Good-bye, Croup! Hello, chores!

Dan was traveling for work over the weekend, so the boys and I hung out. Sammy's croup from last week lingered and he just could not shake it. By Sunday night it was almost worse than it was last Wednesday! His breathing was super tight, even after Pulmicort and Albuterol nebs. I went in to check on him before I went to sleep and at rest his breathing was strained. Ugh. If Dan would have been here, I would have taken him to the ER. With Dan gone I knew I couldn't do that without waking Elijah up. I tried all of our tricks and they collectively helped enough to get through the night. I put his wiggle-worm body into bed with me and got NO sleep, but I liked being able to hear his breathing as he slept. I was so thankful when morning arrived. I called right away and got him in to see a doctor. The dr gave him a huge oral dose of decadron (steroid) to wipe it out. It helped, but very slowly. Even today, he still sounds a little bit tight. That nasty croup loves to linger in his little body!

Waiting for the doctor...again..

Ever since Daylight Savings, Elijah has been struggling a little bit extra. It is slowly getting better. He is gradually waking up later in the morning (4:30ish now, yay!) and by evening he is SO TIRED. He will even say things like, "I...am....SO TIRED." He has NEVER claimed tiredness before. I've also noticed that right before bed strange things begin happening to his body. He gets headaches and he also gets scratchy, jittery and antsy. Tonight he had some weird pains in his chest (this one always freaks me out), he felt dizzy and his head got super scratchy. I laid down on the floor with him for a bit and just hugged him before we got ready for bed. I cannot imagine how he must feel. I know it feels different than what most of us feel. While I was lying on the floor with him, he said, "Mom? Am I dumb?" I assured him that he is so super duper smart. He said that when he makes bad decisions at school, he is sure the other kids think he is dumb. This is perhaps the first time he has been aware of others noticing certain behaviors of his. I told my sweet boy that he is kind and so smart and that anyone who thinks he is anything but that is not worth spending time with. Some people will never understand (that applies to all of us!) and that is ok.

We started a new chore system where the boys can earn money by helping out around the house. I included a few things that they are struggling with like, um, LISTENING! They can earn $0.25 just by obeying after the first request! Elijah wants to earn $9.99 to buy a book at next week's book fair, so he is motivated! It is nice to have a motivated boy around here. Shoes are being put away, coats are being hung, recycling is being carried to the garage and dishes are being brought to the counter. These boys have gotten out of control with their potty talk, so hopefully this new plan will help that, as well.

It hasn't been the greatest of weeks, but thinking back to last year at this time....things are GREAT! After school today I got 45 minutes of quality snuggles from BOTH boys...with NO boy fights! It was heavenly. Elijah has a new behavioral aide who will be coming by our home a few hours/week. We are all super excited about this! We have some fun plans coming up these next few weekends. The boys are getting excited for the holidays. It is so much fun to see their excitement and to have energy to enjoy things this year.

Thanks for checking in!