No Truer Words

Sometime around Christmas my sister-in-law mentioned she had found a good sale at Gymboree Outlet.  I told her I had no use for any more clothes for the boys and I tried to to stay away.  Apparently, I didn't try hard enough!  On the excuse that Kai could use another sweater or two, we headed to the Outlets one day.  We found some great buys, mostly for Kai.  But I did find this one shirt for Finn.  It was perfect!

He's worn this shirt 2 times.  The first was on New Year's Eve.  Reid was working late, so the boys and I went to Chick-Fil-A for dinner.  I couldn't not figure out why everyone kept looking at us.  Yes, Finn was being rowdy, but he always is.  We were getting a lot more looks than normal.  And then I realized he was wearing THE shirt.  Of course, a kid acting the way he was and wearing that shirt....well, yes, it's funny.

This picture was taken the second time I put the shirt on him.  I thought it was funny that he stuffed the craft balls in his ears considering what the shirt says.

I love this shirt!  It is a warning for all who come near.  At least now I don't have to say it out loud.  The shirt takes care of everything!

Prescription History

I've been wanting to pull together a list of dates that Finn has been sick enough to require antibiotics.  From his prescription history, I have come up with the following from the last 2 winters:

11/3/2010--Bactrim
11/22/10--Augmentin  (If I remember correctly, he got the Bactrim at the end of a cold and right as he finished his 14 day course, he got sick again.)
12/30/2010--Bactrim
2/17/2011--Bactrim
4/26/2011--Bactrim (I filled this prescription but then he seemed to clear his cough before I ever gave it to him, so I held on to it.)
7/30/2011--Bactrim (I never called the clinic about this illness, but rather used the Bactrim that I had saved from April.)
9/28/2011--Bactrim
10/10/2011--Bactrim
11/7/2011--Augmentin
12/17/2011--Augmentin (I never gave him this prescription either.  I just threw it away.  He seemed to clear the cough on his own after starting his Pulmozyme, and I figured it wouldn't be long before another cold anyway.  I was right.)
1/10/2010--Bactrim

Considering each round of antibiotics last 14 days, the only month last year where he wasn't supposed to take an antibiotic at all was June.  Does it seem that he's sick more often than he should be to anyone else?  Typing it out, last winter doesn't look as excessive as it felt when we were living it.  But looking at the period from September to the present, it doesn't look good at all.  I just wish I could keep this kid healthy.  I'm really nervous about clinic on Monday, as he still has an occasional junky cough.  Here's to crossing my fingers and toes and just praying.

Since Christmas....

I have not taken a single picture since Christmas.  For me, that's quite a long time.  We enjoyed the holidays, but the week after Christmas seemed to just drag.  Really drag.  Kai was asking when he could go back to school.  Three weeks is a really long Winter Break!  The week following New Year's I had all kinds of ideas swirling in my head of how to keep the kids busy.  Unfortunately, early Tuesday morning Finn awoke with a fever.  His fever came and went and then came again that evening.  By Wednesday he had started in on a runny nose, and then on Thursday the cough came.  We started our sick plan on Wednesday and I'll admit that by Saturday I was questioning everything.  This cold brought the junkiest sounding cough that I have ever heard him have and I was questioning if his Pulmozyme (nebulizer medication) was actually causing it instead of helping it.  I should know better by now than to question it, but apparently I don't.  Monday morning I put a call into clinic and by Tuesday we had a prescription for antibiotics.  Sometime around the second week of his cold, Reid and Kai started in on it (I picked it up about 2 days in), and right when I thought Finn's cough was sounding better, Kai started coughing.  Finn had yet to see a doctor as I was hoping we could make it until his scheduled clinic visit on the 23rd.  (Also, I'll admit that I was concerned that he would be admitted if I took him in sounding like that.  I wasn't sure, but I was very worried.)  However, I did decide to take Kai in and get an opinion.  The verdict--the common cold.  Yep, just a cold.  At least for Kai, it's a cold anyway.  He has no other symptom other than a horribly-loud cough.  We have him on some anti-histamines and I'm hoping it'll work.  In the meantime, Finn is sounding better.  He will be fine until next Monday.  I'm still trying to shake it, but I'm hoping to be almost there.

What a great way to start the New Year--huh?!  We've been sick nearly all year!  I'm hoping we can get through this and have it behind us.  But just in case we can't, I've been trying to put together a sick log to track how often and when Finn has been sick.  It's been a lot over the last 6 months.  I'd really like to figure it out.    I've also been playing with the blog a bit to see if I can find a way to incorporate a Cystic Fibrosis page for health updates.  We'll see how it works and then adjust from there.

Also, just in case you didn't know....I set-up a public blog at jonesupdates.blogspot.com.  If you use a blog reader, like Google reader, you can add that blog to the reader and I'll post to it when there's a new post on the private blog.  The public blog will link you to the private blog so that you can read the new update.

Well, that's our update for now.  Hopefully there'll be something more exciting soon.

Christmas 2011

Twas the night before Christmas.....

After our traditional Chinese dinner on Christmas Eve, we read the story of the birth of the Savior from the Bible, sat out cookies and hot chocolate for Santa, and read the poem "Twas the Night Before Christmas".  The boys were all ready for Santa come in their new pajamas.  For some reason, Finn was the one to have a hard time sleeping that night.  Maybe the excitement of the evening was too much for him?  Who knows!  We did put all of our presents under the tree that night right before bedtime.  We had waited to do it because Finn is in a present opening frenzy and the one lone present that we had attempted to put out early kept getting pulled at and nearly opened.  So we had to wait.  I guess seeing all of those presents made him a sleep-less little boy.

Finn got a new magnetic drawing pad and immediately wanted me to draw him a picture.

Kai got floss picks in his stocking.  That turned out to be his favorite stocking stuffer.  He's so funny!

Christmas morning Kai woke up earlier than me and Finn (we were sleeping in the recliner in Finn's room).  Once Finn was ready to go we went into the living and began looking at the loot.  The boys were excited about their stockings and all of the presents to open.

Opening a present from Great Grandma

Santa brought both boys an easel.

At the end it's hard to wait your turn.  So, sometimes you just have to do it together!

Despite this being a "smaller" Christmas, the boys seemed to get a fair amount of new toys.  Some highlights include a new marble track for Kai, the easel from Santa, a mini-trampoline from Grammy and Papa, "Once Upon a Monster" for XBox from Grammy and Papa, Cars 2 from Grammy and Papa, and an aquadoodle for Finn.  Kai had been waiting for a marble track for awhile so he was very excited to start playing with it.  After all of the gifts were open, this was the scene in our kitchen.

I love that all 3 boys are staring at the same thing!

We had planned on going to church that afternoon, but unfortunately Kai got sick.  So, while Finn and Reid napped Kai and I put together the easel.  And then Kai did his very first drawing!

A dinosaur and a tree

 Later that afternoon, we played the new XBox game as well as watched Kai assemble some of his new legos.  Reid and I also prepared a simple Christmas dinner of turkey, stuffing, potatoes, brussel sprouts, and crescent rolls.  It was a good fun day to be together as a family.  We sure do love our family time and when it's a holiday it feels extra special.  Merry Christmas!

Snow Days

On December 22nd we woke up to the beginnings of a winter wonderland. The snow finally stopped around mid-day and after Finn's nap we ventured out to play. The boys were bundled up well and we were able to enjoy quite a bit of time outside. We found that summer sand toys also work quite well in the winter snow. With shovels and buckets the kids had fun exploring the snow and making their own paths. Over the course of the Christmas holiday we ventured out for fun in the snow several more times. Including the 23rd where we went sledding. That evening we also did a quick Christmas lights tour. It was amazing to me to see the difference between the roads in Colorado Springs and the roads by us.  The never did plow our road.  We bumped along on it for at least two weeks!  But we loved our time together in the snow!

Kai threw a snowball in his daddy's face!

Digging his own trail

First time sledding