Elliot's 3rd Birthday Party

It's been a crazy week here. Poor Henry, our shining star of an immune system, came down with a terrible cough a week ago Friday. We kept him up with regular activities through the weekend but he seemed to be dragging more and more. On Tuesday I volunteer in the school library and saw Henry and his class in there, and wow - he looked rough. So I kept him home from school Wednesday and brought him to the pediatrician. While there we discovered he had a temperature of 103.5, and he almost fainted/fell off the stool he was on. That was scary. The Dr. thought that it was viral so just wait it out. Later that afternoon I started to hear about a lot of local kids having strep, so Mike took him into a Minute Clinic for a strep test which came back positive on Thursday. Antibiotics stated Thursday but he had no improvement at all. He continues to cough like he has been a lifelong smoker and spike high temperatures. As I sit here we are waiting for a call back from the on call pediatrician to see what to do.

We had been planning a joint birthday party for Elliot and his friend Ben again at our house Saturday morning. On Friday night when Henry's temperature suddenly hit over 103 again we knew we couldn't expose a bunch of 3 year olds to whatever germs were in our house, even if we quarantined Henry in his room for the party, so a 9 PM decision was made to switch locations. Luckily, Ben and Elliot's wonderful preschool came through in a pinch and allowed us to have the party there. The sad news was that Henry and Mike had to miss Elliot's party (and all my lovely decorations at home went to waste, but oh well).

The birthday boys!

We had a local enterianer named "Yuri, Prince of Color" (I know) come to entertain the kids. Part clown, part magician, part crazy. The kids loved him.

They did songs, the parachute, a musical parade, magic tricks, and bubbles.

For their cupcakes, Elliot wanted Blues Clues, and Ben selected Handy Manny:

After the party we headed home where sick Henry helped Elliot open his presents:

Even though it wasn't what we had planned, Elliot had a great time which is what matters. We all have our fingers crossed that Henry is better for the actual birthday tomorrow!

Big Boy Bed

Time marches on, and we reached the point where Elliot needed to move out of his crib and into his "Big Boy Bed"! We were a touch more nervous about his transition than we were with Henry, seeing as Elliot is a bit less of a rule follower. But, it was time.

Here he is last night in his crib:

His new bed all set up:

And success!

He has been in his bed for a week and has done very well so far. The only issue is that he has yet to actually fall asleep for a nap in his bed, preferring to do somersaults and play with his vast collection of stuffed animals, but the fact that he is staying in his bed is a win for us.

Skating and Swimming

Thursday was Henry's last day of ice skating class. He did really well, especially considering he missed about half of the classes for a myriad of reasons. He can now skate and turn very quickly, skate backwards, and thoroughly goof off on the ice with his friends without falling over. Bad pictures due to the scarred plexiglass around the rink:

(the poor kid's snow pants are so short and about 2 sizes too small now..but I refuse to buy new winter gear this year!)

And today was Elliot's first swim lesson! We were assuming this would be an epic disaster because A) Elliot hates water (bath time ins an unpleasant endeavor) and B) he hates strange adults. But he did really well! Slight hesitation going in with his teacher, but he was soon kicking and playing around in the water having a great time.

Warming up!

It was a blissful 40 degrees today - playground weather!

Now we just need the snow to melt! (but not too fast! Fingers crossed for no basement flooding!)