The Biggest Mess Ever

Friday evening Scott was in Tellico Plains on an overnight fishing trip with the guys in our small group at church. The kids were being nice and quiet as I blogged and then talked on the phone to friends. After I was done talking to Amy, I went to check on the kids. First I encountered a huge disaster in the kitchen. Paper, scissors, crayons, playdoh and tape were everywhere, but no kids. I finally found them in the garage, sitting by the car happily drinking Capri-Suns, surrounded by every tool out of Scott's toolbox. Shelby had grease all over her nose, and there was an open Sharpie next to her. She had written something on the car. I was of course, very upset, and asked them what they were thinking. Cooper said very matter of factly, "We were trying to get the engine out of the car, so we could put it in the airplane we were building to fly to Daddy and go fishing with him." Oy!

Upsetting Day

Today we found out Cooper has Fifth disease, which is really nothing more than a virus that caused a rash over his entire body. However it can cause problems for pregnant women. Unfortunately, he was around Amy and his Aunt Kimberly, which are both due in October. He had absolutely no symptoms on Tuesday when Davis came over for a couple hours. The next day Cooper started breaking out in the rash. We thought maybe he was allergic to something on his shirt, because at first the rash was only where his shirt was and a little on his cheeks. We gave him some Benadryl Wednesday night, and Thursday morning he seemed a little better. Last night, when we started getting ready for swim team practice, I noticed it had gotten a lot worse and was now on his legs and feet also. I called the Dr. office and the nurse called me back. She determined it was probably an allergic reaction, and said to give him more Benadryl. This morning the rash was even worse, so we went to see Dr. Wood. He said it was a classic case of Fifth Disease. He said since Aunt Kimberly was around Cooper when he had the rash, she would not get it (you are no longer contagious when the rash appears). But, we were with Amy before the rash appeared, so I hope you will join me in praying that she and Davis do not get it!

Compared to Amy possibly getting Fifth Disease, this is nothing, but it upsets me nonetheless. Scott called me from work yesterday and said he thought Cooper might have dyslexia. I had told him about my frustration with Cooper when we read Go, Dog, Go (the Dr. Suess book). Cooper diligently sounded out all the words, but I just didn't understand why he could not remember the word 'dog', without taking so long to resound it out every time. Shelby would tell him, it says Go, dog, go, Cooper, which of course made him mad. It just didn't make sense, because I know he has an incredible memory. He remembers things from years ago with perfect detail. He also had to go to a class in school called the Literacy Lab for the slower readers, and many times he told me he felt dumb in class. He tries so hard, though!

I pray he grows out of this difficulty, because it breaks my heart to think he may struggle all his life with reading. I checked out http://www.dyslexia.com/library/symptoms.htm and Cooper has just about every one of the characteristics listed. I spoke with Dr. Wood about my concerns today and he gave me some information to read, but he said children can't be tested for dyslexia until age 7.

Cooper's First Movie

Cooper was looking through some of his old Lego magazines last week and became enthralled with a page about making your own Star Wars Lego movie. He spent the majority of the day building some spaceships and practicing the story he wanted to tell. He was so proud of his movie that he asked me to post it on my blog.

Stone Mountain Camping Trip

We had a great time camping and hiking this weekend at Stone Mountain in Georgia. We went with my Mom, Dad, brother Kirt, and neice Anna. My Mom and Dad brought their motorhome, while we slept in our tent. They gave Scott and me lots of little lessons on how to work everything in the motorhome to get ready for our trip to St. Augustine at the end of June. (We are going to take the motorhome on vacation with just our family for the first time.)

We had never been to such a touristy State Park before. The kids loved riding the water taxi across the lake between our campsite and Stone Mountain Village, riding the train, and riding the tram down the mountain. We went to the cheesy laser show, where Anna and Shelby had lots of fun dancing to the music, but the kids' favorite thing was climbing Stone Mountain! Shelby loved getting to ride on Scott's back. I couldn't believe how fast Cooper climbed the Mountain. He never stopped for a break and beat us all to the top. It made me sad in a way, though, because he isn't my little boy anymore. He is my big boy now, so different from last year!

It was very windy on top of the mountain. It was a hazy day because of all the fires, but it was a pretty view. My Mom and the kids took the tram down the mountain, while Kirt, Scott, and I had fun running down the mountain. Then, we took a nice, quiet trail back to the train station, where we met my Mom and the kids.