A little light reading before bed: 

And she's OUT! 

Tomorrowday

Yesterday when I picked B up from preschool, he felt a little warm and they told me he had started to complain his throat hurt and he wanted to lay down.  His temp wasn't too high, 100.8, but it was enough that he wasn't feeling great and meant he got a day off preschool today.  He went to PawPaw's house as usual this morning so I could go to class and on the way home I let him know he would spend the afternoon at home with me instead of at preschool.

"Otay, momma.  I want stay home.  I go tomorrowday."
"Sorry, buddy, you have a doctor's appointment tomorrow.  Maybe you can go back on Thursday."
"The nex tomorrowday?"
"Yep, the day after tomorrow."
"Otay.  I sick, I stay home wit you. Tomorrowday I no go.  I go nex tomorrowday."
"That's right."
"I have a sanwitch?"

LOL  He got his sandwich and lots of cuddles and he is still a little feverish today but I think he is rather enjoying it since he got a frozen fruit pop after lunch for his sore throat :p

The Lazy Man's Garlic Cheeseburger Sliders

We have all been sick the last few days--the kids are feeling better but I am not (yet).  I am still wanting soups with lots of garlic but the kidlets are ready for some "real" food so I added extra garlic to dinner so we were all happy ;)

I have a confession--I HATE hate hate hate touching raw meat.  Hate it.  So when the kids were wanting cheeseburgers, I needed to find a way to not actually touch the ground beef ;)  And so was born The Lazy Man's Garlic Cheeseburger Sliders.

S thought it was fun to help make these :)  First step, we browned up some ground beef with some garlic, onion, and cumin.  Once it was done, we layered the bottom half of some slider buns in a glass baking dish:

Then we whipped up a little flavored mayo--garlic, paprika, and a little cumin.  S normally does NOT like mayo and will not eat things made with mayo unless he is really hungry but he thought this mayo was delicious and would be willing to eat it on sandwiches :p We spread a bit on the buns:

Then we layered the ground beef and some shredded cheddar blend cheese on top:

We added the top layer of the slider buns and then adorned them with some garlic butter (melted butter, garlic, and parsley).  S was excited by the parsley because "the green stuff is what makes garlic bread so good!" LOL

We popped it in the oven at 350 degrees for about twenty minutes--when the bread was toasty we pulled them out.  I dished out seconds to everyone so that automatically makes them a hit :)  S even went back after evening chores and ate thirds :)  Now, we have two slightly different pictures--the first one shows how nice and toasty the tops got but S said that since you couldn't really see the "green stuff" on top, I needed to take one with the flash :p

My Busy Little B

B's transition to preschool has been a bit difficult this year.  He was very excited about going, he has the same teacher and the same classroom aides.  Some of the students were in his class last year.  Everything was set up for him to have an easy transition.......except for the fact that he is in the afternoon class instead of the morning.

He has been having such a hard time with not getting on his bus in the morning before S goes to school.  Add in the fact that I went back to school as well and Daddy is off working and his schedule is different every single day.

To help him out a bit, Miss K has made him a visual schedule at school so he can see which days I am picking him up or dropping him off and which days he will be taking the bus.  She asked for a picture of me he can see on his schedule to know when I am picking him up and so he can see which days I will be dropping him off the following day.  The day I was supposed to send the picture, he was insisting I would pick him up that afternoon.  I mentioned that I would send Miss K a picture so he can see that today he would ride the bus and tomorrow I would pick him up.

He pipes up for the back seat that he wants to "pitcher wit you".  I tell him, no, this is for his schedule--just me to show him I am coming to get him that day.  He tells me, "you pick me up.  I go wit you. I pitcher wit you."  I reflect back to him in question form--"because you are going to go with me, the picture should be us together?"  He shouts, "YAY!! You got it!"  So we took a picture together for his schedule :)

I am so proud of him :)  He not only used his words to tell me what he wanted but he told me why.  So many things in his little head are a mystery to us (including his teacher) because he can't articulate why it is so important to him.  And for the very first time, he was able to tell my WHY something he fixated on was so important.  He really wanted the picture to be of us together.  Instead of repeating "pitcher wit you" over and over and over and melted down, he told me why he wanted it to be of both of us :)  I am still just.....in awe.  My Busy Little B is moving forward.

Oh, and I OF COURSE had to immediately email Miss K and tell her all about it :p  Maybe she was humoring me but I prefer to think her excitement via email was genuine and she is just as happy about his progress as I am ;-)

One year and five months....

...since her surgery and we got to spend another lovely evening in the ER :p

Poor Iz has croup and the normal at-home remedies were only effective last night to ease her breathing--today her temp shot up to 105.7 and she started retracting so off we went for steroids.  I would have rather gone to her ped but by the time she started struggling, it was getting close to closing time and they didn't have any open appointment slots.  We don't mess around with retractions so ER it was.

The magic apple juice and its steroids have done her a world of good--retracting has stopped, cough has eased, breathing is easier, and she is sound asleep.  Her poor throat is pretty sore but a fruit popsicle went a long way towards making her feel better in that arena as well :p

Feeling miserable

But not miserable enough to pass up a chance to play

Magic apple juice kicking in and all smiles :)

Dear Fellow Shoppers,

I apologize for briefly slowing you down the other night. Most of you stopped and smiled and enjoyed a moment of silly with us. A few gave us The Huff and went around us. We stuck the the edge of the aisle so we wouldn't block it--it wasn't much different than if we stopped to pick out cheese. It had been a long day and we were rushing through the store so we could go home, much as all of you probably were.

And then we saw it and couldn't help ourselves. Time slowed down. We relaxed. We had a few precious moments of hilarity before things sped up. Thank you for the smiles you shared with us--they really made S's day (he loves the spotlight). Because, really, how many kids can resist whitewater rafting down the cheese aisle?

The Birthday Girl!

Happy Second Birthday, Isabelle!

This has become her favorite dress

Her favorite present was this little cat she named Little Pete.  Pete the Cat is not so sure :p

Ready for her birthday dinner!

She spotted flower cupcakes in a store and loved them so much, they became her birthday cake :)

I think she likes it :)

Happy Birthday, my little warrior :)

One week ago...

...we headed for the Children's Hospital.  We had had many conversations about getting Izzy's cast off and the saw they use and that it wouldn't hurt.  She swung between nervous and excited.  In the elevator, we were having one more round of talking it over to get her ready and she first hid from us:

 And then she declared she wanted to keep her "purl cass"--she loves purple and did NOT like the idea of having to give up her cast!  I guess she forgot all the times she asked me to please take it off :p  She was quite grumpy for a bit:

 Once we were in the orthopedists office, she was too busy playing to think much about it.  She was even excited to go back in the exam room and look at the cool saw........until it became clear the saw was for her.  Poor girl was scared of that thing!  But even though she cried a little, she held fairly still and the nurse was able to take the cast off.  At first, Iz could not believe she was free.

 She kept asking if it was gone LOL.  She started moving and using it right away--when S got his cast off the first time, he couldn't move the arm without crying because the muscles hurt so much.  Iz, though, only complained a little that her arm was still "owie"

 Whenever she would move a certain way and it would hurt, she would come to me and show me where it was "owie" and my job was to lightly rub it until she was ready to play again :)

Her doctor said her x-rays were perfect and the bone healed up really well so she is all cleared.  He said she should try to take it easy on the arm for at least two weeks but that he was betting that wouldn't really be possible with her ;)  If I remember correctly, she was scaling the exam table when he said it :p  This one is such a daredevil!

A few days late...

First day of school!