My girl

Finally got Phoebe's birthday pictures back. I really love them.




She is doing well with my Mom (and Daddy) while I'm at work. She likes to go every day and says she goes "by herself". She feels like a big girl to go without Chloe and Owen. I miss her, but I'm glad she's having fun. She is always glad to see me when I get home, and I get lots of extra lovings from her. She tells me often, "You are a good girl, Mama".

I like my job, but it's busy and a lot to get used to. I'm forever tired. I enjoy my students. They are so cute. Yesterday one Kindergarten girl came back after being absent. I told her I missed her and was glad she was back. I asked if she was sick and she said, "No. I had bugs". That made my head itch the rest of the day. One day I was holding up pictures and we were naming the picture and the letter and sound it started with. One picture was a vase. I asked what it was and a boy said, "A flower holder". In one group we were working on the "th" sound. We were making a list of th words. One girl said "thong". Another asked what that was and the girl explained. The girl then said "Oh yeah. I've seen those at Walmart". All my groups are great. I have a group from every grade K-6. I run all over the school picking up my groups every 30 minutes. At least I get some exercise. Then I come home and run around. I don't sit down because I may never get back up. It's a non stop day from 5:30-9:30 or 10:00.

Last week brought the lovely swine flu to our house. Both Chloe and Phoebe had it, but are well now. Still a lingering cough and runny nose, but doing fine. Owen somehow escaped getting sick. I have a cold I can't get rid of. Danny is well so far. He's working lots of overtime, and most Saturdays. Life is busy, but we're well and happy, and that's what matters.

Everything but the swine flu

Owen was sick this week. He had double ear infections, a sinus infection, and Fifth Disease. I think half the school had fifth disease, but thankfully he didn't get the rash part too bad, just the red cheeks. The dr. said it lowers their immune system, and that would explain the other infections.




He's back to normal now but the rest of us aren't feeling great. Danny and I are getting colds, and maybe Chloe too because she says her throat is sore. Poor Phoebe is pitiful and I'll probably make a trip to Urgent Care with her tomorrow, or else go to the dr. on Monday. It started yesterday with her saying her ear hurt. I thought she meant the inside of her ear but when I looked, the outside of her ear was red and I noticed there were about three spots on it with little clusters of tiny blisters. Her right eye was also runny. Then last night she said her mouth was hurting and it suddenly had bumps on it and her chin and was swollen some. Today her eye is just horrible. She woke up with it shut until I washed the green junk out of it. Her nose has green snot, she's just a mess. (Anyone have a guess what is wrong with her?) She slept four and half hours this afternoon until we finally woke her up. Chloe and I also took a little nap. Hopefully next week will be healthier!

At least he didn't call 9-1-1

Owen has been sick the last couple days. He didn't go to school yesterday or today. This morning when I took Chloe to the bus stop (it's at the bottom of our hill), I left Owen and Phoebe in bed asleep with Danny. I was gone about 15 fifteen minutes because I talked to my friend at the bus stop after the bus ran (her daughter gets on the bus there too). When I got back, Owen was sitting on the couch drinking milk and watching cartoons. I asked how he felt, etc. Then I noticed the phone was on the couch next to him. I asked him if someone called. He said no. Then I looked at it and it still had my Mom and Dad's number on it (he didn't hang up). I was surprised he could call them because he never uses the phone. I asked what they were doing and he said they'd be here in a minute. Sure enough, I saw them pulling in. Mom said they were in bed and heard the phone ringing. This is was the conversation:

Mom: Hello?
Owen: (coughing)
Mom: Owen?
Owen: silence
Mom: Owen? Owen? Owen?
Owen: You need to come immediately.
Mom: What's wrong?
Owen: I'm worser. You better come now.
Mom: Where's your Mommy?
Owen: She took Chloe to school (Mom thought he meant to school, not the bus stop).
Mom: Where's your Daddy?
Owen: In bed.
Mom: We'll be right there.

Hilarious! If you know how Owen talks the immediately was like "immediatwee" which is so much funnier. When I asked Owen if he tried to wake up Danny, Owen said "I tried honking his nose but he didn't wake up". The whole thing just makes me laugh! Phoebe and Danny were sleeping away. Mom and Dad kind of thought it was all funny too. I made them waffles for breakfast for their early morning trip out to save Owen.

I took him to the dr. this morning and he has asthmatic bronchitis. He has an antibiotic, an inhaler (He's never used one before and said "Sweet!" when the dr. said he was going to give him one. He said he couldn't wait to show Chloe.), a steroid, and a cough medicine. He'll be home tomorrow too. Chloe didn't go to school yesterday because of her cough and asthma. She was better today and went to school. Hopefully Phoebe can stay well now. And hopefully Owen won't have to call for back up anytime soon.

Another day at the doctor

Yesterday I took Phoebe and Owen back to the doctor. Phoebe because she was still really sick, and Owen because he had complained all weekend about his ears hurting. He was already on an antibiotic and I couldn't imagine he had ear infections, but I thought since I was taking Phoebs anyway, I'd take him too. Good thing I did. He had really bad ear infections in both of his poor little ears. I did send him back to school today (he hadn't been since last Tuesday) since he plays here fine and he's now on a stronger antibiotic. I sent a note to the teacher to let him call home if he needed to.

As for my pitiful Phoebe, she really feels horrible. She has a bad sinus infection and bronchitis. The Dr. let me listen to her lungs and they were crackling with each breath. They did xrays and it turned out no pneumonia, just bronchitis. They took her blood (she didn't even cry or anything) and discovered she is very anemic. I feel so bad about it because its from her drinking too much milk. She has iron to take twice a day and she can only have two cups of milk a day. This is hard for her because she LOVES milk. She cried for it this morning. The iron has to be diluted in water or juice and I can't get her to take it. I'm going to call the pharmacy and see if I can just give it to her in a dropper like her medicine. She is also on an antibiotic and she and Owen both have a medicine for their cough and runny nose, and other symptoms. They both go back next week for a recheck, then Phoebe goes back in three weeks to test her iron again. I hope she'll start feeling better soon, she just lays around, plus her cough sounds terrible and she still has a fever. Her eyes look so sick and sad. They are all runny, and her nose runs like a faucet.

Hopefully the little ones will be well soon, and Chloe doesn't get sick!

Now it's croup

Well, Owen had pneumonia the beginning of the week. He's better now. Then yesterday Phoebe got sick. She has croup. It came on suddenly. She had a bit of a runny nose and her voice was a tiny hoarse yesterday morning. By the time dinner rolled around I could tell she had croup. I took her to Urgent Care yesterday evening. Sure enough, she has croup. She doesn't act like she feels too bad, so that's good. She sounds bad though. However, it's hard to complain when other children are so very sick, like a little boy named Dante who is Phoebe's age and is fighting cancer that is throughout his body. Praying for Dante, and for our little family to stay well now, but especially for Dante.

Sick Boy Update

I took Owen to the doctor this morning. He has pneumonia. He was given antibiotics and a good cough medicine. The dr. advised us to have Owen drink chocolate milk after the antibiotic because it has a bad taste, but works really well for pneumonia. So, we got home and I laid out both medicines and the chocolate milk in his cup. I asked him which one he wanted to take first and he said "the chocolate milk". Such a smart boy. He's been asleep now since right after he took his medicine. I found him like this in his room:



Get well soon, Owen!

Not a good way to start the week...

Chloe was sick all night last night. I was up with her giving cough medicine, honey, warm tea, hot water bottle, breathing treatments, the usual things when her asthma is flaring up. She had a cold over the weekend (and Owen has a runny nose too, which caused him to throw up Sat. night) and it just moves to her lungs. She stayed home from school today so I could take her to the dr. Owen was worried about going to school without her, so I took him to school and picked him up. He didn't want to ride the bus without her. Then when I took him in this morning he had a pitiful look on his face like he was trying not to cry. I promised I would pick him up and according to him and the teacher, he had a good day. It just breaks my heart to see him upset. I cried (and prayed) the whole way home. It was like the first day of school all over again. I hope it goes better tomorrow. Chloe won't go again tommorrow so I hope he'll be brave.

At the dr. they didn't like the sound of Chloe's wheezing, so they gave her a breathing treatment and finally sent us home with an antibiotic, steriod, breathing treatments, and cough syrup. We were at the dr. a couple hours and the pharmacy an hour. Phoebe was pretty wild and fell asleep on the way home. At the dr. they told us that Chloe had grown 5 inches and gained 8 pounds since January!

Tonight at school was Open House. Owen and I went and visited his room and Chloe's. Owen had to show me every little part to his room. Here he is at his spot at his table.



He sits beside of Lilian who he says he is afraid of. I asked why he was afraid of her, and he said "She scares me", and I asked why, and he said "She has sharp teeth". I can't wait to meet her and see what he means. When I asked what color her hair was he said "bright black". I could tell he does like her. He continues to do well at Kindergarten and brings home his green card every night showing his behavior was good.

Hopefully our week will improve!