Kissing is your favorite thing on Earth

I was just going to come on here and post a ton of beautiful pictures I have of you and tell you how your kiss has changed since a week ago.  Enoch has started crying .....and the cat keeps sitting on the keyboard and erasing things, so I'm going to make this quick and to the point.  About a week ago you suddenly started making a smooching sound when you'd kiss me.  You've been pursing your lips occasionally in the last few weeks, but now you're full on kissing.  And you've always kissed a lot, but I've also noticed you hugging and kissing all of the animals a ton too.  I mean several (SEVERAL) times during the day you'll just stop when you see them and lay down on top of them and kiss on them and hug and say "mmmmm".  And they all love you for it.  Anytime your taking a nap Smitty either goes and takes a nap in your room at the same time, or goes in and out of your room checking on you.  It drives me crazy, 'cause I'm always afraid he's going to wake you up.  I gotta go, but I love you Carolina!

More potty chair success!

Gosh you are a beautiful girl!

I just wanted to tell you that after I typed up your last entry you went pee in the potty chair and have done it several times since.  You've also put one more poo in there too.  

You're so smart!

You used your potty last night!!!

First let me give an update on your MMR shot side effects.  That fever lasted for over two days.  I kept calling the Dr's office and they kept telling me that it wasn't related to the MMR vaccine, but I don't believe them.  First of all when Audrey took Annalee to get hers and ran a high fever with rash and blisters in her mouth that same day, they told her it couldn't be related to the MMR.  When I questioned your Dr. about it he said the same thing that those symptoms could not be related to the MMR vaccine.  He said that it would take one to two weeks for those symptoms to show up and that Annalee's reaction was probably caused by her Dr. likely giving her MMR shot at the same time as the DTaP vaccine.  So then when you got your high fever, that was not contagious to any other members of our family, it fit with what our Dr. told us would happen.  Yet when I called the office the nurses kept saying that it could not be related.  First I was told that the fever was too high.  Which contradicted the fact that the Dr. told me it WOULD be a high fever.  Then I was told that it took too long to get the fever, that you should have had a high fever FOR 7-10 days after the shot.  That contradicted everything I'd been told before.  I hate to say this but I seriously don't trust a single thing that any medical professional tells me when it comes to vaccines.  Either they are complete liars or have no idea what they are talking about.  The good news is that you pulled through this just fine.  We kept alternating the ibuprofen and acetaminophen until you showed no fever.  It just so happens that because of me staying up late with you each night I slept through my alarms the next mornings and that's how we realized that you were still feverish the next morning and not the final morning.  Also, your fever would start to climb right at 4 hours between medicines.  It was quite stressful.  I'm so glad that is over.   

We noticed you trying to go potty and as I was holding Enoch I asked Daddy to wisk you off to the potty chair.  He did and you finished your business on the potty chair making it your first time to actually put something in there!!  We are so proud of you!!

Hopefully we can keep this up so that you get used to the routine of using the potty when you need to go poo.  That's the easiest part.  Trying to get you younguns into the routine of going pee pee in there has always been the most difficult part for me.  We'll see how this goes.

I love you Honey!

 I want to mention the new word.  Just a few days ago we finally realized that "Dapa" is your way of saying "diaper" and that when you say it you are letting us know that you need a new one.  Love it!  Keep up the good work Sweet Pea!

Girl Scout Cookies

     Kai, this is your first year to sell Girl Scout cookies.  You are doing tremendously well.  You didn't have much interest the first few weeks.  Neither did I, to be honest.  But the other day I got to thinking that we better put a little effort into it and sewed the patches on your smock and sent you to school with your order form and wearing your smock.  So many girls at school, in the troop asked you why you were wearing your smock to school and you said, "because I'm a Girl Scout and I'm selling cookies."  The next day when Daddy asked you if you wanted to wear it again you said, "Na.  Everybody knows I'm a Girl Scout now."

The first day you asked the ladies in the office and Mrs. Rachael and nobody wanted to buy any.  Either they had already bought some or were on a diet.  So when I went to pick you up that afternoon I told you that when someone told you "no" to ask them if they would buy a box to donate to the wounded soldiers.  You saw Mr. Kerr and wanted to try it out.  He told you he had already bought some cookies and didn't want anymore, then I reminded you of your follow up question and you asked him and he bought your first box of cookies.  So we decided to cruise down the 2nd grade hall.  You told me you were too scared to go into Mrs. Kemp's room so I asked you if you wanted the IPAD that you had picked out of the prize catalog and you said, "yes ma'am."  So I told you that you'd have to get in there and talk to that teacher then and that was the last pep talk I had to give you.  You had to use your follow up question on nearly every teacher at that school and it worked 90% of the time.  I was shocked to find that today you were forgetting to ask that.  But you did great anyway.  You are at 102 boxes after just 3 days of selling.  Two of those days were school days. Today was a snow day.  Your very first snow day too.  Delsin has been helping you with the sales and let me tell ya, you two make a great team.   You've argued a smidgen and I've seen you playing in the businesses we've visited a little too much, but you are both natural born sales people and I'm proud to see it.  You're a chip off the ole block.  I love it.

     You've already started making plans for how to sell next year.  I think you're gonna do great.
Funny story, someone did call the police on you, and me and I guess Delsin too.  The receptionist at Dr. Jack Carey's office wouldn't let you come in without me.  Never mind that I was waiting right at the door with our two babies.  When we made our way around to the Sheriff's office a detective there told us that there had been a complaint.  I'm betting it was the woman at Dr. Carey's office that was upset about the fact that you had to pay when you order this year.  No matter, we'll go back and sell some to her anyway.

I love you Kai.

MMR shot

You're running a fever tonight.  A really really high fever.  About 2 weeks ago you got your MMR vaccine and they told us that one of the side effects is that 10 - 14 days later you could run a really high fever and have a rash.  Well, here we are.  You don't have a rash, but this afternoon when we got home from Girl Scout cookie selling you didn't look like you felt good so I felt of you and you were warm.  I took your temperature and you had a fever of 104.2.  I gave you some acetaminophen and a popsicle and it came down.  Just a few hours later it was back up and I gave you some ibuprofen and a room temperature bath.  You didn't like that but you went along with it.  You are such a good girl.  I'm so proud of how you keep your sweet disposition, even in the event of a sickness.  You had your first stomach virus about 2 weeks ago.  You were vomiting.  You did eventually get real grumpy with that one and it took a few days to get out of that grumpiness.  I really hope that you get over this before morning.  I love you so much and don't want to see you sick.

A few things that you are doing new:  You are running and saying more words like diaper, dink (drink, that one's been around for a while),  and some words that you've known for a long time are Mama, Daddy, Bye, and Hey.  You love electronics. I'd say they are you favorite thing to play with and baby dolls are your 2nd.  The play kitchen is 3rd or maybe your radio flyer thingy is.  It sits on a hill and you ride it down. Every where we go people comment on how special you make them feel when you hug on them.  Even strangers.

Sleeping Through the Night...Aaah!

You've slept through the night 4 (going on 5) nights in a row now.  Right now you've been sleeping for a really long time.  I keep going in to check on you and you're still alive.  Usually you don't go to sleep until midnight then you've been sleeping till 7:30 AM.  That's for the past 4 nights anyway.  Tonight you went down around 6:30ish and have been sleeping ever since.  It's 1:33 AM right now.  I'm up because Carolina has been running a really high fever this evening.  104-103 and I need to make sure she gets her fever reducer every 4 hours.  We had to put her in a room temperature bath to get her temperature down earlier.  

Have I told you about your smiles lately?  Oh gosh, you smile so much and on purpose.

And you're doing your best to talk to us.  Just thinking about it makes my heart well up.  You are such a wonderful baby.  Mmm, Mmm, Mmm!  I love you precious boy!

You've outgrown several items of clothing.  I'm making you wear everything while I take pictures daily.  Or I should say try to.  Today I didn't get to because we were selling Girl Scout cookies all day.  And pretty much I'm either too busy to remember to take pictures when you are awake or can't find the camera.  I haven't been able to find the camera for two days now.  lol.  Seriously.

Leaving cookies and milk for Santa.

     Carolina, you have decided to not take anymore naps.  It's quite a lot of drama around here right now.  That Christmas vacation that your older brother and sister took from school did quite the number on your routine.  You wanted to stay awake as long as they were awake and play with them as much as possible.  Now you're sleeping late, not taking a morning nap.  You should be taking your afternoon nap right now, but instead you are in there protesting.  I'm trying to make you a Valentine's dress in time for a contest.  The deadline is tomorrow and I haven't even gotten the pattern drawn out yet.

I just watched you do a new thing.  I watched you take my sewing machine cover and push it up against the bookcases.  Then you proceeded to climb on top of it and get down books that you couldn't reach before.  Each time you would get a book you'd throw it to the ground, climb down, take it to a pile you were making, and then come back and climb back up to get another book.  I would have grabbed the camera, but I was feeding Enoch at the time.

You are getting so grown now.  You are using a fork and spoon as best as you can.  You wipe your face when you have food on it, with a napkin.  You grab the mouse to the computer every chance you get and try to maneuver it around.  Today you started clicking things and hung up on your daddy while we were talking on Skype and I had you in my lap.  You've stopped throwing your drinks on the floor, as much.  You and your brothers and sisters got a small table and chair set for Christmas and you just love to sit at it and eat.  I'm so proud of the lady you are becoming.  I love you.

Enoch and your 2 month check up.

     First let me show you your birth announcement.

Aren't you just a precious thing?  Yes you are!
You had a great Christmas.  Here you are in your Christmas outfit and your Christmas Pajamas.

Santa was checking you out big time.

For your first Christmas you got an activity play mat, a baby rattle, some clothes, a baby bathtub and some baby bath bubbles, shampoo etc.  You also got a swing to share with your brothers and sisters.  I know there were some other things, but I can't remember.  And a  nap.   You really slept a lot that day.

You had your two month check up this week.  You've been needing to get your two month shots, but we'd been rescheduling because of a cold.  You've been having some congestion since the week after Thanksgiving and I wanted to ask the Dr about that too.  I'm still a little congested from that cold, so I wasn't too alarmed.  The Dr. shocked me when he said that he believes you are allergic to cow's milk.  So now I'm not ingesting any dairy products for the next week to see if that might be the case.  You're congestion seems to be getting better each day.  I mean, even before we took you to the Dr.  And last night Daddy brought some vaporizers home so that we can get more moisture in the air.  Even Daddy's congestion just cleared up this week.  So if you do clear up in the next week, like the Dr says will happen with me not eating any more dairy, then I'm gonna suspect that it's due to the cold clearing up.  If that happens, then I'm going to reintroduce cow's milk to see if you get congested again.  I hope that doesn't happen.  But no matter what I pray that God will take care of you and keep you well.  I know He will.

I hear you calling for me now, and I've still got some breakfast to gobble down in a hurry, so I'm ending this post now.  I love you Enoch!