Andrew's February Doctor Visit

Andrew has always been my sickly boy.  He just has a harder time staying well than Jacob.  Such is life I guess. 

Over the weekend, he had a loose cough and a horrible runny nose.  I also noticed a posting that strep throat was in his room at school.  So this morning when he started complaining that his neck hurt, I went into panic mode. 

Back up to the events of the morning.  He woke up feeling fine.  He ate a little breakfast and then played for a little bit with Jacob.  Then it was time to get dressed.  We have been trying to teach him that it is okay to get up and go pee in the night.  And when he goes 4 or 5 days I think without peeing in his pullup, then he can sleep in underwear.  So he wakes up every morning and says that his pullup is dry; most times it is not.  This morning Brian was throwing his wet pullup in the trash, and Andrew was upset that it was wet I guess.  And then all of a sudden his neck started hurting. 

Brian thought he was faking just because he didn't want to get ready for school.  I thought he was really in pain.  He would not let go of me, and just kept complaining about it.  So I stayed home.

Andrew HATES the doctor's office.  He starts to cry when they call his name to go back to a room.  Last time he went....January.....2012....we saw a different nurse.  I tried to prepare him by telling him what she was going to do (look in his ears and mouth and listen to his breathing).  He did pretty well with that last time.  So this time I made our appointment with the same nurse and told him what was about to happen again.  We practiced breathing for that part of the exam, and man, he did SO well with it all!  No meltdowns at all!  So she checks him out, and then she leaves our room for a little bit.  This is where Funny Andrew made his appearance.  He told me, "Mommy, we need our two little pieces of paper (prescriptions).  And we need our two yellow sheets (review sheets summarizing the visit).  And I need to get candy!"  He remembered all of that from the last visit!  Kind of impressive since I left those parts out of my pep talk (but I remembered them a month ago).

He's also funny because he's walking in his best Rain Man pose - head cocked to one side.  lol! 

So now we are home, resting.  He's watching Backyardigans, and I'm blogging.  :)  I'm gonna lay down now and try to snooze a bit. 

Dreams!

Andrew told me about a dream he had last night!  Here's what he told me:

When I was sleeping with my doggie, my dog got toys!  Me: Your dog got toys?! (Side Note: I thought he had been up in the night playing with toys, and he was telling me that his dog did it)  A: Yes!  He got a teddy bear and another dog.  Me: A teddy bear and a dog?!  A: Yes!  And a firetruck, too! 

That's a pretty vivid memory of a dream for a kid under 3.  I was impressed! 

So this year has been a beast so far.  I have worked A LOT, which is great for the bank account - not so great for family life.  I had to do end of year files, tax documents for employees, and we had some unexpected network issues that popped up.  The weekend I had to work on the network, all three of my boys were sick.  Jacob woke up that morning throwing up; Andrew was extremely congested and ended up with a nasty double ear infection; and Brian probably had a combo of the two - I don't remember the details for him. 

Jacob is getting SO big!  I'm finally dealing with the fact that he will start Kindergarten in 6 months.  Okay...we are working on it (as I'm choking up while I type this).  I have completed the first paperwork for Kindergarten.  I filled out a transfer form so that we can get him into a different elementary school in the district.  Other than that, I have no idea what we need to do.  He is also signed up to play soccer again.  Andrew is still too young, but I think he'll be great at it!  Jacob is learning to read, which makes me feel the most proud I've ever felt about him.  How cool is that?!  I get frustrated sometimes, but he is completely kicking ass with the whole thing. 

I read Mary's blog a couple of weeks ago, and I decided it was time to do a chore chart with my kids, too.  We got one for Christmas, and we ordered a second one so that each boy has his own.  They have 7 things to do each day, and they get a smiley face for each item they complete: get dressed, say please and thank you, put away toys, stop whining (this is a constant battle for Andrew, but he's coming around), get ready for bed, set table, and clear the table.  By the end of last week, we thought Andrew might be too young to have so many items, but he is holding his own this week!  Usually Jacob gets 6 smileys, but he's had a couple of 7's this week.  Andrew can get 5-6 without a problem.  We haven't introduced money into the game yet.  For now, the smileys and the competition of who can get the most is enough motivation. 

Hmm...what else?!  Brian and I are doing a Parenting with Love and Logic class right now.  It is every Wednesday for 8 weeks - last night was the 2nd class.  Our pediatrician is teaching the class at a church literally right around the corner from our house.  We have seen an immediate change in the atmosphere of the entire house by making three small changes: 1. Give your child 3 "at-a-boys" for every 1 negative; 2. Remember that you can only control yourself; and 3. If there is no audience, the show closes.  We have had an incredible decrease in time outs and temper tantrums.  It's amazing!  Some of that could be their charts, too.  We started them both at the same time.  But just encouraging the kids more and telling them that we are proud and good job has made the biggest difference.  Really cool! 

Blog update: Yes, I suck at this.  Last week I actually changed the settings on my blog to be private because I never post anything.  I thought, eh, screw it...I'm just going to give up.  Then this morning, Andrew was so cute that I just had to share!  So maybe this will be more of a journal than a collection of pictures.  That's what holds me up - getting the pictures uploaded and formatted and on here is so time consuming!  But I can write a little story in a few minutes (or several in about 20).  I try to put pictures on Facebook because everyone is on there.  And I can do it in just a few seconds with my phone.  so there you go! 

This weekend I'm off on a girls' trip to St. Louis!  I am SO pumped!  Maybe picture will make it for that one.  ha!  Happy Thursday!