Labor Day and Lyme Disease

We haven't been back in PA long. But we've been back long enough for our little Liam to get bitten by a tick and infected with Lyme disease. Maybe a week after getting back I noticed a strange bite on his leg just a little bit above his right ankle. I had heard a story on NPR not long before about Lyme and thought to myself "how awful would it be if this is Lyme." But it didn't have the halo around it that is so often associated with the disease so I decided to just watch the bite and see if it got worse. About two and a half weeks later the halo appeared and my heart sank. I took him to the doctor the next day and we walked out with a months supply of an antibiotic and that was that. Since then I have been feverishly researching the disease and all forms of treatment from your typical antibiotic regiment all the way down to acupuncture.

Initial bite

Bite with halo

I could go on forever about the details of the disease, but thousands of people before me have already done so. Basically, the bacteria that causes Lyme is extremely smart and hard to kill. One can be infected for years and not know it until one day they begin to feel the painful symptoms that come with the disease. We were lucky (or not) to see the rash on Liam's leg because that is one of the few early signs that one has been infected. Chase and I have our reservations about continuing Liam on his antibiotic because of how ineffective antibiotics have been proven to be when it comes to treating Lyme. That is why we are pursuing alternative forms of treatment in addition to the antibiotic. Lyme isn't something that will be with him for the remainder of his life necessarily, however, as I mentioned before, it is very difficult to cure. If anyone is interested in learning more about Lyme, I encourage you to do so. Also, if anyone has any advice, we would love to hear it. I will say that other than the bite, Liam has absolutely no other signs of having Lyme. He is our normal happy-go-lucky guy and every day we're striving to keep it that way!

Other than the realization that Liam has Lyme, things have been rather low key here. The weather is changing and our days are much cooler than before which is so nice. It hasn't gotten out of the 60s the past few days which means we've been spending more time outside. We bought the boys their first 4wheelers last week. We hadn't been planning on getting them but we saw them in the store and they had so much fun on them we couldn't pass them up. There was only one out of the box so we let Liam drive and Landon sat behind him and held on. It was so cute to watch them driving around crashing into things and laughing. They still don't quite get the steering aspect, but they sure do have fun. To drive them, all they have to do is push the button on the handlebar and they're off. Chase has even taught them how to get themselves "unstuck" when they drive into a tree or the fence.

On Labor Day Chase and I took the boys to a water park in the city. They're too little for any of the rides there, but we all had a lot of fun playing in the kitty pools. Landon is always more adventurous than Liam it seems, but they both got quite brave as the day wore on. The pool was perfect for them because it didn't have sides that they had to step off of to get into the water. The sides of the pool gradually sloped down like a beach so they could wade right in. Liam's favorite part was running in, turning around when it got too deep, and running back out again. Landon had fun exploring the deeper water with dad. It was a fun way to spend the holiday.

I'm looking forward to winter as I always do. Planning for things that the boys and I can do to occupy our time since we won't be able to be outside as much. I am taking the boys to two different library programs that are starting up this week, we also sampled a "mommy and me yoga class" the other day. It was pretty awful to be honest. There were probably 60 people there all together. The AC in the building was turned off so we were all sweating like crazy. The kids (ranging from newborn to 4 years) were totally out of control and the instructor was doing her best to talk loud enough for all the moms to hear. L&L kept taking her phone and unplugging the little AC unit. So needless to say, once the free trial runs out, we're going to find something else to Monday mornings. Hot Yoga with toddlers? No thanks. I may, however, go to "mommy and me swim classes" with two of my friends and their kids. We also really like going to the science center and children's museum. Today we went to the children's museum with our new friends Tasha and her son Breckon. There is a new exhibit at the museum that is all beach balls. There is an area about the size of a school cafeteria and the majority of the room was filled with small and medium beach balls. The boys all had so much fun running around in the sea of balls, throwing and kicking them and rolling around on the ground with them. What a good idea for an exhibit.

Oktoberfest is coming up in a few weeks and Canonsburg puts on a really fun fair every year. There are carnival rides, good food and bands every night for three nights. We're looking forward to that and then the next week is the Houston Pumpkin Festival. I can't believe its already that time of year again. Maybe this year we'll take the boys on some of the rides at Oktoberfest, but if not, they should be just the right age for the little train rides at the Pumpkin Festival!