A Little of This and a Little of That

Caleb recovered from his terrible rash with no problems. Thank God.  That was the scariest thing we have had to deal with so far.  I am sure there will be many more times where I am hurting for my little boy, but I am glad the rash scare is over with.  We are still not quite sure what the cause was, which is pretty scary.  All I do know is that we will be staying away from any and all kinds of blueberry bars. 

Alex has been giving Caleb haircuts ever since he has needed one.  This seems like from the instant he was born:)  He takes after his mother with hair.  If you know Alex you know what I mean:)  Well, this weekend we decided that it was time to let the professionals handle it.  We took him to Cool Cuts, a haircut place designed just for kids.  I couldn't believe that a child's haircut would cost $18!!  That is more than I spend on my hair.  I am a Super Cuts kind of girl.  I really did like the woman who cut his hair, and it did turn out good.  This does not mean that I will continue to take him there, but it was a good thing to say we have done. 

He is so darn handsome!!

Caleb loves to get adjusted by his dad.  He gets so excited when Alex goes to get out his adjusting table.  Yes we have a portable adjusting table at home.  One of the perks of being married to a chiropractor, I can get adjusted anytime I need it.  Here is a video of Caleb getting adjusted.  He LOVES it and is such a good patient.

Pay attention to the sounds he makes.

This year our lovely state of Texas has changed the state assessment.  It has gone from TAKS to STAAR.  AHHHH.  The STAAR test is supposed to be much harder, and for my students it will be a big challenge.  I am not enjoying this part of teaching 4th grade.  Needless to say had to go up to school to do some planning.  This is what I came home to...

He was so tired he fell asleep in his wagon!

Look at his outfit....his pj's and cowboy boots, such a boy!

Next week, I get to find out if I am going to have a niece or nephew!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I am so excited to find out, can you tell.  Congratulations Casey and Brian.

And while we are on congratulations, my very dear friend, Stacy, gave birth to her twin boys.  Welcome to the world Colt and Luke Doak!!!  You are already so loved by so many people.  

Chicken pox, measles, allergic reaction????

Thursday, when I picked Caleb up from daycare, his teacher showed me some small red pumps on his back, legs, and tummy.  She said that there were very few that morning, but it got worse as the day went on.  Alex and I saw nothing while getting him dressed for school early that morning.

They said he must been seen by a doctor before returning, which I am fine with.  I am not one of those mothers who wants to send my sick child to school.  Well, that night the rash got worse. 

By Friday morning he was covered, and I mean covered with these raised, red bumps.  At first we were sure he had chicken pox, but as Friday went on and the rash was getting even worse, I began to think it might be the measles.  What...measles. 

Needless to say, I was feeling awful at this point, and you can imagine how my poor baby was feeling (see pictures below). I called the doctor before our appointment to warn them that I thought measles was a possibility, and they had us come in when no one was in the office. 

Well, the diagnosis is.......an allergic reaction.  Yes, this was caused by allergic reaction to something he ate.  I am not quite sure yet what that could have been, but I am thoroughly looking into it.  Possibly a blueberry nutrigrain bar.  Which is odd because he has eaten blueberries and other flavored nutrigrain bars before.

WARNING...the rash is terrible, worse then terrible.  It started out as small red bumps and has progressed very rapidly to large reddish purple patches.  They look like those scary pictures you seen on the internet while doing a google search.  Those awful pictures you cringe at when you see them and my sweet baby boy is covered.

  Friday morning

Friday morning

Early Friday afternoon

Saturday morning

Saturday afternoon

Early Saturday evening

My poor, poor baby.  As you can imagine, he has been pretty miserable.  It is definitely bothering him in every way.  Most of all when he is trying to sleep.  We have not done much of that. 

I wish this was me and not him.  It is such an awful feeling to see your child so uncomfortable and not be able to do much about it.  He can take benadryl and claritin and that is about all we can do. 

I am in so much pain seeing him like this.  I can't imagine how he is feeling.  Not to mention, he really can't tell me.  It is just heartbreaking every time I look at him or hold him to soothe him.

Let's hope there is an end to this very soon!



A Weekend with the Cousins and Trip to the Dallas Zoo

We are so blessed to have great family.  We are always having company come visit us, which we love.  Last weekend we had a full house and same this weekend!!  Alyssa and her husband, Ben, came to visit.  They brought along our nephews, Caiden and Zane, and niece, Ayla.  We had a blast together.  Watching Caleb with Zane play together makes me realize that Caleb needs a sibling:) Now I have to convince Alex of that. They are so darn cute  playing together.  Caleb is really missing them now and that just breaks my heart.  A big part of why we have to get home to Austin eventually...see end of post for update on that process.

Saturday morning we woke up and were at the Dallas Zoo by 10:30.  This was Caleb's first trip to the zoo and he LOVED every minute of it, despite the chilly weather.  I think my son will be a future vet or hairdresser but that is a whole other post:)  Here are some pictures of our first zoo trip with Caleb.

 

I left the zoo a little before everyone else because I was helping host a baby shower for a friend of mine who will be welcoming her first baby into the world in just a couple weeks.

I have another very very dear friend of mine, Stacy, who will be welcoming her second and third babies in a few short weeks as well.  No, that is not a typo.  Stacy is having twin boys.  Her twins will make three for their family.  Sweet baby Jack just recently turned 2.  I sure wish I could quit my job and be around more to help her out.  I can't wait to meet those precious babies.  They are already so loved by so many people...including me!!

House update:
We have now listed for sale by owner in hopes that our price drop will bring in more traffic.  After being listed again for about 1 week we got an offer.  It was just what we were asking for, but they wanted a lot for their closing costs.  Alex, who could get a second career in real estate, negotiated a higher sale price, and we would still cover what they were asking in closing costs.  Both sides were in agreement, or so we thought.  The buyers got cold feet and backed out:(  Talk about a HUGE let down.  That is the part that really sucks about selling a house.  In my mind I was packed and ready to move.  Let's just hope that this offer was a sign of another to come, and it will all work out in the end.

Daddy's Birthday

Today, is Alex's birthday.  It was so nice that it happened to fall on a Sunday so our family could spend the day together.  It was a nice relaxing day that started with sleeping in (even Caleb), opening presents, lunch at Cheesecake Factory, exchanging presents (apparently Alex wear size 12 not 11 in dress shoes), nap, helping a friend unload a trailer, and lots of playtime.  All in all I would say that Alex's birthday was a success. 

Alex is a wonderful husband and even better father.  He deserves only the best.  I am the luckiest woman in the world and Alex often reminds me of that:)  No, seriously I often think "How did I get this lucky?"  I can't answer that.  All I know is that I am. 
Happy Birthday Alex.  We love you!

Caleb helping Daddy

Birthday Kisses!!

To top off the perfect weekend...I am off tomorrow! 

Playing Hookie

This weekend was a busy one.  Friday night I got to go out for a much needed girls night.  We had a great time eating good Mexican food, drinking great drinks, and having wonderful conversation.  I got home from dinner and my dad and Sharon were here.  Saturday we went to Sharon's son, Billy's place in Dallas.  We spent the day there and that night Alex and I had a work thing to go to with his office.  We came home and spent the rest of the evening playing games with my dad, Sharon, Billy, and his girlfriend. 

Sunday, Caleb ran a low fever of 99-100 all day. I think he was warn down from a busy weekend. I decided that I should probably take off today in case the fever turned into something worse. I knew it probably wouldn't, but wanted to play it safe.  His fever was gone by this morning, so Caleb and I got a day to play hookie together.  It has been raining all day today so outside activities were out of the question.  We laid in bed and watched cartoons until about 10am, ran a couple of errands, and had a dance party.

Does this boy look sick to you?

Caleb learned how to turn the stereo on. He likes to listen to it LOUD!!  He also decided that it was no fun dancing by yourself, so he tried to get Rider to dance with him.  Let's just say Rider did not want to dance, but he was so sweet to let Caleb roll all over him:)

Happy Monday!!

Finally....

Finally I am updated our blog. I knew this would happen.....I have fallen VERY behind in keeping our blog updated.  We have been extremely busy.  Beginning with Thanksgiving, our family has only been in town 1 weekend.  We finally have another weekend at home which means I have some time to update. 

The holidays were so busy for us.  For Thanksgiving we went to Corpus Christi to spend it with Alex's family.  His Grandma and Grandpa have been hosting Thanksgiving for 61 years and everyone of them has been in the same house!!!  There are usually 60+ people at their house.  This year was on the smaller side with about 40:) 

 Thanks Stacy for the shirt idea..I stole it from you:)

 Caleb and Papa



Caleb and Kiki

After Thanksgiving we got ready for Christmas.  It started with Henninger Christmas at my dad's house in Dripping Springs December 10th.  We played white elephant, ate, and all the kids opened gifts.  It's always a blast.  The next weekend December 17th we were back in Austin because my sister in law, Alyssa, graduated college. Yay, congrats Alyssa.  Since that started my 2 weeks off of work Caleb and I stayed in Austin.  Alex met us back in Austin on Thursday.  Friday December 23rd we had Jones' Christmas (my mom's family).  On Christmas Eve we went to Alex's parents house for the day.  That night we spent the night with my mom and woke up Christmas morning to tons of Santa gifts for Caleb.  We went to Christmas lunch with my Mimi, then off to my dad's for the night.  All in all that was 4 Christmases for Caleb.  Let's just say he got everything he wanted.....and more.



Caleb and Santa



 

Henninger Christmas

An attempt at a cousin picture...it was very hard to have all 4 cooperate

 Roasting marshmallows with Aunt Lyss

 Aunt Casey (he still calls her Caca)

 Papa and Caleb sitting at his new table...thanks Papa and Sharon

Caleb is now 17 months old!!  Wow, how and when did this happen?  He is becoming a little boy.  I can't believe what he can do. Here is the low down of Caleb at 17 months.....

Repeating everything...including but not limited to the entire alphabet
Beginning to put words together and make phrases "Rider/Lilly outside"
Calling me "mommy" not "mama" which I think is so darn cute
I am beginning to see signs of throwing small fits (this is not fun)
Recognizes all family members in photos and says their names
Loves to color and put stickers on paper
Has an entire mouthful of teeth
Knows all animal names and sounds

 Caleb finding all his farm animals



Caleb got his first "report card" from the first half of the school year.  They say he knows a lot but something I thought was hilarious was it said that he need to work on following instructions!!  What1 17 month old can follow instructions??  I guess we have some work to do. 

Caleb's first semester report card:)  Notice the last note!!

There is no new news on our house.  We have had one interested buyer  but nothing has come out of that yet.  Keep your fingers crossed for us.  We are fixing to list in as for sale by owner so that we can drop our price significantly. 

I go back to work Monday, which is very depressing.  I wish I could stay at home with my little man.  It will be a very hard adjustment for both of us I am sure.  I just keep telling myself that one day I will be able to stay at home with my kids.  For now, I have to work and that is just the way it is. 

One of my new year's resolutions is to not ever go this long without blogging again:)

Stay tuned....

Jessica Visits and Zac Brown Band Concert

For lack of time, seeing as I am blogging in the middle of the week, I am going to keep this post limited to mostly pictures.  That is what we all like anyways.  Who wants to hear me ramble on and on. 

My very best friend from college, Jessica, came over to visit with her nephew, Jayden 9 months, Mom, and Grandma.

I actually got a picture with Jayden.  He did not like me very much:(  He was not happy any time I held him or tried to play with him.  I guess I will have to see him more.

Alex and the boys

It was such a nice visit.  Jessica now lives in Houston, so we don't get to see each other as often as we would like. 

This past weekend Alex and I went to the Zac Brown Band concert.  Our friend Sean came down from Kansas along with his sister and some friends.  We had such a blast, to say the least.  I took Caleb to my Aunt Linda's house Saturday afternoon and he spent the night there.  She said he did great!  They snuggled a lot, which makes me so jealous because at his age our snuggling moments are few and far between.  He is always on the go. 

The Girls

The Boys

I love this man so much.

Before the concert

After the concert

Thanksgiving is sneaking up very fast.  Alex, Caleb, and I will be traveling to Austin and Corpus Christi to spend time with loved ones.  I am looking forward to seeing all of our family.  Living here in Dallas as the holidays approach makes me want to be back in Austin so badly.