The White Stuff: November 2009

November 30th

I can hardly believe it's the last day of November. Just 31 more days and I'll have blogged a whole year. Not that I haven't had more than my share of cheater days.

Like today for example. This is just a fluff post as I am on my way to bed... but I refuse to give up now! ;)

Hopping for better post inspiration tomorrow!

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Lily and the Stick

We went walking in the trees with Gramma today. Innocent enough. That is, until Lily decided she wanted to take every downed branch with us.

It was a long slow walk after that. :)

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Decent Saturday

It was a pretty mundane Saturday but that's the way I like it. :)

It was a bit on the windy side. And Lily got Uncle Jake to spoil her by taking her for a drive around the property in one of the little trucks. But then, Uncle Jake is always spoiling Lil. She especially likes it when he reads books to her!

We had more turkey leftovers for lunch, yum!

And Mom took me out to Target and Trader Joe's, which is always fun.

No pressure, nothing to get done, and no places I had to be. A Saturday just the way I like it!

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Peach

Grampa has a '37 Chevy named Peach.

Lily likes her. :)

Look out Grampa! Here comes our girl.

On a side note, I had a slice of peach pie tonight that was quite yummy. So in the last two days I've had pumpkin, pecan and peach pie along with cherry cheesecake. I'm still holding out hope there is an apple pie in my near future.

Happy Thanksgiving

I'm thankful for so many things today. Including you, my friends and family!

But I am most recently thankful Lily was not hurt worse in her fireplace incident.

She didn't break her nose or knock out any teeth or really hit her eyeball. She just managed to get a nice abrasion and a lovely black eye.

Man, are we lucky!

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Silly Girl

I was watching the news the other day, when the spirit moved her. She's such a crack up.

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Ouch

Lil had an incident today with the rock wall surrounding the fireplace. She has a swollen eyelid and black eye and I feel awful.

I'm more tramatized than she is however. Once we iced it and let her go she thought she was fine. Until I showed her in the mirror. She was visibly surprised.

And I'm no where near ready to share a picture. :(

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Gosh

I almost forgot to blog tonight!

We don't have a whole lot to report today. Mostly just napped to recover from our jetlag.

Lily did have lots of fun squealing and kicking her new ball with Uncle Jake. And she absolutly delighted Grampa when she asked him to cuddle this evening. :)

It was a good day.

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We Made It!

Who knew spending the day packed in a metal tube with a bunch of other people could be so exhausting? Fortunatly, we had the whole row to ourselves. Me, Lil and the Daddy Doll.

But we're here! We made it! It's nice to be in Cali. :)

(Yes, I have already been to In-n-Out!)

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Travel Nerves

Sorry to disapoint. No real blog entry tonight either. I have travel on the brain and can't think of much else.

The cab should be here at 4:30 tomorrow morning. Cross your fingers for us!

I'll let you know when we get there. :)

Hi!

Woo-Whoooo!

Blood glucose levels were all well within normal!

I'm cleared for vacation. California here we come! Three more days. :D

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Needles and I Don't Get Along

No word yet from my NP about my glucose test this morning. :(

But that's got to be good right? If I were sicky they'd want me to know asap. How's that for putting my own spin on things?

The needles and I did not get along today. No matter how long I held the gauze on there, I still bruised.

Oh well.

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Wish Me Luck

I'm doing a three hour glucose test tomorrow morning. We decided to bypass the one hour test since I've never passed it in the three times I've taken it so far.

Oddly enough, last time I did the three hour test I passed all three hours with normal results. I hope the same thing happens tomorrow!

I also hope for the lemon-lime glucose drink. The grape is the worst, and orange is not my favorite. :/

Wheee!

Hey Gramma V, Lily might need her own "cycle."

We were playing with our neighbors in their back yard today. Lily was having a GREAT time!

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Awww!

This was not staged. I turned around in the car today to find Dawson and Lily holding hands.

Sometimes they are sooooo cute!

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Bedtime

Last night, after cuddling a bit on the couch, I told Lily it was bedtime. I set her on her feet and she scurried down the dark hallway and into her dark room. So far no fear of the dark. She walked right up to the big bed and said, "Help." (Well, it was more like "Hep" but you get the idea.) She can't quite get herself up yet, it's still a little tall.

Who am I to argue? So I put her in the bed and sat on the floor patting her back until she fell asleep.

Later, when I went to bed I opened both our bedroom doors in case she got down and freaked out, shut in her room. I also put a night light in the hallway, just so she wouldn't wake up disoriented and scared.

I woke at midnight, and since I am addicted to my iPhone I was looking at my aunt's FB status when I heard a rustle of sheets, a whimper and a muffled, "Stuck." Lily was standing, leaning on the bed to rest her head, trying to sleep. :( So I scooped her up and tucked her back under the covers and went to bed.

It was a long night after that. No fault of Lily's mind you. She did fine and woke this morning at 6:25. But I woke up every two hours and to every rustle of sheets or grunt in her sleep. I didn't even bother to count the times I got up, just to look at her.

She's only 20 months! She's not supposed to be this big.

Fly! Fly! Fly!

While Gramma was here she bought Lily wings. When Lily wants to wear them, she asks to "Fly!"

She runs around the circle of our house. Oh, does she ever love those wings!

The Kiddos

Lily loves her Jack. Though often jack doesn't know what to make of Lily. :) I just had to share this picture, it cracks me up.

I'm tired of the non-stop rain and wind. :( Today was day three. The weather man said the end is in sight though. Maybe just one more day.

And my sewing maching is acting up! If the top thread isn't breaking, the zig-zag is missing a stitch. Maybe its just me, but it makes me think it might be time for a newer (fancier) machine.

So Tired

Had an FRG meeting tonight. Dug out our artificial Christmas tree and some ornaments, dragged it all up the the Battalion and set it up so we could record video holiday greetings to send to the guys. I think we had eleven wives show up. That's about a third of those living locally. :(

Lily has hit a new "phase." She had a phase, at about five and six months old, where she hated to be put down and wanted to be with me where ever I was, don't I dare walk away from her. Well, the don't-leave-me is back, only this time she's mobile and can follow me around and hang on my legs whining and bawling her eyes out.

I feel like I am getting nothing done.

One might think this means I'm busy getting it all done when she is in bed in the evenings, but I am just so tired all I want to do is veg on the couch.

My house is a mess.

White Ts

When we took our sweaters off this afternoon, I realized we were both in white Ts and jeans so I pulled out the tripod and we starting playing. I've thought of something to add to my Christmas Wish List... a remote shutter release for my camera!

Lily's New Bed

Lil got a big bed today! She spent all afternoon asking to play, "Nap? Nap?"

She almost had me convinced she wanted to sleep in it tonight. I asked her where she wanted to go to sleep, the crib or the bed? And she said the bed. About a minute after I left the room she cried out for me, so I went in and sat on the floor next to the bed and rubbed her back for about five minutes until she sat up and said, "Hold you." So I reminded her it was bedtime and put her in the crib.

Not a bad start when you consider I hadn't planned on asking her to try it out until we get back from our holiday travels.

Since this pic is a little risque...

...here is proof she was wearing a diaper.

Nothing to Report Today

We elected to skip church and hang out at the house all day. Couldn't risk giving anyone what we've got. :(

A few days ago Lil was playing dress up in my scarves and hats. So maybe you can enjoy these pics instead of a boring post about nothing today.

Bad News Part II

Lily woke up with chills and a bad fever at about 9:30 last night. I could hear her whimpering in her room so I went and got her and I cuddled with my puddle of a child on the couch a bit until she threw up on us both. ew. :(

I called the advice nurse line (and then had to wait for someone to call me back) to find out exactly what point a fever should worry me. I know a fever is the body's defense... it's attempt to kill the virus. But I've never dealt with a fever and chills and vomiting in my sweet baby, so I had to ask somebody. Well, the woman on the phone told me to give Lil a dose of ibuprofen and take her to the ER. (Here's where I wish I had just listened to my instincts.)

About 10:30 we rolled in to the ER and they took Lil's temp rectally which really made her mad! It was still 103... so they gave her a dose of acetaminophen too and sent us back to the waiting room to wait for the Dr.

Twenty minutes later I had my busy child back... up and down from my lap, around and under the chairs, eating, drinking, and chattering happily.

By the time we got called back to see the Dr I felt like I was wasting his time, and I told him so. I explained that I had called the advice nurse line for - get this - advice, and had been sent to the ER when I really could have been told a to give Lily both ibuprofen and acetaminophen for the discomfort, plenty of fluids and use a warm-mist humidifier. (The last two I had already taken care of, to the Dr's delight.)

The Dr reassured me that a fever never hurt an otherwise healthy person. He explained that a fever is worrisome when the rate of change is extreme which can cause febrile seizures. (Don't go plunging your kid into an ice bath.) He checked her over and pronounced that she has an upper-respiratory infection (duh, I'd bet money its the same one I have) and some redness in each of her ears, but since she's never had an ear infection it probably won't develop into one.

Lily is still really congested today. Sleeping has been difficult and doesn't come in very long stretches. But she played more today than she did yesterday, so that's promising. She was even dancing and kicking around a ball this evening.

Interestingly enough, the Dr was pleased to see a relatively intelligent adult during his shift, and said so. And I was ultimately able to get the information I wanted, so our trip wasn't a total waste.

Though getting back home at two in the morning sure has me sore with the advice nurse line!

Good News and Bad News

Let’s start with the good news. I found my comb!!

The bad news is, Lily and I are sick.

I’ve had a tickle in the back of my throat for a few days now. Yesterday and today I've had an unproductive cough. :(

Lil has been hit today, poor girl, with nasal congestion so bad she can’t eat or nurse or even enjoy her pacifier for naps. This evening she has a bit of a fever so I am headed back to the couch for more cuddling.

It’s going to be a quiet weekend.

Distressed

I'm in a mild panic. I can't find my favorite green, clinique comb!

It's a classic and irreplaceable. I can't even find a picture on the internet to show you, it's that old school.

I've had this particular comb for over ten years now, that's how much I love it. I took it to college with me. Come to think of it, I had two of them then. Somewhere in my move from Cali to Germany one of them went MIA.

It has to be here somewhere. The last time I can definitively say I used it was mid October. (Sad, I know.) And I'm pretty sure I didn't pack it to take with us to DC.

I'm off to find a flashlight so I can check all of Lily's favorite hiding spots!

DC, Some More

I forgot to mention we did a tour of some of the bigger monuments on Tuesday night. Lucy stayed home, with Lily asleep in bed, and Charlie drove us from site to site. It was so awesome to see the monuments at night – all lit up. The Lincoln Memorial must have had just 50 or 60 people there and the Jefferson Memorial had just four! I didn’t take my camera since I didn’t have a tripod with me, and I distain my flash.

On Thursday we went for the staff led tour of the Capitol Building. Very cool. The atrium is where most of the cool art hangs out.

Here is George Washington as a god on the ceiling… Halloween was just a few days away. ;)

And if you can believe it, these figure in this frieze that wraps all the way around the room are something like fifteen feet tall!

Then we checked out the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, the biggest Catholic Church in the US.

The whole ceiling was covered in fabulous mosaics, millions of tiny little tiles!

I couldn’t take many pictures… I was too moved and too busy praying. :)

Mom Left

Mom left today. I'm a bit blue about it.

We went over to Amy and Dawson's to fill some of the time this evening. Had dinner and bathed the kiddos. Always fun.

Starting my countdown to the holidays, to make myself feel better. You see, Lil and I will be spending them in California! Yay! Just nineteen days until we fly home. :)

More DC pics tomorrow....

Tuesday and Wednesday in DC

Not much to report from Tuesday. It rained so we elected to go shopping… you know an inside sport. ;) Mom and I had never been to Bloomingdale’s, so we had to stop in. And wouldn’t you know it, I found a cute hat I splurged on since I’ll probably never be in Bloomingdale’s again. After that we went to Neiman-Marcus, just to say we did. The escalators were draped in thousands of feathery butterflies so we had to take a picture… sorry for the poor quality, iPhones can only do so well in low indoor light!

My tired Little Peanut!

On Wednesday we headed out to check out some of the areas churches. We started at the National Cathedral, a beautiful gothic building that you’ve probably seen on TV, since they hold many big political memorials and funerals there.

I have intentions of splicing these photos together but I haven’t gotten there yet!

Everywhere we looked there was something beautiful to be seen!

In a quiet side chapel, up high on an inside wall was this moving tribute to Martin Luther King Jr.

The children’s chapel was darling, and Lily loved it! I tried to get her photo sitting in one of the chairs but she is just too fast!

What an amazing cross-stitched kneeler!

And then we headed around the building and out to the gardens.

Lily… giving Lucy a little worry, running so close to the edge.

Lil and Gramma in the garden.

My Cutie again!

Then we headed on to find Trinity Church, where JFK attended before he was president. We couldn’t get into the main church but we could get into the original chapel that was there before the second, bigger church was needed. The Chapel of Saint Ignatius Loyola was simple and lovely.

I love this statue of the Madonna and Child!

The tabernacle.

And then as we made our way back to the car, Lucy thought she recognized the house we were parked next too. After a quick call to Charlie, we confirmed it was the home the Kennedy’s lived in before moving to the Whitehouse. Or as Mom referred to it, “Caroline Kennedy’s house when she was a little girl.” So we had to have a picture. :)

Day One in DC

Our first full day in Washington DC, we decided to head over to check out the textile museum, because you know I’m a dork like that. But to our chagrin it was closed on Mondays, so we decided to go check out the National Mall instead.

We started with a walk around the Whitehouse, starting at Lafayette Park where Lily and Gramma couldn’t resist playing in the leaves! And making the leaves rain….