Toddler Tales Week 56: Broken

This week, Asher's main word was broken, and it was coincidentally also a pretty good word to describe the week.  Everything that Asher saw was "broken" even though it usually wasn't.  The first thing he would say in the morning was "broken" and it was often the last thing he said at night with about 100 million "brokens" in between.  It drove us a little crazy.  At one point, Asher actually pointed out something that really was broken and Eric was so excited that he had used the word correctly that he cheered!

So, as I said the word broken was a pretty good description of the week, as Toddler Tales Week 56 (July 20-26) was not a great week for any of us.  The week started off on Sunday morning, and Eric and I were scheduled to volunteer for nursery at church.  Although, Asher is now old enough to go to the big kids room, we kept him with us for another week rather than making the transfer.  I had barely slept the night before and was exhausted and not feeling well, so I spent the entire time in the rocking chair watching the kids, while Eric played with them.  Thankfully, there were only 3 other kids besides Asher.  As I sat and rocked, several times Asher wanted to be held in my lap and snuggle.  The first time I felt loved, but as it happened more and more the warning flags went up and the sirens went of: something is not right...this is not normal.  By the time church was over and we could go home, Asher was whiny and felt quite warm.  We got him home and took his temperature: 101.5.  Yuck, I thought...sick again.  Then, we tried to give him some lunch before nap time, but he wouldn't eat anything other than a frozen Gogurt.  So, we took him up to bed, gave him some tylenol and he slept for four hours!!  When he woke up, the fever was gone and he seemed much happier, so we enjoyed some fun outside.

That evening, he still would not eat, even though he seemed like himself again.  The next day, I picked him up from daycare and he had a few red spots on his chin.  I was in a hurry and didn't notice it until I got home though.  When I looked at it, I thought i might just be some small scratches or something from falling, but decided I'd ask his daycare provider about it tomorrow.  That night, when I was getting Asher ready for bed, I noticed more spots on his butt, that looked like some sort of diaper rash.  As I looked at them though, I realized that they also looked similar to the spots on his face and I was started to think he had some sort of rash, but had no idea what it could be.  In the meantime, Eric was extremely busy with work, and I continued to be incredibly uncomfortable and sleeping TERRIBLY with restless legs, back pain and an over-active mind.  I was so frustrated that I couldn't get any sleep and it was waring on me quickly.

On Tuesday morning, Asher was following me around the house as I got ready and kept saying "Owie, Owie" as he would point at his feet.  From my vantage point (5' above Asher's feet) I didn't see anything and brushed it off, since he often says owie for things that either don't exist or are marks from long-past injuries.  As I was getting him dressed that morning though, he said it again and I took a closer look...more spots!  He had little bumps all over his feet!  I still wasn't sure what was going on and had I not been so exhausted and busy that morning, I probably would have stopped to think about it before bringing him to daycare, but instead I just made a mental note and continued with the busy morning schedule.

On my way into work, I stopped at Panera to use up some freebies I had and treated myself to a strawberry smoothie and a cheese danish.  They helped cheer me up a bit, but I was still physically and emotionally exhausted.

As the day went on, I remembered about the spots on Asher's face, butt and feet and texted his daycare provider about them.  She had seen them too, and as we texted back and forth (& I did a little online research), we concluded that he had Hand Foot Mouth Disease.  The symptoms were all there: 1st, a fever of around 101-103 and a sore throat, then a day or two later sores appear in or on the mouth, hands, feet, and sometimes the buttocks and legs that sometimes turn into blisters.  I was convinced that that is what I was facing, but decided not to take Asher into the doctor since the information online said it was virus and there was nothing that could be done other than cool fluids and tylenol.  Being extremely busy at work myself, I feared having to stay home with him while he recovered, since it is contagious, but he was allowed to stay at daycare (thankfully).  That evening, we had another family photo shoot with a photographer in Kenosha.  I wasn't sure if it would work out, since it was probably the hottest day of the summer so far (mid 90s), was threatening to rain, and Asher's chin had several spots on it, but we pressed on nonetheless.  The shoot went fairly well, although I was sweating enough that my glasses kept sliding down my face, and I should have pictures to upload in the near future.

Emma at the photoshoot.

On Wednesday, although I really could have used a day off, I worked because we were going to take Friday off instead.  Thus, when Eric texted me and said that we could get free dinner at HuHot that evening if we went and sang the theme song to Full House, I was game.  No dinner prep and a fuss-free meal with my boys, sounded great.  When we got to the restaurant and told the waitress what we wanted to do, she looked at us like we were completely crazy.  Apparently, no one there had told the servers about the deal they had advertised on Facebook.  She asked her manager about it though and we were given the green light to make fools of ourselves (which we did), so that we could have three meals for the price of drinks and a tip.  Not a bad deal.

Video: Silly Boy (Asher being a little nutty at the restaurant)

Still, although it seemed like things were going better, I was getting no sleep and beginning to lose it.  So, the next day when Eric told me that he had a sore throat and thought he was getting Asher's illness, I blew him off (not nice, I know) and figured he was just over reacting.  The truth was though, that I just couldn't take any more.  I was so exhausted from trying to take care of just myself, that taking care of a sick boy and now a sick husband was more than I could handle.  That night, I broke.  Literally, I completely broke down.  The preggo hormones kicked in and I spend a few hours on the couch crying as my exhaustion, discomfort and frustrations got the best of me.  The good news was though that for me the work week was now over.  All I had to do was get us packed up to leave the next day and then it was the weekend!

On Friday morning, the week had finally turned for the better.  It was the weekend (at least for Asher & I...Eric had to work a half day).  Asher and I spent the morning packing up the van, leisurely strolling around Target and hanging out together.  Even though I was still exhausted, I had gotten a little better sleep the night before and was feeling refreshed having the week behind me.

Asher coloring while I got some work done in the office.

Once Eric (who still wasn't feeling very well and already proved to me that he was actually sick with a 101 fever) was home from work and the van was packed up, we headed North for the weekend to celebrate Mom and Dad's 40th wedding anniversary.  They had been camping out at Wells State Park with Aaron, Erika and the boys since Wednesday, so we made a detour there to join them at the camp site before heading on to their house.  They had a great site that was perfect for us (even though we were only there a couple of hours): it was close to the restrooms (great for the pregnant lady), right next to a bounce house that they had set up for their Christmas in July party at the campground, and just a few sites down from the playground...which Asher thought was AWESOME!

Asher going down the bounce-house slide.

Asher climbing on the playground

Going down the slide.  He was loving it.

Asher, Papa & I

The boys also stopped to have some fun at the water spout.  Three little boys all trying to get a drink at once...pretty entertaining!

Video: The Boys & The Water Spout

After playing for a while, we enjoyed a camp dinner and then a visit from Santa and Mrs. Claus.

Micah & Asher waving at Santa and Mrs. Claus

Finally, it was time to say goodnight to Grandma and Papa and head home to get some rest before the big day to come.  Asher slept the whole way there and woke only for a moment as we placed him in his crib and said goodnight.  We got some rest and then it was the last day of this tough week: Saturday, but it was also a great day to Party!  ...more on that to come!