Rash Review

Tommy had his doctor's appointment on Friday. It could not have come sooner.  On Wednesday, his rash started seeping.  

 I gave him a bath and cleaned it up a bit.  It didn't look infected so I wasn't extremely worried, just a little worried.

 It looked much better after a bath.  But of course it was still bad. :(

Our dermatologist was young (probably close to our age) and she was very nice and understanding.  She examined him and asked lots of questions and then made her diagnosis.

Classic Eczema.



That's the only thing I could think of when she said that.  CLAAAASSSSIC PEG!
So... classic eczema.  Seriously???? That's all it was? We actually got lucky and got in to see her in 3 weeks, instead of the 3 months that every other new patient has to wait.  If we would have still been dealing with this when he was 9 months old, I think I would have gone on a murderous rampage.

Anyway, she said with eczema his skin doesn't have the barriers to block out allergens. So he's probably allergic to many things in the environment which explains why we couldn't narrow it down to just one thing.

She gave us a prescription cream, a triple antibiotic, and said to use Cetaphil lotion.

This is after two uses of the prescriptions.

This is day 2.

 

Just a LITTLE better, don't you think?

Poor kid.  The doctor said we should see improvement in 2 weeks and he should be pretty much over it in 4 weeks.  Oh Sweet Relief.  

NOW we have to work on sleeping at night.  He still scratches but maybe a third of what he did before.  But at night he must forget that it doesn't itch because he's still getting up a lot.  I expect this to improve soon though.  IT WILL! I NEED SLEEP! 

But what a relief.  No more straight jacket shirts with mittens. :( 

Oh who are we kidding, he loved it. ;) 

Harvesting a New Crop of Babies

I'm behind on my congratulations posts.

I am happy to congratulate Kevin and Diane Stafford on baby number 2, Nora Anne.

Aww! She came into the world on April 25th. (Yeah I know! I'm behind!)

And another big old congratulations goes to Phil and Lindsey Healey.  They welcomed their little Junebug into the world on Father's Day.

Elise Maria was welcomed into the world at 9 lbs 6 oz.  YOU GET 'EM, GIRL!! :) I hope you didn't get many newborn outfits!! :) Remember the baby shower I went to fit for a princess? Well, here is Princess Elise.

Congrats Healeys and Staffords!! It's nice to see some girls in the mix!

Just for the Taste of it

Andrew was in a golf tournament for work in Lafayette this weekend so I went home and stayed with my parents for the weekend.

 Tommy got to catch up on the Today show. 

 After he got done golfing and after we checked out a rental, we went to the terrific Taste of Tippecanoe.  We were worried it might be sensory overload for Tommy.  It was but he did REALLY well.  I only had my phone so the picture quality isn't going to be very good because it was getting dark. (I only have the lowly iPhone 3GS without a flash.  *sniff, sniff* Life is so hard.)

 Grandpa picked up a Moe's frisbee for Tommy T.  He loved flinging that thing around.

He even got to play "The Claw" with it.

Tommy experienced his first fireworks.  Luckily we were about to give him a bottle at the same time or his reaction might have been a bit different.

Like this...

This is his WTF face after the first big boom.  But he recovered quickly.

 It was really cool to watch the fireworks from in between the buildings downtown.

 Tommy actually enjoyed them at times. (Check out my dad's great find: Chocolate Covered Twinkie! It was amazeballs! We all got one by the end of the night.)

 We were chanting "Chug! Chug! Chug!" to get him to finish off the last ounce.  The people around us probably wondered why we were trying to get a baby drunk.

 He was really amazed by the fountain.  He is a going to be a water-loving kid, I can already tell.

He was so funny in his stroller.  He would point his feet out and kick his legs as we were pushing him around. He loves to KICK, STRETCH AND KICK!  He's 6 months! :)

 I snapped this cute picture before we left on Sunday.

 I took this one on Sunday too.  His future's so bright, he's gotta wear shades.

Here's ol' Tommy boy happy to be back at home after an excruciating last 12 miles on the toll road where he screamed bloody murder because he had gotten his socks off and was scratching his face.  I was about in tears.  It was awful.  I really hope the dermatologist has an answer for us on Friday.  Cross your fingers!

An Interesting Milestone

I may or may not talk about poop too much.  After having a baby, it comes with the territory.  You're always concerned whether it's the right color, consistency, whether it's been in the diaper too long, all sorts of things they just don't tell you before having a baby.

Something they did mention, however, is that breastfed babies tend to have less foul smelling poop.  We found out recently that this is monstrously true.

The daycare has been feeding Tommy oatmeal cereal once a day to get him used to solid foods.  He hasn't been doing all that well with it yet.  He cries a lot.  Bottles are much more comforting than a spoon with goopy bland oatmeal soup-looking crap on it.  But they said he's slowly improving and definitely doing what's normal.

Most baby cereals are fortified with iron.  This has been a little rough on Tommy's system.  He had a huge blow out on Monday and then he hasn't pooped since...

Until tonight.

He finally pooped 3 days later and OHHHH EEEMMMMM GEEEEEE it was disgusting.  Of course it was also a blowout.  I sniffed it and recoiled, thoroughly disgusted.  Then as is absolutely necessary, I handed it to Andrew and said, "SMELL THIS!!"

Not knowing what to expect, he dove head first into the diaper to take a huge whiff.  He choked and did the Jim Carey gag...

...for 5 straight minutes (Morganism).  I'm pretty sure his eyes even watered.  He said, "WHY did I DO THAT????"

Still trying to figure that out, hon.

Oh Tommy Thomersons.  That.  Was.  Gross.

How can something this cute make that stench??

It was all over the place so we immediately put him in the bath.  He loved every minute.

All clean!


After the bath, it was time for bed.  Pooping all over yourself is exhausting.  I *just* snapped this picture and I just had to add it to the story.  This is probably my new favorite picture.

WHOA, BEARS!! 

He really can't get enough of those bears! Love it! 

Happy Nasty Poop Milestone, Thomas! :) 

Not Suitable for Work or Children

If you are offended by cusswords, you will want to stop reading IMMEDIATELY!!

Okay for those of you that are not squares, I hope this makes your day.  

I had heard of this book.  I didn't realize that it was a children's book though. I thought it was going to be some sort of instruction manual on getting kids to go to sleep.  You know, the kind that disguise themselves as something REALLY funny on the cover and then it's just the same old boring crap on the inside.  A lot of pregnancy books claim to be so hilarious like this but are really teary eyed recounts of their childbirthing experiences.  

So when I read the title of "Go the **** to Sleep" I thought it was too good to be true.  It's not.  Check it out.  They couldn't have picked a better person to read for this.  Seriously, genius.  (Cusswords aplenty so BEWARE! Not for work environments! You can't say I didn't warn you.)

The audio version is free for now on Amazon.com if you're interested.  Just don't buy it to play for your kids.  These are not words that kids should be repeating.  

Quality Time with Brian

 Anytime I put Tommy in his chair, Brian thinks there's going to be food for him.  In a few months, he will be so right!! It will be a cheerio waterfall for ol' Brino.

 Tommy is starting to really like Brian being around. Brian is starting to lean the other direction.  Any time Tommy reaches for him, he runs away.  He just wants to grab your ears and pull on them as hard as he can, Brian! What's the big deal???

Then Brian gives Tommy that look again.  Are you kidding me?? Tommy just shrieks.  :)

SIX MONTHS OLD!

Tommy is ONE HALF!! I cannot believe he is already 6 months old! I say that at every milestone but it's true.  It's goes by so fast.

 His 6 month well-visit went fairly well.  His stats are above.  His melon is 17 inches.  His length/height almost 27 inches and his weight is 18.3 pounds.  He runs in the exact middle of the chart on everything. We like to say that he pretty much created that chart.  Everyone must abide by his measurements.  He is Prince Thomas, you know.

 Tommy had a good time playing with the paper on table.  Why do babies LOVE paper so much?? I guess it's not the paper they like, it's the DESTRUCTION of the paper they love.

 Poor Tommy's rash flared up when we were at the doctor.  Poor kid.  UGH.  That rash is the WORST.  We have an appointment with the dermatologist next Friday.  I REALLY hope he can rid us of this awful awful rash. :(
By the way, I know this picture is disturbing.  But just to make you feel better, his rash calmed down significantly when we got home.  It might have been the itchy fabric on the first outfit we put on him that day.  Who flipping knows.  Grrr.

Tommy definitely told the doctor how he felt about his shots through his body language/paper destruction. Luckily this time he only needed two shots.  Yay! Not so bad!

So he was a happy camper after his appointment.  Only two shots?? Sweet!
But those poor red cheeks.  We WILL get rid of this rash! He would be sleeping through the night right now if he didn't itch! Grrrrrrrrr.

So what's new with Tommy developmentally?

Tommy is changing rapidly at this point.  It's little things that we notice.  First of all, he puts his hands up in the air when we walk up to his crib or where ever he's playing to say Pick Me Up! It's so cool.  He doesn't like when I leave him in the room alone so he cries.  But as soon as I come back, he goes back to playing.  Silly kid.

He performed an awesome magic trick for me this morning! I was getting ready to leave for the day so I put him in his carseat.  I had a pacifier in my hand so I put it on his belly and I turned around to gather up some things.  When I turned back around, he had the pacifier in his MOUTH! It was AMAZING! I kept asking him how he did it but a baby magician never reveals his secrets can't talk yet.

He laughs a LOT now.  He also shrieks just as much.  He's starting to recognize his name. We usually say his name loudly when we catch him itching and he stops scratching.  Here are a couple videos.  The first one is his blood curdling screech that he's doing now.  We thought he was just going with the grunting these days but he went back to screeching.

The second video is of Morgan talking to Tommy in her Mom Voice.  Yikes.  But don't worry, you future moms out there.  It comes with the territory.  There's nothing you can do about it.  It's gonna happen.

  

I plan to take his 6 month pictures once his rash clears up a bit.

Happy Half Birthday Tommy the Tank!

Andrew's Final Hockey Game

On Sunday night, I took Tommy to his first hockey game which also happens to be Andrew's last (or so he thinks).

 Mommy and Tommy watching from the bleachers.

 There's Andrew in the white jersey.

 Number 4 is definitely Andrew but that is not his last name on the jersey.  The other team wore dark blue so their team had to make do with spare jerseys.

 Look at him go!! Andrew is quite the speed racer on skates these days.

 Andrew's team won 3 to 1!! YEAH!

 Tommy was very entertained even though he was completely bundled up.  He was wearing his blackhawks helmet hat that we got for him in Chicago on our babymoon.  A little boy came over and said I like his hat because I like the blackhawks.  Tommy smiled so the kid kept saying BLACKHAWKS BLACKHAWKS BLACKHAWKS trying to make him smile.  Then a hockey player came over and sat on the bleacher (from his accent you could tell he was from Canada), he got into the game and said, "Oh he likes the blackhawks does he? How about Vancouver? VANCOUVER??" (Only it sounded more like Vancoovah).  Tommy didn't smile.  He was disappointed but Tommy is a loyal sports fan.  He smiles for no other teams.  :)

 Super Sports Star Dad came over to us after the game.  Tommy was excited.

 Here's spectator Tommy chillin' in the stands with a blanket to keep him warm.

 Once we left the rink, the rest of the Ice Box is a hot muggy mess so I had to start stripping Tommy down immediately.  He kept the hat on for a little while though.

 While waiting for Andrew, we played some arcade games.  There was a great semi truck driving game that Tommy loved steering the steering wheel.  (Ew, just imagine the germs on that wheel. Probably hasn't been cleaned for 20-odd years. BLECH.)

 We also played THE CLAW!!!

Tommy really enjoyed his hockey time.  I snapped a quick pic before we headed home.  He's such a cute hockey fan in his Mastodon shirt.  Dad is so proud of his little metal lovin' kiddo... as Tommy is proud of his hockey playin' dad.

Five Years Came and Went!

(Every time I begin to write a blog post, I do a quick Google search for inspiration.  I searched for "5 year" and found THIS.  You might want to take this quiz yourself.  I found out I can take on 18 five year olds at a time. Good to know in case I ever come across a pack of wild 5 year olds.)


So I missed blogging about our anniversary by over 3 weeks.  Whoops.  But it turns out, we've got a lot of stuff going on right now.  May 27th was on a Friday this year.  Can you believe we've been married for FIVE YEARS? What did we do, you ask? Well we were in Rensselaer so my parents watched Tommy and we went to The Pub and then went to see Bridesmaids.  Pretty sexy anniversary huh?  The prime rib at The Pub was AMAZEBALLS and Bridesmaids was ridiculously funny.  I knew I wanted to see it as soon as I saw this clip.
There were so many good lines but these were some of my favorites...


I'm gonna leave this [curtain] open! Cause... It's called civil rights. This is the '90s!


I cracked a blanket in half!


I just took a **** in the middle of the street. 


We laughed through the whole thing.  It was fantastic.  
So that was what we did for our five year anniversary. Plus going to the Indy 500 like we do every year. Nothing too impressive but we didn't really have time to do much else.  Once we move and the house sells, we'll definitely go out and celebrate in style.  I promise (because I know you're worried, ha!).  The 5 year anni is just too special.  I mean, the 5-year gift is WOOD because by that point they consider your marriage to be strong and durable like wood.  Romantic, right? 


So here's to The Thornburgs... 
Before there was Tommy, before there was Brian...
There was us.  

Two Purdue students who were good at thumbwrestling... (Nice Shadows Fall shirt, Morgz. We are YOUNG there!) 

Happy Anniversary Andrew!! Here's to 5 years of fun and great adventures. There's no one I'd rather spend it with! 


(Also here's last year's post if you would like to see the wedding clips again.)

iSplishin' and iSplashin'

Another photography app? Seriously? Yes of course! I'm a little obsessed. This one is called iSplash.  It works a lot like Paint so I can't use it on my iPhone.  Waahhh. But it works better than the function on my camera.  Take a look.  

 This was my first try.  Not too bad.

This was my second try.

This is my favorite.  Tommy is now big and strong enough for the Ducky Tub!! What a big boy! He doesn't quite know what to think of it just yet. He likes being able to play with toys while bathing but it's much harder for mom and dad to get him clean.  He is a wiggly one (as Grandma Strauser used to say).

Look forward to more color accented photos.  I know you're excited! :)