Turning 6!

Barbie & the Diamond Castle took over our lives this past weekend as Carmen celebrated her 6th birthday. It was a coming of age for her as she was able to take treats to school and had her very 1st ‘Friend’ party. On Thursday she started running a temp but she managed to muscle a little energy out to go to the store to pick out her treats—Barbie fruit snacks, a pack of gum and a sucker! Friday was her ‘real’ birthday and she woke up fine and all excited to go to school to celebrate. Well about 1:30 I get a call from school saying she’s running a fever and needs to be picked up. What a bummer—we felt horrible for her to get sick on her birthday! And she was miserable too…she came home and pretty much laid in bed or on the couch most of the night. We had big plans to attend a movie at school but we all skipped that and watched the Barbie movie at home and let her open gifts from family. One neat thing is is that when Triston came home from school he came running in the house trying to find her…he finds her in bed…she’s sleeping…he comes back and he is in tears! He is so upset that she is sick on her birthday and how is she going to have a good time and do all the stuff we had planned!! You see the two of them are true brother & sister! They fight ALL the time & act like they totally hate the other so it’s neat to see those moments where their true feelings come out about each other. On Saturday we were to go to Omaha to pick up a girlfriend of Carmen’s and bring her for the weekend. To make a long story short, she wasn’t running a fever in the morning when we left for Omaha but by the time we got back it was up to 103 and she was miserable all over again. There were also about 10 other kids at our house when we returned (Husker party being held without us there) so our house was quite chaotic to say the least. When her fever wouldn’t go away I began having the guilty mom feelings like I should have postponed her birthday weekend all together and what if she has something more serious and is getting all these other kids sick! So we made a hospital run and had the lab do a throat swab—which came back negative for Strep and it was just a viral infection. That was a stress off my shoulders! It seemed like once we left the hospital she was a different kid- running, jumping, playing! All was well…we had her friend party at the bowling alley the next day with her girlfriends, some cake, presents, face painting and little Barbie Bingo. My mom made her a beautiful Barbie cake which cost her under $5 where Hy-Vee wanted $44! My sister-in-law Natalie did some awesome face painting. What a talented family I have! So Carmen is finally 6 and the weekend is over…we were all exhausted!

Now the kicker to all of this is that on Tuesday I get a call from the Doctor’s office telling me NOW that Carmen’s swab tested positive for Strep Throat! It would have been nice to know that it was still a possibility. I talked to the nurse I work with and she said sometimes that happens as the initial test they do is just a quick test & then they let the culture grow for a few days and it comes out as a positive. So she is now on antibiotics and feeling normal and I had to go apologize to the mom’s of all the girls in hope that they don’t get it now! Geesh!!!

By the way…Happy Halloween!!