Mercy

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How did you spend your weekend?

I had planned to follow the last post with a post of all that we did this summer, but my plans were thrown off when Micah's cold turned into an asthma attack.

He started school last Wednesday with a runny nose, but nothing else. That night he was tired, but I wasn't worried. Starting school each fall always makes him tired; add the obvious cold and there ya go.

Thursday, I sent him off to school noticing that he wasn't much different from the day before. That night, I had an evening class and didn't get home until after all the kids were asleep. I did notice that Micah was wheezing a bit in his sleep so I woke him and made him take his regular inhaler, then went to bed.

Friday morning I could hear the cold in his chest so I started him on his steroid inhaler and sent him to school with instructions to stay inside, not participate in gym and to call home, if needed. I picked him up and noticed how tired he was, so when we got home he went straight to the couch to lie down.

We only have one vehicle so I left to pick up Jason (my brother was home) but was gone for a lot longer than usual. Jason had a few stops to make and traffic sucked, being a Friday. I was worried about Micah the whole time. I probably had an idea of how bad he was, but didn't pay attention to it. This kills me.

After refusing supper, Micah just kind of laid around acting sick. It wasn't until later that evening when he had fallen asleep on the couch that I noticed his breathing. It was horrible. His chest would go way in with each breath but he didn't seem to be getting much air. So I woke him and wrapped him in a blanket for the drive to the hospital. We arrived around 9:45 and by 3am we were admitted and transferred upstairs. This was after recieving 5 masks. Micah fell asleep soon after but was woken by his oxygen monitor which beeped whenever his oxygen dipped below 90. He ended up needing an oxygen mask for the entire night while he slept, plus masks of medicine every two hours.

Anyway, long story short, it took from Friday night until Monday morning for his breathing to get to an acceptable level. We left the hospital around noon Monday with three appointments to various doctors, two prescriptions and instructions to follow up with our family doctor.

Micah has only been admitted once before when he was four. Since then I thought I had learned how to control his asthma, but I guess I've gotten lazy. Its been so long since he was that bad that I just didnt pay as much attention as I should have. My mom thinks that Micah should be old enough to know when he needs help and to tell me but I still feel like I should have been able to prevent this. If I had only started the steroid earlier, if I had only kept him home from school, if I had just not gone to school Thursday night. There's always so much going on that sometimes I don't pay attention to what's really important.

Back to school!

Yesterday was our first day of school, though I know most of you went back weeks ago.

The day before, I didn't get out of bed until 9am; savouring every minute of my last summer morning. Bad idea. 6am came early yesterday and wow was I out of it all day. I had to take tylenol just to keep the sleep deprived headache away.

Moving on

The kids had mixed reactions. Like their mama, they didn't want to get out of bed. By the time they were dressed and came down to find their favorite breakfast, everyone seemed to be in a better mood. The breakfast by the way, was cheese eggs (scrambled eggs with shredded cheddar on top) and strawberries topped with whipped cream. Can't get much better than that!

We dropped the littles off with my SIL and drove to the school in good spirits. It wasn't until we were in sight of Noah's kindergarten classroom (from last year) that I realised he was having trouble with the transition. He didn't want to go in, didn't want to see his friends and didn't want to even say 'bonjour' to his old teacher!

After awhile he perked up and was able to let me leave. I secretly hung around though until his class made their way to their new classroom and teacher. I wanted to see where his room would be and who would be teaching him, as the former grade one teacher retired last year.

Meanwhile, I ran upstairs to check on Micah's class just in time to catch up briefly with another mom and walk with them to their new class. We were invited in for a few minutes to take pictures, but Micah wanted none of it. I was tempted to kiss him right there, but decided against it! Ha!

Both teachers seemed to be quite nice but fairly strict. I've mentioned before that my boys are in French immersion and so talking in English is discouraged. Personally, I didn't understand much of what Micah's teacher was saying to them but he seemed to. Noah's class gets everything told to them in French and then English so at least us parents had an idea of what was going on!

That night for another treat, I picked up a few things for an ice cream sundae bar. The kids had a blast!

Summer

This is how we spent our summer:

A day trip to a nature park

Owen Baking with Mama

A Blueberry Festival (with rides and games)

Drives (that's a horse sculpture up there)

Random treats

Walking to a local restaurant for breakfast

An extended family portrait

Roasting Marshmellows in our Backyard

Visiting with Nephews

Birthday Parties

More Baking with Mama

Ice Cream Cones

Visiting a Local Farm

Building a Lemonade Stand and Selling Lemonade

More Birthday Parties

Sleepovers with Cousins

Trips to the Park

Walks

BBQ

Of course I forgot our camera on many occasions (like the ferry ride to a local island), but all together I think we had a wonderful summer!

Please watch:

http://wearethatfamily.com/2010/08/coming-to-america/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wearethatfamily%2FGaiB+%28We+are+THAT+Family%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

PEE

Everyday I deal with pee in various ways.

Sounds gross already, doesn't it?

Today for example, I went into our main bathroom, beside my bedroom and found a large puddle making it's may to the door. Definitely pee. I didn't even have to check, Im that used to it. No one claimed responsibility.

Maybe an hour later, same bathroom; pee all over the toilet seat. This time I know it's my 6 year old's. He cleans it himself.

Through-out the day I performed the normal diaper changes for my 2 year old.

While sitting in my formal living room this afternoon, I noticed a smell that had been around for a couple of days. This smell (of pee) seemed to be coming from a chair we keep in the corner near the window. This same chair was a favorite spot for my now 3 year old when he was potty training but hadn't smelled previously. Upon further inspection, I find the cat bed which lays behind the chair, directly on the hardwood to be soaking with cat pee.

After experiencing a little fit over that *** who doesn't clean the damn cat box when he is supposed to, I sent the older two kids to clean their disgusting rooms. What emerged, was insanity. Pee soaked clothes headed for the laundry probably days after being soiled, wet spots on the carpet from either the above mentioned clothes or from cats looking for a clean (ha!) spot, and bed sheets which were not wet but had that distinct smell. DISGUSTING!

Then to top it all off, (and they're not even in bed yet) my two year old fell asleep in my bed this afternoon and woke with a soaked through diaper.

Between four boys and three cats, it's amazing I still have my sanity.

Summer

Most summers start with big intentions and long lists outlining all the things I plan to do with the kids. Then, by the time September rolls around again we've barely done anything and all those promises I've made to the kids are left unfulfilled. Take last year; We went out and bought camping supplies, then before we could go I broke my ankle and was left unable to walk for weeks.

This year though, Im determined to give my kids the kind of summer I experienced as a kid. We did stuff and had fun. We weren't confined to out backyard everyday, (like my kids were last year) and we actually knew how to ride bikes (yes that means that only my oldest can ride a bike without training wheels).

There's not a whole lot of things to do in this city however and I usually have to really dig to find inexpensive family activities. This past weekend, Jason and Owen were out of town visiting family so it was just the older three kids and I, from Friday until Monday. We didn't have a vehicle but we decided to go for it and do as much as we could. It's not everyday that I get to be stroller-free on outings.

So Saturday we spent the morning doing our usual routine of lazing around and cleaning. Then, around 11am we left for an adventure that included 7kms of walking, ice cream at McDonalds, 2 family festivals, a visit with a friend, a trip to walmart and yes, a ride in a taxi. We got home completely exhausted but after a short break, one of my brothers picked us up for a pool party/bbq at Ross and Melissa's house. By the time we got home, the kids were beat and went to bed without much fuss while Mommy enjoyed a glass of wine and the quiet!

Sunday saw us walk to a nearby restaurant for breakfast followed by a trip to the candy store to spend the gift cards all three kids had been saving. We had a lazy couple of hours while I had a nap and roasted a chicken for dinner, but then we were off again. This time we went to one of the parks on our street and played for a long time with some neighbourhood kids. I even made a friend with another mom of four who lives on our street. Before heading home, the boys wanted to go for a walk along a stream that runs behind our house. They spent probably a half hour throwing rocks and other items into the water, while I sat patiently by. Eventually after the youngest had gotten his shoes all wet I convinced them to return home where we turned on the sprinkler and washed away all the dust and dirt from the day.

It was a fun weekend and exactly what summer is supposed to be.