Father's Day weekend

For Father's day weekend, we ended up loading up the trailer with a load of dirt and pulled it up to my parent's house. My Dad has been deliberating about how he was going to go get some dirt to fill in around the retaining wall under the deck and I happened to have a trailer full of dirt. We were going up to go to a wedding of one of Aimee's high school friends and to celebrate Father's Day with my family so it was very convenient. The 100 mile trek with an almost overloaded trailer (and car) ended up taking us 30 minutes longer since it was much more stable to stay below 55mph; the trailer started bouncing and swaying a little more as you went above that.

So for Father's Day, my dad got dirt, 3 loads of dirt; he seemed happy with it. I got rid of almost a yard of dirt that would have cost me $5 to dump locally and Dad got to get his extra dirt while saving on the quantity a little.

I got to move that load of dirt we took up there three times; once to get it out of the way for the wood chips when I piled it by the hot tub, from that pile into the trailer, and then from the trailer into Dad's back yard. I was actually surprised at how much dirt I had moved to make room for the wood chips cuz all that loose dirt I had moved filled up the trailer.

Sam had fun helping with some of the dirt moving, but once Grandma brought out the watering can, he was all into watering all the flowers and pots and trying to refill the can with the hose that wasn't connected. Oh and he found Grandpa's hat and was having fun running around with it on and having everyone else try it on. Oh and at some point Grandma, Aimee and Sam went for a walk and stopped by the duck pond.

Wonderful Ones

So Monday, we had a fun time with our Birth to 3 Wonderful Ones class group. They take a week off half way through the 10 week class to allow for the families to do an outside of class get-together. We had planned on going to a local park and having a brunch Monday morning due to napping schedules working out best for that time.



Due to rain, one of the families decided to host at their house which was about 2 miles down the road from us. We had a fun time from 10 - 12 playing with the kids, eating, talking with the other parents and trying to get a good picture of all the kids together. Unfortunately Sam was the one that was screaming during the pictures where all the other kids were just sitting there hanging out; oh and Anika was patting whoever was beside her on the head. Oh well. I got a decent picture of all of them where Sam at least didn't have a screaming look on his face so I guess it was successful. The pictures with the Moms and babies turned out a little better.




There were 6 families there and the kids (Andrew, Caden, Avery, Anika, Sam and Matteo) all had a really fun time playing with all of Avery's toys, which were new to all of them. Sam, and actually everyone, especially liked the blow up blue pony that they could ride and the kitchen set (which I was surprised to find out Adrienne had found at St Vincent for $5 with all the pots, pans, plastic fruits and vegetables).

Poor Sam

Well, as trivial as it may seem to some, we have successfully identified that Acetaminophen and Ibuprofen handle pain in different ways. For whatever reason, Acetaminophen is taking care of Sam's teething pain to the degree beyond what Ibuprofen was helping him. He slept with Aimee in our bed this morning for 3 hours after waking up at 6:45 this morning, screaming. Aimee sat with him for awhile, after giving him the Acetaminophen, thinking he may want to nurse but when he didn't and just wanted to lay his head down on her shoulder, she laid down in the bed with him on her chest and he zonked out. (Wow that was a run on). Anywho, after about 20 minutes he was so out that she rolled him over and he slept there until 10am.



He had a low grade fever of around 101.5 when he woke up screaming, so there may be something else he is fighting cold wise. I doubt that the teething is causing all of that. I haven't felt too good the past couple days either, so we may be sharing something in that manner.

Luckily we got this game plan last night after 3 days of dealing with him and us just being desperate for relief. We decided we needed to go get some other Acetaminophen, since the Tylenol suspension we had was in the recent recall, and try it to see if it may help more than the Ibuprofen. Thank you fiends of other babies with teething issues for suggesting this in general; I just wish it would have dawned on us that it was his teeth that were the real issue and the Ibuprofen was just not relieving it.

Evidently his teeth are really bothering him, cuz this cut the pain, allowing him to sleep long this morning, have a cordial morning with Aimee, take an hour nap this afternoon, and did ok tonight when we went to the Birth to Three class that is kinda late for his normal bed time. You could still tell he wasn't feeling all that well, but he played in the other room for the first half hour of the class. He ended up sitting the last part of the class in my lap, very relaxed and content since I gave him another dose of Acetaminophen, instead of playing in the other room with the other kids. He felt quite warm, so figured his temp was on the rise again.

He ended up the evening with another 101.6 temp before bed and hopefully the Acetaminophen will keep it down overnight so he can fight whatever it is without having the dangerous high temp that would require intervention on our part. He was asleep on my lap almost as soon as the light went out tonight and he didn't even barely stir when I laid him in bed.

Sick babies are not fun; I hate not getting it right at first and needing to work through the options until something works... I guess you try your best and the rest is up to God to guide the way. Thanks for all the prayers and well wishes while we figured this out.

BTW, I don't like typing Acetaminophen.

Sam "issues"

We have had an exceptionally whiny and irritable son for the past couple days; nothing seems to solve his distress. I don't know if it is the teething (which should be handled by the ibuprofen), the fact he is having outbursts at the table that result in him finishing early (hungry), just plain boredom, or something else we are not seeing that is causing him to be kinda distant, but a little clingy at the same time. Pray that whatever it is, Sam is able to communicate it or it reveals itself to us so we can address what is going on. He has been doing this moaning, "Uhhh!!", sound all morning and it is about to drive me nuts; in trying to figure out if there is something wrong and because I don't feel too well since yesterday either. Maybe he is getting some kind of flu or cold that hasn't manifested itself completely yet?

Why can't parents just read their children's minds? ...it would be so much easier!

I have been trying to get him to tell me when he hurts his hand or whatever that he is hurt before he gets any kisses to make it better. I started doing this with him a while ago and now any time he pinches his finger a little or bangs his hand he wants it kissed. But it is usually just him pushing his hand into your face and when we don't see him do it, we don't understand what he is doing some of the time. So the need for him to tell me it hurts before he gets the kiss, which is gladly given.

Oh and he got a timeout today for biting Aimee's hand when she tried to take him out of the office so I could be on a work conference call and they could go do errands. He has just been a moaning, irritable, fussy, obstinate mess of a little guy all morning. I feel really bad for him and just don't know how to console him.

Well, hopefully getting him out of the house and distracted will help with the way he has been acting. Aimee is taking him somewhere this morning I can't remember and then going to have a picnic lunch outside since it is somewhat nice out, and then going to watch a friend's child for about an hour this afternoon. Hopefully Eleanor and Sam can get along so Aimee isn't too stressed when she gets home.

Restaurant experience

Well, Sam's Grandpa Bob took us out for breakfast this morning. Thanks, Bob. We had a great time, pretty good food and Sam got to sit in a booster seat instead of the highchair for the first time. He was able to sit up on the bench seat between Aimee and me and was much easier to manage.

We brought some food for him, a veggie blend of sweet potato and broccoli that was left over from last night and a cup of whole milk, but he also ate a half piece of wheat bread and had his own bowl of fruit. It is kinda exciting to have him be able to kinda eat what we have and have a new kind of experience at restaurants. We may have to forgo the aprehension of going to a restaurant with him and needing to bring food for him to have since he should now be able to eat off our plates, if we are selective of what we get.

Went for a walk

I had been working out in the yard today and came in for lunch. Aimee was feeding Sam and afterwards he got quite upset. He just wouldn't calm down. He had several burps and didn't seem to have any evident bubbles in his tummy, but there was definitely something wrong. He was just screaming for over half an hour, seemed tired, but screamed worse when you tried to lay him down in the crib.

So... I decided he just needed some distraction and I put him in the stroller and started walking. We ended up going down to the river, crossing the bridge and going south along the bike path and he seemed to be doing much better almost immediately. I just kept walking, figuring he would fall asleep and I needed the exercise anyways. I just kept walking, figuring I would go to the bridge to the south, cross back over to the West side and go home with Sam adequately tuckered out if not asleep.



I did not plan that it was over 2 miles to the bridge and I didn't have any water, or a diaper bag for Sam. I was in my work clothes: t-shirt, jeans, work shoes, and my wide brimmed sun hat. My pants were all dirty and still a little wet from weeding and trying to pull out the grape vine stump. I am sure it was quite a site with me walking a stroller down the path in such a condition, but most eyes were on Sam and who cares otherwise.

We got to see some baby geese that were all over a lawn of some retirement place. They were quite cute but I was glad there was a rod iron fence between us and them, they were posturing like they were being protective. Or maybe interested in the slight squeak of the stroller.

Anywho, we got about a mile and a half and were still not at the bridge and I just got wore out. It was hot, I was hot, Sam was struggling every once in a while when the sun would get under the sun shade on the stroller. I finally put the burp clothe hung over the sun shade to provide additional shade over his face and that worked pretty good... then the stroller started squeaking; first the left front wheel and then the right front. Squeak..... Squeak..... Squeak... squeak.. Squeak... squeak.. Squeak. squeak..... Squeaksqueak.... (repeat) I am sure the lady I was following was about to go nuts; I sure was.

Without water and with the repeated squeaking I was just ready to give up. So I found a shady spot just before the bridge that overlooked a pond fed by the river and called Aimee to come pick us up. Going for the walk was a good idea, but just not very good execution or planning.

We had a fun time though and Sam was perfectly content through the whole trip, including the short stop by Fred Meyer on the way back to get him some more baby food (so we can continue to figure out how to make it ourselves and still have something to feed him in the meantime.) BTW, he sat in the cart and played with whatever he could get his hands on... the diaper bag handle, Aimee's purse strap, etc. very contently.

He was great and fell asleep in the carseat on the way home from FM, 1 mile. Ready for a nap when we got home, he slept for over an hour and then got up to eat again, happy as a lark. It was a great afternoon.

Rhodadendrin Garden Park

We went to the Rhododendron Garden Park this past weekend and Sam got to be in the grass for the first time. He didn't seem to know what to think of it at first, especially since we were coaxing him to look so we could take pictures. He didn't seem to mind it too much, but probably will have more fun in the grass when he can crawl around a little better.

It was very nice of Aimee to sacrifice her studying to have a day out with Sam and me. She is almost done with her degree and we both look forward to more times like these.