Wordless Wednesday

World Record?

If there was a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records for the most timeouts in a day, Isaac would definitely be in the running for that title. His hitting is out.of.control. Sometimes he's not off of timeout for 5 minutes, and he's winding up and smacking someone. He doesn't hit anyone in particular, just whoever is closest most of the time. And they are not light, "playing" hits either...he hits hard. If Caleb is the target, he's in tears.

So timeouts clearly aren't the solution. If anyone has advice, I would appreciate it. We never had this problem with Caleb, so I don't know how to solve it! (We put Isaac on timeout for 2 minutes and when he's done, we ask him why he was on time out, which he will tell us, and then he has to apologize to whoever he hit and then give them a hug.)

Tonight after he smacked me, I told him to go and sit on timeout. He slapped his knee with his hand, kind of rolled his eyes and said "Oh man! Not again!" We should have named him Isaac Trouble Teisl!

Look what Isaac can do!!!!

We are not The Green Thumbs

The boys each got to pick out a plant for me for Mother's Day. Joel said he let them loose in the flower shop and they both took the task very seriously. Caleb has been asking to help plant them since then. Technically he's not supposed to do any digging in dirt, but I had some extra masks laying around and decided let that rule slide for a day.

We have a planter in the front of our house that has been waiting for flowers to be planted in it for years. Since Caleb was so excited about getting to dig in the dirt plant flowers, we decided this would be the year. We all went together to pick out some more plants. The lady at the shop had to tell me the difference between annual and perennial plants and steered us in the direction of plants that would be good in our planter. (It's in the sun the entire day). The boys were so excited to pick out more flowers. Although I think Caleb was more excited about his new gardening gloves:)

Once we were home, Caleb helped me for about 5 minutes and Isaac helped about 20 and then I was on my own.


The planter didn't turn out too bad, but it definitely needs some work. (The red flower in the middle is the one that Caleb gave me for Mother's Day). I think we picked out perennials, so they should come back next year?? I'm not sure, but at least there's flowers in there for now!

The plant that Isaac picked out for me for Mother's Day needed more shade, so we planted it by our patio. I think this one is so pretty. Hopefully we can keep it alive:)

Breaking news!!

Even though he can still sport size 2T clothes and is probably one of the only 4.5 year olds who can use a HAND towel as a bath towel...

Caleb FINALLY WEIGHS 30 POUNDS!!!!

30 pounds, 8 oz to be exact!! (He had his clothes on, but he always does now when he's weighed.) That puts him almost at the 5th percentile for weight! He also grew nearly an inch in 6 months and is now 38.3 inches. (Which still isn't on the growth chart...but who cares! He weighs 30+ pounds!!!)

He had a great pulmonary appointment today. His pulmonary function tests are still showing slightly low lung function, but his doctor was happy with the results. He feels that since C is so young, it's hard to get really accurate results. At this point it's mainly practice and to make sure he's not losing lung function. His pulse ox was 97% and his lungs were clear once again. His doc was thrilled to see him looking so good. He still wants us to take him to the sleep clinic, so that's something we will need to figure out.

He always charms the techs/nurses there with his little dimples and today he ended up with 8 prizes from the prize box. Such a stinker!

Awwww!

I came home from work on Sunday and found this....



I am one lucky Mommy!!

Happy Mother's Day, Mom! We love you!

Click here to view this photo book larger

Baby Tristan

Isaac and Caleb have a not so new little buddy, Tristan. (My brother is also named Tristan.) Caleb cannot grasp the fact that there are 2 Tristans, even though he's met the little man. He still says "You mean a baby Uncle Tristan?" Yah Caleb, exactly what I mean:) In his defense he has only met him one time, soon after he was born, and stayed clear of him because "babies cry." Isaac and I hang out with Baby Tristan and his mommy sometimes when Caleb's in school. Isaac LOVES babies. I tried to convince him to give Baby Tristan his pacies, but no luck. I finally got some pictures of them together last week. I miss the days when Isaac would just sit and smile at the camera! Aren't they cute?!

Confirmed

I took Caleb (and Isaac) to the dermatologist on Monday and she told me that she was certain it was shingles. She took a cultures of the blisters anyway, just to make sure. I really liked this new doctor. Most of C's doctors will "cover" and make excuses for each other if a mistake is made. She was completely honest and told me these blisters NEVER looked like a fungal infection (I brought pictures of course!) Sometimes I think they need to "forget" that he has an immune deficiency and look at him as a "normal" child. They always jump to blame it on his immune deficiency when 99% of the time they are overlooking the obvious. Another example is I had her look at the rash on his leg that we've been treating as fungal infection. Of course it's NOT fungal. It is the result of a virus he must have had last month. It's called lichen striatus for those of you who want to know:) Something I had to look up and I couldn't find a lot about it. Nothing like treating him for the wrong thing for 2 weeks! She said it might take 6 months to a year for it to go away and there's nothing to treat it, but it's not harmful/contagious. Lovely...

Anyway, the cultures of his blisters finally came back today and he has the varicella zoster virus (chicken pox/shingles). The puzzling thing is the blisters continue to spread in his hair, despite being on an antiviral medication for 4.5 days. Leave it to Caleb to always follow the unbeaten path. It was discussed today to admit him to the hospital for 7-10 days of IV antiviral medication. But since he's still acting fine and eating okay we're just going to wait it out at this point. That will change if he gets a fever, or if he starts "acting" sick. He is baffling everyone with the fact that he doesn't complain of pain, although he does wince when I put a shirt over his head. For the most part, he's leaving the blisters/scabs alone. He's a very slow healer, so I am sure he'll have these scabs for a long time. He's a trooper though and this is just another example of how resilient he is.


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This little man has become quite the character lately. I ask myself daily if he's really only 2 years old. He surely doesn't think so as he tells everyone who asks him how old he is that he's 6! As we were eating supper last night, he told me "Mom, dith ith ter-da-bull" (this is terrible).

And when I was trying to get him to say his prayers tonight, he told me "I can't." When I asked him why he couldn't say his prayers, he replied "Dats dangerous. I not say my pears. Dats dangerous." Nice, huh?!

Blog makeover

Joel rarely reads our blog, but tonight he got himself caught up on our life:) Afterwards he told me that I needed to get rid of "the green," meaning we need a new background. So enjoy the new and improved blog!

Mystery diagnosis

Caleb started getting blisters behind his ear on Wednesday. By Thursday, they had spread into his hair and he had a few on his neck. I called the clinic and they told me to put his antibiotic ointment on it and to call if it got worse. Which of course it did. Here's a picture of what it looked like on Friday:












Of course they didn't know for sure what it was. After several doctors took a look at him, it was determined that it was likely a fungal infection. (But they couldn't rule out a bacterial or viral infection either. I am kind of upset that they didn't culture it then.) He was started on a different antifungal than what he takes everyday.

This is what he looked like on Saturday and they started him on an antiviral medication:


And this is what it looks like today. To me it actually fits the bill for shingles. Yes, the average age of people who get shingles is probably 70 years old. But since C is immunocompromised and he had the chicken pox when he was 9 months old, he definitely could get them. The only things that don't really fit are that they never broke open/oozed and are already drying out and also that he says they don't hurt, they're just itchy. From what I've heard, shingles are VERY painful. (But on the other hand, it's been proven that former preemies have a very high tolerance for pain, so who knows...)


I hope they figure out what it actually is tomorrow because how many medications can a little guy be on. Here's a pic of what he's currently on/taking at the moment: