More Sickness and Houston

I feel that all of my recent posts have been negative, what with the boys and Chris being sick, so I'm just going to quickly update you all on them, and then move on...

Chris is doing better and went back to work today. He is exhausted from doing nothing for five days and then working a full day, but for the most part, he is better.

Dalton's other ear is now infected, but he still has plenty of antibiotics, so he should be fine. On a slightly gross note (hey, you gotta' celebrate the small stuff!), Dalton spit his first hocker today! HA! We were at the pediatrician (yes, again) and he coughed and coughed, then suddenly got this horrible look on his face and was holding his mouth open trying to talk to me. So I held out a Kleenex and he spit... Yeah, it's gross, but I don't have much to celebrate lately, so this will have to do! Besides, I am constantly grossed out by the fact that he doesn't blow his nose well, and then sniffs and sniffs and then swallows whatever, and it's so nasty. And you wonder when he'll learn to either blow his nose with the force needed, or, well, hock it up and spit it out. Which is what he did! Small victory for us.

We went back to the pediatrician because today was day eight of fever for Jackson. He is no better, he is actually a little worse and just miserable. The poor kid is either sleeping, or sitting on my lap just listless and whiny. In fact, this morning, he slept til 9, got up with a 103.5 fever, and by 10, he had fallen asleep on the living room floor. Only up for an hour, and already asleep again. So we went to the doctor again, and now on top of suspected influenza (I say it's suspected because he tested negative for it, but he has all the symptoms and the test is only 50% accurate), he now has pneumonia. Poor kid! So he got some sort of drug cocktail shot at the office, and we start a super dose of antibiotics tomorrow and for the next ten days. His doc said he should hopefully have a low grade fever tomorrow, but that it should be gone the next day. I sure hope so. The kid has been a trooper, but you can only take so much.

I'm still hanging in there...I have what I suspect to be a sinus infection, and today picked up a bit of a cough. But no fever, no aches or pains, and I'm sticking it out and not going to the doctor. Frankly, we can't afford another doctor visit right now so I'm self medicating with lots of fluids and vitamins.

Okay, on to better things! I just realized that I never posted pictures of my trip to Houston. Here is my beautiful friend Marcie, beautiful inside and out...I suspect we may have been sisters in a previous life. :) We did NOTHING the whole time I was there. It was hot and sticky and just gross every day except my last day there, which is when we went to the zoo. But honestly? It was fantastic. We did nothing but sit around and drink coffee and watch the kids play, and I cleaned for her, and cooked, and gave her a break (she is expecting her third child). Also her son Ryan, who is 4, and daughter Gracie, who is 20 months. We were at the Houston Zoo when we took these.

And of course, here's me and the boys, at the Zoo.

The kids being goofy. :)

And Dalton being goofy. :) I can't remember where we were, other than that we were at the zoo.

When Marcie's husband Bill got home in the evenings, he'd usually be assaulted by all four of the kids. He was a pretty good sport about it!

Jackson loved their coffee table...he could do laps around it, walking while holding on to it. We don't have a coffee table at home, so he thought this was pretty cool.

Gracie did her own hair bow. Isn't she beautiful?!?

Here is Dalton as the Hulk and Ryan as Spider Man. We played dress up just about every day we were there.

Dalton as the Naked Hulk. What, you've never seen the Naked Hulk movies? You should, they're great.

Ryan is Spider Man on the left, and Dalton is Spider Man on the right.

My long lost sister Marcie. :)

The drive was really hard, but the boys did great, way better than I thought they would. But I'm gonna' have to say that I will only visit during "winter" months...when the temp is below 95 would be great. :)

Well, both boys are blessedly sleeping right now, so I'd better get there myself. Hopefully I'll have more fun and upbeat posts in the next few days as Jackson will (I pray) be feeling better!