Meeting baby Paisley and 3-dollar "drit"

Melissa (my sis!) had her 5th child one week ago today - Paisley Skye. Yesterday, Charlie and I went out to Rainier with my mom and dad to go and see her - Charlie's 9th cousin!

She is a DOLL!Charlie LOVED her to pieces, it was so cute.

Charlie's NINTH cousin!He kept kissing her and "nuzzling" her head with his. He even asked to hold her again after he had given her back to me. So sweet. :)Opa and Paisley
Charlie and Lucie doing a puzzle.
Poor Jackson was sick - and rested on the couch the whole time we were there.But he got lots of loves from Oma.Well, that's not entirely true - by the time we were getting ready to leave, Jack decided to climb up the wall.

Lucie, with a little "help" from Charlie.

On our way out to the car, we found this:

Those kids crack me up - little entrepreneurs.Charlie's a little obsessed with these hidden picture/sticker books from Highlights.He had to bring some for the car ride out to Rainier.And got a little help from Oma. Charlie doesn't really appreciate my camera-wielding ways anymore. :)

(Hey, is anyone else having issues with Picasa? I can't use it to blog anymore - it keeps saying I'm not connected to the internet when I try to load pics to the blog!)

Poor baby

Oh, this poor little boy! This is really funny & cute, but also really sad - I just want to give this sweet little kid a hug.

Talking to naked people

I'm feeling better. Finally. Good enough to go to the gym, even.

Can I just ask: What is it with people in the gym locker room? Maybe I'm too modest, but I USE the dressing room they have. I avoid, at all cost, "disrobing" out in the open. It makes me uncomfortable, really uncomfortable. And I guess I don't care if other women are more comfortable with their bodies and feel okay being ... um ... exposed ... to everyone else in the locker room. That's fine for them. And if you're someone who does that, that's cool. I have no problem with that if you are comfortable enough to do it...

But yesterday, my first day back to the gym in almost 3 weeks of being sick, I walk into the locker room after working out - all sweaty and ready for a shower and here's this naked lady standing in front of my locker, kind of blocking it. I couldn't really avoid her - I needed into my locker. So I go up, say, "excuse me", and start to open my locker. And she turns toward me and just starts talking. Fully naked. Not in the process of dressing, nor did she have a towel draped around her, nor was she even trying to kind of cover anything - she was just standing there. Naked. Talking. Sheesh. I didn't even know her. Am I crazy? Maybe it was just my weak stomach from 2 weeks of the flu, but is that not uncomfortable for people?

PS

Shawn is amazing. I just have to say it. He stayed up with me all night on Thursday while I was puking my guts out. He took me into the doctor Friday morning and sat there in the dark, boring doctor's office for almost 8 hours while they were treating me. He brought me home and I went straight to bed. He cared for Charlie literally ALL day Saturday while I was in bed. He even walked down to the store with Charlie and got me a Valentine's Day gift. And he cared for Charlie while I slept in this morning, then stayed here at home to care for him while I went to Urgent Care. Well, I just walked into our bedroom - which has been my little haven for the past 3 days or so, and he had made the bed while I was gone. Such a simple, sweet thing to do. But it made my heart melt. Thank you, Shawn. I love you. I'm a lucky girl to have you. :)

NOTE TO SELF: next year, get a flu shot.

Just got back from Urgent Care and, yup, it's a sinus infection.

Gotta go get drugged up...

The Day of the Never-Ending Puking

Thursday night, I started vomiting again (which would be the 3rd time in the last week and a half). It only got worse as the night when on, I threw up every 20 - 30 mins ALL NIGHT LONG. I took my temp at one point, and it was 104.5. Insane.
At 8:00 am on Friday, Shawn took me to the doctor's office.
I threw up while waiting in line for check-in.
I threw up while waiting in the waiting room for the nurse to call us back.
I threw up WHILE the doctor was examining me.
The doctor decided I should be on an IV for fluids. So they took me and Shawn into a back room in the office and I laid down on the examination chair thing, and, you guessed it, threw up. The nurses came in to start the IV, and they stood there examining my arms for about 20 minutes trying to find something they could work with. Finally, they decided to call in some other nurses to try and find a vein. The nurse who was trying to get the needle in said she's been a nurse for 20 years and she had never seen anyone so dehydrated and with such horrible veins. So, after digging around in a couple different spots (ouch OUCH OUCH!!!) to find a vein, any vein, they finally found one on my wrist. They gave me 2 bags of fluids and then 2 of potassium. They gave me a shot in the behind of some anti-nausea meds - OUCH, lemme tell you, that one hurt. After all that...I threw up. Sigh.
Anyways, they finally got it somewhat under control with some Zofran and sent us home around 3:30 pm. That was the longest doctor's office visit I've ever had - almost 8 hours!
We got home, and guess what? I threw up. At this point it was almost comical, if it wasn't so darn painful. But, I only threw up 2 more times, and then it was done. Yes!
Now it's Sunday, and I am just now emerging from my bed-cocoon, and I feel like I can join the land of the living again. Except for the fact that I'm pretty sure I've got a terrible sinus infection now - so I'm headed off to urgent care this afternoon. But, I'm happy. I'll take a sinus infection over the flu any day.

ENOUGH ALREADY!!!

Yup. Still sick. Charlie cried out from his room, half asleep, at about 9:30 last night. I went in and took his temp and it was 104.7. I took it a couple more times just to make sure it was right. It was. :( Poor baby. Oh, how it breaks my heart to see my baby boy like this. He's literally just been laying around falling asleep anywhere he lands - usually on the floor somewhere. This from a boy who hasn't taken naps since the day he turned 2.

And I have gotten even worse - the flu is coming on again as I type. I've got a fever, too, plus those horrible body aches and I'm going to "get sick" very soon...I feel it coming... Thank God for my parents. They have Charlie right now and he's spending the night over there at "Oma & Opa's" so I can go to my doctor appointment in the morning.

Charlie and I both have doctor appointments tomorrow. Hopefully we'll get to the bottom of this and GET BETTER ALREADY!

Sick house

Right now, it's 10:51 am on Tuesday and Charlie is laying on the floor in the hall outside the bathroom door, sleeping. He's been there since about 8:30 this morning. I just took his temp and it's 103.7. Anyone know how high is "too high"??? The poor kid is just plain sick. He hasn't eaten anything since having a couple saltine crackers yesterday morning. I feel so bad for him.

I have had the flu twice in the past week, and about 3 or 4 different colds - bad ones - this month. Enough already!!! I just want us to be healthy again.