From the Best to the Worst

Not too long ago I could call myself pretty much the best blogger around. I felt like for a person who had a busy life with a baby and a job I was doing pretty darn good at keeping track of my life. Now the best blogger award goes to my cousin's wife, Vandy, and my friend, Joanie. The point is I'm now the WORST blogger ever. And it's horrible because this is supposed to be my journal/family scrapbook. Gahh!! It makes me crazy to think about how much I've missed.

My life has been ultra busy. I started photography school in June and I've been so busy with other things that I'm still not done with the first lesson. Wow, I said it out loud. Feels good to get that one off my chest! I hate being so behind with that. It's an amazing opportunity that I'm taking totally for granted. This summer has been super super busy and now it's almost over. I'm lucky we were able to take a week long trip to New York in May, otherwise I'd be going crazy right now. With teaching piano, family parties, neighborhood parties, babysitting, Cupcake Diaries, along with many other things...it seems so hard to get other things done. A majority of what I need to get done involves my computer. I'm just now getting a jump on Brycen's first year album (on Shutterfly) and I feel like I need to start his second year just so I won't have to feel this overwhelmed this time next year. I don't take enough pictures of my little man AT ALL. I was queen of this category at one point or another, but now I'm just lame as ever at it.

Speaking of which, I captured this little moment at my parents' house on Sunday night. They had all their kids over for family home evening, root beer floats, and some ring toss. Brycen enjoyed the backyard and all the adventures out there:

Sure do love this boy! Here are a few little tidbits I should probably make note of:

• He is officially a walker! He took his first steps almost a month ago, and on probably Monday, July 25, he took off. He is now ALL over the place. I love watching him toddle around.
• His favorite movie is "Monsters, Inc." His least favorite movie is "Up." We tried watching it yesterday and he cried. I think the angry old man scared him a little.
  
• He loves eating chicken nuggets, dry fruit loops, Veggie Straws, and string cheese. He also loves yogurt.
• We're trying to get him off the bottle. Yesterday he did really well all day. Then I went with a friend in the evening and came home to find Brycen in bed with a bottle, given to him by his dad. We're back to square one.
• I have to put him in his crib during piano lessons. Usually he goes down for a nap and it works out perfectly. But sometimes he is too fresh from a nap and wide awake so I have no choice but to keep him out. That doesn't last very long as he's trying to pound on the keys and open all the books. He usually goes right back to his crib where he plays for the rest of the lesson.
• He gets compliments everywhere we go about how cute he is. I feel lucky to be the mother of one of the cutest kids around.
• Only two more months till nursery!
• He weighs 25 lb. and he's in the 65th percentile for his weight. What's funny is that he gets fat kid remarks from people, and these people have kids and grand kids who are super tiny and in about the 6th percentile for weight. Not that percentiles even matter. But pretty sure 65% is closer to being "average weight" than 6%! (Can you tell it drives me crazy?)
• Brycen is a great sleeper. Every now and then he has a bad night and has a tummy ache or nightmares or something, but most of the time he goes to bed at 8:30 an wakes up at 8:30 or 9:00. We've been SO lucky to have such an easy-going kid all around. I love my boy.
  

As for Tyson and I:

• We are in love with our Jack LaLanne juicer. We just bought one a few weeks ago and we've been juicing everything in sight since. We love getting a Bountiful Basket then juicing the crap out of it. We don't eat nearly as much veggies as we should so we are convinced that this juicer is a great investment.
• We want to go back to New York. Badly!
• I currently have 8 piano students and plan to have at least 3 more start up in the fall when school starts. I love the extra income and being able to refresh my mind on what I learned so many years ago.
  
• I've started taking more pictures and have now had people start asking me to take pictures for them. This is very exciting for me but also incredibly nerve racking/scary/intimidating. I just appreciate the practice they're giving me though! I just took my sister-in-law Britney's maternity pictures and they were so fun to do. We got some really good ones from that photo shoot. I'm excited to meet my new nephew in a month!!!!!
  
• We just had a garage sale and it was LAME. There were at least a gazillion other garage sales going on around us so we had a hard time getting people to come to ours. Thankfully our neighbor was having one right next door. (They're moving, PS, and we're sad about it.) We did, however, make some extra money so we're happy about that! Everything that didn't sell went to the DI. And it was fun to hang out with some of our family on a Saturday morning/afternoon.
  
• Tyson and I are still serving as executive secretary and 2nd counselor in the primary presidency in our ward. We love our callings and our ward. I'm thankful for the friendships I've made in our ward. There are a lot of people I can call good friends and it is the coolest thing.
• I just did cupcakes for a wedding for the first time and they turned out really well. Their colors were dark purple, neon green, and white so they were really fun to do.
  
• We saw the last Harry Potter movie and it was wonderful. I want to go back and see it again!

I need to put blogging back on my priority list. It makes me sad to see the month of July with on 2 posts. Boo. I'm ready to get back into gear and get it together! You'll definitely be seeing more of me on here! (Those four people who still read this blog ha ha. Thanks for staying faithful!)

Grateful

Since Sunday we've had a sick little boy at our house. The above picture has been common till about 2 hours ago. It started Saturday night when we were at Amber and Che's house for a Harry Potter party. Brycen wouldn't eat dinner (things he normally loves, like baked beans and watermelon) and we didn't really think much of it. He also felt warm, which got us wondering. We went to bed that night and stayed up most of it with a crying baby. He threw up once and ended up staying in our bed a lot to get back to sleep.

Sunday morning he woke up sick still and had thrown up again. We worried he had a stomach bug and decided he should stay home from church. My cousin Tanner's mission farewell was that day and Tyson was scheduled to sing with a group of men. We made the decision that I would go to the meeting and he would stay home with Brycen. After the meeting (which was wonderful and amazing) I came home to an even fussier and sick baby. He didn't have as much of a fever but he acted super irritable. I had talked to my besty Ashlee and her mom at the church about Ashlee's niece Averie and how she's had strep. The last round of strep for her turned into scarlet fever. Some of Brycen's symptoms seemed similar as Averie's. Tyson and I decided to take Brycen to see a doctor as soon as I got home.

We went to Ammon Urgent Care (I HIGHLY recommend it). The appointment was a tough one. Brycen was really upset and didn't want anything to do with anybody. We had to take his temperature under his armpit and it took a long time to finally get a good reading. He got really upset and cried harder than I've ever heard him cry. We had to hold down his arms and legs so he could hold perfectly still. We felt really bad for him and it was all just awful. The nurse was super nice (as was the rest of the staff, we were really impressed) and felt bad for him as well. By the time we got to the strep test I thought Brycen was going to lose it for good. We had to hold down his arms and legs again, which made matters even worse. Thankfully the test was quick. The results came back negative so we were happy, yet totally confused as to what was going on. The nurse practitioner asked us a lot of questions about Brycen's symptoms: diarrhea (yes), rash (yes), fever (yes), not eating or drinking (yes), coughing (yes), vomiting (yes), etc. Then he looked at his ears and discovered that Brycen had a major ear infection in both ears. This would make his first ear infection ever that we've been aware of. We were given a prescription and sent on our way. We were very grateful we could figure out what was going on with the poor kid. That night he spent a lot of time on his tummy. We could tell he had a stomach ache because he kept moving his stomach around and curling up to a blanket or his pillow pet bear, Moosh. The picture above shows what he looked like all evening.

We gave Brycen a lot of pedialyte and water but he just wasn't interested. He also didn't really care to eat. I decided to cancel piano lessons on Monday so I could focus my attention on Brycen. We were able to go out a little bit (which wore him right out) and then we went to dinner as a family at Costa Vida. He ended up eating rice and beans, as well as drinking from his cup. We were really excited about it. We figured he was on the mend so we gave him milk to go to bed.

He slept all through the night till about 7 am when he woke up whimpering. Tyson and I both went into his room this morning and as soon as Tyson picked him up he got puked on big time. I felt really bad for Brycen and realized we were starting all over again with his sickness. The fever was back and he was lethargic all day. He wouldn't eat or drink anything and it was difficult to give him any medication. He was able to take two naps, the second of which was two hours long. Sleep is so good for babies when they're sick. Or for anyone, for that matter. He got up around 4:00 or so and was acting super weak and wouldn't eat or drink anything still. It had been a rough day of a lot of tears and lying down. His diapers all day were just diarrhea and no wet. I ended up calling the pediatrician and talking to the nurse about it. His little lips were dry and he seemed weak. She said if he cried and there were no tears and if his mouth felt dry we needed to take him in for an IV. Every other symptom of dehydration was there and we had reason to worry. Not what a parent wants to hear about their child.

Tyson came home around 6:00 tonight and Brycen was still not wanting any food or water. My mom came over for the second time today soon after that and brought Brycen some orange pedialyte, thinking he might like a different flavor other than the grape that he has. She brought Tyson and I Cocoa Bean, which was very delicious. She seemed really worried about him as well and tried to help him with the water issue. He wouldn't take the pedialyte or any of his sippies so she gave him a "big boy cup". He did much better with that but still wouldn't take much.

At about 6:45 Tyson decided to call our friend Ryan to help him give Brycen a blessing. He came right over with his sweet kids (his wife was at mutual) and didn't hesitate. I love our friends and how willing they are to help us out. He ended up calling his wife Dani over to help with the kids so it was nice having her there too. The blessing was really nice. Brycen struggled through it, crying and trying to get their hands off his head. After the blessing we said our thank you's and goodbye's. Then it seemed like a miracle took place.

We decided to take him outside and sit on the grass for a bit. He sat there and was super happy. We started weeding and cutting down tulips while Brycen crawled around. He was excited and more energetic. We had gone outside a lot through the day and he cried every time. Soon after we went outside Tyson's mom came by with a slushy for Brycen and a fountain Diet Pepsi for Tyson and I. It was so nice of her to do that and for my mom to come over to help as well. His mom had also felt really bad to hear about Brycen's condition and was worried about him. She stopped at the Maverick down the road for a popsicle for Brycen to eat but thought a he would do better with a slushy. And he certainly did. He loved it and ate a majority of it. That was the most he'd had to drink/eat all day. He was in much higher spirits and really enjoyed being with Grandma Miller.

We came inside by about 8:40 and decided to put Brycen to bed. We filled up a bottle with some water, a sippy with grape pedialyte, and a sippy with orange pedialyte to get some more liquids in him. We changed his diaper and it was completely wet. No diarrhea. Yay! We took his pants off and let him sleep in just a t-shirt and diaper. We said our family prayers in his room and them put him in his crib. I gave him the water assuming it would be like it was all day and he'd push it away. But he immediately grabbed it from me and chugged it. We couldn't believe it. We were so excited to see such a dramatic change in him. I turned on his fan and his night light, closed the door, and he went right to sleep.

There is no doubt in my mind that the blessing Brycen received is the reason he feels so much better. I'm feeling grateful tonight for the priesthood. I'm grateful for friends who are so willing to help us out when we need it the most, and that we feel like we can call on them for such a sacred thing. I'm grateful for the power of prayer and for the spirit we feel in our home. And most of all I'm grateful for a loving Heavenly Father who is aware of my needs and the needs of my family. The last couple of days have been challenging, and who knows, tomorrow may be as well. But as for tonight and the present, we have felt truly grateful for all our blessings.