**I started this post yesterday on my birthday, but it’s been so busy around here, I’m just now posting it!!!** 32 years old!  And everyone woke up healthy – woohoo! That’s the first and best birthday present!  It was a fairly good night’s sleep for everyone, and Josiah was super sweet and snuggly with me in bed.  And Analise is on best birthday behavior for me, which makes me smile!

I had a couple e-cards waiting for me.  My dad sends us lots of e-cards, and the kids always want to watch them over and over and over.  So we spent the first part of the morning enjoying all the cards he’s ever sent us. 

I got lots of emails and notes on my Facebook page, and interestingly
enough, just one card in the actual mail!  What a techy society we are
becoming!  But of course, with the little birthday reminder on
Facebook, far more people remembered it was my birthday and dropped me
a note.  I got a beautiful bouquet of pink sweetheart roses and daisies
with a balloon from my parents.  Brian got me a handheld label printer
(yes, so very romantic… it was just what I wanted!!) and some
sunflowers.  And a mom friend surprised me by dropping by mid-morning
with some flowers, a bottle of wine, and some chocolate just because
she knew the kids had been sick, and she couldn’t imagine me cooped up
with sick kids on my birthday.  AW! Analise and I the Best Birthday Cupcakes,
and they were actually VERY good, possibly even the best. 

Since everyone looked like they were going to be sick, I had planned on staying in for a birthday dinner.  But Brian and I ended up getting our favorite (well, only) babysitter and enjoying dinner at the Cheesecake Factory.  I tell ya, dinner out without kids is *heavenly*.  We really don’t go out much with the kids, except for Moe’s (fast fresh tex-mex), Roly-Poly (wraps), and Chik-Fil-A.  As unpredictable as the kids are, it’s not worth the money to go elsewhere because we never know how long we’re going to have to enjoy it, so it was a real treat to be on our own for a quiet, leisurely meal.  We had Chinese Potstickers (very very good, though still, not quite as good as Corrie’s!), Shrimp & Bacon Club (me, what I get nearly every time, it’s amazing) and Bang Bang Chicken (Brian, a peanutty-curry chicken & shrimp dish that he loves).  We shared a piece of Kahlua Coffee Cocoa Cheesecake, and of course, they wrote "Happy Birthday, Christine" on the plate and sang to me 🙂 

Honestly, I’ve been in a bit of a funk lately.  Mothering has worn me out over the last couple months…not from any particular thing, just the sum of the everyday events.  I feel like my needs have gotten lost in all the needs of my kids, Brian, the house, and other responsibilities.  That sure does sounds selfish, but I think most mothers would understand where I’m coming from. I love my kids, I love my husband, I love being MOM, but it can get wearying.  I’m not doing the greatest at taking care of myself and filling up my heart on a regular basis, so I’m sure that’s part of it. 

As I went to sleep on Sunday night after writing this post, I was just praying, "God, please don’t let anyone be sick on my birthday.  I really need a day that’s a little bit about me."  He’s such a good God…  He heard my aching heart, and poured out countless tangible blessings for my birthday.  So humbling.  He didn’t need to.  I’m sure there will be birthdays that will be overshadowed by needs, events, etc.  And yesterday could have been spent taking care of sick ones, or even being sick myself, and it wouldn’t have been the end of the world.  But in my very small corner of the world, the super sweet, flowery, sunshiney full-of-love day was so appreciated!  Thank you, Lord!! 

Well, since I last posted, we haven’t been back to the doctors.  J has bumped his lumpy discolored forehead a couple times and banged his front teeth, which I think may warrant a visit to the dentist this week.   And Thursday, Friday and Saturday were relatively uneventful.  We went to the Day Out with Thomas the Train event at the Heart of Dixie Railroad museum on Friday with our friends.  SUPER FUN!  I’ve just resized the pics, and I hope to upload them tomorrow.

But last night, J got sick with a stomach bug and he was up sick nearly all night.  Up til this point, Brian and I have been spared the all-night stomach bug experience with our kids.  But last night was ROUGH.  Piles of laundry, 3 changes of PJs for him, 2 for me, 2 sheet changes (hugely awkward on the heavy crib mattress) before I started laying down a beach towel.  And I used 3 beach towels, before he ended up sleeping on his mattress pad cover.  Poor little boy.  He was a bit better this morning, but ran a fever all day, and got sick again midafternoon. 

Analise, thankfully, got rescued from the sickhouse by Brian’s mom mid morning.  That left J and I to snuggle on the couch with a sippy cup and a movie, and then take long naps to make up for our restless night.  She came home bubbling with energy, but soon started complaining about her stomach.  I thought she was just trying to get the attention that J was getting, since she’s been like that lately.  But after J went to bed, she got sick, too.  Both of them are sleeping soundly, though, and I hope/pray/cross my fingers that tomorrow will be a better, healthier day and that this bug is short lived… and that it skips me and Brian!

But Brian says he’s not feeling so well.  He helped some last night, but he had to leave at 6am for a bike race.  He felt really good early in the race, but when he made a move to follow an attack at the front of the group, he caught one of his teammate’s wheels, taking them both down, along with 10-12 other people.  What a mess!  His teammate is scraped up pretty badly, and Brian’s got some road rash and a sore knee.  But his bike – a top of the line 2008 Trek Madone – took the brunt of the crash.  It looks like the frame may be cracked.  UG.  I’m just thankful he wasn’t hurt. 

We’ll check in tomorrow, but for now, here was a snuggly moment before bedtime, though it’s pretty much what J and I did all day 🙂

Ok, you are not going to believe poor Josiah’s luck.

I took both kids to
the dentist this morning (amazingly easy, except for the whiney Miss Analise,
of course. Josiah was so laid-back about the whole thing.), and then we went to the playground as a reward. Not 5 minutes into
playing, J is running and trips, falling headfirst into the bottom step

I was across the playground, and another mom picked him up. It was not
even 10 seconds until I was over there, and he already had a MASSIVE egg
sized purple lump on his forehead.
I pulled them both to the car to run him to the pediatrician’s just to check it
out. (I thought maybe it wasn’t such a big deal, but every mom there looked aghast and several said they’d go, if it was them. It was so ugly). Analise was crying harder than Josiah because she couldn’t
play. I was like, "Sweetie, LOOK at his head! We need to go…"
Thankfully, I was able to drop her at a friend’s house to play on our way to the doctor’s.

He was fine – not even crying – all the way there. But then he was mad as a hornet when they gave me ice to put on it. With 4 doctor’s visits for him in 10
days, $100 in copays from an already over-stretched budget, and too many
heartbreaking, "Maaamaaaaaaaaa…." cries…I had a mommy meltdown in
the exam room. Luckily for me, we had to wait half an hour, so I wasn’t
too much of a mess. We saw the sweetest doctor in the practice (and in 4
visits, we’ve yet to see our ped!), and of course, all’s well. I KNEW
it was going to be another $25 for my priceless peace of mind. He said it was definitely smart to get it checked out, and he agreed it looked way worse than it was. We do
have an order for a skull x-ray, if he’s fussy tomorrow to rule out a fracture, but I’m sure
it’s fine. It’s so ugly, though, and his eyes will probably be black
& blue tomorrow. (Here’s what he looks like now. I think the swelling has gone down some, because it was sticking nearly an inch off his forehead within 30 seconds of it happening. Honestly. I think I’m a pretty level-headed mom -bc I almost didn’t go in – but it was so scary looking! I’d better get used to the rough and tumble-ness of boys!)

Well, you haven’t heard from me in a couple days… it’s been busy around here!  Here’s some random numbers that will explain Sunday through today (though there might be a little more info than you want to know)…

Sunday:
Time we left for Brian’s bike race (with just Josiah): 6:30
Miles in Brian’s bike race: 68.9
Number of times we saw him during the race: 9
Number of movies Josiah watched during the 3+ hour race: 4 (?)
Brian’s finish place:  Looked like 3rd, he thought 2nd bc the first guy had supposedly been DQ’d, but final result was 3rd.  Still, not bad!
J’s fever when we got home (he’d been running one off and on since Friday): 102.1
Hours spent at the Urgent Care clinic: 4
Time waiting for a urine sample using a bag: 2.5 hours
Number of tries to get a catheter in for a urine sample: 3 (!!!!!  my poor, poor boy!!!)
Result of evening:  No infection, thankfully
$$ paid in co-pays for doctor’s visits this week: $50

Monday:
Fever: None, thankfully
Bouts of crying and holding his diaper area: 10? 
Time of his nap due to crying and pain: 30 minutes
Time & $ spent at doctor’s: 1 hour and $25 (result: everything’s ok, treat the pain, followup in 3 days if still having problems)
Time spent screaming at 11:15pm: 40 minutes, inconsolable.  Finally collapsing asleep on me while we debated going to the ER.  Decided not to, given that they might likely do another catheter…
Number of times he was awake crying last night: 4
Hours spent sleeping on the couch with him crying/sleeping on me: 4

Tuesday:
Ok, enough of this.  He’s somewhat better today.  The doctor (again) said treat the pain (alternating motrin & tylenol every 3 hours), and as long as he is urinating, give it another day or 2 to heal before we follow-up with the ped. urologist.  He fussed going down for a nap (though he slept 3 hours) and bed, but I’m crossing my fingers and praying he’ll sleep ok tonight. 

By the way, J’s got urinary reflux (too tired to find my links), so we have to get EVERY fever over 101 checked out to make sure it’s not a urinary tract infection.  He’s never had one, thankfully, but if he were to get one, the urine backs up to his kidneys, and it can cause permanent kidney damage, so we have to be really vigilant.   We did just see the pediatric urologist in February, and it’s looking from his kidney ultrasounds that he may be outgrowing the condition, which is just what we’re hoping.  Now, if we can just stay infection-free until then!