Long Day

I'll get to sharing more photos tomorrow.

Yesterday morning Henry was clingy and sleepy and feverish. I knew something was wrong when my very busy boy only wanted me to hold him. I took him into our doctor who said he had croup and a sinus/nasal infection. So he gave us prescriptions for an antibiotic and a steroid. Luckily he was already acting more like himself by nighttime and this morning he seemed fine. I am thankful for medicine!

Today was a long day to be sure. I woke up at my usual 6 am, got dressed and started a load of laundry. We had family prayer and scripture study. Then I made the kids breakfast and put together their lunches while they got ready for school, and then we rushed out the door. I picked up the two boys we carpool and drove Ryland and Kenyon to their middle school, dropped the elementary kids off at their school and came home. (I do this exact routine every single school day.) After Tim was finished dropping Sahara and Beth off at the high school, he and I took Henry on a quick walk around our neighborhood.

After the walk, I ate a little breakfast, put together a thought to share with the ladies I visit teach for church and got Henry dressed. We went visiting teaching for a couple of hours. It was lunchtime when we were finished, so Henry and I went to McDonald's and shared a Big Mac and french fries. Henry loves french fries. And that boy can eat a lot of food when he wants to! I had to go to Costco so that I could get some things we'd run out of, as well as the things I needed to make Sahara's Adoption Day dinner.

After Costco, we came back home, unloaded the groceries and put them away (with Tim's help!) and then Henry wanted to cuddle with me and his favorite blankie and a bottle. He fell asleep, I laid him down on our bed and started working on putting together shipments for Tim's business while Henry snoozed. At 2:40 pm, I woke Henry up and we went to get the kids from junior high/elementary school. Tim had left about 10 minutes before us so that he could pick Kenyon up from school and take him to basketball camp.

While I was waiting in the carpool lane to pick the kids up, I talked on the phone to Sahara and Beth to see how their days had went (they ride the bus home unless they get a ride from their cousin). Beth's was uneventful and Sahara apparently passed out at school. I thought it was her usual vasovagal syncope stuff, but it wasn't. She was in weights class and smashed her pinky finger on some weights. It started bleeding badly and she got woozy from the blood and fainted. I swear that girl is so accident-prone. These weird things always happen to her. And her finger looks horrible. While I was talking to her, she was getting ready to go running with her cousin, Brandon. So, anyway, I picked up the kids and we returned home. I had the kids watch Henry while I finished up the shipments for Tim's business.

At 5 pm, I started making Sahara's Adoption Day dinner. Her actual Adoption day is tomorrow, but since it is also Henry's birthday, we decided to celebrate today. For birthdays and Adoption Days I always let the kids pick what to have for dinner and dessert. We have a couple of situations where Adoption Days and birthdays happen to fall on the same day, so we celebrate a day earlier or a day later so each kid gets special treatment. (Sahara has her Adoption Day on Henry's birthday and Claire has her Adoption Day on Esther's birthday.) Sahara chose chicken salad sandwiches (on croissants) and tomato bread (kinda like a fancy pizza with fresh tomatoes cooked on top--so yummy). I made everything from scratch, as I like to do. I had to go pick Kenyon up from basketball camp during all of this cooking, as Tim was stuck in traffic coming back from the post office.

I got Kenyon and came home to finish dinner. We ate dinner and then had dessert, which was a Costco cheesecake (delicious!) with homemade berry compote on top.

I got all of the younger kids showered and in bed, put away dinner/dessert and then Henry, Beth, Sahara and I went to Target, Payless and Rue 21. The girls wanted to do a little shopping and I needed to get Henry's birthday presents. I let him look at and touch the toys and then I bought a couple of them that he seemed to enjoy. I also bought him two outfits, even though he doesn't need anymore clothes, just because it's fun. ;-) While I was testing out a ball at Target for Henry, it bounced much higher than I thought it would and landed on the next aisle. A mom and her kids happened to be walking by and the ball came by them but didn't hit any of them. The mom was not happy with me and said something about, "You almost hit my kid." Oops. I guess I shouldn't be throwing balls around stores, eh? ;-)

When we were done shopping, Henry fell asleep on the drive home. I laid him in bed, had Ryland lay next to him so that he would be safe while I did the last load of laundry for the day and got Henry's nighttime bottles made up (and put in an ice bucket that I bring upstairs every night) and my water cup (gotta have water to drink through the night). I got ready for bed and here I am! Phew! I am so tired. ;-) But thoroughly happy, too.

And tomorrow ... tomorrow is my baby boy's very 1st birthday! I cannot believe Henry will be 1 tomorrow! We're going to have a fun day. I suspect much of our day will take place exploring outdoors, as that is what Henry loves doing best.