Busy Busy Busy

Thank yall so much for the concern for Noah! Thankfully, two days later he looked 95% better!

I’m SO glad! We have been pretty busy the last few days. Last weekend, my little brother graduated high school.

I can’t believe he’s that old! Graduation ceremonies have changed SO much since I graduated. People were screaming for every name that was called so it was hard to hear the next person’s name. People were releasing balloons when their loved one received their diploma, people were walking around the whole time, etc. Back in the day, you were immediately escorted out if you caused ANY sort of commotion. I wish they would have enforced that rule!

But I digress…. :)

We also recently dog-sat for our best friends. Isn’t he precious??

And we’ve spent some time at my parent’s house.

Yesterday was mine and Brad’s three year anniversary!

We went out to dinner at 7:30pm (way late for us) while my bestie watched Noah. I had NO idea that so many people ate out that late at night! I’m such a grandma. We had fun getting to go out all by ourselves! I LOVE that man!

Today is Noah’s last day of preschool for this school year (until the summer program starts). I’m so sad! He is getting so big. Here is a picture of him the day he started school back in August…

He had just learned to sit up by himself for a few seconds! I was so proud of him!! Now he’s running around and being a busy-body.

Sunriiiiiiise, sunset, sunriiiiiise, sunset…. ha!

Ok, I think that about catches me up!

What the WHAT!

Poor Noah just can’t seem to catch a break. Yesterday morning, Noah woke up with what looked like a mosquito bite on his cheek. I didn’t think much of it because (a) he could have scratched himself during the night or (b) it could have been his eczema acting up. I fed him breakfast and gave him his last dose of amoxicillin (to clear up his ear infections). Then I took him to school. After lunch, Noah’s teacher let me know that he had a funny looking rash. Without seeing it, I assumed it was an eczema break-out and that they must have played outside or he had gotten too hot. A few minutes later, the preschool director called me (never a good sign!) and said that she was a little worried about the rash and thought I should come take a look.

Once I got there and saw Noah, I could tell it wasn’t eczema related. He looked like he had been bitten by 1000 mosquitos! He was covered in little swollen whelps. I immediately called the pediatrician’s office and they said that as long as he was breathing ok and acting alright, that I should give him benadryl and he should be fine. If he wasn’t any better by the next day, I should bring him in.

So this morning we wake him up and it’s ten times worse.

I put that picture on Facebook this morning to try and get some opinions before heading to the doctor. Everyone started freaking their freak so I took it down! Anywho, we went to the doctor and they immediately put us in a room (also not a good sign!). His pediatrician walked in the door, stood there about 15 seconds and then said “Wow. That’s impressive!” (REALLY not a good sign!)

I was freaking my freak some too, don’t worry. And the diagnosis?

He’s allergic to penicillin! He just finished a 10 day dose of amoxicillin and it just now decided to bother him! It’s so strange!

But the good news is that he is NOT contagious and he acts perfectly fine. It doesn’t seem to bother him at all!

The bad news is that it’s going to get worse looking before it gets better. The spots will flatten out and spread and eventually turn blue (yikes!) before fading away. That’s some scary stuff!

His doctor gave him the go-ahead to return to school today but stupid me FORGOT that he ran a fever last night of 100.1 so I made a fool of myself and called the preschool director to make sure it was ok with her that he return with the rash and she so very politely reminded me that he had a fever the night before (from Facebook, she doesn’t live with me or anything :) ). DUH!! I’m so stupid sometimes.

This was taken a few hours ago…

It’s already spreading. The doctor said she has seen allergic reactions like this last for three weeks. THREE WEEKS!!! Lord, I hope not! I feel so sorry for him. While we were waiting in line at the doctor’s office, a little girl behind us said, “Mommy, that little baby has dots allllllll over it’s face!” :(

Please continue to pray for Noah!

15 month check up

Friday, we took Noah to the doctor for his 15 month check up.

It was SO HOT in the doctor’s office (because it was in the 90s that day) that Noah decided to break out in a huge eczema rash just in time for his pediatrician to see. Fabulous! And his appointment was scheduled smack dab in the middle of his afternoon nap, so we had LOADS of fun.

See?

And we got two shots. :( But the doctor said that we are almost finished with our baby shots! Yippee! AND he has graduated from the rectal thermometer to the ear thermometer. I’m not going to lie, I was a little sad about that!

Noah weighed 24 lb 10 oz. He hasn’t gained much weight since his last well-baby appointment but he is still above average with his weight plus he’s been sick so we aren’t worried about it. He was 30 3/4 inches long with a head circumference of 19 1/4 inches. He is perfectly on track with everything except pointing to body parts. Parent fail.

We manic-ly started working on body parts this past weekend, but now every time we ask Noah where his nose is, he pats his mouth and says Wa Wa Wa like an Indian! I think he could do it if he wanted to, he just doesn’t care right now! That’s ok, we will get it!

In other Noah news, he is a baby of numerous words! He talks non-stop these days. He says bakkel (waffle), Daddy or Dada, Mommy or Mama, Beh (Bella), ball, cup, done, gone, outside (he says it three times in a whisper…so cute!!), no-no (everyone at school calls him No-No), car (when he sees keys), Pop, PawPaw, MiMi, Tay-Tay, cacka (cracker), pish (fish)….that’s all that I can think of right off. He will repeat almost anything!

We are still in size 3 diapers and wearing size 18 month clothing. He is the world’s pickiest eater. I’m totally getting payback because I was the same way. He will eat just about any fruit but that’s about as healthy as he gets. He LOVES crackers and waffles and he will usually eat at the peanut butter and jelly sandwich I send with him to school. But no veggies for him! I constantly struggle with getting him to eat healthy foods! He drinks mostly juice and some 2% milk (because of his stomach/constipation issues).

He has 12 teeth! Four on top, four on bottom and four molars!

He loves taking a bath (or baffie as we call it) and brushing his teeth. He also likes to play independently in his play room for short periods of time.

Noah is such a clown and the little social butterfly. I swear he knows more people at church than I do. He loves to show out in front of people by dancing or just being silly! I love that about him!

He is also 100% momma’s baby! And that is 100% ok with Mommy! :) We will play in the floor and then he will just walk right up to me and give me a huge slobbery kiss! I LOVE it!

I can’t believe how fast he is growing up. He is almost finished with his first year of preschool! I wish I could keep him little forever!

Noah, Mommy and Daddy love you SO MUCH! You keep us on our toes and give the sweetest sugar! I want to keep you small, but I love watching you grow and learn!

Mother’s Day

This Mother’s Day was a lot different than I expected. Noah woke up with a high fever so I stayed home with him while Daddy went to church. But before he left, Noah gave me my Mother’s Day present!

A one hour facial and one hour massage! I’m so excited! I’ve never had either one done. It’s on my 101 list! Score!

And my sweet husband got me a new charm for my Pandora bracelet.

A flower that won’t die-according to my husband! :)

So I doctored on Noah for most of the day, giving him Tylenol and Motrin to control his fever.

That night, his fever rose to 103.9! I started freaking my freak. We stripped him down, got him in a cool bath and gave him some medicine. Luckily his fever came down after a late night episode of Little Bill (his favorite!).

Monday morning, I headed straight to the doctor’s office with Noah.

He loves pushing the little chairs around in the waiting room. I cringe thinking of all the germs floating around in the ‘sick room’!

He weighed 24 lbs 5 oz and had a fever of 101.7 at the doctor’s office.

And the verdict….his original ear infection from last weekend never cleared up. It got much worse and spread to the other ear. DOUBLE ear infections, a viral infection AND I discovered he’s cutting all four molars! No wonder he feels like crap!! He was prescribed a very strong antibiotic and a medicine to help his tummy because one side effect of the antibiotic is tummy trouble, plus we are to continue the Tylenol/Motrin dance.

The rest of the day, he played in a diaper box. :)

Last night, he woke up with a fever of 104.6!!!!!! FREAK my FREAK!!!!!!!! The doctor warned me that his fever would probably spike again so I wasn’t freaking out too bad. We gave him another cool bath, gave him a popsicle, Tylenol/Motrin and watched an episode of Little Bill (that always makes him feel better :)). This morning he woke up cool as a cucumber.

HOPEFULLY, we are done with the fevers for a while! I hate seeing him so sick. He and Daddy have been hanging out at home today and I am hoping that Noah can return to school tomorrow-as long as his fever doesn’t come back.

Please pray for my sweet baby boy!

Sickies in the storm

Last Wednesday morning (hours before the tornado hit) I noticed that Noah had a lot of yellowish-greenish goop in the corners on his eyes. School was out for the day and I was staying home with him anyway so I decided that I would just watch him and see how he felt throughout the day.

He acted fine, but then Thursday morning he developed a runny nose too. Throughout the day, the eye goop got worse and I assumed he had a little cold.

Friday morning when I went into his room to wake him up, the poor baby could hardly open his eyes. They were all swollen and goop-filled. Well our pediatrician’s office had no power due to the tornado and pretty much all of Tuscaloosa’s doctors were out in the field helping people in need. I didn’t want to take him to the emergency room because I knew how chaotic it was with all the injuries in town. So I decided to wait it out and see if he got worse. To my surprise, the goop lessened and he started acting like he felt better. Then Saturday night he woke up several times during the night crying-very unusual for him.

So after church and his afternoon nap, we decided to bite the bullet and take him to a doc-in-the-box.

Look at those pitiful red eyes! As it turns out, he had an ear infection. And because he is so allergy-prone, the infection travelled over to his eyes producing the goop AND breaking his eczema out all over his body!

He definitely didn’t suffer any lack of energy though, I can assure you!

Thankfully, after an antibiotic and an eye ointment he is back to his old self!

Speaking of his old self, everyone knows that Noah LOVES waffles. But I think we may have a new favorite food. Crackers. Or “cackas” as Noah calls them. He asks for them at every meal. He even pushes his waffle over and says “cackas?” in the mornings for breakfast! I love that little boy!!

Just checking in

Thank you all for checking in on us and thank you for your thoughts and prayers as we try to move forward in the midst of this disaster. Unfortunately, my internet access has been and will continue to be limited for a while. Not sure how long though.

We have 30 rental houses that incurred some sort of damage, ranging from shingles missing to nothing left of the house but the slab. But thankfully, we have gotten in touch with all of those tenants and I am so very happy to report that they ALL made it through the storm! Praise God!

For those of you that feel led to send items (toiletries, baby supplies, non-perishable food, etc.) you can send them to Lord of the Harvest Baptist Church. Their address is 9310 Highway 69 North, Northport, AL 35473.

Again, thank yall so much for your prayers. We definitely need them right now!

The Tornado

I don't really even know where to begin. Wednesday is a day that we in Tuscaloosa will NEVER forget. Luckily Brad, Noah and I were safely tucked away in my in-law's underground storm shelter. All of my family and friends are accounted for, but there are so so so many others that lost their lives in that tornado. I think the death toll right now is 200+. My town will never look the same yall. We also had a lot of rental property in Alberta and Rosedale, two of the hardest hit areas. At this point, our office still doesn't have power and we can't even get in the disaster zone because they are still in search and rescue mode. I just feel so helpless and I'm so worried about my tenants.

Here are a few pictures I took Thursday as we were trying to gain access to some of our property.

This is Brad's main Subway. The windows were all shattered, but we were glad the building was still standing.

Keep in mind, these pictures were of the good areas that people were allowed to go. No one but the National Guard, police, FEMA, etc. are allowed in the really bad areas because bodies are still being pulled from the rubble.

Here is a link of a video of the damage. (Hope it works!)

Please pray for our town and our state. The main part of our town was hit, several businesses were destroyed leaving a lot of people without jobs. I know several people that lost everything they had.

"I'll praise You in this storm

And I will lift my hands

For You are who You are

No matter where I am

And every tear I've cried

You hold in Your hand

You never left my side

And though my heart is torn

I'll praise You in this storm"