busy busy busy

This is a busy week for us! We ALL now have caught Jack's cold...and are feeling a little crummy. Tomorrow, Davis starts 4K pre-school, and Drew starts on Wednesday! They are both so excited!! Also, on Wednesday, Drew goes for allergy testing. I hope that he isn't allergic to too much, and will be so relieved not to have to wonder what he might be allergic to anymore. Those hives scared me!

Rock Star

Daddy: "Drew, did you sleep good?"

Drew: "Yes, I dream"

Daddy: "Really? What did you dream about?"

Drew: "I was a ROCK STAR!"

Daddy: "WOW, that's cool!"

Drew: "Yeah, I was on DVD in the play room, I was a ROCK STAR playing music!"

SO FUNNY!! A few days ago, this was the conversation that I overheard. Laughing to myself, I tried to imagine in my head first of all where this came from, and secondly, what does that scene look like in a 2 year old's head??? Does he look like himself? Is he dressed up? Is he playing a guitar? Does he have on a diaper?? Here's my boy, rockin' out to "All the Single Ladies"...one of his favorite songs!

Ball Dog...

Boys love to play ball. Dogs love to play with balls...my children, mostly Jack, have taught Marley, our 6 month old golden retriever, how to be a "ball dog." Jackson throws the ball in the air, usually a tennis ball, and then hits it with the bat into the cul-de-sac and up the hill. Marley takes off running for it, and will most of the time, bring it back. So cute! It's great exercise for all of them, and they think it's so fun!

Can't you just see the anticipation in Marley's eyes and posture??? She can't wait to catch the next ball!

and of course....Marley is still Davis's dog! He definately pays her the most attention and loves on her the most. He's also the roughest with her! They sure are buddies though!

The Lake

We went on the lake a few weekends ago with some friends. The kids had a blast and really enjoyed being out on the water...despite the fact that we got caught in a big rain storm! Thank goodness for the cover on the boat! Davis's favorite part was driving the boat...look out! We are in trouble!

I love this boy!

This is the face that I get when I ask Davis to let me take his picture...

This is the face that I am trying to capture! I love this boy!

1st Day of School

** UPDATE **

Jackson had a great day at school, and said that it was much better than he was expecting! He's happy, and likes his class!

Today, along with the rest of our area, Jackson started school. He is in the 2nd grade, and I know that I will say this each year, but when we went outside for his first day of school pictures, he looks SO grown up! I just can't believe it! He met his teacher yesterday, and she has been teaching for 32 years. She seems really nice and I think will be a good fit for Jackson. It was so hard this morning to look in the rear view mirror and watch my sweet seven year old hold back tears from his nerves.

Can't you just see the excitement in his eyes? My poor little Jack was just so nervous this morning. I have all the confidence in the world that he will do great this year, he will love school, and he will love his teacher...it just takes him a few days to warm up to it all and get used to this new part of his life. Thankfully, he let me get a few snapshots of him walking out the door...he hates it, I know, but these are moments that I can't stand to miss capturing! He'll thank me one day, won't he?

Training Update

I am several weeks into my training now for the AVON Walk for Breast Cancer. Beth has been a Godsend to me, as she is a wonderful conversationalist, and helps me to forget that we have been walking for hours on end...this was very apparent on Sunday when we walked 14 miles in 4 hours. We left at about 5:30am, walked ALL over town, and at about mile 8, returned to her house where my car was parked, grabbed some cool drinks, and changed our socks. We also saw her neighbors, getting their newspaper. Several miles later, we saw the saame neighbors across town at a lake where we were both walking...when we returned to her house at the end of our walk, the same neighbors had returned home, showered, and were driving most likely to church, all the while, we were still walking!!!! Wow...walking takes up a lot of time! We walked 21 miles last weekend, and it wasn't too bad. I did get my first blister on the bottom of my baby toe, but not much for 21 miles of distance!

In addition, I am incredibly overwhelmed by the support I have received, and the donations. I am almost at my fundraising goal, and so grateful to each of the families and individuals who have made donations on my behalf. THANK YOU ALL!!! However, Beth and I are a team, adn we both have to raise the money, so the fundraising challenge isn't over yet. Also, I am thankful for my supportive family. My husband has been great about watching the boys while I am out, and we all know that it is a huge time commitment to walk this much! Thank you also to my mom who has given me tons of training tips, and thanks to all of my friends and family who have said that they are proud of me. I really do appreciate it!

On a funnier note, Beth and I don't ever run out of things to say. It's quite funny to think about all of the things that come up in conversation over the course of a 4 hour walk! Kids, family, marriage, cooking, work, school, friends, weather, training, exercise, tv, books, recipes, crafts, and anything else you could imagine! Such fun to have a girl-friend to share this with! We are both excited about experiencing the event. It is supposed to be a very moving experience, and I can already tell that it will be, and is, as I am training and hearing the amazing stories of survival and fighting of incredible women and their families. In fact, just this weekend, as we were getting tired and complaining, about mile 10, Beth said "everytime I do this, I just think about how much easier this is than all of those women getting chemo" and she is so right, not just those getting chemo, but also those getting chemo, fighting for their lives, and also training for this walk. God bless them all!

Finally a break!

Finally, Drew started on steroids today, and he is showing some improvement, actually, remarkable improvement. Here's what we know. It is definately hives, probably an allergy, maybe a syndrome, but either way, the course of treatment is the same. He is on a mega dose of both Zyrtec and Orapred, and although the Zyrtec should make him sleepy, especially at that dose, the Orapred has taken over my little boy. Now I know where the phrase "climbing the walls" comes from. This afternoon, he climbed up ontop of the kitchen counter to get bubble gum off of the TOP shelf of the cabinet. He was STANDING on the counters...later, he was climbing the outside of the staircase, and he's running circles around us all. No nap today either...just lots of energy, a HUGE appetite and itching, which is finally starting to ease. We will go to the doctor in a week and see how he's improved. Today, when the pediatrician came in the room, the sight of Drew literally stopped him in his tracks. The nurses didn't know what to say, people were staring, and avoiding us. Poor little guy. I can't imagine being like that all the time. How sad. I certainly have learned a little from this experience too, and will be more careful of my own eyes and those of my children when we see someone who looks different. At least this isn't contagious. For now, we have to continue to watch him, and take note of anything different in his exposure or diet that might be a trigger. The only thing we can think of as a possibility is either something in the air (a pollen or weed or something) or black olives, which he tried for the first time last week, and sadly, LOVED...sadly because we won't let him have them again for quite a while till we get to the bottom of this. Hopefully, it's just an allergy, and not a syndrome. The doctor got out a textbook, and showed me some pretty alarming pictures, many of which looked similar to Drew, and named a bunch of complicated things that this could be. For now, we take the steriods, aviod outside (for fear of more bug bites), continue Zyrtec, and watch him like a hawk. Thanks to everyone for your well wishes and suggestions!

HIVES!!!

Oooowwww! This was from last night...Poor little Drew got bit by at least 34 mosquitoes (I lost count after that...maybe fewer of those pesky little bugs bit him, but he has at least 34 bites...) last Sunday. He has been itching those terribly all week. On Thursday, he started getting small red welts on his chest, on Friday much worse...fast forward several days and it's uncontrollable. He has at least doubled the number of hives everyday, and now, his face is COVERED! He has them on his back, arms, hands, chest, butt, face, head, neck...just about everywhere! He is itching like crazy, and now has nasty scabs and scrapes all over his face and body. We went to the peditrician on Sunday, and she suggested that maybe it was a delayed allergic reaction to the bits, just try Benadryl every 6 hours. Well, needless to say, we've been using Benadryl since Thursday, and that's not working. Yesterday, I sought a second opinion by a dermatologist. He wasn't my favorite doctor I've ever been too and had not so good bedside manner. I left with a prescription of some steriod ointment for the bites, over the counter Zyrtec for the hives, and not much else. I was not impressed.

Here is what he looked like this morning! The pictures just do not do it justice, and he looks and feels terrible! His eyes were almost swollen shut, and the scrapes are all over his face where he's been itching. We are heading back to the pediatrician today, to see another doctor, and hoping to get some steroids to stop the hives from spreading. He is irritable and in pain. It's just pittiful.

Website and the end of summer

YEAH! My new website just launched last week www.andreaberryphotography.com and I am thrilled to finally have it running! It took a lot of work, and a lot of adorable children whose parents allowed me to use their photos online to get it going. Check it out and let me know what you think! This has also kept me very busy. I had 3 sessions last week, and 2 the week before, and even have a few people booked into November. I love it, but it is time consuming!

We went to Charleston last weekend, because I had several clients to shoot for, and we decided to take the boys to the beach. They had lots of fun, and we had perfect weather for the beach. Whenever we go back, we always miss it, even though when we lived there, we hardly enjoyed the beach or the scenery! Oh well.

Now we are trying to enjoy the last few days of summer. School starts next week for Jack and the first week of September for the other boys. I am looking forward to having a routine again, and early bedtimes...

Website

I have been so busy over the weekend with my new photography website! Stay tuned. It's so much more than what I had before. I'm really excited, and the kids made a few appearances, so they were happy too!

Not much else is new on the homefront, except for the fact that boys will be boys, and Drew is learning to throw quite a punch. He has suddenly become very physical, and likes to hit when he doesn't get his way, and he can hit hard. Can I blame him though? Not really, he is the youngest of 3 boys, so he has learned to be tough. He's just trying to fend for himself in a house full of boys!