Two Hours Later...

Today, I took Jon to a specialist. We are trying to figure out why he ended up in the ER twice over six weeks with the hope that if we know WHY, we can avoid it happening again or have the tools on hand to keep us home instead. Thankfully, Allen was able to come pick up Maddie and Ben and take them to school, because it would have been hard to keep all three kids busy for two hours. Jon and I were talking with a nurse or doctor for almost two whole hours and we don't really have more answers.

For now, the doc does not think he has asthma. There are three main signs that indicate asthma and Jon is negative on all three: we have no family history of it, he doesn't have wheezing with certain temperatures or activities, and he does not seem to have allergy problems. We have set up an appointment for allergy tests next month, just to rule that out completely, but the doctor doesn't think that his episodes were related to allergies, either. In the end, this doctor believes that both times at the ER, Jon may have had sudden onset croup.... that really would not have been avoidable, but now we do have the meds on hand to try to keep him from getting croup. I think the last thirty minutes of the appointment the nurse and doctor were helping me make a list of when to give Jon which medicine. We have five new ones now and I need to make a flowchart so that Allen and grandparents can tell what to give him if he starts getting the sniffles.

The REAL Birthday

It is hard for me to believe that my three "babies" are actually FIVE years old today. How can it seem like just yesterday, yet, seem like a life-time ago that they entered this world? Somehow the years whizzed by, but we've had many, MANY long days. Today didn't go quite like I planned. I baked cupcakes all day, Allen got home and we ate quickly, let the kids blow out candles, and eat half their cupcakes, then we rushed out the door to a Cub Scout awards ceremony and fall festival. Unfortunately, the adults who planned the meeting didn't do a good job -- they forgot to recognize all the hard work of the boys and, instead, made announcements of stuff going on through February. The festival was chaos and candy. We let Will pick a few treats and we left, getting home just in time to open one gift then head to bed. I was bummed -- maybe even more than the kids were. Though they did get a cake and a song, I had planned to celebrate a bit more. They were all excited to get the helmets and can't wait to ride their big wheels with them on. Ben put his on and ran across the house and bashed into the steel front door head-first. He was THRILLED that the helmet worked, but not thrilled that I told him to stop. Hopefully, they'll get their big present tomorrow.

It is fun listening to their conversations about their birthday. Since they are five today, they are saying that they'll be six on their next birthday. The funny part is they are trying to convince us that their next and sixth birthday is next weekend (that's when their "party" is.) Earlier today, we stopped by the doctor's office to pick up some records. The three kids sat in the waiting room visiting with others while I was talking to the receptionist. I overheard a man ask who was the oldest, they replied, "We are all the same age." He said, "I know that, but who was born first?" The three replied in chorus, "WILL!" The man chuckled and tried clarifying what he meant, but they reiterated, "We are triplets! That means we were born at the same time and we are all the same age."

Last year, on their birthday, I quizzed the kids about their favorites. I thought it would be fun to see what their answers are a year later. Here are their replies (in the order they came to ask me what I was doing.)

Jon's Favorites

His favorite color - dark green

His favorite book - Captain Underpants

His favorite TV show - Power Rangers

His favorite toys - Phones

His best friend - Mama

His favorite thing to do - Play with dinosaurs

His favorite song - The ones on the TV, science is real

His favorite movie - Star Wars

His other favorite activities - play legos and tools

Ben's Favorites

His favorite color - blue

His favorite book - Dinosaur

His favorite TV show -  Power Rangers

His favorite toys - Cookie Monster, Big Wheel

His best friend - Jon

His favorite thing to do - play

His favorite song - Dinosaur Train

His favorite movie - Star Wars

His other favorite activities - swinging, Daddy throwing me in the air

Maddie's Favorites

Her favorite color - pink and purple

Her favorite book - Fancy Nancy and Barbie

Her favorite TV show - Word Girl

Her favorite toys - doll house and baby dolls

Her best friend - Daddy

Her favorite thing to do - color and make art and cook

Her favorite song - Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star

Her favorite movie - Barbie princess movie

Her other favorite activities - take pictures, ride my bike, and eat pizza

Purge Piles!

... and it has been another busy weekend. Saturday, Allen, the kids and I worked on the kids' rooms. While all of them (yes, ALL of them) were watching Saturday morning cartoons, I went through the little kids' closets and took out everything that was size 2T and below. It is funny that the kids will be five tomorrow, but they wear size 2 to 4 in shirts and 3 or 4 in pants. I've been trying to put them in 5s because the others are starting to be too short, but I haven't found any 5s that will stay up -- even with the straps pulled so they are as tiny-waisted as possible, they still won't stay put. The pile of outgrown clothes was enormous. I also cleared out some baby gear I've been hoarding... or maybe I just haven't made time to deal with it. After cartoons and a few "ahems" to remind everyone what my our plan was for the day, Allen helped Will clean his room, while I worked with the little kids on the toy room. We pulled out all the toys that had been confiscated or sorted to another room and we reorganized it all. After we had all the bins perfectly sorted, Will came to help with the purging. Somehow we got rid of a lot of toys -- or rather we WILL get rid of them when we have a garage sale in a couple weeks.

The stuffed animal pile has always been difficult to purge. The triplets got SO many stuffed toys when they were in the hospital because they were there around Christmas, and several benefactors bought toys for all the NICU babies. We spread all the stuffed toys out on a sheet (that was to keep their attention directed to one place,) and I pulled out all the animals that the kids are attached to and a few that tugged my heart strings. Each of the four kids picked up two toys -- one to keep, one to get rid of. Since all those toys are public domain, all the "get rid of" toys had to be approved by the others. If someone really wanted to keep one that someone else was ready to purge, they had to use their next "keep" vote on that animal. Usually, they ended up finding another they wanted more and most of the "purge" toys really were purged. We did the same thing with some other toy categories that we had overloaded.

The pile for the garage sale is getting to be big enough I won't be embarrassed to have a sale. I am hoping we are not biting off more than we can chew by adding another demanding weekend to our month, though. Sunday was not quite as busy. I planned on doing art with the kids, but it ended up being a Wii and football kind of a day. Allen helped me get enough PB&J made for school lunches for the next two weeks since we will be gone next weekend. This week is going to be crazy... the story of our life, though, right?

More than Pancakes: Griddle Art

I saw an interesting idea the other day: to put paper on a electric griddle and use crayons on it. One afternoon, while the little kids napped, Will (age 7) and I attempted to try this technique. NOTE: With constant adult supervision, this was a good project for Will who follows directions well, but I won't try it with the other kids until they are a few years older. The griddle gets extremely hot, and even the melted wax on the crayons gets pretty warm. Will and I each accidentally touched something hot at least once; it hurt, but didn't leave any marks. We covered the griddle with foil, set it on high heat with the paper right on the foil, and we used a hot pad when we needed to hold onto the paper.

When the crayon is colored onto the hot surface, it glides and blends like paint. The more layers, the more intense the color. We tried a few different backgrounds -- watercolor paper, paper textured like canvas, and canvas. The watercolor paper was much smoother and accepted color more easily. But the canvas textures were better for the "stamping" we did because the wax and pigments didn't soak in as quickly. The fabric canvas was primed on one side, and we learned the hard way that if the primed-side is against the heat (rather than facing up), it smokes and makes quite a stink.

 On one of our first pieces, Will was using a crayon sideways to make the ocean blue faster. It quickly melted down to where he couldn't hold it, so we used a paper towel to pick up the crayon lump. Our sort-of-an-accident left a pattern where the paper towel touched, so we experimented some more with the stamping and wiping. On the red and orange picture, we folded a paper towel and rolled it into a spiral (that's what the round shapes are.) When he pressed the paper towel into the wax, it lifted off some of the color. We both liked that technique enough that we tried it with a crumpled paper towel on the yellow and green one. Except for the picture of the boat and kite (to the side of the boat) and butterfly, the other pieces will be used as backgrounds in some other artwork later. The greens and browns are going to be part of a collage with Boys' Life magazine pieces (that's the plan for now, anyway.) This was a fun way to use broken and extra crayons and we did notice a huge difference in crayon brands -- Crayolas gave us the most intense color, cheaper brands seemed too waxy and didn't give us the same blend-ability and saturation. Stay tuned for more!

Same Song Second Verse

Around 11:30 PM last night, Jon came downstairs struggling to breathe. It wasn't just the normal wheezing that is cured by a breathing treatment, it was more like what we dealt with about six weeks ago, and after two unsuccessful neb-treatments he and I were on our way to the urgent-care ER again. This time was worse, as he was struggling so much to breathe and cough that he threw up before we left the house... then again and again in the car on the way, ... then a couple more times at the ER. I was struggling to keep my cool and prayed the whole way there (except when I was assuring Jon it was okay to throw up in the car.) At some point, on the way there, I was calmed. When we arrived, I scribbled our names on the list, but before I dotted the "i" of our last name, they were rushing Jon back for treatment. Thankfully, the nurse was the same nurse we had six weeks ago, and for Jon and me, that was really quite reassuring.

Last time, they gave him a breathing treatment and an oral steroid, and eventually he was able to breathe fine. This time, he had several breathing treatments, a steroid shot (which would act faster and not be thrown up), chest x-rays, a super-charged breathing treatment (that meant we had to stay three hours for observation,) several saline breathing treatments with oxygen, and an oral antibiotic once he was stabilized and not sick to his stomach. I thought I was scared before, but nothing compared to the fears I had when he was gasping for breath with his eyes wide in fear. Eventually, he was able to breathe better and he kept dozing off (understandable, considering the time and that he was sick). When all the meds kicked in, he was breathing comfortable, not struggling at all; his heart rate, breathing, and oxygen levels were back to normal; and his burst of energy hit. By that time, I was struggling to stay awake, but he kept on talking and talking and talking. I explained that I was a bit scared, and that sweet boy said, "Mom, I wasn't scared. Well, only when they gave me a shot - that was scary. But Mr. Phillip (the nurse) is a nice man and he helps you take care of me."

When he was discharged at 3:30 AM, he seemed just fine. Since he had messed up his jacket and pants, I wrapped him in a towel and clean shirt from the trunk, and we went home to get some sleep. Today, he is coughing a little bit, but you would never know what we were dealing with twelve hours ago. We are set up to treat croup and pneumonia with steroids and antibiotics for the week. Since the steroid will help his lungs but depress his immune system, he won't be going to preschool, MOPS, Wednesday night church, or play dates this week. He is a little bit bummed that he will miss the field trip to the pumpkin patch, but I promised we would do something fun and he is (so far) taking it pretty well. We have a follow up doctor visit later this week and I will talk to her about getting us some emergency steroids in case this happens again.

Mom and Me

This weekend Will and I got to go on a Cub Scout Mom and Me weekend. It was just one night at the Boy Scout camp, but we had quite the adventure. We were out the door by 6:30AM Saturday morning and made McDonald's our first stop. Just after I ordered our breakfast at the drive-thru, I smelled something odd. Assuming it was the van in front of me, I rolled up our windows and the smell grew worse. Will questioned, "Mom, why are the vents smoking?" I turned on the light to see what he was talking about and, sure enough, smoke was pouring into the van through the air-conditioning vents. I pulled out of the line and parked. We both hopped out of the car as I dialed my phone to call Allen. Just as I was doing that, several men jumped out of the van that had been in front of me. In normal conditions, it might have worried me that men were coming out of a van and toward me in the dark, but somehow I knew they had good intentions. Their suits may have been the give-away, but, then again, men in suits can be bad guys, too .... I just knew. One young guy said he used to work in an auto shop and said the smell and where it was coming from indicated that the A/C belt may have problems. He assured me that, if that was the case, it would be safe to drive it home. I walked to the window for our breakfast, then we headed home. We made a quick switch of the cars since I wasn't willing to drive an hour and a half in, what seemed to me, a bit of a hazard -- NOTE: last week, we had a flat tire, purchased two new tires, and replaced the failing alternator and battery. I was NOT about to test it again... yet.

Will and I arrived at the camp safe and sound with only one slight detour on the way. The sun was in my eyes and I didn't see a sign that indicated a turn-off. After driving south about five miles, I was wondering why the sun wasn't in my eyes as I expected it to be all the way. A quick check on my phone GPS indicated the missed turn and we headed in the right direction. Oddly enough, we camped with about five others who all missed the same turn-off because of the sunshine. We got there just fine, packed all our gear onto our backs, and managed the short hike to the camp site. He and I set up our little green two-person tent (minus the missing stakes.) We were among the first ones ready for the day and we sat and chatted while he anxiously waited for his friends.

When I was packing for this trip, I was nervous -- not scared, just a bit anxious that I didn't know what to expect. My last overnight with just Will and me was to Natchitoches a year and a half ago, and we stayed in a warm, cozy, clean bed and breakfast. I was not too sure I could handle the camping gracefully. Looking back, I don't really know what I was thinking. Allen assured me that this would be a cake walk for me --I had been a Girl Scout camper and counselor; I had survived a couple Central American trips staying in places without water heaters, trudging through the jungle in the dark searching for snakes, crocodiles, and bats, taking half as many clothes as I actually needed, and I even got through a night and day with no luggage (thanks to mom who let me wear her clothes.) He pointed out that the Mom and Me camp was geared toward moms who were afraid of spiders and chipped nail polish. He was right, it was fine, but many people were not excited about having latrines with no electricity or hot water. While Will and I waited for the rest of the pack, we watched moms and sons arrive with lots of air mattresses, coffee pots, and Christmas lights (no joke!) I did later wish I had an air mattress, but then we would have had to make two trips to and from the car. I could make do with the yoga mat under my sleeping bag.

The day was a blast and the weather could not have been better -- not cold, not hot, just right for this Goldilocks. Will had a lot of fun with his friends, the moms all got along, and the day was packed with activities that kept us busy and bonding. We roamed the campgrounds as a small group (the ones from his pack) and the boys earned some belt loops and pins. We did some sack races, watched a man explain and throw tomahawks, earned the maps & compass loop and pin, did archery, painted each others' faces, earned the art belt loop, tied knots, and waiting in a long line for BB guns before giving up and heading for dinner. We all had a really good time. Will was definitely more interested in playing with his friends, but that was okay since all the activities really were geared to do with mom.

This morning, Will and I got up, packed our gear, and took it to the car -- all before breakfast. He was really frustrated that I made him help me pack since all his friends were playing football while he worked. I pointed out to him that it was "Mom & Me" camp, not "Me watch Mom do all the work" camp. He pouted, but helped, and I wondered why the other moms didn't expect their boys to pitch in. We got home, unpacked, and started the laundry before Allen and the little kids got back from church. I was definitely ready for a nap, but Will and I DID have a great time.

Family Portraits: Through the Eyes of the Four-Year Olds

Ben, Maddie, and Jon all had a preschool assignment to draw a picture of their families. I really am fascinated by how different the same family can look through different eyes.

Ben described his drawing: "This is my monster family." From left to right, he explains, is Mama, Daddy (with glasses,) Ben (with lots of teeth and big hair,) Will (with spikey hair,) Maddie (top right,) and Jon.

Maddie explains hers, "That is Ben, Jon, Me, Daddy, and Mommy. We have six people and I drew five accidently. Will is just hiding and I need my crayons." Check out our feet! She is very much into painted toenails right now, so I expect when she adds Will to the picture, she may paint her toes.

Jon was nice enough to label the boys. He was too busy to sit and tell me about the picture. Maddie is at the top center with the long hair. Daddy is the tall one next to Mama (far right). As I was writing this, Jon edited his picture, too. He picked a different person to be Mama, and said, "I am making you a beautiful pirate, Mom. But you are prettier than my picture. Can I have special privileges since you are so pretty and I am so sweet?"