Monday, September 28, 2009

Chapped Lips




Mack's really into sucking his bottom lip. I can't wait until the winter when it will be chapped, I'm sure it will be fun for all of us.

Good Evening My Lords & Ladies


We cheered on the evil, I mean Medieval, Green Knight

Jon & I went to Medieval Times Dinner & Tournament last week. It's like going to the State Fair of Texas people watching-wise. Only better. Because there are people in costumes.

I took a lot of video and once I figure out iMovie I will put it together because there are some great clips that you do not want to miss out on. For now, I will leave you with a few pictures.


Our Master of Ceremonies strongly resembled Weird Al Yankovic



Then there's this guy.

Saturday, September 19, 2009

How do you do it on your own?

It's my first 24 hours alone with Mack.

Jon went to Granbury last night to hunt and canoe the river today with some friends. Last night I get the worst headache ever plus it's the first one I've had in over a year. Mack was a breeze, though. He did wake up at 3am which he hasn't done in weeks and after that my headache went away. We slept until 8:30am.

Mack napped from 10:30 - 1:30pm and during that time Libby had a seizure, which was almost as bad as seeing Mack in the ER. We have this medicine for her 'just in case' and I administered it orally when it was supposed to be given rectally. Only Jon knew the directions but I was in such a hurry I didn't call him until after the seizure. Two calls to the vet later & she should be okay. Can you imagine if I had to take a seizing dog and an infant to the vet? There'd be no way.

Mack wakes up from his nap with his adorable smiles and we get ready to go see my parents in Grapevine. I load up the car and all the tons of things we may or may not need (most likely won't need) and I get into the car. While mentally making plans for my lunch (Chik-Fil-A nuggets and a Diet Coke sound so good), I turn the ignition and nothing. My car is dead.

It's only 3pm, people! I've still got at least 7 hours to go and Jon is unreachable at this point because they are on the river. Did I mention I am helping host a baby shower tomorrow and I've yet to go to the grocery store? There may not be any Champagne Punch if I can't get there until late after they stop selling alcohol.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

My favorite time of day

Everyday I rush (cursing the traffic) to get home. While I love my job and the people I work with, nothing compares to my little family. Sorry 'bout it.

On the note of traffic, I have recently formed this theory that the older & more beat up the car, the worse the driver. My afternoon drive yesterday completely proved my theory was fact. Until this AM when some wannabe Trophy Wife in a BMW was going 12 in a school zone. Twelve! I'm all for safety first but seriously?

Back to me - I rush home everyday and scoop up Mack to give him hugs and kisses. By the time I get home around 5:30 he is ready for a cat nap. This is my favorite part of the day. We crawl into my bed or the guest bed and face each other on our sides. Sometimes Mack nurses and sometimes he doesn't but we alway look into each other's eyes until we both fall asleep.

About 30 minutes later we are both up - Mack with a smile on his face and moving and grooving his arms and legs.

Here's a picture I took yesterday during our cat nap with my iPhone. Jon said that is Mack's best outfit because 1. It is sleeveless and we all know how sweet sleeveless shirts are. 2. It is Home Depot Orange and 3. There is a Brown Bear on it and Kimber is our Brown Bear.

Sunday, September 13, 2009

First Cowgirls Game

Mack watching the Cowgirls play Tampa Bay.
What do you call 32 Tampa Bay fans in one room? A full set of teeth!

Mack's favorite Cowboy is Jason Whitten. His least favorite is Tony Romo.


GO!


Go, Go, GO!!!!!


TOUCHDOWN!!!!

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Mack as J.P. Prewiit from Zoolander


Once the ER nurses got Mack's IV in, they cover it up like J.P. Prewitt's hand in Zoolander.
It was sad but cute when Mack would raise his left hand to try to suck on it and couldn't.

Mack Benjamin and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

So far there's been nothing to test our parenting instincts like this past week.

Labor Day weekend we had a blast when some old friends were in town with their one year old daughter. We spent all weekend with the Lavenders and Prestons (we all got married around the same time and then all had babies within the last year). Mack was excellent all weekend and will have a hard time choosing who to date first - Eleanor Lavender or Lily Preston. Although Lily Preston is already passing out kisses so why buy the cow when you can have the milk for free, right?

On Sunday I thought Mack felt warm but never took his temp - he had also been sleeping tons, slept all night and then 6:30am - 1:00 pm and then like 2pm - 7pm and then again all night. On Monday, he continued to sleep like that and I took his temp around noon and it was 101.2. I gave him some tylenol and that brought it down to 99.8 for a while and then it went back up to 101. Monday night I called the nurse line and she called the on-call pedi who said if the temp goes back up over 100.4 to call him and he would meet me in the office otherwise make an appt. for Tues. His temp continued to stay around 99.8. The only other behavior change is that when he is fussy he acts in pain - body turns red, screaming bloody murder. It was worse than Mack's colic.

On Tues, I couldn't get in to the pedi until 2pm so my mom came to keep Mack - his temp is still about 99.5-99.8. His only symptoms are the fever and sleeping - no runnynose or anything. So we actually see a different pedi in the group who examines him and is concerned that she can't feel his soft spot on his head. At first she's just like, "hmmm, keep a watch on this and bring it up at his 4 mo. wellness." Then she decides to get the opinion of another pedi who comes in and examines him. They leave and shut the door and I tell my mom, "she didn't say anything about his head - this is not good news." They come back and say we need to go straight to Children's because they are concerned that he could have meningitis. What happens with meningitis is that fluid gets in the brain and puts pressure on it -causing a fever and pain (thus the screaming).

So of course I am crying, we have friends whose son had viral meningitis and they had told us about their hospital visit & how horrible it was. Plus, I feel so third world country! Who gets meningitis? Well, apparently a lot of babies. I could not believe that a fever in an infant would be such a cause for concern that we would have to go to the ER.

Anyways, my mom was crying, too - we were probably not in the best shape to drive but I got us to Children's where of course all our family shows up. Jon and I both have amazing support systems through our families. We gather with family for everything and this was no exception. I'm so glad they came to just be there and keep us focused on what we needed to do. We are now parents ourselves yet we still needed our parents.

Mack totally went through the wringer - they had to do x-rays, 3 IV pricks (couldn't get any blood out of his veins), 2 catheters (couldn't get any urine the first time) and then a spinal tap. Jon & I had to hold him down for everything but the spinal tap - it was the worst thing ever. I would have done anything to keep Mack from going through that if it was possible. I just kept thinking in the back of my head, "He won't remember it, it'll be okay." Our family in the waiting room was probably about 50 yards away from his ER room and said they could hear him screaming the whole time. We opted not to stay in for the spinal tap and the doctor said Mack actually fell asleep during it.

So everything came back clear and still no real reason for the fever. They gave him antibiotics via IV and tylenol for fever - while we were there his fever came back to 101.8. They concluded that his head was probably just calcifying as normal but with the fever could only be 100% sure it wasn't something else unless they did the spinal tap.

Today he had another warm temp at Bon Bon's (his child care provider) - 100.0. I came home and he went straight to bed, I had to wake him up for a bath and bottle. The pedi's office is going to know us very well.