ScrumpyDaddy

In July we went down to Kentucky to spend a long weekend with our best friends from college. They built a new house and they were finally done and moved in. It is beautiful and tons of space. It is great to have to much space for the 4 kids and have a guest room to stay in. In their previous space they only had 3 bedrooms instead of 4 and a smaller dinning/living room space. Not much space for the kids to run around in. They also have a larger yard, but unfortunately at the time of our trip it was unusable.

They had a problem with no water (water company fault) and possibly bad sod from the beginning. They were attempting to water the grass and bring it back, but not sure if it worked our not. Due to all the water the yard was too wet to play in. It was fine though because the kids played on the deck and inside in their play area on the second floor. They have a loft area as well as the bedrooms and made the loft into a play area.

Dave and Earl of course did guy things. They went out and bought a grill for the new house and put it together. Ah bonding.

We also went to the sweet corn festival. They had the most wonderful corn. The kids especially liked the live animals they had. They kept trying to feed the animals grass they were pulling out of the ground.

Wow…I can’t believe it has been 2 months since Zach’s birthday party and I never posted anything about it. Oh well! Now to help all of you catch up with what has been happening around here for the past 2 months.

On July 3rd Zach has his 1 year birthday party. Of course since it was so close to the 4th we went with a patriotic theme. We had flags and red, white, and blue stuff every where. I also made a red, white, and blue cake from scratch. It was a rocket with USA on it. I have fallen in love with doing cut out cakes. My mom always did them for my sister and I growing up. They are a lot of work, but they turn out so cool.

We had a nice little crowd for it. It was of course quite hot, but we managed with some fans and some extra shade from a canopy my mom was able to borrow from a women at her church. It was a life saver.

We had a great time with family and friends who were able to come and celebrate with us. We decided to make it a pot luck party, so everyone brought something to share and we provided the drinks, condiments, hamburgers and hot dogs, and of course cake.

Today we went a saw a Pulmonologist at Children’s Hospital. Last week Zach went to Children’s Hospital ER for I believe it is now the 4th or 5th time since he was born. This poor boy! Anyways, they took an x-ray and diagnosed him with pneumonia. With his history of breathing problems every time he gets sick the pediatrician suggested we take him to a specialist thinking it might be asthma.

After meeting with the doctor today and having them look at him, they agreed it was asthma. They are not sure if he even had pneumonia. When looking at an x-ray the way the lungs look during an asthma attack and pneumonia look very similar . We got to see Zach’s x-ray and see exactly what they were referring to. They don’t believe his asthma is caused by any allergen so he is not being tested for that, but that a virus (primarily the cold virus) triggers his asthma.

Previously, we had been giving him breathing treatments each day with a nebulizer. The nebulizer takes about 7-8 minutes to give a treatment of “Pulmacort” (steroid to help with his breathing), which we gave his 1-2 times a day since about March. Now after the advise of the specialist Zach has an inhaler instead. He will be taking the inhaler twice a day with a new steroid called Flovent. Then we he gets sick he will still get albuteral as needed, but through the inhaler now. The inhaler will only take about a minute to do and with Zach being 14 months old the faster the better. They also said the medicine will get to the lungs better than with the nebulizer.

I hope this helps the little guy do better when he does get sick. We will be heading back for a follow up in 3 months.

We had a great 4th of July this year. It was very relaxing after spending so much time getting ready for Zach’s party, that was the day before (July 3rd). We spent most of the day just playing with the kids around the house and then went to the fireworks. Zach fell asleep during the fireworks. Even the finale only made him stir slightly. He is definitely like his daddy. He can fall asleep anywhere!

Happy belated 4th of July everyone!