Where has all the time gone?

WOW! I can't believe my last post was two whole weeks ago!! How time flies...Here's an update as to what the Allen clan has been up to over the last couple of weeks!

On January 7th, Mommy, Daddy and Mali headed for Lubbock again to visit Dr. Feist! He's our special doctor that helped Monkey get better from being SO darn sick earlier this year (okay...actually I guess it was LATE last year...hmmm, it is January already isn't it?) Anyway, we headed out a little bit early so we could go eat lunch at our favorite spot in Lubbock, EL CHICO! It's the BEST Mexican food and Mommy and Daddy used to eat there almost EVERY Friday when they went to Tech! AHHHH...Memories! Anyway, Malachi sat down with mommy and ate his lunch while mommy and daddy were waiting on theirs. Then, he laid down in the booth next to daddy while we got to eat! It was fun! We got to the Dr.'s office a little before our appointment and we actually got in a little early! When was the last time you went to a doctor's office a little early and actually GOT IN a little early? I told you, they're GREAT! Dr. Feist came in and Malachi was ALL GIGGLES! He laughed and was talking and playing! Those are definitely things we're glad to see again! They weighed him and he only weighed 16 lbs, so we were a little disappointed, but, the Dr. was thrilled that he was gaining as quickly as he was! We left the office about 10 minutes later and were told we don't even have to come back anymore!! YEA - that's SUPER exciting!

We had a fun weekend hanging out with Lolli and Pops (as usual) and then started our week last week. Everything was going really well until last Wednesday when we noticed a rash on Malachi's belly while we were getting him dressed for daycare. We thought it was just a contact rash - he wasn't running fever, had been playing all morning and didn't act like he felt badly. So, we took him to daycare, told them we noticed a small rash and asked them to call us if it got any worse. Less than an hour later, Lolli called and said that his rash had spread up his tummy, onto his chest and down onto his legs. Back to Dr. Young's office we go. They couldn't get him in until 4:30 that afternoon and Thomas and I have NO leave left at work since he's been so sick so Lolli took him home with her and watched him all day. He still acted okay, but he did start running a fever. I had a meeting that afternoon at 4:00 so I couldn't take him to the Dr. so it was Lolli to the rescue again. She took him and after a 2 HOUR VISIT, they told her they thought he had Strep, even though the rapid Strep test came back negative. They also mentioned that his Oxygen level was 93 so we went BACK on breathing treatments.

Thursday, I went into work for a little while and Thomas stayed home so I could get some things rounded up. I came home around 10 and Thomas went into work. We had a pretty good day at home just chilling out. Malachi acted OK, not perfect, but not horrible. I didn't notice a fever all day, but we kept him on a Tylenol/Motrin rotation every 4-6 hours just in case. Then, Thursday night, Thomas and I had a dinner to go to for my job so we got ready to take Malachi to Lolli and Pops' house for a couple of hours. Needless to say, when we picked him up to change his clothes he was BURNING UP. So, I took his temperature and it was 102.6. Yeah...that's a fever. I immediately stripped him down, gave him a lukewarm lavender bath and kept his head wet for about an hour after that to bring his temp down. It came down pretty quickly and he slept okay that night. I, on the other hand, spent about 3-4 hours scrubbing EVERY surface of his room. I scrubbed walls, baseboards, dusted every inch, I even cleaned his bumper pads and took them off of his bed. I got rid of anything that could be harboring germs (even though he didn't really have a lot to begin with) and we scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed. I'm tired of this sickness crap. I even went to my parents' house to get more Lysol to spray! I felt better about putting him in his room after that! Thomas stayed home Friday with him and then we spent the ENTIRE weekend indoors except for Sunday morning when we went to church. He stopped running fever on Friday afternoon and is overall acting like he feels pretty well! Maybe we've kicked it! (BTW - it WASN'T Strep the test results came back negative on the 2nd test too..I guess it was just some kind of virus!)

On a more happy note, Malachi is SO chunking up and is SO finding his voice. He's rolling ALL OVER the place and pushing up and kicking his legs to get around. It won't be anytime at all before he's crawling. I can't believe how quickly he's taken off now that he feels better! He's sitting up on his own for a long time (even though he still topples sometimes)! He gets his pictures made Saturday and we are SO excited. He was supposed to have these made 2 months ago, but as sick as he's been we haven't been able to! Oh well...I don't guess life will EVER go as planned and I might as well let go of that now!

In the meantime...here's some of the newest pictures we have of our little sweetheart! We're so happy God gave him to us!!

These first pictures are of Malachi in his new high chair! We figured it was time we put it together since he pretty much tries to sit up in his bouncy! (I guess that's off to storage now!!)

First Time in My New High Chair!

Enjoying a Teething Biscuit!

There's a story behind these next 2 pictures. If you'll notice, Malachi has something yellow all over his hands, all over his face, and, sadly, all over the carpet. What is this yellow substance? It's cake icing off a cookie cake daddy got mommy yesterday! I got up this morning and fed Malachi a bottle. Then, he was playing in the floor while I went to get his clothes. I had put a piece of cookie cake about 3 feet away on the floor and was going to eat it while I got him dressed for the day! (I know...really healthy right?) Anyway, while I was in his bedroom I noticed that things were quiet when 5 seconds before he had been talking and yelling and playing. This will be the first of MANY times when I KNOW something is wrong because I don't HEAR my child making noise! haha Anyway, I walked back in to find that he had rolled to my cookie, stuck his hands in it and started eating away! What are you gonna do but laugh? It's my own fault! I've now learned my lesson that he can get to ANYTHING he wants to! On another note, he was actually scooting on his tummy and pulling himself to get to the cookie AFTER I took it away from him! It won't be long AT ALL before he's crawling!

BUSTED!

Oh what FUN we're about to get into!! Guess we better get that baby gate bought huh???