Tubing and Hives

Last weekend we went to Solider Hollow and went tubing with a few people from Qualtircs.  I was excited because I’ve never been but it always sounded fun. 

Once we got up there, we realized we had left Hannah’s coat at Qualtrics (where we met).  We drove all the way back down to get it, putting us an hour late.  Turns out it was a beautiful day and we ending taking her coat off for most the time.  I wish we could of taken Hannah down the actual sledding hill, but you had to be 3 and be able to ride the tube yourself.  Hannah probably would have been fine, especially because we could have linked up and ridden down with her, but riding up by herself might have been harder.  She had a great time being pulled by Jonathan though on the little kids hill.

 

On another note – Hannah has hives.  I took her to the doctor about a week and a half ago because I thought she might have another ear infection.  She did.  So, she was put on another antibiotic to treat it.  She was 9 days into the 14 day prescription when I noticed some red dots under her arms and she was telling me that her legs hurt.  I wondered if it was a yeast infection because the pharmacist said that could be a side effect.  I called the doctor’s office to see what I could do and when I told her it was worse under her arms than in her diaper, she thought that sounded more like an allergic reaction and wanted her to be seen.  I took her in later that day and by that point it was much worse than when I initially called. 

Apparently it’s hives and Hannah is most likely having an allergic reaction to the penicillin – which is weird because this isn’t her first ear infection and not the first time she’s had penicillin.  Anyway, her ear infection is gone now and she’s since stopped taking the antibiotic but the hives are still here and so irritating for her.  I feel so bad for her little body. 

Unfortunately, Benadryl doesn’t have the sleepy affect on her.  I think it just makes her ornery, but that’s really all there is to help with symptoms as far as medicines go.  The first night we put her to bed at 7 and she whined off and on throughout the night and by 3:30 AM she was awake and not going back to sleep.  After a long second day with a lot of lap sitting and “froggy letters” – thank goodness for Letter Factory, best $7 I ever spent; we’ve probably watched it 20 times in the last 3 days – and crying that she hurt and was itchy I was hopeful for a good nights rest that night.  We put her down at 7:00 again and she fell right asleep.  I was in bed at 8 ready to go to bed when she woke up at 8:30 – SCREAMING.  Nothing would console her.  Well, Forggy Letters would. 

Watching Froggy Letters – she always wants all her babies and a blanket – this seems to be the only time she doesn’t cry or itch.  Notice the hives on her face.

After watching that twice we tried to put her to bed again.  I’ve never seen her flip out like she did last night.  Absolutely screaming – wouldn’t be consoled by anything.  She’d want us to hold her then she’d arch her back and fight us and hit us and tell us no.  The hives had spread to her back by this point so there was no way she could lay that wouldn’t result her her laying on the hives.  We eventually called the on call doctor to see what else we could do.  We ending up giving her a bath with baking soda in it and I ran to the store to get anti-itch cream.  This seemed to help because when we finally put her to bed at 12:45 she fell asleep rather quickly and stayed asleep until this morning at 8.  Thank goodness.

I can’t decide if they’re looking better or worse today.  They look different - like a bunch of little bruises surrounded by pink.  They aren’t as bad under her arms nor on her back but they’re still all over her stomach and thighs.  Her face is also looking better.

 

I hope these go away soon.  I just want my happy little girl back.

Getting Organized

We have a baby coming soon.  75 days to be exact.  They say the second trimester is when you’re feeling great and start “nesting”…but not me.  I’ve procrastinated the nesting to the third trimester.  I feel like at this time when I was pregnant with Hannah we had a name pretty much picked out, a nursery done, a drawer full of diapers, and a closet full of clothes.  Well, with this baby, it’s a totally different story.  We have not settled on a name (nor even have a top 3 list), I have ZERO boy nursery things, I have a drawer full of size 4 diapers – not newborn, and thanks to my cousin Julie, I do have some clothes, but it’s a storage container full of clothes, not closet…because Hannah’s stuff is still in the closet.  Don’t get me wrong – we’re very excited for this baby to come.  I feel like I get more and more excited each day to meet this little guy, it’s just different.  The pregnancy has gone by much faster, our New York Trip and the holidays took up a lot of time shortly after we told people, and Hannah is a big distraction.  But, I’ve got a bee in my bonnet and I feel like I’m in the nesting phase now.  Unfortunately, before I can truly “nest”, I first have to organize and make room for this baby.  Ever since we moved in, we’ve had one room that we haven’t done ANYTHING to.  It’s the ONLY room we have painted or touched up and it’s become a giant storage closet for all our (read - my) random (read – school) stuff. 

When I stopped teaching almost 2 years ago everything got moved from my classroom to my front room.

I went through it all, got rid of a lot of stuff, incorporated some stuff into our home, and the rest got stored in that “one room” that we haven’t done anything to.  Over time, that room has filled up with random stuff – computer parts, boxes, old desks and chairs, etc. 

Well, that’s the room Hannah will move into when Baby Brother arrives so it was high time we cleaned that room out.  A LOT of what was in there was school supply stuff (crayons, markers, glue, etc).  The first item of business was getting those things organized in a place where we might actually use them. 

This cupboard above the desk in our kitchen just makes me feel peaceful inside.  Why didn’t I do this 2 years ago?

I also have a large amount of plastic storage drawers that I used at school.  I have quite a bit of money invested in these puppies and surely I could put them to use.  I cleaned out under our stairs (which we really didn’t have THAT much stuff in it – but it was all unorganized and just thrown in there when I needed a place to put something), and moved all my drawers under the stairs and filled them with all sorts of goodies – mostly paper.

NOTE – Everything that was already under the stairs is still under there or thrown away.

I filled the awkward sloped part with our 10 gallon food buckets, front entry holiday decorations (in the bags with labels) and 3 storage containers.  Get this, the ones with blue lids are EMPTY!  I love it.  Also, the above drawers with blank labels are also empty.

Finally, we added a few shelves for a few other things

and under the stairs is organized!  I love that there’s plenty of room to actually walk in to the stuff. We just need to add a couple of hooks for bags and we’re all done.

Now that the room is cleaned out, I just need to paint, buy bunk beds, bedding, dresser, bookshelf, and décor, decorate that room, move all of Hannah’s stuff over, get Hannah used to sleeping in a big bed, buy boy nursery bedding, decorate that room, and get his stuff put away.  I can do that before he’s born…right? 

Oh – and if anyone has suggestions on how to decorate a gender neutral room that will eventually be shared by Hannah and Little Brother please send them my way.  I’m really struggling to get inspired.

First Snow–and other things

It finally snowed enough to stick the other day.  It still wasn’t that much and by afternoon 90% of the snow in our backyard was melted.  Either way, there was some snow.  I was doing stuff on the computer and Hannah was playing with puzzles when she heard a “nose” (noise) outside.  She ran to the window to see what it was.  It was a neighbor with his 4-wheeler plowing another neighbor’s driveway.  She stood at the window and watched for several minutes.  Then, she went to the basket of shoes, got me a pair of boots and brought them to me saying “Mamma, shoes, walk, Mamma, Dadda, outside, walk, shoes?” and was pointing outside.  I took this as meaning she wanted to go outside and play in the snow (which she’s never done before).  We bundled up and went out.

Since she’s never really played in the snow, that’s not what she wanted to do.  She wanted to go on a walk to the mailbox.  Almost everyday when Jonathan comes home, she gets her coat on and the two of them walk hand in hand to the mailbox.  Hannah comes running back in the house when they get back with some piece of junk mail that Jonathan had her carry back.  She’s always so proud and excited to deliver it to me.  I think it’s adorable.

Well, they haven’t gone on their daily walk in a few days and apparently she was missing it because that’s where she led me.  After getting the mail I helped her into the snow.  At first, she would pick it up and say “bubbles!” and rub the snow on her belly – because that’s what she does in the bath.  Then she tried tasting it.  Her little legs are so short that it didn’t take much for her to get stuck in the snow and need help walking.  In usual Hannah form, she was very dainty as she played – not too adventurous.  I guess I don’t need to run out and get snow pants.








She had a great time.
 
Here are a few other pictures of her favorite things lately.  For Christmas we got her some puzzles and legos – mostly because I felt like puzzles and legos were something we should have, not necessarily something she would like.  Turns out.  She LOVES them.  We do puzzles and play with legos everyday and it didn’t take too long for her to figure them out.  She built this tower all by herself the other day.


And sometimes she likes to sit in the puzzle bucket while she does the puzzles.  She has a few odd things about her.


Speaking of odd things Hannah does – she’s OBSESSED with “yuckies”.  Mostly “yucky toes”.  She doesn’t like the lint from her socks or jammies getting between her toes.  EVERY time I change her diaper she lifts up her feet and inspects her toes and says “yucky toes” and won’t stop until her toes are clean.  Sometimes she’ll ask me to take off her slippers or socks so she can check for yuckies.  She’ll work at them for several minutes too.  She doesn’t like yuckies on her hands either which means I have to clean off her hands 3 or 4 times while she’s eating.  Cleaning her hands and face is never a battle though because we just tell her there are yuckies.  She’ll also pick lint or crumbs off my clothes because those are “yuck!”


Hannah talks like crazy – at least I think she does.  The other night I sat down to make a list of all the words she says.  In just a few minutes I came up with 75 words that she says on her own.  She’ll repeat anything I say, but those are just words she knows and will come up with by herself.  She’s very good at communicating what she wants.  And everyday she’ll say a few more words that I had no idea she knew.  She also copies everything I do.  She’s my little shadow and loves to help in the kitchen.  She always wants to see what I’m doing when I’m cooking.  She helps me carry in groceries and put things in the fridge.  Often, when Jonathan comes home, I’ll lean against the sink and fold my arms while we talk.  Guaranteed within a few seconds Hannah is next to me, leaning against the cabinets with her arms folded.  The other day I had one arm folded and I was using the other hand to eat a piece of pizza.  Sure enough, Hannah, who had been eating normally, saw me and folded one arm and started eating her pizza with the other arm.  I love that she’s my little shadow and wants to do everything just like me.


We sure love our little Hannah and I could go on forever about all the cute things she does.  She’s very sweet and always concerned when someone is sad.  We got a BYU magazine the other day with Cosmo on the front.  She thought he looked “sad” and she carried the magazine around the whole afternoon periodically giving Cosmo kisses.  She’s starting to say her own prayers at night and dinner (well, repeats what we say).  She does a great job and the whole time watches us and beams with pride.  She doesn’t really get the bow your head and close your eyes part.  It’s just too exciting.  She goes to nursery great and doesn’t care that we leave her…never really did.  She loves to take things out of my cupboards in the bathroom while I’m getting ready and line them up on the floor or chair in the bathroom.  That’s a little annoying and my bathroom is never clean for that reason, but it keeps her entertained.  We’ve only had one casualty when she dropped a bottle of perfume…but our bathroom smelled great for over a week! 

Finally, the one thing she does that gets on my nerves is she’ll call my name over and over and over again.  “Mamma, Mamma, Mamma”.  Even if I answer and say “what?” she’ll just keep saying my name.  Do all kids do this?  She’ll say it like 30 times in a row.  Both ignoring her and answering her don’t work.  Oh well, I guess I’ll take her calling my name all the time over other things.

Phase 3

Phase 3 – PITTSBURGH

(Don’t forget to read about Phase 1 and Phase 2)

Finally, Hannah and I headed to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania for a week or so with my sister Cheryl.  This week was the most chill of our entire trip but that doesn’t mean we didn’t stay busy and we didn’t have a great time enjoying one another’s company and kids. 

Cheryl teaches about 6 exercise classes throughout the week.  She would usually go to those in the mornings while Hannah and I would stay home and sleep in (her kids get up earlier than Hannah).  We would then hang out and play with the kids in the morning and after naps try and do something.

We hit up the McDonald’s play area one day.

We hit up the mall play area one day.

We also took advantage of the fact that Cheryl kind of knows what she’s doing when it comes to hair (at least more than I) so Hannah got a haircut. 

The highlight was probably the Children’s Museum. The kids loved it as it was totally interactive and at their level.  They could play however they wanted and make as big of a mess as they wanted.

And of course, the reason for the trip – quality cousin bonding time. 

 
The favorite games these 3 played was running across the room into someone’s arms after they counted to 3.  All of the kids would stand at the wall and wait for me or Cheryl to say, “1, 2, 3!” Then they would run to us.  Sawyer was the most aggressive and usually took off early…would would catch himself and scoot his little body back up.  Lincoln was the fastest and would make it to us first.  Hannah always waited until the coast was clear and she knew she wouldn’t collide with anyone before she took off running.  She didn’t care as much about winning.

Thanks for letting us come Cheryl!