fro up

Isaac was not feeling good Friday morning. He said, "Mama, my tummy hurts," a bunch of times. Usually when he says this it means he has to go to the bathroom. But this time, it wasn't helping to send him to the bathroom. I brought him to preschool anyway, then dropped Sonia off at daycare. When I had been at work only one hour, I got a call from his preschool that he had thrown up! Poor little guy! Luckily it wasn't a "real" work day, so I was easily able to drop everything and get him right away, then stay home with him.  

I was so glad I had daycare - we just had Sonia stay there all day, and luckily she has not come down with any throw up bug yet (knock on wood). Isaac slept three times during the day, which is unusual for him. He didn't throw up again though. He was really wanting to go to Newport to Nana's, but we went on a short trip to Fred Meyer in the car, and that wore him out. So, we stayed home that night and just went the next morning instead, when he was feeling all the way better. 

wildflowers and ros-e-ola

First of all, some pretty flowers have made an appearance in our garden. One of my college friends got married last summer and sent out a wildflower mix with their thank you notes. It's fun to see what is coming up. Strangely, all the flowers are coming up in the exact same location. I had hoped for more of a border. Still, they are delicate and pretty.

Isaac's skin is pretty delicate too. That jar in the last pictures is the shea butter we often put on his legs and arms to keep them nice and hydrated. Nice, soft, smooth little skin. But today, the little rash on his face had spread to the rest of his body.

It looks scarier than it is. The high fever was the contagious part. There's nothing you can do about the rash and it isn't going to do anything to him.
I had to take a lot of pictures, like my mom did of us when we had chicken pox and when I got hives from taking amoxicillin.

I think I now have realized that my mom probably wasn't just weird (okay, and she's a nurse too, so maybe it held some practical interest), but that it is really hard to get a picture that shows something like a rash the way it really is. That's why there are so many chicken pox pictures in those childhood albums. Maybe.
It didn't seem to dampen Isaac's mood too much today to have a full body rash. He was a little tired, but we are looking forward to a long weekend (no school or work Monday, go independence!) full of chances for relaxation and recuperation. Here is Isaac with a favorite ball. The neighbor kid asked if Isaac could come out to play. So Isaac did. I noticed that Isaac can now volitionally throw objects. I guess I noticed this earlier in the week with a basketball, but today he threw a teething ring with one hand and it clicked for me. Another motor skill. Check.

Finally, in one more attempt to capture the true nature of roseola, I made a video. I think the pictures actually turned out better than I had thought, but it never hurts to have ample documentation.

Would you like to know why I am sure it is roseola, or a "roseola-like virus"? Of course you would. I confirmed with a nurse at Isaac's doctor's office this morning that he very likely did not have a contagious rash (because of the fever/rash sequence). I brought him to daycare. I got a call saying I couldn't bring him to daycare without a doctor's note. A $15 co-pay, missed hour of class (luckily it got out early so I didn't miss more), and doctor's note later (with a surprisingly compliant Isaac), we had our confirmation of the diagnosis. We also got to confirm Isaac doesn't have an ear infection, which we were wondering about. Here's to hoping the next childhood disease holds off for another couple of weeks at least, and that Isaac's rash resolves soon.

1,23,eyes

Here, my friends, is the week in review. The Compaoré family went to Portland last Saturday. First, we stopped by a store we like, Caribbean Spice. They sell African foods as well as Caribbean foods (the owners are from Jamaica). We saw our friends Ben and Katie there, which is funny because they live in Eugene too!
Then, we went to the zoo. We saw the daddy elephant.

We saw the mommy elephant and the baby elephant too.

We even saw the lions, which weren't at the Portland Zoo before.

We went in a smelly place with tropical birds.

We also visited Auntie Nallely briefly before heading back to Eugene. Actually, we had a quick stop to visit Auntie Anna as well, and she had a delicious birthday present for Mama. Next time, we will have to visit more aunties and Uncle Greg.

The next day, Sunday, Mama turned 23. Nana and Bumpa and Great Grandma and Grandpa and Great-great Aunt Christy and Uncle George came to Mass in Eugene and then we all went to McGrath's for lunch. Mama wanted to go to La Perla which is supposedly serves la vera pizza napoletana (I didn't realize some people don't like in-line links but I love 'em so there you go!), but they were closed. McGrath's is always good though. We were a little concerned because we had heard they had gone bankrupt, but they were still serving food, and it was still delicious. I have to admit I am unsure about the true meaning of bankruptcy.

Isaac tried some crackers. He still seems a little unsure of many solid foods.

Finally, he had some real lunch and took a much-needed nap.

We went on a quick shopping excursion, and Mama found a few new clothes. Isaac discovered the ride on toys, but we didn't bother spending money to make them move when they were so fascinating at a standstill.

But then, tragedy struck. Isaac got pinkeye. We went to urgent care Sunday night. They said it was viral so he didn't need eyedrops, but gave us a prescription in case it didn't go away soon. In fact, maybe it is bacterial... because it still is not entirely gone.

So Isaac stayed home Monday....and Tuesday and Wednesday, with the help of our neighbor downstairs, Bumpa, and Great-grandma and Great-grandpa. On Monday we brought him to the doctor again because of a 103.1 degree fever, and they diagnosed him with early bronchitis and gave him antibiotics and an inhaler. However, he vomited up the antibiotics and any tylenol we tried to give him. Wednesday, we brought him back to the doctor because of the inability to keep the antibiotics down. Isaac's regular pediatrician saw him and decided it was instead viral and bronchiolitis. In the afternoon, he seemed really happy and playful. Thursday, Mama thought he was probably feeling okay so he could go back to daycare. But, that did not pan out. He was sent home around 12:30 with a fever. So, Bumpa came back to the rescue on Friday. Mama did not have a very good week scholastically. Hopefully the second week of 23 will be better. But let us not dwell on this; instead, I leave you with a few pictures of cute boys.
Here is a sweet little boy.

And I couldn't resist adding this because of the handsome man on the left.

Finally, no one can resist that fierce little face in this last picture. This is Isaac's new smile - I find it so funny and I don't know where he picked it up, but I think it is kind of going towards my smile, where my eyes get smaller...

We hope all our friends out there are in good health, and we really hope Isaac starts feeling better soon! He has been sick enough in this past month!

9 mois et... ma la de

We have had some beautiful weather lately. Isaac has been playing outside on the porch and he loves it. The important news is, Isaac is nine months old today! Wow! It seems like a really big milestone. Like a doubling of how old you are at birth - well, that only happens once in your lifetime.
Unfortunately, we have been sick since last Wednesday, so we didn't party it up too much today...

Isaac stayed home from daycare Wednesday through today. Tomorrow we will test it out and see if he can be okay - not be too clingy or sick. Evidently all the babies have colds right now though. Dangit. Mama is not much better. She's just starting to get the cold...

Isaac had fun with Papa on Wednesday, playing with his hat.

On Thursday, Bumpa came down and Isaac and Bumpa had a great time together. They didn't get into too much trouble, but that's just because they didn't get caught.

On Friday, Nana came down and Isaac was very happy to see her too! So was Mama, since she started feeling sick in the afternoon.

Then on Saturday, we took a leisurely stroll to urgent care for Mama. Well, since it was only 11 blocks away we figured that was fine. It was so nice anyway. Mama got antibiotics.

Papa took good care of Isaac and Mama over the weekend, when all they wanted to do was lay around and whine. He tried to keep everyone in good spirits. He lost his cell phone at church but Isaac's great, great aunt (no, really his great-great-aunt) came to the rescue.

We had wanted to go to the zoo, but maybe we can remand that trip until Mama's birthday. It's coming up soon! If it's nice that day... it always seems like March 7th is a day of strange, strange weather.
Today, Nana came down again to take care of Isaac again. He was doing okay but still had a lot of snot. We are so glad she came down! Not only did she make a delicious dinner, she brought some very tasty key lime pie, which she made from real key limes. Key limes are evidently about the size of walnuts, so you can imagine how much work it was to get 1/2 cup of key lime juice...

Isaac opted to receive his slice via his favorite food. We tried to have him try broccoli but he started gagging. I'm not really sure how this whole "table foods" thing is going to work for him since still he doesn't like anything besides fruit purees. I guess I need to start trying harder to feed him some solid food at home. Or maybe I'll hold off another week until his nine month check up to ask the doctor for some tips.

You can see above Isaac trying to grab his favorite cartoon. He grabbed the computer screen and tried to look behind it for Bouba today. And, here below is a cute video of Isaac and his cousin Louisa from our visit to Seattle! Pretty soon they'll probably be partners in crime...

Maybe I was going to say something else, but you know how the congested mind thinks... Hope everyone else is healthy! Happy nine months birthday Isaac!

grad school hookey

I'm skipping my classes this afternoon. But, Isaac is sick so that's my reason. He can't stay at daycare all day and expose all the other babies. Still no time for pictures. Three things:

1. Not to be overly proud, but I'm starting to think the babies in our family are just cuter than other babies. Not that the other babies are ugly. Ours are just cuter. By ours I means the Hurliman, Capri and Compaore sides. I don't know about the other ones.

2. I'm trying to take my cousin's observation from Mother Teresa to heart: "We can do no great things, only small things with great love" or something like that. But, instead of applying it to so-called menial tasks, which I would frankly rather be doing, I'm going to try to apply it to my attitude about grad school. I've been feeling pretty negative about the whole thing and I need to remind myself that it's not something I should just quit. It's just so hard with a little guy when you are always worried that someone is not doing as good of a job as you could be doing. How handy it would be to be in three places at once. I feel like I've been getting pretty close to that lately.

3. I wish I could talk more about what we're doing in clinic, but, it's confidential. So you won't be hearing much about that. It is fun though. That much I can say!

For now, I'm going to just enjoy the afternoon with my little sweet boy.