House of Ill(ness) Repute

It has been a long week.
Not a terrible week, mind you - just a long one.
It started off innocently enough - the kids were extremely well behaved in church and really enjoyed themselves in the Children's Liturgy. But then we noticed that Sam was flushed as we were driving home. He was feverish and the fever soon blossomed into a full fledged case of croup. It really wasn't a surprise, both Nate and Caroline were in various stages of having a cold - but Sam definitely took the brunt of this one.
After having a very wheezy and coughy Sunday night (even with alternating sessions of stooping in the frosty air and running the steamy shower until the hot water ran out), I took Sam to the pediatrician on Monday. He was wheezy, but we decided to try to run the conservative route and avoid steroids. WRONG-O. After hearing stridor Monday night like I have never heard before (and hope to never hear again) we were off the the ER. A little Decadron did the boy wonders and we were on our way in a matter of hours. When we took the bugger back for a follow up later in the week everything had settled in his ears - so we're dealing with an ear infection now. But at least he can breathe.
I think the mid-week visit from Grandpa helped him mend more quickly, too.
I know he's feeling better because I caught him trying to feed Nate yesterday. And I don't mean feeding him food. He had the collar of his shirt pulled down (sorry Sara - he was wearing Brayden's Spiderman jammies) and had grabbed his nipple. He was pulling it and stretching it as far as he could (his skin was purple) trying to get it near Nate's mouth. It took a little convincing, but I did get him to at least lift up his shirt if he was going to try to nurse (HAD to save the pjs).
He is so sweet - he wants to help so much. We were worried about how he would react when Nate finally came around - Sam does not do well with transitions. So far he has adjusted to the role of Big Brother much better than we could have imagined.
Sam and I had a special day today and got to go to Caroline's school to do some reading.
Let's clarify.
I did the reading and he played with the train table to his heart's content. We didn't hear a peep out of him for almost forty five minutes!
Caroline and I read two books to her class today. We picked two of our favorites, "How I Became a Pirate" and "The Gruffalo's Child". The class seemed to enjoy them, too.
On any given day with my children, there usually is at least one moment where I have to fight to keep a straight face (or bite my tongue to produce a straight answer or suppress a laugh so I don't pee my pants from hysteria). Today was no different.
The class was in a circle as we were reading. Caroline was standing next to me holding the book so all the children could see it and I was sitting in a kiddie chair. The reading was going great. Caroline was doing well - you could tell she was so proud of herself that she was reading to her friends. I read my sections of the book to the class like I read it to my own kids - I admit, I get into it and can get pretty animated. The kids were getting into it, too. I could see the mass of pre-schoolers edging closer to my feet and by the end of the book almost everyone was sitting right in front of us. At the pinnacle of the book, where the Gruffalo's Child meets the Big Bad Mouse, I was yelling in mock terror, "THE BIG BAD MOUSE!!!". I noticed Caroline was gently tapping me on the shoulder. I stopped reading and looked at her. Caroline then pointed at the classroom rules (posted right behind me) and said, "Mommy - there is no shouting in this classroom. You're going to have to speak more softly."
Her teachers were giggling so hard I thought they were going to lose it. And I knew if I made eye contact with one of them that I would dissolve into giggles, too.
I was able to finish the book after that without incident.
Sheesh - I get busted by a four year old while doing volunteer work.
That's what I get for trying to raise my kids to follow the rules...

Here's my little man (that spent the five nights prior to croup sleeping in his own bed ALL night without crying!!!!) with P-jaffe:

Caroline arranged for Angela to hang out with Nate as everyone was getting ready for bed tonight...


I hope to post pics that we got of Nate later. I think I could re-post the ones of Sam when he was nine weeks old and I don't think anyone could tell the difference. =-)