Getting Married

 Lucy and I were talking in the car on the way home from school and she started talking about when Mommy and Daddy got married. ( A favorite subject of hers right now.) She then asked me when we were getting married again. I told her that we got married one time and that was forever. She thought about that for a minute and then said, "Yeah, I'll get married one time too when I'm really, really old." Gee thanks... 

This evening, Michael asked her when she was getting married and she gave him the same answer - when she's really, really old. He then asked her, "Lucy, who are you going to marry?" Without looking up from what she was doing, she replied, "A boy like you!" ;)

Happy Fourth Birthday, Lucy!

Yesterday, Lucy informed everyone that it was her last day of being three.

Can hardly wait to open her presents tomorrow. . .

 And so that means that today was her FIRST day of being FOUR! I can hardly believe that we have a four year old in our house!

Lucy took cookie cake to school today to share with all her friends. She was so excited because everyone sang happy birthday to her at school twice! :) When I picked her up from school, the first thing she asked was, "Can we go home and open my presents now?" So of course we did. . .

Lucy has been asking and asking for this fairy costume for her birthday. I don't know what she would have done if she hadn't gotten it. .. I think she wore it most of the night!

After presents, we went to eat Cheese Pizza at Blue Mountain Pizza in downtown Weaverville - Lucy's choice! At dinner we were talking about birthdays and Michael asked Lucy how old she thought he was. She answered, "73?" He told her no it was less than that and she said, "71?" ;)

The people at BMP were so nice to Lucy for her birthday - the manager even brought her this bunny as a birthday present!

 We came home and got a picture of the big birthday girl. . . who is already talking about next year when she turns five! Slow down baby . . .it will be here soon enough!

And after taking her picture, Lucy wanted one with her boys. :) I love how much she loves her brothers.

This cracks me up. . .

Charlie got bored quickly but Alex was having a good time sitting with his sister. I have to say, I love this picture. :)

 It seems like she was just born . . and then I blinked and here we are four years later. I remember that first night with her, sitting in the hospital bed, just sitting and holding her. The song, "Love has the Final Move" kept running through my head, particulary the line about the mother who says to her baby daughter, "Because you're here my little girl, it's going to be a better world." I remember holding her and thinking how much better and brighter and more beautiful this world was because she was now a part of it. And how true that is. Lucy is the sweetest, funniest, smartest kid I know. I am so blessed to be her mother and as she grows I can't help but marvel at what an amazing person she is becoming each day . . . despite my many failures as a parent. The name Lucy means "light" and a light she is to everyone she meets. What a blessing she is to our family - I love you, my precious girl and am so thankful for you! Happy birthday!

Lucy's favorites at four years old

I meant to start this tradition when Lucy turned three but it didn't happen. So this year, I got Lucy to answer a few questions about her favorite things at this point in her life. I want to do this each year so that she can look back and see what she loved at each different stage of her life.

What is your favorite color? pink and purple
What is your favorite toy? Pretend food
What is your favorite fruit? watermelon
What is your favorite TV show? Sofia the first
What is your favorite outfit? dresses
What is your favorite snack? cookie cake
What is your favorite book? Sofia the First
Who are your best friends? Madelyn and Gabby and girl Caden
What is your favorite animal? bunnies and monkies and pigs
What is your favorite song? All the Sofia songs
What is your favorite holiday? Memorial Day - because you get to go to the museums (We took her to the Health Adventure this past Memorial Day)
What do you sleep with at night? Pig, Monkey, Rabbit, Princess Minnie, flower blanket
What is your favorite drink? chocolate milk
What is your favorite breakfast food? Lucky Charms
What do you like to eat for lunch? Turkey sandwich and chips
What do you want to eat for your birthday dinner? Cheese pizza
What do you want to be when you grow up?  A Princess :)

One exhausting weekend. . .

We are all extremely tired at our house after the weekend we had. It started on Thursday night, shortly after putting everyone to bed. ( I guess I should say it started a week before when Lucy was at home sick with a cold/virus!) Michael was out with some of the youth to go to the midnight showing of the new Superman movie and I was getting ready to head to bed myself. Charlie started coughing and when I went in to check on him, his cough had a wheezy sound to it. I settled him down, but he was back up again shortly after that. This time, he was having trouble catching his breath, which was causing him to get upset . . .not helping the problem at all. I immediately recognized it as croup, since we had seen it with Lucy this past winter.

I called Michael around 10:30 PM, who was still down at the church, and he came and we sat with Charlie in the van, letting cool air from the air conditioner blow on him to help relax his airways. He seemed to calm back down and Michael left and Charlie and I went to bed. Everyone slept until about 2:30 when I heard Charlie wake up. He was up on all fours in his bed, just gasping for air. Michael got home around 3 AM and by that time, Charlie had calmed back down and both boys were now awake and ready to eat. I considered taking him up to the ER once Michael had gotten home, but he was calm again and I know that with croup, the cough is always the worst at night. I thought that we would just try and survive the rest of the night and then head to the pediatrician first thing in the morning for a steroid treatment to help him.

The night didn't get any easier. Charlie ended up laying down with me and every hour or so he would wake up, gasping for air with this horrible wheezing sound. As we got closer and closer to eight in the morning, it was actually getting worse. Now instead of disappearing once he was up and calm, he now had these wheezing sounds (called stridors) when he was sitting still and calm in my lap. I called the pediatrician and made an appointment for eleven while Michael took Lucy to daycare. I took Alex with me so that Michael could stay home. He was going to shower and do some cleaning/packing while he was child-free. By this time, it was clear that Charlie was running a fever and Alex also felt warm and wasn't acting like himself.

Waiting to be called back at the pediatrician

We got to the pediatricians office at 11. We were seeing one of the other doctors since ours was out of town. As the nurse left the room, she said, "Dr. Honeycutt is running a little behind today since she's the only doctor here." Well, a little behind to me means 15-20 minutes .. . 30 minutes at the most. An hour later. . . . 

Yes, by this time, my boys were both so pitiful looking. They clearly did not feel well and were getting really tired of being confined in one room. (As was their Mommy!) 

Dr. Honeycutt was, of course, very apologetic. You could tell that she was frazzled with the day that she was having, but she was so excellent in her examination of Charlie and really took my concerns seriously. Of course, after laying Charlie down on the exam table, she could tell that he was one sick little boy. She wanted to check for several different things so first he had his nosed swabbed to test for RSV and he was also given an albuterol treatment to help open up his lungs.

Alex slept through his brother's breathing treatment

Charlie slept through his breathing treatment as well!

After the treatment was completed and Dr. Honeycutt came back, it was even more obvious how much Charlie was struggling to breathe. His PulseOx was showing that he was getting enough oxygen in his body, but he was having to work so hard to breathe and his stridors were becoming louder and louder, even though we were sitting quietly. Dr. Honeycutt was very concerned at this point and diagnosed him with a severe case of croup. Her recommendation was to call and have him admitted to the hospital overnight. This would allow them to give him a steroid treatment and make sure that his oxygen levels stayed where they needed to be. Since his problems had come on so quickly, she was afraid that things could go downhill just ask quick.

Alex chose at this moment to throw up all over the room, lest we forget that he was sick too! We got him cleaned up and Dr. Honeycutt recommended at that point that we call for an ambulance to come and transport Charlie to the hospital since I was the only one with the boys. This way, Charlie's breathing could be monitored closely and I would be available to care for Alex if he started throwing up again. I called Michael, gave him a list of things to bring and to meet me at the hospital.

I cannot describe the feeling of watching them put Charlie into the ambulance. Here they were, strapping my tiny little boy onto the stretcher and hooking him up to monitors. He was so good, just sat and watched all that they did and didn't cry at all. It was so hard to watch them take him and not be able to be with him but I had Alex to think about too, so we got into the van and headed towards the hospital.  Looking back, I have no idea how I held myself together - I was so stressed because I had one little boy going to the hospital, another little boy who was sick as well and I had no idea how in the world I was going to be there for both of them, let alone worry about my other child who was at school! Thankfully, when I called my mom, she was able to come straight up the mountain and pick Lucy up at school. (She had already been planning on coming up on Saturday.) 

When I got to the hospital and finally got back to where Charlie was, he was surrounded by five or six pretty ER nurses and EMS staff, all oohing and ahhing over him. I guess I should get used to my handsome little man attracting lots of female attention. ;) Michael arrived shortly after that. We ended up having to stay in a room in the ER for a couple of hours because there wasn't a room available up on the pediatric floor. They gave Charlie a steroid treatment while we were down there. Both boys were so tired at this point because they hadn't had an afternoon nap and they just felt so lousy. 

Look at my matching boys - Charlie and Daddy! 

Mommy and Alex

Finally, around five, we got settled up on the pediatric floor. Charlie got hooked up to all the monitors and we decided to feed both of the boys while all the initial paperwork got done. Alex took this opportunity to throw up again . . .all over Charlie's bed. Once we got everything cleaned up, Michael took Alex home and Charlie and I settled in. He was so tired that he settled right down and fell asleep. 

He slept pretty well - he got so upset and loud when the nurse came in and bothered him for his vitals at 11 PM, she didn't come back in to take his vitals again until 7 AM! She did come in the room several times to look at the monitors and check and see if he had eaten anything, (We had to record his feedings on a white board.) but she didn't come near Charlie. . . I think she was scared of him! Cute story - he woke up at 2:30 and just looked around the room, a little disoriented. I got him settled back down easily since he wasn't hungry and he slept til 4:30 when he woke up to eat. Come to find out later that was the time when Alex woke up to eat. . . a little twin connection there, maybe??

He was definitely feeling better in the morning. There was still a little wheezy sound when he coughed, but overall, he was feeling much better. We got checked out and home around noon.

Charlie hanging out in his hospital bed

Being silly, waiting for the doctor to let us go home

Ready to go home!

During the boys' afternoon nap on Saturday though, Alex started making the same wheezing sounds. My mom had just left to go home, so I called her and asked her to come back and Michael headed to the ER with Alex. They came home around 7 PM and Alex had been given a steroid treatment as well. ( A different one than Charlie). He also had a prescription for a steroid over the next three days. Neither boy slept all that well on Saturday night which of course meant that no one else slept all that well either! Michael had to get up and go to church; Lucy went with him but the boys and Mom and I stayed home. Also during this time, the water at the parsonage decided to cut off. It runs on a well along with the church. It had cut out in the middle of my shower on Saturday night as well but had come back about 30 minutes later . . .we thought it was due to the large amount of laundry Mom had done that day. But on Sunday when I went to wash off the bottles and pump equipment, no water came out of the faucet! It got taken care of once church was over but it just added to the "fun" of our weekend.

Both boys are doing better now - fevers are gone and Charlie no longer has a wheeze. He does have a runny nose, but you can tell that he is feeling much better. We took Alex back to the doctors today since his cough almost sounds worse than before. Dr. Bernstein said that he should be back to normal in a day or so and that while the wheeze sounds scary, his lungs were clear and he wasn't having to work too hard to breathe. Hopefully, all of this mess will be behind us tomorrow  - everyone here needs a good nights sleep!

Lucy's first trip to Build a Bear

(This took place back at the beginning of the month, but I'm finally getting around to putting up pictures!)

Lucy is now pull-up free at night and so as her reward, she got to go to Build a Bear at the mall and make her own stuffed animal. Right now they have My Little Pony characters and so of course, we had no other choice than to make a Rainbow Dash! :)

 Warming up her heart for her pony

Filling it with stuffing

One excited little girl!

Giving Rainbow Dash a bath

Creating a birth certificate

She had a really good nap when we got home! :) All that fun wore her out!

 

Lucy had such a good time that she's already begging to go back. We told her she could take some of her birthday money if she wanted so I imagine we will be making a trip there in the near future!

 

Time to catch up. . .

Whew - June has been quite a month so far!! Here comes several posts but first, a few phone photos for you. . . . not always the best quality, but a pretty accurate reflection of life at our house!

Two little cutie pies, playing away!

Daddy dressed Charlie - can you tell? ;)

Saturday morning snuggles with Daddy

Charlie likes driving the car at Ingles! 

One happy boy

Two standing little guys - you have to be watching ALL the time at our house!

Princess Lucy

Playing Beauty Parlor with Daddy - isn't he pretty?

Charlie wants to be just like Lucy

More of Charlie - helping Mommy pack

(Alex was asleep when I took this one)

Charlie being like Uncle Day Day!

(Alex is around when we take pictures . . . he's just usually not still enough to get a good one!)

Here's Alex and Lucy at Ingles!

Lucy had the best time cleaning her room - now if I could only get her to clean other rooms too!

10 months old!

The boys are 10 months old today! And Lucy will be FOUR in only eight days!! Time is sure flying by. When the boys woke up from their afternoon nap, miraculously all three of them were in a pleasant mood so I was able to snap a few quick pictures.

Their hair is starting to look blonde to me. . . 

 

 

 Who knows what they are discussing?

 

So sweet . . .

 

 There is no stopping the boys these days. They are crawling everywhere and pulling up on everything! And they are masters at getting into exactly what they are not supposed to. If there is something you don't want them to find, they know exactly where it is!

 They wanted to play rather than get dressed

Alex

He cracks me up when he laughs - such a silly boy!

Charlie, cute as ever!

Food is also becoming a favorite of ours. It's no longer a battle to try and get them to eat. They LOVE their puffs and would eat a whole container if you would let them. They will eat food fed to them on a spoon, but they really love it if you let them feed themselves. Charlie is a big fan of avocados and both boys like bananas. Alex likes cooked apples and of course, they will both eat sweet potato and regular french fries whenever they are offered!
 

It is fun at our house these days, but definitely exhausting. You cannot turn around for a minute without them getting into something. And when one goes one way, the other heads the opposite direction! Needless to say, household chores only stand a chance of getting done during naptime or after the kids go to bed! Whew!