Westfall Web

Well today got off to a quick start.  Or maybe it was a slow start.  Either way it was certainly a short night (at least for sleeping!).  Greyson was having a rough time.  Just not feeling well and fussing, making noise & general “keep your parents up” stuff.  He did however break out with spots last night.  So this morning we called the Pediatrician (which is the regular Dr. all kids have!) and got an appointment for first thing.  We scooped Greyson up and headed to the Dr’s (we only had 15 minutes from the time we called till we had to be there).  He examined Greyson and we finally know what’s been bugging him all week.  Seems he has hand, foot, mouth disease.  Basically this is a virus that little kids can get that makes them feel bad, then have a fever, then once the fever breaks they break out with a rash (largely on their hands, feet, and inside their throat). 

 So Greyson and Stacy had to stay home tonight and didn’t get to go to the party we had at church.  He also didn’t get to dress up in the awesome outfit we got him for halloween.  Oh well part of having kids I suppose.  The good news is he has been breathing well through this whole ordeal.  The downside is it can take up to 14 days to get over.  The other good news (I know we are going back and forth, probably cause I’m tired and I’m trying to keep myself awake by typing!) is that Greyson was much more playful tonight and generally acted like he was starting to feel a bit better. 

So no cool halloween pic, but at least you get to see him in his halloween PJ’s!

Well we’ve been working with a sick kid the last couple of days.  Greyson was pretty fussy on Monday but nothing terrible.  Then on Tuesday he slept alot and was really fussy again.  Last night he also started sporting a temperature.  This has continued off and on today.  Right now his temperature is better and he seems to be feeling better than he did last night, but he is still fighting whatever bug he managed to pick up.  The good news is he is still breathing well and seems to be getting past it with nothing more than some Tylenol.  We are praying tomorrow he is more back to normal.  We miss our fun & happy little guy!  Having said that he does still smile and play a little.  In fact if you didn’t know him you might not realize he feels so crummy.  A lot of the “diagnosis” has simply been that he just isn’t acting like Greyson. 

 OK so that’s the bummer news for the day (hey it’s a whole lot better than the bummer news we had to report on sometimes last year huh!?).  Today we did learn that Greyson LOVES to put his sleeves in his mouth.  For awhile now when we go to dress him in long sleeves he has been putting his sleeve in his mouth before you can get his hand all the way through the sleeve.  Well we thought this might be just because he likes his hand in his mouth.  Well tonight as Stacy was trying to get him in the outfit you see in the picture, he continually worked his hand so he could chew on his sleeve, not just his hand.  I don’t know why that’s better than real food, but he really likes chewing on his sleeves!

I think Greyson’s grandparents wore him out this weekend.  He had a blast playing with them.  Greyson was quite interested in Gary and kept his eye on him the whole weekend.  It was fun to watch how Greyson responded to them.  He told them all kinds of stories and showed off all of his new tricks.  He even learned how to clap after having his grammie work with him all weekend on it.  (he still needs some work, but he’s really getting it once he gets started!). 

Today was not the best day for father and son.  I’m not sure if it was an upset stomach or cutting a new tooth, but Greyson was pretty fussy today.  Actually he was fussy or sleepy most of the day.  We did work on eating today (by mouth) and I thought it was a good sign that later in the day he “burped” a bit of carrots out of his stomach.  Gross for sure but I just kept thinking, “hey, if it’s coming out of here at least we know it made it down there to begin with!!” 

Well now that he’s getting better at rolling over, and grabbing things, he is beginning to put these talents together.  We set him on the floor on this blanket which was all smoothed out on his back.   At one point he was almost all the way on his stomach, completely rolled like a burrito, all without any help.  He has really enjoyed having his Gram and Papa here to visit.  We will try to get some more pictures up tomorrow. 

Today Greyson just decided to make it a day full of accomplishments.  Nothing really new, but man oh man when he did things he did them well!  He sucked (well OK it was really more like bit) on his bottle (we are trying things like bottles carefully to see if it will help him be more open to food and drink) pretty good, he chewed on an apple (in a special mesh pacifier they make for such a thing), he let Stacy brush his teeth (something he hasn’t done in A LONG time), and he REALLY got the hang of rolling over onto his stomach.  While I was at bible study Stacy said he started rolling onto his stomach, then back onto his back and so on and just wouldn’t stop.  Not even when she was trying to feed him which made it quite difficult!  He even did it when I came home and was even able to roll over onto his stomach on the bed up a slight incline.  At first this caused him trouble and he was getting very frustrated by his inability to do that which he knew he could do, but after a couple tries he made it.  What a fun day!

Yesterday after church we went for a hike with a bunch of people from Stacy’s work.  The sun was shining so Greyson broke out his shades.  He was pretty grumpy at first (he had to be woken up so we could go) but soon was enjoying himself as he rode in style on the hike.  It was a lot of fun.  After that we went to church to listen to the Salvation Army band that was playing at our church.  Greyson really seemed to enjoy the music. 

Today was Greyson’s one year checkup with his pediatrician.  All went well till it was time for the immunizations.  Greyson doesn’t get shots or blood draws very often anymore so he is not as tolerant of the experience.  It’s hard to see but he actually had tears rolling down his face from crying.  I will say though he wasn’t the loudest kid in the Dr’s this morning and once I started asking him about the shots he soon was giggling and forgot how upset he had been.  Another funny thing happened while we were there ***warning urine story to follow:

We had to collect a urine sample today so we had a collection bag on Greyson at the Dr’s.  Well while the Dr. was in we checked and there was some.  Stacy told Greyson we might need a little more and then we decided there was enough so she started taking off the bag.  Most of you probably know what happened next.  Greyson heard her say we needed more so more he gave us!  Stacy was trying to catch it but he ended up going all over the table.  Once the Dr. helped us clean up we apologized to which the Dr. said, “Don’t worry, it’s definately not the first time!”  It’s always great to us to have normal child experiences, even the embarrasing ones!!