Sunshine, rainbows, and puppydogs

Nile bit Nate this morning. He came very close to breaking the skin. Nate is going to have a nice bruise.

And Novak was up at 10:30, 1, from 2-3, and 4 am. For the last few days he has been sleeping an hour or two at best at night. It may be from being sick, but I'm tired and wishing there was an easy solution. Actually, I'm kind of hoping that posting this will cause some sort of cosmic shift and things will change magically. It's not too much to ask, right?

See, life here isn't always rainbows, sunshine, and puppydogs.

Nice way to start a Sunday morning, right?

Fun with Nile

Since I had the opportunity to stay home an extra day with Nile, I thought that we'd have some fun. I feel like so often I don't spend the quality time with him that I should. Either I'm nursing Novak, or I'm making lunch, or we're getting ready to go to preschool or the gym. Add in a nap or quiet time in the afternoon, and I find the day has gone by and I've hardly spent any one-on-one time with him.

Today, I made an effort to correct that.

Nile and I sat down with our latest issue of Family Fun magazine, and picked out two projects to do. Both required me to do some prep work, so while I got ready, I gave him "ingredients" and let him "play cook" in the kitchen.

Then, we made silly ornaments out of pieces of yarn and cornstarch glue.
And we made "tarts" with a frozen pie crust and raspberry jam filling. Nile helped brush on the egg wash.

Of course, they wouldn't be complete without fluorescent orange frosting (Nile's color choice) and LOTS of colored sugar sprinkles. :)
Notice that, in all these pictures, he's still in his PJ's. Nothing better than a day home with Mom, hanging out in PJ's.

Note: I'm 0-for-3 on projects/recipes from Family Fun. None of them have worked out without having to make changes. So, although they have good ideas, at least when I do them, I have to be prepared for tweaks. Today, the cornstarch "glue" for the ornaments was WAY too thick and had to be watered down, and the frosting for the tarts needed to have extra water added in order to mix in all the powdered sugar. Live and learn!

Sick House

I stayed home from work today.

It's been a whopper of a week so far. Last Wednesday, Nile came down with a fever. When I picked him up from my parents' house, he was curled up in my mom's lap (which he NEVER does). Then he looked at me and said, "Mom, I want to go to bed." So that's what we did - he went to bed around 6 that night.

On Thursday, he claimed he was feeling better, and I needed to get some things done at work - so I went in for a half day, and planned to pick him up around 2. Right around the time I was leaving to get Nile and Novak, Tom calls to tell me Nate is in the nurse's office at school running a fever. So Tom headed to pick him up, and we met at home with our sick boys. They chilled out watching TV that afternoon, and both were in bed around 6:30.

On Friday, Nate said he was feeling better. The "mom radar" in me thought he wasn't quite over the bug, but he wasn't acting sick. So I sent him to school. He didn't have a fever, so we thought he was just a little tired. Sure enough, at 1:30, the nurse calls - Nate was sent to her office (unwillingly), and he has a low (99.9) fever. He doesn't want to come home - so I let him stay the rest of the day.

Nate ran a low fever all weekend - it was highest at night, 101.8 degrees at the worst. So when he woke up Monday with a fever, we decided it was time to take him to the doctor. Whether he felt sick or not...

Since Novak had been coughing a lot on Sunday, I figured I'd take him along just in case he was getting sick.

Well, after a 1 hour wait in the doctor's office, we get in to have the boys checked. Novak has been asleep in his car seat the whole time. They take his temperature and it's about 102.5. I was shocked - he had not been feverish that morning. Poor kid was boiling hot, miserable, and so lethargic. It was scary! (But I was so glad he was doing this at the doctor's office!). After getting checked out, we got the diagnosis: a double ear infection, RSV, and breathing treatments 4 times a day, because he was short of breath and his lungs sounded "wheezy." And I was cautioned by the doctor to watch him carefully, in case his breathing gets worse. Yikes!

So I have a sick baby today, who needs his mommy a lot more than John Deere needs me.

Oh, and Nate? The boy who has told me he wasn't sick and felt fine for the last five days? He has strep throat.

Bumbo

Thanks to a friend, we were able to borrow a Bumbo baby seat for Novak. It lets him sit up - he loves feeling like he is part of the action!

Being a daddy

Today, at naptime, Nile asked me when he would be "a daddy." Usually, to him, being a daddy means being a grownup.

So I said it would be a long time. And I told him that I didn't want it to come for a while. Of course, he asked why.

"Well, because when you're a daddy, you will be all grown up and you won't live with me any more. You'll have your own house."

"But I want to stay here and live with you!"

I gave him a hug and told him he could stay here with me for a long time. Then came the kicker.

"But who will be my mommy?"

"What, honey?"

"Who will be the mommy for my babies?"

"Oh! Well, when you grow up, you'll meet someone who you really like, and when you decide that you love her and want to marry her, then she will be the mommy and you'll be the daddy."

"What if I don't like her?"

"Then you won't marry her, honey. You only marry someone that you really like."

"Like Emma's mommy?"

"Not quite! You will marry someone who is a kid right now, that will grow up and be your age. I, Emma's mommy, and the other ladies who are mommies today will all be grandmas then."

"Oh, okay."

"All right, honey, have a nice nap. I love you."

"I love you too, Mom."

I love this age so much!

Best. Invention. Ever.

The boys have taken two baths in two days. Willingly. Really!

Why? The promise of getting to drop a tablet into the tub to make colored water.

I have to admit, the yellow water looks kind of weird...

Brothers