I think I mentioned previously that Bailey had a cold a couple weeks ago, and then Bentley last week. Well, Bowen started coughing late last week and was sounding pretty stuffy by Sunday so I took him in to urgent care to be checked out. They said it was likely viral and to bring him back if his symptoms worsened.
Bailey had school every day but Thursday this week (Kindergarten round-up for next year's Kindergarteners). Monday and Tuesday mornings, the boys and I relaxed at home while she was gone. Brooks quickly discovered this empty box to entertain him.
Tuesday, Bailey and I worked on her "homework" after lunch. She almost never comes home with actual assignments from school, but she gets mom-imposed reading work, etc, on a daily basis. Usually, she reads to me and we review any papers that come home from school. Tuesday, however, in an effort to have her practice her penmanship (I use that term loosely!), I let her write some "stories".
Here's my favorite:
So, as you can see, if she was President she would make decisions and give away toys. Ha!
The kids were all due for baths so I let them take one in our big tub. That's always a treat for them. After bath, they watched a movie. Bailey watched nearly the entire movie sitting inside the box Brooks played in that morning.
I caught Bentley and Brooks hugging. I'm not sure what precipitated the embrace but it sure was cute!
Wednesdays are our especially busy days - Bailey, Bentley and Brooks all have "school" (Parents Day Out for the boys), and Bailey and Bentley have gymnastics in the afternoon. They have a brief window of time to play at home in between, and that box was their toy of choice yet again. If you look closely, you can see that Bailey even decorated it by taping random scraps of paper that she cut out and drew on to it.
In this picture, the box is a boat and the hockey stick is the oar. Of course.
After gymnastics that night, they ate dinner and played calmly to wind down for bed. Brooks took his turn playing on Bob's old phone. The kids are OBSESSED with watching videos on Kids YouTube on it. Bentley, in particular, is most eager and enthusiastic about screen time ... so his is usually all gone pretty early in the day! As a result, he often cozies up to Brooks when he plays. Pretty smart (and sneaky!)!
Thursday morning, Bentley and Brooks had Activity School so Bailey, Bowen and I ran some errands. I treated her to a donut before we went shopping.
By Thursday, Brooks and Bowen were becoming more congested and coughing more. My mom radar was alerted, so I scheduled an appointment with the pediatrician on Friday. As it turned out, Bowen had a bad choking spell that afternoon and I decided it would be best to have him seen sooner rather than later. I decided to take Brooks in too, to have his ears checked since he's prone to ear infections. The pediatrician's office was really busy and short-staffed so we waited an hour and a half to see the nurse practitioner. And then it was another hour and a half tending to Bowen (Brooks checked out fine at that moment). His oxygen levels were up-and-down. His color and demeanor were good but his breathing sounded bad, so the NP ordered a breathing treatment.
She listened to him after it but wasn't satisfied with the results so she ordered a second breathing treatment. She listened to him again and still wasn't pleased so she conferred with a pediatrician and decided he should be "deep suctioned". Here's the setup for that:
It was 7:30pm by then, and I'd already fed Brooks "dinner" out of the diaper bag - goldfish, applesauce and a fruit snack. It never occurred to me we'd be there that long! He played a lot with my phone and the iPod.
Bowen sounded much better after the suctioning, so we were able to go home. He did great at home overnight. The NP called to check on us Friday morning and suggested I bring him back to be rechecked that afternoon. He was wheezing and sounding junky again by then so they deep suctioned him again. Poor guy!
Unfortunately, he was choking and spitting up a lot during and after nursing again Friday night, so I took him to the Respiratory Outpatient Clinic and they deep suctioned him again. He has been such a trooper all week. He's still sweet and smiley, even though he's sick.
Brooks' congestion and coughing escalated last night, too. We started giving him breathing treatments proactively. We were pretty lax with the screen time limits yesterday, because playing on the phone keeps him seated and calm. Otherwise, he runs around and it makes his cough so much worse. The other kids continued to benefit from his turns with the phone!
I woke up bright and early this morning thinking that I'd need to take Brooks and Bowen in to be evaluated today. As it turned out (so far!), Bowen seems much better. He's nursed several times today without any choking or significant spit-up. Fingers crossed he's on the mend! Brooks is still really congested and coughing a lot, but we're managing as best we can. (Really I'm just waiting for him to tell me his ears hurt so I'll know it's progressed into an ear infection) Here he is with Bob's old phone AGAIN, and with Bentley watching too AGAIN.
Bob and Bentley went for haircuts today. (Brooks needs one too but I didn't want to get him out to share his germs with the general public) Bob took him to Sports Clips so this was Bentley's first "big boy" haircut experience.
One last thing before I wrap up this post ... Bailey brought this home from school yesterday. They wrote down healthy foods that started with different letters. Take a look and see if you can translate these. It's hilarious! I LOVE this stage. She's working so hard to sound out words phonetically.
