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Baby Sticky Fingers

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Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!

I took off yesterday to start the turkey day cooking frenzy a little early. For the last few several years my mom has made the bird and the stuffing and a veggie usually, while I cook the rest of the meal and bring it over to my parents' house. Brendan was supposed to have a half day of school and I was hoping to get as much done in the few hours he was there, but resurgent pinkeye intervened and I had lots of "help". Actually, he really was helpful with some of the cooking. He can peel potatoes and sweet potatoes pretty well and loved mashing and stirring. He also loves using measuring cups and spoons. I made our old standards of mashed taters, stuffed artichokes and corn and broccoli pudding. This year I tried three new recipes, for maple mashed sweet potatoes, a crustless pumpkin pie and a chocolate velvet pie and I was hoping for success. I did get the cooking and baking done by early afternoon and Brendan wanted to know why we weren't eating it all for dinner and seemed a bit put off that we did all that work and wouldn't try any of it until the next day, although I knew he probably wouldn't eat anything of what we made except maybe the chocolate pie.





This morning Brendan woke me with a bright and happy Thanksgiving greeting and immediately donned his pilgrim hat from school. Instead of his usual microwave pancakes or cereal, I asked him if he wanted eggs and he very excitedly told me "yes Mommy, yes I would love some scrambled eggs and some whole wheat toast, oh yes", lol.



We went over to my parents about 12:30, fighting the rains and wind from our current nor'easter. Brendan was very excited to present his "Thankful Turkey he made at school" to Grandma and Grandpa.



Before dinner, or lunch as Brendan insisted on calling it since we ate around 3:00, Brendan reveled in all the adult attention while wolfing down chips and dip, and I really enjoyed being with family I don't get to see that often, catching up and having some good adult conversation.



The turkey was nice and juicy, the maple sweet potatoes were a hit, and everyone ate until they were full to bursting. Brendan actually gave in and took a bite of the sweet potatoes and the mashed potatoes (yes, I have the only child who doesn't like mashed potatoes) but it was Grandma's stuffing that was the big draw for him.

The pies went over well. The chocolate velvet pie was universally agreed upon to be sinfully decadent.



The crustless pumpkin pie, which I had decided to try this year since it's more heart healthy and my uncle had a heart attack in the summer, didn't try since I'm not a pumpkin person, everyone liked, but everyone who did try it felt that without the crust the consistency was a little less moist than usual. I am definitely going to keep the velvet pie in my repertoire but will look for a different pumpkin pie for next year. After dessert, Brendan asked when we'd be having dinner, I guess our Thanksgiving "lunch" being a warm-up for him.

We stayed until about 7:00, just having a good time being with the people we love. I am very thankful to have this wonderful child who I love so much, and for my family and friends.



Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!!!!!

Proud mommy

When my mom dropped Brendan off atschool this morning the principal saw her and told her that Brendan has just progressed so much socially since he started inSeptember. She said he was "the star of his class" and that everyone loves him. I was just so happy to hear this, especially after his timeouts in class and after having had his seat changed in his classroom for talking too much. Actually I wasn't too unhappy about this only because this is the same child who a couple of years ago would cry or scream if another child tried to talk tohim, so I thought at least this is a step in the right direction, lol.

Funny thing is I've now heard from the principal how well he's doing in school, from the computer teacher, the library teacher, etc., but I still haven't gotten any feedback from his classroom teacher beyond that one time we talked back in September a week into the school year and all she'd had to talk about was Brendan's lack of maturity (hence my happiness above at the principal's comment). I have his parent/teacher conference on the 7th so it should be interesting to hear what she has to say. But yes, very happy proud Mommy today.

As an aside Brendan was the 3rd highest seller in his xmas fundraiser sale. Other than my mom and myself, the only place I took the sale stuff to is work. I only had to pass it to a few people, then they all passed it among themselves and I sold to 17 people at work. I could have even sold a lot more I think but since I have to schlep all the stuff in on the subway I didn't want to have too much stuff to bring in. Brendan got a kids digital camera as a prize. I was perversely excited about this. My parents would never buy anything or help sell when we had fundraisers at school when I was a kid and I was jealous of the kids who got prizes from the sales, so I kind of like that he got a prize. Okay, I'm pathetic, lol.

I love math Mommy!!!

"I love it, I really love it", that's what Brendan was telling me yesterday. He's been adding and subtracting for quite awhile. I had started times tables with him a few months ago and he was interested. I found a poster with the times tables about a month ago and he loves to go over it and gets the concept of multiplication I think. He can do the 0, 1, and 10 times tables on his own if he tries and if I prompt him can do 3 and 4, i.e., if he's doing 3x4, what's 3+3, plus another 3, plus another 3.

So when he was telling me yesterday he loved math, for the heck of it I got a piece of paper and wrote out some addition problems in column format, adding double digit numbers. After I talked him through a couple of problems, he understood the column format and did them very well. He had me write several problems and then dictate them to him while he wrote them out and answered them. Today I tried showing him some problems where you had to carry a 1 into the second column. He understood the concept but didn't seem to like those. He told me that he wanted to do subtraction instead. I didn't have to show him how it worked in column format, I just gave him the problems and he went right at them.

I love to see how he gets so excited when he learns something new. After he completed the problems I wrote out, he had me dictate several problems so he could continue. But what I'd like to know is why he can do things like this and yet I still need to wipe his tush after he poops (and today is the anniversary of his specialest day last year when he pooped on the toilet for the first time) or get him dressed or why he still can't eat without usually spilling half his meal on his shirt. Ahhh, the wonders of being Brendan at 4.

Knock Knock body, let us in

That's what the germs said to his body according to Brendan. I have to agree since we were back at the doctor's office yesterday. He'd been on antibiotics for the pinkeye and the sinus infection since Saturday. And knock wood, his eyes are fine, yippee!! But he was croupy on Sunday and Monday. On Monday afternoon a regular cough started and proceeded to get worse until by Tuesday evening he sounded like he was hacking up a lung. After he went to bed I didn't like the sound of his breathing and was debating whether to wake him to give him a breathing treatment when he got up anyway to use the bathroom. I felt him and he was burning up. His temp was 104.3 by mouth. It might even have been higher since he's not very reliable yet with oral temps, but in any case, he was ferociously hot. I got some Tylenol into him and we had a long, feverish night filled with much coughing but precious little sleep.

We were back at the ped's office yesterday and her feeling was that this was just a viral infection since he was already on the Augmentin and we'd just need to wait it out. I was able to keep his temp between 100 and 101 with the Tylenol and after the prescription cough medicine which calmed the coughing alot, he was actually in a great mood yesterday. He exhausted me actually. We played so many games, drew, made Christmas decorations, went through a desk where I was trying to throw out some old papers but wound up looking through lots of old pictures (best one was one of my cousin Mike, his godfather, from about 15-20 years ago, who is since bald. He refused to believe it was Mike because he had hair back then). I couldn't believe he didn't need a nap. I would have loved one. He managed to get through the night sleeping between the coughing fits and his temp is down even further today, knock wood.

He was so excited though because he got to be "absent from school" as he happily related every 5 seconds. I think he just loved the sound of saying he was absent, and of course having Mommy as a playmate at his beck and call all day. I was very excited because this was a sudden high fever and no febrile seizure, woohoo!! He actually hasn't had one in almost 2 years but this is the first really high fever since then and especially with the sudden rise, he definitely would have had on in the past. I'm keeping my fx that we've moved past that. I find it funny though since febrile seizures can continue until the age of 6 and his last was at 2.5, but croup is supposed to end around 3, and he just had it his umpteenth time and is almost 4.5.

And I have to say I'm a little surprised that he got sick like this this week, after all Thanksgiving isn't until next week. A holiday without a sick child, I'm not sure what I would do with myself.

Back to the doctor's office this morning

We finished Brendan's eyedrops on Wednesday and his eye looked pretty good. Then this morning he woke up with green crusties on the eye. I don't know whether it's the same pinkeye that just won't go away after two rounds of drops or if they're just passing it around in his class and he keeps getting it back. The ped actually gave us Augmentin this time hoping an oral antibiotic might help, especially since she thinks he also has a sinus infection. She also said one of his ears was so blocked with wax she coulddn't tell if there was anything built up behind it (this little boy has the waxiest ears ever). Brendan was so thrilled that he didn't get drops again. He told the doctor "Oh thank you, thank you for my antibiotic". You know this is the first oral antibiotic he's been on since the antibiotic he took after his surgery in March of 2005. But I really wish there was some way to short circuit the pinkeye hot potato the kids are passing around in his class.

We hit Toys R Us after that. I already had alot of stuff put away for the holidays and with the exception of maybe a few stocking stuffers I got all of the xmas shopping done for him. And they had alot of games on sale. I picked up a whole bunch that he's not ready for but were so cheap like Life, Operation, Battleship that were only $8.99 each. It's funny, the previous years all the xmas gifts under the tree and in his stocking were from Santa. But this year he decided that he wanted Santa to bring him a telescope and that the rest of the presents are from me. The only reason I can think he decided this was because about a month ago I saw huge set of Magnetix in BJs that were really cheap and I picked up for him for xmas and I guess he put it together that Mommy gets the gifts. But it made it so much easier because I was able to let him look at everything and tell me what he wanted and buy it without him wondering what was going on. When we got home he asked if he could play with the Floam which I'd meant to go under the tree, but I figured that I couldn't really drag him through a toystore and then not give him something. So I did a deal and told him if he had an extra long quiet time today he could play with the Floam afterwards, lol. He's very happily in quiet time right now and I'm very happy he's there too (as he told me this morning when he was making me crazy getting him out the door to go to the doctor "Mommy, you're exhausted", I told him "yes, and you exhaust me).

Jingle bells, Jingle bells

Jingle all the way. And Deck the Halls and Jingle Bell Rock and all the other Christmas songs Brendan has had us listening to the last few days. On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday he was telling me he wanted it to still be Halloween, but then I got him a Santa hat on Friday and we got our holiday pictures on Saturday and now it's "I want it to be Christmas now". He wore the hat the whole weekend and pored over the eToys catalog to get some ideas for Santa.

I was so happy with how the pictures turned out. It was a little early to take them but I wanted to get in before the holiday rush. Brendan was an ace with the photographer, if anything he kept trying to ham it up and we had to try and get him to tone it down a little and do some genuine smiles. I can't decide which is my favorite picture, they came out so nice. And I wish I was half as photogenic as Brendan is. There was a little issue with the coupon I wanted to use and some deceptive bait and switch type stuff and I'm waiting for a call back from Sears to try and resolve it, but I can't complain about the quality of the photos. Now I'm just trying to choose which pictures to use for our holiday pictures. Snapfish and Shutterfly have cards you can use holiday cards where you can use multiple photos on it, so I think I know where I'll be getting cards from, lol.

School pictures, a not-so-scary skeleton, and Buzz Lightyear, Pinkeye boy

I'm a bad blogger I admit, I haven't updated the blog for a couple of weeks. It's just been busy, busy around here. No big update, but a few pictures.

Brendan's school picture. I'm still trying to figure out if I like it or not. I wish he had been smiling, but I think he looks sweet. He did give a really nice smile though in his class picture. Actually every child did. I don't think I've ever seen a class picture before with every child smiling nicely.



Brendan's psychadelic pumpkin. It was his creation from his pumpkin painting party at schcool. He was very proud of the purple since there was no purple paint and he had to create it from the red and blue. He was also very happy to bring home a big bag full of enough candy to choke horse. And this was before Halloween and trick-or-treating.



As a not-so-scary skeleton at his Halloween parade at school. I just love this picture.



And trick-or-treating as Buzz Lightyear, or BUZZ LIGHTYEAR, SPACE RANGER as he shouted every 5 seconds. He really, really loved trick-or-treating this year. He was telling me yesterday that he wanted it to be Halloween again and we had to reenact trick-or-treating today in our living room.



It had was an eventful Halloween though with Brendan being sent home from school with Pinkeye. His eye had gotten swollen and a little red looking about 10 days before and we had wound up in the ped's office the previous Monday and she diagnosed pinkeye. We had done a week of drops and his eye hadn't cleared all the way up but had looked better. Yesterday morning when I was dropping Brendan off at my parents I thought his eye looked a little goopy, but apparently it didn't look that bad because my mom took him to school. But in the next couple of hours it got really bad and I got a call from the nurse to take him home. As it happened my mom was at the school to watch the Halloween parade and was able to just take him. I got him an appt at the ped that afternoon and we got new drops and Brendan got a strict lecture about letting us get the drops in his eyes. Much drama ensued last night and this morning with getting them in, although knock wood he was a little better tonight. But yesterday he got to be Buzz Lightyear, Space Ranger with pinkeye.