The Dust Finally Settles

It's April 28th and I've been back to work since April 2nd. I feel like it's been an eternity since I started. I'm enjoying my job and I work with some great people. Things are really starting to click. Along this back to work road Robbie and I have had some kinks thrown in the rotation. Andrew started daycare, got sick and decided that he wanted to sleep like a 6 month old. We've come a long way baby!

Andrew is s..l..o..w..l..y starting to get back to "Andrew pre daycare days". We're still having problems with him going down to sleep and getting up at least once in the night. Friday night marked the first night he slept until 6:10am. While some of you are screaming that's early (yes, I know it's early, I haven't lost all of my faculties), but it's a whole heckuva lot later than 1:45 or 4:00 am. Do they have a child whisperer? I don't want Nanny 911 or whatever she's called b/c she'd hate me and I'd end up beating her! We're making progress and I'm going to keep on pressing. His big boy furniture arrives on Sunday. Maybe that will make the difference. We shall see.

As for daycare... Andrew seems to really like it now. He's had a few days where he jumped right down and went on his merry way. Friday he had a little set back. You wanna know why? Well his sweet teacher, Ms. Michelle, is on vacation. Andrew got upset b/c Ms. Michelle wasn't there. How's that for ya? He talks of Ms. Michelle, Ms. Sharon, Ms. Veena and Jenny all the time now. Jenny is one of the school's pet bunnies. She's fat and fluffy and Andrew loves her. Andrew can tell you the name of every child and grown-up at school now. Drum roll please.... he has a new girlfriend. Her name is Emma Grace and she's 4 going on 5 soon. My son is a high roller, eh? She happens to be in Bailey's class at school. I'm not too sure how Bailey is going to react to her best boy loving on one of her friends. I have a feeling the claws will come out. Other than girlfriends Andrew has made some wonderful buddies. I believe his class is all boys right now, which means they keep his teacher(s) on the go. Ethan is a big hit! I've not met him, but Andrew speaks of him often. There must be a little boy named Jack at school. Each day Andrew comes home he says, "Jack cry. Don't cry Jack." I'm willing to bet Jack is new and my precious child is trying to help him cope.

We get report cards each day of what Andrew accomplished throughout the day. I've got more than enough art projects now. We may need another refrigerator to hold them all. I love that he counts and his favorite #s now are 4 and 9. He sings the Itsy Bitsy Spider and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star all the time, which melts my heart. Twinkle Twinkle used to start off as Tickle Tickle Liddle Star, but we've mastered the word twinkle and little now. Every day one of his teachers remarks how wonderful Andrew's vocabulary is. I can honestly say Robbie and I haven't done anything extra special in regards to his vocabulary. My child really is a sponge and listens to what he hears. What's even more amazing is that he knows how to use his words. **NOTE** All of you who come in contact with Andrew MUST keep all language G rated for the sake of not embarrassing us. We've already had the F.A.R.T word blurted out at church. Nice, right? I'm sure I turned a shade of red that Crayola hasn't marketed yet.

Well I think I've left you all with plenty to digest. We're here and alive just slower since I don't have a lot of down time anymore.

Robbie and I are off to Phoenix, AZ next week for our anniversary. I hope to catch up on some much needed sleep and have a relaxing time.

I'll get some pictures up too.

Stay Tuned...

New post coming soon. I promise!

It's Been A Long Time

since I've posted about the comings and goings of the Perry family. It would take an enormous amount of space to write everything so I'm going to give you all the cliff notes version.

Week of March 26-31:
Monday - Andrew went to 1/2 day daycare. Rough day, but he made it.

Tuesday - Same as Monday

Wednesday - ditto

Thursday - Daycare 1/2 day and the allergies KICK in full gear. Thanks pollen!

Friday - 1/2 day daycare and the eyes are watering like crazy. Hmm, allergies or could it be PINK EYE? After much debating we call the afterhours nurse and she calls in a prescription just in case it's pink eye. This throws the Perry family into a tailspin simply because we have fabulous friends who are planning on coming from out of town to celebrate Andrew's 2nd birthday on Saturday. If he's got pink eye he's very much contagious. What do we do? I contacted those FABU friends and tell them what's going on and ask them to make the best decision for their families. Heaven knows it would stink to catch possible "pink eye" or come to a party where the b-day boy isn't there.

Saturday - Andrew wakes up, the eye is clear (no goop), he seems to be feeling ok, so we decide he will attend his party afterall. I must say his party was a ton of fun and it seemed that everyone there had a good time. At least I hope so! Fast forward to Saturday night... Mommy is feeling like crud now. Oh boy!

Sunday - Happy 2nd B-day Andrew! We get up and go to church. Nothing too out of the ordinary for the Perry clan. Mommy feels like she's been run over by a freight train, but it's nothing a little rest won't cure. Nonnie takes all of us out for dinner to celebrate Andrew's b-day. Andrew wants pizza so off to Pizza Inn for some delicious pizza and pizzert! WOO HOO!

Week of April 2 - 8:
Monday - Mommy's first day at her new job. Andrew's 1st week of full time daycare. Ring ring... Hello? Hi, this is Little Treasures. Andrew's legs and bottom have broken out in a rash while we were outside playing. We need you to come get him. Unfortunately we didn't get the msg. until hours later. Robbie calls LT and the rash has mysteriously gone away once they come inside. Hmmmm? He makes it through the day and so does Mommy, who still feels like crud.

Tuesday - 2nd day of work for Mommy. Still feeling bad and it ain't getting any better. Andrew goes to daycare. Ring ring... Hello? Hi, this is Little Treasures. Andrew has broken out in the rash again. We need you to come and get him and take him to the doctor to have it checked out. Robbie (being the saint he is) takes Andrew in at 1:20 to Apex Peds. What do you know!?!?! The rash is gone and they have NO clue what could have caused it or anything. They check my boy over and everything seems to be clear.

Wednesday - Day 3 of work. Feeling bad has reached an all time high. For those who know me, you know I rarely get sick. If I say I don't feel good then it truly means I don't feel good. I go to the minute clinic at lunch to get some meds to help clear up what has now turned into a sinus infection. Andrew wakes up and is burning up with a fever. Nonnie graciously watches him so Daddy can get some work done and Mommy can go to work. At one point his temperature reaches 103. No school for him today. This is the start of bad things to come. He proceeds to have a horrible cough and a major runny nose.

Thursday - Daycare is closed for a teacher workday. Daddy stays home to watch Andrew who is still feeling under the weather. Andrew proceeds to sleep most of the day away and is rather lethargic. We dose him up on Tylenol and Sudafed. Mommy doesn't feel any better either.

Friday - Mommy is off work today for Good Friday. Andrew still isn't right. It's time for the doctor. One phone call to Apex Peds and Mommy quickly learns that for some reason this office has decided to take the day off. **Side note** the people at Cary Peds have to be the rudest bunch of folks this side of the Mississippi! Disgruntled doesn't even tap the surface of their issues. I'm informed that they have no appointments left for today (keep it mind it's only 11:00am) and if I want him to be seen tomorrow I'll have to call back at 8:00am OR take him to urgent care. It didn't take me long to figure I didn't want one of those schmucks tending to my son's needs. We go to urgent care, wait 15 min and the doctor checks him out. It takes her a matter of 2 seconds to see what his problem is. Ear Infection! The right ear drum is bulging so sayeth the doctor. Hmmm, weren't his ears completely clear on Tuesday? It's Friday and now we have a bulging ear drum? Nonetheless she gives us an antibiotic to help clear the problem.

Saturday and Sunday - nothing exciting except the whole house doesn't feel well. Robbie has started feeling like crud too! Happy Resurrection day! He is Risen!

Week of April 9 - today:
Monday - Andrew does well at school. He's starting to feel better as proven by how he is acting. Mommy feels a ton better too! Daddy on the other hand does not. Today marks the first FULL day Andrew makes it through school with no issues and he even takes a nap at school.

Tuesday - Andrew and Mommy both on the mend. Daddy still feeling like crud. Daycare goes well too. FF to Tuesday night... Andrew for some reason decides to wake up at 4:00 am screaming for us. Sleep is not on our side tonight. Andrew refuses to go back to bed. I end up on the couch with him watching Dora trying to lull him back to sleep. We get maybe an hour of sleep.

Wednesday - Good day for both Andrew and Mommy! Yippee! FF to bedtime... Andrew decides to get up at 2:00 am screaming for us. He won't go back to sleep and is frightened we're not going to come and get him. After a few hours of trying to get him back to sleep we put him in his crib. He screams at the top of his lungs and the next thing we hear is a loud thud. It sounds like a crater has hit the house. If you guessed Andrew climbed out of his crib, you win! Great, this has never happened before and now isn't the time for it. No sleep for this house!

Thursday - A very sleep deprived Mommy goes to work. Andrew goes to school. Good day all around! FF to bedtime... second verse same as the first... up at 2am, this time he goes head first out of his crib. He won't go back to sleep no matter what we do. I finally figure since he naps at school on a mat, we'll try something similar. Andrew and I cuddle up on his bedroom floor and fall asleep. It wasn't good sleep, but it was sleep.

Friday - Good day at school, supposedly his best of the week. Mommy has a good day at work too. Plus it's pay day for her! WOO HOO! FF to bedtime... we just keep repeating verses at this point. He does make it too 4:00 am, but all week he's progressively fought going to bed. He didn't go down until 10:00 pm. Our wake-up call this time is the crater hitting the house thud. He's gone AWOL again! Robbie takes him into the spare room, which will become his big boy room soon and gets in the bed with him. They sleep until 6:40 or so.

Saturday - Mommy gets her hair done! Thank the Lord! Robbie plays golf. After Mommy's hair appt she picks Andrew and Nonnie up and they go shopping for big boy furniture. After 4 hours of shopping Andrew will be the owner of big boy furniture in 7-10 business days. Mommy and Nonnie even went to the mall and bought his big boy bedding, which is competely cute! Bedtime = 8:00am when he fell asleep in the car. Andrew wakes up at 10:00pm. Mommy and Andrew get in the spare room bed and sleep until 4:00. Andrew thinks it's time to get up and wants to watch Dora. We're cracking down on this, so he and I go on the couch and sit in the dark until he finally figures I'm not caving in. He dozes off as does Mommy. We get up at 7:15 on Sunday morning.

Sunday - Mommy makes peach pancakes and we get ready for church. Daddy is going to be baptized today. It's a big day for the Perry family. Praise the Lord we're all on the mend. Andrew still has a cough, but we think the ear infection is gone. Now we need to work on sleep time.

I told you this would be long and it has been a long time since I've posted. Hopefully I can master work, blogging and getting Andrew more comfortable with his new situation. Separation anxiety stinks!

Love to all our fans who have stuck with us even though we've been "gone too long". John Mayer once sang, "I've been gone too long, I'm sorry. I've been gone too long, I hope you don't mind. I've been gone too long, I'm sorry."