Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Hand, Foot, and Mouth, Oh my!

So I just realized that I shared that Kare was sick, but I never updated.

She ran a pretty high fever on Sunday night, woke up at 3 screaming and didn't go back to sleep until about 6:30, slept till 7:00 and then was done.  When she woke up her temp was at 99, so I thought she was on the mend.  She didn't seem to be herself and wasn't eating, but her fever was gone so I wasn't too worried about it.  On Monday night she went to bed at 7, woke up screaming at 10 and didn't go back to sleep or stop screaming really at all.  It was awful.  I couldn't decide what was wrong with her because her fever was gone, but she was inconsolable.  I honestly thought that she just didn't want to be alone.  What a mean mom I am to doubt that she was in pain.

We went to the early morning sick clinic at the ped. office on Tuesday morning.  By that time she was in a pretty good mood, wouldn't eat anything, but played just fine.  I had decided that either she suddenly became scared of the dark or she had an ear infection.  The dr. looked at her ears and proclaimed that they were perfect.  At that point my stomach sank because I was sure she was playing us.  Then she went to look at her throat.  K fought opening her mouth and when the dr. finally got the stick in there to look at her throat the dr. said, "Poor Baby! It is hand, foot, and mouth."  Which I automatically associated with hoof and mouth, and was grossed out.  There is actually no association.  Thank goodness!  It basically meant she had blisters on her hands (she only had one, so I didn't notice), feet (only two, again, didn't notice because they were tiny) and mouth (apparently she had a lot in her mouth and throat, poor thing, but I didn't see because I couldn't get her to open her mouth).  We were quarantined in our house all week, but after Tuesday, she didn't seem to feel as bad.

Baby's first virus has come and gone.  Praise the Lord it is gone!  On Friday I sanitized our entire house, and this week we have reveled in our freedom to go about in public.

Being Productive.

Two things that have been on my to-do (to-learn) list I have checked off this week.

I have been wanting to learn to braid K's hair for a while.  It is getting significant length to it and needs more done than just the afro with bow (because it gets SO tangled).  I have watched countless videos and read innumerable tutorials, I just needed to try it.  I was nervous about trying because she is not okay with sitting still.  I tried it in my hair a few times, but it is so different with long straight hair than kinky short hair.  I finally made the decision to just do it.  The only way to get good at it is to practice.  I put Sesame Street on the tv and just followed her around the room attempting to braid at the same time.  They didn't look very good, but they were honestly better than I thought they would be.


Because they were so loose by this morning, they looked awful, and I had to take them out.  Her hair needed to be washed anyway, so after washing I sat her in the bumbo this time (she was tired, so it actually worked really well).  The only thing is that she went to bed on it immediately, so we will see in the morning what it looks like.  They weren't any tighter this time, so...





Please forgive how bad the parts are.  It was a combination of a moving child and pulling the hair out of the clips during braiding.  What can I say, my fine motor skills leave something to be desired.



This afternoon I checked off item #2:  homemade laundry detergent.

Two reasons why I wanted to try homemade detergent: cost (I'm incredibly frugal) and I secretly want to be green, which is frequently in conflict with being frugal.  This time it wasn't so there's no reason not to do it right?

Here are my ingredients
I used Ivory soap because I couldn't find Fels Naptha anywhere in Memphis.  I don't know if it would make a huge difference or not, but I didn't want to have to order it online in case I didn't like it.  I got the giant package of Ivory because it was $.50 more than the three pack.  Silly grocery store prices.


Ingredients that aren't necessary, but help with the process:
Starbucks frappuchino and listening to Adele on the computer.


I started by grating the soap.  I used 2 bars.  I doubled it since I was going to the trouble.

Ivory soap smells so good.  Well, at least the smell has good memories attached to it.  It makes me think of going to the lake as a kid.  When I was little we camped at the lake, so we often "bathed" in the lake instead of the gross bath houses.  Since ivory soap floats it was the soap of choice for lake time. This was back in the old days before body wash was the norm.  As I was grating the soap I was flooded with fun lake memories.  I don't know if there is any part of my childhood that I treasure more than our summers at the lake.



When grating anything in my kitchen, I always end up grating my finger.  Does anyone else have this problem?



I stirred in 2 cups of Washing Soda (not baking soda) and 2 cups of Borax.



Put it in an empty oxyclean container with a Tbsp measure (1T for small load 2T for large load)


I have done three loads of laundry with it so far and I have been pleased.  I also added a scoop of Kroger brand oxyclean, which I was doing with regular detergent most of the time.  At some point I want to try adding vinegar for a fabric softener, but I still have a bounce bar in my dryer.  When it is gone I'll try that to see what I think.

All of the supplies for this cost approximately $12.  I should be able to make 8-10 batches, each batch is 32 loads.

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Catching up

Since I still have another 45 minutes before I can give K her tylenol and head to bed, I guess I'll just update the blog.

March 23 was "Gotcha Day" at our house!  Van took off work so that we could spend the day as a family.  The weather was great, so we took our lunch to Shelby Farms for a picnic, and a long walk.  I love that we were able to spend this anniversary together.




I cannot get a good picture of the two of us!


K loves to watch us brush our teeth, so I finally got her a toothbrush (for her 3 teeth).  It was quite the hit.  She gets so excited when I tell her it is time to brush her teeth.  Usually the end of tooth brushing time brings about tears.  At least she is passionate about oral hygiene.




I don't remember when specifically this was, but one day I really wanted to go to the zoo.  So, I got up, packed us a lunch and got us ready for the zoo.  Unfortunately when I got there I couldn't even see the entrance because of all of the school groups there, not to mention a parking space.  Because of our membership we can go to the zoo whenever we want, but can also be a snob about crowds and such.  We went back home and had our picnic in the back yard.



Please note the poor parts.  Parting her hair is HARD!  I'm getting better though. 
I LOVE this picture!


The blog has been quiet lately.  I have several big things going on in my heart and head that I will share in due time, but until then, we have pictures of our cute kid.

An Easter Weekend

Yesterday was one of those rare Saturdays when we didn't have anything that we had to do.  Those only come around about once every three months, but we sure did cherish it.  We started the day with friends.  Their parents were setting up for our church's Easter service (at the Canon Center), so they came over to play.

Van set the tent up in the backyard to let it air out after someone had borrowed it.  I didn't know this needed to happen (I think maybe he just wanted to set it up), but Van is very particular about caring for his camping equipment!  You know, he is an eagle scout.  The kids thought the tent was just the best thing ever!




please ignore her hair, I didn't do anything to it until 4:00



K spent the afternoon napping, I made cookies and caught up on "The Voice" (by caught up, I mean, I am only through the battle rounds, so don't ruin anything for me, and I must say that the judges sent home several of my favorites....shame, and Christina, would you just wear a shirt?  Good grief!)  while Van spent some time on our yard, our very neglected yard.  If anyone wants to give us yard care, we would love it!  I'd pay in baked goods.  I'm pretty sure that if we didn't live in the 'hood, we would be booted out of the neighborhood.

We spent our evening at the Levitt Shell for the Drew and Ellie Holcomb Easter Eve concert.  We met several of our friends for a potluck picnic, and ran into so many other friends.  Apparently it was the place to be on Saturday night.  It was a perfect spring evening.  (I didn't really get many good pictures, but here are those that I did get)

K met her favorite singer/songwriter, Andrew Best


She enjoyed getting to hang out with Miss Abigail again

This morning we woke up excited to celebrate the Resurrection!  K didn't seem very excited though.  In fact we thought that her dress made her mad.  I say thought, because by this afternoon she had a fever, so maybe it wasn't the dress that was annoying her, but in reality she wasn't feeling well.  Poor girl.  Also poor girl because look at her Easter "basket."  Her mother is just too practical.  I couldn't bring myself to buy her candy knowing that I would be the one to eat it.  Van just isn't tempted by sweets, and I am trying to keep her from being addicted to such things, so I wouldn't give it to her either.  So, no candy.   And the "basket" is just a tub.  I got her this because I really want her to have a water table, but it seems silly to pay $30 for something that just holds water, so I got her a $5 tub.  Not only am I practical, but also cheap!  So her "basket" was a tub.  She did enjoy the grass though (completely impractical).  I'm sure she will think it is awesome when I fill it with water and let her play in it.


We headed to Easter celebration service where Van and I worked in the nursery.  We were in K's class with her.  She ended up wanting one of us to be with her the whole time.  Oy, this stage can be very frustrating!

After church we went to my parent's house.  She got a proper Easter basket that even had her name on it.  We had lunch and an Easter egg hunt.  K didn't partake of the egg hunting.  By that time she had a fever, so she just sat with Nana, while Van and I competed with my fam for the prizes.  We like to think of my parents egg hunts as K's college fund, but this year we did not bring our a-game.  Oh well, at least we have 17 more years to prepare, and next year she should be able to help us.

I love this shirt/bow combo so much that she will likely wear it once a week until she grows out of it

A few minutes after this picture, Van fell asleep and took quite the nap, right in the middle of the chaos.

By the time we got home her fever was up to 103 in spite of the tylenol in her system.  She and Van are both asleep now while I wait for time for her next dose.  It seems like these random fevers happen so often, but I'm pretty sure it is just my paranoia.  Hopefully she will wake up tomorrow feeling great.  And my apologies for all of those that we possibly infected over the past few days.

This past week we made a point each night to sit down with her Jesus Storybook Bible and read the Gospel story leading up to today, the resurrection.  It was a sweet time even if she was all over the place the whole time.  We hope, as she gets older, to introduce more traditions such as this in order to point our celebrations and our lives to Christ.

He is Risen!  He is Risen indeed!