Sick kiddo

Sean woke up sick Thursday morning with a cough and fever. I took him to work with me and he spent the day playing Leapster and watching movies. He's really good when I take him to work. I've even had him there for ten hours before and he has been a trooper.

I brought him home from work got him ready for bed and walked downstairs to get him a night snack. It was only six pm but when I came back upstairs this is what I found. A little boy asleep right where I left him. Don stayed home with him on Friday.

Today I took him to the doctor because he is getting sicker not better. He looks pretty chipper but he's miserable. Last night he coughed until he threw up. They did an x-ray and he has pneumonia. I've had him on and off oxygen and he's getting breathing treatments. It's six and he's asleep again. Hopefully he will feel better tomorrow. I was worried he would get admitted to the hospital when I took him to the doctor. Last night I slept with him and kept thinking how grateful I was to be home in bed with him and not at the hospital with him.

More technology

Sean and Steph were playing Mario Kart Wii with Stephs five year old cousin Marco in Costa Rica via the internet with a little add on Skype so they could talk while they played. Awesome. Remember when people wrote letters and made phone calls. I remember in the 80's when we there was talk about phones of the future where you could see one another.

Ultrasound

Steph wanted a 3 D ultrasound of the baby. We went the day after Christmas to see what we could see.

This is what we saw. A little Steph inside of Steph. I just love that cute little face, that nose, those lips. Technology is amazing. Not only can ultrasound show how your baby is growing you can see her actual features. The radiologist told Steph to come back in three weeks, he was not able to get a really good frontal face photo. Little miss shy baby kept putting her hands in front of her face. The few times she moved her hands away she threw her feet up over her head. If we wanted a great closeup of her girl parts we could of had it. Fortunately for her we weren't interested in that photo.

After we left Sean asked me "could the baby see us?" What a smart question.  We could see her so why couldn't she see us?

Merry Christmas: That's a wrap!

Christmas turned into a whirlwind of family. We had the gingerbread house party. Tyson and Jameson played with Sean all day Christmas eve day. Christmas eve we went to Linda's house (Catherine and Jaclyn's mom) then we came home and played games with AJ and Steph. On Christmas the kids came over for breakfast and some of them for dinner.

Sean was so excited Christmas eve, he fell asleep in about three minutes. He didn't wake up until 8. He had forgotten it was Christmas until he saw his stocking was full. Then he said "Santa came!" He looked downstairs at the tree and the presents and said "where is everybody, we have to wait." He did not complain about waiting at all. He opened his stocking and we played with the Santa Darth Vader he got until the other kids started to arrive.

David was the second to arrive Christmas morning. He played marbles with Sean until everyone else arrived. David still doesn't have a job and is not going to school. He says he can't do anything because he is too depressed. That's a hard place to be the less you do the more depressed you become. He is giving his mother gray hair and I don't envy her. On a funny David note: I took his stocking out to fill it up and when I turned it upside down the gift cards I gave him last year were still in the stocking. So guess what he got? Give up? I put those gift cards right back in his stocking and gave the new ones to the other kids who I knew would use them. I gave David a little cash because I figured he might stick that in his wallet and use it to put gas in his car but who knows maybe it will still be in his stocking next year.

When were kids dad used to buy us little Whitman Sampler boxes at Valentines. The boxes had three pieces of candy in them. When I saw this box it made me laugh and I wanted to buy it for my dad. Since my dad is not here I bought it for my mom because she could appreciate the thought. I don't know what she's going to do with it but it made her laugh.

It was a LEGO, Star Wars sort of Christmas for Sean. He had a great day. On Christmas eve he asked me if I had written a letter to Santa telling him what he wanted and I said no. We didn't visit a single Santa this year. Sean was pleased that Santa got it right without being told. Santa's awesome that way.

Santa doesn't have to be told that Carter is all about the NY Jets and money. He had to leave before breakfast to deposit his cash. He is a funny guy.

Yep Alex wanted a Super Mario Wii game. Santa delivered.

Polly was all over the place. She doesn't sit down for a minute. I don't know what she's going to do when I take the Christmas tree down because she kept leaving me gifts under it. Not to be ungrateful but they were gifts that I would have preferred she left in the yard. In her defense she's a three pound dog with hardly any hair and she's not to fond of cold weather. And Pekoe....where to start with Pekoe. They keep him on a strict diet because his breed is prone to being overweight. I sneak the dog some food and what does he do? He runs and finds AJ or Steph with the food in his mouth as if to say "LOOK WHAT I GOT, LOOK WHAT I GOT." Silly dog he needs to get a clue and just eat it while he's standing next to me. That dog can't keep a secret!

They played a board game. I don't know what it was, I didn't play. Char got it for Christmas.

I love my nephews but I will never understand why people give them gifts in the form of weapons even if they are Nerf's. They turn everything into a weapon, why give them weapons with built in projectiles. Just asking for drama. Fortunately, despite all the Christmas projectiles they brought over there were no injuries.

Steph had a cold.

I got some new cook wear because AJ and Steph were tired of looking at my beat up pans. Don got me a robot vacuum cleaner. I'm excited about it! We aren't going to set it up until we take the tree down. You can program it to vacuum every night while you sleep. (We will see how loud it is). It's called Neato but we renamed it Maria.

Gingerbread houses

Time for the gingerbread house festivities. The weather was perfect and so was the company. I did tell numerous people to bring candy and we ended up with way tooooo much candy. That didn't bother the kids one bit. Today it is snowing so we are on tap for a white Christmas.

The only downer is Jen and Ryan are phone stalking. Ryan even left a message saying I HAD to call him ASAP. Arghh, Jen didn't stay gone long and now they want to see Sean for Christmas. Jen left a message saying she was "in town for a couple of days." Seriously, she can't quit lying for a second. She only left town for two weeks. I'm not sure what she hopes to gain by having me think she really moved. I have enjoyed her "not" being here. I blocked their calls and all "private" calls. They probably called 25+ times today. I talked to Lanette and they are leaving her messages asking to see the girls too. Not sure what part of the kids all have families to spend the holidays with. Even Sean's relationship with his sisters have changed. He loves them lots and they love him but they both have families and extended families that take up their time on the holidays.

Silly family. Gotta love Harrison with the bandanna pulled up over his face.

We started in the dining room. It seemed like we had extra kids this year but we didn't. Julie said "they are just getting bigger and take up more room."

All the kids were serious about their houses except Sean who has become a Wii junkie and threw some candy on his house and then ran upstairs to play Wii with Peter.

Maren, Sonja and Emma get serious about decorating.

Jaclyn and her family are moving to Phoenix. WHAT? We thought they were living on the wild side when they moved to Riverton and now they are going to another state. At least they are buying a house with a pool so we can go visit when we are in need of some warm weather during the cold season.

Don brought in a couple of tables from the garage and we spread the party out into the living room. Larissa turned eight last week!

Andrea came with her step-son to be.

Getting serious about decorating. Unfortunately there wasn't lots of frosting left after the kiddos.

Uncle Peter, every one's favorite and Dan.

Lynn and Wendy.





Alex and Loreal.

22+ weeks and growing.

Thanksgiving Point

I had to work all day Saturday so Don and Sean had a fun day without me. They drove to Thanksgiving Point to see the reindeer and visit the dinosaur museum. Sean asked Don the other day while watching Christmas shows, "why are they called rAindeer and not snowdeer?" Excellent question.

Don called Lanette and the girls met up with them. I was sorry I missed the fun. I was doing clinical at the nursing home. We did a nail salon for the residents. My students gave hand massages and painted the nails of all the women residents.

They played in water.

They hung out with the sleeping reindeer. Sean said "they don't fly!"

All the reindeer appear to be sleeping. Maybe they fly when no one is looking.

Run for your lives! The kids are being chased by a land shark.

Sean's Christmas Program

Sean's Christmas program was your classic school program. Some obnoxious kids ran around and got in the way. A little girl pulled her dress up over her head in the middle of the performance. Most of the time she buried her head in her hands and tried to disapear but when she had to stand up for the dance she couldn't cover her face with her hands and the skirt came in handy. Yes, poor little girl I caught the entire thing on video and posted it on You Tube. If you ever run for president that video will surface and cause a scandal I am sure.

The kindergarten boys did a Mexican cowboy dance but it looked more like a pecking chicken dance. If you don't believe me watch the video. I've watched it a couple of times and I'm still not sure what that was. The closing song was cute. Mary was a no show so one of the angels had to stand in.

http://youtu.be/EyoaDFY_mEI

Little girl kneeling in front of Sean is the one who really hated being on stage. I am shocked I have a picture of her face.

The entire scene. This year was easy all Sean needed was jeans, a white shirt and black tennis shoes. I remember the year we got back from Florida the day before the program and I was told he was supposed to be a sheep. Seriously, 18 hours notice for a sheep costume. It didn't happen, he went as a shepard in a plaid bathrobe from Walmart.

Sean and Lincoln. No stage fright with those two.

Hand writing, blankets and cousins

Sean has the best handwriting for a barely five year old. He's almost obsessive about it. It has to be perfect or he keeps erasing. They do a page of handwriting every day at school.The teacher told him he can't erase he just has to do it. He's also doing well with reading. He totally uses phonics. He knows his letters but when he is reading it's almost like he doesn't see letters he sees sounds. When you ask him how to spell something he just says the sounds of the letters. I don't think I learned that way I just remember memorizing words.

He's pretty good at reading three letter words. We haven't gotten much further than that though the other day he did read a five letter word by sounding it out.

I've been sewing blankets like a crazy woman as of late. I have ten blankets stacked up in my sewing room. I turned one of the empty bedrooms into a sewing room. A couple of weeks ago Tyson was over and his blanket had a huge split in it that I sewed up. Saturday when he came over it had split in another place. The poor blanket is falling apart, it is well loved. Kind of like Sean's, it needs constant patching. Tyson is much more interested in the front of his blanket because he likes the ties.  I asked him if I could replace the entire back of his blanket because that is what keeps tearing and he said yes. I gave him some fabric to choose from him and he chose penguins. I tried to convince him he wanted white or blue but he was adamant about the penguins. Penguins it was. It didn't affect the ties so he seemed happy. I asked him if he wanted me to tie the back of his blanket and he said no the penguins were already wearing ties.

Tyson sitting on his repaired blanket. Jackson saw me fixing Tyson's blanket and asked me to fix his. We added a blue back to his. I had to cut off one of the edges and he found it in the trash can. Eeks, how could I do that. I offered to sew it on the blanket but he just wrapped it around his head. Silly boy.

Sean, Jackson, Jameson and Tyson playing Wii. Sean LOVED having them play with him. He got to all sorts of levels he had never been to and learned lots of tricks. I love those boys but they are exhausting I don't know how Catherine keeps up with them. Sometimes I have fantasies about adopting an orphan from over seas and then I have other kids over and realize how much I like just having one child with two adults. It's so easy! There is no one for him to fight with. less mess, less noise. It's just very peaceful and I love it. I had five kids at home at once, it was fun, it was chaos. I survived the mess, the noise. I understand why people choose to have one child. It's easy! Sean loves to have his cousins play and friends play but I think he likes his quiet worlds too. He gets the best of both, lots of people to play with but then they go home and he has his own space. Because all my other kids are grown I will soon have grandchildren. Autumn had her baby on Saturday, Lennox. That gives Art six grandchildren. Wow!

 

Can't stop thinking

I can't stop thinking about the families in Connecticut. So much loss for no reason. I don't understand why anyone needs semi automatic weapons. It is so senseless and such unspeakable horror. I turned the news off, I couldn't watch it. Then I see pictures on face book of the beautiful children and the teachers and principal. I think about Steph being a teacher and the kids in her class. An entire class of  first graders, gone. What is wrong with people. How and why would anyone want to hurt little children.

All those Christmas trees in houses waiting for Christmas morning and the children won't be there this Christmas or any other. Someone told me that the one comfort was these children wouldn't have to suffer all the awful things in the world. I don't find that comforting at all. These children did suffer a hugely awful thing and died because of it. If our goal was to not have children have to face the world we would quit having children.

Friday night Sean was sick and I slept in his bed. He laid on me all night and I was so happy to have him. I just rubbed his back and thought of the 20 parents with empty beds.

Super Mario

Sean LOVES to play Super Mario Wii. He has gotten AJ, Carter, Alika and now Alex to play with him. Alex was surprised by Sean's shall we say "creative play." Alex said "all he wants is to bounce off my head and put himself in a bubble." Hm, Alex there is truth to that. He's made it to the third world and is always looking for someone to play with. I've gotten pretty good at it myself but not as good as the other kids (OBVIOUSLY) and not as good as Sean. Alika said she read a study that said more mom's then ever before play video games with their kids. I don't doubt that but I think it's because most mom's are young and played video games themselves as kids.

Alex said you can tell he's an only child. Gee, how can he be an only child when he has five older brother's and sisters. He really is an only child though. It's funny I am finally getting cooking for four down. It took me awhile to start cooking less for each meal. Alex and Loreal came tonight for a baked potato bar. The potato's were so huge, each one was like three. It was good though. Alex and Loreal are putting their house on the market and want to move to St George.

That is one cute kid. Cookies and milk before bed.

Sean's teacher called me on Friday to pick him up from school. He had a fever. It was strange he was really sick when I picked him up. I had to work that evening so Don was with him. He woke up at 2 a.m. I came in his room and he was WIDE AWAKE. He wanted to have deep discussions and eat. He ate two sandwiches, a bowl of fruit and had two glasses of milk. He didn't go back to sleep until 6 a.m. We played Wii  watched Kipper the Dog and talked. We slept until noon on Saturday and then he was fine. Weird

 

Yesterday I asked AJ if he would come play Wii with Sean and he said no he was studying for finals. I told him to tell Steph that the baby wanted to come play with Sean. Sean said "She can't play she's still in Steph's tummy!" Smart kid. He's doing really well with reading at school. Today he asked if he could count to ten billion million. I told him probably not he would have to use a computer to count that high and he said "yeah and I'd have to stay up all night too."

 

His left arm is still hairy from when the cast was removed. All that extra blood flow to heal the bones sure makes the arms hairy and the fingernails grow fast.

Happy Birthday AJ

Sean has already become a "gamer"! When he gets stuck he wants his "Mario Brother AJ" to come help him. He's even taught AJ some tricks.

We had a crab and salmon dinner and chocolate pie for AJ's birthday. Alex wasn't feeling good so he didn't come. He was diagnosed with an ulcer a couple of weeks ago. Too much stress in his life! Loreal said the ulcer is healing. They are hoping Alex gets a transfer to St George becuase they want to move. Polly got shaved and looks kind of silly without any hair;( Steph's baby bump is growing. She is twenty weeks. Half way done!

Alika came for the festivities.

Grandma was glad we didn't go out to dinner because she didn't want to go out in the rain and dark.

Sean note: Sean has been having trouble with wetting his pants. He gets busy and forgets to go ALL the time. We bought a "potty watch" that buzzes every two hours. It's been great, no accidents. His teacher said she told Sean to go potty and he looked at his watch and said "it's not time to go!"



A Song

I went to a funeral yesterday for a ten year old boy named Dioni Gonzalez. He was Frida, Sean's old baby sitter's little brother. Dioni died in his sleep and neither the doctors nor the medical examiner can tell the family why. He was the baby in his family and his passing has left a hole in the hearts and lives of his family that will not heal in this life. His death is a loss beyond words.

I felt honored to witness one of the most touching and beautiful display of love I have ever seen. Dioni’s mother Frida went to the pulpit and expressed gratitude for having Dioni in her life for ten years. She said that Dioni was afraid of the dark and she would sing to him at night she said that while she didn’t have a great voice she wanted to sing for Dioni. She stood at the pulpit over her sweet little boy’s coffin and sang a lullaby. The song was in Spanish and I did not understand the words but I felt the overwhelming love she had for her son. The memory of his mother standing in front of a group of people and singing one last lullaby to her son will stay with me forever. I am in awe of her strength and courage.

Creature Encounter

Sean went to a birthday party for his friend Noah. It was a creature encounter party. A man brought scorpions, snakes, lizards, turtles and tarantulas. He explained how to care for animals and how to treat reptiles. It was awesome. The only thing that grossed me out was when he fed the lizards cock roaches. Seriously, I could have done without seeing the roaches.

First up were the turtles. Sean loves turtles. Ever since he rescued one at Grandpa Dave's house in Illinois.

The roach eating lizards. He also had a legless lizard.

Sean touching the tarantula.

Me letting the tarantula crawl up my arm. It was soft and furry. The kids screamed when he pulled it out of the box.

No way was Sean touching the scorpion. The guy doing the party put it in his mouth, yuck!

Sean was all about holding the snake which kind of surprised me. Not that he's scared of them or anything I just thought it was a little on the big side. He wouldn't hold the lizard and he's held lizards before. Maybe that's why he wanted to hold the snake, just because he'd never done it.

Of course I couldn't help but think of our own families creature loving member, my cousin Rob. He's been encountering critters his entire life and now makes a living doing it. If we lived closer I'd have him come do a creature encounter party for us.