Saturday Updates!

Today was an interesting day...Colin woke up screaming just before 5:00am this morning and was up for the day. He has been grabbing the sides of his head above his jaw line and around his ears for two days...I think this time it is for sure molars. He walks around crying and banging his hands on the sides of his head! YIKES!! Thankfully he has been to the doctor twice in the last week, so I know his ears are fine. He has not broken any new teeth in the last couple of months and I think teething is back in full swing. Poor baby!

In good news, his diarrhea is finally starting to ease up!! Thank GOODNESS!! He is not back to normal quite yet, but it is much improved. I know that everyone will be happy to stop reading about poop for a while. ;-) We took Colin to lunch at a new mexican place that opened close by and it was fantastic! I am always so happy when yummy locally owned places show up in the suburbs. The main thing I miss about living in downtown Dallas is the food. Oh, the food. Jer and I are complete and utter foodies and nothing brings us more joy than finding a great place to eat! Colin ate my entire plate of rice and beans, a flour tortilla and my guacamole. That was the most he has eaten in over a week, so I was thrilled to see his appetite back in full force. We also managed to fit in a trip to Sam's today, but other than that...totally lazy day. We caught up on our DVR shows and both took a nap when Colin went down this afternoon. Getting up before 5:00 am this morning reminded me how thankful I am that Colin sleeps through the night now. I have been worn out all day!

Shannon posted recently about the classes for toddlers that she found through her city and I have started researching that this week. I have found a couple of options that Colin can attend now that I am looking into and several that will be great when Colin is 18 months old. I can't wait for those! I am trying to line up some fun stuff for us to do together this fall that won't be expensive. Colin is getting progressively more bored being stuck in our living room, so I hope to find some fun activities soon. Oh, and I am also getting geared up to take Colin to the pumpkin patch...I can't wait for that!! :-)

Hello Again!

I am really behind on the blog this week! The week seemed to quickly get away from me with Colin being under the weather. He is on a very slow road to recovery...the messy diapers are still with us, but he seems to be having about one less acid diaper a day. I took him out for a haircut today, which he was a rock star for yet again! He got to sit in the firetruck chair and ring the bell, which pleased him to no end. He is still not back to his old self yet...he lays his head on my shoulder a lot and needs plenty of extra attention. Hopefully we will have more exciting things to report as he gets to feeling better! I hope you are all having a wonderful week! :-)

14 Months Old and Trying to Get Well!

Colin is officially 14 months old as of a couple of days ago...he was so sickly this weekend that I totally forgot to write about it! On Sunday we took him over to his Mom Mom and Pop Pop's house (Jer's parents) for lunch and some play time with their wiener doggies. He had a great time playing and was in good spirits, but crashed and burned when we got home. His stomach aches keep waking him out of his naps and his horrid poops are still going on!! We went back to the doctor today because the diarrhea is not improved at all, although the number of them has gone down from about 15 on Saturday to 6 today. The doctor checked him out and he is still not dehydrated (thank the lord he loves Pedialite!) and doing okay. We have to keep up with the bland diet and Pedialite for the time being. She said if the diarrhea does not go away by Wednesday, we will have to do some kind of cultures on his poop or something to that effect. I am praying he is better tomorrow!! I am starting to think that he might have picked this up at the petting zoo last week. He barely touched the little goat on his head, but I forgot to immediately wash his hands afterwards like an idiot. I just don't know where this mess came from, but I wish it would go away!!



In other news, Jer lowered Colin's crib to the last notch today. The crib has three levels and has been set to the middle one for some time. It was past time to lower it since he climbs with ease now and could easily have toppled out. I have been resisting simply because I hate to mess with anything related to sleep. I was nervous as hell about it today, but Colin went to sleep tonight with no problem. The crib seriously sits on the floor now!!! It is SO LOW! Gone are the days of my pretty crib all dressed up in it's finery...now it sits practically on the ground with no more bells and whistles. It look so strange to me, but I know I will get used to it. Jer pointed out that the next time we change the bed, it will not be a crib at all anymore, but a toddler bed! So of course I am now all emotional about it. :-) I can't believe how big my little man is.


Here is a picture I took of Colin after dinner tonight. It is not a good quality shot, but he is offically 14 months old, so I had to get a quick picture. He is such an angel baby!!

Poop Update

Colin is still really sick. I stopped counting acid poop filled diapers after I got to ten and there were more after that. His stomach is a complete mess, his naps were impossible, and he starts to cry every few minutes. I hate that he feels like this and there is nothing I can do about it!! He just went to bed and I pray that tomorrow will be the day that he feels better. He is still drinking his Pedialite and I am watching him like a hawk for signs of dehydration. He has been running a slight fever all day, but nothing to panic about. (I keep chanting that in my head) I had no idea that gastroenteritis could be this horrible. At least he is not vomiting. I am thankful for that!!!

So now I am seeking advice...Colin has been on clear liquids for more than 24 hours now and his diarrhea is no better at all. I was told by the pedi to totally avoid dairy while he has this bug, but he is sure missing his milk bottles!! Would any of you try soy milk instead? Colin loves soy milk, but I am wondering if I should avoid that, too. Do you think that it would also be rough on his tummy since it is still protein? I would love to let him have a bottle in the morning that is something other than Pedialite, but lord knows I don't want to make things worse. Have any of my mommy friends been through this one? What do you think?

Tummy Aches

Is there anything worse than your baby being sick? Well, of course there are technically worse things...but this is indeed horrible. Colin has a stomach virus and has had severe diarrhea for two solid days now. We went to the doctor today and sure enough, the virus is making it's rounds in our area. The pedi said she has seen it all week in her office. We think he caught it when I took him for a picnic in the park a couple of days ago. He was playing around lots and lots of little ones and probably touched something infected. Besides the horrible tummy ache, he has had no less than 10 horrible diapers today and this brought on a bleeding...yes, bleeding...diaper rash the likes of which I never thought possible. It takes my breath away. He screams so hard when I take him into his room to change his diaper that he made himself hoarse today. It is breaking me into a thousand pieces, I swear. The pedi told us that Colin can only have broth, rice, bananas, and Pedialite until we clear this up. We have a prescription for the rash, but it is not doing a damn bit of good since he has these acid filled diapers every five minutes. The only bit of good news is that Colin loves Pedialite. He has never had it before and he drank over 40 ounces (I kid you not!) since we got home from the doctor. That is really great news because I can at least stop worrying so much about dehydration. I hate how powerless I feel right now...to see Colin screaming in agony and writhing in pain is torturing me. I want to make it better and I just can't!! I really hope that tomorrow is better. He had rice and bananas for dinner and has not had any thing else in his system besides the Pediatlite since lunch. I am hoping that another full day of the special diet will help his tummy. It better!!!!

Two Words: TIGER CUBS

Jer was actually off work today (yea!!) and therefore we packed up and headed out for a trip to the zoo. Colin was around 8-9 months old the last time we took him and the animals were too far away for him to really see. Times have certainly changed...he had a wonderful time today! We spent a couple of hours walking around the park and he was checking everything out! He loved the petting zoo area and was very intrigued by the goats. I think he prefers Enzo. :-)



In this picture, he was checking out lots of birds and ducks. They were walking right up to us, which Colin loves.



I love how he was leaning forward to get a better look. It is amazing how much more engaged he was during this trip. I think he is going to be a fan of the zoo for a long time to come.




And last but not least, a picture that is not good quality, but was all I could accomplish since I was so excited that I was jumping up and down like a 10 year old. TIGER CUBS!! LOOK!! BABY TIGER GOODNESS!!! Oh my lord, I thought I was going to die. Colin was embarrassed for me, I am pretty sure. I love love love animals and most of all, I love big cats. Jer had forgotten that there were cubs at the Ft. Worth Zoo. The news had reported it, but I had no clue. They were playing and jumping around and yelping and putting on the best show. I want one. NOW. Seriously. Click on the picture and get your face right up to your computer screen and experience the baby tiger striped greatness. OH MY.

A Lovely Sunday

Today turned out to be a beautiful day. Hurricane Ike made it out of Texas last night and today dawned crystal clear and much cooler. The high today was only 85 and the rest of the week is supposed to be even nicer! We are going to have lows in the 50's this week, which sounds just wonderful. It is always around this time each year that I really start to long for some cooler weather after months of hundred degree heat. It feels great to know that we are looking at park weather again. I took the pictures today when we took Colin to the park in our neighborhood. It has a playground and then a huge open expanse of soccer field and small baseball diamond. I know that Colin will be spending a lot of his time playing here in the years to come. My thought process was that Colin would enjoy getting to run around the big field unencumbered and have a blast. Instead, he stood rooted to the ground in what can best be described as awe. I could not get him to take a single step. There were two teenage boys, probably around 14, throwing a football back and forth and Colin could not take his eyes off of them. In the shot below, I turned my camera angle so that I could catch one of the boys in the background. As you can see, Colin was just blown away.

The other shots do a good job of showing what a beautiful day it really was, especially when you click on them and see them in full size. Last year at this time, I had a tiny little two month old peanut. That first fall together was so special because everything was Colin's "first" and I was a new mama. This fall holds a much different kind of excitement for me...now Colin can play and experience and understand. My mind keeps running away from me with all the things I want to do with him this year. Every single day is like Christmas with my sweet boy.