Class pictures

I always love class pictures. These were taken last fall, a little before Thanksgiving, so they are kind of old. Evie had just recently started sitting up, so we were surprised to see her just sitting up by herself front and center.




Bella's class has already changed a bit. I hear both good and not so good things about her interactions with her classmates. I guess there were a couple of new girls in class that don't speak very much English and Bella's teachers told us Bella really stepped up to play with them and make them feel comfortable. Then there are the other days where I have a conversation like this:

Bella's friend Z: Who's mommy are you?
Me: Bella's
Z: Bella screams at me
Z's Mom: Well, I'm sure she just got frustrated about something like we all do...
Z: Bella kicked me in the head.
Z's Mom: Well, you might just be thinking about when you two were just jumping and playing and I'm sure it was an accident.
I kind of think Z said something else similar about Bella did to him, but I can't remember now...

As usual, the individual pictures are hilarious. Bella got a haircut that definitely wasn't one of my favorites a few days before.

You down with RSV? Part 2

Part 1 was a post with this title on January 18, 2009. The string of sickness has continued in the house. I was sick on Valentine's Day with a stomach flu, I didn't get out of bed until 3PM except for only the most necessary of trips (I'll spare the details). Robin was still not feeling well so last Sunday she and Evie went over to the UI Quickcare to get checked out. They still couldn't find anything wrong with Robin, but gave her an antibiotic prescription to fill if she wasn't feeling better in a couple days. Evie was checked out as well and had some fluid in her ears, but no ear infection and couldn't find anything else wrong with her. She had been having several rough nights of sleep in a row. Wednesday night at 5:30PM I received a call from daycare that Evie had a 100 degree fever and was lethargic. We got her into an appt. that night that was scheduled for 7:15PM, but we didn't get into the Dr.'s office until after 7:45PM. I was just happy they were able to see us on such short notice as Evie had developed a seal like bark for a cough. Evie had a mild case of RSV (Respiratory Syncytial Virus) and another ear infection. She is on antibiotics for the ear infection, but there isn't any treatment for the RSV since it is a virus. Evie has been sleeping pretty good, although last night was a rough night.
Spring cannot come soon enough for this house.

Show and Tell

Isabella played pretend show and tell today. She got a basket full of toys and sat on our bed and started saying things like:

"Who brought this in?"
"Come sit in the yellow chair and tell us about it"
"How does it work?"
"Does anyone have any questions?"
"Ok, put it back in the basket"

She had Evie and I come and sit up on the bed and play show and tell and pick out different toys that we had "brought in". It was really cute.

Sick Again

Maybe it's the house, but we can't seem to stay healthy. I was awaken on Thursday evening just past midnight by Bella crying in her bed. I went in to see her and she started vomiting all over the bed. I decided to pick her to take her to the Bathroom (calling for Mom as we passed our bedroom) and have her sit on her stool so that she could throw up into the toilet if necessary. I noticed Bella was holding onto Teddy who was completely wet from the vomit. Robin sat with Bella and I entered her bedroom and turned on the lights to assess the damage. I definitely could make out the green beans and blueberries from dinner. There was a lot of vomit and I used many paper towels to wipe everything up before putting her comforter and sheets in the wash. Robin slept in her room the rest of the night. Bella woke up the next morning acting like her normal self,but complaining that her stomach hurt. I was thinking of keeping her home until she said excitedly can we watch a movie and Dora. I decided to take her to school but told her teachers at daycare about vomiting and to let me know if she is not feeling better. I got a call from daycare at 9:30AM saying that Bella was complaining that her stomach hurt so I decided I would go pick her up (I eventually made it to daycare after finishing off a few things). Bella was pretty wiped out and declined lunch at daycare and home. We took a nap together and sat in the recliner the rest of the afternoon watching Dora and Aladdin. She didn't want to move even when it was time to pick up Evie. Good news is that Bella seems to be better today, but still not eating as well as she normally does.

Evie does not seem to be sick,but is setting records with the number of blowouts she is having during her 10 day sentence on Augmentin. Her bottom and private area are still red, but we have been very diligent with putting on gobs of magic butt paste. Evie had 5 blowouts on Friday alone. Today she had a second blowout in which I had to get her onesie over her head, but I failed, so we took a second bath of the day so she could avoid being called a poophead(there is another term, but this is a family blog). Sunday will be the last day of antibiotics and we see the Dr. on Monday to get the ear checked out.

Robin is feeling better, but is not 100% back. She seems to get better and then feels worse again. I need her to get healthy as she is too necessary to this house to not be 100%. I got a head cold the night Bella vomited and was having difficulty sleeping, but besides some fatigue feel fine again. I really hope this is the last post about sickness because this is getting old.

Evie taking the stairs

Robin is feeling better today and worked from home. She still is not 100% but appears to be on the road to recovery. Evie had a rough day today, she had three blowouts at school today and is very red and raw on her bottom. Bella had the same issues when she was taking this same antibiotic. Evie is doing fine other than a sore bum and hating her medicine. The rest of the house is doing well.

Here is the video I said I would try to post.

Still Sick Part 2 and a video of Evie that was better than any SuperBowl commercial

Robin went to the Doctor on Sunday keeping alive the streak of 3 consecutive days someone in the house went to the Doctor. The Doctor did not find anything that he could treat but Robin still felt miserable. I was not feeling well on Sunday either but luckily Uncle John and Aunt Kristy were willing to watch the kids for the afternoon so we could rest. John stopped by and picked up the kids and took them to his house where he put them down for their naps and fed them. It felt great to get some sleep and rest without having to chase the two of them around for a little while. They reportedly both did very well over at John's and Bella was none too happy when I showed up to pick her up. She laid on the floor and pouted that she wanted to stay (at cool Aunt Kristy's and Uncle John's house). Thank you John and Kristy so much! I am still not feeling great, but much better than yesterday. Robin is still feeling bad and took a day off of work to rest. She is planning on working from home tomorrow even though she is not feeling better right now. Bella seems to be doing well, but had a rough day at school today. She had two accidents and she bit another child because she was not chosen to be calendar helper ( I am not sure what the calendar helper does even after Bella trying to explain it to me). Evie seems to be doing better as well, but really hates taking her medication and we are only through 4 of 10 days.

Here is a video of Evie from last week that is absolutely hilarious. I think the toy should be playing Metallica. I will try to keep up on my posting and share another video tomorrow of Evie showing off a new skill.

Still Sick

It seems as the health of everyone in the house is not the greatest at the moment, but fortunately nothing life threatening. I took Evie in to see if her ear infection had cleared up and it either has not or she has gotten another one in the same ear. We started her on a stronger antibiotic that needs to be taken with food. Last night we gave her her 2nd dose and then Robin fed her. I am not even sure what time it was but approximately midnight Evie woke up and then threw up. Robin got her cleaned up and took her downstairs and she threw up again this time on herself as well as Robin. After that Evie and I slept in the recliner until 5 in the morning. Robin fed her in bed and she slept for a little while and then Robin took her downstairs. I fell back asleep (or coma) and did not wake up until 9:15 when I heard Robin putting Evie down for her morning nap.
Bella was up with Robin and was complaining that her ears hurt. Robin used our ear checker which we have always wondered how accurately it works and it said she had an ear infection in both ears. I called the Doctor's office and they were able to get us in this morning and sure enough Bella had an ear infection in one ear and had fluid and looked to be heading towards an ear infection in the other. The Doctor was also concerned about her coughing and lung sounds and put her on an antibiotic to cover it all. Bella did pretty well and I am thankful she can tell us when she is sick so we can take care of it before she is in more pain.
Robin has not been feeling well, she is tired, has a headache, ear pain (maybe she has an ear infection as well), a horrible sore throat and has some chest congestion. It hurts her so bad when she has to cough it up. She will be seeing a Doctor tomorrow if she is not feeling better which means we could extend our streak of someone seeing the Doctor to 3 straight days. I hope the streak does not continue because that means she is better and because it is becoming quite costly.
I had not been feeling well, but that extra bit of sleep this morning made me feel a lot better today. I hope you all stay healthy and hopefully there will be no more sickness in the house for awhile that is post worthy.

Sick

All in all the kids are doing well, but they both seem to have a constant cold. This weekend started off alright, but Bella was not feeling well after she got up from her nap. She was cranky and did not want to go outside to play in the snow. When she said she didn't want to build a snowman we knew something was up so Robin grabbed the thermometer and sure enough she had a temperature of 103. Kevin and Maria's baby, Calvin, came over for a few hours so they could go out to eat for Maria's Birthday with some of their friends. Calvin was the easiest of the three kids, he was content to play by himself and did well with eating. Evie was excited that there was another baby in the house, but Bella seemed indifferent about the whole situation which was fine with us(could've had something to do with feeling under the weather).

Saturday night I slept in Bella's bed with her of course for a few hours and then Robin replaced me for the last few hours until Evie woke up. Bella was pretty weak today again and her fever went up and down all day. It peaked at 103.6 and was down below 98.6 for a period of time. She actually cuddled up with me and watched a whole movie(The Princess and the Frog) in one sitting, something that has never occurred before. We also watched a lot of Dora the Explorer and started the movie Aladdin. Bella seemed to be feeling better by the end of the day and hopefully will be feeling better tomorrow so she can go to school.

Evelyn is battling another ear infection. This is her 2nd ear infection in two weeks, her first one cleared up. She is gaining new skills, pulling herself up on everything and everyone (she often crawls to me or Robin and will pull herself up by grabbing our pants). She has not said much besides "Hi Dad" thusfar, but Robin, Bella,and myself have been holding our hands up and hers and saying "Touchdown Iowa" and then clapping and saying "Yeah." This morning when we did it Robin and I both swear to goodness that she said "Touchdown Iowa" in a weird voice. Robin claims that she actually heard it twice, we tried to get a video of it with no luck.

Here are some pictures from the weekend.

The new hot club (really hot club with Bella's 103 degree fever)

Calvin after eating carrots and pears in Evie's chair.

Evie and Calvin chillin' in the gym.

Calvin in the gym and Evie posing for her senior picture.

3 Year and 9 Month Check ups

Evelyn and Isabella had their checkups last week. Evelyn had her 9 month check up and Bella her 3 year check up. Isabella is in the 75% for height and weight (38 inches tall and 33 lbs.). Evelyn is in the70% percentile in height (28 inches) and 30% percentile in weight (18.5 lbs.).

Evelyn's Leaps and Bounds

A little after Christmas Evelyn really started crawling and now there is no stopping her. She loves her new ability and loves moving around. She has even started pulling herself up on things and taking steps while holding on to something.

Here is one of her first times crawling



Isabella isn't so impressed that Evelyn can move around. She's not happy that Evelyn can get into her stuff and Isabella's stuff is the only things Evelyn is interested in. Isabella says, "Evelyn's crawling!" in a tone that sounds like she's tattling on her. Or she just screams and says "Evie's coming" and throws herself over her stuff. We are really working on sharing, or having Isabella pick out something else for Evelyn to play with. Isabella usually just finds the closet thing that she's not interested in and throws it at Evie.

Here is Evie walking with the shopping cart. She stops to wave "hello", which we think is just so cute!

Bella's 3rd Birthday

Still trying to catch up on the blog, this post is almost a month late. Bella got to celebrate her 3rd Birthday with lots of family. Grandpa Groves came down for the day and Grandma Linda, Grandpa Jack, Aunt Jill, and Uncle Joe drove in from Ohio. Uncle John and Aunt Kristy stopped by for Bella's favorite lunch (sandwiches) and some Birthday cake. We got Bella a Dora the Explorer cake since she has really been enjoying Dora lately. Bella told us she wanted a brown and purple cake so they put a purple frosting trim on the cake and added a brown tree. Evie tried to upstage her big sister by crawling for the first time. Bella got to open lots of presents for her birthday and then the next day as well for Christmas.



Bella looks pretty bored after we sang Happy Birthday. She didn't want any of her cake.








She was playing with the Ipad with Grandpa Jack and I do not remember why she got angry(that is the problem of waiting so long to do the post),but Grandpa Groves got some good pictures of her sour face.
















The two pictures below are Bella opening some presents and Bella showing us how old she is.

Potty Humor

Wrote this up on 11/22/2010, but forgot to ever post it....

For a long time we have made halfhearted attempts at potty training Isabella. She started doing alright with peeing a couple months back, but refused to have a BM on the toilet. When she moved to the three year old room in October she really became much more interested in going on the toilet as many of the children in that room were potty trained. She began having all of her BM's in the toilet. Over a weekend we were able to wear underwear all day except during nap and overnights and had no accidents. Bella really wanted to wear underwear that Monday to school so we decided to let her and has done great. She rarely has had any accidents and now only wears a pull-up overnight and it is dry or only a little wet.

You can't go through potty training with a bunch of humor. Of course the fact that I'd just blogged about Bella's BMs is funny enough. Other funny stuff:

Bella refuses to throw the toilet paper in the toilet after she has a BM. She says "I can't see the poopy, no cover it up!" if you try to put toilet paper over it. She likes to watch it while she flushes.

One day Bella went up behind Robin and pulled Robin's pants back. She said "Any poopy in there, Mama?" Robin explained to her that you don't just walk up to someone and look down their pants (even though we were doing it to her all the time). Bella replied "I was just checkin'"

Robin went in one morning to wake up Bella. Robin was dressed and ready for work, the first thing Bella said to her was "Mama, you wearing underwear?" Robin said "Yes, I am wearing underwear". Bella said "Let me see it!"