Pneumonia....again....times 2

I will start out with some pictures from the last week before getting into the details of our sick household.

At the bottom of the post there is a video from Zak's YMCA class on Wednesday. They played t-ball which was funny to watch for us adults. The kids were pretty good at hitting the ball, but didn't really "get" the other positions. The coaches put the kids in various positions, but most of the kids just stood on their spot and didn't try to get the ball even when it came near them. Then there was Zak and another little boy who would chase after the ball even if it was no where near them. The kids all had fun and that is what matters.

On Thursday Ryder had school. In the evening after dinner we pulled out the Play Doh and had some family fun for a while.

On Friday morning Ryder woke up with a horrible cough and fever. I was going to take him to the pediatrician, but then we discovered Ben had accidentally taken our only set of car keys to work with in. He was working at an FDA building so there was no real quick-fix to the problem. We then decided to take him Saturday morning. During the day we did some school work which included fine motor activities such as stickers and lacing.

Ben called and was going to make it home early so I was able to get Ryder a last minute appointment on Friday afternoon. When we first got there his pulse ox was only 90-91, the pediatrician heard wheezing in his right lung and his throat looked very swollen an red. So they did a strep test (came back negative) and a breathing treatment. After the treatment was done his pulse ox came up to 94-95, but the wheezing sound was still there. The pediatrician prescribed Ryder antibiotics for 10 days and oral steroids for 5 days and she wanted him to have a follow-up appointment on Monday.

Once we got home from the pediatrician we headed to Rich & Laura's to pick up their white truck to borrow. When we got home Ben moved a bunch of furniture around and put various stuff in the truck to take to our community dumpster Saturday morning. Friday night we a very long night because I had trouble getting to sleep and then the boys were up coughing most of the night. At 2am I ended up bringing them both into our bed which caused me to get no sleep.

Saturday morning Ben made a few trips to the dumpster to get rid of various things from our house. He then worked on moving stuff around because we need to clear out certain areas in the house for the AC, furnace, and water heater install (this week on Wednesday & Thursday). Saturday evening the boys played with their "friends (kids next door) in our backyard for a while.

Sunday morning we took the truck back to Rich and then spent the day at home watching football.
This morning I took both boys to the pediatrician because Zak developed a fever and cough over the weekend and they wanted to do a follow-up on Ryder. Ryder's lungs sound really good today so the medication is working and he is allowed to go to school starting tomorrow. Zak's lungs sounds junky and his one ear looks infected. The pediatrician started him on the same medications that Ryder is on. So now this is what our fridge looks like...I feel like a pharmacy..

Everyday medications

Right now the medications the boys are getting are as follows:

Zak: Zantac twice daily (reflux), Flovent twice daily (asthma), multi-vitamin, Amoxicillin twice daily 10 days (pneumonia, ear infection), Orapred twice daily 5 days (pneumonia), Albuterol as needed (pneumonia)

Ryder: Flovent twice daily (asthma), multi-vitamin, Amoxicillin twice daily 10 days (pneumonia), Orapred once daily 5 days (pneumonia), Albuterol as needed (pneumonia)

Movies

Ben and I know we will not really be doing much for Christmas this year due to the financial issues we are having. Hopefully the boys won't really realize it since they are still young and not really old enough to be anticipating Christmas morning with a room full of new toys (we are really hoping they are too young!). So after some thinking we know what the boys will get from us for Christmas...Toy Story 3! They will be so excited to see it that it won't matter to them that nothing else is there to open (we hope). So I am going to pre-order the movie to make sure we get it without needing to go on a wild goose chase finding the best price and it not be sold out.

While I was searching online for the best price to pre-order Toy Story 3 we started to realize there are a bunch of movies we would love to have for both the boys and ourselves. We have a good number of VHS movies, but many of them are very used and scratchy along with the fact that we only have 1 VCR ($3 from thrift shop) so we want to upgrade everything to DVD. We do have 1 Blue-Ray player which is built-in to our living room TV, but those are more expensive and can't be watched in any other room. My mom has said that if she ever buys the combo set of DVD/Blu-Ray in a movie she will send us the Blu-Ray copy so it doesn't go to waste since they don't have a Blu-Ray player (yet). So we figure DVDs are more cost effective and can be used on all of our TVs. (For Christmas the boys are going to get a copy of Beauty & The Beast on Blu-Ray)

You will see a list on the side bar of the blog with a wish list for DVDs. Ben and I will be going through our movies and online lists to see which ones we would love to have and add to the list. As we get movies (we periodically check local consignment shops) we will update the list also.

Making Dinner

First a few pictures and then I will get to the topic of making dinner.

Ryder eating lunch yesterday

Zak eating his lunch

This morning the boys decided to wake up extra early (6am) so they got in bed with me and watched Mickey Mouse Clubhouse for a while. Because of the early wake up call we had a slow start to actually getting moving. I got Ryder dressed for school and on the bus then Zak & I got dresses and headed out to run errands. We went to look for a few more pairs of pajamas for the boys at Target & WalMart.

Having lunch after Ryder got home from school

Once the boys were done with lunch I surprised them with a fun activity. They got to put up our Halloween window clings which they were extremely excited about.

Ben called me this afternoon to let me know he would be getting home late tonight which means he would miss dinner. So I decided to have hamburger bun pizzas because the boys would have fun helping me make them. So I got everything out, we washed our hands, and made dinner together...

Sauce...

...cheese...

...pepperoni...

...and enjoy!

As for Ben, he is still not home. He is hoping to be home around 9pm or so. He started work early and is working really late which means lots of overtime.

I have gotten bad about updating the blog as often as I used to. Looks like I have gotten into a habit of making a weekly post with pictures. So here goes the details of the last week...

On Wednesday Ryder had school and Zak had his YMCA class. Before Zak's class we took a tour of the facility to learn more about the programs and other things they offer. After dinner on Wednesday night we went to Friendly's for dessert because Ryder's school was having a fundraiser there. The boys were excited because they got to have their own ice cream sundae! They both made a mess (Ryder much more than Zak), but had a great time.

Ryder had fun with stickers!

(not sure what day this was from, but thought it was funny)

On Thursday Ryder had school. Thursday was also the day that we had a huge rain storm that lasted ALL day. In the end we got between 6-8 inches of rain which led to tons of flooding. We did get some water in our basement and a leak dripping into our kitchen, but nothing too bad. Ben had issues while at work because the flooding caused tons of road closures. At one point he was stuck in a parking lot for a while, but was eventually able to get back to his office for a bit and then home early. Schools closed early, but Ryder still came home at the normal time. Zak and I worked on some school work at home which he always enjoys.

Friday the rain had stopped so the boys and I ran some errands and then took a walk around the community. It was still extremely wet out so the boys had fun in the puddles and mud before we headed inside. Once inside we did some school work. They both had fun with the coloring, work sheets, writing, and puzzles.

Zak's letter 'A' practice

Ryder circles, he made a face

Zak decided to make some on his own!

Ryder's coloring practice

Zak's outfit of choice

Home Depot apron, underwear, silly bands

On Saturday morning we went to Rich & Laura's house. I left Ben and the boys there while I went to do a few things on my own. The boys spent most of their time playing doctor with Nanny. I went to the Annapolis Moms of Multiples (AMOM) fall sale during the half price hour. I spent $38 and walked out with overalls (2), sweater, pants, long sleeved shirts (7 or so), pajamas (8 or so), and a bag of long sleeved shirts for Madelyn. After I was done there I headed to Annapolis High School to pick something up from Colleen and drop off Madelyn's shirts to her. Once I was done there I went back to pick up the Ben and the boys from Rich & Laura's house. We then went to BJs and finally back home. The boys were super excited to put on their new jammies.

This morning the boys put their Redskins jerseys over their pjs. I made a trip to the grocery store to buy food for our meals this coming week. Then Ben headed to his mom's house. They went to the closing game for the Orioles today. The boys and I had a lazy day at home and didn't really do much of anything.