Birthday Boy!!

July 23, 2013

Tate's 4th Birthday

I cannot believe my baby is 4 years old!

He actually slept in this morning.  I think he is still making up for the interrupted sleep of being sick.  So at 6:30 he was still snoozing away.  He woke up scared looking for me around 6:35.  I went upstairs gave him lots of hugs and kisses and convinced him to come on downstairs as this was waiting for him...

Frosted Flakes AKA Tiger Cheerios in our house.  Tate's normal breakfast every.single.day. is Cheerios, plain oatmeal and plain yogurt, but on special occasions I let him have Frosted Flakes.  However, he does not understand that cereal does not equal Cheerios therefore he calls them Tiger Cheerios.  The presents were from me, his cousins in NYC and his grandparents in Germany.

He was most excited initially about the Tiger Cheerios!

So excited!

I took him to work with me again as he was still coughing and a bit under the weather.  I was only working half a day as I had planned to bring cake to his daycare to celebrate his birthday.  Just like the day before he did awesome playing with his trains for 2 hours, coloring just a bit and watching 'Steam Trains', 'Curious George' and then some 'Word World.'

We came home for a quick lunch and opened a couple more gifts that were on our doorstep.  (please forgive my crunching my toast...I was eating fast as I could because we didn't have a lot of time!)

We were then off to the pediatrician for a follow up to his illness, needing to check his lungs had cleared and we were not heading towards bronchitis or walking pneumonia again this year.  She gave him a clean bill of health!!

What birthday wouldn't be complete without a bit of ice cream?  We headed off to Marble Slab!

He got to have 4 M&Ms in his vanilla ice cream!

We then headed back home so he could play for a bit.  Then it was time to open Mommy's 'big' gift.  (I've set up a reading nook in his new room!  Those 'train cars' are actually bookshelves!)

The book he's been coveting..
'Steam Train, Dream Train'

 

So. Very. Cool!

Wow!!  He looks about 9 years old here! 

Then Aunt Shelley came over!!!  He opened her presents!!  Wow!  Two sets of Thomas pajamas, 6 pairs of Thomas underwear, a Thomas outfit and a gorgeous train picture frame!!  Aunt Shelley joined us for the birthday dinner at the Barnaby's AKA The French Fry Place according to Tate.

Goodness I love this child.

Note the train shaped grill cheese sandwich on Tate's
plate.  He was refusing to eat the grilled cheese so I
fashioned a train with a knife and some imagination.

We made our way home after wine, hamburgers and lots of french fries!   Aunt Lindsey stopped by for a birthday hello...

....then it was time for bed.  Tate and I headed upstairs, got him dressed, teeth brushed and flossed, 'Steam Train, Dream Train' read along with Maisy's Train. Then I convinced him to let me rock him to sleep.  Our 4th July 23rd together ended the same way our 1st July 23rd together started.

In each other's arms.

Family

I had to take Tate to work with me today.  For the entire day (and probably tomorrow morning as well). 

Saturday morning he complained his ears were hurting as we drove off to pick up his birthday cake.  As we had his party happening 90 minutes later I told him he'd be ok and did anything else hurt.  Nope.  Ten minutes later I asked if his ears hurt and he 'nah.'

Saturday night around 6pm he complained his ears and tummy hurt.  Poor baby.  He was a basket case of exhaustion, overstimulation and really congested complete with a very unpleasant sounding cough.  He was sound asleep at 7:02pm.

Around 10pm he woke up in tears because he had thrown up.  It was pretty much just mucus though...poor baby.  I changed the sheets, threw them in the washing machine and got him changed.  By 10:30 we both in bed asleep.  Around 1:30 he woke up crying and so very hot, fever of 101.  I got some Ibuprofen in him and he tossed and turned for another 90 minutes.  Finally he fell asleep.  He was up by 6am.   Seemingly he was in a good mood, but obviously tired and not feeling well.  His cough persisted.

I opted to take him to the Redi Clinic at our HEB grocery store.  By then he was not feeling well and continuing to cough and complained his ears, tummy and front of his head hurt.  Sweet boy had a fever of 101.4.  They gave him some Tylenol and did a quick strep test.  Why?  Because Lindsey had been at the exact same clinic the previous Wednesday after taking care of Tate that Tuesday...she was diagnosed with strep throat!  Ack!  The quick test was negative, but they swabbed for the 3 day test. (Lindsey's quick test had been negative as well, but the 3 day one was very positive).  Tate however is extremely congested,with a very productive cough which sounds like it's trying to make its home in his chest.  The NP was worried he might be coming down with Bronchitis.  So she gave a prescription of Amoxicillin with instructions to use our Xoponex inhaler if he seemed to be having difficulty breathing or just prophylactically to keep those bronchioles open.  She also recommend Mucinex Cold to break up the congestion (this I'm loathe to use because I'm just not cool with loading my kid up with these OTC cold medicines that just treat symptoms, are loaded up with artificial sweeteners and dyes).  I opted to keep him on his Singulair which she told me to stop using cause it's an antihistamine, but my ENT has assured me it's not...it works against leukotrienes trying to help prevent asthma and working to manage allergies in tandem.  I do give him Benadryl because it really seems to help with his coughing as his cough responds well to it usually. 

We hung out at home all day Sunday, playing with his new birthday toys, watching Word World  and playing trains.

Hanging out in bed early Sunday morning.

Breakfast in bed!!  Mommy is so very cool!

The train Mommy and Tate made from his Playstix from
Grandmommy and Papa for his birthday!
GREAT GIFT!!!

So sick kid.  Stay home from work with him right?

Nope.

Usually I call my back up team, AKA my parents, to watch Tate when he's sick.  Unfortunately they flew off to Virginia Sunday morning at 6:15 for my uncle's (my dad's brother) funeral.  Uncle Wade died very unexpectedly last Wednesday at 6:30pm.  Very unexpectedly.  We are all reeling.  I am heartbroken.  Goodness, I loved my Uncle Wade.  Oh how he loved his family.  Loved his family.  Wherever, whenever there was a family gathering Wade was there...no matter how far he had to go he was there.  Laughing, loving, having a great time.  We are all just so shocked.  So my parents have flown up for the week;  I wasn't allowed to have the 3 days off I needed to get up there and back, so Tate and I are home.  Lindsey was still sick and the idea of flying was one she couldn't contemplate.  My middle sister, Kellie was unable to go as well.  So we're all here while the rest of our family is together across the country.   Uncle Wade will be laid to rest tomorrow afternoon.

Aunt Jean, Uncle Wade and Aunt Janice in Atlanta!
Family Reunion 2008

The Remaining Cunningham Siblings
Family Reunion 2008 

Uncle Wade and my cousin Kellie!

Love you Uncle Wade!!

So Tate and I were without care for him.  I thought about my friends' nanny as they are out of the country for a couple of weeks...she's out of the country as well!  My other friend who is on bed rest needed her nanny today.  Tate's godmother's nanny is sick and thankfully his godmother's kids are away at camp.  Three strikes.  One of Lindsey's friends nannies, but she had to work her other job today.  Noone was available.

No other option but to take Tate with me to work.  

He did absolutely amazing!!!  A friend had brought me a huge box of trains her son no longer plays with.  I had yet to get it out of my car, so into my office it went this morning along with puzzles, crayons, coloring books, his new birthday Word World DVD, his History Channel Steam Train DVD and his new birthday Curious George DVD.  He had never seen that box of trains...he was thrilled.  He played with those trains for 90 minutes straight in my office by himself.  I let him watch a bit of Word World and Curious George and by then it was lunch time.  He did just as well after lunchtime, though there was a 30 minute period he came out of my office looking for me 3 different times.  Someone always saw him, showed him where I was and he toddled back off to my office.  After that he was golden.

 Our attempt at napping...

 The end of a long workday!

We came home and he's still afebrile.  He's still coughing quite a bit.  I made a follow-up appointment with his pediatrician for tomorrow, his birthday, just to be sure his lungs are clearing up.  I think I'll take him in to work with me, so he won't be running around outside tomorrow morning.  (I'd already taken the afternoon off to spend the afternoon with him for his birthday.  We were going to do cake and/or ice cream at daycare, but now we can't since we have an appointment with his beloved Dr. R.)

But I'm just so proud of my sweet boy for being so very well behaved.  Not one tear.  Not one meltdown.  Not one whine.  The entire 9 hours he was there.  I was able to check on him every hour or so as did others, and he was just awesome.  

I love this boy.

RIP Uncle Wade. We will love and miss you always.