Early Teether

Sam has been all smiles until this week. He has started teething, and what a difference it has made in his disposition.

The poor guy has not slept from more than 2 hours at a time since Friday, which also means that I have not slept for more than that as well. He has been waking up every 10-20 minutes in pain. Last night I finally brought him into bed with me, and he slept pretty good all cuddled up but I don't sleep well this way, and I do not want him to get into this habit either.

We have tried Tylenol and Baby Orajel, and we are now trying out some natural Teething Tablets but nothing seems to help the poor guy. He enjoys chewing on a cold teether, but it only helps for a little bit. His face and ears are all scratched up from him clawing at himself due to the aches, and he has a stuffy nose now from all the crying. Not to mention the buckets of drool that he produces and coughs on. I feel so bad for him, and I am doing everything I can to keep him happy.

I don't see any teeth yet, but I am pretty sure they will be here soon. I HOPE!

If you have any ideas or remedies, I am all ears. Some friends mentioned Motrin, but its a blood thinner, and the Dr. says due to Sam's clotting issues and his young age, she would like me to steer clear of this until 6 months.

Poor baby! Lets get those chompers out and start being happy again.

UPDATE: Just got back from Urgent care to have Sam checked out. He is fine and healthy. He thought it would be hilarious to make a liar out of me so he played around in the hospital like nothing was wrong. What a turkey. I better get some sleep tonight.

Beating the Heat

How lucky are we?

We have a clean, beautiful lake down the street from our house.

We have a wonderful family and an adorable little boy that is growing so darned fast.

We have great friends that are so much fun to be with.

Our awesome friends have a beach.

We have had beautiful sunny, warm days for weeks.

AND we are not even close to being done with Summer yet!

Matthew "The Machine" Aprecio

Matthew tested for his blue belt on Wednesday, which also happened to be the hottest day in history for Seattle. The gym had no air conditioning. It was stifling. I couldn't help but think that while Sam and I were watching Matt test, we were breathing in other men's sweat. Yuck. Sam really enjoyed watching all the big boys though.The test is a 1.5 hour session of sparring with a new opponent every 5 minutes. This is an exhausting experience, but Matt loved it none the less. He did so good, and made it the whole time without a break. Way to go babe!

His instructor Mike, congratulated him with his new belt after class, and then Sam and I took Matt out to dinner where we met Chris and Tiffany. I had a German chocolate cake made for Matt with his new nickname that Mike gave him. "The Machine." What a perfect name for Matt. He has stuck with Jiu-Jitsu now for a year and a half, and has become really great at it. He has worked hard to heal fast through some pretty traumatic injuries, and attended class after class to improve. Congrats on getting your blue belt Matty...I mean, Machine. :)

Heat Wave

In case you haven't heard, this week has been the hottest on record for the state of Washington. Because its so rare to be in the 90's and 100's here, no one has air conditioning. So we had to take drastic measures to stay cool.

On Monday the Cox family met Sam and I at the beach where we spent lots of time in the water and under the umbrella. Sammy got to use his summer hat, and I was surprised to learn that he loved to be in the cool lake. Although he doesn't look to happy in this picture, I promise you he had a great time.

On Tuesday we spent a lot of our day at Target keeping cool in their air conditioning. The house was just too hot to handle.

The weatherman warned us that Wednesday was supposed to be the hottest day hitting the triple digits so Sarah, Eli, Sam and I met up with Samantha and Chip at the beach again. Here we are in our shades. Chip wore them too!It felt so good to be in the lake and out of the heat.

The nights were the worst. It is so hard to sleep when it doesn't get below 85, but we did our best with what we had. We have one fan that followed us from room to room, and a few ice packs that really came in handy for all of us. Sam fell asleep holding one (not straight out of the freezer, but still cool enough to feel good) and then I laid one on Princess, and she slept with it on her for a while. For the dogs, I would take them into the back and hose them off so that they could cool down a bit. It was pretty miserable for us Washingtonians who are not used to the heat and humidity.

Bring on the cooler weather!