Nate-Dog is

sick.

Nate woke up at 7:30am this morning saying, "Mommy, my mouth hurts when I close my mouth.

At this point, I didn't really think anything of this. You see, quite often, Grace wakes up in the morning with the "I slept with my mouth open and now it hurts" sore throat thing. She drinks some water and viola- all better. Also, with Grace's appliance that she just recently got put into her upper jaw (oh.....I think I may have forgotten to blog about this....sorry, will explain soon), she has been complaining about her mouth hurting when closing her teeth/jaw. So I just thought it was maybe hurting but maybe Nate using the same excuse as his sister as to what was actually hurting. But Nate seemed to go on his merry way with no other complaints at all.

Fast forward to 1pm. Ray takes Grace and Nate to his parent's house so that I can study and he can build us a new bed frame. It's raining and Grace and Nate are inside and apparently Nate looks sick and wants to go to sleep. Ok. He NEVER just "wants" to go to sleep. Ray's mom takes his temperature and its almost 103. Ray calls me.

I immediately replay in my mind the last time something similar to this had happened. Grace was younger than Nate (actually Nate wasn't even born yet) and she had a swimming lesson we needed to get ready for. As I changed her, I could feel her body burning up. I took her temp- 104! I asked her if anything was bothering her, but she said she felt fine. Took her straight to the pediatrician's office and the doctor, who was quite surprised that Gracie had no complaints, informed me that she had strep throat.

I tell Ray to get a flashlight and take a look at Nate's throat. Nate's throat is really red, he told me. They come home and I take at look, and yes, his throat is very red. So I ask him, "Nate, is there anything bothering you?" "Yes, my throat," he says, as he is pointing to his throat. I'm just about sure it's strep throat at this point, so I get ready to take him over to the pediatrician's office (thank goodness the pediatrician's office is open 365 days a year and the office location that has the extended hours is right around the corner from my house).

So in we go, they take his temp, which has now FINALLY gone down to 100.3 nearly 3 hours after taking Tylenol. The nurse (is it wrong of me to want to say "Medical Assistant" here, which is what the "nurses" in doctors offices usually are, instead of calling her "nurse" since it correlates to the title that I am working so hard for??) asks me what we're there for. I tell her I think Nate has strep throat and she grabs the swabs to take a culture of his throat for one of those rapid strep tests. The doctor then comes in, does her thing, takes a look and says, "Yes, his throat is red." but the way she says it, it's like my whole reason for being at the office today was to confirm that Nate's throat was indeed red. I am keeping myself from laughing at this point because, while no, I am not a doctor and I don't know everything, I really didn't need the help of a doctor to interpret the color of Nate's throat. I can clearly see that it was red, AND all by myself, mind you. So, she tells me that we need to wait on the results of the strep test to see if we need an antibiotic or if its just viral and she had Nate and I wait in the chairs by the lab.

So we wait, but just for a few minutes.

A few minutes later, the lab finally puts Nate's paperwork up. Another nurse than the one we had talked to earlier (again, medical assistant) comes by and grabs it and by the look on her face, I knew exactly what the result was. The doctor, who was seeing another patient, comes out, out of the room and takes a look and tells me its positive for strep, tells me the normal things the doctor tells you when you need to take an antibiotic and then hands me Nate's prescription.

As of now, Nate is laying on the couch watching the Cars movie in his pj's with his teddy bear. He's so cute and SOOOOO calm, so you can tell the poor boy is really sick.

Now here's to the fun part of trying to keep the entire house from being contaminated, and of course, to my poor boy to feel better soon.

Spelling Bee

I had envisioned the moment my daughter would walk on stage for her very first spelling bee. It went something like this:

Grace would get up there and spell just about every word correctly. She would maybe win, but she was going against second and third graders so, they could very well win, too. But she would do well and give them a run for their money anyhow.

Well, it didn't go at all like that. She was the very first one, and on her very first word of her very first spelling bee, she was out. She had to spell the word "Form" and spelled "From" instead. Poor girl. But I am extremely proud of her, none-the-less. She was selected as 1 of 3 students from her whole class to compete and the third spot was a tie between 2 other students who had a small spelling bee of their own for the spot.....which means Grace was picked without any hesitation.

And I'm proud of her for trying to hold it together afterwards as well. You could see the disappointment in her face as she walked off the stage and back to her seat. You could see how hard she was trying to fight back tears and not a tear had been shed. But when the spelling bee was over, she turned around to Ray and me and said she wanted to just go home (there was still 30 minutes or so left of school) and started crying. "I can't believe I got out on my first word. This is my first spelling bee," she sobbed. I reassured her and hugged her and told her how proud I was of her.

She went back to her classroom to get her backpack and the other kids told her, "Good job, Grace," which I thought was sweet. She started to feel better and ended up playing with the kids on the playground for the remainder of the school day.

I was in a spelling bee once, too in sixth grade. It was my first spelling bee and I believe it was my first word, and I got out. My word was "Sense" or maybe it was "Cents" but I was so nervous that I spelled another version of the spelling then what they asked for (don't forget, it can also be spelled "Scents" as well). And just like that, I was out.

Guess the apple really doesn't fall far from the tree. Poor Grace.

Some things....

going on in our lives right now:

• I am very proud of my little Gracielu. Grace has been selected for the school spelling bee. She is one of three kids chosen from her class to compete against 2nd and 3rd grade. The spelling bee is tomorrow. While I believe that my little Gracie-pie is pretty smart, she isn't the best speller in the world. She does very well with her "spelling" lists that she is given, but spelling other words, not so much. If they use the lists given as homework for the bee, then she's got a shot. But at the same time, she's going against kids in 2nd and 3rd grade!! I'm sure their best spellers are spelling much harder words, right?? Either way, I'm still very proud she was even given the opportunity. How exciting! I'll post the results tomorrow.
• Nate. My little guy....so proud of him. He is completely potty trained and has been for quite some time, but we just couldn't get him to stay dry while he slept (never had that problem with Grace). So at night, we have been putting pull ups on him. Some days, he wakes up dry and some he doesn't. Well we ran out of pull ups and on Saturday night we have gotten home too late to run out to the store to buy more, so we took a chance. I am proud to say that he has stayed dry every night since!!! It seems like he is finally completely out of pull-ups! Some nights I have woken him up to try to go potty one more time before I go to bed, but the other nights where I haven't done that, he has still stayed dry.

So that's the update for now!

Grace's Funnies

Scene: We are eating the Mother's Day cake Grace had made for me at school. I walk into the kitchen and see that even though we had small pieces, the cake is pretty much down to nothing.

Me: "Man, we really killed that cake!"

Grace: "Yeah we did." She pauses. "What does that mean?"


Kids. They sure are funny with what they say!

Nate Logic

Nate trys celery with peanut butter and raisins (ants on a log).

Nate says he likes it, but not the celery. Takes another bite.

Still says he likes it but not the celery. I take a bite, and he says, "Hey, that's mine."

I thought he didn't like celery.

"But I like the peanut butter and raisins," he says.

He finishes it.

Then he starts eating his apples.

"Mommy, apples taste just like celery. But they're apples," he explains.

Oh OK then. Oh the logic of a 4 year old.

Swagger Wagon

I came across this satirical rap video about the new Toyota Sienna. They call the Sienna a "Swagger Wagon" and if you're not up-to-date on the slang lingo of today, Swagger means:

1 : to conduct oneself in an arrogant or superciliously pompous manner; especially : to walk with an air of overbearing self-confidence
2 : boast, brag

At any rate, a rap song about a minivan is pretty funny. Here is it:

Excuse Me

while I get on my soapbox for just a minute.

People of South Florida, please, for your children's sake, BUCKLE YOUR CHILDREN UP!!!!!

Seriously.

Not only are they not in a child safety seat, they aren't even buckled in a regular seat belt. And to make matters worse, if that's even possible, you are allowing your sweet, young innocent children to roam about freely in the backseat. Sigh.

Please. Buckle them up. It helps to teach them to be safe as they get older, but most of all it is YOUR duty to keep them safe. I know that some people might not be educated enough to know certain things, but buckling your small child in a child safety seat.......no sorry, everyone HAS to know that. It's just basic common sense.

I'm really tired of seeing this happen time after time.

Buckle 'em. You don't want to regret not buckling them one day. You don't want to jeopardize their little lives. Protect them, please.

I will now step off my soap box. As you were, people of South Florida. Just hopefully now in buckled seat belts.

Why Is It That........?

WHY IS IT THAT..........

• when I need to get somewhere fast I hit every red light, but when I actually want a red light so that I can finish my make up in the car, I get every green light?
• people make left hand turns from the right hand lane?
• the kids come see ME in the middle of the night, but will go see daddy for things during the day? (one of these nights I am going to switch sides with Daddy and trick the little boogers)
  
• I always seem to choose the wrong line in the grocery store?
• we hardly get night time thunderstorms in the summer? That's the best time for them.
• since I have started nursing school and been in the hospital around tons of germs, I haven't been sick hardly at all? I've felt colds coming on but they never really blossomed into anything.
• one little test score can bring my spirits down? (And one score can bring them up?)
• when I go to bed early, without a doubt, one child will wake up in the middle of the night and need my assistance. Seriously, every time. It's like clockwork.
• I have the best husband in the entire world? And the best kids?
• I couldn't grow just 2 inches more before I stopped growing in 3rd grade? (Ok, so maybe it wasn't exactly 3rd grade, but I'm sure I stopped growing before high school)

The Art of Wit

I love wit (and sarcasm). I don't know why, but I do. I love to dish it out, and think of clever things to say on a whim. However, it seems to lose its appeal slightly when it is dished to me, especially by my young, growing older-by-the-minute daughter who is beginning to learn the art of wit (and sarcasm, too, might I add).

Example:

Me: "What is that under Grace's chin? Is that a pen mark?"

Ray: "It's a vein."

Grace: "Don't you know what a vein is, nurse?"

My Kids

My kids are so very different, and yet I love them both so much.

Grace loves dolls. Nate loves cars. Race cars.

Nate loves red and blue. Grace loves pink and purple.

Nate loves Chip and Dale. Grace loves Barbie.

Grace loves kisses. Nate loves hugs, and wipes your kisses away.

They both love to snuggle. I love to snuggle.

Grace will eat her sandwich first, her cheese second and her fruit last. Nate will eat his cheese first, his fruit second and then try to convince me he is too full for his sandwich.

Nate loves OJ and has some just about every morning. Grace will drink milk in the morning.

Grace has her cereal WITH milk in it. Nate, up until 2 days ago, did not.

They are pretty opposite beings. That is for sure.

Grace is definitely the "caretaker" and Nate is the one always asking his big sister to play or to help him. He looks up to her.

Nate loves strawberries. Grace loves broccoli. Both hate tomatoes.

Grace likes grape jelly. Nate prefers strawberry jelly, but both really like peanut butter, honey and raisin sandwiches.

Both so different yet loved so immensely in different ways.

My kids. <3

Orlando

Tomorrow the kids and I are driving to Orlando. Alone. Hopefully it will go well. I mean, its only 3 hours, right? What could possibly go wrong in 3 hours? At least the ride home I will have company. We're taking a very short trip and coming back home on Thursday. I'm excited to get away, even if it's only for 2 short days.

Exactly

Grace: Do you remember the name of that show, Nate?

Nate: No, I don't exactly remember. But we certainly don't have that show at our house.

Grace: How in the world does he know what the word exactly is?

Kids. :)

Grace

My sweet little Grace got her report card a week or so ago and once again received the high honor roll award. We're so proud of her. I just love her!

Not Necessarily

Last night Nate woke up in the middle of the night in a frantic hurry because he had to use the restroom. I started to assess him to make sure he wasn't sick.

Mom: "Nate, does your belly hurt?:

Nate: "Not anymore."

Mom: "It hurt before?"

Nate: "Well......it did earlier, but not necessarily when Gracie got home."

Necessarily. What 4 year old uses the word necessarily? I don't even think Grace used a word like necessarily at 4.


In other news, today was Gracie's Track and Field Day at school. In years past, the kids never really competed against each other for first place, second place, etc. because they were in Pre-K and Kindergarten. However, Grace, now being in First Grade, got to compete for the first time against her classmates. There was a 50 yard dash, a 100 yard dash, a softball throw and a standing broad jump. Grace has been working hard practicing for these events for the last several weeks at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Well, I am proud to say that she won First Place in the 50 yard dash, Second Place in the 100 yard dash, and she says she thinks she may have won third in the jump. She did compete against only the first grade girls, which there are 5 of, but we are still very proud of her and she is pretty proud, too.

Can't Believe

That Nate slept until 10am today! First day ever either one of my kids has slept that late. I was asleep myself, but I thought it sounded pretty quiet in the house. He did go to bed a little late last night, but it was only about 10 and he's gone to bed that late before. Little peanut must have been tired.