Mr. Sicky Spots

(Warning: This is a lengthy description of the events of the past two weeks. It includes snot and rashes and sleepless nights. Enjoy)

Blug. This has been a loooonnnggggg two weeks. I thought, two weeks ago today (Oct 22) that Rayler might be coming down with a cold. I noticed that he seemed to be having some trouble breathing at night. I would lay him down and almost immediately he would begin pawing at his nose and choking. Sure enough the snot began on Wednesday. I didn't think much of it, he's had his fair share of colds already, it's not fun, but I do know how to deal with it. Of course, Friday (Oct 26) at around 5 pm, after his pediatricians office was closed, he began to get worse.

He's also cutting his one year lower molars and his lower lateral incisors and he always pulls on his ears when he's teething. But I noticed that this time, he was constantly poking in his ears and pulling on them, much more that usual. I began to wonder if he had an ear infection.

Saturday and Sunday the snot began to get super gross and came by the bucket loads. So on Monday away we went to the Doctor. Big surprise, he had an ear infection in one ear and the other was inflamed from his teething. And yes, he had a nasty cold. We went home with the usual cold instructions and Amoxicillan for the ear infection.

The antibiotic seemed to work almost immediately. By Thursday he was almost completely better. And then on Saturday he stopped eating and began acting a little off. He slept like a log that night, both of us slept better than we have in a while. But when I got him up on Sunday I realized that he was burning up. He was running 101.2 at that time. He ate two pancakes for breakfast and played normally all morning though. At 2:15 I took his temperature again, it was up to 102.5. That about the time that he slowed waaayyyyy down and just laid around. I gave him a cool bath before bed and he fell asleep snuggled against me on the couch.

Sunday night, ah, last night was pretty bad. He kept waking up with snot streaming down his face and seemed hotter and hotter every time I picked him up, which was almost every 20 minutes. He had a particularly scary moment around 2:30 in the morning and when I took his temperature again it had spiked to 103.2. I barely slept the rest of the night and I prayed a lot.

When I gave up all hope of sleeping and decide that we could both get up I noticed that he seemed to have a rash on his right cheek.

And then I noticed that he was covered from head to toe in a fine rash. As soon as I could I called the Doctor. They set us an appointment for 2:10 pm.

By the time we got to the appointment, Rayler was full on miserable and not inclined to be poked and prodded by the Doctor and nurses. His rash had gotten much darker and spread even more and was beginning to raise.

A far fetching attempt to get him to smile. It worked.

If I hadn't known already that Rayler wasn't feeling well, I would have known when he insisted on bringing Eddington and his blanket. He was enormously amused when Eddington very thirstily "drank" out of his sippy cup. 

I should have known that he would have a rash that would perplex the Doctor and nurses. Quite a lot of research was done, in books and online. After quickly ruling out anything contagious, and ruling out an allergic reaction to Amoxicillan, they finally settled on a *maybe*. It *might* be an Amoxi rash. Not an allergic reaction, but just a regular reaction. Are you as confused as I? The reason they weren't sure about that diagnosis was because an Amoxi rash usually starts on the chest and may spread to the face. Rayler's rash started everywhere. At once. Amoxi rashes are flat, Rayler's is raised. And his all around misery was also unusual to the rash. The good news was that his ear infection was gone and he did not need to continue taking the Amoxicillan. And just to be safe, we won't ever give it to him again.

So, we came home with "Just keep doing everything you have been doing, and call us if anything else happens".

I forgot to mention that toward the end of his appointment, Rayler had apparently had quite enough. He turned in my arms toward the Doctor, he had flat turned his back on her the whole time she was talking to me, furrowed his brow, and made an emphatic "done" sign with his hands. That cracked me up and I had to explain to the Doctor what he had "said". She thought it was pretty funny too.

His left cheek seems to be the worst afflicted. You can see his "sick" in his poor eyes.

And there you have it. A detailed play by play of Mr. Sicky Spots. Sorry it was so long and wordy. I haven't been really "out" of the house in quite a while and apparently my need to talk it out landed here. I am now going to go put Spots to bed and try to get some sleep myself. Good night all.

All done!

I've been trying to get Rayler to say "all done!" when he's finished eating for a while now. He won't say it, but he's started doing this.

All done Mom!

This one has stolen my heart.

Cooking with Chef Bugs

Hullo ivrybody! This is Chef Bugssss. We is gonna be makin' yummy, warm chili tuday. Firs thing ya need is yer Mummy. She is a big im-po-tun part of cookin'. I let her do all the uninerestin stuff. So grab yer Mum and head to the kichen.

Now, my Mummy tuk all da pitchures (cus I wus busy cookin) and she forgotted to take some so I'll jus narate what she forgotted. (Yull hev to fergive her, she's old)

Firs thing, I asked Mummy to cook all the humberger. I think thats a gud job for her. Then I asked her to put all the humberger in this wird bowl thing called a krokpot. (I think thats wut its called) Nex we had to open up the bean thingys. Mummy used a whirry thing to open them up. She did a gud job. Go Mummy! An then she put the red beans in the krokpot. Thats wen I decided that it wus time for me to tak over.

Pour in the tumato joos. Can #1.

#2

#3

#4

Thats four cans of tumato joos. Nex it wus time to put in the red powder stuff. Mummy said its called seasunin. It smelleded rully gud. Then she helped me stur it all up!

An thats purty much it fulks. Mum turned the krokpot on an now the house smells rully yummy! I cant  wait to tell Daddy that I mad dinnur! With Mummys help of course. (I let her think she does all the wurk around here. It makes her feel better) I sugges that you hav cheez and pikles and chips with your chili if you mak it. I do. Well, I don hav chips. Mummy won let me hav those yet.

Happy cookin fulks!

Hey ivrybody. This is me an my Mummy.

P.S. If Scout's Mummy reads this, wud she puleez send my Mummy her chili recipe? I wunt to try it. Mummy says it wus rully gud.

One-on-One

Rayler's first basketball game with Daddy at the fire department.

Bugs is just a wee bit short to dunk.

Stealing the ball

I'm open Dada!

He would take the ball over to the goal and just stand there looking up at it until Tyler picked him up.

He got a little side tracked when he saw his own reflection in Uncle Leif's shiny bumper.

Woo Pig Sooie!

We went to (Rayler's) Uncle Ray and Aunt Nette's for the first Razorbacks game on TV. That called for a short road trip. Rayler napped on the way there.

We discovered that we needed to lean his car seat back a bit further.

He loved playing with Dylan's firetruck and Hannah and Madison's Barbie car.

But this is how he spent the majority of the day. Up and down. Up and down. And up and down again.

Dylan drove Rayler around in this box for the longest time. Rayler loved it.

Trying out the trampoline with Aunt Nette

Uh, Aunt Nette, I'm not quite sure how to operate this thing...

Jumping with Hannah and Madison. (Twin cousins)

This is fun Mom! Why don't we have one of these? *Because we don't have a a yard to speak of son*

It is SO easy to get him laughing. I love it.

Uh, opps. Guess I should have warned you not to watch that if you have motion sickness. My bad!

This is sweet baby Edyn. I did not fully realize how HUGE my baby was until I held her!

Rayler didn't know what to think about her. She's the first baby he's seen in quite a while. The first thing he did was poke her right in the eye. *sigh*

It was WAY past Rayler's bed time. No, Tyler's not asleep, he's playing on his Kindle.

Chrissy (holding Edyn) and Nette (holding Kennadie). Another set of twins! so much fun!

In closing I find it appropriate to mention that our team did lose. But in spite of that we still managed to eat entirely too much delicious food (7 layer dip, seriously, why have I never tried this before? Life changing!) and have a really fun time. Thanks Ray and Nette for an awesome party!