The Definition Of Pitiful

Anderson was admitted to the hospital Thursday for dehydration due to a viral infection. He was a pitiful little boy. He was lethargic, and was so dehydrated that he didn’t even have enough fluid in his body to make tears or drool, and his veins were collapsing. It was horrible. I haven’t been through a virus this bad as a parent, and I hope to goodness that we never have to go through this again. We never did figure out what was wrong with him, other than a viral infection, and Anderson was discharged Saturday. He’s doing better, but he’s still a long way to being his normal, sunny self. He’s a few pictures from the past few days.

Just got his iv and was sleeping. Pretty pitiful, huh?

Sitting in baby jail, aka the crib.

Friday morning his eyes were so swollen from the iv fluids. He looked so sick.

Friday afternoon he was very puffy but looked perkier.

Saturday morning right before he was released.

It’s been a long few days and I’m exhausted. Over the course of two days and nights at the hospital I think I slept a total of 7 hours. Anderson was a trooper during his stay, but we’re all worn slap out. Please say a prayer for sweet Anderson that he’ll be back to normal soon. Love y’all!

24 Hours Later

Anderson has now been in the hospital for 24 hours. He is doing better, but he is still a puny little boy. We finally (just now) got him to take a bottle. It was his first bottle since 4:00 on Wednesday afternoon. He's had 2 jars of baby food, but he did run a low grade fever a little while ago, and just a few minutes ago had a very bad, loose diaper.

Fingers crossed that he's well enough to go home soon. I would love to go home today, but I just want to be 100% sure that he is better before we get sent home. I don't want to hurry home to just have to have him get sick again and then come back. I would rather him get completely well before we go home.

So prayers are still greatly appreciated for our sweet Anderson. I'll update again later.

Prayers For Anderson

Anderson got admitted to the hospital today around lunchtime. He had thrown up a few times last night and by this morning he still wasn't taking his bottle or eating anything. Add that to a pretty bad cough and congestion and we knew he was a sick little guy. Jeremy took him to the doctor at 9 and much to our suprise she decided to admit him for IV hydration. He has tested negative for RSV, strep and the flu, and Dr. D was pretty much stumped at what else might be going on. Better to be safe than sorry with such a small baby, so she felt like we needed to have some further precautions taken. We have been at the hospital since noon and he got his IV about 3:00 this afternoon. So far he has only had 2 really wet diapers since last night around 8:00, and the poor little guy was so dehydrated that he had to be stuck 3 times to get a line that would work. When he was getting his IV he didn't even have tears to cry.

Overall he's pretty pitiful right now. He's fussy and irratable and just one sick little fella. After one bag of IV fluids he is now crying tears again, so that's a good thing. I graduated from HS with his nurse, and she's taking good care of us. I ran home long enough to pack some stuff for tonight and now I'm about to head back to the hospital. Please keep Anderson in your prayers for speedy recovery. We truly appreciate it. Much love!!

A Scary Turn Of Events

We got home late after karate class on Tuesday night and we got Jackson into the shower when we got home. Anderson was smelling a little bit like sour milk, so we put him into the garden tub while Jackson was taking his shower. Everything was going fine and then in a blink it all changed.

Jackson got out of the shower and Jeremy was drying him off while I still had Anderson in the tub. Jeremy and Jackson were playing a game and about to run to Jackson’s room to get his pajamas and I guess the bottom of Jackson’s feet were a little wet. He took off running and didn’t make it more than a few feet when his feet went out from under him and he slammed his face into the bathroom floor. He started wailing and literally by the time Jeremy grabbed him up off the ground he had a huge goose egg on his forehead. I was panicked; it was a big blue knot about the size of a half dollar in seconds and Jackson was hurting so bad.

I grabbed Anderson out of the tub and sat him butt naked on the bathroom rug and then ran for some Tylenol for Jackson and an ice pack. I had Jackson in my lap and then made a call to the pediatrician to see what to do. I know that when there is a head injury you want to see a bump on the outside because if you can’t see it, then the bump is on the inside of the head, which is not good.

She called back after a few minutes and we had done everything right. Jackson has a  nice knot on his head today, but he’s fine.

It’s moments like this in parenting that partly explain why I have a head full of grey hair. I don’t guess it will get any better!

For The 5 People Who Might Want To Watch This

The Song That Never Ends

"Welcome to winter with 2 kids."

That's what I was thinking when Jackson woke up Sunday morning with a terrible cough. He had a very mild and random cough Saturday, but by Sunday morning it was completely different. I was changing Anderson's diaper when Jackson walked out of his room and immediately he started coughing so hard that I thought he was going to throw up. It wasn't a regular cough either; it was very croupy sounding, and what scared me more was the fact that when he quit coughing he was still gasping for air. He has seasonal related asthma, mostly just wheezing, but he has never had an asthma attack. That's what I was afraid was about to happen. He had gotten pretty upset by the coughing and I got him calmed down and gave him some puffs off of his inhaler and a dose of Mucinex cough medicine.

After a few minutes he was feeling better, but he was not a happy camper when I told him that we were going to Primed as soon as it opened up. He is terrified of getting shots, but I was fairly certain that he had bronchitis and wouldn't need a shot.

We packed up and headed to Primed by 8 and after an xray and strep test it was determined that he had bronchitis and an upper respiratory infection. He was given a breathing treatment and we were on our way by 9:30.

Between Anderson's ear infection problems and now Jackson's bronchitis and upper respiratory infection, spring can't come too soon!

It Was Destiny

I logged into Facebook last night and saw this on my timeline:

I knew we were meant to be friends!

18 years ago, way back in 1994, I watched her dance the most beautiful talent that I think has ever been done in the Miss America pageant. We had happened to video tape the pageant and after I saw her talent (and she won!) I watched that video over and over.

I danced ballet for 15 years and I was in awe of how someone who couldn’t even hear the music could dance like that. She was amazing! Us both being from Alabama probably didn’t help my stalker rating, because y’all, I was all about Heather Whitestone that year.

So this past Saturday night when I was watching the Miss America pageant I typed her name into the Facebook search engine and saw:

1. Her page wasn’t private.

2. She doesn’t have a million Facebook fans like a lot of “celebrity” types do.

3. She actually responds to people on her page and seems so genuine.

So I sent her a friend request and I was rather surprised when she actually accepted it. Squee!!!

For me, being friends with this Miss America on Facebook is like a Catholic getting a friend request accepted from the Pope. You just really don’t think it would happen. I’m thisclose to sending her a private message and suggest we meet for a double date with our hubbies.

Dinner with Miss America really trumps a Facebook friend accept, dontcha think?

A Friendly Reminder From The Resident 5 Year Old

Tuesday evening it was pouring when I went to pick up the boys from daycare. I was already frazzled because I realized that I had a hole in the bottom of my work boots and my trouser socks were soaked. Add wet feet to the fact that it was freezing outside meant that I was not in the best of moods as I was trying to load the kids into the car. Our daycare has room for one car under the awning and I was trying to hurry and get the bags into the car, juggle an umbrella that was not worth the trouble, buckle Anderson into the car seat and attempt to stay dry. I was moving as fast as I could and asked Jackson for what had to be the 5th time to please get into the car.

I walked around to his side of the car to see what in the world was taking him so long and I see Jackson jumping around in a huge mud puddle splashing away. His shoes were absolutely soaked and I was not happy. I quickly asked him, “What in the world do you think you are doing?”

Without missing a beat, my sweet 5 year old said, “I’m jumping in a mud puddle, Mom. I’m a kid. This is what I’m supposed to do.”

Score 1 for the kid.

5 Baby Products I Wish Existed

Seriously, is that not the cutest kid ever?

Now that we’re back to parenting a baby again, as opposed to a pretty self reliant 5 year old, I’ve decided that someone needs to get on the ball and invent a few products that would fly off the shelves if they actually existed. These are a few of my dream list baby items:

• Baby socks that actually stay on. We’ve yet to find any socks that we’re not constantly pulling back onto his feet. Also needed, socks that don’t get lost in the dryer.
• Bibs that absorb drool and spit up as opposed to just letting it sit on the surface of the bib and stink to high heaven.
• Toys that self sanitize when they hit the floor of a doctors office during cold and flu season.
• Diapers that sound off alarm bells when your baby actually poops in their diaper instead of just passing gas. Anderson is wearing tons of footed outfits right now and having to take them off for every false alarm is getting old.
• At home otoscopes so you an check your kid for ear infections at home instead of taking them back to the doctor. Again.

Now I just need someone to get busy and invent some of these things. I’m too busy parenting!

Wedding Dress Challenge

I was flipping through Red Book magazine the other day and saw a story about the Wedding Dress Challenge and I decided to give it a try. The challenge isn’t necessarily about fitting back into your wedding dress, but working towards something that gives you a set bench mark whether it is your wedding dress or a little black dress that you haven’t fit into in years. The challenge is running from now until June.

I’m going to put it all out there and tell y’all that I’ve been married for 10 years now, and I’m about 17 pounds heavier than I was when we got married. Granted, I’ve had 2 kids, but I’ve lost all my baby weight and then some. I don’t have any excuses for these last 17 pounds.

So I’m going to do my best to watch what I’m eating and get motivated to lose these last 17 pounds, and see if I can fit back into my wedding dress.

What do I have to lose by trying, other than a few pounds?

Weekly Confessions

• I paid my speeding ticket the other day. Believe me, that’s a $200 lesson that won’t be forgotten.
• I’m a little behind the times, but I watched Water for Elephants last week and immediately had to order the book on my Kindle. It was so good. If you haven’t read it, I highly recommend it. Consider yourself warned though that there are a few times when the circus didn’t have enough money to buy food for the meat eating animals, and the other circus animals became breakfast. Poor little goats!
• Jackson got his 2nd report card yesterday and he did so good. It’s hard to believe that he’s reading already. Gone are the days when I could just spell something out so he wouldn’t know what we are talking about. Now he just sounds the letters out and figures the word out. So proud of him, but that really cramps my sneaky parenting methods.
• Winter has finally arrived in the south. Yesterday was a high of 45 with winds up to 25mph. Cold!!! I prefer 70 degrees with a comfortable breeze. 25 mph winds are a far cry from comfortable breezes.
• I absolutely love going on vacation and I’m all about ordering travel guides. I got a travel guide in the mail this week to somewhere we will be visiting in May and I’m super excited. I can’t say where it is just yet, but it does involve an airplane. Yay! I love traveling on airplanes. Jackson found out about this trip (which he won’t be going on) and was less than happy. He told me, “Well, I’m just gonna go anyway.” It’s good to know that I’m raising a small version of myself as far as attitude is concerned.

That’s it for me today. Y’all need to confess anything?

Magical Advice For The Magic Kingdom

We’re planning on taking our first family trip to Disney this year, and to be quite frank, it’s absolutely terrifying. This is the first vacation I’ve planned where I know I’m going to be exhausted by the time it is over. Jeremy and Jackson have never been to Disney, and the last time I went to Magic Kingdom was 20 years ago. I’ve never been so overwhelmed this early in the planning process of any vacation, and I’m begging you Disney experts out there to help me out with your infinite knowledge of all things Disney.

Here’s what I know so far:

• We’re going to Disney in September.
• We are staying in the park, probably at a value or moderate resort.
• We will have the dining plan.
• We plan on doing at least 1 character meal.
• We are driving.
• We will have 3 days in the parks. We plan on spending 1 day at Animal Kingdom and 2 days at Magic Kingdom. I just don’t think Jackson is old enough to enjoy Epcot.
• We are not using the park hopper passes.
• I have purchased “The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World.”
• I have signed up at touringplans.com and visited mouse savers and all ears.
• Anderson is not going.

That’s about as far as I’ve gotten with planning our vacation. I’m open to any and all suggestions y’all have to offer. Thanks so much for helping us out!

It’s All Fun And Games Until You Glue Your Fingers Together

There's a fine line between using nail glue to repair a broken fingernail and accidentally gluing your fingers to the glue container. Friday night I crossed that line.

The Friday before Christmas I went to get a manicure and got the new gel finger nail polish instead of my usual OPI. The gel polish supposedly stays on about 3 weeks, and I figured since this was a treat that I don’t normally do for myself that I needed to make it last as long as possible. I had 2 nails that were slightly broken and the manicurist used some nail glue to repair them so we didn’t have to cut them off.

A few days after my manicure I noticed that the nails were getting loose again so I ran back by the nail salon and they added some nail glue back to the original breaks and sealed them back.

All was well for a few more days when they came lose again. Instead of running back to the nail salon I made a trip to Wal-Mart and bought some nail glue to fix it myself. About 5 minutes later my nails were fixed and I was back in business.

So the other day I had another nail on my left hand get broken and when I got home I pulled out the nail glue and set out to fix the nail myself. I opened up the nail glue and was trying to figure out the best way to fix my nail when all of a sudden my right hand started to get hot.

That’s when I realized that I had been applying a little too much pressure to the glue container and that I was squeezing nail glue all over my hand.

The heat I was feeling? Turns out that was the glue bonding to my skin.

The glue container? Now stuck to my skin.

I panicked when I realized what was happening and shook my hand hard enough to get the container off of my fingers. Unfortunately when I shook my hand I slung the glue container to the floor where it promptly got stuck on my bathroom rug. Then I did the stupid thing of panicking again and picking the glue back up where it got stuck on my fingers again. I slung it one more time to a clear spot on the counter and began to assess the damage.

Y’all, it looked like I had shellacked the fingers on my right hand. I was covered in shiny nail glue.

Remember when you are a kid and you get Elmer’s glue on your hands and it dries all kind of wrinkled and old looking? That’s how my right hand looked.

I got my container of finger nail polish remover out and rubbed some over my hand thinking that it would help me get it off. Turned out that my remover didn’t have any acetone in it. We were already planning on having dinner out, so I had to eat looking like I was trying to preserve my right hand before I could go to Wal-Mart and get some acetone remover.

Then the acetone remover didn’t work either and I had to spend the entire weekend picking dried glue off my fingers. It was about 2 hours into my glue picking when I vowed to myself to quit the madness of nail preservation; from now on I’ll get the nail clippers instead of the glue. It’s much easier!

My Child The Slacker

Jackson has been on this phase lately where he is constantly scoping out potential careers and deciding what he wants to do when he grows up. We were on our way home from church on Sunday and he told me that he needed to talk to me about something very, very important.

Jackson: “Mama, we need to talk.”

Me: “Okay. What do we need to talk about?”

Jackson: “You’re really not gonna want to hear this.”

Me: “Really? What am I not going to want to hear?”

Jackson: “I’ve been thinking….”

Me: “And….”

Jackson: “Well, I’ve decided that I don’t really want to do anything when I grow up.”

Me: “You have?”

Jackson: “Yes ma’am. I just think it’s best if I don’t have a job when I grow up. That way I can just have fun and not have to worry about work. I think I like that plan.”

I think I missed the Peter Pan booth at Career Day.

Happy Birthday Amy!!!

Jeremy and I want to wish his sister Amy a very happy birthday today. This is her first birthday as a Mom, and we hope she has had a very special day. We love you!

Happy Birthday Amy!!!

A Despicable Gift?

Jeremy and I usually give each other practical gifts for Christmas. Because his work attire is standard funeral director stuff, i.e. navy blue suit, white dress shirt, tie and black socks, he's always needing useful stuff to keep his clothing up to par. So for Christmas this year I got him a really nice tie, some dress socks and a pair of navy blue long johns that he can wear under his suit pants so he doesn't freeze his fanny off on cold winter days. Thoughtful, right?

Fast forward to the other night when it was bitterly cold outside. We got home and Jeremy went into the bedroom to get some comfortable clothes on. When he came back into the living room I nearly died. Jeremy was wearing a dark colored over sized shirt, his new navy blue long johns and his dark work socks.

He looked exactly like Gru from Despicable Me.

I leaned over to Jackson on the couch and whispered to him that his Daddy looked just like Gru.

Y'all, I thought Jackson was going to wet his pants he was laughing so hard. Even Jeremy thought it was hilarious although he has repeatedly declined letting me take a picture to prove my point.

Spoilsport.

It's been 4 days and two things are still happening:
1. Jackson and I still laugh hysterically every time we see the long johns.
2. Jackson and I are both still calling Jeremy, "Gru" every chance we get.

I guess this means that Jackson and I are Jeremy's little minions....

It Was Almost A Parenting Win. Almost.

 

Jackson has gotten a wee bit picky about trying new foods lately. When we introduce him to something new he’ll either say he will try it and back out at the last possible second, or flat out refuse to take a bite.

This morning I decided to make fried eggs for breakfast. I like my eggs cooked over medium, with the whites done and the yellow runny. It grosses Jeremy out, but I love them cooked that way.

I told Jackson I was cooking eggs for breakfast and then made a big production out of how we were going to fry our eggs. I got the oil hot, broke the egg into the grease and cooked one egg perfectly for him. I showed him how the yellow runs when you poke it and he was having a great time playing with the egg yolk. When it came time to eat the egg he was a little hesitant, but he took a bite and pronounced it good.

*Insert sign of relief*

I cooked another egg for myself while he finished his egg. When he got done (and ate the whole egg) he was off to play and I ate my egg. I was cleaning up when Jackson walked back into the kitchen clutching his throat. He walked up to me and said:

“Mama, I can’t eat fried eggs anymore. They give me strep throat.”

I gotta give him points for creativity. Reluctantly.