HF&M Day Four (Five?):Feeling Better?

Vake seems to be feeling a little better today- I just put him down for a nap so the good news is that he stayed awake a "normal" amount of time for him today.

He's not eating much but he's also showing some interest in food again...and trying to use a spoon again.

Oh right, I remember how these things work now...

Delicious apple sauce that doesn't hurt my throat.

Hmmm. What else could I do with a spoon?

After brunch, we played with some lids for awhile.

He thought that was terrific!

Good times, Mom!

In other news I had a seven mile run this morning that went fine.

Hand Foot and Mouth: Day Three (Four?)

So this routine is starting to get a little tired. Vake's been hanging in there like a champ but he feels bad bad bad.

Yesterday, Vake woke up screaming at 6:00 am. I gave him some Motrin and got some fluids down and then he went back down to sleep until Grandmary came over so that I could cover my morning docket (because it was a holiday weekend it was punctuated by a bunch of folks who had had no contact with me who then wanted to me to try their cases dead cold. That's not a fun way to try a case, let me tell you...ugh.).

I came home about the time it was time for an afternoon nap for everyone. Then he was up and mostly not fussy until about 7. He had, however, decided that he hates Motrin, so it is now a Mommy and Daddy activity to get it down his throat. Awesome.

This morning began again with the screaming and the Motrin but Eric was out cold so it was all Mommy all the time on the Motrin. (In fact, Eric came to long enough to tell me that I had terrible morning breath. Double awesome.)

Vake made it about 30 minutes before it became obvious from his screaming that it was time to go back to bed again- he's still asleep now and it is almost 10:00 am. While he was asleep, I tried the Silver Palate's brownie recipe. Perhaps it is because I had to substitute brown sugar for white sugar but they are TERRIBLE. Consistency's bad AND flavor's bad.

Everyone else in this house is still unconscious. Vake, E, Stilly and Judge. When everyone comes to, the real challenge will be to think of activities we can do where Vake won't be miserable and won't expose other children to this disease. Obviously the pool and the Children's Museum are out- maybe the zoo where he could stay in his stroller?

What Vake's Got.

Is called Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease.


Description:

Hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD) is a common viral illness of infants and children. The disease causes fever and blister-like eruptions in the mouth and/or a skin rash. HFMD is often confused with foot-and-mouth (also called hoof-and-mouth) disease, a disease of cattle, sheep, and swine; however, the two diseases are not related—they are caused by different viruses. Humans do not get the animal disease, and animals do not get the human disease.

Illness:

The disease usually begins with a fever, poor appetite, malaise (feeling vaguely unwell), and often with a sore throat.
One or 2 days after fever onset, painful sores usually develop in the mouth. They begin as small red spots that blister and then often become ulcers. The sores are usually located on the tongue, gums, and inside of the cheeks.
A non-itchy skin rash develops over 1–2 days. The rash has flat or raised red spots, sometimes with blisters. The rash is usually located on the palms of the hands and soles of the feet; it may also appear on the buttocks and/or genitalia.
A person with HFMD may have only the rash or only the mouth sores.

What it means to Mommy:

No trip to Shrinemont for the bluegrass festival.

Sick Sleeper

He's still not 100%. No more vomiting but tired. Morning nap tired.

E covered this am while I went to court. Way to go superdad. Now I'm on. Little pumpkin is out cold.

Pianoman

We've finally gotten a break from the terrible heat that we had this June (what a terrible way to kick off the summer!) and I took Vake over to Grandmary's yesterday. He had a lot of fun playing the piano- doesn't he look like a little Schroeder from Peanuts.



Sweet little pumpkin.



We went on a run tonight and I don't think the swaying agreed with him- he wasn't feeling like himself when he got out of the stroller and wound up getting sick- poor little boy.

NEW (or at least new to us...) FURNITURE

So at LONG last our living room is starting to look a little less like the schizophrenic mess that it was (and believe me when I tell you it was as bad as you can imagine). When we moved in, we had an unfortunate combination of furniture living-room wise. Mine was too-small and uncomfortable. Eric's was not my taste.

So once the house was finished, we moved in and lived in the space. We tried a bunch of different configurations with my too-small but too-bulky gold loveseats which have since gone on to be spectacular in my sister's house in Baltimore (thank God because you hate to throw away furniture).

Once the furniture from this house went up to Baltimore, we were left with basically no seating. Oh, I also sent up the round marble coffee table too- which looks GREAT there as well.
So by Christmastime, we were living with the world's most uncomfortable pink (although it had to have started life out as red) silk Victorian sofa. It was very low to the ground. We put it under the Marty Brief art piece. Then we found a HUGE coffee table on Craig's List- a family with a baby who is baby Vake's age was getting rid of it because of the corners (ahem!).

SO. We lived with this configuration for awhile with the idea that we were going to get a new sofa.
(just so you have a visual- I unfortunately did not take a before!)

And about the time of the house tour, our good friend Katie decided to move her khaki big sofa along and asked if we'd like to borrow it! Hurray! I had something slightly different in mind (mostly no skirt) but you cannot argue with free.99. We said thank you thank you and Eric went to pick it up with Big Red aka Hector.

Behold the transformation.

So we decided to spend the couch money in a different way- recovering the chairs that I had bought at estate sales and auctions. This one, below, is an incredibly comfortable huge channel back chair for Eric- he sits in it and works all the time... (and please make sure you admire the pink sofa)...

There it is, transformed with dark brown velvet- don't know what's going on with the pillow in this shot...

And the real stars of the show- the gold velvet pair of chairs- great, funny shape- UGLY fabric. Recovered in blue linen now and SO pretty.

Better after, right?

There are going to be some more small changes implemented in weeks to come. I will keep you posted.

Hot Summer Day

What a busy and HOT summer day. Taren took the boys to the pool but it was so hot that she had to call it a day by midmorning. She took the boys to the Children's Museum after lunch but the AC wasn't working very well there either- it is just hard to keep up when it is 101.
But the boys still had a good time driving... OH NO- did we hit something???

If you are looking closely in these pictures, you will also notice that my son wears his Little Gym medal wherever he goes. And we've been able to hold the Easter-basket-as-hat routine mostly to home...here he is decked out in his hat and his medal- and is mad about something- maybe that Huff is wearing the emergency backup Fez.

Vake's SO close to talking now and he's getting really good at having his needs met by pointing and grunting. In 2 months or so, we're really going to have a talker...