Feverish

Thursday, December 27, 2012.

I came home from work to find a not-feeling-good-little-girl. Bill was off that week and said she hadn't been feeling great that day and it was getting progressively worse. She just wanted to be held. She lay draped across my lap with her head laying on the arm of the chair, her body curled around me. I had my hand up the back of her shirt rubbing her back - it felt like it was on fire. She had the "half-eyes" I call them - indicative of having fever. She just looked absolutely miserable.

Her fever held on and she just wanted to sleep. I knew she'd get upset if I put her to bed so early - plus she just wanted to be close. Instead, I laid her on the couch next to me with my hand on her tummy. She was content and slept, but would wake up every few minutes startled and thrash about. We decided to give her another dose of Tylenol and I'd just go lay in bed with her.

Here she is - cuddled next to Mama in the dim light of our bedroom. It was a long night, but she was home with Daddy the next day. Her fever had broke by morning, but was back again Friday afternoon and evening.

Saturday she was good, but I woke up with a terrible sore throat. I know exactly where it came from. That night with my feverish baby girl cuddled up to me - coughing into my hair.

This caused my first diagnosis of bronchitis that hung on for a month and counting. I'm still coughing, but it is almost gone.

And yes, I'd do it again. In a second.

Looking Purdy

A Story of How to Remove Mascara From Carpet by Courtney and Elyse

I posted this to Facebook recently when I couldn't get photos to upload in Blogger. (Still having the problem by the way, Google search tells me to embed in HTML instead of Compose. Problem solved).

One Monday in early January, Elyse had asked to take nap on my bed. I had a two hour conference call while she snoozed away. However... she didn't make a sound when she first woke up. Instead, she went into our bathroom (connected to our room) and got into my makeup.

When I went into the room (I'd heard her talking and knew she was awake) even in the dim light I could see something was on her forehead. I turned on the light and said, "Elyse... what did you do?" Immediately, she starts saying, "Soddy (sorry) Mama... Soddy Mama". Then, I saw the makeup on the floor. I didn't even say anything, but walked out to get the camera.

Then she started bawling.

 

 

It is mascara in case you were wondering. I'm actually pretty lucky. When I saw the dark, I worried it was the creamy eyeliner - ugh... I went back to the office to do a Google search of "mascara in carpet". It said to use eye makeup remover. Made sense. I cleaned up as much as I could with a warm washcloth and then rubbed generous amounts of makeup remover into the carpet. I scrubbed and scrubbed and...   it.was.not.working.

 

I decided to deal with the crying toddler next to me instead. I took her in the bathroom (still absolutely bawling, by the way) and cleaned her face with the makeup remover. It was not easy to scrub off a tender baby face. She had it caked in her hair too and fortunately just a couple wipes with a warm washcloth and baby shampoo and it came right out. I decided to try that on the carpet and voila - and it came right out! Thank goodness!!!

 

The carpet turned out to be the easy part. It took Elyse probably 40 minutes before she finally settled down.

 

I showed Bill the pictures that night and we had a good laugh.

 

Then, came last Friday when I got a text message while at work from Daddy:



 

At it again. Fortunately, just a mascara moustache this time. Carpet was spared.

View From Two

Ever wonder what life looks like from the angle of a two year old?

Well, do I have a treat for you.

Elyse had my phone one morning when I was changing her diaper. I knew she had it - I did not know she was recording.

Here's a quick, silly little video with a little fun background music. (I apologize for my periodic hacking - bronchitis combined with not knowing I was being recorded).


View From Two from Courtney on Vimeo.

We were all packed up and headed to Seattle overnight. We were waiting for Marcie and she was super mad that I was mentioning eating first. She was ready to GO!

Think She Likes Ice Cream?

Elyse loves ice cream - or Ice Skeem as she calls it. She actually rarely gets the real stuff - usually it is frozen yogurt or a lighter treat at home - it is just easier to call all of it ice cream.

One day before the holidays, I took her to McDonalds for a peppermint McFlurry. What a treat that was.

Do you think she liked it?

 

 

 

This kid cracks me up.

Breaking it Down

I took Elyse to see my friend's daughter in the Little Mermaid last month at a local elementary school. There she is above with Jayna - as Ariel the star! She absolutely loved it. She was dancing in her seat, singing and dancing with the kids on stage.

When I heard that the children's group Recess Monkey (three elementary school teachers from Seattle) were playing locally, I knew I needed to take her.

The lighting was low and recorded just with my phone, but you can see how much she enjoyed it! I love the finger pointing and hair shaking. Not sure where she got her slick moves, but I love it.

Fun 10 a.m. concert on a Saturday morning. Great way to start the day.


Elyse Dancing at Her First Concert from Courtney on Vimeo.

January Sickies

Bill met Elyse and I at the doctor late this afternoon. I've had bronchitis for a month (boo) and Elyse has had non-stop cold bugs. As soon as one virus starts to clear up, a day at daycare brings on a new one. Friday she started with a horrible cough and was feverish much of the long weekend. We both see the same doctor, so I figured I should probably get us both checked out. Turns out I still have bronchitis (no surprise), but fortunately it hasn't turned into anything else. Elyse is OK, but does have the start of an ear infection. Oh, the joys of building immunities.

After the doctor's appointment we went to frozen yogurt where Elyse kept saying, "Ice Skeem for Lysey!!" She was excited.

 

Pretending to take pictures with the lens cap.

\

 

 

Sweetness and Boogies

Elyse saw this picture on the screen and said, "Got boogie?"

Yep, this is the essence of where we're at. She's two. She picks her nose if something itches.

She is amazingly happy. Cooking eggs in her kitchen, feeding us imaginary snacks and beverages, tucking her sippy cup to sleep with a blanket telling us to "shhhh", pulling up a chair or her stepstool to "help" in the kitchen, reaching up to give us tight hugs around the neck saying "I love you", trying on Daddy's flip flops asking him if they look "cute", chasing down Libby repeatedly yelling "C'mere Libbeeee... C'meeeere!!!", waking up from a nap asking for french toast and always ready to go bye-bye.

Marcie and I took her to Seattle with us last weekend. We stayed in a hotel downtown for shopping and fun. OJ met up with us and we had an amazing time. It was incredibly cold, so we did our best to bundle up each time we headed outdoors. Elyse did great! She was so good. She partied it up for our girls getaway.

Love her.

Baby Jaxin

On December 18, just a week before Christmas, our newest nephew joined us - Jaxin Jay.

Grandma Jo - enjoying the sweetness of holding a baby who'd only joined us a few hours earlier.

Precious little guy.

So much more hair than his little brother had.

Photo quality not so great. But, sweetness nonetheless of big and little brother.

And proud papa.

PS: Elyse still does not care for her mama holding little babies. I need to hold more, I suppose. :-)