Party On!

So, yesterday we had a small party with family and a couple friends to celebrate Kristiaan and Kayla's birthdays. Aaron and I stayed up on Tuesday night and decorated our entire living area with balloons and streamers so when the kids got up they would be surprised. They absolutely loved it!!!

About 10:30 we went over to Scooter's Jungle which is an inflatable wonderland with bounce houses, HUGE inflatable slides, inflatable obstacle course, fun play areas, a zip line, air hockey, etc. It was such a fun place for the kids to run free and play on anything they wanted. Aaron's brother Nate took off of work and spent the day with us as well as the Syberts who drove up from San Diego. Also meeting us there was my friend Alycia who has 2 boys, one of which is Kristiaan's best buddy - Owen. The playtime was an open toddler play for anyone to come and it was from 10:30 to noon. It was the perfect amount of time - because it's such high-energy playing that any longer would have been too long.

After Scooter's Jungle, we came back home and grilled burgers and corn with beans, jello and watermelon....oh, don't forget the smoothies too! Alycia couldn't come back with us, but Christa came over for that...and did I mention Aaron was home as well? It was a great time and after opening gifts we had cupcakes that I baked in ice cream cones. After that we pretty much just hung out for the rest of the day...it was great!

Here's the BIG bummer - after all that partying and cleaning up, Aaron and I were so exhausted and we were in bed by 10:30. However, at 11:30, I hear an awful sound coming from the kids bedroom...it sounded like a seal moved it! You got it...croup. The saddest thing is it was Brayden and he just sounded so bad. I panicked for a brief moment because I didn't think he could breathe and I called the nurse hot line. The nurse I spoke to was really helpful and gave me all sorts of info and told me to take him in the bathroom with the hot shower running for 20 minutes to break up the congestion and open his airway. Then, go and stand in front of the open freezer for 5 minutes. Aaron did that treatment because I am so claustrophobic in steamy closed rooms! After that, we were advised to give him warm apple juice to help soothe his throat. After that, he sounded much better and could sleep. So, we did that at 11:30 and had to do it again at 2:30. He wasn't getting worse, so I opted out of driving him to the ER. After the 2:30 round, he slept until 6:30....so an improvement! I had to do the steam treatment myself at 6:30 because Aaron had already left for work...it was fine; I just sang to Brayden and focused on other things.

When he woke up at 9:00, he seems in good spirits and wanting to play..it just sounds bad in his chest, so I guess that's what I'll call the doctor about today to see what we can give him to break it up and then maybe we'll go in to see the Dr. tomorrow - which is Kayla's birthday and Aaron will be home again!

One thing I discovered about the croup is that it comes from a virus as common as the cold virus. It usually is preceded by a fever (under 104)...Kayla has that the end of last week and Brayden had early this week. However, for some the vi ruse could just result in a cold where as for others it could become croup which is a respiratory infection resulting in the swelling of the vocal chords due to excessive mucus production. The nurse told me that as long as he didn't have a fever, he wasn't really contagions...but I will pray fervently for those who were around him yesterday!

We have another special day planned for tomorrow just for Kayla, so hopefully everyone will be feeling up to it! Birthday weeks are so fun and this one has cost us way less than if we threw them our traditional birthday bash!!! Ha Ha!