Category: Family & Friends

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Activities Cole Family & Friends Parenting Ryan Work

Super Busy Week

This will probably be the only post I have time to write this week- as we are having an unusually busy week, well for us anyway!

Yesterday I worked all day, and Joe took the day off and stayed home with the boys.  We had a role-reversal for the day, and it went well.  I had a somewhat stressful day (trying to learn something new, and the computers and software were not cooperating!)  I was tired when it was time to come home.  I had two boys, who missed their mama, jump on me the second I walked in the door, and they didn’t stop until bedtime!  I have a new appreciation for Joe; it is hard to be 100% at work, and on top of it all, and then have to be energetic, and happy for your kids when you come home.  I also missed them- I guess I’m not used to being away from them on this particular day!

Joe’s day went well- the boys were really good for him.  I think he got a taste of how my days go though, when he decided to replace our bathroom faucet.  It has had a leak for a few days, and he said he learned his lesson in never trying to do a plumbing project with the two little monkey’s around!  He said they just wanted to see everything, get into everything, and he had to keep stopping what he was doing, to watch what they were doing.  The highlight was when Cole picked up a wrench, and pounded it down with all his might on Joe’s knees!

 But, despite all the stop-and-go’s, he did get the faucet in, and I told him now he knows how triumphant I feel when I can get a few things done around the house in a day.  He also told me we were going out to dinner, because he hadn’t had time to cook anything.  I’ve been there before too!  🙂

Today Ryan was supposed to go to preschool, but he woke up with what sounded like a bad cold (I know, NOT again), and we had wind blowing about 70 miles an hour.  They go outside for most of the day at school, so I decided to keep him home.  I didn’t want him to get anyone else sick, and I didn’t think it would be good for him to be in all that wind.  About 10 minutes before school started, he said he felt fine and wanted to go to school.  Figures.  The wind also died down, so Ryan and Cole played outside in the back yard all morning.  I am happy to say, that his cold seemed to disappear too- he just has a bit of a runny nose.

Then this afternoon, we went to see a pretty famous concert band play.  Joe came home, and Joe’s dad came with us too.  It was really good! This was the first concert either boy had ever been too, and they were wonderful!  The concert was about an hour and a half, and Ryan was fine during the entire time.  Cole loved the concert for the first 45 minutes…he was clapping, singing, tapping his hands on his legs to the music, and dancing.  He was thrilled.  During the last half, Joe and I took turns standing in the back of auditorium with him- he was getting a bit restless.

After the concert was over, Santa was on the stage, so Ryan and Cole got to meet Santa.  I don’t think I ever saw Ryan’s eyes so big.  He asked later if that was a pretend Santa, or a real one, and of course we told him that was the real Santa.  He said he had a lot of hair in his beard!  🙂  We also got to meet some of the musicians- Ryan and Cole got to touch and feel a French horn, and a trumpet.  Of course as we got home, Ryan and Cole played band all night, with Ryan as the the conductor, complete with a baton.  They were imitating some of the acts they saw, which was neat to see.

Tomorrow, I have the longest day ever!  I work all day, and then it is my work’s Christmas party.  Since it is a very small firm, the owner decided to take us out to dinner after work, and then to another very, very, famous show that happens to be in town.  It starts around 7, and I am sure by the time it is all over and done, I won’t be home until 11pm.

Thursday, it is back to work for me, for half a day, and then we have another follow up doctor’s appointment for Cole, so the doctor can see if Cole’s lungs are finally clear. 

Friday night we are taking the boys to Santa’s Workshop, complete with reindeer, lights, train rides, hot cocoa, and of course, Mr. Claus himself.

Saturday night, there is a holiday light parade that we are going to, and then on Sunday, Joe has to start putting in some very long hours at work all week.

I have four projects I am trying to finish myself for work, and have been trying to get some of them done at home, at night, after the boys are in bed.  (I am playing hooky right now from my stack of work.) 

Not to mention trying to keep up with the house, (Joe did clean the bathrooms and vacuum yesterday, so that was big help!), go grocery shopping, do laundry, trying to figure out and plan Ryan’s birthday, trying to fit in some Christmas shopping, and some baking for a cookie exchange I’m going to next week.  Whew…

So check back in with me in a few days- I’ll be blogging again as soon as things slow down a bit. 

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Activities Cole Family & Friends Ryan

It’s Begining to Look a lot Like Christmas

Tonight we put up our Christmas tree, and decorated it as much as possible.  Since we have a little munchkin- aka- Cole, we had to decorate the top 3/4’s of the tree, because nothing would last within his grip.  We put a few non-breakable ornaments at the bottom, and Cole is having fun taking them off, and putting them back on. 

Ryan and Cole were so excited; Ryan would look at an ornament, say he wanted to hang it up, and then dive into the next box, deciding what ornaments he wanted to hang.  When I got to my special boxes of glass ornaments, boxes of highly breakable ornaments, I held one up which is a glass snowflake.  I put that at the very top, and Ryan said, “Oh, that one is adorable.”

We only had one tragedy in only one ornament got broken.  It was from my vintage set that my mom got for me a few years ago, and I was bummed because it was a cute little blue car-Ryan was sad too, because that was the first one we hung up.  Surprisingly, neither boy broke it, it was a total accident.  When Joe was plugging in the star at the top; it just fell off the branch. 

Tomorrow, we will hang our stockings with care.  Joe’s mom is a wonderful cross stitcher and seamstress.   She has made all four us beautiful, cross-stitched, one of a kind stockings. (I’ll post a picture of our stockings when we get them hung.)

Ryan is very excited about hanging his stocking this year.  We got a Little House on the Prairie book at the library, Christmas in the Big Woods, where all the children get a piece of peppermint candy left in their stocking by Santa.  He just knows Santa is going to leave him a piece of that candy that he left for Laura and Mary.  🙂

Here is a picture of the three of us, taking a break from all the ornament hanging (you can click on it to see the image larger):

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After the boys were in bed, I went outside to put some recycling materials in the bin, and it was snowing!  A light snow, but it feels like Christmas and winter is here.

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Cole Family & Friends Mothering Parenting

ER Vist for Croup

We ended up taking Cole into the ER last night at midnight, after he started having a lot of trouble breathing.  

Turns out he has croup, although he never was making the “barking” noises, that is a classic symptom of croup.  He sounded more like he was wheezing, and even a nurse said he sounded like he was breathing like an asthmatic.  

After trying two rounds of the steroid breathing treatments, they weren’t working, and Cole was running a fever of 104.5- so the Dr.’s decided to admit him, and test him for secondary infections & the flu as well.  They said his ear was really inflamed & thought he may have had an ear infection too. 

It was a miserable night- they poked him, prodded him, drew blood, gave him shots, (they wanted to do an IV line, and I asked them not to unless it was absolutely necessary.  I  hate IV’s, and they agreed to just give him the shots, but at least he wasn’t tied down to an IV line- he would have hated that more) , and he was just so sick!  I was in tears the entire time.  Finally at 5 am, his fever went to 101, and it seemed like the treatments were finally starting to work.

 Joe went home to rest, and I stayed w/ Cole until 9am; dozing off and on, until the pediatrician came to check up on him.  Fortunately,  he was much better but he still has the raspy, stridor, breathing,  but the doctors say it isn’t in his chest, or lungs, but in his upper respiratory system, which isn’t as bad.  

Cole’s doctor said they wanted us to stay until Sunday for observation, but said we could take him home today since we live so close to the hospital, but stressed we needed to watch him very carefully.  Evidently croup can come back, even when you think it is under control, and it is worse at night than during the day.

The pediatrician today said he didn’t think he had an ear infection, but it was the high fever that was causing his ears to be inflamed, and all his blood work came back fine- viral- but fine. 

That is how croup is caught- from a virus.  One nurse said 100 kids could have the same cold from a virus, and about 2 or 3 will go on to develop croup.  The doctors and nurses said once kids are about 4, it is very rare for them to develop it, since their airway passages become larger.  Obviously adults don’t get croup, but when adults develop the virus, they get it in the form of laryngitis.

So, what an ordeal!  I have never been that scared before regarding my child’s health.  I still am worried he still has the raspy stuff, but they say his steroid medication will help.  

Before we took him in last night, I was reading about croup on Dr. Sears’ website.  I was very impressed that everything I had read on the website regarding croup and the treatment of it, was what the hospital, doctor’s, and nurses were doing. 

When we were deciding if we should take Cole in, I also placed a call into my local children’s hospital, which has a free 24 hour nurse help line.  She actually listened to Cole’s breathing, and told me it was croup over the phone, and to take him to the ER.  I feel like we had excellent care, and the doctors and nurses did everything they could to make Cole (and Mom and Dad) comfortable, and they did a very thorough job in making sure Cole didn’t have any other causes for his high fever.

Even though Cole’s “barking” symptoms weren’t quite as described, if your child sounds like he is wheezing, having trouble breathing, is breathing faster, drooling excessively, or the area right above his breastbone is caving in while breathing, or his ribs are really working while breathing, take him in.  Cole had all these sypmtoms.  We obviously waited too long.  Joe really picked up on the abnormal breathing, but since Cole didn’t have that barking seal noise, it just threw me.  I thought he just had a lot of congestion in his throat, but looking back now, it was more than congestion.  No one said it, but I think Cole’s breathing was getting so bad, since we had waited almost 2 days to take him in.

At any rate, I have been listening to his breathing tonight and he sounds so much better than yesterday.  What a difference 24 hours can make.  I hope he is over the worst of it, and now we can all get back to resting and healing.

Druing all of this, Ryan was spending the night at his grandparents with his cousins last night, so I guess if this had to happen, at least it was last night.  Ryan’s uncle and grandpa took the kids today ice skating, window shopping at a train store, to lunch, to play miniture golf, and then a train ride at the mall!  Ryan was in heaven.  I think he had the best day ever.  We are so lucky to have such wonderful family near by to help out in cases like this.  It helps so much, in not having to worry about the other child, so we could focus on Cole.

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Activities Family & Friends

Happy Thanksgiving

Joe and I both have family in state, so we are spending half the day with Joe’s family, and then the other half with my family.  The good thing about that is we get to eat TWO Thanksgiving meals.  The bad thing about that is we get to eat TWO Thanksgiving meals.  We are so stuffed by the end of the day, we never want to eat again.  🙂

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.  I enjoy spending time with family, and of course the food is wonderful, and usually only made once a year.  So we can’t help but enjoy it.  My favorite dish is my Uncle Mike’s turkey.  He has the most wonderful brine, and starts is several days before Thanksgiving.  It is the most juicy, and moist turkey ever- it melts in your mouth. 

I hope everyone has a Happy and safe Thanksgiving, and you get to enjoy all of your holiday traditions too!

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Activities Cole Family & Friends Ryan

Brothers

Here are two pictures that I love from our photo session on Sunday:

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I was really impressed with the studio- my sister did a great job in convincing me to try the studio out. 

I thought it was going to be a disaster though, because no sooner was our session was ready to start, Cole decided he was having NONE of it.  Nothing the photographer, my sister, my sister-in-law, Ryan, or I, did or said could get Cole to stop frowning, and crying, as soon as he saw the camera.  Needless to say, the first 15 minutes was very frustrating!

Our photographer took some extra time, even though the studio was really busy, and she finally got some shots with Ryan and Cole together, both boys separately, (I’ll be posting those pictures on their own posts), both boys with their cousin, and both boys for their Christmas card picture (if you know me in real-life, you’ll have to wait to see that on your Christmas card.  I’ll post a picture of it though, after the cards go out).

The studio was very professional, and they never rushed us.  With my sister and I sharing the photo shoot, it was very economical, and they had the pictures done and printed in under an hour (we went and ate lunch, while waiting for the pictures to be printed).  

 The best part is they give you ALL shots (even ones you don’t end up choosing for pictures) on a CD, to do with what you want.  They said that is their equivalent of giving you the negatives (from the old days.)  So, any pictures I have in color, I can get reprinted in any size, or make black and white, etc.  I love having all shots, because even now, a day later, I am finding I like some pictures that I didn’t like yesterday, and the individual picture I chose for Cole yesterday, I am not liking it so much now.  I really like the flexibility of having the “negatives/CD.”  I even selected our wedding photographer largely in part (I of course liked his work), but he let us keep the negatives. 

The only bad part, was the drive for me.  It was an hour away, but that is a small price to pay.  I have been so bad about getting the boys’ pictures taken, I hope this will motivate me to keep up with it more regularly now.  Since my niece’s first birthday, and Cole’s second birthday are a month apart, I think we are going to go back and share a session again in the spring.

If you know me in real-life and want the name of the studio, send me an e-mail, and I’ll be happy to pass their information along.