Mama's Magic

Both girls are miserable,
both have bad colds.
When all they want is their Mama to hold.

So what can Mama do
to turn frowns upside down?

Well, a picnic of course!


Complete with the picnic basket we received as a wedding present that we have never used!

Our menu:

Analese: peabutter on rice cake
whole apple, peeled
peas
flourless peanut-butter cookie

Mara: chicken
peas
raisins
apple slices
snickerdoodle cookie

Mama: chicken salad on a bed of lettuce
flourless peanut-butter cookie

It was successful! Frowns turned upside down,
if only for a moment.
We clicked our plastic glasses and had lots of cheers.
Lots of giggles, and lots of spills

A very dreary day turned out great (for a little while)

The Long Weekend

Thanks for all the well-wishes and hopes for a virus :)

We are still not sure what is up with our child. She spent Friday laying on the couch, feeling pretty miserable. On Saturday she woke up feeling a bit better, still tired and irritable, but up off the couch and moving around. We still wanted her to rest and drink up, as she was probably still a bit dehydrated, so Greg took her to the movie store to pick out some videos to watch.

Anyway, she seemed on the mend Saturday, even asking for and eating up a tuna fish sandwich for lunch, but then not wanting to eat more then her salad for dinner. We didn't push it too much.

Then came Saturday night. It started off a good night, as the girls were both in bed by 8 o'clock-a rare occurrence these days, and I was able to study AND then watch a movie with Greg. Throughout the movie, Analese woke up a few times crying but we were able to get her back to sleep right away. After we went to bed, she continued to keep waking up. She was pretty disoriented every time I went in there, thrashing around and crying. Once I was able to calm her down, she went right back to sleep. This pattern continued throughout the night, and I had counted 8 times of me having to get up. I woke Greg up to go in there once, but he is such a hard sleeper...much faster for me to just go!

Around 4 am the fun began, as Analese began to once again vomit all over her bed. Mara was in our bed by this time, so Greg stayed and helped her back to sleep. I got Analese cleaned up, the bed cleaned up with new sheets and blankets. Analese was really tired and just wanted the light off so that she could go back to sleep. I got her back into bed, and went downstairs to rinse the sheets and get them in the wash. As soon as I got back upstairs and just two feet away from my bed, I heard her throwing up again! Once again, we got everything cleaned up and I took her out to the couch with me. I set the sofa up with towels everywhere, put a bowl next to Analese and we watched some television until 6 am when she was tired enough to go back to sleep. She was really thirsty, but I waited until 7:30 to give her a sip of water. She seemed to do OK with it, so I continued to give her a sip every 15 minutes. But an hour later she threw it all up again.

Anyway, she spent yesterday on the couch once again, very lethargic. She did not vomit anymore, and we continued to get fluids in her. We do wonder whether it really is a virus or her head, as she was pretty disoriented and confused, and very sensitive to light...becoming really upset when the blind was pushed open a bit. I know having a "headache" is a hard concept for a child to understand, so we have been asking her if her eyes hurt, if it hurts to move her head, etc. but couldn't really get a real answer.

So we'll see how today goes! She is still pretty tired, but did eat some of her muffin this morning. I think the only way we'll really know if this is a virus is if one of us also gets it. Not really sure if I want that to happen.

Quick Update

Sorry its taken me so long to update you all. My computer has been acting up today-of course!

Greg was at the hospital with Analese until 4 this morning, and she continued to vomit until about 7. We got to sleep from 5-7 and then Ms. Mara was up for the day. The hospital said she either has a concussion or a stomach virus...we're all hoping for the virus. There seems to be a nasty one going around, so hopefully that is it (but one the rest of us do not get!)

Analese is pretty lethargic, not eating and I have been getting her to take sips of water every 15 minutes. Hopefully she'll start to feel better soon, and hopefully we'll get some sleep tonight!

Got to go, but wanted to give a quick update!

Oh what a night....

I am sitting here waiting to here from Greg. He took Analese to the hospital to have her checked out. She began vomiting a little while ago and has thrown up 7 times in an hour. Because of her head injury earlier today, we are a bit concerned!

I hated to stay home, but we couldn't see waking up Mara so that we could all go. So my job is to continue washing all of her bed sheets, blankets and pillow in order to have to ready for her return. I feel for Greg, as I had explained in my post earlier, Analese does not handle doctors very well. Hopefully they can get in and out quickly so that we can all get some sleep tonight.

I'll keep you all posted with any updates. For now, I will be concentrating on trying to get the smell of vomit out of every room, and out of my hands. I have washed them over and over again, and I can still smell it.

My poor baby. Hopefully I'll hear something soon.

Check-ups and Boo Boos

We have had a busy week and it looks like we will not be slowing down anytime soon.

Yesterday Mara had her two year checkup yesterday. I was actually looking forward to seeing how much she weighed, as I could feel that she was getting heavier every time I held her. I was disappointed to find out that, now that she is two, they weigh her fully clothed. I asked her if we could weigh her naked in order to have a more accurate weight, but backed down once I saw 2 other families waiting to get weighed...of course I am kicking myself now and plan to call today to see if we just run in and get her reweighed. So anyway, she is now 22 pounds fully clothed, so she probably weighs about 21 pounds or so. She still isn't back on the chart, but doing well on her own chart. I was hoping she would have moved up to zero, but not just yet! She is 33 1/2 inches long, which puts her at the 25% for height.

She needed to get a shot, as we are still playing catch-up since I delayed them all. I had warned Analese beforehand and we had come up with a plan on how she could help Mara feel better by making faces. Well, our plan flew right out the window, as Analese started screaming this high pitched scream as soon as the nurse came in! It was rather comical, for Mara just sat and looked at her. She did cry when she got her shot, which caused Analese to go an octave higher-something I didn't even think was possible at the time! Mara calmed down within minutes....minutes before her big sister did. Fun, fun times :) Do you think that may have been the reason for my headache last night?

Today we had art class, and as we were getting ready to go, Analese came running down the hall and fell into the corner. It was horrible. Her face has a line down it, with bruises and scrapes on her forehead and then her cheek is bruised and swollen. Luckily, she only scraped it as I was expecting to see some big gash on her eyebrow. She still wanted to go to art class, so she iced it the whole way there. Her teacher gave me some natural remedy to put on it, which is hopefully going to help heal it up.
The girls absolutely love their class, and just work quietly the whole time. Today they used paper and glue, with all sorts of materials to use! Both girls really enjoyed using the scissors, which reminded me that we needed some at home! I have been bringing my camera to class, but never have time to pull it out....plus the class gets pretty messy.
The girls did not want to leave, and played quietly while I helped their teacher clean up. When it was time to leave, Analese hid under the table because she did not want to leave!

The art teacher is also in the midsts of planning a preschool class, which I am very interested in. She hopes to have a parent meeting next month about it-I am so excited! We keep going back and forth about what to do with Analese next year....this may be an option.

School started yesterday for me, so I have to get back into a schedule with that. I am taking my last Algebra class, and a class on Web Design. The web design class looks interesting, I cannot wait to learn new stuff.

I have my next OB appt tomorrow, so hopefully it will go well! I am attempting to bring both girls by myself, since it should be a quick appointment. Analese has such a fear of doctors, I am hoping we can get through this one with minimal tears. Wish me luck!

Birthday Weekend

Mara had quite the birthday weekend! She woke up Friday in such a mood, its almost like someone had filled her in as to what the "stereotypical two year old" should act like! Everything was "Oh, Oh, Oh!" (translation: "No!No!No!")
We still managed to have a fun day anyways :) I still had to make her cake, which had enough drama in itself. The only kind of cake/muffins that Mara has ever shown any kind of emotion towards is banana, so I found a banana pineapple cake recipe in one of my gluten-free cookbooks. It called for two flours that we did not have-potato flour and teff flour. Greg had gone to 3 different natural food stores that week and still wasn't able to get it. So I had to improvise, which I really did not want to do. Using different flours can be tricky, and the wrong choice can leave quite the aftertaste (this I know from experience). But, I chose my flours-rice, potato starch flour, tapioca, and millet and we began our cooking.

The girls had a blast! Analese spent most of the time mixing up the flours for me, as Mara just played with the leftovers from my dump bowl.

The cake looked delicious, so delicious that one of the cats ate a chunk out of it while I was putting/fighting with Mara to take a nap! I just cried, darn hormones, but soon realized that I was flipping the cake over to get it out of the pan so it didn't even matter.

Mara wanted a puppy dog cake, so that is what she got! The frosting took another search to find, but I found one that only used sugar, an egg, cream of tartar and boiling water. I added some vanilla to it for flavor, and it was pretty good!

Here is the finished cake! I used one of Mara's cookies for a nose her fruit snack for a tongue, all natural sprinkles and safe choc. chips. It's not the greatest dog cake ever, but it brought a smile to Mara's face :)

The cake was delicious too! I am so happy...getting better at this food thing!




Here are some photos of the birthday girl blowing out her candles!

























Then it was present time! Mara had received a special gift from Aunt Lorrie in the mail. She LOVES the "horsies" and has slept with it every night since! Thanks again Lorrie!



The box it came in was lots of fun too!



We had gotten Mara a dollhouse for her birthday, and I was so excited to give it to her. She loves it even more then I thought she would and has played with it nonstop. The best part about is that the house comes in two pieces, so they can constantly rearrange it and can even play two separate houses. Great for two little girls!













On Sunday we had Greg's parents over for dinner and more cake. The girls had fun showing them all their toys and games. Next weekend Mara will have a birthday party with all of her cousins who also share a winter birthday. I kind of dread the thought of her getting more stuff, but I guess thats what happens when your birthday is right after Christmas :)

Happy Birthday Mara!

My baby is TWO years old today! It certainly has been one of those days, as I still have to frost Mara's cake (that the cat ate a chunk out of earlier) and fighting quite the headache after our birthday girl decided to fight hard not to take a nap (she lost).

I'll be back when I can, but here are some pics of the birthday girl! I am sure I will have birthday photos later!