Surviving Sassy Pants and Sugar Booger: Pumpkins and Pneumonia

We have had one heck of a time with sickness since Frank's parents arrived. That does not mean we are sick of them, just sick in general ;-)

The day after they arrived, Maddie's fever that went with her bout of Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease began. After one week, she recovered and went back to daycare. One week later, she was sent home again with a fever and horrible cough. Diagnosis this time: pneumonia.

This came a day after we took Mason to the doctor to see why his tummy was hurting every time he ate. Maddie had horrible reflux when she was his age and we think he does too. So two diagnoses in two days. We had been getting by on two or four hours of sleep per night and were not happy campers at all.

Poor Maddie has also been having night terrors. For those of you who have not experienced this very scary occurrence, it is awful to watch your child have a nightmare from which she cannot wake up. Sometimes it lasts minutes, sometimes an hour, but her screaming and crying and coughing was really terrible for the last few weeks.

Now we have her on antibiotics and we think we know the source of the bad dreams: Snow White. Yes, the witch (queen) and the apple are the culprit. Her last teacher at daycare apparently talked about this fairy tale a bit and we have the book and read it sometimes. But no more. She told us she wanted Oma and Opa to take the book far away "to Germany." So we have hid it and it will never, ever resurface. I'm thinking of tossing all fairy tale books with witches in them. It's just not worth seeing her upset again. So much for Disney!

Mason is now on Zantac for his reflux and is doing much better also. He was exactly five weeks when we visited the doctor and weighs 11 lbs, 2 oz! He's my big boy!

We had several visitors over the past few weeks including my aunt, uncle, cousin, his wife and their "baby" boy. Maddie was sick and didn't really play with baby Brendan like we hoped she would but at least she didn't get him sick (we hope!) He is getting so big and is just starting to walk. He has the cutest dimples ever. Maybe next time Maddie will be in the mood for playing! I forgot to take any photos during their visit, but we really enjoyed seeing them.

My friend Stephanie from Pennsylvania stopped by last week and brought her adorable daughter, Grace, with her. Grace has gorgeous red ringlets and was super sweet. I loved visiting with my good friend, even if we were watching three kids while talking about diaper bags! Miss you, Steph!