"I don't want to be sick everyday!" - Andrew

It's been a bit of a rough week here for Andrew. He started with this cold and fever Sunday afternoon and is still not feeling well. He has missed preschool this week, probably won't go tomorrow even though it is their Valentine's Day party. He is pretty miserable at times, especially when his temperature spikes. Ibuprofen and acetaminophen have become his friends this week. Today he has been complaining about his legs hurting and wouldn't even walk from our bedroom out to the living room this morning. I'm guessing this is an achy pain. I just feel really bad for him.

He has been taking a nap each afternoon, which is really unusual for him. Today the boys were both napping. Carson woke up first. I went into his room and he did his usual happy things. He stood up in his crib, took his pacifier out of his mouth and very sweetly said "Hi Mom." He was so cheerful. Now, he is feeling well (he had the cold last week/weekend), but Andrew was a totally different story! He woke up coughing. Carson was excited to hear Andrew waking up. He said "Hi? Andrew?" I told him he could go say Hi to Andrew. Carson opened the door and Andrew starts crying and saying "NO!!" He didn't want Carson in there. I told him that Carson was really excited and wanted to see him. But he continued to cry and scream NO! He often wakes up this way from a nap, crying and inconsolable until he is fully awake but it is much worse when he is sick.

So I told him I had a few things I wanted to show him and asked him to come out. He walked to the doorway, still crying, and then stopped saying his legs hurt. Poor thing. So I carried him out to the kitchen and showed him this.


I was in the mood to bake something, so I made this cake for Valentine's Day. The heart shaped cake pans were my Grandma Short's. It's always enjoyable to use things that were my grandparent's or make things they used to make. I just might have new favorite chocolate cake recipe. I used the recipe off of the box of Swans Down Cake flour. I think I bought cake flour for a cookie recipe I wanted to try a while back and today decided to try the recipe on the back of the box for cake. It was quite tasty, really moist and delicious; I think anyways. Andrew wondered who's birthday it was since I was baking a cake. It is actually Uncle Ben's birthday - my brother.

Andrew was still a little upset. So I told him about a package that came today. (Notice the tarps in the background of these pictures? Stay tuned for a future post regarding these.)

Andrew and Carson ripped into this package from Grandma and Grandpa S.

Andrew really was excited to see this car despite how miserable he looks in this picture! He said "Oohh! A fast car!"

They each got a Valentine's Day card, a matchbox car, baggy of Hershey's kisses, stickers, heart shaped chocolate sucker, yogo's, and some heart shaped cookies. They were excited! This finally seemed to lift Andrew's mood. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa! You can see from the way Andrew's eyes look in these pictures that he is not feeling well!

Yesterday we had some rain in the morning but the late morning and afternoon were wonderful! Partly sunny and in the mid 60's!! We (I) needed some fresh air in a bad way, I'm going a little stir crazy. We took the Gaitor out for it's first walk in 2009. We played outside for a while. I had the windows opened a little in the house to allow some fresh air in and some Radon gas out! (see below) Today is really different, 20 degrees cooler but really sunny. We had a rain storm with high winds go through last night. Fortunately our power only went off for a few seconds a couple of different times.

I really hope Andrew starts feeling better soon. I also hope that Chad and I don't get this virus but I think we both might be experiencing some early symptoms of it. Yuck. We shall see if my increased fluids, Vit. C. and Echinacea will help me avoid this virus.