So far this year we haven't done much... or much more than a lot of doctor appointments. But lets start at the beginning on January 1st.
We wanted to go up to Midway and go sledding on the 1st but Lukas and Abigail were too sick with colds. They had had colds for awhile but after Christmas developed a cough and it was getting worse. Shortly after we found out they had been exposed to strep throat so I took them to the doc and they didn't have that so that was just fine.
Anyway, New Year's Day. We went to IHOP instead to make a fun day of it. Except we showed up at exactly the WRONG time. We had to wait about 15 minutes before being seated, and then after we ordered we had to wait a little over an hour to get our food. The place was packed and the waiter said the kitchen was 2 hours backed up, which doesn't even seem possible. In any case, we did get our food within 2 hours, thankfully. The whole time Abigail and Lukas were coughing and we were trying desperately not to wake up the baby, who eventually did wake up and get hungry - like the rest of us. Looking back the kids were so patient and so well behaved, although it was a very difficult 1 1/2 for all of us, trying to keep 4 little kids quiet in a tiny little restaraunt booth with two of them sick. Ugh. The food was really good, except because we were all so hungry to begin with, we were still hungry after we had finished. So when we were done we went home, took naps, and then ate some more. Happy New Year's.
Like I said, Lukas and Abigail had developed a cough that was worsening and on Thursday Kaleb and Joshua started coughing as well so I took them all in to the doctor on Friday. Like I said, nobody had strep. But Joshua and Lukas both had serious ear infections in both ears, Abigail and Lukas had RSV pretty bad, and Kaleb miraculously, was fine. Just a little cold but nothing serious yet. The kids needing antibiotics got them and we went home.
I tried everything on those two kids to get the RSV out of them. We did vaporub, humidifyers, raw and baked onions on their chests (I really think this helps actually), raw onions around he house, scarfs around their necks during waking hours, lemon essential oil on their throats, x-plague essential oil on their feet (the oils, I know help because I use them too and can feel an almost instant difference), lemon and honey hot drinks for breakfast, only whole foods or homemade food made from whole foods, steam baths, a ginger bath, and garlic oil drops for the ears. I can't remember if we did anything else to them. We also stuck up a barrier between the upstairs bedrooms and the rest of the house and kept Kaleb in the back rooms so the sick kids couldn't get to him. However, as the sick kids got better (they are totally fine now) the one healthy child got sick. So I had to take Kaleb back to the doc. The doc was pretty concerned but "not severely concerned" with Kaleb's RSV and infected ear. We ended up with 3 doc appointments with 2 different doctors, 1 trip to the hospital because he stopped breathing, and one visit from our friendly neighbor who is very experienced with these things. She brought her stethoscope. Long story short - well, shorter. Kaleb is on the mend and although he still is a little sick and has a cough, I'm sure he will be just fine. And all the boys are enjoying their bubble gum flavored amoxocillin. Yuck. Here is a little RSV sick baby.
We made snowflakes.
The kids made boobie traps for Derek when he comes home from work.
Joshua had his second Parent/Teacher conference. He is doing excellent in Kindergarten. His teacher says that he is very good at following directions, even when she asks him to do something and he looks at her like he thinks she is crazy, he still does what she asked him to do. His teacher is so awesome. She lives just down the street from us and I am so glad we have her. It says on his report card that he hasn't counted to 100 yet (which he has at home in German) and he writes only up to the number 10, and he hasn't done subtraction yet, but those things are all like that because that is how far they have gotten together as a class. He is missing a few sight words, but he read those for me at home just fine, so I think maybe he was just nervous at school. AND... his teacher wants him to teach his class a few words in German so we are going to come up with some pictures for Mutter, Vater, Bruder, Schwester, Baby, Oma, and Opa for Joshua to show the class and teach them those words. Awesome. I hope this will help him get over being so shy. Either that or it will scar him for life.
And then we got pounded with two huge snowstorms.
I'm hoping today we will have time to make a snowman. That is my goal for January (I know, lofty isn't it) and today just seems like a good day to accomplish it. Happy New Year.
We wanted to go up to Midway and go sledding on the 1st but Lukas and Abigail were too sick with colds. They had had colds for awhile but after Christmas developed a cough and it was getting worse. Shortly after we found out they had been exposed to strep throat so I took them to the doc and they didn't have that so that was just fine.
Anyway, New Year's Day. We went to IHOP instead to make a fun day of it. Except we showed up at exactly the WRONG time. We had to wait about 15 minutes before being seated, and then after we ordered we had to wait a little over an hour to get our food. The place was packed and the waiter said the kitchen was 2 hours backed up, which doesn't even seem possible. In any case, we did get our food within 2 hours, thankfully. The whole time Abigail and Lukas were coughing and we were trying desperately not to wake up the baby, who eventually did wake up and get hungry - like the rest of us. Looking back the kids were so patient and so well behaved, although it was a very difficult 1 1/2 for all of us, trying to keep 4 little kids quiet in a tiny little restaraunt booth with two of them sick. Ugh. The food was really good, except because we were all so hungry to begin with, we were still hungry after we had finished. So when we were done we went home, took naps, and then ate some more. Happy New Year's.
Like I said, Lukas and Abigail had developed a cough that was worsening and on Thursday Kaleb and Joshua started coughing as well so I took them all in to the doctor on Friday. Like I said, nobody had strep. But Joshua and Lukas both had serious ear infections in both ears, Abigail and Lukas had RSV pretty bad, and Kaleb miraculously, was fine. Just a little cold but nothing serious yet. The kids needing antibiotics got them and we went home.
I tried everything on those two kids to get the RSV out of them. We did vaporub, humidifyers, raw and baked onions on their chests (I really think this helps actually), raw onions around he house, scarfs around their necks during waking hours, lemon essential oil on their throats, x-plague essential oil on their feet (the oils, I know help because I use them too and can feel an almost instant difference), lemon and honey hot drinks for breakfast, only whole foods or homemade food made from whole foods, steam baths, a ginger bath, and garlic oil drops for the ears. I can't remember if we did anything else to them. We also stuck up a barrier between the upstairs bedrooms and the rest of the house and kept Kaleb in the back rooms so the sick kids couldn't get to him. However, as the sick kids got better (they are totally fine now) the one healthy child got sick. So I had to take Kaleb back to the doc. The doc was pretty concerned but "not severely concerned" with Kaleb's RSV and infected ear. We ended up with 3 doc appointments with 2 different doctors, 1 trip to the hospital because he stopped breathing, and one visit from our friendly neighbor who is very experienced with these things. She brought her stethoscope. Long story short - well, shorter. Kaleb is on the mend and although he still is a little sick and has a cough, I'm sure he will be just fine. And all the boys are enjoying their bubble gum flavored amoxocillin. Yuck. Here is a little RSV sick baby.
We made snowflakes.
The kids made boobie traps for Derek when he comes home from work.
Joshua had his second Parent/Teacher conference. He is doing excellent in Kindergarten. His teacher says that he is very good at following directions, even when she asks him to do something and he looks at her like he thinks she is crazy, he still does what she asked him to do. His teacher is so awesome. She lives just down the street from us and I am so glad we have her. It says on his report card that he hasn't counted to 100 yet (which he has at home in German) and he writes only up to the number 10, and he hasn't done subtraction yet, but those things are all like that because that is how far they have gotten together as a class. He is missing a few sight words, but he read those for me at home just fine, so I think maybe he was just nervous at school. AND... his teacher wants him to teach his class a few words in German so we are going to come up with some pictures for Mutter, Vater, Bruder, Schwester, Baby, Oma, and Opa for Joshua to show the class and teach them those words. Awesome. I hope this will help him get over being so shy. Either that or it will scar him for life.
And then we got pounded with two huge snowstorms.
I'm hoping today we will have time to make a snowman. That is my goal for January (I know, lofty isn't it) and today just seems like a good day to accomplish it. Happy New Year.
