The Flu, a Water Leak, and a Birthday Boy

Ladies and gentlemen... We have a 1-year-old!!!

The couple of weeks leading up to the Booger Bear's birthday were rather hectic ones. I ended up having to take Angel (the Booger's mama) to the doctor for what turned out to be a really bad sinus infection. We left with a Z-pack... and another little gift that kept on giving for the next two weeks... Influenza A!!! Fun times!!!

We didn't realize at the time that Angel had the flu. She'd be fine for a couple of hours, and then suddenly turn sheet white and look like she was going to pass out. This went on for about 5 days, but her fever never went over 99.5 so we just thought she was still fighting the sinus infection. It wasn't until the dreaded call from the Booger's daycare on Monday morning and another trip to the urgent care center that we discovered the "gift" that we had received on the previous visit.

It's amazing what a difference one week can make. When Angel I went the previous week, there were four other people in the waiting room. The following Monday when I walked in with the Booger, it was standing room only! Folding chairs had been set up, and everyone was wearing masks! Not exactly a confidence-booster... But I figured by that point, the damage had already been done. Booger had a 102 fever. He'd be the one getting everyone else sick at that point.

After a 2 hour wait, we finally made it in to see the doctor. They took one look at him, did a flu culture (the whole q-tip up the nose thing), and sent him back for a chest x-ray because his breathing didn't sound right. Fortunately, no pneumonia... Unfortunately, he tested positive for Influenza A. They prescribed Tamiflu, but there was none to be found at any of the 5 pharmacies that I tried. The pharmacists and doctors all said that would probably be the case seeing as how everyone and their dogs all have the flu right now. I was told to pump him full of all of the fluids he would take and alternate Motrin and Tylenol and wait it out.

The poor baby was just miserable. He had no energy at all. He just laid on me and quietly whined for days. Angel swore she was going to try to avoid him because she was starting to feel better, but how do you avoid an adorable little baby who just wants hugs because he's sick? By Tuesday, Angel and I were both sick too! Fortunately, Angel wasn't nearly as bad as she had been the previous week, but I had to try to take care of all of us when I felt like total doo-doo myself.

To make matter worse, I woke up Tuesday morning to get the Booger his bottle, and walked right into about an inch of standing water! It was everywhere!!! My bedroom, my closet, the living room, the kitchen... Apparently a pipe going to the hot water heater busted overnight, and I now had a lake in my house. It took apartment maintenance, two plumbers, a carpet guy, and 6 separate trips in a week's time to get the carpet back to normal! Unfortunately, we still have a nice little cut-out hole in the drywall where they had to cut through in order to get to the broken pipe. But at least the baby was so puny he had no desire to get down and play on the floor.

The rest of the week went on about the same way. The Booger's fever would go away for most of the day, but then would spike back up right before bedtime, so daycare the next day wasn't an option. By Thursday, we were BOTH still sick, so I had to go and make the executive decision to cancel his big birthday party that was scheduled for Saturday. :-( I didn't want to, but there was no way I was going to be up to setting up, organizing, and refereeing all of the families the way I felt. We had gotten permission to include Angel's family and Daddy's family as well as my family and a few close friends, so it was going to be interesting to say the least on a good day. Having to referee when I felt like passing out at any given moment wasn't going to happen. And the baby was still having meltdown moments so he wouldn't have been his usual happy self. It made no sense to torture the poor baby (or myself for that matter), so no big party.

By Saturday night, the baby was starting to feel quite a bit better. A couple of people stopped by to bring him presents, and Angel and I decided to throw him a little spur-of-the-moment party on Sunday (his actual birthday) at the house. We had the family come over, decorated with the luau decorations we were going to use at the big party, bought ("bee-yoons") balloons, and even braved up and baked a two-layer, marble cake with chocolate frosting! Angel and I had a good time planning the last-minute party, and the Booger seemed to have a really good time. I felt like warmed-over poo by the end of the day, and the house is STILL a disaster, but I'm really glad we decided to do it. It was his 1st birthday after all! You can't miss your 1st birthday!

Opening a present the night before his birthday. (Well, crawling on top of the box anyway...)

The Booger in his new ball pit that Mommy (Angel) and Mimi (me) bought for him.

After a long day, cake, ice cream, and even a little pizza, the Booger was worn out!



The poor kid sawed logs for two straight hours (and he NEVER snores!). He had a really good time though, so I don't regret it one bit.

(I tried getting a little creative with the pictures. No full faces... Just lots of fun...)

A Day at the Zoo

Angel, Booger Bear, and I were all off on Labor Day, so I had the oh-so-brilliant idea to take the kids to the zoo for the first time. I say, "oh-so-brilliant" rather sarcastically because apparently the entire Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex had the same idea.

Being the super-nice foster mommy that I am, I had gotten permission for the Booger's daddy to meet us at the zoo for the day. So he was able to be there for the baby's first trip to the zoo. My aunt was also in town that week, so she spent the day with us as well.

It was about 2,000 degrees outside seeing as how it was the first week of September in Texas, and all of the animals were hiding or sleeping in the shade. We spent quite a bit of time in the Texas Gulf and spider and bugs buildings because they were the only air conditioned places around. Not a whole lot of fun for Angel who is terrified of fish and me who really, REALLY doesn't care for insects. But at least it was cool in there. :-) .

The Booger's favorite part of the day was trying to bribe ice cream off of complete strangers and going under the misting cooling system in one part of the zoo. He seemed to like the petting zoo, and he was always very excited when he saw the animals toys. The elephants and other larger animals had big balls. (...okay... That didn't sound quite right, but you know what I mean...) Booger's demeaner went from, "Yeah, yeah... It's a big exotic animal..." to "OMG!!! BALLLLL!!!!" He also really enjoyed the poi pond. ...not because of the huge fish... but because there were ducks!!! Heck! If I'd known he'd be that excited about ducks, I would have saved myself $35 and taken him to the park down the street with the duck pond!

We were able to have some fun though. My aunt and I make our own fun, and we got Angel in on some of it. She refused to save my Aunt Linda from the scary alligator though. I had to step up and be the true hero in that frightening situation. My Aunt Linda was so scared... Her life was in danger! And Angel wouldn't save her. :-(

Angel did ride the super-fast runaway mechanical horse however. She's a little speed demon on those things. My aunt said she wasn't afraid until Angel dropped the reigns. Then she clung on for dear life. :-)

After battling the heat, the crowds, and the wild animals for a few hours, we all wised up and decided to go swimming instead. All in all it was actually a pretty good day. Everyone seemed to get along (thank goodness), and the kids had fun even though it was rather miserable out there. At least we got to end the day with a dip in the pool, and we got some good pictures out of it. We were even able to get the first-ever picture of the Booger with both his Mommy and Daddy. That alone made it worth the trip. Pictures with both his mommy and daddy will be a very rare commodity for Booger, so we were happy we could get it.