"Just like Grandpa"

"I'm just like my grandpa who lives with my white grandma!"
(in reference to her shoes and the glasses on her shirt)

While I'm nursing...

Because Avery is so sensitive, I've been giving Bailey activities to do while I am feeding her, or putting her down for a nap. I guess the markers won't be used unsupervised for a while:


Me: Bailey, what happened to your face?
Bailey: I colored it.
Me: Why?
Bailey: Because the markers are messy.
Me: But why did you color your face?
Bailey: Because it's messy.
Me: You look like a pirate.

The funny thing, she looked even worse before I took the picture. I think she tried wiping some of it off. She's a silly girl.

Sick Avery

I thought we were going to get lucky this year- Avery had avoided getting sick for most of winter, until now. She has bronchiolitis most likely caused by RSV. And a double ear infection. She has been so good! When Bailey had her first ear infection, she screamed all night. Avery just wants to be held, and refused to sleep. My only clues were the fever and ear pulling.

Any ideas on how to get Avery to take her medicine? This picture did not do her face justice. She keeps the medicine in her mouth, and just when you think she has finally swallowed it, she blows it all out of her mouth. I've tried putting a little medicine in her mouth, and then giving her her pacifier, but she just spits that out too. I'm beginning to wonder how much of it she is actually getting...

My Valentines

Here are the girls in their Valentine outfits (and one of Mike). I found Avery's "tutu skirt" at Gymboree on the clearance rack. I had to buy it! Mike thought it was kind of weird, but I think it is just about the cutest thing I have ever seen. I'm sad they didn't have one for Bailey.

Our Valentine's Day was kind of a flop. We went out on Friday night because of our babysitting club. However, Mike did not get home until after 6:30. Then, the restaurant we went to was so busy it took forever to get out food. When we did get it, we had ten minutes to eat and run so we could make it back on time. Oh well.

At least we have two beautiful Valentines! They are both getting so big. We wish we could see all of you who are far away.

Blowing your nose and bottle feeding day 2

Right now, everyone in our family is sick with the same yucky cold. Even Avery. Mike learned something new about me because of it- I hate hate hate blowing my nose.

I always have. It messes up the pressure in your head, and most of the time, I feel like it doesn't do anything. Now there is a study that says just that! And if you do blow your nose, you are supposed to blow one nostril at a time. Who knew?

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/10/health/10real.html?_r=1&no_interstitial

A bottle update- Avery is doing a little better today as far as drinking goes. She is a lot sadder today, and only wants to be held. I caved in last night- it was the middle of the night, she was hungry and wouldn't take a bottle. So I breastfed her. I am hoping that I can continue to breastfeed her at night, and bottlefeed during the day.

I hope this bottle thing takes soon!!

Bottle feeding- day 1

After several months of poor feeding, my milk has almost dried up. Her weight gain has seriously slowed down and finally almost stopped. I am so sad! So today was the first day of bottle only- I didn't even try to breastfeed at all. Poor Avery! She didn't even cry about it all day, she just didn't eat. I hope that doesn't mean that she is used to being hungry all the time. I try not to think about that, I just have to move forward from where we are.

Tonight she finally ate, after almost a whole day of nothing. Of course, her bottle of choice was the infamous Dr. Brown bottles. I'm kind of disappointed about that- Bailey liked those bottles as well. They are a huge pain to clean! They have pieces inside with tiny holes that have to be scrubbed out with a tiny brush. Oh well. At least she finally ate! I'm glad there was a bottle out there she would take! I am hoping that day 2 of bottles will go well.

Now I am trying to decide if I can reuse Bailey's old Dr. Brown bottles or go out and buy all new ones that are BPA free. I know that babies have been fed out of BPA bottles for years and years, and no one seems worse off for it. However, recent studies have shown that is causes early puberty in girls, weight gain, and even breast/ prostate cancer. The FDA says that we shouldn't worry, but I don't think we can always trust the FDA. Countries like Canada don't even allow them to be sold anymore.

I think I will err on the side of caution. I've read of people who won't even let their kids play with plastic toys- only wood. I certainly don't think I need to go that far, I think that it is the heat and plastic combination. I guess only time and more studies will show how dangerous it really is.

If you are interested, here is an article about it:

http://health.usnews.com/usnews/health/healthday/080207/report-shows-dangerous-chemical-can-leach-from-baby-bottles.htm

Baked blackberry- not fried!

This Monday, we took Bailey and Avery to the YMCA to go swimming. What we weren't expecting was Mike's two week old blackberry taking a swim too. But it did. At first, we didn't think that any harm was done. It worked just fine until the next morning.

We started to panic when the keyboard was acting weird. The blackberry was on the fritz. Needless to say, we were worried. I googled "blackberry in water" hoping against hope that we could find something to save his new phone.

From blackberryforums.com, I got the suggestion to take the blackberry apart, and then soak the motherboard in distilled water. The next step was to bake it- yes in the oven. I figured I had nothing to lose. It couldn't make the situation any worse.

Thanks to youtube, I was able to take apart the blackberry. Then after soaking it, I baked the motherboard for three hours at 180 degrees. Another youtube video later, the blackberry was back in one piece. The moment of truth had arrived.

It worked!! The blackberry was back in perfect working order. We were both really really relieved and grateful to the crazy person who thought to bake their blackberry!

Treasure Hunting

Bailey is obsessed with cotton. I don't know why, but ever since she was tiny, she's had a fascination with it's fluffy whiteness. She pulls cotton from under the couch, she bites it off her "fuzzies" (her blanket) or her teddy bear. She pulls it off of Q-tips, or, my personal favorite, off the side of her diaper. She has a huge problem with eating it, and no matter what we do or say, we can't get her to stop. Apparently, eating cotton is not her only problem.

I took Bailey into the doctor this last Friday. One of her ear tubes has fallen out and she had been complaining about an ear ache. She had more than just an ear infection.

Poor Bailey has had a runny nose for a little over a month now. From frequent wiping (so we thought) her nose had become really really sore. The doctor thought it was a little strange that only one side of her nose was sore. She became even more suspicious when her ear infection was not on the side of the sore nose. She took a peek with her otoscope and saw something in her nose. Apparently, she also smelled something. She wasn't sure if she was just really stuffed up, or if there was actually something in it. She stuck a stick up her nose and sure enough, it was "spongy." She had stuck cotton up her nose!! I was even more appaled when she took tweasers and pulled it out. Be warned- this description is not for the faint heart. Out she pulled a 1.5-2 in. long ball of cotton/mucus/blood. Seriously. I am not exaggerating. I couldn't believe it. It just kept coming and coming and coming. No wonder her nose was so sore!!

Lately, Mike and I had thought that Bailey had been smelling bad. We were bathing her more, brushing her teeth all the time, but we couldn't get rid of the smell. Now we know what is was...

Bailey's nose is looking a million times better, and she is smelling a million times better. I am so glad I took her in! Thinking about it afterwards, I realized it could have gotten really bad. What if she inhaled it? What if we left it in there so long the infection went to her brain? I am really grateful for that ear infection, and an observant doctor.