An Afternoon at the Pediatrician's Office

Monday afternoon, Brody woke up from his nap with a hoarse cough. As the afternoon continued, it developed into that barking, croupy cough. By nightfall, he was running a fever and wheezing. By morning, he sounded horrible and we were at the pediatrician's office by 10:15am. By this point, every breath sounded like he had just finished running a marathon. The nurses at the front desk could hear him from across the waiting room and promptly brought us to the back. Breathing treatments were started almost immediately, yet after finishing the treatment, our doctor did not hear much improvement. My poor little guy had developed severe upper and lower respiratory inflammation in a matter of twelve hours. The doctor said although it was really early for flu season, that is one virus that can cause breathing issues so quickly. Sure enough, Brody's test came back positive. Another breathing treatment was administered. A steroid was given, then two more breathing treatments. Finally, around 2:30pm, we began to notice an improvement and our doctor allowed us to bring him home (versus taking him to the hospital) with strict instructions to continue breathing treatments every three hours throughout the night.

Despite his difficulties, my little guy was being his happy self. He was smiling and waving at people, and clapping his hands. Our doctor just shook his head and couldn't believe it. Because we were there for so long, the staff was gracious enough to share some food with us that had been delivered by a drug representative. Brody ate all of the fried rice!

After two nights of interrupted sleep, I am pleased to report that Brody is sounding MUCH better. His chest is moving normally and he is able to take deep breaths again. We went in for a check-up this morning and the doctor was pleased - Brody has not had a fever since Monday night and does not have a runny nose. We will continue the breathing treatments through Saturday (although at a less frequent interval) and hopefully, no one else will get sick so we can leave for Disney World Tuesday as planned!!

Please keep us in your prayers that Brody will continue to improve and the rest of us will avoid it! And, get your flu shots early this year!!

Happy Birthday John, Jr!

We returned Sunday from a weekend trip to Virginia to celebrate my nephew's first birthday! My mom was up there as well, so we had a great time with my family! We had just bought Billy a new camera, so the trip gave him an opportunity to practice with it, and as you can see, he got some great photos! My brother recently bought a really nice boat, so we went on a ride down the Potomac on Saturday - Brody wasn't a big fan of the life jacket at first, but by the end of the day he was loving the ride!
















We also got this great shot for coca-cola's next ad campaign!








Here's three of mom's four grandkids chilling out in the boat...







These are just a few sweet photos of the kids - the one where Brody is looking out the window really shows how long his eyelashes are and proves, once again, that for some reason, boys always win in that genetic field!












John enjoyed his birthday cake, and Brody enjoyed trying to feed it to him...or at least holding a bite in front of him, then shoving it in his own mouth before John could take it!





Yes, this is a dog kennel (or as my brother called it, a "redneck playpen"). It was Brody's favorite place to be at my brother's house!





This is Alexa's new favorite animal (we call him Blueberry Bear) - he was given to her by a sweet senior citizen at our church. Every Wednesday night, our church offers a meal for a small price and this man and his wife collect the payments. Last Wednesday, Alexa held the door open for me to get the stroller in and was telling him she had been my helper. He came and found us during the dinner to give her this 'special treat' for being such a big helper for mommy!

A Warning

I've stated this before, but let me reiterate - If you see my children and me boarding a flight, take a different one. My trip to Utah in August just confirmed that we absolutely cannot arrive anywhere on time. If Billy is accompanying us, everything will go smoothly, but if it is just me and the kids, avoid us at all costs! Things started well on the morning of August 28th...we arrived on time, got checked in just fine, boarded and took off on time...it was when the pilot announced about an hour before we were supposed to land that, due to weather delays, we could not land in Minneapolis, and we did not have enough fuel to continue circling until they granted us permission, so we were diverting to DULUTH. Once landing in Duluth, we sat on the runway for an hour. Minneapolis then approved us for landing, so we flew back, landing around 6pm, and since our connecting flight had departed at 5:30pm, we were rescheduled for the 9pm flight, which had been delayed. We originally would have landed in Utah at 7:30pm, or 9:30pm central time. The night continued with almost humorous delays. Fore example, at 9:30, a pilot and two flight attendants boarded our plane. The third flight attendant never showed up after numerous pagings. At 10:23, the crew was past the hours that they could fly, and they all had to get off the plane and we had to wait for another crew...finally, around 11:00 I guess, we left Minneapolis. We landed in Utah at 1:30 am (3:30 am in Columbia). It was enough for me to decide I was boycotting flying.

But alas, despite the delays, we had a blast in Utah! Just like the Texas trip, we still did not get to see everyone we wanted to see, but we enjoyed the time we had, as the photos show! Brody woke up from his nap one afternoon with more than a few hairs standing on end, so his Komo took the opportunity to spike his ENTIRE head, thus the 'do showcased here!













We also visited the Utah children's museum, went on a picnic, played the piano, and helped Komo and Komobu (Aunt Linda and Uncle Chad) pick tomatoes in their garden.















I was also very excited to FINALLY get to meet our friends Pat and Alexa's twin boys! The boys were born in May, five days before Brody, and although they were born at only 28 weeks, you would never know it now! I tried to get a photo of the three of them together, but trying to capture three active one-year-olds was an impossible feat. This is the only one where they all appear in the same frame. Colby and Austin were happy to step closer to examine the camera, and while they were occupied, Brody chose to eat everyone's snacks off the blanket!! (you'll probably have to click to enlarge the photo to see Brody - he's behind Colby's arm) After seeing them in action, I think it is amazing Alexa EVER gets a photo of the two of them together! :)

We're also very excited that, while in Utah, Brody decided to start cruising!! At one point, he was cruising around his playpen and was so proud of himself that he sat down, clapped a few times, then stood up and continued! Since returning home, he has 'cruised' around the coffee table, couch, chairs, and anything else at the right height! He even demonstrated his new ability for his physical therapist who was very excited! Equally exciting for my family is the fact that Billy's travel season is over until January, meaning we get to have him home for the entire fall! Since he was gone all summer, we have several mini-vacations planned this fall, including visiting John and Misty in Virginia, heading to Disney for a week (our big trip), staying in Gatlinburg, TN for a weekend, and then going to Texas for Christmas in December! We should have a plethora of photos to share over the next few months!
PS - to make posting more time efficient, I've given up on trying to 'layout' the photos and text - any of you who have tried to do this know that it is a case of trial and error, putting them in, posting, making changes, etc. etc. So, this blog may be messy, but at least the info is posted!

The Chocolate Epiphany

(So this happened over a month ago, but I just remembered about it and had to share)

Many of you may recall from a previous post that Alexa does not eat the brown M&Ms, stating that she doesn't like chocolate. Because I personally found this so entertaining, I included packages of mini M&Ms in the goody bags for her birthday party. A few weeks after the party we were snacking on the extras and Alexa came across a brown M&M. She held it in her hand for a moment and studied it.

"Do you think I'll like chocolate?" she asked me.

"I think you will" I responded, trying to keep a straight face.

"Maybe I'll try it," she answered, and with great concentration, placed the tiny brown M&M in her mouth. She chewed it up, then a big smile crossed her face as she exclaimed, "I do! I like chocolate!"

Imagine that.