Nicholas Maravillas’ Blog

It was yet another cold, rainy afternoon here in NC, so to pass the time Nicholas and I made cookies.  He is very eager to help us nowadays with anything- emptying the dishwasher, cooking, sweeping, etc.  so I am always trying to think of things he can safely help with in the kitchen.  I decided to put him in charge of the flour today… what made me think that would be a good idea, who knows.  We moved his table to the kitchen and I set him up with a pyrex cup, a measuring cup and a big mixing bowl with some flour in it.  He happily dumped flour in and out while I mixed the wet ingredients in the stand mixer.   When it came time to add the flour, I helped him actually measure and dump it into the mixing bowl.  We ran out about 1/2 cup short, so I got a new bag out of the pantry.  Nicholas tried to close the lid of the newly filled flour canister, but it was too heavy and too close to the edge of the table.  It fell.  Crashing into many pieces and taking about 2 pounds of flour with it to the floor.  First thing I hear, “uh oh, mess!”.  I reply, “yes honey, its a mess!”.  I love this kid.  Anyways, I quickly swept up most of it to get rid of the sharp ceramic pieces and we finished up the dough.  Then Nicholas had to add the chocolate chips.  The most important part!  He took his time to make sure every single chip made it in, he didn’t even eat one!  First he used a spoon, then his fist but soon realized that just dumping the whole bowl was the most efficient way to do it!  We scooped the dough onto a cookie sheet then he patiently watched them bake in the oven.  He even helped me clean up by wiping his table and sweeping.  He is such a good boy!  Afterwards, we both enjoyed some of our delicious creations!

I think our tradition of Nicholas holding a birthday sign for loved ones is coming to an end, or at least evolving of sorts. He just won’t sit still AND hold a sign AND smile long enough to snap a picture.  So we improvise.

We tried to get him to look up and smile when drawing on the sign… but no dice.

We tried to have him sit in his big boy chair and smile with the sign… again, no dice.  But at least he’s holding it.

We tried just holding the sign near him so at least he could be smiling with it in the general vicinity… but still, no dice.

Finally we scored a slight victory when he showed Grandma her sign over Skype!  They had a nice chat.

Happy Birthday, Grandma!! We love you!

We finally got some real snow here in NC!  As opposed to the 7 flakes we had back in December.  I’m not sure on the official totals but it looks like about 5 inches here. Anyways, we stalled all day before Nicholas asked repeatedly to go outside.  Snow is pretty but we aren’t fans of the cold!  However, Nicholas insisted so we bundled up and ventured out. He refused to wear a hat or his mittens at first. We finally got the mittens on when his hands were so cold they hurt but he would only settle on a hood.  That was better than nothing I suppose.   Luckily his Grandma and Grandpa brought him snow/ski pants last year and they fit him perfectly now.   He also sported his rain boots!  He looked so darn cute.

He walked a lot better in the snow as compared to last year but when he fell down, he couldn’t get himself back up.   I think the mittens hindered him a bit!  We walked around and met up with our neighbors Gillian and Morwen. Nicholas gets giddy when he sees other kids so he was thrilled to see them. They laughed while Matthew scraped off his car before we headed inside for hot chocolate.  Or in Nicholas’ case, warm chocolate.

Our Nicholas can’t just get the sniffles and be done with it like other kids.  Oh no.  He has to take it a step further and out do himself each time.  He’s such an overachiever!

He did seem to just have the sniffles on Thursday, then by Friday afternoon he had a fever of about 101 and a cough but seemed okay.  I broke out the nebulizer a couple of times for wheezing but it wasn’t nearly as bad as he’s had before.  By Saturday morning he was still coughing with a fever but still seemed okay.  Not eating much but who would want to with such a yucky cough.  Well, he woke up from his nap with a 103.4 fever and was just plain pitiful.  Our pediatrician was closed so we found a local family practice with urgent care hours.  They closed at 3pm, I called at 2:25pm and the nurse said if we come now, they’ll see him.  So we huffed it there and were the last patients of the day.  We were expecting them to say its a virus like docs usually do, or maybe an ear infection since his fever spiked suddenly and that’s how he rolls with ear infections.  We weren’t too worried.

Anyways, the nurse and doctor were really nice.  They took his pulse ox levels, temp, etc.  But all poor Nicholas wanted to do was snuggle on my chest and sleep.  The doc listened to him for a good long time and said he possibly has pneumonia.  Pneumonia?!  Oh, and an ear infection.  Well, at least we were right about one thing.  He sent us for a stat chest x-ray and wrote his home phone number on the orders so the radiologist could call the report to him right away then he’d call us to let us know.  We were super impressed by that!  Especially from a doctor we’ve never seen before at a practice that we’ve never even visited.  He told us to go to the new healthplex about 15 minutes away.  I started to get really worried at that point.  We went right there with our pitiful little man.  Stupid mommy thought we’d be right back home from the doctor’s office and didn’t give him motrin before we left either, so he was still burning up.  It was about 4pm when we got to the healthplex.  We told the receptionist we had stat orders for a chest x-ray for our son.  To which she replied, “No.”.  Um, “No?!”.  And it wasn’t even an apologetic ‘no’.  Very matter of fact, “no”.  She went on to explain that they do not do outpatient x-rays on the weekends.  Well crap.  Annoyed, I ask her where we can go.  She sort of shrugs and suggests the main hospital in Cary.  Great.  So we load up our limp, sad, hot little man and drive the next 15 minutes to the hospital.  That receptionist first tells us we need to go through the ER.  Ugh.  Then says, unless the registration lady hasn’t left yet.  Fortunately she hadn’t, but obviously was on her way and not too pleased to see us show up!  Thankfully we got registered and didn’t wait long for the x-ray.  It took 3 of us in lead vests to hold Nicholas down in the right spot to get the shots they needed.  He was not happy at all.  And I am sure felt like crud.  Finally we were done and on the way home.  We stopped to get his antibiotics and put him right to bed around 6pm.  The doctor called around 7pm and said it wasn’t pneumonia (thank God!) but he does have bad bronchitis.  So he adjusted the dose of bubble gum medicine and told us that if the fever didn’t go down by the morning, to take him to the ER.  Well, this weary, frazzled mom didn’t like to hear that!  It was a rough night because Nicholas was so restless all night long.  But he woke up Sunday with a temp of 100.3 and it stayed around that to 101 all day.  Although he woke up from his short nap in hysterics.  And stayed that way for an entire hour.  We even called the after hours nurse line for advice because he was just so upset.  He wanted to be held, but wouldn’t hold still, kept flailing, screaming, etc.  It was just strange.  We took him outside (in the drizzling rain) and that seemed to snap him out of it and he was fine the rest of the afternoon.  Weird.  He hadn’t eaten a bite of anything on Saturday but did eat some on Sunday.  Sunday night was a little better and he woke up this morning with a perfect temp of 98.6!  And ate a good breakfast.  His cough is hanging around but I imagine that will be here for a little while as he gets rid of that crap in his chest.

So that was our blur of a weekend.  He was feeling good enough to play trains last night and we got some cute pictures of the tunnel going through his “house”.  Hopefully we’ve met our sick quota for awhile and he’ll stay happy and healthy!

This was read as a Mentor Mom moment at MOPS. It is from the July/August 2009 issue of MomSense. I just love it!

I live the life of a rock star. It’s true! I have wild hair and make up with frequent costume changes.

Everywhere I go I have an entourage. People are constantly yelling my name. I look out into the crowd and they’re actually crying for me, reaching for me.

I have no privacy. I’m watched when I shower, when I’m cooking, even when I use the restroom… for my own protection I’m sure.

When I go places I must do so quickly before my fans get out of control and start a riot. Every night a different guy wants to sleep with me. Each of them seems genuinely hurt when I turn him away.

Occasionally I get dirty underwear whirled at me with a whoop and a smile. It’s even hard sometimes to walk through my own home without someone spotting me and trying to grab my legs or my clothing.

Oh, and don’t forget about the stalkers! You know those crazed fans that follow you everywhere? Why, I can’t even talk on the phone in the pantry without an eye or two peeping at me.

Yes, it’s true- I live the life of a rock star. And this goes out to my biggest fan, Nicholas- thank you for making my debut so special!!

Hearing that made me think that I am really going to miss all the attention, hugs, playing, learning, and everything else that comes with toddlerhood some day.  As hard as some days are, I am so blessed to be the rock star in Nicholas’ life and hope I always will be!  Even when he’s 17 and I am so not cool anymore…

Matthew’s company, Logos, had their annual holiday party this past weekend up in NoVA.  To entice the Raleigh employees to make the trip up, they paid for hotel rooms, had a shuttle running from the hotel to the party and also offered free childcare.  They made it very hard to say no!   We didn’t take advantage of the childcare though.  Nicholas had a much better time hanging out with his Grandma and Grandpa at home.  They went to Marbles, toy shopping, outside for fresh air, McDonalds to play and out for pizza.

While they were having fun down south, Matthew and I got all gussied up for the party.  It was fun to get all pretty and wear something besides my usual sweatpants!  We enjoyed a delicious buffet, an open bar, time with fun co-workers and casino games.  Matthew did really well at the Craps table.  He was on a winning streak and actually rolled for about 30 minutes straight.  He won a lot of people a lot of fake money!  At the end of the night, you turned in your chips for raffle tickets.  Each $25,000 got you one ticket.  We lost all but the original $25,000 we started with in the last 10 minutes so we only got one ticket.  They drew the raffle tickets for cash prizes.  Some people had as many as 6 tickets in the drawing, so I didn’t think we had a chance but Matthew has remarkable luck when it comes to raffles.  At past company holiday parties and conferences, he’s won a digital camera, an iPod, a set of high-end liquor with stainless bar set, restaurant gift certificates and this weekend, $100!  I was looking at the ticket as she read the wining numbers and sure enough, she read our number!  Matthew looked at me with a grin and said “see?” as he got up to claim his prize.  We stopped at IKEA on the way home courtesy of Logos.  Thanks, Logos!

We are so glad Nicholas’ Grandma and Grandpa came all the way to NC to spend the weekend with him so that we could enjoy some time away!  Thank you sooo much!

We are beginning to thaw out here in NC and enjoying temperatures in the 50’s rather than 30’s.  Its been a long time since Nicholas has been able to play outside so we seized the morning!  He loved hanging out in his new playhouse, playing basketball with a golfball, digging in his sandbox, dribbling a soccer ball and practicing his trike skills.