Then and Now

I know, I know. I need to post more pictures. I briefly pulled the camera out this weekend and thought I'd do a little comaprison for fun.

Here is Alexa playing in our Gymini at 3 months old.
Here is Nicholas when he was almost 3 months old. What a little peanut he was. By the way, we still call him that.

Here is Alexa on Saturday, now at 9 1/2 months! Still having fun in her Gymini.

Here is Nicholas on Saturday, now over 2 1/2! He enjoys making funny faces at the camera and battling a little virus. Poor guy took a 2 hour nap that day. He never naps anymore. Would I be a bad mom if I said that it was heaven?

Happy Spring

Having kids changes how you perceive time. Some how, our children's rapid growth seem to highlight how fast time goes by. Despite this fast-forward of time this winter feels longer than most. Maybe it has been the frequent snow storms, maybe it's the warm weather teasers we've had recently, or maybe it's the number of illnesses my kids have had this winter. Yesterday Alexa was sent home from school with a 102.7 degree F fever and a rash. At some point overnight, Nicholas woke up with a croup-like cough. Luckily this morning was a new day, both kids were fine except for Alexa's rash, and the weather was wonderfully warm. I'm hoping that Spring is truly here and yesterday was the end of illnesses in this family for a while.

As the days get warmer I start looking forward to one of my favorite things to do... yard sales! Earlier this evening, I attended my first of the season at a local church. No fabulous finds to report but I'm not discouraged. My calender is already filling up.

A couple other things I'm looking forward to this Spring; my first mom's spa retreat with Eve, and Jim and I will be celebrating our 5th anniversary. They should be good.

Ten for Tuesday

1. Alexa is living by a new motto these days; "if I'm not happy, nobody is going to be happy". She is a diva in the making. Where did my sweet, easy-going baby girl go?

2. Alexa has learned how to click her toungue. It's her new favorite thing to do.

3. Alexa is still bald. She literally only has 8 long strands of hair. Sometimes I contemplate putting those few strands into a ponytail but I know that is wrong.

4. Alexa is still unsure and shy of grandma. I think grandma and Alexa need to spend more time together. I'm thinking weekends at the Cape all summer are good. :)

5. Nicholas asked to sleep in his twin bed last week. He did great. He has not slept in it since. :(

6. This weekend I was working on a home improvement project when decided he wanted to do it. I offered to hold the drill and let him help but he wanted to "do it myself". It was adorable but I'm not looking forward to this phase. We don't move fast enough in this house.

7. Nicholas has a little Cozy Coupe which we refer to as "yucky car" because when we picked it up from the Swap Shop it was YUCKY.

8. Yucky car has a budy, a cozy coupe police car. The police car has a hand radio which Nicholas uses as a phone to call Daddy and Grandma.

9. Nicholas picks up sticks and pretends to fill yucky car's and police car's gas tank.

10. Nicholas does not like sharing his toys with Alexa.

Nine for 9!

Another month just flew by. Here are 9 things about Alexa in honor of the milestone.

- We had Alexa's 9 month well baby appointment today. She was 28 1/4 inches long and 16 lbs 14 ozs.

- Alexa only gained 3 oz the past three months. This might be because of the virus she had this past weekend but we need to go for a weight check in one month.

- Alexa has learned how to play peek-a-boo. She plays with her towel before getting dressed for bed. She will pull the towel over her eyes, I will ask "where did Alexa go?", and she will pull the towel down. I've tried to video this but she becomes too interested in the camera and I've had no success.

- Alexa loves pasta. No matter what is in front of her she eats all the pasta first.

- Alexa tends to take her afternoon nap late and frequently is napping when I arrive at daycare to pick her up. Either I will go to play with Nicholas until she wakes or I will enter and chat with her teachers. If I end up going in the room, Alexa wakes almost instantly from the sound of my voice no matter how long she's been napping. I try to look at her sheet to see how long she's been napping before I start talking.

- Alexa is trying to figure out how to crawl. I try to put toys just slightly out of her reach to encourage her. You can see she's trying to work it out in her head but so far she combines a series of rolls to acquire her object of desire.

- Alexa still only has her 2 bottom front teeth and no signs of any others coming soon. I already miss her gummy smile.

- Alexa still loves to watch Nicholas. I'm worried that she's learning from a (semi-) bad example. Have I mentioned he's prone to tantrums when he doesn't get his way?

- Alexa is going to be a daredevil. She loves to throw herself backwards! and smiles and laughs every time.

Phew

Phew, Alexa is fine.

Sorry it took meso long to update. I haven't had much time since I've had a very sick infant refusing to be put down for an instant these last 48 hours, and a cranky toddler who doesn't understand why mommy was playing favorites and wanted to be held non-stop as well.

The bloodwork from our first trip to the hospital came back "abnormal". Not sure what was abnormal about it. My guess is the white blood counts were off. Despite the fact that the Dr. did not hear any sounds of pneumonia when he examined Alexa, he wanted a chest x-ray to be certain.

Once we were finished with the chest x-ray, the nurse asked if we were going to stick around the hospital. The turn around time on x-rays was 1 hour and if it were positive we were going to have to admit Alexa for treatment. So I decided not to stay at the hospital but I'd stay in the area just in case. So what do we do in cases of possible impending hospitalization? Go shopping of course.

I tried to think of what was close by and at first it was a local Starbucks. But then my thoughts went to one of my favorite childrens consignment shops and Nicholas needed new water shoes. (My little guy has big feet!)

I was having great success and Alexa was sleeping when I got a call saying her x-ray was clear. Phew. Looks like it was just another nasty virus. Her fever finally broke last night and she's pretty much back to normal. Still a bit of a runny nose and little more cranky than normal so I'm working from home today.

Uh oh...

The Dr just called us back with the results from the blood work. Guess who is going back to the hospital for a chest x-ray?

I'll check in when we return. Wish us luck.

My poor baby

When you have kids all planned activities should come with a word of warning. The warning should read something to the effect of, "Plans are subject to change or cancelation at anytime. Parent can not be held liable or responsible for alterations in a child's health status."

On Thursday I had jury duty, in which I spent the entire 5 hours creating a project plan for finishing up our household projects. The project start date was scheduled for this morning.

When I picked up Alexa at daycare that afternoon, I could immediately tell she had a temperature. (Moms know.) Unfortunately, I was correct and Alexa had a temp of 103.7 degrees F. Poor thing. I should have known that my project plan was already falling apart.

Friday, Jim stayed home with Alexa because of her fever. She slept the majority of the day but seemed to be behaving normally. Maybe we got lucky? Not quite.

Much to her parents disappointment, Alexa woke almost hourly last night. This morning her tempurature was up to 104.4. 104 being the danger zone for febrile seizures, we of course called her pediatricians office.

So instead of spending this morning, cutting baseboard moulding, touch-up painting, and caulking, we spent this morning with trips to the Dr's office and hospital taking rectal temperatures, doing clean urine catches, and trying to find a vein in adorably chubby arms.
We're home now, Alexa is sleeping and we're waiting to hear from the Dr. if this is something more than a virus. At the very least, Alexa got a parting gift from the hospital. The Dr. or phlebotomist who successfully took a blood sample gave her a pinwheel and a $10 gift certificate to the gift shop. I selected a boo boo bunny in yellow for Alexa and a chocolate bar for me.

Championships

About a week ago I had my adult team racing championships. With 37 teams with 4 people on a team, it's a fun evening but L.O.N.G. In years past it wasn't unusual to be there past 11pm and not get home until midnight. This year they moved the start time up an hour. We were hopeful we'd be home at a semi reasonable hour (for us old timers).

Unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate with our plans to bring Nicholas and Alexa for some more skiing. At eleven degrees, I didn't even want to be out there.

These races are run two racers at a time head to head on a GS course although you'd be hard pressed to really call it that. The course is only 21-23 seconds long for the fastest racers! My first run went well, a nice solid win. Just prior to my second run one of my teammates husband's wasn't paying attention to the course and decided to go around the wrong side of the first gate and had to hike. Whoops! In my effort to ensure I not mess up like that, I ended up with a faulty start. I somehow knocked the wand open and stood there for a good second or so off balance before I made it out the gate. Thankfully it appears the wand didn't initiate the timing equipment until I actually went through the gate and came up with a second win. Talk about luck.

In the end my teammates and I had 5 out of 6 wins (only 3 of us count) and ended up with a 5th place finish. In past years our prizes have been pretty pathetic. I told myself I'd be happy if it was something I didn't want to immediately throw in the trash. Somehow we scored big and got our next years race fee paid for. I think we got one of the best prizes. Much better than the golf passes the 4th place team got. ha!

I still didn't get home until midnight but it was worth it. Go team!

Before it's too late

I had some "free time" yesterday and decided to take the rare opportunity to do a mini photoshoot of Alexa. Here are a few of my favorites. Check out my shutterfly share site for more.

Adventures in Potty Training Part II

I don't really have an update here. I just wanted to post a picture of Nicholas playing hide-n-seek while on the potty. I can't wait to pull this one out when he's a teenager.

I think I'm being conned

During our regular bedtime routine this evening I started to get the feeling that someone is learning the art of manipulation.

For the first year and a half of his life, Nicholas never enjoyed going to bed. He loved reading books, the cuddle time, the lullabyes i.e. spending time with us, but no matter how tired he was he adamantly let us know that he wanted our company rather than catch some zzz's.

Fortunately for Jim and myself he outgrew that phase about the same time that Alexa was born. These many months we've enjoyed Nicholas telling us "I love you" accompanied with the blow of a kiss as we've exited his bedroom for the evening. Talk about bliss.

Tonight Nicholas started taking charge of his bedtime routine. He started his bedtime protest by telling me he wanted to watch Thomas (no), watch Curious George (no), play with his cars (no), then I'm hungry. Being the little peanut he is, on top of the fact that he did not eat much at dinner, I caved. After a snack, he wanted to sit on the potty. Great! Or so I thought. Nicholas sat and peed on the potty three times! Leave it to him to stretch out potty time. After a similar experience while getting his teeth brushed, I finally began to catch on and got him to bed promptly. Yes, I admit, it should have taken me sooner. I blame mommy brain.

Talk about lucky

We were very lucky last week and avoided what could have been a horrible event. One morning I was prepping breakfast for myself and the kiddos before bringing them to daycare. I had the coffee maker and toaster oven on at the same time. I move to another section of our kitchen counter smelled something odd, looked up and noticed smoke coming out of a separate electrical outlet. Yikes!

I immediately pulled the plugs on the toaster oven and coffee maker, rearranged our appliances to avoid the offending circuit, and prayed (only half heartedly) that our home would still be standing when we returned from daycare/work later in the day.

After picking up a new recepticle (and talking over the issue with Dad) I tackled the job of replacing the outlet to find we came oh so close to a home fire.

Below is a picture of the backside of the recepticle. You'll notice on the lower right hand corner, the plastic is burned/melted away to exposed metal. Do you see the brown charring?

This is a picture (sorry it's so blurry) of the electrical wire that was attached to the charred corner pictured above. The plastic insulation is burned to a crisp.

Thankfully we avoided that disaster. It looks like it was a very close call.