Sick, sick, sick

Graesen is one sick little boy right now.  He started getting a cough over the weekend.  It slowly got worse.  Tuesday morning I had to drag him out of bed.  He cried and cried and told me he couldn't go to school, because he had an icky cough.  He cried for the first 20 minutes of school and kept trying to escape out the door so he could run home.  Within a couple of hours he was back to his normal self.  That night he went to my parents' house while I went to a work meeting:

Wednesday morning I had to drag Graesen out of bed again.  He was really clingy at school and wanted me to hold him a lot.  During PE he said he was tired and laid down.  By lunch time he had a low fever-just over 100.  We left work and came home.  I gave him some ibuprofen.  When I rechecked his temperature a few hours later, it was a whole degree higher than it was prior to medication.  I took him into urgent care that night.  The doctor there thought he sounded rattly and thought it may be pneumonia again. 

We got home and I couldn't get the antibiotic in him, or any fever reducer.  He started to get so agitated and his fever spiked to 104.  My mom came over to see if she could help me get the medicine in.  It did not work.  He fought everything and just sobbed and sobbed.  If we did get it in his mouth he would just spit it out.  I called the 24 hour nurse and they decided to send us to the ER so we could get some help getting him medicated.  It took 4 people in the ER just to get some fever reducer in him.  The nurse there didn't think Graesen's lungs sounded bad, so she ordered a nasal swab and a chest xray.  Torture.  It all came back negative, so she came to the conclusion that it is just a bad virus.  We finally left the ER around 1am. 

Today Graesen seemed better for a few hours.  Then his fever went up again.  I gave him meds and got the fever down, but then he was breathing really fast and hard (55 breaths per minute).  I called the nurse and asked if I should have him checked or not.  She wanted him checked to be on the safe side.  Well, the cold air on the way to the doctor's office helped with the breathing.  His lungs were okay, and I'm just supposed to keep an eye on him.  When we got home his fever went back up to 103.7 and is not responding to ibuprofen.  Hopefully, this virus will be done with soon!

The age of phobias

Graesen has suddenly developed a couple of big fears.  One of those fears is a fear of spiders.  A couple of nights ago when we first got home, Graesen was sitting in the dining room taking off his shoes.  Suddenly, I heard him sobbing and yelling for me to come.  There was a spider about 2 feet from him.

Saturday I took Graesen to go swimming at a gym.  I thought for sure that he would love the little tube slide.  Wrong.  He slid about half way down then started climbing back up.  He was sobbing and saying it was too dark in there.  He was so afraid that he climbed up a water slide, with water pressure coming down against him! 

We also spent some time on Saturday working on valentines for family members. 

I didn't get any pictures on Sunday.
Tonight Graesen told me that he wanted to do a project.  He got out some stuff and went to work making me a giant picture :)

Caught

Walter can't hide it anymore.  I caught him cuddled up to Graesen while I was cooking dinner.  He likes Graesen now, even though he sometimes pretends not to :)

Reading before bed last night:

Wordless Wednesday

Tuesday:

Wednesday:

Love him

I am always so happy to have Graesen back Monday nights.  I know it is just one night a week, but I miss him!  Tonight he was so hilarious.  He insisted on privacy while going to the bathroom, but sang and made loud noises at the top of his lungs the whole time he went :)  He also told me he needed to draw a box for Walter to live in so that he wouldn't sit on him anymore (he absolutely loves Walter, but Walter is a pretty big cat and Graesen feels squished when the cat sits on him).  At one point Graesen said, "I love it when you're home, Mommy." 
Graesen spent a little time doing art at my mom's house this afternoon before we headed home. 

After dinner tonight we did a little drawing and writing.  I wanted to see if Graesen could write his name if he was looking at an example of it.  He did it :)  We still need to work on letter size/placement, but all of the letters made it on the page.  I added some letters on photoshop so that you can see where the letters he wrote are :)

Graesen also spent some time working on a Valentine's mailbox.  Last year he made one and I would put little treats and notes in it.  He loved it.  If any of you want to mail him a letter for me to stick in there, that would just make his day :)

I am just so amazed by all that Graesen is learning lately.  Tonight in the tub he was playing with his bath time letters.  I asked him if we could do some spelling then gave him some easy words (i.e. bug, sit) to do.  I say the word slowly, showing him how we can separate the sounds and he is able to find the correct letters to spell it out!  If I give him a sound he can usually tell me the letter.

Here he is enjoying his doughnut on the way to his dad's house yesterday.  He is absolutely obsessed with the sprinkle doughnuts at church.

Adventures with share bear

Graesen and I had a fun day today, and of course share bear came along :)  We went to the children's museum for a while.  Graesen loved this, and I got a few pictures of him with the share bear to take to school.

After the museum we went sledding.

We ate dinner and watched a movie at my aunt's house.  When we got home Graesen and Walter "fought" over my lap :)

Share bear weekend

Last night we visited with a friend I grew up with and her daughter.  They live out of town now, so we only see them about twice a year.

I also got a picture of Graesen on the way into work yesterday.  I always think he looks so handsome in that kind of coat:)

We are starting a share bear at school.  Each kid will take the bear with them for the weekend and then return with pictures and stories of what they did.  Graesen is going first so that I can give parents an example of what to send with their kid after their share bear weekend.  Tonight the share bear went with Graesen and I to the gym.  After my workout we shared a smoothie since it was getting late and we were hungry.

Sweet success

Graesen met a big goal of his today.  We have a behavior chart in our classroom.  At the top of the chart is pink for "outstanding" behavior (and I'm a stickler about what "outstanding" looks like).  Each time a kid finishes the day on pink they get a sticker on their star.  Once they have 5 stickers they get to go to the director's office to choose a prize.  Well, Graesen finally did it.  Unfortunately, the director doesn't have cars in her toy box right now, and I knew that a car would be the ultimate reward for Graesen, so I made him a deal that once he got 5 stickers I would take him to the store to get a car.  He was so proud today :)

Cousin time

I babysat Phoebe tonight, so Graesen got some fun cousin time.  The love each other SO much.  They worked on a little valentine's banner before Phoebe left:

Last night when I got Graesen back from his visit with his dad, he was so tired that he could not stay awake.  When we got home I laid him on the couch while I set things down.  I tried over and over to wake him up, but he just wouldn't get up.  Finally I decided that I would transfer him to bed and just go to bed myself since he would be up early.  No such luck.  I went to pick him up and found that he had had an accident (extremely rare these days).  So instead of sleep, I had to clean a couch and a 3 year old.  And then he wouldn't fall back to sleep until almost midnight :(

Crown

I tried to get Graesen's picture on the way to the car this morning, because it was just so pretty out.  Unfortunately, with the bright sun, our pictures ended up like this:

Graesen made a 'Jesus is King' crown in the nursery at church today.  He was so proud :)  He told his teachers that he was making it pink because I like pink...I think maybe he is the one who likes pink :)

Shoveling partner

3 1/2

Today Graesen turned 3 1/2, which seems so big to me!  I think it is time for a little Graesen update:

• Graesen weighs about 35 lbs (63.2%) and is about 41-41.5 inches tall (90.5% to 94.6%).
• Graesen wears size 4T and 5T clothes.  4T is what really fits him now, but I usually buy a little big and we just roll sleeves and pant legs until he grows into them.
• Graesen wears size 12 shoes.  This is actually huge on him, but with his orthotics, he needs much bigger shoes.
• Graesen has been wearing AFO orthotics for about 1 1/2 months (for calcaneal aversion, midfoot collapse, and morton's toe).  He did great in terms of getting used to them.  Unfortunately, Graesen is now walking pigeon toed :(  The therapist said that his low(ish) muscle tone is making it hard for him to hold the weight of the orthotic, and if he does not improve by the end of the month we will be looking at physical therapy.
• Graesen can now identify all his letters and letter sounds.  We spend a lot of time working on this in class, and Graesen just soaked it all up.  He loves to point out letters and tell me what they are for (i.e. G for Graesen, J for Jayden, etc)
• He can identify most numbers 1-10.  He struggles with 6 and 9 a lot.
• I tried to convince Graesen to count for me as high as he could go, but he didn't have the patience.  We have been counting to 50 everyday at school as a class, and he counts along, but I'm not sure what he will do on his own.
• Graesen has started writing letter G's and letter T's.  
• In the last few weeks Graesen's writing and artistic abilities have taken off.  He is suddenly very interested in creating with a purpose rather than just scribbling.
• Graesen is a perfectionist and gets upset if his letters aren't just right, but he still struggles to get his pencil grip right.
• Graesen can state my phone number, several safety rules, his first and last name, what he is allergic to, etc.
• Graesen talks A LOT. ALL THE TIME.
• He makes friends easily at school, but sometimes gets his feelings hurt by the slightly older boys (they are very competitive lately and like to point out things like size and speediness).
• Graesen still loves art.
• He also loves to help cook, he is great at puzzles, and he loves all things involving vehicles.
• Graesen loves music and still has a big fascination with guitars.
•  Graesen loves chicken, pears, peaches, blueberries, strawberries, popcorn, applesauce, goldfish crackers, granola bars, french fries, ice cream, and of course candy.
• He loves Berenstain Bears (books and movies), Caillou, and Clifford lately.
• Graesen hates beeps, buzzers, and alarms.  He refuses to use the bathroom at school by the washer and drier unless he knows they are not running-all because the buzzer went off one day while he was going.

Now, here are pictures from the last few days.  Surprisingly, I forgot to take a picture on another day this week.
On Tuesday Graesen had a total meltdown about his W's.  He wanted them to be perfect, and would not believe me that they were great the way they were.  *Yes, his pencil grip was not correct, but by that point he had been so upset about his W's and was finally finishing them, so I just let it go.

Playing with his trucks on Wednesday:

Thursday, no picture :(

Tonight we watched Cars and ate rice cake pizzas.