Mothers Day

For Mothers Day the kids each made me a card telling me why they love me.

A lot of Katheryn's is stuff that Kyle actually does (me too, but motherly Kyle). But I love her line "My second reason is well, you made me and if you didn't make me I wouldn't be here"

And I love that she signed her name as Kate.

Nick wrote his flower out as well. His writing has gotten so much better!

Nick also got to practice his typing.
This totally made me cry. Especially the "she likes the same movies that I like"

They also each made me a drink coaster for my hot tea.
I am the luckiest mommy!

And I think my kids get part of their crazy from me

A Little Boy and his Dog

Nickolas is FINALLY on the mend again.
We found out at the beginning of the week that Nickolas had an ear infection. And we got some antibiotics. I had really hoped that Nickolas would bounce back right away like Katheryn did the week before. But no such luck.
He continued to feel really lousy for the rest of the week.
Except today. Today he didn't want to cuddle all day. Today he was good moving around and sitting by himself and having some independence.

Today he was back to playing with the dog and eating and NOT dropping all of his food accidentally.
But Sammie can always try...

And instead of giving his food himself, Nick decided to wave it around before eating! Much to the disappointment of Sammie!

Now that Nick is starting to feel better, we have a whole bunch of new therapies lined up!

We do weekly speech therapy workshops for the next 6 weeks, and physiotherapy has started up again for our next block (8 or 12 weeks - I'm not sure). So there is lots of work to do in the coming weeks.

But today, Nick was just a little boy with is dog!

Ugg! Sick!!

Watching your children when they are sick is horrible. Especially when there isn't anything you can do. You know they feel lousy - you can see it in their face. Can't breathe, not hungry, fever. Just not interested in anything. But still trying really hard to still be happy!

Katheryn had it last weekend. Snotty and coughing, not sleeping through the night. Fever off and on for a couple of days. But still active on and off too. Then she got this lump on her neck! To say I freaked out would be an understatement. But after Kyle calmed me down and we decided it was not worth a trip to the ER, Katheryn continued to be active and we got in to see the doctor Monday morning.

Googling in this case was actually a good thing. Most cases of a lump on the neck in children under 10 years old is a swollen lymph node secondary to another infection (ear, throat ect).

A prescription for antibiotics later, and a fight for 2 days to get Katheyrn to actually taken them. And we got ourselves a whole new girl!

Talking up a storm and running around the house. She actually has so much energy that she would be racing around and stop and talk to me, and continued to run on the spot! I haven't seen her like this in months!

Nick on the other hand is being hit by a cold now.

He still has a smile for the camera, so at first you can't see how lousy he feels.

Then you notice how he just sits there with his mouth open - because he is so stuffed up.

And the constant leaking and...

OK well everyone knows the symptoms of a cold. Everyone knows how lousy THEY feel when they have this. But now I'm watching it in one or the other child and all I have is hot steam and tylenol at my disposal. And food and fluids. And rest.

Hopefully we are on the mend now. I haven't seen so much snot is a long time!

And I am really glad that I stocked up on a 6 pack of kleenex boxes last month! (I think we have 1 left)

I've been worried off and on about Nick. Is he getting enough fluid, is he dehydrated? How is his shunt? His bladder? Do inflamed sinuses put pressure on the shunt or increase ventricles? (Never heard of it, but there is always a first time). How long is too long to be sick?

Is there ANYTHING I can do to make him feel better?

And should i still make him do physio? Or is cuddling better?

I can see how harder he has to work to do things. He's not sitting as straight, he's supporting himself more. All he wants to do is be held and supported (like in his highchair). It's taking him longer to eat his breakfast.

Can we please just get over this cold!

Through all this, the not breathing, feeling lousy, snotty and generally feeling swollen and tired and grumpy. He still hams it up for the camera!

I know it will pass. But it feels like we just did this (in December).

Is it springtime yet?!