Ding, Ding, Ding! Rounds 3 & 4

Down at the lake.
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Ding, Ding! Round 2

Actual Christmas morning at Granny & Granpa's.
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Ding! Round 1

Christmas morning at home.
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Christmas Eve Eve - the new Christmas Eve

Wednesday morning, I had an hour+ long standoff with Wyatt in his high chair, trying to get him to take his medicine. We'd managed to get both doses in him the night before, but nothing I did was getting him to take it this morning. I tried bribing and begging and pleading and forcing and ignoring and sneaking (putting it in a little bit of milk, but then when he only takes a sip of it and won't drink anymore, you have double the amount to get in him!) and breaking down crying and yelling and sweetness and NOTHING was getting that stuff in him. No amount of, "You HAVE to" or "it's super power juice!" or "it will make you feel better" or "you can have whatever you want AFTER you take your medicine" or "it's just a little bit" or "Dellaina took hers like a big girl!" were making an impact. He wasn't buying any of it. We got it on our clothes and all over the kitchen, but he was not ingesting much at all and I ended up calling the doctor's office in tears to see about alternatives, because it wasn't so much this one particular doseage, but the remaining 9 days of twice a day battles looming large. And if he wasn't actually getting the medicine in him, how would he get better?! Thankfully, they were kind and understanding and did have an option! Bring him in and they'd listen to his breathing and give him a shot of antibiotics. While I was on the phone, Wyatt had been close enough to the counter to reach over and grab the syringe with the medicine in it and squirt it everywhere!! So, we load up (just as everyone has calmed down and they got to start watching their movie) and head out and Dellaina is SOO much more chatty this morning knowing it's not a visit for her! We play games while we wait and Wyatt is more tolerant and cooperative with the nurses taking his temperature and heart rate and the doctor comes in to check Wyatt's breathing and hands out stickers and Wyatt is bouncing off the walls and chairs (literally) and Dellaina is talking, so the doctor comments on how much improved they both seem! And when she leaves Wyatt even exclaims, "I like the doctor!" and I think. "oh, poor boy, I hate that you're about to change that opinion drastically!" Finally, two nurses come back in and each one is armed with a needle, one for each leg and they tell me the shots are painful and he screams. And keeps crying for a loooong time. All the way out into the waiting room where we are to wait for 20 minutes to make sure he doesn't have a reaction. He got distracted by Mickey Mouse on the TV, but would start to cry or whimpers anytime I touch near his thighs or if he has to walk or if a nurse comes within 20 feet. On the way home, Dellaina gets a little teary and proclaims, "it's not my birthday anymore" and I feel a pang of guilt and decide we should go to the toy store and let them pick out a toy with their money like I was planning to do yesterday for her birthday after the doctor, before it had turned into a 5 hour ordeal. So, we go into My StoryHouse Toys where Wyatt had generously recieved $25 in tokens for his birthday from Cassi and family and Dellaina has her $20 from Aunt Andrea and Uncle Blake and they know they can pick out $20 worth of toys. Wyatt wants me to hold him and eventually lets me put him down in front of one of the play stations they have set up, but he refuses to walk about or move, until I finally coax him enough to show him, it's ok. He talks about his knees hurting him, even though he means his legs. I walk through the whole store with Dellaina looking at things and talking about prices. She eventually picks out a set of ink stamps and a stuffed dragon. Wyatt gets a little helicopter with people inside. We get 2 packages of bath tablets, too, to change the color of the water. They both pay the lady (who is dressed as an elf!) and I only had to chip in 10 cents! I thought we did pretty well and everyone seemed happy with their choices! It was a successful trip and a great distraction! We go pick up Dellaina's medicine (Greg had only thought to ask for Wyatt's the night before on his way home - but it was the same kind, so we were dispensing from the same bottle, with different droppers) and lunch and finally make it home for naps.

Dellaina got a birthday package from Megan and enjoyed opening it. We have yet to actually try it out with all of the choas that's been going on, but they both keep eyeing it and mentioning it and I know we will enjoy it soon! I see many a craft project in MY future. ;) And also, think it will be good for my scrapbooking.

Then, we got a package from The Lo.Co. containing fun Christmas toys (including batteries!) yummy treats, great homemade ornaments and a birthday present for Dellaina to boot! The LeapFrog letter writer with lights is a really awesome tool to help teach writing letters and I'm excited Dellaina has been playing with it a good bit already. It's a great size for the car, too! Pen clearly didn't get the memo about giving Wyatt clubs to hit with, but so far, we are having fun just hitting the balls into the alligator's mouth! The Fancy Nancy dress up game was an instant hit, too. Lots of fun and small and portable, too.

Thanks Pen and M (hee)! We feel so loved.

We declared it was Christmas Eve and Santa was coming in the morning to allow us to get to G&G's and be able to spend some time with them before heading on to the next set/round and without feeling so rushed. I was going to post pictures and details from our Christmas morning this morning, but forgot blogger can only do 1 picture at a time and as I'm not on my own computer with Windows Live Writer that allows for drag and drop, I will be waiting. And as it's now Christmas for everyone else, I'm sure no one will really be waiting for me to post! ;)

4

This was my pretty girl decked out in all of her new duds and kicks on her birthday. I have so much I should say about her, but it's been crazy and I haven't managed to, but I didn't want to miss out at least officially posting my wishes for her to have the happiest of happy birthdays (despite the crazy day we had) with a wonderful 4th year.

Holiday Tradition

Like many, many holidays before (at least it feels like it’s always when we are getting together in large groups), we find ourselves contending with lots of sickness these days. Here’s the recap:

*Wyatt has had a cough and congestion for a while, but 5:00 Friday morning, he was feverish as well. He’d woken up a couple of times in the night, too. I got some Motrin or Tylenol in him (I can’t recall which) and by the time he woke up again, his fever had subsided. But, by lunch time, he was heating up again, so I decided to take him to the doctor before the weekend. Except, like many doctor’s offices, they close for lunch from 12-2, so I had to wait until they reopened and then call and got a 2:45 appointment. We are still without naps at this point. The doctor was kind enough to check Dellaina’s throat, too, when I mentioned she had white spots on her tonsils, but they were just where milk collects, etc. She said his ears and all looked fine, but she listened for a while and determined he has a rattling on his left side which was consistent with pneumonia. It’s very scary to hear, but she didn’t act like it was as scary as I was thinking it should be. She didn’t think we needed a chest x-ray at the time, but prescribed azithromycin, which is a nice “parent friendly” medicine of just one dose a day for 5 days. I tried to go to Publix and drop it off, but they were out of it, so had to go to Rite Aid. It was cold and rainy and Wyatt was beyond exhausted by this point and had passed out and I didn’t have the heart to get him out, so just left them in the car while I ran in. eek! petrifying. won’t do it again. Especially now that I realize there is a Drive-thru for this sort of thing!

*Over the weekend, he alternated between heating up and being wiped out, to having some energy and “normalcy” in behavior without a fever (when medicine kicked in). He wasn’t really eating much, but was requesting water often. He would only take a few sips, but wanted it frequently, probably because he was so hot!

*Sunday, was Dellaina’s party and perhaps against better judgment (how could we deny him, we’d been talking about it for so long?) we brought Wyatt and he just got worn out and was pitiful and hot and content being held and ended the party by coughing to the point of throwing up all over himself and Greg, who was holding him. Made for a very memorable party!

*He was still coughing and not sleeping peacefully, so we attempted to get him some cough medicine, which he HATED, and would cry and pitch a fit not to take it. To the point of working himself up and coughing so much, he’d throw up. Once first thing Monday morning when I got him up (so it was mostly spit up, because he didn’t have much in him – but I gave him a bath anyway) and then again after lunch, just before naps (when he had some food in him, yum.) I let him take a loooong nap, thinking he needed it and it would help, but he woke up even more out of it. Watery eyes, runny nose, congestion, cough, very flushed (because he was now refusing to take ANY medicine, even the Tylenol or Motrin he likes and requests to take) and just laid around for a while. Greg and I both worked to get little bits in him over the next couple of hours and he perked up and cooled off and was “better” by bedtime. He was sleeping a little better, without the constant coughing waking him up, but he cries out periodically, not quite waking up, just not peaceful. One time, I swear I heard him saying, “No Ma’am! I don’t like it!” so I’m sure he was dreaming about taking the medicine and I was worried and get worked up in his sleep, too and make himself sick!

*Today, we had our follow up visit for Wyatt AND Dellaina’s 4-year well visit at 9:00 this morning. Wyatt woke up pitiful, whining, “I don’t feel good, I want to go to the doctor” and Dellaina woke up teary and terrified of going, because she knew it was her turn and not just for Wyatt. Wyatt was loudly and physically refusing to let me undress him, however, when we got there. We were supposed to try to get a urine sample for Dellaina, but our first attempt yielded nothing, so I kept getting her to drink water the whole time we were there. They tried to test her eyes, but with Wyatt crying, she was a little distracted. They went to do her hearing and she was kind of all over the place. The lady seemed a little frustrated and made comments like, “I’m not sure she was paying attention” which just irks me because she’s sensitive, as Granny would say and she’s not stupid and can hear what you are saying about her! She may not have uttered a SINGLE WORD while someone else was in the room (but would break out into elaborate stories or songs as soon as the door closed) but she understands more than you give her credit for, obviously. They asked if she knew her colors and I might have laughed out loud. They also asked if she could dress herself (hmm, kind of, mostly, still needs some help at times) and ride a tricycle. She was in the high 80’s for height and weight (I’ll look at the paper in my car later). Then, when they checked her ears, she had a definite ear infection in one ear and fluid in the other. She was paying attention, she just really can’t hear well right now! Poor thing hadn’t really acted nearly as sick to have known she had an ear infection!

*Wyatt’s ears looked like they had an ear infection, actually like he’d had one and it was clearing up (which would explain the persistent fever and loss of appetite!) but she wanted to go ahead and prescribe Augmentin for him, too, and knock it out. He now sounded rattle-y all over, rather than localized, so she wanted to do a test for RSV. The nurse came in and swabbed his nose, which made him scream (I had a test for the flu not too long ago and it about killed me! I thought it was horrible and like she stuck the damn thing up into my brain!) and THEN 15 minutes later she came back and said SHE’D RUN THE WRONG TEST! So, had to do it AGAIN?! Poor thing. But, it came back positive. Which the doctor was actually kind of relieved about, because it explained some things, but she still wanted to do a chest x-ray now to make sure there weren’t any foreign objects (like swallowed pennies or something) or other issues since he hadn’t improved.

*We managed to get a tiny urine sample, but I didn’t follow the proper “carefully wipe twice front to back” with the cleaning cloth first, because she was panicked saying, “I’m trying to hold it!” and I didn’t want to miss it. It came back showing some indicators of a urinary tract infection! So, we got sent with a cup to collect another fuller sample and we get to drop it off directly at the lab.

*We finally leave with all prescriptions, referrals, maps/directions and lab protocols around 11:45 and head up to go ahead and do Wyatt’s check xray while we are out. He wouldn’t wear the little mask, but loudly pointed out the other kids were wearing them. I mentioned it was Dellaina’s birthday and the lady at the front desk was really nice and got her a book and each of them a little race car. When we went back, the lady taking the xrays was very nice to explain to Dellaina that she was just going to be taking a picture of her brother and he might cry, but she wasn’t hurting him, he was just little and couldn’t understand. She let them both “play” with the camera and turn the light on and see it on the floor, etc. But, Wyatt was still in “no!” mode and tired and hungry and ornery and he cried (which the lady said was actually better, because it gave a better picture with deeper breaths) but he’d also stop because he was curious about noises or things, but then remember he was supposed to be crying. Then, we had to wait for her to show the radiologist and call the doctor so we wouldn’t be playing phone tag if she needed to let us know something. When she came out, she said it did show signs of pneumonia and for us to fill the Augmentin as planned. Weary, we headed home. I had had to call and cancel my own doctor’s appointment. I went through the drive-thru pharmacy at Rite Aid while Wyatt passed out. When we got home, he woke up and wanted to eat, so I let him. Then, we tried for naps and he talked for a while, but eventually got in a good one.

*Dellaina woke up from naps pitiful, melodramatic (sighs) and complaining. It was an ordeal getting them both to take their medicine, with some gagging and near spewing. When I came back from the gym, she was really moaning after her bath about not feeling well. She didn’t really eat and just laid around. Right before bed, she was playing on the couch and floor like she felt some better, but was still “milking” not feeling well, saying her chest and throat hurt. Right as Greg finished up and was heading upstairs we hear someone crying out and go up to find she’s thrown up in her bed. Guess that ear infection is really kicking in now.

*Hopefully, we can keep getting the medicine in them, without vomiting and the ears will clear up. And the pneumonia will clear up as well. We don’t know what to do about Christmas, because Addison and Samuel, especially, shouldn’t be exposed (again! even more!) to the RSV – it can be more “devastating” in younger kids.

Aargh, Matey!

We had Dellaina’s 4th birthday party on Sunday at DacKids. We haven’t had a “real” party for her before because of the crazy time of year, but wanted her to have a chance to have friends to play with. It was very cold at first because they had just opened and the heat hadn’t had time to really warm the big warehouse place up yet! Wyatt was pitiful (post next) but I think, overall, it was a success.

Wyatt had a rough night, but once he got moving, seemed ok. She got to open presents of new boots and new dress and new tights!

She was so thrilled to see her friends, Aden and Kailee from school and was loving playing with Samuel and Addison and sweetly checked on Micah, who was not loving the overwhelming stimuli! Maggie took right to it and even belly flopped and kicked around in the sand! Dellaina did as well multiple times in her glee, too.

the soft balls for the air guns were popular.

Addison LOVED the big inflatable slide and it was fun to watch her enjoy it so much.

the air guns, themselves were popular, too.

I think the cake turned out great. The candles and figure I bought from Party City really made it cute. I was glad I’d snapped a few pictures of it because one of the kids ran right up to it and stuck their little hand in it when they came in the room! Haha! We lost the cake knife somehow, but managed.

Micah cracked me up with his eye patch. He was the only one that kept it on – even if the string was getting in his other eye!

Wyatt was not interested in eating and was content being held. I love this series.

After Wyatt threw up, we decided to just pack up and head home to open presents! Dellaina did open her money from Andrea, Blake and Addison and was very excited and proud to carry it around and can’t wait to go to the store to pick something out!

She was pretty tired by the time she finally got to open presents, so made quite some faces and comments (“I already have these!”) for the clothes and crafts that were amusing us. It wasn’t until she got to toys that she got a genuine smile on her face.

Hank was VERY interested in the moving, barking dog, too!

When Wyatt woke up, he got to open a little something from G&G, too. Fire truck! Little Woody and Jessie! Slinky Dog and Rocky Gibraltar!

he was very intrigued by the big Jessie hat!