2016 :: week 13

March 20

Lauren has had bad coughing fits in the night for several weeks now that has prevented her (and her parents!) from getting a good night's sleep. On Saturday night she coughed so hard she threw up twice. I was fairly confident it was not a stomach bug, but we kept her home to prevent the spread of germs regardless. I was pretty disappointed to miss church. Since Anthony was there I felt okay dropping Will off for primary and then picking him up when it was over. After spending the bulk of the past two days in the car Will needed to get out and be around other kids.  When he got home from church he helped me cut a few daffodils to brighten up our home.

March 21

My mom and a friend both mentioned trying Vapo Rub with Lauren to see if that would help with the nighttime coughing. We tried it Sunday night and it worked! It was a little frustrating knowing that we had had a solution in our medicine closet the whole time, but very exciting to finally get some uninterrupted sleep. When I woke up Monday morning I felt more refreshed than I had in days! After school we met up with the Throssells at the KC Zoo. We were there for almost five hours--one of our longest zoo adventures ever! We stayed so long we missed getting to say goodbye to Anthony before he flew to DC. The kids had fun checking out the animals together and the adults had fun talking about our respective spring break trips.

 

March 22



We had a great spring break, it has been nice settling back in to our routine too. Tuesday afternoon we met up with the half day friends at Little Mill Creek Park. It turned out to be quite a bit windier than we were expecting, though the kids didn't see to mind. Will loves these playdates--he loves to run and play and be active with his friends. It is often the highlight of his week.

 

March 23

In preparation for Easter we have been reading each night from My First Story of the First Easter. It has been extra fun this year because Will has read most of it to us!

March 24

Thursday was a blah day. It was kind of cold. We were all kind of tired. Elliott cried every time I put him down. Lauren and I had a lot of conflict over silly things. Will was tardy to school for the first time ever. Anthony was home from DC, but had a meeting that night so I decided to feel sorry for myself. I ignored my responsibilities and read for a good portion of the day.

March 25

We have started feeding Elliott a bottle twice a day, in addition to breastfeeding. He didn't gain much weight between his 4 and 6 month appointments and then lost weight between month 6 and 7. This is similar to what happened to Lauren at the same age, culminating in her failure to thrive diagnosis, discovery of her thyroid abnormalities and multiple food allergies. Because of the family history our pediatrician is monitoring his weight gain very closely. It took a few days, but Elliott is now drinking quite well from the bottle. The biggest issue wasn't that he wouldn't take a bottle, but that he would drink about half an ounce, then stop once his immediate thirst was sated. It took a lot of effort to get him to drink a substantial amount. He likes to hold the bottle himself, so we have the most success when we let him think he is in control.

March 26

We went to the Mission Egg-stravaganza for our customary picture with the Easter Bunny and egg hunt Saturday morning. I actually wasn't planning on going, but Will was very adamant that we needed to get a picture with and introduce Elliott to the Easter Bunny. Despite being very excited about the outing, Lauren was genuinely afraid and started shaking when she saw the Easter Bunny. She only agreed to be in the picture if she could hold Elliott's hand (and when she saw the basket of candy the Easter Bunny handed out post-photo). Not the first time she's reacted this way. Also, I've seen Anthony make the exact same face Elliott is making in this picture hundreds of times.