Wacky Wild June...

What a Wacky wild June, what a ride...here is the spin...

Cole started the month off with a runny nose, followed in close succession with a rapidly growing fever and a full body rash of what to me looked like measles. He has been vaccinated but I was obviously more than concerned. The rash didn't itch but got worse and worse over 72 hours, the fever peaked at 104.1 (of course on a weekend) so I took him to the pediatric urgent care. The doctor there wasn't sure what the heck it was since it wasn't presenting as some childhood viruses do (roseola or Fifths). Cole was miserable and not himself and he looked awful with this head to toe speckling. That Monday we followed up with our pediatrician who asked two other doctors to come in for a look see. Cole has had his fair share of hospitals/doctors (pokings and prodding) so he isn't the easiest patient. None of the doctors could definitively diagnose him. Six days he ran a high fever...6 days!!!. I was a mess worrying that something was lurking in his little system of an unknown origin. The fever finally subsided but the rash has come and gone at varying levels for almost a month. It is gone and then it is back on his legs, it disappears and then shows up on his right arm, gone again, only to show its face on his belly. *sigh*, everyone probably wonders why I have aged in the past 2.5 years (serious lack of sleep and episodes such as the one previously mentioned).

So onward march, last Wednesday, I'm getting Cole dressed in the morning and I see what looks like a mosquito bite on his arm (red and raised) and fairly significant as most of his mosquito bites get. I do my best to douse him in organic products (the only kind his skin will tolerate) but he is bound to get them regardless. Anyhow, off to school he goes. Cole is so long/tall he is wearing 4T shirts which cover his torso but also are long on his arms (hence his arms are covered all day). I pick him up as usual, let him climb into his car seat, I buckle him in, head home, unbuckle, he climbs out on his own, we play outside for 25 minutes or so until I smell poop. He refuses to come inside, so I am forced to pick him up. As I do so, my hand touches his arm which is literally red hot. Before I even go any further, my mom panic button goes off. I push up his sleeve to find his little lean arm the size of Pop-Eye proportions, all red, hot and hard. The "mosquito" bite I saw earlier that day is now shiny and prominent. I quickly change him, take his temp (low grade) and call the pediatrician's office, but of course 5 minutes after they close so I have to go through the after hours service. Luckily, everyone was still at the office, so I got a call right back, the nurse after listening to my description immediately puts a doctor on who within 1 minute of my describing once again, sends us to Children's Hospital. He warns me to pack an overnight bag because it thinks Cole has cellulitis. Dave had just flown in from Las Vegas, he hustles home in rush hour traffic as I find someone to walk Tucker, back Cole's bag and my bag and try not to throw up.

We get to the hospital and check in. The triage nurse takes one glance at him and says "yep, that is cellulitis". I then say, "okay, so what are next steps". She says, "oh that is pretty bad so we'll be admitting him to go on IV antibiotics and to monitor the infection". *GULP* *HOLD BACK TEARS* *GLANCE AT MY HUSBAND* *GULP* *HOLD BACK TEARS*...we get moved to a holding room, where the pediatric ER doctor comes in and says the same thing...takes a sharpie to Cole's arm to outline the redness as he says it will expand *GREAT*. It takes two nurses and Dave and I to hold Cole down to get his IV in. *SWALLOWING HARD*. I leave the room after that to have my moment. We get admitted upstairs, Cole wants freedom but is now tethered to the IV which tangles like Christmas tree lights just by a quick turn on Cole's part. He doesn't want anything to do with anyone, all these strangers entering his room, trying to take his temperature, blood pressure, oxygen level...he finally crashes, it takes me 2 hours to drift off as I share a bed with him...nurses come in every four hours during the night for vitals check... residents come in to outline the growing redness. They think his bite is actually a spider bite as upon better inspection (now that he is asleep and not writhing around) they can see two holes not one (as a mosquito would be). The hardness gets better overnight which is a good sign. His blood work comes back much better. The swelling and redness continue. They determine that he is also having an allergic reaction to the bite. So they give Cole IV benadryl which is supposed to knock kids out...yeah, not my kid. It makes him feistier than all get out. He sets off the alarms with his restlessness it seems every 15 minutes. I'm sure the nurses station was cursing at the constant attention that Room 6120 needed.

By mid-morning, the infection was subsiding and they were going to send us home in the afternoon with oral meds. I was so relieved because I couldn't imagine another evening spent there (though our room did have a view of downtown) with my little scared energetic son who just wanted to go home. The swelling lasted another few days and the redness dissipated too but now everytime he gets a bite, I'm going to worry as they say he is prone to this because of his skin sensitivity. I refuse to keep him in a bubble as he so loves the outdoors but I will do my best to protect him as I can. He runs away everytime I try to slather him in lemongrass oil or cover the bites he has so he won't scratch at them. When the bites swell and get red as I know they will do I will be like a solider on watch, waiting for a signal that we have moved into the danger zone.

Magic of Mother Nature...

Cole and I walk Tucker everyday, and just like the postman, regardless of the weather. Our city dog refuses to relieve himself in our yard since he was trained as a pup on the streets of Washington, DC to "get busy" when he was walked in the city parks. He knows no other way despite our efforts to try when we experienced our first sub zero winter. The upside is that we have a beautiful lawn free of yellow spots and we get lots of exercise. We have walked in downpours, in pelting snow, through blustery winds and blinding heat as well as on dewy mornings, with refreshing breezes and warm sunshine. Just as Tucker gets excited at the mere mention of the word "walk" so does Cole. Both of them teach me that the same old daily walk isn't the same old daily walk at all. Each day (and walk) holds potential for experiencing new things.

We typically take one of five familiar trails. Since our winter snows melted this past spring Cole's favorite trek NOW is the one that takes us on the dirt path in the woods. Our walk begins on the asphalt footpath that winds through the trees and connects the two parks that are blinking distance from our front door.

Before the leafy foliage grew back in late May, the dirt path off the walking trail was easily found and one day on our normal loop, Cole darted off towards it pointing and saying "Go this way?" I had never taken him on the dirt path before because last fall it would have been above his skill level with roots to trip over, trees to climb over and branches to maneuver around, however six months later, I knew he was ready for the challenge. I whistled for Tucker who had continued down our normal route and he looked back at me with an expression (I swear) that said "oh boy, this should be interesting".

Cole hesitated initially as I stepped forward and said "come on, let's go". Despite the fact that he had initiated this adventure he now dropped his head taking a second thought about it. After some prodding, he cautiously forged ahead. As always I wanted to foster his independence and curiosity so I let him go at his own pace, keeping a healthy distance behind him. I could see him absorbing the difference a narrow path made of dirt felt to him as he carefully stepped along. He was wide eyed at this new perspective & I felt a thrill as he obviously was in wonderment of what was now surrounding him. He kept looking back to ensure I was within sight and I reassured him with a smile and a "I'm here". At this point, Tucker came bounding up and Cole seemed to lose some of his inhibitions. He followed Tucker who was more than glad to act as the lead, checking back occasionally with a wag of his tail as if to say "follow me kid, the woods are great".

We winded our way past the huge walnut trees still stark and bare (remember this was late April). Twigs and fallen branches snapped under our weight. As Cole got comfortable, he got excited at finding rocks, rotting trees and he kept pointing at the birds who had come back a wee early but were chirping loudly at our invasion into their woods. Ice clung to some of the lower spots and as any boy would do, he ran to step on them to hear the crunch under his feet. When Tucker would get too far ahead, he would yell "Ucker Come" in the same firm voice he has heard me use to get our canine's attention.

The trail works its way back to the paved road not far from the open fields. As he touched the macadam, he yelled "I did it" with such a beaming smile on his face, that it brought tears to my eyes. He was so proud and cognizant that he had done something new!

It is now near impossible, unless I avoid this area altogether, to get Cole to take anything but the wooded path. He now cruises along, running most of the time, tripping occasionally in his haste to reach the mid point which is the biggest walnut tree of all, in a V-shape that he hides behind waiting to "scare" me as I catch up. The ferns and bushes have grown way above his waist now and though the trail is apparent it isn't used often enough to not have quite a bit of new growth to meander through. It doesn't seem to faze him that cobwebs tangle in his hair, I see him paw at his face haphazardly and I know this because I feel their silky strands brush my skin. Inch worms dangle from the trees and drop onto us (he does get a little freaked out about this) but I take the time to hold them in my hand and let him watch them inch about. We carefully put them in the grass and move on.

He stops to look at the wild "urple" flowers and wild berries. He stops cold when he hears the squirrels, chipmunks, and bunnies scurry away from his pounding feet, looks at me and says "what that?" Tucker darts into the thick of the woods sometimes and Cole gets concerned when he can't see him and then says "YEAH" when he returns back with leafy remnants stuck to his wet nose. The sunlight filters through the towering trees creating streaming rays, other places remain in the dark shadows. You can feel the pockets of warm dense air penetrated by a rush of cool damp air. So many sensory stimuli that I am reminded of as I slow down and watch my son experience the magic of mother nature.

My cheerful chatterbox...

I swear one day a few weeks back as he slept, some vocabulary fairy came and filled my son's brain with the dictionary because honestly Cole woke up one morning and started coherently chattering in almost complete sentences, speaking words I had never heard him use before.

He has been such a physical child that his language development has been playing catch up. Cole crawled, walked, climbed, ran, jumped, and mastered just about every other active movement way ahead of schedule. People routinely think he is older than he is by the way he adeptly maneuvers around the playground. It wasn't until they would ask him "how old are you?" or "what is your name", that either no response came or a garbled, babbled, only a mother could decipher reply issued from his lips.

Now, my little chatterbox can't seem to get enough of conversation. In previous weeks, he would just say the last word in a phrase of a song, or particular letters of the alphabet, he now in tune and on pitch with the melody sings a vast array of his favorite songs. He counts from 1-10 clearly without hesitation, can state the alphabet with only a few omissions, neatly parrots back everything he hears and thoroughly enjoys baffling his mother by remarking "fire trucks are taking a nap in their house" as we pass the fire station with their doors closed...WHAT? Just a month ago, it was simply "FIRETRUCKS FIRETRUCKS" shouted excitedly.

It is fascinating to watch and listen to him as he realizes his own increased communication abilities. However, not all is peachy with this greater word acquisition, his new power has also created a bit of a feistier personality so now time outs are a daily part of the routine when he gets himself in a pickle for being sassy after declaring "No Mommy, you go away over there" along with his hand out in stop fashion to my face.