The Mediumest

 Nathalie's birthday was last week! 3 already! Since the beginning of April she's been asking me, "Mom, am I three yet?" As we got closer she would get increasingly frustrated and say, "I am three! I am, I am!" So this little was very happy that she was finally three. Now she's asking me, "Am I three now?"

Nathalie is so vibrant. She wears her emotions all over herself. She sings constantly and loudly. Especially during sacrament meeting. She loves to sing and dance for anyone who is willing to watch. Nathalie doesn't like rules or chores. She is a ham too and will put on a show for you. She loves openly.

She is very curious too. Sometimes too curious! She wants to know about the world and always reinforces what she learns to herself. Case in point-- for a two week period in March, whenever she went to the bathroom she would say (over and over), "Girls go in the girl potty, boys go in the boy potty. We can't go in the boy potty!" She is a constant talker and drives her dad crazy that way.

Oh, how we love this girl. Happy Birthday Nan!

Happiness Is...

 Little girls and bunnies.

 A princess-in-training.

 Budding trees.

 Husbands and big bunnies.

 Bunnies, bunnies and the Great Rabbit Experiment.

 Silly four-year-olds.

 Lightbulb gardens and baby plants inside.

 The beginnings of an orchard.

 Peanut butter "popsicles."

 Mirror pictures.

 Fresh milk and cream from our herdshare.

 Peek-a-boo babies and beautiful fabric.

 Musicals.

 Sweet moments.

Farmers-in-training.

Happy.

The littlest

Our littlest girl turned 1 on Wednesday. I always tell people that this last year was the fastest of my life, and I'm not joking. Where did the time go?

Obviously Charlotte is walking. She also says a couple of words-- "No", "Stop", "Mama" and she is starting to sign "more" and maybe "all done". Maybe I'm just hoping she's starting to sign that! She expresses her feelings in other ways though. She's my loudest crier and if she needs something she cries or shrieks. Her favorite is to climb up the stairs and then, when she wants to get down, to sit at the top and yell until someone brings her down.

We went out to ice cream on her birthday. Since Nan's birthday is this week we kept it simple. Charlotte liked the ice cream a lot. She definitely belongs in our family! Charlotte loves to laugh. She adores playing peekaboo and being tickled. She loves playing chase and laughs hysterically when we say, "I'm gonna get you!" She loves animals of all kinds.

She weighed 19 lbs 4 oz at her 1 year checkup. She's lost 6 oz since we took her in to the ER and she has dropped from the 50th percentile to the 20th in just a few months. Because of this we are now feeding Charlotte all sorts of high calorie, high fat things. In spite of our efforts, she continues to eat like a bird! A few bites here, a few bites there. She loves fruit smoothies and meat. Bacon is her favorite! Second to bacon is pot roast.

She is a doll baby. She loves her family dearly. When she's well she's usually happy. She has added SUCH happiness to our family. When we found out she was a girl, I remember thinking, "Another girl! What will it be like with another girl?" And let me tell you-- with Charlotte, our family is awesome. Her sisters adore her, we adore her. She was exactly what our family needed.

I love this baby.

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Quick update: Nathalie's toe is healing, albeit slowly. Matt's poison ivy is healing well. Emily's ear infection turned out to be a double ear infection and one perforated ear drum. The poor girl is healing but I feel bad for her. We are on the mend!

The littlest

Warning: Blood Ahead

Well, it's never dull at our house. In the past two weeks we've had the flu, poison ivy, ear infection and now stitches.

We were at a friend's house on Sunday and the girls were playing outside on the porch. Nathalie picked up a lead brick that Matt had left on the porch. It was too heavy, so she dropped it and it fell on her foot. When it fell on her foot it gashed her, starting in the middle of the nailbed and all the way around the back. We're not sure where half of her nail went; it probably fell off from the trauma.

Matt ended up giving her 5 stitches. She had 3 in January from a gash to the forehead, so 8 stitches in 3 months. Matt had 175 stitches by the time he was 19; if Nathalie keeps this up, she'll beat him!

It was not a fun procedure. Her second toe got the tip of its toenail nipped off, but no major cuts. She is now on antibiotics to help protect against anything that might get in there. It's healing slowly, because she won't slow down.

Whew.


In happy news, Charlotte is finally better from the flu-- 10 days after! She, already petite, had explosive diapers and wouldn't eat for those 10 days but since Sunday night she's been herself again. I'm so relieved. And she turns 1 tomorrow!! Celebrations to come.

Happy Easter

Aren't my chickies cute?

In which I make an expensive mistake

Last night we walked Matt to work. Then we headed to the bathroom for Emily. I helped Emily wash her hands, then turned around and saw Charlotte throwing up. "Random" I thought, since she hadn't had a fever or been unusually fussy. We played at the hospital for a few minutes and Charlotte threw up again. So we started walking home. And Charlotte threw up on the way home.

We got home, went to Kroger and bought popsicles, came home, got ready for bed. Charlotte threw up again. And again. And again. And again.

At this point I called my father-in-law for advice (he's a PA). "Do you have any Zofran?" he asked. I looked through our medications but couldn't find any. "I thought we had some, but I guess not" I replied. It was 8:30pm and Charlotte had thrown up 7 times. She didn't want popsicles.

By midnight Charlotte had thrown up 12 times, throwing up whatever I tried to give her. When she threw up at 12:15, I knew we needed to take her in. Unable to reach friends (who ironically were fighting the same bug), I loaded all the girls in the van and headed to the ER.

At around 2:15am they gave Charlotte some Zofran. She had thrown up 17 times by this point. We spent the next 2 hours giving her little sips of water (she was NOT happy about the water rationing) and trying to keep the girls happy and occupied. It mostly worked until about 4:15am when we hit a wall and finally turned on the TV. Then we were discharged and headed home at about 4:45am.

5:00 am and everyone is sleeping. Poor baby, poor girls, poor mommy, so tired. At 6am I woke to the sound of Nathalie throwing up. At 7:30am, Charlotte started waking up but Matt had just gotten home from work and came to take care of her. At 8am, Nathalie threw up again.

Now the day has passed, Charlotte hasn't thrown up again and Nathalie only threw up once more. They're still lethargic but better. It's 8pm tonight. I am looking through the medications again because I thought I remembered something. Ah, yes. What did I find?

Zofran. In my bathroom closet. I could have avoided all of it-- the dehydrated baby, the long night with my girls, the fatigue, the money.

Blast.

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On a side note, I am extremely grateful for the good experience we had at the hospital. It pays to know people. I walked in and a receptionist went to go find Matt while the other one registered us. We got a room quickly. The MD opted to try the Zofran pill instead of sticking Charlotte with an IV. The staff pretty much left us alone except when necessary which helped me monitor the girls. Matt was able to spend his breaks with us. People were good natured about the fact that Nathalie turned off the Xray machine in the middle of an Xray.

People are good.

Trip Tidbits

Saw this water tower in Britten, TX. The leaning tower of Texas, apparently.

"There's nothing out here but silos and a come-to-Jesus moment." -Matt, referring to the landscape of the Texas panhandle and the huge cross that dominated the horizon.

Nothing.

If you ever drive past Amarillo, go the speed limit. You might get pulled over for speeding if you don't. Luckily Matt didn't get a ticket. The police officer even wore a cowboy hat! We were impressed.

More horizon. Also, if you ever stay in a KOA, please bring a towel. You will have to resort to drying yourself off with your clothes if you don't. The debate between Matt and I was, is it better to dry yourself off with the clothes you wore yesterday which are dirty, or is it better to dry yourself off with the clothes you are going to wear today and have wet clothes?

Any opinions are appreciated.