Weekend Update

I've got my plate full of projects. I am balancing party decorating and menu planning, plus I have treats to make, plenty of cleaning, and about a million other to-do's this week. Not to mention Lucy has a bit of a cold (an early b-day gift from Rex) and she has officially started walking. (Yep, she picked the perfect week for that if you ask me!) But, even with all of that chaos in my day-to-day I have to take a minute to tell you about my weekend...

Saturday we went to an unbelievable Halloween party. I had so much fun dancing and hanging out with friends, I barfed in my purse. The fact that I also did the running man and cabbage patch for a $10 gift card would factor into some of the more 'priceless' aspects of my evening. Thank goodness I was not the only intoxicate person there...one friend called in sick on Monday 'cause she was still hung over and Turbo had to fill in Mr. Host on some of his antics at their softball game Tuesday. I suppose such consequences are expected when you go to a party in turquoise tights, glorified undies, and blue eye shadow.

Sunday I went to the city to watch my aunt scale down the side of a building. It was a bit of a hassle getting there, as I was horribly hung over and my train was an hour delayed due to signal problems. I managed to make the most of it by taking a nice walk to theWit once I made it downtown. The lovely Chicago afternoon just screamed my name and I kept walking and walking, nearly 6 blocks in the wrong direction before I ever looked at a building number. My only excuse, I was all alone and loving the peaceful city stroll!

When I finally made it to my aunt, she was delayed too. I hung out with my cousin and her hubby while we waiting for the big show to start. Crazy as I thought Patti was eagerly volunteering to come down those 27 stories on a rope, it looked pretty awesome from my safe spot on the sidewalk!

Helping Hands

I've been doing a bit of Christmas knitting, you know, trying to be somewhat proactive about the upcoming huge holiday. Of course, Lucy thinks my knitting is awesome, because it means I have an object on my lap, that is not her, that she can try to throw and unravel and ultimately destroy.

 Oh, and Rex was there too.
Encouraging his sister from a safe spot on the couch...

Lulu's Tutu

On the top of my to-do list these days are some quality costumes for the E fam. Including one custom made tutu for a little witch that is sure to cast a spell on the guests at her Birthday Boo-nanza.

I love this thing so much I am going to add them to my Etsy shop!
Oh, why didn't anyone tell me little girls are such fun?

Say Cheese

There are lots of things we are trying to teach Lucy before her big birthday party. Important things like walking and blowing out candles and, of course, smiling for the camera.

Lucy's Bender

I don't think there is any good way to lead into what I have been up to for the last two weeks. It hasn't been fun, or funny, or silly, or anything close to joyful. In fact, it's been kinda scary, really frustrating, and exhausting.

Lucy has been sick. Not with anything horrible, just a double ear infection, and have no fear, she is fine now, but this darn ear infection has taught us more about our little lady than we thought we could learn in such a short amount of time.

Anyone with kids knows how hard it is to 'guess' why your infant is crying. So, two weeks ago when my SIL Lisa and I sat down at Einstein's with a couple of bagels and a screaming Lucy, I figured she'd just had enough of our weekly errands and really missed her nap. When bites of my lunch didn't please her, I figured something was wrong and we left. At home I discovered a slight fever, gave her some tylenol, and put her to bed. No biggie, since she's cutting lots of new teeth lately.

The next day, she was fine. Woke up happy, ate well, took a good long nap. It wasn't until I picked her up from her nap that I knew something wasn't right. Her little body was on fire. Then she threw up. I called the doctor and we went in.

We got to the doctor and into the office, where I started to undress Lucy for her weight and temperature check. Then, right there in front of the nurse, in my arms, she had a seizure.

Now it sounds terrifying, and trust me, it was, but that's the extent of it. Lucy had a febrile seizure, which is fairly common in infants when their body temperature goes up very high, very fast. (For her, that spike was from 101 to 104.9 in two hours.) I'm sure there are tons of questions swimming around in some heads right now, there certainly were more than enough in ours. What we know is that this seizure is not linked to epilepsy or any long term damage. She could have more, so we need to be careful, but she should outgrow it by age 6. It does run in families, however as of right now we do not know of anyone else in ours that has ever experienced one. We were reassured repeatedly by her doctor that she will be fine, our job now is to catch fevers fast and hope this is a one time thing.

Ok, so back to my story, because as much as I wish it did, it does not end there...

Lucy has this seizure in the doctor's office. And as scared as I was, I was happy to be with her doctor while we went through this for the first time. Her doctor, awesome as she is, talked me through everything, then escorted us to the ER for observations and to find out what the heck was making her so sick.

We sat in the ER for 4 hours. We went through x-rays and a nice swab for the flu (and to make this fun we were quarantined for a bit before they ruled that out), a blood test and a urinalysis (no easy task on my toddler), and still nothing showed any sort of illness. The doctor put in an IV (again, imagine my poor infant) and gave her fluids and more medicine while we waited and waited and waited for more inconclusive results. Finally, the doctor checked her ears. (To be fair, I will say he did this once when we first got there, but Lucy was so hot that he said he could not tell if there was an infection because her entire face was so red.)

All of that and Lucy had an ear infection in her left ear. Home we went, and she was crabby, but fine. Her fever was controlled, but kept creeping back up to 105. So, two days later we went back to her doctor. That's when we found out both ears were infected. Home again, with some pink amoxicillin.

We managed to go a week this time, Lucy feeling better all of the time. We had a follow up scheduled, so in we went. We got an all clear, a flu shot, and everyone was happy. Finally.

Well, not really, that was Friday and by Sunday Lucy was covered in a head to toe rash. Back we went on Monday. The highlight of this trip, we found out Lucy is allergic to penicillin.

Now, if you are counting, you'd know that is 4 trips in 12 days. I think I can finally say with some confidence that we will not be back until her next check up (in a short month). Lucy, now, seems to be fine. She has a runny nose, but that is because she did get 2 new teeth in these last two weeks too. She also has decided sleeping alone is underrated and prefers only to sleep next to me. I hate this new habit, but after all she went through I'm going to let her have it for just a wee bit longer.

The Great Kazoo

Lucy found this kazoo of Rex's while I was doing some cleaning the other day. (Yes, I do need to work on my comeback when the kids say things like, 'hey mom, what's this?' while we are in the Cracker Barrel gift shop.  My typical response of 'oh, it's a (kazoo). I had one as a kid and it was awesome' seems to come back to haunt me.) Anyhoo...Kid #3 had this impulse buy for less than 20 minutes before she learned how to play the thing. Must say, it is hilarious to see her tooting and bopping to her own little Lucy symphony.

No...

Darling husband, my blogger is not broken. But the kids are sick, I have a Halloween party to plan, a hallway to paint, your dinner to make, homework to help with, books to read, a mini business to manage, gifts to sew, dishes to do, errands to run, a soccer game to watch, a toddler to chase, a dog to walk, and a chili recipe to perfect.

So, have no fear, I will blog again soon. Besides, you know all of my blog-worthy business anyway, Smarty Pants.

(To the rest of you...thanks for being patient. Turbo is not and I felt obligated to respond to his email here, just in case you were also wondering where I've been.)

Old Habits Dying Hard

Lucy is a horrible sleeper. I mean terrible. By far the worst of my three kids.

I like to blame it on her November birthday. The boys, both spring babies, were getting the hang of the whole living on Earth thing while the weather kept getting nicer and nicer. They wanted to lounge around in their diapers at 3 months old, wear just onesies in the yard, chill naked for a bit after a nice cool bath. Not Lucy. For her it just kept getting colder and colder and colder. She was born the same weekend we saw our first winter flurries. Any Chicagoan knows that is not a sign of warm days, but (quite literally) freezing ones.

My teeny tot learned quickly that you can avoid feeling so darn cold (even in huge puffy blanket sleepers) if you cuddle up with mom & dad. So that was how she preferred to sleep, with us. Put her down, hear her scream, pick her up, watch her sleep. A nightmare for any parent.

Naturally, we went to friends and took their advice to put her in her car seat. She slept in that thing beautifully until she could wiggle when, go figure, it was nice and sunny June and she didn't care so much to be held by anyone. We had a wonderful summer with her sleeping so soundly, all by herself.

But here we are in September/October where the weather is chilly again and Lucy does not want to be chilly alone. We are seasoned parents, so we have covered all of the bases. Warmer clothes, calming bath, blankets all tried, all failed. She wants me, and nothing but me will do. The problem, I want sleep. A full night worth. By myself.

So, I introduced her to Laurie and George. Laurie, a long ago friend of Rex's, lives on this small round disc and sings sweet somethings to Lucy every night before bed. (She also sings really loud silly songs from the same disc during the day, but Lucy has not made that connection yet.) George, a curious little fellow, was a gift from Lucy's fave Aunt Lisa, Uncle Mike, & cousin Gretchen when she was born. He's been sitting in the corner of her room, waiting for the right time to be noticed for about a year now. His persistence has paid off greatly, as Lucy now cuddles with him whenever she is tired.

For the last three nights, Lucy, Laurie and George have gone to bed on time and slept all night with no complaints. At 11 months, I may have finally found a solution to this first problem in the life of my budding drama queen.