Isabelle's Wish List

Ed & I created a wish list on the Toys-R-Us website so we can "save" some of the toy ideas that we want to get Isabelle this year. Most of the toys are for the 3-4 year old range (since she is SO ahead of the curve, hehehe).

Toys on the wish list include a wide range of prices, categories, and characters. So if anyone wants ideas on something to get the Princess this year (Easter, Just Because, etc.), you can access the list on the Toys-R-Us website. Click on Wish Lists and you can search for her. I am the "creator" and Isabelle is the "recipient".

This is by no means a request for gifts, the wish list was created for Ed & I to keep a running list of things we want to get her. But I thought it might be useful to those of you reading this blog in case you want to know what she is interested in at this stage. I will delete items from the wish list if they get purchased by us, so we don't run into duplicates.

Click here to check out her list: Isabelle's Wish List

Snow Angel

Isabelle learned how to make her first snow angel on Christmas Eve 2009 at GeeGa's house. Uncle Don gave her the lesson, then took her on a high speed tobaggon ride (OK, not really that high speed, Uncle Don is kinda old) and then schooled her on the fine art of throwing the perfect snowball (and picking the perfect target).

Today, four weeks later, we got our next installment of snow, about 3 inches on the ground in this video taken this morning. Isabelle didn't waste a second, and didn't need a refresher course on how to play in the snow, she remembered everything Uncle Don taught her last month.

Our little angel...(talking about Isabelle, not Don)

Daddy's Vacuum

We used today's naptime solitude to scrub and disinfect the house. I've gone through 2 cans of Lysol and a whole bottle of vinegar this week, cleaning the most-used surfaces. But after all the sick germs this week, we needed to really scrub the whole place down.

Izzi just woke up from her nap, and when she came out of her room, the vacuum was standing in the living room. She pointed at it and said, "LOOK, Mommy! That's Daddy's vacuum!"

Clearly, she hasn't ever seen me use it...

The Viral Wave

I wanted to report that Isabelle is feeling better. Her appetite finally came back (with a vengeance). She's eating everything she can get her hands on. She lost 3 whole pounds with this little bugger, and since she only weighed 30 lbs. to begin with, that's 10% of her body weight. (The contestants on The Biggest Loser could only HOPE to lose that much in one week)!

She's on two different meds now, and just like the doctor warned, one of them is causing a hyperactive, irritable child. I plan to catch one of the little drug-induced tantrums on video this weekend so I can show you what I mean. It's almost humorous when she catches us in the right mood (which is difficult after 9 days of this bull$hit).

However, The Viral Wave has swept up the next member of the household. ME! I started with the same symptoms that she started with last Wednesday. So I am on day 3 of her 9-day illness. So glad to know I have 6 more days to look forward to, UGH! I guess I will call my doctor next week to order a chest x-ray for myself to rule out pneumonia.

Ed had a touch of a stomach thing this week (which is only 1 of the many varying symptoms that us girls have). But he was immediately better the next day and he is fine now (knock on wood). Let's hope this ends with me and we can do the viral wave buh-bye!

Are you KIDDING ME???

Went to the pediatrician this morning for our 9:30 appointment. We got home at 12:30 this afternoon. The doc did a urinalysis (you don't want to know how they get a sample from a 2-year-old) to check for a UTI. That was negative, thankfully. Then she told us she was sending us over to the Lab for a chest x-ray. WHAT? Sure enough, that news wasn't so good. Isabelle has pneumonia!

The good news is that she "just" got it and it's very minor. This last week has not been pneumonia the whole time. Whatever she's had this whole week got her immune system out-of-whack and the pneumonia is a development/complication that came after the fact. A chest x-ray just two days ago might not have even showed pneumonia, that's how minor it is.

But, they still need to treat her with the full antibiotic regimen since pneumonia can be tricky to get rid of. She has to have two days of shots (today and tomorrow) followed by 10 days of oral antibiotics. She also has to take the liquid form of Albuterol (which I take through an inhaler for my Asthma). She takes that until the cough subsides. The problem is that the side effects are extreme hyperactivity and irritability. Greattttt! As if Ed and I aren't already at the end of our rope this week!

So, send some happy thoughts and prayers for our little Bean. The doc expects her to be fine after one round of antibiotics, but she'll probably need a few follow-up appointments over the next weeks and months to be sure it stays away. I guess pneumonia has a tendency to linger and/or re-appear for weeks or even months after it's been treated.

Jinx! (You owe me a beer)

OK, so Ed & I stopped patting ourselves on the back. We're going to the Pediatrician tomorrow morning. Turns out that Isabelle took another downward turn, spiked another fever yesterday afternoon and last night, had a few other dirty symptoms flair up, and now we need to go figure out what the heck is going on. It's been 7 full days of this @#%@#$@$@% and we really need our daughter back. So, Mister Virus Man, whoever you are...release her NOW or else yer gonna have to answer to ME! Oh yea, and you'll have to answer to ED TOO!

I'll let you all know what the update is tomorrow after we get home from the doc...

The Perfect Storm

A "perfect storm" is an expression that describes an event where a rare combination of circumstances will aggravate a situation drastically. Think of the movie with George Clooney in 2000 when three storms came together and wiped those fishing boats out.

In our case, a perfect storm is what happened last week when our two-year-old was exposed to three different viruses over the course of three days, and then got sick with all three of them in one week, on a rolling wave of destruction.

Our little bugger has been sick since last Wednesday. We had hours at a time when we thought we were out of the woods, but then she would spiral downward again with new symptoms and a worsening of the existing ones. I won't go into the dirty details (literally) of all the symptoms she had this week, but let's just say that she pretty much had every symptom that any typical toddler virus on the planet might cause.

And I give Ed and I a huge pat on the back because all three of us made it through without one call to the doctor, since her fever never got above 102. Yippee! Maybe we're getting this parenting thing down after all!

As of today, Iz is feeling much better. She's her sweet, smiley, silly self again. And oh how we've missed her! Welcome back, little Bean.