Pictures of my Quartet

If you want to see pictures of my quartet at our competition, I now have a link.

Go Here if you want to see! :)

Rashy

My poor kid can never catch a break. Sighhhhh.

This is sensitive, TMI info, so you may want to not read.

A little over a week ago, Sam told me that his butt has been hurting, and it had been for a long time. He didn't tell me because it is embarrassing. Well, I looked at it, and I couldn't believe what I was seeing!!! I had never seen anything look that bad. It was like terrible, terrible diaper rash, except he is 8 years old. We started out by putting Desitin on it. A little weird, but what else could we do??? Anyway, after a few days, that wasn't helping. I went and got Preparation H stuff to see if that would help. It didn't. In fact, it was getting worse and worse, and was hurting him terribly. So we decided to take him to the doctor. Our pediatrician couldn't get him in that day, so we took him to a good walk-in clinic.

The doctor thought it looked like Strep! Can you believe that?! Apparently you can get that type of infection in other areas. She had to do a culture, and prescribed a cream to put on it. That was a Thursday.

By Saturday, he had a faint rash all over his body. His butt hurt so bad it was bleeding, and he couldn't go to the bathroom or sit down very well. We called the pediatrician and explained what had been going on, but we still didn't have the culture results. He said to check in with him the next day.

Sunday comes and the rash is a lot worse. He was screaming (real, terrible screams) when he tried to go to the bathroom. It was awful. We called the doctor back, and he came to the office on a Sunday just to see Sam. He couldn't believe how terrible his butt looked. It was the worst he had ever seen. He took another culture. It was so bad, he didn't think it was Strep because he had never seen it look like that before. Also, the rash confused him. He wasn't sure if it was because of the other rash, if it was something new, or what. He was pretty confident it wasn't contagious though. He knew it had to be some sort of bacterial infection, so he prescribed and antibiotic that works well on skin infections.

The antibiotic did help his butt some, but not the rash. Yesterday, I checked on him at lunch time and the rash was even worse. It was everywhere, even under his hair. At dinner time, I checked him again and the rash was terrible. This time it was bright red and itchy. Before it was itchy, but it was mostly clearish. We called the doctor again. This time we got our regular pediatrician. She said with strep like that it is very common to get a rash, and even for it to get worse. The antibiotic just hadn't gotten to the rash part yet, but was working on the worst spot first.

Today, the rash is terrible. It is starting to hurt him, and it looks awful. They finally called and left a message with the results of the culture. It is strep. I am fairly positive he has Scarlet Fever, which is the result of Strep not being treated properly. That's what happens when a kid doesn't tell you something is going on for too long. Thankfully he isn't contagious, and apparently never was, but I feel so bad for him. He is embarrassed about the butt part, embarrassed about the rash everywhere, and it is pretty scary for him. He thinks something terrible is happening to him. Imagine how embarrassed he would be to know I blogged about it. Muahaha. I am a mean Mommy. ;)

Anyway, remind your kids to tell you if there is a problem, even if it is embarrassing!

Here are some pictures. They don't even do the rash justice. Also, there is a picture Avery has been dying for me to take. They just planted a new garden in front of our school and Avery thinks it is the perfect picture spot. He asks me every day if I have my camera, so I brought it today. :)

Tornados, Birthdays, and More

Yes, I know I am slow. I have been trying to blog all week, but it hasn't happened. Sheesh, this week has been a whirlwind!

Last Friday we just happened to be out of school for Good Friday. That was a very good thing! We had had bad storms all night the night before and all throughout the morning. About noon, it started getting really bad. A friend texted me and asked if we were all ok, because it looked like the storm was right over us. I turned on my tv to the news, to hear them say, "Let's turn over to the traffic camera on I-24 in Murfreesboro." I watched as they did that. At the same time, a man had called in and was frantic, sounded scared to death, and said he had just seen a tornado. As I watched the traffic camera, all of a sudden, you saw a tornado form, then get bigger, and bigger, and bigger. The news people were freaking out. I couldn't believe what I was seeing! It just so happens that my back yard is pretty much I-24 and we live less than 10 minutes from Murfreesboro. Then the news people said it was coming right towards us. I told the kids to get in the bathroom, I threw in some blankets and pillows then I ran to my back door to see if I could see the tornado. I was sure I would be able to, that thing was huge! I also tried calling Lindsay to tell her, since she also lives right here. She didn't answer of course. I kept watching, and calling. The kids stayed in the bathroom for quite a while. I kept watching outside and watching the news. It ended up that the tornado went to the right of us, and took a lot of Murfreesboro with it. Over 150 homes were destroyed, and a mother and baby were killed. :( I never get freaked out by storms, and don't worry about tornadoes at all, but seeing it form right in front of your eyes, and to have it be right down the street from you, is a little different. We saw some of the damage the next day. It is bad. Poor, poor people. That was a crazy day.

The next day was Avery's Birthday party. The kids were so excited. They drove me crazy all day. AJ went in the morning to pick up Avery's new bunk bed. Then after that we went mattress shopping. It was hard for them to wait all day for the party, but they were so excited about the new bed. Avery loves it, but at the same time is having trouble sleeping, and tells us it is because he is too high up. We keep offering to take it back and get him a normal bed, but he doesn't want to do that either. I told him that he would get used to it quickly and to keep giving it a try. He went from not going to sleep until 9:30 or later to 8:30 on Wednesday, and finally last night was normal. I praised him a lot today, so hopefully it goes better from now on. Here are pictures of his "new" room.





After all that, it was finally party time! We had his party at a new bouncy place in our city. It was very nice and lots of fun. The kids loved it. We call Avery our little monkey boy, and he definitely showed it. He won a little monkey head from one of those, put in a quarter and drop the claw to pick out a toy games, and he ran around holding that in front of his face the whole afternoon. Thankfully it still looks like him. ;)


During the opening presents part, Avery got all weird and un-Averylike. He seemed to get all shy and quiet. He wouldn't even smile. WEIRD! I think he was overwhelmed with sitting in the big chair and having everyone watch him. I don't know. It was kinda funny though! Oh, guess what his favorite present was?! Pajamas and underwear! Weirdo! Here are some pics from the festivities.







The next day was Easter. The Easter Bunny just happened to bring the Lego Batman Video Game. Now that is an extravagant Easter Bunny! He does NOT normally bring things like that, but he must have taken pity on our "deprived" children. Or maybe it was just a long story, consisting of two kids that have been dying for that game since before Christmas, and the 5 year old Birthday boy trying to spend all of his bday money on that one thing. Like I said, long story. They did get that game as a together gift and only candy to go along with it, so he must not be as nice as I originally thought. ;)





Busy Weekend!

The week was even busier!

Tis week was crazy at school. We had standardized testing this week. My class had testing for 2 days. Sam's class and the upper grades had testing for 4 days. Our schedules were all messed up, the days were crazy, and the kids were insane. All the teachers were ready for this week to be over! It was also report card week to top it all off. I never knew filling out report cards could be such hard work! Not only were our days busy, but we have had something going on every night this week, so I haven't even gotten home until 9:00ish or later each night. It's weird not seeing my house for that many hours! Good news though, I sold my old kitchen table. Now I can buy chairs for my new kitchen table, and I won't have a table sitting in the middle of my photography room. :)

Well, I know this was an incredibly long post with lots of pictures, so you can be done reading now. If you want to continue on, I have a few more birthday pictures to show you. :) See ya next week!

I Now Have a 5 Year Old!

Geez, time sure flew by! How can Avery be 5 already?!

Yesterday was Avery's birthday. When he woke up, he came to me and whispered, "Mommy, am I 5 now?!" It was so cute. As soon as I told him that he was, his whole face lit up with the hugest smile. Such a cute boy!


AJ is in California this week for some conference or something, so we are having his birthday party next weekend. Avery was a little confused by that, but we made yesterday extra special to make up for it.

Every year for his birthday we go to the zoo. Lindsay and her crew came along, and we enjoyed several hours there. It was the PERFECT day for it. It was about 70 degrees, the sun was bright and shiny. It was great.






After the zoo, we went to eat dinner at Red Robin. Avery got a free birthday meal. They sang to him, gave him his own sundae, and a balloon. He loved it.

We then went to a couple stores to get some supplements for their spring wardrobe. I let Avery get a shirt that I hate (I can't stand character shirts)so he was very happy. It was a long day, but fun. He loved it, he told me.

His party will be next Saturday at a new inflatable place here in Smyrna. Should be fun. He is excited for that. He is not, however, excited for the shots he has to get this year for Kindergarten. He did tell me last night that he didn't feel any bigger. I told him that even though his body wasn't bigger yet, his brain was. Now he is going around telling me all these "smart" things. :)

Avery is such a cute boy. He is totally his own little person. He is wild and wacky, which we love. He makes all of us laugh constantly. He makes up the funniest things and even entertains himself. He prefers playing by himself and making up things with his imagination. I have had several people ask me what he wants for his birthday and I have a hard time even telling them anything, because he doesn't play with much, he just makes things up. He is super smart. He is trying sooo hard to teach himself to read, and he doesn't want help. He is doing a pretty good job, too. He can't wait for Kindergarten. Sam is his very best friend and they play well most of the time. He wants a puppy so bad, and talks about it frequently. Too bad Sam is so allergic, and too bad Mommy definitely doesn't want a dog anyway. He loves Ben 10, if he plays with anything, it is usually those action figures. He also is fascinated with Smurfs all of a sudden. :) He is big on doing everything himself and learning new things all the time. He does whatever he can to figure something out. He has been watchcing the Leapfrog videos frequently, just so he can read. He sounds out all the letters and is able to spell or almost spell most easy things. He still has a really hard time reading something and sounding it out. He can't quite figure out how to make all the sounds go together. He loves the computer and can pretty much do anything on it.

He learned to ride a regular bike this year (with training wheels). He started trying to swim on his own (he will take swim lessons soon to help with that). He learned how to take a shower and wash his own hair. He stopped being afraid of the dark and sleeps with his door closed now. He wants to play baseball really bad. I just need to find a program that doesn't require 5 year olds to be there 3 or more days a week! He loves to sing, and knows words to songs better than me or Sam. He loves pouring his own drinks and opening his own packages. He is finally doing better about eating and at least trying things. I hope he keeps that up.

He is very compassionate and worries about things. He loves using his manners (after a fun Family Home Evening Lesson). He hates to get in trouble, it makes him so sad. He has started to get a little temper, but its not too bad. Mostly just funny. He is pretty good at listening to what you tell him and following directions, and usually does it the first time. He hates making mistakes and always wants to try again.

He is the bright, happy spot in our lives. No one can resist his laugh, and everyone loves how he talks and loves his little voice. People I don't even know, come up and tell me they know Avery and love him. He pretends to be shy, but really isn't. He hates hugs and kisses and does what he can to get away from them. I told him that hurt my feelings so he is better about taking it, but he makes sure to immediately wipe off any kisses. :) He is our silly, monkey boy.

Happy Birthday, Big Boy! We Love you Lots!!!