Mommy Stuff

Giants fans?

After their first baseball game (SJ Giants vs Stockton Ports)

Highlights:
“Kids run the bases” after the game
Ice Cream
Churros
Italian Night
Hanging out with Uncle David

Lowlights:
1st Inning
Ending Score
Walking the “Beer Batter” every time

You know you are having a bad moment when (after 20+ minutes of trying to put your 1.5 year old down for a nap and leaving her in the bedroom throwing a full blown tantrum with ear piercing screaming and pissed off shrieking), your 4.5 year old looks at you and says “Mommy are you frustrated?”

Frustrated would be the understatement of the year!

The last few days have been less than notable. The kids continue to heal, we played with a pox friendly family two days to get some of the stir crazy out… and Chanler’s foot blisters look THE SAME!

I got some information for an Osteopath friend who said that as long as the blisters remain on Chanler’s feet he could still be “sluffing” virus (aka contagious). She suggested lancing the blisters – which I have to say sounds about as fun as poking myself in the eye. I could just picture the screaming that would ensue.

After some discussion, Scott and I decided it would actually be easier to lance the blisters ourselves rather than trying to convince Kaiser to do it… We had a conversation with Chanler about the benefits of popping his feet blisters and even let him pick the implement used to do the actual lancing. What really convinced him was the offer to let him watch videos while Daddy worked on his feet!!!!! We managed to get 10 popped blisters and 0 screaming! Not a bad score if you ask me!

Not sure how long it takes after they are popped to officially be not contagious, but we have a birthday party on Saturday so I hope we are ok by then…

Nothing much new. The kids continue to heal and the blisters on the feet continue to mock me. I called the Pediatrician today to get her opinion on the foot blisters and Kaiser was less than helpful. The advice nurse asked questions like… is he looking blue or gasping for air?; How much does he weigh; Are the spots red or purple when they first appear; is he having seizures? The questions were all crazy and IF any of them had been true I would have been calling 911 not the advice nurse. The Pediatrician called back (and for some unknown reason my phone didn’t ring) and left the most unhelpful message I have ever heard. Oh well Kaiser sucks sometimes.

Guess we are in for more days of confinement – I wonder how many I can take before I lose it completely????? Not many I would wager.

ETA: I should mention that the kids were in unusually rare form today – teetering between crazy and completely hysterical. Tons of fun. I also wonder how many more days they can take…

For most intents and purposes the kids are better, all except that pesky “officially not contagious” one. They both still have blisters on the soles of their feet that just won’t burst so they are technically they are still under quarantine… Lucky me.

Today (Father’s day) was spent gardening, doing errands (with the kids in the car while Scott went in and picked stuff out and then I went in to pay – Scott forgot his wallet at work- eeek), and mostly trying to get stuff done. We pretty much ignored Father’s day around here – Sorry Scott.

Finally the day Chanler has been waiting for since the beginning of the Chicken Pox… Today we had friends over and Chanler got to be the “lollipop taster.” Surprisingly he was less excited about it that I would have thought – oh well, I hope we passed enough cooties never the less.

Jessaleigh’s spots seem to be disappearing before my eyes. She has one scab under he eye that is a bit worrisome, but the rest are fading quickly. I am confused though because she still has 1 or 2 pox on her feet (where the skin is thicker) that haven’t popped yet – not sure if she is technically contagious of if those will just be reabsorbed without bursting…

Chanler is also doing better (especially when we have company). He spots are starting to scab more and more although he still has plenty that aren’t. His feet still bother him, but other than that his mood and energy level are much improved.

Overall, things are looking up. Now if we can just last through the cabin fever…

We had a very mellow day. Jessaleigh seems to be back to almost normal, although she did get at least one new spot (in her ear canal!!!) today. Chanler still has so many pox it is hard to tell if there are new ones or not. His feet continue to bother him, but he seems to have figured out how to best play the sick card to his advantage.

Today for entertainment we colored, made cookies, played Lego’s with Grandmama, Picked up our CSA Beef (well the kids waited in the car while I stood in line at the back of the truck…) and had dinner with Auntie Michelle, Uncle Sergio and Cousin Joshua.

Having people over seems to be the best medicine there is.

Day 4:
Jessaleigh is actually looking much better. She is getting fewer new spots and the ones she has seem to be less red and angry and more crusted and scabbed. She slept pretty well last night (thanks again to Tylenol). I realized today that one of the two teeth she has been working on for over a month finally came in, that may have had some impact on her excessively bad sleep a few days ago – a hindsight.

Day 2:
Chanler, on the other hand, looks like he is still on the down side and no where near climbing back out of the pox hole. You know Chanler is sick when he tries to go back to sleep in the morning, and this morning he was a lump trying to sleep until well after breakfast. The poor guy also has spots in some very uncomfortable places. He is covered in pox under his underwear (looks almost like heat rash he has so many) and has a couple on the ball of his foot. (those make walking difficult on occasion, but not all the time… go figure). Generally he is still miserable unless he has constant attention and entertainment.

To keep morale high we played Play-Doh, blew more bubbles, ate lunch outside (including raspberries and ice pops) took 2 baking soda baths, played computer games and bingo, dug in the garden (at Chanler’s request) and generally tried to make having the chicken pox have enough perks that it doesn’t suck too bad. We are succeeding by a slim margin most of the time.

I am hoping that Chanler’s case will turn around as quickly as Jessaleigh’s seems to have.

So the “light case” theory is out the window! Chanler woke up this morning covered in pox. Up until now he has been pretty un-fazed (if a bit crabby and irritable) by the 2 spots he did have.

All that has changed now.

I had a particularly conflicted/guilty moment today when Chanler looked at me and said “Mommy I don’t want these spots anymore. I want to be done.” It is very hard to watch your children be uncomfortable and even more difficult to know that you put them in that place. I still think that it is in their best interest in the long run, but it is hard to deal with in the moment. Especially hard when the suffering one is eloquent and rational enough to know where the pox came from, why we have them, and still want to be done. My heart breaks for my kids right now (which is why when I went to the grocery store this evening – I bought 3 different kinds of popsicles!)

Jessaleigh seems to be doing better. She slept last night (thanks to a baking soda bath and Tylenol). The rate at which she is getting spots seems to be decreasing as well. Hopefully she will be over the pox soon.

Since both kids were uncomfortable in clothes today (and because none of the friends I thought would come to visit us have), we hung out in the back yard, played bubbles and balls, and took another baking soda bath, all before lunch. The afternoon was occupied by lollipops during nap time, BINGO, and Window Media Player on Visualizations playing Vivaldi… Somehow we made it through another day.