Over the hump, but WOW!

So, an update on Lauren. This week has been a long one, really long and kinda scary. Lauren has been very sick, and we have been at the doctor almost daily, along with frequent phone calls back and forth with the pediatricians. We are lucky to have a very thorough, patient peditrician office, because we have taken a lot of their time this week. As I posted earlier, Lauren started out the week with very high fevers. By Wednesday she was lethargic and just laying around- sicker than I have ever seen her and she really had me scared. When I brought her back in on wednesday, the pediatrician was clearly worried about her too. She had antibiotic shots, blood cultures drawn, a complete blood count and a strep test. She had a severe ear infection and tonsilitis, neither of which were there 48 hours earlier when we brought her in monday night.  We had to bring her back Thursday for another round of shots and to be checked out. The doctors office also called us twice Wednesday and once thursday am to check on her. Well, her fevers are finally gone and she is feeling a bit better, although still pretty drained and her ears and throat still hurt. Tonight she broke out with a very sudden rash all over her body, of course I am still a bit freaked out so I called the doctor on call.  He told me he thought she may have roseola, and it all really fits. He was so nice and made us feel like we were no bother at all, we really have a great pediatrician! Whew! I hope this means she is on the mend! She has to heal up for Florida!

Little Stinker

This weekend I am working, and Jeff is at home with Lauren. I got a phone call from Jeff this morning, he went into the bathroom off our kitchen and closed the door, and Lauren locked him in there. He had apparently been trying to bust his way out for about 10 minutes when he decided to call me. This has happened before, when you close the door she pulls open the drawers in front of the door and you cannot get out, but normally we just yell for help and the other person comes to the rescue- but not today, I wasn't supposed to be home for almost 8 more hours and it is a long drive home to let him out of the bathroom- she could get into a lot of dangerous things waiting 45 min for me to get home. I ended up calling our friend Geoff who has a key to our house and he was over there in about 10 minutes- Lauren was happy as a clam playing in the dogs food and water bowls. Jeff is so lucky that he had his cell phone in his pocket, or he would have been locked in there all day and poor Lauren would have had a really long day... That little stinker!

I want!

I just got an email from Coach with this picture.....oooooooh, I love this bag! So pretty.

High fevers

Lauren is sick- I guess it is just a virus, but she doesn't have much for symptoms besides high fevers and she gets purple lips and fingers with the fevers. When this happened, we came down to Denver (we were in WP- altitude 10,000 ft) and we actually took her to the pediatrician. She has a red throat and the MD thought it was just a virus and the fevers were causing her to clamp down and thus the purple lips. Within 2 hrs of leaving the pediatrician she was febrile to 105.5 degress (yes, I checked it three times alternating ears- I got 105.5 twice and 105.4 once) and was shivering. I put her in the bath tub to try to make her feel better and called the pediatrician on call. We were close to hitting the ER with her, but were able to bring down her fever with Motrin. I was up a lot last night with her, but she is doing much better today. She is just crabby and sleepy, but with tylenol and motrin she has been doing OK. She is super-snuggly.

Fun weekend in Winter Park

I didn't take much for pictures, but we just spent a 4 day weekend up in WP with our friends Geoff, Trina, and Ben.  It was cold, but the snow was good and we had a great time. We drank beers (one round on the shot-ski), eat a ton and skiied and swam with the kids. We also played a fun board game and spent the night cracking up laughing (turns out Jeff and I are on the same wave-length).  Lauren gave me a talking card for Valentines day and some perfume, and Jeff gave me some nice things as well.  What a nice mini-vaca.

Lauren's Babies

Lauren is officially obsessed with baby dolls. She carries them around, hugs and kisses them, feeds them with bottles and gives them pacifiers. At school, they have a carrier, and she hauls them around in that. And she makes a bed for them in a basket and covers them with a blanket- it is so cute. EXCEPT- she gets a bit obsessive/ posessive and will not let the other children near her when she is with her babies. Sometimes she doesn't even want me by her, she is very protective of her babies. We are practicing sharing...

Crooked Piggys

I am not so good at putting in piggy tails yet- they turned out pretty crooked yesterday.

Cancer Sucks

Why does cancer have to suck so bad?? I am having another one of those days, those moments- where I just cannot believe how much cancer sucks some times. I just feel like- really? This is happening to children? Right in front of my face? How is that fair?


So, if you start feeling sorry for yourself about how bad you have it- please don’t. If you cannot help yourself, just give me a call and I can give you a story or two that will remind you of how lucky we are every day. Seriously- enjoy your health! Enjoy your freedom! Kiss your children and everyone you see- we are so lucky. :)

Super Bowl!

A snowy super-bowl sunday, how fitting!! We are getting ready to go to a party at the home of some friends- there are going to be lots of little kids there, all around Lauren's age. Should be fun- she is wearing her packer cheerleader outfit. The little stinker fought off napping, so she is just falling asleep now- a little after 3pm, think we're gonna miss kick-off.  Who are you rooting for?? I really dont care, still bummed about Favre...

Lauren would like to read her new book to you...

Puerto Vallarta- here we come!

Puerta Vallarta- here we come! I just booked our flights- we are going for my birthday and Mother's day in May. Yipeee-skipee! I am giddy just thinking about it- we are going to the post-office on Friday to apply for a passport for Lauren.  This is not exactly her first trip to PV, though- the last time I was there was when I was about 10 weeks pregnant and my mom and I went down there for some R&R.  When we were there we talked about bringing her back in a couple years- and here we go right on schedule.  I was really hoping some grandparents would be able to make it back with us, but our timing might just not be the best- its OK though, we are going to have so much fun.

I did find a sweet 3 bed/ 3 bath penthouse that I really really want to stay in- it is soooo nice. But, obviously too pricey for just the three of us, so if anyone is looking for a beach vaca in May- let us know. Or if Grandpa Randy ever decides to give himself a big bonus and then fire himself- that'll work too. 

I AM JUST SOOOO EXCITED RIGHT NOW - WOOOO HOOOO!

Baking with my daughter

Another fun Lauren Day.

We started out the morning with breakfast, then donned our aprons (over our jammies) and started baking.

Grandma V gave Lauren her cute apron

She literally "hangs" off my apron as we move around the kitchen (the red is my apron- hard to take a picture of the two of us, especially when she is clinging like a monkey)

We made banana bread using my friend Andrea's recipe that I love. Of course with some modifications for altitude (5280 ft) and allergies. I used vanilla soy milk in place of buttermilk and flax seed and water in place of the eggs. The batter looked really strange, so we were nervous...

But it turned out lovely, as you can see. Lauren, Casey, and I sat on the floor and tasted our masterpiece- we all agree it was very tasty. Maybe a bit healthier tasting that the original recipe, but that is because it is healthier- flax seed has tons of omega-3 fatty acids. Made me feel less guilty splurging on banana bread!

Andrea's Banana Bread Recipe

2 c. flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1/2 c. shortening

1 c. sugar

2 eggs

1 c. mashed bananas (2-3)

1/2 c. buttermilk

3/4 c. chopped nuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sift first 3 ingredients together, set aside.

Cream shortening and sugar. Add eggs and beat well, stir in bananas.  Mix in milk alternating with dry ingredients- beginning and ending with dry ingredients. Mix well after each addition, stir in nuts.

Turn into a well-greased loaf pan, bake at 350 degrees for 60-70 minutes. You can use two smaller loaf pans, just bake for a little less time and test it with a toothpick.

Delicious!

Little Lauren Feb 2010

Random Cuteness- I was trying to get her to blow kisses for her Grandma to see, but she wasn't really cooperative.