Red

I've been seeing a lot of red the past few days, and it's not just because yesterday was Valentine's Day.  Poor Liam has had a very sore bottom.  Something he ate upset his tummy, and it's been diarrhea and diaper rash for about 4 or 5 days now.  It breaks my heart to see him in so much pain.

We tried limiting his food to the BRAT diet (Bananas, Rice, Applesauce, Toast), but still it persisted.  We tried Butt Paste and Aquaphor, but it helped very little.  We finally reached our limit early Valentine morning.  Brent was supposed to work Valentine's Day, but after being up half the night with a crying and near constantly poopy toddler, Brent decided to stay home.  I was so glad he did, even if it did ruin his Valentine Day surprise a bit.

I had hidden one dozen hand painted and written love notes.  They were all hidden in places where Brent would find them in his normal morning preparation for work routine.  I had envisioned him first finding the one by the bathroom sink.  Then a couple in his pant pockets.  Next, the one hidden in his work boot.  Then the 4 on the car dash, and eventually the rest hidden in his jacket pocket and wallet.  However, being home made that a bit problematic.  I had to tell Brent that there were a dozen love notes, and they were all hidden in places he would find if he was going to work.  Brent eventually found them all- including one I had forgotten to write a note in, oops- and lined them all up on our bedroom TV. (I added to the picture, the final large love note I gave him at dinner.)

Brent still enjoyed his love notes, but it wasn't as romantic as I had planned.

Our Valentine's Day was mostly filled with taking care of Liam.  We put him on a diet of toddler formula to try and get things digesting correctly again, and made an appointment to see our family practitioner.  She prescribed an antibiotic ointment, and we headed to the pharmacy to pick it up.  This was quite the ordeal because it was now 5 pm on Valentine night.  Everyone was rushing home from work, and seemingly heading to the same store we were.  I just wanted a medication for Liam, while everyone else was rushing to get the last few flowers and chocolates left in the store.

I then found our prescription co-pay was $45.00, and couldn't believe I was going to be paying $45.00 for a butt ointment.  Thankfully, however, they had a generic, and after a quick call to the doctor, were able to proceed with selling me the generic for $10.00.  I would pay $45.00 for an ointment that brought Liam healing and relief, but was much happier to pay $10.00 instead for that same relief.

When we got home around 6 pm, I proceeded to make dinner.  For our first Valentine's Day, Brent and I went to the coast, and had Chinese take-out for dinner.  Since then, Chinese take-out has been one of our traditional occasion meals.  In fact, we ordered Chinese to our hotel room on the night of our wedding.

There aren't any great Chinese restaurants near us, so I decided to make a recipe I had seen on Rachael Ray.  I made egg foo young, and brown rice.  We didn't like how salty and spicy the gravy was, but the egg foo young itself was very good.  Just time consuming when chopping all the vegetables.

Around 7 pm, Liam got lathered up with his ointment, and Brent put him down early for bed.  Then I set up our dinner on the ottoman, along with white wine and chocolate covered fortune cookies.  We exchanged cards, and enjoyed a quiet meal together.

After a 14 hour night's sleep.  Liam seems to be feeling better, and the redness is subsiding.  I'm glad our little man is nearly back to his usual self :)

-Anna