Our weekend was full this weekend. Ethan and I went to our friend’s first birthday party. Ethan had a blast swimming and bouncing. Happy Birthday Andy! Ethan and I then went to tour the HGTV Green Home in PSL. Ethan was not happy about having to wear booties over his shoes and kept asking to leave. Ethan and George finished putting the bunk beds together. He was so excited you’d think it was Christmas morning! He got to sleep on it last night. The bunk beds came with some damage from shipping so we are waiting on some replacement pieces. When George called the furniture store about the damage, Ethan was in tears because he thought he’d have to send back the bunk beds:(

After picking Ethan up from school today, we made the long drive south and west to an ENT for Ian. (the same one who removed Ethan’s adnoids). Ian absolutely hated the hearing test, I’m suprised they were able to determine anything (his hearing is fine). He wasn’t happy about seeing the doctor either. The dr. said everything looks okay now with his ears. He also decided to take a look at Ethan since he was there anyway and said his sinus’s look good (but did say that his tonsils are really big but gave no further explanation). I had noticed that since Ethan had his surgery that he is really sensitive to smells, even ones we don’t notice ourselves. I aske the dr. if it were possible for Ethan’s sense of smell to improve because of the surgery and he said yes. I believe that Ethan has actually discovered for the first time that he even has a sense of smell so another positive side effect of sinus surgery:)

It’s been raining so much lately, though the past few days it’s only been in the afternoon. I mentioned in a previous post that we had to come up with some fun indoor activities since we couldn’t swim or play outside. The other day Ethan and I worked on an obstacle course in the living room. Ethan even drew his plan out on paper for how the course would go. We had tunnels to crawl through, pillows to jump over, a basketball to throw into a plastic bin, and more. Ethan kept changing it up to make it more interesting. I didn’t fit too well through the end table I turned into a tunnel:)

George had to work today so we got together with some friends. I am proud to say that I took the kids to the beach, yay me! I’m glad that we did meet friends there because Ian didn’t want to have anything to do with the beach so Ethan was able to go into the water with our friends. I don’t think Ian even liked the sound of the ocean as he kept covering his ears. I actually remembered to bring sand toys but he didn’t play with them much (unless throwing sand is considered playing:) Ethan had a great time, I even got a picture of him jumping and dancing on the beach:)

We ordered the boy’s bunkbeds a few weeks ago and they are expected to arrive on Tuesday. It was hard to narrow down the best bed among the thousands that are out there. We decided we wanted the one with the most storage and found one out of a kids furniture store at the Mall of America. It is a twin over twin with a trundle under the bottom bunk. Under the trundle are drawers. We plan to use both the trundle and the drawers for toy storage. I also found some cute firetruck quilts for both beds. After 9/11 it was easy to find lots of hero/firetruck related items but lately there are few to choose from. I didn’t want to spend a fortune and I didn’t want one that was too cutsie (like with dalmations) so that they would like it for a while. The amount of time it takes to research and find an item with the best price and the best quality takes forever. Several times I had to stop myself and say “what am I doing? None of this has any eternal significance.” I can only hope they really enjoy the room and have fond memories of playing in their own fire station.

Ian slept the longest he’s ever slept this morning, almost 12 hours. I guess he’s making up for lost time the past few weeks of little sleep and short naps. I spent a lot of time thanking God for the extra rest he provided for both of us:) It looks like Ian’s working on getting his 2yr. old molars so he will be suffering for a while. He seems to have more trouble with teething than I remember Ethan having. Thankfully there’s only 4 left to come in.

The sinus infection I had before we left on vacation is still kicking my tail. It’s been over three weeks now of extreme exhaustion, dizziness and lightheadedness (trying driving a car like that-it’s fun:), sinus pressure and headaches, ears hurting and ringing, congestion, coughing and last but not least, asthma. It’s been made worse by all the dust here and I am very bad about using my inhaler. Eventually I’ll have to go in again to the doctor but I know they’ll put me on Prednisone which I’d rather not have. And so the reason I’m posting this is because Ian was up for two hours in the middle of the night and I’m really feeling knocked down. And did I mention that my husband is working a 48 hr. shift? As one of my friends says, “Oy!”

Actually rainy days. It’s been raining here for at least a week and it’s getting old. It means we’re stuck inside which is never a good idea for two active boys. This morning I covered the kitchen floor with huge pieces of architect’s drawing paper (thanks Marilyn!) and the boys colored for a while. While Ian was sleeping, we painted some t’shirts. Ethan has been asking for a while for me to make him another super hero shirt. (I did one of Superman about a year ago and gave him a red pillow case for a cape). Ethan had previously drawn the design he wanted on the shirt and came up with a name for his superhero. (superhero’s are big with preschool boys). So his hero is called Light Ethan. He painted a lightning bolt on it and said that the colors on his shirt light up when there is a problem that people need his superhero help for. I painted one for Ian and called him Lightning Ian. Now we only need one for George and one for me and we’ll be the Incredibles!

Yesterday Ian got me up at his usual bright and early time of 5am. George has no sympathy for my pain, since he also gets up at that time. (I should note that he does not go and get Ian and let me sleep a little while longer unless its the weekend). It amazes me that Ian can sleep 9 hours or less at night and only take a 2hour nap. I think I requre more sleep than he does. It doesn’t help that two of my allergy and asthma meds make me drowsy so I have a really hard time waking up in the morning. Despite the early waking, we had a good day. I’m still working on organizing and getting things back out of the living room and into the bedrooms. The dust continues to hover however and I had a problem with my asthma yesterday. The lady who cleans for me every other week dusted thoroughly but it’s still here. I think it’s all over our clothes in our closets. Last night, George and I went to dinner and a movie. It was so nice to get out together, eat at our fav restaurant and enjoy a movie. It was also nice that once I left the house I could breathe. Pretty ironic that we got the floors put in because of our allergies and having them put in is causing allergic reactions for Ian and I!

Ian had an ear infection a couple of weeks ago and the past few nights he’s been waking up screaming in the middle of the night. He’s also been pulling on his ears, saying “ow, ear.” I took him in again and he doesn’t yet have an infection but does have fluid in his ears. With all the dust we have around the house, its no wonder. We haven’t yet put everything back in it’s place from when the floors were put in and there is dust everywhere. I know I’ve been more congested so we’re guessing that the fluid in his ears is related to allergies. The pediatrician recommended we take him to an ENT. She said with a smile, “you have an ENT don’t you?” “Ha Ha, we actually have two,” I responded.