Under the Sea

Sophie made her first diorama for school this week. She was asked to choose a habitat to represent in the project and she knew right away that she wanted to make the ocean. She gathered up the ocean animal toys we had and, after realizing we didn't have as many as we thought, I ordered some additional animals on Amazon.

I assisted by taping the lid of the Amazon box open so she had a deeper space for the diorama and by tying fishing line to her ocean animals. She did the rest, and I think she did it well.

Sunshine

You guys! It warmed all the way up to 52 degrees yesterday! As soon as I discovered that I called out to anyone who was listening that we were going on a walk and if they wanted to go they needed to put shoes on right away.

It was still chilly, especially with the wind, but it was so much better than it's been!

Style

 

The Groundhog Wasn't Kidding

It snowed again. There is so much snow outside. I'm not complaining, I know the moisture is important and it is winter and all, and I don't have to be outside in it like I would in a normal year. I'm just amazed at how much there's been.

So Much

Tonight during dinner Topher leaned over to me, put his arm around my shoulders, and said, "I love you, so much!" And then he gave me a great big hug.

This is what I'll think about when he wakes up at 1 o'clock in the morning for a snuggle.

Into the Outside

When we had our giant snowstorm a few weeks ago we all went out to play and found ourselves practically buried in too much snow. I told the kids I'd take them back out after the snow had melted a little and was more manageable. Two days later, with the snow looking just right to play in, I threw my back out and had to spend most of the next week flat on the couch, moving as little as possible. That meant no more snow play and some very disappointed kids.

Right about the time my back was calming down and I was moving more, Cooper's hives showed up. That took a lot of time and energy and focus to help him, so we still didn't go back outside to the snow. Plus the snow had turned hard and icy and was much less fun.

It snowed again last night and today. I'm tired from a late night of supervising Cooper while he worked to catchup on school, but I made it a priority to bundle us up and go outside. Then, when Topher and I were ready to come in, Bryan stayed out with the girls since Phoebe had just finished her schoolwork and desperately wanted to be out in the cold too. Seriously, she loves the cold.

Cooper was wrapping up his final assignments for the week and didn't join us. Don't worry though, we're supposed to get even more snow next week; he'll probably play then.

Love Is All Around

With all the craziness of last week, I didn't have much energy to put together Valentine's Day magic. Thankfully, Bryan and the girls did.

Bryan bought decorations on Amazon and I assisted the girls in putting them up on Saturday night before bed. Then I turned my attentions to ironing out the details for my YW Zoom lesson for the next day. Bryan stepped in and took it upon himself to create Valentine's goody bags for all of us. Cooper, Phoebe, and Sophie also made Valentines for us.

After a nap on Sunday afternoon I found some energy and made cupcakes and helped Bryan with dinner. The best part of cupcakes is getting to decorate them yourself, which is just what the kids did. While Sophie ate her treat I heard her say, "Hey Phoebe, without these cupcakes this would have been a Valentine's Day meeting, huh?"

They both knew they had chocolate on their faces when I took these pictures.

We enjoyed a lovely family dinner. Bryan really is the master of cooking pork chops.

Sophie loved the decorations. She has decided this is her favorite holiday.

Bryan is also the master of getting fun treats. Topher was a big fan of this chocolate-covered marshmallow heart. 

I love that we celebrate Valentine's Day as a family.

You Need Me

I was trying to think of something clever to post with this cute picture when I heard Topher crying upstairs. I ran up to see what was wrong.

Me: Buddy, what's going on?

Topher: I need a tissue.

Me: You need a tissue? Okay, I can help with that. (I hand him a tissue) Is that all you need? Are you ready to go back to sleep?

Topher: No. You need me to 'nuggle me.

Me: I need you to snuggle you?

Topher: Uh huh.

That's when he lifted his arms up to me for a cuddle.

Who can say no to that?

A Sure Sign

Good news: Cooper is feeling well enough to be ornery, always a sign of being on the mend.

We're thankful the hives are almost totally gone. We're thankful that he's only had two doses of Benadryl today. We're thankful he was able to do schoolwork the last two days.

We're not thankful for the ornery, but we're thankful for him.

Progress

Friday night was rough.

We had suspected that Cooper's swelling was due to his scratching. We were finally able to get him to sleep around one o'clock on Saturday morning by holding his hands so he couldn't scratch himself and doing a deep breathing exercise with him. I suggested that Bryan head to bed so he would have some rest in case he needed to take Cooper back to the ER. I offered to stay with Cooper and hold his hands so he wouldn't scratch. There were several times throughout that night that he tried to pull his hands away to rub at his face. I held on tight and prevented that until 6 AM, which is when I finally crashed. It helped though, his face was not as swollen that day.

We also made the choice to increase the Benadryl from every six hours to every four hours. This made a huge difference. By Sunday afternoon the hives appeared to be mostly gone, however his hands, feet, and face were all swollen, though not in the same way they'd been swollen from the scratching. By bedtime last night I wondered if we were done with the hives.

He had them again when he woke up this morning. They were mild compared to what they had been, but still visible. We hadn't woken him up at 3am for a Benadryl dose, which is possibly why the hives came back. They've been much calmer and milder today as we've stayed on top of the medicine. He's still itchy and doesn't want anyone to touch him, but it's so much better than it was.

Our goal tonight is to send him to bed at his regular 8:30 bedtime, then not give him medicine until 7AM tomorrow. We all need the sleep. This will be the longest he's gone without Benadryl since he started taking it on Wednesday.

The next step is determining the cause. He's been keeping a food journal since the ER visit. In order to have an allergy test done he needs to be symptom and allergy medication free for two weeks. So once the hives are gone we'll ween him off the Benadryl. Hopefully we can do that without a recurrence.

Thank you for your comforting messages, it makes a difference.