Kids say the darndest things....

This chocolate-faced little boy has a way of always bringing a smile to my face. He says (and does) the funniest things.

Yesterday morning, Rob took both of the boys on a walk (so I could get a few extra minutes of sleep). Ryan found a feather and put it in his pocket. While we were eating breakfast, he wanted to show me what he had found. He reached into his pocket to pull it out, but it wasn't there. Rob told him that it must have fallen out while he was running outside. Ryan got up from the table and ran to the front door. He said, "Be back. Go get my feather." I explained to him that he can't go outside with Mommy or Daddy because a bad man might take him. As serious as a two-year-old can be, he said, "No Mommy. No bad man no get me. Me run fast!" Rob and I giggled as we told him that the bad man might run fast, too. And he might take him and not bring him home. Ryan's face got really serious and he said, "Bad man get me, me hit bad man!" At this point, Rob and I were laughing pretty hard. At least our little boy has a plan...run, and if he catches him, then hit him!

Last night, I was busy picking up the house and I asked Rob to start the bath water for the boys. (They've recently started taking a bath together...and they LOVE it.) After a few minutes, I went in to put them in and felt the water. It was too cold, so I said, "Rob this water is ice cold. I'm going to have to drain it and fill it up again." So I let out the water and began filling it with warm water. A few minutes later, Ryan came walking in the bathroom with two hands full of ice. He said, "Here Mommy. Ice for my bath." I guess he took what I said literally...he wanted his bath "ice cold."

What a weekend!

Happy Fourth of July! We bought some fireworks and Ryan loved them, of course. Drew got to "do" his first sparkler and watch his Daddy do some other fireworks. He liked looking at the bright lights in the sky, but wasn't too sure about the loud noises that followed. We had Papa Duck, Noni and Bumpa over for dinner and Wii golf. Overall, the 4th of July went by pretty smoothly. But once the 5th was here (and literally, I mean 12 midnight)...that's a whole new story!

At midnight, Drew woke up screaming. I sat up with him for a while. He ate a little, but overall was uninterested. He was more interested in screaming. (He was not your typical "fussy baby"...he was a monster!) He pretty much screamed non-stop until after 6:00 this morning. The entire time, he wouldn't eat (which is NOT like my child). When I spoke with the on-call nurse yesterday she said to call back if he stopped eating or became extremely fussy (which he was both by this point). So, I gave her a call. She told me that he needed to go to the ER...babies can get really dehydrated, and really sick, really fast. So, around 9:30 this morning we were off to Cy Fair Hospital. We got to the ER and were taken to a room pretty quickly. I explained that his big brother has been sick with Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease...and that he's started it, too. The doctor saw the blisters in his mouth and decided we should try a "Magic Mouthwash." Basically it's a mixture of Benadryl, Mylanta and a numbing medication. They had me swab it in his mouth. It was supposed to numb his mouth enough to where he would be able to nurse. Didn't work! He was still screaming at the top of his lungs anytime he tried to eat. They wanted to do an X-ray on his tummy, to make sure nothing was wrong in there. It came back clear. So they decided we should try straight Lidocaine jelly...we swabbed this around in his mouth. Still no relief...still lots of screaming! They put in an IV line and drew some blood. They also put in a catheter so they could get a urine sample. (They were only able to get about 3 drops after draining his entire bladder...since it had been so long since he'd had anything to eat.) We waited an hour for those test results to come back. All clear. The doctor came back in baffled. I had laid him down in his carseat and he seemed content. She was commenting on how he had finally been able to be calmed. I told her that anytime I pick him up, he begins screaming. By this time my dad had arrived with the breast pump (I was about to explode) and he tried to pick him up. The screaming began all over again! I could tell that the doctor had a thought...the expression on her face changed. She explained that the only thing she hadn't ruled out was Meningitis. And the only way to test for it was by doing a spinal tap. Not something I wanted to put my baby through. After a lot of thought, I felt it was best to go ahead and test, so we could rule it out (hopefully). They got him all prepped...and it went by much quicker than I had imagined. Then the waiting game began, again. In the meantime, the doctor wanted to run a bag of fluid through his IV. The IV was not put in correctly by our oh-so-lovely man nurse (that's a whole story in itself), so they were not able to give him the IV fluids. Instead, they had me make him suck on ice chips. This made for some really funny faces! He took several ice chips well, but then I think his mouth got too cold. By about 3:30, the spinal tap results were in...clear! Whew! They decided that we were safe to go home and to follow up with his pediatrician tomorrow. UPDATE: After 16+ hours without eating, Drew finally decided to give in and eat! Yippee! We're praying for a better night tonight...and for Drew's appetite (or ability to eat) to continue.

It's a Family Affair

Okay...the inevitable has happened. The entire Nordlander family has gotten a case of the "spots." Ryan is finally getting over his. The spots are going away and he's back to his normal self. On Thursday I woke up with spots on my hands, feet and in my mouth. Over the past two days, however, they have gotten worse. Now they are all blistered and extremely sore. I have them on almost all of my fingertips. So anytime I do ANYTHING, it hurts. This makes me extremely irritable. (I can now see why Ryan was such a turkey when he had his spots!) Earlier this morning, Drew was fussing. When I went to pick him up, I noticed that he has the blisters starting in his mouth, as well. I checked his hands and feet...and found more spots. Not anywhere near as bad as Ryan had it. We were praying that Drew wouldn't get it...but now we'll pray that it doesn't get too serious. When I saw Drew's spots, I told Rob to inspect his hands and feet. I explained that they start out as red dots that hurt like crazy when you touch them. He found one little spot on his hand that's red and hurts...let's hope he's not getting it, too. Ahhh...I guess we've finally taught Ryan how to share!