If it's not one, then it's the other

I think Gabe has got strep throat now. When he woke up this morning he said he can't hear out of his left ear and his "froat" hurts. We're off to the doctors office for the second time in a week.

Hospital Visits

Friday, Madison stayed home from school because she didn't feel good. She had a stomach ache and threw up.

I took her to the doctors and they sent us for blood work, x-rays of her stomach and a strep test. An hour later they called us and told us to go back to the hospital for an ultra sound. They thought she might have appendicitis. Everything ended up coming back negative and they told us to keep an eye on her, but they thought everything was fine.

Then, on Saturday, her birthday, we had ice skating lessons, vision therapy, fabric shopping to make some doll clothes on her new sewing machine, Red Robins, and the children's museum.

When we got home we got 4 messages from the doctors office to call them for some other test results. Turns out she has strep throat.

She will be on antibiotics for 24 hours tonight at 6 pm and will be going to t-ball practice. Fun!

Maddie's New Bed

A few weeks ago I was looking at Pottery Barn Teen and fell in love with this loft bed, but with a price tag of $1800.00 it was out of our price range.

I've been reading a blog called Knock Off Wood and she inspired me to try my hand at woodworking. I went to Lowe's and bought all of the wood by myself and when I got home Dave showed me how to use his miter saw and power drill.

It took me about 3 weeks to finish, but I think it turned out great and both kids love it. Gabe has already asked for his own.

Homemade McDonald's Chicken Nuggets

We have been watching Jaime Oliver's Food Revolution on Friday nights. On the second episode when he showed how to make chicken nuggets I was so totally and utterly grossed out I thought my family and I would never eat another chicken nugget again.

Not eating chicken nuggets is a huge deal for us because Gabe eats very few things. Basically he eats chicken nuggets, french fries, cheese and crackers, grilled cheese, macaroni and cheese, waffles or cereal for every meal. We can get a few fruits and couple of vegetables in, but that is it.

We make him try one or two bites of what we are eating at every meal, but it's a big ordeal and he ends up gagging and spitting the food in the garbage. Then we make him something from the above list.

Since chicken nuggets are the only meat Gabe will eat I was thinking I should try and make my own. I searched the internet and found a recipe at For the Love of Food and made them last night.

I'm happy to report they were a huge hit. They were pretty easy to make. I wasn't real crazy about putting the chicken in the food processor, but that is the texture that Gabe likes and at least I know it is real chicken.

Gabe Can Ride a Two-Wheeler!!!

I walked outside and Dave said, "You just missed it!" Evidently, Dave put him on the bike and he rode it. None of the running around behind him like we had to do with Madison. I got some on video though.

Gabe

This afternoon I walked out of my bedroom and Gabe was sitting inside a laundry basket with another one over top of him. I stopped and tried to be super quiet so he would keep doing what he was doing.

He took the top laundry basket off his head, took a step out and said, "I'm a baby chick! Chick chick, chick chick!" Then he jumped back in the laundry basket, pulled the other basket over top of him again and said, "I better get back in my egg so I can cool off."

Then after dinner I overheard him and Madison playing. Madison said, "You be the papa bear." and Gabe said, "I'm not the papa bear. I'm Goldilocks!"

***Sorry there aren't any pictures - my camera is broken***

Maddie's Pirate Costume

We're going on a Disney cruise in a couple of weeks and there is a pirate party one night. Gabe already had a costume, so I had to figure out what Maddie was going to wear. This is what we came up with: