Ending the week on a high note

Whew, this past week has definitely not been my best. I think I could almost compare this week to the potty training week, it was THAT. BAD. I know I am such a wimp, but I am just so not used to having a sick kid. I'm pretty sure she has never cried and whined as much as she did this last week. And just when we thought she was better, she was up again a good part of the night on Wednesday night. She seemed fine healthwise, though, so possibly a bad dream? But NOW I'm sure I can report that she's fine, she's back to sleeping great and seems to be herself again. She's not asking for "Tyanah" (tylenol) every 3 minutes, the whining has greatly improved, and her ability to catch up on lost sleep amazes me, with the 4 hour naps and long nights of sleep the past couple days. Now if I could just take a lesson from her and get myself to bed at a decent time to catch up . . .

Yesterday we headed back to this lake , but went to a different park there. It was a little on the chilly side, but it was a great way to relax. Isabella enjoyed playing in the sand, and throwing rocks in the lake. The park was HUGE, with 3 separate playground areas, but there were a lot of people there, and quite a few people I would prefer not to be around due to their loud and, um, colorful language. The last straw for me was when all the unsupervised little kids were spitting all over the playground equipment. We packed up and headed to yet another park on the same lake (we have so far found 4 parks on this lake!). It was a beautiful park and playground, and believe it or not, we were the ONLY ones there! Three cheers for being anti-social! :)

She could not get up to the slide by herself, since the only way up was a climbing wall type thing, which she is far from mastering. So Monte sat on top while I lifted her up to him about 1000 times, it was quite the workout.

And I thought I would throw this not so great picture in here from this morning, since, you know, we matched.

Just how old do you think you are missy?!

Isabella, this morning while I was pushing her on the swing: "When I was a little girl, I would just swing and swing and swing."

How to Make a Hooded Bath Towel

I got this idea from one of my friends, she makes these towels for baby gifts, I think it is such a great idea for toddlers. Isabella is always freezing after a bath, "Please warm me!!" she yells over and over. She's too big for the boughten hooded baby towels, so these work perfectly. And they are SO easy.

Buy one regular sized bath towel, and either a coordinating washcloth or handtowel. If using a handtowel cut it in half. Center the washcloth (I actually used a fingertip towel for this one) over the bath towel on the top edge, with right sides together. Pin and sew one seem across. Notice the little hand, it was hard to get this shot, the best one without her in the way. She's my little "helper" . . . always.

Pin the top edge together and sew across.

Turn right side out, and ta da! You're done . . . it's SO easy! I love making these! These towels are probably her favorite thing I've made for her to date.

You can add all sorts of embellishments. On this one I added satin ribbon along the edges, and also made her initial out of the ribbon.

I'm so glad to see this smiling face

Isabella's fever broke in the early morning hours on Tuesday. It's so good to have her back to herself, well she's almost back to herself. She's still overtired from lack of good sleep, which makes a whiny, easily upset little girl, which makes a frustrated mommy. Lets just say my parenting has been less than stellar today. However, after 4 sleepless nights we all had a great night of sleep last night.

Horse Races and All Nighters

Our Memorial Day Weekend has had it's highs and lows, that's for sure. I'll start with the highs I think. Every Memorial Day Weekend there are horse races about an hour from where Monte's parents live, Monte and his friend got me hooked on them back when we were dating, and have made it a tradition to try and go every year. So we packed up and took off for Monte's parents house on Friday. Isabella stayed with his parents on Saturday, while he and I spent the day at the horse races, followed by some shopping, a nice meal out, and a movie (Star Trek, which was my idea, can you believe it?!). It was such a fun day!!

Now on to the lows. Isabella woke up in the night on Friday night, she NEVER wakes up in the night. At first we thought she was just scared since she was sleeping somewhere else, or that she had a bad dream. But when the crying WOULD NOT stop we realized she was more than just scared. She felt pretty warm, so we thought she was coming down with something. It was a REALLY rough night, she and I tried the recliner, her bed, our bed, nobody got much sleep. But then Saturday morning she was just fine. She had fun with Grandma and Grandpa all day Saturday while Monte and I were gone, then Saturday night went exactly the same as the night before. This time we knew she was sick, she felt so hot! So we came home early this afternoon, she actually slept in the car plus she and I took a 3 hour nap as soon as we got home. I spent the rest of the day rocking her, that's the only thing she wanted to do. Her only symptom is a fever, it has been so rare for her to be sick that we don't even have a thermometer for her. So I was worried since I didn't know what her temp was, but I did find these Vicks stickers we used when she was a preemie, we had to monitor her temps closely back then. I should really get a thermometer, I would love one like this, does anyone have one?? If you do, please leave a comment as to how you like/dislike it. Thanks. Also, does anyone have any thoughts on Motrin? I gave it to her last night in the night, and it didn't work at all. Then I gave it to her this morning, and it didn't work again! I was disgusted that I had to wait 6-8 hours to try something different. This evening I finally gave her some Tylenol and it worked WONDERS! Within 15 minutes she actually wanted to play, and was showing signs of her old self again. Weird, I've always heard Motrin works so good. She was in bed about 7:00, and her Tylenol is due to where off about 9:00, so I better get a few things done, I have a feeling it's going to be a long night again . . .

Mommy's Little Helper

Is it safe to say we are out of the woods as far as getting that awful stomach flu that was ransacking it's way through my entire extended family?? I have no idea what the incubation period is, but I'm hoping we are good to go. Isabella did have some minor tummy issues on Monday, but nothing that slowed her down too much. She has been in Pull-Ups since then, though, just to be on the safe side. So I think she ended up with a very minor version of it.

This morning she helped me pick rhubarb, I LOVE rhubarb! I have two big ziploc bags full in my freezer so far, and today we picked some to bring to my mother-in-law this weekend. We had a whole system worked out, I would cut it off the plant, cut the leaf off, then hand it to Isabella, and she would place it in her wagon. She thought she was quite the helper!

Make Up Mother's Day

Since Monte was sick on Mother's Day he suggested we do something on a different day to celebrate the day. He asked me what I wanted to do, and my response was that I just wanted to try out a different park that we haven't been to. The only thing he had to do for work on Monday was meet someone for an early morning appointment, and the weather was beautiful, so it worked out perfectly. We found a really nice park on a lake nearby, and had fun watching Isabella have so much fun. We were even the only ones there! We went out to eat, then Monte took Isabella home for a nap, and I got to go buy all my flowers, tomato plants, and pepper plants by myself, yay! I spent the rest of the afternoon and evening planting all my flowers while Monte kept track of Isabella, it was a great "Mother's Day".

Monte thinks I look hilarious in this picture. Okay, so maybe I look a little out of place.

Her favorite thing was throwing rocks in the lake.

I came in for a break from planting flowers at about 6:30, and this is what I found. She didn't have her pajamas on yet, but she was bathed, so off to bed she went.