Christmas is in the air

My mother-in-law and I took the boys to the Cincinnati Zoo this evening for a "members only" night preview of the Festival of Lights. It was very cold but they seemed to enjoy it. Allan enjoyed his gingerbread man and the reindeer. Daniel was tickled with all the lights. Both boys enjoyed the train ride. Mom and I shared a bag of cinnamon roasted almonds - yummy! I think next week we'll break out the Christmas decorations.

Daniel received good news this week from the ENT Dr - no tubes needed! (He also didn't have Chicken Pox either) The ear infection has cleared up due to: 1. The many prayers prayed on his behalf 2. The 4 different rounds of antibiotics or 3. The garlic oil really did work!

I would love to post pictures but the motherboard has gone out on my computer and I'm not familiar enough with Philip's computer to upload them.

Oh, my new dryer arrived on Tuesday (thank the Lord for a husband who is careful to put money aside for appliances! A mother with toddlers can't do without a dryer for very long) and I think I installed it correctly...at least we've not burned the house down yet. I did tell Allan after I wired it and was ready to plug it in that if mommy started acting strange and didn't talk to him he needed to run next door and tell Mr. Lum that mommy needed him right away. You should have seen his face. He stood in the hallway ready to run asking, "Should I get him now mommy? Do you need Mr. Lum?" It was almost as though he hoped something exciting would happen!

Wednesday we went shopping for our Operation Christmas Child children. Allan wanted to have a box for both a girl and boy. He picked out a nice car for the boy and a cute "dolly" (that's what he calls them) for the girl. We also bought some coloring books, crayons, playdough and other items. We're going to wrap them tomorrow and deliver them to the drop of point. Then off to Sam's club for their "Taste of the Holidays." Allan LOVES Sam's club! All their nifty displays and free food catches his attention.


I'm finishing fall housecleaning this week and finished the master bedroom today. I hope to finish the study tomorrow and perhaps winterize the sandbox. That means I need sleep. Adios!

Updates from the Brown Clinic

Let's see: the last time I posted Daniel had just started his second round of antibiotics. That was when life got interesting. October 23 - woke him up to take him to get his one year pictures and he's running a fever of 103. Got home after pictures fever was 103.5 - took him to urgent care. Ear infection much worse and he (according to the chest x-rays) had pneumoniaitis. Started on ear drop antibiotic and continue the oral one. October 24 - the fever broke and he seemed to be no worse for the wear. October 27 - Allan began running a fever of 103 and stayed on the couch all day long (for a 3 year old this means they really are feeling rotten!) October 28th - Allan had two seizures 2 hours apart and began to complain of sore throat. His fever broke after the second seizure. October 29th- Allan complains of sore throat (I see nothing upon inspection) October 30th Daniel goes to the Dr to be sure that the pneumoniaitis is gone. It is but he still has the ear infection so we begin the third oral antibiotics. October 30th - Allan is crying while eating supper saying his throat hurts (we thought that the sore throat was coming from the muscle strain of the seizure) so I get a flashlight and look. Fiery red throat and white blisters. November 1st - Allan to the Dr - he has Herpangina. Tylenol for pain and plenty of fluids. The Dr decided to check Daniel's ears to see if the third antibiotic was working - ear are worse so she faxed a referral for him to have tube put in at Children's Hospital - we are to see the specialist November 13th. That's the update from the clinic - may I say that I'll be glad when the clinic is able to close it's doors due to having no sick patients. I'm very thankful that God has kept both Philip and I well through this ordeal. (I do cringe when I think this is only the beginning of cold weather!)

Other wise: My brother, Jonathan Slagenweit, stayed with us during the Ministerial Leadership Conference last week. We've weaned Daniel down to 1 bottle a day. I had two more cakes: one for a voice recital and the other for a baby shower. OH, so many more things happened but since I have the opportunity to get an extra hour of sleep tonight I believe I'll get some work done so that I can take advantage of it (not that children understand that we can sleep an extra hour but I'd like to think it could happen!) -