Getting Ready for the Holidays

Love at First Bite

Ryan got his first taste of a juice pop. He was pretty excited about that!

John polished his right up and Jake wasn't too sure about his...eventually it found it's way to his tummy.

G'vine Railroad

Over the weekend, we rode the historic Grapevine Railroad from Grapevine to the Stockyards in Fort Worth. We had a great time. The boys loved watching the cowboys wrangle the longhorns down the road. We put pennies on the train tracks and watched them get smashed. And Ryan got in some good mustache pullin' on Papa!

Stair Master

Yep, Ryan has conquered the stairs. This is now all we do when we go to visit my folks in Grapevine!!

Thanksgiving Feast!

The boys had their annual Thanksgiving feast at preschool this week. We were excited to have Grammy with us and Mark was able to get away from work to join us for a bit. We had a TON of food. In fact I could not get a picture of John without food in his mouth, so there you go! Jake was so excited to show us his things and then get the heck out of there. He's adjusting well to school, but doesn't mess around. When we show up, it's time to get out of dodge!

Advanced White

John had his first belt test today in karate. He passed with kickin' colors and has moved on to an advanced white belt. While he is loving karate, he has decided to move on to Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. It's a little more his style with the wrestling and all. He has been loving his new classes & Mark and I are starting to worry about our ability to keep up with him. I can see us saying "no" to something and him putting us in a choke hold till we're out cold!

Verdict is in...

Ryan had roseola and a double ear infection! The roseola rash showed up on Saturday (his first fever free day in 5 days)...classic roseola. The only interesting part is the petechae rash...that we can't explain. The dr. said it was the most unusal and severe case of roseola she'd seen or heard of. I knew I had a one of a kind kiddo! I did tell her that my family is opting out of providing them training opportunities in the future if we can help it! No more fevers with scary rashes!!!! Thank you everyone for your thoughts and prayers...it's been a heck of a week and we are just so thankful for answered prayers!

From the mouth of babes

Ryan, as you can see, is doing great! I took these on Sunday. The one above you can just barely see the petechae rash on his hand...looks like little freckles now and gets lighter by the hour. You can also see his new addition to the mouth...tooth #3!!! Cheerios here we come!!!

This was a picture John drew on Sunday at church. It is a picture of his grandma walking to his great-grandma's house with a balloon and some candy for great-grandma because she isn't feeling very well. It's been interesting to see how John is processing the loss of his great-grandma. It has to be hard for those little guys to comprehend physical death. I just thought this was so sweet. John's grandma has worked so hard, night and day for the last few years taking care of her mom. Her selfless service has clearly left an impression on all of us.

1st ER Trip

Ryan made his first ER trip this week. It's been a long week. It started with hives last Sunday. We gave him some allergy medicine and those disappeared. Monday he was a little congested, but also cutting a new tooth. That evening he had a low grade fever. Tuesday he was a little congested but fine in the morning. That afternoon he spiked a fever of 102.5. Wednesday, Ryan woke up with a fever...it was around 101. I called the pediatrician and changed Ryan's 9 month well check to a sick visit and we headed to the pediatrician's office. The dr checked Ryan for the flu and that was negative. She didn't like his fever being so high but said to call if anything changed or if the fever went higher. We headed home and I put the boys down for naps. When he woke up from his nap, he was running a fever of 103.4 and now had this strange looking rash on his legs and arms. I debated about calling...I don't want to be one of "those" moms. But thought I should since I'd never seen a rash like that in all my rash experience with the other two boys (I think after all this I should get an honorary nursing license or something). I called and the nurse asked a bunch of questions. She asked the usual, "when you push on it or stretch the skin does it disappear?" I said, "no." She was not expecting this as she had already written it off as a fever rash. She said, "it's still there?" Me-"Yes." Nurse-"Let me get the dr." The dr came on and asked the same questions. She then asked me which ER I would like to go to. I was not expecting this as I had already thought they would just have us come back in the morning. I told her Seton Williamson and she said, "head on over there now and I will call ahead and let them know to be ready for you." In my mind I'm really not liking this and trying not to get too emotional yet. Mark was very calm and matter of fact and said he'd stay with the boys and get them dinner and in bed. So Ryan and I headed out. They walked us back to an isolated room (not the curtain area) and started asking a million questions. The dr came in right away and looked Ryan over and then said, "We are going to go ahead and start an IV with some antibiotics, we will need to do a urine analysis so we will have to place a catheter, and then we will be doing a lumbar puncture or spinal tap to look for meningitis. I will start working on getting him admitted and he will need to be transferred down to Dell Children's because we do not admit children here." So two nurses came in and started the IV. I was so thankful they found the vein immediately. They took a bunch of blood samples and then hooked him up to a bag of fluids. Then the chest x-ray guy came in and I had to pin Ryan down (who is screaming now) so they could to those. That finished and he calmed down a little bit, they had to come re-wrap his IV b/c part of the arm bar they used to keep him from pulling his IV out scraped his stomach during the chest X-rays. Then they started the catheter. He did NOT like that...that is a one way street. After that they gave us a break, so I called Mark to tell him what was going on and that we were waiting for the spinal tap and to see if they were going to let him go home. They came in to do the spinal tap. The dr was very nice but said the dumbest thing...she said as she is scrubbing down Ryan's back, "my brother had to have a spinal tap when he was 2 weeks old and my mom still talks about it." Not what you want to hear when they are about to start digging into your baby's spine. But it went well...the shots of lidocaine hurt and made Ryan sad. But after that I could tell he was just mad that they were pinning him down. With that over, it was just time to wait. A friend came over to watch the boys and Mark headed to the hospital. By now, Ryan's rash had spread to his face, chest, legs...he was covered. I learned that his rash is called a petechiae rash and is a classic meningitis symptom. His fever started climbing so they gave him a mega-dose of motrin and then another bag of fluids. The lab results came back somewhat in conclusive, but it did not look like meningitis thankfully! So they decided that if his fever went down with the motrin, he could go home. Thankfully it went down to 99.4 and so they sent us on our way. We had follow-up visits with the pediatrician Thursday and phone calls Friday. The fever finally broke on Saturday, which we are very thankful for. He is doing great now (Sunday). Still does not have much of an appetite, but he's got the chubbs to compensate for a little while. We are just thankful he is ok and I pray I never have to do this again!!

Karate Tournament

John had his first karate tournament this last weekend. He did great...he got 1st place in his match and won 7 to 2. We had a great time watching the little guys spar. They don't quite know what to do. The little boys aged 5+ for sure knew what to do and loved every minute of it! We also had a great time playing with Grammy & Papa over the weekend. Papa warmed John up for his karate tournament with a little wrestle mania!

John's 1st Field Trip

John had his first field trip. His little pre-k class went to Crowe's Nest Farm. Ryan and I tagged along. We were not allowed to ride on the bus though. The kids really enjoyed the farm and I will for sure go back. They started off with a milking demo...I felt for poor Bessie. Then we had a hay ride and a video about responsible eating and living. Then we were free to wander the farm and look at the animals. It was a lot of fun. John said his favorite part was learning where milk comes from and riding the bus. John had to sit by the teacher on the way home because he was mis-behaving on the bus. Good thing we live within walking distance from his elementary school next year!!!