Last week was a "triple T" week for us...
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First, TJ turned THIRTY ONE on Monday! YAY!
The boys were SO excited about TJ's birthday!
They had been counting down for days and continuously asking him what he wanted for his birthday.
One day, Nathan asked TJ what he wanted and TJ replied, "Dad's don't want presents for their birthdays."
But Nathan didn't buy it: "Yah, sure they do! Abraham Lincoln told me!"
hahaha! We all got a good laugh out of that!
Since TJ still had to go to work on his birthday, we didn't get to take him anywhere special, like Chuck E. Cheese's (haha) but we did bake him a cake and get him a few gifts. The boys were eager to help with the cake and even MORE eager to eat it! We spent a fun evening together, wishing our wonderful father & husband a very happy 31st birthday!
TJ is such an amazing father, spending so much quality time with his sons, that it's no surprise that he's being sent another lucky son! We love him so much and are so grateful for the amazing person he is!
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Next in the week, came the THROW UPS!
I didn't take any pictures, for obvious reasons (haha) but I have to mention Trever's stomach flu because a year ago, almost exactly, he had the stomach flu. I remember, because it was on the morning of the school's annual "Laps for Learning" school fundraiser. Trever threw up before school, so I called & reported that he'd miss school that day. But he was feeling so much better after he threw up, and was literally running around the apartment and laughing with Nathan, that I decided to ask him if he wanted to go back to school. He said he did, since he really didn't want to miss out on "Laps for Learning" so I brought him to school, two hours later.
However, not more than an hour afterward, I got a call from the school nurse, that Trever had thrown up in his classroom and I needed to come pick him up. OOPS! Well, I rushed to the school, which took over 15 minutes, since I was at a store, getting groceries, and which also overly aggravated the school nurse who was very unhappy to see me. Trever had told her that he had also thrown up earlier that morning, and so she went on to chew me out, "Don't you know that you're not supposed to send your kid to school if they've thrown up within the last 24 hours?!" She went on and on, and I felt like such a horrible parent! I was so embarrassed!
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Well, anyway, again, only two days before the school's annual "Laps for Learning" day, Trever started throwing up during the night. He had a bad spell, throwing up all night long, exhausted till his poor little body was shaking. I felt so sorry for him. Luckily, his stomach had calmed down by morning, but I had learned my lesson from last year and told him he was staying home for sure. (I would have kept him home, anyway, this time, because he really had a rough night and was feeling so awful.) The rest of the day, he was fine, no more throwing up, just really tired and weak. So I did my best to nurse him back to health, mentioning the irony of his stomach flu coming so close to Laps for Learning again, laughing about it with TJ and the boys.
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By Friday morning, Trever had recovered. I asked him how he felt that morning and he said, "Amazing!" That was a pretty good response, so I decided he was ready to return to school. He was eager to go, too, since it was, after all, Laps for Learning day. He was eager to be the fastest runner in the school!
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I had been watching Nathan closely to see if he had any symptoms of the stomach flu, asking him if his tummy hurt, (I didn't want to end up getting one of my kids from the school nurse's office again) but he consistently reassured me that he felt fine. He was just as eager as his big brother to run his laps that day.
So, off to school we went.
I was volunteering in Nathan's Kindergarten class that day, so I spent the morning helping with his class and then followed them out to the field when it was their turn to run their laps. There were several Kindergarten classes and one 2nd grade class that joined them for their lap time. It was a freezing cold morning and I had Nathan all bundled up. I stood out there, shivering, while watching my adorable fluffy bundle of a five year old, run his little heart out, around the track. He was such a determined little guy! There were over a hundred kids running, though, and every so often I'd lose sight of him. I was straining to see him, when I saw his concerned teacher walking back toward us with one of the students. My student! My Nathan! He was covering his mouth and I knew something was wrong, so I ran out to meet them, only to discover Nathan's poor little face, covered in dirt & grass, blood on his lip, scrapes all over, and dirt and tears in his eyes. It broke my heart! His teacher informed me that a 2nd grade had accidentally plowed right over him, TACKLED him! Nathan didn't even see it coming.
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I took over from there, walking him toward the nurse's office, alongside his principal. But before we got to the school, I remembered to check his hearing aid...and then I panicked. His hearing aid had fallen off of his headband! I immediately told the Principal and asked her to take Nathan to the nurse, while I ran back out to the field and began searching. My heart was pounding so hard! I was sick with worry. His hearing aid is the most important thing we own, and much too expensive to replace right now. How was I going to find it in this gigantic field with hundreds of kids running around?! I was terrified! I was praying so hard for help and saw one of the teachers. I asked her if she saw where Nathan had been tackled and she had. So we began searching the ground. The dried up grass was the same color as his hearing aid and I felt so helpless, searching for a needle in a haystack. I feared the condition I'd find it in, too, if I were even to find it.
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Miraculously, the teacher found it! And as she handed it to me, I couldn't believe my eyes...it was in perfect condition! Not even a speck of dirt on it! I was amazed and SO very grateful! I knew my prayers were answered!
So, with hearing aid in hand, I rushed back to the nurse's office. Nathan sat silently on the nurse's bench, with an ice pack on his bottom lip, and all the dirt cleaned off to reveal his sore scrapes. There I was again, one year later, in the nurse's office! Only this time, I wasn't in trouble. haha. My poor little boy was still coming down from the shock of the event, and I was coming down from my adrenaline rush, but all was well. Nathan was fine and we returned to class.
I had to take a picture of my little trooper when we got home. He didn't look nearly as beat up as when I had first seen him, but I wanted to show you what a tough little guy he is. I know I am overprotective with him, and it's only gotten worse since Friday. I am so glad I was there to make sure he was okay, and even more glad I was there to recognize that his hearing aid was missing so we could find it right away. I keep thinking, "What if I hadn't been there?" "When would he have realized his hearing aid wasn't on the headband?" "What would have happened then?"
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Thankfully, this weekend, I found a way to tie the hearing aid to his headband with a little piece of thread, which will hopefully help if that ever happens again. But I certainly hope it doesn't. I never want to see my children get hurt, but I can't be there every day. I can, however, pray that Heavenly Father will send angels to watch over my little boys. I worry about both boys all the time, but knowing that I can pray for them does bring comfort. I'm so grateful for that knowledge, and the ability to receive help from above.
~It does this mother's heart good.~
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