Hand, Foot and Dammit!

So this past week Clark hasn't been himself, which means, he was getting sick. The weird thing is, he rarely gets sick, because he is a stay at home baby, he doesn't go to daycare and hangs out with Gem and I all day. So about 3 days ago, he started being really moody, and waking up during the night, he normally goes back to sleep when he wakes like this, but he went from a quick cry, to a full on tantrum until Andy went to get him. He had a runny nose, and a cough so I took him to the doctor. Strangely enough I didn't think he had a fever, but he did. He had a red throat, but not strep, so they told me that it would "run its course". Later on that night, I noticed he had red spots on his feet which he was itching like crazy, so I decided to call my sister who is a Pediatric Nurse. I was telling her the symptoms and she said it was probably a cold, and then I mentioned the rash, I heard her say "oh, um, that sounds like hand, foot and mouth". I thought to myself "Dammit, how the hell did he get that". He had a few baby friends visit recently, but none of them have gotten sick. My mom just visited, and she was sick by the time she left, but we don't know what she had. Andy was sick for a few days, and somehow, I am ok? My main concern is keeping Clark from kissing his baby, which is tough, he is like a kiss ninja, and before you know it he's planted one on her head.
So anyway, poor Boogs, is now all rashy, and sad looking, and he even now has the mouth sores :(. I am hoping he gets through this quickly, and I have to keep an eye on Gem until then. It just sucks when you are a stay at home mom, and you spend so much time with your babies, that when they get sick, you are stuck trying to figure out who or what has made them sick.

Donations

I must say when it comes to clothes shopping, I love it! The weird thing is I know I don't necessarily need the clothes but I get bored so easily with my clothes that I start thinking about the stuff I will donate to replace it. My first thought is usually " can I take this to a consignment store" but then laziness kicks it and I will just donate it instead. I've realized that Dallas has a snobby outlook with regards to consignment, they clearly only want high end items and want nothing to do with the clothes that I take good care of (I do have an idea of what is just donate-able and what might be consignment worthy) . I suppose that's what I find so frustrating about living here sometimes. There are moms out there (who I've seen in action) that sit and gossip about what other people on the playground are wearing. Judging people because they can't afford a Gucci diaper bag, as if that will make their babies any happier.

So anyway.... In regards to donations, I started growing my hair out in may of 2008 with the dreams of eventually donating it. I had a lot of the colour cut out in October 2008 and my natural hair colour was all I had by march 2009. Since then I've continued to grow it and just kept up with hair trims. When I started it was just something I always wanted to do, I know those wigs are expensive but I wanted to make sure there was a child out there that had a wig with real hair not fake. I always intended to donate it to a child's cause as well because I felt that they are so young and they are stricken with an illness they don't understand they need the hair more than I would. I know there are ways to make money by selling your hair, but I felt better about giving it away instead. I get questions from family members all the time, asking me if I still intended to donate or if I am going to start colouring it again. I've even had encouragement from someone telling me to colour and cut it because sometimes colour "just looks nice", that just pisses me off. I have not come this far to all of a sudden decide that a cut and some colour is more important than the cause. After I made the Descision it was easy and since then things have happened that made me keep focus on what I was doing this for. Jackson died, and I was and still am devastated, shortly after he passed we found out that my cousins daughter was in the early states of leukemia. They caught it and started treating her, it is currently in remission but with all the treatments she lost her hair. I think it has started growing back, but She helped solidify that there is a reason I am doing this. So I suppose now when I'm out with my kids and being secretly judged by those moms, who I'm sure are wondering why my hair is so blah and colour less I can have a sense of pride that sometimes it isn't about my clothes or hair, it's about what someday my donation will mean to someone.