Star Trek The Next Generation
11 months ago
Monday, December 31, 2012
Farewell 2012!
Caroline rang in the new year early with a milk-bottle toast and is now sound asleep.
Might've Been Good to Know...
I stopped giving Rebecca the Ditropan she's been on for her urinary incontinence issues after noticing an alarming side effect that nobody bothered to mention to me when prescribing the medication. I'd noticed a few times - and her teachers at school had noticed also and mentioned it - that when she gets overheated lately, she's been turning pink all over, feeling very very hot like she has a fever, and not sweating. After seeing this happen again the other night when she was horsing around in the living room with Ben, I made Joel look up the side effects of Ditropan online and sure enough, one of the side effects is a decrease in perspiration which can lead to an increased risk of heat stroke. My poor baby was getting hot, but instead of sweating she was baking like a cookie :( No more Ditropan for us. Of course when she was first put on the medicine, the only side effect mentioned to me was dry mouth. Nice.
Friday, December 28, 2012
My Work Buddy
Caroline goes to a church day care, which is closed until next Wednesday. Since I have to work, she has been my "work buddy". I have been far less productive than usual these past few days ;-) Fortunately, things have been pretty quiet. (I just jinxed it didn't I?) And, she is an awfully cute buddy.
Tuesday, December 25, 2012
Clara's Christmas
Clara is at doggy camp - we sent her yesterday and she is coming home tomorrow. With us being at Great Wolf Lodge and Joel working, we didn't want her to have to stay by herself. So instead she has plenty of company, and humans to dress her in costume and take pictures ;)
Great Wolf Lodge 2012
After a 2 year hiatus (due to the birth of Caroline last December), we returned to Great Wolf Lodge for our third Christmas in almost-a-row. I was a little apprehensive, having 3 kids this time, and with Joel having to work it wasn't guaranteed that he would be able to meet me there to help out. Fortunately all three kids did pretty awesome, and Joel was able to meet us there around 4pm yesterday and stayed until 9pm, and met us again this morning around 10:30 or so and stayed until we left in the afternoon.
Thanks to a convalescing toe (Joel had his big toe nail removed this past week), I had to do all the water slides with Ben (Joel was not supposed to go in a pool... a likely story ... ;) Of course Ben wanted to go on the scariest water slide (The Howling Tornado) and I had to do it like six times with him. You go on a raft, and there has to be at least two people on it, and you go down this really steep drop, practically a free fall, and at the bottom of it instead of continuing straight you go sideways up the wall, then back down and up the opposite wall, before finally continuing down the slide again. My neck and back are killing me today, I think I got whip lash ;) But Ben was so happy, I couldn't say no (well until like the 6th time).
Rebecca was happy for the most part to play in the wave pool and on the climbing structure, which had a couple of easier water slides that you don't need to be on a raft for and although they are tall and loop around a lot, they don't go very fast. She would have been tall enough to go on the other slides (except for the Howling Tornado) with an adult, but after climbing to the top of one of the slides with her, she balked at getting into the raft, so we turned around and came back down :)
Caroline is at a pretty easy stage right now, because she is kind of tired of crawling but can't walk yet, so all she really wants to do is pull up and try to stand for a few seconds. So she was happy sitting at the edge of the wave pool and trying to stand, and splashing in the water a little. She never tried to crawl away or crawl into the water. Next year, she will probably be a pain ;)
We did a lot of MagiQuest playing this year also - probably a good three or four hours. Ben brought his wand that we got him last time we were there, and we got Rebecca a pink princess wand which of course she adored. Since she was getting her own wand, Ben talked me into getting a dragon wand topper for his (the pommel or whatever of the wand unscrews and can be replaced with other, fancier ones). Of course the price of the wand topper turned out to be almost the price of a new wand, so that plus Rebecca's wand and wand topper, plus the $12.99 or whatever it was to activate each wand = an expensive game ;) The kids had a blast with it though, and completed several quests. I did get a bit tired eventually of traipsing all over the lodge looking for the items they needed for their quests - good exercise ;) We tuckered out one quest short of having all the runes needed to try fighting the dragon.... that will have to wait for next time ;)
We also gorged ourselves on the Christmas Eve buffet last night and again on the Christmas day brunch buffet at lunch today, before heading home this afternoon. We had a couple hours of quiet time and then headed out for the obligatory Chinese food on Christmas dinner. So a good (and tiring!) couple of days! Some pictures below--
Thanks to a convalescing toe (Joel had his big toe nail removed this past week), I had to do all the water slides with Ben (Joel was not supposed to go in a pool... a likely story ... ;) Of course Ben wanted to go on the scariest water slide (The Howling Tornado) and I had to do it like six times with him. You go on a raft, and there has to be at least two people on it, and you go down this really steep drop, practically a free fall, and at the bottom of it instead of continuing straight you go sideways up the wall, then back down and up the opposite wall, before finally continuing down the slide again. My neck and back are killing me today, I think I got whip lash ;) But Ben was so happy, I couldn't say no (well until like the 6th time).
Rebecca was happy for the most part to play in the wave pool and on the climbing structure, which had a couple of easier water slides that you don't need to be on a raft for and although they are tall and loop around a lot, they don't go very fast. She would have been tall enough to go on the other slides (except for the Howling Tornado) with an adult, but after climbing to the top of one of the slides with her, she balked at getting into the raft, so we turned around and came back down :)
Caroline is at a pretty easy stage right now, because she is kind of tired of crawling but can't walk yet, so all she really wants to do is pull up and try to stand for a few seconds. So she was happy sitting at the edge of the wave pool and trying to stand, and splashing in the water a little. She never tried to crawl away or crawl into the water. Next year, she will probably be a pain ;)
We did a lot of MagiQuest playing this year also - probably a good three or four hours. Ben brought his wand that we got him last time we were there, and we got Rebecca a pink princess wand which of course she adored. Since she was getting her own wand, Ben talked me into getting a dragon wand topper for his (the pommel or whatever of the wand unscrews and can be replaced with other, fancier ones). Of course the price of the wand topper turned out to be almost the price of a new wand, so that plus Rebecca's wand and wand topper, plus the $12.99 or whatever it was to activate each wand = an expensive game ;) The kids had a blast with it though, and completed several quests. I did get a bit tired eventually of traipsing all over the lodge looking for the items they needed for their quests - good exercise ;) We tuckered out one quest short of having all the runes needed to try fighting the dragon.... that will have to wait for next time ;)
We also gorged ourselves on the Christmas Eve buffet last night and again on the Christmas day brunch buffet at lunch today, before heading home this afternoon. We had a couple hours of quiet time and then headed out for the obligatory Chinese food on Christmas dinner. So a good (and tiring!) couple of days! Some pictures below--
Sunday, December 23, 2012
Saturday, December 22, 2012
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
Mommy Gets a Dirty Look
I am not sure what I did to deserve this look. Except maybe taking pics while waiting for the doctor in her birthday suit?
12 Month Check-Up
Caroline was actually diagnosed with an ear infection at her well exam today, so I guess she was not that well after all ;) Oddly, she has slept soundly for the last couple of nights and it was only this past Saturday night where she had some nighttime issues and had me suspecting an ear infection. But she slept great since then so I had forgotten about the possibility.So now she's got a prescription for omnicef, since she had an ear infection last month also. Unfortunately I am afraid omnicef is going to mean more diarrhea, just when I thought we were done with that... *sigh*
Anyway, Caroline is 32 inches tall and weighs 25 lbs 8 oz. I actually made the doctor redo her height check, after the nurse measured her at only 30 inches and I realized that she was 30 inches at her 9 month check up and she must have grown since then. Measuring a wiggly baby is tricky, but 2 inches off? Come on now ;) So our > 97th percentile trend continues! If I recall correctly, Ben was 33 inches and 26 pounds at his 12 month visit, and Rebecca I know from checking the blog archives was just under 22 pounds and 30 inches. If Caroline continues to follow Ben's growth trend, the weight gain is going to fall off sharply soon and a tall skinny girl will emerge.
As far as milestones go, she is saying "mama", "dada" and "uh-oh", waving bye bye and shaking her head no, but not really saying bye bye or no or hi yet though I have heard utterances in the last couple days that did sound very like bye and hi, but not consistently enough for me to "count" them. We're using up her last can of formula this week by mixing it with whole milk in her bottles, which she is fine with, though a cold sippy cup of milk takes some getting used to, and she has not gotten used to that yet ;) She has made great progress in eating table foods lately, and will now eat chicken, toast, mac n cheese, goldfish crackers, dry cereal, etc. She still doesn't seem to consider cut up fruit or veggies to be food items, but she will feed herself those fruit/veggie puree pouches that I blogged about previously so she's getting most of her fruits and veggies that way at the moment.
Anyway, Caroline is 32 inches tall and weighs 25 lbs 8 oz. I actually made the doctor redo her height check, after the nurse measured her at only 30 inches and I realized that she was 30 inches at her 9 month check up and she must have grown since then. Measuring a wiggly baby is tricky, but 2 inches off? Come on now ;) So our > 97th percentile trend continues! If I recall correctly, Ben was 33 inches and 26 pounds at his 12 month visit, and Rebecca I know from checking the blog archives was just under 22 pounds and 30 inches. If Caroline continues to follow Ben's growth trend, the weight gain is going to fall off sharply soon and a tall skinny girl will emerge.
As far as milestones go, she is saying "mama", "dada" and "uh-oh", waving bye bye and shaking her head no, but not really saying bye bye or no or hi yet though I have heard utterances in the last couple days that did sound very like bye and hi, but not consistently enough for me to "count" them. We're using up her last can of formula this week by mixing it with whole milk in her bottles, which she is fine with, though a cold sippy cup of milk takes some getting used to, and she has not gotten used to that yet ;) She has made great progress in eating table foods lately, and will now eat chicken, toast, mac n cheese, goldfish crackers, dry cereal, etc. She still doesn't seem to consider cut up fruit or veggies to be food items, but she will feed herself those fruit/veggie puree pouches that I blogged about previously so she's getting most of her fruits and veggies that way at the moment.
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
My Big Forward-Facing Girl!
FInally got around to turning the car seat around today. Caroline was very excited! If this looks familiar, it should-- Here is Rebecca modeling the same seat back in 2008 just before her first birthday! It's a bit dirtier now, I assure you.
Monday, December 17, 2012
Happy Birthday Caroline!!!
Caroline was underwhelmed by her cake and presents, because after dragging her out to a celebratory birthday brunch in lieu of morning nap-time, she was really just counting down the minutes until this party nonsense was over and she could take her nap ;) In fact, she fell asleep in the car on the way home from brunch and was then woken up and plopped into her high chair for cake and presents. After we finished forcing cake and presents on her, she slept for three hours ;)
Saturday, December 15, 2012
Ahhhh, Coffee!!
Over Thanksgiving caffeine-addicts Abby and Mike broke my Keurig Mini with their high demand for caffeinated beverages ;) to make up for it, Abby used her Keurig club points to get me this one for half price. Thanks Abby! We have coffee again!!
Birthday Girl!
She is so excited and she doesn't even know why! Mommy is excited to stop spending $200 a month on formula.
Thursday, December 13, 2012
Close Encounters
Of the raptor kind. Sometimes I see this guy when I am out walking the dog. Usually he is up on a roof or once I saw him on a swing set. Today he was eye level and not at all concerned about me snapping his pic from 10 feet away with dog in one hand ;)
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
Cinnamon Squirrels
BECCA: Are there dead squirrels in this bread?
ME: What? Oh... No honey, it's cinammon SWIRL bread, not cinammom squirrel bread.
BECCA: Are you sure? It tastes like squirrels.
ME: What? Oh... No honey, it's cinammon SWIRL bread, not cinammom squirrel bread.
BECCA: Are you sure? It tastes like squirrels.
Do You Hear That Sound?
Neither do I. It's SILENCE! As in, for the first time in a week and a half, there are no sick kids at home while I am trying to work! And for good measure, the dog is at camp today AND the house cleaning service is coming for their usual Wednesday cleaning. Woo-hoo! We'll see how long this lasts :)
Hanukkah update - night 3 was video games (2 Wii games for Ben and a DS + 2 games for it for Becca) and night 4 was stuffed animals (koala for Ben and panda for Becca).
Hanukkah update - night 3 was video games (2 Wii games for Ben and a DS + 2 games for it for Becca) and night 4 was stuffed animals (koala for Ben and panda for Becca).
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Monday, December 10, 2012
Hanukkah & Flu Update
Ben went back to school today. Unfortunately Caroline developed a fever yesterday morning, and has been running a temp of 100 - 101 since then. We started her on Tamiflu and are hoping her course of the flu (if that's what she has) will be mild. The dream of having all 3 kids at school/day care will have to wait for another day....
Yesterday Papa came over with Hanukkah gifts for the kids, including a $50 Target gift card for Ben and pink sparkly clothes for Rebecca! I agreed to take Ben to Target to spend his card, and somehow Rebecca ended up along for the ride and picked out a dress-up costume, lipstick and a mini pillow pet. Ben came home with a new Skylanders figure for his video game and 3 pillow pets, one full sized and two mini. By the time he decided what he wanted I would have been perfectly happy if he buried himself in pillow pets, so long as he was happy and we could get out of Target Toy Aisle Hell ;) That boy takes forever to make a decision, and I had to tell him "no" to a Wii hunting game (complete with rifle) and Call of Duty 3. Amazing how he can ask for blood and gore one minute, and then turn around and be perfectly happy with stuffed animals.
Yesterday Papa came over with Hanukkah gifts for the kids, including a $50 Target gift card for Ben and pink sparkly clothes for Rebecca! I agreed to take Ben to Target to spend his card, and somehow Rebecca ended up along for the ride and picked out a dress-up costume, lipstick and a mini pillow pet. Ben came home with a new Skylanders figure for his video game and 3 pillow pets, one full sized and two mini. By the time he decided what he wanted I would have been perfectly happy if he buried himself in pillow pets, so long as he was happy and we could get out of Target Toy Aisle Hell ;) That boy takes forever to make a decision, and I had to tell him "no" to a Wii hunting game (complete with rifle) and Call of Duty 3. Amazing how he can ask for blood and gore one minute, and then turn around and be perfectly happy with stuffed animals.
Becca Dances to Gangam Style Video
So Rebecca just discovered this video this weekend, and since then she has asked to watch it about 900 times and is trying to perfect all the dance moves ;)
Sunday, December 9, 2012
Saturday, December 8, 2012
Hanukkah, night 1
Here are some pics from night 1. Rebecca got an American Girl doll (the Rebecca doll) and Ben got a Skylanders Giants video game starter set. Caroline is getting shafted this year, because she is too young to care ;) she is getting birthday / Hanukkah presents next Saturday only (her birthday).
Hanukkah
Tonight is the first night of Hanukkah. The kids psyched themselves up with some artwork and dreidel-spinning.
Miss independent
A week shy of her first birthday, Caroline has started refusing to let me feed her. She will eat toast/bread, chicken nuggets cut into little pieces, and Cheerios/ cereal / Puffs, but any fruit or veggie I give her she spits out. She is banned from yogurt and won't eat cheese, and I am not about to give her a spoon and let her try to feed herself applesauce or anything. So we tried these fruit/veggie purée pouches and they are awesome! Caroline holds them herself and sucks them right down.
Thursday, December 6, 2012
Flu Update
So today is Ben's 4th day home from school, although he does seem to be starting to improve. His fever is low-grade now, though he does seem very tired still, coughing, etc. He has stayed in my bed almost all the time, watching tv, which to me is a sign he is definitely sick - he hasn't played video games all week ;)
Joel came down with the flu yesterday, and so far (with the help of Tamaflu) has not gotten as sick as Ben has been. He is definitely sick, but his fever hasn't gone over 100 or so like Ben's did for a while. Rebecca and Caroline are (as of this posting) fine, and as for me I am feeling tired and achey so I hope the flu is not coming on for me...!
In other news, Clara decided to hop on the ill (well, injured) bandwagon this morning and somehow sprained her right back leg. I have no idea how she did this because she was only out in the back yard for like 5 minutes, was fine when she came inside, and then was limping severely the next thing I knew. As luck would have it, she actually already had a vet appointment scheduled this morning to get her shots! So we added sprained leg to the list of things for the vet to check out. She got some doggy-motrin and instructions to stay off it. She may need an x ray if it does not get better in a couple of days. She is actually still limping pretty badly, and has been laying around looking almost as pathetic as Ben today.
Hopefully we all (human and canine) will be healthy again very soon!
Joel came down with the flu yesterday, and so far (with the help of Tamaflu) has not gotten as sick as Ben has been. He is definitely sick, but his fever hasn't gone over 100 or so like Ben's did for a while. Rebecca and Caroline are (as of this posting) fine, and as for me I am feeling tired and achey so I hope the flu is not coming on for me...!
In other news, Clara decided to hop on the ill (well, injured) bandwagon this morning and somehow sprained her right back leg. I have no idea how she did this because she was only out in the back yard for like 5 minutes, was fine when she came inside, and then was limping severely the next thing I knew. As luck would have it, she actually already had a vet appointment scheduled this morning to get her shots! So we added sprained leg to the list of things for the vet to check out. She got some doggy-motrin and instructions to stay off it. She may need an x ray if it does not get better in a couple of days. She is actually still limping pretty badly, and has been laying around looking almost as pathetic as Ben today.
Hopefully we all (human and canine) will be healthy again very soon!
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
The Flu
I've officially decided that Ben has the flu. His fever went up to 103 today, and he has been watching what appears to be an endless loop of Sunday night's Eagles-Cowboys game all day long. Unfortunately he is doing this in my room, curled up on my side of the bed wrapped in my blankets with his head on my pillow. And, I have not gotten a flu shot this year. Joel just got his flu shot on Friday, and it takes 2 weeks to take effect, so he's essentially unprotected from the flu as well. Caroline got one dose of what was supposed to be a 2 part vaccine, and I forgot to take her back for the second part. (I am taking her in for it tomorrow). Rebecca's the only one of us with a fully-functioning flu vaccine. Wish us luck ;)
In other news, Caroline is home today, after having been kicked out of day care yesterday. She seems to be fine. I am very definitely not feeding her yogurt again (I fed her yogurt Sunday night and Monday morning, apparently having forgotten my previous suspicions that yogurt was to blame for her diarrhea problems). Hopefully she will go back to day care tomorrow, leaving me with only ONE kiddo to deal with. It's shaping up to be quite a week ;)
In other news, Caroline is home today, after having been kicked out of day care yesterday. She seems to be fine. I am very definitely not feeding her yogurt again (I fed her yogurt Sunday night and Monday morning, apparently having forgotten my previous suspicions that yogurt was to blame for her diarrhea problems). Hopefully she will go back to day care tomorrow, leaving me with only ONE kiddo to deal with. It's shaping up to be quite a week ;)
Monday, December 3, 2012
I'm Beginning to Think she Just wants to stay Home...
Else why would she be fine all weekend and then get kicked out of day care AGAIN today?
Weekend Update
As seen in the previous post, Rebecca attended her first (and Ben his second) professional basketball game Friday night. Joel took them to see the Bobcats vs. Sixers, and of course Ben rooted for the Sixers, and of course they won, because the Bobcats stink. Everyone was happy and well behaved.
Grandma and Grandpa arrived for a weekend visit also Friday night, and they brought presents, and bought more presents, and generally spoiled the kids rotten. They also took Ben and Becca to see Rise of the Guardians on Saturday so Joel and I could finish Hanukkah shopping. Mom got herself an iPhone yesterday, so I gave her an introduction on how to use it, and we took the kids out for an ill-fated Indian food dinner-- Caroline missed her afternoon nap and was cranky and had to be taken out of the restaurant and wheeled around in her stroller. That was actually the first time we ever had to take her out of a restaurant. And Becca fell off her chair, and then ran around outside and fell flat on her face, so she was not happy either. We got home at 8pm and 2 out of the 3 kids were already asleep in the car! Rebecca asked to go straight to bed without dessert after I told her she could have a "rain check" on dessert. After I explained what that meant she said, "Okay but don't tell Ben or he'll freak out."
Ben woke up with a fever and sore throat this morning, and though he rallied with the help of Motrin for a while this morning and was playing video games and being rather pesky, he did not make an appearance during any of a two hour meeting I had for work, and when I went to check on him afterwards I found him pale, feverish, and asking me, "Why am I so tired?" I told him to close his eyes and take a nap, and I think he is. Poor kiddo.
Grandma and Grandpa arrived for a weekend visit also Friday night, and they brought presents, and bought more presents, and generally spoiled the kids rotten. They also took Ben and Becca to see Rise of the Guardians on Saturday so Joel and I could finish Hanukkah shopping. Mom got herself an iPhone yesterday, so I gave her an introduction on how to use it, and we took the kids out for an ill-fated Indian food dinner-- Caroline missed her afternoon nap and was cranky and had to be taken out of the restaurant and wheeled around in her stroller. That was actually the first time we ever had to take her out of a restaurant. And Becca fell off her chair, and then ran around outside and fell flat on her face, so she was not happy either. We got home at 8pm and 2 out of the 3 kids were already asleep in the car! Rebecca asked to go straight to bed without dessert after I told her she could have a "rain check" on dessert. After I explained what that meant she said, "Okay but don't tell Ben or he'll freak out."
Ben woke up with a fever and sore throat this morning, and though he rallied with the help of Motrin for a while this morning and was playing video games and being rather pesky, he did not make an appearance during any of a two hour meeting I had for work, and when I went to check on him afterwards I found him pale, feverish, and asking me, "Why am I so tired?" I told him to close his eyes and take a nap, and I think he is. Poor kiddo.
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