A light at the end

Paisley is better. Finally. It was a pretty crappy weekend of us all lying around watching crappy BabyFirst TV. We don't actually have that channel, we just had it once for a preview so I recorded some episodes, and we watch them over and over and over and over...so far P doesn't care for anything besides those and BabyEinstein. It's all a little monotonous. Anyway, besides sitting around, Paisley threw up a lot, had lots of diahrrea (I've never known how to spell that), eaten hardly anything, slept a lot, whined a lot, but today I actually see light at the end of the tunnel. She played and ate and was happy. Such a relief. Especially when they can't really tell you what's wrong. Yesterday she kept pointing to her tummy and saying 'poo poo.' Then she'd have diahrrea. I would have done anything I could've to be sick rather than watching her be sick. But now it seems that we have our funky lil' munky back.

By the way, I'm still collecting points from coke products. If you have any and don't want them, send them my way!!!

Sick babies

I could tell Paisley hadn't been feeling good for a few days. She was grumpy, not eating, just not herself. I thought maybe a growing spurt, or teething, until yesterday when she started puking. Yuck. She just cuddled on Charles and me all day, watching "shows," taking lots of naps, etc. Towards the middle of the afternoon she seemed better, ate a few things, was playing, until 6 when she got really grumpy again. I asked her if she wanted to go night-night and she got her blanky and went and stood by her bed. All right, 6 o'clock, I figured she'd be up in either a few hours or at 4am. She woke at 7:40, the next morning. Covered in more puke. Gave her some juice and she threw that up. She's so picky and won't drink pedialite or pediasure, so it's just watered down juice. I wouldn't give her anything, but she cries and whines for her "joo." Then my friend calls, the mother of P's friend Cobey. He'd woken up today throwing up. It breaks my heart to see them so sick! Today P doesn't want to cuddle as much, gets annoyed when she's touched, but will still come to me and hold up her arms and say "down." I've got to teach her the difference, but it's pretty funny. She's now down for her third nap today. I figure if she's still throwing up tomorrow, I'll call her dr, but right now I'm sure they'd say there's nothing they can do. She ate a little bit of applesauce and chicken for dinner. Keep your fingers crossed that she keeps it down and feels better!

No photos today

Happy freakin' birthday Charles. But not really, since we don't "celebrate" your birthday anymore. Not for the past 2 years, at least. Last year wasn't really a birthday either, but a good excuse for me to make a cake. Which I did again this year. And had to run to the store on two separate occasions because I messed up. The cake turned out great though, and the icing? Oh my gosh the icing is to die for. A pound of butter, a pound of shortening, 2 pounds powdered sugar...I actually had a ton left over so I ended up making cupcakes and delivering to some neighbors.

I've been trying for 2 days now to upload the photos of the cake and Charles' present, but I can't get them to load. Here's a video though of P trying to blow out the candle, and getting a little concerned about the smoke.


Blow on the hot Paisley! Blow on the hot!


In other news, Charles' sister Kate is in DC, where she was chosen as one of two delegates from Utah to attend the Livestrong conference(?). I'm not really sure what they did there, but the organization means a lot to me, and probably most people can relate somehow. Read these, they're interesting, and about Kate.

Article 1
Article 2

Summer time...and the livins' easy

It's definitely summer now, and we're all making the most of it. It's funny to start seeing the neighbors after not having seen most of them for about 6 months. Now everyone is outside playing, gardening, etc. P and I try to get out as much as possible. She's tan already, of course. I'm still just mostly pink. She LOVES playing in the little pool, could stay in there for hours.

I could go on and on about all the new stuff she's saying and doing, but that would take a few hours, cuz she's so darn cute. Our favorite thing now is probably "get down." She's been saying this for quite awhile now, usually yelling it while standing on a chair that she knows she shouldn't be on, but lately she's learned to say it when she actually wants to get down, like from her high chair. She also says it when she wants up, which is very cute. Charles and I will say, "do you mean up?" and she'll pause a second, then say "up!" I love seeing her little mind working and making those connections. I was gardening this afternoon, pulling some weeds, she'd pick them up, bring them to me and say "uh oh," then very gingerly would place them back in the garden. She also loves flowers, but knows they're not to touch, so she'll point to each. individual. flower. and say "what's dis?" Flower flower flower flower flower! Today we turned away for a second and she had gotten all of my gardening tools out and scattered them across the driveway. She also managed to escape into our neighbors backyard where they have a cool Little Tikes slide, which our neighbor says we can use at any time, but I still want Paisley to learn manners and to ask before she just plays on someone's stuff. She was highly disappointed that both her father and I had to chase her down on separate occasions and tell her no. So grandparents...hint hint, if you feel like getting P a present!

She's just such a funny little girl with such a big personality. I don't think I ever realized how interesting small children are, she continuously has me amazed and laughing. She eats like a horse, sleeps really well, and can be really grumpy. Sounds like her mama. The other day for example she ate:

1/2 pancake

fruit

yogurt

yogos

2 hotdogs

7 chicken nuggets

cooked carrots

1 slice pizza

potato chips

Juice/water

I admit this day was a bit unusual, but not really. She's put on at least 4 pounds since her birthday in October, which I don't think is normal, but she seems perfectly healthy. And no, I didn't give her the potato chips, that's all her dad's doing. He's kind of a push over when it comes to Paisley, I can see him giving into her a lot as she gets older!

Forgot to say that P's other new thing is saying "tank ooh." I LOVE it. Instead of throwing her food on the floor when she's finished, she hands it to me saying "tank ooh!" When she gives anyone anything, she says it. It's so cute, and it makes her seem like a polite little girl instead of the wild heathen she really is.

Sunburns don't hurt that bad

A friend of mine down the street bought one of those cheapo blow up pools, and we've been sticking our kids in there while it's been so hot. Paisley and her BFF Cobey love it. Until they fight for toys. Lucky for us her deck is pretty private so no one has to see us in our swimsuits. P definitely got her daddy's skin. She's nice and brown, while I'm super white except for the big red spots on my shoulders and legs.

I'm not sure if this is inappropriate or not, but it's pretty damn cute. We had finished our day of swimming, got the kids back in diapers and clothes, and we went to sit on the deck. I look over and Paisley has gotten back in the pool fully clothed. Figured naked was better than a saggy diaper.

She's given up kissing me. I suppose she's embarrassed by me, but she'll still kiss Cobey. I hope they know each other in aboug 10 years so I can use this as blackmail.

Ears

Does anyone know...when a 19 month old continuously sticks her fingers in her ears, does that mean she has an ear infection?

We ARE in Kansas

This has been the most exciting week in the two years that we've lived in middle of nowhere KS. Storms, floods, tornados. It started with lots and lots of rain Monday or Tuesday, 6 inches in just a few hours. Enough rain to flood one of our main roads of out town and almost evacuate an itty bitty town, and wash out the other main road to town. We were stuck, sorta. Then it rained most of the week, tornados here and there (and if anyone is not familiar with the recent KS tornado-please pull your head out of your ass), we had to go to our hidey hole with Charles' mom, the cats, had to wake Paisley up to take her down there. Very exciting overall. It's finally sunny here, although I think it's still rained at least once everyday. Lots of our neighbors had flooded basements, but we somehow lucked out. The storm did blow out part of our computer, a part we had just replaced LAST WEEK. Luckily the computer place let us replace it for free, but we've been without internet for a few days.

Paisley is now sick, runny nose, sneezing, coughing, not eating, rubbing her ears. She finally ate some dinner, and afterwards started whining and pointing to her tummy. Poor kiddo, it's so hard to know what to do for them when they're not feeling well.

Maddie

Laura- PLEASE DO NOT THINK WE'RE MEAN (we as in Karen and myself) for doing this to Maddie. It's just one of those late night spur of the moment ideas. Her hair is not perfect, obviously, but look at how much older she looks! And she looks EXACTLY like Benjamin. Maybe invest in a wig? Just kidding.

Also, we noticed if you took the 2 pictures of Ethan and Brandon and covered up their eyes and foreheads, they'd be identical. I'm sure you probably already knew that and all, but we thought it was cool.

Wanna see pictures of my kid?

Grandma and Grandpa are here visiting, well, Grandpa left, but Grandma is still here. It's so nice that she came so that I can take long naps every morning to hang out with us and see Paisley. Paisley really seems to enjoy the company, but it also seems to make her clingier to me. I can't hardly go to the bathroom without P crying and screaming in terror that I'm leaving her. Grandma has taught P to say "right back" when I leave, and she'll chant that over and over until I reappear. I really hope this is a stage. In one sense it's nice to feel so needed, but I would like to pee in relative peace one day.

Baked cheetos. A wonderful snack for most people, but they're Paisley's main staple. At least they're baked. Cheetos and Yogos. I think she'd be hard pressed to choose between the two.

She's not really asleep in this picture. I can't remember the last time she fell asleep on someone or someplace besides her bed.
Mommy (I've progressed from Mama to Mommy) trying to get a kiss. She used to give them to me all the time, but now she pushes my face away. She'll kiss her little boyfriend Cobey (or BOPPY! to her, whom she yells for all day), Dora the doll, but not me. I think the next picture was her pushing me away.

I got her some of those bathtub crayons. She LOVES them. I don't, because that means the tub has to be scrubbed after every use.


We took Grandma and Grandma to the local park (15 miles away), and they all had a grand time.
There are 4 baby swings, and Paisley insisted on getting in every single one.



Yesterday, Grandma and I took P to the zoo. She liked the animals, but seemed wary of the really ugly pig that she could get really close to. This is the same enclosure where I got attacked by goats. Ok, not exactly, but I had one jump up on me and get my shorts dirty. Close enough.

The reading chair. I love that she'll grab a book and then sit here.







Chocolate and tv daze. What could be better?