Days Two and Three didn't work out...

Yesterday I spent the rest of the day trying to stay awake enough to keep the kids fed and safe. And that was a challenge. T's coughing was getting to the point where I was getting worried, but I thought it was probably croup and didn't think there was much we can do about it. Finally I called the nurse line and she could hear him wheezing too. She said because of his age and the wheezing, he should see a Dr. Just afterward, Jon called and I told him so he said he'd come home early.

Long story short, we spent 4 hours in ER, about 3 1/2 of that doing nothing but waiting, and then got told it's croup. They did give him a dose of steroids to help his breathing, which seems to have made a big difference today. So no chicken fingers yesterday.

Since we got home around midnight, we all ended up sleeping in till 10:30! Well, except Tiernan, but he only woke once at 7am which is amazing considering how sick he was, he was probably just that tired. So, breakfast was lunch, lunch was an afternoon snack and we threw together some dinner at 7:30. The day was spent trying to clean the aftermath of yesterday.

So, chicken fingers tomorrow. I hope.

Day One - Lemon Poppyseed Muffins

To try to give some focus (and fun!) to our days, I'm going to try to make one thing to eat with the boys everyday. Well, really with K right now, as T's still too little, but he's great for supervising! So yesterday is was muffins from a muffin mix, since it was there and easy to do.

The camera is still not uploading, I even tried doing it through the PS3 and it doesn't recognize the camera either. I do have pictures, but I will have to add them later. I wanted to get this out before I get too far behind and forget. (ETA - we have pictures now!)



I felt rather smart and got everything set up ahead of time, a bowl, the water and an egg white and a couple of spoons. Then I was re-taught cooking lesson number one - read the instructions! Turns out you're supposed to mix the egg white and water together and then add the mix to the water. Okay, fine. Actually it worked out rather well. K had poured the mix into a bowl, and I had him help stir the egg white and water together. So then I started pouring the mix into the water while he stirred. He actually got rather bored of this quickly and left me to finish, with a howling T in his Jolly Jumper in the background.





I finished mixing the mix up and was ready to pour it into the muffin tin. After calling repeatedly for K to come and help put the muffin cups in the tin, I just went to him and we counted out 6 muffin cups into the tin.



I took the muffin tin back and started pouring the mixture from the glass into the tins (while holding T on my hip, fun). Finally I had to put T down, since I needed both hands, so I laid him on a blanket on the floor beside me so I could finish. Then I just threw them in the oven. K's helping part was now to eat them, but he didn't like them very much, so I got to eat his too!


Today I plan to do chicken fingers and fries. We have a great recipe we haven't used in a while, though I want to adapt it to a Shake and Bake style so Kenton can help.

And, looks like last night T developed a cough too. His Dad and I were up till about 5am trying to help him out to get some sleep (for all of us). I hope there are many naps in store for us today...

Free arms and broken resolutions

Yesterday and today I am trying a new thing with T's sleeptime. Instead of holding him until he's fast asleep, I've been putting him down when I know he's tired and going to fall asleep, but not asleep yet. I remember reading somewhere that this is supposed to be good for the baby to learn how to put themselves to sleep, but mostly I'm just happy to have extra free time where I'm not holding him, waiting for him to fall asleep and then hoping he stays asleep when I do put him down. So far it seems to be working well.

On the K half of things, he's been waking up with a barking cough since yesterday. The first time I wasn't even sure that's what it was since I barely heard it, but after his nap yesterday it was definitely there. He still seemed fine otherwise, just a touch more grumpy, but okay. Today he is barely hungry, but requesting lots of juice. I figure at least he's getting something into him, so there goes one parenting resolution: less juice.

And the second parenting resolution for the New Year consisted of less TV. As in, stop playing it all day. Well I'm sorry, but when a poor little guy comes up and asks pitifully for "Turtles?" (Ninja Turtles), in that I'm-losing-my-voice-I'm-coughing-so-hard voice, and then when that's done "Again?", who can say no?