

Winter is on the way...

It is COLD here in the Heartland today. I am not ready for cold yet. Miss Sunshine is not big enough for her winter coat yet so the weather needs to hold off for a while!

We took Monster Boy to get his new coat yesterday. He outgrew last years coat, so this year we decided to go a size bigger than what he wears so he can use it next year too. He tried on a gazillion coats and informed us that he liked every one of them. I had to explain numerous times that he was only getting one coat. He finally settled on a green one because "Green is my favorite color, Mom." He sure looks cute in it. Now I just have to find some mittens, since the coat he picked came with a stocking cap and hood. Usually I buy crazy funky hats for him in the wintertime, but I don't think he is going to go for that this year. *Sniff*. So I'll have to move my funky hat obsession over to Little Miss Sunshine instead.

She is getting so big. Well, okay, it's relative. She's still teeny tiny for her age. But she is completely on track developmentally, which makes me feel good. She really started babbling this week - as much as she'll be able to until after her palate repair. It's pretty much "mamamama" non-stop now when she talks - unless she is yelling at you about something. And she does yell! It's pretty cute though so we'll let her keep doing it - haha. I'm going to try sippy cups again this week. I need to modify one for her and see how that works. She seems to like chewing on them okay, now we just need to get her to drink from them. One of the problems is that she is rather independent - she doesn't like letting us hold her bottles anymore. But the cups are too big for her to hold herself. I need to see if the spout will fit any of the cups with handles. Hopefully I will be able to find one that works. Just another thing to worry about.

My kid is weird...

Okay, so we have struggled mightily to get Miss Sunshine to eat solids. She is a very picky eater. Things go up her nose and she gets mad and you can kiss any opportunity of feeding her anything else goodbye. She doesn't seem to like fruits. About the only fruit I can get her to eat is applesauce, and even that she doesn't eat very well. She does seem to like squash, but even at that I usually can only get about a half a jar of phase 1 down her - which isn't very much. It's been a major source of frustration to me. I'm tired of having a child who can't do things other kids can do. Even if it is something as simple as being able to eat. I know I should be grateful that the only thing we have to deal with is her cleft. But some days, well, it's just not there, you know? Today is just one of them.

As I sit here typing this, my husband is feeding my daughter Hummus. And she is wolfing it down. He asked before he gave it to her. I told him it would probably give her a bellyache (it's garlic hummus) and she probably wouldn't like it, but if he wanted to give her a taste, okay. Yeah, well, so much for the "probably not liking it" portion of my statement. She is eating it like crazy. This kid is weird.

I am SO not ready for winter...

The cold is slowly creeping in here in Kansas. I woke up this morning cuddled nice and warm under our down-alternative comforter (yes, I am allergic to down). I got up to go to the bathroom and HOLY COW! It was COLD in my house. The problem is that it's still staying warm enough during the day that there is not a need to run the heater as yet. So we are just bundling up the kids (well, okay, Miss Sunshine anyways - Monster Boy is a very hot, sweaty sleeper, so I've just moved him to his winter pj's) at night and going with that. The problem I am facing now is that in all of Miss Sunshine's EXTENSIVE wardrobe, there is not a lot of "in between" clothes! So her stuff is either too warm or too cold for the day. Looks like she'll be spending the next couple of weeks hanging out in her sleepers during the day - which I HATE. I am one of those crazy moms who likes their kids to be dressed in outfits during the day. But, you do what you have to do.

I threw my back out yesterday taking Miss Sunshine out of her bath. I'm still trying to figure out how the heck I managed to do that with a baby who barely weighs 13 pounds. I know I must have picked her up wrong. I have back problems anyways, and I think what happened is that my back stiffened up while I was leaning over washing her, and then I picked her up while still leaning over, and when I tried to stand, my muscle just wasn't ready for it. I was in a lot of pain last night. I'm still really sore today, but it's not as bad as it was. I'll just load up on ibuprofen and hope that it goes away soon.

Tonight we are going over to Aunt Krystal's to make Halloween cupcakes. Monster Boy is extraordinarily excited about this. He loves cooking. Hopefully he will have a good day so that he can get to go do this. He's had a good few weeks so that helps.

Little Miss Sunshine is still getting in to everything. And I do mean EVERYTHING. I have to "cage" her up if I am going to be more than 10 feet away because she has this amazing ability to find whatever item in the room should not go in her mouth, pick it up and attempt to put it there. And I think we have a tomboy on our hands - she has become fascinated with Monster Boy's cars. I actually had to pull out some of the cars he played with as a baby for her to play with because she kept trying to steal his Hot Wheels. I think it's time to get her a baby doll!

***Coming Soon*** I am going to be selling items on etsy.com that are baby related - wetbags for cloth diapers, baby wraps, possibly baby clothes and cloth diaper covers. I'll update more once I get my inventory built and my store up and running. I am hoping that eventually I will get it going enough to bring in enough income to allow me to continue to stay home with the kids rather than having to go back to work. We shall have to see what happens.

Time for a little 3D action!

Monster Boy has had an astonishingly good week of behavior and as a reward, we have decided to take him to Toy Story 3D. He doesn't know we are going yet - I can't wait. He has always done really well in theaters. Hopefully Miss Sunshine does as well for Mema as he has done this week. I'm not holding my breath LOL. No, really, I am sure she will be fine.

She is pulling up on EVERYTHING now and is in general a total terror. I'm glad that she is meeting all her developmental milestones, but at the same time, babies are so much easier when they are little and can't move around. We've been trying sippy cups but she's not that in to them, and I know they are harder to use for her. We'll keep trying. I finally found the Nuby soft cups with the old style of spout that I can modify to require less suction - I was super happy when I came across those, because I was really to the point of thinking I wouldn't be able to find a cup that would work for her.

Well, my battery is about to die on my laptop. Guess I'll update more later...

A beautiful Saturday afternoon...

It's sunny and 70 degrees (give or take a few) here in the heartland. The screen door is open, Monster Boy spent the morning playing outside (and getting completely covered in dirt), we had a delicious brunch, Miss Sunshine actually took a nap, Monster Boy is now playing Tennis with Daddy Mac and I am sitting on the couch, pumping, folding laundry (because my daughter owns entirely too many clothes, as it turns out) and watching some goofy Lifetime Movie.

Miss Sunshine is now sitting on my living room floor drinking a bottle (she is now Miss Independent and doesn't like to be held to be fed unless it's bedtime). Well, okay, she's more playing than drinking... but it's still cute. She periodically looks up at me and grins. She is SO ornery. The dog is outside where she is not disturbing anyone (a miracle in and of itself), the cat is asleep on my bed. Life in general is pretty much perfect (except for that whole pumping thing!). And now, I must finish up my pumping and laundry folding. Wonder what we will do for the rest of the day....

I need a break...

Before I have a breakdown! Well, it maybe too late for that. I had a complete meltdown today. Little Miss Sunshine is perpetuating the nap boycott, and has now decided that being in the same room with me is no longer enough - I need to be HOLDING her. Monster Boy was pretty difficult this morning so I was plenty stressed out - doing all sorts of stuff he wasn't supposed to be doing, throwing fits about crazy things like brushing his teeth... just in general pushing as many buttons as he could find. Daddy Mac came home in the middle of all of it, and is generous enough to inform me not to worry about getting stuff done around the house when the kids are being like this. Gee, thanks. But then he complains incessantly about how messy the house is when I don't. He swore today that he'd stop doing that. We'll see - I'm not quite ready to believe him yet.

So I was hopeful that this afternoon would be better - Monster Boy and I had a talk and by the time it was time to make lunch he was a new kid. I figured I'd drop him off at school and Miss Sunshine would fall asleep in the car as usual on the way home. I even planned to leave her in the car seat so I could get at least a little bit of peace to reset myself as well. Well, that didn't happen. I get home, open the van door and there is Little Miss Sunshine grinning away at me. So I take her inside and spend the next hour trying to get her to take a nap before finally giving up and putting her in the pack 'n play and letting her cry so that I could at least pump. Then it was time to go get Monster Boy, had to go by Walgreen's to pick up a prescription, home again, where Sunshine continues to throw a fit. By the time Daddy Mac made it home two hours later (and nearly an hour later than I expected him to be home) Monster Boy is in the backyard playing with the dog and Miss Sunshine and I are on the living room floor both in tears. It was a very long day. I think it's something that has been a long time coming and needed to happen, but at the same time, I certainly hope that it's something that doesn't make a repeat appearance. And hopefully I can get Miss Sunshine past the nap boycott AND the constant need to be held...