Relaxation and then back to reality!

This past weekend was what has become an annual girls trip to Ocean Shores for a weekend scrapbooking retreat. I look very forward to this weekend for many things. First, all the holidays are finally over, Thanskgiving, Christmas, my birthday and Valentines Day. The second is that I get a weekend free of laundry, dishes, meals, and kids fighting. Third I get to enjoy sitting and looking through photos of my lovely family and scrapbooking them. I love the creativity of it and that I am making memory books for my children of their childhood. I also like the camaraderie of it, I am surrounded by women that are preserving memories and talking about their families. On the way down there it was torrential downpours but I woke up on Saturday to the most beautiful hot pink sunrise. We had a great weekend but as always it goes so quickly and it was back to reality.

When I got home on Sunday the house was spotless and I laid down with Brayden and took a much needed nap. Monday was gorgeous and felt like spring, so that was a great way to start the week. I got all my stuff put away from the weekend and spent the afternoon outside with the boys washing my car and dreaming of all the planting I am going to be doing very shortly.

Now yesterday was the full swing back to reality. Brayden is feeling much better and is back to his feisty little self. He is eating like crazy and is busy as ever. Yesterday morning we dropped Hunter at preschool and Brayden wanted to play for a while. I told him he could but then we had to get to the store. I put his coat on and was watching another mom's baby cooing at something and then I saw her mouth drop open and she said "Oh no!". As I turned around I saw my innocent little boy standing next to the Fire Alarm with the white handle in the down position. As I scooped him up the fire alarm started blaring and the teacher got the kids up and to the door. I was able to tell Teacher Kim that it was us so she could notify the office as the whole school was evacuating. Now I must say this is THE MOST EMBARRASSING thing to EVER happen to me but I am sure it is not the last.

It was a sight to see the whole school standing on the grass field in the cold waiting for all the teachers to hold up their signs saying all their kids were accounted for as I held the little culprit who was embarrassed and crying. Brayden kept crying over and over how scared he was and I think he was quite embarrassed too. I asked him if he was ever going to do it again and he said no. He cried the whole way to the store and was pretty upset but I let him know that it was okay and he calmed down some but kept saying he was scared. I know that he LOVES the firefighters and that he knows thanks to Hunter that the fire alarm calls them. I told him that we will have to visit the fire department so that he can see them and that the alarm is only for if there is a real fire. When we got back to pick up Hunter, Brayden was stuck to me like glue and I apologized to Kim again and she told Brayden that she wasn't mad and that made him smile for the first time. I am glad that he already respects her as he will be with her for the next couple years. I told Sean when he called later and he asked me if Kim realizes now what she is in for next year.

But the day only got better! We went home for lunch and naps because Hunter had his first T-ball practice last night. Hunter was a little nervous because he didn't know what to expect but once we got there and he saw some familiar faces he relaxed. They practiced their throwing and running the bases and ended the evening after some racing with their friends. The last thing that had to be decided before we could go, was the team name. Now the boys were all over the names like, Red Sox, Bulldogs, Scorpions, Monkeys and one of the girls picked Panda Bears. Then it was explained that they each could vote for one and once they raised their hand for one they had to go stand by their parent. The kids started voting and when they got to the last name, Panda Bears, the only kids standing were the girls and Hunter. So our team name is officially The Panda Bears and I thought it was cute. I knew as soon as I heard that name that Hunter would vote for it. He LOVES panda bears so it is fitting but I thought Sean was going to fall over when he came home from work last night and I told him.

I explained to Sean that we just have to embrace Hunter for who he is and he is a sweet and sensitive little boy. I also reminded Sean that he likes the rough and tough boy things too. His favorite part of the day is when Sean comes home and they have alone time playing a tank game on the Wii. It is a very strategic game and Hunter loves anything in camouflage. I also reminded him that it could be worse, we could be the Unicorns or something like that :)

So we have practices a couple times a week and our game schedule will be coming out at the end of the month. I am very excited and so is Hunter. Sean and him have practiced in the front yard and we have blue spray paint base lines on the grass. Brayden wants to join in so I am sure he will be really ready in the next couple of years when it is his turn.

Hunter running the bases last night

Brayden helping me cook. He loves to be in the kitchen with me!

My little fighter, my little champ!

As I sit here and type my boys are on the floor next to me playing so happily with Legos and I am listening to Brayden count. He loves to count and as of this week he is counting to 13. It is such a great sound to hear them playing together and it has been a missed sound in this house for the past couple of weeks.

The last time I posted was 11 days ago about Brayden's broken collar bone. Well it has only gotten worse, I will back up to a month ago.....

Brayden had a cough like the rest of us a month ago. It had lasted a couple of weeks and there was an outbreak of whooping cough in our school so we went in the be tested. Brayden did not like the pertussis test but it was worth it to find out is was negative. The Dr.'s told me to keep an eye on his cough and come in if there was no change or it got worse.

Then he broke his collar bone and by the next week he was running a fever. I took him in because I was concerned with a broken bone, cough and now a fever. He had done nothing for a week but lay around and that is just not my busy little guy. Well they listened to his chest and were concerned with his left side because he wasn't as active and gave us the diagnosis of pneumonia. We left to go get our antibiotic filled.

Now this was last Wednesday and by this weekend he still had a fever of 101 and we were giving him medicine for his fever and antibiotics that he hated. He would spit the antibiotics right back into my hand and I would have to bribe him with juice just to get him to take them. He wasn't eating and he wasn't sleeping. Then a horrible runny nose along with congestion that was making it hard for him to get any sleep joined in with all the other stuff. He would have none of me using the bulb syringe on his nose after the pertussis test but by Sunday he was letting me a little because he just couldn't breath.

Yesterday morning he woke up screaming because when he coughed it hurt so bad. I had told Sean we were going to the Dr.'s if he still had a fever and sure enough still 101. When we got to the Dr.'s yesterday they were swamped with patients, I never have to wait for my appointments but yesterday we waited 45 minutes. When we saw him my smart little guy Hunter asked him how many Dr.'s they had. He laughed and asked Hunter if it was because they were running behind and Hunter said, "It took you forever!" He laughed and told Hunter that he was a smart guy and then got to checking Brayden out. As soon as he lifted him he commented on how hot he was and how red both of his ears were. He listened to his breathing and then saw how red his throat was. He then sent us on our way with a couple stops to make for tests.

Our first stop was the lab for some blood work. I made Hunter sit outside the room on a chair and the lab tech. gave him some markers for the white board. Brayden was a little concerned about what was going on but he was so lethargic that it made things a little smoother. When they stuck the needle in his arm he got a little upset but I just talked to him about his body and how it makes blood and that they were going to test it to help him get better. He did really good through it and was such a champ. Then my curious child poked his head around the corner with his ears plugged because he was so concerned about his brother. I don't know if he thought plugging his ears was going to help but what he saw made him go white still he so needed to ask the technician what they were going to do with his brothers blood. The technician was very patient with Hunter and showed him all 3 vials and explained what his machines would do with it.

Then onto our second stop across town for a chest x-ray. Now this was a very hard one for me, the machine that they strapped Brayden into was extremely barbaric looking and I had been warned. Once she put him in it I told her about his broken collar bone and that I didn't think it was a good idea. She said we would try it and when she strapped it tight on him with his arms up in the air he started to scream and panic. Right then the x-ray technician that had taken his clavicle x-rays walked in and pulled him out of the machine. He told her that he had just broken his collar bone and we would do it a different way. They had to hold his arms down at his sides and he did not like it but at least I knew it wasn't hurting him. Hunter was coloring and being so good for me outside the room but when we got out there he asked Brayden if he was okay and he told me he could hear him screaming and he looked through the window to make sure we were okay. Such a protective big brother!

At the end of the day we got the call around dinner that Brayden has pneumonia on both sides, his mono test came back negative but they are sending out a more detailed one that we will get back in a couple days. His white blood cell count is elevated but not too high to suggest anything other than the pneumonia and he is very anemic. So the Dr. called in for another type of antibiotic that he is thinking will do the trick, but wants to see us back later this week.

I called Sean and was hoping he could pick up the antibiotic on the way home only to find out that his truck had broken on the way home and he had no steering. So by around 10pm last night we had the new antibiotic in Brayden and Sean's truck had been towed home with a broken steering box.

Brayden woke up once last night at around 2:30am looking for a drink of water. He had no fever and this morning after 12 hours of sleep he woke up smiling, no runny nose, no fever, asking me for a sandwich. The BEST morning we have had in many weeks. He's my tough little guy and as much as I wish he would sit still sometimes, I am so thankful that he hasn't sat still once today!