Friday, October 15, 2010

I feel like I'm falling for Fall ♥

The weather has gotten much cooler over the past week and we are thrilled!

Aubrey is a lot like her Daddy. She is always hot, and when she's hot, she's not a happy camper. That's why we didn't spend a huge amount of time outdside this summer, unless we were going swimming. But now.. the temperature is dipping into the 50s-60s, the leaves are turning gorgeous colors and falling to the ground, and we find ourselves playing and exploring outdoors almost daily.

This is the gorgeous view outside our living room window:


Sometimes, Keith's job requires him to work the weekends. When that happens, he gets a day off during the week. This past week, he worked Saturday and had Tuesday off. The weather was nice, so we decided to take Aubrey to the park..












Over the past few days, Aubrey has found a new obsession with sitting in a basket that was holding small toys in her room. Yesterday morning, as soon as she woke up, she walked out of the bedroom and went and sat in her basket. It was too funny!




This morning, we woke up and had breakfast. With the cooler weather comes more baking, and this morning I did just that. Aubrey gobbled her blueberry muffin right up!


I turned on the news to see the weather and the weatherman said that we would get rain later on this afternoon. We played for a little bit and then got ready to go outside. As soon as we got to the door we realized our plans were ruined. The rain started early.


We came back inside, got back into some comfy clothes, and watched Wonder Pets: Adventures in Wonderland. I saw a preview for it yesterday and learned that Steven Tyler from Aerosmith provides the voice of the Mad Hatter so missing it was NOT an option. I've had a crush on Steven Tyler since I was a little girl (I don't want to hear it!).






Hope you are all staying dry on this rainy day!

Monday, October 11, 2010

Georgia on my mind..

This post has been LONG overdue, but between Aubrey being in the hospital and the time it took her to recover once we got discharged, I have barely had more than 10 minutes to myself.. I wish I had time to do this sooner because the days all seem blurred together now, and I can't remember when we did what but I'm using my Facebook status updates to help me remember haha.

Our flight left Boston at 6am on Monday, September 20th. I managed to cram all of our luggage into ONE suitcase (hooray for space bags!) to avoid the ridiculous baggage fees. We met Christina at Keith's dad's house and left at 4am to be at the airport for 5 to go through security. I'll admit that I was extremely nervous about Aubrey's first time being on a plane but she did wonderfully. The flight attendants made sure to give us some extra snacks (along with the ones we brought from home) and she was happy as a clam. We landed right around 9 and Ed (Keith's brother) picked us up. The drive to their house was a long one (almost 2 hours) but it was filled with good conversation.

We got settled in and went to a restaurant called Fuji for lunch. They serve their food Hibachi style, which up until then I had never experienced. We enjoyed their steak & chicken dish and the chef told jokes while he cooked.

Tuesday morning, Kyle (Ed's wife) & I got the girls up early to go to a My Gym class. We had a lot of fun playing with the girls and Aubrey had a ball exploring everything the gym had to offer. We stopped at Chick-fil-a for some chicken biscuits for everyone (and plain biscuits for Aubrey & Peyton) and went back to the house. We ended up going back out to do some shopping. We went to the Carter's store and I got Aubrey the same dress that Kyle got Peyton to wear for Thanksgiving since they are coming up to visit. I can't wait to see them both wearing them! We stopped by this place that Kyle goes to that does embroidery and I got the dress and Aubrey's diaper bag embroidered with her initials:


Late Tuesday night/Wednesday morning, Keith's dad, stepmother & aunt flew in, so on Wednesday, we went to Portrait Innovations to get some smash cake pictures done for Peyton's birthday. We even got Aubrey in on a few shots after Peyton did a good amount of smashing. While we were waiting for the photographer to upload the pictures to the computer to choose the ones to be printed, Keith was playing with Aubrey and she fell face first into the floor and split her lip wide open and her top gums were bleeding, too. It was really scary and I think I may have cried just as much as she did. Her shirt was soaked in blood. Thankfully, we were in the same plaza as Carter's, so we went in there and picked up a 5-pack of onesies and then went to Babies R Us so my father-in-law could pick up Peyton's birthday gift.

Thursday was Peyton's actual birthday. We had breakfast and got ready to go to Pine Mountain Wild Animal Park. We rented a zebra van and went through a safari. It was pretty neat! After the drive-thru part, we left the van and explored the park, which allowed us to see animals like bears, monkeys, and hyenas! We went to a Mexican restaurant for lunch and when we got home and I made Peyton a birthday cake and some of Kyle's family came over for dinner. We had burgers and then had sang Happy Birthday and had cake.

Friday was pretty low-key. We made cupcake-shaped sugar cookies and decorated them as favors for the party. We went to Party City for the last of the decorations.

Saturday was the day of Peyton's party. Around 11ish we went and picked up the birthday cake and went home to decorate. The party started at 3 and it was fun. That day also marked 4 years since Keith & I got together. :)

Sunday was another lazy day. We got Checker's for dinner and spent the rest of the night packing, since we had to leave the house by 10am on Monday morning. We went to bed pretty early and woke up around 8. Aubrey had a waffle for breakfast and we were on our way. We stopped at Starbucks for drinks for the car ride (I got a Toffee Mocha and I didn't care for it at all). When we got to the airport, we did some last-minute souvenir shopping and had a quick bite to eat. Then we boarded our plane back to Boston!


The rest of the pictures are on my Facebook. It would have taken me FOREVER to add them all.










































Georgia Cutie vs. Boston Monstah!
















We had a wonderful time and can't wait to get the girls together again for Thanksgiving!

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Aubrey's first hospital stay. :(

I posted our last update on Friday afternoon. We spent Friday night at home relaxing because Aubrey still wasn't acting herself. This continued into Saturday morning, and by noon I was really becoming concerned. She hadn't had a wet diaper or a drink since Friday night, and no food since Thursday. I also took her temperature and it was very low. We packed up the diaper bag and headed back to the hospital. We didn't even have to sit down in the waiting room. She was called very fast. We got our own little room off of the ER and they wasted no time in getting bloodwork and an IV administered. I layed with her in the hospital bed and went onto Youtube from my phone and was letting her watch cartoons.. but then a nurse came in with a portable tv and a bunch of cartoons so that was awesome. After a few hours of being hooked up to the IV and no wet diaper, the doctor made a phone call to the pediatric wing and admitted us.

We went up to our room and once we were settled, I went home and grabbed some things for the night. Around 10, the doctor came in and said there was blood in her stool. I was pretty upset because there are so many serious things that are linked to blood in stool. We spent the next couple of days sitting and waiting for the cultures to come back. Since it was the weekend, we had to wait until Monday to get the results back. There were a lot of tears from the both of us. I just wanted to trade places with her and take all of the pain away so badly. We passed the time by watching DVDs and reading stories. Every time a nurse came in, she would cry. They had to wear yellow robes because we were on a "precautions" list because they weren't sure if Aubrey was contagious. There was a fully stocked fridge down the hall that patients have access to, but we couldn't go and raid it whenever we wanted to. We had to call a nurse. Why? Because we were on "precautions". There was a tub room where kids could take a bath. Aubrey had to get a sponge bath and have her hair washed over the sink. Why? Because we were on precautions. There was a play room for the kids to play in. Aubrey wasn't allowed in. Why? Well, you get the idea. It SUCKED. Obviously I understand why we couldn't leave the room with her.. I just felt horrible that she was stuck in a 10x10 room for 4 days.

They wanted to discharge us on Monday but I refused. I just was NOT comfortable with going home. She still wasn't drinking anything and didn't have a wet diaper without being on the IV. They agreed to keep her longer. Tuesday she seemed to be on the road to recovery, so we got discharged around 11am.

We have been taking it pretty easy. She had a follow-up appointment with her doctor today and she has lost 2 pounds which is 10% of her body weight. She got 3 shots, including the first part of the flu shot. We have to go back in a month to get the other half and for a weight check-up since she lost so much. She hasn't really had much to drink but it's definitely progressing. I went to the store Tuesday night and got her a bunch of different drinks so she would have a variety to choose from. She has been eating like a champ. I guess it's just a matter of time til she's back to her normal self. :)


Violet kept her company


Poor babygirl :(


Toast, banana & Cheerios!


The Little Mermaid!


The day she got discharged. You can definitely tell she was starting to feel better!

I know I still have to make a post about our trip to Georgia, I will try to get that done ASAP!

Friday, October 1, 2010

October already!?

I can't believe how fast this year is going by. It seems that, ever since I had Aubrey, our lives have been a blur. The past few days have been less than pleasant. Aubrey has had a very high temperature and we even took her to the hospital last night because she was up to 103º. They had to put a catheter in her for a urine sample and had Keith & I hold her legs down and let me tell you, that was, without a doubt, the single most hardest thing I have done thus far as a mother. To have to restrain my inconsolable toddler down and know she is in pain was just heartbreaking. It turns out that her urine was fine (of course!) and she has a minor ear infection. But I don't know, I feel like there is something else wrong, too. The last time she had an ear infection she didn't react NEARLY this bad.

It started yesterday afternoon. I took her to the mall around 3:30 because we were going to have her Halloween pictures done in her costume (she's going to be a bee!). We weren't scheduled til 5 so I let her lead the way around the mall and she had a blast riding in the rides and playing in the kids area. We had a late lunch/early dinner and then headed into the portrait studio and I got her dressed. Her costume consists of a long sleeve onesie, tights, and the actual costume (which is like a big pullover vest, hat & wings) and she started to feel really warm, and I figured it was because of the costume. She went from really upbeat to VERY upset in a matter of a few minutes. I took the vest off and tried giving her some juice and she wanted no part of it. I stripped her down and put her back in her short-sleeve onesie and had to carry her back to the car along with the diaper bag, a new pair of shoes I bought for her to go with her costume, AND her costume and let me tell you, I thought my arms were going to fall off! I grabbed some Tylenol at Target because ours is MIA and gave it to her when we got out to the car.

We got back home & she was passed out in the car so I put her in her crib, took her temp (102º) and she slept for an hour. Woke up and her temp was 103º. I called the doctor and gave her the symptoms and she was really concerned with the fact that Aubrey was just laying there being really lethargic. She suggested bringing her to the hospital, so we packed the diaper bag and off we went. We were seen very quickly which was nice because we're usually waiting at least an hour. As I said above, they administered a catheter. There was talk of bloodwork but it got nixed (but now I'm almost wishing they did some so we could rule it out). They gave her some Motrin and finally at a little past midnight we left. We went to the pharmacy to pick up a prescription for an antibiotic and got home and put her to bed. She slept til about 7 in her crib and then til about 10:30 in bed with us. Her temp got up to almost 104º earlier but we gave her some Motrin and it's back down to 101º but she has been refusing liquids so I won't be happy until she gets some in her. I'm praying we don't have to bring her back to the hospital because I have a feeling she will be admitted.



I have so much to tell you all about our vacation last week to Georgia but it'll have to wait til another day. Please keep us in your thoughts/prayers!