Back to Normal

We are slowly getting back to normal around here.  Knock on wood.  We took Husband back to the doctor last Thursday.  When he does something, he does it thoroughly and pneumonia is no exception!  He was not improving at all, and the fever and aches almost seemed like they were getting worse!  The doctor prescribed another antibiotic to go with the one Husband was already taking.  He is finally starting to improve.  He is still having horrible coughing fits, but not as often.  His ribs are really starting to hurt, which is no surprise.  I'm sure they're horribly inflamed.  I know from experience how much that hurts!  I went around him and called his boss last week to get his shifts covered.  There are good things and bad things to his schedule.  Bad being that when he works it's a 12 hour shift and he's on his feet the whole time.  He was definitely not up for that.  But I knew he wouldn't call in sick since he's used a sick day maybe once since he started working there in 2004.  I'm glad that we know his boss well enough that when I called he totally understood why I was calling for Husband.  He joked that he knew Husband is stubborn and would try to just work, and told me that my job was to make sure he stayed in bed and got better.  We both agreed that if he didn't take it easy, he'd probably end up hospitalized.  His boss is a good egg!  The plus side to his schedule is that his boss got coverage for two shifts and Husband didn't have to go back to work until today.  So he basically had a week to convalesce at home.  He definitely needed that time to rest.  For the first few days, he couldn't be up for more than an hour before he was wiped out and needed a 3 hour nap.  I will say I am grateful to live in the age of modern medicine.  There's lots of natural stuff out there to help you feel better, but the doctor reminded us that until antibiotics were discovered, pneumonia was a death sentence.  I'm glad that we just had to pay for a couple prescriptions and Husband is on the mend!  

Little Sister came down with some sort of bacterial infection.  White spots on her tonsils, fevers and chills.  Surprisingly not strep, but the doctor did an antibiotic anyway because it was obviously a bacterial infection.  I can't wait to start getting all the doctor bills!  But I am grateful that we have access to a doctor.

We have been working on potty training with Big Brother.  He is doing so well!  He is starting to realize on his own that he needs to go and will take himself!  Not 100% consistent, but most of the time.  So awesome!  The whole #2 is going to kill us both, though.  He is terrified to sit down for that business.  I won't share details, let's just say that all my usual tactics that worked with the girls don't work for him and I'm at a loss.  I even tried the whole make-him-clean-it-up-himself thing.  No bueno.  The first few times it freaked him out.  Now he finds some sort of pride in being able to clean himself up.  And since he's only 4 years old, he can't actually clean himself up.  So he'll disappear in the bathroom and when I go in he's covered, the bathroom is covered, and he says "I did it!  I cleaned it!"  Then I get to clean up his clean-up.  *sigh*  He'll get there.  We're still not sure what to do about school, so we've registered him for Kindergarten and Preschool and we'll make that decision closer to school time in the fall.

As promised, a picture of Little Brother's new bed.  Which he LOVES!

Our van hit the 100,000 mile mark!  Don't see that everyday!

Before Husband became the walking dead, a bunch of his co-workers decided we should all go sledding together.  We had to leave little brother at grandma's because he was just too little, but we took the other 3 kiddos and had a blast!  We went up to Park City and being above the inversion was so nice.  We wore the kids out.  Big Brother didn't want to eat his breakfast that morning, so by the time we finished he was starving.  He loved going down the hill, but didn't even have the energy to stand up by himself on the conveyer belt that hauled you up the hill.  When we'd hit the two hour mark that we'd paid for, we went to the car and I swear he ate 2 whole granola bars in 2 bites.  All with a look on his face of pure relief, as though he thought he really might starve to death.  Funny boy!

We had our monthly date with the cousins.  We usually do sleepovers, but since everyone's been sick we just traded kids long enough to go to the temple.  Here's Little Brother, Cousin E, and Little Sister.  Tired two-year-olds!

We were so excited for the Super Bowl this year:

A little sad that it was pretty much a bust from the start for our favorite team.  But we enjoyed having Husband's family over to watch the game.  The kids loved how we rearranged all the furniture to maximize seating.  They're a little upset that we put it all back.  Funny kiddos!  

And in other news, our favorite niece Cedie is getting married!!  Since her mom is in the midst of the throes of medical school and Cedie is getting married near my house, I get to help plan the wedding!  It's a little stressful (sooo many things on the checklist), but it's fun, too.  We took her wedding dress shopping and Big Sister was thrilled to be able to come.  We were going to FaceTime her mom, but that was a bust.  We sent pictures and videos of the various dresses, and I am grateful for modern technology that allowed my sister to be there in a way.  Cedie found the perfect dress, and she made me cry.  Goober.  It's going to be a crazy couple of months, but then again, isn't it always anyway?