So Kent and I have never been really into Halloween. Before we had kids we didn’t do anything, but buy candy and pass it out. Maybe it is because we are both the youngest (him of 6 and me of 5) so by the time we came along our parents were tired of Halloween and didn’t do much either. Anyways, we are not Halloween people. I LOVE fall, and love to decorate for fall, but really not much with Halloween. But when Michael came along I felt obligated to give him some Halloween experience. So we carved the pumpkins and he dressed up, and I would take him around the block to trick or treat.
But this year has not been so much fun and I really have found more that I don’t like about Halloween than I like. I’m sure my sour disposition has more to do with what happened than Halloween itself, and maybe next year I will have a better disposition and happier outlook.
This year I had been sick for the entire week prior. Making Pumpkin carving, and all things Halloween, fall to the bottom of my priority list. The days were TV/movie days as I rested and tried to feel somewhat normal, tried to keep the house not a disaster, and think of something to feed the kids that would be remotely healthy. After a week of being sick I decided to see the doctor to make sure it wasn’t strep throat or the swine flu (although I doubted that; however my niece who babysits my kids as I tutor does have the swine flu, luckily due to my cold tutoring had been canceled the last week, and (crossing my fingers) I don’t think we have gotten it).
So Thursday I went to the doctor’s office, and due to my own mix up didn’t have a babysitter for my kids. And due to the banks mix up they had canceled my debit card so I had to find another card to pay at the doctor’s office. I was told from the doctor I only had a cold so I got in the car with the kids to go home to found that the battery on my car died. So I called my sister-in-law to jump start my car, only to find that it wouldn’t even jump start (the battery was TOAST) so I got a ride home from her. When Kent got home he had to buy a new battery for the car, and realized that one of the headlights on the car was also out, he bought the headlight, but as he was getting sick too he didn’t feel up to fixing that at the moment.
Friday I was feeling better and thought things were looking up. I went to the store for much needed groceries, and it felt good to get out of the house. Then Michael and I worked on our cutting skills as we cut out paper jack-o-lanterns and ghosts. I think that was my favorite part. I decided that pumpkin carving was either going to happen then or not at all, so Michael and I carved one of the pumpkins (thanks to Tracy for giving us 3 huge pumpkins from her garden!) while Kent was at work and Emma slept. As I went to put the jack-o-lantern on the front porch with the other pumpkins I slipped on the wet steps carrying the 10 pound jack-o-lantern. The jack-o-lantern survived, the stem broke off, and the flower pot below was toast. My back and side have the bruises to prove I'm not making this up. After that I was DONE with pumpkins, and the others did not get carved at all.
Kent got home and was sick as could be, so I dressed up Michael and Emma and us three went to the ward trunk-or-treat. It was ok, but somehow I felt like I was teaching my kids to beg for candy… I just didn’t like it. It seemed like a bunch of kids running around as fast as they could to get all the candy they could before it was all gone (which only took 30 min. for everyone to be out of candy!). Michael of course liked it and Emma enjoyed the candy too, she would not let go of her bag for anything!
Now Michael and Emma did have the start of the cold, but I had thought it wasn’t too bad, and that they could still trunk or treat. But as we got ready for bed Michael’s asthma kicked in again (I really thought we were over it!) So the breathing treatments increased to even more than recommend because he was struggling so much. Around 10pm Michael woke up crying unable to breath. I knew he needed the oral steroids and so I took him to the local ER. The ER here is known to be bad, but I thought since I knew what was wrong and what he needed it would be ok. But no. The doctor didn’t listen to me, insisted it wasn’t breathing problems but was pneumonia and wouldn’t give us the steroid, but instead an antibiotic. So we left there no better.
On the way home in the dark, or course I got pulled over by a cop because one of my headlights was out. Mind you this is the first time I have ever gotten pulled over by a cop. But I was too TICKED OFF at the hospital to even be a little nervous. I was MAD! The cop must have noticed I was not in a good mood as he walked up I said, “I know the headlight is out. The light is in the trunk, I can show it to you, my husband was too sick to fix it, and my son had to go to the ER tonight.” He took my license, registration, and insurance. Then decided to stop another car by foot coming towards us, and let me leave with no ticket.
But the fun didn’t end there. No. Since Michael didn’t get what he needed at the ER, Michael and I were up all night, as I gave him breathing treatments every 2 hours (instead of the recommended 4 hours) because the poor boy couldn’t breathe! His pediatrics walk in clinic opened at 9 am the next morning and I was there with Michael in the parking lot at 8:30am. Luckily as they opened the nurses who saw me waiting in the car told the other 6 people that we got to go first since we were in the parking lot first. Michael saw the doctor, who realized he was beyond the oral steroid and had to give him a shot of steroid. He confirmed that the ER doctor misdiagnosed Michael. And he gave me extra oral steroids to keep on hand if that ever happened again. This doctor was worried that Michael would have to be admitted to the Children’s hospital. We went home hoping for the best but with instructions to return immediately if things got worst. Well, Michael’s breathing got a little better, yet he started to get really pail. Luckily a second dose of oral steroids did the trick and he got his color back and started to help relax his airways and he was able to breathe much better.
Needless to say Saturday was not a celebration for us. My cold came back because of being up all night with Michael. So all 4 of us are now sick. I was not in a good mood and poor Kent took the brunt of it as I insisted that he fix the headlight and put traction strips on the front steps even though he was sick. The kids did not dress up and there was no trick or treating for them. We actually only had like 10 kids come to our house. I passed out pencils ;) and Michael didn’t seem to think he was missing out as he said he did his trick or treating Friday night.
So sorry for the LONG blog and if you read the entire thing you are a true friend, and thank you for taking the time to listen to my venting and I’m sure you now know why I was not a big fan of Halloween this year. Let’s hope next year is a better one!
So learning about Fall, Michael and I made our decoration for the front door. He fingerpainted the leaves I cut out. Then I wrote Fall and Michael sponge painted over it. I have to say I am loving the book, "Kitchen Table Play and Learn" by Tara Copley and Andrea Custer. It has themed lesson plans for preschoolers. Sure you can find lots online, but it is so nice to have them all together in one place in a lesson plan format, and online I got the book for around $3. It is awesome! So we had fun doing many lessons about Fall from it the last few weeks.
Michael as, of course his most favorite thing in the world, Lightning McQueen. And of course he had to wear his hat backwards, because that is how daddy wears his hats. (And thanks to Nancy for letting us borrow this costume)
