ear infection

I picked up B at lunch today because I had the afternoon off, and Loree said he'd been poking his fingers in his ears all morning. So I called the clinic to get him checked out before the weekend came. They managed to squeeze him in this afternoon. Sure enough, B has an ear infection. He did NOT like Jake putting the light in his ears, especially his left one, which is the one with the infection. Jake said it was medium-bad but was going to get worse and not better so B is now on antibiotics for 10 days. After the appointment, Brecken got to pick out one of the Ty beanie bears that was in the lobby to take home with us, but B wanted nothing to do with them- he only wanted to play with the bead rollercoaster thing!! Oh, he threw a fit when I made him put his coat onto leave!! He cried and cried and I had to pick out his bear for him. While we were waiting to get in to be seen, B had loved those bears and picked them all up, but hugged one of them, so that's the one I picked for him. :)

We didn't take his clothes off to get weighed today, but he weighed 19 pounds, 7 ounces! He only weighed 18 pounds 3 ounces 2 weeks ago. I don't know how much a onesie, jeans, slippers and a diaper weigh (and I changed his diaper before we went to the doctor) but he seems to have gained some good weight for 2 weeks! WAY more than the 3 ounces in a month that he gained last!

this is why i love my commute!

Driving home, I saw TWO huge bald eagles right next to the road sitting on a fence. I was 5 miles out of Saratoga and didn't have my camera. So I drove home, got B so Josh could go to basketball, grabbed my camera and headed out to see if they were still there. They WERE! Only, I got out of my car and they flew away. I could only find one and he was a long way away, so I zoomed as close as I could and had to crop the pic when I got home.

Josh had to go get Brecken at lunch today, Loree called him at work and said B wasn't feeling good and needed to go home. He slept from 1:00-3:00, which is crazy long for B! He's been pretty normal since then though. I'm not seeing much sickness, other than a few coughs.

home sick.

Not me, but Brecken. He woke up crying hysterically last night and it took forever for him to calm down. Then this morning, his nose wouldn't quit running and he couldn't quit coughing. He also woudn't quit crying and wouldn't let me put him down. He can't go to daycare like that, so I stayed home with him today. Josh has already stayed home once AND brought him to school with him, so it was my turn. So, I changed back into my sweats (I was already dressed for work) and got comfy with Brecken. He's feeling a bit better after a nap and some juice, and we managed to get my Christmas Village put up. It was quite comical- at one point, Ditka had shoved himself into one of the styrofoam boxes and Brecken was wearing another one of them on his head like a hat. Silly boys.

too funny.

My dad apparently has a lot of time on his hands, because he made this really funny video starring Brecken, Ryan, himself, and my grandma. It's hilarious to watch, check it out: http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=9559253829

Brecken is now walking. Saturday, he was only walking a few steps at a time and on Sunday he was walking a lot of steps at a time! He's getting really good at it!!!

I've been gone for a few days, I went to Wheatland with a couple of my students for an honor choir. We left Sunday and got home last night. This morning, B and I are finishing up packing and when Josh gets home from basketball practice we're headed up to Lingle. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

babysitting, sharing, and mountain lions

We have the babysitting thing all figured out. Whew! Josh talked to Jake at 5 am this morning (they go lift weights at the school together) and Jake said they could probably do Mondays and Tuesdays for us, even though Tuesdays are his days off. I felt really bad thinking he'd be babysitting on his day off!! He babysat for us today because Loree's husband had his surgery to repair his back, but Deb was home when I got there and she said she'd rather have Wednesdays and Thursdays so that Jake wouldn't have to use his day off. But then she said that if things get too crazy at Loree's, just bring Brecken to their house for the whole week. Hopefully it won't come to that, but it's nice to know we won't be scrambling if Loree changes her mind again!!!

Brecken has been very into sharing lately. He likes to force feed you. Yesterday he grabbed a handful of Cheerios and tried to shove them all in my mouth. He cried when I wouldn't eat them. Silly. He tried to force his sippy cup into Birdie's mouth the other day. Birdie was too startled to actually take it- otherwise she would've jumped at the chance to have B's milk!! :)

I guess our next door neighbor had a mountain lion on his front step theother morning. He went outside to leave for work and scared it and it went running. THAT'S a little scary! I worried about the dogs being outside while we're at work but Josh said the mountain lion wouldn't come
in the daytime- I don't know how he would know that... We now make sure both cats are in at night now though!!

fired

I was messing around at school the other day and created this photo. I thought it was kind of neat.

Well, we got "half-fired" from daycare today. Loree is pregnant, due in June, and is very afraid of having a miscarriage, since she had one earlier this spring. She's cutting down her daycare kids. She's keeping the 3-year old full time, but we only get to go half time, and poor baby Sophie doesn't get to go at all. What a frustrating feeling. Brecken is already going to Deb's house tomorrow, so we're going to ask her if she'd be a regular babyistter again and do two days a week, plus Fridays when Josh has away games. If she doesn't want to be that permanent, I don't know WHAT we'll do. And poor Sophie's mom- she doesn't know anybody to ask! I feel bad for Loree, I really do- I wouldn't wish a miscarriage on ANYONE, especially with our troubles to get pregnant, so I know how precious a new life is. But at the same time, I wish, for once, we could have a "normal" daycare situation!!! :) Annie, wanna move here and open one? You'd be rich!!!

sick boy

We found out why Brecken wouldn't eat and was whiny yesterday.... Josh finally got home at 1:11 this morning and just as he got into bed Brecken started crying. Josh went in there, thinking his coming home woke Brecken up, but instead discovered that Brecken had thrown up. :( Brecken cried and cried and cried. We had to change his jammies and pull the blanket from his pack and play mattress. No fever according to our ear thermometer but I think he had a bit of the stomach bug. So Josh took him out to the couch and he watched the end of the movie he missed, and a while later Brecken came crawling into my bedroom so he laid with me and fell asleep again. He wasn't interested in breakfast this morning, or lunch today, but is finally now snacking on cheerios and some milk. No more puking, luckily!

teeth, whining, blood, and an accident

Brecken sure has been whiny today and won't eat anything. I think his 6th tooth is about to come through and it's bugging him. Hopefully he sleeps well tonight.

I let the dogs inside right before dinner, they had been out most of the afternoon. Then I noticed blood all over the floor. Hogan has several puncture wounds on his head and one ear- I wonder if the dogs were wrestling and Birdie got a bit rough. We had to wash the whole kitchen floor. I let them back outside so we could finish eating, and after Brecken went to bed I let them back in and he still had blood droplets. So I held gauze over all of them until they stopped and he's laying on a towel now so I can make sure if he does bleed a little again, it's not on the carpet. Poor dog- wonder what happened?!

Josh and I were watching a movie and his pager went off, for an accident on some road I haven't heard of before. There were 4 patients though, and Rawlins had been called first so I think it's out that direction. Rawlins needed help because they cannot transfer 4 patients. The dispatcher said after Saratoga got to this road, call somewhere (she said some initials that I don't know what they stand for) for more directions. Sounds bad!! He might be gone a long time.

first steps!

Brecken has on quite the outfit right now: A white onesie and his black tennis shoes. He got into his diaper bag and pulled out the shoes and tried to put them on himself, so Josh put them on. We had been working on walking this afternoon, but after he put his shoes on, Brecken walked his first steps! They must be magic shoes!! He walked four very slow and deliberate steps from Josh to me! Yay! He had no idea why we were so excited, but he got excited with us after I said that deserved some Smarties. :)

YAY, Brecken!!!

moving on

We'll be moving on to a new sport in this house. Basketball season starts next week for Josh and football practice ended last week, though none of us knew it at the time. Josh's team had the semi-final game in Big Horn yesterday and it didn't end in our favor. :( It was a heartbreaking loss. The final score was 13-8, and if we had been able to do anything with our last position it might have ended with us on top, but it didn't work out that way. LOTS of tears after the game, I'm not sure I saw a dry eye anywhere on our side! Or on our side of the field- the boys were pretty teary, too. But WOW, the crowd we had! We had just as many on our side cheering for our boys as Big Horn did, I bet! And the field was really neat- you could pull your car up and around the field and that was so handy because my van was right next to the bleachers we were sitting in, so B could take a nap inside the car and out of the wind! It was a really cool field.

So, Josh now gets a week "off" after school before basketball starts. I bet he won't come home too early though- he won't know what to do with all that time, so I bet he stays at school and finds something football-related to do for a while each day. :)

We had a fun weekend though. I went up with Peggy Hayes and their two girls, and stopped in Casper for a couple hours at the mall, then we stayed in Buffalo at the same hotel as the team. Tons of our fans did too- it was neat to see the breakfast room full of purple clothes yesterday morning!!

"first" halloween

I say "first" because Brecken slept through the whole thing last year!

Brecken had a really fun Halloween yesterday. I picked him up from daycare (where he had a great day- he even ate all his lunch for the first time ever! Pizza and peas.) and took him home to get his costume on. Then I took him downtown to the Trick-or-Treat down there. He wouldn't say anything to anyone but gave good smiles and waves. And he loved it when they let him pick out his own candy!! He got REALLY excited at the art gallery because they were giving out helium balloons! He chattered and chattered about that with the biggest grin. He loves balloons. He got his picture taken at the newspaper office, so we'll see if it makes it in to the paper next week. When we got home he got into his candy bucket and held up a package of m&ms, way up high so I could see them and said, "Mom? Mom? Mom? Mom?" He's never had candy before. He LOVED the m&ms! He had a blue nose to prove it.

Then we went to Encampment's Halloween carnival that happens every year. I bought him some tickets so he could play some games. We did the fishing pond a couple times and the first time got a treat bag with a small notepad in it, a bat tattoo, a little monster that when you squeeze it his eyes bulge (B thinks its funny!) and a couple other silly things. Then the next time he fished, he got a blow up black kitty! His eyes got real big and he grabbed that kitty and KISSED it! It was so funny. He also threw the football and did the beanbag toss too. :) He got to pick out his own candy for playing the games, and he would pick through the selection until he found something he thought he liked and then would put it in his bucket. Smart boy. :)Josh met us at the carnival after football practice was over, and took B home early so I could stay and make sure everything was cleaned up. The Senior class that I sponsor did easy booths this year because they didn't want to stay and clean. :) They did a basketball throw, a football throw, a booth where the kids guessed how many Tootsie Rolls were in the jar (397) and the closest one won the candy, and a bowling lane. Each booth took one or two tickets and tickets were 25 cents each. I have to count my class' tickets today and see how much money we made.

Brecken sure likes candy, for never having it before! Josh said he knew Brecken would, because that's what Brecken inherited from his mother. :) B was WIRED last night, and he didn't even have that much candy! He wouldn't go to bed. After Josh brought him home he gave B some dinner and gave him a bath and he said he was all over the bathtub being crazy. Crazy after I got home, too! We had one trick-or-treater all night while we were home (one of Josh's students) and a high school kid selling Christmas wreaths. On my way into our neighborhood, there is a house with lots of Halloween lights and decorations, and the main door was open so you could see into the house, and there was a HUGE buck deer standing right at the steps, staring into the house like he was asking for candy too. It was funny.

I'll post pictures when I get around to loading them on the computer.