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Saturday, July 26, 2008

July

July has been a busy month and I have not updated regularly. Here are some photos from this month. The first photo above is Cassie at the children's museum playing with their cool board. It is a picture of the board, she is actually next to me and her image is reflecting onto it. It changes and is really fun to play with.
There is a video way towards the bottom.


Ellie finished up baseball in July.



Children's Museum







Watching the 4th of July parade in Arlington




Grandma Susie's and Grandpa Mark's




Sweet Ellie when she was sick


Natalie and Cooper cuddling

Elyza helping with laundry
(I carried her downstairs to get the laundry because she didn't want to leave me and I had to carry her back up like this, otherwise I couldn't carry both)



Smiley girl


Children's Art Festival, Mt Vernon

This was fun, they had lots of art activities, face painting, "big rigs" the kids could get on and see. The fire department, police department had booths so that was neat (and lots of other sponsors like local businesses, the library etc.)

Valentines performing pigs were there and some other performances like juggling, magic, etc.



Ellie got to go up on stage for a magic card trick



Video of Ellie on stage:



Sleeping, last night



Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Christian the Lion

Christian was a lion purchased in 1969 by two Australians living in London, John Rendall and Anthony 'Ace' Bourke (sometimes erroneously cited as Ace Berg) — from Harrods department store.

Rendall, his girlfriend Jennifer Mary, Bourke and Unity Jones cared for the lion as it grew too large to remain their pet. After meeting Bill Travers and Virginia McKenna, who starred in the film Born Free, Rendall and Bourke agreed to have Christian sent to Kenya with the assistance of conservationist George Adamson — in order that Christian be rehabilitated into the wild at Kora National Reserve.

Watch his story...


More info on Christian:
Christian the lion who lived in my London living room

Monday, July 21, 2008

Elyza Swims

Ok, well not really, but Elyza has no fear of the water. Yesterday when we took the girls swimming we let Elyza "swim" back and forth between Doug and I. She was happy to do it, her face was emerged and she held her breath. She's obviously too little for instruction but we let her be under for a couple of seconds and she moved her arms and kicked her feet until we pulled her up. She did not sink and she was able to keep her bum up. Then she giggled and smiled and was immediately ready for more.

We have been taking her swimming since she was 5 weeks old but this is the first time we let her try to swim and she loved it! I don't think she will be sitting in the little fishy boat anymore! She was mad when we tried to put her back in.

Cassie and Ellie can of-course swim. Ellie, at 5, can swim the distance of an olympic size pool and has been able to swim since she was three. She also knows that if she gets tired she can turn to her back and float or swim on her back.

I think we have a little family of fish!

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Ellie's latest hospital stay

This was the 5th time Ellie had been admitted to the hospital and her 5th UTI. As it turned out she was on the wrong antibiotic, as I had suspected. We knew she had a UTI on Thursday July 10th when she said it hurt to pee, it took her over an hour to pee about 1 tsp and it had blood in it. I took her to the ER where they agreed she had a UTI and gave her an RX for an antibiotic. She started throwing up very early Friday morning and had a raging fever. By Thursday afternoon she was in her pediatrician's office where she got a shot of antibiotics, well actually two shots. Poor girl.

By Sunday she was not better. I took her to the ER Sunday morning where they had her cultures back from Thursday and said that she was on the wrong antibiotic, gave her an IV and admitted her so she could receive IV antibiotics and fluids. She spent three days in the hospital. The doctor didn't want to let her go until she could keep her fever under 101.5 without meds.

Now we have to go back to Children's to see the urologist again, more tests and see what they have to say.

She is a trooper though, she handled it all well and didn't try to pull her arms when they did the IV. She did scream and cry, but kept her arms still.

Please keep Ellie in your thoughts and prayers.

Friday, July 11, 2008

Why!?!?

Last week was Ellie's best friend, Gavin's birthday party. We missed it because Elyza was sick. But she got him something REALLY special, something he really wanted, but before he even knew he wanted one she picked it out for him. It is a Webkinz, the snake. It was ordered ahead of time and then he was exposed to Webkinz (by Ellie) and he desperately wanted one... good thing we already ordered one!

So today we were going to have a special party for him at our house. We were going to decorate, have cupcakes and dinner, hot dogs, maybe even some potato chips! And play pin the tail on the Webkinz.

Last night I noticed that Ellie was in and out of the bathroom, she said she was trying to poop. Then she came and got her dinner plate and tried to bring it into the bathroom. I asked her again what was going on, was she having a hard time pooping or was she having a lot of poop, etc. She told me, when I try to poop I keep peeing and it hurts really bad when I pee.

Because she has urinary reflux and has had 4 urinary tract infections in the past I knew she probably had an infection. I got her to pee in a cup, it took about an hour to get about 1tsp, but when she did it was clearly cloudy and had blood it in. So then I knew she had an infection.

I called her pediatrician who said that as long as she wasn't overly uncomfortable and she didn't have a fever we could wait and see her in the morning. This is what I decided to do.

That was until she started crying, saying she hurt and her side hurt and pointed to her kidney area. It was also her left side which is the side her reflux was on.

So I brought her to the ER, and well, as I suspected ahem, KNEW she has a UTI and I am glad I brought her last night. It was actually quick for an ER, about 2 hours.

When I got there they asked me why and I just said because she has a UTI, I did not say I think she has one. At first I think the guy thought I was just full of myself at first, but then when I told him why (her history and current symptoms) and when her urine sample came out pink they knew I was right.

And even the doctor was kinda like, well, we have to go with procedure (like waiting for the lab etc) but we pretty much know what is wrong. They gave her a dose of antibiotic last night and then a RX.

When we got home around midnight I gave her some motrin for the pain, she was saying she hurt alot. By 4am she was puking and had a fever over 103. She still have a fever at 6am even with more meds and has thrown up 3 times in 2 hours.

I am glad we brought her in because at least she's had one dose of antibiotic and they already have the urine sample and the culture started just in case this antibiotic doesn't work. Once she spent 2 1/2 days in the hospital on the wrong antibiotic via IV (because they just use one that typically works for UTI's and typical bacteria until they have the culture back which takes like 2-3 days.) Then she spent another 4 days in the hospital on the right antibiotic (that was 3 years ago.)

So send her some prayers and good vibes. She wanted to have the party still, but then told me she wanted the volume off on the TV. So I know she could not handle it. Their party will hopefully happen tomorrow once her antibiotics kick in.

Wednesday, July 09, 2008

It's summer-time

We have a very small yard that needs a lot of work and only have a metal swing set and not alot of playmates. Ellie loves loves loves playing outside and loves playing with other kids. Doug and I were talking and I told him that I often don't take her to the park because she always wants to stay for hours and I feel bad not staying for hours and frankly it's B-O-R-I-N-G for me when I take her alone. I admitted that I should just take her a couple times a week for at least 30 minutes and at least she'd be going more.

So Doug and I made a deal with Ellie last Sunday that we would try to take her to the park at least 4 times a week (at least twice each) and playgroup days count for me, lol, as long as she would not get upset or argue when it was time to leave.

So far it is Wednesday and she has been to the park three times now, Sunday we took her together, Monday I took her for about an hour by myself and today Doug took her for about an hour and a half - 2 hours by himself - and to a water playground even!

What a nice compromise for a 5-year old eh? And now that Elyza can at least swing and crawl on the grass it's not so bad for her either. She loves the swings and loves to crawl on the grass.