Go Dawgs (Whew!)

Well the Dawgs managed to eek it out by the skin of their teeth. As long as we got one for the W column..... Anyway, here's Ella Kate getting ready for kick off.

Learning about windows....

She was watching Daddy mow the lawn.

Getting ready to use every piece of furniture as a jungle gym!

Studying the coffee cup (empty) and "reading" the paper. As a true GA Bulldog, notice the beat up Gator in the background. She flipped him on his back and moved on! Maybe that will be a good sign of things to come later in the season. Fingers Crossed!

Do I look like I spent the day at Children's Hospital?

This is not exactly the look of a child who spend the weekend with a high fever and most of Sunday at Children's Hospital, but it is!

Friday evening EK started running a low grade fever. She cut her first tooth (yeah!) last week and several of the kids at day care were sniffly so I figured it was either teething or a cold. Well, by Saturday am the fever was up to 101.7 and by Sat evening 102.7. She was so warm and lethargic all day Saturday that I compared her to a warm gummy bear. I knew something was wrong when she wanted to cuddle-- she's not a cuddler! I'd been on the phone with the pediatrician (thanks Rachel!) all day and she said just keep pushing the Tylenol/Motrin rotation and watch the fluids. So I did, and by Sunday am her temp was 103.4! Call me an over protective first time mom, but I headed on over to Children's with that one. Anyway, they pretty much assumed it was a virus, but decided to run some tests: urine, blood, and chest x-rays. All of these tests were made impossibly harder than usual by little things like: she had that urine bag on for 3 hrs and never peed! I had to run her hand under cold water and finally we got a "sample." 2) couldn't find a good vein for the blood tests. When they did find one it didn't give enough blood so they still had to prick her finger and "milk" it for more blood to test. 3) new students couldn't even manage to get her temp taken-- one time it even took 3 tries! 4) blood pressure cuff never would read accurately. Not to mention that every time she was moved she screamed-- even to change her diaper. Scream Scream Scream. So, 5.5 hrs and a gazillion pokes, prods, blood lettings, urine collections, and pictures of the inside of her lungs later we got a definite answer: big fat UTI. She got a big bolus shot of the antibiotic Keflex , some more Tylenol, and lots of printouts on what to do next. Even with all that hassle I'm glad we went on rather than waiting another day with those high temps.

Now the challenge is getting her to take her meds. She will not take any liquid meds-- spits 'em right out. She'll even hold her breath and then spit it out. We've tried forcing her, to no avail-- all it does is make her really really mad. We even resorted to Fever All, perhaps the greatest infant medicine ever created. If you haven't used it, click on the link. It brought her fever down almost instantly, thank goodness!!! This afternoon, after several wasted attempts, I finally got her to take her antibiotics by mixing it with some yogurt. I tried mixing it with oatmeal, applesauce, and spoon feeding nothing worked until the yogurt. I guess we'll be doing that twice a day for the next ten days. Geez!

Sorry, no pictures from the hospital, but here are some of her playing that night. It was amazing how much better she felt once that fever broke.


We were all exhausted and were so very happy when she started yawning. She slept great all night, what a relief. Chris and I are still catching up on our sleep, so on that note.... G'nite!

First Day of Pre-School!

Last Tuesday was Ella Kate's first day at pre-school. She was ready for a new adventure!

Mommy was way more nervous about that first day than EK was. I was a wreck all day anxious to go and pick her up ans see how she did. Of course, she was fine and had a great time playing with her new friends.
EK and Miss Sarah. She wanted to get down and play from the minute she got there!

Ella Kate immediately started playing and didn't even notice when I left!! I guess that's good-- no crying made it easier to function while I was away from her, and she didn't cry either! Don't worry, Wednesday was much better :)

Anna Claire Turns 2!

Holly's little girl, Anna Claire, turned 2 last week! Her party was a lot of fun and all the kids had a blast!

Holly's twin, Heather, was there (of course!) with her little one, Abby Kate, whose 1st birthday party was the first party Ella Kate ever went to! We always have a great time with these girls and we look forward to many more years of birthday parties!

Abby Kate and Ella Kate attacking Jim, Heather and Holly's dad.

Ella Kate showed the most personality when she was being pushed in the swing. The higher she went the bigger her smile and the happier her giggle. We may need to start investigating play sets!

The mini-bounce house was a big hit, and when the big kids weren't around Ella Kate got a chance to try it out, too. She was a little unsteady at first, but she really seemed to like it. Another kiddie investment we may have to look into! What ever happened to tire swings and sand boxes?

Toward the end of the afternoon EK was getting a little fussy and tired. She crawled over to the baby bed (little antique doll bed) and I put her in it. At first, I think she thought that Cabbage Patch Kid was a real baby b/c she smiled really big at it, then she just chewed on its foot. She is about the same size as the doll, so I can understand the confusion!

How did I get ready for the party? Well, while trying get some laundry done and attend to EK and get dressed myself I discovered this little trick (which I'm sure has a limited time warranty!). Put the baby in the basket with the laundry and give her a makeup brush and you may get enough time to do your own makeup!!

Baby Julianna

Sweet Baby Julianna has had a rough last couple of weeks. I won't go into the whole thing, you can check out her blog to see it all, but suffice it to say, she's a very brave little girl. Basically she's been sick for about 2 weeks with an unidentifiable fever that landed her in the hospital on Friday. Kristen noticed a knot on her neck which turned out to be an abscess in the lymphnode. After many tests, several days of IV antibiotics, and some wait-and-see, they finally realized she had not one but three infected abscesses. Two behind her tonsils an d the one on her neck. The two behind her tonsils were a result of untreated tonsillitis, which is what caused the fever in the first place, but was not initially diagnosed. These infections were "closed off" and not responding to the antibiotics so she went in to have them surgically drained. Here's an example of how bad it had gotten-- at one point they noticed some greenish discharge from her left ear and it turns out that one of the abscesses in her throat had ruptured and was oozing down her ear canal! The relief from that pressure release actually made her feel so much better that she actually smiled for the first time in a few days.

Thankfully she's doing much better now that the infections have been removed. She'll be on IV antibiotics for at least 2 more days, but hopefully she'll be back home by the end of the week.

We're so sorry you've had to go through all this, sweet baby girl, but we're also thankful that you're on the road to recovery! We'll be thinking about you and sending you big hugs and Get Well Soon wishes!

All good things must come to an end

Saturday: it definitely figures that the weather was beautiful on the day we left! Oh well, at least it made for good driving weather. The trip home was much less eventful than the way down, and we were grateful for that b/c we were worn out! Vacationing with a baby is so much more work than pre-baby, but we wouldn't trade it for the world :)

Ella Kate was very happy to be back home, out of that car seat, and in familiar settings. She slept great that night, for the first time since we left for the beach.