Shabby Update

I am so far behind here that I am not even planning on attempting to catch up. In summary, we were all sick. Very very sick. At the same time. And it was terrible, and Ardyn is just now starting to get better. Stomach Flu, Strep Impetigo, a cold virus, and Four Canine Teeth cutting through at once. Her most recent episodes include mass hysteria and screaming tantrums if you look at her at the wrong time, which have since seemed to mostly iron themselves out with the help of the routine coming back, an earlier bedtime, and feeling better, as well as a late night trip to the ER to make sure that she wasn't dying of something that I couldn't place.



Which was kind-of a joke, because they didn't do much besides listen to her heart, check her temp, and look in her ears and throat. But at least I was slightly re-assured (mostly by the fact that she snapped out of her hysteria at the sight of new people/places/and crayons.) The on-call doc wasn't my favorite, but he was even LESS my favorite when he asked me what FORMULA she was on (as she's drinking out of a cup with a STRAW right in front of him.) I said "She's 18 months old, she doesn't drink formula!" and then he said "So... milk?" and I said "no, she's allergic to dairy (ON HER CHART- HELLO) and so she drinks rice milk." Then he looks at me like I am a moron from Mars and tells me that she needs to be on SOY. I tell him she can't tolerate SOY either and he tells me that she has diarrhea because she is on rice milk. I said "well, lots of children who can't have dairy or soy drink rice milk. AND she has been drinking it for almost 7 straight months and hasn't had any diarrhea yet, so why just this week does the rice milk cause it?" and he just looked at me.

Then he said "Well, she's not getting proper nutrition!" and I said "The rice milk is vitamin A and D Fortified just like regular milk. Her pediatrician approves." And again, looks at me. I hate doctors who treat their patients like random idiots, when we can quite often be educated and involved in our medical and health choices. I really wanted to scream to him that I am not an uneducated public-aid mom who just brought her kid in to the ER after-hours to avoid a Doctor Visit. Seriously. I guess that I just didn't feel reassured by his medical knowledge, and I really wished that there had been another Doc or two around, but I guess you get what you get. I told myself that I wasn't driving farther (in a snowstorm of course) to go to the ER that our pediatrician is associated with, but sometimes I wonder if that would have been a better idea. Anyway, she is okay.

A week of sickness. She lost a few pounds, I lost 6 pounds in 24 hours. It was great fun. We stocked up on pedialyte, saltines, 7-up, and popsicles.

Now that we are somewhat back on track, I have a filthy (and I do mean filthy) house to wade through. I am still washing pukey bedding from Saturday (after washing it from every day before that) and we have just jumped back into cloth diapers on Sunday (the sickness was too much, because we were changing diapers every 30 minutes and because I was too sick to move, let alone wash diapers.) Her high chair is so gross that I won't even feed her in it. It needs to go to the utility sink and be soaked and scrubbed. The kitchen is freaking me out (So I only eat cereal) and I think something might have died in the fridge. The dining room floor around the high chair is covered with misc dried food, and I have still got laundry to catch up on. Don't expect to see me entertaining anytime soon. To those whose calls I haven't returned, I'm sorry. But I didn't even have time to get my mom a birthday gift or card, and haven't done anything for Evan's Dad's birthday, or his grandma's. Things will fall into place eventually, but just don't expect anything miraculous from me until they do.

My goal at this time is to get things picked up by the end of the week, so that when Ardyn spends her day at school I can be steam mopping and disinfecting everything to kill the germs and the funk that has entered here.

On the good side of things, I have had two days to scrapbook recently, in which I declared that if I did not leave this house I might be declared insane. I finished scrapbooking all of the pages I had "planned" (meaning everything I had photos printed, sorted, and matched up to paper and layouts for) and tonight I ordered another round of photos to plan and sort. First Thanksgiving, First Christmas, First Easter, and Our Trip to the 2008 Green Expo in Chicago. Those are ALLOT of pictures. Most of those holidays will have to be at least 4 two-page layouts, because when you go to FOUR Christmas Celebrations, that's allot of photos, even when you DO narrow it down. And looking back, I realize she will only be that cute ONCE and therefore I need to get it done.

It's interesting to me that I can have photos from Flickr delivered to my door in two business days, for less than I can have them printed at the Wal-Mart one hour photo.... and it's much easier on me because my photos are already uploaded and categorized and tagged on Flickr, so I don't have to upload them AGAIN and resize or whatever. Flickr allows you to have photos delivered to Target, but I don't believe that my local target has a photo thing at all, and on top of that, they only allow you to have glossy prints, which I despise, so I don't ever go that route.

I'm having a ton more fun scrapbooking with things planned, and being able to take my pictures to the craft store to match my paper and embellishments to them. It's making things much smoother and the results are much neater. I have a bunch of pictures on Flickr of my recent layouts... the pictures are a bit fuzzy because I just snapped them at my mom's with my new RCA Cam (more on that later.) But you'll get the drift! I have lots of journaling left to do, but I wanted to do most of that at home where I can reference things for dates and important info that I want to add in the journaling.

We have upcoming Endocrinologist appointment for me, Dentist appointments for all 3 of us, an OB Appointment for me, and a 18 month checkup with shots for Ardyn. We get our taxes done this week and I have a hot date with my friend Angela this weekend, and I can NOT WAIT. It will be a fairly busy couple of weeks, but I look forward to it. I also hope that the weather shapes up and we can have at least one day a week where it is suitable to at least breathe in some fresh air on a walk or at the park. This feels like it has been the longest winter EVER. I don't know if it's the whole pregnant with a toddler thing or what, but even everyone else says it's been a long one. I see visions of spring, spending the lovely days in the front yard with the new baby while Ardyn plays happily in the grass while safely enclosed in her new fence. Ahhh. Paradise.

It's also been rather shocking to me that I am coming up on May 1st, which is the anniversary of becoming a Stay At Home Mom. I have no doubt that it is the BEST Decision I have ever made, and I will never regret it. Without being home, there are so many things that I would have missed, not to mention the fact that I have a new piece of mind and much more sanity. My health has only gotten better, I have lost weight, lowered my blood pressure, and overall just felt better mentally, and can still be here for my kids as much as necessary. We've been able to fingerpaint and make Valentine's and sew clothes and read books. I've started scrapbooking again, I get to spend more time with my family and my extended families, and more time on things like video-taping Ardyn and teaching her to count and other fun things.

Check out her newest video on my facebook profile, she's counting to 10, singing, dancing, and doing her animal sounds. She amazes me every day. While I love her daycare, and appreciate her going there once a week (even if she does bring the plague home EACH. AND. EVERY. WEEK.) I have already seen that there is so MUCH they can't and don't know about her. It took them almost three weeks to notice that she knows what a dog is, and that she can "recognize a dog" by it's photo. I was shocked. Considering she can recognize, name, and make the sound of every single animal I can think of.... but they only realized dog. And after several weeks. That just really put things into perspective for me. And when she got cupcakes AND pudding on the Friday before Valentine's day, and had a bleeding diaper rash for almost three days after that.... and then this past week they fed her Fettuccine Alfredo- Um, what about THAT doesn't scream DAIRY!!!? Whew. I am just so glad and so happy to be a stay at home mom.

Well, it's 12:15am, and I have had two cups of chamomille lemon tea. That should help knock me out. Last night I took two tylenol PM, and for the second time felt incredibly NOT right. As a matter of fact I was practically hallucinating and for some reason the bottoms of my feet kept itching. It was terrible. Then I discovered that my Tylenol PM is WAY Expired, as in more than 1 year, and therefore I have learned my lesson about taking THAT Crap until I get some fresh drugs.

Have a great week!