So last year we ended up in Urgent Care in Joplin with Emily for an ear infection. This year we visited Urgent Care in Springfield because Emily was breaking out in hives all over her torso and it was spreading to her legs and arms--even after 2 doses of Benadryl. The doctor suspected it was caused by an allergic reaction to the Amoxicillian she had been taking for a sinus/ear infection. However he suggested it could also be food related because at Thanksgiving dinners we often eat foods that aren't normally in our diet on a regular day. We already know dairy is a problem, but now what? The doctor prescribed Prednosol--the baby version of Prednisone. Four days later and she's still having new episodes of hives. I've given her benadry at least twice a day. So far I'm suspicious of chicken, chicken broth, turkey, and cranberries. The strange part of all that is she's had those foods a dozen times or so and no reaction, so I'm not real sure what it is. I will ask our allergist tomorrow if he thinks we need to test her for all the foods they normally do allergy tests for. I just would like to know so that I can eliminate the food that's causing all this from her diet.
Among all the allergy chaos, Seth came down with a stomach virus and pretty much feels horrible. I'm just praying that Emily, Savannah, and I don't get it too--we were all just sick a few weeks ago. We need a break.
The fun parts of our Thanksgiving week all included visiting family. We went to my parents house first (Grammie and Pop as the girls refer to them). We had a good visit, the girls amused my parents with at various times--the two that stand out most are when Emily and Savavannah climbed onto the piano bench and began "playing" the piano, and singing in unison Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. My mom cried because she thought is was so precious. The second great event was decorating my parents' Christmas tree. The girls had so much fun hanging the ornaments on the tree and looking at all the old pictures on the ornaments my brother and I had made when we were kids.
We visited my grandparents (Great Grandma and Great Papa Howard). The girls have not seen them as much since my grandpa's health has been bad and my grandma has not been able to visit us much. So, upon arriving at their house I explained to the girls that Great Papa would probably been in his bed in the living room because he had been sick and so it made him very tired. I told them he needed to be in a special bed that could help him sit up since he could not do that on his own anymore. Savannah's response was "I will not be scar-ed of Great Papa". When we walked up the stair to the door, Emily would not go inside the house and said "I'm scared, I don't want to go in". This made me sad for the girls and for my grandparents. So, Emily clung to me with her face buried in my shoulder for about a half hour, then she wouldn't even look at my grandpa. Savannah was okay until my grandma raised the head of the bed up so my grandpa could sit up--I guess it was scary looking or something. Savannah just froze--facing the TV and would not move or look at anyone for a good 45 minutes. Poor girl. She must have been really stressed. Eventually she warmed up a little to my grandma, and Emily near the end of our visit let my grandma hold her.
We spent the end of the week visiting Seth's family. The girls were so excited to see their Grandma Terry and Pop-Pop. They enjoyed a big Thanksgiving dinner--thankfully everyone made an extra effort to avoid putting anything with dairy in it so that Emily could eat all of the foods that were served. I think her favorite were sweet potatoes and blueberry pie. After lunch we began to notice a few red spots on her stomach, but weren't convinced it was hives because they were small. From then on the rash just got worse...
On Saturday, Seth and his dad took the girls over to "Aunt" Jennifer's mom's house to see their horses and ride a pony named Smokey. I only saw pictures and heard the stories from Seth because his mom and I had gone to a fitness center to work off the extra calories from Thanksgiving. The girls seemed to have a lot of fun--especially Savannah. She had a huge smile on her face in most of the pictures and she looked liked she was having a blast!
Another cute thing that happened was when Savannah and Emily were playing on this little activity table at Grandma Terry's house--there's a 3 key piano on it and Savannah was pressing the keys and singing and Emily was pressing the buttons on the telephone pad and singing. Then Savannah breaks into her version of Oh Suzanna. As Savannah sings it :Oh Sue-Savannah don't you cry for me, I come from Al-bama weeth a banjo on my knee!"
Overall it was a good week, Seth and I even got to go on a date! We went ice skating at the Mediacom ice center in Springfield. There were only about 10 people on the ice...mostly teenagers/college kids, one elderly man and then then Seth and I. It took about 15 minutes for me to remember how to skate, then I was really having fun...Seth on the other hand was having a harder time. What a great husband to take on an activity he knew he might not be very good at just to make his wife happy. He earned some bonus points that night. It was so much fun! I even got brave enough to try out my spin move and I only fell once--ending up laying face down flat on the ice. No worries, nothing broke! After almost two hours of skating Seth and I began to feel really tired--and were reminded that we are getting closer to 30 and just don't have quite the endurance for that type of activity. We concluded your date with a walk throught the Festival of Lights in Jordan Valley Park.
I think it will be a bit of a rough adjustment back to normal. I really enjoyed all the extra family that helped take care of the girls and entertain them. Tomorrow it's back to being just me--and then I may also be taking care of a sick Seth too. Pray for us to get through it.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
What was I thinking?
Okay, so I totally meant to post this story way before today, but our whole family has been sick this past week and I just haven't felt like blogging until now. So, hopefully I can recall the events acurately since it's been almost a week and half since this happened.
So, a week ago, Saturday, Seth came down with a yucky cold virus and fever. I decided to give him the chance to get some good rest and took the girls to Oak Park Mall to ride the carousel and play on the foam cars in front of Dillards. We stopped in at my Baby Gap store to try on a few shirts and pants and the girls were pretty good and actually ended up being overly helpful while shopping for a couple of baby gifts. Once I cleaned up all the clothes they had taken off the sale racks, we checked out and proceeded to the carousel. The girls waited patiently in line for their turn to ride the horses. They had a good time while riding. Then they were very cooperative once we entered the car area and took off their shoes and put them in the shoe cubby. Things were going well, despite the mall being crazy busy with tons of people and kids. After about 20-30 minutes of playing it was time to leave so we could bring Seth food for dinner and get the girls fed.
Of course, Emily and Savannah never want to leave the car area when they are having fun...so I expected some resistance. I gave them a 5 minute warning that it would soon be time to leave. I ended having to chase Emily and hold her down to put her shoes back on, but after that she came with me without too much of a problem. Savannah, on the other hand, went into full-blown tantrum mode--I mean HUGE! I struggled with Savannah for quite awhile, putting her shoes on only to have her take them off again. Finally I ended up carrying her out of the car area, all while she was kicking and screaming and crying. Emily followed us to the stroller. As soon as I put Savannah on the floor she screams "I don't want to leave--NO!" and she took off running--fast.
The first thought in my head was--NOOOOOO!!!!!!!!! She was already 3 stores down from the play area and Emily was crying and not wanting to walk anymore. I knew I would not have time to get her in the stroller, so I picked Emily up in one arm, pushed the double stroller in the other and walked/ran after Savannah. I prayed to God no one would grab her and take her away. There were so many people and Savannah just kept running, weaving in and out and around the crowd. I tried to yell for Savannah to stop, but she ignored me and kept running.
By this time I was getting frantic because she was getting further away, and I was fast approaching the annoying design of this mall that requires people with strollers or wheel chairs to zig-zag down the main hallways--I hate that under normal circumstances, but when you are chasing a child through the mall it's even worse. Just as Savannah approached a stairway, another family with a stroller happened to end up in her way--she stopped and turned to run around them, but I caught up and blocked her with our stroller. I grabbed her hand and told her to "Always, always, stay with mommy at the mall!" . I have never been so scared to lose one of my girls until that day. Of course, getting her into the stroller after that was a nice little horrific side show for the mall crowd as she kicked and screamed and fought to get out of the stroller while I was strapping her in. AAAAAAGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!
Lesson learned: NEVER, EVER, take your 2 year old twins to the mall by yourself on a Saturday night. You never know when a tantrum will get the best of you.
So, a week ago, Saturday, Seth came down with a yucky cold virus and fever. I decided to give him the chance to get some good rest and took the girls to Oak Park Mall to ride the carousel and play on the foam cars in front of Dillards. We stopped in at my Baby Gap store to try on a few shirts and pants and the girls were pretty good and actually ended up being overly helpful while shopping for a couple of baby gifts. Once I cleaned up all the clothes they had taken off the sale racks, we checked out and proceeded to the carousel. The girls waited patiently in line for their turn to ride the horses. They had a good time while riding. Then they were very cooperative once we entered the car area and took off their shoes and put them in the shoe cubby. Things were going well, despite the mall being crazy busy with tons of people and kids. After about 20-30 minutes of playing it was time to leave so we could bring Seth food for dinner and get the girls fed.
Of course, Emily and Savannah never want to leave the car area when they are having fun...so I expected some resistance. I gave them a 5 minute warning that it would soon be time to leave. I ended having to chase Emily and hold her down to put her shoes back on, but after that she came with me without too much of a problem. Savannah, on the other hand, went into full-blown tantrum mode--I mean HUGE! I struggled with Savannah for quite awhile, putting her shoes on only to have her take them off again. Finally I ended up carrying her out of the car area, all while she was kicking and screaming and crying. Emily followed us to the stroller. As soon as I put Savannah on the floor she screams "I don't want to leave--NO!" and she took off running--fast.
The first thought in my head was--NOOOOOO!!!!!!!!! She was already 3 stores down from the play area and Emily was crying and not wanting to walk anymore. I knew I would not have time to get her in the stroller, so I picked Emily up in one arm, pushed the double stroller in the other and walked/ran after Savannah. I prayed to God no one would grab her and take her away. There were so many people and Savannah just kept running, weaving in and out and around the crowd. I tried to yell for Savannah to stop, but she ignored me and kept running.
By this time I was getting frantic because she was getting further away, and I was fast approaching the annoying design of this mall that requires people with strollers or wheel chairs to zig-zag down the main hallways--I hate that under normal circumstances, but when you are chasing a child through the mall it's even worse. Just as Savannah approached a stairway, another family with a stroller happened to end up in her way--she stopped and turned to run around them, but I caught up and blocked her with our stroller. I grabbed her hand and told her to "Always, always, stay with mommy at the mall!" . I have never been so scared to lose one of my girls until that day. Of course, getting her into the stroller after that was a nice little horrific side show for the mall crowd as she kicked and screamed and fought to get out of the stroller while I was strapping her in. AAAAAAGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!
Lesson learned: NEVER, EVER, take your 2 year old twins to the mall by yourself on a Saturday night. You never know when a tantrum will get the best of you.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
The Calm After The Storm?
The past four days have been great! I mean, I did not find myself yelling and screaming at the girls but once or twice--that is a record. So, I'm wondering if I'm just calmer these days or if the girls have chilled out for awhile. I don't know, but I will take it! Emily and Savannah have been playing together very well and half of the time at the table they are throwing food or cups/plates/forks. Hey, it's not perfect, but a huge improvement. I hope that continues to improve as the tantrums have seemed to die down a bit.
Major news--the girls had their FIRST haircut yesterday. It took them forever to get hair, and now it's finally long enough to be in their eyes...and well it just didn't look very nice, so I took them to my hairdresser (also my babysitters' mom). They were so good. They both sat in the chair like big girls and sat still. Neither of them cried or fussed. The only sad part of that experience is that in my effort to get both girls out of the house and into the van before it started raining, I forgot my camera. My hairdresser let me take some pictures with her cell phone camera, but she's not sure how to get the pictures off of the phone--hopefully her daughters can help her figure it out. I did take a few pictures of the "after the haircut". I guess I'll just have to remember to bring the camera for the 2nd haircut.
Cute things happened today. Emily and Savannah really seemed to want to play with me a lot. They still ask if they can tackle me, so we did that for awhile and then they wanted me to tackle them. They think it's great fun and they just laugh and laugh when we do that. After that Savannah wanted to play Ring Around The Rosy. So we started to hold hands...except Emily did not want to hold Savannah's hand--so I suggested they get their large stuffed Eeyore and each hold one of his "hands". They liked that idea and were laughing the whole time we were playing. Eeyore is one of their favorite stuffed animals. We spendt the rest of the afternoon drawing, running up and down the hall, chasing our dog, Billy, and tickling each other. I am tired after all that. It was a good day. I hope to have many more like it. So yes, today I do like being a mom.
Major news--the girls had their FIRST haircut yesterday. It took them forever to get hair, and now it's finally long enough to be in their eyes...and well it just didn't look very nice, so I took them to my hairdresser (also my babysitters' mom). They were so good. They both sat in the chair like big girls and sat still. Neither of them cried or fussed. The only sad part of that experience is that in my effort to get both girls out of the house and into the van before it started raining, I forgot my camera. My hairdresser let me take some pictures with her cell phone camera, but she's not sure how to get the pictures off of the phone--hopefully her daughters can help her figure it out. I did take a few pictures of the "after the haircut". I guess I'll just have to remember to bring the camera for the 2nd haircut.
Cute things happened today. Emily and Savannah really seemed to want to play with me a lot. They still ask if they can tackle me, so we did that for awhile and then they wanted me to tackle them. They think it's great fun and they just laugh and laugh when we do that. After that Savannah wanted to play Ring Around The Rosy. So we started to hold hands...except Emily did not want to hold Savannah's hand--so I suggested they get their large stuffed Eeyore and each hold one of his "hands". They liked that idea and were laughing the whole time we were playing. Eeyore is one of their favorite stuffed animals. We spendt the rest of the afternoon drawing, running up and down the hall, chasing our dog, Billy, and tickling each other. I am tired after all that. It was a good day. I hope to have many more like it. So yes, today I do like being a mom.
Monday, November 3, 2008
A Good Day
Today was a good day for me and the girls. Even though Savannah has been in tantrum mode about 85% of her waking hours this past week, today was good. Maybe I've gotten used to her strong-willed outbursts, or maybe they just weren't as bad as they have been--I don't know, but today was pleasantly different. Maybe it has to do with the fact that I knew I was going to get out of "mom duty" early today because I was scheduled to work this evening. Who knows? All I can say is "Thank you God!".
The girls played well together today for the most part--we had a few tiffs here and there, but nothing too horrible. They played with their baby dolls, pretending to change their diapers and putting new clothes on them. Then they pretended to do laundry...which basically involves them emptying out every single clothing drawer within their reach and "hanging it up" on their cribs and rocking chairs to "dry". I'm not sure where the girls learned this, because I usually dry most things in the dryer--we don't have a clothes line...sometimes I use a sweater drying rack on the floor--maybe that's where they got the idea. It's funny, until it's time to clean it all up--I've given up on neatly folding everything--I'll save that effort for my time at the Baby Gap.
A sad thing did happen today. As I was getting ready to leave for work this evening, Emily kept crying and asking me to hold her. I held her for a few minutes then put her down so I could leave. She cried and cried and cried. Seth told me that after I had left, she climbed into her high chair and said "I mad at Mommy". Ouch--that cuts right through my heart. I guess she has some negative feelings about me leaving to go work. She has never gotten that upset when Seth goes to work. Hopefully she'll realize that I always come back and that she always sees me the next morning when she wakes up. It's hard to enjoy getting to go to my new job when I know it's upsetting my girls.
The girls played well together today for the most part--we had a few tiffs here and there, but nothing too horrible. They played with their baby dolls, pretending to change their diapers and putting new clothes on them. Then they pretended to do laundry...which basically involves them emptying out every single clothing drawer within their reach and "hanging it up" on their cribs and rocking chairs to "dry". I'm not sure where the girls learned this, because I usually dry most things in the dryer--we don't have a clothes line...sometimes I use a sweater drying rack on the floor--maybe that's where they got the idea. It's funny, until it's time to clean it all up--I've given up on neatly folding everything--I'll save that effort for my time at the Baby Gap.
A sad thing did happen today. As I was getting ready to leave for work this evening, Emily kept crying and asking me to hold her. I held her for a few minutes then put her down so I could leave. She cried and cried and cried. Seth told me that after I had left, she climbed into her high chair and said "I mad at Mommy". Ouch--that cuts right through my heart. I guess she has some negative feelings about me leaving to go work. She has never gotten that upset when Seth goes to work. Hopefully she'll realize that I always come back and that she always sees me the next morning when she wakes up. It's hard to enjoy getting to go to my new job when I know it's upsetting my girls.
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