Cleaning and scrubbing will wait ’till tomorrow, but children grow up, as I’ve learned to my sorrow. So quiet down cobwebs! Dust go to sleep! I’m rocking my baby. Babies don’t keep. – Ruth Hamilton

Friday, June 21, 2013

The Watsons Are On Vacation

After weeks/months of preparation, and a few bumps in the road, we are on our way to a well deserved vacation!!!! I will have lots to share about our road trip and our fun family time at Disney when we get back, but for now this family is on vacation!!!





Monday, June 17, 2013

We Keep Going


Here's a little update to explain why there hasn't been any postings since last week...

Mack was released from the hospital on Thursday afternoon! Yippee!

While we were gone, Avery and Lincoln stayed at home. It was sad to not have them, but it was nice to focus on Mack. Mark's mom helped a ton and when she wasn't with them, our babysitter was giving them extra love. I got lots of sweet pictures and they seemed happy-which made being away easier. I'm thankful we could leave them with such special people!

Mark headed back home on Wednesday afternoon to work and get back with the kids...only our newer car wouldn't start! Bad luck huh? Luckily, (after some choice words) Mark had it towed to a local dealership and got it working again. We both decided it couldn't have happened at a worse time! Thankfully he was able to borrow one of my parent's car and got back home.

Mack and I had the care of my mom. She brought us dinner and of course toys for our man. She was also there when we were released. Since the car wasn't done and we got word Lincoln had a fever, we decided to spend one more night in St. Louis. We enjoyed a yummy meal and I had some down time to comprehend what happened.

Mack and I got home on Friday. We had a very quite weekend-with the exception of Mark's parents giving us time to go to dinner. That was the one thing we needed as a couple! It never gets easy having your child go by ambulance to another hospital.

We are happy to be home now!! 

Below are pictures off my phone from the last few days:
This was our ride to St. Louis. He held my hand the whole time!
Lincoln learned to make a pouty face.
Avery and our babysitter went swimming and had a sleep over while Lincoln had his alone time with Papa h. And Nanny!
We spent Saturday morning at the farmers market with some friends and Nanny! They loved the honey ice cream and we got some yummy produce!

And then after a busy/fun Father's Day, we are all sick... Today we spent the day in our pajamas and I tried to find activities. Here is our count down to our trip-I'm hoping it helps with ,"are we going to the castles right now?" 


Hopefully it's just a silly summer cold-I have a call into Mack's doctors to make sure and we just got word one of his cultures did come back positive... I'm keeping positive thoughts because I'm sure this family can't endure much more at this point!!

Friday, June 14, 2013

I'm Giddy!

I'm giddy because I grew our first broccoli.  Not only did we grow it and Google how to harvest it, but our kids loved it!  There was something different about the taste-it was so fresh.  I am giddy because as a child I would have NEVER eaten broccoli...especially right out of a garden.  Yep, everyday I become more of a hippy and I LOVE it! 
 
Happy Gardening!






Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Life Outside Of Our Bubble

We lived out of our bubble for the last few weeks. Mack was living a normal two year old life. We even got news his platelet count went up on Monday!

I said to myself on Monday he wasn't acting like himself. Then on Tuesday he woke up shivering, but no fever. I called the doctor and left a message and went on a run and by the time I came back his temp was up to 101.6. I called again and demanded to talk to someone! I was told to bring him to our local ER...

Meanwhile, our other two kids had little blisters, so I thought they had a staph infection. On top of worrying about Mack, I was trying to figure out if I should get them into a doctor! This was very overwhelming and I was trying to take care of it all by myself-how silly!!!

Mark immediately came home while our nanny-Emily-took care of getting them ready and picking up the house. I drove Mack to the ER while Mark and Emily took the other two to the doctor. They all came back fine with nothing wrong! Mack wasn't so lucky...

His fever kept going up and his doctors wanted him in St. Louis. Off we went in the ambulance! We are here now and so far he has tested positive for parainfluenza. It's a respiratory infection he got from someone else. We will be here until tomorrow if nothing else comes back positive. They have to let cultures grow for at least 24 hours. He's playing today and after two doses of Tylenol, his fever is down!

So no more living outside our bubble...except Disney next week, it's still in our plans. The doctors here have doctors there all ready!!!!









Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Why Do I Complain?

I have always lived by a big city growing up.  When I came to Columbia, I never expected this small town to be my permanent home.  Now after 11 years of living here, it's time to call it my home and embrace its wonderful attributes.

I'm always complaining there is nothing to do here in Columbia.  Whenever we go to St. Louis, I want to move there!!!

There are so many beautiful things to do with kids in big cities.  But, we all know moving is probably a big stretch or something that will happen later in life.

Since excepting this, we have been getting out more here in our town.  The bikes have helped get us on these amazing bike trails-I can't believe it's here in Missouri.

Usually we travel on the weekends, but the past few times we have stayed in town-it's been nice to discover what's around us.  

This weekend, we attended a fun activity at the Children's Hospital.  It's where it all started with Mack.  They had a safe kids event-there were firefighters, police officers, a bounce house, baby ducks, plants to plant, and much more! Plus our good friend orchestrated the whole thing and it was nice to support her!





 A bounce house...huh what a great idea for a kid with low platelets!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  UGG!!!! It was pretty nerve wrecking, but we couldn't tell him no-we just watched like hawks!




 We went home for naps and then at about 3:30 headed to the bike trail.  We rode 6 miles one way-it was fast with so many people.  Papa H., our two friends and their two kids joined us on our journey.  How nice to have lots of people to talk to?





 It was on the Missouri river. Wow!  There were cliff tops you couldn't see the tops-they were so high!  Then this crazy hole in the wall, hippy, camp site was our stopping point.  Lucky us!  What a sight it was.  Then they started up the music and the kids danced!





This is something we have to do again-hopefully adding more to our group!  I even found out it's only a 7 mile bike ride to the winery-hum...sounds like something with adults!!!
 
My point is, no matter where you live, there is so much to see if you except it.  Yes, big cities are fun and full of culture, but there isn't anything like what we saw on this bike ride!!!!

Monday, June 10, 2013

The New Norm For the Summer

My kids have two cousins here in town.  Like I had said in an earlier post, during the past few months they haven't seen each other very much, but that is not the case anymore!  They have been reunited almost everyday since school has been out.  There's nothing like spending time with them!
 We have been to the pool with them (even though it hasn't been warm enough to be at the pool)

 Then we had them out to our house for a BBQ and of course they had to roast some marshmellows!




 What a cute bunch of kids.  They get so excited to see one another.  We went to the park on Friday and they kept waiting to see their cousins, even though I told them they weren't coming.  It's going to be great to be at the pool this summer together.
Now, we just need it to warm up a little bit to get them to the pool.  The one day we went Mack was able to play with his trucks and get his legs in the water.  He might be able to go with us most days until he gets sick of not being able to get all the way in.