Happy Anniversary!

Today we're celebrating 8 years of (mostly) wedded bliss! :-) Happy anniversary to my wonderful husband! Thanks for putting up with me. ;)

We celebrated Friday with a date day. He surprised me with 8 dozen roses! And then we went out for lunch, drinks and games. :-) It was nice to spend some time alone - just the 2 of us. Not that we don't love the kids......but it's nice just to hang out! Doesn't happen very often anymore.

Tonight was low-key - just the way we like it. Take out in our jammies. Perfect! Hope it never changes.

Bad Weekend

We had an awful weekend. :-( Carson had his first "big" fever. Miss Kathy told me last Wednesday that several people (kids and teachers) were sick w/ fevers, etc. Since Carson wasn't feeling hot the weekend before (slight fever and bad cough), I thought that maybe that was all he'd get of this "round" of sickness. Uh.....no. He woke up Saturday morning and just wasn't himself. He just wanted me to hold him. He felt a bit warm so I took his temp. 100.2. No big deal. He went down for his morning nap as usual but woke up only 30 minutes later screaming. I took his temp again and it was 98.6. He just wasn't acting right though so we went to lie down on the couch together. He just kept whimpering and twitching. It was starting to freak me out. Then he broke out in goosebumps from head to toe and started shivering.

My mom's a nurse (thank God) so I called her immediately. She said that chills usually indicate fever and to expect a spike. Well no kidding! 45 minutes later, he was at 103.1! I freaked out watching the digital thermometer climb. Of course, I immediately called mom back! So began the weekend of Tylenol, Motrin, baths, cold washcloths and lots and lots of cuddling!

That day his fever went up and down all day, finally reaching 103.7. He literally was bright red and hot to the touch at times. I called the after hours peds line and they reassured me that we were doing all the right things and not to panic unless it got to 104. I was worried to put him down to sleep that night so we kept him out in the living room and slept next to the pack n play. Or tried to. He only slept for about an hour on his own and then he wouldn't let me put him down. So I held him all night. It's just awful to watch your child miserable like that! At the same time, it's nice to be able to hold and hug and comfort. I won't lie - it's a great feeling to have them reach up to you and have them stop crying the moment you pick them up. :-)

Anyway, thought we were doing well Sunday. He woke up and his temp was right around 100. Stayed there for most of the day. He was up and playing normally. We noticed he felt really warm. And then, all of a sudden, he was burning up again. We checked his temp and it had spiked to 104.4! OMG. Okay....the nurse said not to panic unless it reached....104. MOM! Again, love that my mom is a nurse! She convinced me not to panic and we gave him a double-dose of Motrin. That brought it down fairly quickly, even though it stayed between 102 and 103 the remainder of the night.

Daddy stayed home with him today and we went in to see the doctor. He has an ear infection in his right ear. :-( No wonder he felt so horrible. Antibiotics to the rescue! He's still running a slight fever tonight but hopefully we'll be fever free and back to school tomorrow! I'm relieved to know it's at least something we can treat!

So, long story short, we survived our first major fever. I was proud of myself that I didn't panic too much :-) and we were able to get through it. Poor baby though! I'm sure it's the first of many. It's just that getting all of these "firsts" under our belt.......kind of hard and scary. And exhausting. :-) But hopefully we're all on the mend now.

Black Eye

Well, he came home with a black eye this time. Daycare's apparently a dangerous place! Miss Molly did call to warn me at least so I wouldn't freak out. I guess the little man took off walking with one of the walkers and tripped. He fell and gave himself a pretty good lump by his eye. I guess he hit the metal leg of the big table and then kind of flipped over it. :-( It's been getting darker and more swollen as the night goes on. Doesn't seem to bother him at all though. He did let Daddy put some ice on it. First "shiner"!

11 Months!

Carson's 11 mos. old today! He's becoming more of a little boy every day! He's now taking about 5 steps at a time before going down. He's pretty fearless. He stands up and just takes off like he completely knows how to walk. He always seems a bit surprised when he goes down. :-) I'm sure we'll be chasing him around the house in no time. We tried shoes on for the first time this weekend. It was pretty hysterical. He couldn't crawl or anything. We tried to help him walk around and he just kicked out each foot as he stepped. He just couldn't figure out what those "things" on his feet were but they were definitely getting in his way! We'll have to keep practicing.

He's learned how to give kisses. I love them! Those big, sloppy, open mouth kisses that only a parent could love. :-) (Even though thanks to those kisses, the whole house has a lovely cold. Totally worth it though!) He's the sweetest boy. He likes to cuddle and he's good at sharing (so far). And he's funny. He'll be playing and just stop and smile and start waving at us, and it just cracks us up. His new thing the past few week is to throw his head back and laugh. I have caught myself doing that around him a lot so I'm guessing that's where he picked it up. It makes us laugh so hard. He's getting very good at imitating what we do, so we'll have to keep that in mind. :-) It's just a total blast watching his personality develop.

Here are some pics from this week:


New shoes!

Elephant!

First Steps!

Carson took his first step on his own last night (8/16/10)! And I missed it! But Daddy was there! I have to admit, I almost didn't believe him. :-) Or maybe I didn't want to believe him. But then tonight, he did it again with Daddy! And I missed it AGAIN! (Mickey Mouse Clubhouse is very distracting!) So Daddy put him over by me and said "walk to Mommy"! And there he went - 3 steps into my arms! We were so excited! Lots of cheering and clapping. He looked very proud of himself! I haven't been eager to have him start walking, but it was so exciting. And so cute! I know we're in for a lot of fun in the coming months!

Tonight was also a big step in that Carson ate a full meal with us! He had some of his "baby" bananas but the rest of his dinner was the same as ours - chicken, cheese and rice casserole and green beans! It's just so fun to watch him grow up!

Play Date!

We had a play date this morning with our friend Evan (and Logan too!). We've been friends with Brad and Laura for years and Laura and I were pregnant at the same time with the boys. Evan's 12 days older than Carson. And Evan now goes to Carson's daycare too! (He's actually the likely "offender" from the previous post, but he's our friend, so we'll forgive him).

We've been wanting to get them together forever and finally had a chance today! It was nice to see them and have the boys play for a while. :-)

We had doughnuts for breakfast! (after our healthy baby food of course)
Most of it ended up on poor Laura's floor.

They boys have certainly changed a lot! This was their very first (and actually last) play date when they were 8 and 20 days old, respectively!!

First "Assault"

Carson got sent home with another "Bumps and Bruises" report today. :-( He got bit by another baby. They noted that he was playing alone with a toy when another baby decided that they wanted it and bit him. He's got a decent bruise on his arm. Lucas joked that he was going to be taking dental impressions of all of the babies and he would then be biting the "offending" baby on the arm. :-) Based on the bruise, we're looking for a baby with both top and bottom teeth. Haha. We're entering the biting stage I guess, so I'm sure it won't be the last time. :-( A little extra TLC though and he was fine!