On the mend

Connell went back to school on Thursday and did quite well according to his teacher. He did get a time-out and claimed that is was "so hard to remember all those rules being absent for a week" (yeah, right!), but I guess he made it without too much coughing and with a normal amount of energy. Today will be day #2 and then he gets the weekend to relax (has anyone ever seen my boys relax!?!?!)

No one else in the household has come down with the virus so we are very thankful for that. We have gotten better at washing hands and using sanitizer and so hopefully we can continue to be diligent over the winter.

Connell knows that it is coming -- since he is well again, he will need to get his seasonal flu shot this weekend. Liam and I got ours last week while Connell was sick and home with dad and so Ray will have to hold him down. Connell still is deathly afraid of shots and blood being drawn and so it is a chore to accompany him while either is occurring.

Liam loves preschool!

Liam just adores preschool (and we were VERY nervous about him starting given his stranger anxiety history, etc.) In fact, yesterday he said, "I just LOVE Ms. Jennifer!" (that's his teacher). She is a sweetie and we have known her for 3 years now. Ms. Lisa is the helper and we have known her even longer.

The class is quite unique -- small and all male. They have 4 different options for 3 yr old classes at our church and the Mon-Wed. morn option is the least popular. It worked best into our schedule and I don't regret him being in the class that he is. But it makes me feel even stronger now that I will enroll him in a larger daycare center (with a preschool program) next year when I go back to work so that he gets some exposure to lots of kids and some females before kindergarten!

This is a picture I took of the picture they brought home today of the whole class. I honestly don't know who is who, but there is a Jacob, James, John Henry, Joe, Henry, Charlie, Nick, Riddik and Liam in the photo -- and I bet you know which one is Liam!

Are you sick of hearing about illnesses yet? (no pun intended)

Well, we saw Connell's regular doctor this afternoon about the residual cough and he thought that perhaps this is a case of the secondary bacterial infections that they are seeing occur with the influenza A (H1N1). He couldn't be sure because Connell's temp has been down for almost 2 days (after 5 of being up). Since the cough really started in full force when the fever subsided, it sounds like the start of a second infection and so he prescribed Azithromycin to help with the clearing of the lungs and the cough. Connell will be out of school for several more days. He has already missed 4 days of school.

As you can see, the medical clinics require that the influenza patients wear masks during their entire stay. Connell wasn't happy about that.

I tried...

After not having a temp for >24 hours, very little night coughing and generally feeling much better (and no longer listening to mom and dad's orders to stay sitting or lying on the couch), I sent Connell to school today for the first time since last Wed. Well, within an hour I had a call from the nurse asking me to come back to pick him up because he simply was coughing way too much. She described his cough as "horrific" and I was shocked because it was a little strong hearing a nurse who seems to see all types of illnesses for a living call my son's cough "horrific!"

I'm at wit's end at this point because Connell doesn't listen to anything we say anymore (like drink this, take that, lie down, etc.) and so honestly he is never going to get better. It doesn't scare him to think that he might have to go to the hospital with pneumonia. Nothing. He still gags up vitamins we give him, refuses to drink things that we try to give him (warm water with lemon and honey, etc.) and won't even take many of the meds that we have tried. It's probably frustrating for him as well since he has never been this sick before in his 5 years of life, but we just can't understand why he can't follow what we ask of him. The only thing I can think of relates to the fact that some kids go through some strange changes the first month or two of kindergarten and perhaps the fact that this illness combined with the second week of kindergarten is playing into it.

H1N1

Well, Connell's flu held on throughout the weekend and so we knew that it fit all the criteria of H1N1 (absolutely textbook case down the line --- high fever for many days, sore throat, cough, runny nose, aches, chills, fatigue, etc.) There is no medicine for any of the flus -- regular or H1N1 as we found out doing research and talking to the nurse on the nurse line. In fact, since the seasonal flu hasn't started yet, all influenza A cases are being considered H1N1 (without testing specifically for it). After the fever hit 5 days, the nurse suggested taking him in simply to rule out strep and pneumonia, bronchitis, ear infection, etc. which is exactly what the trip to urgent care yesterday evening did for us. So we are happy to report that he only has H1N1 (influenza A) which actually is good news! It's persistent and caused him to miss many days of school, but fortunately in 99% of people like Connell -- it shouldn't cause anything serious. Even the urgent care doctor said that this has all been over-hyped which is good to know because I have been feeling it from people. So many common people have made me feel like the whole family should be quarantined which is not true! The doctor we saw actually said that all the schools and daycare centers have many cases of H1N1 and so it's everywhere already! And in retrospect, Liam didn't have it -- he only had a fever for a matter of hours and then that was it. He was acting very strange over the weekend so we were sure that it was coming back, but nothing ended up coming. So Liam is back to preschool today and feeling great as Ray and I are. Will keep you posted though...

Health Update

Connell woke this morning with a 101.2 temp (so comparable to yesterday's) and has been complaining of a sore throat and coughed a lot in the night. He is also sneezing. Sounds like a classic case of the flu. We are unsure how long he will be out of commission. We had hoped that by next week he could return to school, but we'll see how the weekend goes. Liam's fever never returned and he seems fine despite a minor cough, but we're watching everyone closely. I am so nervous that I will come down with something spending so much time around these "sickies". It's going to be a rough winter.

Our family has succombed to illness....

Both boys have been sick in the last few days. Given the strict fever guidelines set by the district to prevent the spread of flu and other illnesses, you have to wait until 24 hours or more after a fever of 100 or more is gone without the help of fever-reducers to go back to school. Since Connell had a temp of 101 this morning and it has not gone down, that puts him out of school today and tomorrow. Liam missed preschool yesterday with a similar fever. Each have a little tickly cough which is sporadic but never exhibited any other signs of illness (like runny nose or sore throat -- as far as we know). So Connell is very sad to be missing school and I am getting a little bored of staying home with boys who don't want to be sick and think that they can do anything they want. Let's just hope that Ray and I don't catch anything.

School starts...

So Connell started kindergarten yesterday morning although it was with a parent and they didn't get to ride the bus. Today was the first day on the bus and without a parent for the full 2 1/2 hours. We'll see how it goes...

Liam starts preschool this morning although it is a parent-child day as well. I have never gone with my kids on those days as I am always home with the other while Ray attends. With Connell at kindergarten, I am able to accompany Liam this year. He seems excited about preschool even though we thought he might buck the idea. Also will let you know...

Liam hits a few milestones...

We have two things to be excited about for Liam who is almost 3 yrs & 3 mos now.

First, it has been 5 full days now with no potty accidents - wet or poopy. Hopefully Liam can keep up the good work since preschool starts this week (with Mon the 14th being his first full morning on his own) and so he barely made it in under the wire! Since he finally made the "5 perfect days in a row", he got to have his super-duper Thomas and Percy carnival toy that I purchased on July 21st (and had been adorning the top of the entertainment center since). We brought it down, put it together and the boys have been enthralled with it ever since.

Secondly, he is now riding his big boy bike without training wheels! He is very proud of himself as you can see in the photo. So he and Connell have races up and down the street -- with the neighbors as well (in the photo Liam is way back in the back, but determined nonetheless). At least he doesn't have the cumbersome training wheels to hold his back (not to mention the screechy noise they made!) We have spent countless hours outside this summer since it was unseasonably cooler and less humid and so all the practice on their bikes and scooters really paid off (Connell began this season without his training wheels but he is still very happy for Liam already getting rid of his!)

Guess who went to Big Lots today?!?!

Yes, we three took a drive to St. Louis Park to the nearest Big Lots. I love shopping for non perishables there! They had lots of special clearanced items in addition to their normal deals. For instance, I got packs of fruit roll ups (10 per pk) for $.65 a pk. Can't beat that. Mostly the boys' stash of snack items (crackers, cookies, etc.) come from there. It looks like a lot of junk food all put together, but will be their snacks for a couple of months probably and will be shared with neighbor kids as well!

Is this injury worthy of making the blog?

I wasn't sure. Liam had a bout with the recliner this morning with the recliner winning. You can clearly see that he will have quite the black eye by tomorrow. And this was on top of a rash around his mouth that he has had lately. Quite a sight for sore eyes -- no pun intended!

Ready for winter...

For some reason this was the same time last year that I got the "crochet bug" and starting whipping up all types of sweaters, hooded sweatshirts, etc.


Here I am modeling one that I finished this morning (the striped one). It's very warm and you can't tell it from the picture, but has a wide collar that folded down. Turned out ok. I'll have to wear it on some chilly winter day...



Here is one that I made last year although I am not sure that I ever had it on the blog. It is a European circle coat design and I love how it looks with the slanted sides and circle design. It honestly is a big circle with the arm holes made in the appropriate spots.



And I love this dainty poncho/capelet that has little trapezoids all over it. I made it right at the end of my stint last year and so I never got to wear it.