Luke is THREE!!!

What a weekend.... what a birthday!!! Whew!  Yesterday, my little man turned three years old! THREE!!! That means we're out of the terrible two's right?  :-)  It was a little rough in the beginning.... his birthday was off to a rocky start..... and here is why:

Sunday evening, my mother-in-law took Ally ice skating.  Ally's only been once or twice (maybe!) with Y Camp... so she's not exactly a great ice skater.  They went to the Optimist Ice Arena and for about an hour, Ally was doing really, really well! Then.... she took a tumble.... and smacked her head on the ice pretty badly.  She had a giant goose egg. Instant headache.  And was generally shaken by the whole thing.

She came home... and was pretty out of it.  She started to feel very nauseated.... and I couldn't get her to eat or dink anything at all. Then, she pretty much just fell asleep on the couch.  I made a call to a nurse friend of mine... who said to wake her up... keep an eye on her, but to take her in if she vomited for sure.  Of course, five seconds later, Ally woke up and vomited.

So, between the goose egg, headache, sleepiness and vomiting.... we decided we better have her checked out.  We got into the Express for Kids right away!!!  No waiting.... and she was seen immediately by none other than mine and Scott's doctor... so that felt good.  She passed her "concussion screening" and the doc saw no reason that she needed a scan or anything... she seemed quite fine.  She remembered what month it was... what was happening Saturday... she knew her parents' names.... she could add and subtract.... and she seemed just fine to him.  Us too, really... and I knew in my heart she was fine... but you never can be too safe.

She threw up two more times... in the car... hmm... still barfing?  Ugh.  It hit me that I was actually almost holding out hope this WAS a concussion cuz then it meant it WASN'T a stomach virus... and that there was no chance of anyone else getting it.  It was not looking good....

But, then, she got home... and we kept her in our room that night, checking her constantly.... and she didn't throw up again all night. No dry heaving. Nothing.  Hmmm.....

Monday morning rolls around..... It's Luke's Birthday!!!  Hooray!!!!  I get him up singing Happy Birthday all the while.  :-)  And Ally wakes up with us... saying she's feeling fine except for a slight headache.  She's hungry.  I make her toast.  She's thirsty.  I let her have a glass of water.

Luke is having birthday peanut butter toast cuz he wants to be like Ally and Scott and I are downing copious amounts of coffee because we got zero sleep the night before.  We decide to let Luke open his gifts from us:

We got him a birthday Thomas the Train car, book and Cranky the Crane (which he has been talking about for months!!!). He was pretty excited....

And... things were going so well, except for then, Ally started to feel bad again... ran to the bathroom and lost all her breakfast....  :-(

Back to bed she goes..... (our bed still)....  She's a miserable girl when she's sick.  She gets MAD at the world.... I guess I can't fault her that. It sucks to be sick!!!!!

She is so upset that she's going to miss Luke's birthday party and generally feels so terrible.  I assure her that we will not have a party without her and that we will figure something out......

In the meantime, Scott decided it's just for the best to go out and about with Luke... while I clean and deal with Ally.  I make a fabulous bleach concoction and go to work on every surface of the house... the entire house ends up smelling like an indoor pool... but I have killed whatever is in this house dammit!!  No evil bug is gonna get us down!

That was the last time Ally threw up. Thank god!!!  After that, she is able to eat some dry waffles... some goldfish crackers... and drink some Sprite.  She and I lay around and watch Elf together.  She's never seen it and is STILL laughing about the "World's Best Cup of Coffee" scene. :-)))))

Then, I take a shower and she takes a bath..... wash all the germs down the drain..... we get dressed... she chills some more..... I do some MORE cleaning....... and we think we can have Luke's little party after all.

In the meantime... Scott has run some errands with Luke... taken him out for birthday chicken nuggets... and taken him to the Toy House.... where he let's him pick out some more birthday gifts.  He chooses this animal preschool contraption... a soccer ball... and two Dora and one Diego book.  Life is good for the birthday boy!!

He comes home with all of this... and I am certain Ally is gonna blow a gasket... cuz that's what Ally usually does.  But, lately Ally has done some maturing... and she surprises me by, yes pointing out ALL that Luke got for his birthday, but not being nasty about it. Kudos Ally.  ;-)

We get ready for the birthday party... we are just having family over for pizza and cake and ice cream... and everyone arrives around 6:00 pm.  My mom and step-dad, Dave are even in town, cuz in the midst of all this chaos.... my step-sister, Crystal has had a baby girl!! Charlotte Loren.... born at 4:06 pm on Sunday, December 19th!  So Mom and Dave come in from Livonia (where they are staying - they actually LIVE in Columbia, Missouri).... Nana and Papa..... Jane, Adam and the girls.... all arrive...... we have wine... beer... lots of pizza.... and the little ones play and play.

Then, out of no where Luke comes upstairs and asks "Is it time for presents??" HAHA!!! How can you say no to that?

I didn't get a lot of great pictures, but enough to tell the story of his birthday.  More importantly, I enjoyed watching my boy enjoy his special evening with some of his favorite people.  :) He was so happy.... he got a fire engine... a Woody and his horse (what's his horse's name?) toy... an "electric guitar" and a Follow Me Thomas!  

He slept with EVERYTHING.  :-)))))  And first thing this morning... he's playing with all of it.  He is such a happy little man this morning.  

Who needs Christmas?  :-)