"Spring" Break 2013

Well.  This spring break did not turn out at ALL like I expected it to!  You'd think by now I would understand that things don't usually go the way I expect/want them to.  What can I say?  I'm a slow learner.

I had a nice little list of fun things to do with Jeremiah this week while I was on spring break and he was home from daycare for the week.  We were going to go to the library, maybe the Science Center, possibly the zoo if the temp got above 40 (which it didn't, of course), go play at the mall, and go to Backyard Adventures.  Of course, all our activities needed to be inside since Iowa does not realize that it is spring yet (Come on!  This is getting ridiculous!).

Last weekend we did get out to the mall, and let Jeremiah ride the little coin-operated carousel (believe it or not, I chose for him to do this rather than play in the germ-filled play area with tons of wild and crazy kids.  Ha!  Little did I know what was to come a few days later!).

Fun times!

We also did get out for a walk over the weekend, too, as it DID get above 40 degrees.

On Monday, I was excited to get our week started with a fun activity!  We headed out to Backyard Adventures, which is a place that sells those really nice and expensive wooden swingsets and playsets.  No, we did not go to buy one.  But, they do open up there showroom during the week for Open Play for $5 a kid!  Perfect!  Well, it would have been more fun if it was OUTside, but this was the best we could do!

J played on this one the most!  Up the ladder, down the slide... repeat, repeat, repeat.

He also thought it was cool that they had adirondack chairs!  He said, "What kind of chairs are THESE, Mommy?"  Again, would have been nicer to sit in them relaxing out in the warm sun.... but oh well.

J doesn't care about the weather!

And that's pretty much where the fun ended.

The vomiting started on Monday night, and J spent Tuesday hanging out on the couch (we have watched more than our share of Disney Jr. this week, people!).

Concerned big sister Molly kept watch over sick Jeremiah.

He did eat some food and kept it down on Tuesday.  We went to the Doctor where it was confirmed that he did indeed have a stomach virus (Boo.  I was hoping it was a cold and he just had a lot of drainage!).  I was still cautiously optimistic, as he had kept food down during the day!  And then in the evening he vomited again. :(  And then over night he vomited 3 more times! (2 nights of being up multiple times getting vomit laundry going = fun!).

Wednesday was the worst.  Jeremiah just laid on the couch ALL DAY.  No energy, barely even answered my questions! :(  SO hard for mommy to see, and really there was nothing I could do about it, besides push fluids to prevent dehydration (which we avoided, thankfully.  But I was worried.).

This is not normal.

But, the vomiting stopped, so that was good.  He ate 4 whole goldfish crackers that evening, and kept them down!  Yay!

Thursday he was still iffy.  In the morning he ate some toast but then got pretty tired and laid around all morning.

Still not normal.

 But, after a 3.5 hour nap, he showed a bit more spunk!

A little more normal.

Vomiting is totally gone and diarrhea has reared its ugly head!  (Sorry if that's TMI).  I was told by the nurse at Mercy that with this stomach virus, we could be dealing with this diarrhea for 5-10 days!!!  Fabulous.  But, I guess it's not vomiting, so I'll take it.

That brings us to today.  If you would like to know what went on in the morning, you will have to ask Adam.  Where was I, you ask?????  At the SPA!  Yes, my hubby rocks and bought me a half-day spa day and I had it scheduled for today.  It was lovely!  A one-hour massage, pedi, mani, shampoo and haircut!  Much needed and much appreciated, that is for sure!  So, this is what I did this morning. :)

Pedi and yoga pants-- it's spring break in Iowa!

Too bad they are covered with socks now because it is freezing. :(

J took another loooooong 3 hour nap today, and has started to show more and more spunk and activity, so we are definitely on the mend!  Minus the diarrhea.

We were supposed to head up to Sioux Center tomorrow for Adam's cousin's wedding, but made the tough decision to stay home and make sure J is all healed up before next week.  He obviously needs his rest right now to recover, and we're being very careful about what he's eating, too.  And who wants to deal with a diarrhea diaper in the car or at a wedding?  Not us.

We are bummed, though.  We would have been able to see lots of Adam's family, and we even had a hotel room booked, thanks to my awesome friend Stephanie!  J was so looking forward to a dip in the pool AND a tour of the Dykshorn Dairy!  Oh well, maybe sometime later this spring when the weather is more SPRING-like.  So we will spend a low-key weekend at home, gearing up for a another work/school/daycare week.  Deep breath.  Only 11.5 weeks left of school (holy cow that seems LOOOOONG.  That's what happens when you tack all your snow days on the end of the year!  Boo.).  Maybe sometime in that 11.5 weeks we'll actually get some spring weather?????

Overall, it was not the week I expected, but honestly, it is good that it happened when it did.  I was able to be home with J and take care of him and cuddle him without having to worry about taking days off of school and sub plans.  And we are just glad that J is starting to act more and more like himself and entertaining us with his silly antics.  Hope everyone else's spring break was just as FAB as ours was! :)

Snow Day Shmo Day

Yuck.  A snow day in March!  Quite a bummer in many ways--

1.  If I get to spend the day with Jeremiah, I would MUCH rather it be in June when the weather is nice instead of now!
2.  It is conference week at my school-- and seeing as no one was expecting this random crazy snow day today, we all have report cards  etc. left at school that need out attention before conferences tomorrow!
3.  This makes snow day #5 for us.... which means our original last day of school should have been May 29.... and now our last day will (**hopefully**) be June 5 (June 6 for teachers).  That's a whole week of summer vacation GONE!  Boo.  And before all of you people who think teachers have it so easy because we get 3 months off in the summer blah blah blah remind me of that, think about June 7-August 14.  Not exactly 3 months. 

I'm done complaining now.  Really.

On the upside, I DID get to stay home and hang out with my favorite little guy today.  The time change has affected him for sure-- he slept until 7:20 this morning and later than that yesterday!  This is huge-- he's normally ready to rise and shine by 6:30 am!  Part of that is probably because of his daycare schedule, I'm sure.  But he has also not fallen asleep until 8:30/9:00!  That's going to have to change, since tomorrow he'll have to be back to his normal wake-up time of 6:20.

Lucky J-- Monday is trash day!  Garbage trucks AND snowplows-- yay!

An early morning football game-- complete with J's "football hat."

Digging with noodles-- always a favorite!  And Molly watches closely for dropped noodles.

Then of course we needed to do a "truck wash!"

Then we had to shovel, of course!  J is in charge of wiping off the yard lights...

 Whew!  And that was all before 10 am! :)  We've done a little of this, too:

 I guess another upside is that when I have a snow day, I actually have the time (and energy!) to cook a decent meal.  A delicious vegetable beef soup (thanks, Pinterest!) was on the menu tonight!

This makes up for the fact that tomorrow night we'll be grabbing a quick McD's between school and conferences.... right?

After dinner we took a quick trip to the library to pick out some new books and do some puzzles and play with trains!

All in all, a pretty good snow day, I suppose.  Really, how can I complain at all about getting to stay home with this guy???

3 Year Pics!

I put a few of these on FB, but by all the "likes" and comments, it is obvious that Jeremiah's fans want more! :)  So, here you go!

Tough Guy.

He's 3.  He'd like to be 5, but his mommy is glad he's only 3.

Love this once cause he's laughing!

Never fear-- Giraffey made an appearance, too!

As did the excavator.

Another "senior picture" pose :)

Don't you just want to kiss those cheeks?

Doesn't this look like a head-shot for modeling or something??

I just love him!

Bright eyes!

I was amazed at how well Jeremiah sat, listened, and followed directions during this photo shoot!  There were SO many good pictures to choose from.  And you know what?  The pictures were taken at Target!  I had gotten a coupon e-mailed to me for J's birthday, so took advantage of that.  So glad I did!  Now to get the wrapped canvas on the wall and the pics put into frames....

THREE

 Today Jeremiah turns 3.  Please do not get me started on how in the heck this baby

turned into this silly kid.

My mind cannot comprehend how quickly the last 3 years have gone, and I just want time to SLOW DOWN! 

We spent the entire weekend celebrating Jeremiah and the special 3 year old boy that he is!  Saturday morning we let him pick out a truck at The Learning Post.  Now that we know that they are a dealer for Bruder Toys, I am sure we'll be back often (or at least at Christmas and birthday time!).  J loves his new truck and trailer with backhoe loader!

While J was napping on Saturday, his special guests arrived-- Grandpa and Meema Wiers came from Wisconsin!  The birthday boy picked our dinner spot, and his choice was of course, Pizza Ranch!  No complaints from any of us! :)

J goes to the Pizza Ranch for one thing-- mashed potatoes!

After dinner we went home and J opened his presents from Grandpa and Meema and Uncle Matt and Aunt Cheryl!

"Reading" the card.

A Cars DUPLO set!

Serious business.

And then it was time for cake!

When J asked (several times) for a Mickey Mouse cake, I decided to put that into the hands of my friends over at Hy-Vee.  I think it turned out great!  It was MY pan that the cake was baked in, too.... that should count for something! :)

And HERE is a video of the "Happy Birthday" singing.  He likes being the center of attention!
J enjoyed some playing with his new toys, and then it was off to dreamland for the almost 3 year old.

Making a picture with his new Imaginets!

And stories with Meema before bed (no he's not sad, just listening intently).

Sunday we got up and went to church-- this was a big day because Jeremiah got sung to at Sunday School!  I was told that he just beamed the entire time (wish I could have been there to see it)!  And then got his birthday sucker from the Sunday School coordinator.  He was in awe of a sucker that has a Tootsie Roll inside it! :)

We hit Panera for lunch and then J got to have some more fun playing with Grandpa and Meema!

Making a tower as tall as J (with his new building blocks)!

Helping Grandpa and Meema with a bulldozer puzzle.

And finally, TODAY.  The big #3 birthday!  I had decorated the living room with balloons and a banner, etc and J was pretty excited to see that when he woke up!  Daddy had to work today (Mommy took a "sick" day and missed a day of professional development.  SO worth it!), and has school tonight, so we went ahead and let J open his presents from us right away.  J was okay with that.

Pretty excited about books.  Makes me happy!

Uh, read the card a little faster, Gramps!  I got presents to open!

A garbage truck!

Spent a LOT of time loading trash into his garbage truck today!

 

Happy boy surrounded by trucks!

Grandpa made a special green chocolate chip (oddly shaped) pancake for J's birthday!

Jeremiah challenged Grandpa to a game of vehicle Memory (another gift from us).  Jeremiah won quite handily!  He doesn't quite get the concept of only turning over 2 cards at a time (why not keep turning them over until you find the match?!?!?).

 
Then we had to head off to Target-- Mommy scheduled J's 3 year pictures!  WOW, did J do an awesome job!  We got some great pics, and he listened and followed directions so well-- made this mommy so proud.  Grandma thinks J may have a career in modeling. :)

After Target, we met Daddy for lunch at another favorite place of J's-- McDonald's with the Playland!

Apparently by this point he was a little sick of saying "cheese."

And after lunch, it was time for a nap and time for Grandpa and Meema to head back to Wisconsin.  J was sad to say good-bye ("Why did Grandpa and Meema have to go bye-bye???"). 

But the partying is not over-- J gets to celebrate his b-day with his daycare friends tomorrow (and yes, he will be wearing his "Happy Birthday to Me!" shirt yet again.  Don't worry-- I've been washing it between wears!).  Here is Mommy's attempt at a Pinterest Mickey Mouse birthday treat:

Not too shabby, if I do say so myself.

Happy 3rd Birthday, Jeremiah Adam!  Daddy and Mommy are so proud of our big boy and we love you so much! :)

Life Lately

Not much exciting going on here, lately, except for Jeremiah.... he is always keeping us on our toes!  I bet you have all been so anxious, wondering if Jeremiah has stayed true to being "paci-free" or if he (or we) has fallen off the wagon.  Well, we are happy to say that J really never looked back, once the paci was gone.  He would ask about it every once in a while, but we'd just remind him that it was "lost."  The first time Adam picked J up from daycare after we "lost" the paci, he asked for it, of course.  Adam reminded him that it was "lost," and J said, "No, Mommy has it in her pocket!  I know she does!" (He was on to me, I guess! Ha!).  But, we have not heard mention of the paci in weeks!  So yay, that was surprisingly pain-less for all! :)

Early last week J took a spill at daycare and hit his face on the hallway floor at our daycare provider's daughter's school.  After being reminded several times NOT to run, what did he do?  Ran, of course.  And then fell flat on his face!  I honestly am glad I did not see it right away, because I think it looked pretty bad, and they had a hard time getting the bleeding to stop.  Adam picked him up and took him to Urgent Care (which was surprisingly NOT busy!), but there was really nothing they could do.  The bleeding slowed, and J was just left with a big fat lip, bruise on the inside of his lip, puffy nose, and loose teeth.  He got the teeth looked at this week by the dentist-- one is still a little loose, so we have to "keep an eye on it" (what does that even mean, really?  Make sure it doesn't fall out?).

Ow.

 

Thankfully he is now back to normal, and you'd think he'd be much more careful about running everywhere.  But he's not.

This week has been a pretty lazy week for us.  J came down with some kind of cold or something on Sunday and has been coughing with a runny nose, etc all week.  No fever at all, but definitely not feeling 100%.  A few times this week he has coughed so hard at night and then vomited (yay for the over-active super-sensitive gag reflex).  Between a late-start, snow day, and sickness going on at daycare we ended up having a lot of days at home!  Turned out for the best, probably, as J is still coughing....  Adam did take him to the doctor on Thursday, and found that one ear was pink and probably was either just starting or finishing an ear infection.  So we have an antibiotic for him and have been waiting to see if he'll improve without it.... I'm thinking we'll start it today since he hasn't made a drastic improvement yet.  He also was complaining that his back hurt, which prompted the Dr to ask for a urine sample just to rule out an infection.  That came back clear, so she thinks he probably just strained it a little bit from all the coughing.

A cozy day at home-- just what the Dr. ordered!

Being home so much this week meant that Mommy could stay more on top of the laundry (instead of letting it go until the weekend!), and J is so good at being Mommy's laundry helper!

Stop standing around and get back to work!

 HERE IS A VIDEO of how he helps me with the laundry.  Don't worry, he hasn't fallen in or off yet.  And, if any one is really that concerned about his safety, feel free to purchase him a front-loading washing machine. :)

Keeping busy "making cookies."  At his tool bench.

 J has also spent some time on the iPad, of course.  He has a construction vehicle app-- it plays a country song called "Mud on the Tires" and shows a slideshow of construction vehicles.  Every time the song comes on, he runs to get his guitar so he can play along! (This particular day he decided to have a concert inside a couch cushion fort).

I think that's about all the excitement from here for now-- stay tuned as our little dude turns 3 in approximately 16 days!  This momma is not ready for her baby to be 3!!!!