2018 Flu Week

Well we can check having the flu off of Cooper's Fall bucket list.  We had a crazy weekend/week of sick and recovering toddler, but we seem to be coming to the other side now.

We knew something was up Thursday night-- after dinner Cooper just wanted me to hold him and got really upset when we tried to get his pajamas on.  We took his temperature and it was 102.  So we gave him some Advil and put him to bed.  He was pretty restless through the night, but slept til morning.  When I got him up, he was pretty upset and did not want to be put down.

So I pulled out the Baby K'tan to put him on my hip while I cooked breakfast.  After his breakfast and his medicine kicked in, he was good as new.  Running around and playing as usual.  But because of his fever we decided to go ahead and go to the doctor.  Several times he's had an ear infection where his only symptom has been a fever and since he'd had a runny nose most of the week we thought it might have caused some fluid in his ears and wanted to get it checked before the weekend.  

We got to the doctor and she said he really looked good.  His ears were clear and his throat was a little red.  She ordered flu and strep tests to rule those out.  Less than 10 minutes later she was back saying that he had Flu B.  She was pretty surprised because of how well he seemed to be doing, but prescribed him Tamiflu to try to help with the symptoms.

We headed home and he wanted to be up some more, so we tried out the carrier again.  He was perfectly content being right there most of the day!  We picked up his medicine and settled in for the afternoon.  After nap he was pretty out of sorts.  It was hard to tell what he wanted and he was just upset most of the afternoon.  David got home and we got Cooper ready for bed.

Nicki sent us some Tiff's Treats to help get through the weekend of the flu.  Such a thoughtful thing and we ate up the brownies and ice cream!

Cooper was up off and on throughout the night and pretty fussy most of the night.  Saturday morning he was up and ready to play again after breakfast and some medicine. 

His main problem seemed to be pain with swallowing, so he ate lots of popsicles (that I made with Gatorade) and smoothies on Saturday.  Otherwise he was pretty whiny throughout the day and would have some moments of being happy and then others of being pretty sad.  As Saturday went on he seemed to have more and more trouble eating and there was less and less he was interested in.

Sunday we decided to get out of the house for a walk around the neighborhood to get everyone some fresh air.  Cooper insisted on his sunglasses and hat.  He pointed out all the pumpkins he saw and did pretty well on the walk.

Once again, after nap was his hardest time.  I think he was just in a lot of pain.  Sunday is also when we realized that we're pretty sure he also had Hand Foot and Mouth.  He had a blister on his tongue and some others around his body and the pediatrician had mentioned on Friday that HFM was going around.  So the blister on his tongue was really what was making him most miserable because all food and drinks were hurting.  He cried about medicine, about water, about popsicles, etc.  We tried a bunch of different things and he'd eat a few bites but mostly didn't want much of anything.  We did get some additional medicines to help with his mouth sores and they seemed to help a little.

We also spent a good amount of time watching Daniel Tiger to help us all get through the day.  We don't really watch much TV with him, but we listen to some of the Daniel Tiger songs and Cooper loves them.  He loved watching Daniel Tiger!  We watched the episode about being sick and several times throughout the week sang "When you're sick, rest is best, rest is best."

 Sunday night he slept a little better, only needing medicine around 9:00 and then sleeping the rest of the night.  Monday morning he was up fussing a little at 6:30, so I went ahead and gave him some Advil so we would have time to give him another dose before nap.  But once I gave him the medicine was wide awake and ready to play.  I tried to get him to rock a little bit, but he just wanted to tell me "hi" and point to all my body parts.  So I gave in and we got up and got the day started.

We had breakfast and played at home for a while.  Then he asked to go outside.  For some reason being outside has been the one thing that has consistently made him happy throughout the weekend.  So we loaded up the stroller and went on a walk.  When we got home he wanted to go walk around the block, but he only made it about 2 houses before asking to be picked up and then we headed home for snack.  

Where it became evident that even though he seemed to be feeling mostly better, his mouth was still really hurting.  He asked for fruit for his snack.  And he ate most of it, but cried after every bite.  Poor guy.

Lunch was a little better.  I offered some shredded cheese and he went to town on it.  I think it was something he didn't have to chew and that he could put on the side of his mouth that didn't have a blister.  So he kept asking for more.  Also, the only way we could get him to drink water throughout the weekend was offering him my cup, so this one became his cup for the duration of his illness-- whatever works to keep him hydrated!

Thankfully, he took a good nap.  But then he was pretty upset when he got up.  He requested a smoothie and then just wanted to go outside.  So we spent most of the afternoon in the backyard.  He drank his smoothie and explored the porch.  He really was not too interested in eating this day, but he did drink a few smoothies and ate a little at a time.

 Tuesday he woke up pretty happy.  It was the first morning in a few days where he didn't wake up crying which felt like a huge success.  So we held off on Advil that we'd been giving on a pretty set schedule and decided to see how the day went.  Once again, he just wanted to be outside.  So we headed outside after breakfast and spent a while in the backyard. 

Before lunch, I noticed that his fever was back so I gave him a little medicine and then put him down for a nap.  After naptime, we made some Jello.  I wanted something fun and festive for Halloween week and I thought Jello might feel good in his mouth since it's cold and mostly soft.  So I had made the orange Jello and let it cool.  After nap Cooper helped me cut out the shapes with some fall cookie cutter that I have.

He seemed to really like the Jello and was able to eat it without too much complaining.  For the most part he seemed pretty happy this day.  Still some pain with eating, but he was able to eat and drink more than he had been.  It seemed like we were finally on the road to recovery!

And here we are today.  Tomorrow it'll be one week since he first spiked a fever.  He seems to be doing well for the most part, but still has a slight fever if we don't give him medicine.  He finished up his last dose of Tamiflu this morning, so now we're just doing Advil before naptime and before bed to help ease some of the pain for sleeping as well as the "magic mouthwash" a few times a day to help make eating a little better.  He still has a blister on his tongue and will still tell me his mouth hurts, but he's been eating almost everything today.  If we could get this fever to go away we'd be perfect, but for now we're just laying low at home and trying to get back to 100%.

It was a crazy few days, but I'm so thankful for the medicine available for us to give him and for people covering for me at MOPS and ESL so we could stay home and not share our germs.  I'm a little bummed that he's sick for Halloween.  We had planned to try a little trick or treating and a visit to see his cousins, but  we figure it'd be best not to do any of that.  The rain seems like it'll probably put a damper on the evening anyway.  But we're still managing to have some Halloween fun, even if it's just at home--I'll share more about that later.  But there's the tale of Cooper's week of the flu and hand foot and mouth.

October Date Night Jar

We enjoyed sneaking in a few dates this month amidst the other Fall festivities.  We drew our yellow and orange sticks at the beginning of the month and planned out a night at the movies and a fondue night at home.

We started off our movie night with dinner out.  We went to On the Border and enjoyed some fajitas (they were having a deal on them this day-- woohoo!) and good conversation.

Then we headed to the movies to see First Man.  We don't get to the movies very often anymore, so it's always nice to get away for that for an evening.

Next up was an at home fondue night.  We tried out some new fondue recipes.  The cheese one was just beef broth, seasonings, cheddar cheese, and Worcestershire sauce.  We had meatballs, pork rinds, bread, broccoli and meat sticks to dip in it.

And then I made 2 different dessert dips.  The chocolate one is made with Lily's chocolate (stevia sweetened) and a little whipping cream and the other one was Peanut Butter with a little condensed milk and vanilla.  We had fruit and brownies and a rice krispie treat to dip in it.  It was a fun and different dinner.  We put it all together after Cooper went to bed so it was nice being able to eat at a little more relaxed pace and we had a few random question conversation starters to discuss over dinner as well.

I didn't photograph it, but we also had a game night at home where David picked the game.  We played Rummikub which we both really enjoyed.  And we finally drew a green stick (unplanned out of the house) to try to do this past weekend when we had some free time, but Cooper ended up sick so we stayed home all weekend.  We'll have to try it out in November!

Cooper's first Painting

So far in Cooper's 18 months, we haven't done a ton of "crafts" together. He will color briefly and has started doing some activities with gluing and/or coloring at church but we don't do much at home.  But I decided to try out some painting for a few Fall projects.  It was a rainy afternoon, so we decided to pull it out to help the time pass by. 

First up was apple stamps/painting.  I put the paint on the apple and then gave it to him to push onto the paper.

He did a pretty good job and was really into it (for about 3 minutes)

You'll notice his lack of shirt.  I decided it was easier to just let him paint in his diaper and not worry about clothes getting messy, even though we were using washable paint so it probably would have been fine.

The Crayola washable paint soaked into the apples a lot and didn't leave much paint on the paper, so then we tried a few with acrylic orange paint and they definitely turned out better.

A few of Cooper's "apple pumpkins"

Then we switched over to painting one of the pumpkins we got at the pumpkin patch this past weekend.  

When I first ask if he wanted to paint the pumpkin he said "no."  But then I showed him how and he immediately asked for more.

He loved using the round brush to make "polka dots" (as I called them)

And he really loved painting his high chair tray ;)  Luckily it all washed off pretty easily.

I put his pumpkin outside to dry.  Since it was washable paint, I know it may not stay on for very long, so it's a good thing he enjoyed the process.

And we ended the afternoon with a bath!  Cooper is starting to love bath time more, so it was fun for him to get to play in the water some after he painted.

Overall, it was a fairly successful first try at painting.  The whole process lasted about 10 minutes, maybe, but he seemed to enjoy it and it was something new to try!

Pumpkin Patch

We had a great time on our trip to the pumpkin patch today!  We had plans to go to a pumpkin patch last weekend because there was one close to us that had some special events last weekend, so we made plans to go with our friends Lucas and Yali.  Unfortunately, it poured rain all day last Saturday so we quickly cancelled those plans.  Since that pumpkin patch only had the event last weekend, we decided to try a different one this weekend.

I have friends who have posted about Blase Family Farms, but we had never been.  I looked it up and included in admission they have a petting zoo, a hayride, a hay maze, and a hot dog.  So we decided to try it out.  Luckily it finally stopped raining yesterday, so we were able to go.  We figured it would be kind of crowded since the last few weekends have been rainy, so we got there right when they opened at 10.  There were a lot of people there, but it didn't ever feel too crowded.

We looked at pumpkins for about 30 seconds before Cooper saw the animals, yelled "goat!" and took off running for them.  We each had a cup of feed for the animals, but when we got close enough to feed them, Cooper preferred to have a seat and watch David do it.

He did go up and say hi eventually and kept wanting to go back.  He loves the animals so much, but I think he was a little confused about them being inside a fence since the other petting zoos we've been to he can get right in there with them.

Here he is saying "baa" to the sheep.

After the animals we headed over to the hayride.  It was super muddy out, but their tractor pulled us all along.  We got to see their land including the blueberry patch where thy have pick-your-own blueberries in the summer.

Then it was time to check out more pumpkins.  Cooper loved picking them all up.

Cooper and his buddy Leon.

Our little pumpkin.

Our little family.

Love these guys.

Next up was the hay "maze."  The walls are obviously low, so Cooper walked around them and even climbed on them a little.

We headed back to the goats and then grabbed a few more pictures.  Cooper would only stand here if I stood with him

Silly pumpkin faces.

Because of all the rain it was very muddy out.  They have good drainage so it wasn't too wet, but there was mud everywhere.  Add to that an 18 month old who goes so fast that he constantly falls (and gets right back up) and he was covered in mud by the end.  I tried to catch a picture, but it does not do it justice.

Next up with our hot dog lunch.  Lucas and Yali left to go grab lunch somewhere else and were kind enough to give us their hot dog tickets (Cooper's admission was free, so he didn't get a hot dog ticket).  So we had hot dogs and chips at the picnic tables.

Last up we picked out a few mini pumpkins to bring home.  We'd bought a pumpkin earlier this Fall at Trader Joe's, but it was fun to get a few from the pumpkin patch.

Last up was stripping out of muddy clothes.  We had already gone through 2 pairs of pants, so Cooper rode home in a long sleeve shirt and socks :)

It was a fun morning and we'll definitely be back at Blase Family Farms another year!

High Five for Friday

It's Friday and it finally feels like Fall, so that calls for a High Five.

1. We joined some friends for a trip to the zoo on Monday.  Cooper's friend AJ has a membership so the invited us to go.  It was a fun morning with these two toddlers and catching up with my friend, Laura.   Cooper is so into animals right now and he loved seeing them all!

2. I tried out screenprinting on a t-shirt for the first time.  I've made some shirts with Heat Transfer Vinyl and even made Cooper a painted shirt with a freezer paper stencil for this Fall, but I've been wanting to try out screenprinting.  So I bought all of the supplies and got to work.  I ended up modifying it somewhat-- I could not get the vinyl to stay on the screen, so I'd seen an idea of doing a freezer paper stencil on the shirt (because you can iron it on and later remove it) and then screenprinting over that.  So I tried that and it worked perfectly.  I feel like the paint is more evenly spread out than when I just tried a freezer paper stencil with a paint and a brush.  I definitely am looking forward to trying again with the vinyl, but I thought this turned out well for my first attempt!

3. I have been wanting a Learning Tower for Cooper for quite a while.  He loves to be in the kitchen with me while I'm cooking, but there's just not a great way for him to be closeby.  And since we can't block off our kitchen, he's always underfoot. So I've seen the Learning Tower and thought it would be a good way for him to be close to the action but still a little bit contained.  But they are pretty costly.  There are tutorials for making one, but I don't think our DIY skills are good enough for that.  So I've been watching Facebook marketplace to buy one secondhand.  They are still pretty expensive, so I'd been saving up to get one when this homemade one came available for a very affordable price.  We debated it for a few days and then the price dropped again, so we decided it was worth at least getting and if it didn't work out we hadn't wasted too much.  And so far it is perfect.  Cooper loves it!  We'll see how much use we get out of it, but it seems like it's something we'll enjoy having.

4. I'm really excited to be going to IF:Gathering in the Spring!  I have been to IF:Local a few times with friends where we watch the livestream, but I've always thought it would be fun to go and experience it in person.  IF headquarters recently moved to Dallas, so next February is their first year to do the conference in the Dallas area.  So some girls in my small group all registered to go. I am looking forward to this time with our small group girls!

5. We had some pretty amazing weather a few days this week.  It was finally sunny and below 80 for a couple of days, so we spent as much time outside as possible.  We had to go get something from the library, so we went and walked around behind the library for a while.  They have lots of paths and a storybook walk with a children's picture book framed throughout the path.  Cooper loved running around and collecting "balls" (acorns).  He has so much fun getting to lead us on our walks and exploring everything!  The rest of the forecast is looking pretty rainy, but I'm looking forward to some more sunny, nice days ahead!

Happy Friday!