Ryan is going to be four in January (just a little more than a month away!)  Since he is  “winter” baby, I have always struggled with what to do for his birthday.

Sometimes we have nice weather in January, but sometimes we don’t.  That makes it very hard to plan something outside, because it could be 60 degrees and sunny, or it could be 20 degrees and snowing.  Currently our house doesn’t have enough space to have an indoor party, so that doesn’t leave us with very many options.

To make it a bit harder, there really aren’t too many places in our town for kids Ryan’s age to have a birthday party indoors at.  There are lots of places about 50 miles away- in the big city- but I don’t expect his friends’ parents (all of whom have young children as well- oy!) to make a trip that far away for a two hour, at the most party.

When Ryan turned one, we had our family and a few friends over for pizza and cake.  It was nice-crowded-but nice, and none of our friends had babies with them, so that made a little more room in our house.

When Ryan turned two, we had a swimming party in the afternoon at the rec center.  We had a room for an hour, where the kids had snacks and cake, and then they got to go swimming.  It was OK, but at that age, Ryan didn’t really care who was there, or what the activities were.  It was nice for ME though, to visit with my friends while our kiddos were just a few arms lengths away, playing in the shallow water.

Last year, Ryan was insistent that he didn’t want a birthday party, so we took him to a neighboring town, about 20 minutes away, and let him play at one of those bouncy inside places.  It was really crowded though, then we went and got lunch. 

Ryan is getting excited about his birthday, and since it is so close to Christmas, I always find myself two weeks away from his birthday, trying to plan something.  I am hoping to get a jump on it this year, but I am really at a loss at what to do.  Ryan says he doesn’t want a party, but he wants to go see trucks and big rigs.  Where are you supposed to do that at?  There *is* a truck stop off the highway from us, but we aren’t about to go ask a strange truck driver if we can see his truck. 

Part of me really wants to have a fourth birthday party for Ryan with his friends, games, silly hats, and cake, because I think Ryan would like a party, once all the action started.  The other part of me is leaning towards just doing something like we did last year.  Part of the big problem is I don’t know where to have it indoors, and our house really is too small to have a party like that here.

So, does anyone have any great ideas for me?  If you live in a colder area, and have a child who has a winter birthday, what do you do?  I appreciate any and all suggestions. 

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I haven’t mentioned my on-line store, Little Pumpkin Sweet Pea Designs,  very often in my blog, even though I have a few links to it.  When I checked my e-mail for the store today, I discovered the following special coupon from Cafe Press (who hosts the site), and thought I would share this special.   If you think you might do some shopping here, hurry though, because it looks like the coupon code (FRFAM2007) is valid only until the 28th.  I also have a feeling this code will work on other stores at Cafe Press, so that may be worth a try if you find other things you like as well in a different store.

Little Pumpkin Sweet Pea Designs carries designs for babies, children, maternity, and women.   (The onesie in the picture below which says, “My Grandpa Can Fix Anything,”is one of my designs you’ll find in the store.  There are also some breastfeeding advocacy designs and bumper stickers, birth and home birth designs, and some “Green” designs.  Check out the site, and pick up a cute onesie for that special baby in your life- remember Christmas is right around the corner. 

Friends & Family of Little Pumpkin Sweet Pea Designs Get $15 off $50*

Start shopping at Little Pumpkin Sweet Pea Designs, http://www.cafepress.com/lpspd

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Cole is doing a lot better today, and did well during the last two-nights.  His stridor is almost gone, and now it seems like that gunk is starting to drain in the form of a cough, sneezing, and runny nose.  But his breathing is so much better.

We got out for a little while today and took a very short walk (it was colder out than I thought, but cold air is good for croup), and went to a hardware store to look at all their Christmas trees, and then on to the health food store for some groceries. 

We all rested a lot yesterday ( I stayed in my PJ’s until 1pm!), so hopefully we are all on the mend.

I’m taking Nicole’s suggestion and carrying hand sanitizer w/ me now, and putting it on all of our hands right away- all these colds seem to start w/ Cole since his hands are in his mouth constantly. 

I found a neat one at the health food store today called Clean Well.  I was looking for a spray, since the gels are harder to distribute.  Clean Well is a spray, is alcohol free, is made with ingenium (which is made from essential plant oils), and it’s safe if kids put their hands in their mouth with it on, and it kills 99.99 of germs naturally.  From Clean Well’s website: It is the only all-natural antimicrobial that meets EPA and FDA standards for germ killing efficacy.

We’ll see if this slows down these colds and illnesses we keep catching.  It certainly can’t hurt!

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We ended up taking Cole into the ER last night at midnight, after he started having a lot of trouble breathing.  

Turns out he has croup, although he never was making the “barking” noises, that is a classic symptom of croup.  He sounded more like he was wheezing, and even a nurse said he sounded like he was breathing like an asthmatic.  

After trying two rounds of the steroid breathing treatments, they weren’t working, and Cole was running a fever of 104.5- so the Dr.’s decided to admit him, and test him for secondary infections & the flu as well.  They said his ear was really inflamed & thought he may have had an ear infection too. 

It was a miserable night- they poked him, prodded him, drew blood, gave him shots, (they wanted to do an IV line, and I asked them not to unless it was absolutely necessary.  I  hate IV’s, and they agreed to just give him the shots, but at least he wasn’t tied down to an IV line- he would have hated that more) , and he was just so sick!  I was in tears the entire time.  Finally at 5 am, his fever went to 101, and it seemed like the treatments were finally starting to work.

 Joe went home to rest, and I stayed w/ Cole until 9am; dozing off and on, until the pediatrician came to check up on him.  Fortunately,  he was much better but he still has the raspy, stridor, breathing,  but the doctors say it isn’t in his chest, or lungs, but in his upper respiratory system, which isn’t as bad.  

Cole’s doctor said they wanted us to stay until Sunday for observation, but said we could take him home today since we live so close to the hospital, but stressed we needed to watch him very carefully.  Evidently croup can come back, even when you think it is under control, and it is worse at night than during the day.

The pediatrician today said he didn’t think he had an ear infection, but it was the high fever that was causing his ears to be inflamed, and all his blood work came back fine- viral- but fine. 

That is how croup is caught- from a virus.  One nurse said 100 kids could have the same cold from a virus, and about 2 or 3 will go on to develop croup.  The doctors and nurses said once kids are about 4, it is very rare for them to develop it, since their airway passages become larger.  Obviously adults don’t get croup, but when adults develop the virus, they get it in the form of laryngitis.

So, what an ordeal!  I have never been that scared before regarding my child’s health.  I still am worried he still has the raspy stuff, but they say his steroid medication will help.  

Before we took him in last night, I was reading about croup on Dr. Sears’ website.  I was very impressed that everything I had read on the website regarding croup and the treatment of it, was what the hospital, doctor’s, and nurses were doing. 

When we were deciding if we should take Cole in, I also placed a call into my local children’s hospital, which has a free 24 hour nurse help line.  She actually listened to Cole’s breathing, and told me it was croup over the phone, and to take him to the ER.  I feel like we had excellent care, and the doctors and nurses did everything they could to make Cole (and Mom and Dad) comfortable, and they did a very thorough job in making sure Cole didn’t have any other causes for his high fever.

Even though Cole’s “barking” symptoms weren’t quite as described, if your child sounds like he is wheezing, having trouble breathing, is breathing faster, drooling excessively, or the area right above his breastbone is caving in while breathing, or his ribs are really working while breathing, take him in.  Cole had all these sypmtoms.  We obviously waited too long.  Joe really picked up on the abnormal breathing, but since Cole didn’t have that barking seal noise, it just threw me.  I thought he just had a lot of congestion in his throat, but looking back now, it was more than congestion.  No one said it, but I think Cole’s breathing was getting so bad, since we had waited almost 2 days to take him in.

At any rate, I have been listening to his breathing tonight and he sounds so much better than yesterday.  What a difference 24 hours can make.  I hope he is over the worst of it, and now we can all get back to resting and healing.

Druing all of this, Ryan was spending the night at his grandparents with his cousins last night, so I guess if this had to happen, at least it was last night.  Ryan’s uncle and grandpa took the kids today ice skating, window shopping at a train store, to lunch, to play miniture golf, and then a train ride at the mall!  Ryan was in heaven.  I think he had the best day ever.  We are so lucky to have such wonderful family near by to help out in cases like this.  It helps so much, in not having to worry about the other child, so we could focus on Cole.

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On Tuesday, just short of a week from my last bout of sickness, I started getting some pain in my breast.  I thought maybe my bra was too tight.  Later in the evening,  I realized I had a plugged milk duct, but by then my breast was burning and turning red.  I knew I had mastitis.

I had mastitis at the beginning of the year, and even though that had been the first time I had it, I didn’t call the doctor right away.  I tried some natural remedies to cure it over the weekend.  For me, that was a HUGE mistake.  By Monday, I was so sick, I could barely get out of bed.  It felt like the worst flu I had ever had, and my breast had swollen to about 4 times it normal size, and I was in extreme pain from it.

So this time, no messing around with it!  On Wednesday morning, I called my doctor and left them a message before I had to go to work.  At 9am the receptionist called me and said the doctor had a prescription for me!  I went right after work and got it, and took the first dose.  I am so happy that I never got that flu feeling, and my breast didn’t get any more swollen, or painful.

Yesterday I felt under the weather, but I rested in the morning until it was time to get ready to go to the relatives for Thanksgiving.  I felt OK- not great, but I have certainly felt worse.

As we were leaving my uncle’s house at 8, to come home, Cole started this deep, chest coughing, and he was burning up!  By the time we got home, he could barely breathe from the congestion, and he had a very high fever.  We thought he could have croup, but he wasn’t “barking,” and if we held him upright, he could breathe much better.  

 He did not have a good night.  He tossed and turned and woke up about once every hour.  At one point he was just crying, saying, “mama, mama,” over and over again.  I felt so bad for him.  He finally fell asleep on me, and we both slept for about 3 hours. 

Today he was pretty cranky, still had a fever, but his breathing sounded better.  Then this afternoon, Joe took him to sit down stairs with him, so I could rest, and he threw up.  Right after that, Cole seemed a lot better.  He started pointing at food, and he ate a lot!  He didn’t vomit again, and I think it is the congestion is all piling up in his stomach as well.

So I am listening to him breath while he sleeps, to make sure he doesn’t have any problems, but he still has a fever, and is having some congestion in his chest.

I am SO, SO, tired of us being sick!  I don’t know what else to do. I have started taking some Emergen-C, and an immunity builder herb, since I think that is what brought on my mastitis- I am sure my immune system is weak, since I am still recovering from my last sickness.

Oh yea- Joe caught that same stomach bug I had last week, on Monday and Tuesday of this week. Please send us some healthy thoughts- we sure need them!

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Cole is exactly 18 months old today!  I can hardly believe it-where has the time gone?

Cole’s personality is really starting to shine.  I noticed a few months ago, he is a little comedian.  He loves to make people laugh.  If he hears one of us laughing he’ll try to copy whatever we were just doing, to keep us laughing.  One of the big ways he gets laughs is he’ll take the kitchen towel off the oven rack, cover his head with it, and then walk around the house, until we say, “Who is that little ghost?” or “Where’s Coley?”  Then he’ll rip the towel off his head, giggles abounding. 

He also loves books.  He’ll sit and look at books for fifteen minutes at a time, no one reading to him- he’ll just study the pictures.

Like most 18-month old, he adores Thomas.  Whenever we turn on a Thomas DVD, he starts bouncing around and dancing.  He also likes music, and songs, and sings along in his own little babbling, to most songs.

Cole can say, Da-da,” and “Mama” right now.  I have heard him say, “no,” “bye,” and “water,” but he doesn’t say those consistently yet.

He certainly has a mind of his own.  His grandmother pointed out the other day, that when he doesn’t want to do something, he is as stubborn as they come!  That is so true! 

As much as he is stubborn though, he gives at least 100% more back in his love.  He will hug us constantly throughout the day, for no reason.  He’ll just come up to me and want a hug and a kiss, and then he’ll be back off to whatever he was doing.  He absolutely lights up when he sees the people he loves, and he starts shrieking with joy and excitement.  His love and attitude rubs off on me.  I find when I am away from Cole for a few hours, I really start to miss him, and I need a hug from him. 

I was thinking about how much love Cole has in his heart the other day, and it dawned on me that no one has ever shown me that much open affection in my entire life.  My parents were pretty affectionate and always told us they loved us, and Joe and I are affectionate, but Cole can take his affection and love, and just run with it, and he doesn’t hold anything back. 

During the first year of his life, which was difficult since he was a high-needs baby, sitting up with him at all hours of the night, I often wondered why I had this particular child, what was he here to teach me, and what was I supposed to learn from him? 

I am sure I will keep discovering more answers to these questions, but after having my Coley for a year and a half, I know I had him to teach me about love- he teaches me that it is okay to be open and free with affection and love, every day. He teaches me that even during the hardest, darkest times, the sun will shine again, and it comes out even brighter and more beautiful than before.

I believe that we are all born with that free, unrestricted love, but because of what life throws at us, it gets buried in us, and can be very hard to find again.  Cole has taught me that it is worth the effort to find that- after all, he shows it to me every day in his smile, his hugs, and kisses.  He truly is a special gift- a gift of love.

Happy 18 months, Coley!  I can’t wait to keep learning from you, and I love you with all my heart!

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Joe and I both have family in state, so we are spending half the day with Joe’s family, and then the other half with my family.  The good thing about that is we get to eat TWO Thanksgiving meals.  The bad thing about that is we get to eat TWO Thanksgiving meals.  We are so stuffed by the end of the day, we never want to eat again. 

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.  I enjoy spending time with family, and of course the food is wonderful, and usually only made once a year.  So we can’t help but enjoy it.  My favorite dish is my Uncle Mike’s turkey.  He has the most wonderful brine, and starts is several days before Thanksgiving.  It is the most juicy, and moist turkey ever- it melts in your mouth. 

I hope everyone has a Happy and safe Thanksgiving, and you get to enjoy all of your holiday traditions too!

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Here are two pictures that I love from our photo session on Sunday:

I was really impressed with the studio- my sister did a great job in convincing me to try the studio out. 

I thought it was going to be a disaster though, because no sooner was our session was ready to start, Cole decided he was having NONE of it.  Nothing the photographer, my sister, my sister-in-law, Ryan, or I, did or said could get Cole to stop frowning, and crying, as soon as he saw the camera.  Needless to say, the first 15 minutes was very frustrating!

Our photographer took some extra time, even though the studio was really busy, and she finally got some shots with Ryan and Cole together, both boys separately, (I’ll be posting those pictures on their own posts), both boys with their cousin, and both boys for their Christmas card picture (if you know me in real-life, you’ll have to wait to see that on your Christmas card.  I’ll post a picture of it though, after the cards go out).

The studio was very professional, and they never rushed us.  With my sister and I sharing the photo shoot, it was very economical, and they had the pictures done and printed in under an hour (we went and ate lunch, while waiting for the pictures to be printed).  

 The best part is they give you ALL shots (even ones you don’t end up choosing for pictures) on a CD, to do with what you want.  They said that is their equivalent of giving you the negatives (from the old days.)  So, any pictures I have in color, I can get reprinted in any size, or make black and white, etc.  I love having all shots, because even now, a day later, I am finding I like some pictures that I didn’t like yesterday, and the individual picture I chose for Cole yesterday, I am not liking it so much now.  I really like the flexibility of having the “negatives/CD.”  I even selected our wedding photographer largely in part (I of course liked his work), but he let us keep the negatives. 

The only bad part, was the drive for me.  It was an hour away, but that is a small price to pay.  I have been so bad about getting the boys’ pictures taken, I hope this will motivate me to keep up with it more regularly now.  Since my niece’s first birthday, and Cole’s second birthday are a month apart, I think we are going to go back and share a session again in the spring.

If you know me in real-life and want the name of the studio, send me an e-mail, and I’ll be happy to pass their information along. 

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I don’t mind doing laundry, except for when I am behind on it.

Today, as I was putting some of it away, I started to think about how much laundry I really do:

4 people in our house, X 7 shirts (a day at a minimum; not counting all the days the boys, or myself, goes through more than one shirt) =28 shirts.  Joe wears a t-shirt under his dress shirt, 5 days a week, so that is total of 33 shirts a week.

Same formula as above for pants (but, I know several times a week, the boys go through 2 or even 3 pairs of pants in a day, so I’m rounding to 30) =30 pants

Socks- I literally have been going crazy with trying to sort Ryan and Cole’s socks.  There are so many in different sizes, it’s hard to tell what is a three-year old sock, and what is an 18-month sock.  The sizes are very slight.  I finally had an idea:  after they are done wearing them, before they go into the hamper, I safety pin them together.  This has saved me SO much time in trying to sort them.  Not to mention, saves me from those dreaded lost socks, that just disappear in the wash.    Now when I put them away, I just take the pin out, and fold them up! 

Back to the math.  Two boys X 7 pairs a day =14 pairs of socks.  I’m adding in another 6, because it is a rare day, that one or both boys only wear one pair the entire day.  Then Joe wears 1 pair, 5 X a week (when he works out) =5 pairs, plus his other pairs he wears 7 days a week= 7 more pairs.

Then I wear 7 pairs during the week, so that =7 more pairs, for a total of 39 pairs of socks.  Now if you break this down out of the pairs, that is no less than 78 individual socks going through my wash every week.  No wonder the sorting was getting to me!

Now on to undies- pretty basic here.  Cole is still in diapers, so with Joe and I, 7 pairs a week, X 2 of us = 14 pairs.  Add in Ryan, who uses about 12 pairs a week, and that equals 26 pairs of undies.

Miscellaneous wash for the week: I wash about 25 washcloths a week, 5 kitchen towels, 7 kitchen sink cloths, 15 bath towels, and on average about 65 pieces for Cole’s diapers, counting the inserts and the diapers themselves. 

Grand total of all items I wash per week: 284 items! I also try to line-dry as much as I can, so that means extra time, hanging them out, and taking them down.  Let alone folding, and putting them away. 

I guess I won’t feel so bad if I am a few days behind on putting the clothes away.  The next time Joe wonders why he doesn’t have a clean pair of pants, I’ll print this post out for him. 

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I was really hoping no one else in my house would get sick, but Cole fell victim to the latest stomach bug today.  Fortunately, it seemed like it was the kind Ryan had the other day- he only vomited once, and was a lot better.

My sister and I are going to take our kids on Sunday to get some winter / holiday / Christmas pictures taken together.  Ryan and Cole are the only cousins Maelin has, and we bought them all coordinating snowman and snow-woman sweaters from Children’s Place over the summer.  We have been looking forward to this for several months.  I am also going to have some pictures of the boys taken together and separately.  It will be Ryan’s four-year picture ( I can’t believe he is almost four!), and Cole’s 18-month picture.  I actually don’t have one picture of the boys together in a “formal picture,” so this is long over-due.   

To get ready for the pictures, we wanted to take Cole to get his hair cut today.  So after his nap when he woke up, Ryan was ready to go.  He went in the room to see if Cole was awake, and he started laughing.  He said, “Coley, your hair is all messed up.  You are going to get a hair cut.  You have man hair.”  I am not sure what “man hair” means, but Cole’s curls do get very matted, but hearing Ryan say that made me laugh.  Cole was a trooper during his haircut.  He sat in the chair all by himself, with a little pout on his face, but he sat still for the entire time, looking in the mirror at himself, and holding my hand. 

I finished up tonight a project that I had started working on earlier in the week, which was to organize the boys’ toys.  I got rid of a lot of stuff that was broken and just junk.  I actually didn’t need as many storage bins that I had bought, but maybe after Christmas, they will come in handy.  It is nice to finally have a handle on their toys. I am going to insist now with Ryan, when he takes one toy out, he puts it back before he gets another one out.  We’ll see how that goes. 

Tomorrow, Joe is going to put together all the train tracks the boys have, and nail them on a board like they do at the toy stores.  Then we will be able to lift the board off, if the boys want to play with the train table, but all their tracks won’t be all over the place.  I am going to work for a few hours, since I missed it the other day, and I am hoping Ryan will be able to help Joe with this, and get excited again about his trains. 

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