Happy Birthday Amelia!

I can't believe she's two already. Maria was very happy for her, but also wanted to keep her in her place. She kept telling Amelia, "I'm three and on my next birthday, I'll be four! I'm a big girl. You're one, but you'll be two on your birthday. You're a BIG baby! And I know what big babies are called! They're called Toddlers!" This was pretty much the breakfast/lunch/snack conversation for the whole week preceding Amelia's big day, with a few other comparisons worked in for good measure. "I'm a big girl, I don't need a bib, but Amelia is a big baby so she still needs a bib!" and "I'm a big girl, so I get to sit in a big girl seat, but Amelia is a big baby so she needs to sit in the booster seat."

It's no wonder then that Amelia staged a small revolt the on her birthday and refused to wear a bib to eat her soup. She kept saying, "No, I big! I don't need bib!" and "No t'ank you!"

Of course, we may have set a precedent the night before at her party when we allowed her to fuss her way into sitting at the kids table for dinner. Though it did seem wrong to let a girl cry at her own party.

Here's some pictures from her party.

For Delbert.

I actually have four pics of the Egret eating the Mouse. In these two you can kinda see the mouse.
For all those who are confused see the comments here.

Random Pictures of the Girls and Stuff, in Random order.

Maria can climb very well now... even in a dress.

Maria: Soccer Star

Pillow Pile Playhouse.

What you find around the house when you have girls.
[Note: No, I didn't receive any money from either company who's products/logos appear in this photo. But I wouldn't be opposed to them sending me some. :) ]

Praying Mantis - How'd he get there?

Amelia zonks out on the floor after contemplating Mommy's Wii Fit for too long.

My pumpkinhead.

Maria's room of many colors. (Complete with a Tipsy Tower of Stuff Mommy doesn't want anyone to touch on the headboard of her bed.)

Impromptu Picnic of PB & J's on the Park Bench.

"Ook! I swinging!"

To lighten the mood a bit, some quiz results.

Your result for The Who Would You Be in 1400 AD Test...

The Prioress

You scored 5% Cardinal, 56% Monk, 59% Lady, and 43% Knight!

You are a moral person and are also highly intellectual. You like your solitude but are also kind and helpful to those around you. Guided by a belief in the goodness of mankind you will likely be christened a saint after your life is over.

You scored high as both the Lady and the Monk. You can try again to get a more precise description of either the Monk or the lady, or you can be happy that you're an individual.

Take The Who Would You Be in 1400 AD Test at HelloQuizzy

I like the part about me being a saint.

I suspect, however, that I shouldn't bet on the accurancy of this quiz.

Hate blogger, can't get the underline to go away....grr....

Who's looking out for the little ones?

I don't tend to post on politics, but I saw this picture at Mommy Life and felt I had to post it here.

It's from Milehimama, at Mama Says. Here's a link to her post.

I think that it puts forth in one image what the choice is about this election. Can we vote for someone who voted against the protection of infants born alive after botched abortions, or not?

If he's not willing to protect the "least of these" what reason do we have to believe that he'll protect the rest of us?

Check out Jill Stanek's site for more info on Obama's record.

Funny Fortune for You.

I've been too busy with the Run for Life and other A Baby's Breath things to post, but we got Chinese food today and I had to share this fortune:

Update on Amelia.

Well, I, being quite resourceful and having knowledgeable friends, managed to avoid a trip to CHOP, having discovered that they have a satellite diagnostic center near the KoP Mall.

So Monday morning, Jim took the morning off work, and we took Amelia for her testing. Siblings weren't allowed in the testing rooms, so Maria had fun in the toy filled waiting room, being zombified by the cartoons on tv.

Amelia did very well with the tests, pretty much taking everything in stride.

It turns out that she does have moderate urinary reflux, on both sides, meaning that when her bladder was being filled with the contrast, it traveled part way back up the ureters towards her kidneys. Obviously this is not a good thing if it's happening frequently and if it causing bacteria to infect the kidneys, which can cause permanent damage.

The treatment? Preventative antibiotics. Which may or may not work to prevent kidney infections, or reduce damage to the kidneys if an infection does occur. So even with antibiotic treatment we still have to watch her for signs of infection, so that she can be treated immediately if one should occur.

We don't like giving the kids medicine, unless we know it's needed so preventative antibiotics that aren't necessarily proven kind of rub us the wrong way. Fortunately, they are doing a study, in which some kids will have the standard treatment of preventative antibiotics and some will have a placebo.

We are hoping to take part in this, and of course hoping for a placebo. We already know that we'll be watching her more closely, so adding an antibiotic doesn't seem all that helpful. If we don't get in the study or choose not to do it (once we hear the full protocol) then we'll have to take Amelia to a urologist who will help us decide what treatment to follow and will help us monitor her to see if/when she grows out of the condition. Because most kids do grow out of it. And it seems that they are finding that it's increasingly being linked to the time of potty training.

So all this is a rather long way of saying that Amelia'a ok, and probably will be ok. Which is a nice change after all that excitement.

Another First for Maria.

I almost forgot to post these... Maria's first pictures. I just set up the camera, told her which button to push and let her do it. This is what she came up with. Not bad, huh?

Note: I hate Blogger! Despite the fact that I'm always able to move my text to above my photos after they're added, today's it's not allowing me to do that and it's trying to make everything bold. Grr....

What Maria's been doing....

What with all the excitement of summer, I haven't had a chance to post an update on Maria. Somewhere around the beginning of the summer, maybe early June or something, she drew her first ever stick person.

It's Amelia with one blue eye and one yellow eye, brandishing a spoon. I'm so proud.

Then more recently, while Jim was working at the computer, she reached over and wrote her name on the white board next to him, all be herself (except for a little help with the letter r).
I'd only had her practice tracing it three or four times, months ago. I think homeschooling just might work out. :)

She also moved into her very own big girl bed. And she stays the whole night.

(At least she did until recently when she decided that if I don't kiss her goodnight when I come home from A Baby's Breath, and if she doesn't wake up when I'm kissing her goodnight, then it's important to come in at 4 am and ask for a kiss and a snuggle.)

At the CCL convention, she got her first face painting, a rainbow, which she didn't want to wash off and which stained her cheek red for days afterward. She also had her hair French Braided, for what will most likely be the 1st and last time, since I'm incompetent in the area of fancy hairstyles.

And although I don't have a picture of it she very much enjoyed catching her first lightening bug. She exalted afterwards, "Today is a very special day, because today, I caught my 1st lightening bug ever! I'm soo proud of me! Do-do-do-ta-do!"

Note: This post has been edited to cover up the author's stunning lack of proof reading.

"A" is for Adventure!

It's also for "accident" (not us), "ambulance" (us), "Amelia" (who else) and "A-mergency room" (k, that's a stretch I know).

*** Don't worry everything's fine. Just normal childhood illness, but I'll get to that in a minute. ***

Note: This post was started two weeks ago...so the time line is a little off.

So, we got back into town Sunday evening. Amelia slept or almost slept most of the trip. I didn't think much of it as she (and we) didn't get a lot of sleep the night before. (She seems to know just when it would be best for everyone to have a good night's sleep, and this makes her very agitated... so much so that she wakes up and cries, squirms and fusses thus keeping everyone up. Caves under the pressure I guess.)

I also didn't think too much of it when she felt warm at the rest stop. I assumed that the air conditioning wasn't high enough in the car. So I cranked it up for the rest of the drive.

When we got home, there was no mistaking it however. Amelia had a fever. It was high...104ish.

So I ran a lukewarm bath, gave her Tylenol and watched her. Till about 11. When the fever was back in the low/normal range, I got her to sleep.

Monday, no fever she was acting fine all day. Maybe a little tired, but fine. Until Monday night right around 10:30, when Jim called me as I was coming out of the grocery store (yes, late I know). Amelia had woken up and was crying and saying something over and over. I tried to get her to tell me what was wrong over the phone. The only thing I understood was "hurt." And there was something weird in her tone.

I assumed the fever had come back and I had Jim get her an ice pop. When I came in she was eating the pop and watching Barney. But when the ice pop was gone, she started to cry and then was breathing strangely, in short gasps as though it hurt to take deeper breaths. I tried to get her to nurse, but she wouldn't. She was also sitting very stiffly and her stomach was tense and hard.

So I had Jim call the pediatrician. When he heard her symptoms, he told us to go to CHOP. This made us more afraid that it really was something serious. We got Jim's mom to come and stay with Maria, who was still sound asleep and unaware of what was going on.

When we had just gotten on the expressway, we saw traffic stopped dead in front of us. With all the rescue vehicles, we knew something serious had happened. I was just contemplating driving up the shoulder to the next exit when three cars shot up the shoulder and blocked us in.

Amelia was awake again, now that the car wasn't moving, and starting to fuss. I rolled down my window and tried to reason with the man in the car next to us, asking him not to move any farther forward to block us in. I told him we were trying to get to the hospital with my daughter.

He just said, "It's not my fault, I didn't cause this," and rolled up his window. Argh.

So I called 911, to see if they could send a cop to help us get out of the jam, or to at least tell us how long a wait it would be. The man I spoke with recommended that I get an ambulance, as it would be "quite awhile" before we'd be moving again.

So Jim and I got out to flag down the ambulance. Rescue workers from the accident scene ahead of us came back to see what was going on, and help the other ambulance find us. They asked a few questions and stayed with us till the ambulance arrived. Then the helped me climb over the barrier between the East and West bound lanes.

We decided to go to a closed hospital now that the fastest way to CHOP was blocked, and thankfully someone told Jim, who had to stay with the car, where we were going.

In the ambulance the EMT put leads on Amelia to monitor her hear and other things, and dangled a oxygen mask near her face to help her out a little, though he said her "oxygen saturation" was good.

When we got to the hospital, Amelia started screaming again, having fallen partly asleep in the ambulance. When the nurses checked her temp it was up to 103. They gave her some tylenol and we sat down to wait for the doctor.

I was quite surprised when Jim showed up about 20 minutes after we did. After giving him an update on Amelia, I got the story of how he made it to the hospital so quickly. Apparently, a state trooper told him to turn the car around and go, saying, "If anyone says anything to you, tell that that Trooper Scott said it was ok." So Jim wove in and out of the parked cars on the expressway, until he got to the entrance ramp, where cars were still getting on (and blinking there lights at the crazy person going the wrong way), where he drove on the shoulder and finally turned onto another road, finally going the right direction again.

I am very glad that I wasn't in the car while he was pulling that maneuver. But I was also very glad that he had made it to the hospital.

After waiting a little longer, the doctor came in and assured us that this most likely wasn't appendicitis, which is what we had feared. He ordered a blood test and a urine sample, which he was going to have a nurse get with a catheter. Yuck. I was clear-headed enough to ask if maybe we could try to have Amelia pee in a cup to get the sample rather than do a catheter. He said that it's been his experience that it wouldn't work with a kid her age, but he was willing to let us try.

Amelia did very well with it and was able to provide a nice sample for them. She also did beautifully when they put the IV in to take the blood sample. I think she was too tired and loopy at that point to protest much, but still she did very well, with no crying at all.

After the tests came back, and after they'd given her some fluids via the IV, we left thinking that all this adventure was caused by a virus.

But two days later, the culture showed that she had a UTI. So she was put on an antibiotic. Which we've since learned, through and all over body rash, that she's allergic too. So now we have a second antibiotic and are facing some follow-up testing at CHOP to rule out something called urinary reflux.

All of this shows that you don't have to go looking for adventure... when you're a parent the adventure comes to you.

Arts Fest.

We finally made it to central PA for Arts Fest. The last time that I went was three years ago and I carried Maria around in a backpack. (See hiking pictures below... I'm too lazy to link it.)

This year I had the girls in the double stroller. It was an entirely different experience trying to see things with the girls. We arrived later than I had hoped. Then we stopped for five minutes or so watching a real balloon animal maker person (those of you who were at Jim's party know what I mean), while putting sunscreen on the girls. Ya, poor planning. I should have done that on the bus from the parking lot.

It was hard to get Maria past the kid fountains. But a promise to come back to them made her quiet down. Then we got in line for lunch...and after a minute in line, back out to find a restroom for Maria. After 15 minutes, back in line for lunch. Then 15 minutes or so of eating, after a minute of whining about having chicken fingers (that she'd asked for) instead of the hot dog (that she'd said she didn't want).

We just made it to the library, where they were doing kids art and got the third to last piece of paper, which Maria and Amelia had to share. After some fun painting, the girls played with the Brio trains for about 30 minutes. Finally I bribed them to leave with promises of seeing "sand castles." A poor choice of words, since this is what was really going on:

So finally we got to see the artists' booths. But it was more of a buzz by and I didn't buy anything. I'd really wanted to bit up some more interesting pottery, but a nearly incessant whining prevented me from looking at anything for more than a few seconds.

By the time we'd made it to the sand sculptures, the girls had each had a cupcake, each had gotten a free balloon and Maria had released all the helium from her balloon, nearly throwing herself into the street in despair (at least the streets were closed). At the sculptures, Maria tried to be happy just looking at the sand (she really wanted to play in it) and Amelia ran in circles screeching at anyone who came near. It was way past naptime at this point.

Finally we headed back to the fountains, and I let Maria go through the "mister."

Swamp Thing? No, just Maria.

Then we walked across campus so that I could see some of the new buildings. We were getting pretty hot and tired, so when we came upon the new creamery, we had to stop for a treat. Maria enjoyed her giant ice cream and I shared mine with Amelia. (I had strawberry cheesecake, and Maria had vanilla.)

Kiddie Size? I think not.

A nice end to a long day.

Just when you thought I was done with French Creek...

I really wanted to do a funny post with some of the cute things that the kids said on the camping trip. But I lost my notes. Yes, I made notes. And then I thought that I had washed them.

Fortunately for you they've turned up again. So here is "the cute things that the kids said while camping" post that you all were waiting for. (Yes, we've done other things since then, and yes I'm way behind in my posts. I might do it this week. Or not, since we're getting ready for NC.)

Maria

Mommy: Do you want to use your folding potty?
Maria: No, I will use the camp potty (in the motor home) with my Dora seat, because it's campier.

While hiking, Maria made up a great song about what we were doing. It went something like this:

Oh, we're walking in a line! Walking in a line! Mommy and Amelia! Daddy and Maria! And Aunt Becky way far away! We're walking in a line! (repeat for five minutes on so at the top of your voice)

(I suppose this song is another reason why Jim was so tired at the end of the hike.)

Maria to Aunt Becky: God wants you to move. God wants you to move over here so you can play with your niece.

Amelia

When allowed to walk: "I running way! I running way!"

When invited to please sit down in the canoe: "No, thanks!"

When hearing rain on the roof of the motor home during nap time: "Oh! Clapping! Gammy clapping!"

When seeing the fire for the first time: "Candles!"

(Thanks to Kerry for the pictures of the girls.)

In the Canoe at French Creek.

Here's Amelia "helping" Daddy fill out the paperwork to rent the canoe. Notice how the hat has already been removed.

Geese. There were lots of them. Amelia like yelling, "DUCKS!" at them. Therefore we never got very close to them.

My view from the back of the canoe (notice I've put Amelia's hat back on). This was after Amelia's first attempt to exit the canoe, at which point I moved her closer to me. I think this was before I gave her crackers to eat to keep her still.

Maria imitating the geese flying away.

Ok, this one's not of us in the canoe. This was at the campsite on our last day. Thank goodness for camera's with timers.

Jen's attempt at "Art" from the French Creek Hike.

Indian Pipes

Teaberry on a Rock

Canoes

Little Bridge

Forest Flowers

Wild Blueberries (Yum!)

French Creek 2008 - Still more pictures.

This is zombification from a different angle. Rainy days are a good reason to have a motor home while camping with kids. And a satellite dish.

From our two-hour hike. This is Jim at the start of the hike. I didn't take a picture of him at the end, but if I did I'm sure he wouldn't have let me post it. A hike is much harder with and extra 35-40 lbs on your back.

Here's one of Amelia and I. Not the best one of me, but Amelia's cute.

This is the best one of our navigator, Becky. I had one of her with the map, but it was fuzzy. However, this shows what my view was like much of the time, Becky blazing ahead unhampered by a backpack full of wiggling, hair-pulling, screeching fun. (Becky is also in better shape than Jim and I so I'm sure that helped too.)