Sick puppy

William has been one sick puppy this week! It started with a fever Sunday evening. My mom was in town, and William and I were scheduled to fly back with her to Connecticut. We decided to cancel the trip just to be safe, and boy am I glad we did. I absolutely hated to miss out on seeing my family, but it was the right decision.

He had a fever from Sunday to Wednesday. He was feeling pretty good though - was still crawling around and getting into things. Every time his temperature would creep up (the highest was 104.1), we would give him a bath to bring it down. That worked pretty well. Mikey and I have each been getting up once a night to keep his medicine coming.

On Wednesday, the doctor and I decided it was best to bring him in for a look. He determined it was all viral, and it would just have to run its course. Oh, and naturally W had no fever when I took him in. The doctor noticed a few small dots on William's arms and legs. He said it would probably get a little worse but wouldn't take long for the virus to run its course. In the meantime, treat the fever if it came back and give him cold foods for his bright red sore throat.

Wednesday night, he had a few more dots on his arms and legs but nothing major. His temperature was gone, and I thought the virus was on its way out. The next morning, the rash had gone wild but still no fever. By midday, the rash was out of control, the fever was back up in the 103 range, and W was acting like he felt extremely sick. I had never seen him feel anywhere close to that terrible. The doctor heard him grunting over the phone and immediately got worried that something had settled in his chest, and he had developed pneumonia.

Off we went to the Texas Children's ER. Luckily, our doctor called ahead, and they were able to "fast track" us through the process. It seems the raging rash also makes them want you in and out quickly. I don't blame them - I would be worried if I was there for my kid's broken arm and ended up next to someone who looked like William. They did a chest x-ray and found nothing out of the ordinary. Apparently the rash is not terribly unusual because none of the people we saw at TCH were all that concerned. They said to treat it with Benadryl, treat the fever like we've been doing, and only come back if he starts to breathe too heavily and starts grunting again.

He had a fever again overnight, but he slept through his medicine doses thanks to the Benadryl. The rash looked worse this morning, and then he got sick right after eating just a little for breakfast. The doctor said his digestive tract probably looks just as bad as his skin, and the applesauce I gave him may have been too acidic at that point. Whoops. Lesson learned. So far so good on that front the rest of the day, although he has mostly been getting milk. He doesn't seem terribly hungry.

So that's where we stand now. He's super sleepy because of the Benadryl. When he's awake, he spends most of the time clinging to either Mikey or me. Occasionally he'll break out of that and show his usual curiosity. Those moments of normalcy are so exciting for me! I miss my healthy, curious baby who gets into everything. It's really sad to see him so sedate, itchy, and hot.

If you would like to see photos of his rash, look below. Be forewarned, it's bad. I just know that if I read this blog post, I would be wondering how bad it could really be. Let's start with a picture of how stinking cute he normally looks.


This was taken the day of the first Aggie game of the year. The outfit is 2-0, so of course he has to wear it every game day.


This was taken Wednesday night. He was still feeling OK at this point, as you can see by his desire to play with kitchen utensils. You can see some bumps that look like bug bites.


I took this one Thursday morning. I thought it was bad then!


Here's one taken Thursday night.


Also from last night. His legs look just awful too.

It's worse today, although I almost don't think it looks worse for some reason. I think I'm just getting used to it. His eyes have been pretty swollen, and his hands and feet are like sausages. Poor guy doesn't want to stand up or crawl because it hurts. His skin is stretched so tight. Any time he lets us put him down for a second, he just sits there. Thankfully, Mikey's mom gave me some much-needed relief during the day today. With her help, I was able to take a short walk to get the mail (felt so good to get out of the sick zone), eat breakfast AND lunch, do laundry, and relax a bit.

So you know what we'll be doing this weekend...trying to nurse our sick puppy back to health, as well as getting some rest ourselves (hopefully W will cooperate). Thank goodness Mikey is the BEST person to share parenting responsibilities with. I would have lost my mind without his help!

My sanity is also intact thanks to my mom, who has received and returned emails, texts, and phone calls around the clock for five days now. She is an unbelievable support system with a crucial combination of a cool head, lots of sick kiddo experience, and much love for all three of us. Thanks, Mom! And sorry for all the worry I caused you when I was sick as a child. I am forever in your debt.

No cameras, please

William has decided to take matters into his own hands when he doesn't want to be on video.



Do you like the chest o'drool he is sporting? This child has drooled consistently for the last 7 or so months. People always ask if he's teething. I suppose so, if by teething you mean he will eventually be getting more teeth.

And yes, I am rocking the '80s music channel. We have really enjoyed exploring the different musical genres on Uverse. I have tried listening to some of the kids' music and am thankful William doesn't care about that stuff yet. Most of what they play is top 40 music as sung by a bunch of kids. It's as good as you'd expect.

The move

We have been in our new house for almost a month now. It's strange how quickly a new place can feel like a home. I can hardly remember what it was like to live in our beloved old house in the Heights - I loved it so much, but moving my guys, my pets, and my stuff made our new house a home almost instantly.

Because I really don't want to remember how it went down, I won't even get into all the drama surrounding the closing on our old house, but let's just say it came down to the last possible minute, and it took over two hours...leaving us with much less time to pack and get organized the night before we moved. William was incredibly fussy that evening, and for some reason I just could not handle it. I guess all the stress was getting to me (Mikey kept his cool. Big surprise). Thankfully, Mikey took William from me for just a few minutes while I got my head on straight.


On a whim, I set William down in our closet. He had been pitching a huge fit until he found that blessed laundry bag. I kid you not, he played with that thing for at least 30 minutes. It gave us some much-needed time to get work done. I could have kissed that laundry bag.


Our old living room the night before the move. Mikey thought we were in good shape about an hour before the movers arrived. Ha! It's amazing how much stuff is hidden away in a house, unnoticed until you have to clean the place out (like the junk drawer and the cleaning supplies).


William, the cats and I went to the new house early so we would be out of the way when the movers got there. Bringing the cats was a nightmare as expected. Patsy is the WORST traveler ever. She panics when confined. It's impossible to get her in a crate, so we put her in a box and sealed it up (she had plenty of air because the box had holes). At one point I thought W must have a dirty diaper. Uh, no. The dang cat got sick in the box and then of course got it on herself because there's nowhere to hide in a box. Yuck. Anyway, this picture was taken about five hours before Mikey and the movers showed up. We had no idea it would take the movers an eternity to pack the truck. See the next picture...


Apparently we had a lot of stuff in our little house! Mikey watched the movers work for hours to stuff every last inch of that truck. As you can see, it was a tight squeeze.


My sweet family sent us this Edible Arrangement, which arrived during the long afternoon wait for the moving truck. The chocolate-covered strawberries were divine. My mom wanted to make sure I got enough to eat during the move, so she took matters into her own hands. It was quite the tasty treat.


William and I were very grateful that Grams came to keep us company. It was very helpful to have her there to keep an eye on W, especially when she took him for a nice long walk around the neighborhood. Danielle joined in on the fun of our first night in the house. She even carried some boxes for us when it became clear that we needed to speed up the process a bit.


A moment of rest and a nice cold beer.


The cats ventured out into the house together. They were locked in a bathroom until everyone else left. It didn't take them long to explore every nook and cranny.


Buster approves of his new digs! I had to be sneaky about taking this picture (through the blinds) because if he saw me through the window, he would definitely have hopped up to investigate.


The chef is at home in his new kitchen. On our second night in the new house, he cooked up some hamburger patties after a hard day of work. We didn't have buns, but we made do and scarfed them down.


The window ledge above the corner tub in the master bath is Emmy's favorite lounge spot. I can't say that I blame her. It looks mighty peaceful to me.

Our big boy

I don't even know how to jump back into blogging about our lives. It's been so long since I wrote a post! I guess I'll just start where I left off with pictures and see where that leads me.

William is blowing our minds with how quickly he's growing and learning new skills. I feel like I send a cell phone picture to Mikey every single day with some new accomplishment. Today, he stood up in his crib on his own for the first time. I feel like he's actually a little late at that, but he only recently (in the last few weeks) figured out how to go from lying down to sitting up. That explains why it took him awhile to stand up in his crib.


Here he is trying to escape his bath. Long gone are the days where you could put him in the bath, and he would patiently sit there fiddling with a couple of toys until you are done. Mikey is in charge of bath time, and he reports that W is constantly going after the faucet or trying to climb out.


This was his first time in his big boy carseat. He never minded the infant carseat, and he seems to like this one just the same. This kiddo takes things in stride, just like his daddy!



We went bowling with Mikey's extended family last month. William was not happy at the bowling alley until he ended up in Greg's arms. Greg had the unbeatable trifecta going for him - a mustache, glasses, and a hat. W had a blast playing with all three, and we were all grateful that Mr. Fussypants was replaced by my typical sweet, content baby.


I decided to do a little photo shoot in his overalls before he outgrows them. My mom bought them for him for when we went to Connecticut in April, but they were too big back then. They are lined with some really soft fabric since they're intended for colder weather, so I did the majority of the pictures indoors.


Look at those eyes! And how about those chompers?! He now has eight.


I went a little farther than usual with Photoshop, but I like changing things up sometimes. I really like how this one turned out.


This was Mikey's favorite pic of the bunch. I grabbed the camera when I noticed that William was playing peek-a-boo with the overalls I had just taken off him. I love it when he initiates peek-a-boo. Pretty much anytime he gets his hands on a piece of clothing, he pulls it over his face and has this adorable look of anticipation on his face when he looks at us. Sometimes he'll do it with a random item like a shoe. In that case, he never really covers his face, but he still gets excited to hear us exclaim "peek-a-boo"!

Check back soon for more pics. This post only gets us to mid-August!