Phone Photo Friday--Halloween Part 2

Today it's Seth's turn for the costume parade at school. Here's my little bumblebee:

I couldn't get him to pose for me, but hopefully I'll get both my bumblebees together tomorrow for a picture. Tonight we're meeting Ed after work to pick out pumpkins, and we might let William stay up a bit late to carve them. Yes, we're a little late. But who cares? I was going to pick out the pumpkins with the boys last night or the night before. But Ed wanted to go, too. So tonight it is!

I hope everyone has a safe and very happy Halloween!!! (And visit Laura for more Phone Photo Friday participants!)

Mission Accomplished

The boys got their H1N1 vaccines tonight. I feel like I've been through the wringer, but I'm glad it's over, and I'm glad we made it through this round. If I had to do it again, I would definitely bring along another adult. It would have helped a lot. (Becky--I should have waited until Thursday and done it with you! Thanks so much for the offer.)

The first clinic we went to was very crowded, and the line formed outside the building. It was raining, and there was nowhere to park, but then one of the attendants said the second DC clinic wasn't as crowded, and they had the line forming inside the building. So we headed into northeast DC. I had no idea where I was going, but it was pretty much a straight shot from where I was. We got there, found a place to park, and got in line. The line moved quickly, fortunately, and the boys ate fruit snacks and crackers. They finally handed me the forms to fill out, and I didn't even have time to fill them out before we were ushered into the gym where the vaccines were being given.

William had started to get a little anxious by this time. When I finished the forms and they seated us at one of the vaccine tables, William was in full-on whining mode. Seth went first and was none too pleased. When William saw Seth get his shot, he freaked out, knowing he was next. William was freaking out, screaming and turning red before the nurse even had the shot ready. I think everyone in the gym turned their heads to look at us. In a gym FULL of people, my kid was making the most noise. Way to go, William! A really nice volunteer came over and started talking to William and Seth, and it got them both calmed down a little. The nurse decided she would give William his shot in the leg instead of the arm. I told her that William was going to be a freak show either way, so I really didn't care. Meanwhile, Seth was standing next to me crying, clearly upset because William was so upset. Despite being completely scared and freaked out, William stayed in my lap and didn't try to run off. I did have to physically hold him down, but I guess it could have been much worse. I got lots of sympathetic looks, and when the shot was done, William was completely fine. He looked at me with his tear-filled eyes and said brightly, "I did a good job getting my shot, Mommy!" I just busted out laughing.

The whole thing took about an hour. We finally got home at 7:45 p.m. Seth ate pizza while William played with toys. William did his nebulizer treatment, and we gave both boys a quick bath. Seth was asleep by 8:40, and William was asleep at 9:00 p.m. I hope they both sleep well tonight. Lord knows I could use a decent night's sleep!

H1N1 Update

We did not brave the crowds and wait in line today. I decided that I
will definitely get the kids vaccinated, but with Ed being sick, it
doesn't seem quite as urgent. We're already exposed, and getting the
vaccine today wouldn't prevent us from getting sick.

DC will be having clinics on Tuesday and Thursday after work, so I
will try those. And based on what the CDC and state officials have
been saying, more vaccine will become available.

In the meantime, Ed is quarantined in our bedroom and hasn't come out
since Friday morning. I'm bringing him drinks and soup. And we filled
his Tamiflu prescription today. He is feeling pretty bad, but
hopefully he's past the worst.

The boys are still okay. William was coughing some earlier in the day,
which worried me. But he seemed fine later on. We spent a lot of the
day out of the house, and the boys were real troopers. We went to
Michaels for supplies to make Seth's Halloween hat. We tried to get
haircuts but the barber was super busy so we scrapped that plan. The
highlight to our day was the Kaplan Learning store we stumbled upon in
a shopping center. The boys had so much fun playing with all the toys.
I got a lot of great Christmas ideas.

So that's the update. Fingers crossed that a miracle will occur here,
and the rest of us won't get sick.

Sent from my iPhone

H1N1 Beat Us to the Shot

Ed came home from work yesterday with a sore throat, runny nose, cough, and a fever. Guess what he has? Yep--90% chance he has H1N1.

The question is, did Seth have it earlier this week? Or was his fever and current stuffy nose completely unrelated? What about William? He's had a sore throat and very goopy nose for more than a week now. Does he/did he have H1N1? If they had it, then I don't need to worry about standing in a huge line in the rain and cold to get the vaccine, right?

And if they didn't have H1N1, they've obviously been exposed, so if they're going to catch it, giving them the H1N1 vaccine tomorrow won't help them because it takes around 1-2 weeks for the vaccine to take effect. In which case I could just wait until the vaccine hopefully becomes more widely available next month.

The Urgent Clinic that Ed went to, and my pediatrician's office recommended that we go ahead and try to get the shots, regardless. But they're not the ones that have to stand in an hours-long line with two toddlers in the cold rain. And it kind of sounds like a party line that all health providers are giving--"Get the shot as soon as you can."

Now that Ed is laid up, I'll have to do the line alone. And I have a feeling people will be camping out at the clinic location. My instinct is telling me not to bother with my county's clinic tomorrow--that it's going to be madness. One alternative would be to try one of DC's clinics tomorrow. Their lines have been much smaller, so we could at least go check it out.

I guess I'm worried about two things. First, what if more vaccine doesn't become available? What if there's a longer-term shortage? The CDC has repeatedly said they don't expect a shortage, but it's just taking longer than expected. But expectations and reality can obviously be very different. Second, William's Reactive Airway Disease (sort of a pre-asthma diagnosis) worries me. If he gets H1N1 (if he hasn't already gotten it), he could end up with pneumonia or worse. I would hate myself if that happened and I hadn't done all I could to get him immunized.

Well, looks like I have a hard decision to make tonight. And it looks like I'm in for a tough weekend. I'll keep you posted!

Phone Photo Friday--Halloween Edition, Part 1

William's Halloween costume arrived in the mail yesterday. For a long time, I was sure he'd want to be Superman. But he surprised me and said for a long time that he wanted to be a robot. I started researching homemade robot costumes and thought I might be able to come up with something pretty cute.

But then he decided that he wanted to Bumblebee, the Transformer robot (or Autobot, if we're being technical here). I looked at the ready-made costumes, and they looked pretty cheap. So I thought I could try to make something. I researched homemade Transformer costumes, and found some amazing stuff. For a week or so, I deluded myself into thinking that I could make a costume using foam camping mats, an exacto knife, a hot glue gun, and acrylic paints. But then I snapped out of it and realized that William wouldn't think a store-bought costume looked cheap. He'd love it! So I went on-line and ordered the costume. That's the best decision I've made all year, hands down.

As I predicted, William loves the costume. I was a little concerned, though, for two reasons. First, the smallest size the costume comes in is a 4/6. William still wears 2T. So I was worried that the costume would be way too big. My second concern was with the mask. Last year, William was terrified by the costumes with masks. He won't read a lot of the Halloween stories because they scare him. He's pretty much scared of everything. So I thought that I might have to figure out how to make a Bumblebee helmet out of a bike helmet, and forgo the mask.

To my surprise, William likes the mask! So no problem there. The costume is quite big, though, but it's not insurmountable. I put a baseball hat on his head backwards, and that ensures that the mask stays in place. The shield part had straps that are supposed to go over the shoulders, but I just tied the straps around his neck and around his waist, and that solved that problem. For the jumpsuit, the sleeves and pant legs are super long, but I just tucked them up inside themselves, and that seems to work. The arm piece is the most challenging, but I tried gluing an emery board on the inside for him to hold on to, and I tightened the straps that are supposed to hold it onto his arm. If I can get ahold of a glue gun, I might try cutting a sleeve out of an old long-sleeve shirt and gluing that to the inside of the arm piece.

Anyway, I'm very happy that the costume will work out. William's first test will be tomorrow. His class is having their Halloween parade. And on Sunday, he has a costume party. And there's another party on Halloween, before trick-or-treating. Meanwhile, I still need to figure out part of Seth's costume. He's going to be a bumblebee. I have the main part of his costume--the bumblebee part. But I don't have black sweatpants and shirt for him. And I don't have the antennae. My plan is to find a black hat and then stick antennae through them. I'll have to go to Michaels for the antennae. But the chances of Seth leaving a hat on his head are slim to none. So we'll see what happens. A black zip-up jacket with a hood might work. But since I've waited until the last minute, I'm sure a black zip-up jacket will be nowhere in sight. I'll find tons of them after Halloween though.

So finally, here's a picture of him, in the full getup. Pretty darn cute, huh?


For more Phone Photo Friday, visit Laura at Laura's Mommy Journal!

Unexplained Fever

On Monday evening, Seth started running a slight fever. The daycare teachers said he felt a little warm in the afternoon, and you could tell he was not feeling very well. He fell asleep in the car on the way home, and he just wanted to be held once we got home. He didn't eat much dinner, and when it was time for William's nebulizer treatment, Seth climbed onto the couch and watched the video with William. He never does that. He also woke up several times in the night, and at 2:00 a.m., I finally gave him some Motrin. His temp was about 101.

He doesn't have any other symptoms, though. His nose has finally become snot-free, there's no coughing, no rash, no vomiting. I stayed home with both boys yesterday, and he was fine for most of the day. Around nap time, his temperature started to go up again, although it didn't get higher than 100. Overnight it spiked again, but still didn't get too high. He had a restless night again, though. Ed stayed home with the boys today and took Seth to the doctor this morning. He was already scheduled to go for a follow-up to his ear infection. He checked out fine at the doctor's--nothing wrong with him. Ears look great, no congestion, no explanation for the fever. Blah.

Ed said he was fine today, although he felt warm again this afternoon. He didn't eat much for dinner again, and his temp at bath time was 99. If he has a good night and wakes up with a normal temp, I'll probably send him to school. I hate unexplained fevers! It could be teething, although the temps are a little high for that. It could be Roseola, although the temps are a little low for that, and he's already had it this year. (Can kids get repeat cases in the same season?) He's not congested, but when I'm holding him, the way he swallows makes it sound like his throat hurts, or there is some kind of post-nasal drip going on.

Having a fever now is so suspect, considering the H1N1 fears. On Monday, William told his teacher that he had a fever and I gave him medicine. They didn't know when he was talking about, and as I've mentioned, William has an over-active imagination. But they had to email me to ask about it, since they're trying to keep track of all the illness going on at the center. I wanted to shout, "I swear--William hasn't had a fever in ages! He just has a cold." And then Seth goes and gets a fever. Ugh.

And speaking of H1N1, our county has only received a small amount of vaccine, so doctor's offices haven't gotten any yet. The county is having a clinic on Saturday for pregnant women and children ages 6 months to 3 years. So do I brave the crowds and crazy long lines and take the boys? Or do I wait a few weeks to see if more vaccine gets shipped to the county, at which point our doctor and every CVS in our city should have a supply? But what if there is a shortage of vaccine? What if this turns out to be our only chance? With William's inclination towards wheezing and pneumonia, H1N1 could be very dangerous to him. He's done great this summer and fall so far, having had no wheezing incidents since last winter. That's pretty huge. But we also didn't stop the Pulmicort this summer, so maybe that helped. Who knows. At any rate, we'll have to decide soon about the clinic on Saturday. Of course, they're calling for rain on Saturday. But maybe that will make the crowd smaller. At the very least, I might go early and see how much of a line has formed, and then Ed could bring the boys out if it looks promising. Stupid H1N1!

Banner Day

Sunday was a banner day in the Hahn household. Not a single one of us stepped outside of the house all day. Not even to get something from the car or check the mail or anything. We stayed inside--all four of us--all day. I don't think that has ever happened since we had kids. Ever.

We thought about doing some things. I had wanted to get Seth's hair cut. And to take William to the library. And I had wanted Ed to go to Safeway to get some salmon on sale. But in the end, the motivation just wasn't there. If either Ed or I had felt motivated to do something, the other would have rallied. It finally stopped raining on Sunday, so it wasn't like it would have been totally miserable to go outside. And it probably would have done the boys some good to at least have gone for a walk or something.

But instead, I played with the boys in the morning and really enjoyed being with them. After Ed woke up I did laundry and finally tackled my bedroom closet and the hall linen closet. (When we moved into our house, my huge walk-in closet with lots of shelves became the hodge-podge place where we put all kinds of stuff that we didn't know what to do with. And Ed unpacked the boxes of linens in the hall closet, and the linens have remained an unorganized mess ever since.) I got everything organized to my satisfaction, so that felt good.

I tried to take a nap with William, but that was a no-go. He naps every day at daycare for two hours. But I can not for the life of me get him to nap at home. He will stay in his room for 3 hours if I make him, but he will not fall asleep. He won't fall asleep watching TV. And he won't even fall asleep if I lie down with him. Anyway, once we gave up the nap attempt, we spent the rest of the day playing. William has an awesome imagination (as most 3 year olds do) and he is very content to play by himself--as long as I'm close by. He will not play in the basement if I'm on the main level. And he won't play on the main level if I'm upstairs in my bedroom. It's kind of a drag, but I also get to observe his play at very close range. I'm sure he won't always be so open and accessible.

All in all, it was a good day--the kind we might have more of if I stayed home. And Ed and I don't often spend time together playing with the boys. Because there's always so many things to do, we usually trade off entertaining and watching the kids while one of us gets something done. We could tell the boys really liked having both of our attention at the same time, and it's something we should try to do more often. We go out with them a lot to do things, but rarely just hang out at home, the four of us.

This coming weekend, if the weather cooperates, we'll be going to a local pumpkin patch and fall festival. I'm looking forward to it, even if it means our weekend will be the more usual busy, packed, and probably even exhausting. So it makes me even more glad that this past weekend was low-key and uneventful. We all need weekends like that.

Phone Photo Friday

Brace yourselves--I'm posting a lot of pictures!

Since I didn't get to post last Friday, when we hung out with Laura, Nate, and Alex (check out Laura's Blog for more Phone Photo Friday participants!), I saved those pics for this week. I'd like to add that Laura's boys were infinitely more cooperative with the photos than mine!


Here are a few of Seth and William on the playground near my mom's house. I love this photo of Seth.


And finally, the weather here has been cold, rainy, and just nasty the last two days. William's class got to wear pajamas to school today, and William insisted on wearing his rainboots. So here's a look at today's ensemble.

Happy Phone Photo Friday! (And in case you were wondering, I got lots done last night! I dusted the main level, cleaned the half bath and mopped the floor, spot-mopped the kitchen, put lots of things away, and made the main level presentable. I also did a load of laundry--although it hasn't been folded or put away--and uploaded some images to Shutterfly for printing. I wanted to read, but it was 11:00 p.m. by the time I got through all of that. I wish I could get by on a lot less sleep.)

Some Nights Are More Productive than Others

The ongoing list of THINGS TO DO weighs heavily on my mind most days. I will never have the time to do everything I want, so I have to prioritize, and re-prioritize, and re-prioritize again. And I have to accept that I will most likely never do a lot of things on my THINGS TO DO list. I'm not a Type A personality. I'm so far from a Type A personality that I guess that makes me the polar opposite of a Type A personality. (Um, Type B personality then.) My point is that I try to do something that needs doing each night. And I try to differentiate between what needs doing and what I want to do. And sometimes I get lucky and things that I need to do are things that I want to do.

Last night, I worked on folding laundry and sorting through outgrown clothes--putting away summer stuff and breaking out the fall stuff. I multi-tasked by watching The Biggest Loser at the same time. I did not spend time with Ed, I didn't read my book, I didn't blog, I didn't work on my digital pictures. But that's okay. Tonight, I hand-washed a buttload of dishes (our dishwasher is broken--ugh!), did laundry, remembered to take the steaks out of the freezer and marinate them, and made pumpkin spice muffins. And now I'm blogging. Ed and I managed to talk while I made the muffins. So that was a plus. And I caught up on a few blogs. It's late now--later than I usually go to bed. But that's okay. I got a few things done, so that feels good.

Tomorrow and Friday night, I will need to focus on cleaning, which is definitely in the need category and not in the want category. We are having company on Saturday, though, so it will have to get done. Which is a good thing, because my tolerance for filth is beyond a level that I'm comfortable admitting! I guess every day, every week, every month is just a balancing act (which is a cliche now, but it fits). You do bits here and there, sometimes you feel overwhelmed, sometimes you buck the grind and go outside your box, and sometimes you peck away at the never-ending THINGS TO DO list. I think this is the way it is no matter what the situation is--whether you work or stay home or something in between. I envy people who have that get-things-done gene. I completely missed that one. And yet, I do alright. Some nights are even pretty good!

We Made It!

We're back, we made it, and we actually had a really good time. The drive wasn't easy, but it certainly wasn't impossible. I stopped about every two hours. A few times I pulled off the interstate to find a pacifier or fix the DVD player. But the boys did really well, considering. William hardly slept at all. As long as the DVD player was rolling, he was awake. Seth slept twice during both trips, but only for half-an-hour to 45 minutes. And as expected, it was hard to keep Seth entertained. But we toughed it out!

We had a great time visiting Laura and meeting Nate, Alex, and Jon. Nate and Alex are as adorable and friendly and energetic as you see them on Laura's blog. They eagerly showed us around their house. And Nate even made it a point a little later to take me back upstairs to his bathroom to show me pictures of him when he was a baby. They graciously shared their toys with William and Seth. And they even posed for pictures. What more could you ask for?

We arrived at Laura's around 3:00 p.m and left at 5:00 p.m. Seth fell asleep right away, but William didn't fall asleep until after we had stopped for dinner. We didn't get to Charlotte until 9:00 p.m., but the boys were wide awake and happy to get there. They checked out my mom's place and made themselves comfortable. We stayed in my mom's room, and she has a TV with cable in her room. So William was in 7th heaven. He watched Nick Jr. (used to be Noggin) all weekend and loved it. The boys got a bath and William did his nebulizer, and we were all finally asleep at 10:30. It's pretty impressive that there were no major meltdowns!

On Saturday, we met up with Ed's sister and BIL and their three boys--Zack, Jacob, and Tyler. We went to a pumpkin patch and took a hayride and saw lots of farm animals and then got to pick out a pumpkin. The boys had a great time. Afterward, we went back to Aunt Barbara and Uncle John's and ate lunch and played for the rest of the afternoon. It was nice to see William and Seth playing with their cousins. And their new baby cousin Tyler is so cute and so easy. All he does is sleep!

Saturday night was another late night. We went out to dinner and didn't get the boys in bed until 9:00 p.m. But they still did great. On Sunday, we slept in, took our time getting ready, and then dragged the boys (including my brother) to Kohls for some shopping. We got lots of Halloween decorations, and some clothes for the boys, and I got a pair of pants and a pair of jeans. Woo-hoo! I can't tell you how badly I need new clothes.


In the afternoon, Seth took a long nap while my brother and I took William to a local park. Then after Seth woke up, we went to the park again and made a few trips around the track. We ate dinner at home that night and the boys finally went to bed at the regular time. Today we were up bright and early and on the road at 8:00 a.m. We got home a little before 4:00 p.m. It's nice to be home, and I'm tired as all get out. But I'm so glad we went. It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be (the drive, and having to be the one "in charge" all weekend), and it was great to spend time with my mom and brother and my SIL and her family, and to see Laura and Nate and Alex and Jon. The boys did really well all weekend--no huge fits or meltdowns or brattyness. And I'm really kind of proud of myself for going it alone. It wasn't easy, but I would do it again in a heartbeat. As long as that heartbeat is a long way down the road. Did I mention I'm tired?

Am I Crazy?

Tomorrow I'm taking the boys on our first long road trip. By myself. On a loooong road trip. Did I mention it would be long? Did I mention I'm taking them by myself?

We're going to North Carolina to visit my mom and brother and Ed's sister and her family (the boys' boy cousins). I'm excited to see everyone, and to meet our newest nephew. And even more exciting, we're going to stop at LauraC's house on the way to our families, and William will get to meet Nate and Alex and I'll get to visit with Laura! So I think all of that is definitely worth a long car trip.

But can we go back to the long car trip part. And how I'm doing this by myself? Unfortunately, Ed couldn't get the time off of work to join us. And while I know it will be hard to do it by myself, and I could wait until a better time comes along for all of us to go, I feel like if I don't make the effort to go now, we'll never go. And visiting family is important. And really, how bad could it be? (Don't answer that!)

I think my biggest problem is that the weekend is suddenly here, and I'm woefully unprepared. Ed took my car to get it serviced today (how's that for last-minute), I haven't even cleaned it out in preparation for the trip, I haven't started packing, I haven't stocked up on snacks or figured out what toys to bring in the car. So I will be doing all of this tonight. My plan is to leave at 9:00 a.m. (which means we probably won't leave until 10:00 a.m.), and hope that the trip to Laura's house takes between 5-6 hours. Then after our visit with the Cases, we'll head on to Charlotte. It may end up being a late night, but we'll look on it as an adventure.

We do have a DVD player for the car, and I have pull-ups for William to wear, just in case. I think my challenges will be: Seth getting bored; William wanting me to skip "scary" parts of whatever movie he watches ('cause just about every movie has a "scary" part); William's head slumping forward when he falls asleep (this doesn't seem to bother him, but I HATE it); the boys fighting over things. I predict that Seth will fall asleep pretty soon after we leave, and William will watch a movie. Hopefully I can get two hours under our belt before we have to stop. It would be great if we could stop just once, for lunch, on our way to Laura's, but that's probably wishful thinking. William will probably fall asleep after lunch, but I'm not sure if Seth will fall asleep again.

The trip home on Monday will be a straight shot from Charlotte. I'm hoping to get out of Charlotte early, so we can get home at a decent time. I'm anticipating 8 hours for the trip home.

I'm going to try to post to Blogger from my iPhone tomorrow for Phone Photo Friday, and hopefully, I can get a picture of the Hahn boys playing with the Case boys. So stay tuned! And wish us luck. And leave any car travel tips for me!

My Kids Eat Fish

I have a draft post that rants about the whole process of dinner--the planning, the shopping, the prep work, the actual cooking, the ho-hum results where maybe one of the three people you're cooking for actually eats and likes the meal--and then we have a night like tonight, where everyone eats everything on their plate, and there are no leftovers, and I probably should have made more, and we all actually sat together at the table, at the same time. It was a rare night in the Hahn household.

I made steel head trout, asparagus, and dinner rolls. And my kids ate the fish and the asparagus. All of it. And there were even some "Mmmm's" going around. I really have nothing to complain about. My kids eat fish. And asparagus. And they like it.

The dinner-making process itself was a bit stressful, though. Due to traffic, we didn't get home until 6:15. I didn't do any prep work last night, so I needed to zest a lemon and clean and trim the asparagus. William needed his Little People Airport from downstairs, and Seth needed me to drag the chair to the counter so he could play with the toaster oven. (Yes, I'm THAT mom who lets her child play with the toaster oven, and even though it's unplugged, I realize that it's not the smartest thing in the world to let him play with, but he loves to put measuring cups and spoon in and then take them out, and he pulls out the tray and puts it back in, and it occupies him so completely while I get dinner together that I just can't make myself take it away from him.) And then, as I'm halfway between trimming the ends of the asparagus and rubbing olive oil and garlic and lemon zest and salt on the fish, William uses the potty. Except he apparently didn't sit there long enough because when he went back to playing, he had a poop accident in his underwear. So then I had to clean up his accident and then get back to dinner.

Since I was running so behind, I decided to have William do his nebulizer treatment while the fish and asparagus were cooking. Seth, meanwhile, kept on playing with the toaster oven. We finally sat down to eat at 7:15. A little later than usual, but it didn't really matter. After quick baths, Seth was asleep at 8:00 p.m. It took William a bit longer to fall asleep, but he'll be okay. I feel so much pressure to get the boys fed by 6:45, so that we can do nebulizer and bath and get them to bed with enough time to ensure the proper amount of sleep. But every once in a while, I need to remember to lighten up and do the best that I can.

And like I said, the boys eat fish. And we ate a healthy dinner as a family. That was definitely worth staying up a little late for.

Phone Photo Friday--At the Playground

We had a stay-home day yesterday. Seth was not himself on Wednesday afternoon, and by the time we got home, he was running a slight fever. He was also super congested and started coughing. Fortunately, he slept all night, and he woke up fever-free. But we kept him home anyway, just to make sure he was okay.

Luckily for us, it was a beautiful day, so I took the boys to a park that I've been wanting to visit for a long time. It's a huge park with tons of different playground toys and acres of soft play surface. The boys ran and climbed and played to their hearts content. The weather was perfect--sunny, a bit cool, but warm in the sun. We stayed for 2 hours, and Seth fell asleep as soon as we pulled out of the parking lot. Although I hate to take a much-coveted day of annual leave unnecessarily, it was very much worth it.