I Guess That Explains It

We found out today why Joshua's fever was so out of control on Monday. He has the flu.... again. He got it last year, too. So now he has had it twice despite getting the flu shot every year of his life. Why do we even bother!?! He seemed to be doing so much better yesterday. He still had a fever, but was being so silly and seemed to be feeling tons better. But then he started saying he couldn't hear the TV, and we noticed he was talking really loud, so we started thinking that maybe he had an ear infection. He's ever only had one and that was 2 years ago, but of course it's possible. Then today, he clearly was feeling awful again, just wanting to cuddle, looking pale with sunken eyes. It's so sad to see him like that. So, I decided to take him to the doctor today to make sure he didn't need any antibiotics. She listened to his chest and said she heard some off and on rattling around in there, so she sent us for a chest x-ray to make sure it wasn't pneumonia, and she also recommended checking him for the flu. There's nothing they can do about the flu, but at least then we know what we're dealing with. He was none too pleased about having a Q-Tip stuck up his nose, and even less pleased about having to lay down to do it, but we got it done. While we were waiting at the imaging facility for the x-ray, he cuddled up on my lap and kept dozing off, which is so unlike him, even when he is sick. He did a good job getting his chest x-ray. He wasn't happy about having to take his shirt off, but I don't blame him. He has a fever and the chills, so stripping down doesn't exactly sound appealing. He cried through the whole thing, but completely cooperated. But thankfully it was not pneumonia and we just have to wait this one out. He's had his fever since Sunday, so we're hoping to see it come down soon. It could take a week to go away. Since Josh got this right after Ben was sick, we're assuming that Ben also got the flu despite his flu shot. The doctor recommended that, since these boys are apparently prone to the flu, that we get the nasal vaccination this fall which seems to be more effective than the shot. We'll consider that. But, I'm starting to think this flu vaccine isn't all its cracked up to be!

105.8

That is definitely the scariest reading we have ever seen on a thermometer, but there it was plain as day this afternoon. Joshua's fever reached the danger point, and was still 2 hours away from being able to take his next dose of Motrin. We are not rush to the hospital people, so we decided to take a little bit more of a conservative route. My mom suggested putting him in a tepid bath, and the pediatrician said we could give him some Tylenol since it was too early for Motrin, so after about an hour his fever was down to 103. Fevers are kind of like gas prices. After seeing 105.8, 103 didn't seem too bad! So tonight we will be checking him periodically to make sure he hasn't spiked again and will be keeping a close eye on him tomorrow. Tomorrow will be another tag-team day for Andrew and I, both of us needing to have some time in the office, so each of us working short days. It's hectic, but we make it work.

Done!

At just 2 days shy of 7 months, I have finally settled my accident claim. Thank goodness that is behind us! I am pretty proud of myself though. I handled the whole thing by myself, and negotiated with them pretty agressively, and was able to settle for just $63 less than my goal. The check should be in the mail today. All in all, I was very fortunate to not have any real lasting affects from my injuries. And I have to admit, I kind of enjoyed playing the game with the insurance company. They treated me more like they would treat a lawyer than any Joe Schmoe handling their claim, which helped. Not that I gave them much of a choice. I made it pretty clear to them from the get go that I knew my stuff and that they didn't intimidate me. I am happy with my settlement and so thankful that it is all over!

Round 2

Well, as is usually the case, one kid is all better and now the other is down. Josh now has a fever and a cough and had to stay home from school today. We're hoping this little bout with illness won't hit him quite so hard and that he'll be up and running again much quicker than Ben was, and we can get back to our normal routine! It's hard to juggle sick kids and 2 full time jobs! But thank you, God for always providing a way.

The Perfect Storm

That is how Ben's doctor described him this morning. What a time it was! He's got an ear infection, a nose running like a faucet causing the skin under his nose to be bright red and raw, he is wheezing something awful and has a nasty cough. It seems like there isn't much that he doesn't have right now! So, first order of business was to listen to the breathing. Very tight and forced. So we did a 10 minute breathing treatment. After that, the doctor came in and said that she wanted to check his pulse-ox before giving him a steroid injection for his lungs. His pulse-ox ended up being only 87, when it should have been at least 92. The MA said that was "very bad". So the doctor had me give him a second breathing treatment and added a second medication to the mix to try to open up his airway better. After that, his pulse-ox measured 93. Whew! I was then informed that if it hadn't have gone above 92 after the second treatment, we would have been making a trip to the hospital, so we are VERY thankful to have dodged that bullet! So he was able to get his steroid injection, and then we had to hang out for 15 minutes to make sure he didn't have any reactions to the medications. He also got an antibiotic shot for his ear infection. They need to treat this infection a bit more aggressively since he just had one in the same ear 3 weeks ago and that was treated with the more potent of the 2 standard antibiotics for ear infections. So the poor baby got 2 pokes and 2 breathing treatments at the doctor today. They also gave us a lovely parting gift... our very own nebulizer! So now we get to do breathing treatments every 4 hours. You're jealous, I know. But after our trip to the doctor today, he has been doing so much better. He is definitely on his way to being our old Benny again. Since his breathing was so bad today, they want to see him back again tomorrow for a recheck, but after that, we hope we're in the clear. He'll have a few days of oral antibiotics and steroids, but it definitely looks like the worst is over. These kids don't get sick much, but when they do, they really go for it!

Poor Benny :(

Benny has been in a bad way these last few days. He came down with a fever on Saturday, and on Sunday and into Monday his cough was unbearable. He has held onto the fever, and at times it has been up to over 104. He is so miserable, my poor little guy. I was unable to stay home with him today due to unavoidable work conflicts, so Andrew stayed home with the boys and pretty much served as Ben's personal mattress. Ben just couldn't keep those sad little eyes open today, sleeping at least 8 hours throughout the day. This from a kid who gives us only an 1 1/2 hour nap most days, if we're lucky. Despite all that daytime slumber, he still sacked out before he was even in his crib at bedtime. When I got home from work this evening and took over the cuddling duties, I noticed that his left ear was also starting to goop again. So not only does he have a really bad cold, or possibly even the flu, he's got an ear infection to boot. Can't a 17 month old get a break! So tomorrow it's my turn to stay home and get him into the doctor ASAP to start another round of antibiotics. Since he was just treated for an ear infection in the same ear less than 3 weeks ago, I am praying that we won't have to start the discussion of putting tubes in his ears. Please pray for little Ben to start feeling better quickly. My poor little guy. It breaks my heart to see him this way! But despite feeling as bad as he does, he still can light up a room with that sweet smile. You just gotta love him!

Josh's New Look

We picked up Joshua's glasses on Saturday morning, and he has done better with them than I could have ever hoped. He has worn them constantly since we picked them up, and is so excited to have them. My old friend, Matthew, from high school works in the optical at the Sam's Club out at the San Tan mall, so we decided to have him help us pick out the right frames and get the fitted just right. Matt's been doing this since high school, and he has a 2 year old, so I knew he would do a great job. Plus, Sam's Club has awesome prices on glasses, so that mixed with our insurance got us the glasses for next to nothing! We're assuming he is seeing better, since he seems to enjoy wearing them, but it's hard to tell. I think he looks so stinkin' cute in these little wire frames. They make him look so much older and distinguished! So much better than the ugly plastic frames we grew up with!

Change

From the man behind the curtain (i.e. Andrew), I just wanted to let everyone know that I have changed the Comments feature to only allow comments from registered users. Additionally, if a fake profile is used in an attempt to post anonymously, I will delete those immediately as well. While people do have a right to say anything they want in regards to our posts, there have been a few "anonymous" comments lately, and if people aren't brave enough to post their name along with their negative comments, then they won't be posting on our blog at all. I apologize for the inconvenience to those of you who don't currently have Blogger or Google accounts. Thanks to everyone else for their positive comments and words of encouragement, and I hope whoever has been leaving negative comments anonymously will either grow a pair and at least post their name along with it. Or even better, in the words of the band Third Day, and countless mothers around the world, "If you can't say nothing nice, don't say nothin' at all".

Temper, Temper

I can see it coming. Looming on the horizon is an 18 month old. I have dreaded this for the last 17 months. People talk about the terrible 2's, but that is all just nonsense. 18 months is what should be feared. As Ben approaches his 18 month mark, we can see the calmness that we have always enjoyed with him giving way to something else entirely. We have definitely noticed that his temper has taken a front seat lately (thanks, Daddy!). He has started shrieking in protest and will stomp his feet and sometimes even hit if he is not getting his way. I think these next few months are going to be trying with him. But we have a leg up on the 18 month old experience that we didn't have last time.... we've already been through it and have come out the other side survivors.

Don't get me wrong... I know 18 months old isn't all bad. He's still one of the sweetest little guys ever, is learning new things and new words everyday, and is so much fun to be around. And that little devilish grin melts all the bad stuff away.

We'll get through this right of passage time in parenting. Just remind me of that when I'm asking "Is it over yet?"

Happy New Year!

Okay, so it's a little late, but better late than never!

2008 has come and gone. Overall it was a pretty quiet year... a few bumps along the way, but nothing to either extreme. We rung in the new year in true Maple fashion... we stayed at home, which is really the only place we want to be on New Years Eve. We let Joshua join in some of the festivities, roasting marshmallows and making smores in our firepit out back. He has been talking about wanting to do this ever since he found out we did it with some friends over Thanksgiving. I guess he really felt like he missed out on something, so we decided that New Years was a great time to do it. He loved roasting the marshmallows, but he didn't like to eat the roasted ones. I guess it's an acquired taste. So I let him roast mine (he did a pretty good job, and they can't be burned enough for me anyway!) then he ate regular unroasted ones. After enjoying our fire for a short while... we had planned on longer, but the wood wasn't burning very well... I put Joshua to bed, and then Andrew and I played video games for a while. We finally have a second nunchuck for the Wii, so we were able to box each other, which was a lot of fun. We'll have to remember that when we next have an argument! After feasting on some jalepeno poppers and other junk food, as is our tradition, and all the Wii bowling, tennis and boxing, I was pretty wiped out. I didn't even make it to midnight for the first time. I was in bed at 11:30. Andrew stayed up all by his lonesome.

On New Years Day we decided to take the kids over to the McCormick Stillman Railroad Park in Scottsdale to spend the morning. It was really fun and not overly crowded. The train ride was really long and most of it was decked out in Christmas decorations. They run the train at night over Christmas time and everything is beautifully lit. We were sorry to have missed our chance to see it at night, but now know to make sure that gets on our list of things to do next Christmas.

I got Friday off of work and was able to get together with my best friend, Gabrielle. Her two boys are the same ages as my two, so everyone had a good time playing at the park. Unfortunately, our visit was cut a little short since, while we were at the park I noticed green goo in Ben's left ear. That's right. Another ruptured eardrum. So I got him into the doctor that afternoon. Thankfully this one isn't too bad and after 10 days of Augmenton, he should be good as new. Poor guy.

So now the holidays are officially over and everything is back to normal. I wonder what 2009 will bring...

No I Amn't

Andrew and I don't have a big history or tons of experience with children before our little whipper snappers came along. So sometimes we're not sure if what our kids are doing is "normal" or "advanced" or even "freakish." But to us, this latest Joshua-ism seems to fall more under the freakishly smart category, but please correct us if we're wrong. Joshua has invented a new word. Not even a new word, really, but a new contraction. Amn't, as in am not. Since this isn't a real word as defined by Webster, I have found myself wondering, why not? "Are not" contract. "Is not" contract. Why not "Am not". Okay, maybe it doesn't roll of the tongue as well as "I'm not" and that's probably why those geniuses that came up with the English language decided to go that route instead. In pondering how he conjured up this word, we concluded that he really understands how contractions are formed well enough to think, "well, I haven't really heard anyone say this, but it makes sense to me." We stand with our verdict that he is a stinkin' smart little boy.

Old Friends

On Wednesday I was able to get together with my long time friend Peter, who I know from high school. Peter and I go all the way back to early Freshman year. He even introduced me to the guy who ended up being my first kiss (that guy's a whole other story... don't ask!). We have remained friends all these years, but haven't seen each other since my wedding, but have talked randomly on Myspace. Since I have seen him last, he has graduated from medical school and is now a resident at a hospital in NYC. It's so strange to think of him being a real honest to goodness doctor, but on the other hand, it doesn't surprise me one little bit. He was in town for New Years, and so we were able to get together. Andrew was nice enough to stay home with the boys so Peter and I could go have lunch and catch up. After lunch we came back to the house so Peter could meet the boys. Joshua warmed up to him right as he was leaving, but Ben loved him from the start. The funniest thing was that when Peter was playing with Ben, Ben ran over to the toy bins and pulled out Joshua's toy doctor set and brought it over to him and they played with it together. So cute. It was really great to see him, and I hope we can get together again when he is in town.