In Memorium

Cleo 1994-2008

The Sick House

So this week has been interesting, to say the least. As you all know, Drew has been sick with Roseola but is pretty much back to his old self today. He ate well, played a lot, smiled all day (I'm so happy for that) and just has the rash on his legs now. I'm so glad he is feeling better because he was miserable.

Meanwhile, I'm having that dry tickle in the throat every-so-often cough. Don't you hate that? I really think it's from the heater. That reminds me-- need to get the humidifier out tonight. So, I have a nice deep voice, but feel pretty much okay.

What I'm feeling bad about is the fact that our cat, Cleo, has been really sick. She stopped eating, drinking, and taking her medicine (for feline hyperthyroidism) Tuesday. By Thursday she wasn't looking so good. I brought her to the vet on Friday and we found out she has fatty liver disease. It is common in older cats and caused by not eating. The liver builds up with fatty whatever and can't handle it. She was basically in liver failure. She was jaundiced, too (how can they tell she's yellow when she has black fur??) and dehydrated. Basically she was going down fast. We are not the type of family that wants to prolong the inevitable, especially when she is basically starving to death. The vet mentioned a feeding tube, and I stopped her at that. I would never put Cleo through the surgery to have it put into place and then let her live like that. They gave her fluids and tons of medicines and she was so worn out from SCREAMING like I've never heard before. Poor thing. Ever since last night, she's looked even worse. She's now vomiting and drooling b/c she is so nauseous from the liver disease. The vet said that sometimes with appetite stimulants cats can bounce back from this. But her gall bladder is full of fluid and it doesn't appear to be in the cards for her. So Darrell and I have officially tried the appetite stimulant for 1 day and we had to FIGHT her to get that pill down her throat. It was awful. But still refusing to eat or drink anything-- even tuna. We gave her subcutaneous fluid injection, too. So, basically, I'm calling the vet in the morning to see about putting her out of this pain and misery. I've had so many wonderful years with her-- I had her before I even met Darrell. She ran away once, came back, and has been through so many apartments and moves that I wonder how she's made it this long! I don't think she really "likes" Libby and Drew, even though she sometimes tolerates them pulling on her. But she doesn't look too enthused. It was really hard for her to adjust once they were born and I do feel bad about that. But interestingly enough, she has been hiding under their cribs all day long. Hopefully she's trying to make her peace with them!

Thankful for a Rash

Happy Thanksgiving!! This year we stayed home and cooked our own meal. I got some good healthy/low-cal recipes online and almost completely fooled Darrell into eating cauliflower as mashed potatoes. I was so close in succeeding. But he just had to walk into the kitchen when the cauliflower was boiling and asked what it was. I am so very proud of him b/c he actually took some and ate it. It really does fool you since it really tastes like regular mashed potatoes. I actually put 2 small red potatoes in with it to help with my disguise.

Being home and cooking for only us was really nice (and a lot of work), but I have to admit that I was in my PJ's most of the day in the kitchen. What could be better? We dressed Libby in her orange pumpkin dress and tights and she looked adorable in her new black Mary Janes. But we didn't take any photos since Darrell and I were still in our PJ's!

But it wasn't the best day ever since poor Drew is still suffering from a nasty virus. He started running fever Monday morning and has been MISERABLE ever since. I think he's cried more these past few days than he has in his entire life. It's no fun watching your baby like this. Mostly he's been laying around or sleeping or just trying to figure out what he wants. He finally ate a graham cracker and a vanilla cookie over the span of about 2 hours this afternoon. But, luckily, he's been drinking lots of milk, so he is getting some sort of nutrition. The doctor yesterday said that it was most likely just Roseola and to expect a rash in a few days. OR if not, it may be a urinary tract infection. Oh no! But thankfully on Thanksgiving Day, the fever ended and the rash appeared. I've never been so happy to see a rash on my baby before because it just means that the virus is on its way out the door. Remember when Libby had this earlier? She must have had a milder form of it or something b/c she had a slight fever one day and the rash the next. And she acted normally the whole time (which is usually fussy and irritable-- he he he). I am hopeful that my little Drewsie is back to his sweet and happy little self in the next day or two.

Juice boxes are better than Tylenol any day

Today I got a call at work that Drew had a fever. When I got to the sitter, he looked miserable. I towed him and Libby home for the day. He went to sleep for 3 hours and after a dose of Tylenol, was feeling better. We had dinner later on and I decided to let both of them have a juice box for the first time. Libby drank hers immediately with no spillage (that would be wasting good juice, she says). Drew, however, chose to have a little fun with his. I didn't care at all because it was the one and only time he smiled much less laughed like this all day long. I wonder how much juice he really got into his little body, though. Take a look...

We're Getting Ready for the Holidays!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Elmo Rocks!

Libby and Drew just LOVE Elmo and Cookie Monster. They go crazy and dance when the "Elmo's World" music plays on the tv or in the car. They walk around saying, "Ehmo" all the time (so cute)! Plus they have a soft plush Elmo, Sesame Street pop-up toy with Elmo, Tickle Me Elmo, and Tickle Me Cookie Monster. Luckily I found all of these at a children's consignment shop (at different times) for CHEAP. I got the Tickle Me Cookie Monster for $4.99 and I think it retails for $30-something dollars. It works great after a deep disinfectant!

So, I heard that Sesame Street Live was coming to town as they do every year (who knew?) and this year's show is called "Elmo's Green Thumb". Darrell and I debated on whether or not they were too young for this. I wish they were 1 year older b/c then they'd really love it. But if we wait, it might not work b/c a)they may hate Elmo by then, and b)it most likely won't be an all Elmo show. So we got the tickets for $18 each, which was pretty good since I was expecting them to be a lot higher. It's at the arena close by, so we don't have to truck it down to DC. We're going on a weekend and the show is in the morning, which works out well. We'll definitely have to post some photos of the show once we go in mid-December!

Colds, Nu-Nu's, and Trains

What's with Fridays?? Yup, we have 2 sick babies again this Friday! Last night they did not sleep at ALL, so we were all tired this morning. But they didn't seem to be feeling bad and had no symptoms. They went to daycare with no problem, but when I picked them up... both had runny noses and Drew was hoarse. They have been running like faucets and went to bed a little early. We set up the humidifier and Vapor-Plug-In, but poor Libby keeps tossing and turning--- most likely because she has to spit out her nu-nu (pacifier) since she can't breathe thru her nose. :(

Speaking of the nu-nu... we're so proud of Libby because she's down to using it only while sleeping at night. She just started taking naps at daycare without it, so that is GREAT. I was going to try and wean her off this weekend, but since she's sick, we'll wait. But she knows that it must stay in her crib and not come out. This is such great progress since she used to need it all day long. I want to get rid of it before her 2nd birthday (since that's what we SLP's recommend), so we're on the right track...

Speaking of tracks... we bought a great train table in excellent used condition from a neighbor for $40! I wondered if this was a good deal, but when I found out that the Thomas and Brio train cars are like $20, I knew it was. It came with 2 big storage drawers underneath, tons of tracks, a Thomas car, and some other train cars. L&D are too young for it now, but I think it will make a great present later on. I looked online to get a picture of it and I think this is it here. It costs $250!! I love a good deal!!

Target is good for vocabulary, budgets, and karma...

Today was special because I got to spend some more one-on-one time with Drewsie. He has been the worst crab for the past week. Mostly he's been testing the limits, but he's starting to hit, too. Oh no! So, to avoid more frustration for him during playtime, I decided to take him with me to Target.

It was so easy to load him in the cart (since Target's carts don't have double seats, so I rarely take both babies there by myself). Just as we were all buckled into the shopping cart seat cover, I noticed 2 boxes at the bottom of the cart. Someone had put it in the cart corral outside and forgot their 2 boxes of lighted Christmas garland. I pictured myself running around in the minivan and getting all the way home only to find I left something in the cart. It COULD happen! So, like the Good Samaritans we are, I brought it inside to the service desk. They must have a lot of unfriendly people at that Target b/c the clerk acted like I was turning in a one-million-dollar bill (which I'm sure exist) and thanked me like 100 times. Hey-- my parents raised me right-- not to mention the garland had multi-colored lights and I'm more of a plain white-light-garland fan!

I tried not to go toward the Xmas or Halloween sale sections, but just couldn't stay away, especially when I saw the 90% off sign on Halloween!! Well, there was nothing left but some bags of candy corn (and not the good plain kind-- the weird chocolate and other flavored kind-eeww)and a few dog costumes and ugly costumes. There was a woman in one of those wheelchair carts who was taking almost all of them (and I mean like 50 of them). I wondered why and then realized how smart she was. She'll probably sell those on ebay next year for a nice profit. I did that with L&D's costumes from last year and got $10 for each one. Best part is I only paid about $15 for each one. Not bad! Back to Target...I rummaged through some costumes and found a cute pumpkin one size 3T-4T mixed in with the dog costumes. Here's the best part-- it was $1.29!!!!! So, in a couple of years, you will most likely see some pumpkin costume photos on this blog.

I was so amazed to hear just how much Drew's language is exploding lately. He pointed to so many things and named things on high shelves that I never would have seen. His favorites were: pumpkin, cheese, milk, neyyyy (horse), fish (Goldfish crackers), Elmo, Cookie (as in monster), ball, ball, ball, ball, ball, and ball. And there were balls everywhere-- ornaments, bouncing balls, ball lights, even the ball vacuum by Dyson! He found every spherical shape in that place! He loves to point out pumpkins, so I decided it was time to move on to Christmas vocabulary. We looked at Santas and snowmen. He loved the big giant light-up ones the best. I'm just hoping those won't make it to our lawn some day...

We stayed on target (no pun intended) and got out of there to head home. And the funny thing about karma... it came back to me for turning in the garland...I realized when we got home that the cashier only charged me for 1 of those big storage tubs instead of 2. Woo hoo-- that saved us $5.49! ;) Don't worry, Target... I'm sure I'll be back to spend that and then some.

Homemade Play-Dough

Last week I made homemade Play-Dough with my students for Halloween. I had enough supplies left over, so I decided to make a batch for L&D. They were a little skeptical at first, but eventually squeezed, patted, and poked it with forks. It lasted about 5 minutes and they only tried to put it in their mouths about 10 times.




For those of you wanting the recipe (it's pretty easy)... here it is. This makes a HUGE batch, so I half it and even 1/4'd it with good results:

2 c. flour
1 c. salt
4 tsp. cream of tartar
2 tbs. vegetable oil
2 c. water
food coloring
pumpkin spices (optional)

Spray the sides and bottom of a medium saucepan with non-stick spray. Before turning fire on, add all ingredients to the pot and stir well. Cook over medium heat until it pulls away from the pan. Transfer it to wax paper on the counter and let cool. Knead and work it a little to help it get to the perfect consistency. Store in airtight container. Have fun!

Trick-or-Treat!

We had such a great time last night on Halloween! We fed the babies dinner and got them into their monster costumes right after. They loved wearing them and were warm on a chilly night. We started out by heading to a neighborhood block party and then ventured out in the wagon for some trick-or-treating. We took a lot of pictures and even got video of the only house they got out of the wagon for-- Auntie Shan's. She was so sweet to have made them special muffins and they LOVED them. They loved staring at all of the other costumes around them and the jack-o-lanterns, too. We got them home and in bed by 8:00, which isn't too bad since their bedtime is usually 7:00. Luckily, they slept all night long without a peep! I was excited that we gave our candy to Auntie Shan since she ran out early (her street was hopping). That means there's none around here tempting me!