Bacteria Suck

Just a little over a month ago Charlotte had an ear infection in each ear. That cleared up and she was actually well for a couple of weeks. Then, we get to the beach last week and she comes down with a cold. I think she's only had 1 cold where she didn't get an ear infection, so I panicked a little bit. I didn't want to have to go to the ER or clinic out of town. I gave her Benedryl each night before bed in a desperate attempt to try to clear her head up so she wouldn't get an ear infection. By Thursday of last week her cold was cleared up and no signs of an ear infection - whew!

Sunday she woke up with her eyes crusted shut. (I find this to be more disgusting that dirty diapers) I cleaned her up and noticed that her eyes kept secreting green stuff. And her nose was producing green stuff. (YUCK!) This was a first. I decided I'd wait it out a couple of days to see if it would clear up on it's own. Of course it didn't. After a sleepless night on Monday night, and daycare telling me that she didn't nap on Tuesday, I made a doctor's appointment. So, I took her to the doctor yesterday to find she has an ear infection in each ear. Back on antibiotics.

To make matters worse, I get all of the colds too! Yesterday I was running a fever, was achy, and had a sore throat. Judd was convinced I had swine flu, since we ate Mexican Sunday night, and he made me go to the doctor. So, I spent an hour and half at the doctor yesterday, then had to take Charlotte to the doctor in the afternoon. This kind of thing is stressful for a working mom - I was supposed to be in the office working yesterday. But instead, I was running around to different doctor's appointments. Even though I don't have a ton of work to do right now, I still feel guilty every time I leave.

Does this ever get better? Will she ever NOT be sick? I feel like the poor child has been sick since she got a cold at 2 weeks. At this point I'm seriously considering getting a nanny in hopes that she won't be exposed to so much. But, then the nanny will take her to the library for story time, or the pool, or Target where Charlotte will chew on the shopping cart and she'll get sick. If I stayed home with her would she be less sick? Is it my fault that she goes through all of this?

I know there are people dealing with way worse, and I feel bad for even typing this post. So, forgive me - just needed to get it out.

Tomorrow, I promise a happy post with happy pictures.

Beach Pictures Part 2

I am slowly going through the beach pictures. Here are pictures from the girl's first ice cream cone. It was Dave's idea to take them up to Miss Lucille's Gossip Parlor on Sunday to get each of them a little ice cream. They all loved it :) (so did the adults!)









Just before the sugar rush:

Beach Baby

Whew! We survived. It was touch and go at times, but the Himes and Davis families survived a week at the beach with three 1 year olds.

We rented a house in Santa Rosa Beach, FL. The house was fabulous. It was three stories with 5 bedrooms. We rarely even used the bottom floor. The bathroom Judd and I used was bigger than our bedroom. The shower had 3 shower heads - I could have spent most of the day in the shower - so relaxing.

The house wasn't on the beach, but it was just one house back from the beach. The house was next to the public beach access, so we only had a 3 minute walk to the water. We had a great view of the ocean from our living room.

The first few days were a little cold and really windy. We didn't spend too much time at the beach or the pool. By Wednesday the winds had died down and the temperature rose to the 80's. We would spend some time in the mornings and the afternoons down at the beach, then splash around in the pool a while.

Charlotte wasn't too sure about the beach & ocean the first couple of times we went down, but by Friday she was a pro. At low tide there was an awesome sand bar that was perfect for little ones to play on. She spent almost an hour playing on it Thursday & Friday evenings.

All three girls (and one mom, Erin) fought a cold throughout the week. Charlotte & Emma were fighting it at the beginning of the week, then Ella & Erin fought it towards the end. That made the trip a little more challenging, and a little less relaxing, but I think we all had a great time anyway. Erin and I were both pretty sick of snot and sand by Friday.

We definately looked forward to nap times - and the girls were pretty much on the same schedule for afternoon naps. Erin and I even got a full hour on the beach by ourselves!

Judd and I loved having a full week with Charlotte. She has so much personality and it is fun to see what she is going to do next. This week she surprised us over and over again with how much she is learning. I'm really sad for tomorrow to come and reality to start up again.

Beach Bound

Charlotte's new crocs for the beach. (This picture is dedicated to my sister-in-law)

I love going on vacation - especially to the beach. But, I hate the day before vacation. It is always so busy and hectic - especially now that there is a one year old thrown in the mix.

Today I had a few big things on my list: take the car for oil change, drop off Jody at the kennel, clean the house (because I hate coming home to a dirty house), pack Charlotte's bag and my bag, and a million other little things.

So, I took the car to the shop first thing this morning. It turned out to be more than an oil change, so they gave me a loaner car for the day while they worked on it. I went home and got Jody to take her to the kennel. After the kennel, on the way home I was feeling good, I was getting a lot accomplished and it was only 11 o'clock. So, I decided I would stop by Old Navy to see if there were any last minute items I needed for the beach.

As I was gaining speed on the on-ramp to 285 the person in front of me slammed on their brakes. Who stops on an on-ramp! I stomped my foot as hard as I could on the brake, but it didn't matter. I hit the truck in front of me! I couldn't believe it. I haven't had an accident in 9 years and I have it the day I'm driving a loaner car with only 80 miles on it. The guy that I hit was very nice, there wasn't a scratch or dent on his truck, seems the car I was driving hit his hitch. We didn't call to get a police report, just exchanged info and drove on.

When I returned the car the dealership was very nice. They called with the estimate and I'll have to file with insurance - the estimate was a lot more than the deductible. Judd was also good about it. I think I'm the one being the hardest on myself.

Judd's downstairs packing the car now. I'll be happy to get on the road tomorrow morning and truly be in vacation mode - let the stress of today stay behind in Atlanta.

That Hurt

I picked up Charlotte from daycare on Tuesday afternoon. I went to the door, she came to the door so I could pick her up. She wiggled and squirmed until I put her down in the hallway. (She likes to walk out of daycare herself now, no more of this carrying stuff - she's too big for that. ) After I got her daily report from Teacher 1, Charlotte and I walked down the hall towards the office. I needed to ask them a billing question.

As we were walking, Charlotte's other teacher, Teacher 2, was coming down the hall. Charlotte let go of my hand and tore off in her direction. When she reached her she threw herself at Teacher 2. Teacher 2 picked her up and Charlotte gave her a huge hug with a big smile on her face.

I thought, Well that's wonderful, she really does love her teachers. But, then I went to take her from Teacher 2 and she wouldn't come to me! She was clinging to Teacher 2 and whined when I finally was able to pry her away.

The ladies in the office saw this happen. When I stepped into the office they said, "How does that make you feel, upset?" I said, "No, I'm so happy that Charlotte loves her teachers." And I am very happy that Charlotte loves her teachers - of course I'm thrilled about that. But what I really wanted to do when they asked me that question was release the tears that were welling up and say, "Yes that makes me upset - it breaks my heart in two - as if this wasn't hard enough, now she loves Teacher 2 more than me!"

There's no doubt that Charlotte loves me - she has even started hugging and kissing - it is very cute. It is irrational to think that she loves Teacher 2 more than me, but I think it is natural to feel that when this type of situation occurs. I'm pretty sure it won't ever get easier to take - whether it is Teacher 2, a future nanny, a future friend or boyfriend. I'll just keep loving Charlotte with all of my heart and be the best mommy I can be, and hope that she continues to feel that.

Bath by candlelight

No, I didn't have a nice relaxing bubble bath by candlelight last night...Charlotte did. (I'm not really a bath girl anyway)

Yesterday morning the wind really kicked up around our house. About 10am I saw a big flash, then heard a big BOOM, and then the house went silent. All power was out. The transformer (or whatever it is) outside of our house blew. This seems to happen a lot to us. I had a meeting at 11, so after waiting for 30 minutes to see if the power would magically restore itself, I called Erin to see if I could come borrow some of her internet. I headed over to the Himes residence, but couldn't get connected there - so then headed to Panera to try to work.

However, Panera only allows 30 minute internet sessions at a time during the lunch hour. That didn't matter, as soon as I was logged in and settled my phone rang. "Hi, this is day care, the power is out here - come pick up your kid." Awesome.

I headed over to day care and got Charlotte just as she was drifting off to sleep for her afternoon nap. I kept her awake on the way home by singing prayers of power restoration. Got home to find the house still quiet. I played with Charlotte for a while and then put her down for her nap. I worked on the two things I could do without internet access, then took a 10 min nap before she woke up.

The power didn't come on until 11pm last night. And when it did the whole house lit up - including the light in Charlotte's room. Luckily, she slept right through it.

Judd and I had a really nice night. He went and picked up a pizza for us and we sat at the table and ate and talked for an hour or so after Charlotte went to bed. It was nice to be completely unplugged for the evening. Normally we would have eaten the pizza in silence while we watched TV. Then, we would have watched TV for a couple hours before bed or I would have played around in Photoshop and Illustrator for a while. We probably would have only said a few paragraphs to each other. Instead we made the packing list for our upcoming vacation and shared events from our day. We kept mentioning that this is what it was like for people in the "old days". I'm not saying that I want to give up TV, but it would be nice to have an evening like this once every week.

Easter

We had a really nice weekend at Judd's parent's house this weekend. On Thursday night, we didn't think we were going to be able to go. Judd's mom has completed 2 of her 12 rounds of chemo. Her white blood cell count was pretty low at her appointment last week. Judd and I were both fighting some sort of cold or allergies (but we don't know which) and didn't want to risk infecting her. We talked to his mom on Friday morning and she insisted we come down for the weekend. We packed a bottle of Purel and hit the road.

We had a nice evening Friday visiting with his parents and his Aunt and Uncle. Saturday morning Judd's mom made pancakes and we all took our time getting ready for the day. While I was in the shower, Judd took Charlotte out onto the screen porch. He came back in with her and she had hives all over her face. She kept rubbing her eyes and ears like the hives were itchy. We put her in the bathtub to try to wipe off whatever was bothering her. We also gave her a dose of Benedryl. Not sure what she was allergic to, but they went away after an hour or so. We think it was possibly all of the pollen on the porch.

The church's egg hunt started at 2pm. Charlotte didn't start her nap until 1:40, so she missed it. So, we threw a private one for her out in the front lawn.

Saturday evening Judd's sister & brother-in-law and their two girls, Katie & Lilly arrived from a week at Disney World. Charlotte was in awe of her cousins the entire evening. She talked and talked to them, chased them around, and wanted to do everything they were doing. It was adorable.

Today, we woke up early to go to sunrise service at church. Charlotte wore her new fancy dress that my parents sent her a few weeks ago. We had another egg hunt after church so Charlotte's cousins could join the fun. Then, we all hit the road back to North Georgia. Charlotte was exhausted and fell asleep about 2 minutes after we pulled out of the driveway.

Happy Easter!

Alphabet Book

The Alphabet Book came in the mail last week. Charlotte and I sat down today to take a little peek at it.

This one I took today and thought was pretty funny. I was trying to put the alphabet book in her lap so she could pose with it - she wanted nothing to do with that. It was almost like she was saying, "Just try it again, lady."

Dirty Laundry

Did you watch Oprah yesterday? It was awesome. A room full of moms airing all of their dirty laundry in an effort to help other moms understand that we are all going through the same things. This morning I thought I'd join in, so here it goes:

• I HATE doing the laundry. My hamper is overflowing now, and will probably be that way for a couple more days - meaning that dirty clothes will be all over our bathroom floor.
• I HATE ironing more than I hate doing laundry. And this isn't good because I usually let the dry clothes sit in the laundry basket for a couple of days before I put them away - meaning they are very wrinkly. So, I usually only wear my dry clean only pants to work because they have been dry cleaned and are the only pants I own without wrinkles.
• When I was breastfeeding Charlotte, I only rinsed out my pump parts after pumping - rarely did I fill up a sink with soapy water and wash the parts properly.
• Our bed only gets clean sheets every 2 weeks - and that's because my cleaning lady does it.
• It is my job to pay the bills, and I am terrible at it. We've received many a cut off notice over the years. (nothing has ever actually been cut off, though, whew)
• I secretly loathe really skinny moms. I know that they are the perfect wife, perfect employee, cook healthy dinners for their family each night, do perfect laundry, make art projects with their kids, and exercise every day - because if you are skinny you are perfect at everything, right?
• Charlotte's bath toys just sit at the bottom of the tub each night after her bath probably collecting all sorts of bath grime. I know I should rinse them off and let them dry, but I don't.
• I give in to Charlotte a lot more than I thought I would. Most of the time if she cries, she gets what she wants. I'm slowly creating a monster.
• I'm terrible at remembering dates. For Christmas, my mom gave me a calendar with birthdays & anniversaries already filled out - at the beginning of March I missed calling my sister on her anniversary. Each year I say I'm going to be better - and I never am.
• I am wracked with guilt every day because I'm not sure I'm doing the right thing by continuing to work. I justify it well, but still feel very guilty that someone else is raising my child 5 days/week (now 4 days/week)
• I buy organic food for Charlotte - I know it is probably better, but I do it mostly because I feel pressure from society.
• I take out my frustrations on my dog. I never hit her, but I yell sometimes. I feel awful afterwards every time.
• I only spend 3 hours with Charlotte in the evenings - but I am exhausted when she goes to bed. Almost every afternoon we go for a walk just because it is a break for me. Why do I need a break when I'm only with her for 3 hours?
• I let Charlotte rip everything out of our bathroom cabinets to keep her busy while I need to get ready - this means she is usually walking around shaking a bottle of prenatal vitamins - the poster child for Poison Control - or running around with feminie supplies in her hands.

So there you go. I'm sure this isn't it, but maybe it will help an overwhelmed mom out there feel a little better about herself. You got any dirty laundry?

Big Blue Eyes Press

I don't want to clutter this personal blog with my projects, so I have decided to start a small design blog.

http://bigblueeyespress.blogspot.com/

Please subscribe and check back often! I hope you like it, and as always, I'd love to hear your feedback.

Of course I'll still be posting here. If the sun ever comes out for more than 2 hours, I hope to get Charlotte out for some pics. (I'm starting to wonder if this is what it feels like to live in Seattle.)

We survived the Decatur Egg Hunt

We met the Johnsons and their son Declan at the Decatur Egg Hunt yesterday. When we got there, Judd and I were a little surprised by calm it was. There were sections marked off for 3 different age groups, we lined up outside of the 0-2 age group.

We had about 30 min to wait before the hunt started, so we took turns walking Charlotte around, then she sat and put all of the dirt into her bucket.

When it was time, the countdown began and parents and kids descended on the eggs. It was a little overwhelming.

Charlotte decided the best course of action was to just sit down in the middle of it all and collect the eggs within her reach. This actually worked out well for her because one kid (who was way older than 0-2) would come over and just put eggs he found into her bucket.

After the hunt we found Declan and his parents. Charlotte and Declan compared their loot.

Judd felt sorry for Charlotte as she tried her hardest to get to one of the eggs. She was biting and sucking the wrapper as hard as she could. Finally, she was able to dig in...she ate every bite. I'm pretty sure this was the most sugar she's ever had at a time.

After it cleared out, she decided to go out for another hunt. There weren't any eggs left - she didn't seem to care.

Brush your teeth

Since Charlotte's first tooth broke through we have been "brushing" her teeth. We usually do this once a day while she's in the bath - just seems easier that way. But, we really should brush her teeth twice a day, so we need to add a morning brushing. It just isn't easy to brush a 14 month old's teeth. I try to get the toothbrush in her mouth, then quickly rub it over the front teeth and do my best to get the teeth/gums in the back. I feel like she ends up spending most of the time sucking the tooth paste off of the brush. I just hope her teeth don't rot away before she's 2.