Frostings Boutique

Just a little blurb for my friend Stefanie's website. I have had her Picassa site up for awhile now that has showcased all of her adorable products. She finally has gotten her website up and running too! She's doing amazing with all of this. I'm so proud of her, and jealous that I didn't come up with this, although my abilities would not match hers when it comes to these fun products. So check it out, it's listed under the "Sites I Like to Visit" section on my blog, and spread the word! Hopefully you will all be coming to my open house in March that will feature Frostings Boutique, as well as Usborne Books. If you didn't get an email about Save the Date, it's most likely because I sent it from work and didn't have your address at work. So come one come all and tell a friend. Right now it's scheduled for March 19th, but we may be moving it up a day, so stay tuned!

By the way when you go to her website and see the slide show you may see some adorable models that you will recognise.

Lesson learned...maybe?

As many of you know since Florida we have been battling a "bug" that Kaylee has had. We initially thought it was a viral, that Ainsley picked-up and gave back to Kaylee, however once Ainsley got better and Kaylee still struggled we started to wonder if maybe it was something else. We have been EXTREMELY fortunate when it has come to the girls and being healthy. Ainsley, who will be 2, in May has never had a prescription (knock on wood), and Kaylee, outside of a pink eye incident, had never had one until this last fall, which was an inhaler for a respiratory infection. They have most definitely had their share of colds and they generally ran the 7-10 day course and were gone. So this had really thrown us through a loop. It was really a first for us, which with sickness you wouldn't expect with your almost 4 year-old.

Here's how the timeline went:

• Florida vacation (January 26th); Kaylee got a fever around Wednesday that lasted through Friday.
• The following week, 2/2-2/6, everyone was healthy until 2/6 when Ainsley got her fever and Kaylee had one that evening too.
• Sunday 2/8 I took Ainsley to Carle's Convienent Care because she wasn't sleeping unless held and not eating. So I feared ear infections (which thankfully we have never had), no ear infections or strep, just a sore throat and a viral.
• Tuesday, 2/9, Kaylee seem to be better so she went to school and Brad stayed home with Ainsley. Late morning got a call from Kaylee's school the temp had spiked so Daddy and Ainsley went to get her and take her to the doctor. This day, by the way, was the only day Brad would be home this particular week, as the rest had been, and was going to be, spent traveling. Brad took them to the doctor on Tuesday. The doctor felt they both had virals and had given them to each other.
• By Thursday Ainsley was on the mend, but Kaylee was still having issues with the temp and coughing.
• Friday I took Ainsley to Karen's and Kaylee stayed with Brad's mom.
• Through Valentine's weekend Kaylee was up and down. The following week made it the whole week at school.
• That brings us to this past week. Kaylee's temp seem to be under control, but she still wasn't herself, coughing, not eating much, not in a nice mood at all, and very tired.
• Monday Kaylee went to school and I had to go get her as her temp spiked AGAIN. So I called to get her in Monday afternoon.

Went to the doctor, and she did a basic physical and said through the physical everything is completely normal. She had lost a little weight since the prior visit, not much just some ounces but when you are dealing with a little person it's not something you like to see. So the doctor opted to do a blood test. This would be interesting...Kaylee who is not a huge fan of going to the doctor, although she likes her doctor, has just started to be O.K with going, and now we are going to stick her arm. But it really needed to be done because I really felt there was no way this could just be a viral. We went downstairs to the lab and I have to say the two people that took Kaylee's blood were awesome! They were so fast, kind and patient. She also got MORE stickers, as the doctor always gives her some, and a sucker.

In the meantime the doctor gave her a prescription of Singulair in hopes of helping the cough and told us to use the inhaler with it. Side note: Brad and I both have allergies and asthma, different types and severity's, but needless to say we will never be shocked if one, or both, of the girls has them too.

Tuesday I had to work and Brad stays home with Kaylee. The doctor calls promptly at 7:30 to say the mono test was negative, the blood count test showed elevated white blood cells, which can be caused by infection, and her platelets were elevated. She didn't have the third test back yet which was for a bacterial infection, but wanted to call in an anti-biotic for a bacterial infection. So Brad and Kaylee went to pick it up. In the meantime (this is where my title comes in) I googled "high white blood cells and platelets"....NEVER do this. I knew not to, I knew the search results would be something horrible, something that would confirm my worst fear and make me worry even more, but I did it anyway. The search result that came up was Leukemia. I researched even further, again knew I wouldn't like what I found and that I shouldn't, but I did. I read the symptoms: fatigue, loss of weight, high white cell count, abdominal pain (which she had been complaining about because through this she had also been constipating herself), loss of appetite, and many that she didn't have, but those didn't matter. I sat at work lost in my own world of "What are we going to do?", "How did this happen?", etc.

Fortunately soon into my "world is ending" breakdown the doctor called back to say the micro-plasma test came back positive, it's a bacterial infection and the anti-biotic she called in earlier would be exactly what she needed. WHEW!!! We went back Friday for a follow-up. I've noticed my Kaylee coming back around. She still has a little cough, but not much, which we are still treating with inhaler and singulair, she's eating and she's isn't as tired. The doctor said she was at the same weight, however technically she was 36.2 on Monday, and 36.6 on Friday, so I'm counting it as a weight gain! I love our doctor she is the best and always makes you feel like you are her only patient.

So while I've learned, or re-learned what I already knew, that we have doctors for a reason and one, especially one with no medical training outside of CPR and basic first aide, should not self-diagnose; even more true when it comes to your kids. I also know that if this were to happen again I would be right back at google. The waiting game is never easy, and hopefully I will just remember to take everything I read with a grain of salt. Even better would be if this never happened again, unfortunately I don't think the odds are in my favor.

Naples 2009

The holidays have past and we are in the middle of winter; in our house we get excited at this time each year....because it means it's time for Florida! We are very blessed that my mom and step-dad have a time share in Naples. We are even more blessed that they invite us down each year. I would like to note that they have had this time share for almost 20 years, but it really hasn't been since we have had kids that they have excitedly asked us to join them each year. But I will take it anyway I can. It's a really nice week. They drive so they take all of our stuff down with them. We fly and it's nice because all we have to take is the kids and our take on's. You really can't ask for better. There condo is right on Vanderbilt Beach. We are on the harbor side and the other building is across the street right on the beach. Our days there generally consist of playing in the sand, swimming, going down to the ice cream shop and really just hanging out. We did go to the zoo this year. We went once before when Kaylee was 8 mos. old and decided to do it again this year. There is some nice shopping down there, including a large Bass Pro Shop, can't skip that, and a nice outlet mall. There are some nice local places we always eat at, and even see some family who have opted to also migrate down there for the winter. There's lots of fishing and even pontoon boats to take out. All in all it is so fun and we have generally been really lucky with the weather. This year was perfect high 70's and sunny every day. The down side was poor Kaylee got some sort of viral infection the Wednesday of that week and had a temp through Friday. We had her on Motrin and as long as that was in effect she was still able to be outside and have fun.

Enjoy our photos from sunny Florida!

I don't really remember why Ainsley was upset in this photo, but I remember it was funny at the time so I took a picture.

We were getting ready to go across to the beach and Kaylee really wanted to push Ainsley in the stroller.

Ainsley has no fear. So she would have been fine just running around the beach and into the ocean. Kaylee who does have fear was very concerned for her younger sister and felt it best to hold her hand as they looked at the water.

Starting to build our sand castle, or sand sculpture as Kaylee likes to call it.

Again, Ainsley with no fear enjoyed chasing the seagulls, as she would call "here birdy, here birdy."

Brad dug a big hole in the sand and the girls had a lot of fun sitting in it and jumping into it.

Ainsley loved going into the ocean. Kaylee was a little more hesitant. Daddy was helping Ainsley here, more accurately he was really trying to contain her.

Here we are pool side. Mom got the girls floaties and rings to wear in the pool. Kaylee for the most part wore both, although by the end of the week she would go with just me and not wear the flotation devices. Ainsley, in the pool here with Daddy, didn't want to really wear either and loved to stand on the side an jump to you. If she did have her floaties on she DID NOT want ANY assistance.
This was the zoo. The first day Kaylee had a temp. I felt so bad for her because you could tell she didn't feel well but she SO wanted to go to the zoo. Ainsley was more than happy to push her around. We would try to help her push, however we had to be sneaky about it because she wasn't very appreciative of the help.
The zoo we went to has a boat ride that you can go on to look at all the monkeys on their primate island. This is us looking at the monkeys.

While waiting to go on the boat ride Ainsley decided to chase the ducks. She may have been able to catch this one, but I didn't want to have the full experience of that so after I took the photo she and I walked away from the duck.

This fence was in front of one of the cages of the animals. This particular one was the lions. I was laughing at Ainsley because I wasn't sure if she was really close enough.

They have various playgrounds around the zoo. This one had different animals you could climb on.

Lastly the Bass Pro Shop. Kaylee and Ainlsey do like to go to these because they love to look at the fishies and play in the tents. It works out well for Daddy because he can go look at fishing and hunting stuff and I hang with the girls. Not much there for me to shop for.

Sleepover!

Kaylee is really into sleepovers right now. I don't know why. She's stayed with grandparents be fore but I wouldn't say she's ever had what I would think of as a sleepover. One night on the way home from somewhere she asked if some day we could stay up late, watch movies, play games, etc....a "sleepover". So I said sure and the following weekend she and I had a sleepover. Ainsley and daddy participated for awhile and then Ainsley went to bed and Daddy went upstairs and Kaylee and I stayed downstairs in our sleeping bags. We made pizzas, did spelling puzzles, played games, watched movies and had cookie-ice-cream sundaes. At 10:00 I finally turned the TV off as she was still wide awake with no signs of slowing down....I on the other hand was about to fall asleep. I would say after about 10 minutes of lights and TV off she was asleep. It was a lot of fun and she is already asking when we can sleep outside in the tent (that has been put on the summer to-do list). I look forward to doing this again, especially when Ainsley is older and can join us. Hopefully Kaylee will still want to join us. I love all of these moments where I, the mom, am the cool one to do these things with. I know all-to-soon the day will come when I will be providing transportation only for these events.



Here we are making our pizzas. Both of the girls helped A LOT!



Here is Kaylee and Ainsley (while she was still part of the party), Ainsley really enjoys assisting Kaylee anyway she can. I have to say Kaylee is pretty patient with her.



I tried to get a photo of Kaylee and Ainsley together, this was as good as I could get.






Here is typical Ainsley. Notice how neatly her hair was combed in the above pictures. She emptied the dress-up trunk and climbed right in. This was right before bedtime.

Daddy took this last photo before he went to bed. Then the "real" sleepover started, but no worries there was no sneaking out of basement windows or TP-ing houses this night...it was way to cold.