Tuesday, June 14, 2016

How is it the middle of June??!

So baseball season continues.  I've been trying to get  out of the house more and more lately, but the past week and half CJ got a mild case of Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease.  Of course, Bubby got it immediately after but his case was severe.  He was covered in blisters from head to toe--the worst on and around his bottom and hands.  And mouth.  And feet.  Ok, it was bad all over.  Then he started to get pink eye.  I tried treating it with breastmilk--which has definitely worked in the past (don't think I'm a hippie).  But when it wasn't getting any better by the next day and was worse I knew I had to take him in.  As usual it was a Sunday, so we went to the Urgent Care and saw the same doctor as we did in February.  I really liked him then so I was happy we got the same person.  He gave me the news that he had the HFMD, pink eye in both eyes, and a double ear infection.  Awesome.  :(  Now it's been 10 days and Bubby has a fever again.  We went to his usual doctor's office, but his regular doctor is on maternity leave so we saw another new doctor who has no hair.  (That's important because I drew a picture of the doctor beforehand for CJ ,and he had hair in it.)  He said he still has the ear infection, and by that point his temp was 102.8.  Bubby has also lost some weight which wasn't suprising because he wasn't eating well from the HFMD blisters in his mouth, and now he's been spitting up/puking a little from congestion.  I just want my baby to feel better. 

We haven't been to church in over 2 weeks because of the sickness.  I thought hard about going Sunday, but they say the HFMD can still be shed for at least 2 weeks after in their "diaper" and since they change diapers in the nursery, I didn't want to risk anyone else getting it from us.  Just didn't seem worth it.  We watched church online instead which was fun for CJ to pretend to play guitar, drums, and piano while we (I) sang.

CJ graduated from speech therapy today!  His speech therapist was really excited for him since most kids who enter the program don't get out before they turn 3.  We really bonded with her, so I'm nervous that he'll be upset when he doesn't see her anymore.  We have seen her out when we went somewhere once before so hopefully we'll bump into her again.  We gave her orange marigolds planted in a blue pot since she's also an Illini grad as a thank you present.  I was really worried I'd kill them before we could give them to her.  He's speaking in sentences now, has more clear words, and is 100% caught up to other kids his age which is great.  He loves to learn which helped a lot.

One thing we've been trying to decide is what we want to do as far as preschool goes.  A lot of kids start at 3 and get 2 years of preschool before they enter kindergarten, but since his birthday is Sept 19 he'd get 3 years before kindergarten.  I really was leaning towards sending him this fall just to get a little time away and to give him some socialization, but Hubby didn't really think we should send him and he had very convincing reasoning.  So we decided that we wouldn't send him and we'll reevaluate next year.  Instead, I am going to attempt to join a BSF group that's about 45 minutes east of us.  They have (I'm told) a great preschool program for kids his age while I'd get time away studying the bible with like-minded people.  When we're better, we're going to start going to church on Wednesdays which will give him even more social time while learning about God with like-minded people in addition to Sunday school.  Then if we're really feeling up to it, we'll go to story time at the library maybe a couple times a month.  That part we'll definitely have to go by how it's going because the past few times we've gone to toddler time, he has had difficulty controlling his emotions and behaviors in that setting.  I'm also going to be more intentional about teaching him things.  He already knows his letters and can usually count to ten and recognize those numbers.  I found an online play and Bible based curriculum for three year olds called ABC Jesus Loves Me (and it's all free unless you want to buy their books).  Most of it is just playing games, reading books, singing songs, and doing crafts to learn the things three year olds should be learning.  I mostly like it because I have know idea what 3 year olds should be learning, haha!  It also gives me flexibility to pick and choose what we do if something isn't working, if he's having trouble with something, or if we're short or long on time.  They also have age appropriate curriculums for all kids 1-5.  I haven't looked at the others, but I think the one year old curriculum is teaching them a new sign each week, singing, reading the Bible and other books, and praying for their character.

I was looking at my projects that I was doing before, and I finished the barn quilt.  I made one for my mom.  I also have gotten as far as staining the table and one of the two chairs that are outside.  It's hard to get stuff done when you've got little kids.  They weren't joking when they said that kids were hard work. 

I am enjoying getting to chat with my 84 year old neighbor Brad every day now that it's warmer out.  Yesterday, I was in conversation with him when Channer walked up and asked me for a hug. Brad said, "Oh yeah, get a hug from Mom. That's the best thing. You'll always want that no matter how old you are."  His voice trailed off at the end, and you knew he was thinking about how much he missed his mom and wife.  Thankfully they were Christians as is he so he has the joy of knowing he will see them again.   Having a neighbor like him definitely gives me good perspective on life.  I'm on one end of it and he's on the other.  He and my mailman are always telling me how quickly they grow up and how fast it goes, and I'm realizing how right they are.  Bubby is turing 1 in just a couple weeks and CJ is already getting close to being 3, and time just keeps getting shorter.

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