Fun Times!!!

A good time was had by all at the circus. My little buddy Miles (my nephew) came down with a bug a couple days before so we almost didn't go but he was doing much better after being put on his antibiotics and all he kept talking about was the circus so we ended up going and the boys did great and had a fun time despite the fact that the show was over 2 1/2 hours long. We went early to get our tickets and then went to the mall for a while and walked around and had some dinner. We took the boys on the merry-go-round. This was Caleb's first ride and he was scared to death once it started moving and was climbing off the horse so I had to just hold him most of the ride.


Before the show started they had a bunch of animals out for the kids to look at and touch if they wanted. Of course our boys wanted to touch them. Caleb was amazed by the Llamas and thought they were funny. These things just stuck their heads right out in the crowd looking for food. Caleb got head butted by one and couldn't stop laughing. Then he proceeded to want to grab it and touch it's teeth. Yea, he's got this feddish with teeth now that he's got his own and look at the teeth on that thing. You can see why he was amused.
Then we headed over to the pen where the goats were and these things were CRAZY!!! The were running around and fighting and making all kinds of noise. You would've thought the boys would be scared but nope...........they loved them too. Caleb just sat there hanging on the fence watching in awe and Miles was telling them "Go, Fight" and putting his hands out for them to lick. I tell you, these two kids were fun to watch.

Then we headed in to find our seats and my sister Kelly was craving a snow cone and guess who wanted it once he saw that thing......yep, my little man. Check out the picture of him taking a bite of his first snow cone. Too cute!!!

Caleb fell asleep during intermission and we were going to leave but decided to stick around cuz I knew the elephants were going to be coming out and I really wanted to see those things. I don't know why but they just amuse me. They are so huge it's kinda scary. So we hung around til the end and Caleb woke up just as the elephants were coming out so he got to see the best part of the show. We didn't get home until 10:30pm and boy was he pooped. He slept til after 9:00 the next morning and took a 3 1/2 hour nap until his dad woke him up to see his visitors (Josh's brothers were over and they don't see him much).

We got Caleb's blood test results back and for the most part everything looks good. They will recheck a few of them in a month at his 9 month check up. In the meantime I've been talking with a pediatric nutritionist getting ideas of things we can do different to put some pounds on him. For now we are documenting everything he's intaking and trying to get 800 calories a day in him by adding more powder to his formula and she told me to start adding some things to his food that are more fattening like oil. Sounds pretty gross. If anybody has any ideas that seem more appetizing please feel free to share. Last night I decided to feed him some frozen sweet corn that I steamed and ground up and then I even added some butter to it figuring that would taste good to him. Well he wasn't really a fan of the corn and then after the fact I read that kids shouldn't have corn until they are 18 months old because it can be tough on their digestive system. So, I've failed again. I'm a bit frustrated right now and am ready to take my kid into this nutritionist to have her just tell me exactly what to feed my child.

Once again, I've written a book. Sorry!! I will leave you with these 2 pictures of these little boys that are my pride and joy.

I love these guys!!!!

Til next time - Erin

I Love Hats!!!!

Ok, so I think I'm a bit obsessed with hats. I just love them!!! And Caleb doesn't mind them either. For the most part when you put one on his head, he will keep it on. As you can see we've got lots of them. We were in his room a few days ago going through clothes, hats, shoes and all the stuff that is either too small or things we don't use anymore that can now be put away. I must admit it was kind of sad to put away some of my favorite things. There are so many outfits that I just loved and he really only wore them a couple times. We even found a few that he never got to wear. Anyway, I decided to go through his basket of hats and put each one on his head and take a picture. He thought it was pretty funny and was a good sport about it. So, here are a few pictures to enjoy of him and his hats.

The little man has been in good health for the past couple weeks now so that's good. We did have a not so great visit to the doctor again today though. We had a visit scheduled just with the nurse today for a weight check and when I put him on the scale he only weighed 14.11 pounds which is only an ounce more than he weighed 2 weeks ago and he's only gained a little over a pound in 2 months so the nurse decided to go chat with Caleb's doctor. She came back and said that the doctor wanted to see us so we waited around to get in to see his doctor. The doctor came in and showed
me the growth curve and where Caleb is on it and each time he has slowly moved further and further away from it so at this point the doctor seems a little more concerned and thought it was a good idea to start looking into some other things and trying something different. So first he sent us over to the lab to have blood drawn from my little man to check liver, kidney and thyroid functions. Oh boy was that miserable. What a horrible thing to have to hold your child down so he can get a needle stuck in his arm. I just cried right along with him. I felt awful!! He was a trooper though.

After they were all done he stopped crying pretty much immediately and put his big smile back on. Those dimples and smile of his sure make everything all better. Then we went back in to talk more with the doctor and at this point he is thinking the best thing to do will be to suppliment 3 formula feedings a day with pediasure and cut back to 2 solid meals a day. He has put a call into a dietician at the Childrens hospital to see if this is good or to get further advice. He keeps trying to reassure me that my boy is probably just going to be one of those petite kids that catch up later in life but he feels we still need to look at other things at this point and make sure everything else is normal.

So, at this point I have to just think positive thoughts and pray that all the tests come back normal and that this is the way my baby is going to grow and just be little.

Otherwise, things have been going good. We've been keeping busy and Josh is getting ready to leave for Canada this weekend for a week so we will miss him but at least I have my other little buddy to keep me company now. It gets kind of lonely when your home all alone. My sister and I are taking the boys to the Circus tomorrow night so I'm looking forward to that. Hopefully it will be better than our adventure to the TPT 50th reunion. I think the boys will have a blast.



I hope everyone has a great weekend and pray for normal results for Caleb's blood tests please.

Lots of love, Erin

Another Week Of Madness

Ok, so the pictures below were suppose to go with this post but I accidently posted them without my journal entry. Last week was another week full of stress. Just when I thought Caleb was back to good health he came down with another bug. Tuesday morning I got him up to get ready to go to daycare and noticed he was blazin' hot. I took his temp and it was 101.5. I then noticed his first tooth finally poked through the gums. So, I gave him some motrin and on our way we went to daycare. When we arrived his daycare provider tells me 2 of the kids are home with some virus that's going around causing high fevers. I didn't think much of it and figured my little dude's fever was just from his tooth. About 2 hours after I got to work I got the phone call for the 3rd week in a row that I should probably come and get him as he was screaming at the top of his lungs and she couldn't do anything to calm him down. At this point I still figured it was the whole teething thing and he was just uncomfortable and told her I couldn't really leave work because my kid was crabby because he's teething. I finally made a call to the doctors office to see what they had to say and they recommended that I bring him in to check and make sure his ear infection was not back. For the 4th week in a row, back to the doctor we went and ears looked great, throat culture was negative, no fever present so I brought him back to work with me and waited f0r Josh to come and pick him up to bring him home. By the time Josh got to my work to pick him up he had spiked a fever of 104.2. Scary!!! What do ya know......my kid was not just crabby because he was teething, he had the "fever virus". Argh...being a mom isn't easy and I guess mom's don't always know best.

The rest of the week just continued on with more bad news. A good friend of Josh's family passed away so we had the visitation and funeral to go to. Caleb is only 8 months old and that was the 3rd visitation/funeral he's attended. Something just doesn't seem right about that picture. Then the whole tragedy of the 35W bridge collapsing was devasting and come to find out one of the guys Josh plays ball with, his girlfriends mom and brother were on the bridge and still remain missing. Just sad!!! Please say some extra prayers for those families of the victims that are still missing as I can't evan begin to imagine what they are going through.

The pictures below are from the twin cities public television 50th anniversary. They had a bunch of different events going on as well as the chance to see some of the characters from different cartoons. What do ya know, the first event that we attempted to take Caleb to turns out to be just a waste of time. The weather was terrible. We barely got any rain all summer and it pretty much poured the entire day and of course these events took place outside. Then, it was so crowded you could barely even get near the characters. Pretty much just a waste but we tried and Caleb actually had a good time I think. He got so excited when Grover walked by us he grabbed ahold of the back of his head and wouldn't let go. It was pretty cute.

Anyway, I feel like I'm writing a novel. I guess I better update more often so I don't have so much to report. Things are going better this week and the little guy just got his second tooth and he just looks adorable. He's trying so hard to figure out what's in that mouth of his and he's now becoming obsessed with others teeth.

Take care, Erin