Scary Day

Thursday started out like any other day at the Pleimann house. Kids were up at 4am, and we were off. Cleaning house, doing laundry and playing in every room in the house. Everything seemed fine until about 7am when Noah started melting down. He had a fever of 101.
He was definitely sick. I gave him some Tylenol and laid him down on the couch. We just hung out for awhile. He asked for a snack so I gave him some craisins and crackers. Shortly after this Noah had massive diarrhea, down his legs out in his pants. What an awful mess. So about 11am I made Abby some lunch and Noah took a little nap on the couch. At some point I checked his temp at it was up to 102.5 under his arm, which when you take a temperature under the arm pediatricians say to add a degree, so there we were at 103.5.  He also puked during this time too, if was after his nap but before Abby went upstairs.

His nap right before it all happened.

After Abby finished lunch Noah woke up but was still chilling on the couch so I left him there while I took Abby up to put her down for her nap. As I came back downstairs I could see something was wrong with Noah, he has this blank stare on his face and couldn't respond to me. I sat him up and tried to get him to take a drink when he still didn't respond I started to get really scared. I picked him up and took him in the kitchen because he started to gurgle or choke on the water. I thought he might have puke still stuck in his throat so I stuck my finger in his mouth to make sure he was okay. Dumb idea, he clamped down on my finger and started seizing. So scary. The actual seizure didn't last very long about 20-30 seconds. Some how I got my finger out and called 911. He came out of the seizure and I laid him down on the floor. I yelled for Abby to get downstairs and put on her shoes. She did without missing a beat, awesome kid. Noah didn't get upset or anythingm he was just really lethargic. The EMT checked him out and recommended we take a ride over to Children's Hospital. I threw on some shoes, grabbed my purse and off we went. All of us riding in the ambulance. Noah was strapped to me on the gurney and they had a car seat for Abby to ride in. Thank goodness.

On the ride there I called Dave on my cellphone, it went something like "Hi Noah had a seizure, he's okay, we are in an ambulance, meet us at children's, bye" Seriously not the greatest conversation. I threw my phone back in my purse and was dealing with Noah. The EMT's decided Noah needed more meds so we gave him some ibuprofen. Bad idea, a few seconds later he threw it up all over me. As we were approaching the hospital, I checked my phone to see I had 6 missed calls. See I had put my phone on silent when Noah was sleeping and never turned the volume back up. So Dave was freaking out not really knowing what was going on as he drove to the hospital. By the way, Abby had a blast in the ambulance. Sounds weird but the EMT's gave her a hat and a glove that they blew up, plus she could see everything out the window so she had a grand old time.  She called her glove "Pete the Pirate Parrot."

Finally at the hospital we were left at triage, since Noah was no longer seizing we checked in with a nurse to wait for a room. Because he had puked up all the meds he had been given they had to give the poor kid a suppository of Tylenol. His fever was still about 102 at this point. Dave must have drove like a maniac to get there because he was walking into triage as we were checking in. We had to wait about an hour, Noah spent most of the time cat napping on my shoulder. He wasn't about to do anything. They had a small play area and a bunch of kid books to entertain Abby.  Even without a nap, Abby was awesome and perfectly well behaved. 

Finally we saw the doctor. By this point we had a pretty good idea Noah had a febrile seizure. It's common among little ones and caused by high fevers. The doctor's only other concerns were that it could have been caused by a urine infection or meningitis. The only way to test for the urine infection at Noah's age would be to put a catheter him. Which sounded mighty traumatizing. Noah wasn't showing the signs for meningitis so it wasn't a real concern. We decided against the urine test and just to watch for the other signs that it could be the cause. We were released with a prescription for an anti seizure medicine, in case it happens again and lasts for more than 5 minutes. 5 minutes, I can't imagine how awful it would be to watch a child seize that long.

Noah's cousin also has febrile seizure as did his uncle and grandmother all on Dave's side. The doctor did tell us they are hereditary and once he's had one he's much more likely to have another with a high fever. Not words this Mama wanted to hear. After a discussion with the doctor we were released and home by dinner time. Noah was playing and having a good ole time by 6pm. It was the strangest thing. I did attempt to sleep on the floor of his room.   Around 10:30pm he spiked another bad fever near 104.  So Dave cooled him off with cold cloths while I tried to comfort him.  We did this for well over an hour, until around midnight.  We decided to wake up in an hour to make sure the tylenol had brought his fever down.  We got up around 1:00 and checked.  He was still warm, but fine. 

By Friday morning his fever was down to 101.5 and has been dropping most of the day. He's had a lot of Tylenol but it seems to be working. I had him nap on the couch so I could watch him.
By Saturday he was back to his old self. Today he went back to school and all seems well. Thank goodness!

Sharing the Football

Abby had just woken up and we were watching the Rams game.
Abby: "Daddy, why doesn't he share?"
Me: "What do you mean?"
Abby: "I always share.  It's nice to share."
Me: "What isn't he sharing?"
Abby: "The football!"
Me: "Well, yeah.  He's supposed to keep the football away from the other team."
Abby: "Oh."

Sea Lions At The Zoo!

We've been trying for months to get a close look at the new sea lions at the zoo but haven't had much luck. So a few weeks ago we tried yet again, this time it was cold. Temps were in the 40's and it was a school day so the place was desserted. The exhibit has an underground walk way to get up close with the sea lions. 

It was perfect. The sea lions were playful and loved to follow our hands across the glass.

 This little guy was extremely playful, he loved Abby. He must be the youngest in the exhibit.

 This is the best shot of Noah, he refused to get too close to the glass. He didn't really understand that you couldn't touch the sea lions and was much happier just watching from his stroller.

 Abby couldn't of been happier. I think she would have stayed in the tunnel all day if I would have let her.

 I love this shot, it's like she's holding the sea lion.

 How awesome is this!

So this the video I shot on my phone, if you get motion sickness easy I would suggest skipping this video. Sorry in advance for the shakiness. And yes I'm making kissing noises and talking to the sea lion like he can hear me. What can I say I love the sea lions just as much as the kids.

St. Nick's Eve

 Dear Santa - These two can be double trouble. Like tonight when they both ended up in time out for hitting each other. It's a rare evening that they behave so poorly. I hope you can look over their troubles to see that they play well together most days. Looking out for each other, sharing stickers and play-doh. They laugh at the same bathroom humor and know when the other one needs a hug.
Love, Abby & Noah's Mommy

 Dear Santa, I'm sorry for hitting Noah.

 For Christmas I would like glitter glue, a doll house and clothes, love Abby

Dear Santa, I'm sorry for hitting Sissy. For Christmas I would like a choo-choo (train) Love Noah

Insulation Nightmare

When we moved into the new house, I knew that we needed more insulation in the attic.  There was around 8-10 inches of blow-in insulation in the attic.  Definitely not enough.  Knowing how terrible this job is (I did it at the old house), I put it off for two years.  Finally, it was time.

With Thanksgiving, I was off for the last five days.  If I picked up the insulation machine on Wednesday, then I would get to keep it until Friday instead of the normal 24 hours (Lowe's was closed on Thursday).

I did some prep work on the attic on Wednesday morning.  There were several things to do:
1. I had to move the existing insulation to the outer parts of the attic.  With the blow in machine, if you're not careful, you can cover up the soffit vent and block airflow in the attic.  My way of combating this is to pile the existing insulation carefully up to the soffits, but not block them.  Then I can blow the new insulation right up against that pile.
2. I used expanding foam to fill any gaps or holes in the drywall (wires, fans, etc).  I ended up using 6 cans.
3. There was a 2x4 walkway along the length of the attic.  It sat right on top of the ceiling boards.  Since I would be blowing in 20-24 inches of insulation, I needed to raise this.  So, I cut all the wood and built the walkway up 12 more inches.  This will allow me to access most any place in the attic without disturbing more insulation than necessary.

I wasn't quite sure how long this would all take.  So, I went to get the machine.  I also bought 50 bags of insulation.  I thought this would be a good start, although I wasn't quite sure it would be enough.

Without getting into details, checking out the machine was a NIGHTMARE.  Out of the 10 Lowe's people I worked with throughout this ordeal, only ONE new what he was talking about.  Only 15 bags fit in the car at a time, so I had to make four trips to get it all home.

I got half of the attic finished with the prep work, and wanted to start blowing some of it in the attic.  Only problem?  The machine wouldn't work!  It was so frustrating.  We had it all ready, dragged the hose up to the attic, moved bags of insulation, and it didn't work.  I initially thought the hose was clogged.  Cleaning it out took 20 minutes.  Still didn't work.  We had already put a bag of insulation in the machine, but I was starting to suspect that was the problem.  So, I had to empty out the machine (another 30 minutes).  Then I found the problem (or so I thought).  The bottom was completely matted down insulation.  Spent another 20 minutes cleaning that out.

Then it seemed to be working better.  So, we got all set up again (another 15 minutes).  Still didn't work.  Argh.  The hose was clogged again.  Got everything down and taken apart again.  You have no idea how frustrating it is to spend so much time just getting it set up, getting all the gear on, getting the kids set, etc just to not have the machine work.  So, I got out of the attic again and cleared out the hose again.  Looked at the machine, and it was gunked up again too.  Spent an hour cleaning the two things out.  This time I tried to get every last bit of insulation out of the machine.  It was awful.  By this point, we had insulation all over our front porch.  We had two trashcans full of insulation that should have been in the attic by now. 

This took us in to Thanksgiving day.  We messed with it a while longer and then went to Thanksgiving dinner.  I was cautiously optimistic that it was fixed, but wouldn't find out until the next day. 

The next morning, we went at it again.  Got the kids in front of the TV, got all dressed, got everything out and the hose to the attic.  Again, got about two tiny pieces of insulation in the attic, and the hose clogged.  Argh.  Spent another hour cleaning out the hose and machine.

I decided to call Lowe's to see if they had any solutions.  By this point, I had already spent at least 5 hours cleaning out the machine.  The guy who answered kept calling me "boss."  I was already angry, and he wasn't helping.  I asked if there were any things that typically go wrong that I should check for.  He responded "do you smell a belt burning, boss?"  I replied "no" and instantly knew he had no idea what he was talking about.  This machine doesn't even have a belt on it!  Argh.  Strike another one up to useless help from Lowe's.  I asked if anyone has ever had a problem with this machine before.  He said, "No, boss."  STOP CALLING ME BOSS!  This guy clearly had no clue. 

So I called my dad.  They were going to be taking the kids overnight on Friday.  They came over and dad felt the air blowing out of the machine.  He didn't think the airflow was fast enough.  So, we started taking the air blower out.  We expected it to be all gunked up with insulation, but it wasn't.  Then we noticed the problem.  The air intake for that was completely clogged.  There is a metal screen that keeps the insulation out of the blower.  It was caked with at least 1/2 inch of dust.  This was the reason for the clogging.  The air wasn't blowing hard enough to blow the insulation through.  We cleaned off the screen and FINALLY it was working.

And the "boss" dude can't convince me that no one has ever had a problem with this machine before.  That screen clogged two more times just in our use of the machine.  In addition, the machine was clogged when we got it.  So, clearly the previous user had issues as well.

Long story short, Peggy and I spent the rest of the afternoon blowing insulation into the attic.  We went through all of the 50 bags.  Peggy did a great job loading the machine.  Unfortunately for her, she thought we were almost done at the end of the 50 bags.  After the 50 bags, I was only a little over half done with the attic.  So, we went up to Lowe's to get more bags.  Yeah, this is how we spend our time without kids (which is a VERY rare thing!)  We got 59 more bags (one less so Peggy could fit in the car on the way home :-)  We had less than an hour to get ready and get to dinner with our friends. 

We got up Saturday morning and got to the insulation early.  We ended up blowing around 24 inches into the attic.  That should settle to around 20 inches, giving us a nice greater than R-60 rating.

The piece of wood you see sticking out is the corner of the new walkway.  It is about 18 inches above the top of the drywall.

I NEVER want to do that project again and we're VERY happy that it's done!

Fancy Abby Soiree

This weekend we celebrated Abigail's 4th birthday. She loves the Fancy Nancy series so we had a soiree just like Nancy would. Nancy is a lover of dressing up, beautiful butterflies and cupcakes... so I went straight to pinterest and came back with some great ideas.

We hung up all the dress up clothes by the entrance so guests could pick out an outfit if they would like.

 I cut out over 100 butterflies to decorate the whole house.

 And Ms. Fancy Abby herself. She was gorgeous!

 Her pals, Charlotte and Audrey were also dressed to the nines.

 Even Noah was dressed to the nines in his little suit.

 Auntie Sally brought the frame, straight from her dorm room to make some great pictures, this is my pal Becky.

 Happy girls!

 Auntie Sally

 Linda, Charlotte & Audrey's mommy

 The crowd, and more butterflies.

 Cousin Asher

 Pals

 My handsome little man.

 My favorite little people

 Noah & Grandma

 Happy Birthday Fancy Abby!

 He loved his cupcake.

 Fancy Nancy & Abby love cupcakes and purple, so we kept it simple this time. I did make the butterfly cake toppers, easy peasy.

 Fancy Nancy getting in on some of the pictures, Fancy Abby with Jane

 Pouting that she is still taking pictures

 Showing off their ties

 The newest Pleimann Family Photo

 Abby, Ryan & Jackie plus soon to make his appearance baby Zachary!

 Getting a pony ride

 The sign the party was coming to an end...

Quotables - Obama is watching you!

Noah had a time out. Peggy went to get him out of timeout and explained that he needs to be good.

From upstairs, Abby yells "God is watching you.....and santa." Peggy and I were having a good laugh.

One minute later, she yells "And President Obama!" Hahahaha. We can't stop laughing.

Happy Halloween!

The kids are blessed to have a Grams who can sew and make beautiful costumes. This year, Belle and Gaston. Not sure how many more years Abby will be able to convince Noah to dress like her so we are enjoying it while we can.  Yes Abby does have on her cowboy boots. She would sleep in them if we would let her. The weather was nice, in the 50's so they didn't put their coats on until the end of the night.

The neighbor girl Mary had called and asked us to trick or treat with her and her brother, John. Abby was so excited. Mary is a year older and loves to play with Abby. John only made it to two houses before calling it a night.  Noah refused to be in this picture.

Noah had no fear getting up there to get candy. At each house, he started behind the girls, but quickly walked around them or pushed his way to the front.  He was so proud of each piece of candy he got!  Our neighborhood is older, so there were very few houses with lights on.  But those that did gave the kids some great treats! This woman gave them quarters and candy.

Happy girls, it's so fun to listen to their conversations. They were discussing how hard it was to get their costumes on and off.

Abby's planned joke for the night: "What building has the most stories?......A library!"

Mary was telling a joke about cows.  So, apparently Abby decided to make up her own joke.  She did this on the spot at one of the doors.  "What cow makes the most milk?.....The BIG one!"  I was pretty impressed....heh.

After almost an hour of trick or treating, we called it a night.  Noah was pretty tired and ready for bed.  But not before a treat. He had his first snickers bar.  Yes, that is drool mixed with chocolate in lines on his shirt.

Then he helped Abby look through her bag of goodies.

He had to make sure there wasn't anything bad in the bag...

He sure was happy about everything she had.