Party Like a Rock Star!

And so the birthday "season" begins... today, we had TWO birthday parties. And seriously, could the weather have been any more perfect?! The first party was Noah's cousin, Madelyn's first birthday party. We woke Noah up to get to the party and he was a bit grouchy. However, we had a great time and enjoyed some great food. Haley (Madelyn's momma) did an awesome job putting together Madelyn's party! Unfortunately, I was only able to get a couple of pictures of the cousins, Noah, Madelyn, and Eastlon.

Immediately after that one, we headed to Athens to Jamie's childhood best friend Kenny Winter's little boy, Carson's 4th birthday. Noah finished his nap during the ride and was in a much better mood for Carson's party. Kenny and Shana always throw fun birthday parties and the kids always have a blast! This year, the theme was pirates (apparently Carson has a thing for them right now) and she had so many cute activities planned. Plus they rented inflatables: a slide and an obstacle course and Noah LOOOOOVED them! He was all smiles while playing. Also, Noah drove Carson's John Deere Gator and enjoyed that too! We had such a great day, spending time with friends and watching our little guy have so much fun playing. After the party, we hung around and went to dinner with Kenny and Shana and their boys.

Pre-children, we hung out with them all the time. We used to have Alabama football season tickets seated together and would spend almost every weekend in the fall with them tailgating; plus, we've gone to the beach together a few times. However, once the kids came in to the picture, it became much harder for us to make it to Athens (and for them to come to Florence) for us to hang out. We've ALWAYS loved spending time with them and it's NEVER dull because Kenny is hysterical. We really enjoyed getting to catch up after the party. Next up, another birthday party on Monday night!

Now for some pictures I took during the day's festivities...

{Madelyn, Noah & Eastlon}


{obstacle course}


{Momma & Noah... I'm not sure who's having more fun!}


{Daddy & Noah}


{all smiles}


{Noah and Kenny}

My Little Monkey

sorry for the poor picture quality, I used my cell phone

Noah has learned how to climb on top of things. It started with my parent's ottoman this past weekend, then on Monday, we were in the playroom and I looked down for a split second, when I looked back up, he was on top of his train table! He thought it was so funny! Even though I had to do the mommy thing of, "Noah, that's a no-no, you can get hurt", I thought it was pretty funny too. I've caught him several times this week, trying to climb on our glass top coffee table... oh goodness, the fun begins! :)

A Bit Unconventional...

Today, I took Noah to an Accupuncturist / Chinese Medicine Doctor, Dr. Ly. I came to this decision under the influence of my dad... my dad has issues with foot pain (I think it's called torsel tunnel?) and he's been getting cortizone shots in his ANKLES (yes, he's says it's horribly painful) for several months and still has really bad pain. So someone told him about Dr. Ly and how he had alleviated their back pain completely. Dad went to see him and he's hooked. His feet feel so much better, plus Dr. Ly told him he could treat him in 5 visits and dad wouldn't have any more pain. My dad is so funny... he gets sold on something and he's the greatest advertisment for that product/person. For example, his Tempur-Pedic mattress/box springs that he bought YEARS ago, before they became as popular as they are now(he recommended the brand to so many people that ended up purchasing a mattress, that Tempur-Pedic gave my dad 5 free pillows). He'll tell EVERYONE about how much Dr. Ly has helped him. So back to the story... anyways, he tells Dr. Ly about Noah and his delays and Dr. Ly wanted us to bring him in. His office manager knows my parents so mom called her and she told her that he has worked wonders for tons of children.

So we went this morning, and I'll admit, I was VERY skeptical. First of all, the waiting room is packed with majority older people (which shocked me for some reason.) We get Noah in the room and I give him the medical history. He asks me, right now, what's more important, for you to have him walking or talking? They're both pretty high up on the list, however, I tell him "walking." He begins spouting out my instructions... I'm to do some massaging techniques on Noah's back 30 times twice a day. He then tapes these tiny little beads on to 4 pressure points on the back of Noah's legs. I'm to press them each 30 times twice a day. My last instruction was to load Noah up with Vitamin B complex, 3 x a day, before each meal. He told me he really wants to help Noah and that all of these things will strengthen his muscles and that he wants to see Noah weekly. He told us because my dad is such a good dad / grandfather, that he wants to do this for Noah at no charge and that all he cares about is helping get Noah to walk. WOW.

Since my dad started going to him, I've heard wonderful things about him and all the different ways he has healed and helped others. It's pretty amazing. After seeing all the doctor's we've seen, subjected our son to as many tests as we have, to try to find a diagnosis, after all the therapy, I'm willing to try any- and everything that will help him... even if it is a bit unconventional! :)

Sick of being sick!

On Tuesday, we went back to Birmingham because Noah had two doctor's appointments. His first one was with his Physical Therapist, Peggy, so we could have him fitted for his new AFO's (braces for his feet). Then the next appointment was with his new neurologist. We had some time in between appointments so we ate lunch with a friend of mine, Marianne and her little girl, Sydney. It was great catching up with her and seeing her sweet little girl! After lunch, we went to our appointment with the neurologist, Dr. Simisathien (or something). She basically wanted to observe Noah and talk with us to get his history, etc. Since he continues to make progress, there's nothing else to do right now, no tests that she recommends or anything. So we don't have to go back for a follow-up until October.

On another hand, when Noah got sick last week, he had a high fever and was very weak... like could barely stand up he was so shaky. Well I noticed that his left eye began wandering a little worse than normal. We've been seeing a Opthamologist about this and he released us for 2 years because Noah's eye had improved. Well, since Noah had the Croup, he was put on a steriod medicine and I wondered if that, combined with the sickness, made his eye weaker. He's finished the med's and no longer running a fever, but I've still noticed his eye wandering more than normal so I called his Opthalmologist, Dr. Hein, to see what they thought. They agreed that being sick and having a high fever can make the eye muscles weak, just like it makes the rest of body's muscles weak, however, it should have improved since he's over the croup/fever. So they would like to see him next month. In the meantime, I've decided to patch the strong eye (like we did in the past) so that he has to use the weaker eye, which will in turn help in strenghtening it. Since this is what the doctor had us to do last year, I felt like it would be okay for me to do so again. Needless to say, Noah is NOT A FAN! I'm doing my best to keep the patch on him for at least 30 minutes, 2 x day.

Also, Noah's STILL SICK!!! AHHH... I think I might lose my mind! Okay, not really, but he's been pretty fussy during the day... praise the Lord, that he's sleeping just fine at night. We went back today for a yucky running nose, bad cough, and I've noticed him pulling at his ears. And yep, he's got an ear infection... which is only his second ear infection in his almost 3 years. He's been a very healthy kid but these last 2 weeks have hit him hard. Hopefully this antibiotic will get rid of these nasty germs so he can begin feeling better!

Sick Little Boy

Noah spent the night with my mom and dad last Sunday night to give us a little break and for my parents to have a little Noah time. We woke up Monday morning to a completely unexpected snowfall coming down steadily. Jamie and I had a great time playing in the snow and since we had several inches, we were able to build a pretty big snowman sporting an Alabama hat AND make some pretty awesome snow cream. YUM! I was sad that Noah wasn't with us to enjoy the snow, so I called mom to check on him. At that time, he was still asleep (at 10am!) but mom called me a hour or so later to let me know he was running a fever and obviously not feeling well...uh oh. Jamie and I headed to my parent's to get him. Once we got there it was obvious he felt horrible and he was running a fever around 102. He could barely keep his eyes open for more than 15 - 20 min at a time and he wouldn't eat or drink. He had NO energy and couldn't even stand on his own b/c he was so shaky. I was afraid he was dehydrating so we were able to get a little bit of Pedialyte down him but too much and he would throw it up. Later that evening, around 8pm his fever got up to 103.2 so we gave him Tylenol but made the decision to take him to the ER, mainly because we were afraid of dehydration or some type of infection. He was just SO pale and glassy eyed that it was scary. We got there at 9pm and were seen by the doctor (who had ZERO personality) at 10:30pm. He checked his ears and throat and listened to his heart and gave him some Motrin for the fever and just said it was a viral infection and to let it run its course. We were given our bill of $165 and sent on our way... wow, thank you very much. I was surprised that he didn't check for the flu or get a urine sample or SOMETHING... but I'm not the one with the MD behind my name. Tuesday was about the same... high fever, no energy and no eating, however he WAS drinking. Tuesday evening a slight cough developed. Wednesday afternoon he woke from his nap and was coughing, wheezing, and crying terribly. I called our Ped and they told me to bring him in immediately. They diagnosed him with the croup and prescribed an oral steriod. His poor cough was awful and he is so hoarse. Everytime he gets finished coughing, he cries out with a wimper because it hurts so bad. It's pitiful. And the steriod medicine is no fun... it makes Noah so irritable and fussy! The only way he'll nap is in one of our arms (mainly mine) and when we lay him down he immediately wakes up crying. It's made for a long several days, that's for sure. The good thing is that, THANKFULLY, he is sleeping through the night just fine, but I've kept a vaporizer in there so that may be what's helping him at night. I HATE seeing my baby feel so bad. I'm sure it's rough on all families when they have a sick child but what makes it more difficult for me and Noah is that he isn't able to express himself, so he can't tell me what he wants, what hurts, or how he feels. It frustrates him so much, which in turn makes it equally as hard for me and Jamie. I'll be honest, it definitely tests our patience trying to figure out what he needs when he's so frustrated and crying because of how bad he feels.

Thursday evening, Jamie came home and surprised me with my Valentine's gift... a trip to Huntsville to stay in the Westin, dinner at The Melting Pot, and shopping at BridgeStreet... YAY! He had arranged for my mom to watch Noah for us to give me a break because he knew it had been a long week for me. Then I woke up with a horrible sore throat/bad cough on Friday morning... ughh. We decided to go on and had a great time, I just stayed doped up on Dayquil and popped cough drops like they were going outta style! Once we got home Saturday afternoon and relieved my mom of her babysitting duties, I was feeling pretty rough, so I took some NyQuil (at 2 in the afternoon) and went to bed while Jamie took care of Noah (in which Noah cried pretty solid for 2 hours...Jamie was exhausted). I'm actually feeling a little better this evening but Noah still seems to be feeling pretty bad. Tomorrow is the last day on the steriod medicine so I'm really hoping it clears up SOON othewise looks like we'll be taking him back at the doctor's office.