Pink Eye, Sinus Infection & A Clogged Milk Duct!!

Wow....I have sure been hit hard by the "sick bug"!

I woke up this morning with my eyes stuck shut & green goop coming out. I also had a sore throat. Actually, my throat started hurting last Thursday morning. When I woke up my body ached & my throat hurt. I was throwing a baby shower for a friend & when the shower started I felt horrible. Cory took my temperature prior to leaving & it was 101. By 8:30pm I felt really bad & started getting the shakes. I left the shower & went straight to bed. On Friday my temperature had gone down but my throat still hurt. Now back to this morning.....when I got the goop out of my eyes I realized that they were red....pink eye!! My throat was hurting so bad & I noticed that one of my milk ducts was clogged too. I made an appointment with the doctor to find that, yes, I did have pink, but luckily it was not strep throat. I had a sinus infection. So I am now on antibiotics & have eye drops. That also means that I can't wear my contacts until my eyes clear up so I have to wear glasses.....which I hate!!

This evening I felt Carter & he was burning up. We checked his temp & it was 103!! We gave him some Tylenol & he took a shower. I told him that he probably wouldn't be able to go to school in the morning & he cried & said that he wanted to. Poor guy! Nobody else has any symptoms right now & I hope it stays that way!!

Carter's Book Report

Mrs. Sarte has been giving Carter chapter books to read at home. When she gave him the first book she asked him to write a sentence about the book. With this being the third Nate the Great book, she asked him to write a little more. Carter wrote the following for his book report:

"I read Nate the great and the fishy prize. Nate had to solve the case of the missing can. Nate went home with the can in his bag."

I helped him sound out the words.

I am very happy with Carter's handwriting. When he started Kindergarten he was writing with all capital letters. Now he is using lower case & his letters look really good.

Sleep Training-Day 3

Last night I was throwing a baby shower for a friend so I had to leave the house at about 6:10pm. I fed Kate before I left & I'm not sure what time Cory put her down. He did say that she was asleep by 7:30pm. She woke up at 12:30am & 5:30am for a feeding. Yeah!! She then woke up at about 7:20am. She took 3 naps in her crib too, but they were only about 1 hour long. Most times she is only crying for just a few minutes. I am so happy!!

Sleep Training-Day 2

I was gone again last night, so Cory put Kate down a little after 7pm. When I got home at 7:35pm she was SCREAMING so loud!! It was so hard to hear. Cory was supposed to leave at 8pm but his meeting was cancelled so he continued going in to her room every 20 minutes & patting her. He also had to flip her back over to her back, she had rolled over. By 8:20pm she was sound asleep, but back on her stomach. There's not much we can do about it since she is rolling over now. She woke up at 12:30am & 3:30am & I fed her both times. She then woke up at 6:30am & I was so tired & knew my alarm would be going off at 7am so I just brought her upstairs & she fell asleep on my bed. I had to wake her up at 7:50am so we could drive Carter to school!

She took a nap in her crib in the morning, for about 1 hour so it looks like we are finally getting somewhere!!

Sleep Training-Day 1

Last night was our first night of trying to sleep train Kate. When we saw Dr. Gould on Monday he said she is old enough to start & it would be easier to do it before she gets older. I was gone from 7-9pm so I fed her before I left & Cory put her down a little after 7pm. When I got home at 9pm she wasn't crying but Cory said she had been crying on & off. Dr. Gould said to let her cry & go in her room every 20 minutes, pat her stomach & just let her know that we are here, but not to pick her up. He said it could take 2-3 hours for her to go to sleep. He also suggested that Cory be the one going in her room so that she wouldn't want to nurse again. The whole night she would cry off & on & then fall asleep for a little bit, but it was usually only for 20-30 minutes. Cory went to bed a little after 10pm & then I took over. I hardly got any sleep. It was rough, but I knew we had to do it. She was not sleeping on her own & neither of us were getting very good sleep. I did feed her around 2am & again at 4:30am. She cried after I put her down but fell back to sleep about 5:15am & then we had to wake her up at 7:50am to take Carter to school. She got a nice long stretch of solid sleep then. She also slept from 11am-2:15pm.

I hope tonight goes smoother!!

Grounded!!

Today while we were stopped in the van I was getting some chapstick out of a little compartment. Claire used it & then gave it back but I didn't put it back into the compartment right away. Claire said to me"Put that back right now or I am going to ground you!" I had her repeat it because I have never heard her say that before & we have never used that phrase at home. I started laughing & asked her where she heard that & she said "Carter told it to me."

When we picked Carter up from school I mentioned it & he got a big smile on his face...I knew he must have said it to her!! He must have heard it from school!!

Proud Mom & Dad

Cory & I are so proud of Carter for all of his hard work this year in Kindergarten.

He is doing awesome work!! He is reading at a 2nd grade level. (He will soon be tested for Accelerated Reader). Mrs. Sarte has been giving him chapter books the past few months to read. He's been reading the Nate the Great series & is enjoying them. When he is done reading them he writes a little book report about them. His teacher also give him "Challenge" work to do during class while the other children are coloring little booklets. The challenge work is a one page story that he reads & then answers 5 or 6 questions about the story that he read. So it's working on his reading comprehension. Sometimes he misses a couple of questions, but usually gets 100%. These are some of the notes that Mrs. Sarte has written on his work:

• We are working on capital letters & periods (this was on a paper that she gave him. He was to draw a picture at the top & write a story about what he drew.)
• I appreciate how hard Carter tries-never complaining about "this is too easy" to other students!
• Carter enjoyed his more challenging work!

I am grateful that his teacher is willing to work with him & challenge him.

Carter, we hope you always have a love of learning! You're doing great buddy!!

Kate's 4 Month Doctor Visit

Kate had a visit with Dr. Gould this morning. She was so happy & smiley with him & then the nurse came back in to give the immunizations!! She screamed so loud!! I nursed her & then she calmed down, but went right back to screaming all the way home! Now she is asleep & hopefully will stay that way for a while!

Kate's stats:

Height: 24 3/4" (50%)

Weight: 14lb. 12oz. (75%)

Head: 16 3/4"

Dr. Gould said she is doing great. We can start giving her rice cereal if we want, but I'll probably wait a little bit longer. We talked about ways to get her to sleep better on her own. Hope it works!!

71 degrees!!!

Jeff & his kids came down today while Kristen was sleeping from working the night shift. Drew had been wanting a play date with Carter. While Jeff & Cory played Dominion the kids played in the bedrooms for a couple of hours. Around 2pm we headed to the park to enjoy the 71 DEGREE weather!! It was so nice outside. I took Claire & Kate to the playground while the others went to the ball field to play softball. Claire had fun running around & Kate enjoyed the umbrella stroller for the first time. By the time we returned home she was fast asleep in it!!

I'd call this a pretty perfect Saturday!!

4 Months Old

Kate is 4 months old today! She has her doctor appointment next week so I will update her stats then. One of Kate's big accomplishments this month is rolling over! She can go from her front to back & back to front. Usually when we lay her down on her back she immediately flips over to her tummy! The only problem is she is then stuck in the position & will only lay there for so long before she wants to be rolled back over or picked up. She loves the sound of her voice & has been making some really cute sounds. She still won't sleep in her crib. I've let her scream for an hour & she still won't go to sleep so we are still working on that. (An hour is the most I can handle!)

She takes most naps in her car seat. I have it up in our bedroom & I lay her in it when she falls asleep & she will sleep for 1-2 hours. She also starts the evening out in her car seat & then when she wakes up to eat she ends up sleeping in our bed. It so much easier to feed her there then trying to get her to go back to sleep. The only problem is it seems like she is eating all night long!

Her favorite place to sleep is still on Daddy's chest. He usually has her asleep within 1-2 minutes from when he picks her up! She loves Carter & Claire. She just smiles & smiles when they come & talk to her. She still has some fussy moments, but luckily she not screaming in the car like she used to!! We are so in love with her & can't imagine our family without her in it!

**She woke up this morning with a stuffy nose, sneezing & watery eyes. Poor girl!

Funny!!

When eating dinner above a sleeping baby's head, be sure to place a napkin on top of their head to avoid food falling on them!!

ER Follow-up

A nurse from the ER at Sutter Memorial called today to check on Carter. She wanted to make sure he was feeling ok and wondered if we had any questions. How awesome is that!

Thankfully, he is feeling just like his old self!!

Swim Lesson

This evening Carter had his swim lesson at Tricks. I signed him up to take a trial class & they put him in the Introductory class, which is for 6-10 year olds. It's an indoor pool, which is heated to 89 degrees, as well as the room the pool is in. Prior to getting in the pool all of the kids took a shower & shampooed their hair & they did the same thing when they got out. There were 2 other students in Carter's class. I watched from a bench & it looked as if he was doing well & enjoying himself. After the class his teacher talked with me & said that he did so well, she is moving him to the next class, which is "Basic". She doesn't think he will be in that class for long, before they move him to the "Intermediate"class. I didn't sign him up for the class yet, I'm going to wait until April & May so that we are closer to swim season. He's doing so well I don't think he will need to go for too long!

January???

Is it really January....Carter is in a swim suit??

Carter has his swim lesson tonight & he was so excited he put his swim suit on in the afternoon!

ER Visit

I received a call around 12:55pm today from the office at Carter's school stating that he bumped his head during lunch recess & he was in the office crying & suggested that I come pick him up.

Kate had just fallen asleep but luckily I was able to get her in the car sear without waking her up & Claire had not fallen asleep yet. I got to the office & signed Carter out of school & we were headed to his classroom to get his backpack when he said that he felt like he was going to throw up. I knocked on his classroom door & told Mrs. Sarte that he felt sick so we went into the bathroom in his class. He didn't actually throw up but he still felt like he was going to. Mrs. Sarte gave me the papers from his cubbie & said that a bunch of the kids in his class had been drawing pictures for him & making get well cards. It was really cute. All the way home he thought he was going to throw up. He had quite the goose egg on the left side of his head. Once home, I gave him our "barf bucket" & told him to lay on the couch. I was out of the room for a minute & when I returned I saw Carter dozing off into the bucket. My first thought was that he had a concussion. I googled "signs of a concussion" & nausea/vomiting & drowsiness were some of the signs. I called our pediatrician's office to see what I should do & of course they were still on lunch. I let a message for the on-call doctor & when they returned my call they suggested we head to the ER because all they would be able to do is observe him.

I tried asking Carter repeatedly what happened but he would only say that another child's head hit his & he didn't remember anything else. Carter remembers EVERYTHING......so I thought we better head to the ER. Cory met me at my parents house & we left Claire there & then headed to Sutter Memorial. ER's are scary!! There are some weird people hanging out there!

The man that checked us in was really nice & talked with Carter while he got his vitals. He said his vision was fine, but thought we better be seen by a doctor. We waited about 10-15 minutes & then we were taken back to a room to be checked out. The doctor suggested we get a CT scan done to see if there was any internal damage. They gave him half of a Zofran to help with the nausea. As we were waiting I continued to ask Carter some questions & he was finally remembering what happened. He said they were playing on the blacktop & the bell would soon be ringing at the end of lunch recess. He & another student somehow hit heads (he doesn't even know who it was) & he fell to the ground. The yard duty had him sit on a bench for a few minutes & then it was time to line up for class. They went back to class & Mrs. Sarte started reading a book. She noticed Carter holding his head so she had another teacher take him to the office & that's when I got the call. He was also complaining of his side hurting. He has a nice bruise on his side too!

A technician came & brought us to get the CT scan. Carter's body looked so little laying on the table as it moved into the scanner. He was so brave & layed still as they took the pictures. Luckily the scan came back with no problems showing up so we were able to head home. By this time he was acting normal again & said his head only hurt if we touched it. We are so relieved that he is ok & won't have any long term problems!!

Johnny Jumper

Cory got the Johnny Jumper out tonight to see if Kate was strong enough to be in it. She did so well in it & actually enjoyed herself for about 1/2 an hour. She started bouncing her feet & she looked so cute in it!! Hopefully she will continue to enjoy it so that I can a few minutes to get things done during the day!

Tea For Three

This morning Claire was saying "Mommy, come play with me."

So Kate & I got down on the family room floor for some "Tea Time" with Claire. She mixed up some delicious brownies & we had some hot chocolate too. Kate even joined in on the fun!

Rolly Polly Olly

Kate has really been on the move the past few days. Today I layed her on the rug right where my foot is (in the picture below) and a few minutes later I looked down & she ended up over by Carter's desk! She wasn't even rolling....she just scooted her little body over there by moving back & forth. She's really good at rolling over from her back to her front & her front to back.

Week 2 Of Gymnastics

Claire is still loving her gymnastics class!! She had a substitute teacher today & she did pretty good listening to her. She only ran off 1 time to check out a motorcycle in the toddler area.....she's got to check everything out!!

Little Buddies

This evening Nick, Kecia, Grayson & Reagan came over for dinner. We made delicious Costa Vida style Pork Barbacoa salads. Man, were they good!! We haven't been able to hang out much lately so it was great to see them again. Carter & Grayson had so much fun playing Legos together.....they were up until midnight playing!!! Kate & Reagan will get to grow up being little buddies too!! Kecia had Reagan's Bumbo chair in the car, so we tried it out with Kate. She was able to sit up in it, but she is so strong that when she arched her back she almost popped out of it. She only lasted a few minutes before she wanted out!

Nick & Kecia brought a cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory that was so delicious!!

Hopefully we can figure out a way to hang out more often!!

Claire Starts Gymnastics

Claire started her gymnastics class this morning at Tricks. She had a lot of fun doing somersaults down the mats, the balance beam, jumping in the foam pit & loved the trampoline. Her teachers names is Megan & she was really nice. The biggest thing Claire needs to work on is listening to her teacher. It's funny, I was looking at my blog book from 2008 & when Carter started gymnastics that is what I wrote about him "listening to the teacher." It must be the age!

I'm really happy with Tricks & love that they have an indoor heated pool & offer swim lessons year round. I am thinking about having Carter take a class during the winter months to keep his skills up for the summer.

Changes For 2011

After taking our Christmas decorations down I decided to move around some of the furniture in the family room. We moved our big couch to the other side of the room, in front of the big sliding glass doors & moved the console table to the spot where the couch was. It's opened the room up a lot & I think I like it!

Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam

We have a new (very young) Sunbeam in our home!!

Claire started Sunbeams today & did such a good job!

When I brought her down to the Primary room she hung on to my leg & was acting very shy. She did go to class though & it seems like she had a fun time! They took a picture with the whole Primary & she hung her head down & wouldn't look up for the camera!

Her friend Briley (who will turn 4 in a couple of weeks) is in class with her, but she is moving at the end of the month. There is a little boy, Brody, who wasn't there today as well. She came home with her own Book of Mormon & was so excited to show us the picture of Jesus Christ in it. Even though she is so young I think she will be just fine as a Sunbeam!

Cutie Pie Kate!!

Kate looked so cute today for church! I LOVE this blue & brown dress that she wore, which was Claire's when she was a baby! Aunt Marci made the adorable head band for Kate.

Surprise!!

I uploaded my pictures to the computer & found these pictures from this morning.

Cory must have taken them before I came down stairs. I love surprises like this!!