down with the sickness

This past week and a half has been quite a wild ride.  E started it with a fever on the Wednesday before last.  He wasn't in very good spirits entering the weekend.  That Saturday (Feb. 4), we went down to my parent's house to celebrate my dad's birthday when my mom noticed that G seemed to be running a fever.  We gave him some Tylenol that night to bring it down.  For a child who typically will sleep 10 straight hours, he was up every 2-3 unable to breath with his stuffy nose and would wake crying and hot.  He would cough (or bark) so much that it would cause him to vomit.

Sunday wasn't any better, in fact it was worse.  Paul and I were able to sneak away for a few hours to join some friends at a Super Bowl party.  Yeah, we probably weren't on the "Parents of the Year" list for leaving our sick kids.  However, I was so drained physically and emotionally that I needed a few hours of a break. We came home and I slept in G's room for the second night.

I decided to take the day off on Monday and take the boys to the doctor.  It was a good thing too.  E was diagnosed with RSV and a double ear infection.  He was given some antibiotics and is currently on day 7 of 10.  G was diagnosed with croup and had to take 4 days of a steroid.

That afternoon I started feeling a scratchy throat and I tried to remedy it by drinking tea.  The next morning, I had to take the day off for myself because my throat had become extremely sore.  Luckily, I didn't have a fever so I knew it wasn't strep!  My voice has been hoarse for a week and I'm finally starting to get it sounding a little better.

Paul and I went out on a date last night to a new comedy club downtown.  We saw Broken Lizard's Steve Lemme and Keving Heffernan.  They are two of the actors in Super Troopers and Beerfest.  It was great getting to spend some alone time with Paul, especially because we've been drowning in tears, vomit, coughing, and crying lately.

On the plus side...G is *almost* rolling over from back to tummy.  He likes to look at what is behind him and arches himself onto his side, but doesn't roll.  Yesterday I had him take a hold of my finger and gently pulled him.  He ended up rolling over after I stopped pulling him.  It even made me tear up and all I could think about was how thankful and I was to have been there to see it.

Paul took E to his first theater performance.  Puppet theater that is. They met up with Paul's two sisters and E's cousins to watch Cinderella.  Paul said E did really well during the performance and was acting out the hand motions and dancing along.

I feel that since I have two student teachers doing all the work in my classroom, it's easier for me to focus on planning activities for E at home during the day.  I'm quite excited to plan some Valentines related things this month! I've made a matching hearts game (I just used some spare scrapbook paper that I had on hand) and a toilet paper roll heart stamp.  I thought each week my mom could focus on a letter (and number), so this week it's H - H is for heart! I made a page on MS Word that is the capital letter H and lower case h out of circles.  That way E can put circle stickers into each one.  (Heart stickers might be better, but I don't have any. Time to take a trip to the dollar store!) I also made a page that says "Hh is for heart" and left a space for him to attach a giant heart sticker.  (Pretty sure he's not going to want to do any of this, but at least I feel like I'm doing something to help him learn even if I'm not home.)

Oh...and I just remembered.  E can now count to 18!  I had no idea! AND it's been two weeks since E last nursed. I think it's safe to say that he's done.  In fact, he hasn't asked for "Momma milk" in a few days.