Drew's "Nini"... or is it "Noni"

Ms. Stephanie is one of the "in" people as far as Drew's concerned. For a while now he's had a bit of stranger anxiety, but Ms. Stephanie has been a daily part of Drew's life since he was 4 months old. That's when she began watching him during the work week.

Drew has many names for Ms. Stephanie - "Ms. Stephy", "Nini" & "Noni", but doesn't "Ms. Stephy" take cute pictures??

You may recall Drew had developed a bath-phobia, roughly around the 1 year mark - and it lasted about 6 months!

I mentioned this phobia to Ms. Stephanie a few months back, and I'm convinced she single handedly turned that around! This picture is from when Drew was 18 months old, and one of his first baths at her house that put him "back in the saddle". I suppose it helps that she has 2 boys that can keep him company in the bath.. and calm his nerves. He now loves the bath!

Going, Going, Gone

Daddy had Drew day care duty on Friday since he was still contagious until lunchtime and couldn't return to Ms. Stephanie's. So rather than torturing everyone we kept him home.

It's no surprise that Drew is a stinker when it comes to naptime and bedtime. While in Daddy's care he finally succumbed to sleep while snacking on some fruit loops and watching a movie - on the floor!

Dave said he slept like this for about an hour - right on the living room floor. Guess all the extra food in the past 24 hours sent him into a food coma (he hasn't eaten much since Monday night).

Hey we'll take his eating and sleeping however and wherever we can!

Good news, he's cleared to return to day care on Monday.

Quarantine Lifted

At noon today the quarantine will be lifted - WooHoo! But that still means we have to keep him home from day care, as Hand, Foot, Mouth Disease is contagious for 24 hours after the fever breaks. His temperature was significantly less when Drew woke up on Thursday.

It did appear to be climbing some throughout the morning (he had the nerve to wake up at 4:30am), but by lunchtime he was completely normal. He remained normal the remainder of the day. There are still a few signs that his throat is bothering him, but for the most part he's improving.

So how do you like the makeshift bed? My co-worker Rachael let us borrow this really cool kids inflatable bed/sleeping bag. At first Drew didn't know what to make of it, but finally I managed to get him to enjoy his juice in it. Now if he would only fall asleep here, rather than our bed....

Perhaps there's hope of that now that he's feeling better.

Baby's Friend

Drew's friend "Baby" has some competition. Meet "Baby".

That's right, his Prayer Bear is facing some competition from the other "baby", the precious moments doll. It's really quite adorable to see him cuddle with his two friends.

They both say prayers and I think he loves the fact that the toys talk to him. He's really cuddling them at night, and they both came to day care with him last week. Of course he walked in the door at Ms. Stephanie's and he tossed them aside for the much more appealing toys at her house.

But really it's interesting to see him interact with them, giving them hugs and kisses and talking to them. He's really starting to get quite the imagination.

Dodger Dog has made a comeback though - his longtime favorite friend. We'll see if we can capture that reunion one of these days.

***illness update... Fever appears to be breaking this morning... however he needs to be fever free for 24 hours to go back to day care. Dave & I are taking turns staying home with him and adjusting our work schedules accordingly. It was a rough evening last night, fever was still in the 101.5 range, but he seemed to be having a harder time with it. Not to mention he's having trouble sleeping (up this morning at 4:30am) and eating... Poor thing.

Quarantined

On Monday night I picked Drew up from day care and he fell asleep in the car (he's apparently on another nap boycott). We easily made the transfer from the car seat to our bed so he could continue his nap.

He woke up absolutely miserable! He felt warm, and so I checked his temp... 101.5. So I gave him some Tylenol to bring it down, and made a call to Grammy to put her on standby that we may need her to keep an eye on Drew on Tuesday (Mommy & Daddy had meetings we couldn't miss).

Later that night, Drew & I fell asleep in my bed and around 11pm I woke up feeling nothing but heat coming from my bed-mate. The fever climbed to 103. Last time this happened Drew had Roseola and we panicked and went to ER. This time the much more experienced Mom in me decided to give him a dose of Motrin and wait for the Pediatrician to open the next morning.

Grammy arrived and helped us out tremendously by taking Drew to the Dr. One look inside his mouth, and another temperature reading (102+), and the diagnosis was clear... Hand, Foot & Mouth Disease. LOVELY! He's now quarantined to our house until the fever breaks in 3-4 days, and his mouth is filled with sores, that will likely spread to his tongue and beyond. Right now they're contained to the back of his throat.

So we're home-bound and Daddy & Mommy are rotating who's on "Drew Duty". Hopefully he'll be well enough to go back to Ms. Stephanie's by Thursday or Friday.

We're not clear where he picked it up, but suspicious about the kiddie pool we visited over the weekend or perhaps from a grocery cart (although we are good about still using the cart cover), but anything's possible. At this point it no longer matters... now just to cross our fingers that no one else at day care comes down with it....

So There's No Confusion about Loyalty...

Just so there's no confusion about where Daddy & Drew's loyalties lie in the baseball world... here's a picture from this weekend. It was a "big game" between the Dodgers and Cubs, and I dressed Drew in some Dodger Blue. Daddy then had to follow suit, while we hit a few garage sales.

You may recall we let Uncle Matt have access to Drew while we weren't there and it lead to a temporary insanity by Drew. Click here if you forget what I mean...

Oh and yes, we're well aware we're going to hear from our Pastor about the Dodger's performance against the Cubs. But hey, my boys are true fans and will support their team through all ups and downs.

Pooltime, BBQ, & Friends - The Good Life

The best part of summertime has to be the pool parties, BBQ's and friends! That's exactly what we did this past Sunday. After naptime we joined my friend Lisa and her family at the neighborhood pool. There were probably 20-25 of us relaxing in the pool and just enjoying everyone's company.

Drew managed to get some time in the kiddie pool, while the older kids played football, baseball and swam in the bigger pool.

Drew's buddy Mason (Ms. Stephanie's oldest son) was happily hanging out with Drew for dessert - chocolate chip cookies.


Drew of course can't forget his other best bud - Troy, who's Ms. Stephanie's youngest and is 9 months older than Drew.

The kiddie pool was pretty cool, with little fountains of water coming out the side of the pool. I guess Troy thought you may need to do some snorkeling in the fountains...

It was a nice day, but we can't wait to go back when it's even warmer out. Thanks for a great afternoon Lisa!