Campout with Daddy

With there being no work on Wednesday for the 4th of July, Clint thought Tuesday night would be a great time to try camping out with his little buddy for the first time.  He decided to pick a camp site close to home and set the tent up in the backyard.  That way if it was too much for Seth, he could bring him back in the house in the middle of the night and get a few hours of sleep.  I was perfectly happy leaving the boys outside and slept by myself in the house.  They watched movies and ate treats until 11pm and then Seth miraculously went to sleep and stayed asleep all night.  Campout was a success!



Seth "helping" with the tent set up



All ready for a fun night!

Seth loved rearranging the pillows and blankets in the tent and choosing his spot to sleep

They started off watching a movie on the portable DVD player...

But Clint eventually upgraded to a flat screen TV and
DVD player (courtesy of a power strip and extension cord) for a better movie experience.  That is the way to camp!



Love this kid!

 I had a few cute pictures of Seth to post.  I just love this kid! Yes, he throws his little fits and misbehaves but he can be so cute and loving. 

Seth was actually trying to fall asleep here and I kept looking back at him.  He would open one eye and see me peeking back at him and he would get mad at me!  He has chocolate all over his face from a cookie that Grandma gave him.

He loves to put his leg over his carseat.  I hate that he does this.  If we ever get in an accident, his leg will be broken for sure.  But the more I try to get him to bring his leg back over, the more he defies me.  He thinks it is hilarious.

Seth is loving TV now and loves to cuddle under a blanket with Daddy and watch things.

Seth is Two!

Seth turned 2 last month.  He is growing up so fast!  He is now in the 2 year old class at daycare and since he moved in there, he has been talking so much more!  We took Seth swimming in the morning on his birthday.  He has been a little hesitant the last couple times we have gone but he enjoyed himself that day.  We didn't do a whole lot in the afternoon because Seth takes a nap and I wasn't feeling the greatest but we had family over for dinner that evening and he had a good time opening his presents and seeing his cousins. 

Seth opening his gift from the cousins: all cool water toys that went perfectly with the little pool that Grandma gave him.

He just loves books right now!

Some of the family who came to celebrate with us.  Shawn was pretty excited with the party favors.

Playing in the backyard after dinner.  You can see the little play yard that Clint's parent's helped us buy Seth for his birthday.

Grandma playing the Skittle game with the girls.  She is so cool.

I got so distracted that I didn't get very good pictures of Seth on his birthday.  I feel a little bad about that.  I was also a lazy mom this time and didn't make his birthday cake.  It was an Elmo-themed party so we had an Elmo cake and plates.  And I hung up a little crepe paper.  We didn't even do 2 year pictures because Seth got that bad case of hives right before.  I still need to get those pictures done....maybe.

Seth's first allergic reaction

Is it just us?  Or does anyone else have the luck that their children always get sick on the weekend when their doctor's office is closed.  So you are forced to take them to the Emergency Room or Urgent Care where the visit costs three times as much?

One Friday afternoon, after just arriving home from picking Seth up from daycare, I noticed that Seth had all these little red spots on his hands.  They had played in the water that afternoon at the daycare so I thought he might have just been bit by mosquitos but noticed that he also had them all over his legs as well.  I realized they were hives but couldn't pin point what was causing them.

By Saturday afternoon, Seth was covered from head to toe in the hives.  We took him to the KidsCare where they "guessed" that it was probably an allergic reaction to the amoxicillin he had been taking for the last week for an ear infection.  Nothing could be done but continue to give him Benadryl and wait.  I love paying $250 for that kind of a visit.

At the KidsCare...my cute little leper

By Sunday, Seth was still covered in hives and now had a continual fever of 102.  The doctor told us that if his hives turned purple we needed to rush him to the ER.  Someone suggested we give Seth a bath (FYI- not a good idea when a child has hives) so we started one on Sunday morning and he freaked out and his hives turned purple and he was shaking so hard that his limbs were trembling. I was crying my eyes out while we jumped in the car and headed for the hospital.  But before we went inside I noticed that his hives weren't purple anymore and he had stopped trembling.  So we decided to take him home again.

Seth's feet were so swollen from the hives that he couldn't walk.  For 5 days, all he wanted to do was cuddle in our arms.

We had several rough nights as Seth battled this mysterious fever and a quick visit to his pediatrician on Monday gave no answers other than to document the possible allergy to amoxicillin and to continue giving Benadryl and Tylenol for the hives and fever.

Seth ended up in our beds every single night.  Our queen bed just isn't big enough for us all anymore! 

The poor guy was miserable for about 6 days.  But woke up hive-free and fever-free on the 7th day...which happened to be his birthday. 

I took this picture one day when Seth was in a particularly miserable mood.  He didn't want to have clothes on because they bothered his hives and he didn't want to walk because of his swollen feet so he just laid on the stairs.  He was so unhappy.

Curse you, Voles!

Clint and I were able to get a vinyl fence put in our yard this summer but it was so expensive we weren't able to finish the backyard too.  (sigh) We have to wait until next year I guess.  But our neighbors put sod in their backyard and had some leftover so we bought it off of them and did get a tiny patch of grass in our backyard for Seth to play on.

Unfortunately, we had some visitors to the backyard that also wanted to play in the new grass.  Voles.  Voles are field mice that burrow through your yard, eat all plants in sight, and have babies galore to continue eating up your yard.  They come from the open field behind our house.  I think the plan is for the field to be developed into houses...but who knows when that will be.  So until then, we will have to deal with these little critters.  I curse their existence every day!

If you see a vole, you will probably think it is super cute.  It looks like a little gerbil and I would love the little things if they weren't continually trying to ruin our little patch of grass.  In four days we came across 11 holes across the grass.



These mounds of dirt are how you know you have an active vole burrowing.  They dig through the grass, eating the roots, and push the excess dirt up to the top of the grass.



If you dig the dirt away, which I did so the heavy dirt wouldn't kill the existing grass above, you find these little entrances to their lair below.

Clint and I have tried many things to kill them but they just keep coming back (and probably will until the field behind us is developed.) 

• We have tried to drown them by putting the water hose down the hole.  This led us to discover that they had holes burrowed all the way down to the bottom of our basement window wells. 
• We have run a hose from the exhaust of our car down a hole and let the car run for 45 min in hopes that the carbon monoxide would suffocate them.  (They disappeared from the yard for a couple weeks.  But I think they just ran to another yard for awhile.
• We have had Terminix put poison pellets in the window wells.  (This has been a complete bust.)
• We used rat traps and killed a couple with those.  That is when we feel bad.  Those rat traps aren't very humane and one didn't get caught in the trap but was severely injured and suffering.  Clint had to use the end of a rake to put the poor thing out of its misery and it traumatized us both.

I think we are going to attempt some noise sensors and chicken wire next.  Hopefully they work.

Cupcakes!

 I bought a really cute cupcakes book called The Big Book of Cupcakes for a friend who got married and before I gave it to her, I scrolled through the book and saw so many recipes I wanted to try so I made Clint buy me the book for Mother's Day.  I have tried several so far but these two have been my favorites.

Banana-chocolate chip cupcakes

These cupcakes didn't have a real strong banana flavor so I loved them.  And the recipe called for mini chocolate chips.  Somehow, that made them taste better than if I had used normal size chocolate chips.

Somewhere Over the Rainbow Cupcakes

I loved these rainbow cupcakes.  They have coconut flavoring in them and it makes them taste SOOOO good.  It's also pretty fun to see the different colored layers when eating the cupcake.

I got lots of cute cupcakes liners and decorating things for my birthday so I'm hoping to post more cupcakes as I make them!