This must be the worst cold Connor ever had.  He appears to be feeling worse as of yesterday.  His breathing got heavier, with some wheezing at times; his cough and runny nose continues to be quite bad.  He also had a fever periodically.  His appetite also dropped starting yesterday.  He was very excited when I handed him a banana, but he took a couple of bites before returning it to me.  He gets tired easily too.  At 10 something yesterday morning, I was going to feed him lunch so he could go for an earlier nap.  But as soon as he saw the porridge that I made for him (which he usually likes), he immediately shook his head and started crying.  He flopped his head down onto the carpet to cry.  It was so sad!  I picked up him to comfort him, and tried to offer some other favorite foods, but he continued to cry to refuse.  I finally decided that he was just too tired to eat, so I took him to his room to read a book to calm him.  He calmed down, but after just reading half of a story, he pointed to the crib.  I laid him down and gave him his two stuffed animals to hold one on each arm; he just laid there without complaint!  Poor little guy!

    We made another appointment for him today since his fever lasted four days.  Stuart picked me up from work so I could go to the appointment with them.  Connor was happy during the wait as he enjoyed having both of our attentions.  It was nice that we did not have to wait long before being seen.  Connor was wheezing upon exam, but fortunately no signs of pneumonia.  However when the doctor looked into his ears, she found an infected one.  She prescribed amoxicillin for Connor.  After picking up the drug and giving it to Connor, they dropped me back off at work. 

    For the rest of the day, Connor continued to be quite sick, still looked very tired, coughing forcefully, and had a fever again after nap.  He was very sad and cranky.  He still did not eat much.  According to Stuart, Connor did enjoy being out in the sun for a little bit, and laying his head on Stuart to watch some TV kid shows.  For dinner, he finally ate some porridge.  We are using everything we can to help Connor feel better, Tylenol, ibuprofen, albuterol nebs, steam room, humidifier, nose spray and suction.  Hope that he will be better when he wakes up tomorrow.

     Stuart and I both feel so behind in everything, work and house chores.  Stuart has been the one taking more days off; he has been doing such a great job taking care of Connor and being so patient.  I had taken an hour to few hours off each day, and so it has been so busy trying to squeeze in all the work in a shorter day.  The highlight of today was my friends at work taking me out for a nice dim sum lunch and having cake to celebrate my birthday. 

     The 2nd night, Connor did not have stridor again, and he slept well until the next morning.  His breathing was normal, and he was fine without any symptoms.  But since it was my day off, I decided to keep him from school.  After playing inside the house for awhile, we went outside to get some air.  It was nice and warm under the sun; Connor and I had fun playing with some outdoor toys.  Then he pointed to the stroller asking for a walk.  Since we needed milk, I decided to go for a fast stroll to a local grocery to pick up a few things.  The round trip was 45 minutes, and Connor was content the whole time and enjoyed a banana as a snack.  When we returned, it was almost time for our scheduled tour to a school, so Stuart, Connor and I got ready and took off.  The tour was quite thorough and lasted almost an hour.  Connor was being held most of the times there, but it was cold at times even though we all were bundled up.  We had our lunch before Connor went down for his nap. 

     It was a packed morning.  Connor was doing so well and happy in the morning that I totally forgot he had been sick, and I must have exhausted him with all the activities.  Connor woke up with a fever again after nap.  He was initially still in good mood, but shortly after, he became more whiny.  He started coughing more to a point that he was coughing every few minutes over night.  As a result, Connor did not go to school again today.  He woke up at 5am this morning, and was still having a low grade fever.  He also threw up from coughing overnight as he had some dried up residual on his hair.  The rest of the day today, he continued to have a bad cough and now a runny nose.  Stuart was good making sure that he kept Connor entertained with tame activities.  Stuart and I plan on doing another split day tomorrow to take care of him.  We hope that Connor will be better soon, so we both can get caught up with work.

     I was just telling someone that our boys were able to stay away from any illnesses over the holiday break, and of course I jinxed myself.  Connor got sick last night.  He was good over the weekend; and even at bedtime on Sunday night, he was happy as usual and went to sleep after reading.  Stuart and I went to bed at 11pm; shortly after that, Connor was up crying.  Stuart went to see him after a few minutes of whining; I heard a weird coughing noise while Stuart was there.  When he came back and said Connor did not sound well, I was very surprised that he was sick.  Since Connor went back to sleep with no problem, I decided to keep an eye on the monitor and wait until he woke up again which happened at midnight.  I went to see him this time, and I did hear the squeaky breathing noise.  He was also breathing faster and heavier, but he did not seem to be in distress.  He had another cough which sounded like barking.  I let him lay on my chest to sleep, and his breathing calmed down very quickly.  He woke up from my chest after 15 minutes and was breathing ok, so I decided to return him to the crib and Connor did not object.  At 5am, Connor woke up whining again, and he was having a fever this time.  The axillary temperature was 101.2, so I immediately gave him a dose of Tylenol.  For some reason, he refused water again, just like earlier tonight.  I went to get his favorite straw cup that was given by Michelle, and he finally drank some from it.  At that point, I just decided to let him lay on me for the remaining of the morning, and his breathing once again quieted down. 

     Stuart and I made a decision to split up the day to take care of Connor, and I made a doctor appointment for the morning.  Since then, Connor returned to his normal self, ate and played well as usual.  We waited 45 minutes in the waiting area before we were seen, but Connor was still in good mood.  He just started crying as soon as he realized the doctor was going to examine him.  The doctor diagnosed him with the croup, and it was between level 1 and 2, so injectable Decadron could be negotiable.  During the exam, Connor’s lungs sounded well and he did not have any stridor even during the crying, so I chose to take the oral form of the medication instead in case the croup returned overnight. 

     For the rest of the day, Connor was happy, ate and drank well, only slight noiser breathing and only a few coughs (but not barky).  He took a long nap, and played well with Stuart the rest of the day.  I managed to forget to pick up the prescription while I was working in the afternoon, so I returned to the pharmacy after picking up Logan.  But it turned out they did not have the solution in stock.  I finally picked up the prescription tonight after putting Connor down for bed.  But I am hoping that he will be breathing well tonight so he does not need to take the medication. 

      We had dinner at the Fish Market with The Kaos, the Tsaos and the Changs tonight for an early celebration of my birthday.  It is always very nice for us to get together as we all get along well and the kids like each other too.  It was a delicious meal; I really enjoyed the cioppino that I have been craving for.  We had a candle on a chocolate cake and everyone sang for me.  The whole time Connor was just staring at the cake; but when I dug into it with my spoon he could finally wait no longer and reached out and touched it.  He enjoyed the few bites that I shared with him.  Logan loved his ice cream so much that he almost licked the bowl.  All the kids behaved well tonight; Connor was able to stay in his seat the entire night too.  It was a wonderful dinner; thanks to everyone!

     Last night, Stuart volunteered to take care of the two boys to let me attend Theresa’s farewell dinner on my own.  It was a nice big crowd of our work friends gathering together to wish Theresa well at her new job.  Everyone had a great time chatting with each other while having a delicious meal at the restaurant.  Stuart was texting periodically to tell me how well they were doing, so I was quite relaxed to enjoy the evening.

     According to Stuart, their night went well too.  After picking up the boys at school, Stuart prepared them by telling them that they were on “Team Daddy” so they both would cooperate.  They watched a little bit of TV while Stuart warmed up the pre-set dinner.  Stuart supervised both boys to eating at the dining table, and everyone apparently ate well.  After the meal, they played toy car racing and hide-and-seek.  At one point Connor whined to Stuart to read book while Logan wanted them to hide, so Stuart just took Connor to hide with his book and both were happy.  Another cute thing was that at one point both boys hid under a blanket whispering to each other while waiting for daddy to find them. 

    Stuart then bathed both kids and dressed them for bed.  He had Logan reading some books on his own while he took a few minutes to read and put Connor down.  He then returned to Logan for his normal bedtime reading marathon.  After both kids were down, Stuart did the dishes and finally sat down to play his XBox game.  What a great job Stuart did!

     It has been quite low key for us the last few days of our holiday vacation.  We put away all the Christmas decorations, organized our toy storages, and visited some friends and relatives.  Thursday morning we drove up to see my relatives in San Ramon.  We first spent some time in their new home, then went to their bagel shop to meet up with other relatives.  The boys were very good sitting at a table eating their bagels while I had a chance to catch up with family talk.  Yesterday we went to visit the Hashiguchi’s.  We hung out with them for a few hours, which included chit chatting and the boys playing with the girls’ toys.  Logan as usual was shy initially, but finally warmed up to the girls.  Connor was very content playing with the toy dishes; he was probably there for at least 30 minutes by himself.  Later on, he occasionally came over to me and bringing me a toy cup of tea.  We might have a chef in the house one day. 

     Today, as the weather was so beautiful and we were free, we decided to pay another visit to Happy Hollow.  Being the New Years Day, the park was not as crowded.  The boys had the most fun climbing on a rock structure and running around inside a maze.  They were there for quite awhile.  We then had our lunch while watching the puppet show.  Both boys enjoyed it greatly and paid attention the entire time; Connor even clapped when it was over.

     Tomorrow the kids will be returning to school.  Nowadays, since the boys are a bit less high maintenance, we do not feel as exhausted after such a long school vacation.  I was actually feeling sad that the holiday break is over as I was packing their lunches.  But of course I am looking forward to Stuart’s and my day off from work tomorrow.  I think we will start our new year resolution then.  BTW, Happy New Year to everyone!