Last Day!!

Yikes! Order your truffles and caramels TODAY if you're interested! (See the 24 Nov. post, below.) The Sweet Hope link is to the right. Tasty, tasty, tasty!

Pink-eye Tips

1. Did you know that when your toddler wipes his nose on the back of his hand (to many protestations of "I don't WANT a Kleenex!"), and then perhaps rubs his eyes (due to lack of sleep or just plain itchiness), that he can give himself pink eye?? I never knew this. I honestly thought it was something that had to be passed on from another person. Tip: always wash hands after touching mucus.

2. E and I have had experience putting eye drops into Quin's eyes. After all, the boy's tear ducts practically sealed themselves shut for the first couple of months or so. Smearing cream into a newborn's eyes and then trying to get him to blink is much easier than holding down a squirming 31.5 pound 2-1/5 year old to put eye drops into his eyes! I swear an extra pair of arms and legs are needed, because they will always manage to get a limb loose and bat at the eye drop container. ALWAYS. Oh, and when the doctor tells you that you can use the same drops on your infant daughter, should she also contract the bacteria, then of course your toddler will squirm more, attempting to wipe said bacteria onto the tip of the bottle and making it unavailable should the 8-month old need it. (Happy 8 months, Gretchen! She weighed in at 17 lbs 5.4 ozs at the doctor's on Saturday.) Tip: grow at least an extra set of arms for administering eye drops to a toddler. Should that prove impossible, learn yoga and judo in an hour, and use on squirming toddler. If you're really lucky, another adult will take pity on you and either a) do it for you, or b) help hold the toddler down.

3) Ear infections can come on quite suddenly with pink eye, and are a common secondary infection. Wow. Talk about sudden. Quin went from a 1 (perfectly healthy ear) to a 10 in just a matter of hours. He was complaining (OK, whimpering) that his ear hurt yesterday morning before I went into the office. I called and got an appointment (since the kind doctor told me this would probably happen). The doctor he saw yesterday was impressed that Quin wasn't running a fever and was just cranky (and whimpering in pain) with such a bad ear infection. He's never had one before (which the doctor was also impressed by), so this is new territory. I'm just quite thankful that the doctor gave us an oral antibiotic rather than ear drops. Oh, and we get to continue the eye drops in order to clear up the pink eye faster. Tip: when your toddler is whimpering in pain, but isn't doing any of the other stereotypical ear infection signs, TAKE HIM IN.

4) Just when you think everything is going to be OK, your infant will get diaper rash. No pink eye for her yet, although we have been warned she will most likely get it. I will hold out hope that she will not only avoid getting it, but that she won't get an ear infection if she does. I'm not holding my breath, I'm just washing everything that she touches. Tip: wash everything.

So, to sum that up: Quin has pink eye and an ear infection, he's on two different antibiotics, and he's taking some acidophilus (these at least are blueberry and chewable) to maintain some healthy fauna (flora?) in his gut. No sign of pink eye for Gretchen as of this post, but I'm watching her very carefully. Tip: teach your toddler how to wash his hands after wiping snot on them, blowing his nose, or getting mucus on them in any way, shape, or form. Also teach him how to not rub his eyes unless he's washed first.

And finally, what is it about having pink eye in the house that makes every healthy eye itch insanely??

Adoption Truffles

Hello all!

My friend from high school, Lisa, is doing her annual adoption fund raiser. The company is Sweet Hope, and the link is to the right. She is selling truffles and caramels (Rich's recipe - all the sticky goodness, none of the cooking!), and half the proceeds will be donated to a family that is currently trying to adopt. Her goal this year is to raise $1200. Wonderful candy for a great cause!

H A double L O W double E N

Quin loves that song! Ok, back from 3rd grade sing-alongs - we had a great Halloween! Quin's friend from school, Leila, came over with her brother, Ethan (a week younger than Gretchen), and her mother, Jessica. We had a great time trick-or-treating!

The pre-trick-or-treating playdate went quite well, although it was amusing watching the two-year-olds try to understand that we were waiting until a little later to get the candy! Nana and Papa had a fun time teaching Quin and Leila to knock on the door and say "trick-or-treat!"
And then we had the kids dressed and ready to go! Oh, wait, no, you can't go outside yet, all the parents want PICTURES!! It was hard to convince the little ones to wait just a little bit longer, just one more picture, please!
Ethan changed into Quin's puppy costume from last year due to costume issues. He really is only a week younger than Gretchen! Leila made a beautiful princess, Ethan made a cute puppy, Quin was a ferocious tiger, and Gretchen was a playful dalmatian.

We loaded the babies into the "chariot" (a.k.a. the bike trailer). Ethan fell asleep rather quickly, but E had to move continuously in order to keep Gretchen happy. She was finally taken out and carried for the last portion of the walk so that she wouldn't wake up Ethan.

The chariot was also used by the older kids when they wanted to take a break from walking. E was a sport by biking along with us - his headlights were so bright, we didn't need a flashlight!
We had a successful trip, and Quin continues to ask to go trick-or-treating when we go for a walk around the block! The kids only needed minor prompting for this shot - they were waiting for the door to open.
Candy was enjoyed after the event - after all, E and I were going out while Nana and Papa stayed with kids! (Thanks to Toki for doing the red-eye adjustment magic on this photo!)

(In my defense, I am still waiting for the Halloween photos from Nana and Papa's camera - they were downloaded onto E's computer, and it's been difficult getting them away from E.)

October

And this post is dedicated to Nana's nagging - she was fully supporting Toki's call this morning....

Again, it was a quiet month. We haven't done much this school year - the cold that wiped us out in September was still hanging around in early October. Gretchen cut her first tooth (lower left) at the end of the month. She seems to be trying to cut a top tooth as well as the other bottom front tooth at the same time. Ouch!

It seems like every morning before school we have a poopy diaper from one of the kids. On this particular morning, I ran upstairs to change Gretchen, and when I came back down, Quin had finished my request to put on shoes and coat. I hadn't specified his shoes.

Quin helped me rake leaves in the back yard. It took a while to get the rake away from Quin, and he consoled himself by climbing the stump and reaching for the sky. He's very into reaching for the sky (and touching the ceiling when ever possible) right now!
Quin put on his own pants. He's still learning that when you lay the pants out, the tag goes on the bottom.
Gretchen is really moving around now. She can roll all over, and she's mastering the army crawl. She still isn't crawling in the traditional sense, but she sure is trying!
Quin has been very into "houses" (aka forts).

Quin has a great friend from school, Leila. Here the kids are practicing for Halloween. The costumes were Forrest's - thanks again, Forrest!
Nana and Papa are currently in town. Poor Papa has been roped into watching Blue's Clues ad nauseum (or so he thinks, he can't sing most of the songs).
Yes, I have purposefully left off pictures of Halloween. Leila's mom has a ton of photos, as does Nana and Papa. My camera was charging when most of the pictures were being taken, so I have to wait. And wait. Oh, and Nana and Papa left their cord on the boat, so we also have to wait for E to be home long enough to use his card reader.

Funny sayings I've heard during this visit:

Nana: "She's jumping! That little turkey!" (Gretchen was in the Jumparoo while Nana wanted to take pictures)

Quin and I were having a talk; one of those talks that occur after a little boy has a meltdown because he wasn't listening.
Me: Will you listen to Papa, and do what he says?
Quin: No, Nana do it.

September

Yes, it's been a while. So long, in fact, that Toki actually called me to nag me about Halloween pictures today. No, you're not getting them today; I'm still waiting for Nana and Papa (my mom and step-dad) to download their photos and for a friend to send me the pictures she got. Ok, enough about Halloween - this is September's post!

We had a great month - all four of us were sick with a cold that hit us twice, so we were sick for about 6 weeks. "Great" is probably an overstatement, but we did survive. Two less bugs for the kids to catch in school (E brought them home from judo). It was quiet, we gorged on birthday cake (well I did), and stayed home, blowing our noses. We should have invested in Kleenex!

Quin and Gretchen playing on the couch.
My Picasso - he loves to paint, and really likes making circles!

Quin loves to puddle stomp!


Gretchen wasn't as impressed with puddle stomping as Quin was - just wait until next year!
Gretchen playing.