Fourth of July + Strep Throat!

Well, the title says it all!  Our poor little babe ended up with strep throat of all things, the Thursday before the 4th of July this year.  It was really quite surprising, since he wasn't running a fever, but it was going around his school so the doctor did a quick test just to be sure, and sure enough, it was strep.

 

This was how he looked before he went to the doctor...all smiles!

 

I guess I could backtrack a bit, just to lay the groundwork for one crazy week :)  We buried my precious Grandmother on Monday, and then my Dad and family arrived home to an exploded water heater that evening that flooded their entire basement.  Since we had initially planned to gather ALL the Maldonado's at their house for the 4th of July weekend, our plans were cancelled because Dad and family had more important things to deal with that weekend :(

On Tuesday, we decide to have the cousins and Aunt and Uncles to our house, so the cleaning/shopping frenzy began (there would be a total of about 10 people in our house from Thursday to Sunday).

On Wednesday, Nolan got sent home from daycare because he was coughing so bad he vomited, so I left work early (after being out on bereavement leave Monday-Tuesday).

On Thursday, mom took Nolan to the doctor and we discovered it was strep so we cancelled the plans with family and tried to keep Nolan comfortable and avoid the rest of us getting sick!  Friday was somewhat decent and we managed to purchase a new walking lawnmower for the yard (which is a whole other story in itself -ha!)

And Saturday (the 4th), Anthony took Jacob and Lexie on a last-minute trip to Columbia to see the cousins before they left town, and it was just me and the babe for the rest of the weekend. 

We did manage to get in a little bit of outdoor time, but by evening he was not feeling too hot!

 

Here he is helping me take some limbs I cut off to the garage :)

 

Nothing like a empty box to boost the imagination!

 

Loaded the car again with branches :)

Poor sweet boy felt so bad Saturday night he slept cuddled into me (literally, into my CHIN).  I was exhausted completely, but I actually loved all that cuddle time with my boy.

I will say, that before I headed to bed that night, I was able to see THREE fireworks shows from our house.  It was like my own private showing!  The space is so wide open here that I saw fireworks from Clayton and Archer's Lodge (not to mention the neighbors that fired off some I swore were going to come through the living room window!)

So, needless to say, I don't have many pictures of this year's 4th of July, but it will be one that I won't forget for a long time either! :)