Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas was a little crazy in our house.  I'm not sure what else I could have done to make it go smoother.  I pre-made breakfast so that I had it all ready to go, all I had to do was toss it in the oven while we opened presents.  I even made the main dish for dinner the day before so all I had to do was make the sides.  We fed the boys a snack to hold them over while The Girlchick sorted the presents into piles for everyone.  But it seems not matter what I did to make it run smoother it just didn't work.  Anyone have any ideas or do I just need to accept the chaos?  I know I have control issues, but I just want everyone to enjoy it as much as I do and did as a kid.  My Mom always made my birthday and Christmas so special for me, I want my kids to have that same feeling and memories.

Overall it was still a great Christmas.  We had a little hiccup with the weather and the power going out for awhile.  It threw off my timeline to get dinner ready, so we were a little late eating, but it wasn't too bad.  It was nice to open presents and then just be with my family.  Even if it was beyond crazy!  That was the one thing I really wanted to accomplish during the holidays, was to spend some time with my family.

She's a born skater!

Well maybe not, but we sure had fun!

One of the things I have been wanting to do with The Girlchick during my time off from work was to take her ice skating.  It wasn't really working out that we were all going to be able to go since the boys were still sick.  Grandma was nice enough to watch the boys with Dad so that I could take her to the mall to skate.

She was really nervous at first and didn't want to go out on the ice, but then she just all of a sudden said "Mommy, I'm really nervous, but I'm going to try."  I was SO proud of her!

Her first attempt without holding on to my hand for dear life  

More sickies

I took the last two weeks of December off from work.  I have made this my tradition the last few years and I really enjoy the time.  I can relax and get some baking done, get the rest of the Christmas stuff done, and just relax and recharge.  The boys have other plans for my time off - of course!  

The Thursday before I was to start my vacation Thing 2 had to be picked up at school since he was running a fever.  He finally got rid of it on Sunday.  He was tested for flu and strep since it was running rampant in the schools and the area.  Both came back negative.  He went back to school on Monday since he was fever free for 24 hrs.  Well Monday afternoon it was Thing 1's turn.  He had to be picked up.  I took him to the dr the following afternoon since he was just miserable and wanted to make sure it wasn't strep. Well I ended up taking both boys since Thing 2 started running a fever again.  Thing 2 was tested again for strep (came back negative) and we were told that he had a sinus infection, since he had puss on his throat (they thought it was the drainage from the sinuses that caused that).  Thing 1 was tested for flu and strep (both were negative) but he had an ear infection so both were put on antibiotics AGAIN!  This was all on Tuesday.  They were both just miserable, you could tell they just did not feel well, and it was hard to control their fevers.  Tylenol every 4 hours wasn't cutting it and even alternating between Tylenol and Advil wasn't really working.

On Thursday morning we woke up to Thing 2 running a fever of 104.1 and Thing 1 was at 103.4.  104 level fevers really scare me.  We called the dr's office to see if they thought we needed to bring them back in yet again.  They said yes bring them both back in.  This time Thing 2 tested positive for strep even though he was already on antibiotics.  She looked at Thing 1 and said his throat is just as nasty so we are just going to assume that he has it too.  They switched their antibiotics to the strongest ones that they can give to kids.  They have never been on these before.  The dr and I had a conversation about getting the boys tested for allergies and pulling them out of daycare - for the second time.  I swear!  I just don't know what to do.  It is very frustrating!  I know that they get sick and need to build up immunity but this is WAY beyond that.  Oh and the other thing - they both have a tube that has come out of their ears.  Great, just great - keep giving me more good news.

At this point I was just hoping they would stop running fevers by christmas.  For Thing 2, it had been 7 days of fever, and you could tell that he just didn't feel good.  So there was no relaxing, no baking, no shopping.  Just sick boys.  Then The Girlchick got it.  

Fun times at the Black house!  Wanna come over to play?

Taking a break from playing- this is how you know they are sick - they aren't moving

But they are pretty cute!

Untwin day

Since grandma is back from Cali - we had someone who could watch the boys and over the Thanksgiving break we got to have an untwin day with The Girlchick!  It was nice.  She got to pick any activity that she wanted to do and go do it with mom AND dad.  She picked bowling.  She did pretty well in one game and even picked up a spare! 

We then went to Dairy Queen to get an ice cream cone.  We are all sitting at the table just chit chatting and one of the employees walked by and asked us how we were doing.  We told him good.  Not sure how this worked in her head, but The Girlchick said "All the workers here think that this is the best restaurant ever".  I said they might.  Her response: "well the best restaurants ever are: Subway, Rockwell, Red Robin, Friday's (she has only been there once with her grandma, so I'm not sure why this ranks so high on the list), Luby's and all the places that have Baskin Robbins near them."  Best restaurants ever according to a 6 year old. 

Bites

The boys are going through a phase apparently where they like to bite.  Mainly each other, but every now and then they will bite one of us.  It actually worries me since they will be playing and just randomly bite the other one and they will fuss at first - as in to say "ouch that hurts", but then they both start laughing and will do it again.  These aren't little bites either like when they are teething.  These are break the skin leave bruises bites, and here they are laughing about it and doing it to each other on purpose since they think it is funny.  Is that normal?  I don't think it is.  Hopefully they will grow out of it soon!  We even find random bites on them - I found one on Thing 2's leg the other day and on the side of Thing 1's face.  I ask'd Nathan - do you know how he got this?  The answer is "no".  How do we not hear them screaming in pain or anger?  I'm really ready for the biting phase to be over!