My son, the drummer

Not much to say here . . . a picture says a thousand words!! I guess we've got the drummer now!! Hope this next one will play bass!!

Every Mother's Nightmare

Ok - so now I understand why mom's freak out when a sick kid get around their kids. As you know, Oak is getting over the Croup. Well, when we returned home from Florida last Monday, Oak woke up with a wicked case of Pink Eye. At the Dr's office I found out it was accompanied by an ear infection as well (Praise the Lord - his first!). Anyway, they put him on oral and topical antibiotics. Well, I thought that by Thursday he'd surely be well enough to go to his "school" (since he only goes one day a week and selfishly since that's my only break!). Also, his eyes hadn't been crusting up on Wed. Sure enough, I took him to school on Thurs. and about an hour later I got the call that went something like this . . . "Um, Mrs. Cartee, I'm calling about Oak . . . his eyes are getting really mucusy and you're going to have to ask you to come and pick him up. He'll be in the office waiting, away from the other kids, so you won't have to go to his class . . . just come straight to the office". So, Carl went and picked him up and we took him with us to our first OB appt. where we got to hear the baby's heartbeat (boy, was that ever a nightmare - I'll save that for another blog!). When we got home that afternoon I called the Dr. and they said that if he wasn't better by Sat. to call them and they'd call him in a stronger antibiotic. Well, Sat. came and he was great. We had a great day at the park and he took a LONG nap that afternoon. That night we went to church and I happened to be volunteering in one of the kids classes while Carl led worship. You guessed it! About 15 minutes into the class the children's director came and asked me if Oak was having allergies. I explained to her that he had been on antibiotics all week, that the Dr. said he was not contagious anymore and that it was probably just a little extra "sleep" in his eye from his nap. Boy was I wrong. Ten minutes later she came back and said I needed to go look at him. I went to his class to find him almost not being able to see at all for all the green goo in his eye (Carl and I affectionally call him "Crusy McGoo" now!). Needless to say, we were sent home for the 2nd time in a week. So, I guess this is my public apologies to all the mother's out there!! Sorry!!

Our ER Scare!!

I've never had to rush someone to the ER, until last week. It all started last Mon. night when we kept our neighbors kids for the evening. When our friends came to pick up their kids, we heard a strange noise coming fromo what I thought to be the room where Nathan was sleeping(see above photo of Oak and Nathan). However, upon some further investigation, I realized it was coming from Oak's room. When we went to check on him, we found him up on all fours and barking like a dog . . . . . . Seriously! I went over and picked him up and he immediately started gasping for breath. My first thought was that he had something in his throat . . . maybe his pacifier had fallen apart. After realizing it wasn't his pacifier and that nothing seemed to be stuck, I started to panic! A minute later we were in the car, rushing him to the ER. We arrived at the ER and fortunately he was breathing again, however, he still had a terrible bark-like cough that caused him to choke frequently. They took one look at him in the ER and said, "Yeah, he's got the Croup". OK - on a side note, I have grown up in the south and have heard many a red-neck say that they've "Come down with the 'Croup' or the 'Crud'". I have always thought it was a made-up term - apparently not!! Anyway, they gave him steriod treatments, observed him for a while and sent us home. We finally got to bed around 3am and Oak was up and ready to go by 8 the next morning! Thankfully he's rid of "the Croup" however, I think I'm still recovering!! (P.S. If your kid ever gets "The Croup" be aware that it's HIGHLY contagious! Sorry Stacey!!)