Spring Break : Day 5

We started the day with an explosion. Did not bode well for the day. Good thing he is so happy all the time.

We spent Friday playing outside, playing games, and spending time inside. We wanted to be really calm because the days had been so busy this week. It was nice to be still for a day.

We did venture out to do some grocery shopping. We needed food. :)

Jonathan and I were invited to a dinner at Johnny Carino's with friends. We were excited for a free, nice dinner away and some time to ourselves. After the delicious dinner we went to a movie. Captain America was fun, we really enjoyed it. We're pretty big fans of the TV show Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. After this last week's show we really wanted to see Captain America because so much happened that tied in with the movie that we wanted the clarification. Well played, Marvel. So it was nice to see the tie ins and figure out what was going on. And it was a fun movie, and I didn't call all of the twists before they happened (that always makes a movie more fun).

Spring Break : Day 4

We made it to a park!

 We went while Jonathan was at his doctor appointment. Fun fun for everyone!

Jonathan and I also got in to the dentist that morning. No cavities for me! But I have a spot that I've ground down on one of my teeth where the enamel is gone. I'm getting a filling so my teeth won't be so sensitive and so it can compensate for the shape of my teeth. He's going to file down the top teeth and fill the bottom. That way I won't wear away any more of my teeth. Hey, no cavities. Wahoo.

Jonathan goes back next week to lay out a plan of action for his mouth full of cavities. Poor guy. I don't know anyone who takes as good a care of his teeth as Jonathan, yet he inherited the worst teeth ever and has a cavity in almost every tooth. We're crossing our fingers that the kids inherit MY teeth.

We got home just in time for Peter's next blowout for the day. This one was pretty bad. I wiped him down and stuck him in the tub because he just smelled terribly. Poor little guy.

He's awfully cute, though!

Spring Break : Day 3

Wednesday did not go according to plan. We had planned on a picnic lunch at the park, playing on the swings and slides, and generally having a grand day outside. Instead, Peter woke up looking like this:

 With one eye swollen shut, and absolutely no clue how it had happened, we consulted Dr. Google and decided that, with his respiratory infection he'd had the last couple weeks, we needed to take him in to rule out crazy infections. Especially since Benadryl did NOTHING to help the swelling go down.

The kids were so thrilled to have make a last minute trip to the doc.

I wasn't terribly pleased either. But after playing in the cupboards while we waited they settled down some.

Peter had a fit over the doctor we saw. He tried cleaning Peter's ears out with some sort of solution. Peter want nuts. Wouldn't let the doc touch him again. With ANYTHING. He had to call in his attending and give him a few minutes before Peter would let her touch him. It was insane. But we finally got an answer: the swollen eye was due to the respiratory infection, just watch it. Peter's ears were pink, slight infection, but it would probably clear up soon so no antibiotics. The diarrhea was a major concern, so we're starting the testing. But you already know about all of that. So yeah.

We spent a couple hours in that office, and I was sure frazzled by the time we got out. I felt terrible, but I had to call and cancel our dinner appointment with the sister missionaries. There was just NO way I'd be able to get home and cook something for them by 5:00 when I was over an hour from home and it was 4:00. Yeah, not happening. So we're rescheduling and we'll have fun another night.

Everyone was treated to a movie and an early bedtime when we got home.

Spring Break : Day 2

We opted to day for a cycling adventure! We decided to ride into the metro park down the road from us and have a picnic. Jonathan stayed home to... do something, no idea what. I think he was getting ready for scouts and working on some sort of paper he has due at school. He took a break long enough to snap a picture of us before we embarked on our journey.

Andi lasted about five minutes on her bike before she said she wanted to ride in the trailer. I knew that would happen. Really glad it happened within walking distance of the house so David could run her bike back while I got everyone settled in the trailer.

The ride was a lot longer than I'd anticipated. And hillier. Oh so much more hilly than I'd expected. Poor David was a real trooper and we made it to the Farm Center just under an hour after we'd left. After lunch we wandered around looking at all of the animals.

Pile of piggies! The sow from last time had her piglets on Saturday, seven in all! They were adorable, and the kids were so frustrated that they were all just out of reach. (I think the piglets did that on purpose...)

This little goat gang cracked me up. We weren't the only ones enjoying the sunshine.

Barred rock hens! I miss having chickens a lot sometimes.

Big pigs...

Peter adored this calf:

 Though he was a little confused about what to do with his fingers once she'd licked them all...

We ran around in the grass for a while before deciding it was time to head home. We all got a drink of water and wandered through the barn one last time.

Mothers always make the best beds...

The ride back seemed shorter but harder. David and I were pretty worn out, the wind was against us, and I was hauling an extra 50-ish pounds in that trailer. David found it easier to cycle behind me (of course, breaking the wind) and kept up so well. We made it back home sunburnt, tired, and sore. David has declared he never wants to ride that far again. I would like to do it without hauling the trailer.  But now I really know the trails and am excited to hit them tomorrow for my run.

And just how far did we go? 11.7 miles. Maybe I'll be able to run that someday... :)

Spring Break : Day 1

It was supposed to rain all day Monday. It didn't, but I prepared activities for the kids so that we could be out of the rain but still having some real fun. So of course that meant that I HAD to take the kids to IKEA. :)

I went with a need for ONE thing. And I walked out with that ONE thing: a frame for the mystery dress I found in my tote of Grandma's needlepoint. I can't remember if it something my mom brought up to me when she brought some other things from Grandpa's house, but I found it again and looked into it a bit more, yet have no idea what the story behind this gorgeous dress is. So, for now, it hangs in Andi's room.

Jonathan and I were also talking about David and his need for a hobby recently. He LOVES to build things. He's always finding random things (twist-ties, old bread ties, boxes, rings, whatever...) and building interesting things with them. We wondered if maybe he would be interested in building models. I asked my dad about it and then took David to Hobby Lobby to pick out his first model as a project for the week.

With no help from me David snapped...

 Assembled...

 Snapped and filed....

 And assembled some more.

 In about 20 minutes he had this:

 And I realized that I had no other projects for him for the rest of the week. Great. Scrap book time!! :D

At some point in the day, probably while taking all of the above photos, I realized that David's hair had gotten rather unruly. Hair cut time! And there were NO cuts on my fingers this time. Wahoo!

I think I'm getting the hang of those scissor cuts. Saved me $12 right there! The scissors Emma got for me for Christmas were the best gift ever. Seriously. When she comes to visit next month I'll have her watch me trim up his hair so she can give me a few extra pointers. And maybe, just maybe, I'll have her teach me how to cut Andi's hair... maybe not. I'll spend $12 on a girl's hair!

Peter... again.

So I mentioned how poopy Peter has been lately on a blog a couple weeks ago. Here's an update.

We went back to the doctor yesterday. His skin rash has not changed significantly, and he is still having massive explosions every couple of days with nothing between mess days.

And then a couple weeks ago, right after our initial visit, Peter came down with a cold. I thought it was allergies at first, but it quickly turned into something else. Fever, running nose, horrible cough that was keeping him up all night. I thought it had gone away, but the doctors said yesterday that his lungs sound really cruddy.

So I'm really worried. He lost 1.5 pounds in the two weeks between the initial visit and yesterday, and that's what we were really hoping would not happen. We've moved onto the next phase: we continue with our gluten/dairy free diet for Peter, but we've now submitted a stool sample and are running labs on that. Next step is blood work if nothing shows up on the stool panel.

Peter's immune system has also been pretty weakened. Closed door spaces with lots of exposure to other kids and germs is off-limits. We can still hit up the parks, it would be good for him to get outside, but we need to limit his exposure to other germs so he doesn't get more sick. I suppose it is a good thing my child care plan hasn't gone anywhere yet, I need to get Peter healthy before introducing more kids to the mix!

So all of this may turn out to be a simple fix, and he may be healthy in no time. But Dr. Google has not been helping me feel any better about this situation, and I'm really nervous about my poor, happy little guy. Some prayers would be appreciated. And prayers for speedy recovery and a quick fix. Yeah. That would make it all better. :)

Sunday park visit

Between conference sessions on Sunday David and Andi were going nuts! Peter was asleep and I really wanted to make sure he stayed that way (he's been really sick lately, nasty chest cold that just won't go away), so I grabbed the two bigger kids and asked if they wanted to go to the park. We got our shoes on and got walking!

I made them play for an hour before I even considered bringing them home.

I love having a park so close to home! We got home just as the second Sunday session started and I had much calmer kids the rest of the afternoon. :)