Weekend Update

Fun family weekend this last one. So beautiful and sunny.

Saturday met up with 2 other mom friends and families and went to a park to play.

Afterwards tried a new sandwich shop 'Wiches, which was pretty tasty. And headed to Liz's house so the little kids could nap. Getting August to sleep at a different house was a total fail this time. Both Doug and I took turns sitting in there, her pack and play had a side that you couldn't see through, so we sat behind it, but he just wouldn't go to sleep. I don't know, still takes long naps at home and will at Grandma's too. So anyway, he played with the other kids until Liz's baby got up and we all went to the apple orchard to pick apples.

He probably ate 3-4 apples. And had to be carried otherwise he was falling over in the ruts and then he'd be picking up bee covered dirty half-eaten apples. So Dad got a workout carrying him, and mom got a workout carrying a bushel of apples!

The only bummer was it was close to closing time, and this place is my favorite for their delicious donuts. But by the time we got there they were "out" except for the "misshapen" ones, so they gave them to us for free but they were cold and normally their donuts are the BEST. So a bit of a letdown.

Afterwards we went to see Liz's new property they plan to build on next year.

What a view!!

August was quite fussy by the end of the night, proving he needs that nap! So we took him home for a quick bath and immediately to bed.

The next day we had church, and they had this nice fall photo backdrop set up.

Doug has been working on digging up our driveway to get more gravel, and has been out there even at night with a shovel and pick-ax for days. So yesterday a nice surprise, our neighbor stopped by saying "my wife said to get over here and help you." Thank you!!

And in the evening we had a couple friend over for dinner. I made pesto chicken stuffed shells, salad with avocado, goat cheese, homemade croutons, and chimmichurri dressing, and pumpkin skillet with icecream for dessert. Very tasty, and then we sat outside by the fire talking late into the night. Very fun! I appreciate friends who are flexible since we have a kid, August ate with us, then they gave us a couple minutes to put him to bed and we enjoyed the rest of the evening kid-free. Wonderful :)

girls weekend!!

Last weekend was the annual bookclub girls getaway. And it was wonderful. This year we went to Ludington, and it was great. Although a bit of a far drive for just a Saturday/Sunday.

We arrived Saturday lunch time and ate at a restaurant (actually still an hour South) called the Twisted Pickle or something like that. Got these huge sandwiches that were full of almost too-much meat. I also had a side of fried pickles, mmmmm. Then we continued to our destination where we met our friend who used to be in our book club, but now lives in Chicago. It was so nice she makes the drive to come see us!

We checked into our bed and breakfast, we had the top room that could sleep 7 people!

My little sleeping nook.

We went downtown and did a little shopping, mostly we spent the time at this consignment shop and helped our friend try on wedding dresses. We found this gorgeous lace one that looked amazing on her, but she couldn't pull the trigger. Too bad. After that we walked down to the beach, sat on the sand chatting, and then watched the sunset.

We then headed back into town for a late dinner, ate at the Barley & Rye and I had this amazing hummus wrap.

Then back to our B & B for wine, snacks, girl time, and sleep!

The next morning woke up at the usual time, and my friend Kelly was getting ready to go for a walk so I went too. We power walked all the way to the water and back, and my hips were sore for 2 days afterwards! But it was a beautiful morning, good exercise, and nice 1 on 1 time.

We then had the most amazing bed and breakfast breakfast that I'd ever had. Usually they just make the plates for you and give you your meal, but this was buffet style and they kept bringing out dish after dish "I've got a egg scramble coming out in a minute", "hot bread over in the corner", etc. SO GOOD!

We ate a ton. Then packed up and headed back to the beach. The water was chilly, but some girls went in. I laid in the sun for a bit, and then spent some time in the sun tent eating snacks and chatting. It was a gorgeous, hot day.

Then time to go. We'd told our husbands home at 6, so we headed back. But yet somehow, even with minimal stops, it took almost 6 hours to get home, so that felt frustrating. Instead I was home just in time to put August to bed and that was it. But my boys had a good weekend together too, and it had been fun with the girls, so it was worth it!

Labor Day weekend

We were supposed to be up North at my cousin's wedding for the weekend. They were getting married in Lake Leelanau and we were looking forward to getting away. My parents were going too and offered to watch August an afternoon so Doug & I could go out baby-free to just have a date day in the beachtown city, and I was reaaaaallly looking forward to it.

Instead August had spiked a fever again, and after calls to the family we were going to stay with, it sounded like no one wanted us to come and potentially spread the germs. So we stayed home. In the afternoon August seemed a little worse, and he was even sitting in his high chair shaking with chills and his lips turned blue. Of course it was the weekend so his doctor was closed, so we went to the hospital where they have an after hours pediatric clinic.

As soon as the nurse found out I said he was shaking and had blue lips she told us she thought he had a seizure and we had to go next door to the ER. That was when I started crying. So we walked down there. And I cried more tears as they strapped a little nametag bracelet to his ankle. That little bracelet turned him from a boy just going in for a quick check-up, to a little sick boy who might have just had a seizure and I couldn't handle it.

Right away we saw a Nurse Practitioner who after we explained again what happened, reassured us that she didn't think he had a seizure. Just that in an effort to cool his body down he was shaking and blood shunted away from the lips which explained them briefly turning blue. So that was a huge relief. But we still needed to figure out why the high fever. And he'd had one the weekend before, and the month before that had us in the Urgent Care while we were visiting my brother.

So the testing began. Poor August was poked and prodded. They did a rectal temp (most accurate) 104.7, they did a straight cath (a tube into the bladder to get a clean urine specimen), and they drew blood and started an IV to give him fluids. It just seemed so serious. Urine cultures, lab work, blood cultures. He did wiggle and scream, but overall did pretty well I thought. And the nurse and tech were great and everything (except the rectal probe not working until the third time) only took one try.

So then we waited for results and August napped on dad.

My boy looks so big!

The blood work came back normal, but the urine was +1 bacteria with some white blood cells, which usually wouldn't be treated, but since his fever was so high he did get a dose of IV antibiotics. And after that they let us go.

During the night Doug slept on the couch and got up every 4 hours to check August's temperature, and he had 2 more fevers during the night. But after that he's been fever-free. The cultures both came back negative which means he did not have a true urinary tract infection, so that's good, but it also doesn't really solve the mystery of these high fevers. He'd been so drooly lately I thought he was getting his 2 year molars, but the NP said while you can get a fever with teething it's rarely over 100. So that kinda busts that theory.

Anyway, I'm so thankful that August is ok and it wasn't anything serious. My heart breaks thinking about children who are really truly sick in hospitals. It was really scary. Thank you Lord for protecting my boy!