Spring Break

Ever since my friend Tara came to visit and showed Sophie pictures of the beach she has wanted to go there. Joe and I decided that we should make her wish come true and go to the beach for spring break. It did not take much convincing as we both love the beach. We searched online and decided to go to the Outer Banks. Neither of us have ever been there and I have always wanted to go. We found a condo right on the beach that was very decently priced since it was still the the off-season.

Going on vacation with young children is always interesting. Each vacation has its own issues and you never know what is going to happen. Our issues for this vacation was the distance (12 hours!) and both kids ended up getting sick! Ack! Still, we had a lot of fun and were happy having alone time together.

We had a 12 hour drive ahead of us so we decided that the best thing to do would be to drive through the night. Sophie has never been that great in the car so we wanted to make sure that they were asleep for a good portion of the time so we wouldn't have to deal with a lot of crabbiness. We packed the car in the evening while the girls slept. I was getting some last minute things done later at night when I heard Josie on the monitor. She was whimpering and making some noises so I decided to investigate. I didn't even make it up the third stair when I smelled vomit. She had been sick for a while but we thought that she was getting better. When I got up to her room the smell was overpowering. I flipped on the light and she was laying in a puddle of chunky white puke. She must of been rolling around in it. I never heard her actually vomit on the monitor, just whimpering so I was pretty shocked with the sight in front of me. I called for Joe and he grabbed her and gave her a bath while I cleaned her bed and anything else that was doused in puke. I brought her downstairs so that she could sleep on the couch and I could watch her. She didn't get sick anymore and we decided to go ahead and go on our vacation. I'm still not sure if that was the best parenting move. We loaded the girls into the car and started out on our journey to North Carolina. We stopped after a few hours to make sure that the girls got some food. Josie had only been drinking water and Pedialyte for a few days and not really eating anything so I was excited when she ate some oatmeal for breakfast. When we got back into the car girls fell asleep again. They were so good in the car. We had a DVD for them to watch when they got bored and they were excited whenever we got out to stretch or get food or gas. In the 12 hours the only time they really got cranky was at the very and when we were just 20 minutes away from our place. We were so fortunate that Josie didn't get sick in the car and wasn't feverish. We know she wasn't feeling well though so that was probably why she slept so much. I am so proud of both of those girls.


When we finally got to the condo we unloaded the car and put the pack and play so Josie could take a nap. Sophie and I went to find the indoor pool so that she could do some swimming. The pool was too cold but the hot tub felt like a nice warm bath so we spent a lot of time in there. We were all pretty tired for our travels, so when we ordered some take out and stayed in the condo. We all went to bed pretty early that night.

Before we went to be we gave Josie some milk, thinking that since she had been fever free should be fine. She was so hungry due to not eating, so she gulped the whole bottle down pretty quickly. Wouldn't you know it she ended up puking in her pack and play. It wasn't as bad as the puke she did before we left home but it was still pretty gross. (Sophie, who shared a room with her, slept through the whole ordeal. Thank goodness!) She and I ended up on the couch that night. She slept on my chest for half of the time and then scooted down and slept next to my legs. (She did the same thing the next night, but slept in her bed the rest of the time.)

We did a lot of snuggling on vacation. 

One of the things that I really wanted for this vacation was a place on the beach. Having two young kids with small attention spans, I didn't want to have to walk a long time or drive to the beach. I knew it would probably be cold, too, since it was April, so we probably wouldn't stay out too long. On our second day of vacation, we put on some warm clothes and made our way to the condo's beach entrance. The girls enjoyed playing in the sand but weren't very happy with the wind. We stayed for about 15 minutes before Sophie declared that it was time to leave.

We went to the North Carolina aquarium in Roanoke. I think that our aquarium back home was a lot better, but I really did like a lot of the exhibits. My favorite thing was the shark ray pool (always a favorite of mine. I just love those little guys!). You could reach in and touch them which was pretty neat. Sophie was trying to touch them but they kept scooting away from her hand. She couldn't reach in far enough to get to them. Sophie's favorite thing was the sea turtle rehabilitation center. In it, you take a plastic sea turtle and examine it. The computer simulator would tell you what is wrong with the sea turtle. Then you take it to be cleaned and fixed up. Another computer simulator tells you what you should do to help it out. Then you take it to a little rehab center, which was just a rotating tank, and then you can release it back into the wild. So she absolutely loved it and we ended up having to go back to it a second time so she could do it again. If that girl doesn't end up going into the medical field one day I will be shocked. She absolutely loves anything that is involved with medicine. She also liked the area outside where you could go and try to find fossils and rocks. Josie was not very impressed with the aquarium at all. I am sure that she still felt cruddy though. She sat in her stroller quietly the whole time. 

We went to visit the Bodie lighthouse. It was closed due to the off-season so we couldn't go up inside of it. It was still beautiful to see.

I was super excited about being close to Roanoke. I love American history and really wanted to see what the settlement area looked like. I was so disappointed. There wasn't much there and since it was the off season they weren't doing the reenactment play that is supposed to be wonderful. We left pretty quickly after getting there. We also went to the Wright Brothers Museum. It was pretty neat to see where the first flights took place. It was a really windy day though and Sophie wasn't feeling well so we didn't stay that long. We wanted to go back again to fly a kite, but then Sophie didn't feel well the rest of the vacation so we decided not to.

I hate that the girls were both sick over vacation. I'm glad that they weren't sick at the same time, but I wish they didn't have to go through this. Still I am proud that they were troopers. (And I am thankful that there were so many urgent care centers in the area, just in case we needed them.)

Joe and I said that we would both love to go back to the Outer Banks in the future. We will probably wait until the girls are little bit older. All those hours away from home is just a little too much stress right now. I'm still so glad that we went. It was absolutely beautiful! The best thing though was being together as a family. It was so nice to get away from work for a little while and just spend time with the four of us. I love moments like that.

Josie's first time with a Popsicle. She wasn't in love with how cold it was, but she kept going back for more. Popsicles are pretty hard to resist!

Poor little Josie felt so cruddy during the first half of the vacation. She slept best on the couch. 

Oatmeal and Pedialyte - breakfast of champions

View from our balcony

We watched Frozen every night.

Poor Sophie was so sick on the last two days of our trip. 

Swim Lessons

One of my friends at work (whose son, Jayden, Sophie loves - they used to go to the same baby sitter) came to my classroom to ask me if I was going to sign Sophie up for swim lessons at one of the local high schools. I hadn't heard about the lessons, so she filled me in on the details - every day for an hour for 2 weeks. I decided to let Sophie decide. All it took was saying that Jayden was going to take lessons to get her to agree.

The first lesson was awful! Our whole family went to see the lesson, which was mistake number one. That is during Josie's normal nap time so she was tired and just wanted to get down and crawl around. Sophie was doing fine in the water at first. She was bobbing up-and-down like they instructed her to do and she was also kicking her legs. While she was bobbing up-and-down she must have gone down too far and she got water in the face. She hates getting her face wet so course that freaked her out and she wanted to get out of the pool as soon as possible. She gets out and dries off and when I try to get her to go back and she refuses. She was crying and Josie was crying because she was tired. (We were that family.) I wouldn't let Sophie completely give up though. I made her watch what was going on from the edge of the pool. She lasted a total of 20 minutes on this first day. Joe had to take her on the second day since I had a meeting. I had Josie with me so he only had to focus Sophie. Sophie went in the pool, but didn't stay in long. She refused to listen from the side of the pool and mostly wanted to play around the bleachers. I took her on the third day. She refused to go in to the pool. I was able to get her to go into the pool after about 15 minutes through threats and bribery. (I threatened to throw away all of her leggings or give them to Josie and I bribed her by saying she could chew gum for the first time.) She got in with a pair of swimmies because she said she was scared and I was able to keep her in the pool for about 40 minutes. Threats and bribery work, though it doesn't make me Mother of the Year, I know. She was so excited to get gum though. She looked so proud of herself and happily chewed it for 20 minutes. Joe took her swim the fourth night and she completely refused to get into the pool. He gave up trying after 30 minutes and said he didn't want to take her anymore. Apparently she was that bad. My friend from work told me she felt bad for him. Eek! I took her on the fifth day of lessons. Again I used bribery and threats, the same one as before, and they worked. She stayed in for about 40 minutes and even jumped into the arms of the instructor, which was something that she had been refusing to do. I was very very proud of her and she was proud of herself, which is the most important thing. The next week I took her and she did really well. She swam with the boards and did most of what the instructor asked. She didn't want to go under at all but on Wednesday a new swim instructor, a girl this time, convinced her to try it. She held onto the instructor, took a deep breath and she and the instructor went under the water and then came right back up. Sophie did it twice and was proud of herself. I was too! I almost cried.

My mom had to take her on Wednesday to class because I was at a field trip. Sophie swam and when under but wasn't feeling well and actually ended up puking in her towel.  I kept her home the next day from swim because she still didn't seem like she was feeling well. On the last day she went and stayed in the pool for most the time. She still wasn't feeling the best and was kind of whiny. I had to do a lot of convincing to get her to jump into the instructors arms. She didn't want to go under but at least blew bubbles in the water while doggy paddling with the instructor helping her. We went ahead and left about 20 minutes early. When we got home she went straight to bed and ended up sleeping for six hours. She was exhausted!

Feeling comfortable enough to turn around and kick. 

I am really proud of the progress that Sophie made during her some lessons. She went from being afraid to put her face underwater to actually going under. She has more confidence with doggy paddling and floating. She seems excited about getting in the water. She still has a lot of work to do before her she is actually swimming on her own, but she is at least interested in it now. We will probably do swim lessons here again in the future, though maybe not until the winter or next spring. I guess we will see how she feels about swimming this summer. If she is loving it and wants to learn how to do it on her own then I will sign her up for lessons again sooner rather than later. I am just excited that she seems to like the water now.

Bubble gum is the best bribe ever!

Waiting to jump in.

Josie is 14 Months

The day after Josie turned 14 months old she started crawling up the stairs. She went up three stairs at first before turning around and basically falling into my arms. After a few days of practice she crawled quickly up all of the stairs. She is so excited when she gets to the top and goes straight to her room to play. Thank goodness for baby gates!

Josie's back right molar has been bulging all month long. I keep waiting for it to break through her gums but it hasn't happened yet. She is chewing (and drooling) on everything! Anything is fair game for her mouth. 

I think after her one year visit, Josie developed a fear of doctors. Sophie had a check-up and Joe took Josie along since I had something else going on. Josie was fine until the doctor came into the room. As soon as she started talking she burst into tears. I guess she had flashbacks of her last visit with all of her shots. 

Keeping with the topic of doctors, Josie spent half of this month sick. The poor kid just couldn't catch a break! When she first started getting cranky I thought it was just due to her molar. Her fevers started around the middle of the month on a Thursday. I assumed that she had an ear infection again since she had some of the other symptoms that I noticed normally come with them (she is teething and had a runny nose, watery eye, etc). Saturday night was rough and Sunday she just wanted to be held the whole day. The only time she felt decent was when the pain medicine kicked in. Sunday evening her fever shot up to 104.4°. I was frantic thinking it was high enough to cause brain damage (it wasn't-it would have to be around 107° for that to happen). Luckily Joe kept calm and we were able to get her fever down. Around 1:30 in the morning she was up again, shaking and whimpering. I brought her downstairs for Advil and she started coughing. She ended up coughing/puking up a ton of white chunks all over me (high fevers + milk = nasty smelling cottage cheese-like puke). She drank some water and was able to sleep the rest of the night once the medicine kicked in. She and I slept on the couch so that I could keep an eye on her. She woke around 7:45 in the morning with another fever. Luckily I was able to get her into the doctor's early that morning. Josie was fine until the nurse started talking and checking on her. She started crying and only stopped when we were alone in the room. As soon as she heard the doctor in the hallway she burst into tears again. When the doctor came he did a quick check-up; Josie sobbed the whole time. He had to clean a ton of ear wax out of her ears so that he could get a good look in there. They were fine, which surprised me as I was sure she had an ear infection. They then did a flu test and a strep test. Both of those came back negative, so they decided to do a urine analysis. The poor girl became even more traumatized because they had to catheterize her. The results came back positive for a UTI. They gave her a shot of antibiotics and a prescription for more medication. They asked that we bring Josie back in after 2-3 weeks so they could do another urine analysis and do an ultrasound of her kidneys to ensure there are no issues going on with them. I still can't believe that she had a UTI. We change dirty diapers right away, wipe her properly, and bathe her properly so it baffled us (and made me feel like I was a bad mom). The only thing I can think of is that one time when the girls took a bath together we put in a bath fizz that changes the color of the water (Sophie loves those and they have never caused her issues before.) That was the first time Josie was even in a tub with those. Things like bubble baths can cause UTIs so I am assuming the bath fizzes can as well. Lesson learned. She is feeling better now that she has finished her round of medicine. Poor girl. I hated seeing her feel cruddy, especially with her high fevers!

My poor girl was so sick!

I'm pretty sure this bath water is what caused Josie's UTI. 

Sophie and Josie's bond gets stronger all the time. It makes me smile every time I see them playing together or Josie chasing after Sophie. They are so sweet. Joe picked up Sophie for a dentist's appointment one day, leaving Josie behind at the baby sitter's house. Sophie was so upset and worried about Josie. She kept asking Joe if they could go and get her. 

 

I hope that next month is a healthier one for Josie. I have felt so bad for my sweet girl.

Here are some more pictures of Josie when she was feeling okay this month:

We've had so many snow days this year. Sophie loves playing in the snow, but I worried about taking Josie out in the cold temperatures. I saw a blog post from another parent that mentioned bringing snow into the house for kids to play with instead of taking them outside. I loved the idea, so I filled their bath tub with snow. They had so much fun! This is definitely something that we will do again. 

When Josie was sick the movie Frozen came out on DVD. I had to go to the store to get Pedialite for Josie and ended up buying the DVD as well (per Sophie's request). When we got home we snuggled up on the couch with some snacks and have a nice movie date. 

Kisses from Daddy.

My adorable little girl!

Josie is starting to hate her booster chair so we pulled out our trusty kid table. She loves pulling up on it and grabbing food. 

Mmmmm....breadstick

 

Josie loves grabbing books and toys out of the basket in her room. 

I hate push toys because they are so light and don't support Josie's weight. They either fly out from under her and she falls on her face or back. It always scares her (and me).  

Josie loves her activity center. 

Josie discovered a delicious new food - POPCORN! She couldn't get enough.

Snow day!

I cracked up when I saw Josie lounging on this pillow on the floor. 

Josie started climbing furniture. She loves getting up in this chair. 

Tylenol/Advil kicking in = happy girl again. 

Obviously giving Josie a bowl of fruit wasn't the best idea. 

Josie loves taking naps with Pawpaw Bill.

I love going into Josie's room in the mornings and being greeted like this.