Best buds

Since I am an only child, I've always looked forward to the day that my boys would grow up into playmates. Jalen has been such a great big brother to Max. If I need to leave Max in his crib for a few minutes, Jalen will gladly climb in and keep him company. They love to jump in the crib and play peek a boo with their baby blankets. Now that Max is little older, he is starting to be pretty particular about which of Jalen's toys that he wants to play with. Sometimes, the boys do fight over the same toy. But for the most part they're happier when they're together.

Day out with Thomas

A few weeks ago we took Jalen to visit his favorite character, Thomas the Tank Engine. Jalen actually wasn't as excited about the real life Thomas as we had expected. He was wondering where all Thomas' friends were. Nevertheless, it was a cute train ride where we got to see a great view of the Snoqualmie Falls. Jalen had a lot of fun with his two best buds Katelyn and Trenton.

4th of July Weekend

We had a full and fun long weekend. My parents came to visit and spent time with the kids. We hosted a BBQ on Saturday and went to a BBQ on Sunday and Monday. For the 4th, we went to the annual Newport Hills celebration where Katelyn and Jalen had a great time playing together. Jalen was too tired for the fireworks so Rick and I watched the shows on TV. We actually have a peek a boo view of the Lake Union fireworks from our house! It was funny watching it happen then again 7 seconds later on "live" TV.

Max's baby steps

We were very excited when we heard Max started walking when we were away in Vegas at the end of May. However, his whole medical ordeal really put a halt to his progress. Just last week, he started taking tentative steps again. I love the way babies put up their arms like a zombie when they first learn to walk. It's too cute.

Max's Medical Ordeal

On the Sunday before Memorial Day Max woke up from his nap with a fever. We gave him some Tylenol and hoped that he would recover before the long weekend was over. Unfortunately, his fever didn't go away. The Tuesday after the holiday was my first day at my new job so Rick decided to stay home. He took Max to the pediatrician and we were told to keep an eye on his fever and bring him back in if the fever doesn't go away after a couple of days. We kept him home on Wednesday and by Thursday I took him to the doctor again since his fever still hasn't broken. This time, the doctor did a strep culture and checked his ears again for a possible ear infection. Both were negative. That weekend we took our trip to Vancouver and Max had a high fever on both days. I was especially worried on Sunday when his fever was high all day. During this whole time, Max was really sluggish and had low appetite. It just broke my heart to see him not eating and losing weight. We took Max to the pediatrician again and this time they took blood work. The results showed an elevated white cell count which could be the result of either viral or bacterial infection. The pediatrician requested that we get a chest x-ray for Max to rule out pneumonia. The chest x-ray turned out to be negative. The next day, Rick took Max to the pediatrician to get a urine sample. The poor child was dehydrated so they couldn't get any liquid out of him. Rick was really upset about spending 2 hours at the doctor's office and not getting anywhere closer as to why Max has had a fever for 10 days. We were in a holding pattern for the next 2 days and by Friday, I really wanted to get Max checked out again before the weekend so I took him in one more time. The doctor was still stumped and did all the routine exams again. She urged that we take Max to the ER at Children's hospital to get more tests. I really didn't want to spend a night at the ER but I was also feeling really uneasy about Max being sick for so long. So Ricky's parents watched Jalen while the two of us took Max to Children's hospital. They examined him, did blood work, took urine sample and swabs. After all that, we were no closer to knowing why he's had a fever for almost 2 weeks but at least the doctor didn't raise any alarms that there might be something really serious going on. We spent another day waiting for results and on Sunday, we took him into the office again and this time, it seemed like he has developed an ear infection. The doctor finally prescribed some antibiotics. His fever finally subsided Sunday night and he was fever free for 24 hours for the first time on Monday. During this entire ordeal Ricky's parents helped us by watching Max at our house. We were so grateful that they did this because we don't know what we would've done instead. Especially with me at my new job, I would have really been in a bind. So after all was said and done, here's the tally:

• number of days with fever over 101: 14
• number of visits to the pediatrician: 5
  
• number of hours spent at the ER: 3.5
  
• number of doctors seen: 4
  
• number of failed urine test attempts: 4
• number of blood tests: 2

Max was actually very sweet and good at the ER. We kept him busy with crackers and we watched the Lion King on TV.

A happy side effect of Max being sick was that he was super cuddly. He just wanted to be hugged and held all the time.