Andrew now completely believes that he will ALWAYS be sick on Christmas! (Read last year's Christmas blog, if you're confused.) We don't know what's going on with him, really. He got a stomach flu on Dec. 17th, and missed his Christmas party at school the next day, but then he was fine. Ethan and Alex got the same bug two days later, but again, it passed and all were well again.
For a few days.
Alex began to be very irritable, and rightly so, since we discovered he was cutting two molars at once. Then, one night, I checked on him and found he was burning up with fever and panting to get breath. A trip to the doctor the next day revealed something like Bronchiolitis (the doctor never really said what it was, just that his bronchioles were constricted, but that it wasn't Bronchiolitis, nor Pneumonia - thank Heaven!) He was put on an antibiotic, to kill any bacteriall infection that may have brought this on, and a steroid to help open his airways. We (Mike) also had to dig through every box as yet unpacked (I'm ashamed to admit there are quite a few - Office stuff, you know, my Nemesis!), to find his Nebulizer. Alex is better for the treatments than he was as a baby, but one day he turned it on by himself and it scared him so much that he now calls it the "Loud."
The day I returned from that doctor visit, Ethan began coughing. The following Tuesday, the 23rd, I went back to the doctor to find out more about what might be causing his 102.3 degree fever that accompanied his now constant cough. The doctor who saw him, (not his regular pediatrician, since he was booked already), said he definitely had Tonscilitis. The Strep Throat culture came back negative (again - Thank Heaven!), but nonetheless, we left with a prescription for amoxicilan (his best friend would be so jealous, since he loves the stuff and didn't even get it when he was diagnosed with Bronchial Pneumonia that same week, poor guy!), and a cough syrup that Ethan loves so much that he's now faking coughs to see if he can get more of it.
Finally, I thought, "We've had it all. The drugs are in the home, and in their systems, we can peacefully enjoy our Christmas!"
Not to be. On Christmas Day, Andrew threw up in the car between Grandma & Grandpa Slade's house and Grandma and Grandpa Larsen's house. We tried to push it off as having eaten too much junk food, (which he really hadn't overdone) or getting motion sickness as he played his new Leapster game in the car, but when he did it again once we were home, we figured it must be a real bug. The thing is, after a while, he was FINE. There were no more incidents at all, from anyone, Saturday or Sunday. Then, yesterday, he threw up in the morning, got better in the afternoon, then was sick again at night. This morning he threw up again, but by 1 p.m. he was FINE again.
We made our now weekly visit to see Dr. Amann, and all he could tell me is that it must either be a virus that his system is having trouble getting over, or several individual flu viruses, one every few days. The strangest thing is that I haven't heard much of any of the people he's been around getting sick. We just have to give it more time for him to get better, I guess.
Aside from all that, we did have a WONDERFUL Christmas! Mike and I had to actually wake our kids up (by turning off the humidifier, ha, ha) at 7:30 on Christmas morning. Mike read the Christmas Story from Luke 2, before we began unwrapping. We took nearly two hours opening only a few gifts each, since they wanted to take each present out of it's theft-proof packaging. (Mike's multi-tool got more use than ever!) We were all very happy with what we received!
Then we made it to the Larsens' in time to say a few words each to both of my brothers currently serving missions - Andrew in Argentina, and Gavin in Mexico. The boys had a blast with all their cousins, and we munched on all the goodies Grandma Larsen always has at Christmas time! (We had already done all of our gift exchanging with that side of our family at the Christmas party on the 13th.)
We even got home with plenty of time to play with our new toys afterward. We're now looking forward to New Year's Eve, though all we're planning to do is the same thing we've been doing for many days now, with the exception of Christmas - keeping to ourselves until we're sure the "ickiness" is all gone! At least we have a lot of fun new ways to entertain ourselves now!!
We haven't made it down to Grandma and Grandpa Chase's house since the Christmas party on the 19th, but we're hoping to get well enough to visit them soon!
Here are each of us with our goodies from Santa:
Andrew has a ring-pop in his mouth. He got Night-Vision Goggles, a Spyder Trap, which he's attached to all his gifts, a Glitter Ball, a Webkin, and a Batman Leapster game, which teaches math skills on a 3rd-4th grade level. (He loves to multiply and divide!)
Ethan played with his "dragon castle" for nearly two hours straight. He got new goop for his Bug Maker, which Santa brought last year (when he opened them Ethan exclaimed, "How did he know I have a Bug Maker?" LOL). He also got a webkin and, yes, Thomas the Train train tracks and a set of cars to be pulled by his motorized Percy car. We knew the day would eventually come when our house would be littered with train tracks, and it's finally here.
Alex dropped his ring-pop, forgot completely about the Hershey kiss he'd been crying for, the very second he saw that the present he was opening was his very own "Mawn Mower!" Luckily it was the last thing he opened, or he wouldn't have gotten around to opening anything else. He enjoys his new broom, (" 'weep"), his toolbox full of tools, his puppy dog, and his motorized train (which he owes to Ethan's comment after arguing with Alex over his own motorized car, "Santa should bring Alex a train car of his own. Only it HAS to be in his stocking!" Santa aims to please!)
I love my new cooking supplies and the boots that will keep my feet warm! We had fun playing the Office Trivia game with Kevin and Kylie one night, and I'm just getting into the book.
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