Quick 10

Bear with me.  I was too stressed out with a sick baby in a foreign house to do the Quick 5 last week, and clearly that was a mistake.  Most weeks out of the year I could skip the Quick 5; we're not that interesting.  But these past two weeks have been jam packed, and I'll do my best to catch you up without making you read all day.

1.  We spent a week in Kansas City.  The drive out was fine, really.  We turned Bria's car seat around and she would stop howling if I fed her a goldfish one at a time.  We listened to The Horse and His Boy and Prince Caspian, and we're still amazed at how fast the time goes by listening to audio books.  The best day of the week for us was probably Sunday.  We went to church with the family, then we went to Buca Di Beppo on the Plaza for dinner.  Everyone behaved nicely, in spite of the fact that there is quite a bit of nudity displayed on the walls there.  Mostly in the girls bathroom.  Who needs to see old (like 1800s or early 1900s) paintings and advertisements of nude women?  Anyway, the food was delish and a good time was had by all.

2.  Monday night Bria came down with a fever.  I had to make a run for baby medicine, but I was able to get on it pretty quickly.  But that signaled the end of the fun for me and her.  She spent the rest of the week with fevers, spiking a really big one in the middle of one night that prompted me to bring her into bed for the first time in her life.  On Thursday morning when I first got her out of bed the thermometer was registering 105, so I quickly gave her baby Tylenol, and she chugged a whole cup of milk.  Her fever had come down to 103 within a half hour, so I told myself not to freak out.  I then gave her some ibuprofen and put her down for a nap.  When she got up from her nap an hour and half later her fever had completely broke.  She was sweaty and her temp was 98.9.  But she was still crabby.  She gets mean when she gets sick, apparently, and I'm so sorry that our family who doesn't get to see her that often had to spend a week with her being so ill-mannered and weepy.  I know they understood, but I'm still sad about it.

Sick, grumpy Bria with Aunt Mindy

3.  While Bria and I hunkered down at the house for a week, Alaina and Joya had the time of their lives with their grandparents and aunt and uncle.  They got to fingerpaint.  They got to go to Crown Center for lunch and to Union Station to see the Christmas decorations and the trains.  They both got to ride a bike that Gramma had found for them.  They got to go see a firework show that was set to Christmas music after dinner on Wednesday night.  They got to open Christmas presents, since we celebrated Christmas with the Kimble family.  I'm so glad they had fun, because I virtually ignored them all week as I took care of Bria. 

4.  While Bria's fever broke on Thursday, she was still pretty grumpy.  Then when we stopped for breakfast on our drive home on Saturday, she was being so pathetic and crabby that I realized her fever had come back.  So we drove across Kansas with me twisted around in my seat because she wanted me touching her at all times.  We made excellent time and the very minute we got home we transferred her car seat into Lee's car and I drove her to urgent care.  She was diagnosed with a raging ear infection and we got the corresponding meds.  She had a pretty bad night that night, but I just figured it was because she was still in pain from the infection.  The next day I was texting my mom about it, telling her about this brown crust that was coming out of her ear.  My mom asked if her ear drum burst, but I just thought it was all the puss from the infection.  So I called the pediatrician on Monday morning just to ask if that's what happened, and immediately the nurse said yes.  She consulted with the doctor who agreed and prescribed antibiotic ear drops for her.   We'll follow up with the doctor in another week or so.  Poor, poor Bria.  But I think I know when it actually burst, and she was much better since that happened.  And I feel like the Mother of the Year for letting my baby's ear drum burst.

5.  On top of all that, I've been sick all week.  It started with a Janet Reno voice on Friday night.  It was comical when I took Bria to the doctor because I sounded so horrible.  I practically had to whisper in the ears of all the nurses and doctors and pharmacy people.  This thing kicked my butt too. I might actually feel a bit better today.

6.  Over the past few weeks our school participated in a Facebook contest for a new playground.  You know, where you get as many people as possible to vote for your school. It came down to our school and another school.  Clearly they were campaigning just as hard as we were, because we were within 30 votes the whole time.  The contest ended Friday night at midnight (or actually, 1:00am Saturday) and when I went to bed on Friday we were ahead by 20 or so votes, with votes in the 800s.  Apparently, both schools got over 1400 votes, and we ended up losing by 25.  But the company said there was a glitch at the end of voting or something, and decided to award BOTH schools new playgrounds.  So Alaina's school will be getting a new playground at the end of January.  It's terribly exciting.  Their playground is safe and all, but it is definitely old.  So thank you, if you helped us.

7.  Christmas is slowly making it's debut around here.  I meant to have it all up on Sunday, but fevers and chills kept me tucked on the couch under a blanket.  Jingle the Elf did show up, wondering where Christmas was.  We now have most of it out, but our tree still needs to be decorated.  At least it's up.

8.  We starting hitting rehearsals hard for the Christmas program at church. Lee is playing guitar, I'm directing the dramas, and Alaina and Joya will be making a cameo as sheep.  Next week is truly crunch week, but we did have a rehearsal this week that resulted in a late night for the girls.  They handled it like a champ, so I'm hoping all the late nights next week won't cause too much of a disturbance.  Anyway, our program is on December 13 at 4:00pm and December 14 at 9:00 and 10:30am.  You should come. It's going to be super fun.

9.  I took Joya on a Mommy/Daughter date for ice cream.  I'm taking Alaina to a wedding tomorrow, and I wanted to do something special for Joya too.  She loved it.  Until this morning when she realized that the wedding is tomorrow and that she can't go.  "I did NOT like that ice cream, Mom!"  she says now.  I'm sure she didn't.

10.  Finally, I leave you with a story that Alaina wrote for school.  She was supposed to write from the perspective a turkey approaching Thanksgiving.  (All spelling errors are hers.)

I would make a terrile Thanksgivin dinner. 

If you eat me I will give you germs.  I am muddy.  

If you take my bandages my blood will kill you!

I think we shoud have Taco bell.

~Alaina

 Thanks for sticking with me!