Family Fuller

Colin was planning on having one of his preschool classmates (who is also our neighbor) over after school today. Her name is Gabby and she is pretty soft spoken and really cute. In school they kept talking about how she was coming over and then on the playground they hugged and she said “I love you” and Colin replied “I love you” then she replied “I love you more than chocolate.” It was adorable.

Once she was over I heard them in his room and Colin was saying “Gabby do you want to see my underwear?” - Not as bad as you think, as Colin is still in diapers so all of his underwear is in his drawer.

After dinner we usually have to undress Holden. Of course then Colin also wants to get undressed. Last night when Colin got undressed, Holden came around the corner and saw that Colin also had his belly out. Holden got all excited and started grabbing and pointing at his tummy and then pointing at Colin’s tummy. He thought it was pretty cool.

Holden has also learned how to get up on the dining room chairs (they have no rungs so it isn’t easy) and I am not happy about it. He gets up on them, then tries to get on the table. Mostly he stands on the chairs and tries to get them to rock back and forth on the uneven floors - that was until he fell off one today and bonked his head on the floor. Ugh.

We are heading to Portland tomorrow to go to my friend Emily’s wedding reception. The boys are coming with us but the dinner is adults only so we have a babysitter for them in the hotel. Colin is very excited to order room service. He has told me numerous times today that is is going to “order french fries and chicken fingers. Then I am going to set it down on the table in front of TV and eat and watch TV at the SAME TIME.”

I think I won the dumb mom of the day award on Thursday when I locked Colin and Holden in the car outside the zoo. Not only that but Colin was seat belted in his seat and Holden was roaming free in the car. My keys were locked inside along with my cell phone. The number of things I had to do wrong to make it happen was astounding and yet it still managed to happen.

Colin was sleeping in the stroller so I put Holden in first, but he had so much energy I thought I would just let him play around for a bit while I got Colin in his seat. Then I thought “Oh, but I better lock the door so Holden doesn’t fall out.”: Open Colin’s door and the passenger door, click lock on the keys, put keys and phone in car, get Colin out and into his seat, shut door, shut passenger door so Holden stays put, go to back to put stroller in car, realize all the doors are locked, phone is in car, Colin can’t get out of his seat or reach the lock….freak out!!!

I pleaded with Colin to try to get his belt off, but it is really hard to do, even for me. About 2 or 3 minutes later I stopped someone on the street and used their phone, a nice couple and their 20 something daughter. We called 911 first, who said if they came they would have to break the window. I wasn’t to that point yet so I then called AAA, which I just happen to have joined about 2 weeks ago.

Meanwhile all these Hispanic construction workers from the local condo noticed I was having a problem, however none of them spoke English - thankfully the young girl did. They started bringing all kinds of tools over trying to open the door. The man I stopped happened to be a fireman so he was ready to break the window at any point. I am pleading with Colin to try to get himself out of his seat or reach the lock - you can imagine how that went (he had just woken up from a nap) so he just started balling. During all of this Holden is the front seat by the steering wheel. He found a full pack of gum and started unwrapping every piece, smiling, oblivious to everything. He started using the gum as play dough. It was kinda hot out and getting hot in there and I was just praying that he didn’t stick one of the pieces of gum in his mouth and start choking. Once the gum was all unwrapped, the construction workers and the woman I stopped tried to keep Holden entertained - he was laughing away at them.

Finally 25 minutes later the locksmith came and opened the door in about 15 seconds. The boys were none the worse for wear and Colin didn’t even want to get out of the car. Thank god for nice people is all I have to say

Chuck was in London all last week, so I didn’t even have any spare keys anywhere and no one call during the whole fiasco. While he was there he bought Colin and Holden some sweet “football” jerseys - actually the whole home and away uniforms for the England National Team…how cute are they:

And little Holdie:

Grandpa and Grandma Fuller and Uncle Fletcher were in town last weekend and both Colin and Holden (as well as us) had a great time. The boys were very well behaved and had lots of energy. We went out to get pizza on Thursday night and Colin was teasing Fletcher about what he likes on his pizza (butterflies, bugs, beer, etc) when it eventually devolved into potty talk and “poop on your pizza”. We told Colin not to say poop so he replies “Uncle Fletcher do you like that brown stuff that comes out of your butt and smells bad and goes into the toilet on your pizza?” Nice.

Friday we took a little stroll around the Pike Place Market and then went to the aquarium. The boys had a great time there. That night we went out to Snappy Dragon for a great Chinese meal. Saturday we took a ride on the Bainbridge ferry and then played at the baseball field for awhile that afternoon. Colin loved playing baseball with Daddy and Uncle Fletcher, which is good because Colin needs a little practice running. Saturday night we got a babysitter and enjoyed a beer out and then dinner at Le Gourmand. Dinner was great, lasted 3 hours and was lots of fun. The family left Sunday - it seemed to go very fast. Chuck had to go to London on Monday, so after so much family fun all weekend it seemed a little slow this week.

Holden has been doing pretty well over the past few weeks, aside from the vaccine fever (which also causes a minor measles rash). He loves balls - and carries a football or baseball all over the house with him. He says “dada”, “dah = dog”, “ma”, “mo = more” and “ba = ball” - beyond that he babbles all the time. He does lots of signs, but he tends to have a sign of the day and does that for everything. He does signs for again, more, eat, apple - which means all fruit of any type, and today he made up his own sign for open which was swinging his arms way behind him.

Although he doesn’t speak very much he understands everything we are talking about. Chuck and I were talking about getting bagels for breakfast and he overheard us, made the eat sign and went to his high chair. He also overheard me telling my mom how we were trying to get Colin to hop on one foot and all of a sudden Holden is picking up his one foot trying to balance. He also tells us when he pooped in his diaper and the other day he went to the diaper bag to get a new diaper.

Sorry no pictures on this one - I will try to download them tomorrow.

Now for a few tidbits:

We were putzing around on a Sunday as Holden engaged in a favorite activity - demolishing Jess’ wallet. So as the cash was getting thrown around, Colin translated the numbers into a currency he understands, “15 dollars, does that equal a train?” [That’s a Thomas train, in case you’re wondering]

And since we were on the subject of money, Colin made a point of telling me about his piggy bank:

“Dad, did you know we opened my piggy bank the other day? It was loud!”
“I did hear about that Colin, how much money did you have?”
Colin looks puzzled and asks, “You heard that at work?”

As you can tell from the above picture, we have been to the market very often and seen musicians play for money. The other day Colin was playing his violin and said “Mommy, where is my hat? I need it and I need you to go get your money - real money, not pretend.”

More and more often Colin comes up with very impressive comments that take a few leaps of logic, it is cool to hear.

On to Holden - he got another fever on Sunday morning/afternoon. It was within the 7-12 period of when he could have had a reaction to his MMR vaccine, but still I just wish they would stop. As soon as I noticed he was warm I gave him Motrin and we kept him on it for 24 hours so the fever never really got above 101 or so. You would have never known he had a fever because he was acting fine, except for brief period on Sunday evening when the Motrin was wearing off and he was pretty unhappy.

We are just going to keep watching him and if he has another fever soon we might have to go see an infectious disease specialist. The reassuring thing is that he is generally very happy and very active all the time, even when he has a fever.

It has been hard to just be a normal parent because I never really know if he is being fussy because he doesn’t feel good or is getting sick. Every time he cries at night we have to go check on him. I am also trying to wean him but every time I start to reduce the feedings he gets sick again and I feel like I should just keep him hydrated.

Sorry is has been so long without an update. We have had a rough time with Holden and his illnesses. I will give a brief run down here for those of you that don’t know all the stuff we have been through lately.

Holden started getting lots of colds, but mostly fevers, around Christmas. Since Christmas he has had about 7-8 fevers. Most of the time it was with ear infections, but he also had one very weird rash (with a scary rash called petechiae). His fever would sometimes go up to 105 and last a 2-3 days, but most of the time they weren’t as high and didn’t last as long. In between all the fevers, and even while he had them he was still a pretty happy and playful guy. Because of all the ear infections we decided to get the tube surgery. His doctor said he as a 10 out of 10 for ear problems - constant fluid and infections for months. Oh, and in the middle of all of this I found a weird lump on his thigh that we needed to get checked out.

So a couple weeks ago we got the surgery and it went great. That was a Monday. On Wednesday he had an ultrasound of the lump on his leg and the doctors all agreed it didn’t look like anything to worry about, it was all in the fat layer. They thought it might be a hematoma or fat deposit and we should just watch for a month.

Then on that Friday he got another fever. It seemed low at first so I didn’t treat it. Eventually it got higher and I gave him Tylenol, but it didn’t seem to help very much. He was not acting like himself at all so I decided to take him to the doctor. While I was waiting in the waiting room Holden started to have a seizure - even now it is hard for me to type about this it was so scary. He just started shaking and I knew it was a seizure. I ran into the back and the nurses got the doctor. He just laid there on the table for about 2 minutes jerking, turning a little blue. The doctor was calm, I was shaking and crying. Eventually he stopped and was just kind of out of it for about 10 minutes. When he came too he was SO upset. He had a fever of 104.5 in his ear so I am guessing his actual temperature was probably more like 105.5 or 106. They gave him Motrin and we waited there for awhile. The doctor said it was a febrile seizure due to his fever and they are fairly common (1 in 20 children will get one) and kids usually out grow them by they time they are 5 (4 years from now!!!). He has a 30% chance of having another one next time he gets a fever so you can imagine my fear of fevers right now.

Anyway, that night we went to the ER. By the time we got there his fever was down and he was feeling a bit better. They ran a whole bunch of blood tests and everything came back fine. It was a very long day. The next day Holden was acting like nothing ever happened.

So that was about 2 weeks ago. I am still kind of a worried mess. I seriously kiss Holden about a 100 times a day to see if he is hot. Plus with everything he has been through I was convinced he had some other illness. His doctor just thinks he had a really rough winter, plus the very bad ears. We have done lots of tests and everything came back OK, but it has hard been hard to get over. The good thing is that he is totally on target development wise, walks all over, climbs, is growing and is generally very happy. Although I have to say that he has become VERY demanding lately and if you don’t get what he wants right away he lets you know how mad his is…especially on the toys/Colin front.

I have always enjoyed being a mother, it has been hard at times, but nothing has been like these past few months. The amount I worry about my kids is overwhelming sometimes (OK, I know that I am a worrier anyway.) All I want is for them to both be healthy. I know Holden will get another fever, probably soon with his history, but man I could use a break.

Alright, now that I have given the run down on the illnesses - here are some good bits:

Tidbits:

Hello loyal blog fans. Apologies for our absence, it has been a trying few weeks on the health/wellness front for Holden, but I’ll leave that for another posting.

For this one, I wanted to ask a small favor. I signed on to run the Beat the Bridge 8K in May, and as the race has as its core purpose the raising of money to fight juvenile diabetes, I’m coming to you hat in hand to see if you might chip in a few bucks toward the cause. If you’re feeling charitable, please make a donation here.

I’ll be sure to post pics after the race - for background on the name, there’s a bridge at the 2 mile mark of the race, and it gets raised 20 minutes after the starting flag goes up. Go slower than a 10 minute mile pace, and you get to sit and wait for a few minutes while it goes up and down (and people laugh and taunt you - that’s probably not true, it’s just how I imagine it would go down).

Thanks for the support!

We just got our pictures back that we had taken by a professional photographer (Sandra Coan) about a month ago. The pictures came out beautifully. I really love them. Grandparents - we got each of you a little wallet size book we will be sending to you shortly. I posted all the pictures on flicker: click here

Here are a few more of our favorites:

Classic naked baby picture:

Sweet Colin:

Baby blues:

The brothers:

The whole family:

We have had a tough go round with Holden and his illnesses. His rash turned a bit worse, but no fevers and he was acting as happy as could be, however I was freaked out. He was sleeping better and his ears even cleared up a bit.

A week ago went to see the Ear, Nose, & Throat doctor to see about getting tubes. We decided to hold off a bit, then two days later he woke up in the middle of the night crying again. We thought it was the ears again so we decided to do the surgery. However Thursday we went back to the dr for yet another rash and the Dr. said it just looks like he has sensitive skin and it wasn’t anything to worry about. He also said that one of his ears is clear and the other has fluid but no infection. Now what? He said lots of times if you can make it until April (end of cold season) you won’t have problems for awhile. Anyway the surgery is still scheduled, but may not happen.

In other news, I just got a new laptop, so now I don’t have to go into the basement to use the computer (which never happened). Hopefully now I will be able to blog more often. Of course the kids are going to have to watch out, because I am currently sitting her typing and just saw Holden fall backwards off a toy. Not to worry though, Colin went over to console him with a “It’s OK” and then a tackle.

It has been pretty nice here recently - in the mid 50s and no rain. We definitely have to start working on the patio because the boys always want to go out there and right now it is a mess.

Tidbits:

Thanks to all the grandparents who got Holden such nice birthday presents. He has been enjoying them. I posted some pictures on flickr of Holden opening both Grandma and Grandpa Fuller and Rodenkirch’s presents. Here are a couple recent ones:

Grandpa and Grandma Fuller got him a jack-in-the-box and both he and Colin loved it. So much so that they even made there own version - here is the video Jack in the Box.

Holden has been feeling much better since his illness last week. It has been nice here and we have been out to the parks and markets recently. Colin was on vacation from preschool all last week because it was Seattle’s mid-winter break. He goes back tomorrow thankfully While he was home Holden was sick so we didn’t get to do much and I think Colin is excited to go back and see his friends.

Here are a few tidbits of late:

• He climbed all the way on top of Colin’s toy chest, around 3 feet off the ground.
• Two days ago I was getting the bath ready and he managed to get in himself, with his diaper and shirt still on.
• This morning we went to the park and he climbed all the way up to this big, twisty, tunnel slide and just jumped in head first. I literally had to dive in to catch him. We were both going down head first and I managed to catch him just as he almost flew off the end. He is going to give me a heart attack.

Colin: Herber Hoover was a happy guy.
Me: Well, I don’t think he was all that happy. He was president during the great depression.
Colin: No mommy, not that Herbert Hoover, a different Herbert Hoover. He was happy because he just found a treasure.
Me: Oh really
Colin: Yes, but George Washington was sad because it was his treasure.
Me: What was in the treasure?
Colin: Trains.

Our little guy turned one today! Can’t believe he is already a year. We had a party last Sunday for him - just a little get together since we don’t have family out here. It ended up being just one other family - the Breedorfs - because the Dotens were under the weather. Here are a couple pics and a video of his cake:

First bites:

The cake:

A little drunk on the cake:

Post Cake Hair:

Opening presents from Grandma and Grandpa Rodenkirch:

Video of Holden Eating Cake

It was a good thing we had the party Sunday because Monday morning Holden woke up with a fever and a rash that started on his behind and face. Not to mention he has been on 4 different antibiotics for his non-stop ear infections. I know the controversy about antibiotics for ear infections, but after having them for over a month straight we had to try them. Nothing has worked and now we are going to see a specialist and he may end up with tubes. In the meantime I am also going to see a naturopathic doctor.

It was a rough week. Holden couldn’t sleep, he had a temp up to 105. Chuck and I took turns sleeping on the couch with him. We had to go to the doctor twice and get blood drawn. He is on new medicine for the rash, which spread to his arms and legs. The fever finally broke on Wed but he still has the rash, which doesn’t seem to bother him at all. I have to say that through it all he was his normal, happy self. Even at midnight, with a fever of 105 while we were frantically trying to get a hold of the doctor, he smiled at me.

Of course the day after his fever was gone he climbed up on Colin’s chair, which flipped over right infront of a table and he wacked his mouth on the table. Even though his lip was bleeding he only cried for about 5 seconds. He is a tough one - and constantly freaking me out with his climbing. He figured out the step stool in the kitchen and now can get up to the counter. He knows how to move things to get higher, which is his only goal at this point. Oh and pointing. He points at everything - oddly enough, mostly at the lights and smoke detectors on the ceiling.

Anyway, it has been a rough couple of months health wise for Holden. Colin has had the occasional cold (and a bloody nose in the middle of the night last night - of course the first night Holden started sleeping normally again) but all in all has been OK. I just cannot wait for spring. It is actually almost 60 out today and Colin wanted to have a picnic so we had a little lunch picnic on the porch: