This past week was quite a bit better than the week previous. Paul and I did both end up needing to go into urgent care because we both had coughs and sore throats. We had a bacterial throat infection, but got some good antibiotics. I think we’re both on the mend. Abigail finished up her antibiotics and was able to go a full week at school. I started subbing at the kids’ school and was able to sub in a third grade class as well as help out in the early childhood class. This is the LITTLE littles…3-4 year olds who all have some sort of intervention needed: either they have speech delay, spectrum disorders, or some other challenge. They were cute but man, was I wiped at the end of the day, haha. Yesterday morning, Joseph said he wasn’t feeling well. I looked in his mouth and saw spots on his tonsils. I’m guessing that he’s got a version of what Paul and I had. I got him in to urgent care and on meds and I think he’s already doing better. Luckily we have this next week off so that he can finish his antibiotic and fully recover. It’s been quite the week!
Our baby pumpkin is almost ready to pick!My sweet friend sent Abigail a little necklace because she felt so bad that Abigail had been so sick. Abigail was quite excited to get it. She had to wear it when we went to IHOP for dinner.I got some new dangly earrings. They’re just…fun. 🙂I also got this bracelet. The stone is called tiger’s eye and it’s just so pretty!I’ve slowly been adding to my cookie cutter collection (say that three times fast, ha). Now to have the motivation to actually make cookies with the kids. 😉I’ve been wanting better storage for my cookie cutters for quite some time now. Up to this point, they’ve been in a bag in a cupboard, but they would fall out every time I had to get anything out of that cupboard. I finally decided something had to be done. I found this jar at Target and it’s the perfect size! Also, this little chunk of counter is between the fridge and wall, so they can be out of the way but still in reach (they sit behind my bread box). She asked for yogurt and I said no (it was kind of close to dinner). She laid down in protest, fussing a bit. I stepped over her and went upstairs to get some stuff done. I came down about twenty minutes later to get dinner ready and saw her still there. I thought, “Man, she is dedicated to her cause.” As I got closer, though, I could hear her snoring. The poor thing fell asleep. On the kitchen floor. I woke her up and got her onto the couch to watch a show while I got dinner on the table. Recovery has been tiring, I think.A new adventure!Ready for my first day!I have a hard time resisting books…and Christmas books are especially hard to resist. The Charlie Brown one is bound in fabric, which is just…pretty. I couldn’t pass up the Texas one (Abigail asked why I got it and I said it was because I was in love with Texas…she said she liked it because she was in love with glitter, haha…the moon is rather glittery), and I love anything by Sandra Boynton.Abigail finished her antibiotics, earned all her stickers, and got her grand prize…some little rolly-polly plush kittens (called hamster kitties which are from one of her favorite shows: Gabby’s Dollhouse).It’s been rather cold the last few days. Normally we just have the kids layer their sweatshirts with their raincoats, but Abigail was complaining about still being cold. Yesterday we went to the store and found heavier jackets for both her and Joseph. I think the hood was the deciding factor for this one, don’t you?
I thought last week was rough when Abigail got sick. I had no idea! Her fever wasn’t getting better and her cough was getting worse, so I took her back in to urgent care. The doctor that saw us figured that the bacteria was resistant to the amoxicillin, so he prescribed a different antibiotic (cefdinir). He also felt like she had the beginnings of pneumonia, so he set us up with a nebulizer and some albuterol (he even let us borrow his nebulizer since we found out that insurance wasn’t going to cover one). He called the next day to check on her and when he found out the fever was still hanging on, he prescribed another antibiotic for the pneumonia (azithromycin) to take along with the cefdinir. Oof. The next couple of days were a bit dicey and she went back and forth with feeling okay and feeling miserable. Today is the first day where she hasn’t had a fever at all and she’s acting like herself. We’re hoping that she continues to improve!
Floppy is a good companion during breathing treatments.A good moment: playing “keepy-upy”, which is basically a game of not letting the balloon touch the floor. She got the name from Bluey (one of her favorite cartoons).Finally sleeping less fitfully.So. Much. Medicine. Fever-reducers, antibiotics, decongestant stuff, probiotics (to help counteract the side effects of the antibiotics)…vapo-rub stuff (which she won’t let us put on her because she says it smells bad…we did get to use the little pads that go into the vaporizer, though). Not pictured is the vaporizers that we had going in whatever room she was in and the nebulizer. She has been playing normally today with just occasional coughing. She’s still congested, so we’re still giving her decongestant (along with her antibiotics and the breathing treatments). My heart is so relieved and happy.
This last week started out fun with Halloween. The kids got to dress up for school (I didn’t think to take a picture, but Joseph dressed up as a Gryffindor student and Abigail was Sonic), paint pumpkins after school, and go trick-or-treating. Abigail had been battling a little bit of a cold with a lingering cough, but she was quite a bit better by Halloween. She continued to improve but still was battling a cough and some congestion. Then on Friday night, she threw up twice and popped a slightly higher fever. She said that her ears hurt in the middle of the night on Friday, but on Saturday morning she said they were fine. She still had a fever and then this morning the fever popped up over 101 and she complained again about her ears. I carted her off to urgent care and they confirmed my suspicion that she had an ear infection (and a double one at that). Hopefully the antibiotics will start kicking in soon. If she’s still feeling poorly tomorrow, I already have a note from the doctor for her to take the day off…and then the kids have Tuesday off (with it being election day and with the school being a polling place, I think they thought it best to just not have school)…so we have options for her to rest. Everyone else is struggling a bit, too. Joseph is dealing with crazy allergies, Paul’s got some sinus issues, and my back has been acting up (I think it’s from spending the night on the couch so I could be closer to Abigail should she need me). Hopefully things are going to improve soon.
Even the sunrise was a bit spooky on Halloween.I decided to go a little dramatic for Halloween…complete with bat earrings.Painting pumpkins.Joseph did little Minecraft characters all around his pumpkin.I think this is called a creeper.Another Minecraft character.Paul’s (the green jack-o’-lantern), Abigail’s pumpkin, and Joseph’s pumpkin.My pumpkin.Getting ready to go trick-or-treating. Paul stayed back to hand out candy.It was fun to see these two walking around our neighborhood.This is one of our favorite houses.It’s kind of our tradition to take a picture in front of it. I’m friends with the people who live here and they are super-nice.A spooky moon ended the night perfectly.I traded out the jack-o’-lantern for one of the signs I got from our neighborhood event last month. I think it looks great with the checkered stuff I already have up there.Joseph got Pokemon cards in his pumpkin bucket and he was beyond excited.Wearing kitty ears that she got from the prize cart at school.She asked if she could play dress-up for a bit. Joseph painted this in art class. It’s a lighthouse (with a beam of light) on a cliff with the ocean and some rocks. He was so happy to show it to me (he knows I really like lighthouses). He also painted the moon and night sky.The art teacher cut out a cat for Abigail. She glued it to a paper and then cut out some fall leaves to also glue onto the paper. She says she drew eyes on the cat but it was hard to see because she used a black pen. You can see it if you look close enough, though.She got another pair of kitty ears from the prize cart and said she wanted me to wear them so we could match. 5/6 is a fun age.Last Christmas we went back to California to visit my mom and we were going through some things and found my most favorite teddy bear in the world. I didn’t even realize it was still around. I almost cried when I saw it. When I give it a hug, all of a sudden I’m five years old, sitting at our brown (was it Formica?) kitchen table, eating Cream of Wheat for breakfast with my daddy sitting next to me. I had to bring it home to be with Eeyore (who was a present from my daddy when I was a teenager). I was telling Abigail about my memories and she asked me (with the lack of inhibition that only a 5YO possesses) if I was sad that he died. I told her that I was, but that I was so, so happy that I would get to see him again. She then said, “Yeah! That’s so good!” Oh baby-girl. It IS so good. ♥️This was last night. She hadn’t thrown up at all that day, but we kept the bowl there just in case. I’m hoping the antibiotics kick in quickly.
