Roseola

Caleb is not teething. He has roseola. (http://www.askdrsears.com/html/8/T083600.asp)

When he woke up from his almost 4 hour nap this afternoon, I noticed a strange red rash on his right leg. It was really big and felt warm to the touch. He didn't seem to have any fever and was acting normal. Rather than panic and rush to the ER, which I knew was not necessary, I tried to talk to my next door neighbor who is a pediatrician. Of course she wasn't home. I kept an eye on the rash for a little while and it started to fade away. By the time I took Caleb up for his bath at 8:00, it was gone. However, when I took his shirt off, there was a splotchy rash on his chest and belly. This one wasn't warm, but I was definitely concerned. I went ahead and gave him his bath and put him in his PJ's and tried to wait for the neighbor to get home. I finally gave up and put him to bed. About 5 minutes later, I saw her pull into her driveway. I ran upstairs and pulled Caleb out of bed to go next door. She was very sweet about it and took one look at him and said, "He has roseola." When I told her about the fever that we thought was a result of teething, she said that it was a viral infection and that's what had caused the fever. Roseola is caused by a virus. Kids have fever for a couple of days, then get a rash. Once the fever is gone, they aren't contagious anymore. That's good news, but I feel so very bad for taking Caleb out to all of the public places that we went to this past week while he was contagious. I'm sure he passed this on to several other kids.

Just when I thought I was in the running for "mom of the year" I had to go and goof up like this. Okay, maybe I wasn't in the running, but I sure missed this one completely.

A Busy Week in Which I Hate Teething

We had a nice weekend and we're now looking forward to another one. The week in between has been pretty busy and we've had to deal with the woes of teething...at least I hope that's the root of our problems. Caleb started running a fever on Tuesday night. He kept an unmedicated temperature of about 101.4 for almost 48 hours. He responded well to Tylenol and Motrin and the fever stopped quickly when we gave him those. He's been pretty lethargic - as most of us are with a fever - but when we gave him medicine, he perked back up almost immediately. I've also noticed increased drooling and he's been playing with his tongue a lot. He's very resistant to the toothbrush all of a sudden. Also - he's had some pretty funky diapers. All of that put together is a pretty good indication that teething is the problem, but you can never be sure. I've tried to get a good look in his mouth, but he won't let me see and the one time I tried to feel around in there I got a pretty hard bite. That was my sign to lay off and just let nature take its course! No fever at all today and he seems to be feeling a lot better, so I'm hoping the worst is over...for now.

Despite the mild setback, we've managed to entertain ourselves pretty well this week. On Monday, I had some errands to run and took my weekly "Mom's Day Off." Rudy and Caleb not only went to play in the play area at West County mall in the morning, but they also went to the Ballwin pool in the afternoon. Rudy took his well-deserved "Dad's Day Off" on Tuesday and went to do his errands and play golf. It was too hot to do much outside and I can't stand just sitting around the house all day with Caleb ("no, don't touch the outlets," "no, don't eat the dog food," "no, don't press every button the satellite receiver..."). No matter how many toys we play with - they get boring! So, after a very short nap, we packed up and went to Chesterfield mall for a stroll, lots of time in the bookstore and playtime in the play area. We both enjoyed it! On Wednesday, we tried to go to the Magic House for our morning out, but it was raining and it seemed like everyone else in town had the same idea. We didn't even go in. Rudy ended up taking him back to the mall to play again. (The mall play area is so great because it's free and Caleb loves it!) We had an open house on Wednesday night, so we did some pretty heavy-duty cleaning and then went out to dinner while the house was open. On Thursday, we thought we might try the Magic House again, but Caleb just wasn't acting like himself, so we decided against it. We had a pretty low-key day at home. Caleb was feeling better after his nap, so I took him to the park to swing and watch the "big kids" play while Rudy took a nap. After the park, we stopped at Sonic and split a milkshake to cool ourselves down and just because it was fun. We came home and played for a while, then Rudy and I had a date night. We actually got a babysitter and went out to dinner at Roberto's and then downtown to the Broadway Oyster Bar to hear the Rebirth Brass Band - one of our favorite bands from New Orleans. It was a wonderful night - so relaxing and something very different from the usual activities. Unfortunately, Caleb woke up when we got home at midnight and cried so hard that I had to sit and rock him back to sleep. Everything was fine until he woke up again at 4:00 sobbing uncontrollably. Normally, I would've tried to wait it out to encourage him to get back to sleep on his own, but with the way he's been feeling lately - I just couldn't do it. I picked him up and tried to rock him back to sleep. No dice. So, I laid down in the guest bed with him. Again...no dice. We ended up going down to the living room and watching a recorded episode of Sesame Street, drinking a whole cup of milk and then he was ready to play! I stayed up with him until 7:00 so that Rudy could get some sleep. By 7, I had been up for 3 hours and was working on just about 3 hours sleep. I woke Rudy up and handed parenting responsibilities over to him. He gladly got up and took over. I was asleep within minutes and slept most of the morning away. Rudy took Caleb to playtime at church. After Caleb's nap, I decided that he was feeling much more like himself and that we were finally going to go to the Magic House. Rudy was running errands, so we were on our own. We had a wonderful time in the "Little Bit of Magic" area at the Magic House. Caleb played with balls and pots & pans, mirrors, other kids and all sorts of fun stuff. He really enjoyed crawling up and down the ramps too. It was a fun afternoon for us.

Only 3 1/2 weeks until we move! Still no bites on the house, but we're less worried now that we have a temporary place to live in Rogers. We have fun stuff planned for every week until we move. I decided that we needed some sort of plan so that the days don't just slip by and we wonder why we didn't do anything. I researched some fun activities in the area and wrote them all down on a calendar. I feel much more "in control" of things that way. I guess it's just my nature.

I guess I should go to bed now. There's no telling what time the little monster will wake up!

Another Trip to Arkansas...

Since my last post, we've spent our time enjoying summer and our days off. We have been to the zoo, played with neighbors outside and splashed in the kiddy pool on the back patio. We also had dinner with Michael and Rich last week. Rudy and I have been trying to fit in our last doctor appointments here in St. Louis and we've been trying to keep our house clean for any showings that might happen. We've only had 2 showings in the month of June. Our agent says that things are just slow all over the place. Because of that, we've had to resort to plan B in our move.

Plan B = renting! That means moving twice. It's not exactly what we wanted, but I think it's going to be okay. We just got back from our 3rd trip to Arkansas since Memorial Day. We went down there to see a rental condo that our agent there set up for us, to check out our daycare situation and for Rudy to take care of some paperwork for his new job. We left on Wednesday morning and went straight to Rogers to meet with the agent. She found us a condo (actually a duplex) for a great price and we wanted to see it before we agreed to it. Having that taken care of, we went to see the Lyonses in Bella Vista. Leslie is due to have her baby girl any day now, so we were excited to see them and have the possibility of an exciting visit. Grace is still holding out for another day, but we had a fun time visiting with them! Wednesday night, we had a wonderful dinner at Copeland's and then spent the evening visiting and catching up with them. Jackson was absolutely wonderful with Caleb. He's going to be a great big brother! Caleb loved watching all of his big-boy antics. Nick and Leslie convinced us to stay an extra night, so after we took care of our business on Thursday morning (paperwork and daycare visits), we went back to their house. The guys played golf Thursday afternoon and Les and I enjoyed the afternoon visiting and playing with the kids. We had burgers Thursday night at their house once the guys got home. This morning, we got up and hit the road mid-morning and made it home safe and sound at 3:00 this afternoon. It was a great and relaxing trip. Now, we just have to finish up the details of registering for daycare and take care of some details for the move and we're ready to start packing. We really don't have any plans for the weekend. That's a great feeling!

Ahhh...June

June is my favorite month of the year. School is out and we're not bored yet. It's warm, but not deathly hot, so you can actually go outside without melting. It's a great time to be a public school employee...and a mom.

I just realized that I haven't updated my blog since Caleb went through his major funk a couple of weeks ago. As always, when I haven't posted in a while - lots of things have happened. This is possibly the reason I haven't posted. As Leslie says, "Life has exploded all over me."
Never fear ~ Caleb is back to his old self. He's fun again!!!! As I suspected all along (was that believable?), it was all a matter of teeth. How can two little teeth upset our apple cart so much?!? Well, the two bottom teeth on either side of the ones in the middle came in at the same time and lo and behold, they are crooked as a con-man in Vegas. Anyone know a good orthodontist? We're going to need one in about 9 years.

Anyway - he's back to sleeping, but he wakes up sometimes at night as though he is starving. One quick cup of milk and he's back to snoozeville, but it does disturb some serious parental sleep. It's not happening every night, so I'm not too concerned about it being a habit. I think maybe it's a growth spurt. That's what I'm telling myself right now anyway. We'll see.
He's also playing well again and seems to be noticing other kids more. He really likes to play with Gabe across the street and loves watching Kynan too. Our new neighbors have twin one-year-old boys and there is one other one-year-old boy a couple of houses down. We have plenty of friends on our street.

We spent Memorial Day in Arkansas. I helped host a baby shower for Leslie on Saturday and Rudy played golf with Nick. Grandpa Voise was admitted to the hospital on Saturday for some tests and didn't come home until Monday, so we were anxious about that and sad that we didn't get to see much of him. Fortunately, he's doing much better as far as we know. Saturday night, we had dinner with Donald and Stacy. It was so great to see them and their kiddos. Unfortunately, our evening was cut short so that Rudy could go visit Grandpa. We definitely owe the Schmidts a dinner when we get moved! Sunday, we met with a Realtor in Rogers to look at some houses. We found a couple that we really like and we're hopeful that the timing will all work out that we'll be able to get one of those. Our house has now been on the market for almost 2 months and we're getting very anxious!

I finished work on June 1st with a bittersweet goodbye to Rockwood ECSE. I'll miss a lot of the people that I worked with, but I know that coming "home" is what our family needs.

I'm writing this now in my parents' house in Hot Springs. Caleb is asleep - completely passed out! We flew in this morning to LR and Mr. L picked us up at the airport. Rudy is driving down tomorrow to meet us. We have some fun plans for the rest of the week and the weekend. I went to Wal Mart and bought a kiddie pool for Caleb this afternoon. He played in and around it for about 30 minutes this afternoon. I think we'll be seeing a lot more of it as the week goes on. We were both so tired from the trip and a goofed-up limited napping day that he went to bed 30 minutes early and I'm headed that way soon. Tomorrow's adventures await!