On Saturday morning Brandi & I walked to some of the Denver city-wide garage sales. I had my big find the day before when I picked up a cute little purple/pink/white Radio-Flyer tricycle that has a bell, streamers on the handle bars and can be folded up. Meanwhile, Austin took Emily up to West Union for a 5K Fun Walk sponsored by the hospital. Apparently Emily did great and chattered her way through the morning. She even won a door prize! She was very possessive of her Clermont Implement hat for the rest of the day! :o)
After lunch we all headed up to Fayette to join the rest of the family in attending the Upper Iowa University commencement where Austin's mom fulfilled a dream and received her B.A. in Early Childhood Education graduating Summa Cum Laude. The kids did great thanks to strategic bleacher seating and a bag full of toys, but they were definitely ready to be done! Everyone came to our house afterwards for a celebration meal.
On Sunday (Mother's Day) everyone went to church at Orchard Hill and then had lunch at our house again. It was a very fun weekend of enjoying time with family and for me, hosting everyone at our house. Emily especially enjoyed playing with Aunt "Tway-cee". She even woke up asking for her. :o)
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However, there were some not so fun things about the weekend, too. On Friday it looked like Emily had a bit of a cold sore on her mouth. By Saturday she had sores all around her mouth and on her hands and by Sunday her hands, mouth, feet and bottom were covered in blisters. She slept terrible on Friday & Saturday night, which means I did, too. She didn't eat well either. Being a first-time mom I was freaking out by Sunday morning, so while everyone else went to church I took Emily to Urgent Care. Unfortunately, the doctor there had no clue what it could be and gave me an expensive antibiotic prescription just in case it was an infection. Just an FYI: filling a prescription on a Sunday morning can be very traumatic when you're already under a lot of stress and extremely sleep-deprived! On top of all of this I couldn't find my cell phone anywhere and figured Emily took it out of my purse and left it in the bleachers at Upper Iowa. Whew--talk about testing your "mothering" abilities!
Everything turned around on Monday. First of all, Emily slept 12 solid hours overnight. Then Austin found my cell phone rolling around in his truck (which I had taken garage-saling). I took Emily to our family doctor and he had diagnosed her just from the voice mail I had left. She has hand-foot-and-mouth disease, which is apparently a very common childhood disease that I had never heard of before. It's a virus, so the antibiotic is worthless and it just has to run it's course for 7-10 days. Emily is already on the upswing and everything is looking much better. The blisters on the outside of her body never seemed to bother her, but the blisters in her mouth did and still do a little bit. The worst part is that it's highly contagious. She was in the church nursery on Friday morning along with a friend's house on Friday night and with her cousin, Asher, all weekend. So I had to make some apologetic phone calls and send a regretful email. Oh well, I guess we all live and learn!
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As I reflect on my current role of being a mother (along with my many other roles), I can honestly say I wouldn't want it any other way. Emily brings me more joy than I could ever imagine. Sometimes the cynical side of me wonders why any sane person would want to bring a child into a world that seems to be spiraling downward by the day. But then I look through the hopeful and excited eyes of a toddler and realize that amidst everything that seems to be so evil and wrong, God is good and His grace and mercy can overcome. What a blessing to be able to experience that wonderful grace and mercy through raising a child!
Glad to hear that she is starting to feel better....I think we may be starting to head down the same road....Asher has started running a temp. today, one of the precursors....no sores yet, but those are probably on their way.
ReplyDeleteKari decided to keep Kortney home for at least a couple days to try not to expose her anymore, which has been a bit of a blessing, because it's much more peaceful and Asher needs more attention when he's not feeling well:(.
Anyways, thanks for calling me as soon as you did, and hope things continue to improve!