party 'til you drop.

Party we did. And drop we did. One by one. Like flies.

Saturday : Adeline running fever in the afternoon. Parents stay up late to decorate and get presents wrapped for Claire's 6th birthday the next day. Six. Still hard to believe.

Sunday (Claire's birthday) : Begin birthday festivities early in the morning. Claire is on cloud nine. Adeline is fever free. Gee-gee, Papa, and cousins Elijah and Noah arrive around lunchtime. Claire is on cloud ten (is there a cloud ten?). Little Gym party in the afternoon (fabulous) followed by cupcakes at Claire's tball game. Cloud eleven.

Little Gym party:

It was great fun. Obviously super active and exhausting, but it ended (as all birthday parties should) with a healthy dose of sugar to perk everyone back up again! After all, there was more parting still to do!

Tball game: Okay, these pictures aren't exactly from the game on her birthday, but since I haven't posted them yet, I'm taking the opportunity now. Claire's game was great. She rocks at tball (and pretty much all the other sports she's tried). She's on a 'softball' team with first and second graders. She's in kindergarten so she is the youngest on the team, but you'd never know it. She hangs in there with the older girls without any trouble. The deal is, at bat they get 4 tries to hit a ball pitched to them by the coach and if they don't get a hit, then they bring out the tee and they hit off that. Yes, they pitch to these kids. Claire is six. Six! I still can't believe they pitch to them that early! Every week I'm blown away. They get hits off the pitches almost every time. They rarely get out the tee. Amazing.

The game on Claire's birthday was a good one. She loved having such a big fan section and all of her teammates were happy to join in our celebrating with cupcakes at the end.

Oh, and Adeline starts running fever again during the game. She has officially 'dropped'.

Monday : Adeline still running fever.

Tuesday : Adeline still running fever. Robert and I are called to come home early from our date to find Adeline curled up in Kristin's lap, where she's been since she woke up whimpering 30 minutes earlier. Get her back to sleep, get decorations up and presents wrapped for Cynthia's birthday the next day. Coach Cynthia on trying to forget that she has seen the same happy birthday decorations just 3 days earlier.

Wednesday (Cynthia's birthday) : Cynthia's 50th birthday! Again start birthday festivities early in the morning. Presents, singing, etc. Did I mention that Cynthia is 50?? She likes when I mention it a lot. Presents are a hit... we went risky and got shoes, which can be a tricky gift to give. Luckily they fit and now Cynthia has joined the Keen fan club and is officially "quadruplets" with Claire, Adeline, and Hayes who all enjoy their similar trail sandals.

We continue into the afternoon giddy about our sneaky plan to surprise Cynthia. We planned for Addie, Hayes and I to sneak Claire out of school early while Robert went by the house to kidnap Cynthia. We were going to rendezvous at the movie theater to surprise her with an afternoon at the movies together.

That plan was completely derailed when Hayes fell asleep early in the morning, then woke up around 11:00 with really labored breathing. He sounded like he was gasping for air. I now know it's called stridoring. We head straight to the doctor's office. Doctor sends us to Dell Children's Hospital ER where they strap this on his leg and take him immediately back to a room:

Hayes has officially 'dropped'. He has croup. We are there for almost 6 hours. The entire time his is listless, just laying on me, hardly moving. He is given an epinephrine breathing treatment and some steroids. And sounds soooo much better by the time we leave.

Thursday : Hayes has a little bit of life in him, his breathing sounds raspy again, but just off and on. Still running fever. I bring him back to the doctor, just for a check. She says he seems okay at the moment, but if his breathing gets worse to call and she'll admit him to the hospital.

Friday : Same. I'm starting to have a bit of sore throat. Claire is running fever. She is home from school. She has officially 'dropped'.

Saturday : Claire is still running fever. Hayes sounds raspy all day. You can hear every breath from across the room. He just seems to be working really hard for each breath. Doctor calls to check on Hayes and is concerned that his fever has not gone away. She says croup can sometimes turn into pneumonia and if he's still running fever tomorrow, we definitely need to bring him in on Monday morning.

My throat is on fire.

By the end of the day I'm way too stressed out about Hayes's breathing to make it until Monday. We finally decide to take him to the ER again. He has a chest xray that comes back clear. Has an Albuterol breathing treatment which seems to help, and Doc says the croup has caused some Reactive Airway Syndrome.

Home around 1 am. I'm trying not to breathe because every breath feels like glass sliding down my throat.

Sunday : Claire is still running fever, Hayes still sounds cruddy, I can't take it... I feel horrible so I head to an after hours clinic only to be told it is a virus and there is nothing they can do. I stay in bed all day.

Monday : Robert has to take the day off to keep the kids. I'm still in bed. Claire is still running fever.

Tuesday : Robert takes a half day off so I can rest some more. Everyone still feeling yucky. Robert starting to get congested. Hayes wakes up with ear infections in both ears.

Wednesday / Thursday : Claire still running fever in the afternoons, Hayes still has drainage from the ear infections. Everyone else on the mend, slowly.

Friday : Claire back at school, I have *some* energy again. We venture out of the house and actually enjoy it a little. Sunshine is good. Poor Hayes still hasn't shaken the ear infections.

So... was it worth it? The hard partying that preceded each of our hard falls? Are you kidding? Did I mention that there was cake and ice cream and cupcakes plus two loved ones turning a year older and a visit from much loved relatives???

Well, I could have done without the hospital visits & scary breathing from Hayes, but other than that... totally worth it.