Midnight Musings

Evan is looking like he may very well be left handed. The lady who keeps him during the day mentioned that she thought he was favoring his left hand and we noticed today that he was reaching for things fairly consistently with his left hand. That rocks. Lefties RULE!

Evan started being really congested in his nose yesterday and then today started running a fever. He had been a little fussy this morning, so we decided the 99 degree temp wasn't worth keeping him home for. Just after lunch I get a call from Kim telling me that he was up to 101 and she couldn't get off easily to pick him up and take him to the doctor. I was perfectly happy to skip fourth block and go take him to the doctor. I took him to Dr. Battle, the relatively new pediatrician here in town, instead of Dr. Childers in Douglas. I was really impressed with her. She was a lot better about letting you know what she was thinking, why, and what she was doing about it and why. Kim and I are probably going to switch to her being Evan's regular doctor from now on just because I'm happy with her and she's about 35 miles closer to us.

But for those of you getting annoyed by the fact that I haven't gotten around to what's wrong with Evan, it's nothing big. The doctor thinks it's just a virus. His ears were fine (one of the girls at his daycare had a bad ear infection) and his lungs were clear, so it was all in his sinuses. She irrigated his sinuses and had me do the other side to make sure I knew how to do it at home. That was all he needed. He's still stuffy and we're having to irrigate occassionally, but the fever is down a bit, so unless he gets worse, he'll be fine.

He's actually been an amazingly happy sick baby. He's still smiling and playing, although he's not as active as he normally is and he's sleeping more, but that's not really a complaint. I really can't say that he's any fussier with a 100+ fever and trouble breathing than he is with a normal temp and clear breathing passages.

Evan had his first camping experience this past weekend. Not only was it camping, it was also primitive camping. Kim and I went camping with our college friends and in college we always went camping in John's Mountain National Forest, mainly because it was free. Our normal spot off of the road and across a little creek was occupied (first time that has happened in the eight years I've been camping there) so we found another secluded spot that was about a half mile up a winding gravel road with several hairpin turns. The spot was actually pretty cool. It was on the very tip-top of a ridgeline, but I did miss the creek a bit. Also having to hike the camping equipment and Evan's fat little butt 100 yards up a hill to get to the spot from the nearest realistic parking was a bit of a pain, but it was worth it.

Evan was an excellent camper. It gave us a great excuse to use a camping outfit we've had for Evan since before he was born. And he didn't cause any major problems. He did wake up and pitch a fit around 3 a.m., but it wasn't for very long and Kim was able to calm him down easily. We think she bumped him in the dark while she was trying to get him situated to nurse in the dark. He was fine with random friends of ours that he had never seen holding him. He was also perfectly fine with random dogs licking his feet. He was even appropriately enthralled with the campfire until he fell asleep.

On non-camping news, Evan has started to be able to sit up a bit on his own. We can put him in the seat of shopping carts without his carseat and we can sit him down on the couch or or laps an he'll play with his feet. He's also starting to get REALLY chatty.