Seclusion, Day 7

AKA: I am slowly going crazy.....

We have had a bear of a week in the Callegari household.

Last Saturday Ellie had a mild fever and really wasn't acting like herself.  I figured it was teeth (which is my go-to answer for anything these days, since homegirl is 11 month old and still only has two chompers).  Then I noticed a diaper rash that had some white bumps in it.  I consulted my mom-of-girl friends who assured me that was possible.

The bumps seemed to disappear as a truly nasty diaper rash and bout of diarrhea took over.  I decided I should make her an appointment at the doc while Drew was at school on Tuesday.

As we prepped to leave the house for the doctor, I got a call from Drew's school saying he had a 101 fever and I had to come get him.  I called the doctor, let them know I was bringing in two munchkins, and we made a day of it.  Strep tests and flu tests came back clean and we got the dreaded "just a cold."

The next day Drew woke up with no fever, but a rash of bumps on the top of his thigh.  Called the doc, who said that sometimes happens when a fever breaks and they weren't concerned.  But I saw the bumps start to spread.  Wednesday afternoon I made us another appointment at the doc for Thursday morning.  Drew was fever-free and acting totally normal, so he WAS going to school once they confirmed this was just a "fever breaking rash."

She took one look at said "chicken pox."  Awesome.  Except then she looked in his mouth.  The bumps were in his mouth, ruling out chicken pox and positively identifying hand foot and mouth disease (or, in my son's case, thigh butt and mouth disease).  Highly contagious, but the kid feels fine.  Its the WORST kind of sickness.

Looking back, Ellie had a much more mild version on Sunday, but the diaper rash covered it up and the doctor couldn't see the bumps when we were in on Tuesday.

So D was quarantined until Monday.  Yet somehow, in the midst of quarantine, I managed to catch a cold on Friday and pass it on to the rest of my family on Saturday.  The snot levels in this house were serious, but I felt 100,000 times better today.  I think we are going to make it.

Except for Ellie, who was gnawing on her hands and drooling like a faucet today.  Teeth, I hope.

Five, Six, Seven, EIGHT

 

 

Beautiful daughter of mine,

Time goes so fast.  You haven't had monthly posts because mom hardly gets her computer out anymore to write them up, but I haven't stopped with the pictures on your actual day of birth each month!

Ellie, you are a delight these days. A true little person!  You have strong opinions about your need to be entertained and your food options, but you are usually pretty content.  You have had a few bouts with needing MAMA and only MAMA.  It seems to correspond with when a new tooth is about to pop through (you have two now),  but your family and our friends were none to happy when one of those weeks corresponded with when everyone was here for Thanksgiving and wanted to love on you!

Food.  Oh my.  I think we are about to stop with the baby stuff all together.  You would spit/throw up any single pureed foods.  You did better with the ones with several foods mixed together, but your favorite thing is whatever we are eating, no matter how much spice it has!  You enjoyed our chili and some tamales the other day.  It's making mealtimes much easier, though.  I just give you what Drew has, but cut into smaller pieces!

The one thing that has surprised me about you is your ability to go from 0 to 50 overnight.  One day? Not rolling over at all.  The next day?  Log rolling around the floor.  One day not sitting up.  The next day sitting up for 45 minutes at a time.  You are working on crawling now, and I actually see more "steps" towards that than I have in the past, but I fully expect you to skip that "rocking back and forth on my knees" part and move straight into bolting across a room to get whatever you want.

Dear child, you have 0 schedule, and I have no idea whose fault that is.  Some days you nap 30 times, 30 minutes each.  Some days you take a pretty long afternoon nap (which is why I am writing this now!), and some days you prefer not to sleep at all.  You generally go to sleep around 6:30pm and wake up between 6 and 6:30pm, so at least that is constant.

You LOVE LOVE LOVE your brother.  I love when I am in another room and can hear you two laughing together.  It's my very favorite sound in the world these days.  He will make you laugh or hold your hand during wagon rides, and it makes my heart happy.  HOWEVER.  I do apologize that you are the front line of him learning to share.  Guess that comes with the territory, but we get to do a lot of teaching him at your expense when he rips something from your hands.

Precious child, you delight our hearts-- all of us.  Life is better because of you.

Love,
Mama

Almost a month later

I can't believe it's been a month since I last posted.

Woah. Wait.

Yes I can.  It's been a crazy month.

Our closing date on our new house got pushed out three times.  That meant that I got to reschedule everything (movers, cable installers, etc) three different times.  Even when we were in the car driving to the title company I wasn't sure we were actually going to close that day.  Luckily, we did.

We moved the next morning (Tuesday before Thanksgiving), and have been loving our new house.  Drew has done surprisingly well.  I fully expected him to ask to go home or wake up in the middle of the night confused about where he was, but he never had any issues. 

This new house is his playground.  It has lever door handles, so he can open ever door in this house.  We finally installed a top lock on the front and back door after he opened the front door one day and let he and Sophie into the front yard.  We have introduced him to the neighbors and asked them to send him back our way should he escape. :)  He can operate all of the handles in the bathtub, and has been known to draw a bath when no one is in the bathroom.  I hope the newness of that wears off soon!

The new house really is great.  It has significantly more living space than the old house did, so I have been working on trying to furnish it.  Since the first floor is so open, everything is going to need to go together and I am a little afraid to start on one thing without a plan for the entire space.  I am paralyzed with indecision.   I did order couches, however, which may get here tomorrow, and will hopefully serve as a jumping off point.

It was surprisingly hard to leave the old house.   Rob and I re-did much of that house, and so I LOVED so much about it.  Loved the floors, loved several of the light fixtures, loved my striped hallway.  The things that didn't work for us couldn't be fixed with new flooring or paint, so moving was the right choice, but walking out of that first house was hard.  The new owners are a sweet family with two young boys and I feel confident they will love it as much as I did.

The last several weeks have been a wild ride, and I fully expect it to continue through Christmas, so I'm looking forward to a calm start to 2013.... we shall see!

Must be the red cups....

A bedtime prayer:

Me: Dear God,
Drew: Dee Gah
Thank you
Dank do
For
Fo
Today.
Aday.

Thank you
Dank do
For
Fo
Mommy
Mommy
And daddy
A daddy
And sister.
And COFFEE SHOP!

Drew at Two

Precious, loving, smelly, wild, charming, goofy boy, you are TWO!!

I can't even get over how much fun you are.  You legitimately talk to me now.... I can ask you about things you did yesterday or at school and you can understand the question and give me a correct answer.  You probably speak in 4-5 word sentences, but I counted one 8 word sentence today.

Your favorite things to do are exactly what your mama and daddy are doing.  You are a parrot and a monkey and we really have to watch what we do now.  You love to get your stool and stand up on the other side of the kitchen and "cook" with me.  I give you a skillet or bowl and a spoon and all our dinner scraps and you mix up some interesting concoctions.  Carrot ends and white cheddar cheez-its, anyone?  You would rather take a shower our shower a lot of days, and I've been known to let you jump in with me when your dad is out of town and I need a way to prevent you from breaking stuff while I get clean. It works for both of us.

Your eating is actually regressing, but the doctor told me that was normal.  You used to have things that were slam dunks no matter what.  Now you will eat it one day, and not the next.  You have 0 interest in actually consuming a vegetable in its normal form, but I can give you the veggie squeezie packs to get those nutrients in your diet.  I can already see me packing Happy Tot packs in your lunchbox for high school.

Speaking of school, you LOVE it.  We moved you up a class, to the young twos, so you are the youngest kid in there, but you seem to be holding your own just fine.  You will be the oldest in your grade when you start elementary school, but for right now I love what you are learning from the kids that are older than you.

Your favorite things right now are cars, balls, animals (Elephants are your absolute favorite) and dinosaurs.  You really love to sit and "read" books.  We have realized you are an auditory learner when you started "reading" books to us and mostly getting it correct.

Most importantly, Drew, you are an amazing brother.  You really love your sister (though I am starting to see you being more annoyed when she reaches for your stuff).  You like to "hep" her put her paci back in, get the toys she throws from her high chair, and make her laugh (which actually means you stand in front of her and just start laughing).  We have a ton of fun watching you together.

Drew, I have no idea how to tell you how much we love you, how proud we are of you, and how much we enjoy laughing over the things you do/stuff you say after you go to bed.  Our lives are happier every day simply because you are in them.

Much, much love,
Mom and Dad

Pass the (packing) peanuts

Life hasn't slowed down in the least, but at least it seems to be on a positive upswing.

Our house is under contract after 8 days on the market. The buyers are friends of friends and I am great friends with their realtor, so that has been ideal. We are negotiating the final things from our inspection now.

The seller of our new house saw that our house was under contract and asked if we wanted to move up the closing date, so we may be doing that once we are 100% locked and loaded with selling our house.

I haven't packed one box. I may be moving in 3 weeks. Come on, motivation!

My baby boy turned two yesterday. I can't even stand how much I love that stinky kid. His sister is 6 months old. Where is time going? Posts to document those things soon!!

Woah Nelly

I have no words.

These last several weeks have absolutely kicked my tail. Buying and selling is moving at such a frantic pace that I can't even keep up. Just the brain power that it takes to be ready to leave at a moments notice is frying me.

Then there is the other stuff. A birthday party that needs planning. A sick little girl and a trip to Dell Children's (she's fine- I don't even have the words to explain that). Halloween.  I can't keep up, and this little 'ole blog is struggling.

So for the next little bit, silence may be golden. I'll be back.