Our Trip to the Zoo

We met Grandma Earlene at the North Carolina Zoo in Asheboro today. We had a great time. We are all a little sunburned and definitely tired from such a long walk across and then back across the zoo.

Yay Grandma is here!

Most of the animals weren't moving around a lot. Evan didn't really pay much attention to them unless they were in action. The giraffes were just standing around...

The lion and his cubs were just lazing in the shade. The cubs were cute.

We brought our own lunch. PB&J! The perfect traveling food.

Drew sat in the stroller an enjoyed the ride and also took a short nap.

Bison just stood around and ate grass.

Owl slept.

Polar Bear slept.

This is Evan checking out the playground at the zoo. I don't have a picture but all the equipment looks like giant plants and flowers.

Now here is where we finally had some action. This tortoise walked 5 feet for us.

It blew Evan away.

Really though, Evan was most impressed by the sea lions. They were swimming laps with their eyes closed, enjoying the moment I suppose. They are very graceful streaming through the water.

Evan never used to wear hats. He disliked them. One day though, he saw me putting Drew's hat on and started saying "hat!" So I brought out another winter cap he would never wear and made a big deal about "Evan's hat!" So now Evan will wear hats. He loves looking at himself in the mirror with a hat on. When he is wearing a hat, occasionally he will reach up just to confirm it is still on his head. Grandma bought him this cap and he wore it all day and didn't take it off until we told him it was bath time.

Me pretty hot and sweaty, taking a break. Drew is also hot and very tired and hungry. So he just decided to get away from it all and sleep all the way back to the car.

A New Baby and Some Pictures

Evan enjoying some oatmeal. It always gets a little messy.

Drew having tummy time.

Cute close-up.

Handsome boy.

Floor play-time.

Evan saying "oooooooooooooooo"

Fun with Evan's new musical dolphins.

Look at my binkie!

Evan's playmate, Penelope...

Has a new baby sister Abigail! Welcome to Abigail!

Drew for You

Evan is finally recovering and plumping up, thank goodness. We only just got him eating regular food today. He was pretty happy to have his milk back. In the meantime, here is a cute picture of Drew for you all. We are meeting Grandma Earlene at the NC Zoo next weekend, so we will have a lot of fun pictures for you after that.

Worst. Easter. Ever.

Little did we know that when we traveled to my parents' house for Easter we brought with us an evil so vile, none of us shall ever forget it. We brought some kind of stomach virus that wiped out most of the men folk in the family. It led to 2 trips, 3 days and 1 night in the hospital. This is almost a year to date from our last hospital stay for a previous stomach virus!


First though, some Easter festivities we had on Friday.

Showing Evan how it works. He just wanted to get to it himself!

Concentrate...

Concentrate...

Dad making Drew smile.

Saturday early morning, Evan started throwing up and didn't stop all day. He threw up about 3 times an hour on average. Finally at 4 o'clock in the afternoon we took him to Urgent Care. They place him on an IV and gave him some glucose and some anti-nausea medication. He later needed another dose of anti-nausea medication. His blood tests revealed he had acidosis from throwing up all day long. Because of this he had to be admitted to INOVA Fairfax Women's and Children's Hospital. We arrived there around 11pm and me and my Mom left Evan and James around 12:30am, Sunday. Only one parent could stay the night with their child and Drew needed me with him so James stayed. It was very hard to leave Evan like that. At that point he had not slept all day and was completely exhausted. Once he was hooked up and checked out he fell asleep and slept very well with his Dad by his side the rest of the night.


The next day they kept him on fluids and on a liquid diet. He didn't want to eat or drink any of the things they brought though. He doesn't like Ginger Ale and won't even think about touching Jello. So he really only ended up having apple juice all day. They released us on Easter evening around 5pm. We went home and Evan had a simple meal of applesauce and Cheerios and we planned to drive home to Raleigh the next day.


Unfortunately we woke to Evan throwing up AGAIN Monday morning. He was trembling, ashen and very weak. So we whisked him off to the ER at INOVA where they again put him on an IV. They found his blood sugar to be very low, 35 mg. So they gave him some glucose in his IV as well as some more anti-nausea medication. They couldn't figure out why his blood sugar was so low when he had been taking in Gatorade and some food the day before. After all was said and done and I consulted Evan's pediatrician, he hypothesized that Evan may have ketotic hypoglycemia. However there have to be some blood and fluid tests to confirm this. If this is the case it only means that when Evan gets a stomach bug we can't let it run its course, we must stop his vomiting as soon as possible. He also would out grow it around age 5 or so.


After Evan did well and got some sleep at the ER they released us around 3pm on Monday. However when we got home he started throwing up AGAIN! We all couldn't believe it. Thank goodness the ER sent us home with the anti-nausea medication, Zofran and I gave Evan some of that. He was able to keep some food down and then get a night's sleep. The next morning he ate a mild breakfast and I gave him some more Zofran to keep him from throwing up and get his blood sugar stable when we drove home.


We are home in Raleigh and Evan is sleeping soundly in bed after a dinner of oatmeal. I think he is very happy to be in his own bed again.


Drew was such a good baby throughout this ordeal. He was jolly and smiling to all the hospital staff and he generally was just happy to be hanging out with everyone. He is pretty tired too though.


Unfortunately James and my Dad caught the virus and on Sunday night they both were up most of the night with the illness. In fact they are STILL feeling some effects from it. It was a very very nasty bug.


My parents were so great through all this and it made it so much easier to be with them during this awful experience. I told James I have never had an IV until I had Evan and he has had 2 hospital stays that required it in his short little life! I am glad we may have pinpointed the problem now though and can prevent any hospital visits in the future.

These are cell phone pictures because I didn't bring my camera to the hospital. Evan in Urgent Care. He later tossed all this up.

In the hospital on Sunday.

Evan got very good at only having one hand to drink out of his sippy cup and play with a toy car the Easter Bunny brought him in the hospital. He actually started keeping things on the right side of his head so he could reach over and grab what he wanted.

Poor baby.

Drew on Sunday night, tuckered out.

Play Group Easter Egg Hunt

Here is Drew held by a friend for our play group Easter Egg hunt. Drew is just starting to laugh and the sound is hilarious. Almost like he is having trouble breathing.

Evan looking so spiffy! No dressing up for actual Easter though b/c it is going to be 40 degrees in VA and we are driving home that day. booo.

Found an egg.

First M&Ms. He loved them.

They have a great little train that runs around the whole park and makes all the steam and train noises. Evan loved it and he was crushed when we had to get off