halloween take one

Thursday afternoon I took Little Bird to meet BFF at Byerly's for the Byerly's Boo Bash. The store puts on a fun event where kids can walk around and get different "treats", balloons, face painting, pictures, etc. 

Little Pie had to stay home since she is still not 100%. It felt very strange to take just one child to a fun event. Usually when I am alone with one child it's at the doctor or maybe just Target. They have always done everything together so I felt really bad that Little Pie had to miss out. Although I will have to say that it was so much easier with one. Since it was very crowded in there and I was carrying around the "treat" bag, I couldn't help but think how it would have been so much harder with both girls there. And even though we were there with BFF and her mama, she was just as busy carrying around Little Buddy (not quite 2 months old). It was kind of hard for the two mamas just to keep track of Little Bird and BFF.

It was a fun event and a great afternoon with BFF. I wish Little Pie could have been there! Fortunately we still will carve pumpkins and go trick-or-treating!

What this? A frog and bee in the grocery store?

This is such a cute picture. I think it's so funny that there are waffles in the background.

They had a spot where they took a "professional" picture. We couldn't get the actual picture they took because it never got printed. This is the one I took. It's hysterical! It's like they met on a park bench to have a snack.

our own hit medical drama

It has been quite a crazy 36 hours. Little Pie didn't get better but instead got worse. She couldn't keep anything down; not even sips of water. The poor girl was so miserable yet still tried to be her silly self. I knew we were in trouble when she couldn't even sleep and then became inconsolable. I quickly put in a call to Auntie Ter-bear to come over and watch Little Bird while I took Little Pie to the doctor. 

Anybody who has seen Little Pie when she is overtired knows what a crazy, frustrating experience it is. She screams and cries uncontrollably, jerks her body around and is absolutely Inconsolable (with a capital I!). That is how she was at the doctor's office. EVERYONE was staring. We were fortunate that they got us in right away instead of having us wait. I could hardly hear what anyone was saying to me because Little Pie's screams were so loud! The doctor thought she was very dehydrated so they wanted us to go to the ER at Children's hospital. 

After driving 35 minutes in rush hour traffic, we arrived at Children's. Daddy met us there. The doctor wanted to start an IV, take a blood sample, a urine sample (ouch!) and give her some medicine to help the nausea. Little Pie did so well. She was so incredibly brave. The nurses loved her and thought she was so cute. She sat so well while they pricked her to get the IV started. She cried, but as soon as the nurses said they were all done she loudly proclaimed to them "it's AAAALLL done". We told her she had on a bracelet and she was very good about not playing with it too much. They also had to put a catheter in to get a urine sample. This seemed so cruel, but again Little Pie was so brave only crying a little bit and them proclaiming again, "it's AAAALLLLL done!".

After about an hour, the doctor wanted Little Pie to try and eat a Popsicle and/or drink some fluids. She LOVED the Popiscle (her pronunciation). In fact she loved it so much she wanted another one. And when we said she would have to wait, she got very upset and had a very large tantrum. The doctor finally said we could give her another one and that pleased her so.

Little Pie was able to keep her Popiscles and fluids down so that pleased the doctor enough to send us home. We were so grateful to be able to leave because Little Pie hadn't slept at all and wanted so desperately to be home in her bed. She did so well in the ER. Mommy and Daddy were so proud of her!!!

Little Pie slept well when we finally got home (at 10pm!),  however she wanted to get up with Little Bird at 7:30. I was hoping she would sleep all day and get completely better. She was very famished when she got up and had an entire cup of J-ello and another Popiscle. We went to the doctor's office to have a follow up appointment. The ENTIRE staff remembered her from yesterday and they were all so glad to see her better. To doctor said she looked great and that we should slowly introduce more solids. 

While it was very scary to have to bring your child to the ER, we are so grateful that she got better so quickly. The nurses were so wonderful and knew exactly what to do to make her comfortable. We are also so grateful that we have Auntie Ter-bear so close and that both girls do so well with her. Little Bird had a lot of fun playing with her and went to bed so well without her Little Pie. 

The girls were very happy to be reunited this morning. In fact they are so happy to be back together that neither one of them is taking a nap, but instead are playing their usual "we're not taking a nap" games.

puke bucket

Isn't that nice? Aren't you hoping that I go into lots of details?

This morning before Daddy went to work, he checked in on the girls and saw that Little Pie had puke in her bed. He came and woke me from a sound sleep and I was so confused about what was going on. She had puked in her bed sometime during the night...it was only a little and I didn't want to get her up since she obviously needed rest. She woke up happy a little while later so I thought it was just a fluke.

Then she puked at the table before breakfast was served. I was very fortunate that I had already put her bib on so most of it went on the table and in her bib. Clean up was easy!

She felt better after that and even ate a little breakfast. She played with Aunt Ter-bear while I ran to the gym. When I got home she had spiked a fever and asked to go to bed.

She took a good nap and woke up happy and asking for Goldfish. 

But then all of a sudden the warning came and I grabbed the puke bucket just in time to see the Goldfish again. I feel silly saying that I'm grateful that both girls have warning signs before the imminent upchucks, so cleaning up after them has gotten a lot easier. I mean cleaning up puke is never fun, but since we can get them to puke in a bucket, it means it's at least easier. 

Now Little Pie is feeling better again. But just in case, a clean puke bucket is now available...

how does she know!?!?

It's always been a wonder how these girls come up with some of the things they do. Obviously I can figure out why they are saying or doing some things because it mimics something I do.

But...I think Little Pie...has a sixth sense! I mean she has to.

It was discovered long ago that Little Pie has an incredible sense of direction (see here). She knows where she is. She knows when we are almost home know matter from which direction we come. She knows when we pass the various parks we visit ("swing!!!!!"). She knows when we are about to get to Target. I don't even really need to tell her where we are going because she can easily figure it out on her own.

Now, she knows what we are going to be doing before I even tell her!

Last week we had a photographer take our family pictures. This is obviously something we don't do often so it can't be familiar to her. I didn't even tell the girls the day/night before that we were doing it because I didn't think they would understand or even care. But, the morning of the photos, I walked into their room to get them up and before I even said anything, Little Pie said "Mommy, Daddy, Evie, Sophie pictures!". WHAT?!?!? How did she know!?!?

Today is Monday. We go to Little Gym and see Henry and Marie on Mondays. This morning when I walked into the girls' room to get them up, before I even said good morning, Little Pie exclaimed "Little Gym! See Henry and Marie!". How does she know it's Monday?!?!? How does she know we are going to Little Gym!?!? How does she know?!?!?

She has a sixth sense...

Halloween practice run and fall cleanup

Friday afternoon was beautiful weather again, so I thought I'd take an opportunity to get some cute pictures of the girls in their Halloween costumes just in case Halloween wasn't a nice day. I also thought they might need a "practice run" because I'm not too sure how they feel about wearing costumes. It took some convincing to get them on, but I think the promise to go outside helped. We definitely didn't get as cute of a picture as we did last year since the girls are currently not interested in sitting and posing for pictures. I did capture a few though!

Little Bird is of course a frog in honor of her frog lovey and Little Pie is a bunny in honor of her bunny lovey. Little Pie's costume is so cute, but she can't stand the bunny ears in her face. I wouldn't think it would bother is so since she loves to pull her hats over her eyes!

This photo shoot is so boring! Hurray up mom!

Little Bird's costume is a tad short, but we'll make do.

Not sure what is going on here.

This is one sad looking bunny.

On Saturday we decided to do a bunch of yard work and put together some stuff that needed to go to the dump. At first I wasn't sure how we'd get anything done since it's so hard to contain the girls in our yard, but they actually did a GREAT job cooperating. I think it helped that both of our cars were blocking the end of the driveway but I was so relieved that we could get so much work done. As I was raking some leaves, I put them at the bottom of their slide and they had a blast sliding into the pile. We all had a great morning and Mommy and Daddy are so relieved to have gotten so much done!

Little Pie started to help put the leaves in the bin. She was actually really helpful. She had some moments where we had to start over, but in the end, we got it all cleaned up with her help!

playing with friends

Today we got to go see one of mommy's oldest and dearest friends. We hadn't seen her or Luke in several months. Boy has he grown! The girls had so much fun playing with Luke and his puppy Roxy. The weather was great AGAIN today and we got to run around the backyard with Roxy!

 

Little Pie loves dogs so much and I'm always amazed at how excited she is when she sees dogs and how unafraid she is around them. She loved Roxy and enjoyed throwing her balls and bones around and watching her chase them. There were so many giggles!

I told Daddy that we will need to get a dog in November 2012. I picked this date because we were married November 2004, the girls were born November 2008, so it's only natural that we would add to our family in November 2012!

Trying to feed Roxy a leaf.

Hugs for Roxy.

Best buds.

Getting cozy. Roxy is so patient.

Nap time? How nice is Roxy for letting a squirmy little girl lay all over her??

Little Bird wants in on the action. It took her a while to get up enough courage to get this close.

Little Bird even pets Roxy!

Little Bird and Luke hanging out.

Say what???

These girls sure don't sit still for long!

Three friends.

Luke is crawling!!

Of course we have to look at the pictures that were just taken.

What a fun Friday!!!

third time's a charm!

Yesterday was our third swimming lesson.

Prior to leaving for the lesson, we tried to talk it up again. Little Bird said the water was cold, but that she still wanted to go. She did finally start saying that the water was warm. 

On our way out the door, Little Bird went up to Daddy and said, "Sophie take Mommy swimming. Evie take Daddy swimming." She's become quite a mommy's girl so she always wants to announce that  Mommy will be the one carrying her around, and in this case, swimming with her.

After all the preparation we are happy to report that Little Bird enjoyed herself! She didn't cry, scream or try to run to the locker room. She even willingly sat down on the edge of the pool and started to pour water (from a cup) on her feet, legs, belly, arms, and head! She was a totally different girl! She was still cold because I could hear her trying to convince herself that the water was warm. But that's not a big deal; I was doing the same thing! When in the water, it's still hard to get the death grip off from around my neck, but she is trying and laughing and having a good time. 

Little Bird actually let go of her death grip to put her arms in the water and kick around.

She really loved jumping in! As you can see, so did BFF!

Trying to do a little more reassuring.

Both girls love to swim around in the tubes.

Little Pie is a champion kicker!

Thanks to BFF's mama for taking these pictures!

corn maze

On Saturday we took the girls to a Corn Maze/Fall Festival. It was yet again another beautiful fall day so we had to take advantage! We were not there very long and it was kind of expensive, but we had a lot of fun!

Practicing for family photos this week. The photographer has a big challenge ahead of her!

Squinting in the beautiful fall sun.

So cute!

A cheese and a squint.

So tired but trying to have fun...

Oh my gosh, so adorable. Heading to the maze.

Playing in the HUGE corn pit. The girls thought it was very strange.

What is all this stuff and why is it so hard to move around in here?

Little Pie liked to jump in and "wipe out". Then she wanted to get all the kernels off.

Trying to run.

An odd pic.

HATING the hay ride. Good thing it was only $2. Little Pie kept saying "all done tractor". Then when she realized we weren't getting off any time soon, she started saying "almost all done tractor".

Little Bird also hating the hay ride, but she recovered a bit better. She was pretty glad to get off though.

Little Bird wanted to try the big slide, so she and Daddy went for it.

At the top!!!

Heading down and having fun.

What a ride!

Wanting more!

Yeah, I'm cool. I just went down a BIG slide!!

I'm kind of surprised that Little Pie didn't have any meltdowns considering she still isn't sleeping well. For the past 4 nights or so, she has been waking up around 2 or 3 and either not going back to sleep or taking 3 or so hours to fall back to sleep. She doesn't cry or scream, she just talks to herself. I can hear her as I'm trying to doze back to sleep. I sometimes go in there to see what's wrong but she just smiles and gets giddy. I took her books away thinking that was too much of a temptation for her, but it hasn't changed anything. She doesn't nap well either; taking no nap at all or only a short nap. I'm thinking this is all molar related as every time I put my finger in her mouth she's got some new sharp growths. It's strange that she is not crying or whining more (don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining about that!). I just hope this "phase" moves along quickly!