Fantastic!

We took Little Man to the infectious disease doc this morning and she thinks he has just had a run of bad luck this summer. She thinks that he's just caught several childhood viruses back to back to back. So this one is also hopefully on its way out. She told us that if anything changes (i.e. his temp goes back up from where it's at now) to let her know and they can make any other decisions based on that sort of thing.

Woohooooo!!!!

Done with doctors for a while and he's perfectly fine! YAY!

Little Man is still "sick"

This would be easy to drag out into a very long posting, but I'm not going to do it to you.

Here are the highlights:

• Little Man has been running a very low grade temp (along with a few other random symptoms) since about the time we got back from our trip to New England. (that makes it something like 7-8 weeks)
• He's now had two different rounds of antibiotics
• He's had a total of three different rashes (one was the strep rash)
• His bloodwork came back negative for mono and Epstein Barr (the virus that causes mono) but definitely shows that there is something viral going on
• We're taking him to a pedi infectious disease doctor (tomorrow) to see if we can get some answers.

I can't imagine he's contagious. Seems like someone else around him by now would be sick too. Anyways, I'm not going to start trying to jump to conclusions but I'll just let the doctor do her job and hope and pray that they find answers quickly and with as few tests as possible. Little Man's had to have his blood taken twice in the past week and he just absolutely hates being held down, so that's my hope: A quick resolution.

I'll keep you posted.

Poor Rocky

We brought Rocky back last week. (He's been at my parents house since we moved to MI in 2004 since we couldn't have him where we were living there.)

Of course, Little Man just assumes this cat is his play toy and best friend. He likes to chase Rocky, and poke him with his sword. We keep telling him it's only a matter of time until that cat gets him, and gets him good, lol.

Rocky spent the first day under Little Man's bed. Needless to say I don't think he's been back under there since.

This is Little Man pointing towards under the bed when propmted, "Where's Rocky?"

Oh he was REALLY fascinated with Rocky...so long as they didn't get too close to each other.

(These next few I took a couple of days ago.)

Poor cat and poor cat's tail!

Rocky can be loving...

...but he will attack when provoked.

His answer to the age old question of, "Where's Rocky?"

Running Circles around the poor cat.

The past week has been fun since Little Man's exposure to animals has been extremely limited until now. Although, there is now an awful lot of screaming going on. If Little Man thinks Rocky is coming towards him, he just stands there, screams at the top of his lungs (like a girl) and then runs. Oh, it's FUNNY.

I'll try to get some video.

His first haircut!

Little man got his first haircut today!

We had told both of his grandmothers that we were considering it and both of them reacted the same way by saying, "OH NO!" LOL!!!

I presume it's because he had such cute curls but really and truly, it was time. Several people had referred to him as 'she' and when his hair was wet, you could see the mullet we were allowing to grow. I know that realistically, he was only upset because he was being held down, but at the same time, he had no interest in staying put in that chair on a booster, lol.

Even funnier...after he was done, I had my hair chopped (7-8 inches at least) and he cried when I got in the chair. I asked him, "Oh no...is momma going to get the torture too?" It took him just a short moment to recover but it was priceless.

They gave him a certificate for his first hair cut and they were really good with him. We did opt for the scissors because the noise of the clippers would have scared him to death! And yes, we kept some hair.

Enjoy the pics!

~a

Scarlet Fever

August 11, 2007

Little Man has been a very healthy child. I'm not sure he's had more than one cold. Other than that, he's only had one ear infection and that was when he was 15 months old and had a reaction to the amoxicillian that he was given. I suppose one can't go on being so healthy forever.

Little Man is a 'rashy' kid. He's got extremely sensitive skin and we don't react much to rashes because they are typically superficial in nature. Unfortunately that was NOT the case yesterday morning when I went to change him out of his jammies. I just gasped as I pulled his shirt off. He was covered from head to thigh with a bumpy red rash. Yes, the 'sandpapery' kind.

We took him to the doctor yesterday afternoon and she diagnosed it as Scarlet Fever. Interestingly enough he doesn't have strep throat and he never did run a high fever.

For those of you that don't know, Scarlet Fever is strep with a rash. I don't know of a simpler way to put it. Of course with any strep, if left untreated can lead to worse things (i.e. rheumatic fever) but 10 days of antibiotics and we should be good.

Several people are thinking it's a bigger deal than it is with the thoughts that it's some sort of "old time" eradicated disease. So here's a quick history lesson straight from Wikipedia regarding this thought: Many novels depicting life before the nineteenth century describe scarlet fever as an acute disease being followed by many months spent in convalescense. The convalescence was probably due to complications with rheumatic fever. Prior to an understanding of how streptococcus was spread, it was also not uncommon to destroy or burn the personal effects of a person afflicted with scarlet fever to prevent transmission to other people.

So now that people understand how and what strep is and we have antibiotics, it's not such a big deal.

Feeding Therapy - Week 3

August 8, 2007

Today officially ended Little Man's third week of feeding therapy at Texas Children's. He's doing well with it. We're hoping that by this time next week he will be completely off of baby food. Everything he eats from this point on must be pureed. There is seriously an art to getting food properly pureed, and it's not terribly easy. However, his ST (speech therapist) has given us lots of great ideas on foods to start with and how to prepare them.

Basically, the idea at this point is to discourage the sucking that he does on food (instead of chewing it) while continuing exercises that encourage the chewing. Those exercises are NOT easy. I have to "anchor" a specific food in a specific manner and location in his mouth that encourages the chewing. It looks easy -- but I got my first shot at it today along with the other oral-motor exercises -- and it's just not so easy in practice. But...practice makes perfect (or so I've been told.)

Once Little Man is accepting the puree's we can drop down to once a week if we like until the chewing is more consistent. We can do the exercises at home with him and I'd like to make sure we have enough visits left (gotta love insurance) for the year for after he's chewing. Once he is chewing more (yes there is a very specific expectation) then we'll start back at twice a week to get him eating real food!

I told the ST yesterday, "My goal would be that just maybe he could eat a piece of cake on his birthday." She told me that she hears that goal a lot with the kids she works with. He's going to be TWO in only about eight weeks so I'm hopeful, but being sure not to set myself up for disappointment either. The ST didn't seem to think it was a completely unrealistic goal but we've got a long way to go to get there.

So that's basically what's going on with his feeding for now. Things have just been crazy busy around here lately.

I'd also like to say congrats to Hubby's younger brother & his wife on the birth of their first child. They had a daughter born on Aug 3. She was a healthy 7 lbs 12 ozs and 19" long. We're hoping they get internet soon so we can see more pictures since we all know just how quickly they can change!

A Day in the Country

July 21, 2007

Yesterday we took Little Man and met up with my mom, sis & niece in Brenham for "A Day in the Country" celebrating Blue Bell Ice Cream's 100th Anniversary.

The weather started off AWFUL and it rained the entire time we were there but everything was covered and we all had SO MUCH fun -- especially the kiddos. There was so much for them to do!

They Danced:

They played games:

They bounced:

And he even got his FIRST TATTOO:

Which looked like this when it was done:

All in all the day was a blazing success. It was so wonderful for Little Man to FINALLY be old enough to participate in the ongoing events (even if it was with a little help, lol)!!

~a

July 19, 2007

July 19, 2007

So you all know that we've been extremely concerned about Little Man's weight. When he went in for his 18 mo well-child visit he was under the 5th percentile for weight!! So we've been doing everything we can think of to help boost his weight, like giving him Pediasure, putting butter or sour cream or gravy on his food, replacing juice with smoothies, etc (keep in mind there are very few table foods he can or does eat at this point) but you get the idea.

I had to take him to the doc yesterday because he's been running a low grade temp for almost a week, along with a few other symptoms. So we got all that squared away and at the same time we found out that he is now just above the 10th percentile for weight! YAY! His doc even said that she thinks he looks 'bulkier' than he did a few months ago.

On another note, we're anxiously awaiting details about our newest cousin that is to be born today! Last I heard his name was to be Jacob Matthew (hmmm...now where have I heard that name before? LOL!) Congrats Christina & Matt!!

We also have a niece that should be making her appearance anytime between now & the next few weeks. I tell ya, this IS the year of the baby - I can't tell you how many people we know that are having babies this year!!

Tomorrow we're attending "A Day in the Country" featuring Belle & her Blue Bell Ice Cream (yum) at the Washington Co Fairgrounds and this weekend we're going to be making our front yard look decent! (Look for pics if we're successful, lol).

~a

New England Vacation

July 16, 2007

We got back last Wed from a vacation in New England. We had a good time and really enjoyed getting to see the area up there. It's absolutely gorgeous with the mountains in New Hampshire and Maine's incredible coastline. We were disappointed with all the rain there which forced a lot of changes in our plans, but that's life.

A couple of pics from Maine:

You can view all of our vacation photos by checking the online album. If you don't know where it is, email me and I'll send you the link.

Little Man had so much fun with his grandparents and his cousin Daniel (who happens to be 11 years older than him).

Little Man will be starting his real feeding therapy at Texas Chidlren's Hospital next week. Hubby & I are both so excited about that and are extremely hopeful that this is going to teach him how to eat. If it doesn't work for some reason, we've got an evaluation scheduled for Sept at the Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore.

That's about it really. Plans for the week include a day out at the fair grounds in Brenham (Fri probably) to help celebrate Blue Bell's 100th Anniversary. Free Ice Cream anyone? LOL.

~a

My first post

My FIRST Post at Blogger!

Today I am fed up with the lack of flexibility with the blog at Yahoo 360 so I'm moving all of my blogs over here. I realize it's going to say that the post was done today, Aug 11 but I will include the original dates of the blogs in them. Good Grief.
So here was my very first post over at Yahoo!

July 14, 2007

So now the blog is set up. Although nobody can get to it just yet since I haven't actually linked it anywhere.

But this is at least a great way to keep in touch with friends and family since we don't exactly live down the street from any of you!

Welcome and look for my first REAL post very soon!

~a