Father's Day Gift Ideas

It has been a little crazy around here lately and I haven't read any blogs in six days. I did get a chance to read up on them late last night, while Doug and I watched the CMT Music Awards (we recorded earlier in the week). Nic has hand foot and mouth, but his fever appears to have broken and he is starting to eat and drink again, so hopefully we are over the worst. At least he likes gatorade, but only after he has had his tylenol or motrin in him for an hour, then his throat doesn't hurt as much. I have been meaning to post this but with a cranky baby it is hard to get anything done let alone set at the computer and type. I thought I would share a couple of things we have done for Father's Day the past few years, just in case anyone doesn't know what to get, do or has waited until the last minute.

We have gotten a shirt that said "World's Greatest Dad" and I had Eli put his handprints right in the middle of the shirt and we then put the year (I was pregnant with Nic at the time). In 2007, the boys and I got a picture album and I printed select pictures of the boys from birth to right up until then. We then decorated the album with scrapbook supplies and sayings throughout, Doug loved it and he looks at it quite often, it is fun to see how much the boys have changed and grown over the last few years. Last year, Doug was out of town and the boys and I went down to Picture People and had a few poses of us taken and we ordered a couple of 5 x 7's and an 10 x 13 and had them framed for him, good deal as well when you use a 15-20% off coupon. These are just a few of the things we have done and I will let eveyone know what the boys have done for this year next week. The fun part is letting the kids help decorate or make their own projects and you know dad's love that the most.

Happenings around here

As you know this holiday weekend has been filled with an ER run with fever and now not one but both boys are down with this fever that won't go away. After much debating and a very sleepless Saturday night, I knew going to church was out of the question, I decided to take the boys to urgent care to find out what was going wrong. I call Doug, who is in Arkansas, and tell him the urgent care is packed and they had just opened, now what. He calls the new pediatrician and gets the answering service, before he gets off the phone to call me back the pediatrician was calling me. I tell him everything that has been going on for the last week and he tells me to come into the office that afternoon, that's right on a Sunday afternoon, they see children on the weekend. Boy did we ever make the right decision to switch pediatricians. The boys and I make our way home for a couple of hours and then off to see the doctor. We get there and find out Eli has had a two inch growth spurt on top of being sick and so has Nic, go figure. The diagnosis, Eli has a double ear infection and an upper respiratory infection. And Nic, a right ear infection with a very horrible looking left ear to boot. Solution, both receive antibiotics and Eli is getting a referral to a ENT specialist to get tubes in his ears. With Nic it is a wait and see game because the doctor wants to see him a few times, especially with the whole having to do breathing treatments every time he gets a cold/pneumonia. We are not saying it is asthma but lets wait and see what happens and until he gets a little older and go from there. Needless to say I am much more impressed with our decision to switch pediatricians, our gut feeling turned out to be correct and not only that there are two other doctors in the practice and they rotate weekends for appointments (such a blessing). If only we could get rid of Eli's fever now but hopefully once the antibiotics start doing their mojo we will all be better.

On a lighter note. What happens when Daddy brings the boys home a snow globe and they can't decide who is going to hold it or drop it instead? See for yourself.

The mess.

Fun to vacuum up by the way, blowing all

over the place and sticking to everything.

This is what caused the mess.

This is what one might look like unharmed.

E.R. Run

The boys have been fighting colds off and on since Saturday, right after they got their flu shots. Eli has a runny nose and cough but no fever. Nic has had a fever off and on since then with a runny nose. Yesterday afternoon right after his nap he was kind of playing but then at dinner he wouldn't eat and he is my big eater. He crawled down onto the tile and laid there and then got up and went and laid on the den floor. I go and pick him up and he is burning up, check is temp and it is almost 102, second time this week. I gave him Tylenol and got him to drink a couple sips of Gatorade but he just laid on the floor all limp, so I call Doug and then the pediatrician and Doug again, the decision is to go to the emergency room. We make our way there and get in no problem, no one in waiting room, a good sign, think again. They take us to triage, Eli stayed in the waiting room with my mother-in-law, the nurse weighed him and checked his temp, even higher than at home, they send us back to waiting room there are no rooms available. After about fifteen/twenty minutes we go back to a room and were told a nurse would be in to see us. Over two hours later still not a nurse or doctor in sight, it was like a ghost town around there. By then the Tylenol was working some and I had gotten him to eat some and even drink, so a consensus between Doug, his mom and I, we leave and nobody said anything to us. I get home and give Nic some Motrin, temp 100, not bad, he slept all night and we have been rotating Tylenol and Motrin all day and are doing his breathing treatments. Luckily, we still had some on hand, but this is usually what happens when he gets a cold so we are back to doing them two times a day until his cold his gone.

On a side note, I was going to do my first Black Friday this morning, but after getting the boys in bed and trying to relax a little is was midnight before I knew it. I wasn't about to get up at four in the morning to be in town by five, just plain crazy. I did go this afternoon while Nic was down for his nap, Eli got to have a little quality time with Dad for a little bit. A very good two hours by myself and I got almost everything on my list, pretty good. And all my boys loved it when I got home, now doesn't that make you feel good when you hear, "Mommy's home" as you walk in the door. The boys are asleep, Doug is on his way to Little Rock and I need to pick up a few toys and put them away before I can go to sleep. A crazy twenty-four hours, I can at least say my life isn't boring with all that goes on around here.

Now for an update

As in my previous post, my boys are sick but the upside is they are starting to feel better. Nic's congestion is breaking up and Eli sounds very nasal right now, which is a little cute. For anyone who has ever used a nebulizer knows, not the easiest thing for a baby, excuse me toddler, to get used to. But my little man appears to be getting the hang of it, he even held it up to his nose and mouth all by himself yesterday morning. Not the case the night before, our very first time using it. He cried and screamed the whole time, hence him setting in his chair much easier to do. The machine isn't exactly quiet but it's only for about 10 minutes, and it comes with a little ducky mask to try and help ease children. The worst part is listening to him cough at night but it is the best thing for him, especially with it trying to break up. Their humidifiers are turned up full blast in both their rooms, although I run them every night just on a very low setting any other time, the boys have gotten used to the sound and it is easier for them to fall asleep. Things are slowly getting back to normal around here. I sure hate when my little men are sick and I can't make it magically disappear.

Using the nebulizer all by himself, such a big boy

Daddy brought home tool belts to help them feel better