It's already been a week!

First day of soccer practice

"Sweet freedom!"

It's been a busy week at our house, but what's new?! Micah started soccer practice on Sunday afternoon and really loved it. His first game this this Saturday. It's so funny to watch these little ones "playing". Everyone is running after the ball, until an airplane goes overhead and then they all stop and look up for a few minutes, then back to the game! Now if Micah could just remember not to pick up the ball with his hands, he'll be doing well :-)

I got to see Dan's show on Monday evening and it was great, as usual. It was a series of one-acts by Horton Foote that were all connected by the theme of dancing. The first was funny, the second was touching and the third was a tear-jerker.

On Monday I had to take Jacob back to the Dr. since he started wheezing over the weekend. She said we need to put him back on the rescue inhaler (albuterol) until this cold passes and also on an everyday, once-a-day inhaler (Flovent) Poor kid. He already hates the inhaler so getting him to do both is a challenge. One of his ear tubes has also shifted and he had an infection coming on there, so he's also on an antibiotic. I feel bad putting him on so much stuff, but the inhalers really make a difference in his breathing, I can tell. Plus, he is not coughing at night. She said that not every child who has asthma (Yes, she called it that) at age 2 will have it for the rest of his or her life. So there is some encouragement that this could be temporary. I have to be honest, I was pretty discouraged by this news. I've seen kids suffer with this condition and not be able to participate in things they want to (At Micah's practice this week, one little boy had to leave because his asthma was acting up.) No one wants that for their child. And it's hard to hear his breathing so harsh especially in the morning. But I am grateful for the medications we have to treat this and it doesn't seem to affect his cheerfulness. In fact, Jacob was the life of the waiting room at the Dr.'s office, alternating between running his hands under the water fountain and running around telling everyone hello and smiling at them :-) He is good at making friends. The meds do hype him up and we are currently trying to find a good time for the daycare nurse to give him his afternoon treatment so that is doesn't interfere with him going down for naptime. The photo above was taken right before bathtime, which is right after I give him the treatment. I took off his clothes except for the diaper so I could get him in the tub, but he escaped, ripped off his diaper and began running around the house laughing and waving it over his head like a banner :-) I could have won $10,000 if I'd have filmed it for America's Funniest Home Videos, but it since there were no clothes involved, I decided to just post this "family-friendly" shot above :-) If anyone has any tips for getting him used to the inhaler, please send them. We are currently trying it in front of the TV and with small treats afterward so he has a positive association. But he still fights it.

Tuesday morning Dan was supposed to go to his week-long conference, but instead I woke up throwing up. Soooo, he is postponing his trip. Thankfully it was just a 24-hour thing and I'm back at work today. Everyone else seems ok so I hope they don't get it. I'm just glad it hit before he left and not right after!

It's already been a week here. I hope everyone else is staying warm and healthy!

Dancin' and Singin'

Both Micah and Jacob like to sing. This is a cute video of them singing and dancing to Old MacDonald on the laptop. Of course, Jacob get distracted when he tries to ham it up :-) They must have spent 30 minutes just doing this on Saturday morning.

We had a good, but busy week. Micah's been out of school for teacher inservice and he's also had a fever for several days with no other symptoms. I don't want to say it's "flu" but it looks like that might be it. At least it's mild, if it is. We've all been dragging these last few days except for Jacob who seems to be in great spirits! We've all had our flu shots so hopefully that will lessen the impact. He has a dr. appt today to find out.

Micah's teacher had wonderful things to say about him at the parent-teacher conference last week. She pointed out that he is very into the art station and that he has made some new friends in class. We got a book from the library on how to draw dinosaurs and had a good time working on that this weekend.

Jacob gave me a "heart attack" this weekend, getting a mouthful of cat food! He had wandered into the kitchen, pulled back the chair I had blocking the door to the cat's food and ran in there. I found him with both hands filled with crunchies, looking like a chipmunk. And wouldn't you know, I had to pry every last bit of that cat food out of his mouth! He was hanging on for dear life. Anyway, I called poison control for peace of mind and was told that although cat food isn't FDA approved for human consumption, he probably wasn't going to have any trouble. Of course, he's fine, although his breath smelled horrible all day. But I'm glad we opted to put all of the chemicals up high. Even with hawk-eyes, it's hard to keep track of him every second.

Dan's show goes up this weekend so please think of him. He is working a lot trying to bring it together and I think it'll be a great one. It's three one-acts by Horton Foote, all different but related by a theme of dancing.

An example

"Mmm...my favorite, cereal bars!"

"Waiter, round two on those bars, please."

He looks like the spitting image of his daddy at this age in this photo, I think.

Scarfing down some cereal with peanut butter before school!

 Micah's Valentine's Day card to me:-)

Daddy got this great pic this morning.

Micah talks about the card he made for me.

Jacob shows off some of his "words".

It's been an interesting few weeks. Jacob recovered from his pneumonia, only to get another upper resp. infection. He has spent the week on an inhaler just to help  temporarily. The doc says we may need to put him on an everyday one since he seems particularly susceptible. I'm not ready to say the  A-word (asthma) yet. And they can't test for that until kids are older anyway. But hopefully this will do the trick for now. We were pleased that he did great all day when we weaned him off of the afternoon dose yesterday and fine this morning too, without his a.m. dose. They say that all kinds of nasty resp. things are going around town right now and my impulse is to lock the kids in their rooms until this season is over. But I can't do that, and we press on.

And now for the fun stuff! Jacob is learning many new words, some of which probably only Dan and I can understand. In the video above you can see him saying "tractor," one of his favorite vehicles. He still loves all things farm. Last night he decided that he would like to "read" the book I just read to him, to me. So he turned each page and pointed to all of the objects (bird, "roo" for kangaroo, flower, mama, bee - "buzz") naming them and then looking at me to make sure I "understood" before moving on to the next page. The cutest was when we got to the lion and he got his "claws" out and makes the fiercest roar he can muster up. If you ever doubt that kids learn by example, an experience like this will take those doubts away. He loves to imitate everything, especially big brother, who unfortunately likes to hoot and holler at the dinner table!

Micah gets on these kicks where he wants to talk about the same subjects every night. This week's subjects are "how do we break____?" and "what are some examples of how God talks to us?" Now, I have no idea what precipitated the breaking thing but I know Micah always asks questions about how God talks to us since that's a hard concept to understand when he hears it in church or something like that. I mean, God doesn't talk to us like we talk to each other so it's an abstract thing. So I give him examples from my own experience since I think that's the best way to explain it at this stage. I don't want him to start using that as an excuse to get away with havoc, either: "Mom, it's ok because God told me to eat that cookie before dinner" Yeah, you can see where I'm going with that! I just tell him to keep asking and keep listening. I am a firm believer that if you seek the truth, you will find it.

We are celebrating Valentine's Day today since Dan doesn't have rehearsal tonight! There is a new dessert place in town and we're putting the kids to bed early, picking up some goodies and popping in a movie. Sounds like heaven to me! I still remember about 14 years ago this week I went to a college Valentine's banquet with this cute guy in a tux. We were just getting to know each other. Hmmm...I wonder what ever happened to him? :-)