Thursday, April 17, 2008

Long overdue update

So we were just getting over the flu here and it was "crazy medical week". First on Tuesday or Wednesday, I think (this was way back on April 1 or 2) our sister-in-law had to have an apendectomy. Of course it was emergency, as I think all of them are. Hers was starting to tear though so she was in a bit longer and had to take lots of antibiotics afterwards and thats never fun. Then I got news that someone very close to me was out of cancer remission which made me very sad. The third and final blow came on Friday. Bob (Matt's dad) had fallen while walking a very large dog on some ice and hit his head about a month prior to Friday. His head was finally hurting so badly that he went to the ER. He had a large sub-dura hematoma and had to have brain surgery to drain it. You just don't expect that call. He had surgery that night and we went to see him on Saturday afternoon. He was still in ICU, but they did let Mika in to see him for a little bit, which was nice since we had just drove 3 hours and she couldn't understand why she wouldn't be able to. We got to see him again the next day and he was in a different room so both kids got to hang out with him. Most of their questions were about the stuff in the room. They thought papa just looked like any patient in a hospital. I guess its good that we watch "House" and "ER". He was in for about 5 or 6 days and is now home and feeling pretty good with an occasional headache that is cured by a simple tylenol. We are very thankful. Of course Matt's brother and sister were there visiting him alot as well and Wendy (sister) flew in from TX to help care for him for about a week once he returned home. Wishing everyone good health!

Thursday, April 3, 2008

Ax the Max

Family
Mika has always had wonderful language skills. She spoke in sentences early and had many words. She is typically very polite and almost always remembers to ask to be excused from the dining room table. However, sometimes she likes to imitate her favorite cartoon characters. Lately (for about a month) this has been Max, from the show Max and Ruby. It's a cute show and teaches some good lessons, but Max is the little brother and talks in one word sentences (faster! faster!) and it is the same word throughout the episode. Mika thinks its funny to talk like this and just shouts out one word over and over like Max and it is very annoying. I told her, "Mika, you are like Ruby, the big sister. You are a big girl and not a little baby like Jasper. You know how to talk like a big girl and if you keep talking to us like Max, we won't let you watch him any more." It has been a couple of days, since I told her this, and she hasn't stopped. There was no Max watching today. There are plenty of other good full sentence structured shows they can watch and luckily it's getting nice outside! It's just like when we had to ban Caillou.

Food
Tonight we had quinoa cakes with a tomato and zucchini ragu. Also from epicurious, but it called for eggplant and we just had that so we switched it up. It also had you cook the quinoa in water which seemed bland and I used half veggie stock and we spiced up the ragu as well. It was good. The cakes have a nutty flavor and Mika did a good job eating them. Jasper didn't have any as they weren't done by his early dinner time.

Head
Ok, but its starting to hurt, better go to bed!

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

On the mend

Family
We are all better now and we all ate a real dinner tonight! Yipee!

Food
We had a recipe from Epicurious.com. It was Lemon gnocchi with spinach and peas. It was a good, springy meal. The kids did pretty good, of course we had to bribe them. They are still getting used to the grown up food. Mika claims, "I don't like dinner, I just like lunch". Luckily the Easter bunny brought lots of goodies to bribe with. Jasper still doesn't quite get that concept so I have to hold a teddy graham in one hand and the real bite in the other and he knows he gets the teddy if he eats the real food. Once he realized this technique he didn't like mixing the flavors and started stockpiling his teddies. It was hilarious! I don't blame him, I wouldn't have wanted that flavor combination. But I think it showed great restraint and forethought!

Head
Good today!

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Virus #7

Family
So its been awhile since I posted due to the stupid stomach flu! Jasper was the first hit on Saturday morning. Boy did Matt have a rude awaking when he went to get him out of his crib. Not like I had it any better having to do the laundry. Matt and Mika were hit the next day right after having Matts delicious homemade pizza. Such a bummer. (Plus more laundry, thanks goodness our sofa is covered in blankets while the kids are little--poor Mika) I felt bad thinking Matt wouldn't want pizza for awhile again, but of course men don't have the emotional connection to memories like that and he ate the pizza again 2 days later when he felt better. I was hit Sunday evening. This virus was the seventh that has hit our household and lasted about 36 hours per person. This is the only one that hit us all. I did everything imaginable to not get it, but it was relentless. Oh well. It is over with now.

Food
Sunday was the yummy pizza with dough made from scratch and then it was pretty bland. Fruit, waffles and cereal for everyone.

Head
Not too bad. Took an imitrex Friday. Saturday and Sunday were ok. I tried some tylenol but it made my tummy hurt I think, but it could have been the beginning of the bug. It been ok on Monday and Tuesday.