(…continued from previous entry)
Elda brought Eenan over when we got here. He still looked normal–his fever was gone and his eyes didn’t look droopy like they usually do when he’s got a fever, but he did have a phlemy-sounding cough–so we took him to the doctor anyway. We had to go through the whole process of calling the insurance place and trying to get an approval but this time we weren’t so lucky. I guess they asked how he “looked”, if he was really as sick as his brother, and since he wasn’t, they didn’t send in the approval right away. It actually didn’t go through till later on that day when the office was already closed, so they made an appointment for the next morning.
We were supposed to go to Jorge and Maggie’s that night, but since the boys were sick we didn’t want to get their kids sick so we stayed in. I’ve been “staying in” a lot lately, which is probably why I’ve felt so crappy and anti-social lately. Mario, on the other hand, goes off as he pleases, always having something to do with one of his friends, uncles or cousins. I admit though, he has invited me over when he goes to his cousins’ houses and all that, but I feel a bit weird since they’re drinking and having a good time–I feel like they’re not comfortable talking like they usually would if I weren’t there.
I took Eenan to the doctor the next morning, Saturday. By then he still felt alright, but he kept getting that darn fever and we couldn’t figure out why! Alaethia was still fine, thank goodness and Jaylen was feeling much, much better and actually had cereal and ate it all. The mornings before he’d leave all his Fruity Pebbles in the bowl because it hurt too much to swallow them.
(Going off subject here but I just LOVE how the latest version of Firefox has Spell Checker built in! Yay!!!)
So, back to the doctor’s. Eenan was in a chipper mood. The nurse checked him out, only a slight fever, and when they walk us to the room he asks what else they’re going to do to him. I tell him they’re going to check his throat with a long Q-tip, to make sure he doesn’t have Strep like Jaylen. You’d have thought I’d told him they were going to remove his arms and he’d never be able to play video games again–the kid SCREAMED his head off and ran, quite dramatically, down the hallway to try and escape.
Surprised, and a tad embarrassed, I tell him, “Okay, fine, they won’t swab you!” and they give him a cup to pee in instead. Everything came out fine on that end, but of course he wasn’t checked for Strep. He still hasn’t gotten any type of sore throat or become listless like Jaylen so I guess he’s fine. All they knew was he had a cough, not even a bronchial problem like he usually has, so they prescribed some cough medicine and that was that.
I can’t remember what else I did that Saturday. I was exhausted, I remember that much. Ever since Jaylen started getting fevers I would wake up 3-4 times a night and check up on him, then later on Eenan and Alaethia, just in case. At that time, Alaethia had been sleeping through the night, not waking till at least 7 or 8am and I just couldn’t sleep well worrying about the boys.
Oh, now I remember! I know I had to drop off Eenan’s prescription and we went to McAllen. We stopped at Michael’s since Mom wanted to look for some stuff. I found some cute, inexpensive stuff, so I was happy.
I also got a jar to put the wooden spools into. They were all so cute–I want them all!
Pete and Sally were having a little get-together for Pete’s birthday that night so I was excited to see them. Well, 7 o’clock rolls around, then 8, then 9. Mario calls and tells me he’s still not being let out so I had to call Pete and tell him we weren’t going to make it. I felt awful! Then at 9:30 he calls and tells me that Maggie’s been in an accident. Nothing major, she was fine, thank God, but the front of their fairly new Honda Accord is in shambles. The people who hit here were little teenage girls who didn’t even have licenses or insurance! The dealership was also going to get in trouble since they let them take the car out of the lot without proof of insurance.
We went to the movies the next day, Sunday, to watch Pirates of the Caribbean, World’s End, is it? I braved it and took Alaethia with us and although she did have me standing at the top of the stairs for about half of the movie, she did pretty good. The boys loved it. I thought it was kind of long and my ADD was kicking in, but good nonetheless.
After the movie, the boys wanted to go with Mary so she took them. Aly, Mario and I went to Jorge and Maggie’s and just hung out for a while. We checked out the damage on the car and although it didn’t look like there was too much aesthetic damage, the car was immobile due to the springs and struts getting messed up. Maggie and I talked and she even gave me this awesome candle they sell at her workplace! It smells yummy. I wish I could see her more often. Too bad Mario only likes going over there when he feels like it!
There was word all around the neighborhood that a thunderstorm with hail was coming to the area, so we got ready to leave. It was really dark (I love when it looks like that) so we hurried home and got the boys ready for dinner and bed. There wasn’t any hail, just lots of wind and rain, so the kids got to sleep soundly. Well, as soundly as Eenan could sleep with his awful cough.
Jaylen’s awards assembly was the next day. Both boys went to school since they were fever-free and Jaylen’s throat didn’t hurt anymore. Eenan still had a slight cough, but he was on meds and took cough drops with him.
I hadn’t even left the house when at 8:05am, 15 minutes after he got dropped off by Elda at school, I get a call from the nurses office that Eenan’s got a fever of 100°. I was in disbelief; he was fine when he’d left home! His teacher’s a bit of a hypochondriac and DOES NOT like to have even slightly sick children in class and sends them home right away. They said he was fine other than the slight fever, so I told them I’d pick him up right after Jaylen’s awards assembly.
I went to Jaylen’s assembly with Mary, since right afterwards we’d be leaving to town to shop for my Matron of Honor dress and Sonia and Yadira’s dresses. Jaylen got his Pre-K completion certificate and Mathematician Wiz award. I totally thought he’d get a “Most Helpful” or “Best Behaved” award since his teachers were always talking the world of him, but his class wasn’t getting those kind. Oh well. He was pretty disappointed that he wasn’t getting a trophy, but only kids who’d gotten perfect attendance were getting those and of course, my boys missed that one day in January when they tricked Mario into letting them stay home. *scowl*
I asked if I could take Jaylen home with me after the assembly and his teacher said it was fine, all they were doing was fun activities and no work. Good! I didn’t have to worry about picking them up then. I dropped them off with Mom, gave Eenan some Motrin and made him lay down to get better and we left.
We picked up Sonia and Yadira and first went to JC Penny. I picked out three dresses I liked in the colors that would match Noelia’s theme and ended up with a white one with tiny silver flowers sort of embossed on it. I guess you could say I settled for it; it was the first decent thing I saw, I didn’t look too fat in it, and I was afraid if I left it and it was the only one in my size (it’s a 5, juniors. How I fit into it is beyond me! I’m a 7 in juniors!) I wouldn’t be able to find it later if I didn’t find anything anywhere else, which I didn’t.
Yadira and I were done within and hour of arriving at JC Penny. The rest of the day was literally spent walking around town, all of McAllen main and 10th street, looking for Sonia’s dress. She didn’t like many of the styles and wanted a certain color. We stopped to eat at Taqueria El Zarape, which I was terrified about since that’s the place where Mario and I ordered the Taco Piratas in 2004 when we got sick with that terrible food poisoning that lasted, in my case, 4 weeks and ruined my Disneyworld vacation!
I made sure to steer clear of any chicken and white cheese and ordered the baked potato, beans and Tacos de Bistek combo. It was all so delicious and I waited all day to feel ill but I was fine! I totally need to make an “I survived eating at Taqueria El Zarape 2007” button!
We spent another few hours looking around and eventually went back to JC Penny where Sonia found a dress! At the place we started at, no less! I could barely walk by the end of the day, my feet hurt so bad!
The boys went off to school on Tuesday morning since they both felt well again. Eenan was excited about his awards assembly, since he was fully expecting to get a trophy and “prize” for having All A Honor Roll all year long. But again, just like the day before, they call me from the nurse’s office to pick him up because he’s coughing and his temperature was slightly elevated (99°). I told them he was fine and that he said he felt fine enough to go to school so I allowed him to go. They told me his teacher wouldn’t want him in the class because “that’s how she is” so I got frustrated and just went to get him.
As calmly as I can, I tell his teacher he’s on medications and he’s not contagious anymore since he’s almost getting over it. She pisses me off by telling me he got the ENTIRE class sick and even his best friend, Abraham, was sent home the day before because of a fever. I’m living by now, because I hate when she blames him for getting everyone sick (apparently Eenan’s some kind of “source” or “carrier” it seems. She doesn’t think anyone else could possibly carry a sickness but him I guess). I tell her that my son, Jaylen, got Strep from someone in his class and that Eenan did not have Strep, that he caught his cold from someone else in the class so it wasn’t his fault. She still tells me that she doesn’t want him there because he coughs on everyone. (Just as she said that, this other kid was coughing in the background with his mouth wide open but she didn’t say anything.) It also pissed me off that this little girl, whom I’d never seen before, kept putting her two cents in and the teacher kept laughing at her comments like it was the funniest thing she’d heard. Usually, she yells at all the other kids to shut up because she’s got a visitor. I did not like that woman. I was totally going to report her, everyone wanted me to report her, but it was the last days of school so it’s not like they’d do anything about it. I hated how she’d yell at the kids. Urgh!
Alaethia had her 4 month appointment on that morning. It took an annoying 3 hours for them to get us in, and that’s because her appointment was at 9:15. By the time we got a room I had to leave to pick up Jaylen. So, I lost our room and had to wait another half hour to get back in. Jaylen was thankfully behaving himself. I’ve been having lots of trouble with him lately.
Anyway, Alaethia weighed 13.9 lbs. and is 24 inches long. They gave her an oral vaccine and then 3 actual shots. Poor thing lost her voice while she was crying. As soon as we got home I gave her some Tylenol because she’d already developed a fever. She was moody all afternoon, poor thing. I don’t blame her!
I didn’t send Eenan to school on Wednesday, because knowing his teacher I would have been back at the school by 8:05 again. After I picked Jaylen up from school the boys kept fighting. They were like that ALL DAY LONG.
I was folding clothes that night and I had it on Fox News. They had a commercial right before the news that there was a recall on a baby swing. I look up and it just so happened to be Aly’s Fisher Price Rain Forest Swing! Darn thing. I liked it so much. Apparently there’d already been 60 injuries where babies got their heads stuck. I took a picture of it to remember how cute it was, found all the papers it came with and took it to the store the next day, Thursday.
It was the boys’ last day of school, thank God! I took them both, because I’d be damned if I was going to keep Eenan from seeing his friends one last time before summer began. He didn’t have a fever and was well rested from being at home all those other days. Damn teacher.
Elda usually drops them off for me, but I dropped them off on the last day since I wanted to say goodbye to Jaylen’s teachers. I’d gotten them all (including Eenan’s teacher) some little plush bears that were zipped up in an apple as a donation to the March of Dimes. When you unzipped the apple, the bear would pop out with a little sign that says, “I love my teacher.” I didn’t even want to give one to Eenan’s teacher anymore for how she’d been treating Eenan, but he did so I gave her one.
Eenan’s class was having a “slumber party,” but of course we wouldn’t know that since Eenan hadn’t been present at school. I went back home and got him a blanket, pillow and snacks and took them to him. He took a few pictures with his friends, which was really cute.
I took Jaylen to his class and he happily gave Mrs. S. and Mrs. T. their apples. They loved them. Mrs. T.’s going to be a Pre-K teacher at a new school next year, so that was the last time we’d see her. I felt so sad :(. They were both so good to Jaylen, I almost cried having to say goodbye.
Mom, Aly and I went to Target to return the swing after I dropped the boys off. Since Alaethia’s already 4 months old and would need a high chair I got one of those instead of another swing. I wanted a girly-er looking one but all they had were either neutral or boy colors so I got the least boy looking one there was. It was $59.99, just like the swing so that worked out.
I like using coupons. Random, I know. I got $1 off of her wipees and totally forgot to use the $5 off one I had for buying baby furniture. When Mario and I went the next day, I “returned” the high chair and “bought it back” with the $5 off with no problem. That’s why I love Target, they never give me trouble.
When I picked Eenan up from school he was overloaded with binders and papers and seemed really frustrated since the bag he had tore. I asked him if something was wrong after Brandon had already gotten off the car and he cried a little, saying he’d miss his friends during the summer. Aww :(. He remembered to get some of their numbers though, to invite them to his birthday party in July. He spoke to his friend Rolando that night and his mom and I discussed maybe going to a park or out to eat sometime with them. I think it would be great!
Friday was awesome. It was the first official day of summer vacation and it was nice getting up at whatever time and not having to rush around picking up the boys and waiting to go to town. We went straight to get Mario and the boys’ tuxes fitted for Noelia’s wedding and ran a few errands after that. Mario dropped off his new truck to get something done at the dealership. Oh, I forgot to mention that. Mario got a 2003 Chevy Silverado about a week ago and John’s taking over payments and keeping our other car, the 2005 Dodge Neon. Our little 1998 Nissan Sentra, our first car ever, we sold to Tommy and Yadira. I’m gonna miss that little shit.
When we went back to pick up the truck I stopped by Ricci’s work to talk to her for a while. She said there’s an opening where she works and she’s going to be manager. Wow. That’s pretty awesome. I told her to keep me informed about everything and hopefully she can get me good hours that’ll work with my schedule.
Mario and I put Alaethia’s swing together that night. She’s been eating her oatmeal cereal ever since!
The next day, Saturday, Mom, Alaethia and I went to town. Since John was off he stayed with the boys. Good thing, too, since it was Mom’s turn to shop for her dress for the wedding and I knew we’d be taking a while.
Our first stop was Goodwill, where I found some pretty cool stuff.
I also found what I like to call an Anemone pillow for the boys’ room and a floating shelf for Alaethia’s toys (that Mario’s still yet to put up!). And I only spent $15! I was disappointed that I hardly found scrapbooking stuff, but oh well.
Our next stop was JC Penny, where, after trying on several arm-fulls of dresses, Mom found a great dress. We next went to Shoe Carnival, where Mother took forever to find something she liked. She ended up getting some bronze-ish colored shoes she only “sort of” likes. I found some white dressy shoes with tiny rhinestones across the strap that I liked and would match my dress perfectly, but the color was a tad off so I decided I’d exchange them. My arms were killing me by the time we were done since I’d been carrying Alaethia around everywhere. I stupidly forgot to put her stroller back in the truck.
We ordered some Taco Bell, I stopped real quick to see Mario and we came home. Felt so good to be home.
That night I accompanied Mary, Jorge, Tommy, Yadira, their kids, Elda, Jose and their kids to Progresso, Mexico to buy the rest of the Crown Royal bottles for Noelia’s wedding. I also took the opportunity to buy my birth control pills (it’s $.60 cheaper than Reynosa, so two packs came out to $10!) and a cute necklace. We ate some tacos at a Taqueria, where Yazmin gave a little boy $5 to sing to us. I felt so bad. I wanted to bring him and all the other little kids I saw working home :(.
Mario and I went to McAllen all by ourselves on Sunday morning. Mom offered to watch the kids so we left them with her. We went to eat at Jesse’s which was awesome. I had shrimp enchiladas. We had a great talk, even though there was some finger pointing on my part about how Mario’s never home, even when he does get out of work early. Hopefully it makes a difference and I wasn’t just talking for nothing!
We went to Payless after that, to see if they had any cute shoes that would actually match my dress. I found some and bought them, and they were only $7.99! We went to Shoe Carnival to return the other ones and then went to Target to get $15 back from a price adjustment on the high chair we’d bought. It always happens that we buy something and it goes on sale a few days later! So, because of the price adjustment and the $5 coupon, we ended up paying $42 for a high chair that originally cost $64!
Alaethia started feeling a little ill on Sunday night, so I took her to the doctor on Monday morning. She woke up with a stuffy nose, and sounded really gargley due to all the congestion in her chest. She caught Eenan’s cold, which I figured would happen since Eenan kept getting near her after he’d cough all over his hands. He kept assuring me he’d washed his hands, but she ended up sick anyway.
They took us in pretty quickly, since there weren’t a lot of people in the office that day. The doctor said she had a bit of bronchitis, so he prescribed some Albueterol for the nebulizer, to continue giving her her cough medicine, and he also gave her some ear drops.
I also went to visit Sally that day and took her Alaethia’s bassinet and Jaylen’s old bouncy. The poor bassinet was becoming a nice place to dump stuff since she didn’t use it anymore so I figured Sally will get better use of it once the baby’s born. We had a good time catching up and then I taught her how to make Fideo :). We sat down and had some and finally, when it was almost 7pm Alaethia and I came home (the boys had been acting up really bad, so Mom was watching them for me. I was afraid they’d destroy Sally’s house!). I got to see Pete for a little bit and then we came home. I actually made it alive! I’m so scared to drive over there because of all the bridges and on-ramps LOL.
So that brings us to now, where I’m trying to get the hang of having all 3 kiddos home all day. This is the first summer with three kids and it’s proving to be a challenge on some days. The boys are finally quiet right now, after having a snack of P&J sandwiches. They were terrible this afternoon. I even took video of them misbehaving to “show” Mario, which quieted them right down!
I don’t know how Kate from Jon and Kate Plus 8 does it–I don’t know how many times I’m going to say that. I hope they continue to air their show when their kids are 4 and up, so I can see how she disciplines them. I sometimes wonder if I’m doing something wrong–my boys are so aggressive lately! I think it’s mostly because they want attention since I’m always with Alaethia.
I finally finished reading Sushi for Beginners by Marian Keyes. Great, great ending! I wasn’t sure I’d like it since the beginning was a little slow, but I couldn’t put it down after the first few chapters. I’ve started on Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince as a refresher for the next book. I can’t wait till it comes out! Well, maybe I can because I need to finish this one and when it does come out that means summer’s almost over, the new school year plus madness will start and I’m quite enjoying these slow days now that the kiddos are feeling better. What a difference not having to pick kids up twice throughout the day makes! My days feel just a tad bit longer, which is a good thing :).
