Sweet girl

I'll get to the reason for the title in a moment.

Backtracking a bit... Natalie had an allergist appointment today. We did a follow-up skin test to see if she still reacts to peanuts. She does, and this time she started reacting to various tree nuts as well. Most mild, although walnuts were significant. We avoid tree nuts anyway because of cross-processing issues, but this was notable because her previous skin and RAST (blood) tests were negative for tree nuts. We'll test again in a year or two. Her allergist did tell me that there are some treatments in trial now, that will hopefully be available in 1-3 years. It involves challenging the body with peanuts - you start at the doctors office, get to the level just before the child reacts, then continue at home with a slighter lower level for a period of time. The process repeats, increasing the amount of peanuts, until the body builds a better tolerance. If she doesn't outgrow the allergies, this won't cure it, but it will make it so that we shouldn't have to panic if she's accidentally exposed.

And my sweet girl... Today was a rough day in a week full of them. I was in tears most of the afternoon, just worn out. Tonight, when I put Natalie to bed, we read stories, then I turned out the light to cuddle her for a few minutes. She got up, covered me with her special monkey blanket, then pulled my head onto her belly. Wrapped her arm around my head, and stroked my face for a while. Then when I asked her if she wanted me to draw on her back (she likes that before we leave her room), she told me she was going to draw on mine. So she made me turn over, and rubbed my back. I told her I loved her, and she said "I know". I hope she always knows that.

On the mend?

I put a question mark because as most of you probably know, I am ridiculously superstitious.

Natalie's stomach flu lasted about 24 hours. Fever, vomiting on Thursday, then Friday she was fine. Kept her on a bland diet until Sunday, and so far she's holding her own. Of course she tried to get out of eating her dinner Sunday "my tummy hurts too much", but when offered junk as a test, she was all for it. Yeah.... She needs to realize I was a kid once too, and I know ALL the tricks. Ask Mitz. :-)

Oliver is finally doing better. He seemed to be getting better Thursday evening into Friday, but then relapsed hard on Friday. By Saturday morning, he was lethargic, fussing constantly, skin flaking, and a dry diaper for about three hours. I tried calling his doctor's office, didn't think they had Saturday hours, but thought I could get the answering service to get his pediatrician to call back. Held for 7 minutes, then figured if they are that backed up, it might be a while for a call back, and they'd probably send us to the ER, so off Oliver and I went. We were there for about 4 hours. They were wonderful - took us back right away and checked constantly. He had IV fluids (amazing how quickly he perked up a bit), some blood tests (looking for infection, found none), Zofran for nausea, then they finally let him have some Pedialyte. The poor kid was so desperate for something at that point, that in the few seconds it took for our nurse to tell me "Only give him half, then pause and see if he keeps it down" (they have pre-filled nursettes, 2 oz.), I looked down to see how much he drank, and it was drained. I had to pry it out of his mouth. They gave him two more after waiting a bit after each, and I guess he figured out that he wasn't going to get more quickly, so by the time he downed the third, he clutched that empty nursette and wouldn't let it go until he got a fourth. That's my boy!

So, Pedialyte and bland diet through this morning. I followed up with his pediatrician today. I was told to start half formula/half water, bland foods, nothing chunky, and if he tolerates that, to move to full formula tomorrow. If he holds all that tomorrow, then we can start working back to his regular diet. They weighed him, and based on his weight a month ago, I think he lost about a pound, pound and a half. :-(

After his afternoon nap today, he was visibly better. Still clingy and fussy at times, but getting into things, wreaking havoc, which was most welcome! At bedtime, he caught a second wind, and has figured out a new way to torment me. He started grinding his teeth together, hard, and it is the worst sound. I usually tell him "no no", and kind of put my finger in between his teeth (risky business with our little vampire). So tonight, he started grinding while giving me the most devilish grin, and laughing his fool head off. I gave up on the "no nos" and just stopped looking at him. So he laid there in my arms, grinding, laughing, grinding, laughing, grinding laughing. Realized I wasn't going to cave, then he started tapping my shoulder. I finally looked at him. Grin. Grind. Laugh. He's a handful! :-)

Oh, one other funny from when Natalie was sick. I set her up on the sofa in the family room, and when Oliver woke up from his nap on Thursday, she asked me to block off the sides near the table so he couldn't harass her. He tried moving the barricades, gave up. Less than ten minutes later, he figured out he could just crawl through the center of the table. Made a beeline for her stuffed animals, tapped her leg, just generally being a pesky little brother!

So far this week...

We had a nice surprise on Monday! Elizabeth's father called the night before to tell us he was in town. Monday evening he came over for a couple of hours, and we had a nice visit! He is one of the nicest men I've ever met, one of those people who just immediately puts you at ease.

The rest of the week... Puke city. Oliver came down with a stomach flu the other day. Natalie got it today. I'm going to have to burn the hall carpet. O seems to be on the mend. Natalie is perking up a bit, but still running a 101 degree fever, and hasn't been vomit free very long, so I'm trying to get her to take it easy, both physically and as far as eating goes.

Full Friday

I'm still wiped out!

Aunt Jamie was in town for Spring Break, so yesterday we loaded up the kids and headed to the zoo. Overall we had a nice time, but not without some hiccups. When we got to the zoo, all the parking was full, so we had to go back a block or so and park. They had a free shuttle, but the line was insane, plus we had a stroller for each of the kids, and decided to hoof it as opposed to hassling with the strollers and kids on the stroller. That was a workout! It was pretty hot - about 93 and somewhat humid, so that put a damper on things. Poor Oliver gets so overheated, even in light clothes. Not sure what to do about that. I was also amazed at how much Natalie remembered from our last visit to the zoo in January, as far as which animals were where. She also spent a lot of time chasing pigeons. We got home around 2:45, and Aunt Jamie and Natalie hit the pool. It's still too cold for my liking, so I sat that out. Oliver took a much needed nap (he slept for a bit at the zoo, but not long).

Had pizza for dinner, then Natalie, Jamie and I decided to meet Mitz at Superstition Springs Mall - Butler Amusements had a parking lot carnival going on. They have some nice rides - we went to the same carnival last year, and they were at the Ostrich Festival last weekend (I took Natalie and forgot to recap. We mainly rode rides and ate junk). Natalie had a blast on the kiddie rides and two obstacle course type things - she got on those too many times to count. She was blowing past much older kids on the rope ladders - pretty amazing! We didn't get home until 9:45, but Natalie hung in until the very end. She fell asleep seconds before we pulled into the garage. I carried her in, handed her off to Jon and that was the last we heard from her until this morning. She slept until 7:15 - Jon told her "I thought you'd sleep in later". Natalie said "I DID sleep in". Haha!

She's still the litter police too. When Jamie threw away her Coke can yesterday, Natalie said "Thank you for not being a pig".

Cowboys and ....

Natalie found a shoelace the other day, and has been tormenting us with it. We couldn't figure out where she found it, then once Jon finally took it away this afternoon, we figured it out. She told us she was going upstairs to get something. Came back down with an impish little grin, looked at me and patted her pocket. I asked her what she had, and she pulled out another shoelace. Then Jon remembered that he had a package in the valet on his dresser. Went upstairs, and sure enough, her stepstool was in front of the dresser - a dead giveaway! This is one of the incidents that prompted the shoelace ban.

Natalie kept tossing the shoelace around Jon this morning.

Jon: "Natalie, stop whipping that around."
Natalie: "I have to. I'm a cowboy."
Jon: "I said stop."
Natalie: "I'm the cowboy and you are the... the.... the.... SUCKER."
Me - "You mean steer."
Natalie - "What's that?"
Me - "Cowboys rope steer. "
Natalie tries to lasso Jon again.
Jon - "Give me that."
Natalie - "But I'm the cowboy and you're the sucker."
Me - "STEER. He's the STEER."
Jon - "Well, I'm the sheriff and I'm going to arrest you."

*sigh*

Airing of grievances

On the way home from school, and on the way to pick up Pinocchio (Natalie was so excited!), Natalie decided to get a few things off her chest. I can't even remember what prompted the conversation, but it went like this:

N - "Oliver shouldn't play with my kitchen"
Me - "He's allowed to play with the kitchen, you need to share it with him"
N - "All he does is chew on things"
Me - "That's what babies do. He just wants to play with you. Why don't you try showing him how to play with your kitchen?"
*from here on out, she channels a tone of "we've been through this already, Mommy", coupled with exhausted aggravation, as only a four year old can..
N - "He won't do what I tell him"
Me - "Well, that's because he's still learning. It takes babies a little longer to learn how to do things".
N - "He always tries to play with my toys. And climb on my chair. And chew on my hot stove"
Me - *trying not to laugh*
N - "And I'm not, I'm not, I'm not gonna.... gonna.... gonna.... HAVE it. I'm not gonna have it. I'm just not gonna HAVE it". This last bit accompanied by a sweeping hand gesture. She channeled me beautifully there!

Happy Birthday, Mitz!

Belated, but we got to celebrate tonight! With Oliver being sick and contagious still on Friday, we postponed until this afternoon. Natalie decorated the cake before Mitz and Pops came over. Once they got here, we did presents (Jon found a Christmas gift for Mitz that I lost before the holidays. LOL), then Mitz, Pops and Natalie played Sorry. Natalie's getting pretty good at the game - once she gets the basics down a little better, we'll teach her the cutthroat version! Had a nice dinner, then cake.

Here's Natalie decorating the cake -

Ace of Cakes has some competition - the finished product :-P

Mitz needed some help with the candles! Happy Birthday, Mom - love you!

Curses, foiled again!

We finally had to break down and gate the stairs - Jon installed it last night. Natalie was always good about staying off the stairs, but Oliver, not so much.

Needless to say, he was not pleased to have his access cut off. I heard him rattling the bars, and Natalie said "Look Daddy, it works!". And Jon installed some kind of cover over the outlet where my PC is plugged in - the little stinker has unplugged my PC on me a couple of times. Oliver's not happy about that either - he hits the cover. LOL

He's going to be even less pleased tomorrow morning when he discovers all the cabinets downstairs are latched. Tee hee!

Just for fun - one of the rare times he isn't cheerful upon awakening. If looks could kill...

While we're on the subject of Skeezers... It's so hard to believe he's going to be one in just over a month! I ordered his invites, birthday outfit, and bought his first present today (Dr. Seuss's Happy Birthday to You book - don't know why I haven't discovered this before - it's wonderful! Now I need to get Natalie one this year), and that really drove it home! I wish this last year had dragged on a little longer. Love you, sweet boy.

Crapsticks. Croup.

Oliver's been sounding funny when he breathes the last couple of days. After his morning nap today, he sounded horrible. Really labored, harsh breathing from deep in his chest. Called the ped, and they wanted him in because RSV is going around. Thankfully he doesn't have RSV, but he does have croup. This is my first experience with it, and I'm a little scared. Kids get it all the time, but I guess I never realized how serious it can be. The poor guy looks so sick, and sounds so awful, but he still rallies and gets into stuff he shouldn't, while laughing. We were told that the first three nights will be the worst, and since it's viral, the only thing we can do is give him Motrin, an oral steroid for two days and of course steam in the bathroom, then cold air outside. Hopefully, if it's possible, he'll just have a mild case.

Natalie doesn't sound so hot either, but not nearly as bad as Oliver. Hopefully she'll be able to fight it off better.

Oh, and Oliver weighs 27 pounds! No wonder my back and neck hurt all the time!

This little piggy, and Where's Mommy gone awry.

The day we went to the Renaissance Festival, we saw someone hurl a Coke can out the window of the car in front of us. I haven't seen such blatant littering in a long time, and blurted out "That &*^%$#$%^ pig". Of course Natalie wanted to know why I called him a pig, so I explained about littering and why it is bad.

Today, while driving home from school, she asked me to open the sun roof, so I did. At one point I was waving my hand out of it to make her laugh, when she asked me "Mommy, you aren't being a pig, are you?". Then, I took the kids on a walk/bike ride this afternoon. Someone's yard had a piece of trash in it, and she stopped her bike to say "Look Mommy, pigs".

I think I need to teach her the term litterbug!

After dinner, I was playing with the kids while Jon cleaned up. I was on my stomach on the ground, hid my face in a pillow and asked Oliver "Where's Mommy". Yeah. He grabbed a fistful of my hair, and yanked my head off the ground. I'll never do that again.

Good job, Mommy!

Ay yi yi.

Natalie likes watching little clips on YouTube - usually animated characters dancing to songs. About a week ago, I bought her a Safari Animals book that she just loves - lots of photographs of animals in Africa. She latched onto meerkats right away. So she's been watching clips of Meerkat Manor (Animal Planet, I believe) on YouTube.

She asked to see some tonight, but was bored with what they had - she's seen them all. She asked about polar bears, so I searched for polar bear clips. Found one contributor who put up a bunch of silly animated polar bear clips, and she happily started watching them.

I saw one titled "Polar Bear vs. Walrus", and thought it was just an animated short of the animals wrestling or something. Didn't catch that the screenshot they displayed (really small) wasn't animated. I started doing some dinner prep, looked over at Natalie, and she was sitting stock still in my desk chair, and just said "Um, I don't think I should watch this Mommy". Yeah. It was a real polar bear attacking and eating a walrus in graphic detail. Cripes. Fortunately she doesn't seem too tramautized, and even more fortunately, the clip quality was pretty poor. I just explained a little bit about how wild animals eat, and left it at that.

I'll be checking the mail every day for my Mother of the Year award.

This and that

Haven't updated in a while. We've been busy doing a whole lot of nothing - just business as usual!

One recent highlight was when Jon and I took Natalie to the Renaissance Festival. Oliver had a fun day with Mitz and Pops! Natalie thoroughly enjoyed herself! They had lots of rides and kid's activities - one of her favorites was a three story tunnel slide. I went down it a couple of times too - not so fun for adults! She also went on a ride, I forget what it was called, but she was in a harness with bungee ropes, and got to jump on a trampoline. She actually got quite high! Bigger kids/adults got so high in the air, they could do flips! She also ate a ton of food! One of my favorite items there is the Steak on a Stake - 6-8 oz. sirloin on a stake. Natalie ate FOUR of them. And 3/4 of an enormous sausage, a huge ear of corn and about a quarter of the biggest turkey drumstick you've ever seen! She rode a camel, we rode an elephant together, and her favorite was the Vegetable Justice booth. They have a couple of guys who get in the booth and hurl insults, while people throw tomatoes at them - I was happy to see the same guy in the booth who was there when I used to go in the late 90s - he's hilarious! They let Natalie get up close, and the guy tried to mildly get her riled up, but told me "She's too cute. I have nothing to work with". The last tomato Natalie threw got him right in the forehead! Fun day!

Oliver is walking all the time now! He walks more than he crawls. Still has the funny baby stagger going on - I love that stage! He's fearless, loves to climb and is into everything! One of his new favorites foods is blueberries - he scarfs them down! He also loves Reddi-Whip. If you spray a little in his mouth, he laughs. Then he sprays it all over.

We went to the evening Ash Wednesday service this past week. We won't talk about Natalie's behavior. But, we got there pretty early, because we weren't sure how crowded it was going to be. We've been encouraged (with Fr. Nicholas's blessing) to let Oliver roam during services (I wouldn't allow it during the sermon, don't worry!), or towards the end at Eucharist. Anyway, before the service started, we let Oliver kind of roam around. He went right to the altar so he could check things out. Naturally he went right for the Host, and I grabbed him just before disaster could strike! A couple of weeks ago, the Verger came and got Oliver after the Peace, and held him at the altar through the entire Eucharist - so Oliver could see what was going on! He really seemed to enjoy it.

We got to see Aunt Jamie this weekend! She came home from college to visit, and we all went out to dinner to celebrate Mitz's birthday a little early. Had a nice time! Then Jamie came over this afternoon to babysit the kids, so Jon and I could go out to lunch with our friends Nicholas and Rex. Natalie was SO excited! At church and Sunday School, she'd tell anyone who'd listen that "Aunt Jamie is coming! She's going to babysit me!". They played Sorry (Natalie "won", thanks Aunt Jamie!), and watched movies, had popcorn. Oliver cut his nap short, so he could spend some time with his auntie too. :-)

That's about all on this end. Hard to believe Skeezers is turning one in six weeks! Gotta get cracking on party planning!

Pictures will be updated this evening.