Those dreaded doctors appointments

As you all know Bella has been fussy FOREVER.  Exactly a month ago I called to make an appointment with an ear doctor just to see if that was the problem.  And finally a month later we got in to see the doctor.

So the appointment was set for 2:30pm.  That would mean that Bella would be able to attend school and have plenty of time to eat lunch before we had to leave.  She wouldn’t be able to take a nap…so hopefully she wouldn’t need one.

Oliver on the other hand would need to go down for his nap a little earlier so that he had the potential to take a long nap if needed.

So how did it actually go down?

Bella went to school.  Bella ate her lunch.  Bella then hung out with me until her appointment.  Bella was doing great (except the 10 minute period when she wasn’t getting her lunch as soon as she wanted because I was dealing with Oliver).

So you are going to guess that Oliver was the problem.

It wasn’t that Oliver was a problem.  He just wanted to be outside today.  I had him all dressed and ready to go to the appointment and was debating putting him down for his nap, except he just didn’t seem tired yet.  So if I didn’t put him down, he would be coming outside with me to get Bella from the bus.  And once he stepped foot outside, I didn’t think I would get him inside.

I was right.

Bella got off the bus and as I was getting her, Oliver ran over to the biggest mud/water puddle and jumped on in.

Since at that point his outfit was ruined, I figured I would let him play outside for a little while.  I put Bella inside to lay around, stretch out and relax after class.

Here were some of Oliver’s antics outside.

The grass is starting to show…it’s golfing weather!

This was the first time I have seen him try and hit his balls with the clubs.

At this point we had been outside for 10 minutes or so and needed to get back inside with Bella.

Oliver wanted nothing to do with it and kept flinging himself down on the ground.

I didn’t want to hold him, since he was all muddy.

So we did a very slow, half drag, half down on the ground walk back to the house.

Then of course we had to strip him before he even set foot in the house.

He didn’t want to go down for a nap.  He kept wanting to go back outside.  This was the period I was talking about where I had both children crying.  Bella wanted to eat, and Oliver didn’t want to be napping.

I finally got Oliver down and got busy feeding Bella.

The actual doctors appointment went great.  By that I meant the kids did wonderful, especially since we had to sit in the waiting room and patient room for near an hour before we even saw the doctor.  I would actually say it was kind of a miracle that I managed it all by myself.  There might have been a point when Oliver wanted to eat his animal crackers off the floor, and I was about to the point where if it kept him happy I didn’t care.  But of course I did care because it was the floor in a public place, so I made him get up, and luckily that next minute the doctor actually came in.

The report on Bella’s ears….everything is fine.  Not the cause of her problems.

So to celebrate their good behavior we stopped and got ice cream on the way home.

Oliver’s first ice cream cone.

No he is not wearing shorts…he just always pulls his pants over his knees in the car.

And a second outfit of the day ruined….but this kid was in high heaven.  Eating ice cream while playing outside!

And in case you are wondering….Bella actually got the top half of the cone which I had them put in a dish.  I didn’t trust Oliver with a full height ice cream cone in the car.  He was certainly messy enough as it was.

Bella did a wonderful job today and made the day so much easier for mommy…thanks beautiful girl!

Coloring

If you don’t go to my new website…you should.  Oliver and I created a t-shirt together.  Coloring Pages T-shirt

He was so very very very excited to color on these pages.  Lucky I saved the pages so I can print them out again at a later time.  Maybe to show his progress at a later date.

Why is it that none of my children will “model” the things I make for them?  Bella can’t help it and well Oliver is just too darn busy, or wanting nothing to do with the camera.  For most of the time I was trying to get a good shot of his new t-shirt he was either in the pantry cupboards….'

Or hiding behind the curtains…..

Not very photogenic.

And the box car is still alive and well.  Oliver really wanted Bella to take a ride with him…so we tried it out.  Let’s just say they didn’t make it very far for fear of tearing it, but they both laughed.

So stupid

It’s very frustrating when something so small and insignificant can totally mess up your life.

Last fall it was when I sprained my ankle to the point where I couldn’t even take care of my kids for a couple of days.

This time it’s even worse, as in stupid.  I did something to my wrist.  I have no idea what I did.  A couple of days ago it started hurting, and I noticed it when I was carrying Bella around or Oliver. When they would lean back in my arms so that my wrist was engaged to hold them up, it would send a sharp pain radiating down my arm.

Now it’s so bad that small things hurt it.  Doing the dishes, putting on my seatbelt, absolutely anything that involves rotating my wrist and then any type of force no matter how small.  The problem is….I have to use my wrist.  I use it all the time…all day long.  And some things like carrying a tantrum throwing toddler or a handicap 5 year old make it scream in pain.

Speaking of tantrums.  I took Oliver with me to get my allergy shot this morning.  I figured since I have to sit around in the doctors office for 30 minutes, I would take Oliver to the inside playground to wear him out beforehand.  Except he didn’t want to play in the actual playground.  He threw a huge fit in the middle of the room.  Instead he wanted to explore the rides, the little rides you can insert quarters into.  So after I got him calmed down and we packed up our things, we headed back over to the rides.

I didn’t insert a single quarter, but he still managed to have fun climbing all over them for the following 40 minutes.

And then we had an epic tantrum when we had to leave and head over to the doctors office.  I guess 40 minutes wasn’t enough for his liking.  I should have just pulled up a chair and I could have sat there and watched him all morning long…or at least till the mall opens up and then we might have gotten a few stares!

What does one normally say?

When you are asked how thing are going…what does one normally answer with?

Usually if it’s by an acquaintance you probably just answer with a general, “Everything is good, how are you?” 

When it’s by a friend, you usually start talking about what has been going on in your life.

I feel like I repeat the same things over and over and over again.  How are thing going?  Well let’s see, Bella is still teething and it’s causing a nightmare over at our house.

A year later…..How are things going?  Well, Bella is still teething and it’s miserable at our house.

Another year later….well you get the point.

One thing that is currently sticking in my mind and making me frustrated is this.

Bella has a really hard time drinking liquids.  She drinks the most minuscule amounts possible, and even that is difficult for her.  She has gradually been doing a better job over the years, but it’s still one of the most difficult things for her.

So why does a child that has a hard time drinking, have to have problems that cause an overabundance of saliva in her mouth?  Something that she essentially has to drink in order to get rid off, and since she can’t do it very well, it causes all the coughing and lots of problems.  Problems that we have been having for the past 4 years. 

So I apologize when the subject matter is the same thing on our blog.  It is this very constant cycle of things that will drive me mad if it doesn’t come to an end in the near future or at least within the next year or so.

Not that I want other major problems…I would just like this teething thing to end, and for us to have a break.

This weekend she had another coughing spell that caused all the blood vessels around her eyes to pop.  She literally looked like she had been punched in both eyes as they were a little swollen and very red, almost purple.

This very same weekend Oliver had taken a tumble outside and really scraped up his nose badly.  We went to our nieces birthday party, and it probably looked like we beat our children.  We didn’t actually get any close up’s on their scrapes…but here are a couple pictures from the party.

Dining Room Progress Weeks 5 & 6

It’s slow moving around these parts.  Jesse has been laying tile while Oliver naps on the weekends.  And then usually we have plans at least one of the days, so really he is only laying tile for a couple hours each weekend.

We are finally to the cut pieces, and since its going to be a lovely 30 degrees and snowing this weekend here in the KC area…we might not get anything done on the dining room.

Where is spring? 

Where have we been?

I know we have been missing from this blog.

I took Bella into the doctor last week to see if she was sick, and to try and explain why she has been crying and fussing so much lately.  They couldn’t find anything wrong with her, but decided to try an antibiotic in case she was having an ear infection (there was some fluid in her ear).

I was busy with work all day Thursday and Friday of last week.

We did some family activities this past weekend which I will blog about.  I started the blog posts, but can’t seem to find the right words to finish them out. 

I started my allergy shots last week, and then wasn’t feeling the greatest.  I couldn’t tell if the allergy shots were to blame, or if I was getting sick again.

Last night I felt so horrible that it’s been confirmed I am officially sick again.  And since I’m sick of being sick, this time it seems so much worse!

So now I am just trying to cope and really bummed out because this week was spring break and I was hoping to do some fun activities with the kids and also get some things done for myself.  Seems like that won’t be happening now.

Where everybody knows your name

Bella was up for a ridiculously long amount of time during the night on Sunday night into Monday morning (from 11pm till 5am).  So I wasn’t about to wake her up for school at 7:30am like I normally would, instead once she was up, Oliver and I took her to school.  This is important to know, because I had to call and cancel her bus for the morning.

This morning Bella woke up crying at 4:30 am.  No matter what I did, she still kept crying.  After a few minutes I transferred her to Jesse and went downstairs to get some medicine.  She felt warm to me.  Sure enough when we got around to taking her temperature, it was at 102 degrees.  After she got her meds she went to sleep in Jesse’s arms and then was able to be transferred to our bed.  So again this morning I wasn’t going to wake her for school.  And even though I am pretty sure this is all teething related, you are not supposed to send a child to school with a fever, so I decided to keep her home.

And here is where I think it gets pathetic.

I called the bus service phone line.  The same bus company that services the students in our school district from preschool until high school, the same school district that has 20,000 students in over 34 schools (I just looked this up to prove a point).  Now of course all 20,000 students do not ride the bus, but let’s just say 2,000 of them do. 

When I called the morning and said “My daughter is sick today and will not need her bus.”

The reply was “Oh Isabelle…bus 303?”

“Yes….yes it is.”

I’m guessing the women on the phone recognized my voice because I have had to call in a lot over this past year for Bella when she is sick.  Or maybe most people don’t call in.  I don’t know, but regardless….it just tells you what kind of year we have had, if the bus company recognizes my voice to cancel their service.  It also pains me to know that 2 different pharmacists know me and my family by name because we have to pick up medicine far too often.

I often feel that people don’t believe me anymore or feel that I must be exaggerating when I talk about Bella’s sickness.  There isn’t any real diagnosis….except that she is always in pain, fighting fevers, battling the unknown, and in general just crying and fussy both day and night.  And maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if I was looking at from the outside.  But after dealing with the same thing for over 3 years (this is generally when she started teething in regards to her molars), I just can’t take any of it anymore.  A couple hours of fussing or crying from Bella can absolutely ruin my whole outlook on the day. 

I could probably go on about this topic forever….because let’s face it, I’m stuck in the middle of it and don’t see a way out.  There is no cure for teething that takes a year per tooth.  I’ve asked, I’ve begged, I’ve suggested surgery to get them out.  There is nothing that can be done.

This is both Bella’s and my (pardon my word here) personal hell.