Category Archives: montser

When your kid is too sick to go to school on Valentine’s Day…

You throw them their very own party!

Rylee had been counting down the days to valentines day for over a week. So when she ended up sick with RSV & pneumonia, I knew she’d be missing her school valentines party and I knew she’d be absolutely crushed.

When I broke the news to her on Wednesday morning that she wouldn’t be going to school on valentines day, there may have been tears. (Hers, not mine. She’s a sensitive one.)

I decided right then and there that I wanted to try and make up for it in some way, and so the idea of a surprise valentines party just for her was born.

I had a big plan to get everything prepped while she napped the day away. Instead, she never napped (stupid meds). So while I mixed sugar cookie dough and she asked what I was doing, I lied to her and told her I was making dinner for Andy & me. Then I stayed up late cutting out hearts from pink, red and white paper, baking said cookies and taping red crepe paper to a yard stick. I kept things simple, yet festive.

When I got home from work last night, I sent her to her bedroom with her dad and sister and set to work. I brought in the red heart shaped balloons Grammy got for the girls, all the valentines from her classmates I had picked up from her school, I set out a valentine table runner (literally my only official heart-day decoration), hung the paper hearts and the streamer screen.

When I called to her that she could come out, her reaction was priceless. She seemed to be in awe over the whole thing. Her favorite part was the streamer screen with hearts taped to it.

After breakfast for dinner, {I had planned on heart shaped pancakes, but I just didn’t have it in me}, I put Reese to bed and her and her dad played the heart shaped dice game I had put together. She won, for the record.

After that, we decorated a few sugar cookies with frosting and sprinkles.

Throughout the whole night, she just kept thanking us for throwing her special party. There were hugs…lots of hugs. There were smiles…so many smiles.

I’m a big advocate for kids knowing they’re loved every day of the year, not just on a holiday that’s been overdone in the name of profit, but this year, she deserved a little bit more.

Mission accomplished.

All I can give her

2 Replies

After spending over two hours at the doctor office today and finding out that Rylee has RSV and the beginning stages of pneumonia, I couldn’t help but think about my phone call with the triage nurse this morning. Borderline cynical, asking if I needed to even bother bringing her in or if they’d just send us home with nothing they could do.

Throughout our appointment I was asked questions and couldn’t help but feel inadequate when I gave my answers…did she have the flu shot? No. Did we give her the inhaler at all when she was having trouble breathing? To be honest, I forgot we had it. When did first start having trouble breathing? I’m not sure exactly…this morning? So when did she first get her fever? Well, she had one a couple of weeks ago, and that’s when her cough first started…

I listened to my intuition this time and made the call to take her in. But what if I would have called earlier…would we even be dealing with this right now?

She’s lying on the couch, absolutely miserable. Her fever was so high earlier, she was seeing “flashing spots” every time she closed her eyes. All she’s had to eat since Sunday afternoon is a few bites of bagel, a little bit of yogurt, some pears and some pasta. The only thing she’s had today is two blue otter pops.

It breaks my heart to see my babies hurting. To see them helpless.

Sometimes I wonder what the heck I’m doing. Am I making the right decision?

Parenting is easy when you’re speaking in hindsight. When you’re in the moment, you’re just doing your best.

And I need to remember that my best is all I can give her.

Poo

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I spent last weekend, through Monday, in San Francisco for a tradeshow. If just so happens my sister lives there so I got to spend some time with her as well. More on that later, though. I ended picking up a bug while I was down there and now? I feel like a steaming pile of poo. Hence the lack of blogging this week.

But, that’s not actually why this post title is poo.

Last week we started Reese on solids. Anyone that’s ever introduced a baby to solid foods knows that there’s quickly a drastic change in the #2 department.

So last night we’re all sitting at the table for dinner and Reese starts…ummm…filling her drawers. She was making hilarious faces, so I kind of giggled and said, “Looks like Reesie is filling her drawers.”

Ry, without looking at her sister, looked at me and said “how do you even know that!?”

I said, “I can tell by the faces she’s making.”

Rylee looked over at her sister who was still doing her thing, and without skipping a beat says, “whoa Reese, you look angry!”

Andy & I then preceded to erupt in laughter while both girls looked at us like we were crazy.

Rereading this now, it really doesn’t seem all that funny I guess…but it was. I swear it was.

I’m officially not allowing myself to post again until I feel better, because that whole thing was just kind of a hot mess that sounded a whole lot better in my head than it does typed out. Whatever. I’m sick.

And thus concludes today’s poop post.

Oooh Life

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I almost started out this post by saying that this last weekend was just what I needed. Then I remembered that’s pretty much how I started my post about my New Year’s weekend. Is it really possible to have two weekends in a row that are that good? Am I tempting fate by putting that out in the internet-world? Does that mean that this weekend will just downright suck? Perhaps.

This weekend we tackled part of our new year’s resolution of revamping our laundry room/pantry space. Then that morphed into tackling Ry’s closet and our office/play room the next day. We also hit up costco. Andy went shooting with a buddy. And the girls and I spent some much needed time playing outside. In the SUN! Slowly but surely our house is getting into order. I sense this weekend will be another busy one with organizing and purging. I need to finish the office area. We’re getting rid of the GIANT desk that is used for nothing more than to stack papers on top of. I seriously can’t wait!

I’m eyeball deep in tradeshow prep at work. This is our first major tradeshow as a company so this week/two beforehand is extra important for me and my Type-A self. So, please excuse the photo dump…that’s pretty much all I’ve got the time for at the moment. One day I may return to some sort of real blogging.

Someone has been practicing her sitting up skills…she was doing pretty well on Saturday and was making herself belly laugh every time she realized she was sitting on her own.

Rylee was super into the shelving project. The checker at the home improvement store let her scan everything with the handheld scanner. Then she helped Andy with all the leveling and stud finding…legit doing it by herself. Andy was having a blast doing the project with her. It was the sweetest thing to sit back and watch.

Safety first, friends!

The mostly finished product! Horray for smarter use of space! {Boo for how much that shelving stuff costs! Holy crap}

Her closet has been like straight out of the movies, if you open it you’re not sure if you’ll be taken out by a toy avalanche. Don’t tell Rylee, but while she wasn’t looking I started throwing stuff away.

Go ahead and file this under heart-melting moments. Rylee is such an amazing big sister. Seriously almost makes me cry. {Side note: WHEN DID I BECOME SUCH A SAP!?!?}

Our front yard. Amazing day.

MUD PIES! What’s hilarious is how Ry is still, 3 days later, so shocked I let her play in the mud. What she doesn’t realize is that this was so me when I was her age. I LOVED playing in the mud when I was little. She was building a robin’s nest, by the way.

I think we’re finally starting to get the hang of the work/fun balance thing. At least I hope we are.

Our little family of four is settling quite nicely into itself. I love them. So much.

All sorts of things to update

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So while I’ve already posted twice this week (here & here) I feel like I owe you an update.

We had some major stuffs going on the our household over the long weekend!!

First of all…the main reason for the long weekend. Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving was nice, but kind of weird. We spent the day at Andy’s parents’ house. Not out of the ordinary, but this was the first year, um ever, that we didn’t go to at least 2 places. We celebrated Thanksgiving with my mom & brother the week before. My dad was out of town. And neither of my sisters came to town. So yea, in 11+ years of being a couple, we went to one place on a major holiday. Weird.

Rylee has started choosing her own outfits again. This beauty was what she wanted to wear on Thanksgiving. The original outfit did not include the long sleeve top. Brrr. But, what’s even crazier? The straight hair! AHHH! She saw me fixing my hair for the day and asked if I’d straighten hers. I indulged her, then instantly regretted it because holy teenager! I was not ready for that.

There were plenty of snuggle naps over the long weekend. Watching this guy with our girls just melts my heart.

The other night Ry asked Andy to draw her a picture. So he drew the one on the left. {apparently I felt the need to clarify that} She was so, SO proud of that picture that the next day she took it with her to school to show her teachers and friends. Then that night she drew one of her own for him to take to work. I mean…really…I just can’t even.

And then there’s this one…this girl. Oh my. This is my new favorite photo of her. This was taken just before we headed into the doctor’s office for the 4-month check-up. She’s weighing in at 14 lbs, 12 ounces (70th percentile) and 25″ long (75th percentile). The shots seemed to affect her more this time than the last time and we spent that night sleeping together on the couch. Last night was better, but she still wasn’t her self. I hate seeing my babies in pain & not feeling quite right and not being able to help them.

And oh yea…almost forgot. We bought a new car on Sunday! And not just “new to us” but brand! spanking! new! It’s our very first brand new car ever for both of us. It’s also the first car payment we’ve had in over 7 years. Ugh. But a new vehicle was, if you ask me, long overdue. It’s a 2013 Toyota Venza and after Andy drove it to work yesterday, he said “I now understand why people get brand new cars every few years. Wow.” I’ll share more later but for now, I’ll just leave you with this little teaser…

Somewhere In The Middle

Mostly Average Accounts of the World's Okayest Mom.

Category Archives: montser

When your kid is too sick to go to school on Valentine’s Day…

All I can give her

Poo

Oooh Life

All sorts of things to update