Going to Oregon, Caleb's birthday, and more sickness!

getting ready for some boxing!

so cute!!!

Sweet little Malachi!!

I love cuddling this boy

Aunt Kellie carrying 3 babies (she's pregnant)

The Hardy family together again for my Mom's birthday!

The Hardy family and Oregon nieces and nephews

Valentine's Day games, blowing q-tips through a straw into a bowl with a heart bulls-eye

Austin's turn

Betsy's turn

Samuel's turn

Caleb's turn

Playing Hershey's Kiss Memory with hearts

Caleb got a match!!!

Such a cute little Valentine

Gideon is helping Samuel do his HW

Caleb is 5!!  

Caleb asked for a race car, rainbow, marshmallow cake!

Caleb loves his Elmo he got

I can't get enough of this cute little chubby face!!

Austin was playing with Gideon in the ball pit

Such a happy boy!

It's been a busy couple of weeks as usual around here.  Malachi has been driving me a little nuts with his 2-year old shenanigans.  He colored all over himself with a purple dry erase marker (right after a bath) and as I followed the trail of purple marker all down the hallway on the wall and the carpet. I finally reached the end of his coloring with my $3000 piano covered in purple marker, he didn't miss a single key, (yes, I let out a scream), with the marker with lid off sitting on the colored piano bench. (After much scrubbing managed to get it all off). He got my deep blue roll on (kind of like icy hot for muscles) and rolled in on his lips like Chapstick an all over his hands and tummy before he started screaming. (We went through about a cup of coconut oil to try an dilute it, and he finally stopped screaming) at least he didn't rub his eyes. I had just finished putting all my papers and files into nice neat stacks all over my bed and he ran in and shoved them all over the floor. He took all the little clay people we had made to represent our family and send to Travis and broke them into little pieces. Aahhhh!!!!! He also stole my glasses and left shoe one morning when I didn't get up with him at 5am.  I barely found them in time to drive the girls to school.  I flew to Oregon for my Mom's 60th surprise birthday party.  Gideon came with me of course, but the rest of the kids stayed home, and my visiting teacher (she's awesome) stayed with them Friday and Saturday.  It was a really quick trip, I left early Friday morning (5am) and came back late Saturday night (11pm).  Gideon was a great travel companion, he was cute and cuddly, and very good, for a total of 6 hours flight time between two flights.  I ended up sitting next to men on both flights, which is always a little awkward with a breastfeeding baby, even if I am covered up.  A really nice gentleman (a grandpa) helped me get off the airplane and get my bags, and even wheeled it with me out to meet my sister.  It wasn't necessary, but was really sweet, and kind.  My sister Misha picked us up from the airport. I always forget how green Oregon is, it is awesome.  We ran a couple errands for the party and then I hung out at her house, playing with my nephews and helping to get ready for the party.  We went back to the airport and picked up Cristin, then went back to Misha's house and ate dinner, and finished the party preparations, and then drove over to my parent's house (my Dad took my Mom out to dinner) and decorated the house.  All the other guests arrived, and just before my Mom and Dad got home, we turned off the lights.  My Mom was so surprised, she couldn't believe both Cristin and I were there.  All her children were at the party for her, she loved it!  I loved it too, it was so awesome being home and with all my siblings, and my parent's friends who I've known all my life.  Everyone loved Gideon, and enjoyed holding him.  As part of the party everyone told funny stories about my Mom, it was fun to reminisce.   Then my Dad and Misha played a cello/piano duet, and then Misha and I sang a song to my Mom.  It was a very fun evening.  The next morning we had a breakfast of crepes with all the family there, it was really fun, then we took pictures, and it was time for me to go to the airport again.  Gideon was a little fussier going back, but still did awesome, and we lucked out and had an empty seat next to us on both flights.  I drove home, and relieved the babysitter and fell asleep exhausted, but happy.  The next morning woke everyone up and got them ready for church and went to church.  Caleb and Malachi had both started getting colds a few days before I left, but apparently they had gotten a lot worse, because Malachi couldn't stay in nursery because he was coughing so much.  So Betsy had to skip primary and watch both Malachi and Gideon in the Mother's room, while I played the piano.  Then during choir practice, Malachi was coughing so hard he threw up in the hallway, and Betsy had to take him to the bathroom and clean him up, while Samuel cleaned up the mess in the hallway.  I was so relieved when choir practice was finally over and I could take my poor, sick little boy home to take care of him.  It was also Valentine's day, so I made a fun scavenger hunt that I got from the internet and the kids and I all had fun playing the games while Malachi slept.  Now a week later Malachi and Caleb are both still coughing way too much, and Malachi has even had fevers and wheezing, so we didn't go to church today.  Even though I've had sick kids all week, it was Caleb's birthday on the 17th, so we celebrated his birthday with cake and ice cream and opening presents.  He had a great day playing with his new toys!  We have had a couple really nice days weather wise and enjoyed a few walks to the park.  Gideon had his well-baby check up on Wednesday, and he has not been happy about it, it had a fever for two days, and has had diarrhea the past two days, and started crying so much today, that I took him to the ER to see if he had an ear infection, They said everything looked good, and just gave him more tylenol and said he was probably still upset about his immunizations, and I took him back home.

Dr., and Hospital visits

Caleb with Joseph while at the hospital

smiling in my sleep! 

So this week has been a little crazy.  So right after I posted last week, Gideon started getting worse.  Sunday afternoon and all night long, Gideon cried and cried and cried, he would not be comforted at all.  He would cry until he fell asleep in exhaustion, and then just a few minutes later wake back up and cry some more.  I took him to the Dr. Monday morning as soon as I could get him an appointment.  The Dr. checked his ears and said he had a ruptured ear drum due to an ear infection.  The poor little guy was so miserable.  We got him some antibiotics and tylenol from the pharmacy, and I started him on them right away.  The ruptured ear drum will take about 3 months to heal on it's own.  We have an appointment on the 17th to check his ear and make sure it is healing, and won't need surgery.  Malachi was still not feeling good for a while, but slowly started feeling better and sleeping better.  After school on Monday, Joseph came home from school with an ice pack on his finger, and said his finger hurt real bad and his head hurt, and he thought he had a mild concussion due to getting shoved into the wall during a dodge ball game at school.  He also said he got real mad and kicked the door to the gym and left.  He skipped dinner because he didn't feel good and went to bed.  On Tuesday he said his finger still hurt really bad, I told him even if it was broken, it would probably just needed to be taped together, and I didn't have time to take him to the Dr. because Betsy had her physical therapy appointment and I had my OB-GYN appointment, and they had all their church activities.  By Wednesday, his finger was hurting even worse, even with the ibuprofen, so I gave in and took him in to the Emergency Room as soon as I got the other kids off to school.  They x-rayed his hand and sure enough there was a chip in the bone on the joint of his finger.  There was also a hematoma underneath the nail bed.  They splinted his finger, and told him to wear it for 4 weeks, then follow-up with the Dr.  We rushed to the Dentist office for our Dentist appointments (for Joseph and I) and got our teeth cleaned.  Poor Caleb and Malachi were getting so tired of waiting in offices or lobbies.  I didn't blame them we had been in offices since 7:30am and by the time we were done with the dentist it was almost 1pm.  We got some lunch and dropped Joseph off at school, and then went home.  I also had Austin's appointment that afternoon, boy was I tired of having appointments, at least Gideon slept through most of it.  Gideon was finally feeling better, and smiling and acting happy again.  He still hates taking his medicine, and is a little fussy, but is doing so much better.  I'm still not getting a lot of sleep, but getting 1-2 hours of sleep at a time, is much better than only 15-20 minutes at a time.  I've been trying to get the house back in order, it turned into a disaster zone after dealing with a sick baby for so long, and not spending any time on the house.  We finally got it cleaned and organized again yesterday.  Hopefully things will get a little bit back to normal now.