Today is a gift,thats why its called the present: April 2012

Sunday, April 29, 2012

Laughing Sunday

So, I'm sitting on my lovely iPhone checking out Facebook when I come across the most amazing, my local Meijer ( cascade and 28th street for all you locals) had the best marketing idea to date. Don't even try to tell me that you don't love it, cause I do! LOL!
Pre made summer sipping blender drinks with liquor.

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Day off from school and skintastic fun

So, today was Landricks appointment with his new dermatologist, and he was a riot! HOLY MOSES! Landrick as awesome, and so was the new doc! Total 360 from the other office... Im still in shock. I will try and keep this post short and sweet. Landrick did great, showed the doc his belly, and legs, and arms. Diagnosis: Mollescum Contagiousm or Mollescum for short. Now, when you read about it, it sounds kinda scary, until you keep reading. This is a very common issue with children ages 1-10... so all the times I have seen little kids with these bumps on the face, or head, or arms... yea this is I am sure, what it was. Now, looking at the photos online is enough to scare the bejesus out of anyone! Landrick, thank goodness, does not have it as bad as what the photos online show. He has three spots. One on his tummy near the mid chest, one on his right rib-cage, and one in the arm pit area. His are the size of pin heads, but he did have one on his chest about a month back that was just growing and was pretty painful and red. It did pop, of course back then we didn't know what it was, I thought at first it was a little pimple like thing.. .nope. It was this. We have a special gel that we will be getting tmrw from the pharmacy to put on it for the next 10-12 weeks, however, due to the fact that what it does, is it dries the spots up and attacks the virus so that it goes away, since they can break open easier, Landrick can not swim ( or takes baths with his cousins if he goes to spend the night) in pools or public areas as a precaution for two reasons: 1- he could spread it and 2- if his is gone, and someone else has the virus untreated, and his are healing, he could get it, again! And that is the last thing that I want is to deal with this again. Once his treatment is done, and the spots are healed over, he is good to go, so that should be JUST in time for summer! :) With as small as his spots are ( more pinhead size) his dermatologist thinks that chance are we wont have to do the whole 10-12 weeks. As long as no fluid is in the spots and they become flush with the skin and are healed over, he is ok. We have to do the gel for three days on, four days off, each week and just see how it goes. If it takes the whole 12 weeks then it does. The biggest thing is we dont want him itching and being grumpy when it gets bad :(

Speaking of itchy, the most common skim ailment that adults and kids alike, myself included seem to be increasing these days, is atopic dermatitis, or Eczema

Eczema is term for a group of medical conditions that cause the skin to become inflamed or irritated. The most common type of eczema is known as atopic dermatitis, or atopic eczema. Atopic refers to a group of diseases with an often inherited tendency to develop other allergic conditions, such as asthma and hay fever.Eczema affects about 10% to 20% of infants and about 3% of adults and children in the U.S. Most infants who develop the condition outgrow it by their tenth birthday, while some people continue to experience symptoms on and off throughout life. With proper treatment, the disease can be controlled in the majority of sufferers

SO.... with that said... Yup, Landrick, my lovely Landrick.. you have your momma's skin ( and asthma)... sorry kiddo :/ Now, since hes young, and I am, well... old I guess, they did give him a steroid topical cream similar to mine, just not nearly as strong. ( mines one of the strongest out there!) We need to use it as needed after bath time as well as keep his skim moisturized, so its going to be stocking up on more Cetaphil products and trying out some of the sample over the counter sunscreens for this summer. Hoping for no more ordering prescription sunscreen!

Well, thats all for our wonderful Thursday shenanigans. :) Was not too bad if I do say so myself! he got to ditch school cause hes still feeling kinda crud like from being sick, but the good news is we got pizza for dinner :)

-Heather

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Rocpehin and Pamprin: We needed both in our house today!

Well, whats new.. Hmm Landrick is sick. He went Sunday night to spend the night with his cousin, JJ aka- Jaiden and My sister called me saying he was being naughty... so talked to him and he was ok the rest of the night. Then when she brought him back home Monday morning, she reported he was being naughty and yelling at her AGAIN! Well, he went to school and by the time he got home, he couldn't breath very well, was coughing extremely hard, and sounded awful! On top of that was a little more than just "moody". This kid needed a Pamprin and a therapist, cause whatever was going on, I couldn't even LOOK at him without getting the stink eye :( Got his asthma meds in him, some Jr. Advil, and he went to bed SUPER early, on his own mind you and in his bed.... he slept a good 12 hours ( not like him, not that long anyhow). When he woke up today he sounded even worse... goodness gracious! Really? Called his amazing doctor, got him in and wouldn't you know.. kids got ANOTHER... Sinus Infection, Severe Ear Infection and Upper Respiratory Infection. He was so good, until we had to talk medications... that was a whole other ball game.

Thanks to the doctor from his first Dermatology appointment( I will save that story for another day...egh!) hes been SO freaked out by going to the doctors, after I, and his dad, have worked SO hard at instilling trust with him to his doctors... he got SO upset. We tried to give him the choice today, do you want medicine to take every day in a cup or do you want to get a shot in the leg.... well of course he didn't want either, I don't blame him! Stuff by mouth tastes horrible and well, getting a Rocephin shot, is not fun at all. He was just a hot mess, so to make things better for him faster, and to keep me from going cray-cray( aka- crazy) We decided holding him on the table for less than a minute would be best, of course he screamed, and then I had to try and calm him down. That process takes at least 30 minutes if not longer when we have to have "the shot." So, now I have an even more upset, cranky and still moody kiddo that cant walk. Since its given in a muscle or through IV, his upper left thigh is a nice, hot, Hematoma mess :( Its almost 11pm, hes finally fallen sleep on the couch, and the swelling in his legs gone down a little bit. He really hasn't had a huge appetite but that's pretty common. And since he doesn't have a voice and his throat does hurt, I'm not surprised in the least bit that all hes wanted was his good ole' peanut butter sandwich and "snacks" today.

Here is to hoping that tomorrow morning is a bit better and smoother. We have his new dermatologist that we are going to see in the early afternoon and then right back home. Another day of rest is in order, mostly cause I say so and I don't want him to over do it :) I think the skin docs visit will be exciting enough for us!

Good Night All!
-Heather

Saturday, April 21, 2012

Reporting home, Potty training magic, and owners of a 4 year old

Ok- So I promised that I would be blogging more.. yea that kinda has been put on the back burner, till now anyhow! :) SO much has happened in such a short time, where to start... where to start... LOL

1- Adams back "home"- aka, Fort Drum, NY. His deployment is over, thank god above! That was a rough year. Not that this ones going to be any easier, as we are still in Michigan and he will be living in NY. He has a pretty nice place, but its a drive so... we applied for post housing. The wait is INSANELY long.... but the list is at least moving. I would love to have Adam live on post, we might be able to move/ stay for at least 6 months in the mean time, like the summer till school starts again for Landrick. And Adam would be able to sleep in for at least an extra hour each day and not drive but maybe 8 minutes over almost 30-40 depending on traffic on the roads and at the gates to get onto post... we shall see.

2- Speaking of school, most of you know, this was landricks first year of preschool, and O.M.G! How hes totally just BLOOMED into this chatty talking little man-child-character! He love his cars still, chats and talks to me, his "babies"/ stuffed animals, asks TONS of questions and recognizes a TON of stuff! We are working on writing his name and the alphabet. His teachers just love him. They say that hes a great kid, and have not had any issues with him, that's always a plus as a parent to hear, to know that your kids not the naughty one :)

3- One HUGE hurdle that every parent(s) want as their child grows, is to POTTY TRAIN, POTTY TRAIN, POTTY TRAIN!!!! We have struggled so much I feel with this... basically till dad got home from deployment and came back to Michigan ( and yes, it did snow while he was here LOL) Landrick was SO terrified of underwear... Yes UNDERWEAR! He did NOT want to put those on for whatever reason! My sister saw first hand how that went over... and she was like HOLY COW! LOL Yea, so when dad got here, there was some crying, some being defiant, but all of a sudden... BOOM! He like, woke up one day and it was like he was saying" haha- Ive known all along how to go potty, see...!" He went pee pee AND put big boy undies on within two days, but not only that... he went poop too! On the potty... can ya believe it?!?!? This is a kid that we have tried to do this on and off with zero success for almost two years! Peeing is one thing, but to pee AND learn how to poop on the potty just over night, totally unheard of right?! I am still in shock, and dad put his pull-up/diaper things in the closet JUST IN-CASE.. I mean yea, ya never know but POOP AND PEE! It was like a miracle! a- its going to save us so much money just not having to buy diapers or pull-ups but, b- so much better, less mess, less trash, and less hassle!

If I have learned ANYTHING with raising Landrick, its that every parent obviously has their own opinions, and its up to you if you listen to them. I'm here to tell you, when everyone puts their "two-cents" in and says things like " oh start them early, or they never will understand" or, my favorite " trust me, I've done this 5-6-7 times, the earlier the better." Its not about how early you start them... its about how YOU as a parent teach them and there is no right OR wrong way to potty train. You can try everything the books and you-tube videos tell you, but when it comes down to it, Do the 3-P's: be pepersistent, have patience, and practice! When they are ready, they will clearly let you know... cause I'm still in shock and its been two whole weeks, and NO ACCIDENTS! I know, insane right?!?!?! :) I will tell you, I have never been so proud of him! Now, a few things that we started while trying this potty thing while dad was home, and its very simple and pretty cheap, I went to Joann Fabrics and got the following items: 1- empty calendar block chart; 1- package of character stickers; one package of dumdum suckers ( Landrick loves suckers!) Sun-Sat should be already marked out on the chart, if not, mark it. Then, whatever day you start mark it with a 1 then next block, 2 etc... till all the blocks are marked out in order for about 30 days. Each time that Landrick went potty on the potty, he got one sticker ( Captain America, Transformer or Toy Story cause those are his favs.) and then he got to pick out ONE sucker... ALWAYS make sure you stick to your guns with ONE sucker/candy/treat. This was perfect for him, we hung it on the wall in the dinning room at his eye level. Our dinning room is kinda between the bathroom and living-room so it was the perfect spot. And that was all there was to that. SO glad this chapter is over and we can move onto other things :)

4- Roger and Kaycee the pug are doing great as always, still being lazy, still being crazy and still being... well, dogs. :)

There is more, I just can't think right now, and its after 2am... so I am going to call it a night, but in the mean time, enjoy these pics!

-Heather
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