5 mph

I asked for it, and I got it! Finally a slower weekend! Saturday morning Ellison Ann woke up and she was even more congested than she had been earlier in the week. When I suctioned her, it was not pretty. Wanting to nip it, I took her to the doctor first thing. Right now it is just a sinus infection, praying that doesn't change. When we got home Wayne had to leave to take a test, so the girls and I hung out at home. I started purging their closet and Wayne brought in a tub of Hads baby clothes for me to go through for Ellison. It was nice to be home and check some things off my to do list. When Wayne got home, we went to Lowes and got the dishwasher, sink, faucet and light for the kitchen remodel we will be starting next week. We already have the cabinets and the floor is ready to be picked up. It ought to be an interesting spring break, I'm sure we will rethink not going to the beach many times during that week. When we got home we had loads of laundry that I had done that day. Wayne, Ellison and I spent some quality time together folding them, before we rented The Blind Side. I can't say Ellison was much help. She located a certain article of clothing and used it as a teething toy then entire time we folded. Hadley was horrified when she saw that Ellison was chewing on her panties. She was pretty stinkin' proud of herself and just as content as she could be.

Sunday we were suppose to have an Easter Egg hunt at the Church, but it got cancelled due to weather. Hopefully, we will get to hunt next Saturday. Gracie was going to go with us, but she still got to come over to play. The divas with their picnic.

Ellison got some playtime with daddy. She has been so good, even if she doesn't feel good.

The double pigtailed divas before they went to Church tonight. They wanted their hair fixed the same and insisted on taking their sunglasses because it was bright outside. Um girls it has been raining all day????

Weekend Fun

Saturday was a crazy busy day!!! Saturday morning Hads had soccer pictures. Which we busted it to get to at 9:00 am. We walked in and they were taking the last kid on her teams individual picture. We got Hads picture taken and waited for the team picture, but they weren't taking a team picture. I was seriously disappointed, we busted it and they took an individual picture of her in her uniform, pretty sure I could have taken one that I would have been just as happy with and it wouldn't have cost me $15. After pictures it was off to the Valley for the Awana Grand Prix. Last week Hads painted the car and then Wayne prepped it for her.

Hers is the second car from the right, blue with polka dots and flowers. Her car wasn't the fastest,

but she won 3rd in her group for design. She was over the moon!!!

Then Saturday evening we went to the Park. It was the first pretty day in FOREVER!!!!! Here is a certain smiley someone as we started out.

Here is another smiley someone before we started.

We took Hads bike for her to ride and practice on. Because seriously what kid doesn't love to ride their bike at the park. Let me answer that for you, mine!!!!! The drama is unbelievable. I am not exaggerating when I say, she got on the bike and peddled three parking spaces away from the truck and wanted to quit and go play on the playground. We had to tell her we were going to go home if she didn't ride the bike. Santa Claus missed the mark when he brought that one in on the sled!!!

The only smiley member of our family left, once our trip started.

Finally, the playground!!!

PreK breakfast

Friday morning I went and ate breakfast with Hads. They had invited the PreK moms to come it with the kids. When I got there, Hads was already in line. She turns and sees me, bolts out of line, erupts in high pitches squeals of Mommy, Mommy. Several people turn to look at me. Yep, that one's mine. You would have thought I had been gone a week, but not the case, I had just seen her 30 minutes before. It's nice to be loved.

Life

Dear Life,

I would appreciate very much if we could slow down a little. I would settle for a brisk walk or jog, rather than the dead run we have been going out the last few weeks. Somewhere in the chaos, Ellison gained complete control of her head and has discovered people watching. Hads has started using words like literally and apparently in the correct context. With all the activities and running, I'm not sure when they got big enough to do these things. Plus, it is causing me to be more scattered than usual. Seriously, how many people pay for their food at a drive thru and then drive off with out it? Or how many people leave their lunch of pizza for their 4 month old daughter, instead of the bottles she loves? The activities are great, but I don't want to miss their milestones and plus we are a little tired and more forgetful than usual!!!!

Sincerely,

The Mommy running around like a Zombie!!!

The Bunny in the Bumbo

Soccer+Girl Drama=Bleachers

Hadley had her first soccer game Tuesday night. She enjoyed herself, even though she was not interested in watching the game when she wasn't playing. She had about 30 seconds where she was in the middle of the action and really getting scrappy for the ball, during the rest of her playtime, she was the one still skipping behind the pack as they moved down the field. During her final attempt to get in on the action, she got kicked in the knee and can anyone guess what happened? Points to anyone that guessed she began bawling, holding her knee and screaming like a girl. She got carried off the field by her mama and took up residence on the bleachers. When we finally got the faux drama to stop and she was asked if she would like to come back in the game, she didn't leap to her feet and run in like I thought, she said no and kept her bottom firmly planted on the bleachers. I'm not sure how this whole soccer thing is going to work out.

I AM

I AM 4 months old today

• I am filling out my 3-6 month clothing.
• I am busting out of my size one diapers.
• I am in love with my thumb and my swankie blankie.
• I am grabbing things and pulling them to my mouth.
• I am starting to get very vocal, there is lots of screeching and high pitched squeals.
• I am a smiley girl.
• I am adjusting to daycare and am happy when Mommy comes to visit me at lunch.
• I am following people with my eyes when they move around a room and I don't like it when people leave me.
• I am in awe of my sister. I watch her and just smile, she is quite silly.
• I am eating 5 ounces every 3 hours during the day. I get up around 5:30. Eat and then go back to sleep until around 9:00. I'm not napping very regularly at daycare, but do take mini cat naps. Mommy comes to pick me up around 5:15, we go home and I have a bottle, play and then take a 30 minute nap. I get my bath, play some more and then take my last cereal bottle which is 7 ounces around 9:30.
• I am sleeping through the night and start out swaddled in my bed. I am quite the kicker and often end up at the foot of my bed and wake mommy up when I start kicking the sides. She will then move me to my swing, so we can get a few more hours of peaceful sleep.
• I am so very loved.

Snapshots

Ellison's viewpoint

Pretty scary, HUH?????

Think she is wondering how she lucked up and got such a goofy sister?

Ellison Update

Ellison went back to the doctor today for her recheck. He said her lungs sounded much better, but recommended we continue with the breathing treatments for another week to 10 days to finish clearing the junk out. I dropped her off at daycare after and she was resting sweet as pie in her carseat, sucking on her thumb.

Ms. Ponytail

Hads has been asking to play soccer for a couple of years now and this will be her first year playing. We are still in the practice phase and there really aren't words. I'm not sure if it will serve her well later in life or cause her problems, but she does not take herself seriously at all. She marches to her own beat, is there to entertain and does not get embarassed. She talks to the ball, goofs off when she should be practicing, skips along behind the group as they kick the ball down the field and even tried practicing her gymnastics on the field. To which the coach said, "Okay Ms. Gymnast, lets get over here on the circle and play." Hadley then replied, "Okay Ms. Ponytail, here I come."

Shatterd Illusions

I just looked down at Hads eating her picnic of mac n cheese and yogurt and she was licking yogurt off her toe. Completely killed the illusion that one day she will be a dignified lady.

Chill Laxin'

We have had kind of a low key weekend. Still keeping Ellison under semi-lock down until she goes back for her re-check Tuesday. Saturday morning I got up and was cleaning house, Wayne had gone to the church for clean up day and I walked back in the room and found this. They were watching TV together and I guess Ellison got a little fussy. She likes to suck on a paci, but has trouble holding it in her mouth. Hads was sitting there holding it in her mouth for her. Warmed my heart.
When Wayne got home I went and previewed their pictures from last weekend. CUTE!!! Cutest sick kid and DIVA I have ever seen. We may have gotten more smiles if Ellison had been feeling better, but we captured what was going on at the time and they are special for that reason.

Then Saturday night I took Hads and Gracie to see The Tooth Fairy and to eat at The Iron Gate (it is a pizza place YUMMMM!!!) The movie was cute, but the entertaining part was them, hearing their BIG conversation from the backseat. They didn't need me to entertain them.

Hads was pouting at one point because Gracie told her she had green eyes (for some reason blue is more desirable), Gracie looks at her puts her hand out and says, "Look Hadley, sometimes life isn't fair." Then Gracie started talking about her boyfriend, I asked her what was something nice that Hayden did for her, she said "he doesn't do anything nice for me, I told him he doesn't have a girlfriend, so he is mine." Adorable!!! I then heard them start whispering about kissing, not sure what they were saying and I didn't ask, didn't want to encourage that one. I learned today that I missed the conversation about trading DS consoles, because apparently Gracie believes the pale pink color of Hadley's would be more favorable to Gracie's boyfriend, Gracie has the hot pink DSi. They are 5 and 4 what will they be like when they are teenage girls????? The evening provided some much needed comic relief.

Today Ellison has continued her lock down, such a chill little thing. She could careless what she is doing, just move her around. We have something new to add to our bag of tricks. She is officially able to sit in her bumbo this week. We have pretty good head control and can sit in it for a good 5 minutes before our head starts to lean forward or to the side. She sat in it and helped me make Hads lunch. When I told her what Hads wanted for lunch, she said seriously, "She is going to turn into a peanut butter and jelly sandwich!!!!" Yep, love that finger up by the face like she is really thinking about it.

Slumber Party

Hadley thinks they are ready for a slumber party and asked if Ellison could sleep with her last night. The answer would be uh no, but you two are pretty cute together.

Celebration

I'm home and we are celebrating!!!!!

I hooked the ballons on her leg and whenever she kicked they would move. She wasn't scared of them at all, she was quite entertained by them.

Home

Ellison Ann is home with her Daddy. She got discharged this morning. It will be so nice to have our whole family under one roof again.

Exhausted

So many thoughts whirling around up here in my head and just not sure what to say. The body is an amazing thing. You go go go as long as you have to and as soon as your brain sees an opening for some down time it reminds you how completely exhausted you are. Me and my baby girl are exhausted although, she appears to be on the mend. Saturday Wayne took Ellison back to the doctor and they said she had bronchitis and double ear infections.

All day Sunday she ran a fever and Tylenol wasn't having an effect. About 10:00 pm her fever rose to 103. I talked to the nurse at the after hours number and she assured me that there was nothing to worry about, that there have been studies that show it takes a fever 0f 108 before there is brain damage. It was at this point I held the phone away from my ear and tried to look inside it, clearly she had suffered a fever of 108 if she thought that was comforting!!!! We continued our luke warm bath and gave her some more Tylenol. At 3:00 am she woke up whimpering, when I picked her up she just moaned and wouldn't move, I took her temp and it was 104.5. I gave her some more Tylenol and then proceeded to stare at my baby girl for the next 5 hours. I wanted to hold her and comfort her, but if I moved she would whimper. Those were the stillest 5 hours of my life.

At 8:00 am I called the doctor's office and got a 9:50 appointment. At the doctor's office the doctor commented on how much worse her breathing sounded from Saturday and with the antibiotics she was on, something more was going on. She got her little toe stuck and they found her white blood cell count to be elevated. They gave her a breathing treatment in the office and couldn't get her pulse ox elevated to a normal level. The doctor wanted to admit her to the hospital for some intense antibiotics and more breathing treatments, he felt she either had RSV or pneumonia. They did chest x-rays and tested for RSV. When we got to the hospital they did another breathing treatment very shortly after we arrived and her pulse ox still wouldn't come up, so they put her on oxygen. Late last night we learned the RSV was negative and then this morning we learned she did indeed have pneumonia.

She has been such a little trooper through her journey the last couple of days. When they were putting the IV in, I was bawling my eyes out and she never made a peep. I really think she was just too tired to fight. Now today when they came to take her labs it was a different story, she hit the lab tech. They tried to draw the first time but she wouldn't be still, so they had to send in another one. Little Red showed her temper and gave it a big ol' fight. They were finally able to make their draw and as soon as the needle was out and I sat her up, the tears stopped and she gave the tech a look that would make most people think twice about messing with you. Chick was not into the drama, it was all real tears. Precious!!!!

******

This is shortly after we arrived, she is resting so peacefully.

This morning, starting to get a little sparkle back in her eyes! She is making a fashion statement with her oxygen mask, I don't know that I've ever seen anyone look cuter in one. Makes her cheeks look even fuller :).

Now, they told me not to chew on this arm band and IV, but I think I can get it off and escape!!!

The view from our room,, seriously I have never seen snowflakes the size of sand dollars until today. Beautiful, even if it is getting kind of OLD!!!!

Oxygen off and stats staying up, hopefully I get to go home tomorrow!!!!

Those blues sure are getting brighter!!!!

They have weaned her off the oxygen today and if her numbers stay up tonight, there is a good chance she will get to go home sometime tomorrow. Wayne is with her tonight and will be staying with her the rest of the week. As much as I miss my baby girl, I needed to spend some time with my big girl and didn't realize how exhausted I was. Ellison is in good hands with her daddy and covered in yours prayers!!! Thank you!!!