May

Must wear protective gear when Sierra is driving!

Sierra was so happy that her Daddy was able to make it to her spring music program!

This was what several weeks of this month looked like.  The sickest I've been since I was a kiddo.

Some honey tea before bed.  She was trying to be like mommy :)

Our very own lettuce!

Picnic at school!

Enjoying wild strawberries.  Sugar likes them too.

Bucket heads :)

Batman and Robin!

Holy cow we were sick this month.  I can't wait for school to be over.  This was the evilest virus we've dealt with in a long time.  Sierra got sick first of course and then Jaxon and I followed suit.  Sierra had a mild fever (although it did stick around on and off for 2 weeks!) and stuffy nose which turned into a horrid cough.  She also had trouble with her eyes but since it's Spring I just assumed it was her allergies on top of her cold.  Then Jaxon and I got sick and we got pink eye too.  Sierra and Jaxon's pink eye was pretty mild but mine was horrid.  I finally ended up going to immediate care and we all ended up on prescription eye medication.  I also ended up with a temp of 104 and a horrid sore throat.  I went from 99 to 104 in about 30 minutes and I thought I was dying.  It was terrible.  I had the chills so bad that it felt like I was having convulsions.  Finally after a dose of Tylenol and ib profin both it went down to 102 for the remainder of the night.  Jaxon never got a fever or sore throat and his cough was more mild as well.  Praise the Lord.  It took us all a good 3 weeks to stop coughing and Sierra missed 6 days of school.  Once we all got better Jesse ended up with the cough too.  Luckily he didn't get the fever or pink eye.

When we weren't coughing our brains out we enjoyed our time outdoors and have loved our time in the garden.  Jaxon can spend a good 30 minutes throwing dirt clods around while I pull weeds and plant things.  It's really helpful because it cultivates the soil nicely and it keeps him busy.  One of Sierra's favorite things to do is catch bugs/snakes/lizards and keep them in an old aquarium my parents gave her.  We keep it outside and once she catches something she puts it in there and watches it for a while before she lets it go.  This keeps her busy for a whole day sometimes.  She's always sad to let them go, but handles it well because she knows that it's best for them.  We've watched praying mantis' eat all kinds of things, snakes hide, and lizards crawl up the side of the glass.  It's pretty fun stuff.  We also research what each creature likes to eat and she likes to try to feed them as well.  Science class right in our own backyard. 

Sierra's reading skills have improved dramatically over the last couple of months.  She can read so much more quickly and is sounding out much larger words.  It's so fun to see!  She loves to make books too.  She'll fold several pieces of paper together and staple them and then write her own stories.  They usually involve kitties or mommies.  The girl is still obsessed with cats.  She tells me all the time that she is not sure that she wants to have babies, maybe she'll just buy one some day.  But she does want at least 20 cats when she grows up.  She remembers the early days of me nursing Jaxon so well and I'm worried it has scarred her for life.  Nursing was hard for me with both kids and the pain I went through is sure implanted in her memory.  So I've explained not all mommies feed their babies the way I did and that there are babies out there that need mommies who didn't give birth to them.  So she's convinced that she will adopt someday.  I told her she has many years to decide.  She's also convinced that her daddy is going to build her a house in our field.  It's going to be rainbow colors, have a big tree house next to it, and she reminds me she is probably going to need help cleaning up after her cats.  Ha!