Update again

I'm taking her in for a 3:10 appointment. She is even worse. Just lays against me without moving. Hardly opens her eyes and is breathing rapidly.

Send good thoughts. We need them.

Update yet again
She seems to have "just" a virus. She isn't too dehydrated, which is good. Doc said to keep up the nursing as much as she wants and to offer Pedialyte in small amounts throughout the day to help balance out her electrolytes. She is probably stumbling a bit and out of it because of the imbalance going on in her system. Before we left for the doc the nasty diarrhea began. Oh joy. Nothing like blow outs in the non-infant set. Yuck.

We should start seeing in improvement in her in the next day or two but he warned that we should expect to see occasional daily vomiting (1 or 2 times a day) and diarrhea for a week or two.

Isn't being a mom great sometimes? :)

Update

The puking continues ergo; the laundry continues.

I now understand why my parents thought vinyl flooring was the best option for the bedrooms of their five children. Enough said about that.

She actually didn't barf during the night but today......oy! She is making up for it.

She still has interest in nursing though it's no fun knowing I will be seeing it again soon (yes, she is an EN'er....deal with it. *grin*). Figure it is better to let her nurse and barf, then scream (because she is pissed that she can't nurse) and barf. Not sure she is having enough wet diapers. I'll probably wait one more day before calling the doctor. Yesterday she seemed to have more energy in between puke sessions than she has today. If her energy decreases anymore, I'll take her in today (probably to urgent care...now there a fun way to spend an evening. Alone. With two kids. One sick, one attention starved.). Dehydration is always a concern.

No fever. No interest in actually eating solid food. Can't say I blame her.

Poor girl.

Why?

Will someone please tell me why children wait to begin vomiting until after 11...and usually just as the parents are drifting off to sleep. And then WHY must they continue to vomit all night long.

At least she learned after the first time that if she told me her tummy hurt I could get her to the sink on time. And yet...I *still* have seven loads of bedding to do today.

It's going to be a looooong day. And I have to face it all on maybe 3 hours of sleep.

Baby, It's Cold Outside!

It's a down right nippy 31 degrees right now. That's darn cold and yet - no snow. *sigh* Thought I would post these adorable photos I took this afternoon of Miss. Kaylen in the yard. Isn't she sweet??

It's Snowing!!!!!

Or is it?

I'm not sure I'd say this is really "snowing" but there is definitely white stuff coming from the sky. Too warm for it to stick yet but if reports from the north, east, south and west are accurate then it won't be too many hours.

Preschool was cancelled this morning though honestly, even being the not-crazy-about-driving-in-snow person that I am, I wouldn't have thought twice about getting behind the wheel. They say the roads are slick so I guess it's better to error on the side of caution.

Dakota stayed home this morning and went in late. That makes sense as she has to travel a few freeways and over several bridges to get to work. We'll keep an eye on things here, and she will keep an eye on things there, and we'll see where the next 24 hours takes us.

I, for one, would LOVE to have a bunch of snow for the kids to play in. We haven't had snow since Kelton was Kaylen's age (unless you count a couple hours of it last winter...and I don't. I want REAL snow!). How fun would it be to see both my babies romping around in a yard full of fluffy white stuff?!?!

PLEASE SNOW!!!!!

Charlie

We said good-bye to our furry little guy this morning. It broke all of our hearts - especially Kelton's.

Good-bye Charlie. Thank you for helping to teach the kids about being gentle with animals. Thank you for helping Kelton learn "eyes, ears, nose, mouth and tail" and for putting up with him the time he pulled your tail until you cried. Thank you for never running away from them and taking such good care of them. And of me. Seventeen years is a long time - thank you for being in our lives. We will always, always love you. Kelton says he knows you are going to like breakfast in heaven and he says there are lots of fun toys for you there. But oh how we wish you were still here.

We love you, big guy.

Kelton had us take some pictures this morning as we said our good-byes. You can see how much he loves Charlie. It's been a long day full of tears, tantrums and acting out...from all of us. *sigh*

Update: Apparently you can no longer get this item new without paying someone a small fortune for it. And that sure isn't in the budget. Fortunately, my MOMS Club friend, Kyle, has the Teddy Bear Nursery and is going to sell it to me for a very reasonable price. Thank you, Kyle!!!! Thanks to the rest of you who did web searches. I appreciate it SO much!!!

Desperately Seeking.......

Little Tikes Teddy Bear Nursery

I finally located the perfect Christmas gift for Little Miss Kaylen. It's exactly what I have been searching for and had hoped to find. It's perfect. And yet....I can't find it in stock anywhere. So I'm turning to you - my blog buddies spread far and wide across this great planet. Can any of you find it in stock anywhere???

I'm telling you - my little girl would be in seventh heaven and so would her mommy. Thanks for keeping your eyes open for me. :)

A Trip To See The Big Guy



Do you think she will be scarred for life? Poor girl...but we just *had* to do it. :).


Kelton just loves Santa. Can you tell?

Happy Thanksgiving!!

When I count my blessings this year, among them are all of you. I am blessed in so many ways each and every day. Thank you for coming here and sharing in the lives of my children, admiring my scrapbook pages and just being here to support me.

Most of all, I am thankful for my family; my amazingly wonderful and beautiful children and my adoring and incredibly funny and intelligent wife. You three are my reason for breathing and I love you more than anything in this world.

Love to you all.
-Casey

Never Enough Hours In A Day

I know I need to update this soon and I will - as soon as I can find some time to really devote to writing something half-way readable and intelligent. But time is just something I have none of at the moment.

Preschool: The teacher did contact me the next day and we worked out a plan for re-entry. It didn't go as planned and I ended up being called back to the school and spent half the class in the classroom with him but he did fine the second half without me. It's long, complicated and involved. I promise to write about it when I can.

Life: It's nutty. I'm still struggling with this cold or whatever it is. The kids were both sick all weekend and while Kelton is doing much better, Kaylen goes back and forth. It all takes much more energy than I have at the moment. *sigh*

Christmas: I'm struggling with it. How to afford it. What to get the kids. All that stuff. It's frustrating. I also have Christmas cards to figure out, a letter to write (or not - I haven't decided) and gift projects to figure out and create.

Like I said - just not enough hours in the day.

The E-Mail

We had a rough morning. It was Day 2 for Kelton of a preschool program through the local high school. Day 1 was a dream - he loved it! Day 2, not so much. So I wrote an email to the teacher as I had alarm bells going off all over the place. This is Kelton we're talking about. He isn't the kind of kid to sit in the sidelines.

Here's what I wrote (and I don't care if anyone thinks I'm being over-reactive or over-protective. This is my child we're talking about and I am going to do what I think is best).

The email:
"Today, when I left Kelton at preschool, he was excited and happy and couldn't wait to "go to school". I left him, happy, in the care of one of the buddies. When I returned to pick him up, he was a mess and continued to cry and carry on for about 25 minutes and was adamant about not returning to school. I'm desperately trying to figure out what happened in the 90 minutes he was there. I hope I don't sound like an over-reactive parent however this is completely out of character for Kelton and has me both internally upset and mystified.

When I first spotted him - he came immediately over to me (not like the first day when I had to convince him it was time to go) and wanted to go. He didn't look ok so I asked him what was wrong. He said nothing but clearly something was wrong. I asked again and "M", his buddy for the second half, spoke up and said "He didn't want to participate today." I asked Kelton why and "M" said "He said he was tired." That could very well be - the child wakes early every day and he is fighting off a bit of a cold however Kelton is not a child who can sit out for very long. He is driven, and always has been, and will normally join the activity within a few minutes.

Then we had the meltdown over the missing pencil. Not a big deal in the scheme of things and it was easily remedied at home. (sidenote: I also explained that sometimes things get lost when you take them to school and don't leave them in your cubby. I think he understands though I'm sure I will not be able to have him leave his pencil and papers at home - for some reason, he has attached himself to them and they go everywhere - even to bed - with him.)

Once he had calmed, he agreed that he would go back to school next week if "H" could be his buddy. Apparently she was his buddy on Tuesday and he made a connection with her. I'm sure the older kids are supposed to work with different little ones so they can get a true feel of little kids overall however I'm wondering if it's possible to match Kelton and "H" up for a bit so that he can ease back into school and have something to look forward to. Maybe even just for a while and then he can transition to someone else?

It broke my heart to see him this way today. He's been doing nothing but talking about going back to school ever since we came home on Tuesday so for him to have such a radical turn around in a span of 90 minutes has me concerned.

He also mentioned something about being afraid the older kids would laugh at him and make fun of him. He refused to elaborate any farther on that fear but considering he is one of the most outgoing and happy kids in our local MOMS Club, playgroup and rec center preschool group I'm concerned.

Is there any light you can help shed on what happened with him at school today?
Thank you for your time and I look forward to hearing from you."

The teacher wrote back almost immediately, which gave me great confidence. She said: "I noticed toward the end of circle time that he was not as animated and
didn't participate in our singing and dancing. I will talk to my classes
tomorrow and get a feel for what might have happened. We will definately
match him up with "H" on Tuesday. I will get back to you tomorrow after
I see my classes again. Thank you for sharing your concerns."

The thing that I really don't get is how happy he was to be there and then how incredibly unhappy he was when I walked in to pick him up. Night and Day. A completely different child. What happened in that room????

Feeling Better

I'm not better better but I am feeling better than yesterday. Thank goodness. Now it's just a cold instead of an "Oh my gosh - this is the worst cold EVER" cold.

Thanks for all your good wishes.

Coughing, Sniffling and Feeling Cruddy

Ugh. I'm sick. Really sick. Sick as in if I could call in sick and hide under the covers all day I would. I was sick last week and I thought I felt awful then but noooo...this is a whole new level of feeling cruddy. My guess if I contracted some cold virus right on the heels of not yet being well from whatever I had last week (sort of a cold but mostly in my high chest area). So...I got hit with a double whammy.

I wish I knew someone who would come over and fix dinner for the kids and straighten up this place. I just have no energy...nor desire.

Oh - and the girl last night? Well let's see...no nap all day and she was out cold by 5:15pm. The boy was out cold by 6pm. I really, really thought I was golden. But there is a rule in parenting...never, but never, get cocky about the kids sleeping. By 7pm she was up again for the night....she finally passed out around 10:30...after waking up the boy who joined her in the non-sleeping game.

She slept horribly - because everyone knows that lack of sleep equates to worse sleeping, not better. I slept horribly even when she *was* sleeping because of my nasty cold.

We were all up early today for Kelton's first day at his new 7-week/twice a week preschool class. Getting two kids and myself up, washed, dressed, brushed, fed and out the door by 8:40 was an adventure on next to no sleep.

Just shoot me.

The Little Darlings

We took the kids to Sears yesterday for Christmas photos and while the photo session itself was less than inspiring, I have to say that the kids looked freakin' adorable all dressed up. Here are a couple pics we took at home.

And - I want to post about the great day we had today but sadly, even after not napping today, Kaylen is refusing to sleep. Posting is next to impossible with a 21 month old "helping" you type so it will have to wait until later....or, more than likely, tomorrow. Wish me luck!

**taken from the Lifetime TV website. Please take a moment to read the entire page full of information and then, if you are so moved, please sign the petition. Thank you!



Read the information and then please sign the petition!

"In September, as part of the network's award-winning Stop Breast Cancer for Life campaign, Lifetime Television and Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter Jewel delivered more than 12 million petition signatures to Capitol Hill, urging Congress to pass the bipartisan Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act of 2005 (S 910/HR1849). The bill would ban the practice of "drive-through" mastectomies, when women are forced to leave the hospital just hours after their surgeries and before they are ready to go home. Sign our petition now to help end "drive-through" mastectomies once and for all." (continued at the website)

A Penny Saved

The Second Step catalog arrived the other day and while I was flipping through it I came across this play structure.



I smiled, as I looked at it, because in my backyard sits the identical structure (the color varies a bit as they tend to do year to year but structurally, it's identical). Then I glanced at the price.

HOLY SMOKES! Seriously? $599.99 plus $119.99 for shipping? $800 total!!??

That is highway robbery.

Suddenly I was feeling very smug about buying ours at a garage sale for $150. To top it off, when we bought it it had been used in their indoor playroom - it had never seen the sun! The color was unfaded and except for the missing plastic phone, it was in "out of the box" shape.

We lucked out BIG time. (Thank you Brenda for seeing it and calling us! Has it really been two years since that happened?! Has to have been - I remember being newly pregnant with Kaylen. Wow!) I can't stress how great garage sales are - I have seriously outfitted the yard in outside play stuff for pennies on the dollars.

The kids have spent countless hours climbing and playing on this. Kelton always liked it but Kaylen? That little monkey adores it beyond words. Whenever she is in the yard she is playing on it. The slide is her own little slice of heaven. :)

And yet.....$800 for plastic? It still blows me away.

Keep Them Safe For As Long As Possible

This video makes me so feel incredibly relieved, and validated, that we splurged and bought Kelton the Britax Husky (renamed the Regent) last year when he outgrew his "up to 40lb car seat". I had such a strong feeling that he needed to remain in a 5pt harness and, watching this video, validates what my "mother's intuition" was screaming at me. Children should be in a 5pt harness for as long as possible. We have Kelton covered to 80lbs. We'll be doing the same thing for Kaylen.

Watch this video.

I have completely and absolutely stole this from Dakota's blog. If I wasn't feeling so darn under the weather, I might have been able to come up with something of my own but since she didn't such an amazing job of putting this together I didn't see the need to expend my energy in that fashion. Right now it's all I can do to stay on top of not letting the kids hurt themselves or each other while not letting the house get too trashed. So here it is......all I have to add is to GO DEMOCRATS!!!


Democrats: Taking Our Country Back!
How could I resist a small acknowledgement of such good news?

The following is an excerpt from an article on MSNBC. As a co-worker read it out loud to me, over our cube wall, I realized this was blog material.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15618695/


'Beginning of the end'
Regardless of the effect on world events, global giddiness that Bush was finally handed a political black-eye was almost palpable. In an extraordinary joint statement, more than 200 Socialist members of the European Parliament hailed the American election results as “the beginning of the end of a six-year nightmare for the world” and gloated that they left the Bush administration “seriously weakened.”

In London's Guardian newspaper, commentator Martin Kettle wrote: "The cheering can be heard not just in America itself but around the planet."

In Paris, expatriates and French citizens alike packed the city’s main American haunts to watch results, with some standing to cheer or boo as vote tabulations came in.

One Frenchman, teacher Jean-Pierre Charpemtrat, 53, said it was about time U.S. voters figured out what much of the rest of the world already knew.

“Americans are realizing that you can’t found the politics of a country on patriotic passion and reflexes,” he said. “You can’t fool everybody all the time — and I think that’s what Bush and his administration are learning today.”

Democrats swept to power in the House on Tuesday and were threatening to take control of the Senate amid exit polls that showed widespread American discontent over Iraq, nationwide disgust at corruption in politics, and low approval ratings for Bush.

Bush is deeply unpopular in many countries around the globe, with particularly intense opposition to the U.S.-led war in Iraq, the U.S. terror detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and allegations of Washington sanctioned interrogation methods that some equate with torture.
(article continues, but this was the best part....Please see link if you are interested.)

I'm not saying that global popularity = right, but these sentiments are so on target with with what many of us are feeling today that it seemed appropriate.

And The Rain Falls Down...and Down and Down and Down

From what I have been reading in the local paper and through on-line news sources, our weather appears to be getting national attention. I've also received emails from a few out of the state friends to check in to make sure we were doing ok.

Yep - so far, so good. Luckily we don't live near any obvious water sources (rivers, ponds, etc) so our main issues are the ground being completely saturated; unable to hold the water falling and the gutters not being able to handle it all so it's splashing over soaking the siding on the house - not great for the wood but all things considered, I'll take that over the house being flooded.

The dogs are not amused at all and have put in their request for it to dry up. They would like to go out and play in the yard. The kids, however, are loving it. We take "rain walks" several times a day so they can splash in the deep puddles and stand under the waterfalls spilling out of gutters.

Luckily, I don't have to drive in it if I don't want to so errands and just getting out has been curtailed.

D stayed home from work today to get some extra study time (she is working on a HUGE paper and is currently over at her moms house where two little people, and their sick mommy won't bug her) and when she called in her co-worker reported that the streets of Portland are terrible and dangerous. Good call for her not going in but she does might try to make it over there later for classes. Last night she drove through puddles that threatened to leak under the doors of the car. The sewer systems, while certainly enough to handle the normal amount of rain, seems to be having trouble clearing the roads. The leaves clogging things up aren't helping either.

I admit though - I'm actually enjoying the rain. I love hearing the pitter pat of the rain against the windows and the woooosh of it in the gutter drains. It is supposed to stop raining by Thursday - who knows how I will feel by tomorrow afternoon. I might be joining the ranks of the many who are cursing their way through the beyond-soggy days.

Have You Voted Yet???
Please do. These two are counting on you, and all the adults in their lives,
to help protect their future.

credits: Grey Day kit by Shawna Clingerman and paper tears by Stephanie Krush

Thank you Shanwa for making this kit! I'm so glad I mentioned that I was searching for a beach-type kit that wasn't filled with bright, summer colors. You created something that is perfect for use with autumn beach photos, rainy day photos and just feeling blah photos. You're the best!! I know I'm going to get a ton of use from this baby! :)

PS....HEY ALL YOU PEOPLE OUT THERE: DON'T FORGET TO VOTE!!!!!!!!!!

Never Fails

It just never fails. Ever.

The note on the "To Do" board clearly says "schedule Christmas photos". I wrote it and posted it last night so I would remember to do it tomorrow morning. I would like to have them taken this week so they are back by Thanksgiving. That way, I can get two sets in....have I mentioned that my daughter has an over-abundance of Christmas dresses? :)

But tonight.........while attempting to get out of the tub, Kaylen fell and smashed her cheek against the side of the tub (she has this thing lately where she stands up quickly and yells "JUMP!" and the mommy goal is to grab her before she actually jumps at you. Not exactly a fun game for the moms and we keep trying to get her to understand she should not do it. But yeah - what are you really going to do with a 20 month old who refuses to listen? *sigh*). It was bruising instantly and while now, 45 minutes later, it isn't too awful, it's still too icky to hide for a portrait.

Maybe next week.

Of course, Kelton will probably be sporting some sort of face owie by then. Keeping both of them bruise and owie free for pictures takes an act of congress.

And speaking of congress........REMEMBER TO VOTE!!!!!! (I just had to get it in there!)

VOTE!!!

I just wanted to encourage every person out there to GO VOTE this coming Tuesday, November 7th.

• Have you had enough of what is happening in our country or do you feel we haven't done enough in the war against terror?
• Are you sick and tired of the war and want to bring our troops home or do you feel we can win the war if we continue on?

It doesn't matter WHY you vote....just VOTE!!!!!! (I, of course, have my own thoughts and beliefs on the "right" way to vote but for the love of everything good in the world - get out there and vote!!)

Women especially - get out there and VOTE - we are the majority in this country and we can change the world if we would just get out there and get involved and the easiest thing to do to BE involved is to VOTE!!!! We can do this - we can. It's easy. If you were mailed a ballot, then plan it into your weekend schedule to just sit down and do it. (I voted last weekend - and even with pumpkin carving going on around me, it was simple to do!)

If you go to a polling location, plan your Tuesday around it. Go early - go at lunch - go on your way home. What a great excuse for going in late to work - who is going to reprimand you when you say "Sorry I'm late. I went to exercise my right as an American. I voted on my way to work. Have YOU voted yet?"

JUST GO!!!

VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE

The Whole Family


It's notoften we have a picture of all four of us together! :)

PS..keep reading - I've been posting like crazy tonight. :)

The Pink Snowman Outfit, Year Two

Last August I bought the most adorable pink snowman outfit for Kaylen to wear as her Christmas outfit. (You can see pictures of her wearing it here) It fit fine - the sweater was a wee bit big but nothing that looked obvious. In my very biased mother opinion, she looked absolutely adorable in it.

Anyway, today while I was pulling out her Christmas motif clothes (and man is there a lot of it! Just how many dresses and sweaters did I think this child could wear?!?! That's the thing with buying on eBay, consignment shops and at garage sales throughtout the year; it's hard to keep track of how much you have) I decided to pull her pink snowman outfit from her keepsake box as I remembered it was sized 12-18 months. For some reason, my little one isn't growing as fast as I would have expected and she is still wearing a lot of 12-18 month stuff. Guess what? That little outfit still fits!! I'm shocked and surprised - and pretty darn happy that I get to see her in it again. :)

As for all the other dresses and sweaters? I'm not sure how I'm going to manage to get her into all of them but somehow I will. I see lots of photo of her in the next couple of months - even if I have to hang up a sheet and take them myself. :)

Cuuuuuuuuuuute!

Kaylen has a new word. She first used it last night and she got such a great reaction from us that she used it over and over and over. Each time eliciting giggles from us because well...it was just so gosh darn cute. :)

She first said it about Jordan, our dalmatian, who was sleeping at the foot of her bed (she sleeps in a queen size bed so there is plenty of space down there for a dog to sleep). Dakota and I were lying on either side of Kaylen trying to settle her down for sleep (Halloween fun and too much sugar was making that a tad bit difficult). She spotted the dog and out came "Cuuuuuuuuuuute!" with a little giggle. Soon she was looking at Dakota, who was still in full pirate make-up, saying "cuuuuuuuuuuuuute!" over and over and over. It was so hard not to just give in and let her get as silly as she wanted but it was, after all, 9pm and toddlers should be sleeping. :)

Today she said it a few times, much to the delight of Kelton but then tonight, as I was desperately trying to get her to sleep, she again spotted Jordan at the end of the bed and started with "Oooooooooooooooooh cuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuute!"

That kids kills me. She is so darn funny!

Bring It On

November 1st. I love it. I had my very first peppermint mocha of the season today and I dressed Kaylen in her overalls that has snowflakes and penguins on it. Later this afternoon, I fully intend on pulling from the closet the bin with the winter and Christmas motifs. Bring it on - I'm ready!