Sick Days

Last Tuesday night my allergies were beyond killing me. I felt like I was going to scream. All I wanted to do was dig inside my ears and scratch the heck out of them. I was so fed up I decided to take not one, but two Benedryl. I had a horrible night. I tossed and turned and was burning up all night. I woke up Wednesday morning and could barely move. Head spinning, body aching, low-grade fever, and just feeling like crap. My wonderful mom called into work and stayed home so I could just be in bed all day. And that is exactly what I did. I slept all morning until about 1:00 in the afternoon. When I got up my mom pointed out Maddie's eyes to me. We thought they looked a little goopy, but I wasn't too alarmed at the moment. About an hour later things quickly got worse...way worse. Both eyes were red and starting to get more gunked up. I called the doctor and they got us in that same afternoon. Gabe took her since I was feeling to crummy and sure enough it was the dreaded pink eye. Umm hello? Where in the world did she catch pink eye??? I take her the YMCA nursery about two times a week and that is the ONLY time she is around other kids. Apparently she got it from there. After nursing her eyes back to health they were fine by Thursday afternoon. I had fun disinfecting the entire house and washing all of Maddie's blankets, crib bedding, and toys making sure that everyone else stayed clear of getting it.
By Friday we both seemed to be doing better. Think again. Saturday morning I woke up with a sore throat and coughing. Just great. I had big plans of going to a photography class with my sister for the day. I wasn't going to miss it, so I stocked up on cough drops and headed to downtown Greenville for an all day photography class. We had a good time spending the day together and we did learn some neat stuff about our cameras. Now just to put what we learned into action. Shutter speed, aperture, ISO...confusing terms, but I think we got it.
When we got home poor Maddie was so fussy. My aunts who were visiting for the weekend said that Maddie just was acting like something was bothering her. We struggled to bath her and put her to bed because she was just not happy. She woke up about six times throughout the night. I never had to pick her up, but just had to keep going into her room and rubbing her back until she would relax again and go to sleep. All of this while struggling to sleep myself because of the cough I had developed in the past day.
By Sunday Maddie was acting extremely irritable and crying A LOT. Gabe did try and look in her ears, but he didn't have the correct tool to remove wax that was in her ear to get a good look in there to see if it was an infection. He went ahead and called Maddie's AMAZING doctor's office and the doctor on call said he would meet us up at the office to check her out. And the verdict was....Ear infection! The first one since she was about four months old.
Another antibiotic and four days later she is FINALLY back to her old self. It has been a miserable week for both of us. Now if we can only stay well for GOOD.

Mother’s Day and Our Anniversary

Gabe surprised me with a fabulous above-ground garden and trellis for my vegetables! I’m really getting into this whole gardening thing and I’m so eager to learn. On Saturday he put the garden together for me. I couldn’t wait to fill it up with dirt and start planting! I have four tomato plants, four bell pepper plants, banana pepper, cantaloupes, zucchini, cucumber, and peas. I also have two tomato plants in pots and two squash plants in pots.

On Mother’s Day we went over to Natalie and Ryan’s for a cook-out. We had a great time spending the day with them. I hardly snapped any pictures of the weekend and I didn’t even get a picture of me and Maddie together! It did remind me of last year’s mother’s day when my little baby was just that…a baby. Time goes too quickly (this seems to be a recurring statement).

Natalie’s first Mother’s Day

Mimi with her two grandbabies

Gabe building and Maddie supervising

My lovely little garden

Squash

Our Anniversary was on the 15th. I can’t believe it has been four years already!!! Brings back lots of memories of Puerto Vallarta and what a wonderful time we all had together! I would give anything to be back there again…hopefully we will get to go back. It sure would be a great five year anniversary trip (hint hint). Here are just a few snap shots of our time there. I wanted to post a few pictures of the actual wedding, but can’t seem to find them on my new computer.

15 Months Old

Our little princess is growing up. Exciting, but sad all at the same time. I had all these high hopes of writing everything down that Maddie did from birth, but those dreams quickly faded when you are exhausted, getting spit up on, changing diapers, and running after a little girl with a mind of her own. If I don’t write it down right away it will be forgotten. So that is why I am so glad we have this blog so I can look back on it one day to read about Maddie’s life. She is a little person now and man is she smart! She surprises us every day with the things she is learning to do and now say. You show her one time how to do something and she picks it up so easily. For example, my mom has this shell necklace that she wore about a month ago. She showed Maddie how to listen to the ocean by holding it up to her ear. No joke, yesterday my mom was wearing that same necklace and Maddie picks it up and puts it to her ear! Smart? I think so.

Maddie had her fifteen month well child appointment yesterday. Right before we were leaving I was walking up the driveway to check the mail and little miss was running behind me. Next thing I know I hear a thud and she had fallen on the drive way. Both knees scraped and bleeding. She screamed so I quickly ran her inside and cleaned her up the best I could. She was a trooper as I cleaned the wounds and put band-aids on. We then headed out the door (late as usual). Well it gets worse...while we were waiting in the doctor's office I noticed beneath Maddie's bangs on her forehead was a HUGE oval shaped scrape. When she had fallen she must of hit her head, too! I freaked! My poor child! At least we were at the doctor's so she was able to check it out...the doctor said that it was a pretty good bump, but she would survive! I know this is only the beginning of many more bumps and bruises, but geez this was traumatic! I am seriously stocking up on band-aids and neosporin for the summer.

As far as her well-check, everything looks great and she is right on track developmentally. The doctor asked if I had any concerns and being a normal parent I told her my only concern was Maddie’s expressive language and if she is saying enough words for age. Her doctor wants her to have about five right now…check, we are good! By eighteen months she should have 10-20 words. You would think I would remember all of this since I used to be an Early Interventionist. I guess I worry just like any other parent! She also had two shots today and did really well. She double-fisted her lollipops and she was good to go! So leaving the doctor's office Maddie had a bump on her head, four band-aids on one leg and one on the other leg, red face from crying, crusty nose from allergies, and sucker slobber all over her and me. AWESOME. I'm just glad nobody called DSS on me when I dragged her into Publix to grab some milk on the way home...Anyways, here are her stats…

28 lbs 4 oz (98%tile)

32 inches tall (91%tile)

18.9 in head circumference (94%tile)

Her head has not grown in three months…thank the lord! haha I think her body is finally catching up

At fifteen months old:

• Wears size 24 months-2T in clothes now (Honestly, I do not understand clothes sizing…really what is the difference in 24 month and 2T???)
• Wears size 6-7 in toddler shoes. Big foot for sure.
• Runs and by run I mean awkward arms in front of you like a zombie type of run. So cute though, except for what happened above.
  
• Has a total of twelve teeth now. All of the one year molars have broken through! Thank goodness for a good teether; we didn’t even know she was cutting her molars!
• Says a few words consistently, including tractor, no, more, mama, daddy, NaNa (for Natalie), nana (banana) tries to say milk & Brady. There are other things that she has randomly said such as “choo choo” and “bless you”
• Mostly points to what she wants right now
• Knows body parts-ears, nose, eyes, mouth, teeth, feet, and boobies (yes I know-blame my mother for this one)
• Sleeps between 11-12 hours a night and takes 1-2 naps a day
• favorite foods include: grilled cheese, kiwi, blueberries, pancakes and waffles, spaghetti, any type of beans, macaroni & cheese, and peanut butter & jelly sandwiches
• LOVES to be outside doing anything, playing in the dirt, running after Brady, helping pull weeds, etc.

We are so blessed to have a beautiful, healthy, and smart little girl!