Influenza A-bomb

In the wee hours of Monday morning, Influenza A unleashed itself in my unsuspecting body. I.A., as I lovingly call it, ended up being the most intense sickness I have ever experienced. I knew it was bad by 6am Monday. In grunts, I let Dan know that it was bad. I ended up canceling every single thing on our calendar for the entire week, sadly including a little family vacation we had planned. Our waterpark adventure has been rescheduled for Mar 10-12, which was a huge disappointment for our boys.

Ironically, the only thing I could not cancel this week was a work project I had to complete. When you are a food blogger, working is NOT fun when sickness is involved. I had to look at, touch and smell lunch meat and cheese on a day when I wanted NOTHING to do with food of any kind. 

Sammy also had the flu last week and missed a day of school. He was much more resilient than I. Later in the week Dan was diagnosed with Sinusitis and Bronchitis. Seriously! We cannot shake the garbage! Sam, Dan and I currently have matching coughs, which is just great. The doctor I saw on Tuesday as I was writhing in Influenza pain told me that this version of the virus is VERY contagious, so to expect it to make its way through the family. Obviously with Elijah's heart condition, we have to recognize the flu asap and get him on Tamiflu. I have been SO careful this week about washing hands and not breathing on him. When I hug him, I do so carefully and usually while holding my breath. We are so thankful that he has not yet gotten sick and we pray for a bubble to continue to surround him.

It was so unbelievably nice out today (nearly 60 degrees!), so we woke up and decided that we would ALL bring Elijah to his snowboarding lessons. Dan hadn't seen Elijah do his magic in person yet, so it was fun for him to see. E's instructors said he boarded more today than on any other day. We went out and watched him at the end and he did so awesome. He was much more confident and much less afraid today than ever before. So proud of him!

Going into a fresh, new week we are praying for HEALTH and improved spirits all around in our family. Also praying for health for all of you! Did you know that February is the #1 month to get the flu? Also, that getting a flu shot reduces your chance of getting the flu by 7%? Just a few little facts I learned this week. :) Have a great rest of your weekend!

Snowboarding video

This boy was almost three years old before he started walking. Back in those uncertain days, I never envisioned him being able to snowboard. I held back the tears today as I recorded this video. (I have a potential plan to get Sammy on the slopes next weekend...we'll see!)

Croup: Season 8, Episode 2 (Elijah)...and frogs and crickets.

Based on lots of sneezing and a certain little something I could hear in Elijah's breathing yesterday, I knew there was a chance that croup would happen last night. At 11:00, he woke up with mild (thank goodness) stridor. We gave him a dose of oral steroids and I sat with him in a steamy bathroom until he complained that the room was too hot. I brought him to bed with me for a bit just so I could hear if it was going to get worse. Sometimes it does, but usually the steroids help. After listening to him snore for an hour, I brought him back to his bed. This morning he had a bit of a cough, but was doing much better and seemed to sleep great for the rest of the night.

Speaking of sleep, we may have discovered something that helps Elijah sleep better. His in-home behavioral therapist was here earlier in the week when E was having a really rough time. There was a lot of screaming and refusing to do anything that was asked of him. So she got out her phone and turned on a noise app. She told him he could listen to any sound on the app and he chose....FROGS AND CRICKETS. Uhhh, ok. He immediately calmed down! So that night he asked if he could turn the noise machine in his room to FROGS AND CRICKETS as opposed to the white noise we always use. We were hesitant because who the heck wants to have frogs croaking in their ear while they sleep? We let him do it and he slept till nearly 6:00am! This. Never. Happens. We have turned on FROGS AND CRICKETS every night since and he has slept until at least 5:30, sometimes even a little past 6:00. This morning I said to Dan, "Seriously? FROGS? And CRICKETS? That's all he needed?"

The frogs and crickets have NOT helped with behavior this week. Oye. It was a DOOZY week. My energy and patience were depleted and I remembered just how challenging things could be when the wind blows violently and directly against me. We did a med increase at the end of December, but I'm wondering if we need to do another. We have an appointment to see Dr. M on Monday, so we'll see what he says and go from there. Even with the tough week we had, I don't and NEVER will blame Elijah for it. He is not the difficult one. Those detoured pathways in his brain are to blame. They make him overwhelmed and things get scary for him when that happens. It's not his fault. If anything, even through the very frustrating moments, I feel so terribly for him because I know he doesn't feel good. I have experienced anxiety in its truest meaning and it is a HORRIBLE feeling. The worst feeling. I am not always able to do this because I sometimes am too worked up and upset, but sometimes I'm able to pull out a miraculous bit of patience in the midst of a storm and.....HUG ELIJAH. It is counter-intuitive on so many levels, but it helps.

Amidst the stormy seas of NLD, we have done a few fun things in the past week! Dan and I had a night away from home without the boys. It was sooo nice and relaxing and left me wanting more! This year we will celebrate our 10-year anniversary, so we are determined to celebrate all year long! We feel super grateful that we have not only survived these 10 years, but THRIVED! That's something to celebrate.

I can't remember if I mentioned the field trip I went on with Sammy's class last week. We had so much fun snowshoeing with his class! He has the best little group of friends. They are all so sweet and kind and respectful. Which brings me to Sammy, my sweet boy. He has gotten a few extra reminders to have good behavior this week at school, which is unlike him. His teacher isn't concerned, but since it's not typical for him she thought it was worth mentioning. I asked what sorts of things he had been doing. Are you ready for this? While standing in the lunch line, he bent over and made his butt cheeks "talk" to his friends. Yep! He was SO UPSET when we gently tried to talk to him about the reminders he needed. He was so worried that his teacher was mad and that we were mad. I assured him we definitely were not upset, but that we at least needed to discuss it. He covered his ears and buried his face in the couch because he couldn't handle the thought of being in trouble at school. Yesterday he didn't need any reminders, so the gentle talk must have worked! The butt cheeks have been silenced. :)

The boys don't have school today, so they are at daycare for the first time since summer so I can work. They were so excited to see their daycare friends! Dan will be out of town tonight, so it's just the boys and me for pizza movie night. Tomorrow Elijah has snowboarding and Sammy will get to watch him for the first time. I'm still trying to figure out a way to get Sam on the slopes without a meltdown. Ice skating and sledding will be good first steps and I'm hoping to make those happen in the next few weeks.

Have a great weekend! Sorry for the ranting post. That's what happens when I only post once/week!

Slopes and snuggles

One week of 2016 is done! My week started off a bit rocky after catching Sammy's little sickness and also struggling getting back into the swing of things. After two weeks free of a schedule and a totally crazy holiday month, it was almost like I was experiencing Holiday PTSD. The week improved and we are getting back into the groove. By WE I mean ME because everyone else in my family seemed to bounce back without a problem! :)

Elijah is now officially a snowboarder! I signed him up for Courage Kenny's adaptive skiing/snowboarding program and so badly wanted to get him into skiing. I started skiing when I was a kid and I always envisioned my boys skiing young, too. The only openings available were for snowboarding, but I signed him up anyway. Guess what! The location they placed him at is THE SAME ski resort where I learned to ski as a kid. As I stalked Elijah and his instructors today, I discovered that he was learning how to snowboard on the EXACT same hill I learned to ski on. I couldn't help but get nostalgic and a little emotional. It's so crazy how things work out! Who would have ever thought.

I was worried that Elijah would be anxious about snowboarding, even though he seemed pretty excited about it beforehand. He did way better than I ever could have imagined. He liked having a hand helping him most of the time, but toward the end of the lesson (in the FREEZING cold) he went hands-free for a few seconds both on the way down the hill and on the "magic carpet" ride up. He was so genuinely excited about today and the progress he made. Eventually they will get him on a chair lift and possibly use a tether rope to help get him down some bigger hills. I'm so proud of him for being adventurous and willing to try new things!

I've been working on Sammy. Every time I ask him if he would like to ski with me he screams NOOOOOOO! Now that I've got Elijah on the slopes, I may just have to trick him. Sorry, sweetie, but you'll thank me later. He has started saying this week that he wants to learn how to ice skate, so I'm going to leap on that and get that boy in skates!

Dan left town for work today and will be gone through Wednesday, so the boys and I have some quality time on our hands. Today we got home from Afton and Sammy and I both CRASHED. Hard. Shockingly, Elijah (who should have been the most tired of all of us) stayed awake for an entire Curious George special. After that was a very snuggly pizza-movie night where Sammy kept insisting, "SNUGGLE ME HARDER, MOMMY!"

That Sammy. I still call him Sweet and Sassy (like the bbq sauce) because is the SWEETEST boy, but can also be the SASSIEST boy. He pushes his little limits and can get so upset when we stand firm with rules. It's like he can't help getting so worked up and mad about being told what to do and does/says things that go against his sweet nature. After a bit of time, he always feels bad and asks for snuggles. "Mommy, I'm moving to the other side of the planet! Please snuggle me!" :)

Elijah had a GREAT week at school, yay! Our new med dose was a good call and the transition time occurred over break...just in time for school, which was perfect. He got "great" reports every day this week. His teachers said that he was engaged and stayed on task and had a great attitude all week.

That's all for now! Have a great rest of your weekend and thank you for stopping in!