First week of Summer Vacay!

Chunk has had a rough week.  This was Monday night when he still was fighting his fever.  I sat him down to fix the big boys dinner and he fell asleep in his chair.

Poor sleepy boy.

Then he perked up a bit on Tuesday and we were able to hit the movies to see Madagascar 3.

First movie trip!

(I promise Chef isn't sleeping, he's not fond of pictures.)

And these two were thrilled with being surprised with a movie theater trip.

And here's a happy Chunk.  If we could get rid of this nasty cough, we'd be golden!

He learned how to "drop" things and get them picked up for attention.  Fun times.

I promise, Spawn didn't miss out on all the fun.  He was up at his dad's when we hit the movie theater, but him and Chef have a movie date for the new spiderman movie that's coming out.  And we have him this coming week.  Plus, my boy-who-hated-school is begging to start homeschooling, so Monday after Chunk's doctor appointment, we're starting with some readin', 'ritin and 'rithmatic.

Still not to sure...

what's going on with Chunk.

We met with the pediatric allergist/immunologist today.  He's not totally sure that chunk's issues are environmental.  He did tell us to go ahead with the plan to get rid of the carpeting left in the house and the mold test.  He said there is a definite wheeze there, but that there's also a lot of upper respiratory noise.

The plan is to switch up his meds.  He'll be on Flovent and Singulair instead of Pulmicort.  He's also doing another round of antibiotics and prednisone.  The hope is that by switching meds we see a change in his breathing and that the antibiotics and prednisone clear up what's causing it.  He thinks that there's some bug causing him to get sick and that last time he was on the antibiotics it didn't get it all.

So, no real answers yet.  Hoping to see some change this weekend.  We go back Monday for a recheck.

And in Spawn news, we've made the decision to go forward with taking his adenoids out.  He responded well to the antibiotics, so they think that there was a long sinus infection causing some of his troubles, but he's still having issues sleeping and still has a small annoying cough and stuffy nose.  He feels that since he's responded well to treatment so far that this is one of the last puzzle pieces in figuring out what's going on.  He even told Spawn that he feels that after surgery he might be able to wean off all his meds and be med free this time next year!  I like that he really includes Spawn in all of our discussions and makes sure that he understand every thing we've done or are planning on doing.  Spawn did admit that he's nervous about having surgery, but he's excited at the prospect of not needed to be on an inhaler and nasal spray all the time.  His surgery is scheduled for Aug 7.

So I've been a downer the last few posts...but Spawn wants to start some stuff school wise, so we'll be jumping into a light schedule this coming week.  He's so excited!

Looking for answers...

Chunk is sick.  Again.

Over 2 weeks ago he came down with a nasty cold.  Fever, coughing, wheezing, the whole 9 yards.  Today we went back in for a recheck.  Last Wednesday he sounded so much better.  Then Saturday night he started back coughing- and ended up throwing up a few times.  This has happened a few times since then.  Get to the dr's today and he listens to his chest and isn't happy with what he hears.

We have to keep up the albuterol and pulmicort and get into the allergist for allergy testing.  If I can't get in within the next week I'm to go back to the regular dr for more prednisone.

We were also told to get rid of the carpets in the house and to do a mold test.  There's something that's making him sick and we need to find out what.

Luckily we didn't have much carpet left in the house.  Just the stairs and living room.  The Chef spent the afternoon ripping the carpet off the stairs and removing all the nails and nail strips.  He's going to paint them and we'll get something non slip to put on them for the goobers safety.  Tomorrow we'll check and see what's under the living room carpet.  So far since we moved in and ripped out carpet we've had decent wood floor underneath that just needed to be repainted.  So we're hoping to find the same thing in the living room.

Pink eye is still going through the house too.  The Chef is getting over it, I have it and Chunk had a gunky eye after his nap.

We also head back to the allergist with Spawn on Friday to see what course they will take next.  I think he's done better since his heavy duty round of antibiotics, but I'm interested to see what he says. There was talk of taking his adenoids out this summer, so I'm sure we'll talk about that as well.  I'm hoping they can just squeeze Chunk in at the same time, but we'll see.

No fun.

The heat is on....

It's the first heat wave of the summer here in NY.  And it's H.O.T.

To top it off, Chunk got a cold that *almost* developed into pneumonia.  It was a rough weekend/beginning of the week...fevers of 101-103, lots of nebulizer treatments, antibiotics and our usual prednisone battle.  The boy can not STAND prednisone.  He won't just spit it out, he gags himself on it and makes himself sick. The last few times we went the shot route as opposed to battling him, but this time, we decided to try it.  I think we're going to stick with the shot.  Anyways, the worry was because his O2 sats were low...between 83-85.  But he's better.  Thank goodness.  I'm sleeping again instead of being up all night with a cranky baby.  And when Momma is happy, everyone is happy.

Thankfully Chunk started feeling better just as the tempratures started to climb so we pulled out his new water table the other night for him to play with.  We had no idea it was going to be such a hit with the big Goobers too!

This is the water table we have...it's pretty neat.  We also added in some of the water toys that Chunk got for his birthday from his buddy.

I'm not sure where it was bought from, but I found one here.  We keep the big boat in the bath tub, but let them take the other pieces to the water table.  The neat thing about the boat is that all the little pieces fit inside.  You lift off the top and store away!

The other hit from his birthday was this.

We still have the ball pit section and the tunnel, but the tent section got ripped at his party.  Not Happy.

He's happy though with the parts he has left...especially since he can throw the balls out and then yell when he runs out to have someone to toss them back in for him.

Sweet Nut turned 7 too this month.  And his "bestest" present by far was this

And Cute Boy-who helped us pick out presents also chose this and this for him.

I'm excited, because, well, it is a neat game.  But mostly, because I can do this with Cute Boy...and Sweet Nut too!  

I'm all for things they they DON'T think are educational, but really are.  And I love that when they are playing it together, the game kind of MAKES them work together.  The goobers are very competitive and they are slowly getting that teamwork can be fun too.

Attack of the Germs.

It's been a rough weekend.

Spawn brought home pinkeye on Thursday.  Then Sweet Nut got sick at field day.  Then Chunk got a nasty cough and fever all weekend.  Oh and Sweet Nut got pink eye on Saturday.

The big ones are doing better.  Chunk is still pretty rough.  The dr upped his albuterol to every 4 hours, and he's also on prednisone and antibiotics.  We go back in the morning.

I'm hoping this combo of meds work.  Momma hasn't gotten a good night sleep in 3 nights now.  Chef traded missing his soccer game so I could go to a meeting tonight for on call duty tonight.  I know I'll still be up though.

We go back to the dr to get rechecked in the morning.  Fun times in the goober house.

Tot School too!

So Chunk turned one this month.  I'm still not sure where the time goes, but I've finally had to accept that he's one.  He's not walking yet, but he's getting brave enough to let go when he's standing up, so I guess it's coming soon.

He started last month going to the daycare that Cute Boy goes to, but he's only going one day a week.  He wasn't too sure about it at first, but now he has a bit of a cry right when I leave-but that's quickly solved because he gets dropped off at breakfast.

Spawn's math books came a couple of weeks ago and he's been begging me to start them, so we did.  We're not full force in them, because he still has a week of "school" left...if you can count field day today and 3 half days next week.  Usually, Chef will take the middle goobers out to play while Spawn works and it's just me and Baby Chunk inside with him.

I've been toying with the idea of Tot School for Chunk for a few weeks.  The plan is to have some safe "educational" things he can do while Spawn works as well.  I didn't plan on starting for a few months yet-you know, I'm still in denial that my baby boy is 1.  But we decided last night to go for it.  Accidentally.

I had stopped off after getting Cute Boy from school at the grocery store.  And of course, he asked for candy.  But he asked for his brothers too, so I couldn't really say no...that and they were on sale.  He picked Mini M&Ms for them.  Spawn inhaled them and left the tube on the table...so I started playing with Chunk, putting his puffs in there and he'd pour them out.  Then I decided to see if he would put them in and he did!

So I went digging in our "homeschool box" (which is a box of stuff we bought to do Cute Boy's homeshcool Prek before we started at this daycare he's at) and pulled out some pom poms.  Tossed a bunch on his tray and a few more into a cup...and it kept him occupied for about 15 minutes-putting them into the tube, taking them out, putting them into the cup...

Of course there were a few times that he tried to taste test them, so please don't do this with your tot if you can't be watching them.

And here's a shot of Spawn working on some math while the Tot School was having fun.

So, we're adding Tot School to the mix.  I've got a few other ideas that he can do with things we have around the house...I encourage you, if you have a tot, think about it.  It's really nothing that you aren't doing already.  We teach them new things all day long.  

If you are interested in learning more about Tot School or seeing what other Tots are up to, check out 1+1+1=1.  Carisa's son is the one who coined the phrase Tot School for his little brother and she ahs a weekly link up where other Tot Schooler's post what there tot is up too.  I've been reading her blog for awhile for things with the older boys and I'm excited about starting Tot School with Chunk.  The nice thing about her link up, is that the Tot's age is listed right in the links, so you don't have to sift through all of them to find what other tots the same age as your tot are up too, although I have been to get ideas for when he's older.  We'll also be doing her Summer Challenge with the Big Goobers once school gets out, so look for a post coming on that as well!