NKN: No Kids November {Part Two}

Part Two of my “No Kids November” series includes three fun dinners out. Among adults. With adult beverages. And adult conversation. I love my kids, but…..winning.

1. Thanks to Nola and Nopsi, Kenny and I were able to attend the latest NORC dinner two Fridays ago. I am so glad they offered to babysit because dinner was in a very special location: The House of Blues Foundation Room.

 

You normally have to be a member to dine there, but thanks to our friend Jacque (who happens to be the Foundation Room sales director), twenty-five members of NORC were specially welcomed in for the night. It was supposed to be 26, but Jacque actually got really sick earlier that day and couldn’t join us. Boo.

 

The space is incredible and so very New Orleans. There is one main dining room, as well as a bar/lounge area. The food was fantastic, and we even hung around afterwards for one more drink. So nice being among our friends. Now that most everyone has kids, we don’t get together nearly enough.

Thanks, Lizzie and Jacque, for making this awesome night happen!

2. Less than a week after NORC, Kenny and I got together with Ashley and Greg again, this time at the Commander’s Palace Chef’s Table.

 

All of us had experienced it previously but decided in the spring that we wanted to go again. So we booked one of the only dates they had open around our birthdays (Ashley’s is two days after mine) and called it a grand celebration.

We actually had the same waiter taking care of us from both of our previous visits (Argyle, who actually is about to become a published author….he wrote a book about the history of beer in New Orleans!), but our chef (Chris) was new to all of us.

 

The experience was a wonderful one, but Kenny and I agreed that, although still very good, we liked the food from our earlier visit better than this time. However, we did get to taste their homemade andouille that a sous chef was working with towards the end of the night. Greg asked Chris what it was, and I asked Chris if we could taste it. He delivered.

Thanks for wanting to spend an evening with us, Ash and Greg. We had so much fun with y’all.

3. Then, two nights after the Chef’s Table (and in the midst of all the sickness), Ashley, Bridget, Karen and I went to Mizado Cocina for a girls dinner. It’s a new restaurant by the people behind Zea, one of our favorite places. The food was good, but I won’t be in a huge hurry to go back. But the carnitas was tasty and we did love the complimentary roasted chickpeas they brought out at the beginning.

After dinner, I wasn’t quite ready to go home to a houseful of sleeping boys, so I ended up meeting my brother for a beer (or two) at our old stomping grounds, the Bulldog. Fun times.

And thus ends the NKN series. However, the holiday season is officially in full swing, and I feel certain there will be many more memorable moments to come.

Keep coming back, y’all. Keep coming back.

Video Tuesday: Jam. Crackle. Jump.

I recently realized it was high time for some new entertainment for the little one, so I pulled out the music table and set it up at Rory’s level. He promptly bashed it with his red snake and jammed out to the music.

  

As I mentioned in his 8 month post, Rory has also become fascinated with crackly things. I gave him the empty wrapper of a York peppermint patty one afternoon last week, and he played with it for almost a half hour.

 

But Rory’s favorite thing to do lately is jump. Whenever he stands up in my lap these days, he starts jumping and it’s all I can do to hold him steady so he doesn’t keel over. And when I put him in his jumperoo, watch out: he’s a maniac in that thing.

Happy Tuesday!

An Unfortunate Diagnosis {Rory}

“No, don’t do that Mama. He doesn’t like it!”

Those were Riley’s words when I was using the bulb syringe on Rory one day last week. He was very concerned about his brother’s well-being and didn’t like it one bit that I was the cause of the little one screaming.

 

I first realized that Rory wasn’t feeling his best when I heard him cough last Monday. He sounded like a barking seal, which I knew wasn’t good. However, Riley has been a little snotty and coughing off and on for almost a month now (thank you, school), so I figured it was inevitable that Rory pick it up too.

 

Rory wasn’t getting any better as the week progressed, so I took him in to see Dr. N on Thursday afternoon. We chatted about his symptoms, and then she looked him over. She said she didn’t hear any of the telltale wheezing that is associated with something called RSV, but she decided to swab his nose anyway to be on the safe side. She said we’d have the results in about 10 minutes, but she was back in less than 5, reporting that the swab turned positive almost instantly.

 

RSV stands for respiratory syncytial virus, and, although quite common in the winter months for all ages, can be very serious in young infants because of the risk of pneumonia. However, Dr. N quickly said that Rory is old enough and fat healthy enough not to be too concerned. It’s just like he has a bad cold: low-grade fever, runny nose (read: so. much. snot.), cough, decreased appetite, and generally feeling and looking yucky.

 

Dr. N said he would probably get a bit worse before he got better, and that proved to be true. But we’re doing everything we can for him: giving him a homeopathic cough and cold medicine a few times a day, running the humidifier whenever he sleeps, using Vick’s on his chest at night, and suctioning his nose frequently. Dr. N also prescribed two additional treatments: a once-a-day dose of an antibiotic to protect the lining of his lungs and nebulized albuterol 2-3 times a day.

A nurse showed me how to give Rory his first breathing treatment in the office (and we were given a machine to take home). Even though she warned me he would not like it, I wasn’t quite prepared for how hard he cried. He plumb wore himself out. However, the good news is, with every successive treatment, he has gotten more and more used to the process.

Riley, on the other hand, is still very concerned about his baby brother. So. Sweet.

Dr. N said that RSV usually lasts between 7 and 10 days. This all started last Monday, so we’re hopefully almost done with it. Rory continues to improve every day, and I’m certain he’ll be completely back to my normal, smiling, happy boy very soon.

On the other hand, the virus is extremely contagious, so I’m just crossing my fingers that none of the rest of us get it. (Kenny has actually been out of commission since last Wednesday night with nasty stomach issues. But as of yesterday morning, he was feeling much better, too.) I’m hoping the fact that our kitchen counter looks like a mini pharmacy right now will improve our chances, but you never know.

Dr. N also said that since Rory contracted the RSV so young there is a chance he’ll develop asthma later in life because of it. Recent research shows a clear connection between the two. And, even if he doesn’t develop asthma, there’s a very good chance some of the symptoms of the virus will rear their ugly heads every time he gets a cold. Super.

Needless to say, it has been a very long few days. But we’re all doing okay, and I’m just hoping we’re in the clear by the time Thanksgiving arrives on Thursday.

Mama needs her turkey and stuffing. And potatoes and bread. And green beans and cranberries. And pie. And wine. All the wine.

School Days: PK3 Months Two and Three

Riley’s second two months of PK3 have gone really well. He still tells me most mornings that he doesn’t want to go to school, but he doesn’t cry and he doesn’t fight going into his building once we get there. He also tells me a lot that he wants to be in PK4 so he can go to school in the big building and ride the big rides at the fair. Sweet boy.

The themes they learned about over the past two months were “Family Fun,” “All Kinds of Families", “Places We Go,” “People We Meet: Community Helpers,” “Things That Move,” “Our Community: Going Green,” “Awesome Animals,” and “Animal Homes.”

They learned about letters “D” through “K.” They worked on counting and sorting objects, patterns, recognizing numerals, and ordering objects by size and length. They learned about simple maps and position words. In religion, they learned about the Ten Commandments, what a sin is, baptism, the importance of good citizenship, prayer, forgiveness, and how to love others as God loves us.

They made green eggs to celebrate the letter “E.” They played a Thanksgiving counting game and an animal matching game. They painted with cars. They went on a treasure hunt and a nature walk.

Kenny and I had a parent-teacher conference with Ms. Amanda on November 4. We chatted for a few minutes about how Riley is doing, and she ultimately said he’s doing great. Since he’s one of the youngest, our main concern was his social development, but she said he’s interacting with the other kids just fine. I also spied my Riley-bean’s school picture hanging on her bulletin board next to her desk while we were there.

 

Oh, and when I went to help decorate the fair booth a few weeks ago, I spoke with Ms. Jean, one of Riley’s PE teachers. She said he’s so funny since he comes into class and immediately tells her, “I’m gonna sit right here and wait for Mama.” But she did say that when he sees all of the fun the rest of his class is having with the animal bean bags or hula hoops, he gets up and joins in.

 

He comes home singing all kinds of little songs. My favorite one is “all day and all night, the angels are watching over me, my Lord.” So sweet.

 

Every once in awhile he’ll come home with a little sticker on his shirt or his hand because one of his teachers “caught him being good.” I love this little practice. It’s such a great way to praise good behavior and make the kids feel special.

I learned that Riley shares his goldfish with Alcee, the girl who sits next to him at lunch, and he even requested that I send her some goldfish of her own. Twice. So cute. And he talks about Claire (his partner) and Aiden all the time at home. He also told me that Kolston helped him get up when he fell outside one day.

  

He came home one day back in September telling me, “I’m a bad guy.” This scared me at first, until Kelli told me the kids must have been playing good guys vs. bad guys during recess outside. Whew! Although, why couldn’t he be a good guy???

 

I also learned that Riley and some of the other kids like to play in the mulch outside, even though Ms. Amanda tells them not to. He comes home quite dirty most days. (Whoever decided that school uniform shirts should be white must have been out of their mind.) He has also had a handful of potty accidents the past two months, mostly because he doesn’t tell Ms. Amanda in time when they’re playing outside.

They went to two more all-school masses, had a popsicle day, learned the hokey pokey and their fair dance in PE class, got treats from the Grandparents’ Club one day, and visited the book fair.

They even had a visit from a fire truck for Fire Safety Week. (Riley was actually home sick the day before and I was crossing all of my fingers and toes that he wouldn’t miss seeing the truck. He didn’t!)

 

 

They colored lots of pictures, completed lots of art projects, and had lots of treats for various birthday celebrations. (He often comes home with a very dirty face.) Many of the projects must still be at school, but I know they’ve painted pumpkins and created special hats for Halloween, as well as made family finger puppets; “Ff” fans; paper plate elephants, pumpkins, turkeys, and jellyfish; paper igloos; and pilgrim/Indian hats.

 

They were assigned two take-home projects. The first was to make a family collage, which we did in the beginning of October. And the second was just this week, when he had to pick a disguise for Timmy the Turkey so he wouldn’t get eaten on Thanksgiving. He chose to dress Timmy up as a rainbow giraffe.

 

Riley also knows the “Our Father” prayer and can recite the days of the week and the months of the year. See?

We also finally received his first official school picture back in mid-October. How cute is my boy???

Today is the PK3 Thanksgiving Potluck Party and then they are off all next week. The end of the semester is going to be here before anyone knows it!