Not How I Wanted to Start the New Year

The 1st was spent going sledding at Jett's school. But I was dumb and wore boots with no tread and Miles was too tired to stay long, so he and I ended up going home just after a couple times down the hill. Dave and the boys stayed for a couple more hours and even practiced some snowboarding.

2015 didn't start out how we'd hoped. About a week into the new year we all got a horrible case of the flu. Miles started getting sick on the 8th and was up with a fever that evening. So I took him to the doctor on the 9th and tested positive for flu. While I was at the doctor's office, I got a call from Cruise's school saying that he was complaining of stomach pain and said he felt like throwing up. So I had Dave run over and check him out. As soon as they walked out of the school, Cruise threw up all over the sidewalk. We kept Jett home that day because it was inevitable that he would be sick in the near future as well. That evening I started getting dizzy and not feeling too well, and by Saturday, both Dave & I were sick with the flu.

Luckily Miles had gotten Tamiflu and started improving almost immediately. Cruise spent Saturday vomiting but was all better by Sunday. Sunday evening Jett woke up sick and vomited the entire next day as well. Dave and I were completely bed-ridden for that entire week. We took turns feeding and bathing the kids, which was dependent on who felt the least crappy. At one point we ran out of milk for Miles, Gatorade, Sprite, and crackers. Dave's brother, John, was kind enough to run to the store for us and pick up the items, as well as grab us some lunch. One sure way of feeling like horrible, neglectful parents to is to be sick in bed for a whole week. It was absolutely miserable and I don't remember the last time I was that sick.

By the 18th, we were out of the woods. Dave and I still had some congestion and a runny nose, which led to me getting an ear infection on the 21st but luckily I was able to catch it before it got so bad, and got on some antibiotics to treat it.

On the 22nd, we celebrated Miles turning 16 months by giving him his very first haircut! I was sad to cut his lovely wavy curls, but I made sure to cut it long enough that he could keep the wave but not have a mullet anymore. He did so well! He would put his face in Dave's hands so I could get to the back; he was very patient and didn't make a fuss.

Before:

After:

At 16 months, Miles can now blow kisses, give high-fives, and will sometimes wave bye-bye. He is still an incredibly picky eater and prefers things like noodles and rice. I still can't get him to drink juice and he doesn't want anything to do with a sippy cup. 

He loves to be outside! Luckily it was nice that week we were all feeling better, so I would put his jacket on and take him outside to walk around and explore. Some days, Jett would push him around the cul-de-sac in his little blue car. 

He is now at that age where he will take stuff from one place and stick it in another, like plastic teaspoons in the Easy Bake Oven, toys in the VCR, and mommy's make up in the dresser drawers. And every now and then we'll find an old nasty bottle in the most random place. Ew!

That was a nice week. And then...

Sunday we got home from church to find Miles had a weird rash in the creases of his elbows and on his tummy. We thought maybe he just got hot, but he woke up from his nap still with the rash. He seemed to be acting fine, so we just ignored it. Then on Tuesday he woke up with a fever and feeling pretty terrible, so Dave took him to the doctor where they found he had an ear infection. The doctor looked at the rash and said it was eczema; when Dave told me that I looked at him and said, "Did this doctor actually go to med school?! This is not eczema!" By then the rash had gotten worse and was now on his legs.

The doctor prescribed him an antibiotic called augmentum which tasted absolutely horrible! He would just throw it up every time we attempted to give it to him. So I took it back to the pharmacy to get it flavored, which didn't help because he still couldn't keep it down. So Thursday we called in and asked if they could prescribe something in a capsule so we could put it in his milk. That worked a little bit, but he still would vomit from us trying to give him Tylenol or ibuprofen, so who knows how much of the antibiotic actually stayed in him.

Thursday night he was up all night. Crying, coughing, and overall miserable. He was retracting and was working too hard to breathe. His heart was beating incredibly rapid, and his rash had spread to his hands and one of his ear lobes. Finally, we were able to go to sleep at 5am. Friday morning, I called the doctor and made an appointment for 4pm (that was the earliest time available). I made an appointment for Jett as well, as he was coughing terribly and had had a fever the previous day as well.

Dave and I spent the day taking turns sleeping. Finally, we all got into the car and headed to the doctor's office. You know there is something not right when the doctor comes in immediately after the nurse. Usually we sit waiting for at least 15 minutes before he shows up. The nurses all looked worried, and Dr. McCune seemed very concerned, but you could tell he was afraid to tell us his assumptions. They gave Miles a breathing treatment and listened to his chest. He looked at his rash and didn't know what to make of it. After quickly looking at Jett, he told us that we needed to take Miles to the ER as fast as possible.

We got to the ER in American Fork at about 5pm and Dave went back with Miles where they took his vitals and asked some questions. I sat in the waiting area with Cruise and Jett since they won't let any children under 14 in the back area unless they are being treated. I called my sister Abby to come pick them up and take them back to our house, which was so nice of her because she was already tired and had things of her own to do. While we waited, I called Texas Roadhouse and put in an order for dinner since we all hadn't eaten yet. Once Abby got there, I had Dave go with them to pick up the food and go home to get his car.

While I stayed with Miles, the doctor informed me that they were previously worried he had meningitis, but from what they could tell, he didn't have that at all. But because he was in desperate need of some antibiotics and fluids, they decided to start an IV. I hate watching my babies get IVs. It takes them at least 3 tries to finally get a good line. Once they got the IV in, they took some blood to run some tests on. Then they got his fluids and antibiotics going, and they managed to get some Motrin in him as well. The poor kid was tired and in pain and just wanted to sleep, but people kept coming in to poke and prod. Finally, the x-ray technician came in and took an x-ray of his chest right there in the room.

After that, Dave came back with dinner and the laptop so Miles could watch Sesame Street and get his mind off his hand being all taped up with the IV.

Eventually, the doctor came back in and said he needed to talk to our pediatrician, but that he thought Miles could go home. He did say that the x-ray showed a little viral pneumonia, but that it wasn't something we needed to be too concerned about. We were instructed to keep an eye on his breathing and to continue to give him breathing treatments, antibiotics, and Tylenol or ibuprofen. He told us that if our pediatrician even mentioned the word meningitis, that he would have to do a spinal tap on Miles to rule it out. I prayed and prayed that he wouldn't have to do that. So he left to call our doctor and I had to leave to relieve Abby of watching the other two monkeys.

Dave called me on my way home and told me that the doctor didn't need to do a spinal tap and that they could go home! Miles came home so happy! He was happy to have that IV out of his hand, happy to not be bothered by strangers, and happy to be able to snuggle with us in our bed.

That night, he still didn't sleep too well, but with some ibuprofen, he seemed to feel a little better. He woke up happy and wanted to play. He was walking around and being his silly self again. He did continue to have a fever, so the worst part was getting him to take his medicine, but once that was in, he felt a lot better.

We were instructed to follow up with either our doctor or one in the practice to be sure he is doing well and won't need to go back to the hospital. Everything looked like it was improving and the fluids and antibiotic helped a lot. The doctor told us to keep doing what we're doing and that he didn't need to return to the hospital. The rash is still rampant, but they attributed it to the respiratory virus that he is currently fighting.

Hopefully this will blow over quickly and that Miles will get feeling better fast. We are so sick of being sick!

And that was January. I hope the rest of the year goes significantly better.

Teacher Gifts, An Epic Playdate, Miles is 15 Months, & Christmas 2014

Teacher Gifts

This year I decided to do cookies in a jar for the teachers. I always have a hard time deciding what to do for the teachers since it's not just 2 I have to give to. With Jett's teacher, Cruise's teacher, Cruise's 3 aides, Cruise's speech therapist, and Cruise's bus driver, I have 7 gifts to put together. So I put together Hot Chocolate Cake Box Cookies in a jar. You just get mason jars, devil's food cake mixes, mini chocolate chips, and mini marshmallows. You put the recipe on a little 3x5 card, put a ribbon on it and voila! A gift. For Cruise's teacher, I got a pair of wood mixing spoons that double as drumsticks since he is a drummer. I hope they liked them. 

An Epic Playdate

Last Friday, we had Claire over for a playdate for a couple of hours. It was awesome. She and Cruise played in the hammock and then..."Wanna see my lab?" "Oh, I'd LOVE to!" And from there, they made a huge mess doing "science". It was the best. Claire is so spunky and naturally excited just like Cruise. I know of no little girl who would not only go along with Cruise's science stuff, but actually share in the excitement and suggest other experiments they could try. The two of them played and worked so easily together and it was the best playdate I've ever witnessed. I can see why he thinks so much of her. This is the friend Cruise needs. She is just so wonderful and I hope they remain friends for a very long time. In fact, I'm seriously considering an arranged marriage. It was pretty cute; we asked her what she asked Santa for for Christmas and she said, "Nothing. I don't want anything. I have everything I could possibly want." Oh my heart.

Miles is 15 Months

Miles turned 15 months on the 22nd. He is now walking! He's still a little wobbly, but he's getting pretty good at it. He still hates shoes and socks, but I can't really blame him; I hate them too. He has learned how to sign 'more' and says "ah duh" when he's all done. He is good at pointing to things he wants and tries to communicate as best as he can. He babbles a lot and likes to chat up the ladies in  Relief Society. He loves Sesame Street the most and cries if you turn it off in the middle of an episode. Ha ha! Stinker. 

He loves to swing in the baby swing and the hammock. He is great at hiding things from his bottle, to the remote, to the boys' toys. He is an incredibly picky eater. The only crackers I can get him to eat are fishy crackers. He loves rice, noodles, and will eat meat, but doesn't love it. I can't get him to drink juice or anything sweet. He doesn't like sweets at all. I don't know where this kid came from. But he's a sweetheart.

Christmas 2014

Christmas Eve started with us picking up the house, making cookies for Santa, and then Cruise, Jett & Dave going fishing at Deer Creek. They were gone for about 4 hours, so while they were gone, Miles hung out and I cleaned and got dinner going. Growing up, we always had a spaghetti dinner for Christmas Eve. And as much as I don't like spaghetti, it really is an easy meal to make. So I made some meatballs, garlic bread, sauteed green beans, and the sauce. I had the water on the stove ready to boil, I go to the cupboard and quickly learn that we are completely out of spaghetti for our spaghetti dinner! Luckily Dave was on his way home from fishing so I had him pick some up from the grocery store.

The boys returned with the spaghetti and three beautiful rainbow trout. Each of the boys caught one; Dave caught the biggest one which was a little over 13 inches. They all had a blast!

Dave's brother John joined us for Christmas Eve dinner. After dinner we read the Christmas story from the Bible and then the madness ensued with family gifts. The boys opened their gifts from Grandma & Grandpa Ybarra. Cruise & Jett both got spy glasses and an I Spy board game. Miles got a little doggy that sings and goes over numbers and letters. Earlier in the week we received a few boxes at our door that had a dehydrator, six cans of freeze dried food for storage, and a really nice emergency kit. Thank you so Grandma & Grandpa Ybarra!

Despite our best efforts to sway John's decision to spend an obscene amount of money on us, he went ahead and did it anyway. He bought Cruise a Zoomer (which Santa already had bought for him, so immediately I was trying to figure out what on earth we were going to do about that), Jett got a giant Star Wars Lego set, he got me some workout clothes from Lulus that should never cost as much as they did, and he gave Dave an equally obscene amount of money. So I felt a little embarrassed to gift him a $15 Starbucks gift card and a bag of spiced walnuts that I had made. Don't get me wrong, I was more than grateful, but I don't like people spending that much money on us, especially when it's a sibling. 

Then we had the boys open their presents from us. Instead of getting Cruise & Jett pajamas like we usually do, we got them bathrobes. They already had enough pajamas, so we figured the robes would be fun. Jett got a Batman one and Cruise got a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle one. Miles got some nice fuzzy pajamas that say Snuggle Monster on it. We also gave them each a book: Cruise got one called I Am Albert Einstein, Jett got The Three Ninja Pigs (a spin-off of The Three Little Pigs), and Miles got a board book of Goodnight Moon. We also gave them our old desktop, but we've been having trouble getting the Internet to work on it, so we'll be working on that this week. 

My sisters and I rotate who gives to who each year. This year my sister Ruth had me. She got Cruise & Jett a really nice stamp set and Miles got some really cute puzzles. Thanks Ruthie!

My Grandmother got the boys each a $10 gift card to Target. She also gave us a check which pretty much paid for our Christmas Day dinner, which was wonderful. Thank you Grams!

Dave & I decided on not exchanging gifts this year but he cheated anyway and bought me a necklace. In high school, Dave made me a sterling silver infinity necklace in his jewelry class. I wore it every day until one day when Jett was little, I was outside on the grass talking with someone. While I was holding him, he grabbed my necklace and it broke, sending the infinity charm flying into the grass. I spent the evening crawling all over the yard in tears, trying to find it. I never was able to recover it and I was just devastated. So for Christmas this year, Dave bought me a really nice, sterling silver infinity necklace with cubic zirconium stones, and I love it. 

For Dave, I made him a little coupon book, which essentially cost me nothing, but he loved it.

After presents, we bathed the boys and had them leave out milk & cookies for Santa and a carrot for the reindeer. 

Finally after the kids went to sleep, we went to work on getting the toys out, Miles' car put together which was a huge pain, and Cruise's lab set up. It was a long and exhausting evening. We finally got to bed around 1am, and the boys came into our room around around 5:30. So they stared at their gifts for about an hour and a half until we finally let them open them. Which really says something about their self-control. I was pretty impressed. 

The boys had been talking about "catching Santa"; they wanted me to rig something up, like a trip wire, so we could get a picture of Santa. I found a website where you can insert a picture of Santa into a picture, so I took a picture of the living room and added Santa. I showed them in the morning and they thought it was pretty awesome. They were, however, scared that Santa would be mad, but I assured them he still would come next year. 

The original plan was to give Cruise the Zoomer he had been asking for for months and a flying car that Jett had asked for. But because Cruise already got a Zoomer, we had to switch things up a bit, which in the end turned out great because Jett decided he wanted a Zoomer as well last minute. So we labeled the Zoomer and the flying car to both Cruise & Jett. 

Jett got a toolbox with some tools, a tool bench, a pirate ship kit for him to build, an EasyBake Oven along with a blue apron and an EasyBake cookbook I put together. Dave made Jett's tool bench that he can do all of his hammering and building on. Cruise and Jett both got playdoh, an Imaginext action figure, a Simpsons Lego figure, a peppermint lollipop, an M&M candy cane, and a toothbrush.

Cruise got a Bumblebee Transformer, some Hex Bugs, and a chemistry set & a lab.

The chemistry set was our huge project this year. Cruise had found on-line a $1,000 chemistry set that he fell in love with. It was in a really nice, hand carved wood box and had all the glassware and chemicals you would need for a legitimate chemistry set. Obviously there was no way he was getting that set, so I set out to make one that he would be excited about. 

First I had to find a box to put it all in. I wandered around looking at every second hand store trying to find something I could work with but nothing came up. So I stopped by Joann's and took a gander at their wood aisle and decided on a wood crate and two smaller crates half the width and depth but the same length. I figured I could use the smaller two for the doors and attach them with hinges. So I went to the hardware store and got hinges, a lock, and some stain. The doors already had shelves, so Dave had to make some shelves for the main crate. He also needed to cut some dowels to keep supplies in the door so they wouldn't fall out. 

For supplies, I bought a student kit on Amazon of plastic ware. I also got him a measuring cup and measuring spoons. I then went on Pinterest and rounded up a bunch of experiments that he would enjoy and that weren't too difficult. I put those in a little booklet for him. From there I gathered most of the ingredients he'd need to do the experiments. The things that wouldn't be very safe for him to play with, I left in my possession, the other stuff I put in his set: glue, baking soda, vinegar, food coloring, dry active yeast, and balloons. I also got him some goggles, rubber gloves, and a lab notebook. It pretty much took forever to put it all together, but it turned out pretty awesome, if I don't say so myself.

For Miles, we got him a drum, a really cute Cookie Monster that opens and closes its mouth, eats cookies, and talks. We also got him a little magnetic fishing set and a Little Tykes car. In his stocking he got an M&Ms candy cane and a stuffed Olaf that talks when you squeeze it. He absolutely loved his car and Cookie Monster. At first he was a little nervous feeding Cookie Monster, thinking his fingers would get munched off, but eventually he realized he'd be just fine.

After presents, we had breakfast. Growing up, it was tradition to have this huge waffle breakfast, but we're not huge waffle people. This year I bought sausage bits and threw them in with scrambled eggs and bought some Rhodes cinnamon rolls that I baked up in the oven. Easy peasy. We had hot cocoa and orange juice with our breakfast and the kids actually loved everything! Especially the eggs.

After breakfast, the boys played with their gifts and played in the snow. We quickly learned that we made the mistake of giving them things that require adult supervision. We were super excited to get some snow since we hadn't gotten any thus far. It was a Christmas miracle!

For Christmas dinner, we had a 3 bone Herb Crusted Prime Rib with horseradish & au jus, garlic sweet potatoes, oven baked Parmesan asparagus, loaded sweet potatoes, Rhodes rolls, sparkling cider, and for dessert, pumpkin pie and chocolate silk pie. It was amazing, expensive, but amazing. And of course, the boys complained about most of it. Cruise mostly ate rolls and Jett mostly ate mashed potatoes. 

Unfortunately this Christmas, I was beyond stressed. And the closer it got to Christmas, the more exhausted and frazzled I was. I got 5 hours or less of sleep every day for the past two weeks. My therapist warned me that if I tried to do more than was necessary, that I could push myself into depression or mania again. It didn't help that I wasn't able to get to the gym for two weeks because Miles had been so sick and Christmas plans were imminent. So here I am, a day after Christmas, completely deflated and borderline depressed. So next year I'm going to have to tone things down a bit and not do as much as I would like to get done. Maybe I'll get to enjoy Christmas a little more next year. 

Today, Dave took the older two to Jett's school to go sledding and snowboarding. They had a lot of fun and I think they really needed to get out; they were experiencing a little cabin fever. 

I am truly grateful that we were blessed to have such a nice Christmas. I am grateful we were able to get the things the kids really wanted. But I'm even more grateful for my Savior and for the amazing sacrifice not only He, but His mother and our Heavenly Father made. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!