Darr Family Blog

This week started off great. I took Joseph walking with me on Monday, Tuesday we met up at the park with friends in the morning, and then in the afternoon, disaster struck in the form of a fever for Joseph. My first indication that he might not be feeling well was that he didn’t really want to eat his breakfast that morning. I was able to convince him to eat, and then when we went to the park. While at the park, he seemed fine, so I figured it was just a fluke that he hadn’t wanted breakfast. We got home and I changed his diaper (which is when the ick began) and I noticed he was really warm. He also refused to eat his lunch. I took his temperature (99.5) and decided to see if he would sleep it off. He woke up even hotter (101.3) so I gave him some Ibuprofin. It brought the fever down for a bit, but then it went back up. Paul picked up dinner on his way home from work and we decided to see if we could get Joseph to eat some french fries (one of his favorite foods). He refused (which is when we realized something was really up), so we took his temperature again, and it was 103.5! We tried giving him a luke-warm bath to bring it down, but that didn’t do anything, so we took him in to urgent care. At urgent care, his temp read 103.9. The doctor took one look in his mouth and said that it was strep throat. Poor guy. 🙁 They gave him some Tylenol and a steroid (since his lymph nodes were really swollen) and prescribed an antibiotic as well as the same steroid to give to him for a week. Paul took a sick-day Wednesday since all of us got home pretty late on Tuesday, and I felt like I needed just a bit more help with Joseph. Joseph was a trooper taking his medicine, but the side effects (yucky diapers) were not fun for any of us. He’d get really upset when he knew he needed a change and he got (and still has) a bad rash. We’ve been giving him baths with baking soda in the water for the past two days, and that seems to have helped a bit. Plus, he’s now done with his antibiotic and his steroid, so the icky diapers should be done soon, too.

Cute story for the week: We were kind of home-bodies because of the sick baby, so we read a lot of books and watched a lot of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (MMC). Joseph still loves to dance to the songs that play at the beginning and end of MMC, and he’s always willing to be read to. We have a book that is called “Spooky Bus” which is about a bus that takes a bunch of ghosts, gouls, witches, skeletons, etc. to a haunted house. It has a button where if you push it, it does a creepy laugh. The first time Joseph pushed the button, he didn’t want to touch it again, and it took a good week and a half before I could get him to even touch the book again, let alone push the button (he’d see the book and say “No, no!”). After a little bit of time passed, I was able to read it to him (withOUT pushing the button). Then one day early this week, I pushed the button and explained that it was just a laugh, and I did a sillier version of the spooky laugh. He seemed okay with that, so the next time, I had him push it. He did, and then looked at me and said, “It’s okay” (to reassure himself, I think). I told him it was okay. Today, he kept saying, “Skoopy Bus, Skoopy Bus”. It took me a bit to realize he wanted me to read him Spooky Bus, lol. After I read it to him, he pushed the button a few times and laughed, so he’s no longer scared of it!

The other two notable things this week: 1) We had another one of our crazy thunderstorms last night, at about 12:30. Joseph slept through the entire thing (thankfully), but Paul and I didn’t. The thunder was so loud at times that it shook our windows. I’m glad for the rain, but it was hard not getting a very good night’s sleep. 2) I went to my first rehearsal for helping with the stake Messiah concert. I learned that it’s not just people from our stake, but anyone who wants to sing, no matter what their faith. I thought that was pretty cool. I didn’t mess up too many times (since I was just helping the sopranos with their parts, I didn’t have to play the accompaniment), lol. I have to help them one more rehearsal, and then I help out the youth and children’s choirs with a couple of pieces. Those will be pieces that I will be accompanying them for the performance, so I need to have those “concert ready” by the beginning of December. Whew!

Here’s this week in pictures:

 

Our lucky moment of the week: when Paul was walking the wiggles out of Joseph this morning at church, they came across a small anthill. Joseph decided (before Paul could stop him) to stomp on it. Luckily, they were regular black ants and not fire ants! We’re going to have to teach that kid about bugs!

It’s finally fall! We’ve survived another San Antonio summer (well, we got here in the middle of summer last year), lol. The past two days have been really nice weather. It was cool enough for long pants, but no sweaters were needed. I know to expect warm temperatures probably through part of October, but part of me hopes it’ll just stay this way for a bit (or even a bit cooler would be nice, too)! Most of the week, we had rain and thunderstorms because of a tropical storm that was coming up across from Mexico. We got quite a bit of rain, which was nice, and there were clear patches in the weather that made it possible for me to do things (like take my walks). Mostly, we just hung around the house, though.

Cute story for the week #1: I had a friend come over on Friday, since it was raining, to do a workout video with me. She brought her little girl, who is roughly a year older than Joseph. I wasn’t sure how it was going to work, but it worked out awesomely! The two kids played together while my friend and I worked out. Today, my friend mentioned that since Friday, all she was hearing from her daughter was, “My friend Joseph…” and “When can I see Joseph…”. I guess we need to schedule another play-date pretty soon. 🙂

Cute story for the week #2: Joseph was more into Music Playtime this past week than he was the week previous. He stayed in the room the whole time (instead of trying to wander all over the person’s house) and he even danced to the music with the kids. I think the more we go, the more he’ll get used to it. Oh, and the host has a genuine player-piano. She turned it on so that the kids could see how it worked. Joseph was mesmerized! He watched while it played and thought it was cool that the keys “played” themselves.

Cute story for the week #3: Today was the 2nd Sunday in a row that Joseph was able to stay in the chapel for the entire Sacrament meeting. I think the key is to bring toys/books/puzzles that he doesn’t get to see during the rest of the week. It also helps to have snacks and a drink for him. He’s recently learned how to drink from straws, so he has a straw sippy cup that we just use for church. Since that’s the only time it comes out, the novelty of it still works to entertain him. He’s also really good about folding his arms for the prayers and says “Amen!” at the end (sometimes a few seconds late, lol). Being two, he still gets a bit antsy. We always try to sit in one of the side pews so that one side is blocked by the wall, and Paul sits at the other end so that it’s blocked for Joseph as well. He does a good job of blocking Joseph’s escape, lol. There were a few times that Joseph was hanging over Paul’s knee/leg, trying to break through the “dad-wall”, and he kept saying he was stuck, lol. Yup, kid…you were stuck, but it was supposed to be that way!

This week in pictures:

And here’s a bonus video. We wanted to get a video of Joseph in his Batman jammies (well, I really wanted to try to get him to sing the song, but he didn’t feel like it, lol):

Joseph has rediscovered what used to be one of his favorite books, “Mr. Brown Can Moo.” I have had to read it to him probably about 20 times this week. His favorite page, by far, is the one that says, “Boom, boom, boom! Mr. Brown is a wonder! Boom, boom, boom! Mr. Brown makes thunder!” Several times this week (and at least one of those times being via the baby monitor), we’ve heard Joseph say, “Boom, boom, boom, Mistah Brown!” It’s usually on a loop as well…so he’ll repeat that phrase two or three times. It’s ridiculously cute and funny!

Other notable things that happened this week:

I got assigned to work with our stake for their annual production of Handel’s Messiah. They need a lot of different pianists so that we can be split up to help different groups of people. I know for sure that I will be helping the sopranos learn their parts during sectionals (just the sopranos working by themselves), but I may be asked to accompany one of the prelude pieces as well. I feel a bit overwhelmed, but I know I’ll feel better once I’ve been to a rehearsal and know a bit more about how everything is going to be run.

I’ve started walking with a couple of friends of mine that I know from church. We live in the same housing development, so we meet up at one person’s house and then we walk (like, power-walk) around the neighborhood, 3 times a week. It feels really good to be exercising again, and it doesn’t even feel like exercising because I’m getting to talk (and laugh) with people I am starting to get really close with. I am so grateful that I am making friends here. It’s making Texas feel more like home. 🙂

One of the women in my ward started a music playtime playgroup. We meet once a week, and different people are in charge of doing activities and stories that are centered around music. We do singing (of course), marching, finger plays, dancing, and stories. Then at the end, the kids get a bit of free-play while the moms get to talk and hang out. It’s been a new experience for Joseph. I’m still not 100% sure he’s sold on it yet. He’s not too used to structured playtime other than during nursery at church. We’ve done two sessions of this new playgroup and he’s made it about halfway through each time before losing interest. I think I’ll try it for a bit longer to see how it goes.

The time came to get Joseph new shoes. I ended up getting him some black canvas shoes to wear for dress shoes, some kind-of sandals (they have closed toes, but a lot of open parts, so I think they still classify as sandals), and, best of all (in Joseph’s mind), light-up Spider-man tennis shoes. I underestimated just how much he would like those things. He’s really into shoes right now to begin with, but when he discovered that they lit up…it was over right there. I made sure the price was right (less than $20, so I was okay with that) before I offered to let him hold them, because I had a feeling he wouldn’t let go without a fight. At first he was happy because they were Spider-man shoes. Then he discovered that the heels light up. He was so attached, I asked the cashier to not even bother with giving us a bag since he wasn’t going to let them out of his sight. He wanted to wear them as soon as we got out of the store, but I convinced him to wait until we got home. As soon as we got home, I put them on him. I had to leave for a baby shower right after that, so it was just the boys at home. It was supposed to be lunch and then nap-time for Joseph. When I got home from the shower, I asked Paul how everything went. He said it was all good until it came time for Joseph to take of his shoes to get into his crib for nap-time. There was whining and tears shed, but the shoes came off. As soon as he woke up, he asked for his shoes, which he wore for the rest of the day. He didn’t make as much of a fuss at the end of the day (I think he figured out they weren’t going to disappear), and I actually got him to wear his church shoes today (I was seriously thinking he was going to be sporting Spider-man to church). The things he gets interested in!

Here are the pictures for this week. You’ll notice that Joseph is wearing the same clothes in all of them, but that’s because all of them were taken on the same day. There’s also a video this week. 🙂

Here’s a video of Joseph on the swings. We got a video of him on the swings in this same park (it’s the park that’s in our subdivision) about a year ago, so Paul wanted to get another video so that we could compare them and really see how much Joseph has grown. 🙂 I’m just posting the most recent video, though.