Where did you go?

In case any of my lovely readers have stuck around, you might be wondering where I have been.  Well first and foremost Owl got mobile and he is into EVERYTHING.  I mean everything.  Destructo was always a trouble maker and still is very high spirited.  But Oliver takes getting into things to a whole new level.  For one his fine motor skills are amazingly refined for his age.  For two he is obsessed with the toilet and throwing things he finds into it which Destructo never found fun.  For three the damn fine motor skills again.  He can unscrew tops to things.  I learned this when he dumped cat litter everywhere.  I didn't know he could do that.  He is also super strong and can push and maneuver things with ease.  Oh and he enjoys climbing.  So I am busy.

Sickness.  I published a post on this already but we have had a lot of illness.  In fact, Kai and Oliver both have colds as I type this.  Owl is going on two weeks with this cold and I am so glad his twelve month well check is this week so I can feel more confident that his lungs and ears are clear.

Sleep deprivation.  Owllie sleeps like a newborn even at a year old.  Yes lovely readers my sweet baby is a year and a week old.  I will be catching the blog up on everything in the next few days/weeks.  I have a whole bunch of pictures to share and will do a post on Owl at ten, eleven, twelve months.  Anyways Owl sleeps like crap.  Destructo has also been waking up/sleep walking/having nightmares or something.  We aren't quite sure what is going on.  We just know that he wakes up at least half the nights of the week sometimes more than once.  

On a good night, I might get woken up twice.  Some nights I am up more than I am down.  A few nights ago I am not kidding when I say the kids had me up six times in eight hours.  I am tired.  So tired.  And I am not really sure what to do about it.  We have tried some cry it out with Owl but he is determined and incredibly loud and it has led to Destructo waking up.  Which leads to my next reason the blog has been silent.

Anxiety.  I have severe anxiety.  I have always been an anxious person.  My entire life.  But at some point in the past year, it got so bad that I could barely function.  I have a lot of OCD tendencies and my doctor thinks I could actually have that (as does the therapist I was seeing.)  Whether I do or not doesn't matter to me as long as I am dealing with my anxiety.  I am going to do an entire blog post on this but I will say I am doing much better after going on Zoloft.  But anxiety is just so exhausting.  Couple that with sleep deprivation and I was not in a good place.  

Finally I have been super busy working doing preschool work with Destructo.  He will start kindergarten a year from this August.  He isn't in preschool now so I am working on getting him ready for school.  I am also working with him on behavior issues and sensory issues.  I have a whole post for this as well but he is going for an occupational therapy evaluation the end of the month and he started speech with the school system a few weeks back.  

So there you have it.  This is why the blog has been silent.  My life has been a bit of a crazy roller coaster ride.  I hope to get back into blogging more regularly since I really miss it.  So if anyone is still around, hi!!

The Wrath of Winter

If anyone notices I have went from a at least once a week but usually numerous times a week poster to nonexistent.  The wrath of winter has struck our house since December.  We have been plagued by so much sickness it isn't even funny.

We have had five colds, three cases of flu, an ear infection, two stomach bugs, and one case of roseola.  That one really threw me for a loop.  Owl had it back in the fall.  I thought for sure Destructo would get it even though the pediatrician said he most likely had already had it since he was 3 1/2.  He was sharing toys, pacifiers, sippie cups with Owl.  And by sharing, I mean he was stealing Owl's stuff and chewing on it.  Sir Lickalot might have even licked Oliver a time or two.

He never got it so I assumed he must have had it sans the rash.  Nope.  Obviously not.  He got sick Sunday morning with a high fever that would disappear during the day and then come back early evening.  This went on for a few days and I finally took him in.  They tested for strep because his throat was a bit red, mono because of the fever and tiredness, and finally took a blood sample to try to see if it was viral or bacterial.  

This was a ton of fun let me tell ya.  He quite literally was foaming at the mouth because he was so upset that they had to take blood.  Not when they took blood.  He found that interesting.  But the thought that they were going to.  It took me and a nurse to hold him down while another nurse took the blood.  Now he finds it fascinating.  He wants a microscope for his birthday to look at a blood sample.  I love love love my little science dork.

Anyhow the results came back with a super low white blood cell count and neutraphils (and I have no clue if I spelled that right and am too tired to Google it.)  They assumed it was viral.  Fast forward to today and lo and behold and he breaks out in a rash.  Joy.  But at least we know it isn't something serious because we were all a bit worried since the fevers were weird.

I am so tired because in addition to all this sickness, sweet dear little Owl is a teething, cranky beast of a clingon.  He screammmssss if I so much as get two feet away from him.  He screams in the car because I don't let him drive on my lap and oh my gosh he isn't touching me right this very second ahhhhhh it is the end of the world as he knows it.  So much screaming today.  And waking up.  And screaming.  And... well you get the picture.

I just pray that spring is nicer to us because I am OVER winter and sickness.  Someone send me Lysol in bulk.  Ugh.

Colored Snow

I forced Destructo to go out and play in the snow today.  He wasn't thrilled because video games are far more exciting than snow the third or fourth time this year.  We live in the South so snow is so exciting the first time and even second.  But we have had more snow than no snow lately so he was resistant to being outside.

I took spray bottles, filled them with water, and added a few drops of food coloring to each one.  Destructo had a blast spraying the snow and making it colored.  He experimented with mixing different colors and seeing what color resulted.  Of course I didn't think to take pictures of this.  Try it with your kiddos though.  I bet they love it as much as Kai did.  

Check out my awesome artistic bird house picture and adorable kid in the snow pics.

Anxiety

I haven't touched on anxiety a whole lot on this blog.  I have been suffering from quite nasty anxiety for awhile now.  Since I was pregnant with Ollie.  But that is another blog post all together.  But I wanted to share this blog post I stumbled on the other day.  It is the most beautifully written blog post about anxiety I have ever read.  Check it out.

http://www.thebettermom.com/2014/03/16/dear-mom-battling-anxiety/