the long version. in short.

today asher decided he's ready to potty train so for rewards he was getting the only candy in the house. the easter candy. in the same bag was paul's easter candy: reese's peanut butter cups. later i was outside getting the baby from the case worker. (yes-we have a placement...that's another post. he's adorable! like a red-headed charlie brown that never stops smiling.) paul was downstairs working on the basement. i came into the house and found 3 empty wrappers and only 1 still in asher's mouth. i know karyssa ate one...so where's the third? i knew he was allergic to peanuts, but he's never reacted. but i've never let this comment out of my head: "you just never know which reaction is gonna be the anaphylactic reaction."

this is the following 4 hours:
red cheeks (not an unusual response to his food allergies.)
puffy lips
coughing
hoarse voice
no voice
glassy eyes
epi-pen search
911
firemen
ambulance
breathing treatment
paul and asher off to the ER
neighbors in my yard with arms out for the other kids
drive to the ER with one quick call asking 911 if i can get a police escort. (i was freaking out and was told those only happen in the movies and he was fine.)
sheepish giggle and realizing i'm freaking out
found him at the ER!
hives
red from head to toe (minus the two areas on his chest exactly outlining his lungs...odd)
puffy puffy puffy
then just puffy puffy
quick education on the difference of allergic and anaphylactic
found out it goes: benedryl, steroids, then epi-pens
benedryl and steroids given
WHOA he doesn't react well to that mix!!!!
peanut scented burps (found where that 3rd cup went)
he went potty on the potty at the ER!
naked boy walking around the ER
fresh diaper located (we only had one!)
craaaaaash asleep in daddy's arms
discharge and home for the dinner i was making when this all began.

WHEW. that's all i can post now. i gotta bag of reese's cups to eat tonight.

com'on kids...we need to stop by the tattoo parlor on our way to music class.

seriously...some days i question why i got out of bed. this is how it all went down:
woke up realized my eye was still curiously puffy, but not as painful as yesterday.
put away the kids' laundry that i washed/dried/folded last night before bed.
called the doctor and got an appointment for late morning. perfect since i had a laundry list of errands to run today.
started a load of actual laundry.
fed the kids breakfast then went running so my mother-in-law doesn't leave me in the dust when we run the bolder boulder. ended at the park after the run so the kids could get a chance to play before heading home.
came home and changed laundry loads.
showered and out the door by 9:30 so i could get a chance to get a cup of free starbucks on my way to run errands.
took forEVER at starbucks and accidentally got caffinated but couldn't exchange it because i had brought my own cup with my own non-sugar/non-dairy additives. decided it would just be a really hyper and productive day after my doctors appointment...no more time to run errands first.
went to the doctors office just in time.
found out i have a sinus infection behind my eyeball and if it turns red or starts to hurt i am to go immediately to the emergency room.
joked with doctor about severity.
was corrected by doctor that "no, for real...it's really serious."
was given an antibiotic and told to take zyrtec, the antibiotic, nasal spray, cold presses and probiotics for the rest of the day.
and was told to rest.
didn't admit that i've already been running 3 miles today and had a list of to-do's before my head would hit another pillow today.
went to asher's pediatrician for the prescription he needs for his water thickener stuff. (not sure if i've mentioned that when he swallows a whisp of water goes into his lungs each time instead of all in his tummy.)
went to walgreens to get my prescription, his prescription and all the extras.
took baby g his pants back because last week karyssa wet hers while she was at his house for an hour while i went to the dentist.
came home and made ham and cheese grilled sandwiches for lunch.
changed laundry loads.
started feeling REALLY sick...hoping it's the coffee and not the infection.
laid down.
heard the HOA mowers come right past the windows.
so did asher.
waited for him to fall back asleep.
no luck. went upstairs and laid with him for a minute getting a glimmer of hope that he'd fall back asleep.
gave up and brought him downstairs.
took him to the basement to fold another load of laundry. started another.
heard karyssa get up.
decided i might as well sweep and vacuum. if they're up, i'm up.
swept the kitchen and bathrooms....almost.
straightened out my nose ring completely....while it was still in my nose.
sat on the toilet glad i didn't pass out but pretty sure i blacked out the last minute of pain throbbing from my nose.
found out i was still able to stand up so i decided to clean up the blood with rubbing alcohol.
vacuumed entire house.
then i heard these words come out of my mouth: com'on kids, we gotta stop by the tattoo parlor on our way to music class.
stopped by the tattoo parlor and told them what i'd done...except for the part where i explained exactly what i'd done because for a million bucks i cannot tell you how i straightened out my nose ring sweeping the bathroom.
they winced, fixed my nose ring, and informed me that my nose looked "pretty angry" about that.
hurried the kids to music class, where they ran circles around the other kids and parents listening to music.
went to target to get a few last supplies for easter.
called paul to see how late he'd be to find out he was already home.
drove home...stuck in rush hour...took a short cut....got stopped by the train...for 10 minutes....realized this was no longer a short cut.
called paul and asked him to put dinner in the oven.
finally got home, unloaded groceries and the kids from the car.
made brownies with karyssa super fast.
pulled dinner out of the oven, put brownies in the oven.
ate dinner and brownies and played with the kids a little bit before letting them fall into bed.
now i'm blogging and hoping they fall asleep soon because this girl needs her head on a pillow.

does it have to pour EVERY time it rains?

we're house shopping. it is so. much. fun. and i am not being sarcastic. i LOVE looking at houses and layouts and decorating styles and colors and back yards and neighborhoods. ugh! every time we pull up in a neighborhood and our realtor starts to look for the address i say "it's the third one on the left" or "this one right here." ha! she keeps commenting on how much we've done our homework. little does she know we are LOVING the homework. i check the sex offender registry, check the school ratings, then i physically drive by the houses at LEAST 3 times before we even go inside so i can decide if i really want to stare at the house across the street for the next twenty years. ha! LOVE house shopping.
don't love when we finally put an offer on a house we LOVE LOVE LOVE only to have them accept another offer. i'm telling myself the other buyers were cash buyers willing to pay full price. but i DO love that it means i get to house shop some more. and boy was i disappointed. so we looked. we got close. we revisited. we went back to other houses. we went to more houses. THEN a house popped up that was EVERYTHING we wanted. big yard. 5 bedrooms. potential to move and expand....by the way, we LOVE tearing down walls, redoing kitchens, carpeting and hardwooding and painting. UGH! love it!
so we put in an offer on a house but it's a short sale so now we gotta wait forEVER and a day...or 60 days, something like that. maybe by late may we'll know something.
but that was yesterday. today i had to take asher to children's for an evaluation on his throat. they aren't sure why he can't swallow water without choking. or aspirating as they all love to say. i hate that word aspirating...it's so....medical. and not in a good way, not in a cure way...in a problem way. *sigh* so i took him down to the children's hospital and sat down in the waiting room trying not to think about the fact that we were at children's and people don't go to children's for a cold...they go to children's because their kids are really sick. and my baby is not really sick. at least that's what i'd like to believe. but as we're sitting there waiting for the same doctors that are going to see the boy next to us with the trach tube and the girl in the next section over is bald from chemo it makes me reconsider how not-sick my baby truly is. i went to the bathroom and cried for a minute. then he was seen by 3 doctors, a couple specialists and a few more people that i'm not sure what their role was. i think it was a nurse and an assistant. tomorrow we go back for a few little procedures and a 24 hour stay. i was exhausted tonight when i got home. karyssa didn't nap today, we think, because every time she was checked on she was in a new spot with more items in her hands she shouldn't be playing with-typical karyssa fashion.
now i'm home, the kids are in bed, and i'm trying to decide if i should have chocolate cake or salad for dinner. and the place we're renting is on the market and has it's first showing tomorrow afternoon so i gotta leave it clean on our way out at 5:00 in the morning!!!
and all i can think is "thank god we don't have to deal with the house stuff for 60 more days".

elmo visits the firehouse. and sweet pea has the firehouse come to her.

we have a bedtime routine, for the most part. we brush teeth, change diapers, put on jammies, then me and daddy and peanut crawl into sweet pea's bed and we all read a story together. then, it's time for night-night. last night, we did the drill and came back downstairs and 5 minutes later we heard "CRACK!" on the bedrails then sweet pea screaming waling crying. i ran up there in about 3 steps-i seriously think i missed about 85% of them on my way up. i ran into her room, flipped on the light and saw blood gushing.
for the record, i have been known to pass out cold at the thought of maybe breaking my arm-turned out to just be a big bump and a bruise-but that's beside the point.
i grabbed her up out of her bed and ran her into the bathroom, called* for paul [*read "screamed my head off"] and grabbed a towel to catch the blood. at that point i couldn't tell if she'd broken teeth out, if she'd bitten through her lip, if it was a bloody nose...all i knew was the blackest/reddest blood i've ever seen in my life was pouring out of my tiny 2-year old's face. paul came up in about as much time as it took me to get up there and as soon as he was holding her i ran for the phone and called 9-1-1. at that point i was pretty sure she was going to need a blood transfusion before the ambulance could get to the house. i was shaking in my boots to say the least. the operator was frantically going through her pages "ok...put all family pets away and turn on your porch light." "ok.....um....let me see....um.....if she seems groggy or sleepy turn her to the side but do NOT let her fall asleep." !!!! OK !!!! "ok.....uh...let me see here.....hold the soft part of her nose...not the bridge of her nose but just below the bone and lay her all the way back." by then i handed the phone to paul and went downstairs to watch for the ambulance because i could hear it coming. i flagged them into our place and told them the rundown, she's 2, she's our foster baby, we've had her since last summer, she's gonna be scared of you at first...and he said "how old is she?!" "she just turned 2." ya-my thoughts exactly mr. fireman!"
all in all she did great. the bleeding stopped shortly after they got here. there was one paramedic that was asking me how it happened and i showed him the blood on her bedrail and the laundry hamper. from what we can tell by the amount of laundry she had hauled into her bed, she had been leaning over her bedrail into the laundry hamper and pulling clothes into her bed. she tends to do this often. and i've caught her doing it and she's on her knees...not standing up. but what they weren't sure of is how FAR did she fall onto the bedrail because apparently her face caught her fall. (ugh-i can't think/talk about it too much or i start to get woozy.) we didn't end up having to take her to the E.R. but i'm waiting for all my nieghbor ladies to ask me what happened. i saw 3 of them peering through different curtains through out the neighborhood. today it's discolored-a little yellowish, but i think we're gonna get off with out black eyes. the paramedic said give it a couple days...she still might get them. eesh! this girl is gonna keep us on our TOES!!!

ice for owies

in our house when you bonk your head on something or get hurt you get a piece of ice in this little mesh pocket pacifier thing. i can't find a picture of it on-line...i'll have to take a picture. anyhow, when sweet pea hurts herself i say "you wanna piece of ice?" and give it to her in that thing and she sucks on it. no matter where she's hurt, the ice is best in her mouth. i should probably warn babysitters that's how she gets ice when she's hurt because i can't imagine how frustrated she would get if they offered her a piece of ice and then put it on the back of her head.

like sister; like brother

this weekend peanut's eyes have been watery and he hasn't been eating like normal. we chalked it up to teething. today though, he began throwing up. it's like spit up amounts but it's thick, not like spit up. and then finally he broke out into hives and then threw up and then the hives subsided. in february right before he was born sweet pea went through this weird week long virus where she'd break out into hives, like 20 hives, in a spot about as big as a plum. and it would be on her cheek. then within minutes the 20 hives would move to her leg, then her tummy, then finally she'd throw up. so knowing that, i decided not to wait and to call the doctor right away. they sent me to urgent care and i went through the whole story again. hives, throw up, hives go away, his sister did it in february when she had a virus. sure enough, he's got a virus. but this time, no meds. in february it was when swine flu was going around and they put her on antibiotics right away. this time, we just gotta wait a couple days and see if it goes away on its own. blah. poor little bug! he's miserable. but he smiled through the whole appointment. i told them don't be fooled by the smile-he's really miserable! they must think i'm crazy complaining that my smiling cooing baby boy is "miserable".