Mommy Update

I didn't mean to take a break. I WISH I had been on a break. Hawaii again. Mexico? Greece.... Ahhhh. We were all sick over the Christmas break that I had from work. I think it was the first day back to work that I had to go home and help with James and his ear infections. That week was about James and getting him better. We were still trying to get him better as of last week (finishing up his antibiotics, giving him random doses of Motrin for crankiness/possible ear pain and his sore throat) when I suddenly felt sick on Wednesday.

I was at work and felt faint. My secretary friend told me I looked PALE. (That actually snapped me out of feeling sick because I wanted to look in the mirror to see what pale looked like on me. Ha!) I ended up going home sick. I was home sick for SIX FREAKING DAYS with the flu. I didn't have the best of timing with Jim out of town on a business trip.

Next time I will reach out to my Mom or friends for help. I seriously laid around the house for the first few days with nothing to help me. I didn't take medicine. I didn't eat or drink much. I just laid in bed and shivered. I got up to take James to daycare and set my alarm to pick him up. Luckily he was an angel child and let me "rest" on the couch during his awake hours with me.

Jim came home on Saturday night and we were glad to see him, more than usual I suppose! He quickly took over with James and let me rest one complete day in bed, no responsibilities. It was nice and much needed. The next day I finally got out of bed and started to get ready for life again. I've now been up and moving around, still a little weak but definitely feeling better.

My present from Vegas made me feel better :) Jim remembered the Venetian glass store at the Venetian Hotel and found a beautiful necklace. It was the right pick me up after a horrible week.



Today I found a banana tree/fruit basket and filled it with plenty of Vitamin C. I told Jim that we are loading up and keeping illness away! We are DONE PLEASE for the season.

Lots!

I posted a few times tonight so make sure to scroll down to see our whole weekend in a series of posts.

I am taking a little break from the internet to rest my eyes. I probably will still post my 365 picture of the day on the other blog because I can do that easily from my iphone. Other than that I plan on staying offline for two days. Two whole days! What will I do with my time? :) I hope we'll be playing outside from 5pm-7pm!

Paragua

James' Spanish lesson today was appropriate. They talked about rain and paraguas, or umbrellas. I was home today, sick, and I enjoyed the sound of the rain melting away the snow!


I have eye infections again and will need to wear my glasses for a whole month! My optic nerves are inflamed and so I was off balance, a little dizzy. Jim laughed at me today because I pretended to be a superstar, wearing my rx sunglasses indoors. I was light sensitive and it felt so much better.

Girls Night Out

I had a chance to get out of the house and have some fun, so I took it! My friends were headed to the Roller Derby and I was able to go too! Woohoo!

I didn't get any pictures of all of us together, but it was Erin, Anna, Cassidy, Tatiana, Denise, and myself. All of us, except Erin, work for A-H schools.

Erin and I posed for a picture as we waited in line to get in the Derby. A LONG LONG line formed. Its very popular!


The players had some, ummm, interesting nicknames and costumes.


Erin became a REALLY big fan of the KillmoreGirls team.




Even the referees/umpires had interesting names.




"Granny Panties"


Anna and Cassidy. Tatiana and Denise are to the left of them.


There was some, ummm, unusual entertainment during half time.




We ended the evening with a snack and drinks at Britt's Pub. It was the latest I'd been out for a long time! I wasn't home until 12:30! Wild and crazy, I know!

We hope to go to the Derby again next month, but this time there is talk of us getting in costume too! Lots of people do that. All I need are fishnets, camo, or goth clothing!

Spanglish

I have forgotten to write about James' Spanish class! We signed him up for once a week Spanish lessons at daycare. I'm so excited! Last week was his first class and I asked him what he learned. He told me "yellow sun". Well, I kept prodding and he finally told me he learned about the "sol", which is Spanish for sun! He also keeps saying something like "azooo" so I think he might mean azul, or blue. Maybe they learned the colors?

I'm very happy that he will be exposed to some Spanish early on. I hope that they'll continue to offer the Spanish classes or we can find some other class that he can attend. I heard that his future elementary school is a Spanish immersion school, so I'm really hoping that's true and that they'll keep the program at least for a while. You just don't know with budget cuts and things.

A class picture was sent home with James yesterday. I took a picture of it for you all to see. I just don't know how they managed to get all of the kids sitting reasonably still!! James is the cutie near his favorite teacher, Sheana, on the right.




Jim said that James is able to point out each kid in the picture with their name. He has many friends :)

Now, I don't love pictures of myself. I took this other picture because I'm finally wearing a COLOR and maybe you can see my hair a bit better. A teacher just complimented me and then called me "rude" in the same breath. She told me she loved my hair and wondered if it takes me a long time to style in the mornings. I said not really, I just let it air dry and that just takes time. She said, "How rude!" and laughed. She said she wished her hair was so easy :)



I also wanted to write about an experience I had yesterday. I was invited over to the high school to participate in a Latino student event and guest speaker. They are having some Latino boy gang issues and they had a Youth coordinator from Centro (a Mpls organization) come over and speak to the students, all Latino students regardless of whether they are in gangs or not. He was a great speaker and spoke a lot about pride, familia, education, and learning our History. I have to say that I was quite inspired to read and learn more about Latino culture and history. I just don't have a clue about some things!

The students responded well to him. This man has walked in their shoes and he had lots to say. It didn't hurt that the young ladies thought he was cute too :)

Baby Happy, Baby Sad

Artwork from this week- a Feather Collage.



There's a book that we read at bedtime now called Baby Happy, Baby Sad. The Sad Baby is shown first and he is sick. I tell James that the Baby is sad because he didn't take his medicine. The Happy Baby is playing and having fun because he took his medicine!

Well, I don't think this has quite sunk in with James. He refuses to take his medicine easily. Tonight was the worst. I feel sick that I need to restrain James to get the medicine down his throat. I had one of my fingers in his mouth to get his jaw open just a bit, to get the syringe in there. Owwwwww! That kid is strong!! Sadly, I am winning this battle. I need to. I need to get these antibiotics in his system. There are lots of hugs and kisses after the medicine trauma but it still pains me.

On Friday we had a false alarm with daycare. They called us and told us that James had a temperature of nearly 103 and we needed to pick him up ASAP. I left work in a hurry to get to James while Jim called the doctor. We might have jumped the gun on that one. I brought James home immediately and took his temperature. It was 98! Nothing. He was acting so normally and so happy I started to doubt the daycare and their thermometer accuracy.

I called the clinic and spoke to a nurse. She agreed that it was an impossibility that James' temperature could have gone down THAT much in an hour. We also explained that we were told he had an ear infection on Tuesday and we also missed a dose of antibiotics the night before. Well, we ended up cancelling his appointment. I took his temperature again after naptime and he was of course fine. James has shown NO sign of illness all weekend.

Really, I felt panicked as I drove to pick him up from daycare. With everything going around, to hear about my baby with a temperature?! Scary but it ended up fine.

Today we went to the apple orchard! James was so excited to see the apples. We promised him pumpkin pie and cider. He also got a cookie bonus :)





Mmmm. Cider chocolate chip cookies!


On the way out James insisted on smelling the flowers. So cute.






Back at home, James has LOVED playing in his new "clubhouse" and tunnels. I need to get better pictures of the whole clubhouse, but here he is looking through the tunnel. He was crabbypants after his nap.


A balloon from his birthday party. It was floating around without a string and it kept floating up to the top of the living room ceiling until we had the bright idea of reconnecting it to some curling ribbon. James is having a good time chasing the balloon around the house.




No plans tomorrow! Probably football and baking with apples :)

My tooth is feeling better. It still hurts occasionally and I don't like taking the painkillers- really they don't seem to affect me much.

Smiling through the pain

Yup, I have issues again. Just days after I finished my last round of antibiotics (illness, sinus infection) a tooth started to ache. I mean, REALLY ache. Not a normal toothache. This probably started on Saturday night or so. On Monday I tried calling my dentist to get an appointment and I couldn't get a hold of anyone. That dentist is all the way in Minneapolis and it takes some effort to get off work, drive there, and get back to work within a few hours. I decided its a good time to find a local dentist, even though I love my dentist in Minneapolis. The Blaine clinic didn't have an opening until Wednesday but I took it.

I found out at the dentist that a tooth that had had a root canal like 9 years ago had become infected, something about the seal to the root had been penetrated, etc etc. They wondered how I had been living with the intense pain! I told them I had been on antibiotics off and on for a month and a half. They concluded that I had held off the infection and pain but the minute the antibiotics left my system it became time to deal with this tooth.

I am now on antibiotics, a stronger form of them and one that I have to take 4 times a day! They also gave me a prescription of Vicodin but I'm only taking that if I have to. I was home alone with James last night and I think I scared Grandma Rosie with the thought of me being loopy and alone with James, so I did hold off on taking that pill until after bedtime. I now joke that I can tell James one day that I gave up Vicodin for him. I lived with the pain like a good Mama :) But really the Vicodin didn't do much for the pain, it just dulled it a bit. I was disappointed.

Today I already feel better. I think the antibiotics are working fast. This just sucks that I have another issue right after being sick for damn near 2 months.

I have a Retreatment procedure scheduled for 11/25, my day off. They are going to go into the crown of my tooth with a microscopic needle and treat the root canal. They said it shouldn't be any worse than a cavity being filled and I should be fine for Thanksgiving. Good thing because I need my pumpkin pie, cranberries, and turkey lurkey!

Oh and check out my new haircut! Its probably hard to see because I'm wearing black but its much shorter than I expected. I was happy with the end result and a student just told me that my hair is "Cute!" so I guess its a good cut :)

Me Me Me Me

The best advice I probably received was to try an OTC medicine called Mucinex but also to try a Neti pot. I have a nightly regimen of first using the Neti pot, then the inhaler, the nasal spray, my antibiotic pill, and then a quick shot of Robitussin with codeine. I take the Mucinex and another antibiotic during the day and I can tell when it wears off (around 3 or 4pm) because I have my coughing symptoms for a bit. I feel almost better!!

And more importantly I am sleeping through the night with no coughing.

Someone at work told me I don't look sick anymore. How nice.

"Mama, I peed!"

I heard this cute little voice yelling out to me, "Mama, I peed!" I had put James on the potty and in keeping to his routine, I went to the kitchen to get his three M&M's that he gets just for sitting. (Never give the yellows. You can't see the "M" printed on them. James will fuss.)

TMI warning

So James peed! He was sitting, but he must have stood up again as he peed. I could tell that he was wet, and he had some on his hand, and I saw a bit on the potty seat. A minute later I saw that he must have pointed toward the wall because a small drip stream was on the wall!

A big to do was made about the peeing and by this time James wanted to stand and "finish". He grabbed his penis and pointed toward the potty but nothing. "A" for effort! James got a Dora sticker for his potty chart! We promised more stickers for more potty tomorrow! We even encouraged the poop to be on the potty and James said "Yeah!"

As we did bedtime I chatted to James about going potty tomorrow, going trick or treating, and wearing his costume! It should be an exciting day!

My health: The doctor didn't say anything new really. He thinks I did have another sinus infection and I'm not having proper "drainage" which leads to a cough, snoring (!!), and my sounding stuffed up. (My voice has that "I have a cold" sound.) So I received prescriptions for more antibiotics, an inhaler, and nasal spray. The last two I am to take right before bedtime to help me breathe and SLEEP.

Inquiring minds

I do have a doctor's appointment tomorrow morning (Friday). I wasn't able to get in today because I had a full schedule at work- including a very cool fieldtrip to the Ordway where we saw a performance by the Bad Boys of Dance! There were a few snickers from the kids when we first saw the dancers (male ballet dancers- sterotypes, anyone?) but the music started and the kids got into it. You can't go wrong with Michael Jackson music these days...

School

First, my 35th birthday came and went. 35 doesn't freak me out at all. People keep asking and I don't feel old, so that's that.

I ended up calling in sick last week on Thursday and Friday, so I did spend my birthday sick. Hell, I've been sick for a month and a half. Damn cold. The worst cold I've ever had. Some days are terrible coughing days, some days are mellow. In one word I feel exhausted. I am tired of being sick, my chest is tired of coughing and straining to breathe sometimes. I'm off to the doctor hopefully soon, but I'm sure they'll tell me again that I just have a very bad chest cold and "it will go away". Grrrr.

On Saturday I pulled it together to go out to a birthday breakfast with good friends. I don't look too sick, do I?


My friends Anna and Tatiana, both Student Advocates in my district too.


Erin and Cassidy. Erin isn't an Advocate anymore, but she is well loved and we could never do anything without her!


Today.
James couldn't wait to get out of the car today and "count the pumpkins". We have three sitting on our front porch, waiting to be carved! I can't wait to see what Jim will create this year!




Tonight we had our first daycare conference! Jim was out of town and disappointed that he would miss it. We met with the main teacher Shana and she had wonderful things to say about James.


But first, look at this cute spider! I just want to keep this forever!!


She gave me some examples of his artwork and explained the directions behind each. In this piece the kids were asked to use three colors and simply finger paint. James of course chose his favorite color purple and then orange and black. I'm sure orange and black are on his mind because of Halloween. They seem to talk about it often- scary witches, monsters, spiders, trick or treating, haunted houses, etc!


The kids were asked to arrange the black pieces like a face. Shana was very proud that James put the eyes and the nose in the right place- not a lot of the kids were able to do it! Yup, we have a genius child!!!


Glue. James does NOT like the texture or feel of glue on his hands. He's never liked a mess but he followed the directions and glued the tissue paper pieces to the leaf. Good boy!


James did NOT put the pieces in the face order. I did tell Shana that James has this OCD thing of putting things in lines and order- he used to do this with his golf balls and still does it with the magnets on the refrigerator. Its kind of odd that he puts things in straight, rigid lines but Shana said that its GOOD. He is organized and focused. Well, I'm still worried about the OCD :)


The only thing to really work on for James is his habit of drumming. Yup, he's our little drummer boy and they caught him doing it on film!


James is easily distracted, which is typical for his age, but he will distract himself with drumming on anything or turning any object into drum sticks. Hahaha!!

James and his buddy EJ frosting cookies.


I took a picture of the photocopied notes from the daycare conference. I think if you click on each image you should be able to see them close-up. In each area he is average or ABOVE AVERAGE! Yup, genius child.


Again, he is ABOVE AVERAGE in identifying shapes, counting, and colors.


The note at the top of this says he was too shy to identify the letters. While we were sitting in the office for the conference, I pointed to some of the letters and James did identify more letters like S, W, and X. So the teacher is aware that he knows more and she says again, normal to above average for his age.


James could NOT trace the shape outlines. Something to work on. I've never thought to do this so I guess he has had no practice doing this.


While we were waiting for our conference time I was happy to meet Russell and his family. James talks of a few friends- Andy (Pandy) and Russell- at home. There was Russell and I got to see James interact and play with another kid. I hadn't really seen this. I see James play parallel to other kids, or solo but never WITH someone. I didn't capture much on video but here's a little something via my new iPhone :)

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Mrs. Tauer

Look at me!

I made the switch this year at work/school to Mrs. Tauer. The kids are confused. They are asking- did you get married? (Yes, five years ago.) Is your name still Lisa? (Yes, but that's my first name.) Why did you change your name? (I'm getting older ((does that equal a Mrs. though? It must in my mind.)) and all the teachers go by Mr. and Mrs. so now I match them.) Will I get in trouble if I call you Ms. Lisa still? (No.)

Oh, and look at my pretty new necklace! I love it. I bought it at the Venetian in Vegas. Its my favorite millefiori style of venetian glass. Millefiori means "thousand flowers".