Reason #143 I Love My Husband

For quite some time now, George has been the one to get the girls up and ready in the morning, while I go to work at 0 dark 30 so I can get off early and spend some time with the kids in the afternoon.  He does a really great job, and has even learned how to fix their hair.  I love that he bothers to do this so their hair looks presentable and is out of their faces.  I’d venture to say that right now, his skill level is closing in on mine – and I’ve obviously been fixing a girl’s hair (mine) much long than he has.  I doubt the girls appreciate it much, as Madeline in particular loves to complain when her hair is brushed, but someday they’ll understand this little act of love from their dad.

Updates

Well, it’s been quite awhile since I’ve written.  I think I’ll do a bullet list of things that have happened in the last month.

• School is going well for Madeline.  She really seems to like her teacher and has made some new friends.  She keeps going back and forth as to whether she likes going to after care.  One day when I picked her up she told me that she wants me to pick her up at the carpool line every day.  Then, the next time she had to go to after care, she told me she wants to go there every day!  In the interest of saving money and remaining part time (keeping my options open), I’m picking her up most days.
• Madeline tried tennis lessons.  She is not convinced she likes them.  We are going to go back to swimming lessons next and try to get the strokes down so she can do the swim team next year if she likes.  We decided to hold off on soccer until the spring.
• Labor Day weekend was wonderful and blissful.  Can’t we have a three day weekend every week?
• We got to have dinner with our friends the Murphys shortly after school started.  Their daughter also started Kindergarten this year.
• Lindley has moved to a new classroom with the new school year.  Her new teacher is Ms. Dee.  She’s really great.  I like her a lot, and Lindley seems to like her also.  She is in a class with a bunch of kids she doesn’t know, though.  That’s a little weird.  She’s making new friends, and I’m slowly learning their names.  I miss her old classmates.  
• Lindley (knock on wood) appears to be potty trained.  Yea for Ms. Dee.  I’ll give her the credit.  I’d tried a couple of times to get Lindley in panties, and she refused.  One day Ms. Dee said we should bring her to school in panties, so we did.  She had a couple of accidents the first couple of days, and since then it’s been mostly smooth sailing.  We’ve made it 7 days with no accidents.  Yes, I realize saying this out loud means she’s probably going to have accidents every day for the next week.
• It was finally time to take down the crib, since Lindley has been in a bed since sometime last summer.  While trying to sell it (I had decided that because of all the recalls on drop side cribs, if we do decide to have another child I want a new crib) I found out that OUR crib was recalled in late June.  So, we have to send some of the crib hardware into the manufacturer, and they will give us a gift card for a new crib for the store where we purchased it.  Oh, the irony of getting a brand new crib when we’re not sure we’re going to have another child!  I told George this was a sign that we are supposed to have another.  He was not convinced.
• I cried a little when I broke down the crib, and I cried a little again Monday evening when we were putting the parts out by the curb for the city to pick them up.
• George and I had our 13th anniversary.  We were going to go out for dinner, but had to cancel it.  I think we forgot to reschedule.  I need to add that to my list of things to do.  It’s been a great 13 years.  He must be the one for me, because I can’t really think of any time in our marriage that might be considered a rough patch.  That’s not to say we never argue, but it is saying that I’m glad every day that we found each other.
• I’ve decided that grade school is a lot of fun for the kids, but a lot more work for the parents.
• At Madeline’s 5 year checkup, she was 44 3/4 inches, and 47 pounds.  That gives her a BMI of 16.5.

I guess that pretty much is our month in a nutshell.  After this brutally hot summer it’s finally starting to cool down a bit.  I can’t wait for winter.

First Day

She’s so excited she’s doing a happy dance.  Apparently either I had the camera on the wrong setting, or she’s moving so fast the camera can’t keep up.  Madeline started Kindergarten at her new school Monday and things went pretty well.  We had a couple of bumps the first day, but things seem better after days 2 and 3.  She is ever so lucky to have one of her friends since babyhood in her class.  I was also relieved when I went to the uniform store and ran into a mom wearing a t-shirt for Madeline’s school.  I told her that Madeline was getting ready to start Kindergarten there and she asked me who her teacher was.  When we told her, she said that all three of her kids had that teacher, and they all loved her.  Hooray!

Another photo with the sisters.  Lindley gets a new teacher on Monday.  I have heard good things about her, so I’m optimistic it will be a good year.  The only downside is that none of the kids in her current class will be in her class next year.  That makes me a bit sad as I’ve grown to love a lot of them.

It’s All Starting to Make Sense

I promise this is not another doom and gloom post.  Madeline is feeling MUCH better.  In fact, she’s back to her old self.  Right now she’s playing with some paper dolls she got for her birthday, and making up songs as a running commentary while she works. 

But here’s the interesting thing.  Yesterday she was diagnosed with strep throat.  She has had a rash on her chest since late last week.  At first we thought it was a reaction to the pain meds she was on, but the rash persisted after she stopped taking the strong stuff.  So I decided to take he to the doctor, and it turns out she had strep throat.  We never suspected it since she was on antibiotics after the surgery, but I personally think it was the reason for her downturn.  Strep can cause vomiting.  Strep can cause a white tongue, which she had on August 1.  Who knows, but that’s what I think was causing her all her problems.  That’s not to say that she wasn’t dehydrated also, but the extra pain in her throat probably affected her drinking.  The strangest thing is tht she was on an antibiotic.  It wasn’t a very strong dose, but she was on it nevertheless.

Big changes are heading our way come Monday.  Madeline starts Kindergarten at her big kid school – a school she will likely be attending through 8th grade.  We’re all excited, but of course there is a little nervousness to go around.  I think it’s going to be a great experience.  The Vice Principal had told me last spring that Madeline’s group was smaller than some in the past, and she wasn’t kidding.  She only has 13 kids in her class.  It seems to be a great mix of boys and girls, and her friend from her current school will be in her class.  The school has done a great job of keeping the new parents informed.  They had an information night for us where they went over the uniforms, the carpool line, and other important things.  We get to go on Friday morning and drop off her school supplies and talk to her new teacher, who we met already at Kindergarten.
camp. 

We also got Lindley’s new teacher assignment, and I think we’ll really like her new teacher.  She’s really spunky and outgoing.  The only downside is that I think all the kids she’s in class with now are in another class.    The class adjoins hers, though, so that is good.  She will be with older kids, some of whom she was with the year before this one.  Being with older kids has its advantages, i.e. she’ll probably learn more being with them.  It will be a very sad day to say goodbye to the two teachers the girls had this year.  They are both REALLY great.  I have loved them both.  I already knew Lindley’s teacher would be great because Madeline had her when she was 1, but Madeline’s teacher was just what she needed this year.  She is kind and loving, and I love her to bits.

Worse!

Well, things did get worse for poor Madeline.  Yesterday I had to take her to the doctor’s office for an i.v.  That was pretty unpleasant.  Despite the fact that we were making her drink a lot, it wasn’t enough.  I think perhaps our biggest mistake was giving her her drinks in a sippy cup.  We did that because she was laying around so much, and she could keep a sippy cup in the bed with her.  I think the drinks she was taking out of the cup were too small.  The i.v. seems to have helped, though, and for that I’m grateful.  I think the scabs are coming off, and hopefully she’ll be feeling well enough for school tomorrow.  She’s been eating much better today, which I’m thrilled about, and drinking as well.

Weekend

The looks on their faces pretty much sum up our weekend.

Tonsillectomy

Madeline had her tonsils and adenoids out Tuesday.  We took her to the surgery center around 8:15 and she came out of the surgery around 10:00.  When she first woke up, she was crying and they had me hold her while sitting on a recliner.  I sang to her and she went back to sleep.  When she woke up the second time, we were able to get her to drink and then eat a popsicle.  We also got her to take some pain medicine.  She fell asleep again.  Around 11:30, she started to come around again and we went home.  Things went pretty well the first couple of days.  When she got home, she was quick to take me up on my promise of all the ice cream and popsicles she wanted. She ate a bowl of ice cream and 2 or 3 popsicles.  The next two days also went okay.  She was somewhat out of it from the narcotic pain meds she was on, but didn’t seem that miserable.  Then Friday came when she seemed to be feeling worse.  She complained in the morning that her stomach hurt, but I gave her phenergan and she seemed to be doing better.  She ate lunch, but didn’t eat dinner.  She didn’t seem to be feeling too great on Saturday morning, but my mind was telling me that it had been 4 days, she should be feeling better.  We went out to a local bakery for breakfast and she drank a little chocolate milk but did not eat.  Then shortly after we got home things got pretty bad.  She started throwing up.  She ended up getting sick three times, one time a full hour after a dose of phenergan.  I called the nurse on call because George thought it would be good for her to get some Zofran.  The nurse did not call back.  So I called the nurse again, and at the same time called our Pediatrician’s office, who called back right away and that nurse called in a prescription for zofran which, thankfully, worked.  I think by then the damage was underway, though – she was starting to get dehydrated.  She woke up after a nap crying that her throat really hurt.  Then she woke up this morning crying again, and again after nap time.  We’ve been giving her her pain meds on time, and have been trying to get her to drink, but not enough I can see now.  The whole thing is really breaking my heart.  She’s miserable, and I was promising her from the beginning that she would feel better as each day went by, and that has not been the case at all.  Tomorrow is her birthday, and I fear it’s going to be a terrible day for her.  It’s making me cry, I feel so bad for her, and so powerless to help her.  She also had an instance today of what we guess was gas pains in her belly, which also made her cry.  How many crappy things have to happen to her?  We had thought she’d be able to go back to school Tuesday, but now I”m not so sure.