A rough day for B

Today was a rough day for my poor baby girl.  This morning she woke up crying.  I always let her cry for a few minutes to see if she'll go back to sleep or if she's up for real.  Sometimes she goes back to sleep & other times she doesn't.  After a minute or two the crying became more of an "I'm hurt" cry.  I walk in there to find her on her side with one of her legs stuck through the crib railings up to above her knee.  I tried to pull her leg out and could not for the life of me get it unstuck.  I went in & woke up Travis.  Luckily for B he was able to pull the bars apart just enough that I was able to slide her little leg out.  At this point we both silently agreed the crib would be coming down today.

B was grouchy off and on all day.  She had about a three or four hour nap this afternoon and I thought we'd be good to go.  Nope, sister was a BEAR at the grocery store.  Mostly I think it was that she was hungry & has entered a new found "I DO IT!!" phase.  Great.  She had another short nap after we got home from the grocery store.

When she woke up I decided to put her in the tub.  That always seems to cheer her up.  We stripped her down & put her in the tub and she played to her heart's content.  I finally got her out & wrapped up in a towel & grabbed a few Q-tips to clean out the outer edges of her ears.  When I was done, sister managed to get a Q-tip away from me & ram it into her right ear.  She screamed in serious pain & grabbed her face.  I'm pretty sure she felt it all the way through.  It was at this point that I noticed the blood coming out of her ear.  Hope she didn't just ruin the one functioning tube she had left.  I wrapped her up in her towel & took her outside to Travis and told him what had happened.  He was nice enough to hold sister down while I put some antibiotic ear drops in her ear & stuff a cotton ball in it.

Brookelyn didn't want to eat her dinner in her high chair tonight or sitting in a big girl chair at the table.  Nope, she preferred running through the house with it.  It was when she wanted to take the pudding through the house that mom got mean and told her no.

She was so excited to help her daddy take apart her bed.  She thought that was just the coolest thing ever to watch.  Her brother Nash was kind enough to teach her how to jump on her bed.  Her dad watched for a minute and then ever so kindly tells me, "Yeah, pretty sure she's going to crack her skull open doing this."  Yea, me too.  Thanks for that!  I'm hoping it happens when he's home so I don't have to haul four kids to the dr.'s office to get her head stitched up.  Not too long after her bed was ready we got her a bottle, her blanket and a book.  I laid her in her bed, gave her her blanket, bottle & book, told her night, night and walked out of the room.  I shut the door and wondered how long it would be before she was up pounding on the door.  Not so much as peep.  Either sister was tired or I might have a smidgen of good luck with this bed time thing seeing as how awful Caleb was when we put him in a toddler bed!

Butt shot of Nash teaching sister how to jump on her new big girl bed. 

Getting a closer look at what daddy is doing. 

The big kids put my body pillow under her so that it would be nice and fluffy. 

I love this one.  She was grinning at her daddy.

WHAT?!

I think today is Monday and not in fact Friday.  Took the kids to the dr.'s office today.  That was a mistake.

Nash had to have his wart frozen again.

Brookelyn has an ear infection.  AND the tube in her left ear (the one we put in back in March that has done so well), yea IT'S OUT ALREADY.  There was discussion about putting 2 tubes in each ear.  She goes back in three weeks.

Caleb's nose & ears have not improved despite being vigilant for the last month in doing nose spray & singular tablets.  This means he gets a new set of tubes (his last set was when he was about 10 months old), check to see if his adenoids have regrown and if so take those out again AND there was talk of taking out his tonsils but I'm remembering now that they were taken out last July.  Whew on that one!  The poor kid ALSO has to have the same allergy test his brother and sister have had (that then resulted in them getting their weekly allergy shots).

Seriously?!  I asked the ENT if he was going to name a wing after us in the hospital yet and he said "YES."  Wouldn't that be nice?  Maybe they'd quit sending me a bill in that case?

Nash's new hobby

Travis took Nash to his dentist appointment for me today.  We were having a consultation with the dentist about his cross bite.

The dentist told Travis that the one top tooth just needs to move out in front of the bottom tooth a smidge.  He said that it can be done fairly easily and fairly quickly.  Since those top teeth haven't been in a the way for a super long time, the dentist thinks we can do this the "cheap" way.

The solution and Nash's new hobby: Nash was given a bunch of tongue depressors to put between his top & bottom tooth where the cross bite is happening.  Nash is suppose to put the tongue depressor behind the front tooth and in front of the bottom tooth & then bite down.  Hopefully this will put enough pressure on his top tooth to move it forward just enough to bring it in front of the bottom tooth.  Travis has told Nash that he will give him $50 if he will dedicate himself to this task because it would save him $1,000.  Obviously Travis doesn't know what a retainer, a set of braces, and another retainer is going to cost!  So, Nash is going to give it a go with his tongue depressors until his well check on Nov. 12th.  If the teeth haven't moved enough by then then we will have to figure out which of the three retainers will be the best option to go ahead with.

The moral?: Next time you see Nash ask him where his tongue depressor is and how often he's been chewing on it! :)

Growing Up

Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2012 Caleb got to go to his first day of preschool for the year!  He was super excited. He LOVES Miss Shannon (as I've said before :) ).  He is so happy he gets to go to school three days a week this year rather than just two times a week.  Tonight he tells me, "Mom.  You should come to my school every day.  Then you could learn to count and spell zebra."  He's right, I should go to his school every day!  It would be much more entertaining than doing what I do!

This little lady turned 16 months old yesterday!  Where did that time go?  She is getting so big I can hardly believe it.

This little girl has gotten quite an attitude and personality of her own lately.  She uses "AHHH!" to get what she wants.  For example, she'll come up and yank on my pants and screech "AHH" in an effort to get me to lift her up.  I keep telling her, "Say 'up mama'".  I'm hoping she'll get the idea sooner rather than later.

She is quite independent.  My mom & I joke with each other and say, "I do it!  I two!"  That's what Caleb use to tell me, so, whenever one of them has an attitude about doing something on their own we throw out an "I do it!".

The climbing escapades have subsided for awhile.  I say that knowing full well she'll likely scale the drawers now.  Oh well.

She has recently discovered her love for books and anything resembling a book.  She will take at least five books to bed with her and can be found packing several books throughout the house all day every day.  Her favorites to pack around are: Samantha's students dictionary, the telephone book, and any chapter book Samantha is reading and has a book mark tucked into (of course, she won't pack that one until she promptly rips out the book mark).

Brookelyn likes to act like she's the queen bee around here.  She points her finger at whoever is nearest and jabbers away giving them quite the stern talking to.  I can't wait for her vocabulary to develop so I can finally understand just what it is she's telling us.

Sister is still working on all four molars and I hope they come through soon.  Her ruptured cyst is looking more painful every day and I can see the next one (the top right) coming soon.  For her sake I hope that the rest of the molars aren't nearly as bad as this one has been.

Her vocabulary now includes: mom, dad, char (charlotte), dog, man-na (Samantha), Nash, ma-ma (grandma), no, owie, uh oh, hi, hi-ya, and oh.

This little girl isn't shy about trying any food you put in front of her.  In fact, tonight she grabbed the plate I had in my hands (I was trying to put some beans on her high chair tray) and set it down in front of her and then grabbed the fork out of my hand.  When she's done with her bottle she pushes the nipple in so that not only can she not get milk out when she wants it, it also drips all over everything!  So helpful!

Have I mentioned that this girl has a shoe fetish?  I hate shopping for shoes.  What's more, I hate wearing shoes.  I'd go barefoot everywhere if that was an option.  This girl wants to put on one pair of shoes and 30 seconds later change into a different pair.  There will be many headaches for me if this fetish continues.

And now, my little howler monkey is calling me so I had better sign off.

Making Strides Against Breast Cancer

In just under a month I will be participating in the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer 5K.  More than likely I will have all four kids with me.  I decided to do the 5K this year because this Nov. 19th at 9:05 am will mark the 10th anniversary since I lost my grandma to this awful disease.  You can find my team page here: http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR?fr_id=47444&pg=personal&px=2086508  If anyone wants to join me in the 5K I'd love to have the company.  I'll be pushing a double stroller & encouraging my two big kids to keep up with us so I won't be running :)  From the sound of it, this is one big party mean to celebrate those who have survived this awful disease.  Come help me celebrate the memory of my grandma!