Big month

It's been a big month for Audrey...and not just because she got a ride in an ambulance and a hospital stay.  She's now in big girl underwear AND a big girl bed! 

Actually, the hospital stay was the perfect opportunity to potty train.  Sort of an expensive way, but very efficient!  By day two of our stay, she was more and more interested in getting out of bed.  And the hospital staff was more and more interested in her urine output.  So, a little measuring cup went into the toilet and it became the highlight of Audrey's hour to go in and fill it up! Brilliant!  She was so excited to use the potty and tinkle in that little measuring cup that she wanted to do it all the time.  Her excitement continued when she came home (minus a few steps back) and now she's diaper free!  It's really awesome.  Her sickness also spurred the transformation of her crib to a toddler bed.  It was just too miserable dealing with a sick kid in a crib and it's proved so much easier to tend to her when I can reach her better.

She's such a little talker, this one, and now she'll go up to people (some whom she knows, others whom she doesn't) and say, "I wearing kinkerbell (Tinkerbell) underwears.  I go tinkle on the potty. I sleep in a big girl bed."  Followed by, "I growing up!" accompanied by a shrug of her shoulders.  Priceless.

She is growing up. 

Insert smile here.

Now insert sniff.

The Pacific

We headed to the ocean this past weekend and what a treat it was.  We stayed in a little town about a three hour drive north of us along Highway 1 called Gualala.  What a great place.  The ocean views and beaches are amazing.  We got very up close and personal with the waves and had an amazing time.  Natalie held a starfish in her hands and touched sea anemones.  We saw hundreds of sea lions basking in the sun on the beach and Audrey spotted one swimming as a little whiskered head came up for air. Corey took amazing pictures.  I enjoyed my first hike since summer summer (that's sad)? 

We stayed one night in a cute hotel with a fireplace, a huge tub, and listened to the surf as we fell asleep.  Totally awesome. We were only gone two days but it really felt like a vacation.  We fit a lot in and came home full of sand!  We can't wait to head back...probably to camp near the beach when the weather is warmer.

 

On our drive home we stopped at two really cool spots...one was this little chapel in the middle of a field.  Absolutely charming and well cared for but without any on site staff or caretaker that we could see.  The other was Fort Ross (lots of cool pics that deserve a post of their own!).

Is this the cutest little chapel you ever did see?

And the inside was even cooler!

 

Such a great trip!  Really love living in California!

Scary Saturday

We had a trip via ambulance to the ER on Saturday morning and ended up staying the weekend!  Audrey and I battled a stomach bug last week and while I recovered within 24 hours, she struggled with it all week.  Saturday morning when I answered her call from her bedroom at 6 am I found her almost unresponsive in her bed.  She was limp.  Her eyes were rolling back in her head and she was pretty incoherent.  We weren't sure what was happening but knew we needed help.  The paramedics arrived and suspected she was probably severely dehydrated.  Her blood sugar level was very low as she hadn't had an appetite all week.  They decided to take her by ambulance to the ER and it was beyond difficult to watch them strap her car seat to the gurney.  She started to perk up a bit in the ambulance but was extremely lethargic again when we arrived at the ER.

We ended up staying in the ER for 8 hours until they transferred her upstairs to pediatrics.  She captured the heart of the EMT who had come to our house that morning because he kept checking in with her in our ER room as he came and went on calls from the hospital throughout the day.  Such a reassurance he was on an otherwise very scary day.

Corey had followed the ambulance by car and  joined us in the ER but then started suffering from a horrible headache and nausea and had to go back home.  So he sent Nana as his replacement for support.  Well, while Nana waited with us in the ER room, she was suddenly stricken with this awful stomach virus and started vomiting.  I'm. Not. Kidding.  Corey had to drive back to the hospital on the verge of vomiting himself to collect poor, sick Nana. 

 That left me and our lethargic little sick Audrey who had to endure 3 pokes in her arms and wrist until they found a vein that cooperated for a blood draw and an IV put into her sweet little chubby foot. She was hysterical. I was hysterical. It was so hard to watch her go through it all.

The pediatric floor was actually a relief after the day in the ER. Much more comfortable and staff trained specifically to work with children. They didn't attempt any sort of test without bribing her with a Popsicle first. We stayed in that hospital room (basically quarantined because she had a stomach virus) until Monday morning when she could hold down her sparse meals and keep herself hydrated without the IV. For those two days we watched a lot of Dora, played with the stuffed animals Corey brought from home when he started to feel better, ate Popsicles and watched some more Dora. We shared a hospital bed for the first time since she was 2 days old and did a lot of looking out the window and texting worried family and friends.

 On Sunday, the IV was disconnected but the port in her foot remained,

along with the little bootie they created to stabilize it. 

She would hobble around the room on the bootie when she needed to get out of bed. 

I was just thankful she wanted to get out of bed. 

For a day and a half she had no interest in leaving her bed. 

 Two days of bed = some serious bed head!

 

Back at home, Nana started feeling better, too, but then Natalie was stricken. So, Corey and Nana had their hands full at home. This bug is evil, that's for sure. Talk about striking a family while they're down!!

I've never been so happy to walk outside into windy sunshine before in my life as I was when we left that hospital on Monday.  They had these race car discharge carts for the kids.  And the pediatric floor was a long way from our car which was still parked in front of the ER entrance.  So, Audrey got to drive this cool cart all the way through the hospital on our way out. 

A fun way to end a not so fun weekend.

Vitamin C anyone?

 We got very used to fresh oranges right in our backyard when we were living in Phoenix. Well, gotta love California, because I think we have even better tasting ones in our backyard here! We have two orange trees that are not at all attractive, but are loaded with oranges. So much so that Corey had to prop up the limbs of one of the trees with our patio set chair! And while we have oranges coming out our ears, our good friends have the same citrus situation...but with lemons. So, we have plenty of both on hand all the time and it's awesome. 

 I told you it wasn't the prettiest tree!

These are meyer lemons and I never understood what all the fuss was about...until I had one.

So yummy!

Smile

Audrey had her first dental exam and cleaning and she did great.  She's been to the dentist with Natalie a few times but never sat in the chair for an official appointment.  Well, she watched big sister be such a big girl at her appointment and then a week later decided to be a super cooperative girl herself and open wide for her own cleaning...with chocolate flavored toothpaste and banana flavored fluoride!  What kid wouldn't cooperate for those flavors!?  She brought Ladybug Girl along for support, of course!

"All lean!" she said when she was finished.

Could eat this kid up, I tell you!

Birthday Weekend

We have a six year old.  A brilliant, creative, energetic, take charge, independent, sparkly, beautiful six year old.  She's learning to read, writing her letters so beautifully, and wiggling a tooth or two.  She loves to wear a gown and a crown but also loves to catch bugs and crawdads with her bare hands.  She's a good little friend and a sweet big sister (when she wants to be).  We love her to pieces and know she could run the place if only we'd let her!

Her birthday weekend was a ton of fun. 

She woke up Saturday morning to a room full of balloons (thank you, early riser Daddy!) and a birthday message during a TV morning show the girls like to watch (we sent a card in, hoping they'd feature it, but she just got a running ticker message along the bottom of the screen.  We were so excited even at that but she was not impressed when they didn't feature her card!). 

Then off she and Corey and Audrey went to pick up Nana at the SF airport and then take her to the (best) playground (EVER) at Golden Gate Park. 

After a quick rest at home, it was time to make her up and dress her up for her very first ballet recital.  When this little groundhog was born, I never imagined that only 6 short years later I'd be putting eyeliner, mascara and lipstick on her sweet face!!!  It was a bit painful for me.  I don't even own mascara and had to buy some the day before.  For my kindergartner.  Mercy.  Well, needless to say, she looked beautiful and she did a great job at her recital!
 

 

 

 After her performance it was out to dinner where she enjoyed a chocolate sundae with a sparkler on top. Candles, shmandles. Apparently the kids these days get fireworks!

(she was a little chilly in her costume at dinner but we kept her

in it because it was the only way to explain the full makeup!)

 



The next day was her birthday party. A fairy tea party, that is.   We had a total of 6 little girls to celebrate turning 6.  They were the sweetest little six this party planning mom could ask for.  Each little girl received a wand upon arrival but had to complete three games (to practice their fairy skills, of course) before earning her wings.  They decorated fairy houses (we learned recently that fairies hate to get caught in the rain because wet wings don't work...so, we figured they needed little houses in every one's backyards to ride out a storm), ate fairy foods, devoured flower cupcakes and pink lemonade, drew pictures, and played.  And before we knew it, it was time for everyone to go home. 

 Decorating fairy houses. 

Fairy foods, of course!

 When this crew earned their wings they flew all over the backyard!

 An almost finished fairy house.  They were really awesome when they were done!

Audrey had a play date with one of our fairy guest's little sister (off site) so that allowed Natalie and her fairy friends to have fun frolicking without a little pixie underfoot.  I sent wings and wands with Audrey and her little friend so they could be fairies, too. 

This is a picture of them running (er, flying) down the canal trail to the playground.  Beyond cute!

We topped off the weekend with a Super Bowl party and an accidental nut ingestion so it was a FULL WEEKEND.  I'm really not sure we could have packed anything else in. 

Still can't believe she's 6. 

Love this sassy britches.