Zach's Mystery Illness

I mentioned before that a few weeks ago Zach had a reaction to penicillin and that now he's labelled as being allergic. Well, about a week later (which was last week) he came down with a high fever (almost 105!) and he still had his joint pain so once again we visited the doctor.

My sick little guy.

The doctor ordered a whole bunch of blood tests to see what was wrong with him because even though the joint pain could still be due to the "serum sickness" or penicillin allergy the high fever was not. Plus he started complaining that his head hurt too. So off we go to the lab to get his blood work done, that was so not fun.

It took a few days to get the results and everything he was tested for came back negative or within normal range except for his white cell count which was high and his hemoglobin was low. The huge thing that really worried his doctor though was that his c-reactive protein was about 25 times more elevated than normal. So she ordered another round of blood tests which I took Zach for yesterday. He was so funny. As we were walking into the building I asked him if he was going to be a big boy and his response was, "No, I think I'm going to cry," all matter-of-factly. He was great while we were waiting even though he knew what was coming since it was his second time in a week to get a needle in his arm. As soon as we got in the chair though it was a different story and it took two of us to hold him down and a third to draw the blood. He kept screaming to the woman taking the blood, "do NOT do that, do NOT do that..." over and over. Poor kid, very heartbreaking.

Afterwards we stopped to see Lola and she gave him a doughnut. All was better! Next time you see Zach ask him who Lola is and he'll probably tell you she's the person we see "where we get daddy's mail." She's always been so nice to Zach and Zach just loves seeing her. She always has a treat for him or something neat to show him.

That brings us up to today. I took Zach into the doctor yet again so she could check out his joints and she already had the results to yesterdays blood tests. Everything is back in the normal range! Until today I didn't realize how worried the doctor was about him either. I guess whenever the doctor calls you personally it's a concern and I've probably talked to her at least 5 times in the past week. She even went so far as to call me on my cell phone while I was waiting to pick Lauren up after school one day just to check on him.

Feeling MUCH better.

So, the verdict is that he had serum sickness and the symptoms can linger for a few weeks so that's the reason for the joint pain. Then he must have caught some kind of wicked virus to give him such a high fever and have his blood levels go all crazy. His doctor still wants him to have another blood test in 2 weeks just to be sure it's not mono. He was tested for that and it was negative but she just wants to be sure. Whew! What a couple of crazy weeks this has been. Between Zach and all this snow, I just want it to be spring already!

Cowboy Zach

The kids got dismissed early today from preschool for a wild west family gathering that was planned. Since the staff have to help during the event I asked Mamaw and Papaw if they could come and be with Zach. So here's my little cowboy after being picked up from his class.
Zach showed Mamaw and Papaw where the party was. He got his tattoo first and then dug for his 3 pieces of gold in the gold digging station.

I was helping supervise the gold digging station but was able to leave and snap a few more pictures before they sat down to eat. Here they're waiting to take advantage of a photo op.

Giddyup Zach!

After eating Zach and I showed Mamaw and Papaw how to get out (it's confusing the first time you're there!) and then he was able to dig a little in the rice before we had to clean everything up.

He was a great helper afterwards. He helped carry things and even helped drag the sensory tables across the floor. Then it was time for the staff to go in the kitchen and grab a plate of food. That's one advantage he has over the other kids, he gets to hang with the big people in the kitchen, a place where none of the other kids are allowed. He ate a little bit of my pasta and even got a brownie. That was good since he didn't eat anything but a roll when he was sitting with Mamaw and Papaw.

And that was it, another event done. I think the next event is Bagels with Dads/Buddies sometime in March but at least Paul should be able to do that one with him.

Valentine's Day

Paul and I went out to dinner Saturday evening at our church. Every year the youth group always does a Valentine's dinner and this is the first year that we've ever attended and Lauren and Kristin's first time helping serve. They really did a great job! The room was lit by candlelight and soft music was playing in the background. All the youth helping wore black pants and a white top, they all looked very nice and professional. Kristin brought some of the food to eat at home, none of the youth could eat until it was over so they got to choose from all the leftovers, she choose fettuccine alfredo.
The next day, Valentine's Day, I gave each of the kids a box of chocolate. Each one was different, Zach's was a crab with big googly eyes, Kristin's had a puppy on the front plus she got this...

...a boyfriend! I gave Lauren the same Grow A Boyfriend with a Twilight box of chocolates.

I found the neatest box for Megan, it has a chalkboard on the front.

So now we have enough candy to last till the Easter Bunny comes!

Did they really go to school today?

Yes! They FINALLY went to school even though it had snowed overnight and had started snowing again this morning. Only a coating though so it wasn't too bad. I'll take a coating any day over what we've been getting. At preschool Zach's and my class were finally able to have our Valentine's Day parties. We both brought home so much more candy. Zach got this heart shaped lollipop from one of the other teachers that he visits after school.

There's a room that connects ours and once school is out Zach will wander the halls and loop around through that room then pop back in mine. The teacher in that room is so nice and just thinks he's so funny and cute. She's the one that gave him the lollipop.

Megan finally makes a wish...

...by blowing out her birthday candles. Since she didn't feel well on her actual birthday we postponed the cake till the next night. So I of course had to include that here.

Which now ends her birthday for this year. Hopefully next year's is better!

Happy 10th Birthday Megan!

Megan's birthday was yesterday and she was home since there was no school. (Not because of the snow, this was an already scheduled day off for a long President's Day weekend.) She started off celebrating by going out to lunch with Mamaw and Papaw to Red Robin. She had a huge bacon cheeseburger off of the adult menu and then they brought her an ice cream sundae and sang happy birthday to her.

Paul brought her flowers when he came home from work. He's done that with all the girls when they turned 10 so he had to continue the tradition with Megan.

Even though she went to lunch Megan still wanted to go out to dinner with the family. She chose to go to Red Lobster so that's where we went. Boy was it crowded there! I think everyone was just wanting to get out after being stuck in the house the past few days. I drove so after dropping everyone off at the entrance I then tried to find a parking spot. What a challenge that was. Between the huge piles of snow taking up lots of spots and the amount of cars I ended up parking sooo far away from the restaurant. I guess it was no big deal that it took me so long to park since we had to wait an hour to get seated anyways.

We finally get seated, order our food then Megan said her belly hurt. She spent most of the dinner in the bathroom and since I didn't want to leave her there that meant that I also spent most of dinner in the bathroom waiting for her. She said to me, "I didn't get my special dinner" and I said, "You got it, you just didn't get to eat or enjoy it." When everyone else was done we left, unfortunately Megan didn't get sung to by the waitstaff at Red Lobster. That's always the highlight of the kids birthdays, it puts them in the spotlight for their special day. Oh well, it'll be a birthday she won't forget that's for sure.

We get home and after laying around for awhile she decides she wants to open her presents. She got a game, a necklace and some clothes from Paul and I. Lauren had gotten her a lotion/bath gel set, some nail polish and these earrings.

She was absolutely fine the this morning so she had one of her friends come over and spend part of today with her. They put on a fashion/singing show. Megan is modelling one of the jackets she got for her birthday.

They call themselves "twins," her friend's name begins with M too so they're "M & M."

It was such a bummer that she didn't get to enjoy her birthday dinner but I think having her friend over helped it end on a good note. Thankfully whatever was wrong with her was very short.

Getting ready for Valentine's Day...

On Thursday since we were snowed in for part of the day I drug out some art stuff and had the kids decorate for Valentine's Day.

They made heart prints...

handprint flowers...

Valentine cards...

and just plain got messy!

Still haven't made a snowman yet but with the amount of snow outside I'm sure we will still be able to do it next weekend. Here's hoping we do.

Yet another post about snow

This is getting a little old. Unfortunately this snow is going to be hanging around for quite sometime, it's going to take forever for it all to melt. This time we got 12.8 inches, much better than the 18 to 24 that was predicted! We didn't go outside at all yesterday because of the blizzard like conditions but had to get out some today. We waited till Paul had done most of the snowblowing before venturing out.
It was so bright out that we had to wear sunglasses!

Megan is queen of the mountain. Here she is showing off our huge mound of snow. I think we should take bets on when that's going to melt, I'm thinking sometime in April!

Zach liked sliding down the snow on the edge of the driveway.

Megan and Zach did a little sledding in the front yard. There's just so much snow that Megan had a hard time walking in it so she resorted to crawling and pulling at the same time.

Hopefully we can go back out either later today or tomorrow and make a snowman. It's perfect snowman making snow.

More Snow???

We're still clearing out from the last one! These pictures are taken from last Sunday. The snow had finished falling but it was hard to play in it since there was so much.

Megan helped clear the walkway.

Then just layed on the snow pretending to get a suntan.

Zach tried to do some sledding but it wasn't working out so good.

So he resorted to beating the shovel with a baseball bat.

We really weren't out very long at all. Of course we came in and had hot chocolate, my favorite part! There was no school on Monday for the girls but no one wanted to go outside to play. Zach had a dentist appointment in the morning and then Lauren had an indoor soccer game that evening so at least we got out for a little while.

This morning the girls didn't have school again but Zach and I did have preschool. Kristin and Megan came with us to help out. I love the fact that where I work is so family friendly, they are fine with everyone's older kids coming in.

Kristin was making "cupcakes" out of playdough with the kids.

I'm not sure what Megan was making but she drew the attention of all the kids.

Here's a picture of Zach helping vacuum.

Megan was playing dress up with some of the girls in the dramatic play area. It looks like she was playing by herself though.

The reason Zach was in my class and not in his was because he had a skin rash and was complaining that his knees hurt. After checking him out he preferred to stay with me so I had him for the last hour of the day. Like I said, they are a very family friendly place to work for. Very accommodating.

After work I took him to the doctor and he is now diagnosed as having a penicillin allergy. He was having a reaction to an antibiotic he was on last week that affected his skin and joints. My poor little guy could barely walk by the time I left the doctors. He's had a dose of medicine and is feeling much better now. He still looks yucky with the rash but at least he's acting like his normal self again. I'm so glad this didn't happen tomorrow!

SNOW!!!

As I write this it's still snowing outside. 21 inches so far.

I took Zach out this morning for about 15 minutes but it was just way too cold with the wind blowing snow in his face. Plus he just throws himself in the snow and ends up covered from head to toe. I don't think he'll be going back out until the snow is done which I guess won't be until tomorrow.
After taking Zach inside I was shocked to see Lauren all dressed and ready to go out. She hardly ever goes out in the snow anymore. As Paul was snow blowing the driveway Lauren started shovelling the front walk. I could have told her that she didn't have to since Paul usually uses the snow blower on it when he finishes the driveway but I just let her do it and snapped her picture.

Paul asked Lauren if she wanted to use the snow blower so here he is explaining how to do it.

And Lauren clearing the driveway by herself.

Lauren stayed out and helped for quite awhile but eventually had to rest.

She also went with me to walk Megan to a friends house. When Megan asked me if she could go play at her friends house I said sure, why not. The girl lives in our neighborhood just one street over, normally a very quick walk. Our development had been plowed earlier this morning but they haven't been through since. We walked right down the middle of the street and it was still tough going, especially when we turned onto the next street and had to walk through drifts. I really dread going back and getting her in a couple of hours. It makes me wish I had some skis!

I think we'll easily reach 2 feet of snow by the time this storm ends. Yikes! No way will these kids have school on Monday (or Tuesday or Wednesday...). It's going to to take many days to get all this snow cleared.

Yes, we're still around...

I know I've neglected this but I've simply been busy the last couple of weeks. With work I subbed a couple of times on my off days plus there was an open house not too long ago which I spent time getting ready for (extra hours to tidy up the room). Then when I wasn't working at the preschool I was attempting to clean out and organize different parts of my house. Cleaning out the storage area of the basement was just so much fun (I'm being sarcastic) but I got rid of so much stuff, either trashing it or donating it to Goodwill. I've still got more to do but at least I made a huge dent in it. It's amazing the amount of stuff that I've accumulated over the years. Stuff that I just don't need.

So anyway, we haven't really done anything I would call "blogworthy" but I've got to put something on here right? So I guess I'll ramble about the following pictures. :)

I love decorating for Valentine's Day so I had Zach and Megan decorate some hearts. I used to do this with the one-year-olds when I worked for MBNA and we've also done this with the two-year-olds at preschool. What I call "box painting," putting your paper and a blob or two of paint in the box then rolling a ball (or orange, marbles, etc.) So an easy project that also looks really neat when finished.

Of course I neglected to take a picture of the finished project but trust me, they look neat.

Here's just a silly picture of Zachary eating his ice cream sundae. Paul was making milkshakes for the girls and whichever friend was over that weekend but Zach wanted a sundae instead.

Zachary got to play with Lehlan a couple of days last week. I can't believe how big Lehlan has gotten! Here's a couple of pics of them playing together.

Zach got sick last week too. He was already on an antibiotic from the week before when he got what seemed like a really bad cold and a fever. His fever got a little high one night so here he is with a cold towel on his head to try and bring his fever down. He didn't mind it even though he looks miserable in this picture. (The blanket was to cover him up since he wasn't wearing anything except his underwear!)

I bought everything to make Rice Krispy Treats and Kristin made them all on her own. The only time I went near her was to snap this picture. I love the fact that she likes to cook!

Here's another craft I had Megan and Zach do. We do this at preschool which is where I got the die cuts for this project. You simply take a piece of paper, use whatever die cut you want then put clear contact paper on one side. On the sticky side the kids can put sequins, glitter, tissue paper or whatever they want. At school we would just run it through the laminator but at home I covered the finished project with another sheet of clear contact paper. Megan is making a heart...

...and Zach is decorating a snowflake.

This past Wednesday morning we woke up to 2 inches of snow so after putting Megan on the bus Zach and I went out and shovelled the driveway and played for a little while. He was so cute helping me with his little plastic shovel. If I hadn't been busy shovelling myself I would have gotten a pic or video of it. He did eventually put the shovel down and drag one of the sleds out.

Yes, he put the sled on the already shovelled driveway and had a ball just laying in it. Whatever! At least I was able to finish the driveway.

I went to the grocery store later that day and bought ABC noodles that were on sale for a $1. I thought he would like looking at the letters and at least trying to find the letters in his name. Instead what he really liked to do was make "Alphabet Soup" by using tweezers to pick up the letters and putting them in a bowl. What I thought was going to be a letter recognition activity turned into a fine motor activity.

One last picture. During Zach's conference with his teachers they mentioned that he is very good at putting together puzzles. I have some puzzle but they've been kept in the storage area of the basement so while he was sleeping one day I brought a bunch of them up so he could play with them. He wasn't the only one that wanted to play with them.

That's about it. Exciting wasn't it? Maybe after getting 2 feet of snow dumped on us this weekend I'll have something else to post about.