birthday girl

"It's my birthday!!!!!!"
She couldn't wait for us to get this unattached from the box so she could snuggle him.


The panda bear came with a Nat Geo video about pandas. She was mesmerized...for a few minutes. She's only 1, I can't expect much more than that.

We are planning to have cake and ice cream on Thursday with grandparents and aunts/uncles/cousins. I'll have more pictures from that.

An outing to the park.

Lydia has been sick. She was diagnosed with Rotavirus and if you know what that is, you know that it's a nasty virus that causes diarrhea, vomiting and fever for up to 2 weeks. Many children end up hospitalized with dehydration. Catie had a vaccine around the age of one. Lydia almost made it to the vaccine, but didn't. :( We were spared the significant dehydration since Lydia doesn't tend to puke very easily. (Catie, on the other hand, would've been spending the entire 2 weeks in the tub b/c she pukes if she thinks about it!) It's been 10 days so far and I think we are rounding a corner since she has not had a poopy diaper today (and usually would've had 2 by now). And she is beginning to eat more. I think she lost a few pounds. We have been stuck in the house b/c I'm not a mom who's willing to risk exposing other children until I KNOW that my kids are better. We did, though, venture out to the park the other day. (Don't worry... we all washed out hands really well before and after playing and no diapers were changed while there.) Here are some pictures of the fun.

She's gonna be a STAR!!!!

Who teaches kids this stuff?!

Loving Jericho

...or maybe just disturbing his sleep.

changes

A few months ago, we were doing our grocery shopping in a local chain called Tops. I noticed that they did not carry any Polly-O products. I try to buy Polly-O as opposed to other brands b/c we drive past one of their plants every day. I also think their string cheese, ricotta, and mozzarella cheeses are the best. We thought it was sad that a local grocery store did not carry local products, so when we got home James sent an email to Tops headquarters in Buffalo, NY. Shortly after that we received an email letting us know that the 7 stores in our area would not be carrying Polly-O products. Yay!!!

The day before Valentine's Day, James took his girls out to dinner at a local restaurant that we have visited before. They've always had the best service, Bruschetta, and steak that we can get in the area. Our experience that night was less than stellar. The food was slow getting to our table (and the girls were acting up out of hunger), the bruschetta was not as good as usual, but the steak was the worst part. It was gritty and tasted like liver. (and I know what liver tastes like b/c my mom used to fix it all the time when I was a child). Again, James sent an email. He got a very quick response from the owner offering us 2 free steak dinners at our next visit. We have not had an opportunity to go back yet.

Writing emails like this is not something that we have done in the past. We decided to do it these two times b/c we wondered if anything would change. It did.

The moral of the story: Send emails, call the company, etc, if something isn't right.

update...

The girls are healthy....for now. After 2 weeks of missing church (and not seeing any other children in general) they are through with sniffles, coughing, and not sleeping. I expect that this will only last about 3 more days since we were at church yesterday.

I think one of my BIGGEST pet peeves is parents who bring their child(ren) out in public when they are sick. If their nose is running....that means they are germ-carriers. I've had someone tell me that their kid just has a runny nose all the time. 2 things are possible....allergies or illness. It is not normal to "just have a runny nose". There is a reason for that mucus to build up. It is trying to wash something out.

I understand the benefits of having my children get sick from time to time. It builds up their immune system. It probably even builds character, but seriously, people!!! Don't write on your facebook status that you've been up with sick kids for days, but you're excited about church in the morning.

Not just your every day sniffles

Catie has had a cough for about a week and a half then started with a low grade fever Sunday morning, which kept us home from church. The fever went away with meds, but then returned with a vengeance on tuesday evening. I put her to bed at 8, checked on her at 9:30 when I was headed to bed. she seemed fine and even mumbled a sweet, sleepy "I love you" that brought tears to my eyes. Within a half hour, though, she was awake and crying and did so every half hour until I brought her into my bed at 11:30. (I had also given her more meds at that time.) I knew she wasn't feeling well, and thought that maybe being near us would help her sleep better.

Let me say, at this point, that I don't know why anyone chooses to have a "Family Bed". This doesn't seem to work for us. By 2:30, none of us had slept well and I decided to put Catie back in her own bed. She had fallen asleep in ours, I figured she would just konk out once she was in her own bed.

WRONG. It seemed like she knew exactly how long it would take me to relax from that "mom-adrenaline" rush and close my eyes b/c that's how long it was between crying.

from 2:30 to 4:00 am she was awake every 30 minutes crying. finally, I decided to get up with her and head downstairs. I gave her more meds at this point and she watched tv for about 2 hours. by 6 am the tylenol seemed to kick in well enough to put her back to bed. James had decided to call in to work so he could be home to help me since Lydia has slept ALL NIGHT. I slept from 6 - 7, when Lydia woke up. James got a little more sleep, but only until Catie woke up at 9am.

we were able to get an appointment for 2:15 with the NP, but I had decided not to give Catie drugs b/c I wanted to see how high her temp got. She sat on my lap for 2 hours just snuggling when she first got up and then spent the rest of the morning, just laying on the couch. I had been checking her temp with an axillary thermometer and I didn't trust it. I know to add a degree to whatever it says, but she seemed way hotter than that. Then I used our Temporal thermometer....ugh, i need to get rid of that thing. The first reading i got said 105.2. I FREAKED OUT!!!! As I was on the phone with the nurse, James was reminding me that that particular thermometer is very unreliable and he checked her 3 more times and got 102.5 twice. I know these things, though. If I had only stopped a minute to THINK I would've known that it was wrong. When my kids are sick, all my nursing education flies out the window. I gave her ibuprofen at that point. She ate a little bit of lunch and then slept for an hour before heading to the MD office.

She has pneumonia. The NP heard it and immediately listened to Lydia to make sure she didn't have it as well. She slept a little better night #2, but still not great. She still has a fever, but it's not nearly as bad as yesterday. If she still has a fever tomorrow, we have to take her back, but we'll see. Hopefully the Zithromax will do it's job.