the double wammy

Fargo  + Scott being gone = the double wammy.

Kiley + allergies + the double wammy = meeting our deductible before February 1st and starting a pharmacy in our kitchen.

Our trip to Fargo this weekend was sort of a bust. I should have known. Every time Scott is out of town it seems one of the kids gets sick. Every time we go to Fargo, it seems Kiley gets a rash (thus our recent discovery!). Add them both together and it is a recipe for disaster.

We ended up in the ER on Sunday morning- in Fargo it seems that everyone just goes to the ER. Urgent cares seem rather non-existent there. Lucky for us it was a Sunday morning and everyone was waiting for church to get out before heading over, so it was pretty quiet. Oddly enough when we were leaving (about the time church is getting out), it was rather busy.

The doctor ordered a chest x-ray after hearing some wheezing in Kiley's chest... when I heard her say pneumonia and spot on her lung, I thought I might cry. Thank goodness my mom was there with me, keeping me calm, not freaking out or anything (100.4 temperature? Oh my god! Isn't that really high??$@! Brenna!@!@).

Real calm.

Well, if nothing else, Jaxon was such a great big brother. He was telling Kiley it would be okay... stealing her books, pushing her off the bench, typical loving big brother stuff.



They sent us home after treating her with antibiotics and a nebulizer and I spent the next four hours listening for her breathing while driving home to Minneapolis, by myself, on virtually no sleep. It was a true joyride. I won't bore you with the details.

So, I enjoyed the past couple days feeling like a stay at home mom, hopping between two sick kids, cleaning up the puke of one and taking the temp of the other.

Oh yeah. Jaxon started getting sick too.

I got Kiley in for a check up today and with continued wheezing in her lungs, the doc looked at me and I thought she was going to cry for me. She basically warned me that this may or may not be bacterial pneumonia. It could be a viral pneumonia, in which case it won't get better for a couple weeks. Or, it could be caused by RSV, which is running rampant this winter. Or, it could have been an asthma reaction triggered by her dog allergies.

And then she sent us home with a shopping bag from the pharmacy.

Nebulizer. Check. Albuterol. Check. Steroid treatment. Check. Antibiotics. Check. Tired, crabby kids. Check. Slightly anxious, wonder if I'll ever go back to work (do I have to?), hope my kids get better soon mom. Check.

Lucky for us, one nebulizer treats both kids. And we didn't even have to pay for Jaxon's visit to the doc.

Looks like we'll be staying in hotels when we visit Fargo, at least until we can figure out what's going on with little miss. I do think I saw a nice new Holiday Inn next to the ER. Perhaps we can get a frequent visitor card...

Proud.

Yesterday we had Jaxon's early childhood screening. I'm pretty sure I was more nervous that he was.

And the kid couldn't have made me more proud.

We started our morning by dropping Kiley off at daycare and then treated ourselves to breakfast at McDonald's. It made me feel slightly good that Jaxon had no clue that McDonald's had breakfast. We walked in and he immediately said- 'I'll have the chicken nuggets with apples...' I had to convince him that it was the same McDonald's that we always go to and that they just have breakfast foods in the morning.
After charming the black socks off the old men at McDonalds, we headed over to the screening.

I had told Jaxon we were just meeting a new lady to talk about going to school, play games, do some fun stuff, hoping against hope that our morning didn't turn out like our last trip to the dentist (kicking and screaming were involved).

As I sat on the cold, metal folding chair at the back of the room and watched my little boy go to the 'testing area' with the teacher, I felt a flurry of emotions--you'd think I was being tested!

I was so proud watching him point out all the right shapes, finish the puzzles, and draw pictures.

Every so often, he would steal a glance at me with that signature grin, as if to say, 'look mom, I'm doing it. I'm such a big boy!'.

I was a little nervous when the teacher made a bridge with the blocks and asked Jaxon to copy it. Inside, I was cheering for him, come on- you can do this! Meanwhile thinking, can he make that? Of course, he didn't even hesitate and made the same bridge out of his own blocks without a problem.

Finally, we were taken to the vision and hearing screening room. We did not do so great at our 4 year doctors' visit with these two tasks, so I was hoping we wouldn't end up with an incomplete on these items. Jaxon certainly surprised me again, putting on the goofy eye glasses and earphones and passing with flying colors.

The teachers were gushing over Jaxon, telling me how he was such a good listener, so attentive, and so personable (all the things I wrote on the intake forms that I thought he needed to work on!). Shows what I know. I'm just his mom.

His really proud mom.

Happy New Year!

Happy Chinese New Year!

These two pictures are about all I captured on camera at the New Year Celebration today.

Not much to report other than Loan's fried rice and noodles are seriously delish, I have two tired kids, and I'm waiting for Scott to get home as I'm hoping he has the sweet bread from his mom. Love that stuff. 

It's the year of the dragon, so I guess we'll all be spitting fire! Just kidding, I know nothing about Chinese Zodiac. I just pretend.

At any rate, it gives us a chance to make more New Year's Resolutions! Happy New Year!

thanks doc

Last week we had Kiley's 18-month check up. Her stats were pretty lackluster. She has a decent sized head, but is nowhere near being on the charts for height or weight. She came in at the .5%. The nurse was kind enough to round it up to 1%.

Oh Kiley.

So the doc provided us with a booklet on how to 'fatten up' our kids. Like they are cattle or chickens. Here I spend most of my life trying to lose weight, maintain my weight loss, and set a good example for my kids by not feeding them high-fat foods, and our pediatrician goes and tells us how to 'beef em up'.

Real butter. Whole Milk. Heavy whipping cream. Powdered milk mixed into everything. Cheese. Full fat ice cream. You get the idea.

Excuse me. What about my hips??

Now, at this same visit, we had a discussion about how Kiley seems to be quite fond of breaking out into rashes and hives when we visit the Fargo grandma and grandpa. Hives, swollen eyes, red spots on the hand. You name it, she's had it somewhere on her body.

So we decided to investigate. We ordered an allergy test.

Enter the lovely Nurse Cathy. Best lab tech on staff says the doc. She can find a vein and do a blood draw in any squirmy kid. She seemed to do her job well enough. How could I tell though, I was crying as I was hiding behind Scott while the nurse pulled a vial of blood from our hysterical, screaming little baby.

When the doc called me with the results and left a vague message to call her back, I felt like Phil Dunfie on Modern Family. I mean, we all know I'm a paranoid hypochondriac right? If you didn't already know, you do now.

Once I finally reached our doc, she started out by letting us know Kiley reached a new high score on the game of allergy testing. Normal people score 0-64.

Kiley is an overachiever with a 257.

It's all making sense now... the colic, the ezcema, the multitude of rashes... girl is allergic to milk, eggs, peanuts, and dogs. Oh, and a little bit of soy.

Should be interesting as we try to eliminate these products from Kiley's life for some trial and error over the next couple weeks... for now it is goodbye milk, cheese, ice cream... ugh. What's the point?

Now, our pediatrician did caution that these tests are not always accurate, they sometimes have cross contamination, etc. and that in order to get better information we would need to do a skin test.

I almost wish we hadn't done the test. Now I am ultra paranoid and think every tiny red spot is a breakout/rash/anaphylactic shock and that every silly noise or giggle she makes after eating is her airways constricting.... thanks alot doc!

the bogie-monster

As we were heading out for our first date night of the new year last night, Jaxon ran to the door... 'wait wait! Mom! Dad! Wait! Watch out for that bogie-monster. And I think those dinasaurs are living again.'.

Yes, Jaxon, we will be careful. Thanks for the warning!