Here we go again...

Ethan is so sick- again. Last Saturday he came down with the cold and cough that Aidan had had the week before and by that night he was really not sounding good, so we took him to the Dr. who confirmed that his RSV/bronchial stuff was back. Back to 1am breathing treatments. He has been so miserable this week and to make matters worse, he finally cut his first tooth so he's been running fevers and crying all day long. Yesterday I really started to worry that he wasn't responding to the treatments as well as last time and since he wasn't sleeping and was constantly crying (both very uncharacteristic) we decided to take him in again. Because I can't cancel lessons right now, Brett came home early to take him and imagine my surprise when they got home and Brett said that he's actually improved dramatically and that his lungs sound great so we can stop waking him up at night to do the treatments and just do them during the day. I'm not real sure of my parenting skills- I think he's getting worse but he's actually getting better. Then last night he started running a fever again and woke up at 2 am and threw up all over me. :) Now I think he has the flu that has been going around. Whatever it is, he's miserable and I could REALLY use some sleep. :) Poor guy.

Tax season...

If piano teachers were accountants then this would be our tax season too. I have been so busy with teaching because we have festivals, recitals, competitions, ect.. coming up and so my days are filled with tedious nit-picking and extra rehearsals on the weekends. It's all very rewarding when it is over but in the mean time I have been extremely busy and worn out, which leaves little time to blog. We did manage to get away 2 Saturdays ago, though, for a fun afternoon of sledding with my family. I have been getting so stir crazy with this cold, snowy weather and it felt great to get out, be in the sun and laugh. We had such a fun time!



We were so tickled with how brave Aidan was- he was so excited to go down, he'd barely sit there long enough for us to help him. He only took 1 big spill that hurt, but still went down one more time by himself before we left. He had SOOOO much fun!


Aidan was so funny when Joseph or Brett pulled him up because he wouldn't sit up in the sled. It was like he was strapped down in the gurney. :)



Yes we fit 5 people in a 3 person sled. And yes, EVERY bump left us with sore bums! Still fun, though!

Princess Becca

I just created myself as an M&M. I don't usually wear hats, but I thought if I did I would like it to be a pink crown. To make yourself an M&M go to http://www.mms.com/us/. Have fun!

A Thousand Splendid Suns

I just finished reading A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini, the same author who wrote Kite Runner. I can't even begin to tell you what an amazing book this is. I have never read anything like it and couldn't read it fast enough. I have also never, ever read anything so emotionally difficult or heart wrenching. My heart ached the whole way through it and there were times where it was just too much to handle and I had to put it away but it always drew me back. The book follows the lives of 2 women who live in Afghanistan over the last 30 years, when there has been nothing but war and turmoil in that country. It was so interesting to learn more about the country and the culture and to see it from another perspective other than where terrorists live. It sheds such a light on the women who live there and the terrible oppression that they endure. I have been given such a new perspective of how easy my life is and how grateful I am to live in a country where I can accomplish whatever I want to, where I can be equal with my husband and expect the respect that I deserve, where I can practice and teach my children the things that I believe in, and especially to live in a place that isn't torn apart by war and death on a daily basis. I highly recommend this if you are in need of a good book- it reads so easy and you develop such an affection for these women. I can't wait to ready Kite Runner next. I hope my heart can take it. :)

"Get Organized!"

We have all the typical New Years Resolutions that everyone else has... read scriptures, have family home evening, loose weight (by the way, I got back down to my pre-pregnancy weight this week!), ect...ect... but the most important goal has become our Sivits Family Theme for the year: Get Organized! Each month we are going to have a part of the house or our lives that we are going to focus on and get ourselves organized! (By the way, this is all me- Brett so far is smiling and along for the ride, but we'll see how long he lasts). So far we've gotten a few good projects done this month, but I'm most excited about what we did last weekend. I was watching Oprah and she was talking about The Container Store, which is my organizational bliss, and I got online and got a great idea for the boys room. I have no where to put their big toys and they have just been piled at the bottom of their closet and in the corners of their room and it's making me crazy. So I saw an idea for these built in shelves at the Container Store (which costs upwards of around $300) and thought that I could do that myself, so we spent the morning at Home Depot and now have some nice built in shelves in their closet that will be easy to unscrew and take with us when we buy a house. We also were able to get Aidan's bed fixed and are glad he's not sleeping on the floor anymore. It feels so much better in there and Aidan has even been more willing to clean up his messes now that there is somewhere to put everything. I could use another set of them, but then there wouldn't be room for the clothes. Now if we could only do something about the big empty white walls. I hate renting. :(



By the way, Ethan does not like rice cereal and definitely doesn't like squash, which you can tell from it being everywhere but his mouth. I guess I got excited too soon.

Yummy!

Ethan seemed to be feeling better yesterday so we decided to start him on rice cereal and he loved it! He was so cute- he couldn't get the spoon in his mouth fast enough! I was glad we waited a little longer to start him because he was able to keep the food in his mouth much better than Aidan did in the beginning. I can't believe he's already old enough to be doing this. The time is passing too quickly. :)

Poor Ethan...

Ethan has been battling a cough for over a month now- I took him in a month ago when he first came down with it and Aidan was getting over croupe. The Dr. said that everything was normal and just to let it run it's course. Well, 3 weeks later he was still coughing so I asked the Dr. (who happens to be our neighbor and was Aidan's nursery leader) about it and he thought I should bring him back in just to see what's going on. Well, that week it got significantly better so I didn't take him in and then the following weekend it got bad again fast. We finally took him in again and got the dreaded RSV diagnosis. I was able to cancel my students for the next couple days and we have spent the last 5 days at home without going anywhere. Except for the fact that I feel so bad he is sick, it was really nice to have some quiet time at home. We have already been to the Dr. twice and have another appointment in a couple days but he seems to be getting better everyday. He has to have a breathing treatment every 4 hours which isn't fun but he does alright for the most part. The biggest worry that the Dr. had was that he would have future asthma problems since he got this so young. I'm praying that isn't a problem- my sister Jordan and her son both have asthma and that isn't a road I want to travel on. Our Dr. has been so helpful. I just call him at home whenever I have questions and he has told us more than once just to call in the middle of the night if we need to rather than going to the emergency room. It's so wonderful- where do you ever get that kind of service from a Dr.?!! I'm just so glad that it hasn't been worse and we haven't been to the hospital. He's such a sweet happy baby and has had such good spirits through all of this. He only had a couple cranky days where I needed to hold him most of the day. I'm so grateful for his happy disposition!