Deja Yuck

If every January 9 means Kendra goes to the emergency room for an IV, I'm going to start crossing it off my calendars from now on. Remember this post about how this week went for us last year? Well, we spent today much the same way as we spent this day exactly a year ago today. But a few hours earlier. Instead of taking Kendra to the ER overnight for them to give her an IV to get fluids, I took Kendra to the doctor this afternoon. And the doctor sent her to the ER for an IV to get fluids and antibiotics in her. I so don't want to do this every January 9. Once was enough. Twice was more than enough.
Anyway, she's fine (?) now. She really perked up after the Tylenol and IV. We don't know what she has, but the blood tests showed she's fighting both something bacterial and something viral. I guess if you're going to do something, do it right ... or something. As long as she keeps drinking tomorrow, I think we should be fine.
This afternoon/evening, you could almost see the lightbulb click on in her head when she remembered having done all this before. It was like she recognized the words "IV" and "give it slow so it doesn't blow like last year" and things like that. And the look on her face when we got to the ER was almost like she was stuck in a bad dream and couldn't figure out if she had actually lived this day before. But as soon as we were in the ER room, she took Evan's juice and a graham cracker and started eating and drinking. Nothin' like a little fear to get you taking fluids!
So, I'm really sleepy and rather rambly. I'll post more later. When Chad came up to the hospital to help Mom and I with wrangling 3 kids in the ER, he thought to bring the camera so I could post pictures of the same thing from last year and this year (those pictures will be posted another day). He's a good man!

Good or bad?

If you have gone for 4+ years of having children and have never once uttered the phrase "shut up" at them, but you are now at the end of the day and feel it was a great accomplishment to have not told anyone today to "shut up". Then, was it a good day or a bad day?

Bedtime prayer again

As lousy as Kendra was feeling at bedtime tonight, she opted to pray for someone else instead of herself. Boy, does this girl love her grandpa! (When you read this, keep in mind that she was fevery and very tired and accidentally said "thank you" instead of "help".)

Kendra: Thank you for Grandpa's head and neck and legs. Thank you that anything hurts. Amen.

Mommy: Did you just pray for Grandpa to feel better.

Kendra: Yeah.

Bedtime Prayers

I know I post these often, but I love hearing my kids pray. They're so honest with their prayers and so straightforward with their thanksgiving and petitions. Without further ado, tonight's prayers.

Evan: Thank you for my sword. Thank you for Batman and Scooby Doo. Thank you that I can count to ten and eleven. Thank you that I got to rip up papers. Thank you that I got to look at stuff.

Kendra: Help me sleep well tonight and not be scared. Amen.

Evan: Wait, I have one more. Help there not be any storms or dragons or monsters or ghosts. Amen.

Evolution of nicknames

With three kids, we have a lot of nicknames floating around our house. Evan's have changed some over the years. Kendra's have changed a little. Poor Laura isn't going to have a clue what her name is soon though... Enjoy reading about the evolution of nicknames.

Evan: When Evan was born, he very quickly became Mr. Man and My Little Guy. Those have stuck around. When he was a few months old, he was a chubby baby (hard to believe now!) and he became Chubbo Bubbo. A few months later, he ran off all the chub and we didn't feel it was a fair nickname anymore, so he simply became Bubbo. He apparently gets called Bubbo a lot since that was one of Laura's first couple of words. (Grand total of nicknames and evolutions: 4) (You can pluralize 'evolution', right?)

Kendra: Seeming as we already had a Mr. Man, we needed a coordinating nickname for our little girl. So, very shortly after birth, she adopted the nickname of Missy Ma'am. And somehow she also became Babe. Somewhere along the line, those two got combined into Babe-a-Ma'am. Which Chad has since shortened to Babem. Pretty good evolution of a nickname. (Grand total of nicknames and evolutions: 4)

But not nearly as good as Laura's...

Laura: When Laura was born, and my mom got to tell Evan and Kendra that they had a new baby sister whose name was Laura, Evan asked if we had a Laura the Carrot (from Veggie Tales). Mom spent the first day of Laura's life trying to explain to Evan that we didn't have a Laura the Carrot, we had a Laura the Baby. So, Evan called her Laura the Baby for quite a while. Then she was just Laura for several months, virtually nickname-free. For some reason, I started calling her Baby Buggy, which I have shortened to Buggy, and Chad uses it quite often. Then there's Evan's names for her. This summer, we same the Name Game song a lot, so he liked calling her Bora (as is Laura Laura Bo Baura). A few weeks later, he changed Bora to Borbo. That stuck for a long time. Then a week or two before Christmas, she became Bay, pronounced like Baby without the second B. Finally culminating with Evan calling her Jay Jay Bay while we were at Chad's parents' house for Christmas. We understood Laura the Baby, we understood Laura. We understood Bora, and even Borbo and Bay. But we had to ask why she's now Jay Jay Bay. Why? Because she said "jay jay" to him, so he started calling her Jay Jay Bay. For a kid who spent the first several months of her life with no nickname at all, she's certainly made up for it since then! (Grand total of nicknames and evolutions: 8)

Does this tell you how our day went?

Kendra: Dear Jesus, thank you for angels and forget Mommy for being crabby. Amen!

Evan: Thank you for my soft sword. Thank you that we got to color. Thank you that we got to go to the John Deere Pavillion and that we'll get to go again sometime even though it won't be for a long time. Help Mommy not to be crabby. And help me get a new Pooh and the Dragonfly book and a new Clive Eats Alligators book. Amen.