Mother's Day, Strep Throat, and some other stuff...

We know its been a hectic couple of weeks when not only does it take me 2 weeks to update the blog, but Siena has taken to putting herself to bed:
The best place to start is probably Mother's Day last weekend. We had the Cruz family over to our house. Not only did it not rain but the weather wasn't horrible either. We got the patio furniture out of storage and fired up the grill with Luis at the helm. His brother Jr. was supervising.

The must have done pretty good because Mason approved.

Since we have no backyard to speak of, the party was out front. This was perfect because the kids could get out their bikes and the '57 Chevy. Baby Tristyn loved it!

Not sure why Mason's on Siena's pink bike. Must be that cousin Andre commadeered his.

The adults among us were a little more low key...that's Jr. and Joel for those unfamiliar with the Cruz clan.

And Tristyn with her abuela Gloria.

So in the week following the lovely Mother's day celebration, all hell broke loose. It started when Siena was having trouble going pee pee without pain. She had a big rash. Luis too had been sick for the whole week. On Friday, I too woke up with a sore throat. We finally decided to take Siena in to have her rash checked out, thinking it might be a urinary tract infection. I downed a bunch of Tylenol and tried to go to work. Luis took Siena to the doctor so this saga is told as relayed to me from Luis.

They got to the doctor at 9:30 Friday morning. It was obvious to the doctors that she had some sort of infection in her netherregions but a urine sample would be needed to determine exactly what. They gave her a can of apple juice that Luis helped her to drink down. A half an hour later, nothing. Then he gave her another half can. The problem was, as much as Siena needed to go pee at that point, she knew it would be painful and was therefore holding it with all her might.

Luis tried negotiating with the doctors by saying that eventually she'll wet on the floor. Can't they just use that? No. Well, she'll get some on herself, how about using that? Nope. After half an hour, the only solution they could come to was a catheter.

Luis and one nurse had to hold down Siena while the other was tasked with inserting the catheter. Of course Siena was screaming like a banshee at this point. Mason, who was with them throughout this whole ordeal, was straining for the best look he could get. Finally they got the catheter in and got their sample. When they removed the catheter, Siena apparently hadn't completely voided and therefore sprayed pee all over the exam table.

After running the test on the long soughtafter urine sample, they were able to determine that yes, there was an infection but they didn't know specifically what. From there they decided to check out the rest of her for signs of other symptoms. Siena hadn't complained of any other symptoms but upon looking at her throat, they quickly descerned that she had strep throat.

After hearing the story, I felt so bad for my little Nannies. I've had catheters put in before and it is NOT pleasant under any circumstances. Its too bad they couldn't have given her a once over before putting her through all that.

While Luis, Mason, and Siena were enduring the urine sampling from hell, I was at work feeling like my throat was on fire. Course, I just thought it was the start of another cold which I was not at all pleased about seeing as how I was just getting over a cold/flu thing a week before. I finally got to the point where I felt so bad I just couldn't work any longer and went home. A couple hours later, Luis got back from the doctor's and dropping the kids off for their Friday visit to YaYa's. He came in the door and announced Siena's strep throat diagnosis and that he made an appointment for himself as he suspected he was suffering the same thing. I knew right then that I had it too.

So after Luis and I paid our visits to our respective physicians (I had to go to the urgent care facility given the time of day), we each had our strep diagnoses and 3 different antibiotic prescriptions. We also bought a lot of popcicles and Chloroseptic.

We're all getting better. We even managed a blueberry waffle breakfast, which miss Siena managed to wear more of than eat. Since it was also the nicest weekend of the year so far (a fact which made me very unhappy about being homebound all day yesterday) the Cruzes decided to do an afternoon picnic. We packed up the bikes, folding chairs, and went on out.

Joel came with bubbles in tow. They kept Tristyn entertained.

Mason was bike boy again.

The chef with his new bbq. It was so new that the box it came in was discarded behind a tree at our picnic site.

Papi and son...eating.

The other kids finally notice the bubbles!

Siena discovers baseball. She got a hit on her very first pitch at back. She's a natural!

Mason put his bike helmet on my. Being the wonderful mother I am, of course I complied enthusiastically.

This was the only way to get Siena off the playground - happily.

Tia Sara tried out Kendra's cool new retro bike.

Kendra and Dulcina chillin'

Since this wasn't what I'd call the smoothest week ever, I have to at least end it on a happy note. Here's a short clip of the Cruz kids jamming. I definitly sense two budding little rock stars!