I saw spots...

...on my poor boy, that is (although you can't see them in this pic). If you are wondering (or not) what I have been up to this week, it has simply been taking care of my sick boy. He started with a 3-day fever on Tuesday and I took him to the Doctor on Thursday where he was diagnosed with an ear infection. He started an antibiotic and was acting more like himself on Friday. I mean that is the first day I could put him down. Otherwise I spent all my days and most of my nights trying to comfort him.
Then Saturday morning he woke up with a rash all over his back, stomach and head. I thought it was a reaction to the antibiotic, but Nurse Tracy was wrong. I took him to Urgent Care per "On call Dr" orders and he was diagnosed with Roseola. So now we are just waiting for the rash to go away. He still isn't eating like my normal garbage disposal, but I am happy that he has moved on to more food than just yogurt and applesauce.
So today since Todd and I had nursery duty at church, Mom and Dad were kind enough to come over and watch Aiden for us. He's not contagious anymore, I just didn't want to take him (or freak anyone out with his spots:)

During this week Alyssa has felt pretty lonely. I tried to explain to her that Aiden is sick and he needs me more than normal right now. What do I get in response? "But Mommy, I need you too!!!" That's a stab to the heart of a Mom.
So Saturday morning Mom called and said her and Dad were going to pick Alyssa up and take her to lunch. Here is what she looks like when she get back:

Turns out they also decided to take her to the zoo and there happened to be a carnival going on. She got to play lots of games, ride a tractor and even got her face painted (All for FREE!). Not to mention the regular fun at the zoo. Thanks Maw Maw, Paw Paw and Uncle Todd for showing Alyssa some extra needed attention.

OK, now that you are updated you can be ready for my post on Tuesday...Alyssa's first day of Preschool!!

~~Tracy~~

Sick...

I'm not one to usually post these things...but this makes me absolutely sick!! Barak Obama & Live Birth Abortion/Infanticide:

This is not the "different attitude" I want to see in our White House.

~~Tracy~~

Road Trip

This weekend we took a trip to my Aunt and Uncle's house and visited my Grandpa, who just moved down there earlier this summer. The kids and I rode with my Mom and Dad, and my brother Todd and his friend Bill followed us. Oh what a car trip!! Aiden does not do well with road trips. He only lasts about one hour before he freaks out, and boy can he cry. The trip down was bad, but not near as bad as the ride home. He screamed for the first 72 miles, to the point of almost making himself sick...He was choking from crying...I have never heard one of my children cry this bad...EVER. And how bad did I feel knowing I couldn't help him and magically make us be home (did I mention I was crying at this point also). So after several stops (we had hoped to drive the whole way home without stopping at all) we finally made it. I have officially decided we will not travel for more that 1 hour in a car for a really long time!!!! Sorry everyone :-(
Alyssa did a great job on the road...although she did have her own TV and lots of snacks. And she even tried to be reassuring to me after Aiden woke up once, she said "Don't worry Mommy, Aiden's not going to cry anymore. He's happy now." Dear girl, if only that was true.
Anyways, we had a great time while we were there. Here are some pictures of what we did.

Ready for a ride on the boat. Aiden didn't care for the life jacket, so crying some more.

Uncle Dennis letting Alyssa drive the boat.

Well, I tried for a picture of us. Notice in the background Mom is on a boat!!! For those of you that don't know...she is afraid of water and "motion". We were so proud of her, I think she even enjoyed it. (And you made it on the Blog!)

Alyssa and Bill...she just loves Bill.

Aiden was passed out by the time we came back.

Going Fishing.

Aiden watched on the dock.

Alyssa fishing in her usual sitting position.

The first of several fish she caught.

Sorry Bill, Alyssa's was much bigger!

Keep dreaming Todd...nice facial expression!

So we had a great visit with my Grandpa. Thanks Uncle Dennis and Aunt Eileen for the great times and great food!! It was good to see Jen and Michelle....we missed seeing Dan, Amy and all the kiddos!!

Have a Great Week everyone...you will find us in our home where the kids can run wild and not be buckled in ;-)

~~Tracy~~

Ouch, Ouch, Ouch, Ouch...

This is what I woke up to Sunday morning (as Alyssa climbed out of bed)...and this is why:

Poor Alyssa and her ungraceful (tired) nature. We had a big day Saturday with a birthday party at 11 am and a neighborhood cookout at 5 pm. In my never ending efforts to get Alyssa to sleep through the night again, I made her stay up all day. Even though she was exhausted after the birthday party (I really think she jumped in the bouncy cake for 2 of the hours we were there). So then we were off to the neighborhood cookout, which was a great time & wonderful food, wish we could have stayed out longer. Alyssa was running with all the kids from our front yard to next door where we were, across our driveway. Todd said "Just wait, one of them is going to fall." I say "You know it will be ours". And I am not kidding it wasn't 3 seconds and Alyssa went down. Todd went to her rescue and they went in the house where she declared she was done for the day. So I gathered our things and made it home with Aiden to find her on the couch with her "cold" on her knees. Poor girl, usually she would get back out there but she was exhausted and ready for bed. The good news is she slept from 8:30 to 6:45!! A great improvement over the two prior nights where she was up at 3 am. So her poor knees are done in again from our drive and this time her hands joined in too. I'm sorry you get your gracefulness from me Squeaks :-(

I also had to share this "normal" picture of her. Most of you know a posed shot of her is next to impossible unless you want a terrible overbite and bugged out eyes.

So that's our weekend, Have A Great Week!

~~Tracy~~

Alyssa Says (Part Three)

“Ow, Ow, Ow, Ow, it’s OK Giraffe. It’s only you hair.” (As she is pulling her poor stuffed giraffe’s hair)

“Mommy, you have yellow boogers? You have white boogers? You have green boogers?”

Me: “What is your name?”
A: “Alyssa Faith”
Me: What is your full name?”
A: “Alyssa Faith Pink Raines.”

“Mommy let me give you a pink kiss.” (followed by a big kiss on the cheek)

“I not so tired anymore.”

“I am full of waffles in my belly, in my legs, in my feet.”

(Demi is out back barking) “Daddy, pup pup ready to come in. He all out of poops.”

“Here’s Maw Maw’s red ones, I leave them right here on the table. Maw Maw come home to my house and she eat them.” (Fun fruits…Alyssa always gives Mom the red ones…they are on the table for you right now : )

And some phrases she picked up from us:

"AW Man!!"

"I don't think so."

"You got a be kidding me."

"Serios-we." (here version of seriously if you didn't catch that one)

Sorry if these get old...

~~Tracy~~

So What's Aiden up to??

I haven't kept up with what poor Aiden has been up to lately and I know you are all wondering :-) !! He is now 9 1/2 months old and his first Birthday is nearing quicker than I would like. He is my sweet sweet boy, pretty agreeable with everything we do. As you can see in the above picture he is looking more like a little boy lately than my baby. It's sad really knowing he is our last one (not sad enough to make me want to have another, I might add). He is now crawling on all fours as opposed to his former army crawl, pulling up on everything and already starting to torment his big sister.

He now has 7 teeth and has given up every lick of baby food and is eating with the family. I haven't found any food that he doesn't like...fruits, veggies, meat or an occasional sneak of ice cream!! He is particularly fond of chicken teriyaki with broccoli (I know Mom and Dad - you wouldn't even eat this). We are hoping Alyssa will see him eating everything on his plate and follow suit...hasn't happened yet.

The only word he says still is "DaDa". But is always making some sort of exciting "Eh" or "Ah" noise.

Here he is trying to sneak up the stairs, which means the baby gates will have to come back out :-( . He loves to give hugs and kisses, and will several times a day crawl over to me and do just that!! He loves to touch anything his sister is holding to cause a major upset on her part. The only time he gets very upset is when I have to pull him away from the fireplace again or when Alyssa takes a toy from him. Unfortunately the latter happens most of the day...If Aiden even touches something she may have "thought" of in the last 24 hours she will try to take it from him (this is a serious all day job on my part).

Well I think that is all our little man is up to these days. I will try to do better with his updates!

Oh, and I am now redecorating his room. When I took out his crib bumpers and took down the matching quilt his room suddenly became very plain. So I started looking for some more frog stuff to put up, but couldn't find anything I liked. Then while randomly surfing eBay (I know bad idea) the other day I found this picture:

And now we (or should I say I) are turning his room into monkeys instead...what do you think?

~~Tracy~~