Happy 3rd birthday!

I'm about a month late, but I wanted to share a few words and pictures from Cayden's birthday on November 19th.

 

The night before his birthday, he did not sleep at ALL - not because he was excited about turning three, but because he was getting sick and coughing incessantly.  I tried EVERYTHING to soothe his cough so he (and I!) could get some sleep, but nothing helped.  Around 2 a.m. he was coughing so hard, he threw up.  Finally, around 3:30, I called the Children's Hospital nurse advice line.  The nurse suggested I give him another dose of albuterol (I had already given him one before I called) as well as a dose of FloVent that we had on hand, but given his history, she suggested I should bring him in to the ER.  My gut feeling was that he didn't need to go, so just to be sure, the nurse paged the on-call doctor to follow up with me by phone. 

I finally spoke to the doctor sometime around 4 a.m.  In the time it took for her to call me back, Cayden's coughing had eased up somewhat, likely in response to the second dose of albuterol and the FloVent, so she felt comfortable telling me that it would be o.k. to wait it out until morning.  Months ago, I had scheduled Cayden's 3-year well-child check up for that afternoon, so worst case, we would see Dr. Rosenberg that afternoon.

I kept him home from preschool that day, but we took Jamison to drop him off at school.  Cayden and I came home and spent the couple of hours at home alone together unwrapping his gifts.  He got an awesome Hess truck and airplane from his Grammy Janene and Poppa Dan, a very cool magnetic puzzle with different colored shapes and designs to copy from Gruncle Don and Graunt Kay, a Magna Doodle from Mommy and Daddy, nice cards with gifts of money from Grandpa Ray, Pau Pau Xian, and Aunt Vicky and Nonna Lena, and cards and letters from Aunt Karin, Uncle Jeff, Tera and Ryan and GG Bea.  He thoroughly enjoyed everything, but I think his favorite item was the singing Elmo birthday card from Grammy and Poppa!

 

 

After he finished tearing into all of the presents and cards, it was time to go pick up Jamison from school.  The three of us had a nice little lunch at home then we all tried to take a nap before leaving to go see Dr. Rosenberg. 

 

Dr. Rosenberg examined Cayden and said he had a nasty respiratory virus, and prescribed Mucinex and continued albuterol and FloVent.  He said Cayden could go to school tomorrow as long as he didn't have a fever (which he never did have).  We had our Nurturing Parenting class that evening, and he said he should be fine to go to that as well.  So after our appointment, we drove across town, had dinner with our Nurturing Parenting class friends, and shared birthday cupcakes with everyone.  Cayden had his after we got home from class:

 

The meds the doctor prescribed worked wonders and Cayden slept well that night!  The next day, he went to preschool and that evening, we met Laura, AKA Aunt Bee, at Gunther Toody's to have a birthday celebration dinner:

Oh, and just to follow up on the rest of Cayden's check up, he weighed 31 lbs. 4.9 oz (which is near the 50th percentile UNadjusted!!) and is 3 feet, 1 inch tall.  :-)

After the birthday celebration came Thanksgiving.  Despite the fact that Daddy wasn't home, we had a nice dinner with my dear friend, Becky, and her husband, Jim, and another friend of hers named Becky.  I think Cayden ate his weight in turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and pie!

Daddy came home on December 16th and Cayden was beyond happy to see him.  We've been enjoying the time together as a family and getting ready for Christmas.  We took the boys to see Santa a couple days ago.  Cayden wasn't shy or afraid, but he didn't ask him for anything specific.  Jamison spoke up for him and asked Santa to bring him a violin (??!!)  and to please bring a banjo for Cayden (??!!)