April 7-9

I try to keep things real on this blog. When writing a blog like this, it is easy to make everything sound happy and wonderful all the time, like life is absolutely perfect 100% of the time. Blogs like that drive me crazy, so I try to avoid painting a picture of perfection around here.

But at the same time I don't want to be whiny and annoying all the time either. Nobody wants to read all my complaining, I'm sure! Plus, I figure that whatever I am complaining about, there are so many people out there dealing with things that are much worse than my little life...so what right do I have to complain anyway? I try to find a balance between being upbeat and positive and still being real and honest.

I write all of this to warn you: today's post is going to be on the whiny side. You can stop reading now if you don't want to hear any more complaints from me!

Thursday morning, I woke feeling worse. SO MUCH pain and pressure in my head, cheeks, eyes and even teeth! I was pretty sure it was a sinus infection, so I headed to the doctor's office. Sure enough, she confirmed my suspicions and prescribed Amoxicillin, saying I should start feeling better in about 48 hours.

Meanwhile, Audrey woke up Thursday morning crying and saying that her ears hurt. So, Daniel took her to the pediatrician (or the doctor's house as Audrey calls it), and she confirmed our suspicions: a bad ear infection in both ears. So Audrey got some Amoxicillin too, only hers was bubble gum flavored (and she loves it, more to come on that later).

And meanwhile, Daniel woke up Thursday morning feeling bad, with the same symptoms of the cold that Audrey and I had which started all these infections for us.

Let me just pause to say--it's never fun being sick. But it is even worse being sick and being a parent. And even worse--being sick and being a parent and having a sick kid. And even worse than that--both parents being sick and having a sick kid. Not. fun. at. all.

So, now it's Saturday...we're at the 48 hour mark for the Amoxicillin. I woke up today feeling slightly better than the past few days, though still pretty rough. The horrible pain in my head, cheeks, eyes and teeth is only on one side of my head now. I have regained a little bit of my sense of taste and smell. Sleep and I have not been friends for a while now...the sinus infection has definitely not helped me in the sleep department as it seems to hurt more when I lay down. I used to think people overexaggerated the misery of a sinus infection...but now I know that they were not lying. It is horrible, and there's just not much I can do to find relief. I know there are over the counter medicines out there that could help me feel better. But being pregnant, I can't take any of them. So I'm just waiting for that antibiotic to do it's job...and hoping that it will actually work!

As far as Audrey goes...she has never acted like she felt super sick. But she has been much more irritable and grumpy this week. Lots of meltdowns and temper tantrums...makes me think she is still not 100% . She does really, really like her medicine though. We've had this conversation many times this week:

Audrey--My tummy hurts.
Us--Your tummy hurts?
Audrey--Yes. What make it feel better?
Us--I don't know...what do you think will make it feel better?
Audrey--Medicine make it feel better.

I'm pretty sure her tummy does not hurt...she is just trying all sorts of ways to get us to give her more medicine!

Daniel has been the trooper of the week. Even though he's not feeling well, he's been taking care of us and feeding us and keeping things together around here. I'm hoping in another day or two, life will return to normal around here. There is so much on my to do list right now. I feel like I have just wasted a week of my life, lying around and feeling miserable.

April 6

No picture today. I feel horrible. Audrey and I have both had colds for the past 4 days or so. But last night, mine got much worse. I'm wondering if it is becoming a sinus infection. Congestion, running nose, sore throat, cough, headache, and lots of pain and pressure in my face. I don't remember the last time I felt this bad. And along with the pregnancy-related heartburn, I have been sleeping horribly, so I'm just exhausted.

It was a long day for me and Miss Audrey. I tried really hard to be patient, but there were a few moments when I almost lost it completely. Like when she decided she didn't want to go potty this afternoon. So instead, she threw her panties into the toilet!

I stayed home from church tonight, so I have a few hours of quiet until Daniel and Audrey get back. I'm going to rest and take easy and try for a good night's sleep. And then I hope to wake up feeling like a new person tomorrow!

April 5

Tonight we had Braden and Angela over for dinner, and then Braden helped Daniel plant a new tree in our backyard (to replace the one that randomly fell down last year).
Audrey really wanted to help!
Then she wanted to walk on the dirt around the tree and get her shoes muddy, just like Braden!
And then, the most surprising thing of the night, she wanted to play in the dirt...with her hands! She normally doesn't like to get dirty, but she thought it was so much fun to get a handful of dirt and throw it on the ground!

April 4

Audrey really wanted to dress up like a princess tonight, so here she is in her "princess" outfit: Fairy wings, tutu, Cinderella crown and magic wand. Potty Training Update:

I haven't talked about this in a while, and I know you are all waiting on pins and needles to find out how things are going!

The answer is: things are going good! We started potty training on March 8, so it has been almost a month. She still has occasional accidents, but she goes in the potty almost all of the time. Her last accident was Wednesday night at church, so its been at least 5 days since she has had one. For the first week or so, our life revolved around the potty...but for the most part everything is back to normal now!

She is actually really good about going poop on the potty now...which is funny, because I was so worried about that in those first two weeks. She tells us when she needs to go, and then she goes! Something clicked with her one day, and ever since then, she hasn't had any problems. She still does get a "special treat" when she goes poop on the potty. But the two Thin Mint cookies have now been replaced by a few Gerber Yogurt Melts (the kind that they make for babies!). We were in Wal-mart last week and she really wanted to buy the Yogurt Melts. At first I told her those were just for babies, but then I thought they might work as a replacement for her cookies. So I told her we would get them, but she could only have them after she goes poop on the potty. And she has never asked for the cookies again! Crazy girl!

She occasionally will tell us she needs to go pee, but generally I take her to the bathroom before she tells me she needs to go. I'm still not quite sure that I trust her to be the one to make the call! Especially when we are out and about (which is just about every day), I'd prefer to be safe rather than sorry. But she is able to hold it for long periods of time. The accidents seem to come when she is in the middle of doing something really fun, and she doesn't want to stop and go potty. But I think that is pretty normal for all kids...even some elementary age kids!

She generally is dry when she wakes up from her nap. For a while, I was letting her wear her panties for naptime. But then she took a super long, 3 1/2 hour nap last week and wet the bed. I decided she could probably keep wearing her pull ups for a little longer. Same goes for night time. She is often dry when she wakes up in the mornings, though she has been a little wet the past copule of days. I'm not too concerned about her staying dry overnight at this point though. I'm fine with using pull ups at night time for a while still. I think it is normal for kids to take longer to be able to stay consistently dry all night long.

So is she 100% potty trained? No, probably not...as I'm sure she will still have occasional accidents. But she gets the idea and she is staying dry and clean a large majority of the time, so I'm a very happy mommy! =)

April 3

Tonight, our friends Jon and Heather revealed their baby's gender to our small group. Heather made this cake, with the middle layer being either pink or blue depending on the gender.
And the gender is...
It's a girl!!

I'm very excited that they are having a girl. I'm a bit partial to girls! Plus, Audrey needs some more girls around, as most of her friends are boys.

Here are the excited parents-to-be. This baby is going to be decked out in pink and frills...Heather is the girliest girl that I know!

April 2

We did some more cleaning out/organizing today. These are all the film negatives and photos in the "throw away" pile. This is the second pile of photos that I have thrown out in the past months.

I guess that I enjoyed documenting my life in pictures long before I had a fancy camera or started this blog! In college especially, I'm pretty sure I took a picture of everything we did. I tried to be selective and only keep the more meaningful photos. I am normally pretty good at getting photos organized in an album, but still I always end up with extra photos that end up in piles all over the place. One of these days, I'd love to have all my photos organized and labeled in albums. For now, at least my pile of photos is much, much smaller than it was a few months ago.

Audrey really enjoyed helping me organize the photos. First she helped me sort them all into the throw away or keep piles. Then I just let her play for a long time with the throw away pile, and she kept herself occupied by sorting them into piles of her own. Such a cute little organizer!!

April 1

Everyone always talks about the "terrible twos". I can somewhat understand how that label came to be...Audrey definitely has her "terrible" moments. But I really think this is my favorite age so far. She is just so hilarious. She says the funniest things in the funniest ways. She is very emphatic with her speaking, often over enunciating words in a way that is just adorable. I am amazed at how large her vocabulary has become and how quickly she picks up on new words and ideas. It's still hard to understand her sometimes, but I feel like I can make out what she is saying a majority of the time.

She is talking in sentences most all of the time. Her sentence structure is still kind of funky sometimes, but you can really have a conversation with her now...and it's so fun! There is no way that I can record all of the cute things that she says and does, but here are a few that have made me smile lately.

• When something hurts her, she sometimes says: "Ow, that very hurt!" (She hasn't said this one in a while, but it was hilarious when she was saying it!)
• When she fell on her bottom while wearing her new big girl panties, she would say: "Ow, that hurt my panties" and occasionally, "Ow, that very hurt my panties."
• Me: "Audrey, where does Daddy work?" Audrey: "Daddy go work at church." Me: "What does Daddy do at work?" Audrey: "Daddy sing songs." (this makes us laugh because a lot of people think that all Daniel does is lead the songs on Sunday, and they wonder what he does at work all week).
  
• She has really enjoyed reading one of her children's Bibles lately. I asked her what she learned about in her Bible. She said, "Jesus. Jesus made my Bible."
• As we were going upstairs to get dressed one day: "I go play my toys my bedroom. That sound like fun Mommy?" (I have no idea where she learned "bedroom"...I'm pretty sure that we usually just call it her room).
• One (early) morning, I let Audrey lay in bed with me and watch TV because I wasn't quite ready to wake up yet. I flipped it to the Disney channel and Audrey said: "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse! That a good show! It make Maggie happy."
• She is starting to come up with nicknames for people. She calls Pete on Mickey Mouse "Petey" and she calls Goofy "Goof". She has also started calling her stuffed elephant "Elphie".
  
• She is finally starting to sing songs! She has been able to sing "doo, doo, doo" to the melody of several songs for a while now. And she would sing the first line of many songs with words, but I hadn't been able to get her to sing whole songs. Just in the past few days she has really enjoyed singing, though she doesn't like to sing by herself. As long as someone else is singing with her, these have been some of her favorites to sing: Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, Happy Birthday, It's a Small World, and The Wheels on the Bus.
• She also sometimes makes up her own songs...which is even more adorable!

One of these days I need to get the video camera out and try to record all this cuteness!