June 27, 2005
Natalie has been making up songs lately, singing a little ditty and then she stops and asks, "Like my new song?" It's really cute. Yesterday she added a new component -- she makes up a dance and then asks if we like her dance.  She was hopping this way and that, twirling around with her hands up in the air, and bopping back and forth. It was really cute. She told me to stand up and dance with her, and then when I did she said, "No, mama, not that one." (The same thing she tells me when I try to sing along to what I obviously have made the mistake of thinking she was singing.) And then she told me to sit down. Thanks, kid.

She's lately decided that all things are funny when she adds the word "pee pee" or "poopy" to the end of it. A few times she's made the mistake of calling me or her daddy one of those names...other times she calls us various fruits, which is fine, but "pee pee mama" is not. I know that it's completely normal for her age to start thinking the best jokes in the world contain those two "words", but I'm trying to make sure she understands that it is NOT okay to call people those names, that it isn't funny. The other day Natalie was playing with her friend Sarah (our neighbor) and the two of them were going back and forth with saying various made-up and various noun word combinations, and they were just giggling non-stop.

She's been having lots of fun lately with her new friend Sarah. Both of them get upset if we go more than one day without getting together, so we've been hanging out a lot.  They have fun, and so do April and I, so it's working out really well. (And Ethan and her youngest, year and half hold Emily don't fight over toys TOO often.) This Saturday we made the mistake of going to the zoo, however. It was probably the hottest day of the year so far, and definitely the steamiest. We got there right as the first drop of rain fell (I didn't even know rain was expected; the entire morning had been very bright and sunny). As we walked in the gate, it was down pouring on us and it kept up for about an hour. Afterwards it felt slightly cooler for a couple minutes, but you could see the steam rising from the ground. The humidity was thick. It was WAYYYY to hot to be out at the zoo!

Yesterday Ethan saw his first fireworks. (My mom's friend Karen lives out by Jersey Baptist, which has a big fireworks event every year, so we watched them from her house.) The first few fireworks that went up had him crying a little, but within a minute he got used to it and he just sat and watched it the whole time. Toward the end, he was in my lap and I was holding his head with his ears covered up, and I noticed his head started getting really heavy -- it was putting him to sleep!  His eyes never fully closed, but between every boom his eyes would start to close, then he'd open them enough to see each firework. He was quite relaxed and comfortable. Until the finale. He didn't cry but it definitely woke him up suddenly! 

This weekend had milestones for Ethan for a couple other reasons. His right-side upper front tooth finally managed to break through the gums yesterday, which it had been trying to do really hard for over a week. Early in the morning I heard a yucky grinding sound, and then I looked in his mouth and saw that he was playing with his new tooth by scraping it against his lower teeth. I remember Natalie doing that when she got new teeth too. The other top tooth hasn't worked its way out yet, but it's close. Probably within the week. I'm really surprised it has taken this long for Ethan's third tooth to come. I may be wrong, but I think Natalie's came about two a month, in pairs, pretty regularly once they started. Ethan's first two teeth came at six months, and he's just now gotten number three.  Not that I'm complaining too much; I know that now is when biting could begin in earnest. One time last week I was sitting on the couch reading, and my foot was innocently hanging over the edge of the couch (in Ethan cruise-zone). Suddenly he bit my big toe-- hard! He left bite marks. And that was only with his bottom teeth. He hasn't bit me while nursing yet, but I'm getting prepared for dealing with that.

On Saturday evening we were playing with the wooden blocks, probably Ethan's favorite toy right now, and we were playing his current favorite game, which is pass the toy back and forth to each other.  He reached up and offered me the block he was holding, and he said another new "word" (actually just a sound, but it is sound with meaning, so that counts as a word): "cckkkk!" Translated: Block! I gave him the block back and said "block" and then he gave it back and said "ckk" to me. This morning he was playing with a pen in my bedroom and he offered it to me and said "ckkk!" again. I said, "No, it's a Pen, not a block." And he looked at it and said "Ckk!" Okay, so when is a pen a block? When a ten-month old is naming it.

I think it is so cute the way he communicates exactly what he wants these days. If I'm holding him and he wants Daddy, or vice versa, he stretches out one arms towards us. He doesn't whine too often, usually he just holds out his arm until we come to get him.

Natalie just got on her "phone" next to me and was telling "Greg" that her mama was busy doing her homework, and Ethan's behind my chair pulling at my shirt, so I think that's my cue to end this for now!

June 14, 2005
Happy birthday to Donald Trump, Boy George, and me! And as a gift for turning 30, I found out this morning that it wasn't the flu I've been dealing with - I have mono! Yes, it's true. And since I can't keep such great gifts to myself, I shared it with Phil. Natalie probably gave it to me. We're just a sharing, giving family. I read an exhaustive article about it on the WebMD website. Apparently it's caused by a virus that most people are immune to by age 25. Hopefully this means at least Ethan won't get it; he's surely been exposed to it around here the way cups are shared and toys are communally chewed on, but maybe he is getting immunities through breastfeeding. 

We're going out to a Japanese restaurant for my birthday tonight. Phil was going to be working at our church VBS all week, but with him getting sick too he doesn't have the energy. I'll be having a cookout and pool party this weekend, which was scheduled for after my birthday because Phil was planning on being gone. A note to all who are coming  - contrary to what I always thought, mono is not highly contagious. The only way we'll spread mono to anyone is if we kiss you or we use the same cups or utensils. And I promise not to spit on the cake!

June 13, 2005
Ethan is 10 months old! His newest picture is on the Growing Boy page. I haven't weighed him yet and he doesn't have a checkup this month, though.  At ten months, he's crawling around very fast and now cruising around the furniture. I keep wondering if this will be the month he takes his first step on his own!

Also don't miss the picture of the day, below. Natalie always likes to get in on Ethan's monthly photo session, so every month I seem to get at least one picture of Natalie with her arm around his neck.

June 12, 2005
Yesterday Natalie and I were feeling better but Phil came down with a fever, so I took the kids out of the house for the day so he could rest. I happened to come across a field full of fire trucks, coming home from a wedding client's house.  It was a fire truck festival, and it was completely free, so I thought it would be fun to check out. Well, they had a blast, and not just from seeing all the fire trucks. The best part was the big cloud of foam that was spraying out of a fire hose (made up of soap bubbles). It filled an entire field and was sometimes as tall as a house. The best part was when they would blow more out so the "cloud" would move and blow little mini-clouds off the big cloud. Natalie was chased by a few and it was SO very funny. She kept trying to pick up some bubbles and bring them to Ethan to play with. 

(Linked here.)

(Also take a look at the double stroller that I found two weeks ago at a garage sale -- for $10!)

June 9, 2005
Last night I 'spoke' too soon about how low (comparatively) my temp had been all day. After writing last night I was feeling really dizzy again, and within an hour it was back up to 102.8. It was that way most of the night, even with the 3-hour medicine cycle. I'm feeling about the same today as I did yesterday, so hopefully this evening it can stay that way. But I'm writing now instead of later this time, just in case. Natalie does seem to be remarkably improved, though, which we are very happy about. She's even playing almost like normal today, tormenting her brother almost like normal. Right now they are being really cute, though. Natalie's saying some "Ethan words" to him and he's repeating them back to her, and then she says it again and he just giggles with all his might. For as often as Natalie is a bully to her brother (which will only last until he gets bigger than her, we try to warn her about that!) Ethan just absolutely adores his sister. He hardly ever laughs for anyone the way he laughs for his sister. She just has to look at him in a silly way and he gives her a big belly laugh. 

Ethan's latest two words are very similar in sound, but if you listen closely and you know the context, you can definitely tell the difference. The first is "Na-na", meaning Natalie.  He crawls after her saying Na-na-na-na-na-na. In the times when Phil has taken Natalie out for something and it's just them, the "Na-na" turns into a whiny-sounding, hey-where's-she-going? sound. Whenever Ethan has gotten in the car with just me, like when we go to the store after Natalie has gone to bed but Ethan has decided he wanted a late night, he always looks over to her car seat and starts in with it too. He loves his sister!

His second latest word is "Nuh-nuh". Meaning, "Nurse!" That's one of his latest favorite things to say, especially in the middle of the night when he's been not wanting to sleep unless he's attached to me. Lately he's been saying it in the wee hours while crying with full-breath (our new neighbors are probably loving us already). He says it whenever he wants to nurse, and also when he's in my arms and I'm preparing to nurse. He still crawls across the floor calling out "mama", especially when he is looking for me. But when he's looking for me with the intent of nursing, he now says "nuh-nuh-nuh" as I pick him up.

So now the words he knows are dada, mama, nana, and "nuh-nuh". He's also recently picked up a new mouth sound where he clicks his tongue. (He's been making sounds with his lips for a long time, but this is a new one.) He does it all the time and loves it when we repeat it back to him. He also does it when he sees one of us eating something and he wants some too! He's also doing great with standing up these days; he regularly holds on with just the lightest support of one hand. He sometimes cruises around the furniture; he loves going across the wide front window of our living room, then from there to the end table, and to the couch. The other day Phil held his hands and walked with him about half the length of the kitchen. He knows what to do, he just needs to get the strength and the boy will be off and running. He also really loves the pool. It's been really nice (before this illness, anyway; we haven't gotten out farther than the front porch for almost a week now). Our pool has about a 15 by 15 foot area, off to one side of the regular pool, that's 2 feet deep, and it has a 1-foot deep step/ledge around that, so that's where we stay. Natalie still has a fear of even going past the 1-foot ledge, but I know that's just her personality and she'll warm up to it before long. We've had a couple of her friends over to play (Jordan and her new friend Sarah) and she sees them happily jumping all over the "deep" area, so they might get her in eventually. I've only made her get in a couple times, just so she can see for herself that it only comes up to her knees. I don't want to force it, because I don't want her to be scared of going at all. Ethan, on the other hand, has no fear of the water. If I'd let him out of my arms he'd probably be flinging himself all over the pool by now. He stands up in the 2-foot area and just loves to bounce and splash everywhere. Sometimes he lunges forward very fast to get off on his own and I have to quickly catch him. 

My kids are SO different! Natalie sometimes frustrates me by her shyness and inability to just jump into things and have fun, but she has rarely given me heart-attack moments in her entire almost 3.5 years. (Most of the 'moments' she gives me are when she goes over and blatantly steps on Ethan's arms or hands when he's crawling, or when she puts all her weight on him and knocks him to the floor, claiming "I was just hiding him, Mama...") Ethan, on the other hand, will be giving me many moments of panic in the next few years, I predict. With him, "containment" is a much more important word than it ever was when Natalie was first toddling around. The boy is so determined, too, when he sees something he wants to get at. He loves to attempt to pull down anything above him, and he's fascinated by all electrical sockets. When I attempt to "remove and distract", which worked great with Natalie, he growls at me -- GROWLS! -- as I take him away, and even when giving him something MUCH MORE FUN to play with, he heads right back to the no-no, not to be deterred. 

One big piece of news I failed to mention in my haze of late yesterday evening - our house has sold! Well, technically it's in contract, but it will close the end of next month. Hurray! We're not getting quite as much for it as we had hoped, but we stipulated in the contract (our final offer to them after they tried low-balling us once more) that this was our final, lowest offer, AND it included that we were selling the house "AS-IS". NO more repairs. Everyone who was interested in the house was wanting us to fix absolutely everything about it, things that weren't necessary at all, like put in a new window, replace all the carpet and the flooring,  fix the deck, a new back sliding door, and on and on. We decided, look we're already selling this house for way lower than market value, and it's already a great deal for Gahanna, so no, if you want a brand-new house with all brand-new things and no old-house issues, go around the corner to M/I and pay half a million for a new house. So, after asking us to come down another $2000 AND make a lot of repairs, we called their bluff and stood firm on our last final offer. And they accepted! Yay!

Oh my goodness, I just realized I only have five more days of being "in my 20's". This flu has taken close to a week out of my life so I'd lost track of how fast it's sneaking up on me. I'm fine with being 30, but it's just the turning 30 that sounds so strange to me. It's certainly the better alternative to NOT having a birthday. This many recent days of having a high fever have given me a greater appreciation for the times we live in - one with medication available. This fever has been so hard on me even with staying on drugs constantly. You so easily forget that back before medication people often died from something that sounds so benign as the flu. Well, I've certainly been reminded of that fact the past several days. 

June 8, 2005
I know it's been way too long since my last update, and this one will be too short to bring everything up to date, but I just wanted to get on here briefly about the most recent events.

I can't write long because my head is fuzzy and foggy. Since Saturday night, Natalie and I both came down with the flu, and it's the worst I've felt since I had the chicken pox at age 14. My temperature has been between 102 and 104, and sometimes a little more (up to 104.5 yesterday afternoon) since at least Sunday afternoon. Natalie's never got higher than 103, that I know of, but that's high enough that both of us have been miserable. Neither Phil nor Ethan have come down with this yet, and we're praying it stays that way. Ethan may be getting immunities from me (from my diminished - from dehydration - supply of milk). Phil has been achy and tired, but hopefully that's just from taking care of all three of us, which has been a formidable task for him. He's exhausted, but I'm spent too, from being sick and still having to take care of the babies (therefore not really rest) through the days. Yesterday I had to call him to come home early, because though I had been alternating Advil and Tylenol all afternoon, my temp continued to climb and I was beginning to hallucinate (like I hadn't done since I was sick with chicken pox). So Phil's been having to deal with the stress of trying to bring in an income on reduced hours as well.

So here, in a quick recap because that's all my brain can handle, is the series of events for our most recent illness in the Gerth household.

Saturday morning everyone seemed to feel fine. My sister Sarah had her graduation at OSU. I  felt a little more agitated than usual, but I figured it was all because of OSU's extortion lots, I mean, parking lots, and the 45 minutes in 90-degree heat it took to get out of them following the commencement. Once we actually got out of there, my blood pressure went back down and we had a good time the rest of the day at her graduation party. We had plans to definitely go to church on Sunday morning, because my new neighbor friend hadn't been to church since she was seven and she really wanted to go with me but didn't want to go by herself. Saturday night Natalie started acting a little funny and as the night wore on, I started feeling out of sorts too, and not just because I was awake most of the night with her. When we got up I felt and Natalie acted like she was doing okay, not great but okay enough to keep our commitment to my neighbor and her kids (two  girls - one Natalie's age, which has been lots of fun for all of us lately). I am glad I went; my neighbor asked lots of questions about things throughout the service, and at the end I was able to get her a Bible and answer more questions, and our pastor's sermon that morning answered many of the same questions. (At one point, she whispered to me, "Is he talking right to me?") By the end of the service I was feeling pretty woozy, though we still couldn't go home yet. My old roommate Renee had her baby shower that afternoon across town. So we went to that (Phil was driving) but after about an hour I told Phil that we had to leave early; I was just feeling too weak. On the drive home I just started to crash and so did Natalie. Since at least then, up until yesterday at 5:00, our temperatures never strayed too far below 103. On Sunday night it felt like my fever broke, but then it just went up again. On Monday I was feeling pretty miserable (Natalie also) but I figured I would HAVE to be on the upswing; I had never had a fever last longer than two days before. I got a call from a new wedding client and made the consultation for late Tuesday afternoon, thinking I'd surely be well by then. I woke up (for the final time) on Tuesday morning feeling even more sick than the day before. (I was up most of the night with either my own fever or dealing with Ethan who has decided now is a good time to go into screaming fits in the middle of the night -- maybe because he's not getting enough milk but all he wants to do is nurse, he refuses a cup or even his pacifier.) So I called to reschedule my meeting, of course. But surely I'd be feeling better soon. At 1:00 yesterday my temp hit a high of 104.1 and then kept going up the rest of the afternoon, despite my mega-doses of alternating Advil and Tylenol. (Natalie's curiously went down to 98.6 for the afternoon but then later was back up to 103.) By the time Phil came home, at about 4:00, I was swooning and starting to have fever- hallucinations. At 5:00 I took a second dose of Advil in four hours (total of 800 mg) and we decided to head over to the ER because nothing was bringing my fever down. (We went to St. Ann's even though it's farther away from us now; we knew we'd get in to be seen in half the time as we would have at MC East.) I had the air conditioner blowing directly on my face the whole way there, and by the time we got there my fever had broken again, this time down to 99. (I still knew it had done that before and then about an hour later would shoot back up.) When we got out of the car Natalie's temp (we had her checked out too) was up to 103. I guess the air conditioner wasn't circulating to the back seat when it was all blowing my direction.

So, in the ER it turns out that I was very dehydrated, even though I had been drinking water non-stop,  I wasn't keeping up with the high fever and sweating. They put me on an IV and took blood four times. (I felt like a pin cushion, especially from the "tech" that hacked up my arm trying to get two samples of blood from the same vein. He "popped" it, so now it's all blue and it HURTS when Ethan lays on my arm.) They just gave Natalie some food and apple juice, which she hardly touched. We got her some Pedialyte popsicles today, which will hopefully help get some hydration into her.  The blood tests for me are to figure out why I've been so sick so long, as well as so frequently. The last time I had a fever-flu was the last week in May, which lasted for two days. On top of that I've had multiple stomach flus over the last few months too. I just seem to get way too many illnesses, and it's really bugging both Phil and me.

Ugh, I'm starting to get really dizzy so I'm wrapping this up now. Today both Natalie and I seem to be beginning to improve. I haven't seen our temps go higher than about 100 since this morning, but the mega-doses of Advil and Tylenol every three hours is probably helping that. (I was doing the same meds before, but about every 4-6 hours, not every three.) We're praying we're on the upswing of this. I have a doctor appointment scheduled for Friday and I should get Natalie in to Dr. Kern too.