How I spent my Christmas Vacation

You would expect a title like this from a school essay following summer break but I thought it was appropriate for our trip out to California this year. It was a hard trip and for anyone that has been in touch with us since Christmas that know what has been going on you understand what I mean when I say that it was 'a hard trip'. Coming home has been a relief but we still have not had that deep relaxing sigh you often take when returning home after a long trip. I will fill you in on what has happened since 3:25pm yesterday afternoon and then I will back track to Dec 17 when we left for our vacation.

We had gotten a follow-up appointment for Joshua for 4pm yesterday after returning home and were just about to walk out the door when he slipped, dropped the bowl of cheerios that he had been carrying and it shattered then he fell on it. He almost escaped unscathed but did end up cutting his hand. We were already on our way out the door to the drs office. Our neighbor, a paramedic, said that he should be ok so we left, with a butterfly bandage over the cut and got to the office. Luckily, the cut was deep but not wide and the dr said it would not need stitches. His dehydration has been rectified although he has lost a lot of weight and we need to work on packing on the pounds now. He will have a weigh check in a month or two when he is all better.

His cough was the next concern and after listening to his lungs the dr. put him on a nebulizer machine with albuteral. He responded well so we now own a neb machine and will be treating him twice a day until tuesday when he will be rechecked. He has infant asthma which is not uncommon for children who have excema and a family history of hay fever type allergies.

After the dr.'s visit we stopped to get his medication and some food and headed home. He fell asleep in the car and slept from 6:20-8:00 when we were getting ready to head to bed. We got him up, fed him and did our normal bed time routine. He went back down but didn't stay asleep. We finally got him to sleep at 10:15pm and he has been asleep ever since (it is 9am now) He is exhausted from many hard days and nights of little sleep and a lot of stress. We all are and are looking forward to a low key, laid back weekend.

I hope that is where our story ends. I will fill you in on the beginning later. For now, it is time for breakfast and a soothing cup of tea.