End of September Update

Yup, no fancy title for this one...we ended September on kind of a rough note.

Z was struck with hand, foot, and mouth disease...(which he unfortunately shared with a friend at play group)  I did not have any history with this disease; in fact, short of hearing the name, I didn't know anything about it.  What we learned is that his mouth broke out in tons of raw, yucky blisters.  He spent a few days living on ice cream and cold milk and Tylenol!  I thought a hot dog would be okay, but didn't factor in the acidity of the ketchup.  it wasn't my finest hour, for sure.  I felt very bad for the poor little guy.  Thankfully, those symptoms were only really bothersome for about 4 days.

Then, when we thought we were out of the woods of illness, R decided to spend a day with the stomach flu.  My puny little peanut didn't get off the couch for about 14 hours.  His rapid recovery was pretty miraculous, though.  I went to the grocery store when Tim got home from work and when I came home 30 minutes later, they were all jumping on my bed together.  If there wasn't so much throw up, I'd be convinced he faked the whole thing!  But, I was very thankful that it didn't last into a day 2 of no food or drink considering he is quick to dehydrate and has ended up in the hospital getting fluids on more than one occasion!

One great thing that happened in September was Tim quit his weekend job!!  For the last 5 years, he has worked 7 days a week--sometimes 3 jobs at a time.  With his upcoming tasks for his PhD work, he decided he was going to have to devote some more time to his studies (which I was all for!!).  So, Labor Day weekend were his last days.  While we haven't quite figured out the scheduling of the weekend days, we are all enjoying more Daddy Time!!  I have already noticed an improvement in both boys' general demeanor and attitude--I can only attribute that to having quality time with their strong, male role model!  There are just some things momma can't teach--like a love of the game--any of them!!

In fact, during the middle of the week last week, Z made me look for football on television.  When I didn't find any, he considered that for a minute and then said, "Did you ask Daddy what channel it's on?  I don't think you know."

So, we move into October.  Just three short months until the end of another year.  Ryan is doing well in his schooling (he is actually very dedicated for a K4-er!).  We are reading Ralph S. Mouse out loud and he is really enjoying that.  This week is the week we get to read about the maze.  R is a MAZE-AHOLIC!  So he is already excited and planning to build a maze.  I have been saving cereal boxes and toilet paper tubes for a week or so now, so we'll see how that turns out.  I just hope he doesn't plan to find a mouse to go through it!!!  Maybe we'll take it to the pet store and see if they'll let a feeder mouse go through it....hmmmmmm.