We left the party on Sunday early and came right home. Max did not look good. he feel asleep on the couch, which was not typical since he does not nap anymore and we took him temp. Now that am we took his temp with a thermometer and it said 102 and I took it again and it said 98. Ok. strange I thought. Well this time we took it and it said 103.5 under his arm. I got another one and it said the same. He has never had a temp this high ever! So I called the doc and she said to get him tested for H1N1 and so I scooped him up hot and crying and limp and took him the the minute lab at CVS where they told me to leave and go to the ER. We were welcomed by a nice lady who told me to put a mask on Max. he was not having this so I found a corner away from anyone else and held my hot and limp child in my arms. I did not have a thing. I did not even have a diaper bag. I thought we were going to CVS and going home. Sam was with Scott at home and thank god the Eagles were playing an away game because if not, he would have been at the game. Thank goodness. So they admitted us and Max screamed. We undressed him, gave him motrin, took his vitals, swabbed him for H1N1, which is not fun and waited. The nice doc came in and gave him 2 lollipops and you could see the fever going down because Max was started to act like himself.

It was scary. He did not have H1N1 or the flu but he had some virus and the rashes probably had to do with the virus. We went home after 2 hours there and got Max in a bath and put him to bed. I felt drained. The hubby did a great job with Sam although he was so nervous that he at an entire pizza and then threw up. Me, well I ate two bags of potato chips and called it a night. As for Max, he had a fever yesterday but he woke this am with no fever. YEAH! i have never seen him like that and it was scary. I am glad it is over but I am prepared because it is his first year at school and every week we have a new cold at out house.

Just hoping baby Sam does not get sick. Just hoping we do not have to go back to the ER soon. The scary part is that so many people are getting the  H1N1 shot and well we are considering getting the flu and the H1N1shots-even for Max who does not do well with shots. We will see. So much to think about when your child is allergic to egg and has a speech delay. So much to think about. My hubby was so proud of me. I just think it is being a Mom-there is some part of us that just shuts off and goes in to ‘I must take care of my baby mode”!

So here is another one of Max and his cars!

And here is another one of my little girl who is always striking a pose for the camera!

And there is the typical morning in my house!

And then there is a typical Sunday. Go Eagles!

So we are all doing much better. Sam is fine and it toughened her up. Max is loving school and I think he enjoys the constant schedule and attention he gets there. We went to the chinese herbalist and she gave him a formula for Qi stagnation, clearing the heat and calming the spirit. He started to eat again. Yeah! I think I will take the baby next week. I am also doing NAET with him, which is a technique used to help clear allergies and intolerances. We cleared Eggs and chicken the other day and we will go back next week for another treatment. I did this when he was young but hopefully it will take this time.

I am almost done with my cold. I hate being sick. Good news is that the pill is regulating me and the doctor thinks that in 3 months I will be back to normal (whatever that is). I have also been doing a liver cleanse and I it has been hard to give up my huge bowl of popcorn at night (it is so my comfort food). At this point, I cannot give up that one cup of organic coffee in the am. I know I should but I cannot so for now, this is the best I can do. Lets see if by this week I have the willingness t give up my soy milk in my coffee, which is so my comfort food too. I love creamy anything!

I have just been losing my patience lately with Max. Max has been having a lot of allergy and intolerances. He has been having reactions to everything again. It has been really hard on me because I feel like I dont know what to do and then I get angry and i think I have been taking it out on him when he refuses to eat and only wants to drink his hypo-allergenic formula. I finally let go last night and that loving MOM came back. I cried the night before when I was yelling at him because he would not eat. He has been on a food strike for the past week and for some off reason I take it personally instead of just stepping back and getting perspective. I just collected a urine test from him this AM and will be shipping it off today so we can see how he filters toxins. I also made an allergist appointment for him and Wednesday he is seeing a chinese herbalist named Cara Frank. Hopefully she can clear some internal heat and help with the stagnation, candida and allergies. Just an ongoing process and it can sometimes be really hard but I just need to let go of it and keep moving forward to help Max.

So yesterday morning sucked! I was dropping Max off at school and rushing and I went to put Sam in the ergo carrier and she fell on the concrete. SHE FELL and his her head. I picked her up and held her so tight and went and got max and took him into school. She had stopped crying in 30 seconds but had a huge bump on her head. I gave her Arnica homeopathy and put on Arnica gel and watched her closely. I gave her Arnica later in the day again and she seemed to be fine. I was just rushing. I was rushing to get Max to school and rushing to get to Valley Green for a run with Samantha and she fell. I was crying in the parking lot after I dropped off Max. I know she is fine and I know we all have those moments where our babies get hurt because of something we do but it was still hard. I called the doctor and she told me what to do and what to look for over the next 24 hours. All is fine with Miss Samantha, thank GOD!

Sam is getting big. She is about 18 1/2 pounds and crawls very fast and is so funny. She sleeps in her crib and plays before sleep and she is just the best little girl. I love having her in my life. I am so lucky to have them. Max is enjoying school by Tuesday and Monday mornings are still hard so cross for fingers for today.

I started physical therapy for my knees and have been really enjoying it. I like being pushed by a trainer and I am learning tons of stuff and how to strengthen my weak body parts. I am going to run this week. I promised I would take 2 weeks off to let my knees rest after that 13.2 half marathon.

You know I think it is just tough being a mom. I think it is the most amazing job in the world but it full of up and downs and emotions. I have learned so much about myself being a mom. I feel like I have healed so many wounds with my own childhood and yet I know there is still so much more.

On another note, yesterday I had some family come over for the afternoon and my cousin was a little sick and her daughter was coughing. Do people not use their brain? They say things like, ” Oh I don’t want to kiss you because I may be sick?” Do people not think that it would not be a good idea to go where babies are when they are sick. So after they left, and I was so angry, I took antibacterial wipes and wiped the whole house. UGH. If my kids get sick again, dagger will be thrown. Am i over reacting?

So I knew this was not going to be easy. First off my son hates to get his hair washed because of his ears. Even though he had not had any ear infections since we got him tubes, he is still hates to have his ears touched. After his nap, it was D DAY! I tried to explain to my 26 month old that he has bugs in his hair that are making his itch. NO LUCK! Her screamed and I had to hold him down so he would not touch the medicine. IT WAS AWFUL> He screamed and kicked and cried. I felt like the worst mom but I knew it had to be done. Sam was crying too. Oh boy! And then finally I could rinse it and he screamed even more. Then I had to comb them out. The good thing is that he then watched me and then explained to me in his no talking way that he had bigs in his hair. At least he got what I was saying. So then I stripped everything and sprayed everything with that spray and washed everything. Our snowy day sucked!

But Max has not scratched at all. Who even knows where he got it because he plays with so many kids. I guess I need to keep a look out for kids scratching their heads. Poor Max! Poor Mommy. YUK lice! Are you itching yet?

So I have very little energy to write about anything except that Mom’s should not ever get sick because our job does not end.

Good news! We rented a shore house on Long Beach Island for 9 weeks this summer! Yeah, here is the house!

So there it is. At least I am thinking warm summer beach house when I have a cold. There is always some good coming my way.

We are back. The trip to NYC was great. It did not go as planned but nothing after having baby has gone as planned. Max got sick last week and then I got sick and luckily, the hubby did not show signs of being sick till after the NYC Marathon. We actually we supposed to leave Friday and we did not leave till Saturday because Max was not doing well. So we left Saturday and then the navigation in the car took us out 40 mins past our hotel because I put in the wrong address. Yeah being sick and pregnant does not make for a good brain. Then we arrived at the hotel and they screwed up our room. They told me it was my fault but thank goodness for my blackberry because I had the saved email confirmation for the room we were supposed to get. So instead of a suite we got two connecting rooms-which was better because Max and I stayed far away from Scott in order not to get him sick. 

Also big mistake was that I booked a hotel on Times Square thinking it would be fun. Note to self-yeah it was crazy. The hotel was fine but the location was nuts. So regardless I tried to make the best of it without feeling too guilty that my husband would have liked to be in a more relaxed setting (but he would have never complained or told me), with a nicer suite and so on. The concierge actually brought me up a skip hop diaper bag full of goodies to make up for the mistake. Pretty much I had them on the phone and gave them a mouthful. Don’t screw with a pregnant woman.

I also had plans to meet up with a blog friend but as Max got better I got worse and so we did not end up meeting up with them. BOO HOO. Hopefully next time.

Sunday was perfect-the day of the race. My sister met us at 57th and 8th Ave and we walked and walked and walked until we met up with my hubby 34 hours later. God knows how I even saw him but it all worked out and then we jumped into a cab, went and got room service( the food was amazing but damn a burger was $24) and chilled. That night Max and I went to see my cousins who live on the upper west side for dinner. It was fun. My sister, her man and my other cousin joined as well while the hubby rested at the hotel.

And Monday we packed up to come home. Did I mention that Max slept for 3 hours on Sunday while pushing him in his stroller-it made life so much easier…although sleep has been nutty with day light savings.

So here is a picture of Max looking out the 49th floor of the hotel onto Times Square holding out favorite travel toy-PLAY DOH!

All in all, I worked through feeling like the whole trip was a screw up on my end for the first day. I guess I get nervous when the hubby runs a marathon because I want things to be perfect for him but they are-just because we are supporting him.

I have not been sleeping lately. No worries or anything like that..I am just not sleeping. I think my body got run down and then I got a cold. It is also a tough time of year for me. I have spoken before of my alcoholic father rabbi, who is not in my life at all by his choice, and so during the jewish new year, I kind of get really emotional and strung out. My Dad is just one of those dada that cannot show up for his life or at least his past life-who knows what he is like with his current wife and adopted son. But I am sure he is still an alcoholic and that part makes not seeing him for all of these years ok with me. Still hurts but ok with me.

I always get sick around this time of year. Like I said, could it be the tick, the change of seasons or just my heart feeling sad? In chinese medicine, problems with the lung means grief and so it is no surprise that I am having some lung problems.

As for being sick, it is so hard to take care of a toddler during these times. I have tried to nap but my body just does not know how. I cannot just shut off. I wish I could just get some rest. Hopefully a trip to the acupuncturist and chinese herbalist will help because running on 5 hours of sleep each night is not working for me or this baby.

To top it all off, my mother just has a tough time showing up in her own way. She may be totally available one day and then gone the next. I guess it makes sense why I am such a “DO IT ON MY OWN PERSON”. Anyway, I guess the bottom line is that the unavailable mother/father drama will end with Max. Neither my husband nor myself will be my mother or father. A mother that could never protect her kids and a father that could never show up. In the light of New Year, that is the gratitude that I have.

We saw Todd Hoover again because Max was digging in his ear. He told me that it is an allergy, both food and environment, but that I should not worry since his ears looked great. He gave him another dose of the original remedy and hopefully, this will relieve the digging from happening at all. I think Todd Hoover is one of the best homeopaths because he is such a wonderful observer of both Max and my own thoughts on his condition. The good news is that is is not systemic and it is not yeast just allergies.

Max had green goo coming out of his nose and so we did not go and see Christy at Cakerwakers. I felt horrible but her little one had just gotten over a sickness and I just could not bring him to the party for her little one turning 2 years old. this is the second time i have tried to meet this blog friend and it did not work out. Boo Hoo! Hopefully, we will try again. Sorry but it seems everyone is sick in June. UGH!

As for the pregnancy update, the damn scale is going up and up. Maybe it was the chinese food or the popcorn at the movies. Or maybe it is just the fact that I am prego. I really wanted to gain little weight but I guess I know that I got it off before and so I can do it again. I went for the ultrasound/blood test for down syndrome and the percentage is 1/580 for my age. Well my tests came back and my percentage was 1/10,000. The nurse on the phone was amazed by my numbers. I will take that number any day. As for the baby, well the baby looked happy and bouncing around. I am so anxious to find out what we are having. I have no patience. God bless those who can wait.

Well here is my little gardner. he was very helpful as long as he had a shovel, my shovel and his water bottle. I am still not sure how I managed to get all my veggies planted with being sick and taking care of a sick boy but I did. We planted cauliflower, collard greens, swiss chard, lettuce and tomatoes. I am so excited for the veggies to start growing. 

I do have to admit that it was tough to get into the groove with Max trying to pick up every gardening tool and playing with the dirt and trying to re-plant to plants. Luckily his Dad was eager to have the garden finished as well so they played while I worked in the fields. Lately the pregnancy hormones have been making me feel a tid on the bitchy side and so Scott has been stepping up to help more with Max.

Max is getting in his molars as well as being sick and so he is in no mood for anything. He is fussy and cranky and crying for no reason and this pregnant fussy and cranky mom just feels tired. He has the teething red butt and he is just not happy. I gave him a huge dose of Tylenol, chamomilla homeopathic remedy, a binky and put my little guy to bed. I feel like I need that too.

Tell me! Am I the only one that finds this pregnancy thing tough running after another kid? Where did my patience go? Will I ever get it back?

Just asking.