Round Two . . .

We are sick again, but at least this time it is a different illness! It is nice to mix it up a little. Lily went to school Tuesday and Thursday and seemed totally fine and then Thursday after school she was really tired and run down and asked to nap. After her nap I noticed she was a tad warm and running a really low grade fever, so we just kept it on the down low all evening. But by bedtime she was running around and playing and acting totally normal. Friday morning she woke up at 6am (which is way early for her) yelling that she wanted to go to the doctor and was sick! She was congested and coughing and just looked totally crappy. Plus one of her coughs sounded kinda barky, like croup. So I called the doctor at 8:30 and got her an appt for 9:10 (I LOVE the efficiency of her Doctor's office!). They said with the stomach virus last weekend, she could have croup, but what was more concerning was her really red throat. Thankfully, a strept test came back negative and I haven't heard her bark again since this morning, but we got a steroid prescription just in case. The cold will have to just run it's course and to make it more exciting, I think I am getting it too since my throat hurts now and I am pretty run down. So all day Friday we stayed home wiping "bubbles" (what Lily calls snot) and coughing. Poor Lily has the reddest little nose and she looks pretty awful and she has to miss Matthew and Carys' birthday party today which she is really sad about. They are 2 of her best friends from school. Another fun weekend for us!

A quick update on Chip -- one of his nasal walls is collapsed, but it septum is in tact. So he has surgery scheduled for Tuesday morning to realign his nose and get the nasal wall back up where it belongs. But otherwise it seems to be healing well and honestly, I don't even really notice when I look at him.

Lily at the doctor's office yesterday.

Poor little sicky this morning.

Update . . .

Here is a quick update on the last few days:

I caught Lily's stomach bug and it knocked me out! It is amazing that Lily would get sick and then proceed to run around and dance and sing. I envy her resilience. I started getting sick around 4:30 Sunday night/Monday morning and didn't get out of bed until Tuesday afternoon. Lily had already made a full recovery and Chip, broken face and all, was amazing at taking care of her and letting me sleep for 36 straight hours. Thankfully, I had anti-nausea meds from when we were sick a few months back, so that helped and I didn't have to make the trip to the doctor's. It was miserable. On Monday I felt, on a scale of 0 to 100 a 1 (since I wasn't technically dead), yesterday I was a lot better at about 50 and was finally able to eat a meal and take a shower last night which helped a lot! Today I am back at 100! In fact, I feel so good Lily and I made it to her class social at Pump It Up this morning and we went to the market to get some much needed groceries. Now I have TONS of work and house work to catch up on!

Chip has an appt this afternoon with the plastic surgeon, but his nose seems to be healing ok and is not too crooked looking. But he is still in a lot of pain and his headache hasn't really let up in days.

I didn't take any pictures in the last few days. . . . but hopefully once I get this house cleaned up and get back on schedule things will finally get back to normal again. :)

Sick and Broken

Yesterday will not go down in history as one of the best days. First, Lily woke up gagging and saying she had to throw up, but she didn't. Otherwise, she seemed totally fine, happy and hyper so I didn't think anything of it, but we didn't go to Grandma's as planned, just in case. I'm glad we decided to stay home since 20 minutes after she ate dry toast for breakfast she ended up spewing it all over the playroom. This trend continued throughout the day, and she wasn't keeping anything down -- not even water. So I took her to the urgent care for kids nearby which was AWESOME! We were in and out in less than an hour. They gave her some anti-nausea meds, waited 15 minutes for them to kick in, and then gave her a juice box and we waited another 15 minutes to make sure she kept it down. Thankfully she did and we were on our way. I was hoping the worst was behind us, but she ended up waking up at 2 am last night (exactly 9 hours after the 8 hour lasting meds were taken) and threw up again. She knew it was coming since she called me into her room, yet she didn't stand up and ended up throwing all over herself and her bed. So I had to bathe her again real quick and change out all her bedding. But we had gotten a prescription for more anti-nausea meds at the Dr's, so I gave her more of that and she woke up and ate the biggest bowl of Cheerios, which I am hoping to not see later on today. :) So we'll see how today goes . . . .

Meanwhile, Chip was at work and it was a drizzly rainy day. Apparently a few of them were out on the course and decided to hit a few balls (but not Chip since he has had a really bad stiff neck since we got back from CA -- daybeds, don't agree with him :) and they were helping some cart girl learn to golf. She wasn't getting it at all, and was constantly hitting the ball way too hard. Chip was trying to help her control and slow down her swing, so he was behind her, with his hand on her shoulder coaching her to gently swing when she whacked the hell out of it again and in the process whacked the hell out of Chip's face!! Of course, I wasn't there, but the story is that he was thrown to the ground and the blood was flowing. SO much blood. Frank was there and immediately took control and got him to the ER. Everyone was pretty freaked out by the strength of the blow, the sound it made and the amount of blood. He ended up being VERY lucky as all he has is a concussion, face laceration which required 6 stitches and a broken nose. He thinks his glasses saved him from a broken eye socket and if the swing was any lower he would have for sure lost some teeth. He is supposed to meet with a plastic surgeon this week since he nose is about a quarter inch father to the left (his right). Needless to say, he is getting pretty tired of all my Pete Carroll/Owen Wilson jokes. :) But the poor guy is pretty miserable and in a lot of pain.

Lily at the Urgent Care. The whole office had an outer space theme and a TV in every room. So she was content for a little while watching Noggin (which I guess is Nick Jr now), but then wanted to sing and dance around the room. She did not look or seem even slightly ill!

Checking out the TV again mid-dance routine.

It doesn't appear all that bad and thankfully the laceration is right along where the nose attaches to the face. But it is pretty swollen and it is hard for him to wear his glasses (which thankfully survived).

This is a freaky photo -- I think he looks like a psycho, but you can see (if you know him well enough) how his nose is offset to the left.

Playgroup at the Park

This morning was a beautiful sunny January day, so Lily and I walked to the park for playgroup. It is crazy that 2 weeks ago, before we left for CA, there were still ice patches on the ground and today it is supposed to be 74. Lily was a little clingy and shy today. I think she is still readjusting to being home and on schedule -- she napped for nearly 4 hours yesterday!! All she wanted this morning was for me to carry her around the park and I wasn't going to do that, so Miss Courtney seized the opportunity to hold Lily while she ate her snack. Of course Elise had to get in on the action too. :)

Back to Normal

It is nice to slowly get back into a normal schedule. After the holidays and Lily's birthday and the trip to CA, it is great to not have a zillion things going on! Yesterday we did run some errands -- I got my bridesmaid dress for Mindy's wedding in May and we went to the market and restocked the kitchen with fruits and veggies, which we are all craving after the months of Christmas cookies, birthday cakes and El Taco! Lily is excited to be home and finally have time to play with all her new toys and she was so excited to go to school today and see all her friends. And apparently they missed her just as much. When I dropped her off a few friends were very excited she was back and when I picked her up, Ms. Melinda said that the whole class was happy and cheering "Lily's back! Lily's back!". How cute is that? Is it so nice that she is so loved. After school today Courtney invited us over for lunch and to play since she, Trent and Elise missed us too. Lily was tired after school and still adjusting to Central time (it is amazing how 2 little hours can make such a difference), but she had a blast and was so excited to see all her "best favorite" friends.

Applying her makeup before her nap.

(notice the streak of purple lipstick on her cheek?)

Last Day in CA

Yesterday was our last day in California. It is always sad to leave Linda and Scott and now we had to say good bye to baby Jeremy too! Lily definitely had mixed feelings about leaving. One minute she'd say that she didn't want to leave and the next minute she was dying to get home to see all her toys (especially her "white puppy" that Linda gave us at my baby shower and gets played with on occasion -- it was totally random).

Here is Chip with our rental car. I always like to take a picture of the rental car (not sure why) and Lily wouldn't stand next to it at first, so I made Chip. Normally I love my rentals, but not this one, I hated the way it drove!

Lily was willing to pose once Daddy did.

The palm trees in the back remind me of a story I need to document:

When we first landed in CA last week the first thing Lily noticed was all the "jungle trees." She was obsessed with all the jungle trees!! We taught her that they were called palm trees and she thought they were so cool. After watching an episode of Mickey and Jungle Junction, I realized that they do use palm trees in all the jungle scenes. It was just so funny since I've always taken them for granted and never even realized that we didn't have them in Texas, but Lily noticed right away.

Our plane was scheduled to leave at 2:2o so we had a little time to hang with Jeremy some more before we left. I know the above photo is washed out, but check out that smile!

He is just so cute!

Playing catch with the big ball!

Sorry Mom, but I have to post this picture since it leads to the story about all the rain! When we left for John Wayne airport at 12:30 it was POURING rain! All the streets around Linda and Scott's house were flooded and there was essentially no visibility on the 405! We even got lightning and thunder on the short drive and the wind was SO strong that my Mom and Scott had a hard time getting the car doors open on their side once we got to the airport. It was pretty gnarly, although after a year and a half in Texas I was a little jaded. Our flight was delayed slightly, but once we got there and settled it started to pass. Once we got home to Texas and I checked my facebook, I noticed that multiple friends in the OC were posting tornado warnings at 12:30-1:00 right when we were out driving! So I did some research to find out that when we were out on the 405 there were indeed tornado warnings and moreover there were more than one tornado touched down -- one in Costa Mesa (right as we were driving through) that did damage!! How crazy that as we were in So Cal trying to catch a plane to Texas we drove through a tornado! Good thing we didn't know what was going on or we would have been totally freaked out. :)

Our plane -- straight from the 1950's.

My little woman with her cell phone and purse.

Nice and clear after the storm passed though.

She was SO tired that she passed out coloring as were were in line to take off!! Since flights were grounded during the storm there was some back up on the runway. She fell asleep waiting and didn't wake up until we were making our decent into DFW!

..................

Lily was so excited to be home. She professed her love for our house and all her toys. She went around hugging all her toys and exclaiming how much she loved and missed them all. It was cute and crazy. She missed the cats a lot too! Of course when I found the "white puppy" that I mentioned earlier that she missed so much when we were gone, she looked at it and said "oh, ya". Crazy kid!!

Aquarium of the Pacific

Today we were trying to find something fun to do in order to get out of the house for a bit. The problem was it was pouring rain outside and that took some ideas off the table immediately. Finally we decided to go to the Long Beach Aquarium. It was quickly approaching nap time, but I figured since it was our last full day here Lily could just power through and sleep in the car ride home. She did exactly that, but she was really really tired. She enjoyed looking at the fish and even said as we were leaving, “That was so fun, looking at all the fish today!” but I know she would have had even more fun if she was not so tired. Jeremy slept through the whole aquarium and lunch afterwards!!!

Sleepy Girl.

Twirling her hair -- a sure sign she is tired.

Watching a video projected on the walls.

She liked all the fish tanks, but was obsessed with finding Ariel in each one. Too bad there was no Ariel!

After the aquarium we decided to get lunch at Bubba Gumps since it was right across the street and it was pouring rain!! So we ran over to the restaurant and got soaked – it was fun though!

Just a little wet!

Lily's first time eating jello!! Random, but I was proud of her for trying it!

Luckily we hit a lot of traffic on the ride home so she got to sleep for about 40 minutes in the car and then I sat with her in the driveway while she slept for an additional 20 minutes.

Time to play some more at Grandma's!

Playing with a remote controlled bug Dad got in China.

Eating chips on the table.

More Rock Band!!!

Cousins

The last couple days we’ve just hung out at my parent’s house and played. Lily loves Aunt Linda, Uncle Scott and Jeremy and she is usually grabbing poor Linda or Scott and dragging them off to play with her. She is also really really sweet towards Jeremy and it is so cute to watch her interact and try to mother him.

Reading a book to Jeremy.

Oldest and Bestest / Rocking Out

This morning Lily and I had breakfast with Michelle and Alyson; I had lunch with Mindy and Doree (while Lily napped) and Chip went golfing in Bakersfield with Eric, Nathan and Brian (since it is half way between Downey and Merced). This trip I do not have a lot of time to see and hang out with all my friends since I want to spend as much time with Jeremy (and Linda and Scott) as possible. Plus it was impossible to make any real plans since I did not know how Jeremy's (or Lily's) nap schedule would be. But since Lily wakes up hours before Jeremy and then naps, I took advantage and snuck some quick visits in today.

Alyson and Lily outside Mimi's after a yummy breakfast.

Michelle and Me

Lily and Grandma rocking out before her nap. Lily was on the piano and Grandma had drumstick straws . . . .

. . . . little did they know that they were warming up for later tonight!

Mindy, Lily and Doree playing after Lily's nap.

Then Anda, Uncle Scott and Jeremy came over and brought Rock Band!! Lily was SO excited since she loves to sit at the drums and pretend to play whenever we are at Best Buy.

Little Drummer Girl

I was pretty okay at the drums and I hated the guitar -- I just couldn't get it, but what I really loved was singing!! :)

Intermission to play with Jeremy.

A rather decent photo of me taken by Lily.

Uncle Scott by Lily.

Murphy by Lily

The all girl group.

Lily sat and "played" for a long time, I was surprised!

Then Chip came home and got in on the action.

It was fun! And they left it here, so we can play more tomorrow.