Home Improvement

Jonas and I have been working on putting crown molding in the rooms downstairs. We finished the den about two weeks ago, and with the long Thanksgiving weekend decided to do the kitchen and kitchen table room (whatever it's called). I am so happy with how it's turned out!
And we got a new lamp and new chicken to decorate. I'm a sucker for ceramic chickens. Cute!

And our new chicken!

More Lilah

Sometimes the things she says are just so strange. Yesterday Lilah and Emma were standing at the window looking out. Lilah says, "shhh Emma, I think I hear a puma outside!"

Thanksgiving

These are a bit out of order, but I thought of a funny story I need to remember. We had our Thanksgiving meal with our new neighbors this year. I asked if we could do the turkey, since Jonas does such a great job cooking it in the smoker, and it also frees up valuable space in the oven. I bought a big twenty pounder because our neighbor Megan was also having her parents come up, along with her sister and her family. Jonas and I were expecting the turkey to cook for a long time since it was so large, so we put it on about midnight the night before. (All the things we had read estimated a ten pound bird would take approximately 10 hours). We slept in since I was called off of work that morning, and went down to check the bird about 9am. Jonas came in and said, um..... the turkey's done. It was already at 190F! We have a nice thermometer that goes in the meat and tells us without having to open the smoker the current temp of the meat, so we went out and opened up the smoker to see the disaster that awaited us.

It looked even worse than the picture. It was dry and hard, I couldn't even chew up the piece of breast meat I tried. We were scheduled to eat dinner at five, and it was only about 9:30am, so Jonas headed to the store, in a hurry. The only fresh turkeys left on Thanksgiving morning were more twenty pound birds. We wanted to smoke it first for a bit, and then finish it in the oven since we had a good bit of time until dinner. Once we got the new turkey going, Jonas kept checking the probe temp to see how it was coming along. We set the temperature pretty low (225F) and expected it to take a long time. The temperature kept climbing though, and the new turkey was done at 3pm! We were scared to look at it, but the new bird was beautiful (and done, we checked the temp in so many places!). No way we should have been able to cook a twenty pound turkey at 225F in less than five hours. It was a Thanksgiving miracle!

Small Steps

A little video of Emma taking a few steps. She's gotten a little more bold in the last few days, but is still too unsure to try without being tricked. I like that she is tempted by a tube of A&D ointment. More to come when she is walking more and in a better lit environment.

A Lilah First

The girls were at the table tonight starting on dinner while Jonas and I were in the kitchen getting our plates together. They were eating black beans (among other things) and we were having yummy leftovers. Not more than a few minutes after they had been seated, Lilah walks up to me and tells me she shoved a bean up her nose. Really? Yeah, I shoved it way far away.

We tried several times to get her to blow it out, then we tried sucking it out with a bulb syringe, then we tried plugging her good nare while I covered her mouth with mine and blew. No luck. I kept asking her, did you really put a bean up your nose or are you just joking? "I'm just joking momma", You're just joking? "Yeah, just joking." Where did you put the bean, Lilah? "Up my nose, way far away". Dang. I called the triage nurse at our doctor's office, and she said if we didn't have success with our attempts then we'd have to take her in to the Emergency Department (due to risk of aspiration). Shoot.

Jonas stayed home with Emma since it was near bedtime and Lilah and I took a trip to the hospital. We got right in (a perk of my employment?) and the PA confirmed there was indeed a bean in her nose. He pulled out the coolest little contraption for just the occasion. It looked like a teeny foley catheter attached to a syringe, so once it was inserted above the bean, he inflated a tiny balloon and pulled both of them out. Pretty incredible. We were in and out in ten minutes.

Lilah was really great and really brave during the visit, so as a reward we went to get a scoop of ice cream afterwards. What a crazy girl.

Lilah Meets Santa

We had some time to waste before meeting up with Jonas the other day, so the girls and I were wandering through the mall. We have only just introduced the idea of Santa to Lilah, and she has run with it. When I saw his big set-up in the middle of the mall with no line, I thought she'd get a kick out of meeting him. I wheeled the stroller up and pointed to him - "Look who it is, Lilah!" I wish I'd had my camera for the look on her face. I told her that she could go talk to him if she wanted, to tell him what she wants for Christmas. It took her a second to build up the courage, but after she climbed out of the stroller, she ran across the carpet and lept into his arms. It was really cute. She was really excited to see him, but just kept saying 'Dora backpack, Dora backpack' the whole time. (I would have taken her hat and coat off if I had thought about it in advance, oh well).

From Seven to Eleven!

Poor Emma just can't seem to catch a break. She's had a cold since before the beginning of this month, which included ear infections and a run with hand, foot, and mouth. She never really got better after the antibiotic for her ears, and then earlier this week started running a fever again! It was in the upper 102s, and I was afraid it was her ears again and needed a stronger antibiotic. Plus, we have our trip to NC coming up next week, and I really don't want to travel with a sick baby. So, I took her back into the doctor's office (our FIFTH visit in six weeks). She has hand, foot and mouth again (a different version), this time it is presenting as a red, sore-covered throat. Poor kid. The doctor also informed me that she has four molars that weren't there when we saw him ten days ago. How about that! (bringing her total to eleven). As of Wednesday morn, her fever is gone and seems to be on the mend. Her nose isn't even running as much. Let's hope Lilah stays healthy now!

Emma Update!

Since we learned last week that cousin Aude (not even one year old) is walking all over, we've (okay, I've) been trying to get her more interested in practicing. She still laughs when standing for some reason. She's way more steady on two feet, and has even started taking a few steps, as of a week ago. She took one step on Wednesday, two on Thursday, and four on Friday. Since then, she has expressed zero interest in walking further, despite many discussions on the importance of walking. She is surprisingly steady when she does take steps though, so I just have to figure out how to boost her confidence. Or, I could just let her figure it out on her own in time. I can wait... a little while longer at least.

In other news, we have a few new words to add in the past week: "all done" (English and ASL, yep, she's that advanced - I'm going to have my own bilingual baby, by golly),"that" accompanied by a tiny pointer finger pointing in the direction of whatever she wants, "down", "bath" and "hello" (usually said two or three times in a row).

Emma also likes to induce a bit of stress when we go to Target. I don't know what's different about the Target carts, but she will not face the right direction. It's so easy for her to spin around, no matter how tightly she's buckled. Instead, she likes to look forward and make Lilah laugh and laugh. I had to get a picture.

ps- On a side note, yes, she wore her PJs to Target. We had to rush out of the house to make a MD appointment and she was a fussy sick baby, so I let her stay comfy.

pps-She was diagnosed with hand, foot, and mouth right before this photo was taken at said doctor's appointment. Therefore, always wipe down your shopping carts!!! My kid could have just been in it!

Catalogs!

When I was a kid, I remember pouring over the Penny's catalog in the weeks before Christmas checking out all the toys. As the holiday season is approaching, we are getting several shopping catalogs in the mail per day, most of them toy catalogs. Lilah LOVES looking at these. It's pretty cute. She was pointing to a toy the other day that she wanted, and I told her that we actually already have that toy upstairs (in our mess of a bonus room). I went to get it and she played with it for a long time. Then she went back to the catalog and found another toys that looked like fun. "Go get this one from upstairs, mom". When I explained that we didn't have that toy upstairs, she moved to the next, well, go get this one, then. Nope, we don't have that one either. This one? Nope. This one? And on and on...

More Lilah

Lilah has been such a goof ball lately. I can't remember what I told her this morning that she didn't want to hear. "Look at my face mom," she said, "see I not happy?"

Aunt Katie sent Lilah a bunch of Halloween temporary tattoos for her birthday. We've been putting a couple on every few days for the past few weeks. The morning of the first set, we were at playgroup. She walked up to one of the moms, holding her arms out, "Look at my tits!"

This morning she was asking for another tattoo, but was calling it a stamp. It took me a minute to figure out what stamps she was asking for. When I said, 'Oh, a tattoo?!" she said, "yeah, that's I talking about, mom." I had a total flash forward twelve years, because her tone was the same as an exasperated teen, frustrated with her mom not understanding. Already?

On the same topic, Lilah has also changed to calling us Mom and Dad. Jonas is really working to fix it, but it comes so easily to her. I hope she changes back!

Lilah's Well-Check

We had Lilah's three-year well-visit today. She was really excited to see her doctor - she really adores him. She is 34 lbs now (80%) and 39 inches (85%). Lilah got her flu vaccine via mist this year, and was a total champ. She had been talking all morning how she wanted a dinosaur like her friends Nick and Asher, so we headed to Target after to get one (along with a good girl Icee, too). And wouldn't you know, the only dinosaur we found was a cute plush pink one!

First Illness

I should be pretty happy that Emma made it to thirteen months before her first fever. Pretty impressed, actually. Especially considering she has an older sister and sucks on the same toys as all the other little kids in playgroup. Sunday night she slept from 8pm to 11am, which was awesome. She started acting pretty fussy on Monday (couldn't be from lack of sleep) and felt a little warm (101F). On Tuesday she was hot when she woke up (102.6F) and super fussy and didn't want me to put her down. And then this morning, she was hotter still (103.2F). Conveniently, we had Lilah's well-check scheduled today (Wed) and Emma was supposed to get her second flu and her MMR so she was on the schedule too. So we scrapped the immunizations, and set her up to see the good doctor today too. Turns out, my poor baby has infections in both ears and a red and irritated throat. What a way to kick off your first real illness, baby Emma! She is the saddest sick kid I've ever seen. She is just a grumpy, clingy, thumb-sucking, snotty, hot baby. We started antibiotics tonight, so I'm hoping she'll come around quickly. Although I enjoying my snugly baby, I'm ready to have my smiley girl back!