A Farewell to Newman

This week we had to say goodbye to a dear friend of the family.
Yes, my little Corolla died this week. He's been with us for 12 joyous years and as many of you will remember, I would defend him to the end.
There will soon be a new member of the family, who he will be we don't know yet, but he won't be nearly as good as Newman was.

By the way, if anyone remembers why we started calling him Newman please let us know.... Ramiro and I can't remember.

No longer funny!

My last entry about needing holy water and priest was my last joke.... I am seriously thinking we have a hex on us (Ok, that was my last joke).
Alex not only has a cold, an ear infection in both ears but he also has fluid in them. Apparently, he is not draining all of the mucus as he should be. The doctors think this is cause for concern since he's had 2 ear infections in 6months. I agree. The girls never got ear infections. Joe still gets them. We have a follow-up in 2 weeks and so we'll see how he does.
He is on a nasty antibiotic which will upset his stomach so the fun isn't over for us yet. His fever is down thank God but he is still in a decent amount of pain, so he is still on the Tylenol as well. I can't imagine what the state of his stomach lining is. I hope the agressive antibiotic will have immediate results... I also hope we'll sleep tonight.

Lock up your children and your wives

Alex is mobile!
In a walker that is. He's like a Tazmanian Devil. He can tear it up on the hard wood. He can only slightly scoot on the carpet. This is great when I'm cooking because he follows me around. We are going to have to start locking the kitchen cabinets again. He figured that out really fast. Then he got mad when the next night he couldn't open them. So, he went to the fridge and knocked off all of the magnets and pictures he could reach. With nothing left to do he walked to the front door. Then he needed help turning around again.

This is great because he tires himself out and gets to see and explore the world. You just need to watch your toes because as soon as his feet hit the ground he's off.

We need some Holy Water... and a priest!

Bleach at the very minimum...
Gaby is sick again. She had a fever of 104.7 that started on Monday. I took her in to the Dr. fearing the return of pneumonia or the flu. It was not either. She had to endure a nasal swab... that went well. It turns out it was just a mystery virus. Who knows. Even with Motrin, the fever was only getting down to 101.4 She didn't get any relief even with the medicine. The fever broke yesterday, Friday, but the cough lingers. Gaby was so sick, my poor baby. She got 4 days in mommy's bed with the tv running. On Wed and Thursday she didn't get up at all. It was hard getting her to drink or eat. She is now on the road to recovery. Although she is wondering "who gave me the flu bug... that's not very nice!"

Of course Bella is sick now. No high fever just that aweful cough. We'll hope Alex doesn't get it next.

Say cheese!

We finally took Alex in for his pictures... nevermind the fact that it's 3 months late!
He of course is beautiful!

We won the Lottery!

... and people thought it couldn't happen.
Yes, we won the lottery. Albeit, the Prairie Crossing Charter School Lottery. Gaby will be going to the only charter school in Lake County. There were 25 openings in the Kindergarten class and over 90 applications. We are so happy about it. The school is a charter school which means that it has a mission... it is evironmentally aware. They have their own farm and prairie. We feel that this will be better for Gaby seeing as it is a small school and we think she'd benefit from this. Now that Gaby is in, Bella and Alex are automatically in.
So what does this mean for us? No more ziplocks, environment friendly cleaning supplies, no junk food for lunch, using all tupperware, wearing slippers at school and alot of outdoor learning and alot of volunteering at school.
This is a huge relief for us. We will see what August brings.

Daddy's Birthday

Daddy is another year older and we celebrated as only a family with 2 preschoolers could... cupcakes and homemade decorations. A good time was had by all!

The Three Bandidos

Here are the latest pictures of my lovelies...