She Knits Shizknits

it's the most pukerful time of the year...

Just the other day, I was talking to a friend and mentioned that the small men haven't been very sickly this season. Last year we had multiple colds, mystery viruses (virusii?), several puking spells, and some vertigo thrown in for me (because I'm extra speshul that way). This year we've had a couple of colds, the Dearest got the swine flu, and I got a sinus infection...but the small men have been relatively well-off...Monkey Boy is currently sniffling his way through the last of a head cold...and up till last night I thought we might actually get through this month with no one else being sick.

Oh how I was mistaken....Yesterday Little Man came home from school complaining of a headache. I checked him for a fever (none), and snuggled him up on the couch with a glass of water. I figured he was either dehydrated (he has a bad habit of not drinking enough water during the day), or he was still hung over from staying up so late on the weekend.  When I checked on him a few minutes later, he was passed out and snoring!  This from a child who hasn't napped in since he was 2yrs old! 

An hour later, he was up and ready to decorate gingerbread houses.  The rest of the night he seemed fine- no fever, no complaints. The Dearest put the small men to bed a bit early, and everything was going swimmingly....till around 10:30pm. We were getting ready for bed when we heard some fussing in the hallway. The Dearest went for a look and I heard LM crying and saying "sorry Dadda!" ...then I heard the Dearest go into the kids' bedroom and exclaim "ut oh!" 

Let's just say that LM had a bit of a puking incident...good thing: he didn't get any in his bed. Bad thing: he spewed for a five foot radius around the base of his bunk bed because he lost his cookies at the top of the bunk ladder.  Thank goodness MB (who was on the bottom bunk) was covered by his blanket...! 

The Dearest was kind enough to start the cleanup in the bedroom while I helped LM take a shower.  We put LM back on the sofa (which was well covered with towels) and gave him a blanket and a bucket "just in case". Luckily, the rest of the night was uneventful- and LM woke up this morning feeling quite chipper. In fact he was bummed I am making him stay home from school!

So, either he ate something yesterday that didn't agree with him or it was just some weird 24hr stomach thing. Either way, he is feeling much better today and will be hanging out at home (which puts a cramp in my last minute Christmas shopping plans LOL).  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that he stays chipper!

brave lil man

Little Man complained a couple of times last week that one of his molars was bothering him. We were supposed to go to the dentist on Tuesday to get a small cavity filled, so I figured I could ask the dentist about the molar then.

Of course, I got a call Tuesday morning from the dentist's office saying he had the flu and so LM's appt. that afternoon had to be rescheduled. When I went to pick up LM at school, he showed me his tooth and the whole filling had fallen out.  And there was a big crack in the remaining tooth! Luckily it wasn't bothering him much, aside from the funny feeling of the crack.

We were finally able to get back into the dentist's office on Friday, by which time the cracked part of LM's tooth had finally fallen off (he was pretty upset as he thought he wouldn't get $$ from the tooth fairy for the cracked part). Well, the dentist took a look at the molar and we decided that since it was a baby molar and it ws already loose, he would pull it out.

LM was SO brave!

 I was very impressed with how well LM held up- he tends to be very sensitive about physical discomfort (he's the one who screams when he gets a papercut). So I was expecting a lot more drama when the dentist told him the tooth needed to be pulled. But the only sign LM was really worried was the little wrinkle in his forehead. He did great- the whole tooth came out in two pieces, and the dentist told him that since the tooth got pulled, the Tooth Fairy would bring 2x the $$, which seemed to make it all better in LM's eyes!

bleh

Well, I've been sick since last week...It started with a scratchy throat while in Palm Springs, which then became a nasty head cold. After a week, I should have started feeling better, but by this last weekend I was actually feeling worse. While talking to a friend last Friday, she kept telling me that I had a sinus infection...well I normally gets LOTS of pressure in my sinuses with a head cold, often bad enough that my teeth will ache. So I kinda of blew it off, thinking it was just congestion from the cold.

Sunday afternoon we attended G'Ma O's big birthday party with the Dearest's whole family. I was still really super congested, despite using my neti pot and dosing myself with Sudafed (for the congestion) and Advil (for the pounding sinus headache). Right after the party we had to attend Open House for Monkey Boy's preschool.  By then the Sudafed and Advil had worn off and I was feeling like a giant pile of crap. My head was pounding horribly and I would barely see straight from the sinus pressure. I finally had to leave the Dearest and the small men and go lay down in the car. As soon as we got home, I took a handful of pills (more Sudafed and Advil) and crashed out for an hour. The Dearest had to make dinner and finish up the Sunday night routine because I was still out of it after I woke up.

By this morning, the congestion was marginally better, but it had been over 10 days since I first got sick and I was actually feeling worse, not better. At this point I should have been on the mend. Instead my sinuses were still completely gunked up (despite lots of nose blowing and using the neti pot), I had lost my sense of taste, I was exhausted all the time, and I just knew something was not right with my body. So I made an appt. to see our GP.  Now, I NEVER go to the doctor...the last time I took antibiotics was when I was preggers with Little Man and had an UTI...over seven years ago!  The last time I went to the doctor because I was sick? Probably well over eight years ago...I've been pretty healthy all this time- of course I have had colds and such, but nothing my body couldn't handle with some help from immune-boosting home remedies.

Anyways, the doc promptly confirmed that I was right: I did have a sinus infection so he wrote me a scrip for antibiotics.Take 2x a day with food, for 14 days. Fun fun!  I was shocked at how HUGE the pills are, though...seriously???? They are the size of my thumb (that's a BIG mug you see in the photo above). So now I'm on the antibiotics (along with some probiotics to keep the lovely side effects of the horsepills minimal), and hopefully I'll start feeling better very soon.  

Moral of the story? Trust your instincts...and it's probably not a good idea to hang out in smokey bars in Palm Springs when you are coming down with a nasty head cold!

srsly?

Last week we got a notice from the church where Little Man attended VBS- it seems that several kids were sent home with flu-like symptoms, and four of them later tested positive for Swine Flu.

Niiiiice.

I'm not really surprised, though. There were over a thousand (!) kids attending that VBS- last year there was a stomach virus going around.  This year it's Swine Flu. Luckily all the kids who were sick have recovered without complications. One of my friends' daughters was in the group with the four sick kids and so far she's been fine. I've been keeping an eye on Little Man, who has also been just fine.

Unfortunately I haven't been feeling all that great. My whole body started getting achy on Saturday night. I even went to bed a bit early because I was exhausted. I woke up yesterday morning and didn't feel too bad...even went to yoga class and attended a concert in the park. But by last night my head felt like it was going to explode off- I had the *worst* headache! Strangely, I wasn't running a fever and didn't have a sore throat (which I *always* get when I'm sick).  Just a horrible headache, and feeling soooooo tired....I actually fell asleep on the sofa at 9:30 while watching TV with the Dearest! 

I woke up this morning feeling much better...so I'm not sure what was going on. I'm a bit tired again today, but not sore/exhausted/headachy like yesterday. I'm thinking it was a 24hr viral thing??  I dunno...but I"m just glad to hopefully be on the mend!

a-rockin' and a-rollin'

yes, we felt that earthquake....if you were anywhere in So.Cal. at 8:39pm Sunday, you prolly felt it too!  I was sitting in the office and the Dearest was watching TV upstairs, waiting for the small men to fall asleep (they go to bed at 8pm).

My neighbor, Mrs. J, was supposed to come over and pick up some photos I had printed for her. So when I heard a rumbling noise, I thought it was Mrs. J knocking on my front door. A few seconds later it sounded like the small men were jumping up and down in the room above my head....then I realized that no one was in that room, and the windows started to rattle, and I could hear the rumbling a LOT louder...

Now usually I stay put when there's an earthquake. Usually the quake is over before you even have time to start thinking "should I get up?"....but this shaker? It lasted a LONG time...I hate that feeling of "is it over? is it going to get worse?"

After a few seconds, the shaking hadn't stopped- in fact it got stronger. That was it: I jumped up and ran into the hallway, away from the windows (don't want that glass falling on me!). I had my hand on the doorjamb and could totally feel the house moving.

Finally the shaking stopped and I had a chance to holler up at the Dearest- who had run across the hall during the quake to check on the small men. Thank goodness they slept through the whole thing!

Me?  I had to do some deep breathing to steady my hands and slow my racing heart down. LOL The Dearest and I then played the normal Californian's after-quake guessing game: "How strong was that quake?" I guessed 4.5. 

The USGS originally said it was a 5, but downgraded it to a 4.7 this morning. It was centered in LA, about 60 miles from here. The worst part about this quake was how long it lasted...it felt much longer than any quakes we've felt recently! It's amazing how fifteen seconds can feel like an eternity when the ground under your feet is moving like the deck of a ship!

101.3F

Guess who stayed home from school today with a fever?

summer in november

sorry for the longer than usual silence....Monkey Boy's cold migrated to me, which totally knocked me for a loop.  Chez Shizzknits does not run well when Momma is sick. MB was over the worst of his cold in 24 hrs (tho he still has a nasty cough), but it's been a week for me and I'm still swigging cough medicine to get through the night. I think MB got better so fast because he actually got to sleep....as Momma, I don't have that luxury. Lack of enough sleep = long recuperation from being sick.

Plus the fact that the house has fallen apart, even with the valiant efforts of the Dearest. I have a cluttered kitchen and floors that need mopping *bad*. Today is the first day I've felt up to doing real housework in a week- imagine how gross that is.

Oh and did I mention that summer decided to arrive a bit later than normal this year?  Yesterday it was 93F. 

93F!!!!!  In November.

WTF????

We usually have periods of Santa Ana winds in November and December that push the temp up, but yesterday was ridiculous. All that heat is no fun when your sinuses are so plugged with gunk that you walk around squinting at everything.

Of course with the high heat/single digit humidity we have had more wildfires.  Luckily none by us, though my parents were very worried last night as they were only a few miles from the Triangle Fire in northern OC.  The winds turned during the night and the fire is now moving away from my parents' house, but they are sheltering some friends who may or may not have lost their home. Very sad. We are just keeping our fingers crossed and praying that the firefighter get the upper hand and no lives are lost.

I finally started feeling better yesterday, which was good because LM has a birthday party to attend today and he had asked me to make a gift for his friend M. Since M is a girl, I thought I'd make a sketchpad cover:

Here's the oustide:

I also threw together a little tote bag to store everything in:

I hope she likes it...little girls can be so picky sometimes!

oopsie

Monkey Boy has had a tough couple of weeks when it comes to getting banged up. I have a theory that kids tend to get clumsy right before and after a growth spurt, as it takes some time for them to coordinate themselves again. Well MB must be growing because in the past few days he's knocked his noggin several times, as well as cutting up a knee and acquiring a few other minor injuries.

Yesterday was gawd-awful hot (where is Fall????) and we didn't venture outside to play till nearly 5pm, when the temp had gone down to only 90F. I was sitting in the shade, chatting with a friend while the kids rode around on their bikes. I glanced over just as MB, pedaling full steam ahead, turned his handlebars too sharply and went down, HARD.

Now, I'm probably one of the more blase mommas out there when my kids get hurt. I tend to be very calm- blood doesn't freak me out, and I know kids are pretty durable so I generally assume they are ok unless they start screaming too much. And MB is much tougher than most kids- he's taken nasty spills before and jumped up immediately saying "I ok! I ok!".

But when I saw his FACE hit the blacktop- I was up and out of my chair so fast I don't think my feet even touched the ground. The two other moms who were chatting with me ran over at the same time. MB was completely wrapped up in this bike- I had a heck of a time pulling him free- and was screaming pretty hard. He had his hand over his mouth and I could see a good amount of blood between his fingers.

Since he was screaming, I got a glimpse of his teeth- thank goodness they were still in his mouth! I scooped him up and carried him inside to put an ice pack on his face before the swelling got too bad. He seemed more upset that he'd only gotten to play for 10 minutes than anything else.

 Here he is today...

The complete injury list?
-1 very fat lip
-missing skin from his upper lip
-a road rash on his chin
-scrapes to both knees
-scrapes to one arm and elbow
-a small bump on the forehead
-a bloody nose
-bruised gums

I'm a little concerned about his upper front teeth. It looks like he hit the ground with his mouth wide open because there is grit embedded in his teeth! Luckily they are not loose at all, but there is quite a bit of bruising at the base of one tooth. I was able to brush his teeth gently this morning and his gums bled a bit but I think they'll be ok.

I asked him to smile for this one:

The friend I was chatting with when this happened said, "I knew it was bad when you looked at his mouth and said, 'Oh, that's not good'!"  Which made us both laugh.

I'm just glad MB was wearing his bike helmet (in our house it's a rule to wear a helmet if you're riding anything with wheels). I have a feeling if he hadn't been wearing his helmet, he would've gotten a good knock on the noggin and probably a concussion. Thank goodness he's just scratched up instead!  He did eventually  go back outside with the Dearest last night, after watching a couple of cartoons and using the ice pack for a bit.  And he jumped right back on his bike like nothing had happened, riding it full steam ahead once again.

Is this Fall?!

"it's a dragon kiss"

or- it's what happens when you run all out to the mailbox, trip and crack your noggin a good one on the concrete driveway.