Kids say the sweetest things & Mama's a clutz

So Mama got sick for Christmas - a horrible cough and very hoarse and just didn't feel very good.  But Ethan & Alex were both healthy (or on the mend anyway in the case of Ethan) so I didn't complain too loudly.  I never had a fever or anything - possibly a sinus infection but too much to do to make Christmas extra special to stop for a doctor visit so I'm slowly recovering and the cough is lessening.  This could be due to the frequent check-ups Ethan is giving me with his new kit.  Or it could be due to the sweetest things he says sometimes.  The other night we said prayers - I think this was Christmas Eve actually and at the end we said the "God bless Ethan & Alex..."etc part and at the end before he said "Amen" Ethan said "& help Mama to get better."  He said it and smiled at me and said "Amen & kisses Mama"....he is such a sweet boy - that was so sweet.  The next night he said it again and since he coughed in the middle, he prayed for him to get better, too.  That boy is just too cute.

Alex tends to fall over when he gets tired...he totally comes by that naturally and today was total proof....after naptime, Steve fixed the outlet in the living room so the lightswitch would again work the lamps in the room.  Then I tried to run an extension cord to the other lamp & in doing so, I bumped the corner shelf on top of which stands our 2.5 foot tall unity candle my dad made for us.  I realized this only after the candle fell on my head. 

Christmas with kids is so much more fun than any other Christmas

Surely anyone with young kids has to agree.  It is so much more fun to enjoy Christmas with & through the eyes of your child.  Let's start with Ethan and what he wanted for Christmas.  He told everyone he wanted a guitar for Christmas.  The first I heard this was when he told some of my co-workers.  Steve told me his mom had been mentioned something about his nephew having a guitar so we thought that's where this came from so we kept asking what he really wanted thinking it wasn't really a guitar.  Then we went to see Santa at Steve's work.  Ethan went right up to him and gave him the books we brought (new books for Santa to give to other children) and sat on his lap for all of 60 seconds - long enough for a picture and to tell him he wanted a guitar for Christmas.  I had wanted a picture with both boys together but Ethan was having no part of going back to Santa's lap - he only wanted to tell Santa what he wanted and he'd done that so he was DONE.  When asked what Alex wanted, he told them - "Owix wants a drum."  Mama kept disagreeing with this because we already have electronic drumsticks - but Ethan was insistent.  Then as we start to leave, Ethan says, "but where's my guitar?"  I had to explain that he just told Santa what he wanted and Santa would bring it on Christmas Eve.  We head out and Steve & I discuss amongst ourselves how we can't believe he really wants a guitar and we need to try to get him hooked on something else & that a drum is NOT happening....Then a few days later a package arrives from Nana.  Steve says something like "I wonder what's in it?" and Ethan states quite matter of factly, "It's my guitar."  OK - so now we're resigned to the fact that Santa will definitely have to bring a guitar for Ethan.  Ethan told every person who asked, everytime they asked that Santa was going to bring him a guitar.  When he was sick last weekend and we were waiting around Walmart for his antibiotics, we saw the very guitar he wanted but didn't buy it because that's the one Santa was supposed to bring him. 

Oh what a weekend...

Note to self: Never brag that one of your children has only been sick once or twice - it will bite you in the butt...HARD.

Friday evening I arrived home to an Ethan I'd been previously warned was whiney and didn't feel well. He'd been getting hoarse for a couple of days and apparently Friday is when it hit full force. What I wasn't forewarned of was that he had a slight fever as well. He didn't want to eat dinner and since he was coughing a bit and I happen to know he has a bad gag reflex and didn't want to clean up dinner from the floor, I didn't make him eat (sorry for that visual guys and a little warning, there will be more of that in this post). Instead, as Steve left for work for the night (not due back home until 3:00 or later), I proceed to look for a thermometer, Ethan sits in "my" chair watching Phineas & Ferb (or however you spell it) & Alex proceeded to antagonize his ailing big brother. I can't tell you how many times I heard, "No, Owix...Mamaaaaa" in a very whiney tone this weekend followed by a whiney cry.

Thermometer found - very low grade temp - 99.5. OK - no problem, "Ethan, you want a popsicle?" E: "Uh-huh." Excellent. Alex gets a cookie & Ethan gets a popsicle and we sit down to watch A Charlie Brown Christmas special that Daddy bought last week for the boys. I call Steve to let him know that Ethan does have a fever, even if low, to which he responds something to the effect of "Oh." - Note the lack of concern at this point in his voice. That will change as the weekend progresses.

So far behind....let's try to catch up

I'm so far behind in blog posts now I think I'll never catch up.  We've had a very hectic few weeks and I'm completely exhausted.  I'll have to skip the specifics on several things I was going to go into detail on but here goes:

1)  Our trip to Illinois on Black Friday to see Steve's high school win the state finals in football.  The boys had fun visiting with Grandma and Richard & Jewel and a few of Steve's other friends from Morrison.  Alex wasn't too thrilled with not having naptime on time - that boy really wants his sleep and he has told us when naptime and bedtime should be and is none too please when the schedule isn't met.  At one point I took him out of the stadium area into the snack area to warm up a bit (really windy and very cold - thankfully we had plenty of layers & gloves & hats).  There were TVs showing the game in the refreshment area and 3 likely high school boys were laying on the ground watching one of these sets...until we came in.  Barb (Grandma), Ethan & I were all with Alex who was thankful to be running around instead of strapped into the car or stuck in seats in the stadium.  He had a small football and went right up to the boys and tossed them his ball.  He then grunted at them until they got the point and played catch with him for about fifteen minutes while Ethan helped, giggling his little head off.  Ethan went back in with his Daddy after a bit and then I took Alex back in and went to get hot cocoa.  When I got back, Alex was done with Daddy...apparently because Daddy can't put him to sleep in a sitting position.  He can rock him in the recliner or lay down with him but when it comes to sitting straight up, Alex wants me to put him to sleep cause I can recline him better into myself and sort of hum and rock him to sleep.  I have to assume that really was the problem because 5 minutes of me doing that and he was out and Steve had been going longer with Alex fighting it the whole time.  Totally rotten.  But we all had a great time, went for good Chicago pizza after the game and then headed for home where we arrived safely, if exhausted around 1:00am.

Thanksgiving / The 1st Birthday

I have several blog posts to catch up so I'll try to do one a day for the next few days to catch everyone up on our last couple of weeks....now on to this story.

Flashback
Last year I spent Thanksgiving day in the hospital with my brand new baby boy.  Uncle Keevin and Uncle Shannon visited that morning for a short time and then Steve & big brother Ethan arrived and, of course, Aunt Katie, who had stayed the night before with me while Steve stayed at Eileen's with Ethan, was there as well.   We put Alex in a cute little outfit with his adorable little "Gobble, Gobble" turkey bib and, of course, sent pictures via text to Nana and a few others who can accept that type of message. 

I had wanted Ethan to have a good turkey dinner (and I wanted left overs, too) so Steve took Ethan to Eileen's for dinner with the gang just as Megan arrived to see us.  She had been to her in-laws for dinner and then sped to Frankfort to see her newest nephew (and me, of course).  Megan had planned to stay and with us while everyone else was at dinner.  She played with Alex and visited with me for a bit and Becky, Ani & Brian came up (with something yummy for me to eat but I don't quite remember what - pumpkin cheesecake maybe?).  I think Megan may have brought banana bread, too, because as I write, I'm tasting her yummy banana bread and, quite frankly, salivating for some.