Pneumonia

Breathing problems are an all too familiar visitor to our home. I remember when Maren got RSV at 6 months old while we were visiting my parents in Texas. I had to buy a nebulizer machine for her breathing treatments and it set us back about $80. At the time I was so annoyed, thinking we'd use it for a few weeks and then watch it collect dust. Boy was I wrong. We have gotten more mileage out of that machine that I could ever imagine.

Maren has never been formally diagnosed with asthma, but it's pretty apparent that something is going on with her lungs. Her triggers are still somewhat of a mystery. She has been tested for seasonal allergies but they were all negative. It doesn't seem to be exercise induced either. It just flares up any time she gets a runny nose or anything viral. Which happens a lot, apparently. We were at the pediatrician just 2 1/2 weeks ago for a flare-up, and they bumped her daily inhaled steroid from once to twice a day. Fast forward to yesterday and turns out 2 daily Pulmacort treatments and intermittent Albuterol are not enough to keep her airways working properly.

I found my sweet girl on the couch after a brief trip to the basement to get a load of sheets out of the dryer. I was seriously gone for less than 5 minutes. In that span of time she covered herself with a blanket on the couch and was fast asleep when I found her. I noticed her breathing was very rapid (approximately 45 breaths/minute) and her cheeks were flushed. When she woke up 30 minutes later she had a fever of 102 degrees and was wheezing like crazy. After another Albuterol treatment she had barely improved. So, we packed a few books, drinks, and toys into a bag and made a trip to the ER.

I always have a hard time determining if I'm overreacting or being appropriately concerned when I call the pediatrician or of course head to the ER. Not to mention I'm extremely cheap and the ER visit costs us $125, which I thought about the entire ride there.

When we arrived Maren's oxygen saturation was 89. They don't usually let you leave the ER until it's in the mid-90's. So, I was glad I took her in when they found it was below 90. After a double dose of Albuterol coupled with oxygen, she was feeling much better, but still very wheezy. A chest x-ray showed something in her right lung. The Dr. wasn't 100% sure if it was pneumonia but he was fairly certain it was, so they're treating her for it with antibiotics and an oral steroid. Thankfully we didn't have to spend the night. After another breathing treatment and more observation, we left for home.

The pediatrician wants to see us again today for a follow-up. This morning Maren is her bubbly, happy self, despite the fact that she can't talk quite as much because she has to stop to catch her breath. Her cough sounds awful but apparently it's going to take more than pneumonia to slow this kid down.

Zoo Pennies

We took a trip to the Zoo on Sunday after church. It was a big treat to have Kevin there, since most trips to the Zoo are during the week while he's working. The kids were thrilled to have him with us. We are such creatures of habit that our Zoo trips are pretty predictable. We typically see the same animals in the same order and eat a picnic lunch at the same spot (and the food is probably about the same each time too!).

During this particular visit however, we let the kids get one of those smashed pennies from the crank machines that they have asked for forever. To make one penny it costs 50 cents. It is a gigantic waste of 50 cents in my opinion, but the kids (especially Warner) thought their pennies were the coolest thing ever.

So we took another trip to the Zoo yesterday. Just two days after our last visit on Sunday. And here is how the conversation went on the drive there:

Warner: Mom, did you bring any quarters with you so I can get another penny?
Me: No, Warner, I didn't bring any quarters. But if you want another penny next time we go to the Zoo, you can bring two quarters from your piggy bank for it.
Warner: But I don't want to use MY quarters! I want to you use YOUR quarters!
Me: I'm sure you do. What do you want to buy with your quarters?
Warner: Other things.
Me: Well, the money in your piggy bank is yours to spend, so you can choose what you spend it on.
Warner: (Tears now flowing, face is red) But I want to use YOUR quarters.
(This went on for probably five minutes. If we hadn't been on 75 I probably would have pulled a U-turn and headed home.)
And then Maren chimes in: But Warner, Mommy doesn't have a piggy bank.

Now there's some truth from our two year old. Anyone know where I can get a (full) piggy bank? Apparently I need one.

Circus

We went to the circus last Sunday. A few weeks before the show, we showed the kids circus clips on YouTube so they had a general idea of what to expect. Maren has also developed a strange obsession with the Wonder Pets, and they have an episode where the pets join the circus. So after watching the show a hundred times, she was ready for the real circus.Please excuse the poor quality pictures. Turns out that while the iPhone does a lot of things well, taking pictures in low light isn't one of them.For the first 30 minutes the kids were glued to the action below. They would yell and point and scream with each new act. After that however, it got a little more difficult to keep their attention. Enter popcorn, cotton candy, and lemonade. I'm afraid they enjoyed the food as much as the circus performers (maybe more).My favorite part was the elephants. In fact, I think I want an elephant for a pet. Really. They're just so darn cute. And slow. And fat. Perhaps I love them because I can sort of relate to them as I get older?

After the show we had a late dinner at Red Robin. We didn't get home until after 9pm. We were all a little cranky and tired, but that was a small price to pay for the fun we had.

Basketball

Kevin has attended the High School boys state basketball tournament in Lexington for 20+ years. It's a Platt family tradition that Kevin was happy to share with Warner this year. The boys left Wednesday evening and watched games all day Thursday and Friday. Kevin's dad had the honor of being the chaplain for the Southwestern team (their hometown) during the tournament, so he sat on the bench with the team until their last game Saturday. Kevin reported that Warner thoroughly enjoyed himself, and would pick a team he wanted to win based on their jersey colors. Then he'd root for them, cheering when they had possession of the ball. Of course Warner also enjoyed the one-on-one time with Kevin and his grandparents, along with staying up past his bedtime each night and eating junk food 24/7. Maren and I enjoyed our "girl time" at home Thursday and Friday. I then drove her down to Kevin on Friday afternoon. Kevin was kind enough to keep both kids Friday night and Saturday so I could continue my marathon training. Thanks to my husband, I was able to complete 18 miles on Saturday morning with my running group. They stayed with Kevin's friend, Ryan, at night. Ryan is a kid at heart and is also the kids' godfather. He's the best.Maren went to the games Saturday with Kevin and Warner. I'm not sure she enjoyed the basketball as much as Warner, but she loved spending time with her grandparents, cousins, and aunt and uncle. Warner has now decided he wants to play basketball (along with every other sport of course) and has been watching March Madness with Kevin since returning from Lexington.

I'm thankful for the grandfather/father/son time that was shared, the memories that were made, and the tradition that continues. Hopefully next year I'll be able to join in the fun, too!

Texas

And now for the second installment of catching up ... our trip to Texas. My cousin Melanie kindly agreed to accompany the kids and me on our trip since I don't feel comfortable making the 16 hour trip alone. I'm hopeful she didn't regret her decision to spend so much time us. We left at 5am for both legs of the trip so we could drive the whole way in one day. I foolishly thought I could get the kids out of bed and they would fall back asleep in the car. Wishful thinking, indeed. Maren was belting out Old McDonald Had a Farm at 5:10am as we merged onto 75.I should give the kids more credit. Aside from not sleeping, they did extremely well on the drive. We were prepared with plenty of movies, food, and games to keep them busy. And of course treats chosen at gas station stops helped too.The weather was beautiful during our visit. In fact, the kids wore shorts a couple of days when the temperature climbed to 75 degrees. They enjoyed multiple trips to their favorite Texas park along with plenty of time running around my parents' backyard.My mom and I surprisingly got some shopping in with the kids too, and only had to bribe them once with cookies.We visited the Dallas Zoo one day (which they now refer to as "Bobbie's Zoo", versus "Our Zoo" at home). They have an area where you can feed the giraffes that was amazing. We fed two giraffes romaine lettuce and even got to pet them!

We watched a few movies with lots of popcorn and caramel corn.
Notice Maren's face here. She was mad at Warner for trying to sit in Grandpa's lap with her. She's pretty serious about her one-on-one cuddle time.Our last night there was a few days before my mom's 14th (leap year) birthday. Dad got a cake and we were able to celebrate together before her birthday.
It was a great trip, minus the drive. I wish Texas was closer!

Snow Tubing

I have some catching up to do here. It seems like ages ago now, but we went to Perfect North on President's Day. Kevin's sister and her family along with some of their friends planned a trip and generously offered to include us in their group.
We had a blast. We had never been snow tubing so we weren't sure what to expect. Thankfully there was a magic carpet to the top of the hill and smaller tubes for the kids ... perfect for our family. We were able to hold on to the kids' tubes to ride together, but after a few runs as a group the kids were ready to go it alone. Warner enjoyed going down face-first on his stomach, and Maren happily zipped down in the center of the tube. Maren was the youngest kid I saw there and Warner isn't too much older, so I was proud of our brave kiddos. After our two hour pass was up the kids were exhausted but asking to come back again soon.After tubing we had lunch with our group at Steak and Shake. Thankfully the kids didn't fall asleep while eating, but there was a minute there when I was afraid that was going to happen. What a fun day. I can't wait to go back again next year.

Happy Valentine's Day

We spent the better part of the weekend preparing for Valentine's Day. Sad, right? Let me explain. I signed up to bring the treat bags for Warner's preschool party, so first we made a trip to the dollar store to purchase items for the bags. It was actually a great trip, with no whining or tears (imagine that). We left with pencils, erasers, stickers, heart boxes, and candy for the bags.

Filling the bags took a while between fighting over who got to fill each bag and asking a few hundred times to eat the candy. Thankfully we had extra candy when it was all said and done, so the kids were happy.Then, we made valentine's for the kids' friends at school. I found the valentine idea online - each heart had a glow stick through it and read "you make my heart glow". Maren helped by adding stickers to each valentine. She was pretty proud of herself.
Warner signed his name on each valentine (16 in all), which took forever. The poor kid is a complete perfectionist, so whenever he'd mess up his name, he'd throw a fit. It took about 20 cards to produce the perfect 16 for his classmates. Oh how I hope he outgrows these OCD tendencies. But seeing how crazy Kevin and I are, I'm afraid there's little hope.
For all of the tears that were shed, they did turn out well, don't you think? Happy Valentine's Day!

"All me stuff"

We may or may not have a slight hoarding problem surfacing here.

Date

When I think about the days Warner is in preschool and Maren is not, I often romanticize about the things Maren and I will do together. You know, just Mommy and Maren time. The reality however is errands need to be run, the house needs to be cleaned, and other obligations need to be met. So, the amount of quality Mommy and Maren time we actually get is far less than I would like.

Last week I decided to be intentional about our time together and took Maren on a date after we dropped Warner off at school. We went to Starbucks and she got to pick out whatever her heart desired. Her choice was a pink doughnut and chocolate milk. My treat was a grande black Pike Place roast. I brought a bag full of books, crayons, and coloring books for us, so we sat at Starbucks reading and coloring for over an hour. I had a blast.And I'm pretty sure Maren did, too.

Winter? What winter?

I'm still amazed at how warm this winter has been. Amazed but certainly not disappointed. I'll take 60 degree days all winter long, it's just weird for Cincinnati. This week we went to the Zoo and the park with only light jackets on. Craziness I tell you.The Zoo in the winter is really great. There's hardly anyone there so there's always a table available for lunch and no crowds around the animals. The only bummer is the train is closed until March. Surprisingly, this hasn't upset my kids. We spent over three hours at the Zoo on Tuesday and I'm pretty sure we saw every animal there.Since it's still a bit wet and muddy, I take the kids to one of two parks near us that have rubber turf instead of grass or mulch. The kids refer to this place as the "pirate ship park" because they have a plastic boat at one end of the play area.Warner is thrilled to go coat-less in this weather. He has used the word hate to describe his feelings toward coats of all kinds - his fleece, his winter coat - it doesn't matter which one. He dislikes them all. Here's to hoping Spring is around the corner, and with it, more coat-free fun.

Shapes

So, Maren doesn't know all of her shapes. This was brought to my attention by her preschool teacher a few weeks ago, and of course, I feel like a bad parent because of it. I saw this idea of making shapes out of marshmallows and toothpicks on Pinterest recently, and decided to try it with the kids. You know that tricky parent thing - disguising learning as play.
Maren needed a lot of assistance making the actual shapes, but enjoyed the process. Warner actually figured most of it out himself after a few tries.
I'd like to say that after this little exercise Maren knows all of her shapes. She does not. But, it was a fun activity and hopefully something stuck for her. Clearly I am not cut out to be a home school mom!

Rainy Day

It's incredibly icky out today. I actually drove to Kroger earlier, waited in the parking lot for the pouring rain to subside so we could stay somewhat dry, then gave up after 10 minutes and drove home. True story. So, what do we do with no food and no end in sight to the rain? Watch Cars 2, of course.

Warner absolutely must watch the movie with all of the cars characters close by.

Maren on the other hand prefers to watch through the lens of her Mr. Potato Head glasses.

Whatever works. I'm just looking for whatever works.

Who needs snow?

It's been awfully mild lately. I keep telling Kevin I have this feeling we aren't going to have any substantial snowfall this winter (like I'm a meteorologist or something).
A few days ago we were playing outside and two of the neighbor girls came over with their sleds. With no snow. I love children's imaginations because for the next 20 minutes they went "sledding" down our hill - well, more "scooted" themselves at a slow pace. If I pulled the kids myself they could get a bit more speed going. I think Warner and Maren enjoyed it just as much as if there had actually been snow. Which is good in case my no-snow prediction is correct this winter.

Christmas 2011

I realize it's January 6th and I'm just now posting about Christmas. Better late than never, right? We celebrated the holiday multiple times so hang with me here. For Christmas Eve, we stayed at our home and went to church in the evening. When we returned, we put the kids in their jammies and had dinner. When I was younger we would have cheese fondue for dinner on Christmas Eve and I loved it. Thinking the kids would also love cheese fondue, I fixed it for us on Christmas Eve. Major fail. They hated it. I'm still not sure what's not to like about bread dipped in cheese. Maybe next year. After dinner the kids opened one present each.After dinner and the gift, the kids chose cookies to leave for Santa. They must have thought Santa would be famished because they loaded his plate with all sorts of sugar - even marshmallows. We also put reindeer food on our front walk, so Santa and the reindeer would have no trouble finding our home.The reindeer food must have worked because Santa made it to our home with plenty of presents.
The kids also bought each other gifts, which was fun. Maren got Warner this Frightening McMean car.Warner got Maren a box of Mickey Mouse books.Later that afternoon, we drove to Somerset to celebrate Christmas with the Platts. The kids couldn't wait to open presents until the next morning, so we opened them that night. By 7pm both kid's eyes were bloodshot and they were about to fall asleep standing up.Warner got Buzz Lightyear from the Whitakers and was thrilled about it. That night the kids all slept in one room together at Nanny and Grandaddy's. Warner thought it was the coolest thing ever. A real sleepover. He has asked to go back and have another sleepover a dozen times since our visit.The following day my parents came to our house for a few days visit. The kids thoroughly enjoyed their visit and my parents' undivided attention. Well, undivided until my dad so graciously began a project at our home - wainscoting in our entry way, stairwell, and upstairs hallway. It was quite a bit of work, but the results are even better than I imagined.It was a wonderful holiday season but to be honest I'm happy for the opportunity to catch my breath after all of the craziness. Welcome, 2012!