How to get what you want for Christmas...

Listen up Santa.  You bring me everything I want, and nobody has to get hurt...

Sick Again

OK our son is sick. AGAIN. For ten days he was on eye drops for his pink eye. On day eleven he woke up with a runny nose and a watery red eye. As Friday went on, his eye turned bright red (picture tomato red) and his nose started running more and more accompanied by constant sneezing. So after a sleepless night we were back at the doctor Saturday morning. He either still has pink eye or has it again so they gave him some stronger drops. Luckily his ears looked good although I'm thinking today that they may not still be good. He's getting a little wobbly which usually means infection. I'm hoping that he starts feeling better soon and that this cold is over much faster than the last time he was sick. I think we've been to the doctor about every week for the last month and a half. I'm so sick of it. I just want him to feel good for a straight two weeks. I really want him to be able to enjoy his first Christmas so we need to get him better fast.

Christmas is Right Around the Corner

Can you believe that Christmas is two weeks from yesterday?????? Like always, time has just flown by. I just need to go and pick up two more presents and then I'm done shopping...yeah!!!! This morning Drew and I went and got groceries for the Smith girls annual Christmas baking tomorrow. I'm so excited to have lots of yummy treats. It's definitely not the holidays without peanut butter balls. Oh, I can't wait.

Party Laugh

Wednesday before Thanskgiving we were out for dinner with Mitch's family for Anita's birthday. Mitch's grandma was telling stories when we heard this funny noise coming from Drew. It sounded like a laugh but wasn't his normal giggle so we were confused as to what was happening. Then we realized he had developed what Mitch calls his "party laugh". You know when you're talking with someone and you don't really think what they are saying is funny but you want to be polite so you fake laugh. That's what Drew was doing. Now he does it when he hears other people laughing but doesn't find it particularly funny himself. It is hysterical. He's such a sweet little boy laughing to save people's feelings.

My little man is getting so old and capable. It's so great to watch him grow every day. We are constantly amazed at the new things he can do. He loves reading books which is so great to see. He either sits and reads to himself or grabs a book and climbs up onto one of our lap's wanting us to read to him. He's also started to be able to copy things that we are doing. It's so nice that he can finally understand some things that we are saying. Today I wrapped a couple more presents and then gave Drew one of them and asked him to carry it over to the tree. He brought it right over to me without tearing into it. I was very impressed. At the other end of the emotional spectrum I feel like I spend most of my day telling Drew "no". Really it's more like "no, no, NO"!!!! He is wanting to constantly explore which keeps getting him into trouble. We know that he understands some of the differences between right and wrong. When he is doing something that he knows is a bad idea you can see him looking around to see if anyone is watching. He understands that if he gets caught, the fun is over. I think he's really going to test me in the next few years.

Surgery is set

On Friday we met with Drew's eye specialist. Surgery is set for January 8 at 7:50. It's going to be a rough morning because we have to be there at 6 in the morning which means we have to leave our house by 5:30. Since Drew's going to be put under for the procedure, he can't have anything to eat or drink after midnight. The poor guy is going to be so mad in the morning when we get him up super early and then won't give him any food. He knows that every morning when he comes downstairs he gets a bottle and lets you know if you're not doing it fast enough. How will we reason with an eleven month old and explain to him that he has to wait until after his surgery to get anything to drink? I have a feeling he is going to be MAD at us that day. The doctor said that if this procedure doesn't work, he'll have another one, and if that time doesn't work they'll put a tube in similar to ear tubes. We're really hoping for it to work on the first try.

Are you Kidding Me?

This poor kid of ours cannot stay healthy. On Friday night he finished his last dose of medicine for his ear infection. Then Saturday morning he woke up with a suspiciously closed eye. This continued to happen the next few days so I took him to the doctor yesterday. Of course he has pink eye. AGAIN. It's so frustrating that he keeps getting sick. I just want him to feel good for one week. It's especially frustrating because we take him to the eye specialist on Friday. We were hoping to be able to schedule his surgery...we want to get it in before the end of the year since we've met our $4500 deductible and don't want to have to start over again in January. Let me tell you, we are getting the most out of our insurance this year. It's great to spend $23,000 on the birth of your child in January therefore meeting your deductible and having eleven months of free medical coverage. Drew and I are really using this to the fullest going to all sorts of doctors appointments and trying to solve all of our medical issues. Also happening last week Drew started walking with his toes pointed in. This was a problem I had at his age and had to wear some annoying brace. While at my foot specialist on Monday, (I have a broken bone that won't heal) I asked him about Drew's walking problem. He checked him out and found that some muscle in his hip is too tight. At least that's what I think he said. Anyway, he showed us some stretches to do with him to try and get it better. Hopefully the new year will bring better health to our family.

5 Things

Erica tagged me to complete the following.....

The "5 THINGS GAME" The rules are to write 5 things under each of the 5 headings, and then tag 5 other people.

10 years ago...
1. I was a freshman at Simpson College
2. I was dating Mitch who is now by husband
3. I was adjusting to living with two roommates in a tiny dorm room
4. I was studying to be an accountant
5. I was getting over pneumonia

5 Things on Today's "To-Do" List
1. Clean the house
2. Laundry
3. Paint some Christmas decorations
4. Find a stocking for Drew
5. Figure out what we still need to buy for Christmas presents

5 Snacks I Enjoy...
1. Popcorn and a soda
2. Cheese and crackers
3. Brownies
4. Orange Julius
5. Ice cream

5 Things I Would Do if I were a Millionaire!
1. Quit my job!!!!
2. Build our dream house
3. Do something nice for our families
4. Put money away for college for our children
5. Buy a new car with more room for Drew's stuff

5 Places I Have Lived...
1. Central City
2. Indianola
3. Cedar Falls
4. Troy Mills
5. Urbana

5 Jobs I've had/Still have...
1. Lots of babysitting
2. Ridictas Construction
3. City State Bank - teller, loan admin, bookkeeping
4. Hellman Accounting - accountant
5. Rockwell Collins - accountant

5 People I'm tagging...
I don't know five people that are blogging so we'll have to go with three
Kristen
Shantel
Gail

How old are you?

We had Drew's 9 month appointment today (yes, he's 10 months on Friday). We are constantly getting asked by people we see if Drew is 1.5 or 2 and we sadly have to say that he's only 9 months old. Today the doctor confirmed that he is the size of a 15 month old. He remains very tall for his age which causes him to weigh a lot even though he's a fairly skinny little guy. He was 31 inches and about 24 pounds.

He is still very healthy and developmentally on track although slightly advanced physically. The problem remains with his tear duct still being blocked. We now have the name of a specialist that I'll be calling later this afternoon. When he turns one we can go in and have the duct probed to hopefully keep it open. Our doctor said that 90% of kids born with this problem outgrow it by one but she thinks Drew is going to be in the minority 10% that has to have it surgically fixed or he'll just have to live with a gross eye the rest of his life. She said it's a simple procedure and virtually pain free. They put him out though which is the scary part for me. The doctor also informed us that Drew should be able to understand us enough that we need to start having consistent discipline with him. She said if we don't start now we're asking for trouble later...especially since he's so mobile and active.

The bad news from today is that the poor kid has another ear infection. We feel so bad for him because he's been sick since October 20. We've been to that doctor's office so many times and tried so many different things to help get him better and it's just one thing after another. She's hoping that this new strong medicine will lick the problems. We'll see!!!!

Lately Drew has learned to wave and say bye-bye, blow kisses, and mimic lots of sounds and actions we do. He also gives me things he has if I ask for them which is nice. Now I no longer have to fight with him to get things away from him. He really is freakishly strong for a baby. He has learned a couple other things that are making my life easier. When I tell him it's time to eat and to go to his chair he'll walk over to his highchair and wait to get put in. Also, if I get out his changing pad in the living room and a diaper he'll come over so he can have his pants changed. It's nice to not have to chase him around the downstairs.

Drew also likes to be helpful and help himself to his bottles. One night last week I made Drew his bedtime bottle while Mitch got him into his pjs. I came into the dining room and sat the bottle on the table so Drew wouldn't see it. When this kid sees food he WANTS food. Mitch got him dressed and let him up to walk around for a minute. Five seconds later he was sitting on the floor by the table drinking his bottle. He apparently saw it and went and grabbed it off the table deciding there was no reason he should have to wait for anyone to give it to him when he could just help himself. Then a couple days later it was getting time for his afternoon snack bottle. I sat an empty bottle on the stove ready for Mitch to make when he finished up what he was doing. I was working on doing dishes and Drew was coming and going in the kitchen but was getting fussy because he must have been hungry. All of a sudden he was standing at the stove trying to reach up and get the bottle. He couldn't reach it but he could reach the handle on the oven so he was hanging off the handle trying to use his feet to climb up the stove. It was a crazy sight to watch and I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it. He's such a funny little guy.

Our sick little guy

Poor Drew has been sick since Oct 21. We have now been to see his doctor four times in three weeks. At first they told me that he had pink eye, an ear infection, and a really bad cold and gave us some eye drops and antibiotics. That was a Wednesday. After we got home from that appointment he started having a high fever. It stayed 103-104 for about five days which was terrible. The worst was 104.8 and which caused him to wake up crying. He was drenched in sweat and just miserable. Mitch took him downstairs and sat him on his lap and got some of his clothes off. We put a wet cloth on his head to try and cool him down and he just sat on Mitch's lap with his eyes closed moaning. It was the saddest thing I'd seen and it made me cry. It was so hard to watch him suffer knowing there was nothing I could really do to make him better. During the week you knew he was never feeling good because instead of playing with toys he would just lay down on the floor or come over and put his head down on my lap. And that is not normal for our crazy man. On that Saturday we had to take him back to the doctor because they were concerned that he wasn't any better. He was still having high fevers, stopped eating, and was feeling worse than when we started the medicine. And oh my goodness...giving him that medicine was awful. He would fight us so hard and then would spit most of out. I'm not talking opening his mouth so it all just runs out...it was more like launching it back all over us to show his disapproval of what we were doing to him. They ran a bunch of tests at the doctor and determined he had a virus causing all of his problems. That meant that thankfully we could stop the medicine but had to just wait it out. She told us to make sure that we watched him to be sure it didn't move into his lungs because that would be bad. After a few days his fevers went away and he started eating again. It took quite awhile for him to get energy back and be able to walk around very far again. After a few days of working on feeling better he got a terrible cough that would wake him up from naps and at night. Every time he started coughing the episode would last about 45 minutes. It was awful to hold him while he would start gasping for air because he was coughing so bad. So back to the doctor we went Monday. The doctor said that his ears looked fine but there's a flood of fluid going down his throat so when he lays down it's like he's drowning in all of it. She said to start him on Benadryl which he loves and cries because he wants more after he finishes his dose. So we thought we just had to wait for his sinuses to dry up and then everything would be back to normal. The next day held another outcome. We noticed a couple weird bumps on his legs. A couple days later he was covered in a nasty rash so back to the doctor we went yesterday. The rash doesn't seem to be bothering him so that's good but it looks really bad. It's all over his legs, arms, back, face, and ears. Strangely it isn't on his stomach. The doctor said that it's viral and took a swab on the gunk pouring out of eye and is sending it in for testing. We find out Monday what's wrong with him. I'm hoping all of this is done soon and that it's his only sickness for the winter. Otherwise it's going to be a very long winter. Hope everyone else has a healthy winter.