Abby's New Do

Abby finally let me take her to Cookie Cutters for a haircut. I decided to go short because the weather will be warming up, and she hates for me to do anything with her hair. Not to mention, I don't know how to do anything with her hair.

She looks a lot more grown up now. It still has a mind of its own, but it is at least out of her face now.

Influenza strikes not once, not twice, but thrice!

I am now an official supporter of a flu shot! We will be first in line next year to get them. Influenza is awful! Can I just vent for a moment? I know you will all understand...
So, last Friday Thomas came home from school and said he didn't feel well. I checked his temperature and it was 102! I thought that was odd. He hadn't complained about anything. So, part of me was thinking "Random", but later that night he said his throat hurt too. Saturday was not much better, so I called his doctor and asked about bringing him in, but they were all full. Sunday morning Nathan took him to Instacare and waited 2 HOURS to get seen. 1 hour of that was standing in line to check in!
The doctor ordered a strep test which of course came back negative. No mention of influenza. Meanwhile, Emily wakes up with a fever and sniffles so I'm thinking she has the same thing. She moves in with us so I can keep an eye on her. Monday is a holiday and Nathan leaves to go to Salt Lake for the week. (He had a huge trade show the entire week and was staying up there. Perfect timing) Thomas is better on Tuesday so off he goes to school.
Tuesday night, Emily is a mess. She has mucous everywhere. She is still running a high fever and is having trouble breathing. I'm contemplating whether to call Nathan and then realize that Emily is burning up. I call him and tell him to meet me at the hospital. I call our Aunt and Uncle and they come to watch Thomas and Abby and help me take Emily to the hospital.
She had a rectal fever of 103.1 and was positive for Influenza A. Of course by now it is too late to take the medicine to shorten the effects. Poor baby, she is going to have to suffer through it.
Up to present, Thomas relapsed with his fever on Wednesday, so he was at the doctor and had an influenza test as well. Of course it is positive. No medicine for him either. And then to make sure that I am not left out, I have it too.
Life has been difficult this last week. It is amazing how something so small can reek such havoc. Because of a microscopic virus, Nathan had to come home early from his summit, he missed the Maroon 5 concert, skiing, and had to drive to Salt Lake early every morning for the rest of the week to be there by 8 am. I have had very little sleep for the week because of my concern for Emily, and have felt it through out my entire body. (On a good note, I did loose 5 pounds :)
Poor Emily. I hate seeing my little one suffer. I had to take her back to the hospital over the last few days to be resuctioned from all the mucous. She didn't like that at all. Her fever is still here, but hopefully will be leaving us shortly.
I am better. I now have small coughing spells that are uncomfortable, but I am finally getting sleep. I didn't realize how tired I was until I finally collapsed yesterday and slept peacefully.

Luckily, Abby is healthy and not showing any symptons. I will tell you though at the first sign of anything remotely flu related, she is on medication. If the instacare doctor would have taken just a little minute, Thomas could have been tested within the window of opportunity and gone on medication, Emily would have gone on something, and all would have been milder. Actually, if I would have had my kids vaccinated, then none of this would have happened.
I learned my lesson. I will beat you next year! I will win! You are not welcome in my home anymore!
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me! Fool me thrice...then I am beyond help.

Down will come baby...

Okay, so I know you have all been wondering what happened so here is the story.
On Monday(20th), we decided to spend the day together since Thomas was out of school and Nathan had the day off. We drove around town and around 4pm we decided to go rent some movies and head home, order pizza and have a picnic in the family room. We were leaving Hollywood Video and I was holding Emily in my left arm. I guess I went to step down the step, when Abby crossed in front of me. I missed the step, fell down and landed on top of my right arm while it went up in the "square" position. I heard something pop, and then realized that Emily was now laying on the ground screaming. Her head literally bounced off the concrete and within seconds she had a goose egg forming on the side of her head.
Nathan turned around, saw us both on the ground and said, "Please tell me that sound was not Emily's head hitting the concrete." I started crying, we yelled at the kids to get in the car, and raced 2 blocks to the ER. I rushed in with her and the nurses took her to check her out. She had a CAT Scan and all came back normal. I went to X-ray and had a few pictures taken of my arm, and neck. The doctor couldn't tell at that time if it was broken or sprained, so he splinted my entire arm and told me to follow up with an Orthopedic in a week.
That night we had to check on Emily every 3 hours to make sure she was okay and I took my pain meds faithfully.
Tuesday things were a little better, but since it was my right arm, I couldn't do anything. The ward stepped in and brought me meals Thurs-Saturday since Nathan left Wednesday to go to Finland. Perfect timing!
I went to Ortho yesterday and sure enough, I have a small fracture on my right wrist. I am now in a removable brace that keeps it all secure, but allows me to move my fingers and take it off when I need to.
3 more weeks to go!

P.S. For those who may be wondering, Abby was completely fine. She got out of the way while I was falling. She felt so bad though, that in the ER, she kept apologizing for making me fall and said it was an accident. Very cute!

Emily is 1!

Emily is 1! I can't believe how fast the time has gone. Here are some "firsts" about her.
1. She is pulling herself up and cruising the furniture.
2. She is talking and babbling all the time.
3. She is experiencing separation anxiety.
4. She loves to cuddle and give kisses.
5. She loves to laugh.
6. She loves to read. She can sit with a picture book and just look at it over and over.
7. She loves her brother and sister very much.
8. She is constantly on the move. She keeps all of us on our toes.

We love her very much and we are so glad she is part of our family.

i've been tagged...

but it will have to wait! i fractured my right arm and can barely type! hopefully i will be back to normal soon.

Game Over!

I think I have psychologically damaged my child. She will never look at a potty ever again. Do Depends come in child size?
Last night was a nightmare! My daughter has a bladder as strong as steel! She held it from 9:30am until sometime after 8pm! Nothing, Nadda, Zip! She would not go for anything in the world! Last night we took turns making her sit on the potty with her screaming, while we promised her every toy imaginable, cookies, you name it and she wouldn't budge a drop.

She wanted to come out with us in the family room and we told her that if she went, then she could come out, otherwise she had to go to bed. Yep, she went to bed early. Fell asleep quickly, and then had the nerve to wake me up at 1:30 in the morning to tell me she was wet. Needless to say, she went back to bed wet.

This morning, she got up, changed herself into a new diaper, got dressed and is going on like nothing ever happened. I am not buying anymore diapers. When she runs out, she is out. AAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!

Abby:2 Mom:0

She did it again! This morning I was smart at least I thought I was and waited for her to have a BM before I put her in plain underwear. No pullups so as not to confuse her about what we were trying to accomplish. That was at 10:30 this morning. We went about our day stopping occasionally to drag her to the potty with no success. Again, I thought I would have success and eventually she would cave in but I guess I don't know my own daughter as well as I thought I did. At 4:30 (6 hours later!) she comes to me, wet and crying because her socks are wet!
A: Will you change me? My socks are wet too! (she is sobbing)
M: No, you will have to do it yourself. If you make the mess, you will clean it up.

I prepare her bath, and try to find out exactly where she went. She gets in the tub, cleans herself up and I discover the mess upstairs in front of her kitchen. She gets out of the tub, gets dressed in fresh underwear and proceeds to come upstairs and help me clean the mess. She was so excited! She actually thought it was fun to clean up.
A: Here you go mommy! I cleaned it up. It is all better.

Abby 2, Mom 0