Fall Fun!

We had an eventful start to our week, but let's back up first...On Tuesday (10/27) Finley started having runny diapers, this resulted in the worst diaper rash I'd ever seen; his appetite was minimal and he wasn't sleeping well. I'd spoken with our nurse, she recommended bland foods, lots of fluids, diaper-free time, and a certain diaper cream. On Friday (10/30), I brought Finley in for his seasonal flu shot - pretty uneventful; the nurse checked out his diaper rash and said to hydrate, hydrate, hydrate and if things weren't better by Tuesday (11/3) to bring him in. Sunday afternoon I went to the Michael Jackson movie and received a call from Patrick mid-movie...Finley was running a fever of 102.8! The fever came down with Motrin and Tylenol, but by 6:30 that night we had a SCREAMING child - nothing consoled him and we tried everything. He finally gave out and fell asleep about 8...at 10:15 he was awake and screaming again. Grandma responded to my frantic phone call and came over, no luck, Finley continued to scream. Now concerned something was wrong, I called the on-call nurse; based on his runny diapers, fever and that he hadn't had a wet diaper in almost 7 hours, she was concerned Finley was dehydrated and wanted us to come in...so at 11:30 on Sunday night we found ourselves in the ER. Finley checked out OK, the doctor said to continue Motrin and fluids - in fact, we couldn't leave until Finley drank something...after no luck, Grandma and I pinned him down and dropped water into his mouth - this was a school night after all, we couldn't wait forever. We were back home by 12:45 and Finley went to bed...he awoke about 6 screaming again - off to Grandma's he went for the day. Finley didn't run a fever and was well enough to return to Stephanie's on Tuesday. By Wednesday, the runny diapers had stopped, his appetite was returning and he started sleeping all night again - THANK YOU Finley! What was it??? Teeth? Flu bug? Fever from the flu shot? Who knows, but I'm happy our healthy kid is back...and sleeping!

After Sunday night, I welcomed an uneventful week...

On Thursday, Kristi & Liam came to EC! Unfortunately it wasn't a typical playdate...instead we waited in line for the H1N1 vaccination. Both the seasonal and H1N1 shots are hard to find; the county was offering a flu shot clinic and we got there early. They were planning on 1500 people coming, surprisingly we didn't have to wait long, it was well-run and very organized.

Finley's age, (16 months now!), put him in the high risk group and eligible for a shot...I, on the other hand, wasn't eligible - which is fine, I don't know if I even want it. Perhaps I'll eat my words when I'm home sick!
Thursday and Friday turned into perfect fall days - they were great days to be outside, have I mentioned that I LOVE job-sharing? We went on a few wagon rides...
...and played in the leaves!

Living in the country (sort of), we have a TON of trees that produced a TON of leaves. With the rain last week, Patrick has been unable to pick them up. Our yard is so full, you can't see grass! I was tossing leaves into the air and Finley would laugh; you'd think they were bricks, they kept knocking him over!

The leaves are so deep that Finley was a bit wobbly when walking around...but it didn't stop the fun!

With the horrible diaper rash, Finley was scared to sit in the tub; after a few days I distracted him enough to sit in the sink. Even with the rash gone, he will only bathe in the sink?! He was in so long one night, he wanted something to drink!

Finley's first play-doh! The recommended age is 3 years, but I thought our mature 16 month old would like it. He did...

...but then he started rubbing it into his hair; he recently started rubbing EVERYTHING into his hair - shampoo (good), yogurt (not so good), cheese (not so good), play-doh (not so good)....
...and then he became determined to eat it, goodbye play-doh, we'll try again another time.

Saturday was a beautiful fall day - absolutely perfect! We met up with Rachel and Carter in Owen Park. Now that Finley can walk, the park is much more fun for both of us!
Saturday night we met up with family and friends at Northwoods to celebrate Randi Jo's 30th birthday. The boys patiently waited to surprise the birthday girl!
Great Grandma let the boys stand on the bench to reach the balloons, they loved it - I was nervous!
There were games to play - in the future, I see us avoiding restaurants that have video games.
And the boys toasted RJ's birthday!
Patrick recently began working on our basement....again! He'd started last winter, and well, he's starting up again. He offered to host my school's staff holiday party (yes, HE offered to host MY party); I agreed under the condition the basement gets done - he has a month! That means furniture moved in, decorations up for Christmas, etc...I'm already a wreck about it. Finley would give anything to go downstairs and help; everytime we walk past the stairs he yells down, "aaadeee" which is his current version of "Daddy". Fortunately he doesn't sit upstairs and cry, but he does like to watch!