Hives

 Charlotte had a fever a few weeks back.  And a persistent gunky cough mixed with an ear infection.

Since it wasn't going away we decided to try an antibiotic. Amoxicillin to be exact.  After 5 days we realized that we were giving her the wrong dosage (looooong embarrassing story).  So it was upped for another 6 days.  48 hrs after it was done she had the fever again.  Then 48 hours later she started getting spots.  After way too many doctor apts and phone calls I was warned that "These hives will get a lot worse before they get better."

If only I'd known. 

These pictures don't even come close to showing how bad they got.

One thing I've always prided myself with is how I'm able to function under a lot of stress.  House is flooding?  I'm right there doing all the damage control possible while my mom freaks out.  Eight kids under seven running around the house?  No sweat. I usually get more housework done for some reason.  Back labor (Shoot, I still need to blog about that)?- well, ok, that was hard but I still didn't freak out and was able to think clearly throughout the whole thing.  

 

One of my babies has a migraine or the hives?  I'm a nervous wreck and can't even get dressed.

 

Suffice to say the hives were harder on me than her. 

Benadryl just kept her away and a nice oatmeal bath finally did the trick. 

8 months

This month has been filled with so much love.  I just can't get over what a happy child she is.  Even when she had hives (details to come) she was only mildly fussy.  She smiles all.the.time.  If she's fussy she's either hungry, tired or wet.  I had to emphasize to Jeremy that a fuss is not "hold me" like it was with Sam.  A fuss is her telling you one of those three things.  Listen to her. 

 

 

Caught on camera!  The hives were juuuuust starting here- they didn't stop her from getting up onto all fours by herself for the first time! 

The only reason she's not mobile is because she's totally content in the most awkward of positions for long periods of time...

If she sees something she'd like that is out of reach...

She'll just find something else to grin at.

Just when I get worried about her motor development I'll turn around and ask, "Wait, Jer, did you move her or did she do that on her own?"

Yesterday she sat up by herself.  Several times.  Like it was nothing.  I swear she knows how to walk and is pretending she can't so we'll lug carry her everywhere.

 

I'm debating putting some puffs on the other end of the room and setting up a camera.  This girl shies away from an audience but will do anything for a puff.   

 

Oh, Charlotte.  Even my mother can't get over how happy and content you are to just be on the floor by yourself.  You kill your papa with your "engine revving" hums when you are only 90% content. 

I was trying to catch her sitting up on camera...

You think you can catch me in action??

...5 minutes later...

HA! I win. The tongue shows her proud victory.

Getting the mouth ready...

aaaaaand...

pop!

 

 

 

 

 

"Take a picture of ME!"









 

 

She'd still be in my womb if possible, I swear. 

Discipline

These kind of speak for themselves. 


First Day of the summer, 9:30 am, took about 20 minutes to complete.  It should say "wiping my feet" but I was too angry to be so exact.

Same day, took about 3.5 hours to complete, including a tantrum, screaming, time-outs, slamming of doors, a nap (for both of us) and finally a finished product.  Her defense? "I didn't put them on her face, just her belly!" Note the original with scribbles and post-crumbled into a ball crinkles.  It was quite the stand-off.
 

 We've been incident free for three days now, and she's been unusually kind to Charlotte.  Hopefully the lesson has been learned...

FIVE

Welp, keeping with the yearly tradition, I'm posting Sam's yearly update a bit late.  BUT I did make it before June this year, so I guess that's progress, right?

Samantha was ALL psyched to turn five from December until April.  Then May hit and I guess she just lost her steam and decided she was "close enough" to five.  It probably didn't help that I told her it was ok to say "I'm almost 5" when May came around.  Even her teachers asked, "Wait, did we miss her birthday?  She's stopped talking about it everyday so we thought maybe we'd forgotten it!"

Speaking of school and teachers, we just got back from her 5-year check-up.  She'd been talking about her 5-year-old shots (aka Kindergarten shots) since her 4-year check-up, so she was quite ready.  And considering she thinks an IV "tickles" it wasn't surprising that she only made a small yelp for "Mommy!" between the two shots and that was it.  Getting to have TWO Band-Aids at once just sweetened the deal.  And a sucker.  Can't forget about the sucker.

Samantha taught herself to sight-read this past year and was reading books out-loud to her class (teacher-style) when the year ended.  She has no idea what "sounding out" is, she just uses the first letter and the last, context and pictures where applicable to guess what new words are.  She's reading this as I type it, actually.  Pretty soon Jeremy and I won't be able to spell things out to each other anymore.

She's finally a rock-star sleeper.  She made the last transition when my mom mentioned having sleep-overs once she slept through the night.  We really haven't had any issues since, even though she's only had two sleep-overs!

She only gets two migraines a year, but we're still trying to figure out what to do during them to avoid going to the ER.  Nothing (Zofran, Gatorade, suppositories, Ibuprofen, wrist creams, etc) stops the vomiting/dehydration cycle so we just take her to the ER for an IV and wait out the migraine.  So any tips or thoughts on this area would be much appreciated.  Those ER trips are not cheap!

Lists of Favorites:
Food: suckers
Color: Elsa Blue and White
Movie: Frozen
Song: Let It Go
Book: Frozen books (although she loves reading the Little House books with me right now, she's just a little obsessed with Elsa)...now she's upset with me for adding that.  Oh well.
Healthy Food: Carrots and Apples
Store: Trader Joe's
Drink: Water
Best Friend: Estella (Myra and Lydia)
Toy: The Elsa Doll (that she made by putting a Cinderella dress on a ballerina Barbie)
Skirts/Dresses/Shorts/Pants?: Dresses with shorts underneath
When she grows up she wants to be a: Rock Star

Stats:
40.5" (25%)
35.5 lbs (25%)

Elsa Blue Chairs for lounging outside

Second gift...

...were shoes that she hated

Birthday Cake that papa made

Sam was in love

Sam's wonderful teacher for two years.  She will be missed! (Until Charlotte joins the club)

Favorite gift- Elsa Blue Cowgirl boots.
Thanks Mimi!

  Happy Birthday Samantha!

You are every inch of a five-year-old Rock-Star.

May the precious blood of Christ wash over you and protect you as you begin your journey onto your second hand...

Mellow

That one word is what describes this child. And this picture captures it perfectly.  The coffee table leg was in her way as she tried to turn around. She just hung onto it while I snapped pictures and cracked up. She started grinning back at me while her face was plastered against the leg. Eventually she made it but the whole scene was very anticlimactic. This is the day after a horrible fever and she still has a gunky cough.

Mother's Day

Today I...
washed diapers
made cheese (failed yogurt attempt)
made yogurt (second attempt)
made homemade babyfood (I swore I wasn't going to but just couldn't help myself)
scrubbed the floors

I seriously need to stop reading the Laura Ingalls Wilder books to Sam. 

The Grin

Believe it or not, it was quite easy to get this on camera.  She breaks out into a grin whenever we pull it out and holds the pose.  Best part is that she doesn't ask to see it immediately after.  I'm sure that day will come soon enough, though!