Leia, having a ball at her first birthday.

So, Monday, James and Jocelyn stayed home, both of them afflicted with what we supposed was the same virus Ethan brought home from Kindergarten.

Ethan’s nose has been running a mile a minute, very thin snot that is clear, but plentiful. He had a fever that never broke 101, and a cough that you could tell was just due to all that clear runny snot going down the back of his throat.

Jocelyn woke us all up crying at about 6am this morning, and felt pretty hot to the touch. It’s hard to tell though, as she had on warm jammies and a warm blankey, what exactly her temperature was. I gave her some tylenol and after sitting her on the potty brought her into my bed.

We both laid there, not really sleeping, Jocelyn trying to breath through her really gunked up stuffy nose so she could suck her thumb, and me reaching over her and patting her back. rubbing her sweet little bottom or moving her hair out of her face. Every now and then I offered her a kleenex and we attempted a nose blow, but it was fated to be futile.

I decided that her symptoms were different enough from Ethan’s to warrant a trip to the doctor, and called and made an appointment (for any doctors reading, I highly recommend the answering service that allows worried moms to make apointments for that day, even if it’s 6:45am.) As 7am is usually the wake up time in our house, I got up at 6:50, went and got Ethan, who was awake probably the entire time, and brought him into our bed as well (James was asleep in the guest room, so as not to infect me with the plague). I turned on a closet light and put on Handy Manny for the kids while I hopped in the shower.

So the day started much like Monday, James and Jocelyn staying home, me taking Ethan to school and heading off to work.

Right when Jocelyn and James were in the middle of her doctor’s appointment, the school called to inform me that Ethan had a temperature of 100.3 and he needed to be picked up.

I called James and didn’t get an answer (for an EXCRUTIATING) 15 minutes, where he told me that … drum roll! Jocelyn has strep throat.

My lord! Poor girl!!

James confirmed that his throat was really hurting and he wanted to go see the doctor as well.

So, while James and Jocelyn went and got Ethan from school, I immediately called and made an appointment for James, and then called and made an appointment for Ethan, thinking he must have had new and improved worsened symptoms, and then left work to head home so James could go to his appt w/out worrying about getting Ethan to his appointment.

Ethan’s symptoms weren’t really any worse. They were the same, so I felt a bit foolish having made the appointment so hastily, but figured it couldn’t hurt and took him in anyway. Sure enough, the quickie strep test was negative, but she took the second overnight strep test and gave me a prescription to hold on to in case his fever spikes above 103 or she gets a positive result back.

James didn’t have to do the strep test however, his doctor (who is the same as mine) listened to the tale of Jocelyn being positive, added it to the fact that his throat was in a lot of pain, and gave him the prescription without much fuss.

Now I’m on the couch at home, working busily away, while James, Jocelyn & Ethan are ALL asleep upstairs.

Please oh please oh please don’t let me get sick!

-amy

Given to Leia on Saturday, at her 1st birthday party.

OK, not really a plague, but damn if this virus isn’t makin’ the rounds!

Ethan stayed home sick Friday, and was still running a low fever off and on until Saturday. James took him to the doctor, who pronounced it a virus.

By Saturday night, James professed to feeling a bit under the whether, and by Sunday night, Jocelyn also turned up with a fever.

We thought that James would be home today with both Ethan and Jocelyn, but when I snuck into the kids’ room this morning at 7am, he was awake, wrapped up with his blankies and hugging his pookie bear:

me: How’re you feeling Ethan?
ethan grinned and flashed me a thumbs up sign.
me: What do you think about school? Do you want to go?
Ethan grinned and nodded his head vigoriously.

So I took Ethan in to school and aside from some coughing and a running nose, he seemed pretty good. The previous day, James and I could tell he was getting pretty bored, having not left the house aside from the doctor, since Thursday.

I guess there is such a thing as too much tv and video games!

Hopefully James and Jocelyn will be feeling better by tomorrow.

This was taken in May 2006.

from March 2006.

On the way up to bed:

Jocelyn: Mommy, how long is it at bedtime?

Mommy: It’s bedtime now! We’re going to go get you in bed! Right now! No waiting, fast service, zip zap zoom!

Jocelyn: Is it a short one?

Mommy: It’s not naptime, honey. It’s nighttime. It’ll be nighttime until morning.

Jocelyn: How long is that?

Mommy: Well, it’s–

Ethan: I know. It’s ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY THREE POUNDS.

This is Jocelyn’s “Party Dress” that I got her before her birthday last year. She is wearing it for Ethan’s birthday in this picture.

She has shot up so much in the last year that this dress no longer is decent on her. I kept thinking what a shame it was, because, my baby! so cute in this dress! What a waste! Or was it?

So I cut it straight off right under the armpits, folded over the excess, sewed down the buttoned opening and snipped off the buttons, left the front of the waist flat and put a length of elastic in the back to make it into this skirt (oh, and I did this in 45 minutes, how proud am i!):

It’s definitely decent now and should last at least another year. Behold the Party Skirt! I have 2 other dresses I am considering treating the same way. We’ll see.

Pictures of the party where the party skirt made it’s debut coming soon!

Another photo I took today, and posted today.

Poor guy. Look at those flushed cheeks and tired droopy eyes.

He’s told me, “I love you mommy,” and “You’re the best.” about 20 times today. He’s also commented on the fact that skipping school, playing with legos, watching gobs of TV, playing on his Leapster and on the Wii is “the best, mommy.”

Don’t get used to it, kid.

OK, first off, since I haven’t been going to the actual meetings, just zipping in to the WW office, weighing in, and then zipping out, I have switched back to online only, which is only $40/3 months, instead of $40/month. If I start to get all slacky slacky again, then I’ll know it’s time to cough up the dough and head back to meetings. I feel pretty good with how I’m going though.

That means I’ll be weighing myself on my own scale and not the super picky down to 1/10 of a pound WW scale. My scale is not-so-picky rounds to the 1/2 pound scale. So being the anal retentive weirdo that I am, I’ve gone back and rounded all my past weights to the half pound as well.

And in so doing, I realized that I screwed up the January numbers in the last post. So just for full disclosure, 7.8 was *not* an accurate number, I screwed up the math – it should have been 6.8, not 7.8. And ALSO, I went by the total from last week’s weigh in instead of waiting until today’s weigh in. Since technically, today’s weigh in is weight I lost in January, I should include that. I think I was leaving it off to give me some padding for February, but tsk tsk to me. Just incase you don’t realize, I AM still weighing in every week, but I am only reporting monthly numbers to the blog

So, including THIS week’s weigh in, and switching all the numbers to rounded .5 numbers, the new total for January is 9.5 pounds, for a total of 15 pounds.

So yeah! Once again, huzzah to me!

A couple of other things that I meant to write yesterday but didn’t really have the time. (I’m home today, with a sick Ethan. thus all the typey typey!)

When I went to the doctor for my brick of snot sinus infection, she was (as she always is) concerned about my weight. It makes me feel so bad, because EVERY time I go in for something, she talks me up on the whole weight loss, and it seems like EVERY TIME I’m always, “Yes, well, I’m working on it, it’s been hard, I can’t seem to stick with it,” etc etc. This time, I felt kind of bad, because I had had a gain over the holidays, but still semi decent because my overall weight loss since november was still a loss, not much, but still a LOSS! Still though, in the past, I get around the 10-15 lb mark and then lose steam. I start making excuses, I start eating too much on one day and then trying to “make it up” the rest of the week and then the whole house of cards falls apart. I just can’t stick with it. I was feeling somewhat good to report a loss, but it was very apprehensive, and I told her so.

Two years ago, when she gave me the talking to, and I was on weight watchers, she gave me an appetite suppresant to help me out. I think it worked physically, but the mental game was too much, I petered out and I basically went back to eating too much.

Well, she gave me a prescription for it again. The first week was tough, because it basically beats up your heart and makes you feel like you’ve had too much caffeine. The first couple nights, I couldn’t fall asleep until 1 or 2 in the morning. It got better after the first week, and now I don’t feel jittery, pretty normal actually. I think it’s working pretty well.

Again, every time she’s given me the talking-to, she has wanted to see me back in her office in 6 weeks to check up on the weight loss. I never usually make check-up appointments when I’m there in the office, I wait until it’s closer and make them, so I would head home, the weight loss and my will power would peter out, and I would just never make the check up appointment.

Well people, my check appointment is made (MARCH 3RD!) and I am not going to peter out! I keep thinking to myself, “If I can lose 5 lbs each month (which should be EASY, that’s not even 2 lbs a week!) I will have lost 60 lbs by the end of the year. You can do this.”

I hate to be so happy go lucky optimistic, because I just know the shoe is going to drop and I will throw in the towel and start swimming around in doughnuts and ice cream with no will power whatsoever… But then at the same time I really do feel like I’m doing good. I have stopped going to mcdonald’s every morning, I’m bringing my (healthy) lunch in every day and thus am not tempted by eating at the cafe (omg, their chicken marsala is so good) – these little things means I have got a good leg up on sticking with this.

I must say, I feel pretty good. You now how I said up there that 10-15 lbs has been my petering out point? I’m at 15 lbs total. And no petering going on!

Tentatively… Apprehensively… I feel good 🙂 I can do this.

(Now I need to come back and read this post every week!)

-amy