Mr. Joe Cool

Camden's Nana sent him a care package this week with clothes, pajamas, shoes and a pair of sunglasses. I wasn't too sure how he was going to do with the sunglasses, but he was thrilled. I picked him up from daycare, and when we got in the car, I put on my sunglasses. I then offered him his pair, and he gladly let me put them on him. He wore them the whole way home and never tried to take them off. When we got home and I took off my sunglasses, he took his off and handed them to me like he knew exactly what he was doing. Well, I guess he did know what he was doing!!!

Mr. Joe Cool

Tooth #4

Tooth #4 made its entrance today, and Camden tolerated it with such grace!!! It is his top right tooth. We have been very fortunate on how he has tolerated his teeth coming in thus far. I think the two front teeth coming in have bothered him more than his bottom two, but he has done really well.

Tooth #3

We have been waiting for tooth #3 to pop up for months, literally. When Camden went for his 12 month check up, Dr. Taylor asked me if we had any more teeth, and I told I have been looking and looking for one to show up, but it just wasn't happening. She told me to quit looking and it would finally appear. Well, while we were packing up all our belongings in Alabama, I talked to my mom on the phone and she told me she thought Camden's top left tooth was coming in because his gums were very swollen. When we arrived home, sure enough, it was extremely obvious when he smiled that his gums were swollen. So I have been anxiously anticipating its arrival for day. I saw a hole that had formed in his gum last week, but still no sign of the tooth. Well, it took until today for that sucker to finally poke through his gum. YEA!!! And now, there is a hole in his gum where it looks like the right front tooth will be popping through any day now.

(Please excuse the boogy in his nose)

The Walker

I find it a bit humorous that for the most part, the only time you use a walker is when you are a toddler learning to walk and then when you are elderly trying not to fall. It amazes me how our lives come full circle and so many of the things that children do during infancy that are so darned cute do not seem as cute when we are elderly. That being said, Camden received a walker for Christmas and we have been trying ever since to get him to walk behind it. As usual with all of his milestones, he was not a bit interested in trying to walk. He would stand behind it and then sit down and play with it, but never walk behind it - that is, until a few days ago. Now he finds it very fun. He will press the buttons on it to play music and then start dancing. After he has done a little jig, he will take off walking, pretty much laughing the whole way along!

He is so proud of himself - and so am I!

"Yeaaaaaa!!"

I just love the shots from behind

Just a Swangin'

I have truly enjoyed having this past week off for Spring Break. It was nice getting to spend a lot of time with the true joy in our lives, Camden. I hate that we were all sick and not really able to do anything that I would consider fun. We did a lot of playing ball as well as playing with the cat Simba.

Camden and Simba

Camden LOVES to go outside and we took advantage of the gorgeous weather this week and went to the park several times so Camden could swing. I swear he would swing for hours if we pushed him that long. Luckily, we can usually convince him to go for a walk and see the ducks to pull him away from the swing.

Having fun swinging.

This was taken after he had been swinging for awhile and was nice and relaxed.

Camden watching the ducks

"See?"

On an unrelated note, for the past month or so we have been watching a mother dove sitting on her nest that she made on the palm tree in the back yard. Apparently, a week or so ago, the eggs hatched. Since that time, we have been watching the mother dove tend to her two babies. Today, while away to get her little ones some food, Shane took a picture of the two baby doves.

A Long Weekend

I honestly can not remember everything that has happened since Friday, but I do know that we are tired!!! On Friday, my parents showed up so they could take care of Camden while we headed to Alabama to get our belongings. Luckily, he was fever free as of Saturday morning, although he did wake up at 4:30 am a bit fussy. We left at 7:00 am and headed east for Alabama. It was a long trip and we arrived there around 5:45 pm. I finished packing up the remainder of items that I had not packed prior to leaving Alabama, and finally at 10:30 pm, headed to bed. I was having a lot of sinus drainage down the back of my throat all day, so by the time I went to bed, I was debating whether I had strep throat or not because it hurt so bad. And of course we had no medication in the house and I was too tired to go and get any. I hardly slept because in my dreams I was fighting strep throat all night and was trying to get antibiotics. Sunday I did not feel well at all, which was not a good thing since that is when all our help came to help us load up the U-Haul. We were fortunate to have Shane's friend from college, Jason, come and help, as well as his Uncle Ira, Uncle Ronald and Aunt Manya. I honestly do not know what we would have done without their help!!! They were truly a HUGE help!!!!

By 7:30 pm we had everything packed up and all I had left was to vacuum the house and make sure it was clean for the new couple that would be moving in next week. We did not get out of Tuscaloosa until 7:45 am on Monday morning, and finally arrived in Tomball by 7:10 pm. Can I tell you that I never want to see the back of another U-Haul again. Driving behind that truck for 11 hours and seeing the same thing continuously made for an extremely long day. And not to mention that the wet cough that I still had lingering from the flu had now turned into a horrible dry cough and I hacked my way through 4 states. Good thing I was the only one in the truck because I think all my coughing, snorting and gagging would have driven anyone else crazy - Heck I think I drove myself crazy!!!!

Today, Shane's dad came to Tomball, and with he and my dad's help we got everything unloaded off the U-Haul into a storage space. The whole time we were unloading, all I could think was that we would have to load and unload everything again in a few months. It was definitely a reminder that whatever house we decide to buy, we need to make sure it is something we will stay in for quiet awhile!! My parents left today to head back to Kerrville. I am so glad they were able to come and take care of Camden. I know Camden enjoyed them and hopefully they too enjoyed Camden! One of our whole reasons for moving back to Texas was to be closer to our immediate families so that we could spend time with them. Aside from driving my sister and her family crazy while we live with them, we have not really been able to spend as much time with our families as we would have hoped for. I am hoping that once we get squared away in our own home, we can do a better job of visiting with all our friends and family.

Camden having fun swinging with Grandma and Grandpa Key (my mom took this picture and texted it to me while we were in Alabama)

And Yet, Even More Illness

As we have all been trying to recuperate from our various illnesses, Camden just has not seemed to improve at all. He still is wheezing despite getting his breathing treatments every four hours. When I picked him up from school yesterday, he sounded worse, and I had pretty much already decided I would need to call the doctor today to let them know and see what else they could recommend. With my parents coming into town today to keep Camden while we head to Alabama to get our belongings, I did not want them to have to deal with a sick child the whole weekend. Well, Camden also thought I should call the doctor because at 3:00 am I heard him crying in his room and when I went to check on him he was burning up with fever, 102.8. I medicated him and then we laid on the couch until he fell asleep, which was about 45 minutes before it was time for me to get up to get ready for the day.

When Shane woke up, I told him not to plan on going to school, but instead to the doctor with Camden. I could not stay home because I had to teach 4th and 5th grade girls growth and development today - Woo Hoo!!! (A bit more about that later!) So, off to work I went with Camden and Shane left behind to go to the doctor. I made Camden's appointment and off they went at 1:20 pm. Dr. Taylor did not think his ears had improved since his appointment last Friday and due to his symptoms, went ahead and tested him for flu, which was negative. Luckily, Shane said the flu test did not seem near as bad for Camden as it was for me, thank goodness!!! So she changed his antibiotic to Augmentin and then added another breathing treatment, Pulmicort, to mix with his Albuterol in his morning and nightly breathing treatments. Luckily, Camden is still so good to take his breathing treatments Now with the combination of two medications, it takes 20 minutes to give him the treatment, but he sits through it so nice and takes it like a champ!!! He has still had fever all day, but we are hoping with the new antibiotic that it will kick in soon and he can be fever free for Grandma and Grandpa Key.


Now, about the Human Growth and Development class I had to teach the 4th and 5th grade girls. As the school nurse, it is one of my many glamorous jobs to teach the girls about puberty. Luckily, a male teacher teaches the boys, and I get the girls. This was the first year that we have had to introduce this material to the 4th grade girls, but due to puberty happening earlier in life now, they made it mandatory that we instructed both the 4th and 5th graders, with their parent's consent. So I had the video and power point presentation that all the nurses would use. It is amazing that those girls were giddy and could hardly contain themselves anytime they heard the word 'breast' or 'pubic'. Luckily the 4th graders did not ask too many questions, but unfortunately I could not say the same for the 5th graders. We were instructed that if they asked any questions that did not pertain to the information given, then we were to tell them they needed to talk to their parents regarding their question. However, most of the questions were things I could or should answer. Some of the questions were, "You mean, we lay eggs?" (no, I am not kidding - that was from a 5th graders mouth), "Can you die from wearing a tampon?" and "Why do you have to wrap your pad up to throw it in the garbage?" UGH!!!

Luckily, all that fun talk is done until next year! I can hardly wait to do it all over again!!!! ; ) Off to rest, as we are leaving bright and early in the morning for Alabama to pack up all our belongings and bring them back to Tomball to put in storage.

More Illness

Camden started with a cold about the same time I started with symptoms of the flu. Luckily, he never had fever, just a lot of congestion, wheezing and a runny nose. For the past 3 days we have been giving him breathing treatments every 4 hours while awake and yesterday when I picked him up from school he sounded horribly junky. So this morning I called the doctor's office and I tried to get them to just call in Prednisone to help him get over this bronchitis, since that is what worked before. They requested to see him to make sure he did not have any infection or any thing else going on. So at 6:00 pm this evening, we headed for his appointment. Good thing they had us come in, because apparently he had a minor bilateral ear infection as well as the bronchitis. So, now he is on Omnicef for 10 days, Prednisone for 4 days, as well as the breathing treatments for however long I feel necessary. I guess this means decreased napping time for him for 4 days while he is on the Prednisone. Luckily, as usual, he has still been a pleasant little guy!!

Nothing stops Camden from playing with his ball - if you look closely you can see the product of his runny nose.

He loves to crawl around with his bat

The Flu

Since Monday I have been feeling miserable. I was sitting in a meeting Monday morning feeling very dizzy and unlike myself. When I returned to the clinic I had my clinic assistant take my temperature and sure enough, I had fever. Now the last time that I can honestly even recall having fever is when I was in junior high and had strep throat. So to say the least, apparently I was sick. But being the hard headed person I am, I took some ibuprofen and continued on my day. On Tuesday, I woke up feeling perhaps a bit better, and knew that I had training for a new computer program that we will be using next year. So, I headed to work and managed through the day. However, I noticed that I was obtaining a cough that was worsening as the day went on. When I got home Tuesday afternoon, I took my temperature and it was 1o1.0. Lovely!!! I put in my absence for Wednesday and decided that I would go to the doctor first thing Wednesday morning since I knew I had to have something that needed treatment. I honestly was trying to tell myself that it was probably just bronchitis, but knowing that I am consistently around children with the flu and strep, I was afraid it was the flu.

Wednesday morning, I was at the Redi-Clinic first thing and after being tested for the flu, which can I say is a very unpleasant experience, it appeared that I tested positive for Influenza Type A. I was given Tamiflu as well as a cough syrup/antihistamine syrup to help with the cough/congestion. Of course, it is contagious, but with good hand washing and covering my cough, I can help prevent others from getting it.

The only thing that has continuously been going through my mind is the possibility of transmitting this miserable flu to my family - namely Camden. He has been having a cough since Friday, but no fever. I did contact his doctor to make sure they did not want to give him Tamiflu prophylactically, and they just recommended what I already knew, good hand washing techniques and if he started with any fever, to bring him in within 48 hours so they could start the appropriate medication for him. So basically since I was diagnosed, I have not had very much contact with him, which to me is probably more miserable than the flu. I hate not being able to love on my baby. I can only hope and pray that I have not exposed anyone to the flu!

Do you know how hard it is not to be able to love on this precious angel?