MOPS pool party

Today was the official end of MOPS. Since he got "kicked out" by the ladies at the church, who don't actually have anything to do with MOPS itself and this was at one of the MOPS Mom's house, I took the morning off so I could take Colton.

First he started out on the swing.

Then he had a "swing mate".

Next on to the bounce house. He really does enjoy bouncing, but he hasn't quite mastered the concept yet. He looks like a chicken while trying to bounce!!

Then it was pool time. I just got him this swimsuit that has the life jacket attached to it. He tried it out by jumping off the side to me.



Next we tried some Swimmies.

Getting used to them

A little braver

Look at him go.

I really want to look into swim lessons for him. He loved the water and I think now is a good time to teach him to swim. Then we ate pizza and had a cookie and milk and then I had to leave so that I could get back to work. He fell asleep on the way home and then only slept for 45 minutes. His afternoon nap lately has been shorter than usual. He used to go down at 1:00 and sleep until 3-3:30. Lately though he has been up by 2 or 2:30 at the latest. It might be time to drop the morning nap completely and see if that helps. On the weekends, he rarely take a morning nap because we are usually outside or busy, but during the week, Mom puts him down for about an hour or so in the mornings. Maybe she will have to try and cut that out and see if he naps better in the afternoon.

Stitches are out!!!

Took Colton in to the pediatrician this morning to have his stitches taken out. The lovely ER doctor was nice enough to make them extremely tight and so close to the skin that one of the stitch knots was inside his lip--GREAT!! The ARNP that we saw was nice enough to let me hold him this time instead of strapping him down to the bed. Of course he was still not happy with me holding his head still, but he did much better than he did at the ER. She got the first two out with minimal bleeding, but the third that was inside his lip, she had to use a scalpel to make a tiny incision in his lip to get the knot out. Once she was done, I gave him his binky and some raisins and he stopped crying. What an ordeal. I am glad that is OVER.

On a much happier note, I received my Pay it Forward gift from Carly over at http://obsessedclothdiaperingmama.blogspot.com/. It was so nice of her to do. The drawing pad and markers were an instant hit and the bibs are SO CUTE. I was able to snap a couple pictures before little man ran off to do some "coloring." The pictures are not the greatest and I don't it accurately shows how cute the bibs really are. Thank you very much Carly!!!! :O)



That is Colton's hand about to "grab and run"!!

Strep throat

That was the "diagnosis" at the doctor's office on Friday. They showed me his little throat that had white pus pockets all over it. That was the reason for the fever and why he has been such a drool machine. His throat hurt so his he was making extra saliva to compensate and help everything to "slide down" easier--well that is what I came up with anyway. She did say that because his throat was sore was why he was drooling so much. He is certainly back to usual little self though. Other than the constant drool, you wouldn't know that he was sick. He hasn't had any fever since Friday and has been sleeping like he did before he was sick. So he is on the mend. Now all that is left is getting his stitches out tomorrow---I am NOT LOOKING FORWARD TO THAT!!

Update

Mom ended up taking Colton to the doctor yesterday afternoon. His temperature stayed around 100.6 most of the day, even after Tylenol and Motrin. They checked his ears and lungs and said they were both clear. They looked at his throat and said it was red and wanted to do a throat swab. Ever since Monday night, he now HATES the doctor's office and people in scrubs, so apparently he was crying during the time they were in the office. I think that may have been why his throat was red. I have to take him back at 4:30 so they can go over the results. His fever has been down today. This morning it was 99.5 and then a little while ago it was right at 100. He could have picked up a virus from the wonderful (<--insert sarcasm here) time we spent in the ER. Another thing that strikes me odd is that he has been drooling A LOT in the past several days. When I say a lot, I mean A LOT--like the entire front of his shirt is soaking wet after about 10 minutes. He isn't really teething anymore. He is still somewhat getting in his incisors and molars, but no more than they have been and he never drooled this bad before. His lip is not swollen anymore so I wouldn't think it would be causing the drooling. I will ask today--though I doubt they will give me a good enough answer. He has had ZERO appetite, but I contribute that to the antibiotics. He would even eat his favorite, grapes, but he seems to be very thirsty all the time. And of course the best part of this experience--HE IS VERY WHINY AND CLINGY!!! I just want my crazy, running around willy-nilly, little eating machine back!!

Pictures

I didn't have my camera here yesterday when I wrote my last post. Here are shots of my little guy.
On our way home from the ER
Tuesday morning--back to smiles

Still very swollen.

The swelling is almost completely gone now. Last night he was running a temperature of 100.3 and all he wanted to do was lay his head on my shoulder. I gave him some Motrin and he fell asleep on me at 7:00 last night. He woke up at 11:30 crying and then went back to sleep. he woke up again at 1:30 and I went in and gave him more Motrin and he went back to sleep. When he got up this morning, his temperature was still about 100.6 so I gave him some Tylenol. There doesn't seem to be any sign of infection and he is on antibiotics so I am not sure where the fever is coming from. I will watch it and if he still has a fever later today, I will call the doctor's office. I hate it when my little man is not feeling well and I can't make him all better!!

Trip to ER

We had a first trip to the ER on Monday night. What a joke of an emergency room that is. After waiting for over two hours, I was ready to scream. Colton had to get 3 stitches in his upper lip. He was brave little guy though. He wasn't even crying until they insisted on "papoosing" him and holding him down so they SLOW doctor could stitch him. We got into the ER at 5:50. Well I guess the doctor was in no hurry. There was only one other person back there with us and she had an EKG so he wasn't even doing anything with her. He decided that he needed to eat his dinner ONE TINY PIECE at a time and then sit and relax for a bit before finally getting around to suturing Colton up. Once they let him up, he was so worn out from bawling. At that point it was 8:00 and he is normally in bed by 7:30. We took him home and gave him some Motrin and some milk and he went right to sleep--without even eating dinner. I felt so bad for the little guy. He looks like a he was in one heck of a fight. His little lip is swollen, but only on one side. It causes him to drool quite a bit. He really doesn't seem to "worse for the wear." He was back to his crazy little self yesterday. The only time he notices the stitches is when he rubs his mouth. I think the whole experience was harder on Daddy than it was on Colton. Steve was very upset when Colton was screaming about being held down and when they inserted the needle. He said he didn't like it when they had the paper draped over his face. That was only the second time I have ever seen him get emotional in the 4 years I have known him.

I'm a bad blogger

When I started this blog, I had all intentions to blog almost every day. Then as I got going, I realized that I didn't have that much interesting stuff to say!! I lead a pretty boring life and with only one kid to add humor and excitement, I just don't get enough to write very much--but I try. I guess this is my forum to talk about my kid, where in every day life, people probably get tired of hearing about him. You are my captive audience, so to speak.

On Saturday was Steve's niece's 9th birthday party. I was looking forward to going, although I kinda dreading having to keep an eagle eye on Colton in his current "phase" of biting (everyone tells me it is just a phase, but I SURE WISH IT WOULD END!!!). Last time he and Landen (3 weeks older than him) got together, Colton kept attacking him. Not in a bad way (if there is such a thing). He just kept tackling him and tried to bite a couple. I wasn't there, but so was reported by Mom. I knew there would be many kids there, but I was ready and willing to watch him. There was about 15 kids there I would say. Most were Kara's friends, so they were about her age. There was Landen and Kolby, who is 3, Lauren, who will be 2 next month, and several other little ones. They had set up a ghetto slip-n-slide. A big piece of clear visquine with baby shampoo on it. It actually worked really well. Some of the bigger girls didn't like it so much because it was kinda hard hitting the ground I would imagine. Since Colton has his own real slip-n-slide, he was ready. I would sit him on his booty and hurl him down the plastic and he slid and would flip over and had a great time. I got several comments that he must be fearless, which of course he is. Someone commented that I was doing it too rough (which I wasn't, if I had been he would have let be know!!) and Mom said he was a rough and tough kid. My sister-in-law's dad said "well he has a rough and tough mom." Not quite sure what he meant by that or how to take it. After the slip-n-slide, he went and played on the swing set. There was no "baby swing" but he jumped right on the regular swing. It was only about 5 inches off the ground. The little booger would swing really well and then let go and flip off. He never cried and really is fearless I think. Then it was off to the slide. He is a master slider and had to show off his mad skills. Up he went and down he came all by himself. The other little ones had to be helped down or held, but not my little guy. After presents were opened, he headed home. It was about 6:30 and he usually is in bed by 7:30.

Sunday I got up to no gift or no card, no breakfast being made or anything. I did get flowers on Friday at work, but I still was expecting something. I guess I should know by now not to expect anything. I made breakfast and we went to church. Then we went out for lunch. On the way home, we stopped by a really nice park and Colton had to show Daddy his playground skills. It was the first time Steve has ever been to the playground with us and I think he was impressed. Headed home and he took a nap and then we went o the barn. He loves going out to the barn to see the horses. He always wants to help me brush them and clean out their feet. Thankfully the horses are really good with him. Stopped by Wal-Mart on the way home. I picked up some of those Wonderhangers. They really do work great. They came in a pack of eight so you can get 40 shirts total on the hangers. I freed up some good space in Colton's closet. Steve made me a grilled cheese for dinner, we played outside some more, he went to bed and that is how the day ended.

Monday blues....

Mondays always come back to quick. It seems as though the week drags on and Saturday and Sunday just fly by.

Saturday we went to "Holy Smoke", which is a BBQ cook-off for the entire N. Florida diocese of Episcopal churches. It was here in Live Oak at our conference center. This was the first year that we went. It was advertised as you go around and sample the teams BBQ and then vote on your favorite. That wasn't exactly how it went. The teams were there set up, but you didn't get to sample any. They had to turn in their entries and then they served lunch at 12:30 with the food that was cooked and a couple sides. Well we got there about 11:30 so we just kinda wandered around for a hour. Colton usually eats at noon so by 12:30 with still no food, he was VERY cranky. I snagged a roll for him and I had some raisins in his bag as well. When the food finally was put out, he munched on a chicken leg and had a couple bites of pork and then he was done!!! It was about 1:15 at that point and he was tired since he is nap time is at 1:00. We finished up and headed home and he promptly feel asleep in the car. He made up for his light lunch at dinner by having three "refills" of ham and oranges.

Sunday we went to church and did some grocery shopping--whoo hoo exciting!! After we played outside for a while, we ate lunch and Colton went down for his nap and I went and laid out for a while. I have to keep my tan from the cruise in tip-top shape. Being a native Floridian, I was always tan and now that I work inside all day, I am stay a little whiter than I would like, so every chance I get I go out and get some sun. When he got up I decided to take him down to the Suwannee to play. We only live about a mile from the river and I take the dog down there quite a bit. He went last year as a baby, but not since he has been mobile and really able to play. He has some sand toys that we take to the beach so we took those along as well. Talk about the Redneck Rivera!!! The place was crowed as expected ( it was about 95 degrees yesterday). There were many toothless folks, women that SHOULD NOT be wearing two pieces and many little kids. This one little girl kept taking Colton's toys. First he lost his pail, then she took his entire wagon of toys and then she took a shovel. She was still small, but old enough to know not to take things that weren't hers. Her parents were not watching her in the least. I don't know how familiar you are with the Suwannee river, but it is pretty quick moving and as black as night due to all the tannins in the water. Granted there tons of people there, but they still should have been keeping a close eye on her. Colton found some little girls that played in the sand with him and he had a great time just sitting on the beach right at water's edge. I didn't really want him to go down into the water too much anyway.