Novembuary

So It snowed Monday. Not like a dusting of festive "Oh look! Snow flakes!" kind of snow. But a giant rude dumping. Like Olaf the stinkin snowman took a large and uncalled for deuce on our beautiful fall scenery. Jerk.

This new season is called Novembuary.  Feels like February but it is unfortunately only November. The temperature has dropped. The snow is here to stay. And the need and want to decorate for Christmas, bake copious amounts of cookies and sing jingle bells has already begun. I'm 3 minutes and 12 seconds away from pulling out that damn tree and decorating it.

Far too soon for such shenanigans to start. Fun fact, the side roads are covered in a layer of thick ice like a skating rink. And it takes twice as long to get into and home from work. That is all. Done complaining for the day. Whelp, its a good thing we already have our winter trip booked and ready to go for January this year. A little island get away sounds fantastic to me right about now. Only 51 more days to go!

Noah's first snow fall of the season 11/10/14

-Over and Out

Ghosts goblings and spooks!

Halloween is upon us yay! Silly sugar filled holiday but its kind of fun. This year Noah well be a werewolf. I'm making the costume its super easy and pretty dang cheap.

Step 1. Buy fur like fabric and a plain white t-shirt

Step 2. Pour glass of wine

Step 3. Cut slits in shirt and sew fur fabric protruding out

Step 4. Sip wine

Step 5. Make some sort of hat and ears out of said fur fabric

Step 6. Sip wine

Step 7. Sew fur onto mittens and smear shirt with blood ...(red paint) I mean come on hes gotta be the baddest and meanest werewolf this side of the Mississippi gotta have a little blood :)

Step 8. Boom. Done. drink some more wine. Who cares how it looks he's not even 2 yet.

And that my friends is how to successfully make a rockin homemade werewolf costume for a very special little tot. I'll note steps 2, 4, 6, and 8 are vital to this project. I do not recommend attempting without those key steps. Failure in project completion would be inevitable :)

Fast forward to Halloween night, Mr. Werewolf had a tremendous time trick or treating. We practiced the art of the trick or treat at home so I think he had it down pretty well. It was also in his understanding that he could devour candy all night long since it was his. A scientific study was done concluding that anything chocolate or dum dum suckers are best, according to the werewolf.

He had camped out at the front door and loved handing out candy with dad. Every time the door bell rang he freaked out with excitement. Pretty entertaining and adorable of course.

-Over and Out

Pumpkining the crap out of October

Pumpkin season woot woot. I can confidently say I have had pumpkin ice cream, pancakes, seeds, beer, latte, cupcakes, cookies, bread, pie and pumpkin brittle in the last month. I'm sensing a serious issue taking place in my life. Happens every year. The leaves start changing, its cooler outside, winter is in the air. So why not gorge yourself with everything pumpkin in anticipation of the cold harshness ahead of us? Sounds completely normal to me!

Naturally we have been doing a ton of Halloween and pumpkin type toddler crafts for Mr. Pirate pants. He is fascinated with little pumpkins and likes to hold them and walk around the house with them. On the occasion he likes to plummet the poor unsuspecting pumpkins down the stairs. Little pumpkin chucker.

Unfortunately Noah is too big this year to do a pumpkin butt print. Nothing is cuter than dunking a babies bottom in paint and turning that butt print into adorable magical things. I believe I would probably injure myself attempting this with a toddler. Only means one thing, I guess I'll just have to have another baby!....... One day, one day.

That's all the creative juices would allow for October crafts. I had plenty of time to do them being sick half the month with crypto. Man I hate that parasite more than words can express. Any who all is finally, hopefully, fingers crossed well. I hope to never endure something like that again thank you very much!

Happy October people I hope you have exhausted your pumpkin craving tastebuds!

-Over and Out

The parasite that wont stop giving

Now that Noah is nice and recouped this nasty parasite has decided to attack my husband, mother-in law and finally me! Yippee. Man I can tell you its brutal. The worst is the stabbing stomach pain that brings you into the fetal position. And nausea making you feel like your going to vomit. Maybe the splitting headache too. Oh and the whole running to the bathroom thing all the time to poop your intestines out. And food, I miss food. Tossing and turning all night not really ever sleeping. Ya, I would say all of that is the worst part. Its depressing knowing that this lasts two plus weeks and I'm only on day four. Meh, what do you do? Life right?

On that fun filled note nothing has stopped us from living up fall and doing some fun apple projects! Pirate man loves art time so much, man this toddler stage is fun. I'm having a blast of course he is not speaking a whole lot yet or throwing tantrums much so I think I'll continue loving this age until then.

The question that currently remains is....now what? I can't go to work this week considering my disgusting condition. Aaaand the fact that I work in health care and are in contact with tons of people a day. Probably not a smart idea to spread this awful thing any further.

Can't really eat much so cooking is out of the question. Whelp I guess I'll have to do some Halloween projects with the boy and pretend to have some energy. Man I could really go for a giant bowl of fatty fatty fettuccine. Creamy and gooey smothered in butter and garlic and Parmesan cheese. Thick noodles, and garlic toast. Scratch that Cheesy garlic toast. Ooohhh yay, thats what I'm talking about! One day I shall eat again ( big drawn out dramatic sigh).

-Over and Out

Day 18 - We have an answer finally!

 Over the weekend things took a turn for the worse. He was not drinking, eating, or sleeping much. He had about 1 wet diaper every 6 hours and I couldn't handle it any more. My poor baby was a mess. So we went to the ER. Yes he was dehydrated. No they didn't want to do an IV. Too traumatic for a little dude. So instead we did a protocol called oral hydration. Every 5 min we squirted a syringe of pedialyte down his throat.

And that ladies and gentleman was my entire weekend. It was awful. Naturally with all the liquid coming in the diarrhea started back up again full force. Come on! When will this madness end? Sunday he was better though. He started eating a little bit and actually played a little too.

The next day was Monday I was sitting in my vehicle on my break from work when I finally got a call from the doctor confirming Noah's lab results. Tested negative for e-coli and salmonella and giardia. Then there was a long strange pause....... but he did test positive for a parasite infection called cryptosporidium. Say what!? Seriously say what? Please repeat that word I have no idea what you just said.

Long story short this microscopic parasite is a bitch. She's awful and mean and I don't like her. Mr. Noah contracted it through either contaminated water, fecal matter or even contaminated food. Pretty much could have been anywhere! Literally anywhere an infected person's feces touched. So basically we will never know where. Symptoms in children last up to 3 weeks. We currently are on day 18 so almost done!

Treatment is extremely expensive and not very effective in littles. And since we are nearing the end and he is acting himself again, drinking and eating I feel fine in letting it run its course. I will say that this has been awful though. Never ending, no sleep, no answers, no relief and poor suffering pirate for what seemed like eternity. I'll say it again. WE ARE DUE FOR A DAMN COLD NEXT TIME!!!!!!!

Peace out world I'm done. Need to catch up to some serious sleep.

Over and Out

Sick little man is breaking my heart

Day 13

 Riddle me this, why is it that my poor little dude has to get all the nasty long recovery horrible sicknesses? I mean really, I would argue that we are due for a simple common cold thrown in there every once in a while instead of total complete misery. Chicken pox, pneumonia, now this awful thing?

We are currently on day 13 of a very nasty viral tummy bug. Diarrhea, off and on fever, not eating barely drinking, raw little booty, restless sleep, moaning in misery, tummy bug. Seemed to be getting better a week ago then out of no where took a turn for the worse. The very worse.

Went into the doctor sometime last week and they said just a viral stomach thing, should work its way out in a few more days. And he did seem to be on the mend until Wednesday/Thursday hit.  Liquid poo, no appetite, very sad little peanut. I've never seen so much poop in my life!

Yesterday I brought him back in to find no answers at all. But we got assigned the extremely fun task of trying to collect stool samples to take back in to be cultured. How does one collect a stool sample that is supposed to fill a certain line on the container when the stool is made entirely of liquid? I'll inform you that it is thought provoking, time consuming and nearly impossible.

They suggested placing plastic wrap inside the diaper so the liquid would not get absorbed. Nope. That would be a no go. Plastic clung so tight on his sore bleeding bottom he cried. Next tried the plastic with diaper cream. Nope. Plastic wrap just crinkled up in the diaper. Then I thought of an ingenious idea, using a clean plastic Tylenol syringe to suck up the poop! Boom. genius award. We sat and waited all evening, no such a diaper was enough to collect.

He fell asleep very early last night, so before I was about to go to bed early myself I figured I'd go in and change his diaper super fast in case he was sitting in diarrhea.  Which of course he was. Smothered him with some prescription butt cream called poop goop (incredible stuff by the way) Gave him a sippy of water and we cuddle and rocked for a while.

To my surprise he inhaled the whole cup of water! And then about 1 minute and 47 seconds later to my even bigger surprise he projectile vomited the contents of his tummy with all that water all over me. Just when I thought we could take a step forward we go waaaaaaay back. Naturally his temp decided to rise at that moment as well. So much for going to bed early!

That leads us to today. I had to work a morning shift so my mother in law stayed with Noah. Worst thing in the entire world is having to leave your child when he's horribly sick and weak. No matter who's hands their in you just want to be there yourself to care for, hold, and comfort them.

Very weak, slow moving, sad, moany, and miserable time little guy has had today.  Best news is that I was able to complete the poop collection task. At least now we can get that sent out and maybe be one step closer to being done with this crap. I have never seen, touched, thought about, smelled, or been worried about poop so much in my life! Geez the conversations I've had with mom's about diarrhea lately have been ridiculous and comical. I guess its the price we parents pay for loving our littles so much.

That's all she wrote for today. Here's to hoping tomorrow is a much much better experience! Lots of prayers going out for my bubba, his little body cant handle anymore. God knows this and is watching out for my little one and preparing to make him healthy again. I know it :)

I'm going to drink wine now and take a shower. A long, hot, disinfecting shower.

-Over and Out

whoopsie poopsie

Wow I'm horrible at consistency. Apparently really really horrible at consistency. Can't hardly believe I haven't written anything all summer. Oops oh well what do you do? Must mean its been a pretty eventful one I suppose.

To sum up the last few months we.......

• Went to lakes and beaches A LOT

• I went to the north shore by my lonesome and hiked

• 4th of July at Lake Mille Lacs

• Parades/fairs

• Yard work

• Ruthie's cabin

• 1st solo flight to AZ with pirate man

 

 

• Weddings

• Fashion show

• Apple orchard

And there you have it. Our summer in a very small tiny itty bitty nutshell. I know I have missed a ton of exciting Conner adventures but alas..... winter is around the corner. There will be plenty of time to sit and write while I am sitting under 8 blankets and drinking hot coffee/tea/mocha's/cider all the live long day!

Over and Out