Red, White & Blah - 4th of July 2021

Our 4th of July was a little different this year because I came down with a bad case of mastitis a couple days right before the holiday weekend. I woke up on Friday and immediately knew something was wrong. I was supposed to take the kids to Lubbock for a day trip, but I cancelled that I made a virtual urgent care appointment instead. Even after starting antibiotics, I still felt awful for the next 36 hours.

It was a rough day and I don't think I did much more than throw some food at the kids and tell them to watch tv. Luckily, it was the weekend so Dave was able to take over parenting for the remainder of the weekend after he got home from work on Friday. Sadly, we ended up missing the 4th of July parade and firework show on Saturday, but I did feel well enough Sunday evening for the neighborhood block party. 

Davey made some bad choices that led to him staying home from the party with Dave, but I took the other kids out to meet friends at the park. There was a catered dinner, lots of booths giving away free samples (Sophie and Emery collected many treasures), and the wildly popular self-serve snow cone truck. It was a fun night and I'm glad we were able to get a little celebrating in this year. Hopefully next year we'll get to see fireworks again!

I took the traditional 4th of July picture of the kids in front of the house in their patriotic wear before sending them off to church with Dave. Then I took a nice nap.

The kids all had so much fun adding syrups all on their own

Sophie and Emery with their promo glasses, towels, and snow cones

Charlie and Griffin were so messy by the end of the night! Just looking at the photo of Griffin eating snow cone with his hands makes me feel sticky.

A Mother's Day to Forget

 I asked Dave to take a picture of me with the kids on a whim the week before Mother's Day while we all looked nice in our church clothes. This was either incredible foresight, or I jinxed the universe, because come Mother's Day our house was ground zero for a stomach bug. It started with Griffin, then Charlie joined the party, and between those two we had over a dozen incidents in one day. Needless to say we did not go to church or do anything "Mother's Day-ish" between trying to keep the two little boys happy, hydrated and clean. 

Unfortunately it didn't turn out to be a 24 hour bug. While Charlie seemed to rebound, poor Griffin was feverish and could not keep anything down for more than a day. He was sick off and on for a few days and, just when it felt like he was turning a corner, I would find him in bed after nap or night covered in vomit once again. It was so sad! By the fourth day I felt like something else must be going on so I brought him in for an exam. 

Sure enough he tested positive for strep, poor baby. The doctor also tested Charlie, who was positive, and knowing that I brought the other kids back after school to be tested as well. This was the second time our family has had strep without the classic sore throat, but at least we figured it out eventually and were able to get everyone, including me, started on antibiotics. 

The Sunday before the plague hit

Griff did his second barf all over Dave and then his third one all over me just after taking the photo below. Somehow he never got the carpet or the rug so it was at least fairly simple to clean up.

Another one bites the dust

Griffin looking miserable at the pediatrician's office

All four kids tested positive for strep. Sophie and Davey never had fevers or vomiting, but they did seem more tired than usual. Luckily antibiotics helped clear everything up quickly and got the kids back to feeling happy and healthy.

Added bonus! As we were walking into the appointment for the big kids to get a strep test, I noticed these bumps on the inside of Davey's elbow and behind his knee. The doctor confirmed it was a case of Molluscum and also found a patch on his chest. We are lucky it wasn't too wide spread, but it was still an unpleasant pothole on our already bumpy road.

Strike of the Mysterious Sickness

In January several families in the Amarillo area had kids come down with an illness all at the same time. I have no idea if any of the cases were connected, but general symptoms included nausea, low energy, and overall crumminess. Luckily it was relatively short lived and most victims were back to normal the next day. In our house, both Davey and Charlie were hit. 

Davey never threw up, but spent most of his day curled up in a ball on the couch, poor guy. 

Charlie actually was pretty happy through the whole ordeal, but kept throwing up every 24 hours for a few days. Luckily his biggest explosion happened on the wood floor instead of on our shag rug just a few feet away. He was happy to go in the bath with some gatorade afterward.

Most of his episodes, however, happened at night in bed. Sometimes he would wake up after getting sick, and sometimes we would find him laying in it. So sad. Luckily it stopped after a few days. 

Kindergarten Field Day

Sophie's kindergarten year is winding down... The last Friday in April was field day, and she wanted me to come watch her compete in the games. I used to take photos and help out with field day during my time at Noah Webster, so it was fun to be back at an elementary school, this time with my own daughter!

There were about 15 different games and she won some, lost some, but was always a good sport. I was really proud of her that day!

Each student was assigned a buddy to stick with during field day, and Sophie was paired up with her friend Charlee. 

It was supposed to be a really nice day, but that morning was windy and cold! No one was prepared. Charlie was in shorts so I tried to put a spare onesie on his legs to keep him warm. 

Sack races!

Rubber Chicken Relay 

Tire roll

Bean bag toss - normally she struggles with this game, but surprised me by going 5 for 6!

I only took a couple videos, but you can see how careful she was in each challenge. She cared way more about finishing with no faults, than competing with speed.

While we were at field day, Dave was at the pediatrician's office with this dude, who was diagnosed with a killer ear infection. Poor Davey was in a lot of pain and cried for pretty much the entire morning. One of his few moments of happiness was this free cupcake (with blue frosting!) that we got at Walmart while waiting to pick up antibiotics. It was short lived, however, and at home we went back to crying in my lap until he fell asleep. Luckily the medicine worked pretty quick and by the next day he was back to normal!

Dropping Like Flies...

On Monday morning I woke up feeling horrible. I was feverish, my head ached, and I had the worst sore throat ever. I told Dave I was sick and immediately booked an appointment at the Urgent Care near our house. Dave dropped Sophie at school, and I took the boys with me to the clinic. The doctor did a strep test that came back positive and also told me that I had an ear infection. I was relieved to hear it wasn't just a cold I'd have to wait out for days, but I also felt terrible because I was pretty sure Charlie was sick as well, and had been for a few days...

Charlie hadn't been eating well (unfortunately that's common for him), and had also been running a fever and not sleeping well, but we had dismissed it as teething (bottom teeth are coming in) or a reaction to the vaccines he had received just a few days before. Now I was almost positive he actually had strep and been suffering for a few days. Poor baby! I booked him an appointment with the pediatrician and Dave took him in that afternoon. Results came back positive for strep and also an ear infection, so we started antibiotics right away.

Now that two of us were confirmed strep, we knew it was likely the rest of the family was sick, or would be soon. Davey and Sophie already had well-child checks schedule for the next day, so we had the pediatrician run a strep test during their visit, which not surprisingly came back positive. Luckily we were able to catch their cases early and start antibiotics before symptoms hit. Sophie still had to miss a day of school, but she didn't complain at all about having to stay home and watch tv all day.

Dave, as the last one standing, decided to go get tested just to be safe. He came back negative, but his throat was red so it may have just been too early to test. Either way, the doctor also prescribed antibiotics as a preventative measure because it was only a matter of time before he would be sick with all the germs floating around our house.

Luckily we all were feeling great again a few days later. Hooray for modern medicine!

Poor sick Charlie. On Monday he and I laid around the whole day while Davey watched several hours of Netflix. Dave came home as soon as he was done teaching since I was a useless parent that day. 

Antibiotics and painkillers for five! Giving Charlie his medicine was a struggle. Amoxicillin has to been taken on a full stomach, preferably with a priobiotic, and he does not like to eat on a good day, let alone when his throat is raw. We had to hold him down and force feed him yogurt in a syringe, followed by the medicine, twice a day for 10 days. It was not pleasant, but the drugs sure helped him start feeling better fast. 

Sophie drew me this "Get Well" picture

Attack of the Stomach Flu

The flu bug hit our family this week. Davey was the first to go down on Monday night, so I'm guessing he probably picked it up at church nursery. We heard him crying on the monitor around 4:30 am, but thought he was just trying to wake up too early and left him alone to work through it. Then when I went in his room that morning I smelled the puke immediately... it was on his sheets, his blankets, his jammies, and all over his hair. He looked at me with sad eyes and said "Yucky, mommy, yucky" and my heart just broke for the poor little guy.

I put him in the bath to clean him up and gave him a bottle of milk to drink (his comfort item). He never threw up again, but he was sort of sluggish for the rest of the day and spent a lot of time just vegging on the couch. Since he didn't really show any other symptoms, we figured maybe he ate too much at dinner, and then was tired from having to sleep in him own mess :(

On Thursday night, however, Dave started to feel bad, and then I threw up during the night and again the next morning. Dave never did throw up, but we both had chills, no appetite, and no energy. We used Netflix as our babysitter and pretty much left the kids to fend for themselves for the day.  It should be against the laws of nature for both parents to go down at the same time. So far Sophie has been spared and we hope she will continue to stay healthy. 

Davey getting his own breakfast

Davey did not like his day without parents and came to cry on my lap every time I emerged from the bedroom. Sophie also struggled, but made the best of it and I am proud of her for stepping up. It helped that we received a Valentine's package the day before from Grandmari that had some stickers and other activities to help keep her busy.