On Friday, the 19th, we were excited to have our friend, Jenny, from St. Louis, come to visit! She got here around 5:30 and we all went to dinner at Carrabba's. Yum! After dinner, we came home and played with Caleb, then sat up talking for a while. On Saturday morning, Rudy went to play golf with a neighbor and Jenny, Caleb and I went to a couple of the big craft fairs that are very popular around here. We weren't very impressed with the first one, but the second one was wonderful! I bought a mini Christmas tree decorated in Razorback stuff for our little temporary home since I don't plan on pulling out all of the Christmas stuff here this year.
Jenny and I went out for some "girl time" on Saturday night. We went to eat in Fayetteville and then hung out at a couple of places on Dickson Street before coming home to our PJ's. We were sad to see Jenny leave on Sunday.
Sunday afternoon (10/21), we met up with the Lyons family and drove to Southwest City, Missouri. We went to visit the Right Choices Corn Maze and Pumpkin Patch.
It was wonderful! We even went on a hay ride pulled by a real tractor! The boys (Caleb and Jackson) had a blast playing in the hay tunnel, pumpkin patch and corn box. Caleb adores Jackson and will do whatever he says. (We need Jackson around more often.) Baby Grace didn't quite know what was going on, but she was a trooper the whole time! Even though the Lyonses had to leave early, we stayed and enjoyed ourselves until almost dark. We even had a picnic dinner. Caleb got to pet a pig, slide on a feed sack, jump on a hay bale and go in a big, red barn. 
On Monday (10/22), Caleb woke up with goopy eyes and a runny nose. By the end of the day, he had a rash on both hands and the worst diaper rash I've ever seen! He was also running a fever. Again...Rudy and I took him to urgent care. The doctor said that he really thought it was just allergies causing all of it, but he wasn't sure. He wrote a prescription for a decongestant and told us that if it didn't get better, he would recommend allergy testing and possibly immune system testing. I guess my maternal instincts kicked in at that point, because I just didn't feel right about it. The next day, I called a pediatric clinic for an appointment. I wanted to see a REAL pediatrician...someone who really knows babies and kids and what to look for when they are sick. I got an appointment for Wednesday morning and took a half day off of work. In the meantime, Caleb continued to be sick. He had a fever Tuesday afternoon and didn't sleep on Tuesday night. I had to lay in the guest bed with him to keep him from crying all night. We managed a couple of hours of intermittent sleep. On Wednesday (10/24) morning, I took him to see Dr. Harmon at 8:15. We were at the clinic ALL morning. We left there at 10:45! Caleb weighed 29 pounds (90th %ile) and was 32 inches long (50th %ile).
The good thing about the morning appointment was that the doctor wasn't rushed and had time to answer all of my questions. I filled him in on Caleb's medical history and we talked about all of his symptoms. He looked him over very thoroughly and then suggested that he thought it was all probably just allergies, but that he wanted to do a little blood work to make sure it wasn't something bigger than that. So we waited and waited and waited. Finally, the doctor came back in and said that the lab was backed up and he would call me with the blood test results. He gave me samples for allergy medicine, a prescription for eye drops if needed and said not to use baby wipes until the diaper rash healed. I took Caleb to school, gave him the allergy medicine and went to work. Later that afternoon, Dr. Harmon called our house and left a message on our answering machine. He said that Caleb's blood work showed "9 monos", which was borderline for a diagnosis of mononucleosis. He instructed me to keep an eye on him for a spiking fever and said to call if I had questions. What?!?! Of course I had questions, but the clinic was closed by the time I got the message and I couldn't call. So - after Caleb went to bed, I got online and did some digging to find out about mono in toddlers/babies. It seems like all of Caleb's troubles for the past month or so may be attributed to mono: swollen tonsils, intermittent afternoon fevers, lethargy, cold symptoms, rashes, etc. I was blown away. It was like a weight had been lifted from me. I felt all along that there was more to it than just allergies and I had some vindication in knowing that my feelings were justified. That didn't make my baby feel any better, but at least I knew there was something to my maternal instincts that I should trust. There's really nothing you can do to treat mono. You just have to treat the symptoms, so we've been giving him allergy medicine to dry up his eyes and nose. I did call the doctor's office on Thursday morning, but STILL haven't heard back from them. For some reason that doesn't worry me. Just knowing what's going on with my child makes me feel better and I don't really need much more information.
Wednesday (10/24) was my 31st birthday. After spending the morning in the pediatrician's office, I spent my afternoon at work. We went out to dinner after work, drove through some neighborhoods that we like and then I spent the evening doing laundry and cleaning up the house. I know it doesn't sound very exciting for a birthday, but it was nice to be home with my husband and my child and have the sounds of life surrounding me.
Rudy and Caleb have been gone all weekend. Rudy went to a bachelor party at the deer camp in Fordyce. On his way down there, he dropped Caleb off with Jan in Ft. Smith. This was my annual weekend with "my girls" for homecoming. Cindy and Les got here Friday night and we went to dinner at La Huerta. We laughed until our faces hurt and then came home, put on our PJ's and laughed some more. Yesterday, we went to the Razorback game, did some shopping and had dinner at Tim's Pizza. Cindy had to head back to Tulsa last night, so Les and I did some crafty stuff (scrapbooking, frame-making...) until midnight and then fell into bed. She got up and left this morning and I've been procrastinating going to the grocery store. Rudy and Caleb will be home around 4:30 or 5:00.
Caleb has an ENT appointment tomorrow to check on his ear tubes. After that, he has his Halloween carnival at school. Wednesday is actually Halloween and we have plans to Trick-or-Treat with the Schmidts. Should be a fun week!
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