Sickness and health

My baby is sick. Not just the sniffles or a fever. He's really sick. He is sicker than any of my kids have ever been. It's heart breaking. Our family has been going through a very rough health patch lately and Michael is the last one to get this cold from hell, but he's gotten it the worst. He just lays around all day moaning, sleeping and coughing, sometimes all at the same time. I've taken him to the doctor a couple of time and they have said it's not RSV...yet. All symptoms point to that becoming a reality any hour now, but so far we've been lucky. Now all I have to do is convince his sisters that he is too sick to play with, and he's too sick to take anywhere so please don't be too disappointed that we're not going out much in this beautiful weather.

On another health note, I took Evelynn and Eloise in for their 5 and 3 year appointments on Monday. They are both healthy-ish and progressing well. Eloise still has an ear infection from her round 2 with the cold from hell, and Evelynn's ear infection was not quite cleared up yet either. But they are both super smart and right on track for their height and weight curves.

Evelynn's stats are:
Weight: 47.62 lbs 88th %tile
Height: 46.1 in 97th %tile

Eloise's stats are:
Weight: 31.75 lbs 62nd %tile
Height: 37 in 50th %tile

So I have one huge child and one average child. :) Someone got the tall genes and someone got stuck with the short Jacobson genes. Oh well. I thought it was interesting that in one year Evelynn only gained 4 lbs but grew 3 inches, and Eloise also gained 4 lb and grew 3 inches. This is also interesting since Eloise is a HUGE eater, while Evelynn could and sometimes does live off apples. Oh well. I think this shows that my kids are very active, which is good and exhausting.

Evelynn had to get her shots for kindergarten, which I knew about and explained to her before we went. I find it amazing that she's old enough now to reason with me about scary/hard situations, but only as long as I don't spring the situation on her. For example, a few months ago we went into WIC and Evelynn had to get her finger pricked for a blood test that I didn't know about before hand. She freaked out. Like I had to hold her down bodily for a finger prick. But this time I told her she was going to get a few shots, it would hurt for a minute then feel better, and then we would go get ice cream if she could be brave. She DIDN'T CRY for 4 shots! Not even one tear! She said ow each time, held my hand and and made it through like a champ! The nurse said she hadn't ever had a kindergartner not cry with their shots and was thoroughly impressed. I was too. Eloise got a shot as well, but I didn't know about it until we got there so I had assured her she would not be getting a shot but she still got ice cream. When she found out she had to get one, she was NOT excited. I took off her pants and she asked what I was doing, so I said "Ummm... " and then the nurse came in with the needles and she was up like a shot across the room. "No, I don't get a shot! No shot! I don't want one!" We made it through with only my lying mostly across her. Good thing ice cream cures all woes. We've had a rough few days though because immunizations are hard an everyone. Not terrible, but a little more tired, a little less happy, and a little sore in the legs. One plus was that Evelynn slept in till 7:20 this morning, a full hour and 20 minutes later than most days. It was nice. I wish that effect was permanent.

Birthday Party

Last weekend we celebrated the girls' birthdays by inviting a few (5) of their friends over for a party. This was the first time Doug and I threw a friends party for the girls and I think things turned out rather well. With relatively few tears and much loud laughter and general pandemonium I think the children had fun as well.

We began the day by decorating the house. Doug did the balloons and I did the streamers and cake. Earlier this year my mom gave me the book of cake ideas she used for our birthdays as kids. I chose the carousel cake, I think it turned out rather well.

We chose animals as the theme for our party, and started out the party by playing animal charades. It was pretty cute to see seven little kids act like all sorts of animals. Earlier this week Eloise told Doug that her favorite animal was a snake. Apparently she really meant it because no matter which animal she was told to act out she would pretend to be a snake.

Charades was followed by the making of lion masks. This had the unfortunate consequence of ending in roaring contests. Doug won.

After masks the kids all made their own pizza. We used english muffins as the base and had tomato sauce, pepperoni, and cheese for toppings. The kids had fun making their own pizzas, but had even more fun eating the toppings, especially the pepperoni.

Lunch was followed by cake and ice cream, then presents. After that we had a dance party until the parents arrived to pick the children up.

Lessons learned:
Make sure you have enough space for the number of children at the party. Seven kids was just right for our small house. Any more and there would have been chaos.

Parties aren't as hard as I thought they would be.

The easiest cake in the book is still hard.

Update on the Fatty

I took Michael in yesterday to have him weighed again after two weeks of his new eating regiment. I am happy to report that Operation Make Michael A Fatty is succeeding! In two weeks exactly, he went from 10 lbs 7 oz to 11 lbs 8.5 oz! Wahoo! The doctor said he went up to the 6th percentile, which is awesome, and that I should just keep doing what I am doing and he'll see us again at 6 months, which is slightly less awesome since it was a LOT of work to get this far, what with all the pumping and extra feedings. But we'll keep going until the operation is a complete success. Grow Michael Grow!

Happy Birthday to my girls!

I officially have a pre-kindergarten 5 year old in my house, and a spectacular 3 year old as well! The family party was pretty low key, but the friend party is this weekend. We're keeping it small since we have a small house and I just don't need that kind of stress. This is the first friend party I've hosted, so wish me luck! I told the girls they could invite 3 friends each. Luckily for me the three they chose were all siblings (meaning an older sibling and a younger sibling who are friends with my girls). They had pizza for dinner, which was nice for me too since it doesn't come round our house often. I might have influenced them a little on that decision though. :) ("What should we have for your birthday dinner? Pizza? Yeah pizza!") I was a serious slacker on photos, but in my defense, opening presents and eating cake and ice cream was spread out over like 2 hours as we waited for grandparents to be ready to Skype with us as the girls opened their presents from each. But they loved everything they got, and most of it was princess themed, of course. They got a princess table and chairs, a princess tent, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie and If You Give a Moose a Muffin books, balloons, and BYU water bottles, dresses from both grandmas, and princess and Dora coloring books.

Doug was worried that Eloise would feel slighted because of all the hype around Evelynn's birthday, but she really is a go with the flow type of thing. She was SO excited for Evelynn's birthday. We made sure she got something special just for her as well. We went to McDonald's for dinner (my FAVORITE place to eat... not) and then went miniature golfing at Trafalga with our Seven Peaks passes. I'll take more pictures at the friend party. I'm planning a more extravagant cake. :) My mom sent me out the cake book we used when I was a kids, and it has some really cute and simple cake ideas I'm excited to try with my kids.

It's been fun to have two girls in our family, and especially fun now that they play together all the time. That does present its challenges, as any mother can attest to, but it's nice to see and hear them being so imaginative. Although they may drive me crazy everyday because they are little females that mirror me in so many annoying way, I love them SO much and I'm so thankful they are in our family.

Surprise ending