Enjoying My Boys & a Visit to the Doctor :)

Cam has been coughing.

And coughing and coughing and coughing for a couple of weeks.

Couldn't figure it out. No other symptoms. Just an annoying cough all day and night.

Most people would have probably taken their child to the doctor a couple of weeks ago when it started. I never have. I do take them when I know they need to go, or I'm confused by what is wrong with them. I'm lucky how seldom I have to go to the doctor with five children, usually it's just for checkups. Typically they are very healthy.

I don't like taking medicine and rarely do. I don't like giving my children medicine unless it's absolutely necessary. This is one area that me and my husband differ greatly. He will not think twice about chugging cough medicine right from the bottle or taking way too many Advil in my opinion. I, on the other hand, measure everything and usually take less.

I did break down and take Cam in today. It's just not getting any better. I did take a good look at his throat and saw that his tonsils on one side were pretty swollen, and both his sisters have had their tonsils removed . . . not again!

The doctor said "Allergies", which had never crossed my mind. Should have, since Zoe is allergic to basically all things nature. So the bad news, I have to start Claritin (TargetBrand of course) on a daily basis, which I hate.

After we got home from the doctor (and buying 2 more bottles of Dawn for a total of .16 cents) we had a "picnic" and played outside.

I couldn't actually get them to sit still and eat. They were so happy to be outside. So they played and ate their sandwiches. And shared their sandwiches. And took each others sandwiches.

A new great thing for me! I can let Emmitt walk to the front door himself instead of carrying them both in individually. Castiel still prefers to be carried in. Some things are getting a little easier, but they are both getting a lot faster, so that cancels out the "easy" in most cases.

I really have to keep an eye on him. He took off after a robin. I think he thought he could catch it.

Robins seem to mess with kids. They don't typically just fly away. They hop around. The kids gets closer, they hop a little further. Emmitt was ready to cross a driveway to get him. I had to redirect his attention, which is easily done outside :)

Then Cameron asked to take some photos. Here is a sampling of a, almost four year old's perspective.

If you look closely at the piece of bread that one of the boys dropped. It is covered with ants. Cam stood watching them for quite a while. He's down for a nap, but has plans to check on it again when he gets up :) BTW, this is his favorite picture by far :)

Oopsy Doopsy :)

Today was my first pass at P90X.

I have other goals to accomplish around here and today looked like the last nice day for a while to do some outside work.

I don't like cooping Cameron in the house all day if I don't have to, instead I put him to work and he loved it.

I tipped the toy bin on it's side and asked Cam to empty it out and sort all the toys into piles. We threw away all the broken toys.

He took his job very seriously and proudly emptied the whole thing.

Then I let him have some fun as a reward :)

What kid doesn't love playing with water, even if it involves cleaning. My theory is that kids are always willing to help if you give them the right jobs.

He discovered a "bug catcher house" as he called it and was determined to catch a bug. He first added grass, rocks, leaves and mulch to the house, "for the bug to lay on".

He found two spiders crawling on the storage container he had just cleaned for me. He looked at me with big eyes . . . shoot, I was going to have to pick up a spider for him! "Mommy's don't like to pick up spiders" I told him. "He'll crawl into his house" he said, so sure and confident.

One of the spiders started crawling down the side and he place the hole of the "house" right below him and sure enough, the spider walked right in.

I was relieved :) I don't fear spiders, but I don't like picking them up either.

Can you see the sad, teary eyed Cameron behind the "bug catcher house"?

Can anyone guess why he is sad?

Because mean old mommy wouldn't let him bring his pet spider in the house for lunch. I thought about it, but this is only the beginning of summer, and if I allow this, who knows what he will be trying to bring into my house in a month or two. Definitely made it clear today "bug catcher houses" stay outside!

I said in the past how my simple projects always seem to snowball on me. Since the hose was out I decided to wash off the front patio, and I splattered some water onto the side of the house and realized how dirty the house was, so I jet washed the siding, and then of course Windexed the lower windows. I noticed how much bigger the patio looked without the storage container and decided I didn't want it back there, so the only other logical place to put it was in the garage. That of course lead to clearing out the garage to make room. Since the container is taller I had to reposition the tools on the pegboard wall above it and make sure the lid could open. Then I swept out the entire garage, moved the piles of boxes to fill towards the back and the filled ones near the front. Then organized all the bikes as best I could for now. I also cleaned out my flower pots and positioned them ready for flowers. I also noticed that the front yard is in need for some new red mulch, but that's for another day :)

While I was getting tons done, by the way, the twins were down for their nap, Cameron was testing out all the summer toys. The baseball tee, putted around the yard for a bit, pulled the wagon up and down the sidewalk, shot some hoops, threw a velcro ball up in the air . . . he's three, he moves from one thing to another crazy fast.

This is my favorite thing he did today.

First time! He drew a picture of me and then wanted to write "mom". He asked for the letters. I told him "M" and he asked, "the letter that goes up down up down" and he wrote it while I was just standing there. He mastered the "O" a long time ago.

I'm so proud of him . . . a little teary eyed.

He needed a little more help with this one, but he let me, which is a accomplishment in itself.

Do you see "dad"? He was being goofy at this point and wouldn't smile.

I think I'm going to start working with him more with chalk, outside. He won't usually sit still long enough at the kitchen table.

Teaching him to write his ABC's in sidewalk chalk all summer might just work and be fun at the same time :)

After the girls came home from school, we stayed outside.

Castiel moved, it was going to be a great pic of all 5.

Emmitt trying new things and loving it.

Boys cooperating.

Girls cooperating . . . this is usually what it's like trying to get a picture of all of them together.

Castiel's sweet but scary smile :)

Emmitt's new favorite place.

Do you see Cam? Where did that come from???

Another great day and lots more done.

Oh yeah, the "oopsy doopsy" is from Cameron. He probably said it fifty times today :)