Best laid plans…

 

I had grand plans for December. I had all sorts of Christmas activities planned for the kids. I wrote them all out on these little slips of paper:

And carefully planned what days we would do what and put them in our new advent calendar:

 

And then December hit.  Well, actually November hit. And it hit with a vengeance. It all started the Friday before Thanksgiving.  I took Hud to urgent care. He wasn’t feeling 100% and had been exposed to strep, so I wanted to make sure he was okay.  Well, he had a sinus infection.  One zpack prescription later, we headed home.  Meanwhile, I took Harper in the day before Thanksgiving for the same symptoms. Hers was just a cold.  Hud didn’t seem to improve over the holiday. So, I took him back to the doctor (the allergist this time). The sinus infection was still there and so we got a prescription for a stronger zpack.  In the meantime, Harper had her one year well-check. She still wasn’t over her cold, so I postponed her shots a week. (If you are keeping track we are at 4 doctor visits now).  A week later I took Harper back for her shots.  that afternoon I picked Hud up from school and could tell he didn’t feel well at all.  That night he had a low-grade fever. We stayed home the next day and laid low. Doctor visit #5 happened the next day.  His chest was clear but, he was obviously sick. The doctor was hesitant to put him on another antibiotic, as was I.  By the weekend, he was not improving at all and coughed so hard that he vomited.  I took him to the oncall doctor that weekend (#6) and he had developed pneumonia. :( We left with yet another antibiotic prescription and went home for more rest.  Today (Wednesday) Hud finally seemed on the mend.  So, of course Harper started acting off.  She spiked a fever (which I attributed to the MMR vaccine last week because it takes 7 to 10 days to show up). But, also had a lot of congestion and other symptoms.  So, off we went to urgent care (doctor visit number SEVEN since November 18th. Seven. Se-ven). And she has an ear infection. :( Her first.  So, we have yet ANOTHER prescription and both kids will be on antibiotics for Christmas.  In the midst of all this my dad has been in and out of the hospital (but is doing fantastic now and it is truly a Christmas miracle) which has added to an already stressful season. I am praying that we have all of the sickness behind us and that we can enjoy what is left of the Christmas season.  And I am saving my slips of paper in the hopes that next year we will be able to do them all.

We did check one off of the list.  Campout by the Christmas tree: