It has been a crazy month-and-a-half since we celebrated Cdc's birthday, and I'm going to use pictures to help me remember it all!
Arc grew hair long enough to stick in a tiny ponytail on top of her head, and had her first oreo all in the same day. Her favorite pastime is joking around with her brothers. She has her brothers, Cpc especially, wrapped around her little finger.
Then, the common cold came to call at our house. We all handled it pretty well, except for Cdc. He was WIPED OUT. He would get up, eat a few bits, and then go back to sleep. Then he would seem to start feeling better, only to suddenly want to go back to bed. Then suddenly he'd feel better, and then get wiped out again.
Arc and Cpc were both very patient that week - even though the three of us felt very cooped up while Cdc rested. I bought Cpc some "tie" shoes that week because the only ones he had were his Sunday shoes, and that just wasn't enough practice. He tied those shoes all by himself within 15 minutes of returning from the store. It must have been the fact that they were "pirate" shoes.
Somewhere in there Pmc turned the boys' bunk-bed into a pirate ship - and apparently I haven't gotten those pictures onto my phone yet - so we'll have to take care of that later.
Then is when things got really crazy. Cdc seemed so much better one day that we declared him "back to himself" and thought he was finally going to be on the up-and-up. The next morning he broke out in hives, so we called the Dr. and took him in. He seemed fine, his lungs sounded mostly good, he was breathing shallow but nothing really concerning. But they checked his oxygen levels just to be sure and they were extremely low - so they sent us up to Primary Children's Medical Center to have his chest x-rayed. Sure enough, he had Pneumonia! His hives only got worse, and he needed to be on oxygen. Then, our super awesome water-drinker also decided to quit drinking water - so they also had to put him on IV fluids. That made it easy to give him antibiotics though! Anyway, we ended up spending a long week in the hospital trying to get those oxygen levels back up. We went in Tuesday and came home Saturday. Since there has been so many viruses going around, the hospital was pretty full of it and they weren't allowing kids under 14 to visit. So in order for me to keep breastfeeding Arc, and be there during the day to take care of Cdc, I had to get special permission for her to join me. So Arc and I holed ourselves up in Cdc's hospital room during the days, making sure every doctor/nurse washed their hands well before coming in, trying desperately not to let her catch something else! Cpc spent his days with friends/family while Pmc worked - and then Pmc would come relieve us at night to go home and sleep. We did manage to get a playmat in the room so Arc could practice her crawling and relieve my arms a bit. The first few days Cdc was pretty mellow and hated the hospital, but by the end he got down on the floor to play with us and then told us he didn't want to go home. I think he learned to like being doted on! But once he sat down on the floor in his own room he was really glad to be back. Cpc missed him too - he wrote him a note and a Valentine (spending Valentine's day in the hospital was actually really fun for Cdc - he got to make a Valentine mailbox and received TONS of Valentine's from different kids all over the valley! I am very grateful for the way it brightened up our week - so thanks to those kids all over the valley!)
Arc thought about it hard and decided she definitely likes having him home so we can go to Costco!
These three were sure glad to be together again!
As were these three!
Arc had some sleeping struggles in there somewhere - sickness evolved into discovering that she could wake up multiple times a night. We ended up having to wean her of night-feedings and the binky in bed. She took to it pretty quickly though and I am now getting some good rest as long as I go to bed at a decent hour. She only had two real crying fits - one in the middle of the night, and one during nap-time. The one during nap-time was pretty cute though - she had her nose pressed up against the crib rail with her hands hanging out towards the door. Sweet girl! Maybe I should put those crib pads back in.
Then, we had to get Pmc ready to go on his big trip (to South Africa - 10 days for school)! We took a trip to Target to get some travel stuff and of course remembered all of these other things that have been on our list and came home with way too much. The boys ran out of bubble bath not too long ago, and we ended up replacing it with "bathwater colors". Since Cpc's favorite color is yellow - it now looks like he's taking his baths in pee. Lovely.
Cdc has his own style:
For Joy School the kids got to try putting together a puzzle of their own, and I was so impressed with Cdc's puzzle.
Then Pmc left. Thank goodness for the good weather this week - it really hasn't been that hard being a single mom. We've played outside on the grass every day. Arc is crawling all over the lawn. I guess I should clarify that - she's not crawling on her hands and knees - but she is getting herself all over the place. Anyway, I haven't even needed that much help with the kids, and I've been much more patient with them than I thought I would be (even though it has been a rough week for Cpc's regulation issues).
I have been lonely. Ever so lonely. Not that there aren't people around to talk to - but all I really want is to talk to Pmc. It's not that I haven't gotten to talk to him. We've had face-time every day. But I can't just call him up any old time I feel like it, and I'm not used to that. I miss him! I am so very lucky to have him. Also lucky for us, we have very protective, strong guys for neighbors who have been keeping an eye on us. Plus my little brother is around this weekend - so I haven't even had to worry about being safe without my honey! We sure are excited to have him home
Let's see - anything else? Um, we started a grocery delivery service and I couldn't be happier about it (if you happen to look at it and decide you want to try it - use my code DGC0019 to get %10 off your first order!). It totally beats taking three kids to the grocery store and I really think we are going to save money to be honest. Cpc started horse-riding again, and I don't think he could be happier about it! Oh, and we have now successfully killed 3 African Dwarf Frogs and a Betta Fish. I think we're not cut out for this. Cpc has had some really sweet moments the past month though - he really was sad and concerned each time one of them died. He was also really cute about the pirate ship when we decided it was time to take it down - he accepted it while we were taking it down, and then as soon as we were done he started crying, telling me he was sad that we had to take it down! I love that kid. What a tender-hearted child!
There, mostly caught up - other than those missing pictures of the pirate bed.
