Sledding :)

Playing in the fountains at C's house

Of thunderstorms and puke

My parents are here for a few days while Charles is out of town. They're helping me put more stuff in storage so we can fully declutter the house and hopefully sell it! (We have had a few people come through over the last week -- yay!)

So last night we went out to dinner at a local seafood restaurant that pretty much sits on the water. A storm rolled up while we were sitting there, and it was a lot of fun to watch. The power went out for a couple of minutes, but we already had our food. So, whatever. There was a break in the storm for our drive home. When we got back here, there was a limb on the deck rail and our trash can was halfway down the neighbor's yard. There were limbs down all over the neighborhood too.

A couple hours later it started up again. We couldn't do movies on the Roku, since it needs internet to work, so we started watching "Silent Movie." It was actually a decent "Steph Netflix" pick. (Those words are usually associated with seriously crappy movies.) 1/3 of the way through, or so, the TV just cut off. I could intermittently get a red "standby" light to come on, but that was it. Charles' computer was beep-beep-beeping like it was on battery power. It took us half an hour to figure out it was a brownout. We had partial power, but not enough to power a TV or computer. Overhead lights flickered and clock lights were dim. Not long after we figured this out, everything turned off. I think the flashlight is in my car, and it was still storming hardcore. After a few minutes of using cell phones for light, I remembered I had a bunsload of candles around.

Mom and Dad and I headed to bed (and I slept in Adia's bed because the dark was scaring her.) When I woke up at 7, we had power again.

I went to nurse Francesca (who was wandering around the house) and found chunks of something in her hair. She told me it was chicken nuggets. I checked her bed and... ew. I came back up to the living room and told her "You threw up in your bed!" Her response? "I did?!" The sheets are drying, the comforter is in the wash, and Miss F now smells like body wash. She seems fine this morning, and she's had a bowl of dry cereal.

The girls never fail to amuse me

We have, arguably, the two cutest kids in the world.

This picture is from playing outside in the 70+ degree weather (in February!) the other day.


A summary of our week:

Monday morning - Charles left for Florida.
Monday night - Francesca woke up at 9pm to nurse, and after 50 minutes, I just let her wake up. She hung out with me until I was ready for bed, at which time she insisted she wanted to sleep on the couch. I tried arguing with her, but eventually let her go. I figured she would get up here, last 2 minutes in the dark, and be back to my bed before I knew it. I was wrong. She slept up here until 3:30am.

Tuesday: We played outside, and I ran them ragged. I also cleaned out the guest room/bed, which is where we've been storing moving boxes.
Tuesday night: Francesca nursed to sleep, I put her in her bed, and then she woke again a little while later. I put her in the bed with her koala, and she put herself back to sleep. Until 2:30am when she fell out. (I didn't put a bedrail up because she did fine on the couch. Oops.)

Wednesday: We went to the LLL meeting, and the girls spent a large chunk of the day running around outside.
Wednesday night: I put a bedrail on the bed, and Francesca again woke up to nurse at like 9:30. I nursed her, gave her a drink of water, and put her back to bed. She put herself to sleep, and she stayed there until sometime during the night. She pretty much ignored me in the bed, though, and snuggled with her koala instead.

Thursday night: I nursed Checka, and when she was still restless, I went ahead and put her in her own bed. She didn't wake up until 1 or so. (I was still up, as Charles was flying home from FL, and a delayed flight meant he wasn't home until 12:30.) I nursed her, changed her diaper, and Charles put her back to bed. She slept there until sometime during the night, when I nursed her again and Charles put her to bed. Then she was up by like 6:30, I think. But it's an improvement.

In Adia news, she continues to improve on her reading skills. (We're talking names of dinosaurs!) I bought "What Your Kindergartener Needs to Know" last weekend when we were at Borders. She asked if she could read it this afternoon, so she spent an hour curled up on the couch reading it. Hehe!

By the way, Crush has not been amused by the recent warm weather and my need to open the windows.

Snow movies

Snow day!

So, it wasn't hives

It's another form of eczema. They're sending her home with two prescription creams (probably steriods, Gramma :P) one for her body and a gentler one for her face.

Still sick, now F is off to the doctor

I spent last night violently coughing, and I wound up sleeping sitting up on the couch. I have broken blood vessels in my eyes and my throat. I'm a lot better now that I'm up and about, but I'm still occasionally coughing. My throat feels better, as long as I'm not coughing. I sent Charles back to work for the first time in almost two weeks.

Over the last day or so, Checka's hives have started covering her entire body. Seriously, she's about as bad as I was when I had the thyroid craziness last summer. Chest-to-toe hives. I called the doctor's office and they wanted to see her today, so I got Charles to come home to take her. I feel better, but not "drive two kids to Fred." better. This is the first doctor's appointment I haven't been present for, and it's a little weird.

Christmas pictures

Okay, I underestimated how much the Farmville trip was going to take out of me. :) But here are pictures.


The tree


The tree lit up


What Santa brought the girls


Divvying up the presents


Opening presents


New sippy cup!


Modeling the light-up Santa hat from Gamma


Modeling Mommy's camisole


Apparently Crush appreciates what Santa brought him.


Nemo overload! (That would be her stuffed Nemo on one side, her Nemo book on the other, and Nemo on the TV.)

Hanukkah pictures

Christmas-y ones will be tomorrow night. :) Blogger is being slooooow tonight, and I don't have the patience to wait for more!

In this group of pictures: latke frying (although the ones at the synagogue party were infinitely better!), dreidel playing (A is a hustler! She and I battled it out for quite awhile), candle lighting, and chocolate eating.

This year's card

Halloween 2008

My princesses in the front yard this morning before storytime.



Adia eating a cupcake at storytime.



Francesca eating a cupcake at storytime.



Pretty pink princess and puppy dog "goggie"



Cinderella castle, face, O-ba-ma, fleur-de-lis



Zombie puppy



Zombie puppy rolls over



Yay! Sugar buzz!!

Having a case of the Mondays

I am SO tired.

I am going to continue to be tired.

I've been to Fred three days in a row so far, and I have to go back again tomorrow. And then Richmond.

In happy news, Francesca is healthy and normal. She weighs 24 lbs and is 35.25" (Which is up 2+" from last month.) Her iron levels were good. Oh, and the pediatrician put up the sign I gave him to advertise the walk this weekend!

We did drive-thru Chick-fil-A, and then we all went to Ukrop's. I got groceries and pineapple for the girls to share on the way home. I bagged half of my own groceries, since the bagger was too busy making plans to see Pineapple Express with his girlfriend. I opted to drive my own cart to the parking lot, and on my return trip I saw him texting after helping another customer take the cart to her car. Methinks someone's mind wasn't entirely on work.

(Oh, and I got a chocolate chess tart to have in the car while the girls had their pineapple. ;P)

Adia got tired of holding the pineapple on the way home, so she handed it to Francesca. I looked in the rearview mirror just in time to see the container dropped to her feet. Argh. At least my car will smell better now.

Now I am home. And still tired. And hungry. And I don't wanna clean.

Recent pictures

Rafting on the "James River" yesterday in the mall..


A better look at those chompers!



Birthday party at C's house


This is last year's bathing suit (or bacon soup, as C's daughter A calls them!)


Mid-jump! Also, check out poor Miss Francesca's hairstyle.


Pretty girl on the pier! We went for a walk on the beach last Friday night after dinner.

Before and after

After looks dark coutesy of two grape popsicles after we got home. She's back to her daredevil ways, already.



And one from the berry farm Saturday. :) Yeehaw!

Teef!

swelling is going down pretty quick so i get 2 see those pretty pretty new teeth!

NEWS!

She has all of her teeth! Stainless crowns on two upper molars, but that's fine. It took longer because her little teeth required extra work (because they were little.)

Dentist did dance around the nursing issue, but meh whatever. Apple juice or soda easier on the tummy than breastmilk? Uh, ok.

Annnnnyway, they saved her teeth! Now just waiting on the nurse to ocme get us.

(This post took a ridiculous amount of time to type between excitement over the TEETH and cafffeine.)

No news is good news, right?

We're still waiting to hear back. It was supposed to take 1h15m, but it's been 1h30m now. I'm hoping that's because they're taking extra time to make her teeth absolutely perfect.

Also, I'm going to give myself whiplash from turning around anytime that surgery door is opened. ;P

Whenever they're done, the dentist is going to come talk to us about how it went. Then we get to go back to the room where we left her (or somewhere thereabouts) and wait for them to bring her to us. I wish we could be there when she wakes up, but I get the feeling they're damn efficient here and since they seem to be on top of their game, I'm willing to go along with it. (Seriously, if the nurse anesthetist hadn't been so reassuring, I probably wouldn't be down with this idea, but she really really was.)

Adia did well last night. Mom said she woke up to Adia yelling "Noooooo Grandma" at some point. She thought it was just a bad dream, but when she asked Adia about it this morning it was because Mom had rolled onto Horton. Whatever. Grandma can do no wrong, especially since she de-hid the great big balance ball to play with. They were watching PBS Kids when I called a little while ago, so I guess the big list of instructions I left worked. ;P

She's back

I thought I'd be updating from my cell, but it turns out that the entire world has internet now. Yay hospital.

We got here at 6 with a decently grumpy Checka. We did the paperwork and then got taken back by the nurse. The anesthesiologist and nurse anesthetist came back and talked to us, as did the OR nurse. The dentist did too, and she gave me more hope that they'll save the teeth, so good thoughts, prayers, whatever would be good on that end. The NA reassured me that they care for them like their own, and Francesca didn't even cry when I handed her over. That helped a lot. She's tired and wanting to nurse, but at least the tiredness will be taken care of soon. Ha!

They had a pair of socks with grippies (which I had gotten a pair of last night at Tar-jay already, so she's double-wrapped haha) and a new stuffed koala with a hospital tee-shirt on.

I think I'm going to send Charles to the coffee corner here in a minute for food/drink. I'll pretend that I can eat, and if nothing else I can caffeinate myself and spaz more. I do technically have a cheese danish I got from the lobby at the hotel, but it's in the car. Along with my bio textbook to read, but.. um.. I forgot a highlighter. Yeah, that's it. No point in doing homework if I don't have the highlighter and I'll have to read it again.