Snapshots

Here are a few pictures that don't need a whole blog post on their own but ones to remember anyway.



A boy, his cowboy hat and tub of Legos.  I think that just about says it all.




Unappreciative glances towards the camera... he gets that from his father.




My very first sidewalk chalk "I Love Mom" from Caleb.  Took me a bit by surprise, but I'll take it!



While Caleb inherited an unappreciation for random snapshots at all times of the day from his father, Sarah Rose inherited something else from Daddy that doesn't offer many cute pictures for the camera.  Ever since she was born, Sarah has had a problem with dry skin.  Even at her one month checkup, the doctor recommended a special lotion for her...something pediatricians don't normally recommend for newborns and I've been lotioning her every day since.  At her one year checkup, the doc said that with her fair skin,eyes and hair, she would probably always have trouble.  We've been through stages of varying discomfort due to her eczema, been to several doctor's appointments just for it, and through a couple different prescription creams to no avail.  At the end of June and into the beginning of July, the eczema exploded terribly, leaving itchy rashes and literally hundreds of cracks covering her whole body.  Back to the doctor, this time to be bumped up from just having "eczema" to having "severe eczema".  (Duh!)  The doctor gave us some sample ointments and prescribed another stronger cream and anithistimine to help calm the itching.  But her skin was so broke out with rashes, cracks and now sores that we had to nurse her skin back to health before we could start to use the prescription cream that will hopefully start providing some longer term relief.  To nurse it back to health, I had to apply the doctor's lotions several times a day.  If you've ever put lotion on skin that is broken out, you know that it can be painful.  And the extent to which Sarah's skin was broken out, it was very painful for her.  She would cry at just the word "lotion" and once it was on she would scream and scream until the stinging subsided.  We cuddled and rocked alot those awful days, about a week!  But finally, her skin is healing and the lotion is no longer stinging.  We've just been able to start the prescription lotion that will hopefully start the longer term healing.  But the worst of the areas are having to have bandaids and Neosporin applied to ward off infection.  In the picture above, she's got bandaids on one knee and her feet, and having to have things symmetrical (something she inherited from her mother), insisted on a sticker on her other knee to make things right.  Now that we're able to use the stronger prescription along with the anithistimine to ease the itch, we'll get her beautiful baby smooth skin back and her discomfort will go completely away.  One thing I have learned through all this though:  I have a great respect and admiration for parents who sit with their children through their illness, whether through cancer or something else, and have to listen to their pleas through the pain. I only had to deal with occasional five minutes of pain and I got to cuddle and love up on Sarah until it ended.  I am in awe of parents who have to watch their children through pain and stay strong through it.  I pray everyday for my children's health and pray that I'll never have to experience that.