Merry Christmas 2011

We had a wonderful Christmas! In the morning the kids opened gifts and we all dug into our stockings. We didn't spend a lot this year, each kid got one $15 gift each then a few trinkets. Money has been tight and seems to be getting tighter, especially with Rick leaving the Army. However, we have decided to make it work, time together as a family is more important. Plus the girls are still so young that the boxes and bows seem to entertain them almost as much as the actual toys! :)

It was great getting to spend Christmas with the whole family and just hanging out (although I think all the adults would have liked to spend a little more time interacting and less time taking care of kids). However, as time goes on I am sure this will change, they will be more self-sufficient and we will get to play games together and talk.

Life is good.

Couple of challenges for the new year:
1. Taking pacy away from Tai-Tai
2. Scarlett learning to walk
3. More strict about brushing Tai's teeth every morning
4. Eating dinner together as a family at the actual dinner table!

Cheers!

Scarlett can crawl

I am late in posting this...

About November 10th Scarlett started to officially crawl!!!! 9 months! YAY Scarlett!

She loves her new found freedom of being mobile and I am sure cant wait to show off at a family event.

In other news. My big girl, Tai Tai is getting her big girl furniture today: full bed, two dressers, and a night stand. I am so excited and cant wait to pick out a bedding set for her.

In health news: Scarlett had a double ear infection several weeks ago, the whole family has had two roungs of the stomach bug. But other than that all is well and healthy!

Break time?

I feel like I have been run through a very familiar blender....

Scarlett had her last dose of antibiotics for her ear infection on Monday. Then Tuesday daycare calls me and tells me she has a fever of 102.7, so I rush home to get her and have to leave work early in the middle of an important task. (urk)

Wednesday morning Scarlett still has her fever so Rick stays home with her and I go to work and make her an appointment to see the doctor, just to be sure it isn't her ears. The doctor says she has a viral infection and it will run it's course.

Wednesday night/Thursday morning her fever begins to go down but she breaks out into little red spots all over ther body. They don't seem to cause her discomfort so we send her to daycare Thursday and just warn them about the spots.

Thursday evening Tai, Scarlett and I play outside then we go in and the girls get a bath. It is my night to get up with Scarlett and she cried from about 11 pm to morning, very rough night.

Friday morning, when I finally get her up and turn on the lights, I notice hot, red, itchy welts all over her body! Oh geeeeeeez. The benadryl bottle says not to give to children under 6 years but I figure if I give her a quarter of the dose it will be okay. It did the trick! The welts went down but she seemed very groggy, so I took her to daycare and tried to rock her to sleep but she was fighting the meds. So grudgingly I left her with the teacher and went to work. Thankfully, I called daycare an hour ago and they said there was only one red spot on her knee and she seemed to be doing better after a nap.

Is it break time?
Fingers crossed for a better (HEALTHY) weekend.

And the verdict is....

We do not have a foundation problem! woo hoo!!!!!!!

We had an engineer come out and look over our house today, check the foundation and do measurements. Turns out our house is only 2.5 inches unlevel, which, he says, is very normal considering this time of year and the bad drought we have had. He says he wouldn't be surprised if, after a year, it was down to only 1.5 inches unlevel. He said there is only reason to be concerned when you hit 5+ inches. He also said our actual foundation is intact and not cracked and to just ingore the little (although some are not so little) cracks we are seeing pop up around the house. He told us the sides of the house to continue soaking (low areas) and the sideds of the house to refrain from soaking (the higher level places).

All in all, we are soooooo relieved.

Scarlett's ENT apt

Scarlett had her ENT appointment this morning. The doctor said she could still see fluid in her ears even after being on antiobiotics for 5 days. She said she is willing to put tubes in her but we would have to jump thru a few hoops in order to get insurance to pay for it. So she is scheduled to have a hearing test next Friday and see the doctor again to see if the fluid is still there.

In other news - Tai was bitten at daycare this morning!

What a terrible weekend!

1. Thursday night Tai's nose started running
2. Friday night my nose started running
3. Saturday morning Scarlett's nose started running
4. Sunday morning Scarlett's right eardrum ruptured (puss running out and all). So I took her to the doctor and sure enough, both her ears were infected. So I filled the antibiotic prescription and she started getting better.
5. Monday everyone started to feel better
6. Tuesday morning, my car wouldn't start to go to work

What else? Bring it on!

Anyways - the weather is much nicer. :)

So I refuse to go through what I went through with Tai. She was on antibiotics from when she was 4 months old till she was 18 months. Antibiotics EVERY month. That is too much and can not be a healthy way to live. So, I have called the ENT and have Scarlett scheduled to see Dr. Gibbs (who put in Tai's tubes) this Friday for a tubes consult. We have already meet out family deductible for the year and I don't want Scarlett to start the winter off with runny noses and constant ear infections. Heck no!

Will post more on the outcome of the consult.

Jersi Has An Ear Infection

Poor Jersi, I noticed two nights ago that she had been itching her ear. So I looked inside to find it swollen and red. I started to clean it twice a day to try and get rid of the infection without going to the doctor but today it looked better but not well enough. I try to avoid actual veterinary office visits these days because lately due to the poor economy they try to take you for "all you got". But I had no choice, so off to the doctor we went. Sure enough, the doctor at I-20 Medical Center tried to sell me a premium dog food, said it would help her skin and ultimately help her ears, I told her I would not change Jersi's dog food because it is the same one she has been on since a puppy. Then she tried to sell me dog ear cleaning solution, I told her I already had some at home, she said this one is different and she would prefer Jersi be on this one. I told her NO, I am keeping Jersi on the one we have. The only reason Jersi got an ear injection to begin with is because I have been lazy and haven't been cleaning her ear. But I promised to do better. So then I get tot he check out counter and they charge me $50 for the visit, $25 to just LOOK at Jersi's ear, and $40 for medicine. GGGGRRRRRR. I complain so they tell me they would give me a $30 medicine instead. $102 just to get ear drops. Holy freakin' hell.

It just makes me so sad, that the people who are still trying to take care of their pets, and treat them with proper medical care during this poor economy, get taken advantage of.

I love my girls!

Last night I put the girls in our garden tub with lots of bubbles. It was the first time they got to be in the bath together (mainly because Scarlett is sitting up really well now) and they had a BLAST! Tai and Scarlett played together, splashed the water together, and "talked" to each other. My heart just melted! Everyday Tai is better and better with her younger "sissy", bringing her toys, playing very gentle with her, and putting her pacy in when it falls out. Scarlett, on the other hand, is coming into her personality and is begining to throw a fit when you take things away from her or not let her eat something you are eating. She isn't close to crawling yet but I can see it in her eyes how badly she wants to move around to "get stuff"!

Tai - ingrown toenail

So last night I was changing Tai's diaper and she started crying, saying her foot hurt. I noticed that her big toe was VERY big and red, weird. Rick and I figured she stubbed her toe at one point so ignored it. Next day when dropping her off at daycare they said it was an ingrown toenail, sho nuf, I took her to the doctor and she agreed. Leave it to my 2-year-old to get an ingrown toenail!!! We have been told to soak it 3X per day and give her antibiotics twice a day. Once the swelling goes down, I will try and push the skin away from the nail then cut the nail.

Oh Tai Tai.

Anniversary Date Day 8/22/2011

Rick and I celebrated our 3rd year anniversary today. The day started when we woke, showered, took the kids to daycare, then went to IHOP for coffee and breakfast.

Then we went to see a movie, "Rise of the Apes".

After the movie we went to Applebees for lunch and a few more drinks before going to pick up the kids.

Great day.

Tai pictures

Scarlett pictures

Granparents home from China!

Pops and Grandmom were in China the past 6 weeks and sent Tai and Scarlett post cards! When they got home Tai got a few souvenirs; a stuffed panda and a beautiful cherry blossom outfit (pic to come - it's in the wash).

Scarlett can turn over

My sweet Scarlett finally started turning over last night. She was the cutest thing, because I would turn her to her back and she would flip over then look around at us and grin. I could just hear the little wheels in her head saying "did ya see me, did ya see me!?"
Next step....crawling!
Go Scarlett!

Ortho Appointment for Tai 7-19-11

Tai and I spent some quality time together today. I took a half day PTO, took her up to work to hang out with everyone, then took her to her orthopedic appointment for her elbow. I think Tai is already growing out of the terrible-2-syndrome, because she acted like a little angel the whole day. Smiled, talked, and said hello/bye to everyone. But, back to her elbow. The nurse (we didn't get to see the actual doctor) checked her elbow then took x-rays. And everything looked perfect, everything was in place and there was no scarring. Her recommendation..."don't let it happen again..." .... wow, really, because I hadn't thought of that!

After the appointment, I stopped at the aquarium store so that Tai could meet the real life Nemo. When I walked up to the first tank, I pointed to a clownfish and asked her 'who is that?' "NEMO!"

Great ending to a good day.

A good weekend

We had a great weekend of simming, shopping, and eating! It was Scarlett's first time in a pool and she loved it! I think both my girls are going to turn out to be little fishes. As soon as Tai's tubes fall out I am going to take her for swimming lessons.

Tai made her first card board box house.

Scarlett received her first set of "Boo" pigtails.

3rd Year Wedding Anniversary - August 15th

Rick and I have decided to start planning a date for our 3rd year wedding anniversary. Drop the kids off at daycare, then dinner, movie, drinks, what else shall we do.....?

Tai has an Ortho appointment on 7/12/2011

Tai's doctor called me back today and decided that Tai needs to see a specialist to determine what to do with her arm/elbow. So we will be seeing Dr Katheryn Biggs on July 12th.

Great long July 4th weekend

We had a great July 4th weekend! Lots of food, fun, and play. Now...we are TIRED!
The weekend started off on Friday, and I got to leave work at 3 pm (YAY!). So I went home, packed a bag, picked up the kiddos, and headed over to see my sister and my nephew at my parents house. Had a great dinner at my parents house (pizza, another YAY!) with my sister, 2 newphews, neice, sister in law, parents, and of course my rugrats.

Then Saturday, we had a day of fun, splashing with the hose, shopping, and cleaning. Any attempts of resting was not written in the cards.

Then Sunday I got up early, made cupcakes, and we headed over to my parents house. My sisters husband and Rick went shooting (at a range, not at animals), while the kids took naps. So my mom and I sat back and cracked open our first beer of the day.
When everyone arrived we got ready for dinner (a 33 lb lasagna, seriously, we weighed it!) and sat down for a delicious feast!

After dinner, the kids sat together and slurped down a cupcake each. Although certains kids (cough, Gavin) would only eat the chocolate icing off the top!

After a log day of play, we headed home.

Monday we headed to Rick's Aunt Linda's house for another BBQ. Hot dogs, chips and wine. Tai was the only kid at this event and acted quite a fool. Throwing, dumping, hitting, snatching, and dog chasing were just a few words to describe the evening with Tai. However, we all had fun and it was great to see Bryan (Ricks cousin) and his wife, Megan.

Very successful July 4th!

Hope everyone else had fun!

Look who is sitting up!

Scarlett has been sitting up (assisted) for a few weeks now. So I thought I better start documenting it! Here she is sitting up with a small boppy around her.

My little girl is so smart!

Our new fireplace

Our fireplace is finished!!! I loooooooooooove it!

Summer fun!

This past weekend we got the baby pool out and let the girls take a "swim."

Few recent pictures

Here are a few recent pictures. I will post more from this past weekend. Cute pics of the girls in the baby pool in the front yard.

But for now.....

it's been a while!

I decided I needed to start keeping my blog up-to-date. So here is a quick update on both girls.

Tai had nurse-maid elbow for the third time this past Friday, all three times it happened at daycare. We talked to the director and they have ensured us this would be the last time. Tai loves her teachers so Rick and I are working with Kindercare to get this resolved. However, she certainly enjoyed being on baby hydrocodone in the mean time for the pain! :)

Scarlett is my little (but not so little) amazing child. She is always so happy and smiles all the time. I could just bite her little cheeks off! I can not believe she will be turning 6 months in a few weeks, where has the time gone??? She is learning to sit up right now, and can sit on her own for a few second before falling to the side. But she is well on her way. She just adores her older sister, who is also begining to show some interest in her younger sibling (who she calls "sissy."

Both girls are doing very well. And are growing likes weeds!