Onna + 2 boys

Yeah, you read the title right, I had 2 extra kids for the last couple days. There is a single dad in town that has a 9 year old, Aaron, and a four year old, Colin. Colin goes to Onna's daycare, so that is how I know them. The dad, Norman, works at the beef plant here in town. They haven't lived here very long and don't know very many people. He has custody of the boys, and apparently the mom lives somewhere in Iowa. Aaron couldn't remember if it was Davenport or DesMoines. Either way, far enough that she can't come and watch them very often.

Well, Norman had to travel to meetings in Colorado on Tuesday, so I got the boys from Monday evening until this morning. The original plan was that he would pick them up last night, but he called at 8:05 p.m. and had just landed in Omaha. The boys already had their pajamas on, so we decided that he could just pick them up this morning. We had a lot of fun and it made me miss Jake A LOT. Colin is the age that Jake was when I met Onna's dad. Aaron is the age that Jake was when I had to leave. Having boys in the house again was a big change for me. I noticed the difference when Onna's princess wand and Rudolph nose became a sling-shot!

I found out on Monday at work (after already committing to babysitting) that we had an 8:00 a.m. staff meeting on Tuesday morning. That meant that I had to get Onna and the boys to school and daycare and be to work by 8:00! Amid snotty noses, barking coughs, and a little bit of vomit (from Onna coughing) we made it out the door and to my meeting ON TIME! YEAH!

The first night the boys did fine. Colin coughed a lot through the night. I was nervous about giving them hot chocolate right before bed (that is a ritual at their house), because I didn't know if he would get up to go potty. He did though around 2:00 a.m., so that was good. Onna also coughed most of the night. Poor kids, I feel so bad when that happens. The cold bug that's going through daycare right now is a nasty one.

Aaron had the most trouble getting up in the mornings. He was to "comfy" under the blankets. I finally had to resort to taking the blankets away (I know, mean huh?), then he got up and was ready without any trouble.

Right before bedtime on Monday night, Aaron asked if they get to play again tomorrow. Then he said, "Maybe my dad will have to work out of town again. Then we can stay overnight again!' So they must have had a good time.

When I was picking up Colin and Onna from daycare, there were a FEW snowflakes in the air. Aaron said, "Maybe my dad will get stranded and we'll get to stay another night!"

Miss Leah and Miss Heather from daycare confirmed our suspicions about the dots on Onna's face. We are pretty sure they are chicken pox. They've had them at daycare, and that's where she was exposed. She had the shot, but I guess even with the shot people can still get a mild case. Last Wednesday when I picked her up from daycare she had a few spots around her mouth. At the time they just looked like a few little pimples. I didn't think anything of it then because she's so sensitive to different soaps that I just thought it was from that. Well, when I got home from working out that night, she had another one between her eyebrows. They continued to get bigger and redder. By Friday morning they looked like really icky pimples, but I still didn't think chicken pox because their are four on her face and only one on her leg. That's it!

When Mike was here Friday night, she said they itched. I had him look at them, and he and I debated on whether or not that's what they were. We decided that maybe that's what they were, but probably not because there were so few. Saturday morning they were scabbed over, and when we looked at them again we decided that, yeah that's probably what they were, but she's not contagious anymore so no big deal now... Now they are almost completely gone... the one between her eyes will scar, but I'm not worried about that. Hopefully now, we won't have to worry about it again. If she was going to get them I'm glad that she only got 4 or 5 spots. They don't seem to bother her much. She's only commented few times that they itch.

Now today, we are home because of her bad COUGH. It's pretty much non-stop. I feel like I've tried everything. I've done cough medicine, Vick's, honey, steam... I don't know what else to do! I don't want to take her in to the doctor, because I'm sure it's "just a virus". All the kids at daycare have the same thing, but with Onna's reactive airway disease it just hits her so much harder. I haven't done neb treatments yet, because I don't think she's wheezing. She just has the non-stop cough. If it doesn't improve by this afternoon. I might resort to the neb and see if it helps. I feel so helpless when I can't do anything to stop it.

So I think I'm going to go cuddle with her... enjoy the rest of the week!