I'm a whole year old today. Yippee!! I had a party last night after my family had Easter dinner. I got to eat cake and ice cream but the ice cream was so cold I made funny faces. I got lots of fun presents, Mommy still has to put some together. I got a lion that I can ride on...my feet almost touch the ground on it. I got a kitchen set that is a family room on the other side (Mommy has to set that up and then she will take a picture) and I got a train set that will teach me my letters and all kinds of neat stuff. I got some clothes--cause you know I LOVE dressing cool! I also got some books and DVDs (Dr. Seuss is the coolest!). And of course I got some Little People!
I'm getting to be such a big girl! I can stand up now...I feel so tall even though Mommy keeps calling me shorty. She should talk! My teacher at daycare said I get to start transitioning to a cot tomorrow--she's gonna have fun keeping me on it!!! Mommy also started giving me whole milk today...she mixed it with my formula so I couldn't really taste it. Mooo!
Mommy says I get to take over blogging for her. I'm so much cuter and people are much more interested in me than in her, so I get to be a baby blogger. BTW, Mommy feels so much better that she can play with me again...but she had to go back to work. She says that she has to because I eat her out of house and home...I don't know what that means because I haven't eaten the house. Yet.
Well, scroll on down to see lots of pix of my birthday...Mommy put the pix in lots of different posts because if she moves the pictures, then you can't enlarge them so she says this is the only way to be able to click on them to see them bigger. And I'm so much cuter in my full-screen glory!
Lilypie Kids Birthday tickers
Monday, March 24, 2008
It's My Birthday!!!
My Grow & Go Lion that Mommy bought me. It's so cool! Thursday, March 20, 2008
Mari's First Post
Hi...it's me, Mari. Mommy let me have some computer time (cause it's never too early to learn in this day and age) and I got tagged by my boyfriend Micah! So now I get to tell you ten random things about myself.
- I have lots of nicknames. Mari-Pari, Roza-Poza, Fussy Gussy (when I'm mad), Messy Bessy (when I'm feeding myself), Sneaky Leaky (when Mommy is not fast enough with that diaper), Chocolate Pie. I'll pretty much answer to anything because I LOVE to be talked to.
- My Mommy is tone-deaf. She knows she is tone-deaf but she doesn't know how bad! I sometimes pretend to fall asleep really fast so she'll stop singing to me.
- Mommy sings along with the Wee Sing CD in the car. I'd really prefer that she sing along with her Kelly Clarkson CD...why butcher my music when you can butcher your own, Mom?
- I'm a pacifier thief!! I don't like pacifiers, they are pointless...if you put a nipple in my mouth, there should be food behind it. But I do enjoy stealing them from my friends. I used to steal Cousin Madi's (with her still attached because Auntie Lesa puts hers on a ribbon) but since I moved to the toddler room, I steal other kids' now. Elaine (my new teacher) asked Mommy yesterday if the pacifier in my crib was mine because it didn't have a name on it. Mommy explained that I don't use pacifiers. Ooops! Caught again!!
- I stood up last night all by myself. Mommy has been waiting and waiting on me to do this and she carries that stupid camera everywhere we go. So I got her good...I stood up in the bathtub!! No camera!! And she couldn't leave me to go get it. Hahaha! Gotcha Mommy!
- Monday is my birthday. Mommy has gifts for me. Some of them have Christmas wrapping paper on them (cause I didn't make it home in time!). Mommy thinks I won't notice that she didn't rewrap them so I'm going to play along and pretend that I love the shiny paper...even if it has snowmen on it.
- I LOVE shoes. I giggle when Mommy puts my shoes on me and then I play, play, play with them. I got to try on my Easter sandals the other day and it was so much fun to poke my fingers in the holes that I laughed and laughed.
- I love doggies. My doggie is scared of me, he runs away. But Grandma and Granddad's doggie is so cool, I can pet him and pull his hair and he still likes me. I just grin and laugh.
- I LOVE my tit-tats. I have an orange one and a black-striped one. I can copy their meow (Mommy even told one of them to be quiet one night and it was me! I'm pretty good!) and I love to pet them and pull out clumps of hair. Mommy thinks it is cute that I whisper "tit-tat" for kitty-cat. She tells people that this is because she always whispers it to remind me to be gentle. Whatever. I whisper it because I'm the "cat whisperer."
- I LOVE Noggin. I'm not supposed to watch TV and I really don't care about the shows but in between the shows, watch out! That Moose A Moose and Zee are the best! They are teaching me so much. Mommy plans diaper changes and getting dressed for the day around Moose and Zee because I lay absolutely still. They are just too cool.
Well, since my boyfriend Micah already tagged most of my other friends I will only tag my cousin Madi and my crib-buddy Malachi.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
My Little Chocolate Bunny!!
Couldn't resist!! These ears were $1 at Wal-Mart and I just couldn't wait until Easter to try them on. She didn't even notice them!! I put the pix in a separate post so you can click to enlarge them. She even has little bunny teeth! (Okay, so they are on the bottom but it is still cute!)
Monday, March 17, 2008
Where's my Baby? In the toddler room!!
So first, I'll get the health stuff out of the way. Felt pretty good all day, took a long morning nap after dropping Mari off at daycare but was able to hit the pet store (so Ollie-dog would not die of malnutrition) and a leisurely stroll through Target before picking Mari back up. Now, I've got the chills again and my temp is over 100, but thankfully the other symptoms are staying away. So maybe I just overdid it...I'll rest more tomorrow.
But on to the fun...
I dropped Mari off at daycare this am, my niece Madi arrived just seconds ahead of us, so I put Mari on the floor with Madi and they starting playing...around us were babies screaming everywhere. I asked the baby room teacher (is that what you call them?) if they had some "new arrivals" and she said they had several (and they looked pretty young). I joked, "well Mari's laid-back, do whatever you need to with her." Melissa looked at Mari and Madi playing on the floor and said "if all the kids were like those two, my job would be a breeze." What a great compliment!!
So anyway, when I returned I walked into the baby room and couldn't find my kid!!! I said hi to Madi who was trying her best not to take a nap and Melissa said, "oh, Mari's over the wall now." (Kind of like being over the hill??) The toddler room is separated by a short wall with a doorway that they keep gated...this allows the kids to transition back and forth and helps with child/staff ratios. They moved several kids over within the last few weeks and I knew Mari's time was short but.... So SAD!! But she looked like she was having a blast with all the new stuff to play with. I guess Miss Madi is the queen bee in the baby room now! She's starting to really recognize me when I come to pick Mari up and it is so sweet to get a grin out of her from across the room. She loves her Auntie Jill! I'm sad the two got separated but it will be VERY soon and Madi will be "over the wall" too.
So in celebration of Mari's big day in the toddler room, I decided it was time to jump full-force into the table food world. We have been working on table foods (green beans, carrots, pears, peaches) for a couple weeks just sporadically but I haven't been ambitious enough to get to crazy. So tonight, we tried a Gerber Graduates Pasta PickUps...beef and tomato ravioli, along with green beans, and had some applesauce (which I threw in some chunks of apples) for dessert. She rocked it!! It was so cool! For the first time, we had dinner together. Mari is so demanding about her food--keep it coming fast and don't stop--that trying to eat at the same time is impossible. It is also sometimes difficult to eat in front of her even if she's just eaten so I usually have to wait until she is down for bedtime to eat. So tonight, we pulled up to the dining room table and ate dinner together. I was very impressed by how messy she got (considering the ravioli is self-contained) but also impressed that she didn't get one piece on the floor.
So, as her 1st birthday comes looming closer, we are growing up so fast it is crazy. Not to mention that the toddler room must be a happenin' place because she fell asleep in my arms at 6:15 tonight while watching Max & Ruby (Mari NEVER falls asleep watching TV).
Only one cute picture to share, more soon as I continue to feel better and more energetic. BTW, tried on Mari's Easter dress the other day...let's just say it is a good thing Easter is this Sunday because her fat little Buddha belly isn't going to let her wait much longer on it!
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Thanks!
Thanks for all the well-wishes from everyone and thanks from everyone at work that has offered their help...it means a lot. Today was the best I've felt for a couple weeks. Still need naps more frequently than Mari does but I'm a little more coherent in between. Even managed to get the laundry done, not folded but done...so I now have clean clothes to wear (thank goodness I love lounge pants, flannel PJs, etc because that is what I've been living in and I have lot of them).
The house is still a wreck but I'll get to it eventually. It's funny that I used to make a list of everything I wanted to get done in one day (laundry, vacuuming, changing the bed linens, etc.) and now I'm picking one task per day to try to conquer. Today was laundry, tomorrow I might venture to Wal-Mart (might being the key word in this phrase).
I have been fever-free for 24 hours now (well, if you consider 100 fever-free, which I do now). I have not thrown up for 2 days and I am down to taking a quarter of a tablet of phenergan...just enough to settle my stomach without knocking me out. Did I mention that I despise Sprite now? And orange Jello is getting old?
And guess what...Coke still tastes bad. Not sure why I ever liked it to begin with. Just wish that someone could have pointed this out without me having to get mono to kick the Coke habit. So sad, Coca-Cola will probably go bankrupt without my support!
Now if I could get rid of the ever-present throbbing headache (probably from not drinking a 6-pack of Coke everyday), I'd be on the upswing. Hopefully another good night's rest and I'll wake up headache free--trying to be optimistic.
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Another Year, Another Day
So yesterday was my birthday...a sort of big one. I was supposed to post 30 little known facts about myself, or 30 things I love, or 30 somethings or anothers. My brain can't handle that high thinking right now. So I won't try.
Went back to the doctor yesterday. Nothing has really changed except I couldn't keep anything down since Wednesday night (I wasn't eating much to begin with). So now I'm taking phenergan to be able to eat so I'm not so weak. Except phenergan knocks me out. So I'm sleeping very well, I just have to time my doses around bedtime, naps, etc.
My Mom has been a super big help--even with only one arm (she did get her pins out Thursday but she still has a full-length arm cast for at least 3 more weeks). She drove me to the doctor's yesterday so I didn't have to worry about pulling over to throw up and she (with Dad's help) picked Mari up from daycare last night and stayed to feed her supper (baby food makes me gag worse than anything right now). Then she came over today and stayed long enough to feed her lunch and supper and play in between.
Mari is such a sweetie and so easygoing that she has not been a problem to take care of but just having someone there to lend a hand and to talk to makes things so much better. Just doing simple tasks like making Mari's dinner wipes me out that I have to lay down, not to mention that they make me nauseated too (I actually cried my way through 2 nights of feeding her dinner because I was so tired and thought I would pass out in her dinner tray). Getting her dressed for the day wears me out that I have to take a nap.
The good news is that the fevers seem to be subsiding. I still run low-grade ones fairly constantly but no recent spikes into the high numbers. As soon as my liver gets itself straightened out, the nausea should get better. I just need to keep muddling through.
I promise more interesting posts to come and new pix soon (I haven't even turned my camera on in a week). Mari is SO close to standing up--she can get one foot under her but just can't push/pull up quite yet--and a very significant birthday is coming up soon for her. I got all her party stuff but haven't had time to plan it. I think it will be pretty small (it was going to be anyway, but now I mean really small) and easy.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
The test results are in...
NO MALARIA!!
Thank goodness!!! I went back to the doctor yesterday after dragging myself through 3 12-shifts at work this weekend (yes, I really did drag through them). He did a bunch of blood work that was inconclusive--some up, some down, some normal. After hearing that I spent yesterday evening with a temp over 103 (up to 103.8 even with a large dose of ibuprofen in my system) he sent me back to the lab for more blood work.
And I have MONO!!!!! I'm so happy. That sounds ridiculous but it's not. I am so thankful that I don't have little critters swimming in my blood the rest of my life and I'm also so thankful that they actually found something. Now I know I'm not crazy (well, no more than usual!).
Who did I kiss, you ask? Mari is the only one that has been getting kisses from me but the doc says that she could be the source. He says that most kids from developing countries get mono at a very young age and never know it...so I might have gotten it from her and I probably shouldn't worry about giving it to her either (you can only get it once!).
Good news...and now I'm going to have an afternoon nap before I get Mari from daycare. A luxury I will try to enjoy guilt-free!
Thursday, March 6, 2008
FunNoodle Bumpers and "The Cage"
I think I'm starting to feel better; still spiking weird temps here and there and still having back pain. The fatigue is still present but, at this point, it is mind over matter. Managed to go to work today, luckily I only had a short 4-hour day. I have 3 12-hour shifts the next three days so I may be dead by Monday. But at least I'm off the couch.
Went to Richmond yesterday to meet with Beth from JFS for our first post-adoption visit. Mari was less-than-charming...just not herself. I think she is starting to realize that she will still be loved even if she isn't charming 24/7, so she is not trying so hard to impress people. On the way home from Richmond, she slept 10 minutes and then SCREAMED for the next 90 minutes solid. I'm not sure what got her knickers in a twist (yes, I even stopped to make sure she didn't have a twist in her knickers, or a diaper wedgie)...I made sure she wasn't too hot or cold, she didn't want toys or a bottle, she didn't want to be sung to or talked to but the silent treatment/ignoring her didn't work. So she screamed. Finally fell asleep as we were getting off on our exit, slept 10 minutes and then was wide awake until bedtime. As soon as we got home, she was happy and giggling. Who knows?
She also failed to take an afternoon nap today...two days without her 2-hour afternoon nap and she was practically comatose by 6:30 tonight, even dropped her bottle half-way through (that has NEVER happened!). Naptimes are becoming a battle because she wants to play in her crib (which I've never let her do, not sure where she picked that up at) and the more I go in to lay her back down, the more she gets up. I've learned that she gives up easier if I don't talk to her...just lay her down and leave immediately. Luckily bedtime is still easy.
Here are some of our livesavers that I have invested in. First, what I fondly call "The Cage." We were really starting to have temper tantrums when I wouldn't let her play in the cat's water bowl or eat the dog food. Even if I was laying on the floor playing with her, she still wanted to crawl over there. So I just took the temptation away. She now has a play area that is completely childproof--it is FANTASTIC!!
Then I read this great tip about using pool noodles as inexpensive bumpers. Mari is really trying to pull-up and the strudiest thing she can find is the entertainment center, unfortunately, the shelves are a little sharp-edged. For $3 (2 noodles), I solved the problem. You just cut the length you need and then make a slice length-wise and snap on the noodle. 5 minutes and viola!
Couple more fun pix....
Wow, that was a great bottle!
Where's Mari? Is that her head I see?
Monday, March 3, 2008
Not Dead Yet...
but feel pretty close!
Sorry to be behind in the blogging world. I have felt like crapola (I can think of other words to use but my mother would be disappointed in me) for close to a week now. I started about 7-8 days ago with back pain which I figured was from carrying around a certain 18-pounder but I also having lots of hot flashes and cold chills...Mari had a cold, figured that I was getting it too. Friday, I called in sick to work with a fever and sore throat and sinus headache...yep, thought I'd finally gotten the cold and could get on with it. During the day Friday (just when I was finally showered and dressed and half-way to feeling like moving) Mari spiked a temp of 105.1, so I guess it is good that I was home sick because daycare would have been calling. She didn't act that sick...just had been napping for well over 2.5 hours. So a quick trip to the peds office (bilateral ear infections...or as the doc said "both her ears are full of pus") and the pharmacy and she is doing much better. (Unless you throw in the horrible diarrhea the Augmentin is causing!).
So with Sat., Sun., and Mon. off you would think I would be feeling better. WRONG! I can't remember the last time I felt this bad. I am currently sitting at my desk sweating profusely...earlier today I was so cold I was wrapped up in quilts shivering and crying. It takes every ounce of energy just to get off the couch to take care of Mari (thank goodness she is very independent when it comes to playtime). I tried to run errands today and after one stop by work to pick up some papers, I had to go home and crash on the couch (this is when the crying because I was so cold took place--and it was such a beautiful, sunny day today too). After feeding Mari and putting her down for her nap, I slept until it was time to go to the doctor's.
So what is wrong with me? Sinus infection--check. Already knew that! Possibly a lingering case of the influenza?...yes, I got the shot but it is not particulary effective this year. Not really sure...the doctor seemed legitimately concerned (which is unusual for him). My temp in the office was over 101 and my back pain is still pretty bad. He wants me to "rest, drink plenty of fluids, etc" (this is his cure for everything!) and hope I feel better soon. He did mention the big "M" that I wasn't going to bring up. So, if I die of malaria in the next few days.... Hahahaha! My symptoms fit the profile, but not the way they are constant. Malaria is very cyclical with days of feeling fine in between the days of feeling like crapola.
Hopefully a couple more days of rest and I'll be a new person. Now I'm going to bed. Yes, I know it is only 8pm but Mari is in bed and fixing all the typos in this post has exhausted me.
Oh, and the way you really know I'm sick...Coke takes horrible!!!!! Everyone that knows me just fell over at that statement.
