More sick days

Just a brief update.

Nessa is sick today. We started wondering if she was coming down with something yesterday but decided it was just teething (she was chewing on both of her thumbs after all). Nessa woke me up early this morning (4 a.m. ish) and as soon as I picked her up I knew she was feverish, but when she nursed and went back to sleep I didn't bother taking her temp. Instead I went back to bed for an hour after telling Shawn he could sleep in.

Backing up -- On Monday Megan came down with a more serious cough and sore throat so we eventually ended up at the pediatric Urgent Care for a once over and a strep test. Megan is becoming all too familiar with the throat culture procedure. :-( It was the fastest positive result I've ever had from the strep test. So, we were off to drive thru walgreens to get her prescription. Since it was already nighttime before Megan started on the antibiotics, she missed school on Tuesday. The upside is that Megan and I were able to watch movies and nap throughout the day and I haven't done that with my "big girl" in a long time.

So, today, Nessa's throat was indeed raw (we suspected based on her not eating and the way she kind of grabbed her neck) and I figured with Megan's positive test we should get Nessa in sooner rather than later. So, Nessa is on her first ever round of antibiotics. :-(

Again, on the upside, I'm hoping the extra snuggles will continue as Nessa is content to just sit on our lap or snuggle into our shoulder as she rests.

So, blog updates and template changes are put off once again. Hey, we'll just be happy to get the Christmas tree down this weekend!

Having fun coloring!

Since we so seldom capture a smile on camera these days I had to post one more Christmas Eve photo. This was taken after we were done eating Christmas Eve while the rest of us were still sitting around the table Nessa was entertained by standing nearby and using the piano bench as a table so she could color. Nessa loves to color and will happily tell us what color the crayon she's using is each time and then say "look at this." (And we do have to look or we 'get in trouble'.)

Shawn managed to capture not exactly a smile for the camera smile, but a very happy look that we often see when Nessa is playing and having fun.

Messy Baby

Unlike some kids, Nessa has no problem being messy. She does like to have a napkin by her side, but I think that's more to have something to play with and to be like the rest of us than to stay clean. In fact if you look carefully, you'll see that her napkin (black and orange checked cloth napkin) ended up kind of behind her and on her shoulder because she was playing peek a boo with it at one point.


This was actually Christmas day dinner and how Nessa was having fun with the cool whip on her pie for dessert.


She was calling herself a "Messy Baby" over and over. And of course since I seem to be obsessed with messy baby pictures I had to get the camera out. :-)


Nessa was also having fun playing with Grandma Groth (that's who she's looking at here).

Mmm Juice!

OK, before anybody wonders about us (or reports us to CPS) the bottle was totally empty when we decided to give in to her asking for it.





As an extra funny, can you read the label on the bottle?


These are actually from Christmas Eve night. Nessa at at the table with us and after we had mostly finished, including finishing the bottle of wine, Nessa decided she wanted "juice" and kept asking for juice while pointing to the wine bottle. In true toddler form nothing but getting her hands on that bottle would satisfy Nessa's curiosity and longing for *that juice* and since it was empty we decided to not fight it and let her explore it ... and then of course we had to take a few pictures...

Christmas Day photos -- part 2

Apparently this could also be titled "My Crazy Cranky Sister" according to Megan. That is indeed the title of the paper she wrote at school when asked to write about her holiday, and she was referring mostly to Christmas morning. I haven't had a chance to read this paper yet, but if I get permission to share it with you all, I certainly will! :-)





Megan loved all of her gifts and was thrilled to open them when it was her turn. She got lots of grown up gifts and proved she was ready for them by being the most excited about all of the clothes (and I almost didn't get her any because there were so many other things on the list I wanted for her!)


Megan also always wants things to use when playing school, and she also loves science things so this human body model was a big hit.


Nessa ... well, while I'm now confident that she actually does like all of her gifts, she has NO interest in opening them at all. She was quite interested in everything other people were opening, but in general the fact that we were NOT following her normal routine and their was so much going on left her feeling quite insecure and eventually she went and got her blanket and pooh bear and curled up and nursed with mom for awhile. We eventually opened her gifts and she slowly started playing with them.





Nessa loved all of the food she got for her kitchen. Nessa has spent hours "feeding her babies" with these wooden food toys she got.




Nessa also received lots of books and some great art dot markers that she has used several times.

Tami will never again wrap a toddler's present individually (as in each book) again just in case they really like opening presents!

Shawn and I also had a great Christmas morning but you really don't want to look at photos of us all groggy in the morning. ;-)

We were very blessed in 2006 and had a wonderful holiday season.

Christmas day photos -- part 1 -- Santa

OK, so you've all been waiting long enough ... although we haven't been taking many photos since Christmas so enjoy these (we've been taking video instead but I'm not sure if I'll figure out posting it).

The girls first discovered that Santa had left something special for them in addition to filling their stockings. It was an American Girl Christmas morning at our house as Megan was thrilled to find Felicity was left for her and Nessa found twins (Sam and Sally ... you will be hearing more about them soon).


Megan was thrilled to find Felicity Christmas morning. Nessa thought her dolls were pretty cool too, but Sam was not supposed to be wearing his hat! Nessa tried to put it on herself, but of course it didn't fit. :-)



Discovering all those fun little goodies in their stockings was lots of fun!

Sick days part three

In the spirit of full disclosure we'll continue this on to a part three...

today is Shawn's day to be home sick with an upset tummy. And I'm REALLY hoping that this is the same virus that took me out last week ... enough sick days!!!

SO FAR Nessa has not been sick (hooray for small triumphs ... and maybe I can thank extended breastfeeding for that one).

Megan is better today and was bopping around this morning all happy to be going back to school (her teacher said their were 8 students absent yesterday out of her class of 19!).

Hope the rest of you are staying healthy -- more soon!

Sick days part two

We're home again today. This time it's Megan that is sick with what appears to be the stomach flu. I was up all night with her (got a couple of hours of sleep between 5 a.m. and the time Shawn left for work) and the time around 3 a.m. when I thought I was falling asleep for a bit on the couch with Megan was when Nessa decided to wake up and need me for awhile ... thankfully it was normal wakefulness on Nessa's part and I'm still hoping Nessa won't get sick. I'm also kind of hoping this is the same thing I had last week just so it means that we're done with it rather than the possibility of me getting it as well!

Now, besides being tired, I have TONS of laundry to do because going from "my tummy hurts" to "I need to throw up" caught Megan by surprise.

Stop reading if you don't want TMI ...

We will NEVER order the California veggie pizza from Toppers again! The worst smell ever ... well you know where I'm going with that one ...

Between this and work deadlines ... it may be awhile before I get the rest of the updates done to the blog. :-(

And New Years started out so nice with a fun evening out for New Years (but the fireworks were rained out ... dumb weather) and a nice day playing games with Megan the next day ... it was fun while it lasted.

Hope others are having a healthier new year!!!