Mumps and birthdays

Yes, another illness. I looked at my past sms's to Monkeyman's teacher and noticed that in April, I let her know that Monkeyman will miss school because he had a bad cold. During May, I sms'ed because he had a stomach bug. In June, it was the flu. And now, in July, he has mumps!! With the flu, holidays and mumps, he hasn't attended school in 6 weeks now. I guess our son is much more ill than we realised. :-( That makes me sad. It's okay for now, he's only in grade R (kindergarten), but what if this continues to grade 4 and it's exam time? Or grade 8 in highschool? Can one overcome low lymphocytes? There's so little information out there on this. I feel lost. I guess it's time we go see the pead again, and ask her about all of this. What can we do about the lymphocytes, to help boost his immunity?

Fortunately, though he falls ill regularly, he doesn't always get severly ill. Same with the mumps now. He was increasingly mizerable over the time span of 2 or 3 days, but nothing I could put my finger on. He was just crying for no reason biggering with his sibs, or when we played a game and he didn't win, he would cry, etc. I told my husband that maybe the tiredness is making a comeback (it has been going so well during the holidays on that front). I mentioned it on the Thursday night, and by Friday morning when Monkeyman woke up, he looked like Alvin the Chipmunk! Both cheeks very swollen. Once the swelling went down, he started to complain that everything he eats hurts his tongue, as it tastes sour. The only thing he can tolerate, is cereal with milk. He's on the road to recovery though. He can actually return to school, but we're being cautious and keeping him the whole week at home.

Here's some pics. The first one was taken about a month ago, so this is just for comparison on how he usually looks, ese you might think he's just a bit overweight. ;-)

Peanut was eating a cheese curl. :-) And Monkeyman was healthy.
Look at the way his chin points and how his lower jaw looks normally.

And here's our chipmunk!! As you can see, the right hand side
got the biggest, though both sides were swollen.
Look at the double chin!! Hahaha.

 

He had a bit of trouble trying to smile with those tightly swollen
cheeks, poor boy. He was a good sport about the way he
looked, once I assured him its temporary and
won't get much worse.

 

Here's the left hand side, much less swollen than the right.
You can also see the little blue vein from the corner of his
mouth down his chin and neck. The one I'm always
complaining about, that goes dark blue when he's
tired or complaining about his heart. Here, in this pic,
it's quite light, about as light as it can go.
Since its appearance a year ago, it has never again
completely dissapeared.
 

During this time, we celebrated our baby's 2nd birthday!! Can't believe how time has flown. Last year after her birthday, I was very sad. The day wasn't what I wanted, I didn't celebrate like I wanted to, and seeing her open her gifts just made me cry with sadness. So this time, I made sure that we celebrated the day as I wanted to. It was perfect!! She was happy, and enjoyed every minute. They say, for every year of a child's age, there should be 1 friend. So for a 3-year old, you should invite 3 friends. For a 6 year old, 6 friends. So for my Peanut, we should only have had 2 friends, and she already has 3 siblings plus her parents! Thus, more than enough for a little party. We all slept late, then gave her her prezzies from every one. She had an absolute ball opening it up and then helping dad to put the big gift together. Well, the siblings enjoyed that part even more than she did, LOL. Thereafter they just played with the gifts until lunch. After lunch I baked her a cake, and then I marked it off in 4 quarters. Each child got to decorate his quarter completely as he saw fit. It was a big mess, but they all loved it! Then we sang to her, and she was in 7th heaven blowing out her 2 little candles. Early evening we made a christmas bed, got take aways and watched a children's animated movie together as a family. Peanut fell asleep towards the end. It was the perfect, perfect day, and presicely what I wanted for her first birthday. Just us as a little family, celebrating our beloved baby's birthday together, as a loving unit. This time, I wasn't sad or depressed. I enjoyed her birthday so much and seeing her open presents.

Our serious little thing, she loved opening it all. Excuse the wrapping
of the big gift. We just didn't feel like wasting such a big piece
of wrapping when she had absolutely no idea what is wrapping
paper and what is newspaper! ;-)

Playing with the little kitchen stand we got her. She's absolutely
crazy about it. And I was so happy when I got it in the shop.
I really wanted one that had more than "just" an oven and stove
top. This one has a sink, a fridge, a cooker overhead with
accesories, 2 separate oven doors and the stove top. Plus
some shelves, and knobs with electronic sounds.

It's just her size. In time, when she gets taller, we can lift it a
bit. But for now, it's perfect. Even the others enjoys the kitchen.

Here's the cake divided in 4 squares! Hehehehe. So cute.
The top left corner was Monkeyman's creation, the top
right was Peanut. The bottom left was Mr N, who has
loads of food issues, one of it being that there shouldn't
be too much "things" on his cake, or he won't eat it. And
then lastly of course, is Boeboe. Overkill, hahaha.

Me with my beautiful babygirl, blowing out her 2 candles.

My four beautiful children.
All of them got a haircut in preparation for school starting again.