A trip to Arkansas and a birthday to remember

First of all, let me say, that this is my first time trying to blog with a full fledged crawler in my home, specifically one that likes to crawl over to mommy's computer and bang on the keyboard! That's right. Little man is on the move. He is keeping us very busy, and we are loving every minute. Right now, as I type, he is making his way to a pack of gum on the coffee table. Now he is upset because he doesn't understand why I won't let him play with the pack of gum...maybe I should only attempt to blog during nap time! Now for our trip, this past week, Silas and I, along with my mom and sister, flew to Texas and then drove to Fort Smith Arkansas to spend a week with my extended family. I was apprehensive at first, about making such a long trip with my little one, who had never been away from Daddy for more than a night until this point, but we had a wonderful time. Our first stop was in Ft. Worth Texas, where we stayed with my cousin Jenny and her husband Wes and daughter Aubri. We enjoyed a much needed time of catching up, which included lots of laughing, crying, (way too much) eating, and walking. We were able to see and hear what God has been doing in the lives of this wonderful family since their little boy, Wesley Adam, went to be with the Lord in November last year. We walked around the seminary campus and talked for hours, spent time remembering Wesley Adam, played a never ending game of croquet, took the kids for a wagon ride, ate a delicious birthday cake and attended Redeemer for church on Sunday. It was a wonderful start to the trip for sure.

Pretty girl!

On Sunday after church, we loaded into the car, said goodbye to Wes, made a quick pitstop at Sonic for cranberry limeade and mozzarella sticks, and headed to Ft. Smith Arknasas. We arrived at my Aunt Pam's house that evening, and began the night with a hamburger barbecue. We were pleasantly surprised to see my cousin Jay and his wife Christa when we arrived. They were in town visiting family for the weekend, and although they could only stay for a few hours, we were so grateful to be able to spend time with them.

While in Ft. Smith, Silas got to meet his great grandmother Georgia and great aunt Beth for the first time.We stayed at my Aunt Pam's new house, which has the most beautiful backyard. We spent alot of time outside playing in the grass and strolling around the lake. Silas also met John Michael, my cousin Ben and his wife Allison's son, for the first time.

The three little one's stopped to watch a dog running around while out for a stroll. Watching Bri play.Aunt Pam's flowers were beautiful!Bri and JM playing in the grass.Apparently, he was not a fan of the grass at first.Checking out the wristbands Uncle Zach sent to everyone for supporting his upcoming trip to MozambiqueAunt Pam had planned a family birthday party on Monday for Ben, Allison and I since we all have March birthdays. It was lots of fun!Taylor gave Ben and Allison a painting for their birthday.While in Ft. Smith, we also mod podged some easter eggs, and went shopping for my cousin Ashley's little man, Elijah, who we cannot wait to meet! We had a wonderful and relaxing stay in Ft. Smith and are so grateful to have such an amazing family. We are also grateful to our hostess, Aunt Pam, for keeping us in her home and taking such great care of us, even though she wasn't feeling the best.

Then came Wednesday...

These next three pictures illustrate better than words the events of the 23rd of March. I would also like to add that Wednesday, the day we drove back to Texas, was my birthday. This first picture was taken of Silas on Tuesday in the afternoon. He was a happy boy all day, but I noticed when I looked back through our pictures that he was pulling his ear in this photo. Silas had already had two ear infections in the six weeks prior to our trip, and had even had his ears checked two days before we left, just to be sure he was ready to fly, since he had had a cold and had been acting sick. He was all clear.This picture was taken of Aubri on Wednesday morning. She had had some oreos for a snack.Aunt Pam was saying goodbye to Silas in the car before pulling out of the driveway to go back to Texas.

We had noticed on Wednesday morning that Silas was a little bit more fussy than normal. We said goodbye to Aunt Beth and Mammaw, and then headed to Kohl's with Aunt Pam to check out the big sale. Silas did not seem to be feeling very well, and had to go outside with Nana while we shopped. We checked his temperature...no fever. After our trip to Kohl's, he seemed to settle down a bit, and we ate a quick lunch and loaded the car to go back to Texas. He was playing with Sofie, whatever was bothering him had passed, or so we thought. After about half an hour, Silas started to cry. I use the word "cry" hesitantly; a more appropriate choice of words would be "screamed bloody murder." We tried and tried and could not console him. Was he hungry? no...just ate. Could he be wet? no...he was just changed, and also this boy NEVER cries when his diaper is dirty. What is going on? He felt very warm, so we stopped at Walmart to take him out of the car for a bit and to go buy a thermometer (I didn't have mine) and get some infant tylenol (our was burried in the suitcase). We checked his temperature, which was only a little high at 99.7, but now his nose was running alot (I will refrain from being a nurse and describing the color/consistency of his snot at this time) and he also had a junky cough. He also is now frequently pulling at his ears...looks like an ear infection to me! I gave him some tylenol and called our insurance company and pediatrician to figure out how he could be seen in Texas, since he appears to have an ear infection and is supposed to fly home to California tomorrow. After about half an hour of trying to figure everything out, we are told Silas can go to urgent care in Texas to be seen....He is now peacefully sleeping (yay) and we will take him to urgent care tonight. After about 20 minutes of silence (which all the adults in the car are enjoying), Aubri (who had fallen asleep when Silas did, and who we felt we had been neglecting, due to paying attention to the screaming baby for the last four hours), started crying and asking Jen to hold her. Jen attempted to comfort her, but to no avail. We are getting closer to home, and are thinking she is just ready to get out of her carseat and be at home. We, of course were wrong! During all the crying, Silas wakes up, and starts screaming again. We are trying to get home and settle down the very unhappy babies in the back of the car. Then poor sweet little Aubri starts throwing up. Oreos are everywhere. Jen pulls over and comforts her little one. After an outfit change and some lovin from Mama, Aubri is back in the carseat and ready to go home. We are almost home. Just 30 minutes or so more. We are back on the road for a few minutes, and oreos are once again flying everywhere. I tried to reach over Silas' carseat to clean up Aubri, who, after two times throwing up and going through half a bag of baby wipes, actually seems to feel better now. I decided there was no saving her clothes. Aubri would have to ride the rest of the way home in her pullup (Silas, I might add, was already in just a diaper and shirt, as we had stripped him because of his fever). We arrived at home in Fort Worth and we were, I am sure, a sight to behold. We pull the two half-naked kiddos out of the car and change out of our clothes, which had not been spared in the oreo incident. Aubri was so excited to see her dad, and thankfully seemed to be over her upset tummy. After freshening up a bit (aka changing out of clothes covered in snot and oreos), Jenny, my mom, Silas and I headed to the urgent care clinic to have Silas checked out before flying the next day. We arrived at the clinic around 730-8pm. I assumed this would be an in and out trip. The doctor would check his ears, prescribe an antibiotic, and we would be on our way....not so much. After going back, they checked his vital signs. His temperature, despite receiving tylenol, was 101. After an examination of his ears, it was determined that he had an ear infection. Since he was having respiratory symptoms also, he was checked for RSV (which was thankfully negative) and some blood was drawn to see if his white blood cell count was elevated. This whole time my poor little guy was crying and just trying to cuddle. This birthday so far was heartbreaking... His white blood cell count came back elevated. Now its time for a chest x-ray. I wasn't able to go with him and could hear his ear piercing screams from several rooms over...did I mention that this day was my birthday? They brought him back to me and I just held him until he fell asleep while we waited for the doctor to give us results of his tests and tell us what to do. We are checking to see if our flight plans are able to be moved. We are told its unlikely. Around 1030 pm, the doctor comes back in and tells us that she does not see pneumonia on his chest xray but a radiologist will read it and let us know if something is different, and prescribes some oral antibiotics and a steroid for his ear infection and upper respiratory infection. He also has to have one last needle stick, a shot of an antibiotic, before going home. After the shot, he screamed and held his breath until he turned red. Did I mention that it was my birhtday? We took his prescriptions by the pharmacy (which wouldn't be done for an hour), picked up some dinner and arrived home around 1115 pm. We ate our salads (which we picked up to make ourselves feel better after a week of barbecued ribs, ham and taco bell) and went back to the pharmacy around midnight to pick up Silas' prescriptions. We returned home from picking up the prescriptions, checked on our sleeping babies, and I settled onto the couch to enjoy a piece of yummy chocolate birthday cake. What a day! I am relieved that my little man and Aubri are sleeping and seem to be feeling better, but I do not think I will soon forget this birthday! We did end up returning to California the next day. A staff member from the urgent care clinic called while we were on the plane and said, "the radiologist says he has pneumonia, and he needs to come back in now." We took him to our pediatrician the next day. He is still sick but seems to be doing much better. He is laughing, playing and happy to be home with daddy. Paul says, the moral of the story is, "don't go on trips without daddy!"