Thursday, July 29, 2010

Score 1 for Mommy!


The other night, we were in the car and Dan was going on about how *he* was raising the kids alone and blah blah blah (he had them for an entire half a day while I was sicker than ever on Sunday)*, when, from the backseat we hear, "Exterminate! Exterminate! Exterminate!"
Yeah, if he were raising the kids, it would be words relating to horsepower or megabytes or some random gaming phrase (or even better - the really awesome 4-letter words we've already had a few run-ins with from his gaming habits).

But it's not. It's Doctor Who. I love my kid.

*Do I really need to point out he wasn't being serious?

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Our Odd Weekend


It's face painting season again. My sister came down and we took the kids to Draper Days for a little fun in the sun. Except it was so blasted hot, we didn't last very long at all.

We went back to the house and let the kids play in the kiddie pools and sprinklers.


We had a little barbeque, hung out for a while then we were off again to the fireworks. The kids loved that part - even though the adults were very antsy and annoyed that the show started a half an hour late.

Saturday was full of fun and then Sunday we were supposed to head out to the race track to hang out with family and watch Dan race. But instead, we made a trip to the Primary Children's Emergency Room.
Long story short - Elena was sick but was not really showing any symptoms of anything except a couple of nasty diapers (she's also teething which, yeah, leads to NOT COOL diapers). Apparently it was a bug nasty enough to dehydrate her. Severely. Without her showing any symptoms of dehydration at all until she just wouldn't really wake up on Sunday. I was sure to keep her full of water while we were out and about on Saturday, made sure she was slathered in sunscreen, kept her in the shade, everything you're supposed to do. I can do all the rationalizing and justifying and backtracking and feeling guilty I want (trust me, there's been TONS of it), but the doctors all assured me there was no way I could have known or nothing I could have done. Still doesn't make the guilt and the "I should have known!" go away.
(I should point out since I am always talking crap about how evil and what a demon Madeleine is - she was stuck in the ER with us since Dan was gone. She did amazing. She was an absolute angel and so well behaved. I never had to get after her for a thing and the ONLY time I teared up in all the chaos and uncertainty and pinning down of my screaming baby and whatnot, was when I thanked her for being SUCH a big, good girl. I cannot even imagine how scary and boring that had to have been for her. She ROCKS!)
After 4 attempts at an IV, they finally got one in - in her sucking thumb! They took x-rays of her belly. They ran a huge number of tests and they all came back normal which is not typical in someone who is dehydrated. They gave her a full bag of fluid to which she didn't respond which is not typical of a child who is just dehydrated. They decided to admit her for observation and more fluids for the night. Given she doesn't know she has two thumbs, it was a LONG night.
The next day she was much better. She had life back in her, pink in her cheeks, she was smiling and babbling and giggling and wanting to run all over the place. So much so that she was bouncing off the walls when I finally got her home.

And she was so very excited to have her sucking thumb back!
See:


 

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Since the 4th Spanned the Entire Weekend Here...*


It's amazing how many pictures you don't take when you have a squirmy, grabby baby in your lap. Not one picture of fireworks this year. And given the fantastic show we saw, that's a little sad.
My work gave its employees tickets to the Stadium of Fire as our "summer party" this year. We went for the fireworks (not so much a country music fan). Madeleine was so excited for the 4th of July, she talked about it and asked about the fireworks the whole week. Five minutes into the show, she fell fast asleep. No idea how anyone could sleep through that, it was pretty noisy, but she did. So she missed all the performances but luckily did wake up about 5 minutes before the fireworks. I cannot imagine the disappointment and heartbreak that kid would have had if she'd missed the fireworks. (She talked about the fireworks and how they go "BOOM!" until Septermber last year. The kid is a fireworks NUT!)
I was a little worried about the baby's reaction - she hates loud noises and can't even stand the vacuum, let alone gigantic explosions going off in her ears. They set off a couple at the beginning of the show with the jet flyby and she didn't even flinch. However, what she did at the music was not at all expected. The kid is crazy. She flailed her arms, squealed like a madwoman and totally jammed out to the music. She had a blast and was absolute entertainment for anyone who was sitting around us. She boogied the entire show and when the fireworks came, she chilled out, cuddled up, stuck her thumb in her mouth and kept throwing my hands off her ears so she could hear the deafening boom of each and every one.
I love my no-fear kids.
Sunday was an absolute lazy day. Madeleine ended up making a day care for all her very well-dressed stuffed animals in the living room. She gave each of them one of Elena's 9-12 month dresses that I had dug out to put in her closet. She made each of them a "cot" out of her blankets and had them all take naps.
 

She gathered them all together for story time and read them stories.
She also got very annoyed with her sister when she interrupted art time and decided that if she wanted to be part of art time, she'd be the canvas. That was awesome.

 
On Monday we took them to the aquarium here. Nothing compared to the Baltimore aquarium that we're used to, but this is Utah, we weren't expecting much given how very landlocked and DESERT we are. But it wasn't bad. A little better than we expected even. The girls had a great time. Madeleine was very excited to see all the fish (and really wanted to catch one on a "catchy-thing" (her term for fishing pole) and eat them for dinner. I have no idea where that came from - she's been fishing once, has never eaten them for dinner and has certainly never caught one and then eaten it for dinner. Nor has she ever been with anyone who has. But she was very adamant about it.). She was interested in petting the stingrays until it took too long to get her close enough to one that she could actually reach it. I'm not sure if she got bored of waiting or if maybe she had time to get a little weirded out. I am kind of thinking it was the former since she was very fine with petting the snake they had out just a few minutes later. Go her!

 
Elena, of course, wanted to touch anything and everything and tried to fling herself in to the stingray pool because hey - there's WATER in there!

Like I said, I love my no-fear kids.
*Some people complain that Utah didn't celebrate the 4th ON the 4th. I say three days of fireworks??? ROCK ON!!!!!!!