5 Question Friday

I'm hoping I can actually keep up with this and do it every Friday!
The questions were brought to you by My Little Life and Mama M!

1. If you could, would you go back to high school?

 Absolutely not!!

I'm a totally different person than I was when I was in high school and I don't really see the need to go back and be that person again. I didn't really enjoy high school that much so why would I want to go back and experience it all over again!


2. If a genie appeared and granted you two wishes, what would they be? (And, no saying "more wishes".)
My first wish would be that we all live happily ever after. I want my kids to have the best life possible. My second wish would be for enough money to pay off my current house, buy a new one and live comfortably for the rest of our lives.


3. What kids show do you secretly like?

That's actually a hard one. I probably watch more Kid TV than I do grown-up tv. I like the Backyardigans! They are so cute!



4. What is your beverage of choice? Mr. Pibb, Mt. Dew or sweet tea. I can't choose just one!



5. What is something that you would change about yourself (or are working to change in yourself)?
I want to be more patient. More patient with my kids, more patient with my husband and his job, and more patient with people in general. It's something I'm working on! I would also like to be much smaller than I am now. That's a constant work in progress!!!

til next time...

My Beautiful Boy!

Its official!! Owen's back to his clear beautiful self (not that he wasn't still beautiful all swollen and bumpy)! I am so thankful for Dr.S who is a miracle worker! She prescribed just the right things and his face cleared up almost immediately. Now its my job to keep him moisterized and medicated which I plan on doing religiously! I don't want my baby boy to have to suffer again!
So here's a picture from today at the park!

Here are some other ones from yesterday too! The kids love to go to the park. I'm so proud of the young girl Olivia's becoming. She's a wonderful big sister to Owen. She helped him up the stairs, crawled with him in the tunnel and even fussed at the kids that were bigger than him for being too rough around him! I am thankful for my two beautiful children!!

Til next time...

Nugget's Eczema Journey!

For the last 5 or six months, Nugget has been struggling with severe eczema. It started flaring up badly when he was about 9 months old. His pediatrician tried treating it with just a simple steriod cream that didn't work. When the pediatrician couldn't treat him, he sent Nugg to see a dermaroligist hoping she could help. Back in January, Nugg went to see the dermatologist. She sdiagnosed him with a severe form of eczema that waa more rare in children. She put him on oral steriods as well as several topical steroids to treat it and also sent him to an allergist to see if the eczeam was the result of him being allergic to something. At the allergist, we found nothing! He wasn't allergic to a single thing. Deep down inside, I wished he was so that treating his eczema would become more simple! He was young enough that he wouldn't miss milk if he was allergic to it but he wasn't! Nothing!!! So after finding that he wasn't allergic to anything, the derm. put him on another longer oral steriod taper. It was for two months rather than two weeks like the last one. With the two week taper, his face cleared up drastically and so did his body but as soon as it was over his face flared back up almost instantly. This two month taper seemed to have absolutely no effect on him!!
I was starting to get really frustrated! Poor Nuggie was starting to get frustrated! He itched like crazy!!! It had gotten to the point where he had to wear socks on his hands all the time to keep from scratching! No baby should have to live like that!  His skin didn't seem to be getting any worse so that was good but then Easter morning, poor Nugget woke up with his left eye swollen shut! His steriod dose was upped starting another month long taper! I assumed the pollen wasn't helping because nothing else had changed. We went on a short vacation where he seemed to get a little better. I figured it was because our hotel room was extremely humid but who knows. When we got back, the next morning, he woke up with both eye swollen. His derm. had given me her nurses line so I called and left a message stating clearly that I thought he needed to be seen immediately since he was only getting worse. Being that this was the direct nurses line, I assumed it meant that I would get through to someone much quicker! Boy, was I wrong! After several hours, I still had not heard back from them and he was not getting any better so I took him to the regular doctor. They had no idea what was causing him to flare up so bad but they gave him a shot of Cortizone and hoped that it would help! Finally, 8 hours after calling, I heard back from the derm.'s nurse, who was quite rude with me. When she asked how he was doing, I proceeded to tell her that he was doing better no thanks to them to which she replied, "Well you did put a call in to Dr. L didn't you?" Yes I did hours ago!!!!! I wasn't just going to sit around while he wasn't getting any better and wait on you guys to call me back! My message said it was important but apparently that didn't matter. Then she asked me if he still needed to be seen. When I told her yes beacause Dr. L's treatment wasn't helping, she told me it would be a week before he could be seen. Now what if there were no other doctors that would treat him because he was under the care of a dermatologist already? What it was really an emergency and he was having some reaction to the meds she had put him on? She was in no hurry to see him or fix it!! I was VERY dissappointed! The shot of Cortizone the doctor gave him seemed to help and I told his derm.'s nurse, we wouldn't be needing their services! I knew that the next week, he had his one year check up and there I would ask to be referred to another dermatologist!
April 13- Nuggie went in for his one year checkup! He's growing too fast! He weighed 23 pounds and was almost 30 inches long. The doc was not happy with his face so he referred us to a new dermatologist! If this second opinion didn't help, he said we'd go for a third! I liked that! Whatever it takes to get my baby's face all better and to stop his crazy itching.  We actually got an appt. with the new derm. rather quickly too!
April 20- Hubbs and I took Nugget to see his new derm. Dr. S. When she walked in, I literally had to refrain from gasping! She looked crazy!  You know how some really smart people look a little crazy because they are so smart they just don't fit it? I'm seriously hoping that's the case with her! Well, she said that she thought he had a secondary skin infection on top of his eczema so that's what she was going to treat! She put him on two new ointments: one for his face and one for his body plus she gave him a med for the itching, an antibiotic for the infection and told me to keep him on the rest of his steriod taper! She wanted to see him back in a week!

Well, today is Sunday and he looks amazing! It took forever to get all his meds so he's just started the ointments for his face and body. He's been on the steriods, the antibiotic and anti-itch meds since Tuesday night! After just one application of the meds on his face, it looks So much better. Its not all red and inflamed! Dr. S just might not be as crazy as she looks. I've been taking some pictures to kind of document his progress or regress. It really varies from day to day! He woke up this morning with no inflammation or crustiness as we call it! I'm hoping its really the meds and not just some fluke!

This was a picture before we even went to the derm. It was taken April 17.

This is what he looked like on Wed. April 21! The poor thing! He looks just horrible!

This was him yesterday. April 24. This was before he'd gotten any of his ointments We had a time getting them because Dr. S wanted two meds mixed for his face and two meds mixed for his body but his insurance compnay wouldn't pay for it that way! So we had to get three different meds because that's the way they would pay for it! I hate insurace companies sometimes!

This is what he looks like today! I know the pictures not as close up as the others but you can tell that he's nowhere near as red and he's much less crusty!

He goes back to the derm. on Tues. April 27. I'm hoping that his face stays like this and that it will just continue to get better and better until its clear. I mean he still a handsome baby with his flared face but I've almost forgotten what he looks like all clear!

Mini Vacay to Tybee Island, GA

Hubbs' Uncle and his family were coming for a visit over spring break and part of their visit was going to be in spent in Tybee Island so we decided to go down for a couple of days to join them. They live in Seattle so we don't get to see them very often. The last time was at our wedding and Noodle just fell madly in love with J, Uncle's daughter. So when we found out they were coming, we had to see them. If not Noodel may have had a hissy fit! From the day Noodle found out, J and D were coming that's all we've heard about. "Mommy, when are they going to be here?" "Mommy, are they here yet?"

It was so nice to take a family vacation! Hubbs actually got three days off including Easter Sunday which is a very rare occurence. So we left Easter Sunday after family lunch! We had lots of fun hanging out. We ate, beached, "dumpster dived," fished, climbed the Tybee lighthouse and ate some more! It was a good time!

"Dumpster diving" was not actually that but actually going on a dolphin tour. Dumpster diving became our codeword! About a month before our trip, we started discussing going on a Boat ride to see dolphin because we knew it was something that Noodle would thoroughly enjoy! Well, we didn't want her to know about it so while talking we spelled out dolphin so she could not understand. She, of course, asked what I just spelled and to keep her from constantly asking I came up with "dumpster diving" because it too started with a "d." That seemed to satisfy her curiosity! However, over the course of the next month the codeword turned into an eloborate trip to actually go dumpster diving in her mind, to the point where I thought she was actually going to be dissappointed when we didn't go! Well, after we arrived to Tybee she saw signs about dolphin tours and then started repeatedly asking if we could go to that so I knew that she would not be dissappointed but excited that all along it was something she really wanted to do. On our dolphin adventure, Noodle got to see at least 20 frolicking dolphins! She had a blast!
On the otherhand, at the lighthouse, she did not! We learned Noodle is scared to death of heights! She comes by it honestly though! On our honeymoon, Hubbs and I climbed the lighthouse in Key West. I did just fine climbing it, it was coming down that was the problem! The stairs were open so I could see ALL the way down and that totally freaked me out! Nood experience the same thing! She was a champ until about 2./3 of the way up, then she started to panic! Once to the top, she cried and refused to come down. She had no choice, at this point it was the only way! So I took her by her hand and led her down. As Hubbs called it, it was "the blind leading the blind" The whole time I was leading her down, my hands were shaking and my legs were very close to being jello, but we made it. Now Noodle can say that she climbed a lighthouse and it will probably be the last time for both of us!

Here are just a few pictures from our mini vacay. I have learned that I take way too many pictures and there's no way to share every single one of them!

Here are a few pictures from the Egg Drop on Saturday. Noodle loves the idea of and Egg Hunt but just isn't pushy enough to enjoy them. When it started all the other kids ran to gather as many eggs as possible while she just stood there and cried because they were in her way. She was just too nice to push past them! She was sad that she only got like 10 eggs while all the other kids had baskets full! Maybe one day she'll be pushy enough to get a bunch. But then again, maybe her not being pushy is a good thing!

After the Egg Drop, we went over to my mom's house for an Egg Hunt there. Of course, Noodle did much better because she only had two others to compete with, her cousin Bubby, and Nugget (who doesn't really count because he's not walking and we had to take him to find the eggs.)

                   

Unfortunately on Easter Sunday, we did not make it to church. Nugget woke up with his left eye almost completely swollen shut from his eczema. He must have rubbed it all night in his sleep and irritated it! So Easter Sunday morning was spent in Doctor's Care by the house to make sure that nothing else was wrong. He's had bad flare-ups before but nothing where his eyes were affected. The doctor put him on another steriod taper upping the dose that he was on. He only had two more weeks of the taper he was on then so now we get to start all over! Whatever will work and hopefully this will!

So we did make it to the family Easter dinner which was held at a buffet this year. No one felt like cooking encluding me.

Here are two pictures of my mom's grandkids. Noodle and Nugget and my sister, Sissy's son, Bubby. It's so hard to get all three of them to look. 

Enjoyed Family dinner. Now we're on our way to Tybee Island, GA for a mini vacay. Be back in a couple of days with lots of pictures to post!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter!!!

My baby's growing up so fast. Nugget has learned two new words today- cookie and pancake. He's getting braver when it comes to walking too! So thankful for my babies!