That's why it's called "practicing" medicine

Rion stayed home from school today. Again. He has been battling this cold/cough/stomach pain on and off for about a month. He gets sick, gets better, then feels sick again. I feel like I am in a no win situation with him half the time. If I send him to school I get called by the school nurse to come pick him up. If I leave him at home I get a letter from the school about the amount of school he has missed. (Which happened in the fall when schools and doctors told parents to leave kids at home if they suspected H1N1). I have avoided taking Rion to the walk-in because I only leave frustrated and we end up going back because the doctor didn't get the diagnosis right the first time. In some cases the second time. So while Rion has been off and on sick I've only taken him to the doctor once. I swear the walk-in doctors only diagnosis whatever current sickness is going around. And sure enough I heard, "well, stomach flu is going around," and we were sent home with medicine for the stomach flu. That was two weeks ago and Rion hasn't gotten any better. I really didn't want to go to the walk-in again, but when Rion got sick at school yesterday I made an appointment with his regular doctor, but May 10th is the soonest I can get him in. I was hoping Rion could hold out until then, but tonight he was feeling really crummy so I brought him to the walk-in. The doctor felt a lot of his symptoms have to do with a sinus infection and he wrote out a prescription. He was ready to be on his way when I asked about the stomach pain. That was my biggest concern and Rion's biggest source pain. The doctor looked at me like this was the first time he heard me saying anything about stomach pain even though he felt around Rion's stomach and saw him grimace when he examined his stomach. The kids have a great pediatrician, but we can never see him unless we have an appointment so the walk in is usually the only option. Had I know Rion would still be sick I would have made an appointment long ago, but when I do that, the kids get better before the appointment ever comes. It's just so frustrating. The only doctor I really have any faith in is the one doctor I can never get an appointment with when I really need to. For now I'm keeping the appointment until I know Rion is completely well. We have an antibiotic for the sinus and medicine for what the doctor thought was just constipation causing the stomach pain. I really hope the doctor is right and I don't have to bring him in on May 10th, but from my experiences I feel like we will be going to that appointment.

Playing outside

Today was a cool and rainy day so we didn't get to spend time outside. We were outside a lot on Friday and Saturday. I started cleaning up our shed and it was like Christmas for the kids. All the summer toys they had forgotten about over the winter were found again. Torii was mad that he didn't have any Rollerblades so I had to get a pair for him. We've been doing a lot of rollerblading which the boys love. I can't wait until they are real good and then we can go rollerblading along the river trail.

I know there has been a lot of blog worthy comments from the kids this past week, but I can't think of any of them at the moment. Last week was such a long week, I'm not even sure what we did. All I know is that everyone in this house was sick at some point in the last week. I'm sick of being sick and taking care of sick people.

Easter

I haven't even posted my Easter pictures yet. We had a good Easter. Dinner ended up being at our house because my parents lost their electricity in the Good Friday storm. It still wasn't on yet on Saturday so we decided to do it at our house. Our neighbor brought over cookies for the kids. Even though they were already loaded up on sugar, they had no problem devouring the cookies.

Cordelia figured out the baskets pretty quick. She knew the place to be was parked in among all the baskets. The kids also hunted for eggs in the morning. The boys were up bright and early, but I made them wait until Cordelia got up. We hid over 50 eggs! They each had a bagful. I thought I would find random eggs for the next few days, but they must have found them all because I haven't seen anymore.

This must have been before Easter because the floor is still clean! (And Kelly and Laurie-it took dad less than a minute to complain about the Easter grass in our house on Easter).

In the kitchen

Cordelia likes to help me in the kitchen. She is the "dumper", meaning she dumps all the measured ingredients into the bowl. Today we made some whole wheat buttermilk pancakes after Sunday School. She looked so cute in her dress and mixing the ingredients, I just had to take a picture. Of course, she made a big mess as she usually does, but I love my little helpers in the kitchen.

It's like he's trying to speak to me, I know it!

Cordelia is picking up words left and right. Tonight she was twirling around the living room saying, "I'm a princess, I'm a princess." I love the learning to speak stage, mostly because I no longer have to guess what she needs, she can just tell me. Some words are coming out very clear, but most of what she says is only understandable to Fred and I, who are with her the most. It is fun to listen to your children as they learn to master the English language. And then there is Torii. He talks all the time and speaks more clearly than Rion did at that age. Yet, I don't know what he is talking about half of the time. This is what I heard the other day: "Oh Juggernoid! And Sub Terra, Ventus, Darkus!" Excuse me? It's like he's speaking a foreign language. And no, I don't even know what I just wrote. I had to take his Bakugan cards out to see what it was he said because after he said it I couldn't even repeat it. I was clueless. It's like Fred telling me what kind of hunting related gifts he would like. Five minutes after he tells me I don't have a clue so I just get him a Scheels gift card. And I try to listen, really I do, but Bakugan and hunting are foreign languages to me. So when Torii talks about Bakugan I just nod and say yes a few times like I'm listening. Then I switch the subject to something I know and we go outside and play baseball.

A new shirt for Cordelia

Here's a super easy and fun project I did yesterday. Inspiration and directions from: http://bkids.typepad.com/bookhoucraftprojects/2010/03/project-55-spring-wardrobe-update.html

I did a little thrifting over the weekend with hopes of finding something for this project. I wasn't having much luck, but then I stumbled upon this pillowcase. I don't know if those are suppose to be birds or butterflies, but I thought it was super cute.
And viola! Cordelia has a new shirt. She was so excited when I showed her. As I always do when I cook I did some improvising with the supplies I had on hand with this too. I used fusible hem to stick it to the tee. You can't see it up close, but it is noticeable when I look at it closely. I may pick up some of the fusible stuff mentioned on the tute for the next one. And I did sew around it because it looks so much better that way. I want to do a tank top with the other bird from the pillowcase.

Spring in ND

Until yesterday we were enjoying beautiful spring weather. Cordelia and I would walk down to the school to pick the boys up and then spend some time at the playground before coming home. The kids love being outside and it's hard to get them to go home. We also walked over to the park the other night and played some baseball on the diamonds. Torii is loving baseball lately and he wants to practice hitting every night. He loved going to the diamonds and playing. He didn't even want to quit baseball to play on the playground there. I'm glad we got out as much as we did because now we haven't been out for the past two days. It started raining yesterday and then today we got five inches of snow. Cordelia was mad that we couldn't go outside today. She even got her shoes on and had her jacket so she could go out. And Cordelia throws the biggest tantrums when we have to go back inside after playing outside. Oh well, I guess that's a good thing to throw a tantrum about. It's also been fun watching Cordelia outside this year. I can really see how she has grown. She wants to do everything the boys do and it's funny when she grabs the baseball bat and says "my turn". Hopefully the snow melts right away and the temps go back up because we all want to get back outside soon!