Stomach Flu

Last weekend was nice, Dave watched WD and I baked and cooked all day Sunday (breakfast, casseroles, and cookies, cookies, cookies [recipe to come soon]). But the quiet wouldn't last too long. Early Thursday morning (about 12:30am) William woke up crying and woke us up. after we had a half-coherent debate of which one of us was getting up, I got up to hold him and while I was rocking him smelled something terrible. I turned on the light to see that poor little WD had vomit all over his head, face and crib. After stripping him, the sheets, and the bumper, and after he threw-up another time, I was able to hold him and get him back to sleep.

I however work up and got in the shower to get ready for work, but by the time I crawled out of the shower, all I was doing was putting on my pajamas, and crawling back in bet. And Crawling isn't too far from the truth as I was afraid I was soon to be the next to throw-up.

In sparing the gross details, I have stayed home from work yesterday and today (Friday). Because WD also had recently thrown up, I kept him home from the sitters. Thank goodness Grandma Karyn was able to come up yesterday and help out with him, as I sure wasn't feeling up to it, since I spent the day laying down and not eating anything. So much for trick-or-treating with WD. So far today I can sit up and tolerate short periods of time standing up. I'm feeling weak and lightheaded, but as Dave points out, that's to be expected when you haven't eaten anything in over 24 hours. I've had a piece of bread and some broth, and I'm hungry for more, but my stomach reminds me not to push my luck.

Oh well - this too shall pass. Just thankful for Grandma Karyn, and that Dave hasn't gotten it. Uncle Rob was also here for the night working and on breaks entertaining WD.

More recent pictures.

Uncle Mike & Uncle Rob take turns tormenting they're youngest nephew.
Uncle Mike has his very first feeding, but WD didn't want to eat, he wanted to play!
Best of buds.

Close as cousins! Sutton (9), WD (8mos) and Rowan (6).

Peek-a-Boo! WD finds Buddy's hiding spot (under the table). Watch out Buddy Too!

WD enjoying a teething biscuit. I wonder how much actually made it in his mouth???

Meeting Uncle Michael

WD got to meet his Uncle Michael for the first time this weekend. Needless to say they hit it off with each other. Uncle Mike left today to go back to North Carolina, and will be missed by all of us. We can't wait to see him again, and hopefully Aunt Kim will be with him!

Time w/ Great Grandma Frances

Were went south this past weekend to my parent's house to see my Brother Mike, who was back from N.C. for a visit. He drove here (in Uncle Bill's 2007 Corvette) and will fly back. While we were down we stopped in to see Great Grandma Frances (my grandmother).

It was good to see her up and awake, as the last time we were in she was sleeping and I didn't want to wake her.

She did respond to me a few times with a "yeah" when I would ask a question, such as "Do you remember that Gram?". Who knows if she actually does remember it. But I was giving her a hug and kiss goodbye and told her that we had to leave to go back home, and she said to me "Oh you do?". It was pretty mumbled, but I could tell that's what she said. We were able to get a couple pictures w/ my cell phone (not bad for a phone - huh?), and Gram gave WD lots of kisses on the cheek, and on his little hands. He wasn't asleep the entire time, he did wake up for the kisses, but he had been napping until I got him out of his car seat for the pictures.

Movin' on Up

Last night we got to witness WD climbing the footstool to stand up. We lowered his crib sometime ago as he figured out how to stand up in there. But now it looks like he's figuring it out outside of the crib. Guess we'll be busy doing the rest of our baby-proofing this weekend. Right now I'm watching Buddy Too sit on "his" footstool as WD is just trying to figure out how to get up eye-to-eye w/ Buddy. It's actually pretty funny, poor Buddy Too has to retreat under the kitchen table when WD is in his walker as it's the only place WD can't get very close to him because of the chairs.

I couldn't help include this picture I took just minutes ago this morning. What a warm greeting I get in the mornings - huh?

If only everyone were greeted by such a warm smile, no one would be in a bad mood! :-)

Health updates

Raspberry is doing well. She had a check-up last week and other than a nasty ear-infection and an added 10#, she was doing good. With all the other health issues she was having we apparently were starting to neglect cleaning her ears, which are problematic as it is and we need to clean them 2x/week on a regular basis to maintain ear-health. The +10 is due to increased appetite (from her anti-convulsion med) and decreased exercise as we were told to keep her quiet. So we'll hopefully be increasing her walks and decreasing her weight.

WD is doing well. No checkup until 9months (approx 11-11-08) at which time he is not scheduled for anything other than a hemoglobin blood test. We hope to avoid the doctor until then, but he does have a rash under his right arm pit that he's had off and on for about 2 months. We think it's heat rash, but why is it still cropping up? The doc looked at it at 6months and said it looked dry and to put lotion on it, but it looked very light. But it is still there, and only there. Guess we'll keep and eye on it.

We'll keep you posted.

Long overdue pictures.

OK - So I didn't take any pictures the entire time we were on

vacation camping a couple weeks ago, but I made up for it the next weekend when we went to Yellow Banks conservation area.
http://www.conservationboard.org/Pages/ybp.aspx
We packed up the family and drove there to check it out. They have some nice trails that we used for the day, but they have much more too. They have ball fields, lots of playground equipment, a private fishing pond, and lost of camp sites (both electric and non-electric). We all enjoyed it (can you tell by WD's picture that he liked it) and we will likely go back again. I've heard it's a good place to watch the bald eagle migration as well.

I knew it was going to be a good day to hike, as this butterfly greeted us when we arrived.

Being lazy

OK - Sorry I haven't gotten an update out in a while. We went on vacation the 18th & 19th of September and I THOUGHT I'd post some cute pictures of WD's first camping vacation but I didn't really take any pictures. Then the next week we went... well crud - I can't even remember what we did then. I barely remember what we did last weekend - but I know I took pictures of it!! ;-) So keep your eyes posted here and I'll try to get some of them up this weekend.
Back to vacation - I've been asked how camping went with the baby. We went to Elk Rock State Park on Red Rock Lake (between Knoxville & Pella). The first night was a little rough, he would only sleep in my arms, and did so for about 1 1/2 hours. The next night it went fine. We were pretty lazy, taking several little naps, and doing nothing. Dave read some, and Rob, Sut, & Row came out to visit us Friday night for hot dogs, chili dogs, and s'mores. That same night, Jeromy, Tab (Campbell), Erin & Bryce Metier [friends from Knoxville] came out and had some more s'mores. All this time relaxing and Dave and I didn't even get to duke-it-out this year to see who could be the Rummy champion, even though we're both pretty confident it would have been me. :-)
Check back shortly for pictures from last weekend's hiking at Yellow Banks.