excuses, excuses....

Well, once again, I have fallen behind on things. Sorry! This is my second week at my new job and things are going pretty good so far. Still trying to get in a routine and learn new people, but I have no complaints. Darren's brother and his family came in last weekend so Isaac had a big time playing with Jakob. He still doesn't quite know what to think of baby Ethan. He just points at him and says "baby". Isaac also got to go to a birthday part on Saturday. Our sitter's little boy turned 4 and they had a little party. Isaac had a big time there and I took pictures. My camera battery is charging at the moment, but I will get them posted soon. Also, Isaac hasn't quite been himself for at least a couple of weeks now. I just thought he was teething and I think that's part of it. Part of it is also allergies. Poor little fella's nose has just been pouring lately, but that's getting better too. Sunday evening, he spiked a fever and once again, I just thought it was his teeth. Then, Monday evening, all these spots started appearing, mostly in the diaper area and a few around his mouth. I thought it might have been a reaction to a new bubble bath I had used with him. We got up Tuesday and he looked about the same, but Ms. Michelle (our sitter) called and said he was really fussy and snotty. We thought he might feel better after a nap, but he seemed to feel worse so my mother-in-law went and picked him up early. By this time, the spots are more defined and there are more of them. Luckily, he was scheduled for a well-child exam and shots at the doctor on Wednesday. After checking him over, she said he had a classic, text book case of hand, foot, and mouth disease. Yuck!! The thing is, now that his fever is gone, he's no longer contagious and there's nothing that will help now except for time. Poor little guy looks pitiful though!!! He has spots on his face, his little booty, his hands, and his feet. They look bad, but the doctor said they aren't painful at least. His ears looked great (woo hoo!!) He also weighed 24 lbs and was 31 1/2 inches tall. I can't believe my little guy is 15 months old now. Everyone always told me how fast time would go, but I never dreamed it would fly by like this. I promise to have pictures uploaded soon. Hope all is well with everyone and I will be back again soon.....

Labor Day Weekend....

Ok, so I have some backtracking to do once again before I am totally caught up (at least for now). Anyway, last week, Isaac's little booty all of a sudden broke out and I don't just mean a little red. He was totally COOKED and I felt so bad for him. The first night, I thought I would fix him one of those Aveeno baths and just let him soak for awhile thinking that would make him feel better. WRONG!!! I fixed the bath and put him in and he started to squat and sit, but the second his bottom touched the water, he screamed bloody murder so no luck there. After trying desitin, butt paste, balmex, and caldescene powder with no improvement, I decided to call the doctor. They called me in a couple of different things to use and thankfully, within a couple of days, he was back to normal. After doing a lot of research, I really think it's just teeth. The next ones to come in are the stomach teeth. I've looked in his mouth and can't see anything yet, but he is chewing on everything like crazy so hopefully those little stinkers will come in soon and we will get some relief! When his bottom was so bad, we decided to let him run around in nothing but a bath robe one night and these are some of those photos. I know the robe is small (it's a size 0-9 months) but it was better than nothing at all!!!

These shots were taken the other night while we were playing on the deck. Darren was mowing the yard and Isaac was just dying to try and get to him. As you can see, we have quite the little climber on our hands!!

These next ones were taken last night before we headed home from MiMi and PawPaw's house. It was way past Isaac's bedtime, but for some reason, he was totally wound up and wild as ever!! He would just run and scream and yell, and I think he was just trying to see how loud he could get. Needless to say, it was pretty good entertainment!!

Anyway, I guess that's about all for now. I start my new job tomorrow and I'm pretty excited about it, but nervous at the same time. Say a little prayer for me as I start this new chapter and I will definitely let you all know how my first day goes!!

Finally Friday!

You will have to forgive me. I'm a little behind on these updates, so I'll try and catch up! Last weekend, we took a short trip to go and visit Papa Murf and Mama Hope. Papa Murf bought Darren's 4 wheeler (he bought a new rhino instead). As you can see, Isaac loves the 4 wheeler, but he loves the rhino too. He even calles it "MiMo" when he wants to ride!!

Mama Hope found Isaac a guitar so he can learn to play like his Daddy. He loved it! He tries to play, but then gets frustrated because he does it too hard and I think it hurts his fingers!!

This was Isaac trying to share his ice cube with Papa Murf....

Isaac decided he needed a snack before we hit the road back to Savannah, so Papa fed him a snack pack of vanilla pudding. I thought this picture was just precious!!

I'll try not to be so long before my next post. We'll have a busy weekend with it being a holiday and me getting ready to start my new job next week. Hopefully will have new pictures and updates soon. TaTa for now!

Feeling better..

Well, I feel so bad after writing my last post. The next night, we came home and were getting ready to turn the bed in to a toddler size and realized there was still another notch we could lower the bed. So, we thought we'd try that before the toddler thing because we both knew then he would definitely be out of the bed every night. So, that next night was pretty rough. I put him to bed as usual around 8:45. About 11:45, he woke up crying and I thought, here we go again. I went in to check on him, but his paci back in, covere him up, and told him I loved him and walked out of his room. Well, of course he wasn't very happy and started crying. I told myself he would quit soon and then the crying kept getting louder and louder and he was eventually crying and screaming "MaMa, MaMa". Even though I kept peeking in on him just to make sure he was ok, I still felt like a terrible Mom!! Darren peeked in on him once and thought he had dropped his paci on the floor. I knew if either one of us went in there, the crying would just get worse so I told him just to leave him be. After 30 agonizing minutes, he finally gave up and went to sleep. After he'd been quiet for a good 10 minutes, I crept back in there and found the paci which was indeed on the floor, and placed it next to him on his mattress so that if he should wake anymore, he could easily find it. Well, the little guy slept the rest of the night. I was telling my co-workers the next day and they all came to the same conclusion. Even though it was just 2 nights, Isaac gotten used to coming in the bed with us and he was just crying because he wanted his Mommy!! Talk about feeling bad!! So, last night I was pretty anxious about bedtime. I thought maybe if he cries, it won't be as long as it was the night before. We went out for dinner and some things last night so it was a little later than usual when I put Isaac to bed. He went to sleep easily around 9:00 and I went to bed soon after. I was exhausted and laid down and just kept my fingers crossed. Believe it or not, that little booger slept all night long!! He didn't wake until about 6:00 this morning and I nursed him (yes, I'm still trucking along, but only morning and night) and he went back to sleep until around 7:30! Maybe he's got it all figured out now. I know I don't, but I'm just like any other first time Mommy and doing the best that I can, one day at a time....

Advice please!!!

OK Moms, I need your help! My child has not slept good for the past 2 nights now. Tuesday night, I went in his room 3 times to try and settle him down and get him back to sleep. No luck! So, call me a sucker, but I ended up putting him in the bed with us to try and get at least a little more sleep. Even after putting him in there with us, he tossed and turned for about 30-45 minutes before settling down and going back to sleep. SO, last night. He wakes up about 1:15 and I go in there, put his paci back in and lay him down and he goes right back to sleep. Yay! I thought, that's over with for the night and we should be good to go until morning, right? WRONG!! He wakes up again around 2:30. I try to settle him down with the paci and all. No luck. I give him gas drops and tylenol to try and fix whatever was wrong and go back to our room while he's just crying away. I let him cry for about 15 minutes, thinking he would eventually settle back down. WRONG again! I go in there to check on him and there's not a tear in his eyes. I tell him, firmly, it's bedtime, night-night, go back to sleep. Before I even make it to his door, he's already standing up and crying. I look at him again and firmly say, "Isaac, this is silly. Go back to sleep, it's bed-time, night-night. Mommy loves you" and pull the door shut, but not latched. Half-way back to our room, I hear this loud THUD and thought to myself, what in the world has he done now? I go back to his room, and there he is, standing at the door just crying his eyes out. I checked him over from head to toe and couldn't find a scratch or anything at all. So me, being the sucker that I am, once again put him in the bed with us and he went right to sleep and slept the rest of the night. So, I guess I have a little escape artist on my hands now! His crib converts into a toddler bed, but I just think he's way to little for that just yet, but on the other hand, it's much closer to the floor should he try and get out again. I need help!! Any advice???

Busy, busy weekend...

Well, another busy weekend for the Howards!! On Friday, Isaac's PaPa Murf and MaMa Hope came to visit for the weekend. We had such a good time! Saturday, we mostly just hung around the house and visited while Isaac played. We went out to eat and when we got back to our house, we decided to let Isaac play with his new toy. Boy was he excited!!

MaMa Hope thought it would be neat to get him one of those tables that you can fill with either sand or water to play with while standing. We found one at Wal-Mart that held both sand and water, but figured we'd just play it safe right now and just fill it with water. At first, he just wanted to fill up the cup with water and drink it. After some coaxing, he finally decided to try the splashing thing and by the time we decided to go inside, he was completely soaked, but he had so much fun!!

Isaac and PaPa having some reading time this morning before they left.......

After PaPa and MaMa Hope left this afternoon, we went to town to visit with MiMi and PawPaw for the rest of the afternoon. PawPaw was outside cleaning up the Rhino and Isaac decided he wanted to help too. He loves riding in this thing and would stay in it all day long if you'd let him!

Isaac absolutely loves being outside and the weather has just been perfect. Wish it would stay like this for awhile!!

monday evening...

Talk about feeling like a bad mommy.....Isaac has been snotty and stuffy for the past couple of weeks and nothing I've given him seems to help at all. I've tried Benadryl, Claritin, Tylenol...nothing worked and he seemed to be getting worse. He wouldn't sleep at night and would just wake up crying his eyes out. So, we ended up taking him to the doctor last week and the poor little guy had an ear infection in not one, but BOTH ears and a sinus infection on top of that. No wonder he was being so crabby!! He had been running a fever too, which would explain why he fell asleep last Saturday when I was trying to feed him lunch...

This photo was right before church last week. He looked like such a little man!!

This past weekend, we went to visit my Mom in Carthage. Isaac had a good time visiting with Grandma, Uncle Patrick, and Daisy (my mom's dog). We also had a family reunion to attend and that was fun. Isaac had a ball just running around, but was completely worn out by the time we left. He was off schedule and had missed his nap, but it actually worked out for the better because he slept most of the way back to Savannah!!

He's been on antibiotics now since Thursday night and I can tell he's feeling much better. He's still snotty, but seems to be getting back to his normal self, thank goodness. I hate having a sick baby!!