Update on the Nightmare

Good news is no one else has come down with the bug so far, but the bad news is we are far from out of the woods since it is contagious for so long.  Genna is feeling much better today, but she is still quarantined in our bedroom with me as a roomie.  My favorite thing has been how much the kids miss each other, especially the girls.  You should have seen their faces light up when I allowed a doorway conversation between the girls.  They miss each other so  much!

Genna has had Gatorade, jello, 3 frozen waffles, half a banana, mac n cheese, and eggs today.  She kept it all down and told me the best art about being sick is when she feels better, but still gets to lay in bed and watch movies all day.  She has done a little crafting and also finished two chapter books.  Her fever is gone and I am quarantining her until she can't take it any longer just to keep her away from the other kids as long as possible.

I finished three loads of linen laundry today and decided after getting the stains out of the down comforter that I am going to take it to get dry-cleaned.  I used a vinegar spray and a vacuum to disinfect the carpet and bleached two of our bathrooms.  Hannah sprayed doorknobs and light switches downstairs today for me.  I have the pillows to sanitize which I am not looking forward to at all!

My Worst Nightmare

My worst nightmare (or one of the top ten) with a houseful of young children is a highly contagious stomach virus that involves two buckets.  And that's just what we have here.  I was awoken at 3am by Genna telling me her stomach hurt.  She didn't feel warm and so I asked if she thought she was going to throw up.  She says yes and I ask her why she isn't in the bathroom then.  She lays her head down on me and as I am standing her up to walk her back to bed, it happens.  She throws up all over me, my bed, my carpet, and even my night stand.  Needless to say I never went back to sleep.  I was cleaning in between running her to the bathroom for more puking.  She threw up more than a dozen times between then and 1pm.  Then it started coming out the other end.  At this point she had not been able to even keep one sip of water down.  She was unable to stand without help and she could barely walk.  I was getting ready to take her to the ER to get some anti-vomiting medicine since our doctor's office was closed when she turned a corner.  She topped throwing up while we waited for Brian to come home from work.  She felt much better then.  It is so heartbreaking to watch your child go through that. I am praying the rest of the family doesn't get it although I know that is unlikely from what I have heard about this bug going around.  It sticks around a long time on surfaces and you shed it long after you are symptom-free.  Lots of disinfectant and hand-washing in our future, not to mention the laundry in my future.

Pray for us!  When I was pregnant with Genna I had a bad stomach bug like this and ended up in the hospital with an IV.  Hoping that doesn't happen again!

Genna's First Gap

She grabbed the ultrasound photo to be in the picture with her for some reason.

Genna lost her first tooth on Monday.  She is almost seven and I was beginning to wonder how long it would be when she got a wiggly tooth a couple weeks ago.  At Chick-Fil-A with some friends, she came to show me it got looser after eating her chicken sandwich.  It looked ready to be pulled, so I said, "Have dad pull it tonight and if it falls out while you are playing, please bring it to me."  Two seconds later I hear that Hannah had pulled it for her. 

Then Drew wanted to be in the picture too.  His smile is evil looking, huh?

I don't know if you can tell in these pictures or not, but Sunday Genna and I had a date to the hair salon.  She desperately needed some length taken off and some layers added.  I am good for the length, but I don't do layers.  It has been a huge blessing having less tangles and the bounce is back in her curls which I love.  It was halfway down her back and now it is just below her shoulders even though they didn't take off but a few inches.  The bouncy curls have made it look a lot shorter.  I guess It had become too heavy and the long layers lighten it up a lot.  At the salon, Genna had fun drinking lemon water and passion fruit tea while she waited on me to get my hair cut.  She forgot her book and got a little bored at the end, but nothing a notepad couldn't fix.

Announcing my shadow box surprise!

I decided to give the children's shadow boxes a make-over while I finished up Drew's box.  I ended up getting two more at half price so I was able to finish the project.  I do not have room in the hallway anymore for so many shadow boxes so I am moving them to my bedroom.  I should have taken a before picture, but, as usual, was too anxious to get started and didn't do it.  Each box has the outfit in which I brought them home from the hospital. Here is the finished product!

Now for the close ups...

Hannah's box is pink and includes a burp cloth with her name on it.  I have a newborn picture and a 2 month old picture in here.  Their birth dates are on the outside glass in each one.

Genevieve's box is purple and has a piece of a crocheted blanket that I made and a couple of other fabrics as background.  Her birth date is not on yet.  I am trying to find the right numbers.

Isaac's box is mostly tan with a little blue.  I covered a wooden letter with blue fabric.  I added a Thomas train because he was so obsessed with Thomas for so long.

Andrew's box is mostly blue.  I covered a wooden "a" with yarn.  I added his frame from his room that has the picture of the blanket I made him as a mat for the pictures of Drew.  I put a lighthouse on the frames corner.  His room is decorated with a nautical type theme.  There is a Maryland bike name plate at the top since he was born here.  I wanted to put something from all of the places they were each born, but so far this is all I came up with.

 Yes, that's right there are five shadow boxes, not four like you might have thought.  Our newest addition will join the rest of the world on or two weeks later than August 15th, the feast of the Assumption of Mary.  I never have had a due date on a feast day before.  And the day I found out I was pregnant was the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, on 12-12-12.  It was quite a surprise to us since the last three times we got pregnant it took at least six months.  We were not expecting any little one to come so quickly and were really thinking it would be months before I got pregnant again.  Brian's pathology board exam is in mid September, so we were thinking that would be better anyway if the baby would be due after that.  However, God had other (AKA better) plans, and we are always open to new life around here!  So, thanks be to God! 

The children are so thrilled.  Hannah's initial reaction was pretty funny.  She started laughing hysterically and when she came up for air she said, "But you just had Drew!" and then fell back into hysterics.  I told her that it does feel like I just had Drew.  He still seems like such a baby to me, especially with his lack of vocabulary.  However, they will be just shy of two years apart which is further apart than Hannah and Genna.  Hannah just doesn't remember that, obviously.  Genna kisses and rubs my already growing tummy all the time.  She and I are hoping for another cuddler in the family.  I'm sure Isaac would love it as well since Drew has never liked lots of hugging and kissing.  I would prefer a girl just so that she would have a better chance of being born under 10lbs, although I was over 10lbs when I was born so maybe that's a moot point.  What goes around comes around, I guess.

As you may know we nickname our in-utero babies around here, this baby is going to be called Tad.  This is short for tadpole with a double meaning because this baby will be due just a "tad" before my husband's board exams. 

I am almost 12 weeks and around 10 weeks it became difficult to hide my wonderful news since I have no abdominal muscle tone left.  Here's my tummy shot from today.

11 + weeks pregnant with Tad  (Genna's hand, of course...She can't keep her hands off my growing belly.)

We have had a bit of a bumpy road with this pregnancy with a couple of scares, but everything is fine.  Tad is growing with a strong heartbeat.  On the last ultrasound, Tad was moving around a ton.  It brought tears to my eyes to see the baby moving so much!  Celebrate with us, please!

Funny things they say...

"If tomorrow's Friday, then what happened to Thursday?"  ~Genna  When we told her that today was, in fact Thursday.  She then asked, "Then where did Wednesday go?"

"Genna, I keep my brains in my foot." ~Isaac

A Man of Few Words

Drew is sort of starting to say some words.  In the last two weeks we have gotten him to say ready, Hannah, spoon, boom, more, and out.  His words are hard to keep track of because he says them for a while and then won't say them again for a long time.  He also is not good about repeating things after me like the other kids were by this age.  He is one of a kind and very independent.  At least two of his molars have poked through, but they all still have a long way to go.  Molars are the worst because they take so long to come in all the way.

This is Drew's new favorite place to play.  He actually partially closes the door and plays in the pantry.  It only becomes a problem when he starts bringing me food to give him.

I don't know if you can tell in this picture, but his eyes are so weird.  The (your far left in this picture) half of his right eye is blue, but the rest of that eye and all of the other one has blue undertones with brown speckled in.  Don't know what you call that!

Drew loves to go outside or in the car so getting his coat and shoes on are lots of fun.  He's like his daddy and gets a little stir crazy in the house sometimes. 

Mommy's Little Helper

I have mentioned often what a terrific helper Hannah is and what a natural she is with babies.  It is so great to have her around.  Genna and her take turns making sandwiches for lunch everyday.  That's what she is getting ready to do in the picture below.

Drew does seem to prefer Hannah, and this breaks Genna's heart.  Genna has been my assistant lately trying to learn how to dress Drew and even change his diapers.  If he wasn't so wiggly I think she could take over for me, but he needs a disciplinary presence these days during changing time.