Green Day...

We are always looking for new nightly outings to help pass the time between dinner and bedtime...the driving range was tonight's choice.  Parker was so adorable as he watched Joel and tried to imitate his golf swing!

Blanford Nature Center...

My Moms In Tow group posted a free day at the Blanford Nature Center so Kelly and the boys met us there for an afternoon of exploring through the woods, learning about injured animals, having a picnic lunch and ending the day with some muddy play!  I guess I didn't know that the BNC takes in injured animals...Kelly and I realized this after every plaque said that the animal was either hit by a car or shot!  Yikes!  It was a good teachable moment for the kids to realize cars are very dangerous!

Our First ER Visit...

Besides the birth of Parker we have been lucky not to have to visit the Emergency Room until now!  Today Parker woke up a little later than normal and as soon as I picked him up and gave him his first kiss of the day I could tell that he was running a fever.  I took his under-arm temp and it was a little high at 101.2 degrees.  He spent the morning laying on me watching TV and reading books...not normal!  After some Tylenol he appeared to be feeling a little better so we played outside for a bit, but his face was getting flushed quickly and it seemed his temp was rising again.  Sure enough it was 104.6 degree rectally and the Tylenol wasn't really helping much.  After all of our sickness this summer I was not too worried about the temp because I know that they will say if it is under 105 degrees then it is OK.  So, we spent the rest of the day inside laying low.  

When Joel got home Parker had a slight turn around where he seemed really happy and was laughing, playing and chasing Joel around and we were encouraged that he was doing better and this might be a fluke!  Before he went down to sleep though he felt warmer than normal and his temp confirmed that he was not doing well at 105.3 degrees.  We put him to bed anyways and I called the on-call nurse.

After the gauntlet of questions from the nurse she told us to head to the ER to see what was wrong.  We got Parker up and headed off on a long adventure!  The short version is this....we were there for four hours until almost 1am, they checked his ears, throat, did blood work, tried to do a straight catheter but had no luck getting any urine, chest x-rays and every test under the sun and came up with nothing.  Parker didn't like the actual tests very much but loved being in a new room with a stool to play with, lots of chairs to sit in, our undivided attention, his cute Tiger gown and the stickers and stuffed animal he got.

In the end they just ended up giving him an injection of some strong antibiotics which they were hoping would fix whatever was going on.  We had to check in with his pediatrician the next day and get another dose of the antibiotics.

Poor Joel had such a busy week already planned and then to add a night of being unproductive and a lack of sleep to the mix was hard!  I felt so bad for him, but was thankful to have him there with me!

I couldn't bear to think of taking pictures of Parker at the hospital because he felt so sick, but once there he was doing so great that I wish I had taken my camera.  He looked so cute in the little hospital gown!  He willingly showed off his stickers for the camera the next day.

Sucker Time...

I would have preferred that Parker not be introduced to too much candy at such a young age, but with Joel as a dad I figured it was bound to happen.  After a trip to Zeeland Lumber today Parker showed up back at home with this...

New kicks...

Parker was elated to have the UPS guy deliver a package to our house, and even more excited to find out it was a package for him with the coolest new shoes ever inside of them!  I think daddy and mommy were equally as excited because they are just the cutest little shoes!  Once they were opened Parker had them on in no time and was racing around the house seeing how fast he could run...daddy was encouraging this because this is what he did when he was a kid and got new shoes!

A few random straglers...

Mommy's helper...load up the wagon with dirty clothes and bring it to the laundry room.

 Running around after bath time is Parker's favorite...

The many faces of Parker...

Four wheel'n fun...

Pajama nun...

 Lunch on the porch...