Reflections and RSV

 After a week of illness at our house, we're finally starting to pull ourselves out. It's a nice feeling.

Some highlights from an otherwise hard week:

Andrew won an honorable mention at the district Reflections for his 3D sculpture of Oliver. Since there was only a winner and an HM for each category this time (and the district stretches some 40 miles north of us), I thought this was pretty good. He looks thrilled, doesn't he? He was more excited about the brownie he got after the fact than he was about the award. But Bubby (Bubby took the picture) both enjoyed seeing him get his award.

Here are my belated 8 month pictures of our baby. He actually hit this milestone last Friday, but we were out of town--and then everyone got sick, including Oliver. I took him in to the doctor again on Thursday when he wasn't getting any better (actually he was worse), and he tested positive for RSV. This meant that not only has he been pretty sick--but we couldn't go north this weekend to see my youngest brother and his family (whom we haven't seen for 2 years), since, of course, that would mean exposing their baby to the virus too. After two different nasal suctions at the respiratory clinic at the hospital, Oliver finally seems to be doing better. Thankfully.

At eight months, here's what Oliver can't do: crawl, get up on his hands and knees, sit up unaided.

(Of course, since he's not quite six months old developmentally, we're not too worried). What he can do: sit up with help, find his toes when he's laying on his back (sometimes), giggle, roll over, smile. For as sick as he was all week, he was amazingly good humored (all the doctors he saw commented on it).

 Apparently he's also good at staring at the camera.

Things were pretty much life as usual for Evelyn, but she did look pretty today in her church duds. She's such a sweet little girl--the best of her mom and dad combined.

Illness reprise

This seems to be our season for bugs and germs of all varieties. Earlier last week, Dan had flu-like symptoms (Sore throat, achy, etc.). He wound up with an ear infection and actually went to the doctor--he's never been in all the time we've been here, so we had to find him a primary care physician. Also, apparently adults don't get ear infections, so Dan is lucky. (Or not--he still has symptoms from it, after a week of antibiotics).

Friday, as we were heading up north to visit my parents (more accurately, my dad, as my mom is out of town visiting my youngest brother) and attend some meetings, Evelyn started complaining that her throat hurt. And her stomach hurt. As she can be a little reactive to perceived wrongs, we weren't sure how seriously to take her--until she did actually yack all over her coat and bag of valentine's candy (from pre-school the day before). We took her to instacare that afternoon (I think we've been to the instacare by my parents' house almost as many times as the one in town) where she was diagnosed with a bacterial throat infection (not strep, but something like it).

And then Saturday night, it was my turn. In fact, I felt so poorly that I spent most of the time at Sarah's house sleeping on her couch (sorry, Sarah!). There were a few positives to the situation: I was sick enough that I went to bed early and missed the (by all accounts) appalling season finale of Downton Abbey. Also, Oliver slept from 10 until 6 (the second time in his life that he's slept 8 hours, and the first that they overlapped with our sleeping habits) so I was able to sleep off most of the fever. Funnily enough, Oliver filled his diaper at about 4 am--loudly enough that he woke up both Dan and I, but he never woke up himself. We figured sleep was more important, so we let him go . . .

Okay, sorry about the long sickness rant. It's been on my mind a lot recently.

Other than that, I did get to go hear one of my favorite authors, Megan Whalen Turner, speak at LTUE , the annual sci-fi/fantasy conference at BYU (although it's morphed into more of a writer's workshop than I remember from my undergrad days). I also got to meet her briefly and she signed all my copies of her books. That was pretty awesome.

The weather was nice enough that we took the kids to the park and Oliver got to ride in a swing for the first time. He's entering into the lumpy stage--where he can stay upright if propped correctly. We sure like him. (Even if he's now sick--he got a steroid shot this afternoon for a croup-like cough.)

 

  Look at the nice widow's peak on the boy!

 

 

In other news, Oliver is eight months old now (or 5.5, if you go by adjusted). He weighed in today at 16 lbs, 15 oz--and he's still on the growth chart for 8 month olds.

Here's my pretty girl all gussied up for Valentine's Day--she was determined to represent the hearts in her wardrobe.

Also, apparently I'm a masochist. I don't remember if I volunteered for this last fall or if Andrew volunteered me--but we wound up responsible for "healthy" treats on Valentine's day. Andrew wanted to make biscuits, which I did the  morning of V-day (and trying not to cuss because I was worried I wouldn't get everything done on time). We also made chocolate covered strawberries because . . . well, because it sounded festive and pseudo-healthy and, like I said, I'm a masochist . . .

 

We hope our readers spent a pleasant--and illness free--weekend!

Rolling along

 After enjoying some lovely, spring-like days last week (with temps in the upper 40s, low 50s), I shouldn't have been surprised to be slammed with snow this weekend, but it still feels more disappointing than it should!

Some highlights from this week:

Oliver finally rolled over for the first time on Thursday! I've been worrying about this (yes, I know, I'm good at worrying)--it was the only developmental milestone that he wasn't meeting. Apparently, by 3-4 months, most babies roll side to side. At 5.5 months (going from his due date, not birth date), Oliver still hadn't done that. (Well, to be fair, Andrew claimed several times that he saw Oliver roll over, but Andrew's not the most reliable witness for stuff like that--particularly since he's not above "helping" Oliver roll over, if I have to step out of the room for a minute).

Andrew qualified for the school spelling bee (the top 2 or so spellers from each class get to go). Oddly, this makes my mother heart full to bursting with pride. Now if we can just get more than 50% of the words on the practice list right . . . the ones he knows, he spells confidently. The one's he doesn't know . . . well, let's just say his spelling gets creative sometimes!

Evelyn officially knows how to read. We've been working on it for a couple of weeks now, but in the last week or so she's been able to read a couple of fairly simple books to me. And by "read" I don't mean she's fluent by any means, but that she's mastered the concept of sounding out words and putting the sounds together. I wonder if this ever gets old? It was thrilling when Andrew did it, and it's equally thrilling to watch Evelyn do it.

(This picture makes me laugh. Poor Oliver--he looks so traumatized by his sister).

Our other main accomplishment this week was making Valentines for Andrew's first grade class and Evelyn's preschool class.

And yes, folks, this is a major accomplishment. Every year, I tell myself I'm going to do something simple for the cards--and every year I forget and we make something, and then, when I find myself unraveling, I wonder why I do it. This year was no exception, particularly not when Evelyn spilled apple juice all across the table, nearly ruining a stack of cards that we'd spent all afternoon making. I managed to make her *and* Oliver cry when I yelled.

But they're done. And I have to admit that I'm proud of several things. 1) I let the kids help. (This would be so much easier for my OCD tendencies if I just did it myself). They cut out the papers for the front and glued stuff together and put on the stickers. 2) I came up the idea without any help from Google or Pinterest. (Seriously, this is huge for me). 3) We made cool Valentines without candy!

As you can see, we included a pair of dice with each card. On the inside, we pasted instructions to a math-related dice game that the kids can play. Last week, I posted some of our rejected sayings. The sayings we ultimately went with included: Odds are, you should be my Valentine. I'd  be lucky to have you as my Valentine. You're the odds-on favorite for a Valentine. We make a great pair! Being with you is pair-a-dice. Etc.

Yes, it's cheesy. But at least it's different!

Here's wishing all of our readers a Happy Valentines Day . . . (and as Dan said, as we were trying to come up with dice-inspired sayings: "May the odds be ever in your favor!")

Emerging

People are (knock on wood) finally feeling better at our house and we've even been able to get out a little as the weather has eased. I've loved being able to put Oliver in my wrap and take him for a walk. He just blinks at the world with those big eyes and snuggles next to me and we both enjoy it.

We don't really have a lot to report for this week--just more of the same. I thought I was supposed to teach today, so I prepared a lesson, only to find that one of the other leaders prepared as well so she taught. I'm trying to tell myself that this is okay--I got a lot out of the preparation, and I may be able to use some of it when I teach next week. Still, I wouldn't have spent quite so much time if I'd known I didn't need it.

Dan got release from the Elder's Quorum presidency today, which I think is primarily a relief for him. Since they made the old EQ president bishop, I think he was a little worried about getting called to step into his shoes. He would never refuse a calling, so I think he's glad to get a little reprieve.

At dinner tonight, we started talking about possibilities for Valentine's Day cards for Andrew to take to class. I'm not a fan of sending candy (they get plenty as it is), so we were trying to think of alternatives. I suggested dice, since Andrew has really loved his dice gift from Sarah. (Not sure if this is feasible cost-wise yet).

So, we brainstormed some slogans he could use with dice, like: "Take a chance on me, Valentine." "It's pair-o-dice with you, Valentine." "We make a great pair!"

We also rejected many slogans, including these two from Andrew: "Do you want to play with my dice?" and "You have a nice pair." I'm glad my sweet little boy doesn't yet realize that both these slogans sound potentially dirty.

Other rejects: "May the odds be ever in your favor" (funny, but maybe not for first graders). "Do you feel lucky? Do you?" "It's a crap shoot, but will you be my Valentine?" "Even though you're odd, . . . "