A Visit to the Gardens

Josiah and I made the trek to visit my mom and Bob last weekend and we had a wonderful time. Samantha and Nathan came over for the day on Saturday and we all walked over to "The Gardens" to see the butterfly house. It was a beautiful day...a little cold out, but very sunny and bright blue skies. It was so nice to get away for the weekend!!! Josiah and I both needed some time out of the house and being able to go for walks and do fun things was just what we needed.

Caterpillar...Cacoon...

Beautiful Butterfly!!!

All the kids got tatoos on their faces at the Barn and had to show them off for the camera!

March Pictures

All is Well!

Just thought I would do an update while I had some time today:

Update on ME: Work is chugging along. Some days better than others. It seems like every day they add new constraints on us that make it more difficult to do our jobs well. Most likely do to my job, my moods have good days and bad. Mostly bad because I wish I was at a job that would better provide for my family and a job that wasn't so stressful. Customer service is a very tough industry. I had no idea coming into this job that actually fixing computers wouldn't be the hard part...it is dealing with the customers attitudes that's the hardest part. You'd think that they would be glad they had somewhere to call that could give them the answers they need. But it is more likely that they are wanting a place they can call to get the answers they want to hear. Such is life! I continue to learn more every day about computers and dealing with impatient people!

Update on DAN: Dan is enjoying his first day off in 5 weeks. He has worked 5 weeks straight (meaning every day). Between working a full 40 hour week and a side job that took much longer than expected, he has been gone alot in the past 5 weeks. Josiah and I are loving having him home today. We have just been hanging out, not doing a whole lot. The best way to spend a Saturday. The side job is almost finished and he is going to take a short break from sidework. However the money has been much appreciated at home :) Not sure what we would have done with out it, so I am very grateful that he was able to plunge through the long weeks to get it done.

Update on Josiah: He is doing great overall. A cold and some teeth cutting right now, but on the whole, he is having fun and learning alot. Josiah's most recent discoveries include:

1. Climbing out of a walker
2. Opening the door at Day care
3. And exiting the house for Kim to find him on the porch instead of inside in his walker. Little stinker!!
4. He can back up and sit down. Funny when he backs up to you and sits on whatever part of your body his butt is touching. For example: your chest :)
5. He can eat with a spoon all by himself now! Big accomplishment in our house. Still very messy, but he is loving the independence and so am I!!
6. Tantrumville has hit home! A couple of weeks ago he had a tantrum that lasted 10 minutes, all because I wouldn't carry him down the steps. Screaming at the top of his lungs and lots of banging of the fist.
7. He can do the motions for the Eensy Weensy spider. Very cute!!
8. Loves streaking before or after bath time. He gets so excited that he just runs and giggles around the house.

I will post some pictures when I can get my photo software to cooperate!!

A Scary Time for our Family

Most of you know by now that Thursday was not a typical day in our lives. The day started off very normal. I did notice that Josiah was burning up, but I was in a hurry like always to get to work, so I could get there in plenty of time to be ready to answer the phones. When I got to Kim's I asked if we could get Josiah's temperature because I was sure he was running a fever, but didn't have a good thermometer at home (now I will buy a good one:). We took it and it was 100.5 under the arm. Something I didn't know before this whole experience was that you add 1 degree when using an arm or ear thermometer. Good to know. He is currently cutting all 4 canine teeth. So thought that might be the culprit (again I now know that a fever more than 99 is caused by something other than teeth). Again good to know.

So I left for work. Around 11:00am I called Kim to see how Josiah was doing and he had been sleeping most of the morning. She was giong to call me when he woke up. When he woke up his fever was 102.5, which I now know is actually 103.5. But I decided to wrap up what I was doing and come home and get him. He had no other symptoms other than the fever and he was ver lathargic and sleeping alot. OK, so he wasn't at all himself and wouldn't be put down. But he wasn't coughing or runny nose or whining. He was eating good and drinking fine. So again we thought that it was probably teething.

I got to Kim's around 1:30pm and Josiah ended up sleeping on me for an hour and a half. Heavy breathing and just really run down. He did take a bottle like only Josiah could and then we headed home. On the way home about 3 minutes into the drive I remember looking back at him and he appeared to be sleeping. I just thought he was whipped. (OK, lots of clues that things were really wrong, but never having dealt with a sick kid, I didn't pick up on any of them). By the time I pulled in our driveway 5 minutes later, I turned around and realized he was either not breathing or really struggling breathing, his lips were turning blue and his eyes were rolled up in the back of his head (probably one of THE most traumatic moments in my entire life and moment I will never forget and a moment I will have trouble dealing with for some time to come). I freaked out, like anyone who has ever experienced their child not breathing and seizing. But he was still in his car seat so I pulled back out of my driveway (almost hitting a white truck, because I had only one goal and that was to get JOsiah to the hospital). Luckily we only live a half a mile from the hospital. I did have the forethought to put my seatbelt on because I knew I was driving a little crazy.

Josiah still was not responding to anything I did. He finally starting to breath again when I took him out of his carseat at the hospital, but he was limp and not really coherant. I ran into the hospital in pure panic trying to get out what had happened. My head was so fuzzy and jumbled, I could barely get out what had happened. I tried to call Dan and he didn't answer...even more panic. Finally I called his work and they were able to get ahold of him. Once he knew that Josiah was in the hospital and was being taken care of, he said his panic went away. Mine however still remained. I was now by myself at the hospital while they were trying to put an IV in and hooking him up to all the monitors. I had to keep leaving because they couldn't find a vein and he was screaming. They were asking me all kinds of questions and preparing me for tests they might have to run like a spinal tap....OH MY GOODNESS! Not sure I could have handled that. But not knowing why he had such a high fever and he was extremely lathargic all day, they wanted to make sure he didn't have meningitis. Josiah was a real trooper through all this though. He didn't hardly move through any of the poking except for the IV. He just laid there playing with the oxygen hose which is normally in their nose, but he liked sucking on it, and pulling at all the cords.

I was so thankful when Dan arrived. Shortly after, Kim (our day care provider) arrived, in as much of a panic as we were. She had never experienced any kind of emergency with any of her day care kids like this before. I was just so glad not to be there alone any more.

Not to long after we had arrived, they discovered that he had strep throat and had informed us that Josiah most likely had a febrile seizure. These happen when a childs fever spikes in a short amount of time. I joked that the purpose of the febrile seizure was to say "Hey there mom, I'm really sick and your not doing anything about it...please take me to the hospital so they can fix me up" I just feel so ignorant about so many things. I had been giving him the wrong dosage of medicince, taking temperatures wrong, didn't have any idea about febrile seizures. So much this little guy is teaching us.

Since he had had such a high fever and the seizure, they wanted to admit us overnight for observation. So Dan and I headed home while Kim came back up to the hospital to stay with Josiah while we took a car home and I packed an overnight bag. Then Josiah and I headed up to the big hospital in an Ambulance. My first ambulance ride that I can remember anyway. Hard to believe that he had his first ride at 15 months.

His fever spiked one more time to 103 while at the hospital, but by the middle of hte night the fever was almost completely gone. He just hung out with us all evening in the hospital room relaxing and watching TV. Finallly around 11:00pm we both crashed. Dan had to go home because they would only allow one parent to stay. The nurse didn't come in until 4:00, and we both slept straight through. Then by morning Josiah was rearing to go. He ate a good breakfast and was trying to stand up, but couldn't becuase the IV was in his foot.

Dianne (Grammy) came to visit us around 9:30 and by noon she was taking us home. The doctor was sure the seizure was a febrile seizure and told us that 50% of children that have had one never have them again. He also said that if he has another one, to wait 5 minutes before calling the dr or going to hospital unless he is turning blue. I can't imagine just waiting there 5 minutes while he isn't responding. I just pray he never has another one. I am not sure I can handle it. He obviously has no lasting affects from the whole ordeal....me on the other hand will be a few weeks or months in recovery.

Until this morning I really had no idea how this whole thing truly affected me. I am very weapy whenever I think about what happened and about the "what if's" that went through my head on the way to the hospital. I am very afraid something bad is going to happen again even though I have tried to pray about it. Just have to pray harder I guess. But I have sanitized everything (which I haven't done in his whole 15 months here on this earth). And I keep jumping up at every little, from a cough to falling to a whine. I am panicked that he is going to stop breathing again. I know I need to let it all go. To know that God is watching out for him when we aren't there. But I am not quite there yet. I know that time will heal the fear, but mostly I just need to turn it over to God and let Him deal with it for me. In time I will!

We are just very thankful our little man is ok and has no lasting effects from the high temp or seizure. Today you would never know that only 2 days ago he was in the hospital. It is truly amazing how quickly children recover. If only the parents could recover from the same ordeal in the same amount of time. Thank you for all who were praying for Josiah foremost and for Dan and I.

Josiah and Dan's Celeb Look-alikes

My Celebrity Look alikes!

Thank you Kari for this...I had fun uploading different pictures. Geena Davis also showed up in about 3 of the pictures I tried!! Not sure I look like any of these people, but it was really fun playing around with the face recognition. One of my pictures also said I looked like Sean Hayes (Jack from Will and Grace). To funny! You should go try it out and let me know who you look like:)

A Picture Update

I know it has been forever since I have blogged, let alone blogged pictures. Tonight I am feeling better (recovering from the flu) and I finally have the mental energy to do this. Work has drained everything I have to give for the past 6 weeks. So we are all glad in this house that I am adjusting to full time employment and to the day to day challenges that I deal with at work. I can now say that I am starting to enjoy what I am doing. Which is saying alot since only a couple of weeks ago, I was crying every night!

Anyway, enough about me:) Josiah is doing awsome! He is becoming more and more fun the older he gets. He is also becoming more and more busy the older he gets, but we are also adjusting to this new found energy! His favorite things right now are:

1. Cruising the table for food


2. Doing a crazy funky dance while he walks. I think you have to see it to understand this, but he sticks his chest out then pulls it back while shaking his head...very funny.


3. He can do all the motions to "If You're Happy and You Know it Clap your Hands" He learned this at day care!! I love singing it for him just to see him clap and stomp his feet.


4. Climbing on everything as you will see in the pictures below.


5. Eating with a spoon. He is even starting to load the food onto his fork by himself.


6. Responding to remarks such as: Where do you go to take a bath--> he stops whatever he's doing, walks to the bathroom door and bangs on it. Are you hungry --> heads right for his high chair.


7. No matter what song is playing...as soon as MICKEY MOUSE comes on he starts marching with a big smile on his face. His idea of marching is stomping one foot or if he is moving forward he lifts his right foot way up in the air. Ever since we started listening to the Disney CD he has perked up and started kicking his feet in the high chair whenever that song comes on. It can't be coincidence that the theme in his bedroom is Mickey Mouse:)


8. He now has 12 teeth. The 12th tooth (a one year molar) is still giving him trouble pushing through. He got 3 of the 4 molars at the same time. I guess that's the way to go!!


9. Weight: 26 1/2 lbs


10. Height: 31 inches.

A MUCH OVERDUE UPDATE OF PICTURES

Spending some good ole fashion quality time together.
Something we all cherish greatly these days.

Eating a big boy meal. Mac n' Cheese and a Sloppy Joe!

Both of these pictures are examples of him cruising for food. The 1st one shows him cruising the table. And more recently he has figured out that he drops alot of food and he is now cruising his high chair for food. As if we never feed the kid!!

Daddy's boy! The first picture is of Josiah driving daddy's remote control car. Notice how he is holding it correctly. He just picked it after studying Dan and could do it. The next one is of course Josiah measuring things:)

These two pictures are of Josiah in serious play. The 1st one is something that he loves doing. Those are tile spacers in that little container and he will spend minutes taking them out and putting them back in. The other picture is of him trying to decide which movie to watch:)

These 3 pictures are all good examples of either mischief or exploration, depending on how you look at it:) The 1st is obviously him climbing, something he loves to perfect right now. The 2nd is of him climbing in the cupboard. What you can't see is all the stuff that he is throwing out of the cupboard. And the 3rd picture is of him in the bathtub. I was in another room and came to find him, only to find him in the tub. He had climbed in. The night before he had dragged the bath towel into the tub and now he was completely soaked playing in it! Guess I have learned to take care of messes as they happen!

Loving his little couch in only a diaper and mismatched socks! He now has snack time before bed and we put a Baby Einstein in or something like that. He loves it.

To tired to snack! He was so tuckered out that night...that I just had to get a picture.

Just being cute! The first one he is clapping his hands while I sing "If you're Happy and you Know it". The second one is of all of his pacifiers. Always one in the mouth and one in each hand with a few to spare around the edge of the crib. But that is the only time he gets his pacifiers. That is unless he sneaks into his bedroom and steals them out of his crib, which he has been known to do on occassion.

Had to get a picture of all the cute roles and the one of him sticking his gut out is just priceless! What a little man:)

And Last but not Least: The Big Hair Cut!!

BEFORE

AFTER

He is enjoying a much deserved snack after a long tortorous hair cut. I had avoided cutting his hair for about 2 almost 3 months. I knew it was going to be tough. But we had a plan. We put his high chair in the middle of the kitchen, filled the tray with water and lined the floor with towels. Well that worked for about 5 minutes. Then Dad had to come in to entertain. We put his music on, Dan was blowing bubbles, splashing in the water, making funny faces. We couldn't use clippers because his hair is sooo fine, so I had to cut it with scissors (the baby ones). So it was pretty tough to try and get it even. But after about 20 minutes...we had a whole new boy. He looks so different to me! I can hardly believe its the same kid.

Cute dog story!

I was telling Buster to "GET" because he was trying to steal food out of Josiah's hand. A minute later Josiah got right into Buster's face and said "Go, go, go" and he actually got Buster to move out of his way. Very cute! Probably had to be there! But this is just one more sign that he fully understands what we are saying and now is trying to mimic us more and more. Tickle, tickle is a cute mimic too. When we get to tickling him we always say "tickle, tickle, tickle" And now he will join us in ticka, ticka ticka. Again...too cute!

Posting from Work, Yay!!

I am so excited that bloglines and blogspot is not blocked by the firewall at work:) Yah! Althought I don't have much down time to add updates, I should be able to add tidbits here and there. However I am just borrowing someones password to get passed the firewall today. So I don't officially have access to the internet yesterday. This was just a little piece of heaven offered up to me today!

Work is very stressful. I am now working in a temp position at EDS full time on the GMOnline helpdesk for Windows XP. We have gone through 2 weeks of training, which if I have time later I will write about, but for now...just know that it was a really tough experience and the trainer was a real prick. Now that we are on the phones actually taking calls, things are a bit better until the trainer guys is the only around to answer calls. He makes you feel stupid whenever you ask him a question. I don't deal with that well...and I don't deal with hearing him talking down to everyone around me. But we have a great supervisor and the trainer guy is only on the floor answering questions 1 day a week:) Yay!! Today just happened to be the day. So I am a bit crabby about it!

It has been an extremely emotional roller coaster these past 4 weeks. Putting Josiah in day care full time, from the stand point that I am not with him very much any more. From the stand point of the day care provider, we could not be more blessed. Kim and Steve are wonderful and they love Josiah to pieces:) As do the rest of the kids at the day care. But still a huge jump from 3 days a week to full time. We are slowly adjusting to the new schedule and Dan is pitching in on alot! We have had lots of "discussions" over the past 4 weeks trying to get adjusted to everything. And we are slowly getting there...back to some sense of normalcy...but not quite there yet.

well the end of my day is almost here. I will have to post more at a later date. But just know that things are going along at a steady pace most days...and Josiah is growing and becoming more busy by the minute:)