Jack at Four

My sweet Jack turned four in June and I thought I'd take a moment to share a little about what he's like at this age. 

Jack is all boy.  B.O.Y.  If he could spend all day every day outside, he would.  His primary obsession now is riding his bike.  He got a bike for his birthday, but turns out he was still a little to small for it.  He's currently borrowing a smaller bike and he absolutely loves it.  He rides from our driveway to the neighbors driveway and back and forth.  Occasionally we let him ride it to the K&W (our local hole in the wall ice cream spot) while Mark pulls Claire in the wagon.  I'm glad he's finally found something that keeps him away from the creek behind our house.  He's still interested in it, but not nearly as much.  I can only watch him throw so many rocks.

Another new experience for Jack this summer has been swimming lessons.  Sometime I should write about the gymnastics debacle from last summer.  From early on, Jack has been a cautious, shy and sometimes anxious kid.  He doesn't like new experiences.  I was very similiar as a kid and even now as an adult.  But this summer has brought something I wasn't sure I would ever see.  Jack has really come out of his shell and is taking pride in doing things on his own and enjoying new experiences like swim lessons.  He's taking them at a facility that requires parents to sit behind a glass wall to watch the kids.  This helps tremendously.  He forgets we are there and he focuses on his teacher and he's really doing great!

Swimming lesson at the YMCA

While he's matured in a lot of areas recently, his tantrums and anger seem overwhelming at times.  As Claire enters the "terrible twos" I was expecting this behavior from her, but instead I'm getting it from Jack.  I haven't figured out the best course of action for this yet.  Time outs are becoming increasingly less effective and I think we are at a cross roads in terms of his discipline. 

However, we have a new discipline tool in our arsenal now.  Jack has recently started doing chores, something he should have been doing long ago.  But because Jack and Claire were born barely two years apart, I hadn't gotten my act together until now.  I bought him a cute chore chart from Olliegraphic on Etsy a while back that was customized to look like him and I can reprint it as many times as I need.  He loves putting stickers on his chart at the end of every day.  If he completes his chores every day of the week he gets an allowance--4 quarters.  He has three jars in which to put his money:  one for save, donate and spend.  One quarter must go in each jar and then he gets to choose where the fourth one goes.  Surprisingly, he did put his extra quarter in "save" last week. 

Jack's first completed chore chart

All in all, Jack is a sweet boy.  He's come a long way from the little 3 pound baby I gave birth to.  He's big on giving hugs and kisses and I hope that never changes.  Stay tuned for pics from his cowboy birthday party.

Mystery Solved

Well, I hope the mystery is solved.  Thanks to my friend Google, I think I've discovered what Jack has.  I'm pretty sure it's Roseola.  He's had this one other time, but I don't remember it being this bad.  According to the AskDr.Sears website, roseola can cause:

• 3-7 days of high fever often over 103....check!
• runny nose, cough, ear pain, vomitting, and diarrhea...check to the cough, vomitting and diarrhea
• once the fever subsides, a red rash that starts at the neck, chest and back and spreads out...check again!

Luckily, it's not contagious once the fever breaks so Jack was able to go back to preschool today, something he was not happy about.  In a perfect world, I would have kept him home another day, but as working parents, Mark and I have to go back to work sometime and we cashed in much of our babysitting favors last week.  It looks as though I'll have to cancel his birthday pictures again...for the 3rd time.  I doubt Jennifer will want to spend hours photoshoping out the rash that covers much of his face.  Just pray Claire doesn't get it :)

In other news, there are benefits to having to spend the entire weekend at home with a sick little boy.  I actually got all of my laundry and the kids laundry done AND FOLDED.  This is a rarity at our house.  The kids never wear dirty clothes, but they often wear wrinkled ones.  It's usually all I can muster to get the clothes washed and thrown in laundry hampers before the start of the next work week. And I will tell you nothing stresses me more than facing a Monday morning with clothes in disarray all over the house.  I cringe at the thought of having to dig through hampers for 10 minutes to put together an outfit for one of the kids.  It's enough to make me want to call in sick.  Not this morning, though!  I know it sounds pathetic, but I actually got a little giddy when I remembered that the clothes are all folded and in their proper drawers.  It's the little things, right?

We did make it out to get ice cream at Soyo on Saturday.  This pic is pre-rash.

What's the deal?

The saga of Jack's mystery illness continues.  He's finally had a fever free day today, but he woke up this morning with a rash over most of his body.  It started with his face, neck, chest and back.  By the time he got up from nap, it was much worse and had spread to his arms and legs.  I'm at a loss.  Whatever it is must be viral since he's been on this round of antibiotics for 5 days already.  If it's still there in the morning, I suppose I'll call the doctor back.  I imagine they're tired of hearing from me and frankly, I'm a little sick of calling them.  I wish there was an instruction manual for this stuff.

Fresh Start

I've decided to give this blogging thing another try.  I'm so grateful to Jennisa at Once Upon a Blog Design for creating my lovely template!  It's hard for me to wrap my head around the idea of anyone wanting to read what I have to say, but if nothing else, I can use this to document our crazy lives for the kids. 

This has been a tough week to think about finding the time to get back into blogging.  Poor Jack has been the sickest I've ever seen him.  Just a day after finishing antibiotics for bronchitis, he starts up again with a virus of epic proportions.  After a night in the ER with 106 degree temps and several days of laying on the couch, I'm hoping he's turned a corner today.  Unfortunately, improvement means 101-102 degree temps instead of 104-105.  But I think he's making progress and will hopefully be ready for preschool again on Monday. 

Thank goodness for Netflix on my Nook to help pass the time at the ER!

Situations like this are one reason I find it difficult to be a working mom.  I want so badly to be home to take care of him, but it's just not always possible.  The kids have been sick so many times since the fall that my sick leave at work is all but decimated.  Because I couldn't be home, we've had to put together a patchwork of caregivers including grandparents and great grandparents.  And while I'm beyond grateful that they are willing and able to step in when I need them, I still long to be the one taking care of him.  I just hope he knows that if I could be there, I would.