happy nap time

we were busy yesterday cleaning the house from being sick all week and hanging around all weekend with general conference.  we also graduated the boys to new car seats--they are both now front-facing, which max loves.  he's technically 6 pounds shy of the recommended front-facing weight, but he's getting kind of big for the backwards baby car seat.  

we then spent 2 hours building max's new bed--thanks papa jay!  we've had this little number in the crawl space waiting until max was ready for his new bed!  when we finished building it, max walked over, patted the mattress, and said, "bed."  then grinned and climbed in!  nap time and bed time were another story...he took full advantage of his new bar-free, floor-level bed.  i  kept hearing pace say, "max, lay down!  lay down, max!"  i finally went up and sat in the boys room and every time max popped up i told him to lay down, despite all his whimpers.  after falling asleep late, and me waking them up so they'd actually go back down for bedtime, they only got about an hour nap. nap time today is old hat--max went right down!   two happy boys in their beds!

in keeping with conference traditions...

david took his normal beat-up-your-legs run that morning, running along bonneville shoreline trail and up the "y" trail and back down.  he brought along his go pro to take some selfies...

i worked on an art project while listening to conference ( this one is entitled "to those who fall how kind thou art")

and gave the boys some art supplies to play around, too.  i showed pace the salt-on-watercolors trick, and he thought it was pretty cool.  i think his favorite part was licking the extra salt off his hand (he says that salty and sour are his favorite flavors).  that blue masterpiece is pace's rendition of his "blanket and goopies" (he must have been really tired of me wiping his nose this past week...)

we stayed in pjs and got conference treats (don't you drill your donuts before eating them?).  the boys also had races up and down the hallway.  max has learned to count to five (sometimes the numbers are thrown out at random instead of listed chronologically) and say "ready, set, go!" (although his comes out more like "yay, yet, yo!").  pace also shouts a big "kadoo deraugosheen" (or something along those lines...usually it's just a "kadoo" as he takes off down the hall).  

and when that got boring, the boys decided to have a fuzz ball jumping party.  i came out to make some sandwiches for lunch and found this fun little mess...

hot stuff

the same photographer who took our family pictures last fall also took these of david, and we finally got the pictures!  check out those calves!

round 2

at pace's dr. appointment friday morning, his temperature, lungs, and ears were all normal.  when he woke up from his nap that afternoon, he had a 102.5 fever, cough, and runny nose.  i gave him motrin and his fever went down to 99.0, so even though inside i knew it was probably pneumonia, i thought we would wait and watch over the weekend.  saturday the coughing increased and his fever went up to 103, but again responded well to motrin.  sunday, same story, only max was also now coughing and had a low-grade fever.  so i called the after-hours clinic and made an appointment for both boys.  they were somewhere in the 100's when i left for their appointment.  the nurse at the appointment said their temperatures were totally normal, and the dr. said it was viral and to just keep and eye on them.  when i got home, their temperatures were in the 102's.  their coughing got worse throughout the day.  needless to say i did not agree with the dr.'s diagnosis.

having been up all night with the boys three nights in a row, and nursing a sleep-deprivation headache, i was having a hard time thinking, and trying to decide if i should bring the boys in to the er that night, or just wait to see our normal dr. in the morning.  bishka convinced me to bring them to the er that night.  i was expecting to go all mama bear on the er dr.'s, demanding chest x-rays, etc. (our last visit to the er we saw a dr. who was sort of gruff and didn't think we needed to be there)  lucky for us, we saw a very nice dr. who agreed with my concern of a relapse from their recent illness, and wanted to run as many tests as he could, minus blood work.  so...2 chest x-rays and mucus-suctionings later, we discovered the boys hadn't relapsed, but swapped.  this time pace was diagnosed with pneumonia and max was diagnosed with an ear infection and rsv.

funny.  i always thought breast-fed babies were impervious to ear infections, and our hand-washing-smoothie-guzzling routine kept us healthy enough to avoid major infections like this!  and yet, here we are, spending practically the entire month of march in quarantined pj's!  i hope my jeans still fit.

chemistry magic show

the library had a chemistry magic show monday night, so we decided to check it out for family night. i think the visiting chemists were professors from byu, showing off their fun tricks.

pace and mama saying "science rules!"  (thanks, bill nye)

getting everything ready and set up

we initially sat in the front on the floor, and then we ended up in the back.  max was way more interested in climbing on the chairs than watching the chemistry coolness.

i don't remember what substances were in the flasks, but this trick was called the barking dog trick.  i know it was alcohol mixed with something, and when he lit it, the fire went down and as it hit the other something, it really sounded like a dog barking.  

i think this one was lighting a pickle, which pace thought was pretty cool.

the next trick was called elephant toothpaste--he made a bunch of foam that jumped up the flask pretty fast.  pace was enthralled...

meanwhile...max was climbing up on the chair, then jumping off, holding on to my hand.  when that wasn't fun anymore he decided to spin around in circles and make himself dizzy, which elicited lots and lots of giggles.  then he had a flash of brilliance and decided to combine the two activities--spin around and get dizzy, then climb up on the chair, then jump off, then spin around again.  crazy kid.    

i was hungry for chocolate

david thinks it's absurd that we buy treats and i immediately forget about them.  out of sight, out of mind.  remember our trip to the chocolate exhibit, and godiva store?  all that chocolate ended up on david's dresser, which i forgot about.  

pace apparently didn't.  it was quiet monday morning after i finished doing the breakfast dishes.  and all moms know...if it's quiet, it's worth investigating!  i found pace upstairs, chocolate smeared.  "i was hungry for chocolate!"  pace grinned.  this little problem solver had pulled a box of diapers from his closet into our room, opened the godiva boxes, pulled out probably his weight in truffles, and had a treat...little stinker!

that works for mr. independence most of the time.  another morning i came down to pace yelling for me to help him, that he was stuck and couldn't get down.  i followed his voice to find him INSIDE the fridge--he wanted a carrot, but couldn't figure out how to get down once he had gotten in...

as i'm writing this, i am hearing noises in the kitchen...i just yelled, "pace, what's going on?"  he replied, "mom, leave me alone!"  ha ha.  i think there are definitely some treats involved there...

you should see the other guy...

we decided to eat dinner outside after church on sunday because it was such a warm and nice afternoon.  pace decided to play on the jogger stroller, on the lower seat, of course--as it was unbalanced, pace face-planted it on the concrete porch.  he immediately started crying, holding his nose, and we watched it pretty much double in size and change colors before our eyes.  poor little guy!  after some motrin and holding some frozen peas on his nose, he calmed down a bit.  i was pretty sure he had broken it, and called our after-hours service to see if there was anything to even do about a broken nose.  the nurse said he'd only need to be seen if the nose seems displaced, which i thought it did, on his right side.  so i called the office monday morning, and they referred us straight the the ent, who then said they wait 5-7 days for swelling to go down before examining a possible break.  so...

monday:  

tuesday:

wednesday (being silly):

thursday (more silliness):

friday, the morning of our appointment (he looks serious because he was telling me once again about the digestive system, which is a very serious topic, you know, with the stomach "assick" and all...):

the ent was very nice and the exam went very fast.  he deduced pace's nose was broken, as it felt like it moved when he reset it.  he also said pace's septum was deviated (whether a congenital thing or from the accident, we don't know), but they don't do surgery until at least 18 because there's a growth plate they don't mess with.  pace did not like having his nose set, but he decided it was worth getting a lollipop from the dr., and donuts from mama.