Croup strikes again!

Hi all!
Another busy week culminating with two trips to the doc in one day. Sigh. Our weekend went well, Saturday night Lowell went to dinner for his mom's b-day and I took the boys up to have dinner with my dad. Oh that reminds me of the best news! My dad will be released to home confinement this Wednesday! As with so many things involving his incarceration, this is not as easy as it sounds (he has to send in an intinerary for every day and can only go to the places on it, plus he has to call when he leaves, call when he gets there, check in at the half-way house twice a week . . .) but it is still a step in the right direction. January 6th he will be off home-confinement, he'll still have to check in with a probation officer but he won't have to call to go to the park down the street. The whole thing is still so ridiculous given the circumstances, but he is going to home confinement sooner than we had hoped so this is great news. He'll be home for all of Thanksgiving and Dutch Christmas and Christmas of course. Such a blessing! Anyway . . .Sunday we had cake at grandma's (the boys think it is a birthday every time we see grandma and it almost is, Lowell's fam has a lot of winter birthdays, lots of cake!). Tuesday we had lunch with my dad and tried out tennis, the boys seemed interested in it so we played a little. Here's some pics. Grandpa with Carter, it was a gorgeous day!

Davis, he is actually a decent hitter, he practiced the whole day before

Dirty face, but he loves sports!

Did I mention, love? He would not go for nap without his SpongeBob ball and racket.

The sad part of that day was Davis' voice started cracking and I knew something was up. We went to Smith's Marketplace that night. Here's my review for those who are local and interested in this newly opened store (it is off the Alpine Highway in Highland/Lehi somewhere in there). The grocery part was cool, very large and they had some great deals for the opening, 99 cent Grandma Sycamore bread, 99 cent eggs, 50 cents for Quaker rice cakes and cocoa . . .they have a little bistro too that looks quite cool, hot food served and a place to eat it. Also a Chinese kitchen that looked nicer than the one in AF. They also serve gelato which was fair, good for American ice cream, paled in comparison to Vivoli's in Florence (seriously it is worth the trip for the gelato, sure see the David and the Duomo while you are there, but get the gelato!). The bread looked good, plus they had a soup/salad bar, olive bar, and sushi bar. Pretty upscale for Smith's. Now the negatives, they pride themselves on being a one-stop shopping center but beyond the food items, I will not be shopping there. The clothes prices were much higher than I would pay (think $32 for footed PJs, $45 for Levi's-on sale!). The rest was only fair, not better than WalMart. The pharmacy and electronics was very small and not adequate. They only had one choice of cold medicine for my bub, the reason we went there in the first place. So check it out for the food, pass on the rest--my two cents! Tuesday night Davis got steadily worse and I spent a good part of the night awake with him while he struggled to breathe. Scariest thing in the world when your child can't breathe. We've been through croup before, about 18 months ago, so I was pretty sure that was what was going on during the night. We got an early appointment with Dr. Cornish (by the way, love him! If you're looking for a ped, he's the one!), and thankfully grandma took Carter. Yup, croup. Not too bad yet, we'll try oral steroids. Picked those up and we were on our way. Went to farm country late Wednesday thinking the cool air would help the bub plus he'd been asking to see the animals again--cute baby horse and cows right now! Got home and Davis became panicked because he couldn't breathe. He turned red and was coughing and choking and gasping. I hate croup! Got him in the shower to steam while we got another appointment. Of course then he was fine, thank goodness, but I was grateful Dr. Cornish didn't think I was making it up. He said he would be just as bad in 20 minutes if we wanted to wait. He was actually glad we brought him back in as he has seen kids die from croup--yikes! Anywho, long story longer Davey boy had a shot of steroids and a breathing treatment and slept so well through the night, though I still slept on the floor next to him, I am so stiff. So today we just tried to lay low, keeping Big D calm so he could breathe.

They love Mouse trap. Drives me nuts because it is not made for 3 year olds and I have to rebuild the dang thing every 2 minutes.

We painted ceramic bugs, these were the ones I mentioned before from Michael's $1 for both with the paint.

Davis playing Mario Kart on the wii (we played Elefun in the background as well)

Carter and our Christmas train, they love that too, it drives me nuts too!

Just a shot of my sicky. Aren't his eyes sad? I don't know if that is from tired or lack of oxygen, though he was satting at 96%. He was just so hoarse all day and got really wheezy and close to stridor again before nap. I was really contemplating another trip to the doc, but we did another steam treatment in the shower and he went down pretty well for nap. Funny thing before that, he was running around out of the shower with my bra wrapped around him saying, "I have tummies like mommmy!". He always talks about how I am big and strong pointing to my breasts. Funny kid, big yes, strong not so much.

Lowell says he woke up looking good from nap and I saw them a few minutes again and couldn't even hear him breathing, so hurray hopefully oral dose 4 or the steroids was the trick. Praying for a good night for my tired little man and that please please please my happy healthy Carter stays that way. Also sorry to the UVMOM gals who made it to play group without me. I was SO disappointed, but what can you do?

Okay, one last thing to my uberlong post (when are they not?). I have been debating this for a while and am interested in any input I can get. Last year the boys needed a lot of entertainment and we spent a fair amount of time having "preschool" lessons. This year they are doing so well playing on their own. I am thrilled they are learning to use their imaginations and playing so well together. My debate is how much should I allow them to have free time to play and explore (learning things like sharing, cause and effect, imagination expansion, etc) and how much should I pull them in to sit down and work on a lesson? They are just 3 and I think play is so important but there is also the part of me that wants them to read by 4 and be super ready for kindergarten. They will start school late, with October birthdays so even with us not doing preschool until next year, they will get 2 years of it. They know the alphabet but can only identify a handful of letters, they can count to 20, know colors but can't always match them and same for shapes. Carter is better than Davis with drawing, but Davis is more physically active as well, better with a bat/racket. I think part of the answer is learning through play concepts, I brought my deck of cards that has suggestions that do just that to look through and plan tonight. But what are your thoughts?

Well, back to work, thanks for sharing in my ramblings. Oh and be warned, I will be posting the boys year end video soon. I always make a book as you have seen but also a video montage. With 400 photos, this years' is 30 minutes long! I do really like the music I have picked this year though and just making it makes me cry every time! But do not feel like you have to sit and watch all that--that would be a lot to ask. I will post it just in case you do want to see it, but it is mostly for me (and the grandmas!). Okay, loves!