1st E.R. Visit

Last Friday, Cason was getting ready to spend the night with Grammy and Grampy.  It was his first time sleeping over somewhere without Paige along too.  Grammy picked him up at around lunch time.  He was nervous at first, but I could tell he got excited as soon as he saw her.  

 He'd been feeling better for a couple of days, and so had Paige.  Neely, Reed, and I were the only ones still a bit sick, but I was just thinking to myself that morning how this one had been really easy.  No fevers, nobody seemed to feel that bad, just coughs, and we even slept well.  Nobody's cough got worse at night or anything.  The only thing was that I had to clear out Reed's nose for him at night so he could breathe easily.  

Then Friday afternoon, a while after Reed woke up from a nap, his cough got a lot worse.  He had this coughing fit that lasted what felt like forever, and he could barely get his breath and was kind of choking.  It freaked me out and we took him to the E.R.  Of course, we sat there for three hours and he coughed maybe 4 or 5 little individual coughs.  No scary fits at all, so I looked like a crazy mom.  Jess didn't come in back with us, because Neely wanted to sit in every germ-ridden chair the E.R. waiting room had to offer, and wouldn't listen when we told her to sit still.  So he and Neely left, and Paige and I took Reed back.  

Paige was not that excited about it, because she was missing seeing Frozen at the movies, like she was supposed to.  Her night got better though, when she saw there was a Jessie Christmas episode on the tv that she wouldn't have been able to see at home.  Ha.

After a few hours they sent us home, and before we even got home he had another one so bad we had to stop the car and take him out of his seat so he could catch his breath and stop coughing.  

I expected a really rough night, but he surprised me and slept perfectly, except for a few coughs when he was up for a meal anyway. 

The next day he still had the cough, but was sweet and smiley as always.

The girls went on a date with daddy to see Frozen, since they'd planned to the night before, but our ER visit ruined their plans.

 

 Then Cason came home and told us all about his fun.  ATV rides, the hot tub, cookies, dominoes.  All kinds of fun stuff that must have been way better than our night.  Ha.

 Since it was clear Reed was fine, that evening I took Neely on a date.  

 

She needed some new shoes and a coat.  On the way I told her "I love to go on a date with my girl."  She goes "I love to go on a date with my girl too!"  First we went for shoes, and she picked a pair that she LOVES and runs way faster in.

 We failed on the coat hunt, but she was obsessing about finding some marbles.  Cason brought some home from his sleepover and Neely had to have some too.  We tried about three stores and never found marbles.  On our drive we saw a bus all decorated, on it's way to the parade.  That pleased my date.

My last attempt for marbles was Walmart, and Neely wanted to be held.  I picked her up, and a minute later realized she was completely limp.  She didn't even seem sleepy a minute before, but now she was OUT.  

I had to look for a few things, once I gave up on the marbles, and she was sleeping SO deeply she felt especially heavy.  I thought I wasn't going to make it out of there.  (Don't mind my bloodshot eyes-rough night the night before, ha!)

 Somehow I checked out and made it to the car and got her door open JUST as my arms went numb.  Guess we'll be buying marbles online.

Here's a picture I'd like to finish with, because it makes me happy.

Cold Days and the Leaf Monster

A week or so ago it suddenly got pretty cold.  We've spent lots of time inside.  There was one outdoor game, the traditional Leaf Monster game they play with Jess the first night there are enough leaves.  Our leaves were still green as could be, but then it got really cold one night and they all fell at once.  Jess came home at lunch, and he and the middle two worked on getting the leaves ready for the game that night.  They even raked some in from the street.

They tried to get him to play it right then, but he made them wait for after work when Paige would be home too.

Reed and I watched from the living room window, and took awful pictures.  They had lots of fun.

Other than that we've mostly stayed inside.

They make up games that I can only watch long enough to get a picture, because I'm scared someone will knock heads together or something.  This one is some sort of bucking monster ride.  They love it and I hate it.

One night Gia was Rudolph, and they had a laundry basket sleigh.  They were so disappointed she couldn't pull them.

She didn't try very hard.

The whole family, except Jess, caught a cold.  Paige was first, and got over it quickly.  Then me and the other kids got it.  None of us felt too bad, (not at first anyway) just slightly sore throats and the kids had coughs.  No fevers or anything.

It was cold and windy out, so I drove around the corner to pick Paige up at the bus stop, instead of walking in the cold each day.  They still wanted to dress warm for it.

All this indoor time means lots of crafts.  Since I had a sick baby who didn't want to be put down, Cason and Neely were coming up with their own crafty projects.  

I liked this one Cason did, "Power Eagles fighting".  One is a fire eagle and the other is a water eagle.  Reminded me of Captain Planet.

One afternoon it was all about snowflakes.  Paige made two and then looked at them and said "They were WRONG.  Two snowflakes CAN look alike."

I was in Reed's room one day and out of the corner of my eye saw a tshirt on the ground.  I went to pick it up, when I realized Cason had made a paper version of himself wearing the shirt.  So funny.  I went and asked him about it.  He said he was going to cut out all the limbs too, but he got tired.  Ha.  Make sure you click on the picture to enlarge it and see how cute the hands and feet are.

When we can, Cason and I have been doing the worksheets from the Kindergarten curriculum I used with Paige last year.  He really likes it.  This was one of my favorites he did, especially how he spelled "knock."  He was so proud to tell me he figured it out all by himself.  Such a good job, and I didn't tell him.  Paige came up and saw it and started to explain.  I blurted out "NOO!" so he could have his moment. 

Speaking of this girl and spelling, she wants to be in a spelling bee one day.  She is well on her way, gets 100% on every spelling test and almost always gets all the bonus words too.  I know I wasn't spelling words like those in 1st grade.  

She still loves to learn, but isn't quite as excited about going to school as last year.  She doesn't beg to stay home or anything, but she isn't leaping out of bed with a grin this year either.  She has "too much homework" this year.  Ha.  It takes her all of 45 seconds to do each day.

Then after complaining about "all" her homework, she's asking to do math lessons and chinese lessons with Jess before bedtime each night.  Cason is doing reading lessons with Jess right after Paige does her math.  Cason is doing really well, he'll be reading his own books soon too.  

How Do You Know the Water is Wet?

Last night was a little rougher than usual for me and the baby guy.  My throat was sore and he woke up more often and fussier than usual.  I felt like half the night was spent torturing the poor guy with the booger sucker so he could breathe through his nose. 

When we woke up we cuddled in bed for a while.  His eyes were all watery and he was serious, but no fever.

After a while Neely joined us for a little cuddling, and she was feeling fine.

Cason arrived, and we got up to get breakfast and get ready for the day.  After we ate Reed still seemed sleepy, so he nursed and had a nice little nap. 

The nap seemed to help a lot.  He was more smiley after that.

Neely was extra hilarious today.  Also had some extra feisty moments, but they were mixed in with lots of super lovey moments.   They found Paige's Kindle and headphones and were really excited.  Cason actually found it, so he got the first turn.  Neely tormented him by putting her foot up in front of the screen.

They worked out a system after a while.

When that got old, Neely was a big weirdo for a while.

Man, I love her. 

At one point, I was changing a diaper on the couch, and she came up to lie down all casual on the couch, with her feet up on my leg, (and her legs crossed of course) and one hand behind her head.  She took a sip of her water and goes "So......" with this cool guy look on her face.  I tried to quickly grab my phone to get a picture, but of course she had moved a bit.  (Now that I look at this pic it looks like there's a nasty bug on the floor.  Just a Lego guy, not a roach, don't worry)

 They did their chores for the day, and played so well together, and the tv only came on for about a half episode of Dora.  I love days when they just play and don't even ask about tv or video games.  

When Paige comes home, there's usually a bit of fighting for a while.  As she says, she "uses up" all her niceness at school.  Ha.  Today they almost had a fight, and then suddenly everyone was happy and sweet.  It was perfect.

 They even started making up a little show for me, that ended in these little poses.

Reed was waking up from another long nap about this time, and needed a new outfit.

His siblings get so excited when he smiles, and immediately swarm him.  Neely forces him to hold her finger and then talks about how much they love each other.
 

Soon after, Reed accomplished his first lying to standing pullup. He gave me a big proud smile.  Then he did it a few more times, and smiled over at his proud big brother, seriously looking like he was making sure Cason saw, while Neely said "I'll help lift his booty." 

Here's a pic of Neely while we picked up the playroom tonight, for no other reason than I think she looks cute.

She "helped" us give Reed his bath tonight, and asked Jess "So....how do you know the water is wet?"  Haha.

If Reed and I weren't sick, Jess didn't have to work, and Paige didn't have school, today would have been perfecto.  It was still pretty close.

Last Week

Trying really hard to be a better blogger for family now that we've moved.  I actually thought I might do it daily again.  Ha!  Apparently homeschooling, eating healthier, and just trying to make lots of changes in general takes some effort and time.  :)

Early on Monday Paige got a package in the mail.  It was the seal mama and baby we told Paige she could work to earn.  As she was doing the work we realized we couldn't order it online.  :(  Thankfully Aunt Dawn came to our rescue and went to her Ikea and mailed it to us.  

I worked at moving our bedtimes and wake up times earlier each day, because our schedules are still way off.  It is fruitless so far.  I get each sleepy kid up one at a time and bring them out to the living room so they'll be awake as I make breakfast.  But by the time I come back out with another one of them, the ones I've already brought out have fallen back asleep.  So I wake them up again.  Makes me want to give up and sleep until 11:00 every morning.  Ha.

 We were on the moon unit with Paige, which I loved.

Neely spent her time exploring..

...playing with her toys...

 

...arguing with and tattling on Paige...(here she was telling me that Paige "won't share" and "is being whiny.")

 She also brought blankets and stuffed animals to comfort her brother who was freaked out by a spider that nearly walked on to his hand.

Neely also had a sick day, but seemed to recover really quickly.

Today Cason is pretty sick.  He's been burning up and coughing.  Out of nowhere a little while ago he sat up and told us "I'm not sick anymore!"  Hope he's right!