august 25th

Yes, I'm at such a lack of blog creativity that I have titled my blog simply by the date. Creative, huh?

So on Tuesday (yes, August 25th) I woke from another sleep-deprived evening with the chicken pox kid. After a lot of whining (from BOTH boys) it was time to get ready for Tyler's 5 year old check-up (I guess I can't call them "well baby" appointments anymore, huh?). Anyway, Tyler was freaked about the shots, but did pull it together. He did well with his examination, but did slightly freak when they checked his knees/legs. Not sure why. Everythign checked out just fine. The shots were less dramatic than I expected. My only concern I brought up was Tyler's anxiety, but the doctor says it's fine unless it's affecting his ability to learn in school or make friends. It's not, so hopefully it's something he'll grow out of. He weighed 41 pounds (I believe that's a weight loss) and was only 40.75 inches, putting him in the 10th percentile. Apparently the poor thing is taking after me in the height department!

So Tuesday was also Jason's 11 month birthday. 11 months? When did that happen? Anyway, obviously he still wasn't feeling the greatest, but as always he put on a happy face at least part of the day!

That afternoon Tyler finished up his piggy bank craft. So proud of himself!


Oh, I forgot to mention that the doctor (during Tyler's examination) upgraded Jason's diagnosis to "most likely" to be chicken pox. In answer to some questions on my last blog, yes, they can test for chicken pox. It involves a blood test and the doc said there would be no reason to put him through the test provided he gets better. There is no way to treat chicken pox, so a definitive diagnosis would really provide us very little information.

So that evening we went to Chick-Fil-A to let Tyler blow off some steam. I swear I wanted to strap a sign to Jason's chest which read "no longer contagious". I don't know why I bothered with a doctor, considering everyone in Chick-fil-A realized seemed to know the diagnosis.

However, I'm now fairly certain that it was in fact chicken pox. As we continually pondered how Jason acquired chicken pox, something popped into our heads. Remember those "bites" I had complained about a couple of weeks ago? Well, they had driven me crazy, but I had no reason to believe it was something I should have looked into. It finally occured to me that maybe it wasn't a bite, but something more. So Wednesday night I went to the doctor, and my "bites" were diagnosed as a "classic case" of shingles. Yes, I had shingles and didn't even realize it. I had the pain associated with it, but being that it was on my back I just assumed I was having back pain from lifting the boys or something. Never put two and two together. For those that aren't aware, shingles are essentially a grown-up version of chicken pox (they are from the same virus anyway). So in fact I infected my own child with chicken pox. Pretty sucky of me, huh? The good news is that we BOTH had mild cases of shingles/chicken pox.

birthday boy!!!

As I said, Monday (Tyler's birthday) started off with a trip to the pediatrician for Jason and his supposed chicken pox. Luckily Tyler had a gift, which had been mailed from Katie, to start off his morning with and keep him busy! He loved his Zoom car kit from Katie and family.

After Jason's doctor's appointment we went to have a birthday lunch (with my mom too) at Friendly's. The doctor insisted that Jason wasn't contagious because he was already scabbing, so I braved all the staring and went out. I would have felt horrible not bringing Ty anywhere on his big day. He enjoyed his lunch, mainly his candy shop sundae.

That afternoon he worked on a craft. It was a bank kit that he had gotten as a gift at his party.

Unfortunately much of my day was spent with this miserable little sleepy man.

That evening we had hotdogs and french fries and had my grandparents over for cake and presents. Tyler's favorite gift was a magic set we had gotten him. It was pretty funny to watch, considering Tyler wasn't too slick with his presentation. He was proud of himself, announcing "a magician never tells his secrets". LOL.



So, I can hardly believe it, but my "baby" is now 5 years old. About to head off to Kindergarten. I had presumed I'd be pretty emotional on the day of his actual birthday. In reality I was pretty darn tired due to the chicken pox kid and was just waiting to get the boys in bed. I guess I didn't have the energy to get emotional. Isn't that horrible.

Anyway, happy birthday baby boy!

the rash, continued

By Saturday night Jason's rash had continued to spread and he was pretty miserable. We had a nice barbeque at Jim & Cara's place, where we spent lots of time debating what could be bothering him. My mom was pretty confident that it was chicken pox. I was still convinced that the doctor knew what he was talking about.

Sunday morning arrived way too soon, after Jason had not slept pretty much at all between midnight and 4:00am. He was miserable. After Al got back on the road to head back to NC, I called the on-call pediatrician. He said to give him Tylenol, in addition to the benedryl he was already getting, and to do oatmeal baths and cover him in Calamine. I did all of that and he was still miserable. On Monday I called the pediatrician to make an appointment, as the on-call pediatrician had advised. I brought him in and the doctor was still not convinced, but said that it was likely that it could be chicken pox. My poor baby. Then I got to notify all the party-goers that I may have exposed their kids to chicken pox. Lovely.

Tyler's 5th birthday party

Early Saturday morning (last Saturday) Al made it in from North Carolina, just in time for Tyler's birthday party. Coincidentally it was also our 6th wedding anniversary! It was a rainy nasty day, which I was disappointed about, but I was pretty happy we hadn't gone with the beach party idea Tyler originally had! His party was scheduled for 10:00 at Paw's Farm. We arrived in a total downpour and got everything set up. Once everyone arrived we went upstairs for the animal demonstration. The employee discussed the 4 animals that Tyler had "invited" to his party, which were the chinchilla, hedgehog, turtle and bearded dragon. Tyler was totally fascinated by the animals, hanging on every word the employee said. As the birthday boy, he even got to demonstrate wearing the turtle shell. After the demonstration we went back to the partyroom for some breakfast food (bagels, muffins, fruit, and beverages) and then cupcakes. Tyler had requested a turtle cake, which is exactly what he got, courtesy of mommy's wonderful skills. Ha, ha. Afterwards we quickly unwrapped his presents before it was time to get out of the party room. Luckily the rain had stopped so we went to pet/feed the animals before heading over to the barn area with the little mock grocery store and such.

All in all, it was a nice birthday party and I believe the kids have fun. I know Tyler did, and that's all that matters.

Picture overload, coming your way...

the rash???

On Thursday Jason had a few marks on his face, what I believed to be bites. I didn't think too much of it, but by Friday morning it had spread. Honestly I thought initially it might be something related to a food allergy, but I called the pediatrician to have him seen, being as I didnt' want to expose any kids at Tyler's party to any germs.

So I brought him to the pediatrician and the doctor seemed perplexed. He said it sort of looked like chicken pox, but that it wasn't chicken pox. No fever, no scabbing, etc. He said, more than likely, that he was bitten by a few bugs and had an exaggerated reaction. I specifically asked if he were contagious and was told no.

By Saturday morning he looked like this. Still not horrible, but still not normal by any means.

in the news

I was going through the mail the other day and had to do a double-take. It took me a second to realize that it was Tyler, right there on the front cover of The Medford Sun. The picture had been taken at the end of summer reading program at Freedom Park.

time with my boys

On Thursday my mom had a doctor's appointment and then they went back to Atlantic City so I had the boys alone in the house all day, which hasn't happened for a while. I don't remember totally what we did, but according to these pictures the boys got along better than they have been the few days prior.


Later on we went to McDonald's for lunch and dropped off a milkshake to my brother Chris who was melting away in the disgusting heat. In the evening, when it had cooled off a little bit, we hit the lake for some fun.

time with Jason

On Tuesday and Wednesday, while Tyler was in A.C., I felt like I had the days off! It's amazing how easy one child seems when you are used to two of them! I exercised both days, showered both days, did laundry, cleaned up, etc! But, most importantly, I got to spend some quality QUIET time with my baby! Wednesday I even managed to shove his feet in some size 4/5 crocs and take him to play outside. He was so funny crawling across the grass with his knees up in the air. I also learned that he can climb steps (he really doesn't have access to them, so it's possible he could do this earlier and I just didn't know).



Later we hit the beach for some time on the swings. Afterwards Jason spotted some ducks and made a ruckus, so I brought him down to the water. Of course he wanted to get down, so even though we hadn't planned on it, we spent some time in the water.

air show

Tyler is a lucky boy for sure. On Tuesday afternoon my parents took Tyler down to Atlantic City and met up with their friend Muriel and Jim with their grandson Gavin. Wednesday was scheduled to be the airshow, "Thunder over the Boardwalk", but Tuesday was the practice run. Tyler had a great time on the crowded beach.

Later they hit the buffet and the boardwalk before getting to bed pretty late.

They spent almost all day Wednesday on the beach, but Ty and Gavin had a great time! The air show was a hit as well. Tyler particularly liked the parachuters.

My Antonio

On Sunday night I got to watch my best friend from junior high, Miranda, on TV! She is one of the 13 women competing for the love of Antonio Sabato Jr. It's entitled "My Antonio" and is on VH1 at 10:00pm on Sundays. I assure you that it is highly entertaining!

Here's a recap of the first episode, which I happened to get a kick out of. http://blog.vh1.com/2009-08-16/my-antonio-recap-episode-1-whats-mine-is-yours/

So don't forget to set your DVR, or tune in to watch!

sunday, continued

After our busy morning and afternoon we went over to Dottie's new place to hang out with the family. We had a nice barbeque and Tyler enjoyed hanging out with his cousin and her friends.

outlets, great adventure, and the safari

On Sunday apparently we (myself and my parents) were insane and decided to brave the heat and take a little road trip. I really wanted to go to the outlets, mostly to hit striderite for school shoes for Tyler. I managed to get him 2 pairs for $40, which wasn't too bad. It helped that he no longer has an XW foot. Instead he's an 11W. Unfortunately I'm right back to square one in my need to search for speciality footwear. In fact, my job has gotten harder. I decided to have Jason fitted for some shoes now that he's cruising. Well, that's gonna prove to be difficult, because he measured at a 3.5XXW. When they tried to get them on they didn't fit. They were able to squeeze on a 4XXW, but it was tough. Not to mention that they are a boring unisex plain white. I held off in hope to find something cuter online, but I may end up back at the outlets for those darn ugly, and expensive, shoes. I also got a few clearance things at Children's Place, 2 pairs of pajamas for Tyler for his birthday, and matching Christmas PJ's for the boys. Yes, that's right, Christmas PJs already!

From there we went to Great Adventure. We went to Tyler's favorite roller coaster first, and then to the water play area. After a bit of time there we let Tyler hit a couple of kids rides before packing up and heading out. It was just too hot.

To appease Tyler we decided to head on over to the safari for the first time this season. Jason slept through a good portion of the safari, and meanwhile Tyler enjoyed a rare treat...sitting in the front seat out of the carseat! He was pretty insterested in all the animals, but I think he was most fascinated by the stupid ostrich which kept pecking at cars. LOL. The bears were pretty active today too. We even caught a momma bear nursing her 2 bear cubs. Adorable! Oh, and when Jason woke up he enjoyed "woof"ing at the bears. Apparently anything with fur is considered a dog.

quack, quack

On Saturday afternoon/evening I met my friend Melinda at the park so the kids could play. She had brought a loaf of bread to feed the ducks. We ended up finding some geese, who seemed to be quite willing to take the bread. It would come right up to us and take it out of our hands. The kids got a real kick out if it, including Jason who sat there and yelled at them in fascination. Those geese can really cop an attitude though. I swear one was hissing at us when we weren't feeding it.

Later, on the complete opposite side of the lake, Tyler read a sign that said not to feed the geese. Oops.