fifths disease: Ocak 2013

3 Ocak 2013 Perşembe

I'm Back and I'm In Love :)

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Yep, you heard me right. I'm back (temporarily, anyway) and IN LOVE!!

With this little guy:

This photo was taken about an hour after he was born, and though he doesn't quite look like that anymore, this is still one of my favorite photos of my baby boy. It reminds me of our very first meeting: those pinch-worthy plump cheeks, swollen eyes smeared with antibiotic ointment, and his messy black hair standing up in clumps and spikes. Gorgeousness! Despite being a little over 9 pounds (9 freaking pounds!!!), the delivery went well and was actually the easiest one yet. Imagine that.

The labor part, on the other hand, was an entirely different story. One that involved a dangerously high fever (mine), and a horrendous bacterial infection (still mine) that threatened my sweet little boy's health. Thanks to the excellent care of the doctors and nurses and the NICU team, we were able to weather the infection and go home after a couple of days at the hospital.

Sooooo...that's where I've been lately. Navigating the unpredictable waters of motherhood once again. I swear the longest uninterrupted sleep I've ever had was a whole hour. But I'm still in love, and I'm guessing will be in love forever. My kids--all three of them--bring so much wonder and love and joy to me. Every time I look at them I feel overwhelmingly grateful. I know I'm gushy and probably extra so because of the hormones, but it's true. *grabs Kleenex tissues*

Anyway, I'll probably continue to be sporadic with the blog. Thank you so much to all of you for your support and friendship and camaraderie. <3

Before I forget, a blogger friend interviewed me a few weeks ago and the post actually went live yesterday but I was walking around like a zombie I didn't get to it. So here's the link, if you care to read about my writerly odyssey:

Amy Trueblood's Chasing the Crazies Blog
Thanks for the spotlight, Amy! :)
Have a lovely rest of the week, everyone! I'm off to cuddle my little guy... :D

Children's Health Insurance Toolkit

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Children's Health Insurance: Tools to Advance Enrollment and Retention Efforts is a tool developed by Insure Kids Now to assist organizations in increasing awareness and understanding of children's health insurance programs.

It was also designed to assist organizations in encouraging eligible parents and guardians to apply for coverage on behalf of their uninsured children. The toolkit includes how-to information, as well as customizable materials. The kit will be updated and expanded as successful strategies and practices emerge.

This tool is available at http://www.insurekidsnow.gov/professionals/toolkit/toolkit.html.

Nurse Donna

Happy Mother's Day

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It is Mother's Day and I woke to wonderful gifts from my daughters, a book and a beautiful mobile of ribbon, Shrink Art, beads and fabric flower petals. The gift of creativity is very much intact. My best gift is the progress we've made in our fights against Lyme.

Lyme disease is tough. The fatigue, joint pain, headaches, cognitive and neurological challenges wear you down. For a mother with Lyme, the challenge can be especially emotional if you're not able to do all you would like. From reading to playing, cleaning to cooking dinner, all have taken a hit at one time or another; most daily. And for those of us who have passed this disease unknowingly to our children in utero, it can be especially heart wrenching as we watch our children face the challenges of this disease on their own. From their tenuous beginnings as preemies, to their own daily physical, cognitive and emotional challenges, it breaks our hearts. I know. Both of our daughters have been fighting this disease since before they were born. It is all they've ever known.

A doctor once said, "We would never wish something like this on a child, but kids that endure grow to be pretty special adults."

We have seen this in our daughters' perseverance, compassion and zest for life. Just last week, our youngest strapped on her roller blades and helmet, grabbed a bag of dog treats and our Border Collie's harness, tossed a treat down the hall and held on for the ride of her life! As we rescued the dog, we applauded her tenacity, her love of life.

And so today, we celebrate all of the amazing women who have touched our lives and the lives of our children. Our inspirations each and every day! Wishing you much love and joy this Mother's Day!

What Does It Mean When My Dog's Nose Is Chapped

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Rise Against - Endgame (2011)

Endgame is the sixth studio work training Rise Against . An album that has re-recorded in the studies The Blasting Room with two of the most famous and respected producers of the punk rock scene: Bill Stevenson and Jason Livermore . Stevenson, and a member of Descendents or Black Flag, has produced such important bands in the world of punk rock as All , Lagwagon, Good Riddance , Propagandhi, NOFX and so on , while Livermore has found his expertise as a sound engineer on albums like Everything Sucks Descendents ; Let's Talk About Feelings Lagwagon ; or Operation Phoenix Good Riddance. Viewing Stevenson and Livermore history is not surprising that their relationship with Rise Against spread since 2003 came into Revolutions Per Minute . Subsequently, in Chicago have returned to work with the duo both The Surffered & The Witness [2006], Appel to Reason [2008] and in this Endgame. With Endgame, Rise Against certify that the band are more fit inside panorama punk rock / melodic hardcore today. In recent years there have been many bands of this genre that have taken over the wall that separates them from the public. As a good example of this growing popularity cite his recent visits to Spain have resulted in 'sold-out'. And listening to Rise Against discs you understand perfectly how they have achieved a significant popularity both inside and outside the punk rock scene. They have done the same values \u200b\u200bthat were large for some groups during the 90's. Ie incontestable billing records where the power does not decrease despite being polished, molded, with excellent melodies. formation Chicago mix perfectly authentic lashes of punk rock, as Architects "," Help Is On The Way "," Survivor Guilt "" A Gentlemen's Coup "," Satellite "or the work's title, with others where without losing their aggressiveness, exploit their most melodic. As the voices of children " Make It Stop "Choirs that are omnipresent in all his compositions; occasional ballad like" Wait for Me "or the great variety of records vocalist James McLlrath .

Rating: 7.5 / 10

Text: Carlos AS Group: Rise Against
Title: Endgame
Label: DGC Records / Interescope
Publication Date: March 11, 2011 Hometown
. Chicago, USA.
More information: Web / MySpace / Facebook / Twitter Listen 'End Game ' Rise Against in Spotify Listing of songs: 01. Architects
02. Help Is on the Way
03. Make It Stop (September's Children)
04. Disparity by Design
05. Satellite
06. Hands
Midnight 07. Survivor Guilt
08. Broken Mirrors
09. Wait for Me
10. A Gentlemen's Coup
11. This Is Letting Go
12. Endgame

Musicopolis - Rise Agains "Endgame"

Fifth's Disease

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Early early on Sunday morning Parker woke up complaining of his tummy hurting. I took him to the bathroom and before I knew it, he was throwing up. My poor sweetie pie looked miserable and felt warm. So, we cleaned him up, gave him some tylenol and rocked in the recliner until he drifted back to sleep. He slept for several hours and was still warm and very tired the rest of the day. On Monday, he still had a fever and pretty much didn't move off the couch except to nap. And he wanted no part in food. This was totally not like our wild crazy boy. Even though his fever broke sometime between Monday night and Tuesday morning, we kept him home from preschool.

On Tuesday we noticed that his cheeks were remaining a rosy color, almost as if the were chapped. He still slept and/or lounged all day. By later afternoon his rosy cheeks turned bright red, as if they were burned. I put in a call to his pediatrician and scheduled an appointment for the next morning.

Our sweetie pie was still the most calm I had ever seen him on Wednesday morning, opting to cuddle and sleep the morning away. I goggled "bright red cheeks" and Fifth's Disease came up in the search results. It certainly fit his symptoms. So we headed on it to the doctor and it looks like goggle was right. It was Fifth's Disease alright. Fifth's Disease is a virus that can start with a fever and have symptoms of a cold. It then gives you bright red rash cheeks and the rash can spread to your arms and chest presenting as a lacy type of rash.

We kept Parker home for the rest of the week and he slowly gained his strength back. By Saturday, our wild and crazy kid was back. He still has a pink rash on his cheeks, but it looks a hundred times better than before.

2 Ocak 2013 Çarşamba

Christmas Eve

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Christmas Eve came a little too quickly this year. I had most of our shopping done, but my parents were in town and my dad had not had any time to buy presents because of his recent change in location and job.
My mom and dad had already helped us with the garage, so Chance and I decided to brave the mall on Christmas Eve and show them around.

I entertained Chance on the carousel again while my parents hit up the department stores.

They were suckers for the last minute sales and I'm pretty sure that they gave all of their spare change to let Chance play in the coin fountain.

We took a break from shopping just long enough to take in the sights at Red Rocks and to stop in Morrison for some lunch.

Then it was back to the mall again. Where this time, I decided to risk it and let Chance try the trampoline that he has been pointing to and asking for every time we walk by.

I thought as soon as I let him try it that he would start to cry...I'm not trying to sell my kid short...I just remember that he was terrified of Santa.

The trampoline turned out to be the opposite of Santa! My camera was really blurry on all of the shots but can you see how big his smile is? He did a great job!

Chance actually got really high! He is going to be such a dare devil!

With all of our shopping done and being out all day, we decided to relax at home for the night and make dinner together as a family.
Chance loves helping set the table. He gets so excited when I set plates of food on the table that he runs to his seat and yells "WOW...let's eat"!

I had so much fun making chicken tortilla soup and caramel apple cider with my mom.

Chance barely even knows I'm home when Grandpa is around to play!

My mom and dad took over all of the bed time duties for Chance. It was so fun to watch them get Chance ready for bed.

It's not every day that Chance gets to have his Grandparents around to show them all of his bath toys and how he can brush his own teeth.

Chance had a blast showing Grandma his tricks on the pull up bar. He is such a monkey!

I bought this book about the story of Jesus to read to Chance every year on Christmas Eve.

After story time, we put Chance to bed and started working on helping Santa put together all of Chance's toys.

Max was a very cautious father and made sure to test out all of the toys before giving them to Chance...for safety of course!

I could not have asked for a more relaxing Christmas Eve. It was great to be at home with family.

Christmas Day

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This was our first Christmas at home with Chance. It was so much fun to open presents and spend the day playing with all of our new toys.

We got lucky and woke up to a WHITE CHRISTMAS! We made hot chocolate and cuddled while watching cartoons for a while.

Max carried Chance downstairs and wanted me to take pictures of Chance's reaction to his wagon from Grandma and Grandpa Lehman.

He LOVED it and insisted on sitting in it for most of the rest of the day :)

Max opened up his present next and quickly learned why I hadn't rushed out to buy him a coffee pot since Chance had broken his a few days earlier...

My parents were able to join us for a while on Christmas morning before they left for my grandparents in Nebraska.

It was definitely fun to watch how excited Chance was about every gift!

We hugged my parents goodbye around lunch time and sent them off with their new winter gear to keep them warm in Iowa ;)

We spent the rest of the day playing with Chance, putting together toys, and preparing a prime rib dinner.

Aaron Cook and his parents came over for the day to join us for dinner and to spend time relaxing with us.
We all had fun playing with Chance

Cook did an AMAZING job on the prime rib and dinner was a total success.

Nick even flew in on Christmas night to join us for dinner and to give Chance his Christmas present. It was perfect to end the day with all of my boys at home.
Hope you all had a Merry Christmas!
xo

Chance's 2nd Birthday

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We can not believe that Chance is 2!!!
We celebrated Chance's second birthday with just the three of us at home.

I felt a little guilty about planning so much for Christmas dinner that I forgot to order Chance a cake. I took Chance to the store with me on his birthday and explained to him that we needed to wait patiently in line so that we could order him a birthday cake at the bakery. I was looking through the options when Chance tugged on my leg and repeated "all done, all done".
I explained to Chance that we were not all done and that we needed to wait in line. It wasn't until Chance pointed to our cart and said, "Mickey cake" that I noticed that Chance had already selected a cake from the bakery and put it in the passenger seat of his shopping car cart.
I apologized to Chance, asked if he wanted the Mickey cake, and off we went. All done...