Sick

As most of you know this has been a tough week in our house and the one time I truly mean I can't wait for this week to be over. Brock started acting sluggish on Sunday afternoon after his soccer game and we thought maybe he was coming down with something. Later that night, he woke up with a raging fever and didn't sleep too well. Since he had a fever, he couldn't go to school so Travis and I spilt shifts that day to stay home with him.

Later Monday night he still wasn't looking so good and could barely talk and complained that his stomach hurt, throat hurt, etc. So we decided we should go to the CHOA urgent care and just make sure it wasn't strep or anything.

I had no idea what was in store for us when we left the house. We arrived at CHOA at Northpoint and there must have been 30 other families also there - and it was 7:15 at night. Knowing it was going to be a long night, Brock and I grabbed some books and headed to a corner. He was listless, tired and downright pathetic looking - my little guy who is so full of energy and laughter was not doing so well. Initially we saw the triage nurse who did the strep test, that was a fun one, let me tell you.

He got a popsicle for it and you know he isn't feeling well when he just let it melt. About two hours later we were called back and I remember the triage nurse mentioning left side something when they were listening to his lungs. The doctor said she thought she heard some fluid and we needed to get some chest x-rays, it was 9:30 at this point. So we headed into the big scary x-ray room and Brock was so brave, I couldn't have been more proud. He laid on the big, cold table and did everything the technician asked of him. After he got some cool Mickey skeleton stickers to match what we say on the x-ray.

When we were waiting patiently (understatment) for the doctor to come back Brock starting throwing up and here we go is all I could think.

After 4 hours at the urgent care place, Brock was diagnosed with the swine flu. Yep that flu virus that you've heard about since the spring that has caused mass chaos around the world. We headed home with one mission - get him fluids or we'd be headed to the ER.

Monday night was rough, he didn't sleep well and continually had to take in fluids so he didn't get dehydrated. Tuesday came and we decided it was best to get Avery out of the house and away from Brock so she didn't get it too. Although we had all been exposed no one else was showing symptons yet, thank god.

Tuesday was full of ups and downs, he'd get really bad and then start to get better once he had his motrin. Tuesday night came and it got worse, as it always does with little kids when they are sick. We had another sleepless night.

Wednesday he seemed like he was getting better and then the high fever set in againand the rapid shallow breathing. Taking the advice of my mom, I called the urgent care center back and they suggested we take him to the ER. Travis had gone to see Avery and spend some time with her and that was cut short since we were ordered to the ER.

Our first thought on the way there was God, please let our baby boy be ok and let us get in, checked out and go home. You always hear of going in for follow up testing and finding out that they have something so much worse than the original diagnosis. You've heard of all these kids dying from the swine flu and so we wanted to be extra cautious. Obviously the doctor who sent us there was correct as we were placed on the fast track and were in a patient room within about 30 minutes or so. They checked him for dehydration and signs of pheumonia and he checked out good on both. They said we should expect this up and down for the next few days and that the rapid breathing with the high fever is normal, although scary. After a few hours there, we again headed home.

Brock has been so sick and not eating much that he's wiped out. When he starts to cough really badly he gets physically ill and that is how we spent much of last night. Again, Brock and I took up post on the couch downstairs, where he'd moan and groan with pains and his raging fever and breathing that you'd expect from someone who just ran a marathon.

Today brough another day and again he spent the day on the couch reading books, playing with puzzles and watching TD as he calls it, but TV to the rest of us. I think he's watch more cartoons in the past four days than in the past three years of his life. The fever went up - AGAIN and finally around 5:30 we broke it and haven't had it come back yet. The coughing is still there and I can hear him upstairs now.
You'd think I'd know to go to bed to try and get some rest myself, but instead I find myself here writing about this week's experience.

Here's hoping tomorrow brings some peace for our little guy and if we can keep him fever free without medicine for 24 hours - Avery can finally come home. We're so lucky to have family close by to help in times like this. Brock is really lucky to have so many people, family and friends that love him and care so much about him. Everyone has called several times from all over to check in on him.

This flu virus is nothing to take lightly and is far more difficult than I imagined. Please take it seriously and take the necessary precautions as we enter the winter and stay heathly.

Cagle Dairy Farm

After spending the day at the Zoo, we met Heather and Jason at Cagle's Daily Farm for a night of hayrides, roasting marshmellows and the corn maze with the kids.

Both Brock and Avery had a great time bouncing on the giant trampoline and didn't want to get off. We enjoyed the hayride and roasting marshmellows. Avery sat on the bench the whole time just munching on the marshmellows.

Next up was the corn maze. We didn't know if the kids would like it and we were wrong - they loved it. Avery sat on our shoulders the whole time just giggling like crazy. Brock would hid in the corn with Jason and jump out trying to scare us.

We had a great and can't wait to go again next year - with little baby Lars!

Zoo Time

After Brock's super early soccer game we took the kids to the zoo for the day. It was my first time there and I've lived in Atlanta since for 14 years. The kids have been before, but just with Travis, so this was also our first time going as a family. The night before I packed a picnic lunch and we headed out after we changed from the soccer game.



We had so much fun and really enjoyed spending the day with the kids. Brock loves all animals as does Avery. They had tons of fun in the children's petting zoo, but I think their favorite was when they got to feed the birds.

Avery's 15 month stats

Our little lady bug is growing like a weed and this week it is a sick one. The poor thing got a nasty cold and fever after just two times in daycare, go figure. She wasn't feeling well last weekend and it got worse this week. She's got a temp and is just miserable. We were still able to go to her 15 month checkup today and she's right on track. She's 22 lbs (40%) 30.5 inches (61st%) and just PERFECT.

The doctor said we should probably start trying to potty train her this fall as she'll be ready much earlier than Brock was. What a dream to possibly have both my kids out of diaper for GOOD. We just got Brock potty trained a few months ago and that took forever.

SOCCER TIME

Brock's first soccer practice was last week and he was so excited, although, I think Travis (head coach) might have been even more excited, LOL. It was so cute to watch all the kids and I was so proud of Travis who was able to capture the attention of 14 three year olds for a whole hour, quite impressive. The first game is next Saturday and we'll be posting some photos for sure. You can also check out the team's blog that Coach Hacker is writing...www.wildcatssoccerteam.blogspot.com

The spectator, she wanted so badly to go and practice with all the big kids.

First Day of School for Avery

So our little lady started school last Monday and here are a few pics from that momentous day. I thought I'd handle it way better than I did, but nonetheless I cried as I walked back to my car. I don't know if it was the fact that she is in school already or that I was worried she'd get scared. She had a little bit of a rough day, but did great. She is going with Brock on Mondays and Thursdays each week and of course big brother is keeping a watchful eye on her. He even told us that Avery is going to be scared, but it's ok, he'll watch her. Here are a few photos from that first day.

Play date with the kids

I love that I get two summer Fridays and I've spent both doing nothing but spending time with the kids. Today, we went to Imaginations at Play eventhough it was terrible weather. We had so much fun. I wish this place was closer to our house and I wish I had more days off to spend with my kiddos.

Newest Stats on our Growing Boy

So I always knew with Travis as my husband that chances were high that if we had a son, he'd likely be as big or bigger than his daddy. Today we took Brock to his three-year well appointment and all stats are confirming that I was right in my thinking.

Brock is 93rd percentile for weight, 88 percentile for height and 83 percentile for his body mass index. No, he's not fat, he's just build solid and will be a BIG boy.

I can't wait to see what he's going to be like when he's 16 and eating us out of house and home.

Another year gone by... and Brock is 3!

After what was a terribly long and exhausting (mentally and physically) week at work, it was time to finish preparing the decorations for Brock's 3rd birthday as well as get the house in order and the food prepared. Thankfully as always I had been preparing for weeks and had most of the decorations, favors bags, etc. done.

Most of you know, he was give about 5 choices for a theme and by no surprise he choose Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. The trick was adding in enough Mickey stuff (I'm not a huge fan of characters or stuffed animals) without making it super cheesy and commerical. I think I managed to made him happy, but also satisfy my party-planning self in the process.

What can I say, I absolutley LOVE planning parties, of any kind, but especially little kid birthday parties - could there be a future for me in this?

Enough rambling and on to the details. Knowing I could work with primary colors I set up to use this as more of my base than the characters -red, yellow and blue with a little bit of green and orange thrown in.

With my new Cricut machine in tow, is it possible to love a die cut machine, I was ready to go. I went to Michaels and Joann's and started collecting paper that I thought would fit with the above colors. I was able to make a banner, well, several actually - one that said "Happy 3rd Birthday Brock," a second that said "Hot Dog" and a third that said "Oh TOODLES," of course. I found these great Disney bottle cap stickers that were a perfect addition to the cupcakes, which I found a great recipe for on http://www.ourbestbites.com/2009/05/cupcakes.html a few weeks ago. They turned out so well. Also, check out the lollipop tree - yes that is more than 300 dum dums on the styrofoam ball.

I went in search of some cute Mickey items to put in the favor bags, found at Ikea, http://www.ikea.com/, (red, blue and green pop up bags) and got some great stuff. The Disney Store had their cups on sale for $1.65 (normally $7.50 each) and got Mickey coloring books, crayons and I made some Mickey Mouse Clubhouse placemats with each kid's name on them. I think everyone loved the favor bags and no kid went home empty-handed, which I've learned is super important at this age.

I've seen some party blog showcase party hats they've made and I thought to myself - how hard could that be, so I made some of those as well. Just a little scrapbook paper, ribbon and pom poms and volia - beautiful party hats, now only if the kids would have actually worn them, LOL.

I started to stress out on day 3 of working till past midnight, but I've done some of my best work under pressure. Friday night I decided I better get started on this Mickey Mouse Clubhouse cake I told Brock I would make. I had figured out how to make the face and ears for the clubhouse weeks ago - styrofoam balls and toothpicks, but the rest still had to be figured out. Here is the end product - after lots of drama and second guessing I think it turned out great, but beware there is styrofoam and PVC piping on this cake.

I even found some time to make some mickey mouse shaped sandwiches, jello jigglers and fruit screws, but could not have gotten this all ready Friday and Saturday without the help of my mom - thank you as always.

All in all, I think he had an amazing time and lots of fun with his friends and family. After nearly 40 people including 15 kids under the age of 4, our house looked like a tornado came through, but it was all well worth it.

Happy Birthday little buddy, mommy and daddy love you so much and are so proud of the little man you are becoming. You'll always be my little guy!