Noah...Noah...Noah...

If it is not one thing then it is the other!! God love him! Our week started out with the car incident on Sunday night. He has been fine and had no issues since - except for a little lack of appetite here and there. He has slept fine and played fine since! I was thankful to GrandDanny for my car smelling sooo good. A fresh clean carseat sitting in the heat all day - oh, it was fresh and clean!!

I dropped him off at school this morning. Fussed a little when Ms. Gwen took him but he was fine and eating a snack by the time I checked him in and dropped off his back-pack. About 40 minutes later, Mrs. Sandy calls me and says that his hands are swollen and he has little blisters on them. I begin to freak out. She tells me that he has no fever and he seems fine. One of the blisters is about dime size on his knuckle - not on his palms. Weird - I think so! His feet are also a little swollen and red. Mrs. Sandy tells me that Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease (HFMD) is going around and she is not sure if that is what it is. Again, no fever. I asked if I needed to come get him and she said to wait it out and check back in a couple of hours to see what it does.

I called the pedi, but had to wait on the nurse to call me back. Keith calls Momma Gena - after all, she was a daycare director for up-teen years and is very familiar with HFMD. She said the same thing that Mrs. Sandy said -- never seen swelling with it, always has fever, acts lethargic and blisters are more on the palms of the hands and not on the backs of them. I checked back in with Mrs. Sandy - just praying that maybe this was an allergic reaction to something. She calls me back about 10 minutes later saying that the swelling has gone down and the blisters do not look real bad. Said that it is the weirdest thing she has seen! In fact, she said that Noah made her wait until he finished painting before she could check his feet. How cute is that??

When the nurse called me back she reassured me of something ... if Noah (and me, and Keith and Papaw) had HFMD last year, then it is not likely for him (us) to get it this year. HALLELUJAH!!!! That was great news, especially if HFMD is going around school. We can NOT be sick this weekend -- have too much to do! E is coming to our house so we must be well!! Sounds like it is an allergic reaction to something. Have no idea what it could be though - that is the troubling part about it! But we will be adding a new medication to our medicine cabinet - Benadryl!! This will be fun tonight - he may go to sleep way early because of it!

My poor baby has been through so much in his short 19 months. Fortunately none of them have been life threatening or too difficult to deal with. Our most tragic was our broken arm. Yes, we have already tackled our first broken bone!! Noah was at school on July 14th when Mrs. Tracy called and said that he kept crying and was not acting like his normal self. Keith got to the school before I did and realized that he was not using his right arm. Went to the doctor, held him down (literally) for an x-ray to be told we needed to go to a Pediatric Orthopedist. How scary did that sound!! We left that doctor sporting a nice blue accessory from our fingers to above our elbow! We only had our blue accessory for 4 1/2 weeks, so it was not that bad! It made it difficult for bath time (there was not a bath time) and playing outside. It was very hard to keep him "cool" and not sweat - especially in the heat of the summer in Alabama.

But Noah is such a trooper in all that he does. I am so grateful for having him in my life. He is my absolute pride and joy and could not imagine my life without him. I am SO thankful to God for him being a healthy, happy little boy. I know that so many other families are not so fortunate and my heart hurts for them. I pray every day for God to wrap his loving arms around my baby boy - to protect him in all that he does and to keep him healthy!

~Randi