Cabin Fever 101

Tuesday, October 7, 2014

When you have cabin fever in your house, what do you do?  We have found two fun solutions when you are feeling cooped up....


1) Make movies and go through old pictures.  We have been making home-videos and watching them.  We have also been looking at old pictures. This has really been something that has been fun for ALL of us, including Hyrum and Afton.

While going through these old movies and pictures, I came across two movies of H and A that I just love.  I feel like they really show their personalities.

2) Build a fort.  You could build a fort any way you like to.  My sister-in-law gave us a fort making kit a while ago and we whipped it out yesterday and built an awesome fort over the couch.  Then we watched our favorite movie, Winnie the Pooh, while we were in our couch fort.  It was fun to actually be really comfortable while in the fort and it was a great fort because it didn't take up all of the extra space we have in our apartment.

 

Some "keepin' it real" moments the past couple of days:  Afton has a habit of sucking her thumb at night and grinding her thumb against her teeth.  She gets little cuts in her thumb that get infected and swollen.  It never gets totally better because it is wet a lot, (because she sucks it.) Recently, her thumb has been the worst it has ever been. In the past we have tried to put a sock over her hand, but she just pulls it off.  It drives her crazy that she can't use her other fingers and I think her hand feels claustrophobic. 

The upside of life: At the end of last week, we knew we needed to do something about her thumb.  We called in and got a strong antibiotic cream that we went to pick up at our favorite pharmacy.  We knew if we just put a band-aid over her thumb, that she would just pull it off and start sucking her thumb anyway.  So Blaine got the brilliant idea, (he is such a handyman), to cut the finger part off of a mitten.  We put the cream on Afton's thumb, put the band-aid on there, and then put her "special glove" on her hand.  We acted really excited about it and both Blaine and I cheered when we put it on her hand right before she went to bed so she might keep it on.

And would you believe it?  She fell right asleep, not sucking her thumb and in the morning her "special glove" was still on her hand!  It has been about 5 nights now!  Still going strong, and her thumb is almost healed up!  Yay!  This was definitely inspiration from Heavenly Father to help her thumb get better and to wean her from sucking her thumb!

 Another keepin' it real moment:  Last night, you could tell that Afton's tummy was hurting her.  She had those yucky rotten egg burps.  I brought her in bed with me and kind of propped her up so that she would be  laying on her tummy, like she usually does.

A great part of the keepin' it real moment:  Even though sleep was hard to come by last night with Blaine getting home late from Spud Harvest and having a little darling sleep right next to me, I would frequently turn over and see my little Afton's face, sleeping peacefully just about 6 inches away from mine.  Her sweet expression and pretty lips just melted my heart.  No, I am not one who could handle babies climbing in bed with me every night.  But, yes, I loved last night and cherish the sometimes sleepless nights of cuddling with my babies.

Today I am really tired, but my kiddos are finally, I think starting to feel better.  Afton still has diarrhea but I think both of them are turning the corner!  Yay!

The last and definitely least important thing to note, but is still a huge blessing came because my kiddos have had diarrhea.  I wanted to get them some gatorade or powerade because it seemed like what little thing they would eat would go straight through them.  I didn't want them to just have water. 

My natural side of me doesn't like that bottled powerade has either high fructose corn syrup, or the fake sugar substitues.  My neighbor ran to grab me some powerade yesterday and grabbed me some powder mix so it could make more.  I never put this together, but the powdered stuff just has sugar in it.  I know lots of sugar isn't good for us, but I would rather my kids have the real sugar than splenda or the other sugar substitutes.  So yay for sugar-powerade!  We will now no longer be buying the bottled stuff now that we have uncovered the secret of the no-HFCS-powdered-powerade!

More to come another day!  For now, I am going to catch some extra zzzzzzz while my kiddos are napping!

One Looooooong Night

Monday, October 6, 2014

This is a "Keepin' it Real" post.  This post is for me, a sometimes overwhelmed mama, who wonders why I can't always get everything done or do things just the way I would want them to.

Sometimes I look back a certain times and my life and think that they were just so perfect.  I wonder if during those times I ever got discouraged or had hard days, because I never write about the hard stuff.

And while I don't want to focus so much on the bad or hard stuff, I am going to start including a "keepin' it real" section on every post, to remind me that life isn't perfect.  That being said, I also want to see that even though life isn't perfect, there is still so much joy and happiness.  I want to primarily focus on that.

As a mom of two kids, I frequently get discouraged.  It discourages me that I get discouraged, if that makes any sense. This post is to remind me on those bright days ahead, that life wasn't always perfect and that I had hard days!  Hopefully by the time I read this, (hey and maybe even by the time I am done writing this post,) I will laugh, because nights like last night, (even though I don't want to repeat them EVER again) are a good reminder that life can only get better from here....right?!

We have had the stomach flu (nauseaus-ness, diarrhea, throwup) for about a week now.  Just when I thought yesterday, "Hey I think we are turning a corner.  I think the flu is just about gone from our house", I should have knocked on wood right then and there. Here is a timeline of my night last night.  The times might be a little off.....I was a bit out of it while all of it was happening.

• 8:45 a.m.:Kids fall asleep
• 11:30 p.m.:Blaine and I go to sleep
• 12:00 a.m.: Afton is fussing.  We didn't pay much attention because she is getting teeth.  We let her fuss herself back to sleep.
• 12:30 a.m.: Afton is crying.  Blaine goes into her room to find her throwing up.
• 12:38a.m.:  We clean up the sheets, wash Afton off, get her a small drink.  Back to bed.
• 1:05 a.m.: All back in bed. I have a huge headache at this point.
• 1:10 a.m.: Hyrum wants to be tucked in again.
• 1:15 a.m.: Hyrum comes into our room again, to say goodnight and get another hug.
• 1:30 a.m.: Afton wakes up a pukes again. It is only a little bit.  We clean up the small amount and put a blanket over her sheets instead of changing them again.
• 1:40 a.m.: Back in bed for everyone.
• 1:50 a.m.: Hyrum needs another hug.
• 1:55 a.m. Hyrum starts throwing a fit when I make him go get in bed by himself this time.  He goes in the bathroom and screams at the TOP of his lungs
• 2:05 a.m.: Hyrum wants another hug.  Still whimpering.
• 2:15 a.m.: I finally convince Hyrum to GO BACK TO BED!
• 2:30 a.m. Hyrum and the rest of us are finally in bed for the night....again.
• 4:25 a.m.: Hyrum comes in crying to our room and says, "I don't like the throw-up!" Thinking he is talking about the incident with Afton, I tell him to go to the potty and go back to bed.  He goes into the bathroom and starts puking. 
• 4:45 a.m. After cleaning up Hyrum and getting him a little something to drink, we are in bed again. 
• 4:50 a.m.: Hyrum comes in a needs a drink of water...(the last drink was sprite)
• 4:55 a.m.: Hyrum wants to be tucked in...I am not sure whether to give in at this point or make him go get in his bed himself.  The alarm clock is going off in 1 hour and 35 minutes for Blaine....
• 5:00 a.m. Hyrum finally hits the hay for the night and stays in bed.  I think I gave in and tucked him in....I am not really sure.
• 6:30 a.m.: Alarm goes off for Blaine
• 7: 15 a.m.: Blaine leaves for work
• 8:45 a.m.: The lawn mowing company shows up to trim the and edge the grass outside of our apartment.
• 9:30 a.m.: I sluggishly make breakfast.  I am officially a tired mama.

Even typing this post gives me a little bit of a smile.  I know I will look back when my kids are all gone and miss them and wish they were here to ask me for hugs and kisses and tuck them in for the 100th time that night.  For now...today, I will just work on being a cheerful mom and surviving, and not worry about getting lots and lots things done.  Why can't I get everything done that I would like to?  Because my friends, I have two little ones who sometimes need  ALL and I mean ALL my energy both day, and sometimes night too! :)

My kids are sleeping now, so here is to one loooooong afternoon nap, after one looooooong night....a mama can hope right?