So Thankful

Obviously, Thanksgiving isn't a holiday in England since the whole breakoff from the British Empire and all, but we still celebrated!

A little different this year since we spent the days leading up to the holiday in the hospital, but last night we sat around the table as a family and that is something to be thankful for! The roast chicken dinner with all the trimmings was brought to us by a friend. A perfect way to illustrate the first thanksgiving to the boys. Others sharing food and friendship. We did our usual bit and went around the table to say what we were thankful for this year. Everyone said that they were thankful that Jeb was home. And he seemed pretty thankful for that too as he smiled, laughed and ate for the first time in 4 days. God is good.

Jeb Back in the Hospital

Last week brought about a cough for Jeb. Jeb has always gotten a cough really easy since his stint in the hospital last year, but this time it seemed different. Off to the GP we went. He was prescribed antibiotics for a chest infection and steroids for bronchiolitis. I thought that we had lucked out - we didn't get sent to the hospital. But, Sunday morning I knew that things were bad when Jeb didn't want to do anything but lay on Tom and he refused to eat.

Off to A&E we went and were sent up to the children's ward immediately. I had no idea how bad he was until drs seemed to swarm him checking his stats every 3 minutes and an instant IV in his arm. The doctors said he had severe pneumonia. So, there Jeb laid with an oxygen mask on his face - he didn't even fight it, he was too exhausted. Then the dr. told us he might be moved to ICU. We were worried, but we wanted to do what was best. Tom left to get the boys from our friends who had watched them all day and the dr. came to tell me the chances of him being moved to Oxford were getting low. "Oxford? For what?" I asked. That is where the ICU is. Dumb me, I ask, "Do I just take him in my car?" The dr looked at me like I was crazy. Nope, he'd have to be intebated, put on a ventilator and taken in an ambulance. I was blown away. THANK GOODNESS his breathing improved.

So, we sat. The first night we had breathing treatments every hour. The next day, he didn't need oxygen, but was still breathing hard. Days ran into each other and now here we are on Thursday, 4 days later. I am a zombie dealing with little sleep. Jeb is ready to go home, but just needs to be watched until this afternoon. We expect him home tonight for a night of peace and quiet. We didn't have a private room - we slept in the middle of the ward with 4 other babies and their mums. I will be glad to be in my own bed tonight. Even more glad when my baby smiles again. It's been too long since I saw the sparkle in his eyes and 6 little teeth. I just want my baby back.

How to Negotiate with a Four Year Old

For the past two years, Aiden has been waking after about three hours of sleep with "mild night terrors." It used to be he didn't know what was going on, but now he knows what is happening and it has turned into a way to get mum into the room. It really is awful to watch and hear and we are pulling our hair out trying to fix it. Tonight I think I may have found the cure.

You see, a few months ago Aiden left his beloved blankie in my room. I took it and he seemed to forget about it, but still asks every once in awhile. Tonight when he woke up I broke. I got blankie out. You should have seen his face - he went from histerical screaming to a beaming angel! One condition. I told him that blankie ran away because she got so scared when he screamed and she is only back because she wants to help him by hugging him when he wakes. He took the bait and went back to bed beautifully. Man, I'm good...I think.

Tom thinks I'm crazy and can't believe that I gave blankie back. Anyone care to place a bet on whether this works? I do have my doubts...don't tell my husband.

He Moves...Finally!

It finally happened. After establishing the rule of "abolutely no one gets anything for Jeb if he screams for it", Jeb decided it was time to move. It's not a normal crawl - it's the army crawl or what they call the "SAS crawl" here. No matter what you call it, I'm glad! Jeb gets around pretty well, but it's not unusual to find him lying in the hallway with his head down and crying - it's just too far to crawl from one side of the house to the other! He is pretty impressed with himself, as you can see in the video. He'll do anything to get to his trains and cars. Check out his cheeky little face as he stops to pose for the camera!

Memories of Scotland

Well, it's been nearly a week since we returned from Scotland and we are still thinking about the fun we had!

I'll start at the beginning - a ten hour drive in mostly rain ending up in Appin, Scotland around 8:00pm. It was pitch black as we drove down the single track road to our desitination - but the sat-map stopped. We kept going and the road ended into what looked like a driveway - 1 mile later we rounded the bend to see not only our farmhouse, but at least a hundred red deer looking at us. The stags were all gathered in our front yard. We asked the caretakers if this was a deer farm - no, they are wild. We didn't see that many deer again that week, but there were about 8 stags that were always around.

The week was full of hiking and we were always in our wellies - though it only rained one morning for us, the sunshine-filled week that we experienced was preceded by 3 weeks of straight rain. So, that leaves mud...and cow manure (we were on a working farm), deer poo, and chicken poo. Every little boy's dream. I sank up to my ankles at times, but Jacob took the brunt of it by sinking up to his knees. Boy, did Aiden think that was funny! (Jacob got the last laugh by finding a deer antler the same day near the spot where he sank!) Our hikes usually didn't last too long, but always brought great views. Our longest hike was up the glen (scottish for "valley") when we completely lost track of time and realized we had hiked for 2 hours one way and it was lunch time. Jeb was upset and Aiden was beyond tired. I ended up carrying him halfway back! In all, Aiden was a trooper hiking at the wee age of 3.

Our excursions outside our farm included a day trip to the Isle of Skye, which gave dramatic views that the kids could have cared less about and about 8 hours in the car (thank goodness for the car ferry ride!) and Loch Ness. Aiden put it best: the monster was sleeping the day we visited. It was still pretty cool to visit the 1400 year castle.

As always, we had some funny moments. How can we not, it's us after all! Here we go:

1. I read the guest book where we stayed on our first night. About 10 entries referred to a ghost that lived there and that he was nice, but loud. I was scared all week - went to bed around 8:30pm since Tom left every night to go on a walk.

2. Cows mooing like crazy! Why? The calves got taken to the market. So sad! But, the market was terrible and they didn't sell - calves back the next day and cows headed back to the hills.

3. When we booked our house, they referred to it being inspirational for the book "Kidnapped" which is about a man that was murdered. When I asked the farmer's wife about it and said, "it's a novel right?" She said, no, they brought his body right back to the house next door! I nearly flipped! (turns out it was 300 years ago!)

4. Aiden fell in the river. Funny after the fact I guess. I obviously wasn't there.

5. Jeb feeding the chickens. He loved it. All the boys did. The chicks began to sit on our kitchen window waiting for us. Hopefully we didn't overfeed them!

6. And finally, we must always have a bathroom story! Once again, 20 minutes from home, Aiden announces that he has to go. Out comes the water bottle. He was hesitant at first, but it worked like a charm with Jacob commenting that he thought maybe he needed to go too...

Beautiful trip, even better memories!

Halloween, well kind of...

Halloween isn't a big celebration around here, but we decided to still get dressed up and carve some pumpkins. As class rep for Jacob's class, I organized a trip to the local farm. The only caviat was that the kids had to dress up and carving was a must. Well, I forgot my camera! But, we did have fun. Many of the adults had either never carved a pumpkin or had done so only once. Many eyes were on Tom. We had such a nice time and it was a nice way to celebrate the holiday, even if it meant no trick or treating.