MRSA is NO fun.

In the last month or so, JR has had three white head pimples about the size of a dull #2 pencil tip. I pointed the first one out to the doctor, and she gave me an antibiotic ointment to treat the minor infection. It worked. So, when two more sprouted up in the same area (diaper) - I treated the same way. One burst and drained with nothing major happening. The other one, however, turned into quite the infection.

We put JR to bed on Halloween night with the white head looking the tiniest bit angrier. When JR woke up the next morning, the inflamed area was the size of a softball. Jeff called me at 7:15 AM with "Hollee, when does Children's open?" We got JR in that morning. The doctor diagnosed JR with an infected bug bite. He told us to treat with antibiotics, warm compresses, and topical treatments.

The initial one completely stopped draining, so we sent him to daycare the next day. It never occurred to us that the one NOT draining pus was really the problem. We picked the kids up Friday at 4 PM. By 6 PM, JR felt really warm. I took his temp - 103.2. I called the doctor and she told me to head over to the urgent care.

When I got there the doctor, who is the pediatric infectious disease specialist in the area, took one look at JR's belly and explained that we would need to give him IV antibiotics. I asked (still totally oblivious to the severity of the issue) if we could get him the meds in the clinic. The doctor shook his head and said we would need to be admitted for 24-48 hours.

So, I called Jeff and told him that our Thai take out, champagne, and cigars would have to be put on hold for a bit. I gave him my list of needs for the hospital, and he packed it all up for me, grabbed Janna, and headed for the hospital.

JR's white blood cell count was double the normal level (at 20,000), and his blood showed inflammation in the body. He was also quite feverish and not eating normally. The poor kid had to endure about a dozen IV's and 3 blood draws. When his abscess finally opened up and started draining, he had to deal with warm compresses and uncomfortable bandages. It really took a bit for the antibiotics to get going, as the infection was quite significant. While JR's life wasn't ever in danger - had I waited much longer we may have been in some serious trouble. He was diagnosed with MRSA and ended up being in the hospital for almost 72 hours.

JR is now home, and the abscess is healing nicely. He is on two different antibiotics, and it seems that the abscess has finished draining. However, there is still a significant "knot" under the skin that Jeff will ask about tomorrow at the follow up. By the end of JR's hospital stay, he was O-V-E-R people screwing with him. He also knew what it meant when a nurse came to get him out of his room (someone was going to stick him with a needle). The last time they did this he looked at me like "mom, are you going to let them do this to me?" Really, the whole experience was quite heartbreaking, and I am glad it is behind us. I think Janna is too - she really didn't act quite right while we were all split up.

Here's JR the day after we got to the hospital. He's still pretty sick here, you can tell by the flushed skin and dull eyes.
Watching TV in the "nest" Mommy created. On his rightarm you can see the splint/cast set up they had to create to keep him from pulling his IV out.
Another good one of his cast. He's drinking apple juice here. It was about the only thing I could get in him for the first 24 hours, that and goldfish.
Here's JR in his "space ship." His crib made me really sad - I felt like he was in jail every time I locked him in it. However, it was the only place I could leave him safely when I had to run to the bathroom. So, I called it his space ship. It was this very high-walled metal crib with a hard plastic clear "roof" on it. He would stand up in the crib and knock on the plastic. I'm so glad HE at least loved it.
I just had to get the picture of the gown opening in back.
This final picture makes me just want to scoop him up and rescue him from everything. He was such a little trooper.
Last night Janna and JR started to fight over something and I couldn't help and smile that they were both here to drive each other crazy.

5 years - and we haven't killed each other yet!

With JR getting sick with a nasty abcess, we just weren't sure that we were going to get our "anniversary day" as planned. It turned out that JR held off just long enough to get our appointments in.

We started the day by renewing our vows at our home church. It was really special having a chance to say the "traditional" and religious vows that we hadn't ever said. Even though we promised to love, honor, and cherish five years ago - saying those things again was still emotional and moving. Being "married" in the church - in OUR church - was important to me. However, I think I underestimated what a powerful experience it was going to be.

After meeting with the pastor we got a wonderful massage, and it was confirmed that my 32 lb tank of a son really is a load on my back. About 3 minutes into my massage - the therapist asked "do you still carry your children a lot?"

When our massage was over, we had lunch at a favorite cafe of ours. You really appreciate slow, quiet, lingering meals when you have kids.

After this we went home for a little while, and picked the kids up later that afternoon. JR ended up getting a nasty fever secondary to a terrible infection that night. It ended up landing us in the hospital - delaying our opportunity to toast to five years and share our traditional cigar. So, the following pictures were actually taken the night that JR ended up getting home from the hospital (11/5).

Happy Halloween!

This is how we started our day - with Janna's best dramatic face. But, her shirt was cute, right? Unfortunately JR wouldn't let us get a picture of his "little monster" shirt.

That evening I grabbed the kids right after work and headed over to our friend's house. Daniel, Ben, Janna, and JR had such a blast playing and trick-or-treating together. We ended up heading over to a local shopping/eating area and doing the trick or treating put on by the merchants.

Here's Janna and Daniel together before the events. Janna kept trying to hold his hand all night, but I think Daniel had other ideas (like candy) and kept telling her no. Of course, this just devastated poor Janna. Later in the evening, a little girl dressed in a Minne Mouse outfit was caught talking to Daniel. Janna marched right over to the two of them and made sure to get Daniel's attention and keep him in line. The two of them are such a trip.

Trick or treating isn't nearly as cool as EATING the treats.

The kids with their Dad right before bath time.

Happy big 3 Janna!

Janna's third birthday consisted of a small family party in Minnesota the weekend prior, followed by another small family party on the 10th. We had spaghetti for dinner, with cupcakes for dessert.

Here she is opening her gifts. She got two little people sets, and both her and JR LOVE these things. I actually encouraged her to open them first, because I knew I could keep JR entertained with them while she opened other gifts. She especially loved the store set because there was a little airplane (think outside of Walmart) that the "children" could take a ride in. She was too cute lining all the people up saying "okay, it's your turn...one...two...three..." as she turned them around exactly 8 times before giving the next "little people" his or her turn.

Here she is with her camera that we gave her. She's actually taken some good pictures. I will have to download and put them on here one of these days. And this...well....this had to have been the most priceless picture all evening.
That following Saturday, we had our friend's Denise and David over with their boys Daniel and Ben. Daniel is about a day younger than Janna, and Ben was born on the day JR was scheduled to be born (originally) - they're 5 days apart.

A few more disney photos

We got our family pictures back from disneyphotos.com.




They really get you either going or coming...don't they?

This is the best one, I think:

This is the one picture I really wanted, and we just couldn't get the kids to cooperate during the day. So, we settled for a night picture.

These turned out good, but the hat isn't as recognizable as compared to the Epcot ball or Cinderella's castle:

This picture is so PERFECT for our trip...JR shoving food in his mouth...

First Disney Trip: 9/1/2007 - 9/3/2007

***Disclaimer****

I really wanted to get these pictures up before the work week, and did so while very tired. Please excuse the excessive use of the word "awesome." I really couldn't think of another word to use, and I am way too tired to change it now.

So, how much stuff DOES a family of four need for 2 nights/3 days at Walt Disney World?

Apparently enough to fill up the rear end of a Ford Freestyle. At least when you factor in a pack n' play and stroller.



On the ferry ride over.

Quintessential castle picture. Janna is on my shoulders so she can see the show happening on the stairs of Cinderella's castle.

It was hot at Disney. Not just plain hot, but unGodly "this must be hell" hot. Here is Janna cooling herself off at a water playground.

How hot was it? Well, here's a picture of Jeff. That moisture in his shirt is sweat. Jeff is NOT a typically sweaty boy, so this is really indicative of exactly what kind of heat we were dealing with. Heat AND humidity.

The kiddos on the teacups. We (unfortunately) did not get Dumbo in (or "bumbos" as Janna calls them). It was just TOO warm at Magic Kingdom and the park is terribly disorganized for a theme park. We were actually disappointed with their ability to "move" people in terms of restaurants and walking.

The "horsey" ride.

We headed to the hotel at this point and tried to get the kids down for a nap. We failed with JR, but Janna went down for an hour. We braved the Magic Kingdom once again, and actually had an opportunity to get in a few more rides. We also got some shopping in - including the necessary Mickey Mouse Ear hats!


Day Two - another "how uncomfortable WAS it at Disney this vacation?"

Here is a picture from the balcony off our room at the hotel. It was an AWESOME place to stay, "value resort" or not. Here's the pool area in the 60's section (there are sections devoted to the 50's, 60's, 70's, and 80's).

Here's a picture I took a few seconds later. Notice the haze? That's humidity fogging the lens.

Here's another picture, 15 minutes later. Really, this is a perfect picture for our entire trip - a tired child rubbing her eyes with nasty Florida humidity haze covering it.

Here are our pictures from "Play and Dine at Hollywood and Vine." This was an AWESOME experience for the kids. They came around, met the kids, and also did a whole singing/dancing show.

These are all characters from "Playhouse Disney" which is programming created for pre-schoolers on the Disney channel.

The next two pictures are "Little Einstein" characters. My kids LOVE this show. This was a real treat - and Janna was TOTALLY enamored with June (the character in the purple dress below).

Afterwards we went to the baby pool for awhile. Yet another kudos to the hotel for the great kiddie facilities. This pool was awesome, as you really didn't have to worry about the kiddos at all. They had a blast as we tuckered them out waiting for our room to be cleaned. Nap time (3 and a half hours, to be exact) followed.

The next morning , we got up and RAN (no joke, we were running late) to the breakfast with princesses. AWESOME - Janna was totally enamored.

The remainder of the pictures were taken at home. This is the crown Janna and I "made" after our breakfast with princesses. You bought the basic shell (she picked the pink out) and then I helped her to find "charms" that best represented the princesses we met. She LOVES it.

Here she is with her Minnie that's dressed like Cinderella - we let her pick this out on her first night at Magic Kingdom.
Here's JR with his "Pooh" that he picked out on our first night at Magic Kingdom. The funny thing is, he carried this doll around with him for hours. However, if you try to put him to bed with it, he'll stand up, chuck Pooh out of bed, then promptly lay down and go to sleep. Pooh may be his "best friend" - but sleepy time is only for his blankey and lovey.
"If you're happy and you know it clap your hands...if you're happy and you know it clap your hands..."
"If you're happy and you know it, than your face will surely show it..." (JR knows all the motions to this song).
Here's our girl, in her Minnie ears, HAPPY to be home (she only told us that a dozen times).
We all had a blast making some memories at Disney, but it was terribly hot and VERY humid. Poor JR could barely handle it, and Dad wasn't much better. As long as we were in the AC, we were okay - but we're looking forward to our trip in February of 2009 (right before JR turns 3 and they can charge us an arm and a leg for him). It should be much cooler and more comfortable - and maybe a little less crowded!

We did a fair number of rides, met some characters, and made some memories. Hot/humid or not - a great family vacation.

Now Jeff and I just need a vacation from our vacation.