Well, the kids are mostly well, though it is no coincidence that Kaelin’s new favorite pretend game is “playing Doctor.”  The one remaining problem is that we just can’t kick Koren’s ear infections.

After the 3 rounds of medications, we ended up giving him some shots yesterday, and he goes back for a second round tomorrow if the doctor doesn’t see enough improvement.  If those still don’t do the trick, we have to start talking to ENTs about going the tubes route.  Not entirely surprising, since Jens and I both struggled with ear infections as kids, and I had to have tubes put in.  Twice, I think.

Predictably, I ended up catching all the junk the kids were going through a couple of weeks ago, so I’m just getting over the cough and it’s making its way into my nose and eyes.  This event has brought me to a revelation about parenting that I’d never really considered before since I so rarely get sick:

When your children are sick, you take care of the children.  When you get sick, you take care of the children. 

Does it sound slightly unfair to anyone else that parenthood is the only job to which you can’t “call in sick?”

But enough about all that.  Even I’m tired of hearing myself go on about HALP! MAH KIDZ R SIIIIIIIICK BLAH BLAH AAAAAAGGGGGHHHHH, so I can imagine you all are ready to beat your heads with a frying pan because the coma would be a relief.

Tomorrow is my 29th Birthday!  Well, my first 29th birthday, at least.  I’ll probably have a few more before I’m ready to embrace the reality of “30-something.”  I received a wonderful surprise from my husband for my birthday, as a brand spanking new convection oven showed up at our house yesterday! 

As in, an oven that can actually get hotter than 350° AND manages to reach something close to the temperature you set it to AND stays at that temperature longer than 10 minutes!  Obviously, this is a drastic improvement over my old hunk of junk.

This splendid piece of equipment means that if my baking sucks now, it is actually my fault.  While that seems a little daunting, it’s totally a risk I’m willing to take.

As a side story, Kaelin is at the point now where she occasionally tries very hard to act all “grown up.” 

Case in point, when the guys showed up to install the oven this morning, they called me “Ma’am” when they had questions.  After chatting with them and listening to them for a little bit, Kaelin turns to me and says, “Um, Ma’am, I’ll be back in a little bit.  I need to go over there and help them work on this.”

Yes, that’s right.  Koren is officially crawling.  Which means we are all officially doomed.

He’s still kind of learning, so it’s not easy for him yet – but put a bottle or some equally enticing motivator in front of him, and he figures it out really fast.

Kaelin: (incredulous) Mama, did you know that JESUS is GOD TOO???
Me: Yes, I did know that.
Kaelin: Isn’t that weird?

Oh look!  A Blog!

Yeah, it’s been a bit quiet around here lately.  I’ve been rather busy, a little from travel, but mostly busy with sick kids.  They’re going to have to give me a “frequent customer discount” at the pediatrician’s office.

Koren has been battling the same ear infections for 3+ weeks.  It started directly after a weekend of sick, feverish baby (and subsequently, sick, feverish 3-year-old), and led to grumpy recovering baby until the antibiotic took effect.  We thought the antibiotic took care of the problem, but then we spilled it half way through and didn’t refill or finish the full 10-day run (I know, Mother of the Year Award, here I come).  So a week later we found ourselves back at the doctor and starting a second round of medication.

With Koren on the mend once again, we left the kids with my parents and went out of town for Jens’ cousin’s wedding in Denver, Colorado.  It was some much needed time away and a very enjoyable trip.

More pictures of that are below if you log in.

We returned to a rather grumpy baby and the realization that the second round of ear medication hadn’t done a blessed thing.  The next day, our little guy declined further and developed a bad case of croup that made both him and me miserable throughout the night and next day, as he was unable to sleep.  Steamy showers only seemed to help mildly, but since croup is viral that was the only solution available.

Another trip to the doctor netted us a new round of medication for the double ear infection (that’s #3, for those of you keeping track at home), some steroids for the croup, and the news that it would probably get worse before it got better.

It is now a week later, and a rough week it has been.  He’s still messing with his ears, so if that continues past Friday I’ll have to take him in again to assess the ear infection situation.  But his mood has improved dramatically and it’s actually possible to make him smile again.  I’m so glad to have my happy little guy back to his normal self.  Though I will say, I’d forgotten how difficult this kid is to hold on to when he’s well.

Unfortunately, now Kaelin is sick again.  She’s had a cough on and off for the past week and today had to stay home with a low-grade fever.  Probably my fault for rejoicing yesterday that I would actually get to spend my Mother’s Day Out time NOT taking care of sick kids today… obviously that didn’t work out.  At least taking care of a sick 3-year-old is easier than taking care of a sick 8-month-old.

So that’s what’s been keeping me busy.  Fun times.  One of these days I’ll actually get some time to myself during the day and then maybe I’ll get a load of laundry done or something.

In the meantime, here’s more Colorado pictures:

Me and my unruly hair.

Again, with the unruly hair.

This is where I TOTALLY ATE IT on the ice and ended up with a bruised and sore hip for the rest of the trip. Grace, thou eludes me.

Jens’ uncle (father of the groom) and his wife.

Jens’ cousin (brother of the groom) and his girlfriend.

Jens and his grandma.

Jens’ grandparents.

The Happy Couple.

The Happy Family. This child stayed quiet during the entire ceremony and subsequent Latin Mass. My kids can’t stay quiet through a 5-word sentence. If they could bottle their secret and sell it, they’d make a fortune and put Benadryl out of business.

This picture is begging for a Caption Contest.

The other day I asked Jens if it was “normal” for 3-year-olds to talk the way Kaelin does, because it catches me off-guard at times.  His response: “Doesn’t matter, because we don’t have a 3-year-old.  We have Kaelin.”  True enough.

Kaelin: Daddo, what are you doing?
Daddo: I’m putting on deodorant.
Kaelin: What’s that?
Daddo: Sometimes when grownups get sweaty or dirty, they need deodorant to keep them from getting smelly.
Kaelin: (after a moment of consideration)  Mama struggles with underarm odor.
Daddo: She… does?
Kaelin: She needs more deodorant.

Ok, I’m TOTALLY OFFENDED.  Evidently I’m going to have to stop reading Kaelin her bedtime story after I go to the gym because DUDE…

And on another note, I would like to know who’s been teaching Revelation to my daughter.  Seriously. 

Kaelin: (coming downstairs first thing in the morning) Daddo?
Daddo: Yes?
Kaelin: Are these the last days?
Daddo: Last days of what?
Kaelin: The last days of the world.
Daddo: Um….