Another Lincoln Brag

Last night was the daddy/daughter dance at Savannah's school, so Lincoln and I had date night. Much to my dismay, he choose to go to Chuck E Cheese. I hate that place, but the night was about him so we went. $30 later we had a pizza and some coins. Lincoln was so good all night! He used his manners, we walked nicely and stayed by me, he took a break to eat the pizza without complaint, he waited his turn nicely (even when adults were playing kid games and would play 3-4 times in a row knowing that there was a line of small children behind them). Overall he was an angel. At one point he was playing ski-ball when a little girl who looked about one-and-a-half came over and started taking his balls out. He was super patient and let her throw one of his balls for him. The best part was on the drive home, totally unprompted Lincoln said, "Thanks mom, going Chuck E Cheese."

The Weekend that Wouldn't End

So Friday was a typical Friday. Only it was pouring rain. I know, I know we have turned into big weather wimps since moving to San Diego, but hey, its San Diego you can be a weather wimp and it doesn't matter. It actually wasn't rainy all day, but it started pouring right when it was time to pick up the kids. So I pick up Savannah, and then we go to get Lincoln. We make it home, and she claims she's sick. Savannah claims she's sick at least a few times a week, so I didn't think much of it. I took her temp just to appease her, and it was 99.3. I needed to go get a baby shower gift, but because of the rain and the kids being extra whiny I called Jesse to come watch them while I ran to the mall. An hour later I returned and Savannah's temp was 102. Ok, so maybe she was sick. I gave her Motrin, and the 3 of us snuggled up on the hide-a-bed and watched a movie.

6:30 am on Saturday Savannah wakes me up. Neither of my kids ever wake up before 9 on their own, so already I know that we have a problem. Yep, her temp is 103.7. More Motrin, call her girl scout leader to cancel for the cookie booth we were supposed to be doing. Text Aunt Dolly and Grandpa Conger to tell them not to come to the cookie booth. I still wanted to go to the baby shower, so at 9:45 I dropped the kids off at Jesse's house with Motrin and strict instructions to give Savannah some at 10:30 or else. At 11 I get a text from Jesse that Lincoln was crying to come home. At noon I arrive at his house to pick Lincoln up, and he is literally standing at the door waiting for me. And surprise, Savannah is asleep in Jesse's bed looking really horrible. And she has peed his bed, so she needs to come home too. We get home, and her temp is 104.5. Someone forgot to give her the Motrin. I get her all drugged up and she and I snuggled on the couch and watched movies while Lincoln tore the house apart. Saturday night was supposed to be the big Daddy/Daughter ball, but obviously they couldn't go, so I tried to no avail to find someone to take their tickets. Around 5 o'clock the doorbell rings. Its Aunt Dolly, Grandpa Conger, and the cousins. You know those times when someone shows up at your house and it looks like a tornado just came through your house, and the carpet desperately needs to be vacuumed, and the sink is overflowing and you realize that you have to let them in, and you just want to crawl in a hole and die. Yep, that's about how I felt. So for the next three hours the kids played while Dolly, Grandpa and I sat in the mess and stared at each other. Awkward!

Sunday morning we wake up, and Savannah's temp is still lingering in the 103-104 range when unmedicated, right around 100 with Motrin. So we spent yet another day sitting around watching tv, playing computer games, etc. This is when I pulled out the big guns with the playdough.

Monday, Savannah still has the fever. I decide its time to call the doctor. Only wait, its President's Day so they are closed. I talked to the after hours nurse, and she said that she thought I should take Savannah to the ER, but to wait and she would have the on-call doctor call me. So I talk to the doctor, who says it sounds like Savannah's has influenza, and that she suspects that her fever will break that afternoon, but keep her home until she has been fever free for 24 hours and if she isn't better in the morning bring her in. Yeah, another day at home with stir crazy kids. And to make it even better, as the day goes on I realize that I'm getting sick. I've had a cold for about a month, but suddenly I'm coughing a ton. Just talking is making me feel winded. When I start coughing I can't stop and I literally feel like I'm suffocating. Great, just what I need.

Tuesday morning rolls around, and I literally felt like I was dying. Savannah is completely better, but has to stay home from school anyway. Lincoln and I were supposed to go a field trip with his class, but obviously I'm not going and his teacher doesn't think its a good idea for him to go without a parent, so he gets to stay home too. So I'm stuck home feeling like I'm an inch away from death with two kids that are completely stir crazy and hyper. I finally broke down and made myself a doctor appointment, even though I detest going to the doctor. I was about to take them both with me when it occurs to me that Aunt Dolly lives about ten minutes away, is home during the day when her kids are not, and has already been exposed to all our germs! Luckily Aunt Dolly was willing to watch them for me. So I headed to the doctor on base. 2 hours later, I walked out with a diagnosis of bronchitis, a round of steroids, 2 bottles of cough syrup with Codeine, and an inhaler. I guess I really was as sick as I felt. Now Tuesday is supposed to be Jesse's night with the kids, and I was really looking forward to the break but unfortunately he had to cancel. He had a half decent excuse (worked late then had to go pay for and pick up his new car) but I was at the end of my rope and had a complete breakdown. Complete meaning that I called my sister in Utah sobbing. Not my finest moment.

Luckily we all survived. Wednesday I was so happy to take the kids to school I could have cried. By some miracle I managed to finish all of my Wed work plus what I didn't finish on Tuesday by 3 PM, did a load of dishes and decided to lay down for a few minutes. Jesse redeemed himself by stopping by on his way home from work, and seeing how crappy I felt volunteered to pick the kids up from school and take them to his place for a few hours. He actually volunteered to keep them overnight, but I said no.

So now its Thursday night, and almost the weekend again. How can it be the weekend already if I haven't recovered from last weekend yet?

Sunday Boredom Buster

Savannah came home from school on Friday with a fever. And on top of that it has been cold and rainy all weekend. So we've spent the entire weekend at home, which is very unlike us. I like to be out doing things. Friday night we On Demanded a movie, and snuggled. Saturday they spent a couple hours at Jesse's house in the morning, then we watched more TV, played some computer games, played a board game, read books, played in their rooms, etc. Last night the Conger cousins came over to visit with Grandpa Conger, who is in town for the weekend. Today... they are bored. They literally woke up fighting. I can't really blame them. I don't think they have ever spent this much time cooped up at home before. So finally out of desperation we decided to try homemade playdough. My kids don't have playdough. I not only hate the mess it makes, but I hate the way it feels too. I have a fantastic recipe for homemade playdough, so I thought we'd give it a shot. They LOVED it! And it kept them occupied for nearly 2 hours between the making it, and the playing.
Savannah's penguin snowman
Lincoln's rope
Lincoln's new picture face
Savannah showing off her teal playdough
This is what mixing the color into the dough does to your hands
my doughboy (upside down)

OT Success!

Lincoln has been doing a hour a week of Occupational Therapy for about a year and a half now. He has made a lot of progress with everything, but his eating has blown me away this weekend.

Last night we had homemade pizza for dinner. We have homemade pizza once or twice a month as it is one of Savannah's favorites, and Lincoln has refused every time to go anywhere near it. So Savannah and I made enough pizza for just the two of us, and I asked Lincoln what he wanted for dinner. He said he wanted to make a pizza. It took some convincing to get him to actually touch the ingredients, but after I did the crust for him he spread the sauce with a spoon and put the cheese on. He choose pepperoni for a topping, but I had to put it on. When I offered it to him, he did his usual shaking, freak out thing that he does when he doesn't want to touch something that is wet, messy, oily, etc. The whole time he was making the pizza he kept saying that he was making it for Savannah. So when the pizza came out of the oven I suggested that he try it. More of the shaking and crying. So I took a deep breath and decided to try the things that they do at OT. I calmed him down, then asked him to look at the pizza. We talked about what colors were on the pizza, what shape it was, what shape the pepperoni was, etc. Then we smelled the pizza. Then I asked him to taste the pizza. Again with the shaking. So I used bribery. I told him that if he would have one bite of the pizza I would make him anything he wanted to eat. So he took one bite and started crying. So I sat the pizza on the counter and put him on the couch to watch TV. Trying new things is scary for him, and I realized that he had reached his limit. But a few minutes later his slowly crept toward the counter, picked up the pizza and ate the whole thing. I may or may not have shed a tear or two. You know there is something wrong with you when you cry because your kid willingly ate pizza.

So today we were having Subway for lunch. Lincoln doesn't eat sandwiches unless they are PB&J, and even then everything has to be perfect- right bread, right jam, just the right amount of peanut butter, you get the picture. In the past when we eat at Subway Lincoln gets a thing of apple slices and a bag of chips. But today was the day I decided that he was going to eat some sandwich. So I asked if he wanted ham or turkey, and he chose ham. I got him his sandwich and he immedietly started doing the cry and shake thing. So I opened it up, and we talked about everything on it, eventually removing all of the veggies from about half of it. Then we tasted the ham alone. Then we tasted the bread alone. Then I told him he had to try one bite of sandwich. Then he ate the entire thing, including the veggies we left on the second half!

I just might kiss his therapist on Wednesday!