Let's review what we've learned...

Scarlet fever (scarlatina)

Scarlet fever is simply strep throat with a rash. The throat infection is caused by a streptococcal bacteria. It is most commonly seen in school-aged children in the winter and early spring, but it can occur in individuals of any age and in any season. It is very contagious, and the risk of transmission can be decreased with good hand washing.

The rash is not serious, but serious complications can occur from the underlying infection, strep throat. The most worrisome of these is rheumatic fever, a serious disease that can damage the heart valves and cause long-term heart disease.

• Symptoms
  • The child's symptoms begin with sore throat (which can be mild), fever, headache, abdominal pain, and swollen glands in the neck.
  • After 1-2 days of these symptoms, the child develops a rash on the body that is red and has a sandpaper texture. After 7-14 days, the rash sloughs off.
  • The face may look very flushed, but the skin around the mouth appears normal.
• Treatment
• Streptococcal bacteria can be treated with antibiotics.
• Have your child seen by your doctor immediately if you suspect he or she has strep throat or scarlet fever.
• Your child will require a full course of antibiotics, which should be finished even if your child is better before completion.
• Your child may return to school in 24 hours if the fever has resolved and he or she is feeling better.

Picture of boy without rash

Jacob broke out in a pimply red rash yesterday so I "WebMD'd" (it's a verb, kinda like "googled") his symptoms and found this. If you look down a few results you will see Scarlet Fever. I clicked on that one and saw that kids can get this after a bout of strep throat, which both my boys had 3 weeks ago. Our pediatrician closes at 1 on Fridays so I dropped Alexander with Brenda and took Jacob to the urgent care clinic. The doctor looked in Jacob's throat and ears and felt his arms to see what texture the rash had. Sure enough, Scarlatina (Scarlet Fever). I talked to him about how Jacob fights taking medicine and he prescribed an antibiotic that we only have to give Jacob once a day (instead of twice). Luckily our insurance covered it and I only had to pay three bucks. 

Jacob's fever hasn't gone above 101, so that part hasn't been too worrisome. He did throw up after dinner last night but just that one time. 

So Jacob is on medicine and we're keeping an eye on Alexander to make sure we catch it if he gets it too. We're keeping them both home from church tomorrow, just in case. 

Sick boys

Alexander is in one of my shirts in this picture because wearing oversized clothing just seems like the thing to do when you're feeling pukey.

I swear, these boys have been fighting back to back germs for months! Couple months of coughing and runny noses. Then strep, more colds and now a 24 hour stomach bug. Alexander goes to preschool and practically brings home the plague - weekly. I'm kind of hoping that they've gotten everything that's going around now and they'll be immune for the rest of the year. Hey, I can dream can't I?

My name is Jacob, and I'm really cute.

Water rules!

I left the water in the tub running (just a trickle as you can see) on purpose yesterday because the boys love to play in running water. 

Jacob loves to try to get a drink (doesn't usually work)

While Jacob was hogging the faucet, Alexander decided to combine a cup and a plastic frog to make his own waterfall setup. 

So proud of himself.

Alexander update

Jacob and I went to visit Alexander at preschool today. It was awesome seeing how happy he is in that setting. He's grown so much in the past few weeks. I don't think he'll actually be talking any time soon but he's definitely progressing in the communication department. It was motivating to see how consistent his teachers are in helping him express himself and be a little more independent. He doesn't like transitioning between tasks (e.g. moving from playing with cars to snack time, etc.) and he doesn't like really participating in circle time (e.g. putting pictures on the board of what the weather is, doing motions for the songs, choosing what toys he wants to play with later, etc.) but the level of fit that he throws during the process has lessened significantly. Of course, his teacher doesn't even call it throwing a fit because, compared to other fits she's seen in her career, Alexander would be considered extremely mellow. Those are really the only two things he struggles with; he loves center time (playing with toys) and outside time (playing on the playground) and table time (more playing with toys) and art time (he painted with apples yesterday). I guess we can throw breakfast time into the challenge section but he's doing better with eating too so that's good.

One big thing that he's learned at school is going peepee on the potty! He almost never wets his diaper during the school day anymore and today while we were there he almost went poopy on the potty too. I haven't been on top of things at home so he hasn't done it on our potty yet but that's in the works. We might have a fully potty trained kid in a couple of months if I can just get on the ball. 

Another thing that I discovered just today was how many kids are in his class. *Drumroll* THREE! That's all! I am happy with this discovery because that obviously makes the student/teacher ratio nice and low. One teacher and one parapro for three students, plus the speech therapist who comes in for a little while to work with Alexander. Awesome! I thought there were seven kids based on the snack calendar they sent home and I was fine with that number but four of those students are actually in the afternoon class instead. Alexander's teacher did say that their class will probably grow through the year and they might have as many as eight kids in the morning class by the spring but for now Alexander is getting a BUNCH of one on one attention and when they need to work on goals that require more peers (sharing and stuff) they just combine with the 4-year-old class next door.

I forgot to take a picture of him actually in his classroom but I promise to post some soon. I'm also planning on scanning in the artwork he's been doing so I can make it into a book and I'll share it on here too. Stay tuned for more updates to come! :-)

Camera love

I've discovered an interesting piece of information about Alexander. 

He can be whining his head off and throwing a fit, but if I pull out the camera and start snapping pictures... he perks right up.

Smile! :-)

Recovering from strep throat

It's amazing what a little less pain can do for a kid's mood ;-)

Couple of pictures

Happy boys :-)