Flu Claims Another...

As I slept peacefully last night I was a awakened by a clatter at about 1 am. Santa? No. Raegan? No. Cara? No. It was Molly sprinting into the bathroom as if her hair was on fire. Moments later the obligatory sounds waves of a stomach in distress came flowing from the bathroom. So now the flu has taken out yet another member of the Wheaton homestead.

Raegan seems to have recovered this morning. Gavin is doing well so they both went to daycare. God willing they survive the day there without incident. Gavin has 'the runs' and went through an outfit yesterday and went through one this morning just as I was putting him in his car seat. Nasty!

Between Gavin's teething Sunday night; Raegan's puking Monday night and now Molly Tuesday night, I am running on little sleep and a lot of double-shot Lattes from Starbucks.

House of Vomit

Yes, the rumors are true, we are living in the house of vomit.

Poor Raegan got the flu last Tuesday. She threw up at daycare and came home with a horrible fever. That lasted through the night. Luckily the vomiting stopped and only the fever remained. Bob and I decided to keep her home on Wednesday. Since this is the busy time of year for both of us, we split the day. I worked in the morning and he worked in the afternoon. We had a Wheaton family Christmas dinner planned but Raegan and I had to miss it because the last thing any of us want is a sick child at Christmas. Her fever finally broke about 9:00 that night and we were in the clear! She was back to herself on Thursday morning and excited to go back to daycare.

Last night, Bob was snoring so he was sleeping in the basement. Raegan came into our room, which is not unusual. What is usual is putting her right back in her room. Since Bob wasn't there and I was tired, I just threw her in bed with me and we both went back to sleep. About 20 minutes later, she threw up - yes, all over our bed! I got her cleaned up and out in the living room onto a bed of towels and a bowl. This time, she has no fever, just keeps throwing up and is really listless. The second time she threw up was worse! but not out of her mouth. Yes, the poor child really does not feel good! I am already on my second load of "sick" laundry today. Once again, Bob and I are splitting the day. He went to work this morning and I am home with Raegan trying to disinfect the house before I go in this afternoon.

While I was watching her in the wee hours of the morning, I remember someone at work talking about a service that UM offers called Kids Kare at Home. This is for when a child or a daycare provider is sick. They will send either a child care provider or nurse, depending on how sick the child is, to our house at a discounted rate so that both parents can go to work. WONDERFUL!! Except that we are not registered! I called and registered us for next year but hopefully we will never have to use it.

Gavin is 9 months

I took Gavin for his 9 month appointment on Friday - I just can't believe he is so old already! He weighs 18 lbs, 4 oz (25%) and is 29" (75%). He eats SO MUCH that I am really surprised that he didn't weigh more. His check up went well.

He has 5 teeth and is working on more (we were up until 4:15 a.m. last night). I'm hoping they will pop through soon.

His only word is mama, but not for lack of trying! We are all working with him to say dada. All except Raegan that is, who is trying to teach him Raegy!

He crawls like a flash, pulls himself up and is working on walking along furniture. I pulled out a push/walker thing but he doesn't have that figured out yet.

I am just in awe of how sweet he is!

The Greatest Show on Earth!

Raegan experienced the "Greatest Show on Earth" this weekend! Our friends, Myke, Dee& Nathan, had extra tickets to the circus and invited us to go. I made the HUGE mistake of telling Raegan about this a couple of days before we went. Every morning she wanted to go to the circus with Nathan. The day finally came and Raegan was up at 5:30 am ready to go! The good thing was that I got all of our laundry done before Dee picked us up at 8:30.

We took the kids to breakfast at McDonald's before heading to the Palace. Raegan did not want to go to breakfast because she thought that meant she didn't get to go to the circus. Once we got that figured out, she was fine with eating.

After breakfast, we headed to the Palace. We had to stand in line for a while, and Raegan was a maniac! She was dancing around, yelling "look at the ponies" at the flags they had decorating the place. I had to keep telling her to stay by us so we didn't lose her.

Once we were inside, we were able to go onto the floor for some pre-circus activities. The kids were able to try on the costumes, ride the motorcycles & barrel horses, watch the elephants and other acts. I thought that Raegan would freak out by all of this stuff. Boy was I wrong - she LOVED it!! Throughout the whole show she danced in the aisle! I guess the cotton candy and marshmallows I let her have could have played a role in it but since she was spending the night with her Nana and Papa, I let her indulge. She really had a good time and now I can't wait to take her back!

She crashed on the way home!

Major Update!

Ok, I am finally going to update the website! Hopefully there will be enough that Uncle Mike will have a couple of days of reading material and pictures.

Please scroll down to catch up with the Wheaton's over the last month!

Gavin's first ear infection

You may be wondering why in the world I am celebrating Gavin's first ear infection, but when Raegan was this age, we had already had at least three!

Daycare told me on Thursday that he had been tugging on his right ear and they thought he had an infection. I didn't think a whole lot of it since he does tug on his ears a lot (I mean there is a LOT to tug on!). On Friday, he woke up with crusty eyes - YUCK! Throughout Friday the goop kept coming fast and furious. It was also a neon yellow! I probably should have taken him to the doctor on Friday, but I figured he just had a cold. When he woke up this morning, he wasn't any better, so I made an appointment for later this morning. Lo and behold, he has a BACTERIAL eye and ear infection! Not only did he hold off on his ear infections for 8 1/2 months, but he has to go and get a doozy of an infection!

I'm hoping he will feel better soon!

Mamamamamama!

Gavin's first word is Mama!!! Of course we have not been able to catch it on tape yet, but as soon as we do I'll post it here. He said it for Bob long before he said it for me, but he does know what it means now! He will look at me with sad eyes and say "mama, mama, mama" and then lay his head down. It just melts my heart and I pick him up instantly!

The other words in his vocabulary are "BBBBBBBBBBBBBB" like a motor boat, "AAAAAAHHHHHHH" Raegan taught him that and they will scream at each other for an hour! Last night, Bob finally had to put a stop to it and make Raegan move onto a different toy!