Beware of Google.

It can be a scary place sometimes….especially if you are Googling symptoms that your child is experiencing!

Friday evening at dinner, I noticed Cade’s cheeks were really red. At first, I didn’t think anything of it because he had had a bad day (week!!) at school and he had been in trouble and crying. After we finished dinner, he was calmed down, but his cheeks were still red. Upon further inspection, it appeared to be a rash…red cheeks with tiny, unraised, red pin pricks.

I called the daycare to find out what they had eaten for lunch…nothing out of the ordinary. He said it didn’t itch and he wasn’t running fever or feeling bad. Hmmmm…oh well…we’ll give him some Benadryl and it’ll be better in the morning.

Saturday morning, his cheeks were still red. Doug googled and said that he didn’t really see anything other than it was just some sort of minor rash. Okay, that’s good. We left the house, went to Cool Cuts to get the boys hair cut, breakfast at Burger King, went to the pet store (zoo-like entertainment for free! Ha ha) went to the video game store and then home again.

Cheeks are still red.

So, during nap time, while everyone was asleep, Mommy googles rashes and comes across a site that describes the 10 most common children rashes. I read all of the rash descriptions and none sound like Cade’s…that is, until I came across a rash called Petichiae. Hmmm…the description sounds exactly like what Cade’s rash looks like. Read further…this is the only rash that requires medical attention! UGH!!!! Panic!!

I got online and did web check in for Care Now…they can get us in, in 2 hours…meanwhile I’m having a nervous breakdown! We finally get there, the dr walks in and immediately says he’s got a case of “Slap Cheek” aka “Fifths Disease”. Nothing nearly as traumatic as Petichiae! *whew*!

I did ‘fess up and tell the dr that I Googled and scared myself silly. He just laughed and assured me that he had seen that scary rash and Cade definitely didn’t have it. Can I get another *whew*?!?

He is fine, no medication is required. It’s basically a viral infection and by the time the rash shows up, he isn’t contagious. By Sunday, he still had a little redness, by this morning, he was back to normal.

Wonder how many other kids from daycare had rosey cheeks this weekend and if their moms went crazy on Google? I let the daycare know about our ‘adventure’ this morning, so I’m sure I’ll get the scoop this afternoon. :o)

Awesome!

Tonight was pancake night...a special request from Cade. He looooves him some pancakes! :o) So, I fixed them special for him and I was the coolest mommy in the history of the world!

The boys were eating their pancakes...I had given them each one, cut up with lots of syrup. They both finished and wanted more, so I obliged...this time, however I waited until I got to the table to cut them up. I quickly cut Cade's then stood next to Brady to cut his. He saw the big pancake and said "ooh....ooh....ooh" and when I finished cutting it, he said "AWESOME!" It was soooo cute. It ranks right up there with him applauding me for pottying and vacuuming the living room. "Yay, Mommy! You did it!"

Belding Inc, 4th Quarter Report

A week before Christmas, I received the following email from Doug:

The company, Belding Inc., has forecasted it's last two weeks to wrap up the year end of 2006.... based on the recent spending trends and lower costs to run said company, thanks in large part to the efforts of Chief Operating Officer, Kim Belding, 4th qtr bonuses are now available for use.... $125 is now available for immediate withdrawal/spending/etc.... Thank you again for your tireless efforts in maintaining the inventory levels of the business(food in pantry), while increasing throughput and keeping costs lower, as well as arranging transportation for jr. executives to and from training, and of course the day to day oversight of the uniform cleaning facility. Belding Inc. expects a very bright 2007, there will be many mergers throughout the year (oh yeah) but headcount will remain at its current level....

Doug Belding CEO, Belding Inc.

Babies Don't Live Here Anymore

In my post yesterday, I mentioned that we had to retire the crib last weekend. Here's the scoop....

It started on Friday evening. Doug picked the boys up from school. Brady pitched a tantrum and Daddy put him in his crib for a time out. Doug walked back into the kitchen to finish the dishes and he turned around and guess who came walking in? Brady!

A few hours later, after we put the boys to bed....I was sitting in my chair in the living room....heard a *thunk* *crrrreeeeaaaak* *slam* "hi mommy!" uh oh. Put him back in the crib and told him to stay in his bed!

Sat morning, Doug and I woke up and we had 2 boys in bed with us!! (we shoulda got the king size bed! we are regretting that now!) Sooooo.......later that morning, Daddy disassembled the crib (a traumatic experience for Mommy) and took the trundle bed out of Cade's room. Brady was ecstatic to have a big boy bed! He LOVES it!

A happy and sad moment to realize that our baby isn't one anymore.

Go to your room!

Brady has never been very good at time outs. We've never been able to get him to stand in the corner AT ALL. When he got in trouble or was throwing a tantrum, it got to where we'd just go put him in his crib for a time out. Last weekend he grew out of his baby bed. (Or should I say he started climbing out of it and therefore we had to retire the crib) I realized during the week that we needed to come up with a new strategy for punishment, but couldn't come up with anything brilliant.Yesterday, Brady was throwing a fit about something and Doug told him to go to his room. HE WENT! Wailing and sobbing...but he went! He was in there for a bit and then we heard him walk over to the door and shut it. He stayed in his room for a few minutes and then we heard the door open and he came out...all better now.

Brady...are you ready to be a good boy now??

Jes.

Good boy!

And so it went for 3 or 4 more times the rest of the weekend. Here I was, worried about the best strategy...just send the kid to his room! Duh! :o)

On the Road, Again....

Well, this holiday season we traveled around to see all the grandparents. Doug & I always said that when we had kids, we were not going to be on the road on Christmas, but this year was a little different.

The first weekend in December, we traveled to Nana and Pawpaw's and had Christmas with them. Pawpaw & Granny Wilson and Momow also came up for the day so we all had a good visit.

Our second trip was down to Stephenville on Christmas day to see Cookie Granny, Grandpa Tom, Granny Nell and Scott & Lisa and the girls. We had a nice visit with them as well.

Our third trip was down to Harley Pawpaw and Grammy's. We left DFW at 4pm on Thursday, Dec 28 and arrived there at 11:45. A trip that normally takes about 6 hours took almost 8! There was a wreck on I-45 outside of Huntsville that had the highway shut down. We sat there for almost an hour and then Doug decided to go off-roading and we took our chances crossing the grassy median. He took it perfectly and we doubled back about 5 miles to take a different route. All in all, the boys did great and there were no screaming fits from the parents OR the kids! :o)

While we were down at Dad's, we did some relaxing, some eating, played games, opened a million Christmas presents, the boys "swam" , went to church, went to Uncle Mike's NYE party and fireworks extravaganza, and then loaded up and came home on Monday.

.Swimming: Cade kepts asking if he can go swimming. We keep telling him that it is 50 degrees outside and it's too cold to go! He didn't care, so we let him strip down and step in. It's amazing how at first he was begging to stay in for 10 minutes and as soon as those piggies hit the water, he was okay with it not being 10 minutes! He wouldn't even step off the top step! ha ha Anyway, so when he came out, Brady decided it was his turn to go. So we took his pj bottoms off and Doug held him up by his arms and lowered him into the water. As soon as his feet touched the water, he went into a hanging fetal position. Doug lowered him some more and he balled up even tighter. Strangely enough, neither one asked about swimming for the rest of our visit.


Church: The boys are used to going into their classes at church. We don't bring them 'into' church, so they aren't used to sitting there quietly during a sermon. We had to take them into church with us and I'm really surprised at how well they did. They were a bit antsy, but really enjoyed the singing. Brady applauded and said "yay!" after every song. They both noticed the song director doing the hand motions to keep the time and started mimicking. It was cute!


Fireworks at Uncle Mike's: Both boys had a blast! (no pun intended) Cade loved holding the sparklers and Brady loved seeing the big fireworks in the sky and hearing them go boom. He was calling them 'Boom'. "Where Boom go?" "More Boom."

Happy New Year!

Okay, so one of my NY resolutions is to do better about documenting the happenings in our life. There are so many daily "jewels" (and somedays that term is a little looser than others!) that I want to document, but don't have time to scrap it "right then". That's where this blog will come in. This blog is my tool to get the journaling done, even if I don't have time to scrap at the moment...the thought and memory is documented so that I don't forget the essence of that moment.

Another NY resolution is to do more scrapbook pages for our family. I do lots of projects for other people and my own projects fall by the wayside. I think it's because I work better with a deadline. Maybe I'll try a different approach....pick a project, set a deadline, and JUST DO IT! Treat it as if it's a paying job. Wouldn't that be a novel idea?!?!? :o)

Okay, so that's all for now, family duties call....I will be back shortly because it's been an eventful 7 days and I need to get them down!

laterdude....Kim