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Today I had about 5 minutes of a life I had forgotten so long ago - a life where I could hear someone talking even with their back to me. A life where I could hear the A/C vent. It sounded like the ocean off in the distance. A life where maybe I wouldn't have to ask WHAT five times in a row. A life where maybe I could hear that story my father-in-law says for the 8th time in his very low tone voice. But that was all I got to experience before the audiologist removed the demo hearing aid. Now I have to decide if it's worth it to spend $3200 on. (yep my mouth feel open too) For the record, the audiologist first had me try a mid-range cheaper one, but that one sounded like I was talking in a microphone with a constant echo; didn't feel natural. I was really impressed with how small the behind the ear ones are. I pulled my hair back in a pony tail, loosened it slightly and you couldn't even see it! Well if you look close you'll see the clear tube that goes down to the ear canal, but you have to be looking.
Before I decide to spend that much dough, I'll bug the HR representative at my husbands company a few more times on trying to get the insurance plan to change to accept hearing aids. If anyone has a suggestion for battling them or Blue Cross Blue Shield I'm all ears. ha!
There is always the option to wait a half year and sign up for a flex spending account so we get a bit of a tax break next year. But that means waiting. And I've felt the sensation of full hearing again and I want it now, not in 7 months. And no telling if I'll even be at this job next year. And if I'm unemployed then it'd really be hard to justify that money. damn, sounds like I'm making a convincing argument so far. I'll keep you posted.

Jeff's twin brother and his wife welcomed James Redding into the world today. I think I've said this before but it really is exciting when your family starts growing. I could have never imagined I'd marry into such a wonderful family, and then to have a sister-in-law I have so much in common with just adds to it. I'm excited we'll get to share so many of our kids memories together. Allison and James are 14 months apart, and I hope they will grow up to be great friends.

Saturday we went to a friend's party for their little girl, Amelia, who turned 1. Allison was her usual happy self. I had to laugh at Amelia, a few times when everyone was fussing over her, staring and ooohing and awwing, she'd start crying. I remember the same type of reaction from Allison at her own party but she didn't get quite as worked up as Amelia. I'm hoping these two will be good friends in the future. Since they are both daycare babies, and all 4 parents work full time, getting together for playdates hasn't happened. Sucks how life just gets in the way of playing sometimes!



This party is also where Allison walked her first steps. She must have known that Amelia was walking before her and was younger and felt like she had something to prove. Just kidding - we'd seriously be in trouble if she were that smart with that kind of attitude this early!

This morning was a late morning for all of us. I had my follow up to see if my ear drum healed (it did- but I'm still practically deaf and yes it's close to causing fights of mis-communication and tears from me about getting a hearing aid before my 34th birthday but that is a long drawn out rant I don't want to get into). Allison had green gunk in her eyes on Sunday so we were afraid it was pink eye, so her appt was 9am. wow, long story to say we were both home this morning when she decided to take off walking again. back and forth. it was so cute! She took a brake for most of the remainder of the day to play sick kid - yep ear infection and conjunctivitis, but then she started walking again tonight.

Allison has been fascinated with little seats lately so I ordered her own chair. Ofcourse I got purple. It doesn't match anything but I like the color. It's a P'kolino Little Reader Chair. She's not the best about holding her own books, but she does love her own little chair. There was pure fascination about climbing all over a new item.

I've been following the recent Gulf of Mexico oil spill news closely lately for a couple reasons. Our Florida beach vacation is only a couple months away and it's hitting close to home. I'm always saddened by news destroying the environment and animals and this is a big one. I still cut up coke rings so the circles won't get stuck on birds still growing and suffocate them. But I can't do anything about a bird getting coated with oil and no longer able to fly. How many years has there been drilling in the ocean and how many spills have happened, and we still seem far behind on the technology to clean it up. I know the large oil companies have huge profits but I wonder how much of their budget goes to researching cleaning up technologies if any at all. 5,000 barrels a day (thats 210,000 gallons a day) [as of 5/14/10 - some Purdue Univ. experts watched video of the gusher and they estimated 70,000 barrels a day] are spilling out of that leak and their little underwater robots have failed to find it. I think I read where they had never been tested at depths of anything close to what they were being used at. I could go on a rant, but I'll save that talk for the experts. What I do have experience in is growing up near and visiting beaches where baby oil was a staple for the beach bag. Not baby oil for suntanning purposes, but to get the black tar off your feet. Yes, you go swim out in the ocean and come back to play in the beach sand and everywhere you have to avoid chunks of black sticky tar. It was gross! The only thing that would get it off your skin is baby oil or gasoline (yep, we used that too - yuck). Ofcourse I was a naive innocent kid that didn't pay attention to news so I don't remember hearing about this, but this MSNBC article mentioned a 1979 spill in the Gulf that released 140 million gallons of oil to Mexico and Texas shores. I saw those effects through the 80s at all the Texan beaches I grew up visiting several times a summer. Now that I live closer to the pristine white sandy beaches of the Florida panhandle I really hope those don't get contaminated and filled with tar chunks.

I realized I haven't blogged much lately, so here is a bunch of stuff jumbled into one entry. The pollen hit our area heavier than normal so there have been plenty of grumpy, congested people including myself. Allison got some kind of virus that included a full body rash that freaked us out. But as the Dr put it, "the good thing about rashes is that you know right away if it's a bad one and this one is not one of the bad ones". It did require 3 days out of daycare. I really don't understand how stay-at-home moms do it. I run out of entertainment for her, and I can't exactly take her out much since she's contagious. She does LOVE the outdoors, so I propped up and umbrella and we sat on a blanket in the grass for nearly half an hour and did a few stroller rides around the neighborhood.

She's getting better at walking, but still requires assistance. I can say "walk" and on cue she'll raise her arms up so I grab them with her hands around a finger on each hand and we take off around the house, usually in search of a kitty. Jeff and I have tried sitting a few feet apart and coaxed her to walk over, and she'll get excited and usually just lunge instead of walking, but she keeps trying so that's good. For a couple weeks now we'll watch her playing or cruising along a wall and she'll let go and stand balancing but it doesn't last more than a few seconds. She does that on her own, no coaxing from us, so we know she wants to learn :)

I caught her virus and had a fever (but no rash) this weekend. Jeff had to do all the parenting while I shivered and slept the day away in the bed. By Sunday afternoon the pain was in my ears and a few hours later I was crying, the boo-hoo sobbing that is uncontrollable. I haven't had an ear perforation in nearly 15 years so I texted my sister (who had one a few months ago) and asked if there was anything to do to relieve the pain. She said no, she had taken a loratab and it didn't touch her pain - said she'd rather go through labor than an ear perforation. Naturally I had to show Jeff that message, as if it's proof to have someone elses word that I was in pain, since sometimes I wonder if he questions my threshold for pain. He would never say it out loud (he's too smart for that) but you know sometimes when you think you can read someones mind. I've never been able to turn those tables because I've heard his story where he broke a tooth and had the root hanging down, exposed to air - for days! like it was no big thing. He's not a baby at all when he's sick, and yes, I'm so grateful for that. But it is a little frustrating that he never shows pain. I can think of at least 4 big events that left me in screams and/or tears since we've known each other (natural child labor, back pain, breastfeeding and ear problems), nothing for him. Seriously, I'm trying to remember one thing for him and I can't. I have mixed emotions of jealousy and admiration. Guess I'll just count my lucky starts I married a tough healthy man!
So to finish my story, I had managed to stop crying for a minute and came into the kitchen, heard an airplane in my head, said something to Jeff about it who looked at me like I was crazy and then I smiled. My ear started opening up and draining and the pain was gone. Relief.

We finished dinner and packed up Allison to catch the last couple hours of the Panoply Arts festival downtown. (hey, it was big outdoor entertainment!) She had a good time. Especially in Kaylee's wagon. She's fascinated with chairs her size right now. She has a step stool for the bathroom that is in her bedroom because she'll just climb and sit all over that thing. When we travel and leave her booster seat on the floor, she loves that. She loves to climb in our lap if we're sitting indian style on the floor. And now I see she loves that little red wagon that had a fold down seat built in it. I think her Mimi bought her some kind of kid rocker, so I'm curious what she'll think of that.

Jeff’s parents have gotten on a rotation to visit once a month and pick the weekend that she’s sick – because yes she seems to get sick every freakin month. This time we think her ear infection came back. She was on regular amoxicillin towards the end of March so this time she got the stronger stuff. I stayed home with her Thursday and Jeff’s parents left early in the morning and arrived Friday so we didn’t have to take off work again. Motrin is great – she’s definitely a happy baby when that stuff kicks in. Jeff’s mom took this photo and it just cracked me up. Allison is trying to walk all over the place but still needs help, so they took her walker toy outside. Our cat Ginger has been banished to live outside now and anytime we’re out there, she’ll just follow us around the yard. Looks like it was good entertainment for all.

We’ve introduced Allison to whole (organic) milk. I can already see some people rolling their eyes at the word organic, but it’s one small easy thing I can do to try to counteract some of the other crud she’ll get from foods. And I could go off on a rant at how I believe all the hormones and antibiotics in chickens are what’s causing my friends 8 and 9 year old little girls to wear A and B cup size bras but it could be a long rant. So anyway, a few things in our house are organic, and Target sells it making it easily available. Up until a few weeks ago Allison had only had water out of sippy cup and formula milk from a bottle. She would chug both, but doesn’t seem to chug milk from the sippy cup now. I’m not sure why. She seems to like it ok. And we’ve gradually mixed part milk and formula together and even warmed it up a little. So anyway, we’re still working on that. For the most part, she just gets one actual bottle at night time just before bed.

On the solid food front, let me tell you, that girl can eat! Jeff made some Italian meat loaf a couple nights ago and mashed potatoes and Allison ate a slice and half, with a big scoop of mashed potatoes and green beans. (It was the same amount of food that I ate!) And then she followed it up with a 7 oz bottle an hour later. She doesn’t seem to like potatoes in baked or fried or hashbrown form, but likes them mashed with butter and milk. She’ll eat green beans straight from the can, but not frozen reheated ones, and doesn’t care for other beans or carrots (frozen or canned). She didn’t like baked chicken one night, but the next night when we mixed the leftovers with cream of mushroom soup she ate it right up. She’s eaten every kind of bread and pasta we’ve given her and especially likes tortellini. I have not been successful with getting her to eat many fruits though.
I’ve been told she’ll eat most everything at daycare so maybe it’s just peer pressure there. Who knows. It’s so cute to see the kids eating at daycare. They have a table that is maybe 18” off the ground and miniature chairs where the kids all sit down at the same time, patiently waiting for food and look like civilized shrunken adults. Till a kid screams because they want their cookie now and it’s back to reality!

We’re both still a little surprised at how she’s smaller than we thought she’d be. And not that I want to comparing her to others, but all our friends with babies seem to be ranking above the 75% or off the charts. I ran into another friend on Sunday with a 6 month old boy that weighed 20 lbs (1 lb less than Allison at 12 months). And I can’t wait to get up to Indiana to see cousin Jerod who is 4 months younger and already bigger. Though in that case it’s expected with a 6’ tall mom and 6’5”+ dad. Then I think how Jeff started out at 3 lbs and I was a 6 lb baby and we both certainly sprouted up later, so it’s coming. I’m ok with her being small and manageable right now.

I took Allison over to my friend Dana's house (of Sunshine Images) for her 1 year photos. To me photoshoots are still a little stressful, so having a friend do it easier. (maybe not for her though :) Allison definitely has some stranger anxiety now and cries when I walk out of sight but she did pretty good - for maybe 30 minutes. I was hoping she'd be on the toddler schedule they started the week before, where they just get one nap. Instead she was completely wiped out for the weekend (and her daddy can play pretty hard with her keeping her laughing for a long time). So our tentative 1pm appt was not the best time when she woke up from nap #1 at 10:30 am and was ready for another one by 2. I think there will be several photos where Allison has a look on her face like what is this lady trying to do. Very similar to her party photos where she had to have been wondering why all these people were staring at her :)
The other benefit from having a friend take the photos - instant gratification! Check out this teaser. I'll have to wait like a good customer for the rest of the photos though.
(photo trouble on picasa... hopefully this will load soon)


And check out the video link above this entry for a recent example of Allison playing with her daddy.

Allison has moved to the front half of her classroom with the kids ages 12-18 months. Some changes are that she eats at the same time with all 7 other kids at this miniature table, she’ll get one nap on a foam bed on the floor, she gets outside playtime (or in the gym when it’s raining) twice a day and there are lots more toys. And they no longer give her bottles. Since she’s still on a milk/formula mix, they just put that in her sippy cup. Her first primary care-giver is still in the room just other side, and Allison was so spoiled that she’s still having withdrawals and will cry out when she sees her. I guess that’s good and bad :)

Last week when I was holding Allison on the new side and talking to her new teacher, Allison and another boy kept reaching out to each other and smiling. Mrs. T told me that’s her boyfriend and she’s happy to see him since it’s been about 2 weeks when Chase moved to the other side of the classroom. So that was my warning. Yesterday when I went to pick Allison up I was early (for her dr appt) and the kids were at the playground. Soon enough they were coming down the hall. It’s so funny – they have a 6-seater stroller complete with red and white striped canvas top that looks like it belongs at a circus. Since there are 8 kids in the class, 2 get transported in a crib on wheels. Who was in that crib… Allison and Chase. I had caught my baby in bed with her first boyfriend! Normally she smiles when I come get her, but this time, no reaction. I picked her up out of the crib and she started crying and Chase was sticking his arm out again trying to grab her. All I can say is that she has good taste – Chase is the cutest boy in the class. Hehe.

Her 12 month appt was yesterday where she got 4 shots and finger prick to test for anemia. She is 21 lbs and 29 ¼ inches which are both about 50th percentile. Her head size is leveling off but still huge at 90%. I wondered if she remembered that place because as soon as she left our arms the screams started. She calmed down soon enough and now we typically keep her on Tylenol for 24 hours after shots. I mentioned her not sleeping well the past 2 weeks, which was the same time we started milk and she was congested. Both ears were red and fluid behind one, so she’s back on antibiotics. I hope the regular Amoxicillin kicks it so we don’t have to have the stronger stuff that causes atrocious diapers. The dr also told us that starting at 12 months some kids start dreaming and getting nightmares, and it’s best to not pick them up! Just go into their room tell them it’s ok and not pick them up or feed them which would just reinforce that behavior. I’ve tried the cry it out a few times and it’s hard! Jeff and I are still alternating nights of who gets the baby monitor, so we get decent sleep every other night. This keeps the mis-communication and mumbling turning to yelling down in the middle of the night trying to figure out who’s going to get her. I often wonder how most parents deal with that.

After the previous weekend’s disaster and the small family party falling through, I emailed a couple friends to see if they’d want to come celebrate Allison’s birthday with us. When they said yes, I figured we had to invite the rest of the friends. I think we ended up with about 20 people there, a few being kids. Jeff and I were worried since Allison just had one nap and she was getting fussy about 3pm, but when people came over she was just mesmerized and checking everything out. I baked cupcakes and made a bigger 4” double layer cake for her with some star sprinkles on it. When we set her in the highchair with hat she screamed, but once the hat was removed a few silly faces from daddy she was ok and back to wondering why all these people were looking at her :) She was dainty at first, just picking off the stars, so we had to help her get a little messy. The sugar kicked in about an hour later and she was all screams and giggles and loved having new people to play with. My friends Trevor and Jenny were there with their 10 month old girl Amelia, who is a little bigger than Allison and even willing to show Allison to walk with assistance. (Allison wasn’t interested in trying though). My friend Janet brought her granddaughter who is 20 months and then the other kids were a 4 year old girl (Jeff’s boss’s daughter) and the Vader kids and JE who automatically go up to the pool/ping pong table upon arrival at our house. So, to my sister – we had a house full of adults, 2 babies, a toddler, a 4 year old, two 9 year old boys and a 11 year old girl. You can’t tell me you’re still scared to bring your kids over to my house now can you?!

Jeff started the smoker late Friday night and left the Boston butts going all night. Then he smoked 2 chickens Saturday. I’ve never been a fan of shredded pork bbq, but the stuff this weekend was wonderful. I love being married to a good cook :)

The party was fun, and I think people had a good time. I think they were like me, glad to finally get back to the land of the living after a long dreary winter. These are the friends that I’m used to seeing every couple weeks at Keith and Angie’s house during the summer, only we hadn’t seen each other since new years and maybe Halloween before that. I had been going into withdrawals, so I was glad to see everyone again. In the invitation I sent out I tried to stress that gifts weren’t needed since this whole thing was thrown together in a matter of days, but ofcourse the good friends that they are brought gifts. Allison got some really cute toys and books and even some red converse. I can’t wait till she grows into them, I’ll get a picture of us and me with my red All Stars. I think it was soon after the gifts were open and different noises were radiating from a few toys and new birdies on wheels were getting rolled all across the room and 2 other kids were playing with her new huge house, that the sugar kicked in. Allison showed off her ear piercing squeals and a had a good time going back and forth mainly between Cheri and Erin. I think Erin is about 11 and starting to get groomed to be a great babysitter :)

Sometime during the night I realized it’s not always so much fun to the be the hostess. When I have a lot going on, I tend to forget plenty of things I had intended to do, like… to introduce people, tell people where the drinks are, to pull out the mac n cheese from the oven, oh yeah and to participate in conversations. Time just flew by too quickly. Kind of like this whole first year with Allison :)

I have survived the first year with a baby! This is monumental people! Yes I was that lady that had never grown up around babies and was clueless with most everything baby related who decided to go ahead and procreate at age 32. And one year later I can say that I'm no longer terrified of my child's screams, life has some rhythm to it, and I'm not quite so clueless or tired.

Yes the year has had many ups and downs and as much as I've let my emotions get overshadowed by sickness (thanks to all the daycare germs) that sickness has not been major so I guess the downs were really not that bad. Am I typing that? No, all I've wanted to do was scream at the top of my lungs for the last few months at that daycare for keeping my family sick. But in the grand scheme of things, she hasn't seen the hospital since she left it and she's still growing and happy so that should count for more. Did I say happy - yes I mean happy, who knew a kid could smile and laugh so much! Man, have we been blessed in that regard. I do have to agree with most of those people that give you advice when you're pregnant, as much as having a child changes life to becomes hectic and chaotic, all her smiles and giggles have made it worth it.

Along those lines of wondering if I'll ever have a kid, I do remember saying I wanted one just to see what s/he would look like. Well I'm still looking for some resemblance of me in Allison. So far the brown hair, brown eyes, short legs and small feet are nothing like me. It's a little disconcerting to think I carried this being inside me and it's practically a replica of the other half. Thank goodness I picked a good looking, smart sperm donor :) Ok, I'll give more credit - that sperm donor has also made a better father than I could have imagined.

Here are some of Allison's Milestones and other interesting points:
* Is pulling up to standing, though not officially cruising around furniture
* Still is a wonderful eater. Loves green beans! And most anything her mommy or daddy are eating
* Will point and say "Kah" at the cats.
* Doesnt stack blocks, but will for sure knock yours down
* Has 2 bottom teeth in, 2 top ones have broken through
* Has a little bit of hair, enough to stick straight up in the back/top/middle
* Will giggle when her daddy crawls around in a circle like a dog chasing his tail
* Has learned the fake cry for attention - this is complete with a scrunched up face and open mouth that makes you laugh
* Started some high pitched ear curling screams of excitement
* Opens the kitchen cabinets and drawers that are within reach
* Sleeps on her tummy with butt up in the air
* Is very good at peak-a-boo
* Waves bye-bye

Fair warning, I think this is going to come out sounding like a pitiful sob story on my part, but oh well, because I did cry about it.
Back in December, we planned a fun get-a-way weekend to go up to Franklin, Tn (outside of Nashville) and the four of us were going to take a cooking class at night and Claire and I would go shopping during the day. Before leaving we were going to celebrate Allison’s 1st birthday a little early with a small family party. The cooking class was really a Christmas gift for Jeff and Greg, but his parents were generous enough to give it to the four of us, so we signed up for the romantic date night dinner. Skip ahead a couple months, lots of dr visits, sickness, missed work, probably 28 snow days, winter blues setting in, and then comes the prospect of Spring and a night away. Oh how I was looking forward to it! Really, I’m not the type of person that shows a lot of emotion, but the thought of a night away and morning off had me close to jumping up and down like a 6 year old kid opening up presents. Doom is about to happen – can you feel it… The night before Jeff’s parents arrive Allison throws up (we just had the warning on the class door about the virus the day before). Sure enough Friday it’s progressed to diarrhea. Friday afternoon Jeff’s parents parents arrive, but Greg and pregnant Claire wisely decide to skip over Huntsville and go straight to Franklin. Saturday morning, I get sick. I was hopeful that Immodium would kick in and maybe I could make it, but it just got worse. Seemed like it was 1000% times worse than Allison. How had she remained a relatively happy just tired baby while exploding out of so many diapers? I was curled up on the bed wincing from the cramps or the head rush from the mad dashes to the toilet. So at 9:30 am, it was decided (not sure who decided this) that Jeff’s dad would go with him. The class and hotel were already paid for. I will say the look on Jeff’s face was full of sympathy when he went to tell me bye and I’m sobbing on the bed ready to die.

The 4 of them met up for lunch, and then I think went to an Irish Pub, and then relaxed in the hotel before the class. Poor Claire was part of a dude’s weekend. Karen and Bruce had planned to explore Huntsville some more so that part of their weekend was ruined. I apologized and thanked the most wonderful grandma I now know for having to take care of sick Allison and the awful diapers, but she seemed ok just getting the baby time in. (There really must be something to that grandmotherly love that is indescribable till you have a one.) And Sunday the boys got back and Jeff was showing symptoms. But wait, his seemed even milder than Allisons. What the hell?! How did I get the worst of it all.

So that’s the pitiful sob story. And thanks to facebook I know that SEVERAL friends have experienced that same damn virus in the last few weeks. Knowing that still doesn’t make me less angry that I missed out on the one thing I was looking forward to. Am I allowed to be a little selfish after having a kid? I’m sure this entry sure seems that way. I think I might have to poll my mommy friends on that question.

I’ve heard the stories about life with a baby will make your life revolve around poop, and that is just amplified when you get a stomach virus. In the last week our house has revolved around poop. Yuck! It’s just a long cycle of baby pooping too much, try to stop her up, yep that worked now when is she going to poop again, she’s in agony with stomach cramps. I need the magic formula that tells me how many bananas to feed her according to how many bad diapers :)
I need to look back on the calendar but I think it was just December we had the last stomach virus in the house. When is the germ-o-phobic society going to come up with a prevention for the spread of that damn virus.

A friend from work had a baby recently and wanted some art for her little girls room. So I went to one of the bottle and brush type of events/painting classes and instead of doing the same thing as everyone else, I painted this. The tree and birds is fairly similar to the bedding in Mary Collins room. I hope she enjoys it.

The finger-trigger wackos have come out in fury this February! First it was a 14 year old shooting another 14 year old dead in my former middle school. The following week it was a truly psycho teacher at UAH, where I went to college. That was followed with kids that probably thought a copy cat act would be funny and they could make the news because 2 more gun sightings put highschools on lock down. Last week there was a home invasion a couple miles from me where the guy was shot, then yesterday my neighbor was robbed at gunpoint. The UAH incident was a true tragedy, 3 professors were shot dead and another 2 wounded. The biology department is in pure turmoil and so many lives were affected. One of the saddest parts was that the damn woman (a Harvard educated female!) should have been taken to the loony bin a long time ago because she had already shot her brother and sent mail bombs. I know schools budgets are being cut all the time, but isn’t there some kind of background check that would have discovered that?! She probably just came across as one of the other hundreds of smart weirdos in this town. I was talking with a friend that works at UAH and has met the shooter Amy Bishop a few times, and she’s been asked several times – could you tell she was crazy? My friends reply (I love this), well she’s definitely odd, but odd and smart people are a dime a dozen in this town, how would you know when one of them is about to crack.

While all of this was in my town, the neighbor robbery yesterday shook me up the most. He lives diagonal across the street from us and I was home just minutes before it happened at 1pm. He was not harmed but the guy was not caught either. Too bad he did have a gun and not just a knife because my neighbor teaches martial arts and I know he would have fought back and the punk would have gone down and been in jail.
Upon finishing this I need to start researching alarm systems.

This weekend felt was the first time in months that it was above 50 and the sun was shining on a weekend day! It was sooo nice. Jeff was still a little sick on Saturday, but on Sunday we went to the Madison Indian Creek Greenway Park. It's been over a year since I've been when it was just a 3 mile paved walking trail. Now it's extended further (not sure how much) there is a big playground and fenced in dog park and a 20 hole disc golf course. We packed up Allison about 1pm and beat some of the church crowd, but by 3pm the parking lot was full and those poor neighbors practically had their driveways blocked from all the cars lining up the streets. Allison seemed to enjoy herself, she stayed awake the whole time (which would have normally been naptime) and we walked over to the dog park side so she could see the dogs. Whenever we made it to the swing though, I think she was wiped out, didn't really get a smile out of her.

Saturday I kicked the cats out. There is a long ongoing saga with Ginger who is at least 13 years old and is now going into renal failure according to the vet and hundreds of dollars in tests. Our cats have been indoors cats forever, and Des is much younger and came skiddish of everything. Ginger was ok outside for a bit, she found some sun and chilled out, but Des freaked when we put her on the grass. She just hid under the porch for a bit and then howled to get let back in. Later in the day Ginger was showing her pitiful side too. Ginger spent the night in the utility room and got thrown out again today. This is another reason I want winter to be gone for good. In a few days I'm going to feel really guilty for having Ginger outside when it's 40 degrees.

It's a good thing that I'm not a big romantic with high expectations for Valentines Day. Allison had a high fever Saturday and has not slept good since. I knew it was time for another virus because she made it 2 straight weeks in daycare. I took her to the dr today and she has blisters bleeding in the back of her throat. No wonder when she starts crying, nothing we do will calm her down. And there is nothing to treat this, just time and motrin to ease the pain. Tylenol does not seem to do anything. And Benedryl does not make her as sleepy as I was hoping. So she's almost her usual self every few hours when the motrin is working, then there are gaps where she's like a colicky baby, can't hold her and can't put her down. Times like this I get disgusted thinking we pay this place $11k a year to make her sick.

I can't describe how hard I laughed today at my first Valentines Day card from Allison. The cover was very cute, her foot prints in a heart with the words: "From my head to my toes... My love for you grows...
And then you open it up and this photo is glued on top of a paper doily heart.



I know this is daycare and the workers create these cards and I love it. I love getting a laugh at the background they created for this photo shoot that they stripped my kid down for. These are some brave ladies that give paint to lil babies, all in the name of art. Art that I'm torn on which pieces to keep. But this one.... this one made it on the blog, so it's out on the internet in forever land!

I guess I'm going to add this to my list of projects for a rainy day. I love this idea - lets just hope I get around to doing it.

Personalized ABC book using photos of your kid

I've added a few more parent-type blogs on my reader. From Parent Hacks
I learned some funny and genius parent hacks:

cut up old credit cards and put them in a dirty diaper

coat slimy foods with Cheerios dust to make it easier to grab

Help diaper pale smell with dryer sheets or coffee beans

Cut off socks to cover stinky/wet car seat straps (if in a bind while traveling)

Evidently pull ups are expensive, some parents give panty liners to their lil girls while potty training

use a crock pot as a humidifier

make nose-wiping fun by playing peek-a-boo and just patting (not wiping)