Sick, sick, sick

Doesn't my poor baby look like she has been on a 4-day bender??


It has been a LONG week. Gracie started running fever Sunday evening. The poor thing was burning up!! It was so sad. We went to see Dr. Prestidge on Monday afternoon. He said that her left ear looked a little dull and red so he gave her an antibiotic in case the ear was causing the fever. She weighed 24.6 fully clothed and her sats were around 82. He heard her cough and said "well, it definitely sounds like she has a virus."

Monday night, Bennett started running fever. He has a horrible cough. Needless to say, no one in the Cooper household was getting much sleep. Grandpa and Nana were off work on Tuesday so they were able to keep the kids for me - which was a huge help because I am quickly running out of days that I can take off. B's fever broke pretty early on but you could tell that he still didn't feel good.

Wednesday brought more of the same. Grace was still running fever. Grandpa got to use another one of his days off to keep a cutie pie! (However, I don't think that he was too sad to get some one-on-one with her!! She is in a pretty snuggly mood.) In fact, when I got to his house to pick her up, they were "resting" in the recliner together!

I talked to Dr. Prestidge yesterday morning and told him that I found out that the flu had been going like wildfire through the kids school. He told me to bring her by and he would run a flu test on her. Lo and behold....it was positive. No wonder the poor baby isn't feeling good!! So, even though it has been 4 days, he put her on Tamiflu because "this is Gracie we are talking about." Yes, she had a flu shot. But, she is just so susecptible to things. He felt like that was what Bennett was fighting off with his fever. Of course, Daddy hasn't gotten a flu shot yet! So, he gets to take some Tamiflu too! Bennett's cough still sounds horrible and he is so pale. But, he is hanging in there and going to school. The girl is with her D-Daddy for the next two days...and I am pretty sure that he would have taken B in a heartbeat....especially since he told me several times that he would.

A couple of funny things that have come out of her mouth lately....

"Mommy, Bennett hit me and I had heart surgery." (milk it sister. Homegirl is going to do her best to get out of PE!!)

"Mommy, after today is it going to be tomorrow?"

"Look Daddy! (pointing to her chest) This is where I lost my heart." Daddy tells her that she still has a heart. "No, I have a zipper now!"

We would appreciate prayers for quick healing. And, that Daddy doesn't get sick.

PS - February 7-14 is CHD Awareness Week. We are having a blood drive on February 12 at Medical City Hospital. Details to come soon......

Smarty Pants

Bennett - in all of his infinite wisdom - decided that he and Gracie were going to race while getting dressed this morning.  Daddy gave Grace a little hand to help her speed the process along.  Mommy asks the girl how many ponytails that she wants today.  The girl answers one.  Bennett - upon seeing that he is now losing the getting dressed race - says "Don't you want two ponytails?  That would look so cute!"  And, of course she wants 2 ponytails because she does everything her brother says.

And Bennett wins the race.....

That kid is always thinking.....

The Girl

Homegirl has some serious morning hair!!

Poor baby got her mommy's curly hair.  But, it isn't long enough to do anything with.  But, that smile melts my heart!!

One funny from her from this weekend.....  Bennett was told no about something.  He proceeded to throw a fit and cry.  (ahhh....I love being a parent)  He was told to stop being a crybaby.  Lu responds "I am not a crybaby!  I have a happy spirit!"

Man, I love that kid.....

Snow

Poor Bennett.....he was so excited about the possibility of snow.  He must have looked out the window 100 times yesterday.  Finally, some huge flakes started falling down from the sky.  He was so excited to get all of his snow clothes on and go outside!  He scraped the snow from the top of the cars so he could throw snowballs.

We got the shaft and nothing stuck on the ground.  Many of the cities north of us didn't have school today because of the amount of snow/ice on the ground. 

I still think that they are pretty darn cute.....snow clothes and all.

Star of the Week

Miss Grace is the Star of the Week at school this week.  She is SO excited.  She has probably told me a million times "I am the stawr of the week, Mommy." 

She was supposed to take a posted to school yesterday...but being the mom of the year that I am...I forgot.  In my defense, I didn't take them to school while we were out on break.  So, we whipped up her poster last night.  She was so excited to show all of her pictures to Miss Niecey this morning. 

She gets to bring something special every day to share with her class.  Yesterday was movie day.  Can you guess what movie she picked??  That's right...Yo Gabba Gabba!  Today she took a book to share.  It is a book that she got for Christmas.  The main characters name is Gracie and she dreams of being a famous dancer.  It has hologram pictures that change when you move the book around.  It shows hula dancing, tap dancing, Rockettes, etc.  It is very cute. 

I wanted to share her poster on the blog because I thought it turned out pretty darn cute!!

Love,
Jennifer

Catching Up

As usual....I haven't updated this site in forever.  It is so hard to keep both sites going.  I keep saying that I am just going to use one or the other, but both have features that I like.  I just need to do better about actually getting on here and writing.


However, I don't think that many people actually read this site so....


The video up there is my baby girl's first dance recital.  Of course, I think that she is pretty stinking adorable.  She did so good...especially  since she is by far the youngest one in her class.  I was definitely a proud mama.


Bennett had a musical theater production, but it is a little over 6 minutes long so I won't put you through watching that.  I just made all of the family do that!  :)  He loves that class, but gets a little silly when we are allowed to watch.


We had a terrific Christmas.  All of us got very spoiled.  The kids were very excited about their presents.  Bennett was totally into the WHOLE Christmas thing this year.  


He did have a solo in his school show.  He did a great job.  His teachers do the MOST amazing job when it comes to putting on a show.  It was terrific!


We had our appointment with Dr. Thomas yesterday.  You can read the whole update at www.caringbridge.org/visit/gracecooper but basically we are scheduled to have surgery on June 28.  Ugh.  It is never easy to hand your kiddo over....even when you know that it is the best thing for her.


Grace had her customary holiday sickness over Christmas.  It never fails.  We missed bringing the Christmas meal up to the hospital because she woke up with fever...again.  Ugh.  We went to see the doc.  They tested for strep and flu...both were negative....so it was a viral thing...surprise, surprise.  She is just now getting to where she is feeling better.


I am looking forward to seeing what the new year has in store for us!!


Love,
Jennifer

Florida Vacation

I am late getting this posted, but we were able to go Florida to stay with Misty for a week at the end of July. Neither one of the kids had ever seen the ocean and Bennett instantly fell in love with it.

Look at how crazy her hair got in the humidity. Aunt Misty kept calling her "Curly Girly"

Bennett loved covering himself in sand!!

Bennett was a swimming machine. He swam like this every single time we were in the water...which was every single day!

Bennett, Grace, and my niece Sloan building sand castles.

I had to include this picture of my niece, Landry. Look at those thighs!! Aren't they yummy??

One of the favorite past times was building sand castles.

This was the first time that Landry had been to the beach when she was big enough to get down and play......she spent all of her time eating sand.

There is NO telling what he was doing here.

I don't know why....but I LOVE this picture. There is just something about it that gets me.

Look at this skinny minny!! This is a 6-12 month bathing suit...and she will be 3 in 3 weeks.

I have no idea why this is the only picture of Sloan that I have that actually shows her face.

My little water-loving fish.

Bennett really loved looking for shells. On our last day there, we took him and my niece, Abbie, to a place called Shell Island. (The little girls got to stay with a babysitter.) We had to take a shuttle out there and then it docks and you have to walk about 10 minutes through the hot sand to the other side of the island. But, the reward is amazing. The shells were beautiful and we brought back 18 sand dollars.....those are the ones that survived. We broke our fair share too. We applied and reapplied sunscreen, but snorkeling for almost 4 hours left the back of my legs SUPER red. I could barely walk for the next couple of days. It was bad.

The highlight for the trip for Bennett was going on the pirate ship! He had a blast. It was a "real" pirate ship with pirates onboard. The kids got to sword fight, water gun fight, and look for treasure...which they then heave-hoed up out of the ocean. It was well worth every penny for my pirate loving boy.

Can't you just see the excitement in his eyes??

The captain said that dolphins love Bob Marley.....

This is how Gracie spent the majority of the ride....until I just held her hands down by her side and made her get used to the noise. (Mommy is so mean!)

Pirate Princess....

Loving the water gun fight

Bennett thought this sign was hysterical!

Picking out pirate treasure from the bottom of the ocean

Pirate Bennett and Bones

And....this is where Bennett got a little too close to the pirate sword....

Okay....maybe not....Bennett wanted a brush to brush his hair while he was in the bath tub. I told him no since we were trying to hurry. So, he decided to brush his hair with Mommy's razor. (yes, we have had a talk about NOT touching Mommy's things....)

Not the best video but my boy looks so cute here! He is in the green shirt and khaki shorts with the bandana on his head.

As you can tell, we had a terrific time. We are very thankful that Uncle Jimmy let us crash his house for a week.

In other news, we sold our house and we are moving next weekend. We are just going to a small rent house for a year and then we will build again. I go back to work on Monday and I am not looking forward to dropping the kids off at school. They have been with me all summer and Gracie is not going to be happy when I leave without her to go to work.

Can you believe that my baby is going to be 3 in 3 weeks?? Where has the time gone??