Just when you think you're in the clear...
Benjamin was sick again this week. Poor guy had a 104 degree fever for 3 days. We took him in and the pediatrician said he had bronchitis. It's been a couple of days, but Benjamin has definitely perked up with the help of the antibiotic and the albuterol. It was funny to watch him be barely able to stand up...and then about 1/2 hour after the albuterol, he'd be buzzing around the house, dancing to the "Free Credit Report.com" song. The stuff's good though...took out that wheezing and he was finally able to breathe and sleep through the night. Which brings me to my point...
I am so thankful for modern medicine! It feels so helpless to hold your little one late at night while they are burning up with a fever. But I only have to wait 1/2 and hour for the Tylenol to kick in and start bringing the fever down. Should things get out of control, I have the ability to take my child to see the pediatrician any day of the week. If that's not enough, I can take them to an emergency room. It's hard to imagine what our forefathers (and foremothers!) had to deal with. Imagine your child is sick...you listen to the hacking cough as you desperately try to bring down his fever with a cold washcloth. You lie awake, trying to soothe your baby, not knowing whether or not she will make it through the night. Believe me, we have a lot to be thankful for, not the least of which is modern medicine!
Well, we did it. We finally got rid of the bug from our house! To celebrate, we headed off to the zoo for a fun day of discovery.
Even though the weather wasn't perfect (it was overcast, windy and chilly), I think our last trip to the zoo had to have been one of the funnest. Due to the weather, there were very few crowds, and the animals were much more active than I've seen them be on other days. We had so much fun watching the animals and taking pictures...and YES, we steered clear of the lorikeets. ;)
Perhaps one of the most amusing parts of the trip was when we went to the gorilla enclosure. While we were there, I noticed Autumn examining something under one of the benches. Not thinking much of it, I told her to get out from under there. Then, about 20 minutes later, when we were leaving, I noticed a HUGE spider on Ken's hat!! Calling him over, I finally figured out that it was a spider ring on the brim of his hat. Once I called attention to it, Autumn got a big grin and said that she had put it there. The sneaky little booger had snuck the ring from under the bench, put it on Ken's hat without him noticing...and then, with a PERFECT poker face, didn't say anything about it until we FINALLY noticed it ourselves. I'm telling you, we're going to have to keep a close eye on that little girl!!
Oh my, where to begin??!! Looking back, I see it has been well over a month since my last post. Yikes!! And what a time it has been!!
The holidays were not kind to the Knotts family in many fashions. I say that not to bemoan the point or to elicit sympathy. But rather more as a statement that sometimes life takes a rather long turn for the worse, which in the end actually just makes you thankful for the sometimes monotonous drudgery of the "normal" day to day. (Sheesh...looking back over this paragraph, I realize just how much I've needed to engage in some form of adult conversation!!)
Thanksgiving was ok, but rather lackluster due to the absense of our neighbors. It's funny how you don't realize how much you enjoy being around someone until they are gone. We did have a very nice early Thanksgiving dinner on Tuesday, but the girls found it quite boring without the neighbors to play with the rest of the week. We had fun, but it did reinforce the idea of how much our family loves begin with the neighbors. :)
So....moving right along to Christmas. I will admit that Christmas this year was pretty much a fiasco. The break started off with Benjamin coming down with the stomach bug on Wednesday of the week before Christmas. Then pretty much the whole 2 week break one member or the other of the family were barfing their guts out. Yeck!! I also learned that contrary to popular belief, you can indeed contract the stomach flu twice. Trust me, it's not fun! On the bright side, the guest bathroom is cleaner than it has ever been!! Let me tell you, EVER one of the fixtures in that room have been scrubbed within an inch of their lives with bleach!!
Oiii!! So on that note, Christmas itself was a bit of a let down. Ken was sick earlier Christmas Eve, but managed to prop himself enough in the afternoon so that we could open the girls presents. To say they made out like bandits would be an underestimate! The girls (and even Benjamin) had a great time enjoying their gifts on Christmas Eve. Then disaster struck again when I became ill in the wee hours of Christmas day. We left a note for Santa explaining why we didn't leave any milk and cookies. Santa did come and leave a few presents for the girls in their stuffings, but they were disappointed that he hadn't left them any **wrapped** presents **under the tree**. We talked about why Santa couldn't put them under the tree (uhmmm...cuz of that big huge fence we had to put around it because of Benjamin!!) and that we should be thankful for whatever Santa brings us, but I could tell the girls were a little disappointed (mostly Genevieve). Sigh...oh well, I suppose there's always next year.
Anywho, enough of the recapping of our disasterous break... Things seem to be coming along much better now a days, and we're getting back into the swing of school. On the bright side, we're planing on going to the zoo tomorrow to do some research for the paper that Genevieve's going to write on lions. :) Looking forward to some fun times with the family...finally!!
