The Sunday Post ~ Playskool Walk N' Ride

Buy it here!

Well, the colors are different this year, but the toy is the same.

We love this little toy. I bought it when our son started standing up and used it as a push toy. He loved it then. It was a huge help in him learning how to walk and working on his balance. It was in use every day back when he was learning to walk. He loved it that much.

After he was walking we converted it to the ride-on version. He liked that too, but was only ever able to figure out how to make it go backwards, so we put it back to the push version for him to play with.

Now he loves to play with it both ways, and best of all, he doesn't get bored with it as quickly as other toys because its really two toys. He'll push it around and then ask to have it made into a car and then ride it around as well.

It has five little activities, but they pale in comparison to pushing a walker or riding a car. His favorite activity it the trunk, where he hides his binkies.

We love it.

Pictures from one year ago.

September 8, 2012 ~ September's Mittens

Well, I'm behind a post, so here's an extra one for you!

Some photo highlights from today. Billy picked another flower and carried it around all morning. This is the same kind as the one he clutched all yesterday in the ER.

Then Billy wanted to wear mittens and insisted on wearing them on his bike ride. Note the beach chair in the back of the one photo and the lush greenery in the back of the other. Maybe in Minnie's Soda it's cold enough for mittens at night in September, but in the middle of the day in Maryland it's a sauna out there!

September 7, 2012 ~ A Day at the Hospital

Yes, it's true. Billy got his third trip to the hospital.

It started Thursday night. He woke up soon after going to bed and asked for cuddles. Uh oh. Billy only likes attack cuddles and usually in the daytime. Never at night. And every time I tried to put him down he asked for more cuddles.

 Then, late into the night he started throwing up. He was up all night, miserable, screaming, puking and whimpering. It was terrible night for us all. In the morning he finally fell asleep, so I let him sleep as long as he wanted- a whole four hours and then called the doctor once he got up.

It was clear to me that he was having breathing trouble again, which is what prompted me to take him to see his pediatrician anyway. By morning the puking had stopped.

They treated him at the ped's office with a nebulizer, but his breathing only improved marginally. So, we were sent off to the ER for further treatment and evaluation.

At the hospital they gave him his magic adventure bracelet so that everyone would know he was on a grand adventure. Listen, I had to make him think it was a good thing somehow. The ER is a big adventure.

He was treated with a dinosaur mask to three more nebulizers, and still he was breathing better but not well. He was a big boy though, didn't cry and helped hold the mask in place. He didn't like the elastic around his head, but as long as he could hold it or Mommy hold it he was okay and sat quietly while he was treated. This is a huge improvement from the last time.

As it turned out, even with three temp readings showing him having a normal temp, a final temp check with a rectal thermometer proved he had a fever. Immediately, the doctors suspected pneumonia. It was off for xrays to verify.

The xrays showed one small spot of infection on a lung, but no pneumonia. So, they treated him with a steroid, motrin for the fever and sent us home once his pulse-ox got up to 95.

We were there until almost 5 and in that whole time he didn't sleep and had a total of 4 crackers of food for the day with a handful of cheerios in the morning. I hadn't sleep either and I didn't have food and only half a cup of coffee- no other drink, for the whole day. I didn't think we would end up at the hospital, so I hadn't planned on it.

When we got home Daddy was making chili. Billy went down for a nap but got up shortly thereafter to eat. He wasn't really hungry, though. But he did want Daddy's chili. He helped make it, but it needed to Cook and Billy had to go back to bed. He went to sleep with his spoon- ready to eat at a moment's notice.

I heard him singing in his crib a few hours later and went to check on him. When I did, he popped up, spoon in hand. "It ready?!" he asked excitedly. Nope. Go back to bed. Actually, it was done, eaten and packed away in the fridge. But that's life. He can have some tonight.

Well, tonight puts him through the danger zone and then he should be fine. He's still sick, but I think he's on the mend.

Oh yeah, and the whole time at the hospital he had an aster clutched in his hand that he picked from my garden.

My question... You've got a kid with upper respiratory illness, fever and stomach conditions and you don't take a blood test? He was just at the fair twice. Swine flu? He's covered in mosquito bites. West Nile? But they didn't test him for these. I'm just curious why not? I didn't think about it then, but after I got home and thought about it. He's got flu-like symptoms and you don't test? What am I missing?

(our state has had outbreaks of both diseases in the past two weeks.)

Where's My Post?

Hi all,

After a long and exhausting night followed by a day in the ER we are home. Billy is unwell but home sleeping. Having not slept, I am a Mommy Crankypants. I will write more later after I recoup for a very long day.

Drawn In Thursdays: Things Kids Do #11

Click to Enlarge

September 4, 2012 ~ The Toddler Butter Dance

Butter to me is like kryptonite to Superman. It's my downfall. I would eat it on cardboard if it meant getting to eat more butter. I try to be good, but it's my weakness. And I should have known...

A few days ago I gave Billy a sweet potato. He didn't want to eat it so I put some butter and cinnamon on it. He gobbled it down. I told him the white stuff was butter. "Butter, yum!" And yesterday I made him a cheese sandwich. He removed the cheese so he could just eat the buttered bread. The poor discarded cheese, once his favorite, was shoved back in the fridge like unwanted garbage. "More butter bread?"

Well, after dinner, bath and play he wanted more food. "Butter, Mommy?" Wait.. just butter? Um, let's think about that one. No.

"How about bread and butter?"

"No. Butter?" Okay, try again.

"Would you like some cheese?"

"Cheese with butter?" He sounded expectant.

"Um...no. We don't eat cheese with just butter. How about a nice yummy piece of cheese?"

"With butter?" Uh oh. I think it's time to enroll lil man in the 12 step program for butter addiction...

Wait, I know! I pulled out the brand new loaf of raisin bread. and got out the tub of butter.

"Butter!" He did a little dance. Imagine a toddler doing Riverdance. That about sums it up.

After I gave him his first ever taste of raisin bread- with butter- he continued to dance around. I tried to get a video of him but he kept running away. He knows all about cameras now, and yes, he can work them too. But I did finally catch a piece of video for your enjoyment.

You can view a Billy Dance here: The Butter Dance

Labor Day 2012 ~ Another Day at the Fair

Isaac Came to town. Only, he's not Isaac anymore, just a lump of rain, thunder and humidity hanging over the region. Well, what better way to spend a rainy morning than playing in the rain?

Billy stood out on the stoop and shouted to the rain, then would run back on the porch and tell me he was wet and messy and ask for a towel. He did it repeatedly until the rain stopped. "More?" he asked. Well, not until Isaac throws some more at us. The sun came out and it was back to humidity soup.

After nap it was off to the fair for the last time of 2012. It was the last day of the fair. We met up with a friend, and Daddy arrived from "Minnie's Soda". ("Mommy, Daddy in Minnie's Soda. Daddy's Soda? Mommy's Soda!")

We checked out the animals while Isaac threw a torrent of rain and thunder our way. You know, hanging out in a wooden, exposed hut in a storm with ear-splitting lightning. But he didn't seem to mind. He screamed at the bunnies and got yelled at by the 4-Hers about it. Listen, he was happy to see those rabbits. And he pet a billy goat. Hehe.

When the storm was over it was time for food. Do you think he liked his first corn dog? I couldn't tell, it was gone so fast.

Then it was off to the rides. He went on the carousel and flying elephants with Daddy, the Crazy Bus and Wiggle Worm with our friend, and back to the horseys with Mommy.

He tried to get on the bigger rides, especially the roller coaster, but, well, he's a little too short to ride those rides. Maybe next year- or next decade. Something like that. He loves rides. LOVES. *fear!*

He also tried his first fried oreo and funnel cake. I bet you can figure out how he felt about those. And the sugar of everything got to him, so he started breaking out into a rumba in the middle of the midway. At least, we think it was a rumba. It looked something like that.

And after a long day, we took him home and he didn't want to sleep. But our little family had a wonderful time at the fair.

September 2, 2012 ~ Buddy Did It

Highlights from this weekend:

~ I left the room for thirty seconds and came back to find Billy still sitting at the coffee table, but his bowl of dry cheerios had been dumped all over the table. "Billy who spilled the cheerios?" He pointed his finger accusingly at the dog, "Buddy did it." "Hmm, are you sure? I think Billy did it." "No, Buddy did it." He's only one and he's already blaming the dog.

~ We sat and watched a thunderstorm pass to the south of us. "Billy, what does a thunderstorm say?" "Boom!" Then the thunder would boom and he'd clap. I pointed out the lightning bolts. "Mommy, more lighting?" Close enough.

~ "Where's Daddy?" "Minnie's Soda."

Mommy and Billy with the Blue Moon