The Weekly Ten

Over the past week:

1) We tried out the Nursery calling in church and later that night I was in a lot of pain from bending over and picking up little kids for two hours along with taking care of my own little guy all day. So we called the First Counselor and told him it wasn't going to work for us right now. I don't feel guilty for two reasons: 1- I already have a calling as a Visiting Teaching Supervisor in the Relief Society and I'm not sure why they felt the need to give me a second calling anyway. 2- Since I'm pregnant, they were going to release me before the baby is born anyway. As for Josh, he didn't want to be in there if I wasn't in there so he asked to be released as well, and again, I'm okay with that because it allows us both the freedom of not having to find a substitute teacher every time we don't go to church which will be quite a bit over the next few months with everything we have planned.

2) Austin had his 18 month (even though he is actually 19 months now) well baby check/immunizations this week :(. He did good though and only had to get two shots which he quickly forgot about once he got a lollipop. I thought we would be done after this round but apparently we have one more shot to get in August. He weighs 24.4lbs (10-25 percentile), is 33 inches long (50-75 percentile), and has a head circumference of 47.5cm (25-50 percentile). He is ahead of the game in mental/physical development but we are still working on the nutrition part since he is such a picky eater!

3) I wanted to wait until the weather warmed up to take him to the doctors for his immunizations because he caught croup from the doctor's office the last time we went and I really didn't want to go through that again. But of course he caught some other bug and became sick by the end of the week anyway. He has had a super runny nose from seasonal allergies, and now he has a cough and fever on top of it :(. I don't want to take him back to the doctor since we were just there a few days ago so I'm hoping it won't become severe and will take care of itself. As for now, he has been super cuddly and whiny. We always know when the fever comes back because he becomes very lethargic and will just lay on the floor or with us on the couch and won't move which is extremely unusual for him. This made us very glad we quit our calling in church because we didn't feel stressed about ditching church today since wouldn't want to go and infect all the other kids!

Poor sick boy lounging around with Daddy.....but no amount of illness could take away his silly facial expressions!

4) I have to put this one in bold because it is so momentous! We had a particularly rough night on Wednesday with Austin being sick and I had to get up at 3:00am to go to work. I was up with him until midnight and then I finally caved and told Josh I couldn't stay up all night with a sick baby AND be physically/mentally ready for a 12 hour shift at 3:00am along with being almost 8 months pregnant! That meant that he got to stay up with Austin the rest of the night while I went to sleep! Do I hear you wondering why this is such a big deal? Well, since Josh has never once in the history of Austin's life actually stayed up with him alone for more than 20 minutes before he handed him back to me and went to bed..... I would say this is a REALLY big deal! He has always had some excuse about how he has to get his sleep or he will be sick the next day and I grudgingly allowed it because I am the type of person who usually takes over anyway because I don't think anyone can do the job as well as I can. Well not this time! And it was glorious! 

5) I was informed at work the other day that people have been making bets as to whether or not I am actually pregnant. I thought most people knew, but I guess my scrubs cover me up so well that it hasn't been as obvious as it is when I wear normal street clothes. So I was bombarded in the break room at lunch time when a brave soul finally worked up the courage to ask and they were all completely stunned when I told them that not only am I pregnant, but I am 30 weeks along! One of the technicians told me he was especially shocked because he had nicknamed me "the skinny blonde nurse" and now the term sounds ironic. I thanked them for boosting my self esteem because I have been feeling like a whale these days :).

6) We filed our taxes this week and sadly all of our tax return money will go to Austin's hospital bill from Halloween :(. We had hoped to put that money towards a vacation, or the new baby. But of course nothing ever goes as planned. I still don't understand how 3 hours in the ER equates to $3,500 but who am I to question the American healthcare system?......

7) Austin and I love to visit the pet store and it just happens to be right next door to Trader Joe's which is another favorite! I had promised Austin one morning that we would go see the puppies and he spent the entire morning talking excitedly in his adorable language about puppies :). Then, to our dismay, we knocked on the pet store door and nobody answered! It was all dark inside and the doors were locked. I assumed the person who was supposed to open that day was running late and the store would probably be open after we did some shopping at Trader Joe's. I had to keep telling Austin we would see the puppies soon and to have a little patience, which is impossible for a 19 month old boy. Afterwards, as we went to check the pet store a second time, we were met by animal control and police officers! Apparently this particular pet store was being shut down for animal abuse and all of our furry friends were being taken to the dog pound!!! I wanted to cry, and Austin actually did cry. How was I supposed to explain this to him? Now what were we going to do for entertainment? He cried the whole car ride home and let me know quite loudly that I had let him down :(.

8) Briana slept over this weekend! We had a lot of fun and Sadie joined us quite a bit too! Austin was sick so Josh watched him most of the time while I got to play with my sisters. On Friday we had fun talking and catching up over lunch from our favorite Mediterranean Restaurant, later we visited Grandma Helm since she just had surgery, and after that we went out to dinner at Milo's, our favorite restaurant in Boulder City. On Saturday we went to the movies (something I never get to do), wandered around the shops at Town Square in the beautiful sunshine, Josh and I got to go on a little dinner date to Smash Burger while Briana babysat, and then we all played cards and had a great time laughing around the table after Austin went to bed. Sadie also slept over Saturday night and we went to the Farmers Market Sunday morning. Then our company went home and Josh, Austin, and I spent the rest of our Sunday being lazy and recovering from all that fun. Austin is still not feeling good so a day of rest was just what he needed!

My sweet sick boy showing off his big pregnant belly.

Wandering around Town Square with this cute girl and having a blast!

And of course, a few kissy pics with Aunt Sadie :).

Some moments over the weekend he was happy and smiling.....

....and then the fever would return and he would go back to being sick, sad, and cuddly :(.

Luckily he had an Aunt who was more than happy to cuddle with him as long as he needed!

He's such a lucky boy to be so loved! But how could you not love that face?

9) It has been raining this evening! There is nothing more exhilarating than rain in the desert and my favorite part is the wonderful smell of wet dirt and sage. Seriously, there's no better smell than that! I wish Austin wasn't sick or we would have let him run around in it like he was dying to do! We took him outside on the porch where he could see it but not get wet and he got super excited and started yelling, "rain! rain!"  Can you tell we are desert rats?

10) Austin has been obsessed with vacuuming and I have been more than happy to allow it! He talks about the vacuum from the time he wakes up until the time he goes to bed. He even learned how to open the closet door so he can get to the vacuum unassisted! That wasn't so exciting for the rest of us though because it means we now need to child proof all of our doors :(. I don't know if it is the noise, the lights that turn on, or just the feeling of being a big boy that attracts him so much to this particular chore but I'm not complaining!

Taking the task very seriously....

I'm actually impressed with how good he is at it!