It's Amazing!

I am forcing myself to take a break from these pesky papers that I have due this Sunday to recap yet another awesome weekend for the Mandell household. While we did not spend the weekend together as a family, we all had such an amazing time. Justin went to Pittsburgh with my family to watch the Red Sox play a few baseball games. The group that went saw a game Saturday night and Sunday during the day. Justin wined, dined, and gambled all while building a better relationship with the McCabe's. From what I hear it was an amazing weekend filled with fun, sun, and a one armed waitress my cousin might have taken a liking to.
The boys left for Pittsburgh Saturday morning and Ethan and I finally saw Justin Monday night.
Here is a picture of the boys before one of the games:

In the picture: my grandfather (Heap), my two cousins (CJ and Mac), my brother (Marc), my uncles (Bill and Chris), my dad (Jim), and my adorable Red Sox hat wearing husband (Justin).

Ethan and I hung out with my mom in Lynchburg for the weekend. The whole plan was to take Ethan to Amazement Square in downtown Lynchburg. He loved going there. There were so many things for him to do. He was mostly interested in playing with blocks, balls, and they even had a "river" inside where he was able to let boats float in water, play with the water, and eventually end up wearing the water. It was a good time and by the time we left, I was exhausted, my mom was exhausted, and Ethan threw a tantrum because he was NOT ready to go (surprise, surprise). When we got into the car, he fell asleep within the first three minutes. So I know he definitely had a great time.

Some pictures of our adventure:

Ethan on the Johnny D tractor located on the "farm"

 Ethan playing with the blocks. He really just wanted to put them away after another child was finished with them

 Ethan playing with some fruit

 Ethan standing on some life sized building blocks

 Notice the shirt? The result of the "river"

 Ethan checking out the boats with GG

 Ethan opening up the dam to let the water and boats go through

All in all it was a good Saturday. We went to amazement square, ran some errands, and had a girls night to include dinner at my mom's with my grandmother, cousin, mom, and aunt.

There was one downside to the weekend. Saturday morning Ethan woke up with a little bit of a rash on his face. I did not really think much of it because he was acting like his normal self. It seemed to subside as the day went on and we just attributed the rash to a little irritation from the detergent on a towel that he used Friday night after his bath. Well, we were wrong. On Sunday morning this is what I woke up to:

Ethan not only had a full blown rash on his face but it was now EVERYWHERE. It was on his back, stomach, feet, hands, ears, EVERYWHERE. I gave him a dose of Benedryl hoping it would help and when we made it back to Hampton I even bathed him in Aveeno oatmeal wash. Nothing seemed to help. We finally ended up going to talk to a pharmacist and were told it might be a reaction to the amoxacillin Ethan had to take for his double ear infection he had the week before. So I did not give him his last dose of the antibiotic and we went about our normal routine for the night. I dropped Ethan off at school the next day and of course he did not make it through the entire day. I got a call letting me know he was now wheezing. Well fear started to set it that something more serious might be wrong and since it was too late to make an appointment with his PCP, we ended up in the ER. Ethan took it well and eventually it was concluded it was probably just a reaction to the amoxacillin, it might be fifths disease, or it might be something more serious but since he did not have a fever and was acting as normal as ever, we could disregard the more serious diagnosis unless his symptoms changed. So he received a breathing treatment for the wheezing, he is now on a steroid to make the rash go away, and he is taking Zyrtec. I am also happy to report the rash is slowly going away and he does not look as "scary" as some people treated him the other day.

All in all from these pictures you can tell Ethan did not mind being in the ER and had a great time!

So that is what the Mandell's have been up to the last few days. A lot of fun, a little sickness, and now a lot of writing!

Until next time...