this little piggy

Well, Gray has H1N1 and pneumonia, but tonight he seems to be doing a little better. His fever started Wed. night, and Thursday morning he was diagnosed with pneumonia. Usually it wouldn't have settled in his lungs until day 3 or 4, but his respiratory system was probably weak from having croup a few weeks ago, so the flu settled in really quickly. He started Tamiflu today, and he still has a fever, but I just checked his lungs (with the neighbor's borrowed stethoscope), and they sound much clearer. I called family friend "Dr. Chris" and she told me all the trouble signs to look for with pneumonia, so we're just watching him carefully tonight. His CBC this morning didn't show signs of any secondary bacterial infection, but I'll take him for a chest x-ray tomorrow just to double check his lungs. Basically, the doctor said don't be alarmed, but at the same time, he's too little to take any chances.

Luke and Cole both have runny noses, but no fever, so perhaps the rest of us will stay well. I'm not very confident about Cole - he's acting pretty crabby and didn't sleep well during nap time today, but we'll have to wait and see.

On other fronts, Brad rebuilt the side gate today, so that should keep Cole from sneaking out of the back yard and riding his tricycle down the driveway.

While he worked on the gate, Luke and Cole built a dam and a mud pit and did some puddle jumping, while Reid went to Costco with Grandmother.

Here are the requisite weekly photos:

Happy Birthday Sweet Baby

We had Gray's party on Saturday night. Usually we have daytime parties, but Brad was working on the front entrance of our neighborhood, so we moved it to 5pm. Sarah and my mom arrived early enough to help with decorations, while I was at another party with Luke for a school friend. The usuals showed up: Ron & Freda, Aunt Jana & Uncle Stuart, Grand Pink, Cousin Mindy, Aunt Ann, Brent & Susan with Olivia (the triplets had to study for finals), Grandmama Pat, Sarah, Alf, Hannah, Sophia. My dad was having trouble with arthritis and had to cancel, but hopefully can make it in two weeks for Luke's party.

We have this birthday thing down to a science. I do a themed invitation in Publisher (and now just email it instead of printing & mailing), either Freda bakes the cake or I order it at HEB using the same design as the invite for the decoration, I buy theme napkins and then use whatever solid color plates are around, Jana & Stuart run by Costco and grab some pizzas, I throw some streamers up in the dining room, pick up a dozen balloons at HEB, and voila! DONE. I know someday I will hear about how every other kid gets a bouncy house and well-planned games and a pinata and goody bags, but honestly, I'm just not prepared to enter the Birthday Party Thunderdome. If the boys have "theme" parties up to the age of, say, 12, that's still 48 birthday parties. That's a lot of stinkin' goody bags. I just choose not to compete, much to their future chagrine. And until the start literally begging to invite friends from school, we will keep having our just perfect family parties. I mean, seriously, it's not like we have a shortage of cousins to play with.

Since it was our first "nighttime" party, the kids took full advantage and grabbed all the working flashlights in the house (including the mini headlamp ones out of the "secret agent" tote) and just ran around the back yard in utter darkness screaming like banshees. Aside from Luke running into the shelving unit on the porch so hard it knocked all the flower pots off the top shelf, a fun time was had by all.

Gray received his set of flags from my mom that flew over the Alamo on his birth date (a special tradition all four of the boys have gotten), some books, and some darling clothes from Mindy & Freda. It was just right - heaven knows we don't need more toys, and sometimes the kids get so overwhelmed if there are too many gifts to open.

Here are some photos - no time for cute captions, as Brad is already done with his chores and I haven't started mine.

Happy 4th Birthday Hannah!

We went to Ft Worth for Hannah's birthday this weekend. We planned on leaving right after school on Friday, but as you can see from a previous post, we had some plumbing "issues" we needed to tend to before leaving town. When Sarah comes to visit, she always feeds and bathes the girls, puts their PJs on and leaves around 7:30. They usually sleep most of the way, and they make it in 3.5 hours. We, on the other hand, drive during the day, get stuck in traffic, make 2 potty breaks, 1 feed-the-baby break, 1 I'm-so-hungry-I-may-die break, and arrive 5 hours later. So, the septic emergency prompted us to embrace the driving at night approach, and sure enough, it was an easy 3 hour drive.

We went straight to Tony & Milena's on Saturday morning (after Brad let me sleep late, of course), and the party started at 11am. Hannah's party theme of choice was Nacho Libre (she loves loves loves Nacho), and Tony & Milena bought all the kids luchador costumes the last time they visited Mexico (and Sarah made the tiny baby masks.) Milena had cut out and hung miles of prayer flags, and made not only a big Nacho pinata, but tiny star-shaped pinatas for each of the kids. She is Un.Be.Lievable. We ate Tony's yummy fajitas and homemade salsa, and enjoyed Sarah's Nacho Libre cupcakes (she made all those toppers herself...)


We ran home and took naps, then went back out for Trick or Treating. We just went around the block in Sarah's neighborhood, and it was just perfect - the kids had little paper bags, and we told them when the bags were full, we'd go home. Everyone loved their costumes, and I'm quite sure we will have numerous wrestling matches in our living room over the next few months.



Today we attempted to take a photo for my mom's Christmas card, while Brad and Alf went to the climbing gym. I'm pretty sure we'll be having another photo shoot at Gray's birthday next weekend. Unless, of course, my mom wants THIS on her Christmas card...

Happiness Is

A bed full of grandbabies.

Or so my mom tells us...

The Honey Wagon

Say you're a little boy. Your favorite things are:

(a) big trucks
(b) digging things up
(c) talking about poop

Tell me, please, what could be more exhilarating than an EMERGENCY visit by the SEPTIC TRUCK?

Thankfully, the issue was solved (partially by the nice septic man, partially by Brad sticking his head into the tank with a long shovel and hacking off the offending tree roots.) I will not be stepping out of the shower into a flooded bathroom anytime soon. Good times. Good times.