Still Sick

I typically consider myself to be a fairly optimistic person, and I usually try to look on the bright side and remind myself that there are always others who have it worse. But when my kids are STILL having on-again off-again diarrhea and who knows what else, it's REALLY hard to remember that there are mothers out there who would love it if all they had to worry about was a little diarrhea (as opposed to chemo or hospitalizations or major surgeries or anything else). Life has just been a major struggle lately--I'm struggling with the constant stink, I'm struggling with all the laundry, and mostly I'm struggling with the constant disruption of plans--and while I (rationally) know my boys aren't intentionally being extra whiny and crabby, I find myself struggling to be patient with them. William was supposed to start VBS this morning, which I was really looking forward to--good social interaction for him (we've had a few outings/classes that have been kind of a bust for my little introvert, so I was really looking forward to this experience for him since he'll know some of the other kids from church) plus a few hours in the morning for Mommy to only have one boy to wrangle (hello easy errands!). But nope--William was up at 5:00 throwing up and although he's done with that (thank goodness), he's still been in the bathroom plenty this morning. And this was after he'd been fine all weekend (he even had a solid poop last night before bed). Silver lining (I suppose) is that he got sick before I took him to VBS so he didn't get sick there. But this pretty much just confirms I can't go anywhere--I tried going to the park on Friday (after he'd been okay for a few days), and we spent as much time in the bathroom as we did on the playground. So that was fun.

We're headed to the doctor this afternoon--after going last week and getting a diagnosis of gastroenteritis, which should have run its course by now--so here's hoping we can get some more answers. Or at least a magic pill that will make all this stop (and make Garrett's eye teeth come in as well, since I'm pretty sure that is contributing to his issues).

A Vote to Outlaw Holiday Weekends

Remember how our Mother's Day Weekend was, well, a little on the chaotic/disastrous side? Despite my comment about not having to worry about doing much to make sure Darrell had a better Father's Day, I'm actually saddened to say that I'm pretty sure my mother's day topped Darrell's father's day. If I try really, really, hard, I think I can come up with three highlights from the weekend:

1. Darrell got to go golfing on Sunday. Only nine holes, but that was probably okay because he re-opened his wound from his fun little knife incident (after getting the stitches out Friday, no less). Nothing major, just prolonging the healing (and pain) a little bit.
2. Despite throwing up a handful of times (and all but one of those times in his bedroom), Garrett managed to miss the rug in his room every time. Which we were very grateful for--cleaning his sheets, bamboo floors, and even the recliner was a lot easier than trying to figure out how we would clean his (mostly white) rug.
3. Even though William has been in underwear for less than a month, he had absolutely zero accidents all weekend (since Thursday, actually)--especially impressive since he had some pretty constant diarrhea (TMI? Sorry. But it's been the story of my life all weekend for both boys--we just didn't have to worry as much about Garrett since he was wearing diapers, although he did leak out a few times).

How's that for highlights of our weekend? For the worried grandparents out there, we took the boys to the doctor today, and as long as things get, ahem, "plugged up" in the next five to seven days (and they stay well hydrated during that time), they'll be just fine. Just a stomach bug (although he used a much fancier word)--which I should mention Darrell had as well. Only because it was truly the icing on the cake for his father's day. Maybe things will improve for his birthday later this week--although I'm not going to jinx myself and say that things certainly can't be worse than they were for Father's Day!

Life as a Horse

So you know what's a blessing--and equally a curse? Having the immune system of a horse (total sidenote--but any idea where that expression came from? It's totally random in my opinion). It's a blessing for obvious reasons--no one actually enjoys being sick--but when you have two kids and a husband who do not have immune systems of horses, it can also be a curse. Because guess who ends up being the healthy (or at least, healthier) one that always has to take care of the sick people? Lucky ol' me. And I know--being able to be home with the kiddos when they are sick is (rationally) a blessing: I don't have to worry about them feeling under the weather and being in someone else's care, and we don't have to worry about juggling PTO and missing work to be home with them. But seriously... Sick kids are awful. And draining. Especially when they don't actually know how to be sick. Rather than just lying down and enjoying (somewhat) unlimited TV time so they can rest, my boys would rather continue to be up and about doing stuff--but being very whiny and temperamental while doing so. And thankfully, Darrell doesn't fall into the "man flu" category of being sick--he'll usually just shut himself up in the bedroom and stay out of our way--but still. Part of me gets envious of his life behind those closed doors. Lying in bed all day? Napping freely? Time to actually rest--and maybe even do some reading? Seriously--where do I sign up? Granted, I'd have to be pretty sick for Darrell to stay home and watch the boys, and if I'm that sick I'm definitely not enjoying a minute of my time in bed (and let's be honest--I'd probably feel guilty about being a lazy pile, regardless of how sick I might be), but still--a girl can dream. In the meantime I'll just continue to suffer through this mild cold that I've had for two weeks (because yay immune system of a horse that keeps me from getting more than mildly sick) while taking care of my boys who seem to pick up colds and stomach bugs at the drop of a hat.

Weekend Rewind

Well, we're only halfway to the next weekend, but better late than never, right? And I actually have a few pictures to share, plus some unplanned (and definitely not needed) "excitement" from the weekend, so I figured I might as well write my recap even if it is a few days late.

In short, Saturday was packed. I felt like Darrell and I spent the majority of the day tag-team parenting. We headed to Luverne, MN early Saturday morning so Darrell could march in a parade, which left me (and my nine-month pregnant sister) on duty with the boys. They did pretty well watching the parade, although William wasn't too fond of the fire trucks and motorcycles because they were too loud (the amount of candy he got probably made up for that, though!). We had lunch in Luverne (another adventure in tag-team parenting: one of us eats while the other helps the boys with their food, and then switch!), then got the boys home for their naps. Shortly after they went down my mom came to pick me up so we could go out to Mitchell for my cousin's high school graduation open house. We were only there for about an hour before we had to turn around to get back home--my brother was pitching in a baseball game that evening that we wanted to get back for. Darrell took the boys over there after their naps (it was a tournament and there was a game before the one my brother pitched), and after watching a few innings he handed them off to my dad and sister because we weren't back yet and he had to get to an event where he was taking pictures for the Shriners. My mom and I made it to the fields shortly after he left, and we stayed to watch my brother pitch four innings before I took the boys home (quite a bit past their bedtimes, I might add). Darrell got home late, we crashed, and looked forward to having a much more relaxing Sunday.

And relaxing it was--at least to start. Church, lunch, naps, a run to the store for me to get a few plants for my garden (some of my tomato plants that I started from seed didn't fair too well being transplanted), and pretty soon we were settling in to enjoy some homemade pizza for dinner. We had a chance to Skype with Darrell's parents after dinner (and it even worked for us to take the iPad outside--win!), and then off to bed for the boys. And that's when the fun started. While I was finishing getting William to bed, Darrell sat down on the couch and started getting ready to watch NCIS (because you know, we never do that in this house). I told him that there were a few things I wanted to get done before we checked out for the night, because I knew if the stuff didn't get done Sunday night Monday would end up being way more chaotic. So I asked Darrell to cut up the watermelon and cantaloupe that had been sitting on our counter for a few days and were nearly overripe. A few minutes later, as I'm helping William use the potty, I hear a "shit" from the kitchen--and I get out there to find Darrell standing over the sink, running water on his massively bleeding thumb. Awesome. Thank goodness for parents who live nearby. They came over and took Darrell to the ER (I would have gone with him if it had been major, but William still hadn't settled down and we knew that if Grandma and Grandpa showed up it would have taken even longer for him to get to bed). Four stitches (and as many hours) later, he finally came home. And we could finally get to bed so we could get ready to enjoy our Monday... Or something like that. I don't know if it was the busy Saturday, the somewhat poor sleep (did I mention Garrett is STILL teething and decided over the weekend he needed to wake up nearly every two hours at night?), my lingering cold, or Darrell's knife incident, but between everything we got this week started on the wrong foot and it just hasn't gotten much better. Granted, it hasn't exactly gotten worse (although it would take at least another ER visit for me to deem it "worse" than a weekend where we already had one ER visit), but it's just been riding at this unpleasant level of yuckiness (and yes, that's the technical term, I looked). I suppose on the bright side it's practically another weekend already, so here's to hoping we hit an upswing coming into the weekend and can carry that momentum into next week!

Update: Story of my week. I specifically mention that part of the reason I'm not going to skip over this weekend recap is that I actually remembered to take a few pictures. And then I completely forgot to share them. Sounds about right.

Garrett: Fifteen Months!

I feel like I just got done writing Garrett's twelve-month post (or was that William's three-year post?), but whatever the case may be, it's that time again--another well visit, so time for another update.

Height/Weight: If it weren't for the fact that I whole-heartedly trust our pediatrician, I'd be a little anxious after this portion of Garrett's appointment. At 20 pounds, 12 ounces, he's up less than a pound from his one-year appointment (and more than a pound lighter than William was at this age, despite having the same weight at one year). He also grew less than an inch (currently 29.5 inches). I made sure to voice to our pediatrician that I was a little concerned by his measurements because Garrett seriously eats constantly, but our doctor assured me that this isn't terribly uncommon at this age, especially for toddlers who were breastfed. I guess it's reassuring to know that Garrett isn't overeating (despite what it may seem at times!), although this just reaffirms that at some point I'm going to have to go back to work in order to keep my boys fed.

Wearing: By virtue of barely growing since his birthday, he's still pretty much wearing all the same stuff: size three diapers and size 12 clothing. I've actually been borrowing clothes from some friends because I was getting sick of his wearing the same stuff over and over again (and I'm too cheap to buy him stuff to wear for just a month or two!).

Eating: Like I said above (and pretty much every previous post!), getting this kid to eat is no problem. It's the getting him to stop that causes issues. Fresh fruit is a huge favorite, especially berries, and he can also do serious damage on orange vegetables (carrots, squash, sweet potato). Meats and dairy are usually no issue, although he still doesn't drink milk the best (we nursed at least once a day up until a month or so ago). We randomly discovered that he doesn't really care for chocolate (whose kid is this?!?), although give him a spoon and a jar of peanut butter and he'll go to town, so at least he has a little bit of me in him. 

Sleep: Knock on wood, but we've finally had luck getting this kid to sleep through the night. I'm not sure how much cutting out the night feeding influenced that, or the fact that we got a short break from teething (which--unfortunately--seems to be creeping back and causing more trouble, including at night). He had gotten to a point where he was pretty consistently taking just one nap, but then between teething and getting sick he started shifting back toward two naps and well, it's a total guessing game now. Basically I don't sweat it if he takes a cat nap in the car while we are out and about in the morning and put both boys down a little later in the afternoon on those days. If he doesn't nap in the morning, lunch and afternoon nap get moved earlier (which, thankfully, William usually adapts to pretty well).

New Stuff: I mentioned teething a few times already, but at one year Garrett had only five teeth. By thirteen months, he was up to seven full teeth and part of one molar. By fourteen months, he had all eight front teeth (four on top, four on bottom), plus all four molars had started to cut. At fifteen months, all four of his molars are completely in, and we're pretty sure he is working on his last four: the eye teeth. And while things certainly haven't been enjoyable on the teething front thus far, the eye teeth may actually be the worst yet. Although we haven't actually seen evidence of the teeth yet, so this is all just speculation (and my hoping that the orneriness and inconsistent sleeping is a product of the teething and not just his personality!). His communication is continually improving; in addition to picking up the signs for "all done", "please", "water", and "bird", he has a handful of words in his vocabulary. He can say both "mama" and "dada" (and of course, "dada" was first), although he'll go through phases where he just calls both of us one of those names instead of distinguishing between the two. He also has words for "please", "dog", and "amen", although I don't think anyone but us would know what they are. Although William was (and technically, still is) what I would consider to be friendly, I definitely see a lot more of an extrovert in Garrett. Whenever we go places he walks himself over to the other people and makes himself right at home (especially if they are babies--or really, anyone smaller or similar in size to him). He'll give out smiles and high-fives to anyone who asks for one, and always has to be in the action. Even though he never really seemed to be into our Kindermusik class, he must have taken something out of it because he has really started to show a love for music and his own little version of dancing, plus he loves to do the actions for some of his favorites ("If You're Happy and You Know It" and "The Itsy-Bitsy Spider"). Of course, I'd be remiss in any discussion of his development if I failed to mention his extreme strong-headedness. This child can (and will) do anything he sets his mind too (especially if he sees big brother doing it--like climbing the ladder on our play set or going down the stairs standing up instead of on his stomach), and once he has formed an opinion about something it is a battle to change it (even on simple things like what story to read at bedtime).

I apologize if any of these pictures are duplicates, but considering I'm already over two weeks late getting this posted (despite having the best of intentions to get to it sooner!), I don't really feel like taking the time to go back and see which pictures I've already shared. So enjoy this random sampling of photos from twelve months to fifteen months!

Oh boy. This picture reminds me that I forgot to mention that he had his first haircut in the salon--can you tell he needed it?

Memorial Day Fun

Guess what? I actually have quite a few pictures to share from the weekend (although let's be serious--I stole most of them from my friends off Facebook)! So rather than bore you with my mindless babble, I'm just going to let the pictures do the talking.

Loaded up the car Friday afternoon to head up to the Cities for a reunion with a bunch of my high school friends. This was the trunk before the cooler and pillows got added. Van shopping is definitely going to begin soon!

These boys were troopers in the car. Thank goodness for libraries and bags of "new" books to help keep them entertained!

What do you do when you are staying with parents of a friend who don't have any grandkids yet? Bring your own (borrowed) train set to help keep you kids entertained!

Our whole group of girls (including the one absent member Facetiming with us on my cell phone). We've been friends since at least high school, in some cases as early as elementary school

All of the spouses and kids that are now part of our group!

Saturday night the menfolk were nice enough to give the ladies a night out, which included a delicious dinner, tasty gelato, and a nice stroll in downtown Minneapolis

Sunday it was time for a barbeque. The middle picture is five of the six kids that were born in 2015, with birthdays ranging from February to December.

The unexpected "fun" of the weekend was leaving Minneapolis at 9:00 Sunday night so we could drive back to Sioux Falls in time for Darrell's parade Monday morning. Let's just say it was a miscommunication that was 100% Darrell's fault, but thanks to plenty of caffeine it all worked out fine

Silver lining of our little miscommunication was that we got to spend more time at the lake than we had initially planned on. The boys were definitely happy about that.

Someone even got to drive the boat!



I still get exhausted just thinking about the weekend, but it was so, so, so wonderful. I'm tempted to say that I wish every weekend could be like the one we just had, but I don't think my body could handle that much excitement and busyness (and the amount of caffeine necessary to keep up with everything!) that frequently. They sure are nice once in a while though!