Laundry Lady

For the past few weeks Macyn has been helping with putting away laundry. Mostly socks, but today she decided to go one step further. First, I told her to put the socks away and she picked some up and brought them to our room and proceeded to open the correct drawer. So she began putting them away.

 After that, she decided to close the drawer, which didn't work very well. She likes to stack the socks and they got too tall, which means the drawer doesn't close. Guess what happened then?

It's okay, Macyn. Mommy still thinks you are a big help!

High Fives and Scowls

High Five:

Scowl:

(these are Macyn's favorite things to do lately. I finally caught her famous scowl in camera. And for the record, no, she doesn't always channel her inner Eddie from Christmas Vacation)

3 Month Photoshoot

I had the privilege to shoot my nephew Caden's 3 month pictures today. It is fun being able to shoot a baby who stays in one spot unlike my toddler who can't sit still for more than 5 seconds! I think I got some good shots (remember, I'm an amateur, not a professional) and broke them down into three categories:

It was fun playing dress up with a boy for a change, and hearing his coos and seeing his smiles! It's hard to believe he is 3 months already! What a proud Auntie I am :)

Milkshake for Two

Idiopathic Urticaria

You may be thinking, "What the heck is Idiopathic Utricaria." Well, I found out the hard way by taking a not-so-expenses-paid trip to the E.R. tonight around 10:00. It all started after supper when the side of my face felt hot. I didn't think much of it. So we stopped at the indoor rummages and hit up Mc Donalds for a dessert (the snack sized Mc Flurries are just the right size, and easy on the pocket book). I was feeling the side of my face and noticed I had a bug bite of some sort right next to my right eye. I also felt one on my neck. It was about the size a nickel. This wasn't completely unusual as I swell up whenever I get a bug bite to the size of a half dollar. Anyways, once we got home (around 7:30) I consulted my sister who is a nurse and she thought this whole thing was strange and figured it was a spider bite without looking at it. 

Ginormous Welt!

As the night went on, around 8:15ish I put some Hydrocortizone cream on the welts. It was this time it started to spread....and fast. I had DH go get me some Benadryl at 9:30 to try and clear this thing up. By that point it was all the way down the side of my face and half way across my neck. It was this point I was thinking this is not normal - going from the size of a quarter to about 3-4" wide and 2" tall within an hour and a half! I knew acute care was closed, but I thought I would wait a while for the Benadryl to do it's job. 

So I gave Macyn a bath and Josh then put her to bed. When he was finished he came out and told me how much worse it had gotten in the 10 minutes he didn't see me. It was now 10:00 and he convinced me to get this checked out by the Dr. and not wait until morning. I was worried too because my sister said if it swells too bad I could have trouble breathing.

Reluctantly I went to the ER, just thinking in the back of my head how much this is gonna cost. So the Dr. comes in and exclaims, "THAT IS A HUGE HIVE!" He went over my symptoms and diagnosed it as Idiopathic Utricaria, which essentially means that you're allergic to something but nobody knows what it is. It can last a day or months. He once had a patient who had it over her body and sent her to a specialist and they couldn't figure out what caused it. The weird part is, I have absolutely no known allergies. He mentioned possibly keeping me over night to make sure the swelling on my neck doesn't cause me trouble breathing, but he was pretty confident I would be okay. He told me to call ASAP if I get any other weird symptoms or can't breath. It definitely is more swollen so it feels like I have gunk in the throat, but I feel like the airway is still clear. He told me to keep taking Benadryl and Zyrtec as needed, and there isn't much else I can do. I cannot think of anything I ate out of the ordinary (this isn't caused by topical applications), so its pretty much a mystery.

So even though I hate to see the ER bill, I am glad I went and knowing it isn't anything serious. And right now as I type this, it is from ear to ear and about 3.5" thick. My face is really hot and the welt kinda burns. I just hope it doesn't last too long since I look like I gained 30 lbs! The Dr. told me it was a good idea to come in. He's a pretty blunt Dr. who tells it like it is. He told me to google Idiopathic Utricaria and I told him I would but I couldn't spell it...

so he wrote it down for me :)

17 Months

Our big girl is 17 months old! She has hit a lot of milestones this past month. She has added another word to her vocabulary - "No!" I blame her Dad. One day he goes, "Macyn, can you say "no, no no?" and what does she do? Repeats "No, no no!"  and now, she says "no" to mostly everything.

Mom: "Macyn, let's brush your hair" - "no"

Mom: "Macyn, let's pick up your toys" - "no, no, no"

...........you get the idea.

Then I will say, "can you say hi?" "HI."  So those are her only 2 words she says consistently. No and Hi. Quite the vocabulary. She has also started to scowl. She wrinkles her forehead and looks at you very sternly. She does this when she is thinking about what you just said, or if she doesn't want to do something. Usually with a "no," accompanied by a scowl!

Another feat we are trying to do is potty training. It was going well the first few days, then skipped a couple, then went well again. It's exhausting, really. We aren't going full forced training, but she does understand. Sometimes she is stubborn and won't go on her potty, but she always shows us that she is wet by grabbing her diaper. We still try daily for her to go potty, but aren't pushing it. She went 10 times this past week, so it's a start. If nothing else, at least it saves on some diapers!

She has also learned how to take my step stool and use it to reach items in the bathroom and other places. This just means that we need to watch her closer than ever! She also likes to push the paddles for the water and ice dispense on the fridge. We turned the child lock on pronto. She climbs chairs and gets into trouble on the table as well. 

She still likes to brush her teeth and gets really excited about washing her hands. I think she is still working on her incisors. I wish they would come through already. The bottom one is almost through, but I wish we would just be done and over with - until her 2 year molars come in!

She enjoys dancing and playing with toys. She is even starting to move forward in her Cozy Coupe instead of backwards! We still think she is tall for her age when we compare her to her daycare playmates. There are some kids in her room who are older than her and she is just as tall. I had to pick her up from the 2 year old room and she was as tall as some of the girls in there! It will be interesting to see where her height falls at her next check up. Until then, you be the judge. The pants I bought her a couple of months ago are getting too short. They are sized 18-24 months and look like floodwater pants. I guess it's time to break out the 2T jeans!

Like Mother, Like Daughter

Canned Goods Stacking

Macyn has really been into stacking things lately. Here she was pulling groceries out of the bags and making towers. Thank goodness for canned goods and plastic jars!

Since she mastered the art of stacking on the floor, she decided to move to the bench. A little more dangerous, but the finished and even clapped for herself!

Baby Blues

Popcorn(y)

Where's Macyn?!

There she is!

Think Spring!

I think I have spring fever. For 2 reasons. First, I bought Macyn some new shoes for summer:
 

I couldn't resist the Trek Shoes from Old Navy. I thought these would be perfect for summer. They are a mesh shoe with a solid sole - essentially sandal tennis shoes. The back velcro's to keep them on. The best part is, she can't figure out how to get them off! I also got her 2 pairs of flip flops, one size 5 and one size 6 - in hopes of them fitting all summer. The second reason I have spring fever is because we bought this:
 

This is what you would call a tent that is too big to set up anywhere in our house so we resorted to the garage. It is a 3 room tent which is 20' x 11'! We bought this with our vacation money in hopes this will be our solution to our "cheap vacations" this year. We can't wait to use the tent, even if it is at our local campground 4 miles away. The Vacation Lodge (yes, that is the name of the tent) was really easy to put up. Now folding it back into the bag, not so much. It is large enough to fit 3 queen sized air mattresses. We figured we would use some of the space to bring our bikes along with our bike trailer we bought last year. So, if anyone knows of any good camp grounds around the area, let us know!

Brave Little Caden

You wouldn't be able to tell by the big smile on his face that this little guy had a 2 hour surgery the night before! We are thankful all our prayers have been answered in keeping him safe through all of this. We are also thankful for the comfort his Mommy & Daddy had during this time. We went and saw Caden today and he is doing so well! The surgery went smooth and everything is draining the way its supposed to be. My sister even told me that the nurses said he was the best baby ever! What a brave little man!

While we were there they even pulled his IV drip and unhooked his heart monitor so we could hold him. I even attempted to feed him, but I'm outta whack with babies. I forget what I have to do!

 It was nice being able to hold him through all of this. It really was an awesome day to see how well he is doing and how much he smiled. Thank goodness for answered prayers!

Potty Time!

Remember last fall when I picked up this potty chair at the garage sales? I am sure glad I did since Macyn has been tugging at her diaper lately to let us know she is wet. Usually she likes to play with her chair, but for the past week or so, I have been putting her on it and telling her to "go potty" before her bath. She usually sits on it and does nothing. Even though she hasn't done anything before, I figured it doesn't hurt to get her used to sitting on it. Well tonight, she was playing with her diapers, took one, and attempted to put it on. I immediately asked, "Macyn do you have to go potty?" She then stands up, points to the bathroom and runs there. I decided to follow her. I was thinking in the back of my head that she needs to learn that "go potty" means to sit on the potty and go pee or poop. I also wanted her to learn that when she points or grabs her crotch, that means its potty time! Anyways, we get to the bathroom, and I pulled down her pj's and took off her diaper and set her down. We weren't even on the potty a minute or so, and she went number 2! I was beyond shocked, and still am. I am not sure if this was just a fluke or if she really knew she had to go. The funny thing is, she usually goes #2 standing up. This is the first time she went sitting down! We praised her a whole bunch and told her what a big girl she is! Hopefully this will be one stepping stone to potty training. She is only 16 months and can't talk, so I don't have my hopes up yet....but it's definitely a start!

Eat, Drink, & Be Merry

First let me start out with a little background story. Macyn has started boycotting her high chair and refusing to eat unless she is being held or standing on a chair. The past couple of days it has gotten better (knock on wood), so I came up with a "fix" to this problem. Since we don't have a little table and chairs, I pulled out her folding chair I got at a garage sale for $2 and put it next to the bench in front of our window....aka. "poor man's kiddie table."  I put her container of Goldfish crackers & her juice on the table, and I couldn't believe my eyes - she was sitting there without throwing a fit! I think she feels a sense of accomplishment considering how she wants to do everything by herself already! This is really helpful that she likes sitting at her own space when I get home from work and try to start supper. She will eat her snack and look outside without ever bothering me in the kitchen. With that being said: 

Eat,

 Drink,

 and Be Merry!