Sick Day with Mom

Today I stayed home from work to take care of Jayden. He just wasn't quite ready to head back to the sitters. He has now had 24 hours of antibiotics so he will return tomorrow. Today while we were home, he played and rested. I enjoyed rocking him and took a lot of pictures.

 He rammed his 4-wheeler into the table a few times and went down the slide to start the day.

 He tried to play catch with Mickey Mouse....

 but cried when he couldn't get the ball back. So we rocked and he fell asleep for a nice nap.

 Then it was time for lunch.

 I thought he ate all of his lunch. WRONG!! The little one likes to hide food behind his back when he is finished. This piece didn't get where he wanted it to go. BUSTED!

 We tried to play some hide and seek, but he wasn't really in the mood.......then

 his best friend Maddie came over to visit after school!! You can catch a glimpse of her through the window, she was running fast to see her little sick buddy!

Then we ended the day with some Mickey Mouse while sitting in the Nap Nanny. 16 days until tubes. We are so ready!!

Ear Infection #9

I took this picture yesterday when we came home from Grandma's house. Jayden had sick eyes and we all knew something was up. The doctors at Express Care didn't see the infection on his right ear, but our favorite doctor found it today. The fluid on his ear has caused drainage to his nose and throat which resulted in a cough and a little miserable boy. J lost one pound since the last time we visited the doctor, so hopefully after tubes he will eat more and gain some weight!
I hate that he has another ear infection, but so happy he doesn't have pneumonia (which I started to think after Sunday) that he can pass along to the other kids. I know they all share germs every single day, which is fine because that is what babies do, but I was afraid we were going to messing with some serious germs!! I was also afraid I was going to get sick and pass it on to my fifth graders.

For now it is just an ear infection for Jayden, a cold for Momma (due to lack of sleep), and a cold for Daddy (due to working too hard). Tomorrow I will be home with the sick boy getting him all ready to see his friends on Thursday.

How many more days until tubes? 17. Not that I am counting.
How many more days of school? For the first time in 6 years. I have no idea. Oh, well. Once April 15th is here I will have something new to count down to!

Poor Baby

Poor little Jayden has come down with a spring cold. We headed to Express Care on Sunday to have his ears checked to see if he had another infection.

Good news: No ear infection.

Bad news: There is still fluid sitting on his ears that could stay there until tubes on April 15 or turn into an ear infection. Yuck!

He has a low grade fever, runny nose, and a little cough. He is happy one minute and then looks miserable the next. Today when we got home he was happy to see Mia and his slide. Due to his half smile, we bundled up and enjoyed 2 minutes outside in the sunshine and then back inside for some TLC.

Random Pictures

Sometimes I get so busy I don't have time to put all the pictures on-line. Here are a few that I found on the camera tonight.

 Taking off on his 4-wheeler with his "Dirt Don't Hurt" shirt. Too funny.

 J loves, loves, loves basketball. He likes to shoot from farther away now rather than just "dunking" the basketball. I swear the other day he made a baby 3-pointer and I caught it on tape. I love his perfect one year old form in this picture!

 Funny guy found a new hiding spot from Mom in the kitchen. It wasn't too funny when he fell inside the lazy susan. Well, it was a LITTLE funny.

He is ready for spring to get here to mow with Daddy. I had to put this mower away for a while because all he wanted to do was mow. The popping was making me crazy! One more week in the closet and I will let him have it back.

Oh, Jayden. The funny little things that you do that make our day complete. Now only if he was feeling better this weekend, I could have taken a few more pictures of him with the new skills I learned in my photography class!

The Fab Five

Jayden is lucky to have some great friends. The group of 3 boys quickly changed to a group of 5 boys with the arrival of Brody and Ollie. We all were able to get together over spring break with the kids to give them a chance to play and us a chance to hang out. Trying to take a picture of a 20, 17, 12, 2, and 1 month old is nearly impossible. Maybe next time we will have some luck. Maybe.

Breckenridge, CO---A Day on the Slopes

We spend Monday of this week in Breckenridge, CO. It was over an hour drive but the drive through the mountains was really neat. Once we arrived in ski town, we got bundled up, rented skis, and hit the slopes. I was a bit nervous to get back on skis, but it came back to me like that. We all had a blast and I would say Aaron was the bravest of us all. See the top peak in the back right side of the picture. Yes, he went down that!! CRAZY!! He is ready to head back with his buddies if the opportunity ever arises.

 Although it looks like there was a lot of people there, the lines we not that bad and we didn't have much of a wait.

 Here are the boys at the top of a green ready to go down for the first time!! They took off and I followed after giving myself a little pep talk.

 Adam was my ski buddy for the day as Aaron was getting "bored" with the easy slopes! Adam and I stuck together all day and had a lot of fun.

 We watched these crazy kids ski and snowboard while going up the lift. They were doing spins and back flips. Insane. Simply insane.

After a long day in Breckenridge full of skiing and shopping, we headed back to our awesome hotel and went out for the boys' birthday dinner. 

We all had so much fun on our mini-vacation. I think it was exactly what we all needed.

20 Months and Growing

Our little man is only four months away from turning T-W-O! This month we left him for four days on a mini-vacation to Denver. He was happy to see us home--said Mum Dad and then ran away to play. I am pretty certain that us both leaving at the same time won't happen again for a long time. He didn't sleep well last night and wanted me to rock him. Every once in a while he would open his eyes, look at me, and smile. 

1. Official weight on the scale this morning showed Jayden weighs 23.5 lbs., which is a little more than last month. He also looks like he has grown. We both thought he grew while we were gone!

2. Size 4 diapers....18 to 24 month clothing....size 6 shoe

3.Climbing has actually slowed down. The stairs are not a challenge and he doesn't have the desire to just climb. It will be neat to see what he does at the park when we can spend the day there.

4. His favorite past time is playing basketball. He loves to shoot, for us to shoot, and to just play. He is actually getting pretty good for a 20 month old! He still loves his blocks. I am sure when he is older he will have a career that deals with building. He is such a good builder!

 5. He is getting to be a better eater. He recently fell back in love with bananas and will eat green beans on occasion. He is a great breakfast and lunch eater. Dinner...not so much.

6. Milk, water, and juice!! He loves all 3.
7. From what I can count, J has 15 teeth. There is still room for a few more. Hopefully, he can stay ear infection free until he gets his tubes on April 15. He wasn't able to come to Denver with us due to his ears. I am thankful we made this decision with the doctor because he would have been in a lot of pain if we decided to bring him with us.
8. What does he dislike? Last month it was riding in the stroller. This month he doesn't like when we are not giving him 100% attention. I don't blame him :)
9. Jayden has been sleeping great until we left him for our trip. The goal this week is to get him back on schedule. He has continued to be a great napper, sleeping 2 to 3 hours a day. His best nap time falls from 1-3. He loves to play with his friends Henry and Layne at the babysitters too. He recently started calling his babysitter Bobbi "Barney". He can say "Play Nree at Barney's" which means "I play with Henry at Bobbi's". We are still working on Layne's name.
10.Jayden keeps getting more vocal each month. We are working on shapes and colors right now. He saw a diamond pattern on the bed today and pointed at it and said diamond. It was pretty funny. I am looking forward to the 9 weeks left in the school year so we can get summer started. J and I are going to have a lot of fun!!

Denver--Part 2

Our second day in Denver was full of sightseeing. We stopped by Adam's college to see where he spends all of his time. This is a view from the studio where all the future architects spend their day creating models. Great view of the mountains in the distance. How cool would that be?

 We then headed to Golden, Colorado. On our way, we noticed a fire that was burning in the mountains. It was all over the news. I am going to have to read more about it now that we are home to see if they ever stopped it. I know they called in for Federal help.

 After lunch in Golden, we found a spa that had pedicures on special. We had to stop while the boys did their thing for a while. This by far was the best pedicure I have ever had!!

 After pedicures we stopped by Coors for a quick tour. It was a very interesting place and had a lot of history to offer.

 We enjoyed our day trip and prepared for the biggest part to come--skiing in Breckenridge.

The drive there was AMAZING!!!!

 Here we are ready to go!! It was the perfect day to be there. The weather was great and the crowds were not too big.

We had so much fun skiing, but I think this was my last time skiing for a while. Aaron, on the other hand, fell back in love with skiing and made it down a black diamond and a double black diamond. He went to the very top which was around 12,000 ft. above sea level. CRAZY!!  

Denver Trip--Part 1

We are officially home from our AWESOME vacation in Denver. The weather was PERFECT, the amount of time we were there was GREAT, and the fun we had was INCREDIBLE. We did miss Jayden A LOT, but knew he was in good hands. I am pretty certain we won't be leaving the little man for a long time!!

Our plane ride there wasn't too bad and when we arrived Adam was there waiting for us. We headed into Denver with a great view of the Rocky Mountains.

We stopped by our hotel, which you can see in the picture above, dropped off our stuff and headed out on the town. We make a quick stop by Adam's apartment which was perfect. Then we headed down 16th Street to BD's Mongolian BBQ. The food was awesome and we watched them cook it right in front of us.

 The next day we headed out for a tour of Denver. This is a picture from our hotel. So neat!

 We walked to the art district and visited Adam's college too.

Happy Birthday, Aaron

Aaron celebrated his 28th birthday today! He was surprised to find that his new boots came in the mail just in time for a morning present. Today was a perfect day to celebrate a birthday. The weather was beautiful and I believe the temperature was around 65. We will officially be celebrating his birthday on Saturday night in Denver. I am looking forward to the fun to come in Colorado with our family.

I will post pictures of the birthday boy tomorrow when I have a chance. This has been one BUSY week!!

He Makes Me Smile

Even after a sad day at work, he makes me smile.

Feeling Better

Last night Jayden was feeling better as I caught him dancing to a song that was on a television show.

Today, J went to visit Dr. Fowler, who is such a nice doctor. He is scheduled for tubes on April 15. We also have our name on a list to take any last minute cancellations if a sooner date is open. Now we just have to cross our fingers that he stays ear infection free until then.

Ear Infection #7 & 8

Last week, we headed to the doctor's office to have Jayden's ears rechecked since his 10 days of antibiotics were complete. He still had fluid on his left ear, but we were to wait to see if it cleared on its own or wait until the symptoms of an ear infection showed up. Well, as you may have guessed, poor buddy has yet another ear infection, but this time, in both ears. We all know the signs and symptoms of what an ear infection looks like, so this one these two were caught early. He got a dose of Tylenol and his fever went down and by the time I got to the doctor's office, he looked pretty good and was pretty happy. Thankfully, we did catch these ear infections early. I would have hated him to go through what we went through with the last one. He had a fever for 3 days!

We were able to get him into Springfield Clinic at 3:15 rather than heading back to his pediatrician. He was evaluated by the NICEST nurse practitioner ever! He didn't even cry when she looked into his ears and he got a toy from her toy box for being so good! That is a first!!! I also talked to her about our trip to Denver. She said she wouldn't take her child if it were her and suggested we find a back-up plan. So, it looks like Jayden will be staying home and everyone around will be making sure he is happy by staying in his own bed, at his own house. That makes me feel a lot better about going, but at the same time, I almost feel like I should stay home.

Pictures to post later....I'm off to wake Jayden up so I can head to work.

Little Mr. Fix It

Jayden was such a good eater the other night. He actually enjoyed green beans and a toasted cheese sandwich.

 Then he went and hid. He had a lot of fun sliding around on the bench.

 Then after hiding for a little bit, he decided he needed to "fix" the table. He grabbed his tool box and went running.

 Then he headed upstairs. Maybe he thought he would finish what is left over to finish upstairs. I'll be glad when I have two workers around here rather than one.

I am pretty sure Jayden will love construction when he is older too. He has the natural Acree talent for building, even if it is with foam blocks!