The month of July - a work in progress

I thought for all of our amusement I would run through the month of July as it went down for the Au family. I won't wait till the end of the month cuz by that time I will probably be sick and forget to post.



1- Visit with Grandparents - lots of fun!


2- Grandma and Grandpa take us to Scandia, our local mini amusement park.

3 - Drive to Long Beach to celebrate a fabulous birthday with one of my favorite cousin's daughter, also to drop my Mom off so she could fly out of that airport the next day.

4 - Go to Church in the morning, watch fabulous fireworks from our neighborhood, with our actual neighbors!

5- Say good bye to my Dad as Eddie drives him into LAX

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7 - Pioneer school, we made barbie outfits out of brown paper bag (to resemble buckskin clothes)

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10- Attend our buddy Owen's baptism, beautiful day with his beautiful family.
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12 - Centex Homes Reps and an A/C technician come to see if they can figure out the loud buzzing sound that occurs in the wall of the babies' room when we turn on the AC. They cut a large hole on the wall, push the AC pipes around and determine that they cannot figure out the loud buzzing sound, but will send someone to fix the wall on Friday

13 - Pediatrician for the twins, Eddie has other commitents, I get to take all 5 kids. Both babies have made it onto the growth chart, Amalia has a slight fever so she can't get her vaccinations, AJ has a little rash on his face that "might be" heat rash.

14 - Ella and Nina's check ups, Eddie is working, I get to take all 5 kids along, again. Both girls are doing fine, though Ella may never pass the 50 lb mark, Amalia still has a fever and has now developed the signs of an ear infection, starts antibiotics. Downstairs A/C unit is blowing suspiciously warm air.

15 -Temperature outside hits 103, AJ's rash now includes his arms and thighs, downstairs air conditioner is blowing hot air, same A/C tech from Monday comes out, determines we are low on coolant. We either have a leak or they never filled it full when the house was built in November. Can' t find the leak, but assures me it isn't related to the exploration on the 12th.

16 - Dry-wall repair guy comes out to fix the wall, when he opens the dry wall a distinct hissing sound is heard, opens a bigger section to reveal a nail from the baseboard has pierced the coolant line, which is smaller than my pinky but just happened to be the in the exact place that someone decided to shoot a finishing nail, two cm above the protective flashing. the nail is extracted, and the results may be seen in the following video clip.

Many hours later the coolant line is fixed, the drywall is repaired and primed.

Many loads of laundry later and the loads of clean laundry I had in baskets on the bed are once again clean.

17 - Dry wall repair guy returns to paint the wall and wipe everything from wall to wall to ceiling down in order to remove the plaster dust etc.

18- Eddie, Ella, and Liana are all ill, Nina the babies and I go to church without them. I am teaching a lesson and AJ chooses that time to realize that the nice lady who was holding him, was not me, he screamed in the hallway during the last 5 minutes.

19 - My fabulous husband took the 2 oldest girls to the dentist. Good news? We have dental insurance. Bad news? Ella's teeth are all growing in behind the baby teeth instead of under them, she has to go back in two weeks to have 5 extractions. Her 2nd grade pictures are gonna be cute!

20 - Liana's physical, all 5 kids go together back to the pediatrician, then hurry to the Library for story time.

21 - Pioneer school, but I can't remember what we did, it was all so long ago.

22 - Everyone is feeling well, the weather wasn't too hot, so we went to the park. We had to leave early to get drop of Ella, Nina, and AJ with Eddie who was home sick, so I could return to the Pediatrician for Amalia's vaccinations and have Liana's TB test checked. The visit went fine and I called Eddie to see if he needed anything on the way home, only to find that Nina had come up with a fever, later confirmed to be 102 F.

23 - Nina's fever seemed to be improving, so I put her down for a nap and as the babies were happy I snuck off to Costco, half way through my shopping list Eddie calls to report that all 5 children are crying. I hurry home to relieve my poor ailing husband.

Later that day as I was settling the babies down for the night, Nina reawakens and has another high fever, so with a prayer that the others would stay down, Nina and I head off to urgent care, returning home at 1:30 in the morning with a prescription for antibiotics.

24 - Happy Pioneer Day! As referenced previously, we have been having pioneer school this summer to keep the big girls actively engaged in learning. The activity at our local church building was to be one of 2 culminating events, they had booths of crafts and activities for people of all ages, we had fevers and sore throats for children of most ages. Nina didn't feel like eating anything and had to be coaxed into drinking anything, Ella woke up coughing, Liana went to bed with a fever. Eddie returned to work in spite of his lingering illness.

25- Liana's fever worsens, Eddie takes her to urgent care, infected tonsils = antibiotics.

For those of you keeping count that's 4 members of the family on antibiotics at the same time.

26- Ella and Amalia wake up at 4:00 AM with fevers, Amalia is done with her antibiotics, ear check at the Dr's reveals no sign of infection, ergo, this is something new. Ella however has signs of infection, antibiotic count rises to 5.

On the upside Eddie bought us a laptop, there is a direct corrolation between that purchase and the posting of this blog, now I can write and supervise the sick ward at the same time.

27 -Back to the peditrician Amalia's ear is infected and she is on a new antibiotic. AJ wakes up from his afternoon nap with a fever.

28 - Everyone wakes up without fever, a cause for celebration. Pediatrician calls, as suspected Strep is at least one of the causes of our woe.

Insomniaaaaaaargh

Insomnia is something I know something about, especially during pregnancy.

It sounds redundant but if I can sleep through the night, I can usually sleep through the night.
There are however many things that prevent me from sleeping through the night, the following are but a representation of the many:

1-children in my house. Sick children, who may need medicine, or a cool compress etc. Silly children who need to use the restroom but can't remember that that is the reason they are awake. Little children who lose a necessary comfort object in the darkness and cannot find it on their own. Ah yes, my beautiful children, I am often heard to mutter in the darkness "It's a good thing you are cute, cuz otherwise we might not all survive this.

2-children in my body. Wiggly children that like to move around when I lay down, two of them already vying for the "sweet spot" where they can kick either my bladder, hips, or stomach. Hungry children that cause me to wake up at 3:00 in the morning starving as though I haven't eaten in days.

3-Snoring - sometimes my own, and sometimes that handsome man who sleeps with me, actually I don't think the snoring wakes me, it just keeps me awake.

4- Acid reflux - sometimes as a result of blows to my stomach but more often in response to the foods I eat, (tomatoes and pregnancy just don't work for me.)

5- Chihuahuas with laryngitis - I don't actually know the breed of this dog in our neighborhood, and since it has had the same strangely hoarse yap for the past 2 or 3 years it probably isn't laryngitis, but it does go on rants, sometimes for hours. I am not exaggerating, Hubbie and I have both been woken by this neighborhood beast and clocked it barking at 5 second intervals for more than 1 hour, I drifted off to sleep and woke up an hour and a half later to find the animal still barking.

6- impending change - the two weeks after we found we were having twins I often lay awake in my bed trying to imagine how we ill accomplish our daily and weekly tasks and schedules. I'm still not totally sure, but that doesn't keep me up much anymore, of course thinking of baby names fills the void of things to lie awake contemplating.

Some have suggested that pregnancy insomnia is preparation for the weeks of sleeplessness after the birth of a new child. I cannot refute this idea, only sigh at the thought of 3 more months of preparation.

Before you rush to offer me insomnia solutions please rest assured (like the pun?) that I have tried many, refused some, and remain resigned to my fate. Currently my favorite remedy is a small bowl of ice cream, a TUMS chaser, and an hour or two at my computer, if nothing else, this experience leads me to blog, and to check Facebook more than once a week.

What kind of sick person are you?

Recently, here in our lovely home, we underwent a string of coughs, colds, ear infections etc. etc. etc. Even I who rarely actually come down with illness in my adult years caught a cold which didn't hurt but diminished my speaking voice to a hoarse whisper (not of course to be confused with the horse whisperer, a movie I didn't understand getting the attention it did.)

Now that we are all relatively on the mend (only two more days of antibiotics left for Liana) I am reflecting on my children and their personalities, and trying to remember what I was like as a child.

I know I was a dramatic child inside, when I was little I envisioned coming down with some mystery ailment that would be tragic yet beautiful. I always felt guilty if I had to wake my mom in the night because I had done something silly (like throw up on my pillow), so I would dream of an illness so terrible that it would justify the care I needed and everyone would feel sorrow and pity for me, and give me constant attention.
As I grew up I became more of an escapist, I wanted to read or watch TV, not talk or be with people. This worked against me, as I usually get sick only at important times, when I am actually supposed to be the center of any attention, like during the run of a show where I actually had speaking lines, or of course, right before my wedding.
I like to deny being sick as well, I remember in High school waking up to realize my left eye was swollen shut and saying to myself, I just need to splash a little cold water on my face and I'll be fine The pictures of that show tell a different swollen pink-eye story. When I was doing a run of Romeo and Juliet" in Thousand Oaks, I had laryngitis, I couldn't talk all day, but somehow thought I would be fine once the curtain went up. Of course I started coughing so badly in one scene, where I was supposed to be crying, that the actress playing the nurse actually left the stage and brought me back water and held me patting my back as I finished out my dialogue. (the local reporter thought it was planned and actually mentioned it favorably in his review -go figure, maybe if I had been sick more I would have landed more roles!)

In my current role as Mother I don't get to be sick, oh sure I may not feel well, but it seems unless my own Mommy is visiting I don't have the luxury of lolling around in my bed or on the couch. Those places are usually crowded with small people of mixed ages needing their noses wiped, or warm juice to drink (yuck!)
My girls seem to deal with illness differently, one is a drama queen, pointing out any little scratch and fretting about it constantly, even if it turns out to be marker, or a piece of food. One likes to shut down, and sit there, staring around her with soulful eyes not wanting to leave, but not wanting to participate in conversation etc. Then there is the baby who is so sweet I didn't even know she had an ear infection till the doctor told me at her routine check up. The amazing thing is, even though I get tired I never resent giving them the kind of attention they need, I realize I didn't need to feel guilty for waking my mom, it was part of her job.

So I am curious, what kind of sicko are you? If you are ill, what comforts you?