Drive in Movies!

With the nice weather we got Ashley's car out, however, she wanted to be in it all the time!  So, I brought it in the house.  Pete took this once night when I was out...

First Smooch!

Ashley started tumble tots last Thursday and a little boy, Ethan, who was in Tot Rock, is also in this class.  They both tend to stare each other down at each class, I just thought it was because they recognized each other. Well, today, as they were playing on the mats during free time, they were sitting together and Ethan leaned in to give Ashley a kiss!

Who could blame him?  She's awfully cute!

Aw, poop!

Poor Ashley got diarrhea from her antibiotics which caused a horrible diaper rash.  The doctor changed the antibiotic and the pharmacist recommended something to help her become more regular, Florastor Kids.

She is now on Zithromax and it's cherry flavored.  I remember cherry flavored medication, and it wasn't a pleasant memory (I'm sure my mom has that same feeling as I recall it being less than easy to get me to take it).  Ashley was really good with taking her amoxicillin, she would hold the syringe in her mouth while I pushed a little in at a time making sure she would actually swallow it.  Today was not as easy with the new cherry flavor.  At least the antibiotic is only once a day for 5 days, so 4 more doses to go.

After her bath, I let her run around nude while her bum dried since it was so red.  This was the first time I had the guts to let her go diaper-less for for than a minute or two.  I had her on the first floor since it would be easy to clean the wood floor if she were to go.  No more than 5 minutes later that she squatted and took a dump on the floor!  I was not expecting that, I couldn't help but laugh!  I screamed for help and Pete thought I was joking but he ran to take over cleaning the floor while I diapered her.  It'll be a long time until I let her roam diaper-less again!  On a positive note, it seemed like this was progress at potty training.

Parenthood is definitely interesting!

Bronchitis!

Well, I guess we are lucky that we made it 18.5 months before Ashley got sick enough to need antibiotics.  Her fever from the weekend seemed to finally be gone Monday after she took a 3 hour nap, however, Tuesday she woke up with a cough and a low-grade fever.  Today, she woke up and was coughing for about 30 minutes, so I decided to take her in.

She was so out of it that she didn't move for the exam.  I knew something was wrong when they took her temperature and she didn't care (usually she'll cry) and then Dr. Kalenowski checked her ears and she didn't even move!  Last week she screamed and squirmed when he looked at her 18 month exam.  Her ears were clear (she was pulling on them last night) but he could hear congestion in her lungs.  I said I could feel it when I was holding her.

He sent us on our way with an antibiotic of Amoxicillin.  Luckily, it's berry flavored like her ibuprofen.  So even though she'll fight me on it, she'll usually take it once she realizes it's not horrible tasting.  He was nice enough to give us more than we need since she's so good as spitting it out.

I think she's enjoying the sick treatment as I'm letting her eat while watching TV and she's having noodles (from soup) and a juice box (she seems to love straight juice)!

Flying Home from Maryland

Well, our flight home was less than fun.  Ashley was tired and still sick so she was pretty crabby in the terminal.  I'm sure everyone was less than thrilled to get on  a plane with us.  However, once we got on the plane, she was pretty happy.  She sat and watched her youtube videos and Winnie the Pooh and when she got crabby about 90 minutes into the 2 hr flight, she fell asleep.

Unfortunately, right before she fell asleep, the pilot announced that they had to hold back since there was a lot of traffic at O'Hare airport due to the stormy weather.  When we finally we descending, something woke up Ashley (a man coughed and that seemed to have been it), so she woke up to what I imagine was ear pain from the pressure changing.  So again, she screamed during the descent.  This time, it lasted longer as it took forever to land.  Luckily, I had a good grip on her as she thrashed around.  When we finally landed she took her milk and calmed down a bit.  Then we got more bad news, there was lighting and we had to stay on the plane until the weather was clear.  Fortunately, they allowed us to walk around, so I paced the aisle with Ashley and she remained calm.  As we finally arrived at the gate 3.5 hours after take off, we let everyone else get off first.  Many people made nice or funny comments about Ashley's screaming.  I'm sure they were all just happy she was good for most of the flight since she was so loud beforehand.

When we finally got off the plane, our stroller was missing!  My first thought was that someone stole it!  But then they said they just didn't bring it up yet.  It was one stroller for the whole flight and we had been sitting there for at least 15 minutes already.  We waited 10-15 more minutes and after 2 calls for the stroller, it finally arrived.  We ran out as the next flight couldn't board until we were out of there!

It was a crazy day and we decided we will not be flying again with Ashley any time soon.  18 months may possibly be the worst age to fly with!!  At least she got to spend some time with her grandparents, great-grandma and more!

Saturday Night Fever, well, actually, Friday night

I wasn't feeling well myself, so I took some Nyquil and headed to bed and told Pete he was on Ashley duty since I would be out of it.  I thought it would only be waking up from moving around and being in a new place, but poor Ashley woke up with a fever!  Pete tried to wake me, but I was so out of it from the Nyquil, he got his mom to help.  Ashley's temp was 102.8 under the arm, which means you add a degree, so it was 103.8!  You could feel the heat radiating off her body just being close to her!

After a dose of tylenol she slept a little and woke up crying around 3:30am.  This time she woke me.  I couldn't believe how hot she was.  After throwing up on Grammy from crying so much, she seemed to calm down.  We gave her a dose of Ibuprofen and everyone went to bed while I tried to get her to sleep.  She slept another hour from 4:30-5:30 and then she was inconsolable, but fortunately her fever seems to drastically drop.  I took her down to watch TV.  Luckily, Sesame Street was on some sort of morning marathon.  She finally fell asleep in my arms around 7:30am.

She slept for a few hours and then woke up and watch TV with poppy and barely moved a muscle.  She spent most of Saturday sleeping and relaxing and even had a burst of energy and was playing in the afternoon.

Unfortunately, Saturday night she was starting to show signs of dehydration (not wetting diapers, not crying tears).  I said if it didn't change quickly, we would have to take her to the ER.  We decided to inject pedialyte in her mouth since she refused all fluids.  She was mad, but after 5-6 syringesful, she seemed to be acting better - she cried a tear and even grabbed for her sippy cup.

After eating some apples, mac and cheese puffs (her favorite) and drinking from random cups (I had a buffet of cups  and snacks for her on the counter) she seemed much better.  She went to bed and had a good night's sleep.

She woke up Sunday acting like herself.  She still appeared to have a low-grade temperature, but that could have been due to teething as her molars are coming in.

It wasn't fun to have Ashley get sick on the trip, but it was definitely nice to have extra helping hands!

Spring time in Maryland!

Well, we didn't expect to be traveling to Maryland for warm weather, but it was a nice bonus!  When we arrived on Thursday we walked out of the airport and didn't need coats!  It was close to 70 degrees on Thursday and even warmer on Friday.  It was nice to get some fresh air and let Ashley run around in the yard.  She even took a nap in her stroller while on a walk with her grandparents.