Party Day

I. Am. Tired.

Yesterday was full of fun for my sweet C's fifth birthday. I hit the ground running Friday when I got home from school, making 24 cupcakes for her friend party and an Angry Birds cake for her family party.

Then came yesterday. We got up early and headed to Run, Jump, and Play for C's birthday party with friends. There about 15 kids there, mostly from preschool. They had a blast on all of the inflatables.

I have to say, I was pretty proud of C for her patience and thankfulness when opening presents. She took the time to admire each gift and thank each kid, without any prompting from us.

 Run, Jump, and Play was awesome! The staff set everything we brought up in her party room, kept the kids moving from room to room, kept a list of all of her gifts so we can write thank-you's this week, and cleaned everything up. So worth the money we spent.

Last night was C's family party. We had about 20 people crammed into our small house to celebrate our sweet girl. We made a ton of pasta, a huge salad, several loaves of garlic bread, and capped it off with cake and ice cream. The Angry Birds toppers on her cake are part of this game, which I'm sure we'll be playing a lot of in the coming weeks.

And now the celebrating is over. Today's plans include cleaning up, hanging up all of her new clothes, re-organizing her art supplies (she got a ton of art stuff from both friends and family and can't wait to get around to the business of creating), and relaxing.

Tomorrow is her 5 year well-check. I'm anxious to see how much she's grown in a year.

Happy Birthday, Sweet C! Until next year...

~One Ordinary Mom :-)

High Five

There's a saying that goes, "days and weeks are long, but months and years are short." Whoever said it wasn't kidding. I feel like we've gone from this...

...to this in about 5 seconds. Not 5 years.
My sweet C turned 5 today.

 I took a half day off work to spend the morning with my girl. I always said I would take some part of my work day off on their birthdays to spend time with my kids on their special days. B's birthday falls so close to Christmas that it's usually while I'm on break. C's 4th birthday was on a Sunday and her 3rd while I was on maternity leave with B, so I haven't taken a day off for her birthday since she turned 2.

Her gifts included the traditional new outfit (so you look awesome on your day), a Mario and Luigi shirt (she loves Mario; I'm not even sure why), a puzzle, some story cards, a Leappad, and the Brave game for her Leappad.

 We sent her on a treasure hunt around the house for her clues. C has quite a few sight words and is great at sounding things out. She needed some help with the clues, but recognized enough words in each clue that she knew where she needed to go to find her next present.

 She calls her Leappad her "iPad." And other than when she was at school and when she took a nap (One Ordinary Dad has gotten her back on a napping schedule-- she takes a 20-30 minute power nap almost daily-- he is a saint), she has done nothing but play Leappad.

 Her restaurant of choice for dinner was McDonald's. She loves the indoor playland at the one near our house. I bought some cupcakes for after dinner and we'll probably do her puzzle before bed and use her story cards to create a bedtime story. She wants to wear her Mario shirt to school tomorrow.

Saturday will be filled with parties. One with her friends in the morning at a local giant inflatable playland and one in the evening at our house with family. I make the kids' cakes for their birthdays and C has requested an Angry Birds cake. I ended up buying the tabletop Angry Birds game and plan to use the pieces from that to put on her cake. The game was only $1.50 more than the Angry Birds cake decorating set, and I know she'll play the game in the future.

It's going to be a busy week, but I'm glad I got to steal a few quiet moments with C this morning before school and I plan to steal a few more tonight.

Happy Birthday, Sweet C. I can't believe you are a whole-hand-full-of-fingers old today!

Love,
One Ordinary Mom :-)

PS: Sweet C could use your prayers for peace. We thought she was doing okay with the transition to a pet-free home. She hasn't brought it up much at home or really acted like she missed them. However, she acted out at school quite a bit last week and exploded yesterday when she didn't want to share, yelling that "everyone is taking things from her like her pets." Her teacher assured us this is normal processing for her age and circumstance, but it still breaks my heart. At school she has also been drawing our pets a lot and talking about them. We checked a helpful book out from the library (which a guidance counselor at my school suggested) and are working through it. I'm really hoping that the birthday celebrations and gifts are a nice distraction for now and that God will continue to heal her broken heart and give her peace about it. On the bright side, we have noticed a pretty significant decrease in her snoring (which was part of it, apparently). She used to saw logs and you could hear her from the hallway. Now, it's barely audible unless you're close to her.

Kids Vs. Pets

Tuesday, early evening, C starts coughing, but it isn't too bad.

Wednesday morning, upon waking, C is wheezing and can't catch her breath even when sitting still and just talking.

The diagnosis from the doctor is Pneumonia. The second time she has been diagnosed with it in 8 weeks. The same thing happened last time: a simple cough into Pneumonia within 24 hours. C is also referred to an allergist/asthma specialist. We think it's "just" asthma since it since it's mostly just wheezing and asthma is known for complicating even the simplest of colds.

But in the back of my mind I wonder, "what if?" What if it's the pets?

We've had Sierra since early 2004, before we were married. 

 Zoey joined our family in 2006.

C and B have adored our pets. Sierra and Zoey have snuggled up with all of us when we've been sick, have stood guard faithfully next to baby carriers, occasionally help with after dinner clean-up (Sierra is known for finishing uneaten meat and Zoey "hoovers" the floor), and have provided C and B with entertainment and a sense of responsibility (C and B fight to feed them when the bowls are empty, and to give them treats).

And now?

Now they have to find new homes.

And I am heartbroken. So is One Ordinary Dad. So is C. B doesn't get it yet, but I know he's going to go looking for one of his furry buddies sometime in the next few weeks and be upset when he can't find them.

Yes, there is asthma, and there are seasonal allergies, but C's pet dander reaction was off the charts.

The doctor measured C's oxygen in take. It was low. Almost scary low. And while she is recovering from Pneumonia, the doctor said it still shouldn't be that low. In other words, my girl has been struggling to breathe in her own house. Because she hasn't had a visible reaction and because her "struggle" to breathe isn't really visible under normal health conditions (it's not like she's walking around the house panting), we've never known.

We asked what it would take to keep the pets. In short:

1. C would have to have a regular allergy shot-- best case it would be once a month, worst case it would be 2 or 3 times a week, the doctor said he would start her at once a week and see how she responded. 
2. Both pets would need to be bathed TWICE a week. 
3. All carpets (we have hardwood and lots of rugs) would need to be cleaned once a week. 
4. All slipcovers, comforters, decorative pillows and throws would need to be washed once a week. 
5. Our HVAC needs a special HEPA filter and that filter would need to be changed once a month. 
6. We'd have to spray our furniture and floors once a week with tannic acid (an anti-allergen that kills pet dander and costs $20-$30/bottle with one bottle being enough for 1, possibly 2, applications. 

And none of that is guaranteed to work. We could try it all for a month and have C's levels retested to see if it's effective, but if it's not, we'd still be where we are right now.

This weekend, Zoey is going to live with family. My grandmother and uncle have always watched Zoey when we've been out of town and have grown to love her. They live close by and C and B can stop by and hang out with her whenever they want (C can still be around animals, she just can't live with animals). We're still trying to find a home for a cat and fear she may be harder to place.

Once both pets are gone, we have a lot of cleaning ahead of us. We still need the HEPA filter (but don't have to change it as often as we would if we were trying to keep our pets). And we need to do one application of tannic acid to kill the lingering dander. We will need to clean carpets and wash slipcovers, comforters, decorative pillows/throws, and vacuum every nook and cranny. And we'll need to clean out all of our air ducts.

And then all should be well. C should be breathing easier. We'll go to get her levels checked again. She'll go in once a year to have things checked. If she doesn't react as strongly to pet dander in the future, we might be able to explore having another cat or dog in the future. 

But in the meantime, in the now, my heart is broken. I am devastated. We all are. But C is a human. She doesn't want weekly shots (we asked and were willing to try). C grew inside of me for almost 42 weeks and is a physical piece of me that Zoey and Sierra are not.

I know there are those out there who think we should go for it, who think we should fight to keep our pets. But the thing is, One Ordinary Dad has walked this road before. He had the same diagnosis when he was C's age and he knows what it's like to wheeze and have trouble breathing. He doesn't want that for C and neither do I. Clearly One Ordinary Dad's issues lessened over time and we can only hope and pray that the same will happen for C.

~One Ordinary Mom

PS...C's fifth birthday is coming up. We may have felt slightly guilty that we have to give up our beloved pets and gone a little overboard on her present, getting her one of these.  It's a little out of our birthday budget, but she asked for a camera and video camera (this does both) and does enjoy our iPads, so this has the best of all three worlds and will hopefully last her into second or third grade, at which point we may be looking at a more sophisticated device and e-reader (yikes).

These Days

I've been under the weather for every single day of this new year. It's mostly been a bothersome cold. Right after the new year and right before I started back to school I was diagnosed with an upper respiratory infection and told to take over-the-counter meds to manage symptoms until they went away. They didn't. I went back to the doctor today and am now in possession of some pretty powerful cough medicine and a z-pack (antibiotics) with the promise that I should be 100% by the end of the week. We'll see.

In the meantime, we've been alternating days of rest (puzzles and movies and books and putting our jammies on early) with days of being out and about (the zoo and a baby shower and a game night with friends).

I received my "Master Teacher" designation last Thursday. It's a designation from the state that basically required that I a.)already have at least 7 years of teaching and a Master's degree and that I b.)secure recommendation signatures from my building principal and one other person plus write a 12 page paper explaining how I meet all the criteria of being a Master Teacher and include evidence (in all, a 40 page reflective paper on my teaching practice). We went out to celebrate by getting ice cream (pictured above).

2013 is off to a slow start for sure, but we're looking forward to so many things. My sister-in-law will be welcoming a precious baby girl into the world at the beginning of April. My husband's best friend is getting married in Los Angeles in June, and we're looking forward to a few days away. My family reunion (mom's side) is in Myrtle Beach in July, and it will be Bs first time at the beach. The neighborhood pool four blocks away is getting renovated and redone. C will start kindergarten in August (but right now we're busy planning her birthday party at Run, Jump, and Play).

Our next few days are supposed to be cold-- like windchill advisory cold. I imagine we will be spending many more evenings in our jammies early rather than out and about. Stay warm, friends.

~One Ordinary Mom :-)