On the mend

Olivia and Isabella are both on the mend. Thank goodness. Olivia is back to her old self. She loves digging around the kitchen cabinets and climbing onto just about anything and everything, including the dishwasher. She's also getting really good at voicing her opinion and is becoming quite opinionated at the ripe old age of 13 months.

A bit of math

2 girls + 2 ear infections + 1 pink eye = 3 Dr visits and a mini at-home pharmacy

The sandwich

I knew last night was going to be tough. Olivia was still sick with a temp of almost 103 and it was difficult for her to fall asleep. I put her down around 8:30pm and she awoke screaming at 9:30. She quickly fell asleep on me and so I just brought her into bed with me. I usually don't do this, but she usually isn't this sick either. We both got some shuteye from 10-1, (I think) and then Isabella awoke screaming "papi" so I thought, why not just join the party. Well, around 1:30 Olivia awoke crying and yelling for her "ba ba" which scared Isabella who insisted on coming downstairs with me while I made Olivia's bottle and hanging onto my every move. Olivia drank her bottle (she never wakes up and asks for a bottle in the middle of the night) and feel asleep quickly. For Isabella it was a different story. She tossed and turned and even cuddled with Olivia and rubbed her back when she was fussy saying "it's o.k. baby, it's o.k." At about 3am both girls were fast asleep but insisted on cuddling as closely as they could to me so that I was completely sandwiched between them. It was kind of annoying, but more than anything really cute. Then Olivia awoke at 6:30am ready for the day.
Today I'm kind of dragging and a night like last night is only a reminder of things to come when the newborn arrives. I hope I'm cut out for it.

Ear infection part 2

Olivia has had a cough, low grade temp and runny nose for the past three days. I thought she was on the mend because she seemed to be back to her old self yesterday but last night was a completely different story. She was up at all hours of the night and just screamed every time I laid her in her crib. She slept with me for several hours but still had a hard time getting comfortable between dealing her fever, cough and runny nose. Poor little thing. I felt so badly for her. I took her to the Dr. today and she has raging ear infections in both ears. She had her first dose of Augmentin and some Tylenol and is now asleep. In addition to addressing the ear infection and wheezing, the Dr. also remeasured her head circumference which has always measured in the 90-95 percentile. Well, after her one year well check last week, her head circumference has increased. I'm scheduled to go to the Children's Hospital of Philly on Monday for and MRI with sedation. I know I shouldn't be worried because she's showing now signs of hydrocephalus (accumulation of fluid in the ventricles) except for the increasing head circumference. But, of course the more I think about it, the more I'm worried about all of the terrible possibilities. I shouldn't worry, I know, but I am. I'm stress eating, I'm worrying. So annoying. Now it seems like Monday can't come quickly enough.

As an aside, Olivia's new favorite thing is pulling out all of the books in Isabella's room as quickly as she can. As you can tell, she's pretty good at it.

Nursery

Isabella loves going to Church. It's so cute to see how enthusiastic she is about going to nursery. Today I led singing time in primary and she was upset that she couldn't be in there with me. If I had it my way, I think I'd send her to primary. She would really love it there. Here are a few pics of her today. She usually hates to have her picture taken, so this time I bribed her with a piece of candy.

Juggling it all

A typical day for Jason begins with him leaving for work at 7:30, getting home around 6:30, eating dinner, playing with the girls, helping me put the girls to bed and then at 8:30 hitting the books until late at night. That's just a "typical" day. Let's not forget the frequent business dinners, the occasional week long business trip (2 within the next 4 weeks) and attending class every other Friday and Saturday (he arrives Friday at 8am, stays overnight on campus and returns home Sat at 5pm). Oh, and then there's his wife who has class every Thursday night and who still works a 12 hour shift at the hospital a few times a month. On those days, he gets the girls up, gets them dressed, drops them off at daycare, picks them up and does dinner. Gosh....I'm already exhausted just writing this. Someone told us this will pay off, I hope they are right. In the meantime, Jason's becoming really great at juggling it all.

The 2nd child

Olivia is the 2nd child and soon to be middle child. I feel she is already getting the short end of the deal as we haven't even celebrated her 1st birthday. Also, I'm definitely not taking as many pictures of Olivia as I did of Isabella. I guess it's just natural but I'm feeling slightly guilty about this. I don't want her to feel like she's less important to me than Isabella but more importantly, I don't want to forget her personality at this stage or all of the cute things she does. So, I've decided that I'm going to take more pics and post more about my dear sweet Olivia, before these days are a distant memory.

A litter

I'm convinced that I have at least seven babies growing in me right now. At least. I feel like a whale and it's only month 3 1/2. Perhaps this is what happens when it's baby no. 3. With both girls I really didn't feel that "pregnant" until the third trimester. I know it can't only be one baby causing so much havoc. There has to be at least 7.

14

I think 14 is my new lucky number. To our surprise we're expecting number 3 in July. I know.....crazy. That almost makes 3 under 3. This week is week 14 and for the first time in a very long time I'm not feeling totally nauseous and miserable at night. Yeah for me!

Winter...

You know this winter has been a cold one when all of sudden it's 40 degrees outside and you're calling it a "warm" day.

Get your craft on

Isabella is becoming quite the crafter. I'm not the crafty type but with a little creativity and using what we already have, we've made a few cool things. The pitiful looking girl is the latest. Of course I did the drawing and Isabella did the gluing. Well, I guess she isn't too pitiful looking.

Cool Christmas Gift

Lytle spent the month of December in Puerto Rico (I know, I already worked through my jealously) and brought back a cigar box full of shells she found on the beach. She also gave her a magnifiying glass. The making of a scientist is in full swing. What a great gift!

Note to self...

Don't spend 10 days in California and then only take a day off before returning to work for the next two days while the girls both have ear infections and while I've been sleep deprived for at least a week. Bad idea.

The big 35

We had fun celebrating Jason's Bday with a few rousing games of bowling, a delicious meal and the most divine chocolate cake (a family recipe).

A must have

After ten days in California we've now added a new "must have" to our list this Spring. I have such fond memories of spending hours and hours jumping on our trampoline, I want our kids to have similar memories. You can tell the girls are huge fans.

Big Basin

I wanted to see a few Redwoods on our trip to California so we all headed up to Big Basin Redwoods State Park. My father-in-law told me it would be a windy road but I had no idea what I was getting myself into. By the time we made it to the park, I was sufficiently nauseous, although, a few of the cousins totally lost it on the ride up. Poor things. We hiked for a short mile, but it was unbelievably beautiful. The cousins had so much fun running around and climbing on top of the fallen Redwoods.