The Days of our Lives (Oct 13-19)

Sunday - Church in the morning with Grand Dad and Nana and then home for a leftover lunch.  I went out and ran errands AGAIN during naptime (mostly returns this time plus a few strategic purchases).  We all just hung out at the house in the afternoon (more sewing on the kids' costumes for me) and then over to the Village Pizza House for dinner (manicotti, an Italian sub and pizza).

Monday - Said a sad good-bye to Nana and Grand Dad in the morning then babysat baby A (who is almost exactly one year younger then Sarah) for the morning.  In the afternoon I noticed a blister-looking spot on Sarah's tongue - we think we may have hand-foot-mouth in the house.  Meatball subs for dinner.

Tuesday - Since Sarah is somewhat sick we scrapped our plans to go to the Children's Museum, much to Nathan displeaseure.  Spent the morning at home with all of us working on "projects" - I was working hard on the kids' Halloween costumes while Nathan and Sarah were doing various art projects (stamps, dot markers, regular markers, glue, paint, etc).  We did more of the same in the afternoon and got Sarah's costume ready to try on... and then she didn't want to take it off!  Nathan took a nap (an increasing rairity these days) and woke up fussy.  Daddy got home early after a really great day at a satellite hospital.  He watched music videos with the kids for a while (a fun Daddy treat), then Nathan got really fussy again and just wanted to cuddle.  I realized he was burning up and now he may be coming down with H-F-M too.  Nathan fell asleep on the couch and slept through dinner.  After we put the kids to bed I spent the evening putting some finishing touches on the costumes and got them about 95% finished - hooray!  Leftover pasta for dinner.

Wednesday - Nathan woke up with no fever (my mom diagnosis - I didn't take his temperature), so we went ahead with our plans that morning for flu shots for the kids.  On Tuesday afternoon he had gotten upset about the prospect of getting a shot, but this morning he kept talking about how he would be brave and show Sarah how to be brave for her shot too.  We took the bus to our new pediatrician's office where Nathan asked about the flu mist (I told him that maybe it was an option but I wasn't sure how the new doctor would do it), but then he decided he wanted to go ahead with the shot.  He was definitely nervous, but did great with the shot - sat there and let me hold his hands (I envisioned the possibility of holding him bodily down) while the nurse gave him the shot.  He whimpered but didn't cry at all!  Then Sarah was super eager and excited for her turn (which was humorous to me since I knew how quickly her attitude would change), and she did cry as expected.  Then we stopped by a CVS for me to get my shot, but unfortunately our new insurance will only pay for the shot at a physician's office, so we put that off for another day.  Then it was time for the treat I had promised the kids - Dunkin Doughnuts!  They split an orange frosted and sprinkled colvered doughnut.  I don't remember if I mentioned, but there are Dunkin Doughnuts shop about every three blocks in this town - they are the one chain that is EVERYWHERE!  Brian got home right after the kids' naps for the second day in a row.  I mentioned to him that Sarah's callous (from her thumb sucking) looked funny that morning and sure enough its infected.  So Brian drained it and bandaged it up, but we're heading back to the pediatricians on Thursday for them to take a look and (probably) prescribe an antibiotic for Sarah.  For a usually healthy family, we are struggling this week!  We did have a nice dinner at the smokehouse restaurant across the street, the highlight being Brian's Texas sausage and the delicious cornbread.

Thursday -Brian was home in the morning pre-call so we all just hung out for most of the morning.  Sarah and I took a gargantuan load of books back to the library but we skipped storytime again this week.  After nap the kids and I took a different bus route to our pediatrician (not any better then the day before) to have Sarah's thumb examined.  The physician drained the abscess and took a swab to see what kind of bacteria grew out (we were worried about MRSA) and prescribed us an antibiotic. The kids and I had to take the swab over to Boston Children's and deliver to the lab (since by then it was after hours).  When we finally got that all situated it was dinner time so we stopped to get something in the Au Bon Pain in the hospital lobby.  As I was eating my broccoli cheddar soup and the kids their mac n'cheese, Nathan yells out "That's my Daddy!".  And sure enough, it was Brian coming down to have dinner.  He had texted me to see if we were still in the hospital but because of the poor service I hadn't gotten the text.  So we had the fun bonus of having dinner with Daddy!  Then a bus ride home, quick bath to "soak" Sarah's thumb and off to bed.  Sarah had a rough time getting to sleep since she was starting to get mad about not being able to suck her thumb.

Friday - Brian came home after only getting an hour of sleep the night before, so he went off to bed while the kids and I got ready to run errands.  First we stopped by my new physician to get my flu shot (Brian had gotten his the day before at the hospital, so now the whole family is set), then drove across town to a new area to go by Marshalls, TJ Maxx (except Google Maps lied and it actually wasn't there), Kohls and Target.  After sitting in quite a bit of traffic on the way home (Boston traffic always puts me in a bad mood), I tried to feed the kids quickly so they (Sarah) could get a good nap.  Well!  Sarah pitched a huge fit, ended up waking up Brian, climbing/falling out of her crib, and after attempts by me (15 min) and Brian (1 hour) to rock her to sleep, we finally gave up on her taking a nap.  Breaking the thumb sucking habit, though great for the long run, was really wrecking havoc with Sarah's typically good sleeping routine.  So Brian ended up taking the kids to the park while I continued packing for our trip the next morning.  Then I remembered that we had to pick up Sarah's antibiotic from the pharmacy and after calling the pharmacy then the pediatrican's office and then the pharmacy again, we finally got the prescription sorted out.  After a dinner of leftovers and cleaning out the fridge, we all walked up to the CVS to pick that up.  Then the kids were off to bed and Brian and I packed in ernest for our trip.

Saturday - We were all up early to get ready and do last minute packing for our trip to Knoxville.  Brian's brother David is getting married next Saturday to Bridget so we decided to make a week vacation out of it.  So the T to the Boston airport, then a flight to DC, then on to Knoxville.  The flights went really well, with the kids spending lots of time coloring in their little spiral notebooks with new markers, but by the puddle jumper to Knoxville (where Nathan sat by himself in the seat across the aisle from me and Brian) Sarah exhausted me with her wiggly, squirmy self.  We were met at the airport by Gran and Pawpaw and Nana and Grand Dad and all caravan-ed back to Grand Dad and Nana's house to catch the end of the Tennessee game where we upset South Carolina.  Dinner with the family then an early bedtime for the kids.