Today at Mothers Morning Out it is Noah's Ark Dress Up Day. Amy went dressed as a ladybug. She wasn't too sure about the antenna and would only leave them on long enough for me to get this one picture this morning. I hope to get a better picture later, but this gives you an idea of how cute she looks.
Here is today's "picture of the day".
Amy can now say "Ice", "Oma", "Pompo - sounds more like bompo", and "boo-boo" while pointing out her boo-boo on her thumb.
Her favorite activities at MMO are craft time and snack time. She apparently is quite good when it comes to playing with the paints and other craft items. I haven't been brave enough to try it at home yet, but I guess it's about time to break out the finger paints. She certainly enjoys the few crayons that she has here.
She has also figured out how to push with her feet while sitting on Emilie's tricycle. She was actually pushing and steering the other day. However her legs aren't quite long enough to reach the pedals yet, so I think we'll probably wait until her birthday before we go out and get her a tricycle of her own.
In addition to today's picture of Amy, there is a picture that Dean took last night of the thunderstorm we had. The picture on this page is a smaller version, but if you click on the picture it will take you to a page where you can see a larger version.
Here is today's "picture of the day".
Amy has her own "clubhouse" now. And she won't let either Dean or me in. It's a large box sitting in the middle of the livingroom floor and it's the perfect size for her to climb in and sit. But if one of us should try to get in, she will pull and tug at us until we come back out. Then she'll immediately climb in again.
Today we went to the Chiaha Fair, here in Rome. It was a nice way to spend part of the day. It's an annual fall fair that features a lot of local artists/crafters, good food, and good music. Amy met another little girl from China (adopted from the Hunan province), there. She was 5 years old and just beautiful. She was quite taken with Amy too.
She has also learned now how to wipe her feet when we come in. She still gets a kick out of playing with the Tupperware. She's getting more creative with it these days. She's also coloring more - this time on paper and her clubhouse box. The other thing she is doing on a regular basis now is waving bye-bye to planes. Every time a plane flies over the house (and it's a lot since we live so close to Rome's airport) she says bye-bye and waves. She will also sometimes even say Hi when the phone rings.
In addition to today's pictures of Amy, there is also another picture of the Diana rose that I planted this year. It is amazing how well it has done. I'm hoping it continues to do as well next year too.
Here is today's "picture of the day".
Amy has had her first 15 minutes of fame. She and her friend Emilie were pictured in our local paper yesterday. Last Friday a reporter came to our Kindermusik class and was taking some pictures. I didn't think much about it until yesterday morning when Emilie's mom, Amy, told me our daughters were stars. I've scanned the picture of the two of them and it's below. If anyone in the Rome area reading this has an extra copy of the Young Romans section from Tuesday's paper, could you let me know. Thanks.
Yesterday Amy bought her first pumpkin. We went to a place called the Pumpkin Patch, which is put on by one of the local churches. They had pumpkins ranging in size from tiny, to small (which is what Amy picked out) to really big ones. Emilie & her mom came along too. We thought we had gotten some good pictures until we discovered that Amy (Emilie's mom) didn't have any film in the camera. Oh well, maybe if we have a chance we'll go back and try again.
Dean said that last night while I was out Amy said Mommy very clearly. Wish I had been here to hear it. But I'm sure I'll be hearing it a lot as the days go on. She continues to talk in "sentences" more and more every day, but we still can't quite understand what she says. And she still gets enjoyment out of sitting and reading books. Hopefully that habit will continue for many years to come.
Here is today's "picture of the day".
Not much new to report today. But I had to share what Amy made in Mothers Morning Out today. Below is her fall pumpkin, decorated with gold glitter by Amy herself.
Here is today's "picture of the day".
Amy has discovered ice cream sandwiches. Had she had the opportunity she probably would have eaten an entire one by herself. As it was she ate almost half of mine and a small portion of Dean's.
Yogurt has replaced oatmeal as the favorite breakfast item. She is also into Cheerios, which are called Choes. Dinner is din-din, and lunch actually is starting to sound like she's saying lunch. Favorite books lately are the Veggies Tales books she received from her friend Abbey while she was in the hospital.
Last night we went out for dinner. Amy was eating some of my rice and spilled some into the pocket of her bib. When that happened everything else had to stop until she picked out each grain of rice and gave it to Dean to dispose of. Once that was taken care of she went back to eating.
She has finally outgrown her summer outfits. We had a rather warm day today and when we went out to play in her sandbox this afternoon we put on one of her summer rompers. What used to hang down to her knees is now too short in length. For being so petite she seems to have long legs. But I still don't think she'll be a basketball player.
Peek-a-boo is becoming more of a favorite game these days. She will now hide in her balloons or put her hands in front of her face and then pop out and say boo. Other times she will take our hands and hold them in front of her face to hide and then pull them apart to reveal herself.
Here are today's "pictures of the day".
Amy has had her first temper tantrum. It lasted about 15 minutes - she sceamed at the top of her lungs because I wouldn't pick her up. Hopefully that will be one of the few that she has. It was not a pretty sight.
New words in her vocabulary include: backpack, giraffe, yellow, Hi and bye bye on a more regular basis now, and she has finally said her own name. She and Emilie will babble to each other and they seem to understand what the other one is saying, but none of us adults can figure it out.
Amy got stuck in the mud Thursday evening. There is a hole along the edge of the road created by one of the construction vehicles a while back. Now it's filled with debris and mud, which Amy decided to walk through until she got stuck. She screamed so loud that you would have thought she had been hit by a car. Dean pulled her out and she immediately wanted her shoes off. She did not care for the mud one bit. After taking her shoes off, she was perfectly content to walk around again in her socks. She is becoming quite the "neat freak".
She got a clean bill of health from the doctor Thursday afternoon. She had lost 4 ounces since she was last weighed before going in to the hospital, but now her appetite seems to be back to where it was pre-sickness, so I'm sure she'll gain back those few ounces without too much trouble.
She took her first ride on a carousel today. Although she didn't want to ride on one of the horses, she did okay riding on my lap in one of the seats that they had available. She watched Emilie ride the horse and seemed intrigued by the time we were done. Maybe next time she'll want to try too.
And so now after a week of ups & downs, temper tantrums and missed naps, life seems to be back to normal.
Here are today's "pictures of the day".
Well life is finally getting back to normal around here. Amy is drinking almost what she used to drink before going into the hospital and is starting to eat some things again.
She is really enjoying playing with her balloons that she received, in addition to reading all of her books and coloring with her markers. She likes to hide in her balloons and peek out at you. She laughs and laughs and gets a big grin on her face when she plays this game.
She is trying to say more words everyday. Some are coming out very clearly, others you have to listen to figure out what she is referring to. And there are still those other words that we have yet to figure out what they mean. She's no longer calling Emilie "girl". Now it's "memlie". But she still won't say her own name. Other words include waa-waa for water and "no, no, no" instead of just one no for when she doesn't want something. Alot of other words are things that she'll try to imitate that we say, for example gatorade, but she won't say them any other time.
During this whole time she has had more teeth come in. Her top eye teeth have broken through and now the bottom ones are starting to come in too. I think after those she only has 4 more molars to go and she'll have her full set of baby teeth.
Tomorrow we go back to Mother's Morning Out. It's sounding like this virus is making the rounds all around town. Hopefully she'll have an immunity to it for at least a while. I guess this is one of the hardest things about being a parent. When your child doesn't feel well and can't tell you whats wrong. Very frustrating indeed.
Here are today's "pictures of the day".
I realize it has been almost a week since our last update. Please read on for our explanation of why.
Sunday evening Amy had a fever - it wasn't bad, nothing to be worried about. Then Monday morning we checked her temperature again, and her fever was a little higher. We were concerned because she was refusing to eat or drink anything, she was droolling a lot, and was crying and whimpering, like she was in a great deal of pain. But we couldn't figure out what was going on. We decided to be safe and took her to see the doctor.
The doctor diagnosed her with Herp-Angina (I'm not sure that's spelled right). Basically she had caught a virus that led to blisters in her mouth and throat making it difficult for her to swallow anything. He gave us medicine for the pain and prescription for her congestion and told us to keep trying to give her liquids so she wouldn't get dehydrated. This virus, which apparently is more painful than Strep, should run it's course in a few days with the pain subsiding each day.
Monday she drank quite a bit, so we were encouraged by that. She was getting a lot of Advil and Tylenol, but it seemed to be helping her pain. Then Tuesday came. She refused to drink anything at all. I called the doctors office again, they said try popsicles, gatorade, anything that you can possibly get her to drink. Tried all of their advice, nothing. Tuesday afternoon Dean called them back and told them she still wasn't drinking. They told him to take her to the emergency room. So that's where we spent most of Tuesday afternoon and evening.
Finally after about 4 hours of sitting in one of the ER exam rooms they decided yes, she was dehydrated, started her on an IV and admitted her to hospital. So to make a long story a little shorter, that is where we have been most of this week.
She spent Tuesday, Wednesday, and most of today in the Pediatric ward at Floyd Medical Center. The nurses there were wonderful. Amy was on an IV up until late this morning, when she finally decided to start drinking juice on her own again. The doctors were encouraged by the fact that she drank 16 ounces of apple juice before 10:00 this morning and said as long as she kept taking fluids she would be able to come home this afternoon. She drank more juice this afternoon, all her other tests came back negative, and so we were finally released around 5:30.
So now here we are, home at last. It's been an exhausting few days, but we are all so glad to be home. The first couple of pictures are from last weekend - Amy is playing in her sandbox and sitting on the front steps. We have been having glorious fall weather and took advantage of every minute we could get outside. The third picture is from today at the hospital. As you can see the gown they had for her was just a "little" too big.
Here are today's "pictures of the day".
