Mother's Day Weekend

This picture was actually taken back in early April, but I love it and I didn't get a picture with my boys this past weekend.

Mother's Day weekend this year was interesting to say the least. We originally intended to take Friday off and go down to South Texas to surprise the moms, but I ended up having to work most of the day to meet a deadline and the rash Nathan developed following his fever last week was just getting worse and worse. So we decided to stay home this weekend instead and I made a semi-ambitious list of things to accomplish on Saturday. Well, ambitious for a pregnant lady who can't be active for more than 30 minutes at a time!
 - Paint with Nathan,
 - laundry
 - mail Mother's Day cards (since we couldn't hand deliver like I planned)
 - put up Nathan's new curtains (thank you, Grammy!),
 - decorate and rearrange Nathan's room,
 - move rocking chair to our room (in preparation for Miss Olivia),
 - go through Nathan's clothes to see what I can reuse for Olivia and
 - take pictures of Olivia's goodies (for the blog).

Saturday morning started bright and early at about 6:30 am. My hopes of sleeping in some this weekend were squashed by sick toddler and tired husband. The rash has been keeping Nathan from sleeping deeply and so we've continued to have 4 or 5 night wakings every night. We all had waffles for breakfast and then got ready to start getting my list accomplished...or so I thought. By about 7:30 we noticed that Nathan's rash was only getting worse and still spreading since we saw the pediatrician on Thursday (not Nathan's doctor but in the same practice and the same one that saw him for the fever the week before). She told us it was probably the Roseola virus and to come back on Monday if it wasn't better. Plus on Friday I was told a child had scarlet fever at Nathan's school (also comes with a rash but treated with antibiotics). With that new knowledge and the worsening rash we decided to make a visit to a RediClinic to get a strep test done (evidently scarlet fever comes with strep and can manifest without a strep-like sore throat in children). The test came back negative and the RN gave us a different diagnosis than the pediatrician (petechiae rosacea...a fancy name for a horrible itchy rash that lasts forever and ever). I wasn't feeling too great about the new diagnosis, assuming it was correct. So, then and there we decided to still make a visit to our own pediatrician on Monday. This decision has since been reconfirmed as the rash is spreading down his arms legs and onto his face now. My poor precious angel. [Monday update: two hours at the doctor's office, the opinion of two pediatricians (ours wanted to consult), one strep culture, and three prescriptions later...we have a diagnosis of scarlet fever. Yay motherhood!]

After we got home from the RediClinic, Nathan and Daddy got down to some serious playing while I went upstairs to start tackling my list. I took picture of Olivia's things, put up Nathan's clean laundry, hung his new curtains and then enlisted Jimmy's help in putting up the jungle animal decals we got from Hobby Lobby to add a little color to his room. We also moved the rocking chair to our room, moved his bookshelf to where the rocker had been and put up a shelf in place of where the bookshelf was. All while Nathan "helped" in one form or fashion. Mostly by wanting to hold the screwdriver and fix things like daddy. Here is the finished product in his room. Just a few simple changes make it look so different!

The glider used to be in this corner where the bookshelf and chair now sit.  I still need to change out his lampshade to match his new decor. Loving the curtains too but trying to think of something to do with the valance that used to be there instead.  Pillows maybe?

Put a shelf up in place of the bookshelf on this little wall. The changes really open up the room.

After that excitement we had a break for lunch.  Then Nathan and I did some finger painting. No pictures since I was by myself. I don't remember now where Jimmy went, but finger-painting with a two year old doesn't leave much room for picture taking.

You'll notice we have made good progress on my list!  Next, I started going through all of the tubs (five total) of bedding and clothes that were in Nathan's closet. I was looking for the bedding pieces I wanted to reuse for Olivia as well as my nursing cover and the cradle sheets and bumper. I also went through 3 large tubs of his clothes and cleared out his closet and dresser to put away the pieces that are too small. I still ended up with 3 tubs full of boys clothes and 1 tub of stuff I could use for Olivia, depending on her wardrobe needs. I decided I'm going to need some blue bows to put on her when she sports some of the baby blue colored pieces I kept.

By the time I finished that project it was time for dinner! Oh, I did one load of laundry (totally counts) somewhere in there.  So I accomplished everything on my list except mailing cards. I was really happy with that!

Sunday started much like Saturday, except that we gave up and Nathan ended up in bed with us around midnight. We got up at 6:20 am to find the rash was still spreading and Nathan's temperature was on the rise. So we decided to keep him home from church and Jimmy and I figured out who would stay home and who would go to worship (I help with second grade bible class and Jimmy is assisting with communion this month). In the end Jimmy went and Nathan and I stayed home, but not before Nathan brought me my Mother's Day present. Jimmy had bought me a beautiful lily plant on Friday (my favorite) and Nathan made me a "flower" at school. Jimmy and Nathan also made me a go-cup with Nathan's hand print for me to take my water or juice to work in. Love it!

The lily looks even more amazing with the other blooms opening and smells heavenly!

We played outside for a little while early in the morning while it was still cool enough not to aggravate the rash, then went to HEB to get blueberry muffin mix (pregnancy craving). When we got home Nathan was playing really well by himself, something he only does with me by the way, so I did dishes and cleaned up our poorly neglected kitchen (yes...on Mother's Day). By the time I finished he was looking for attention so we made the blueberry muffins together. Again, by myself, no pictures. But we had a good time pouring and stirring and putting muffin cups in the pan. Daddy got home from church just as the muffins went in the oven. The rest of the day was actually really good despite having an itchy munchkin on our hands. Other than going out early in the morning, Nathan was cooped up inside all day long because I didn't want him getting even a little overheated playing outside.  For those who follow this blog you know that my child would live outside if we let him, so this was a hard day for him. We did go back outside late in the evening when the backyard was out of the sun and let him blow bubbles and kick the ball around. The breeze was cool and our fence full of honeysuckle smelled amazing! A good end to the day. 

Oh, I almost forgot.  In an attempt to find something to do "together" and get the house a little cleaner, Jimmy asked Nathan to help him vacuum and sweep.  The vacuuming went well...Daddy used the big vacuum and Nathan used his little vacuum.  The sweeping...not so much. Nathan insisted on using the tall broom while Daddy made due with the little broom. 

Hmmm...what's wrong with this picture???

Sweeping under the rug.  He didn't learn this from me...

Jimmy and I had Chuy's take-out for dinner then went to bed relatively early (p.s. I plan to make up for this $20 Mother's Day dinner next year with interest...Honey, you've been warned.).  So despite Nathan having a terrible rash and doing a fair amount of cleaning on Mother's Day, I really did have a great weekend.  It felt very appropriate and mom-like with a good mix of celebrating being a mom and living the reality that is motherhood. I expect next year to be twice as good!